ok... firstly lemme introduce myself
i downloaded the client today and though this is obviously early pre-alpha it looks very promising
i used to be senior gm on one of the most popular free ultima online servers (using sphere server)
the following are problems i encountered in that role and some suggestions that were rejected due to server constraints and indeed some features that were implemented
1. (i know this has been mentioned but this kinda expands on it) Player built towns with integrated governments
ok...heres how this would go:
a player would found a town by placing/building an object (be it town stone or government building..whatever) land in a certain radius around any building belonging to this town would be reserved for town citizens
players can sign up to be a citizen and as such would recieve some kind of insentive(sp?) (be it protection by town guards, discount from shops, shared resources whatever) and as citizens players can vote for a mayor
the mayor has some additional functions (eg lock the town gates in times of war, set tax rate etc)
citizens will automatically pay tax at the rate set by the mayor (elections will be regular so that an overtaxing mayor would not stay in power long) these funds will go into a town treasury which can be looted by waring towns (but of course will be heavily defended) out of this treasury the mayor can buy features for the town (eg seige weapons for protection, street lighting, public buildings etc etc)
this, i believe, would encourage a town war system and allow player personalised game environments... it would also allow guilds to go to the next step by having guild run towns
ok #2 cumulative loot system
this idea was one of mine when i was trying to encourage legends to spring up within the game
basically instead of monsters spawning with unlikely loots (eg dragons spawning with armour/weapon loots) they would spawn with loots you would realistically expect to find on the creature (dragon scales, dragon blood, dragon heart etc in the case of a dragon)
what would then happen is that when the creature kills a player it would take a few items from the players body and keep them
later when the creature is finally killed all items it has taken will drop on its corpse on top of its standard loot table
the result would be that a creature that is very hard to kill will accumulate items from the players that have unsuccessfully fought it and the legend would spread of the difficult monster that when killed will relinquish its hoard of items that the players who fought it before considered beneficial enough to take into battle
#3 co-existing PK and NON-PK player types
this was a constant issue on the server i worked on..how to allow PKs to do just that without bugging the NON-PKs and vice-versa
my personal solution to this would be to implement an effective protection system in town so that non-pks would be safe inside the town (unless it is overrun by an opposing town) but the wild lands between towns would require protection from a PK player.. the problem this poses is PKs running into the town when they are low on health and thus escaping...i have never found an effective solution to this
#4 contracts
this is one i personally scripted..
basically people were going back on deals etc so i scripted up a system whereby 2 parties could sign contracts and in the vent of a dispute the staff could look at the contracts and settle it easily... a fully automated sytem could include some kind of deposit system (eg player A lends player B his sword who promises to return it by a certain date + puts 500 gold against the deal.. player B fails to fullfill the contract and the 500 gold goes to player A or if B returns the sword in time the 500 is returned to him
#5 glassblowing
this is just a skill that i at one time worked on but unfortunately it wasnt implemented cos other stuff got int the way
basically u gather up sand, use a standard forge and produce glass ingots which can then be glass-smithyd into glass objects
#6 Husbandry
ok this taggs onto the animal trainer skill..basically u have gone out and tamed yerself..say a unicorn (which has magical abilities) and a pegasus (a flying horse)...what u do is (by whatever means.. be it breeding pen/whatever) breed the 2 (this will require a considerable investment of food)...a little while later out pops an offspring.. the stats of this offspring will be derived from averaging the stats of the 2 parents (with a small alteration based on player skill and luck and a random number) the abilities of the offspring will be as follows
if both parents have the ability the offspring is 90% likely to have it
if 1 parent has the ability the offspring is 50% likely to have it
if neither parent has the ability then the offspring is 10% likely to have it
these % will again be adjusted according to player skill and luck
this will increase the value of rare animals and provide a larger variety of animals (in this example you may get a flying unicorn which otherwise wouldnt exist)
#7 thralldom
bit of an ethical issue this one so i can understand it not being taken on board
basically a player can create some kind of item that they can use to enthrall another player..this enthralled player will henceforth have a percentage of a particular resource (determined by the enthralling item) taken from them at regular intervals and given to the \'master\'
in order to regain their freedom the player must aquire the item used to enthrall them or be released by the master (maybe after some payment/service)
variations might be that the master can drain life from the thrall to heal himself regardless of position until the thralls health falls to 10%
ok thats all i can think of for now..if i think of any others ill let u know
