Smaller places of interest between the large cities.

[Nikodemus]

Still would be interesting to have such systems where tribes can be controlled by guilds or organizations.

You already have it
Make your guild to be a tribe and so you are controling one^^

[Under the moon]

I just have one thing to say about the barren hills.

There were people already in four of the eight levels and soon there was not enough food for all of them....The first two levels of Yliakum - the only ones where it was possible to farm - were worked more intensely.

From the history of Yliakum.

By those statements, there should be no barrens, only endless farms and ranches. Defending those farms and their crops would give players an actual reason for going out and slughtering creatures.

[zanzibar]

There could be barrens along side the farms.

[Ozydias]

Well if there was nothing but farmland out there, while it might be accurate of the story, I think it would be just as boring as the barren land.  We definitley need a variety of terrians.

[Quitarias]

well the terrrain between the major areas now is definetlyunsuited for growing anything on a larger scale its jus steep hills and tiny (usualy monster infested) plains.I would think that a whole new are would be needed for farms to be build or the hilds have to be evened out a bit.

[bilbous]

Might be good for herding consumers, perhaps someone should build a Walmart. Grazing land does not have to be suitable for crops. It is still technically farming.

[Under the moon]

Have a look at Japan's agriculture, Quitarias. When you have little room, you get inovative.

Ozydias: I live out in the country, and it is nothing but diverse around here. Between one mile and the next, flatland will turn to swampland then into hills. It happens to be that crops will grow in all those areas if tended right.

[Ozydias]

Well I live in a place where we have mountains all around us.  You can grow just about anything you wish without tending to it any.  Now finding the land to grow on can be difficult.  Plants will grow in many different terrians and places.  My point is though if all the land was used as farmland it would be boring out there.  I mean ofcourse you will have your cities that will have a variation but if all the wilderness was farmland there would be little variation out there.  There should still be some wild areas where you wouldn't dare to plant, some areas where plants are quite hard to grow (like volcanoes, desert, etc.), and also other areas like the ruins implemented.  That is just my opinion though.  If you create all this great terrian and variations and plant nothing but crops on it, I could see it becoming boring out there.

[Garon]

oohhh that sounds so empirebuildinglike 

Planeshift isn't a RTS or 4x though. 

Yet, at least   It'd be interesting if a realistic group control system could be used, since most RTS and 4x games aren't very rp-like, but controlling groups, fighting over them, etc. could be interesting.  Any chance that we can get worshiped as gods by the tribes?  That could be... fun.  After all, having an army is what some people dream of, and getting a group of rp'ers together as an army is kind of... difficult.

Tribes would give a whole new layer to evil players:  right now, they're quite limited.  But imagine an evil person exploiting/stealing from/leading to conquest/using/laying waste to/etc. the tribes.

Will the tribes be part of the faction system?  It could be interesting to see how that works out.

---

Having the tribes build these middle area settlements would be great, offering a huge new depth to the game:  it wouldn't be static (as far as one day to the next, not counting GM events or players).  Leaving one group one day and coming back the next to see a thriving village, and then coming back two days later to see them at war with a neighboring group, and then coming back a third day with some guild attacking and killing the town they built... now that would definitely set Planeshift out from the other games as far as quality of experience goes (although it's already set out from other games by quality of experience in many ways, both good and bad).

[Garile]

I have to agree with Garon. The complaint I have had with many RPG games multi but also not multi is often the fact you are doing these great things and quests and often hardly notice any differences. A game like chronotrigger I loved fot the changes you could get by traveling in time and changing things there.

This tribe system would sound very interesting indeed with talk of guildcontrol and fighting over this and the NPCs expanding and perhaps migrating and hopefully affected by actions of players. You could actually have ranger guilds with the purpose of trying to minimize settlments becuase they threaten nature and guilds who try to control a whole town and then try to expand it and grow it as large as possible and others who are trying to prevent it becuase they want their town to grow instead and their town is so close by they are fighting over recources.

Would make the game a whole lot more in depth and also would give evil players targets seeing the devs don't seem to like the idea of pickpockeeting your fellow player or poisoning him or backstabbing him without notice. Well then lets do it all on the tribes

[Jeraphon]

By those statements, there should be no barrens, only endless farms and ranches.

No, it states that farming is only possible on the first two levels. It doesn't state that farming is possible *everywhere* on the first two levels. The first two levels HAVE arable land: they're just not completely comprised of it.

[zanzibar]

By those statements, there should be no barrens, only endless farms and ranches.

No, it states that farming is only possible on the first two levels. It doesn't state that farming is possible *everywhere* on the first two levels. The first two levels HAVE arable land: they're just not completely comprised of it.

I would think that farming is possible on every level, but the crops will be different depending on the terrain.  Even under water, you'll be growing kelp and algea.

[Jeraphon]

Zanzibar, you're probably right, and you'll already be seeing in game references to crops produced on levels other than the first two. However, the top two will obviously be producing the most, not just because of land fertility but also size. To make some levels completely dependent on the Dome and the Barn because their level is barren is probably not the best way to go.