As PS\'s title implies the travel between different planes in this game, here are some ideas I\'ve either thought of specifically for this game, and others that are the product of some long-held beliefs I\'ve had about games built around \"alien worlds\" in general. These aren\'t intended as specific suggestions in themself, but more as themes or concepts that may be applied to the overall design. Much of it is derived from design concepts I\'d decided on for a game I was working on designing some time ago (1999-2000). That project never went anywhere. So.. if any of what I discuss can be or is used in some manner, that would be awesome :-). Either way, it\'s cool to have a place to share my thoughts or suggestions... Some of it relates to a more of a \"single-player\" RPG, which is what I was working on.. but I think it can all be applied in some manner in an MMORPG as well.
1. Keep things consistent.
Even in a fantasy game where the worlds you visit are completely alien and nothing obeys the laws of nature as we know it, things still need to be consistent in the context of the world in order to maintain a level of believability and to some degree predictability.
To that end, every creature, plant or lifeform otherwise should look and behave as though it\'s adapted to its native environment.
A plane that\'s comprised largely of wide open spaces with alot of islands floating in thin air would likely have many flying creatures, some purely airborne, maybe that sleep by hanging upside down from the bottom of floating islands.. Plantlife might have \"air-roots\" like some trees here on Earth.. these roots themselves could form sort of \"hanging forests\" and host any number of parasitic life-forms, predatory insects that wait for smaller prey to fly into the roots and then lunge in to claim their meal.. That\'s one example.. but you get the idea.
2. This falls under the category of consistency, but from the player\'s perspective. Someone who\'s alien to a new environment should really feel alien to that environment. Nothing bugs me more, personally, than a game where you\'re on an alien world yet are able to travel around and behave in that world much like you would on your own.
When\'s the last time you traveled to some new place - a new country even - and felt no different than as if you were walking through your own neighborhood?
Chances are very low to none that you have. Go to a different country and you\'re going to encounter a whole different culture, a different language, food, wildlife.. almost everything is new. You feel pretty out of place,
right? Oh, it\'s intriguing and you\'re enjoying the \"new-ness\" of it all perhaps.. but it\'s no less alien to you. And oh, by the way... you\'re probably equally foreign to everyone else there... they\'re likely to take some interest in you as such.
Well, wouldn\'t logic dictate that traveling to an alien world/plane/realm would be even *moreso* of that sort of experience?
Imagine being someone from a very low-gravity world.. chances are you\'re going to be built rather tall and lithe and not have very heavily developed muscles - \'cause it\'s not necessary where you\'re from. Your body is adapted to function in your environment. Now, imagine being someone from a low gravity world who\'s traveling to a high gravity world.. with a gravity maybe 5 or more times that of your home world... You might not even be able to step foot into such a place without something to augment your strength. You would barely be able to carry anything. Yet.. as you look around, you notice that the build of everyone and everything in such a place is notably shorter, stouter, more muscular.. They\'re completely at home in this world because their bodies have adapted to it.
At the very least, someone in a world alien from their own should be at a natural disadvantage simply because they weren\'t made to be compatible with
its environment. A terrestrial race is going feel quite.. well.. \"grounded\" in an air-based realm as I described in #1. Likewise, the creatures of that plane - both aggressive and passive - are going to have a clear advantage, being able to use the environment to their advantage to either attack or evade predator or prey.
This is the kind of consistency I think is missing from so many games and could be an excellent asset to PS.
3. Health/Food/Poison - and color?
Ever notice how no matter how alien a world your character ends up in most games that their symbol for \"health\" is almost always some variation of a
health-kit with a red cross on it? Why? How? :shrug: I don\'t know.. it doesn\'t make any sense to me.. I do know that it doesn\'t promote a very deep sense of
immersion for me, personally. What is there, some
inter-galactic-dimensional-temporal Red Cross that is used by every alien race through time and space? I\'d think not!
Who says that on an alien world, there can\'t be certain plants or berries, for example, that would act as such a healing agent? Maybe there are others that are poisonous.. Maybe there are others that are nothing more than food for you.. but man can they do some damage to some of the wildlife in this strange new world (like, say.. natural ammunition if what you\'ve got just ain\'t doin\' the trick on its own).
Well, if this is the case, and each world has its own form of foods or items that heal you how would you find out which is which? What if you eat something that\'s poisonous? How would you know? Well, what I\'ve noticed alot of games do is implement a sort of color system that is consistent throughout. Say, Red is poisonous. Blue is health... green has no real effect on you, but contains a toxin that\'s deadly to some of the wild-life in the area.
You carry that kind of a color system throughout each of the realms/worlds so that, in gameplay terms, it provides the player a consistent and recognizable system (if they catch on to it) to know what\'s good and what isn\'t.
There\'s alot more I\'d like to touch on, but I don\'t have the time right now..
I\'ll try and post more later... since this forum encourages it and all :-).
Thanks!
Mike
