I want to know. What do the devs have planned to save this game?

[zanzibar]

Even if all the skills and spells are implimented....

Even if the already gorgeous game recieves the rest of the character models, clothing, and items....

Even if there\'s a huge bestiary and many maps.....



That won\'t be enough to save Planeshift.



So my question is, what will be the point of it?  What will save it?



What I mean is, characters need to have a constant motivation that everything else is framed around.  The quests which are in game right now are very limmited, and seem to be rooted mostly in the pursuit of material wealth or power.  There\'s no evil army to fight, or a great war which players are taking sides in, or political espionage or a mystery or anything else for that matter that players enter the game with as their primary concern.  Right now, there\'s just power levelling, exploring, and socializing.

I think those are all great things in their own way!  But if Planeshift is going to succeed, isn\'t it going to have to have that extra dimension of \"a main quest\"?  In Castle of the Winds, it\'s finding revenge on those who murdered your parents.  In Daggerfall, it\'s putting to rest the ghost of a murdered Prince - with a few twists added in.  Going to classic literature which is the basis for all this, the structure becomes even more illustrated.

So what will this be in the case of Planeshift?  Will there be one at all?  What do you devs have planned, and what can you tell us about it?

[fireofsoul]

New skills will bring new people, new people bring new intrests, new intrests brings bla bla bla. Why be a pessimist when you can be an optimist.

Since when was Limited spelt with two M\'s?

[AryHann]

I think there is so much to do still, that thinking of what will happen next is utopic, imho :-)

I prefer to concentrate on what to do now and all those skills/features/etc. are not implemented, so there is still plenty of game to be developed!

[zanzibar]

Originally posted by fireofsoul
New skills will bring new people, new people bring new intrests, new intrests brings bla bla bla. Why be a pessimist when you can be an optimist.

Since when was Limited spelt with two M\'s?

I think you\'re missing my point.  New people are coming all the time, but they don\'t stay!  The \"regulars\" are prone to long breaks.  And fundamentally, the issue is still there.  There is no \"main quest\".

[Karyuu]

Will knowing a main quest help anyone stay, if they can\'t do anything about it at the current game version?

[fireofsoul]

i get your point, but there are more new people coming than old people leaving, it will be a slow process but it will happen. You can either grab the train now or you will never be able to catch up with it.  <-- hey that sounds quite cool

[zanzibar]

Originally posted by fireofsoul
You can either grab the train now or you will never be able to catch up with it.  <-- hey that sounds quite cool

That makes no sense.  Even if it sounds good, it still makes no sense.

Originally posted by Karyuu
Will knowing a main quest help anyone stay, if they can\'t do anything about it at the current game version?

Simply knowing that there will be something like a main quest would be nice.


edit:  And go to sleep. :|

[fireofsoul]

Im saying if you dont stop bickering you will miss all the new people and you will remain ignorant of what really is happening, and then there will be another post and then I will post in it and then it will happen again.

[Karyuu]

No, he has a point - I\'ve wondered about it myself often, but I\'ve always come back to \"It\'s so early\" - thus it didn\'t bother me too much.

[DaveG]

Originally posted by zanzibar
New people are coming all the time, but they don\'t stay!  The \"regulars\" are prone to long breaks.

Which is pretty much as is expected.  I\'m surprised at the ones that do stay.  Please don\'t talk like this is a finished game; it isn\'t.  I played, I got bored with it, I switched to bug hunting and then bug fixing.  I don\'t see how it\'s possible to \"stay\" and do anything more than socializing.

I see PS as a long term project.  Right now, for example, we need to focus on creating a system to handle a main quest, before we actually make one.  I essentially agree with your point, but it\'s not yet the time to make that argument.  PS will be largely a programming project for another good year, at which point I\'ll hopefully have learned how to use Blender.    Once we have a fully functional engine, and our base of stats/skills/objects/whatnot done, that\'s when it\'s time to start thinking about expanding the world with everything we could ever imagine.

On an unrelated note:
Castle of the Winds!  \\o/

[Xordan]

I know that there is stuff planned for a main storyline and such. But I don\'t think this is something for us to worry about yet. You talk about \'saving\' planeshift as if it\'s a full game. Once we hit a version like 1.0 then we can worry less about making the game and more about \'saving\' it. As for people leaving now.... well if people want to leave they can.... I don\'t care that much. (apart from a few select people who I do care about  ) People will always get bored with MMO\'s because players never really have a big impact on the story or progress of the game, which is a very hard thing for us to allow. Anyway, I saw quite a lot of people having fun ingame yesterday, and even if they don\'t stay for long, they\'ve had a good time while they\'re here.

Oh yeah.... Castle of the Winds \\o/

[Ahriman]

Go to Laanx.fragnetics.com. Good. Click on Statistic. Yay! Now look at the characters registered page. You see that there is more than 3 chars per minute at times? So what makes you think that son there will be less? We have 6 billion people in this world...

[Drey]

Originally posted by zanzibar
I think you\'re missing my point.  New people are coming all the time, but they don\'t stay!  The \"regulars\" are prone to long breaks.  And fundamentally, the issue is still there.  There is no \"main quest\".

I like to think im some what of a regular... and the most ive ever taken out is like a week or so when i went on holiday.

[Father Sengus]

I don\'t know if I got the main quest idea completely right, but I don\'t think it fits PS at all. If, when you start playing, you are launched into a main quest it should probably lead to the quest ending someday. What then?

The closest thing to a main quest we should get, is an RP:ed lifetime goal of our characters. Did I get this all wrong now?

EDIT: And to answer to the question what we could do to make people stay, I think we should just look at what it is now that makes the people who stay, stay. My guess would be it\'s the ones that have gotten a passion for RP and that it clearly must be the key...

[Waylander]

I\'d have to disagree Sengus, many are leaving because they have a strong passion for RP.

Nobody plays the same way, people even seem to have different definitions of Roleplay.

I think that once crafting is added it may get better.