Hi again,
Thank you Kerol for your answer.
Sorry Karyuu for the eventual double-posts. I think, as a "tester", I have to give some feedback, even if it's already done : that could help devs to know which issue is really blocking, and which one only anoy a few people.
So, Kerol, here are my completitions :
- For the "description" problem. Right now, you have to be beside a character to see its description. If you are like 10 meters, you can't get a context menu. I think trading or speaking with a NPC when you are 10 meters far is impossible, so it's normal we can use these functions. But looking at a NPC, and know if it's stronger then us or not (/consider command on any MUD) should be usable when you are like 10 meters from a character. I mean... I don't have to be beside an ogre to know he is stronger then me. But as ingame, rats are enormous by exemple, it's hard to know "by instinct" if a NPC is stronger or not. When beside, most of them will attack you, so you can't use the description option. And most NPC that doesn't attack you are weak, so description isn't really usefull : most of the time, if a NPC won't attack you, then you can kill it. I think "right click" should be available when 10 meters far from the target, but with only the "description" button. That's realistic, and avoid noobs to die each time they see a "new" NPC.
- For the signs, I mean in cities, there should be some panels to say where are the gates, and may be some important places (market places, church, etc.). Also, outside the cities, at crossways, it's normal to find a panel that says where each path go. That won't kill the fact we can be lost, but that would help people finding their path when they know where they want to go.
Now, for roleplay "economic model".
First, I'll try to describe the games FoM and ATID.
FoM (Face Of Manking) : This game takes place in futur, in a realistic world. There are "no" NPCs. I mean most of them have very simple language robots, and you can't interract with them (the only think to do with them is to withdraw your assault rifle, so they start runing everywhere screaming like a pig). The other NPCs are event NPCs, like alien invasions. They won't respawn, and the are managed by GM only. The main game is not playing with NPCs, but with other players.
So, what is FoM exactly ? First , forget all you know about MMORPGs and classical RPGs. There is not really a level concept, nor competences, nor skills. You are just yourself. At the character creation, you choose a faction you'll belong, and a profession. Professions are soldier, medics, trader and commander. What are factions ? In the game storylines, factions are fixed, and can't be changed. But faction are not fixed ingame. I mean... Yes, there are only 8 differents factions, and it won't change. But factions are alive. The whole faction system is ruled by players. I mean the citizen meet themselves, and elect a president, ministers, councils, etc. After, the president and other elected people will state faction guidelines. They fix goals for military effort and economic efforts. Faction members status are fixed by "levels". I mean the president is lvl 8. At ths level, he can change anything in the rules of the faction (set the taxes, manage faction funds and faction pool). Also, he can grand other people to do some tasks. In the faction I belonged, it was :
- lvl 8 : president and high council members. The high council was only for consultation, and was never taking any direct decision. It was a good way to stop the president if he tried to do something against the faction interest.
- lvl 7 : ministers. there were 3 ministers : military, economy and diplomacy. All of these had a lvl 6 team, that was creating missions campaigns for citizens, or were suveying the other faction and take decision about diplomacy. In a week, we could be allianced with a faction, at war the next, and finally, neutral.
- lvl 5 : Mission manager. They were able to set up unit mission according to campaigns, and were directing the opperations on the ground.
- lvl 1 to lvl 4 : citizens. lvl1 was for noobs. lvl2 was for citizen that practiced (only roleplay event, made by players) their profession skills (learning how to market, how to fight, etc.). lvl3 was for citizen who had specific goal. I mean, I was a trader, and my work consisted in supplying the whole faction with medkits and one type of ammo. I had to spend most of my ingame time to do it, and sometimes I had to manage a lvl2 team that helped me with raw material supplies. lvl4 were managing the goals of all lvl3.
All these levels were given by lvl6+ players. I mean, when doing missions, I could get 1000000000000000 xp, but remaining lvl1, or getting 0xp and being president of a faction. lvl hasn't impact on competences, but only on in-faction role.
Also, there were two sorts of missions : first, auto-generated. A bot was looking on the faction pool, and was taking care about the stocks : if a stock was low, it was creating new trading missions to supply the faction pool with these materials. Another was surveying colonies usages and intrusions : if we were at war with a faction, and many people from this faction were going on one of our colony, it was creating a patrol or defend mission on this colony.
The other type of mission was player generated missions. I mean, if our faction wanted to take an enemy colony (colony could change owner -in mean, my faction lost all its colonies, and took others one, that was quite strange
-), then lvl5+ were creating missions about supplying the pool with hight quality armors and ammo, then were creating mass "attack" missions on this colony. Mission awards and goal were setted up by players.
Oh, and I forgot : trading system was 100% player controled. I mean... I go to a market place, then set an offer "100 cr for 20 units of this product".
Then a player could come to the market place, then find my offer, and by it or another one. By this way, we had to supply the market with matrials the other players needed, and nothing else.
By this way also, the selling/buying prices were really following offer/demand rules.
One time, I produced 600 units of medkits, and asked 2000 cr each. I didn't sell one for several weeks... Then a big world war started, and I sold everything in only one hour. I immediately started to produce more, and even at 10000 cr each, it gone. After the war, I wasn't able to sell the remaining units, so I decided to give it to the faction pool.
And I was forgetting... This game has perma-death feature. I mean, you had to buy clones or clone insurance to resucite. When you run out of clone, your character is perma-died, and you just have to restart a new one. By this way "kamikaze" ppl aren't rewarded at all (clones are really expensive).
I think the whole market and mission system is good... The player ruled factions also, I think there are many excellent idea to take from this game.
Next, ATITD (A Tail In The Desert). As this game is payware, I wasn't able to play more than 24 ingame hours.
First, forget again everything you know about MMORPG : no NPCs. The game takes place in the ancient egypt. You're a young egyptian citizen, and you have to become a tycoon.
First, you learn how to plant lin, refine it, make cords, etc. Next, you learn how to make knifes from stones, and making bricks with argile. After that, you start to build some buildings, and recruit other people to help you makig a nive village, and a complexe hierachy and economy. Again, everything is ruled by players, but there are no factions, only guilds. There is no cities : everything is handmade, by the players. The only existing buildings at the begining are the schools, where you can learn new skills.
I can't really explain the game, as I didn't play a long time.
But I have to say there are good ideas from this game also.
- Complete blank world where ppl are building there own cities and industry.
- Complex resources system. I mean, there are thousand of differents ingredients, and thousands of combinations to make everything. At the begining, no any tool exists, you have to build everything.
- Complex politics... due to the lack of storyline (strange, but true).
I mean, in both games :
- RP is not talking about the NPCs you killed last night, but grabbing resources, and following your faction/guild rules
- NPCs aren't the key of the game. Player can play together instead of arguing about "whose rat is it ?".
- Complex and 100% player controled trading and construction systems : the game have nothing, the players have to make everything and sell/buy to each other, according offer/demande rules.
- Simplified storyline : as players are ruling the world, the storyline stops whn the game starts, then it just states what was done ingame. I mean... GM don't have to think about a city background : they just have to say how players constructed it, and what ingame event changed the city. Same for factions/guild alliances : Storyline just have to state what was done ingame.
- GM are "useless". Hight ranked payer are the real GM. I mean, they state the world rules, and their decision just deeply impact the game. GM are just here to present new features, or special events, not ruling the game.
I hope devs and GM team will like thse ideas. I simply love it.
