First I need to get one thing of my chest really fast, Mehallie do you honestly believe there was NO killing in medieval times for say, gold, a nice sword someone was carrying, even just for some cloak a bandit decided he liked. you say it would be to real if it implemented this system in the game yet you say you don think there will be enough tradeskills, lol last time I checked baking cookies, mining, carving, etc. is part of the real world. and your arguement about the raping, and other illegal crimes in the real world is an extreme, I coudl just as easily say that about your \"trade skill\" for example, why If your gonna add baking, smithing, mining, why cant a player raise animals to breed, shouldnt we be able to build new towns ourself, what about players inviting new ideas, like a cake powered cariage. anyway thats all quite silly. and now for the veiws and personal opinions of Zaphieon, someone that has been playing RPGs since the mid 80\'s.
I remmber when MMORPGs first started coming out.. what a glarious time it was for RPG lovers.. the chance to play there favorite genre of game with 1000s of others to interact with. before then we had were stuck playing alone, before then you didnt go to the store looking for a RPG wondering if you coudl bake a cake in it, make a guild, buy a house, anyone those. It wasnt really about the graphics engine, how much bank space you would have, if there was gonna be PVP(of course not cuase there was only gonna be us playing it). anyway there is 2 extremes to MMORPGS today tradeskills and pvp, 2 aspects players really worry about, 2 aspects you must have to make a successful mmrpg. now in a mmorpg you have very few avid crafters i mean the ones that love to craft just about as few as them as avid pkers in a world were once you ave a repuation of pking you cant go into town cause the gaurds wil kill you, you cant sell to the town merchants cause gaurds will kill you, where when your spotted by a player he runs off and comes back with 15 friends. its 2 extremes very few people are going to really get into. sure there would be casual pkers here and there watching there limit, same as crafters, they will craft untell they get to a certain lvl and boredom then go out to quest or what not. arenas dont cut it for pvp, guild wars dont cut it. if you put these kinda limitations in the game your game will be jsut that limited. I will give you my personal opinion and wisdom how to set up constraits and enjoyable/exciting pvp interaction even for the most extreme crafter, try player cooperation. ok here goes.
first off all crafters newbies always start off in town, usuall some mine and what not, forges, ovens, all that good stuff to get them going.. likewise the pker they start usually just outside the safe zones usually in a dungeon.
number thing you need is a way to seperate those that pk from non pks.. easiest way(and most nonrealistic) is murder counts, I say if your gonna take the life of other players then you must face very harsh punishment. that being said after 3 murder counts NO matter what amount of time has passed between them or after then the player is labeled a murderer forever, after those 3 kills there is no way for them to redeem there selves, after the first kill they shoudl be labeled a criminal for 8 hours of game play, not being able to go into town, and being able to be attacked by others freely. after 2 kills the criminal label should be expanded to 36 hours of game play. the 3 is the forever murderer label. this label is established by either a red name when clicked on or by an aura of blackish-red the readiate, the more kills they have the darker it gets(add more dreaded the player is as well as teh bounty on his head). now those that have become a criminal/murderer KOS to npc gaurds, rangers, bountyhunters, that are in common towns throughout the land, roam the roads, and even scout out the woods here and there for these players. the weaker pks would be no match for these npcs, the higher lvls ones will generally die by 1 of them but sometimes win the fight, the veteran pks will win the fight with 1 about 75% of the time but if 2 are there they pretty much run or die.
Now for the craftsmen. they will start mining around town, as teh progress slowly they shoudl realize for the more precious/rare ores, minerals, plants, ingredents, etc. for there trade is found outside of town the more rare the further they have to wonder, now some trades lovers will say well i dont wanna get pked by some one that waiting way out there for me to come pick a spotted fluffy radishshroom, and well only veteran crafters really would need such an ingredent anyway so what they would/could do is get a friend, mercs that would go with them for these materials in the wilderness, these mercs are players general wanting to kil teh murderers for bountys on there heads, status symbol of being a protecter of the land(maybe a white arua, or hightlighted name), or just plain satisfactin of helping another player from the most dreadful danger of all another player(which everyone knows no AI can match the pure unpredicatblitly, braver, and sometimes sheer dumbness of an actually player).
ok on elast aspect to thru in the mix, travel. travel should be done by several means, first and most common the players feet, secondly maybe ridable steeds if added. and thirdly portal spells if added, now portal spells shouldnt be able to be used by just any player, should be very hard to obtain the ability to portal anywhere, this said there shoudl be portal points not ones which a player decides to mark a rune or bind or anything of this nature. maybe shrines, sacred stone circles, enchanted tree stumps and what not.. now the players that decide to be portalers, should first have to locate blank portal type scrolls off of beast that are deep within dungeons, way out in the forest of the world or maybe the corpse of a player. then they have to bind the scroll to the sacred spot not always so obvisous, all towns would have a spot or 2 to bind in some very secret ones. and thru otu teh worlds there shoudl be spots that are hard to find determine and as a portal channel once the player has atleast 2 binds then he can open a portal between the 2.. not just open a portal from dans house of the weird back to town.. now the portal will only be accessible from the opening side.. the side which you are traveling to will not indicate any thing except you poping thru it..
ok well i am gonna end it here, i am sure there is much to flame, argue about, and maybe agree with. these are simply my opinions on a balanced mmorpg were the 2 aspect players yearn for is met in teh extreme and the not so extreme
