Back to the mini games :D

[Caldazar]

Perhaps the cardgame is to complex to implent, perhaps something a little less complex? How about something that reminds of pokemon?
*ducks the flying shoes*
I mean, think of it, its not THAT bad.. or, well... ya..

[tygerwilde]

But since the basis of the game is taken from M:TG where you are a mage, won\'t fighters and the sort be a little akward, or is that just me


actually, the basic idea came to my mind thinking more of yu gi oh, saw it on television at my parents house, the other day, but this is independant

no you\'re not a mage, the basis of this is magical cards that can rarely be found on monsters, some of them have their souls ripped from them, and stored in the cards, becoming monster cards, others will lose a skill, the basis of this idea could be that monsters have given themselves instructions on paper in case they forget their skills. of course, like I said, all this is very preemptive without a whole lot of thought behind it yet

and I don\'t see anything that complex about it personally, basically, you have an item that causes a creature to spawn on the spot, but it doesn\'t have a specific aggro upon spawn, once the opponent summons another monster, it\'s AI kicks in and attacks the other monster, the monsters fight and
and it\'s not difficult to program a timer that flags you as able to use an item every 10 seconds...


the only big problem I forsee is the same problem everyone has with mmos

lag, imagine losing your first battle before you realise your monster had been summoned



oh, and to expand on the rules, the game would be over when one player was out of monsters to summon

[Caldazar]

Id rather see that you could summon between 1-5 creatures, when they are dead, you lost the game. And how about making this into 2v2, 3v3, guildvguild? Many possibilities.. could we have a devs opinion?

[tygerwilde]

well, I don\'t think it would be that hard to set it up so that it would be optional to use 3-5 monster battles, the larger number would allow you to have monster battle-royales tho, you know what I\'m trying to say here?

[Xalthar]

I think it should just be kept one-on-one for starters.. if this is to be the case, I still think it\'s going to take up a lot of the game...

[tygerwilde]

I still think it\'s going to take up a lot of the game...

how do you mean take up a lot of the game? it wouldn\'t take a lot of programming
or do you mean it would turn into the main feature of the game? I doubt that would happen because of all the other features that are being planned.

[Fish]

I think how to proceed is reasonably straightforward.  In order to make a card game that works in a computer game first we have to make a card game that works well with cards.  You just print them out and then use them.  Once it seems to work well with cards then you can implement it in the computer game.  One key factor is to test out the balance in playability.

They don?t need any fancy graphics because initially it just comes down to rules and numbers.  All we need is generic template.  We make about 100 of them on card stock say six per sheet and play test it with buddies and friends around our areas.  If an idea comes up you can take an essentially blank cards and fill in the properties with the pen.

What we probably need from this thread is generic rules.  What constitutes a win what constitutes a loss?  How is the full round played?  Is the object win two out of three?  How can we incorporate magic?  What we need is the basis for a card game.

[tygerwilde]

that wouldnt\' work with the game design i\'ve been talking about though, because of the randomness as well as two words, real time combat, if one monster is faster than another one, there would be no way to implement that effectively in a turn based card game.

[Drilixer]

I think I understand what yal mean by the Yu Gi Oh idea and the summoning monsters, but the 10 second delay is not enough... have you ever seen what a mass of creatures can do to any games FPS ?  It\'s still a really good and the most viable idea so far though so here goes:

           Soul Trapping - The Game and Trade Skill
               (Just the name of the skill not Game)
     This skill system is much like Final Fantasy 8 and 11
    I know this is long I\'m sorry but I think it\'s worth it!!!

     The only argument is that it will take up alot of the game - I\'m interpretting that as meaning that it will take alot of play time since afterall what is a game without it\'s community?  So, the game should be fairly hidden(with the exception of maybe a very large coliseum style arena for official guild matches - I will get to arena specs later though).  Seems like the best way to hide it would be to only devote a handful of NPCs to the teeching and sale of the card game.  Although buying cards is nice and all, I want you guys to think back to where that idea came from? - Wizards of the Coast sells Magic.  Why - Because Wizards of the Coast cant tell it\'s 8 yr old fans to go kill a Red Wyrm and seal its soul into a card.  Fortunately for us and for the people that argued that this game would take up too much time this game will have monsters for us to fight (eventually).  As previously stated : \'monsters should be able to drop their own cards\'.  That is a pretty good idea.  But, you have to ask why would a monster drop a card?  \"Yeah I\'m such a vain little goblin that I had some little Japanese guy take my picture, hook it to a baseball card, and then staple it to my head for you to find!\"
     Therefore I would say that the idea is sound - different types of monsters should only be able to give their respective type of monster \'card\' to the game... but some sort of skill should be necessary to retrieve the card from the monsters - you people can decide that but it seems like the most relevent way would be something involvng the monsters souls or karma - this game seems fixated on gems so far (hehe) so you could use a skill to attempt to trap a dead monsters soul in a gem - there are already different grades of gems and the quality of the monster that you trap would be determined by the quality of the gem that it is trapped in.  For example: trap a dragon in a ruby and it is an ok dragon; trap it in an amethyst and it royally sucks (for a dragon of course); and trap it in a diamond and it recieves \'uber\' stats.  Obviously it should be extremely difficult to soultrap (I know I\'ve heard that term in another game so sue me, hehe) powerful creatures without a high soul trap skill.  It should also be noted that the grades of gems are more difficult as well.  Although trapping souls would seem to be magic, it might be said that it is a matter of willpower and skill, so not to exclude warriors and rogues and make your card game only wizard playable.  (Of course you can always trade your trapped souls, which should be well labeled mind you to other players).
     The best feature of this system is that it both discourages and promotes playing a straight \'soultrapper\' character.  Let me explain:  To kill extremely hard monsters will require extremely tough player characters.  Obviously if you\'ve invested your time and points into \'soultrapping\' you will get toasted by the first goblin you see much less a Red Wyrm.  So you will either have to make a half and half Adventurer-Soul Trapper (which would make you play the game ) or make a Glass Menagerie character who HAS TO PARTY to reach dead corpses to make soul pieces.  Notice the emphasis on either working with other people or playing the original game to get to the mini game.  I know alot of you are card game Gurus who want to be able to play the game from the getgo - but cmon devs wont allow that and you know it.

(sorry this is so long but I like saying/writing down everything that comes to my mind lest I forget)

Great now that you have A: created a viable soul hunter/adventurer and trapped a large assortment of souls B: made a soul hunting party and trapped souls or C: traded with a soul hunter for a large assortment of these soul gems - what about the game?  The Yu Gi Oh Idea is great since as a person said earlier \' the monsters are already there\'.  This leaves less work for the devs and that is always a good thing (especially when trying to add games INSIDE their game, hehe).  The 10 second timer on the other hand needs to be adjusted.  Whoever here thinks lag spikes CANT exceed 10 seconds when in an arena with numerous people and monsters should either toss their Alienware computer out the window and get an older model or just accept the fact that most people\'s computers wont be able to handle that... or at least not without some modifications to the game.
The actual arena is going to take some tricky coding - for example what keeps a wizard from launching a fireball at his opponent\'s creature?  Or arrows?  etc. etc.  Another problem: The soul gems can ONLY FUNCTION IN ARENAS!!! or else people will start summoning monsters etc etc to fight for them which would reak havoc on skill balancing.  
     So here is how I think the arena should be set up:  Imagine a square coliseum with a large square pit in the middle, surrounded by walls and each side of the pit has a transparent cube for the respective player combattants to stand in while they are playing.  The soul gems should only function while they are in these boxes - which should have portals leading in and out of them before and after matches respectively.  I think the number of creatures in the field should be restricted to keep back the EVER powerful lag monster.  Although to keep the game interesting every 20 seconds or so players might be able to use spellgems or some such to boost their monsters, curse their opponents, etc. etc.  These gems could be acqired through another skill - although this would most likely be an Enchanter only skill.
You can decide the gameplay beter than I can, but it seems to me like whoever has the last monster standing wins the round (this will have to be done in rounds to keep the number of the monsters on the field to a playable amount).  The number of rounds in the match and the items, gold, loot, gems, whatever riding on the match could be determined before the players began each cube could have an accept feature to join the match similar to consentual dualing and trade windows.

Of course there could be uber-rare powerful monsters that only spawn with NPC (or even GM) quests and that would add to the hunt for extra good \'cards\' to keep the card playing and normal Planeshift communities together.  And I\'d like to harp again against \'booster packs\'.  This isn\'t Wizards of the Coast!  It has to tie into the game so there shouldnt be booster packs or card vendors everywhere.  Keep the number of NPCs who know about the mini game down hide the BIG arenas.  Make people master Planeshift if they want to master your mini game!

Well, thats my 2 cents worth (after a bit of inflation).  Sorry it got so long, but if you guys want a good mini-game I think that would take the cake.  And the \'soul\' idea as well as the \'gems\' are only examples feel free to look at them from other perspectives.

*phhhewww* C\'est fini

[Amin]

In order to direct your discussion to something more reasonable.  It is Highly unlikely that we would put any Magic/Yu-Gi-Oh type game in PS.  However we have occasionally discussed adding games that date more from mideival times and would fit into the world.  Rather than a game that is modern and has been added to the game to keep people from being bored.

[Drilixer]

sounds good, do you intend to get ACTUAL medieval games?  I\'ve played a few and most arent that exciting...

[Amin]

anything that wouldn\'t be considered modern is more what we\'re going to consider.  Ie no collectible card games, arcade games, etc.  Ancient games like go, or games that seem more like them are more likely to be included.  A new game that could have been played in the dark ages are a deffinate possibility.  Ie games involving Stones and sticks, not paper or computer.

[Drilixer]

again makes since - have you ever read the Wheel of Time Series?

[white_slayer]

Hi i used to play runescape (lame as hell) but it did have this wierd minigame called castle wars where theres two teams and each has a flag and its liek cpature the flag. you pick up the flag wich will start being a weapon then u run to your castle when u get the you put it in the flag holder and your team gets a point each game goes for 20 mins i think. its like team on team when u see someoen from other team u can kill them without challengin them.and each team would have a different couloured cape and hood and if u had armor on ur back or head ud have to take it off thanks and dont get up me for talkin bout runescape.

[Cherppow]

Hi everyone

In addition to social freetime activity, I\'d like to see minigames used in other purposes. In many games there are minigames for certain skill use or special event. Some of them are more complex than others, but I still consider them minigames. Those are often very fun and add nice little variation and depth to the main game. They also make the game more unique, memorable and addictive.

Completion of the minigame would ensue successful skill use, while failure would result in some negative consequences (trap sprung, alchemical reagents exploding with stinky fumes). In general, I think a minigame could fit any happening that 1) doesn\'t take place too often, 2) requires precision/concentration, 3) doesn\'t have to be hurried(allows player to stand idle for a while).

Examples:
System Shock - picking locks, breaking security blocks (connect cables, minesweeper variant)
System Shock - cyberspace (low detail space flight/fight)
Final Fantasy 7 - Chocobo race (much like car race, but with chicks)
Final Fantasy 7 - Shin-ra march (press correct key combinations)
Final Fantasy 7 - materia (different combinations form different results)
Betrayal at Krondor - word chests (like number code locks, but with letters and riddle)
UFO Enemy unknown - intercepting UFO (select behaviour of your fighters)
Return to Krondor - picking locks (use right tool to right device)
Hellbreath - fishing (press button when percentage is at maximum)
Diablo 2 - socketed items/runewords (add&mix attributes to your equipment)
Diablo 2 - horadric cube (transmute items into different ones, using certain recipes)
Mechwarrior 2 - mech loadout (make best use of space, mass and criticals)
Ultima Underworld - runestone magic (combine right runestones to form a spell)
Ultima series - magic reagents (combine right reagents to form a spell)
Syndicate - research (allocate resources to certain areas)
Master of Orion 2 - almost everything (ship design, tactical combat, planet management, research)
Star Control 2 - planet lander (2d flight/resource collect game)
Star Control 2 - ship construction (pick&mix devices to your starship)
Arx Fatalis - magic (draw magic symbols with mouse)

In PlaneShift, we could use minigames for eg. alchemy/mixing drinks/cooking, smithing, mining/prospecting, glyph combining, picking locks, setting/disarming traps, fishing, language translation, quests, musical instrument use/singing, dancing, equipment repair, painting art, hit combos/martial arts, haggling, player houses, map making, animal training/charming, resting/dreams*,...

*some of them don\'t have to have any real meaning, just be fun.

Ps. While in minigame, background music is vital