11-02-2009, 11:19 PM
Something else that bothers me with MMORPGs is the frequency of death. Not that I'm suggesting we make a world without death but just that it's silly how everything other than players will fight to the death -- players generally try to get away if the going gets rough.
I think some interesting stuff could be done by trying this:
Make death into serious business. Similar to EVE, you would not want to die in World of Slamzcraft. I'm not sure what the death penalty would be but I would aim to make it at least as serious as EVE.
However, to make it more interested, you actually get "kill credit" for making an enemy flee from key areas. You go attack an orc village and start fighting the orc NPCs and they're no dummies -- when they see it's going badly, they'll try to make a run for it. If they exit the village, you get credit similar to having actually killed them.
If you additionally manage to actually kill them you'll get an even bigger reward, but the game is not going to make this easy. It wouldn't be hard to make the NPCs smart enough that 2 orcs stay behind to hold you off while the rest of the orcs run for it and get enough of a lead that you simply won't be able to catch them (at least not without a more complicated strategy).
The thing I like about this idea is we could actually have NPCs that "level up" for as long as they live. Taking the idea from the other thread, the orc NPC that fights your dwarf and escapes has become better at fighting dwarves. The more times he does this, the better he gets. Actually killing him is going to be a big deal, but a fairly rare event. Most of the time you'll simply be driving them out of some resource.
PvP would work the same way, at least around resources.
Let's say resources have a 50m control radius. If you get within that radius you are either a defender or a contender for that resource. If you take damage and get outside of a 100m contention zone, you have "fled" and whoever did damage to you gets some credit and you lose reputation with whatever force you were there in the name of (assuming faction based warfare).
PvP outside of resource areas wouldn't have this mechanic -- you'd only get credit for an actual kill -- but PvP in the middle of nowhere wouldn't really be the aim of the game anyway ("resources" for purposes of this mechanic could include anything worth fighting over, including structures, convoys, raiding parties, etc. Maybe the local NPC chief sends out a raiding party and you're welcome to join in, and the "resource" in this case is the raiding party leader. If you take damage and then run more than 100m away from him, you have "fled" and the mechanics are applied.)
The purpose of this mechanic is to make the game world feel more "alive" as well as to create some "life" within individual NPCs. Here's an orc baker who, incidentally, has survived 15 wars with the dwarves, having either defeated his enemy or escaped each time, and now he's really good at fighting dwarves.
I think some interesting stuff could be done by trying this:
Make death into serious business. Similar to EVE, you would not want to die in World of Slamzcraft. I'm not sure what the death penalty would be but I would aim to make it at least as serious as EVE.
However, to make it more interested, you actually get "kill credit" for making an enemy flee from key areas. You go attack an orc village and start fighting the orc NPCs and they're no dummies -- when they see it's going badly, they'll try to make a run for it. If they exit the village, you get credit similar to having actually killed them.
If you additionally manage to actually kill them you'll get an even bigger reward, but the game is not going to make this easy. It wouldn't be hard to make the NPCs smart enough that 2 orcs stay behind to hold you off while the rest of the orcs run for it and get enough of a lead that you simply won't be able to catch them (at least not without a more complicated strategy).
The thing I like about this idea is we could actually have NPCs that "level up" for as long as they live. Taking the idea from the other thread, the orc NPC that fights your dwarf and escapes has become better at fighting dwarves. The more times he does this, the better he gets. Actually killing him is going to be a big deal, but a fairly rare event. Most of the time you'll simply be driving them out of some resource.
PvP would work the same way, at least around resources.
Let's say resources have a 50m control radius. If you get within that radius you are either a defender or a contender for that resource. If you take damage and get outside of a 100m contention zone, you have "fled" and whoever did damage to you gets some credit and you lose reputation with whatever force you were there in the name of (assuming faction based warfare).
PvP outside of resource areas wouldn't have this mechanic -- you'd only get credit for an actual kill -- but PvP in the middle of nowhere wouldn't really be the aim of the game anyway ("resources" for purposes of this mechanic could include anything worth fighting over, including structures, convoys, raiding parties, etc. Maybe the local NPC chief sends out a raiding party and you're welcome to join in, and the "resource" in this case is the raiding party leader. If you take damage and then run more than 100m away from him, you have "fled" and the mechanics are applied.)
The purpose of this mechanic is to make the game world feel more "alive" as well as to create some "life" within individual NPCs. Here's an orc baker who, incidentally, has survived 15 wars with the dwarves, having either defeated his enemy or escaped each time, and now he's really good at fighting dwarves.