Goblin Squad Member
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Which brings me to a quesion about scope. Has there been any discussion about distances and how the perception of distance is achieved through travel times?
One of the cooler game mechanics I've ever seen was in a MUD where resources could be traded from location to location on varying sizes of trade transports. But the key that drove the markets was that the resources had to be moved from A to B on ground with no fast travel, one step at a time. This drove a real'ish economy between locations based upon their distances from one another.
I can see something like that fitting in REALLY well to a system like what has been described so far.
Very interesting stuff. Can't wait.
From the sounds of it there will be some extent of fast travel. From the implications you will more or less always be able to jump from a warp point on each hex to a warp point on any other hex, with somewhere in the ballpark of 30 minutes or less from the warp point on the hex, to the edges of the hex. Now getting back from the location to the warp point, that is the danger.
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Goblin Squad Member
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@Onishi - we have not made any firm comments about Fast Travel other than that there will be such a system.
My apologies, I attempted to be as clear in my tone as to a lack of certainty and detail as possible.
From the sounds... some extent of fast travel... From the implications... with somewhere in the ballpark of..
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Goblin Squad Member
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So glad to see a developer of a sanbox title focus as much effort into PvE as they do PvP!
In order to prevent griefing in free for all PvP from getting out of hand is to offer more then just PvP.
As much as I have always enjoyed PvP I need more to do then just killing players, I can do that in BF2 or any number of FPS games, and to be honest they do it better then most mmo's. Games like Darkfall and MO are perfect examples of PvP centric sandboxes the offer very little else other then griefing and fairly unbalanced PvP.
As much as I love tracking down reds and killing them in UO I enjoyed grinding blood elements just as much.
I hope Ryan will design open world PvEvP like Champion Spawns in UO.
All you need to do to create great PvP in sandbox games is give Players a reason to venture out into the world as much as possible.
Anyways I can't wait to see what Ryan and gang will create, from reading all of Ryans posts and the blog it really sounds like the perfect game at the perfect time.
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Goblin Squad Member
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By definition theme park is dev driven content, sandbox is player driven content.
To illustrate, there might be a faction in game that is run by NPCs (the faction is built into the core of the game). This faction could promote PvP by giving missions to kill members of an opposing faction. Like a ride at a themepark, this content is built into the game and helps shape the direction of the game by inflexible conflict (fun).
I run my own player faction and decide that today we are going to reward anyone who kills x members of our opposing faction. Our choice to do this may look identical on the surface, but imo is very different. It is on par with you group at the themepark deciding to forego the rides in order to build your own ride you and others can enjoy. But this ride comes and goes with you and creates conflict that my not normally be there.
Antways, I see a whole world of difference between the two. Any failure to explain it clearly is my own and I apologize. On the otherhand, maybe I am only making a semantic argument that is pointless...
I see your point, but disagree, IMO sandbox is about actually changing the world around you. IMO who or what or why you opted to change the environment, that is a sandbox element. Theme park IMO is something that when you are done with it, everything goes back to normal, beyond looking at your character, there is no way to determine if no-one has done it, or if 50 people did said quest.
That is why skyrim is noted as a sandbox, despite 100% of the content being developer made, though as Ryan points out, it is only a partial sandbox in the sense that many actions lack the total consequences you would expect.
Understood, to me persistence is not a defining characteristic of sandboxes, it is a consequence of sandboxes. The true test of sandboxiness is the freedom to make choices that then be persistent. With this freedom also comes the possibility of player driven content...because they can.
To me Skyrim is themepark. I played Skyrim through and all I wanted was to claim some of the dungeons as mine and build something in it. No freedom which resulted in no player driven content and no persistence.
I do however, agree your points are in like with Ryan's. Taking what he said only into account, I admit you are much more correct than I.
Sounds like the logical step forward when it comes to establishing new towns. My main concern is how this will keep from getting out of hand, because I could easily see industrious individuals all-but trying to completely and utterly despoil an area by such means, and I'm not sure there'd be enough PC druids to address that matter.
But then, I would like to see an in-game reason to keep some areas wild, aside from the food supply for town. Perhaps that mining operation is making things difficult for alchemists hoping to find certain rare reagents and materials. Maybe it's putting a cramp on the Witches' workings in their huts. Who knows, it could give something for clerics of Erastil to get involved with as well...
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Goblin Squad Member
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I was thinking about this ecosystem some more.
PvE can be envisioned as a resource faucet: stuff comes into the game via PvE. Sometimes that stuff may be gold coins in the form of treasure, bounties or rewards. Sometimes it may be gear looted from dead opponents. And sometimes it may be harvestable resources used in crafting goods.So the PvE Faucet allows players to develop their settlements and companies etc.
Typically we see all this activity happening within a single hex, but trade and exchange between hexes is also critical to the economy.
And obviously due to resources being non-uniform in distribution and spawning variability, trade is one important way to fill in the missing resources required.
The intent of the design is that as a hex is developed, the nature of the PvE content from its ruins, lairs and caverns will change. In this way, there's always some content available for all types of character, but the kinds of content you confront will change as your hex becomes more populated and as the characters in it become more powerful. Likewise, the threat level characters face from various sources changes as well; there should always be something reasonably useful for low-, mid- and high-power characters to do.
So this describes the process of a hex becoming built up.
But I have been wondering if the process carries on not just with the faucet for BUILDING UP, but the faucet required to SUSTAIN a built-up Hex?
If INPUT of resources is stopped or decreased, what sort of detrimental affect would that have? Is there an UPKEEP COST for settlements? Eg a certain level of crops required to be imported over a period of time is an obvious candidate for "CONTINIOUSLY REQUIRED" input? Vs others that might not be needed if building work decreases?
This is interesting if a settlement must be carefully managed and run. Imagine if it's main operational concerns are dented due to some shortage of a resource input? Some of the profit gets ploughed back into the settlement as maintenance/upkeep; then if that profit is no longer available, does the settlement start falling apart or becoming down-sized? IE do the top-quality buildings require higher demands of upkeep?
One reason I like the idea of this, is that settlements will have to battle changeable conditions and respond to shore up problems in their resource management (networks). Various possibilities could influence this:
- Other hexes development changes what resource faucets they start producing in varying quantity and expense.
- Competition from other players/settlements increasing price/reducing rate of resource capture in an area
- Conflict with (either) change in monster prevalence near a required resource or with other player groups.
This sort of dynamic: 1. Growth 2. Maintenance demands increase 3. Dealing with variation in the faucets 4. Different growth requirements at higher levels of settlement development etc definitely seems to improve if the 2. Maintenance costs of a settlement are also an important factor I assume?
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Goblin Squad Member
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I'm going to be out on the frontier, scouting new terrain and making maps (by hand and screengrab if nothing else). I'm sure I'll stumble across some surface deposits of useful material, which I will gladly trade in exchange for items made of useful material.
My rates will probably be quite high- I'll expect that I get almost all of the equipment made from the rarest of my resources. If you only wanted to make the stuff, that should be fine with you, but if you wanted to use it yourself, you might need to find someone else to gather your materials.
Sounds like it would be more profitable for me to just entice the local thieves guild to lighten your load for share of the equipment I make with it.
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Goblin Squad Member
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The modules that where described, is it possible that they would be GM'd during the adventure? In DragonRealms a group of people would use micro-transactions to get a ticket to play a module. Players would show up at a certain time and their ticket would give them access. They would be GM'd so they could be tailored to that specific group. This would also be a good opportunity for players to earn special titles, even if only temporary, such as Deific Champion.
I'm not saying that all modules would be like this but those you and your friends wanted to pay for could be run through the story.
Goblinworks Executive Founder
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The modules that where described, is it possible that they would be GM'd during the adventure?
I have to admit that would be pretty cool! Especially if the modules don't provide any sort of benefit other than a fun experience and maybe a title or a pre-set amount of gold/gear at the end no matter the outcome similar to how Pathfinder Society handles it.