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At Eaghen

In world where most gear is crafted by players , item loss needs to be in place in some way. Its not that bad to lose your stuff in such econamy even its full loot loss which PO wont be. Gear is easy to replace and keeping mutiple sets in your bank helps alot. The item loss helps keep the player driven econamy going.

As far as griefing goes, PO is going to be using the EVE online system for keeping the kind of behavior in check and its a system that works. Attacks raely happen in areas that has high security and PVE players can thrive and do the things they want to do in EVE. You are however never completely safe but if you dont go into lawless lands in PO you dont have to worry very much about pvp.

The problem with said structure is that the story you create is going to only be *very* small scale, pretty light on structure or plot, and run out of steam fairly quickly.

I put it to any player to show me how they have managed to make something REALLY substantial in a sandbox without some sort of NPC setup.

Lets face it, it takes a a shedload of planning just to get a decent PnP session up and running, so how do you poropse to make something robust and interesting that is running in realtime 24/7? unless you have 48 hours a day I suspect it will be a bit dinky. though I have put it out there, I'd now like to see the challenge met and quality examples provided.

yeah 4499 might have faced off against the big bad in WOW, but coming from 'EQ Endgame' I could actually NAME the people on my server who'd ever done it. In fact we could name the one guild that was out in front across all servers.

I really dont think you getting the concept of how big of impact one player can have in a sandbox game. Every action a player does has a effect on the world. You can forge a empire if you are clever enough to do so. How players interact with each other in game is the story. Aliiances are made and broken , wars are fought between player nations and someone behind the curtains could be pulling strings causing all the conflict. You could be adventuer , merchent, or bandit and make your mark in the sandbox game, thats something you cant do in a themepark.

I had a go at SWG before UC and NGE, and then at the recommendations of a few friends had a go afterwards too.

I am not really interested in an easy-sauce theme park, however I think there is room for a 'theme park in a sandbox'. A Sandbox is fine, but having no real plot or point to the main game gets a bit dull - at some point it is nice to be the guys facing the big bads of the cosmos.

If I just want to play shops and houses then the Sims:Medieval does it better.

The point of a sandbox game is for the players to tell their own stories, this depends on interacting with other players in the game. Players themselves are the content. You have the freedom to be anything you want to be in the game. The bad guys are other players whos goals and aligment conflict with yours. The quests in the game are the ones you make for yourself, or other players will have quests for you to do for them. There will be pve monsters and dungeons to fight and explore, but the story of the game is what the player makes it.

Alexander_Damocles wrote:

So far, Mr Dancey, you've been correct. However, you are dead wrong in this post. The people who played the game thoroughly enjoyed what they had in SWG. World of Warcraft did not exist when SWG was launched, neither did EQ2.

He did say EQ, not EQ2. EQ was an excellent game - I don't feel that Sony managed to stuff that one up, I think it represents the pinnacle of MMO.

Anyhow I found SWG to be boring and directionless, it was essentially a FPS version of "The Sims:Starwars", but without the cute bits.

You make your own direction in a sandbox game, there are no set paths telling you where to go.

Blitz all the games you name are themepark games, Pathfinder Online is sandbox game and is going to be completly different then those games.In a sandbox what you chose to do is up to you, there is no set path to follow. Player interaction is the content of a sandbox game and a player driven econamy fuels the conflicts between kingdoms , guilds and rival players. Everything you do in world has a effect no matter how small or trivial it might seem. The players themselves are the story in a sandbox game, you not reading a scripted story that thousands of others share and never changes.

Everytime you log in something new is happening, the sandbox world isnt a static set place that never changes. Players cities are being made and destoyed, rival merchants engage in a trade war hiring bandits to attack each others caravans. A lone exploer discovers a vauleable place to harverst rare resources and charges alot coin to those who want to know where it is and a group of adventuers down a dragon in a far off dungeon and haul back the loot to safty. Sandbox is very close to the pen and paper expereince in the fact that you the player makes your own story in the game, you can be whatever character you imagine and the skill base system pathfinder will have gives you the freedom to do that.

@ricardo

There will be high security areas in the game to harvest resources and there will be lawless areas where the reward is greater but the risk of attack is high. Life as a villian bandit(PKer) will be very hard if the game is done right. You are not welcome in most cilivized areas of the game and can be killed by many npcs and players on sight. A merchant can place a bounty on a bandit's head and keep it there if the merchent is rich enough.

This is done to keep greifers getting any fun from griefing others as they will die alot more and get no where in the game. Players can oraganize as a bandit guild and attack caravans in lawless lands and that is valid game play. A merchant who wants to harvest in those areas needs to oraganize a guard that can prevent those attacks by hiring other players. Players who attack other players in lands with security will have npc marshells spawn in to kill them and they are extremely hard to get away from let alone fight.

Pver's can still play the game and there will plenty to do for them, however this not a game where you are perfectly safe from other players. Chances of being attack by players in secured areas will be a rare occurance but it can happen. In a sandbox like this you need to make friends and allies. The more friends you have the safer you are.

Yup, they cant please everyone...

Pvp permanently on is, tbh, more of a turn off than the system. In fact its probably the ultimate no -no for me.

The pvp is being setup like Eve online , there will be areas in pathfinder that has security from npc marshels that spawn to kill griefing players, also griefing players have to deal other players as well. Its not going to be as bad as alot people assume, your not perfectly safe but if you stay out of lawless land on the friges of civilized areas, a pve player will rarely have to deal with pvp. The starting map is huge in size. Also one of the devs is a pure pve player and wants to make sure pve'rs have stuff to do in the high security areas.

One thing that a good sandbox game needs is a really good soundtrack that pullls you into the world. Eve online does this really well with its music. Really hope the music is good , maybe the devs can hire the guy that did the Eve soundtrack. More then one song at least would be nice.Just some thoughts be me on the subject.