Goblin Squad Member
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Will it be possibly for explorere-type characters to learn cartograhpy so they can sell maps of areas they have explored?
It would be awesome if the maps were an in-game item that showed a specefic hex that had been explored along with any highlighted points of interest. This could make an alternative income stream for those who enjoying every nook and cranky.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I would really like there to be a huge system for map manipulation. So rather than selling a map to another person, you'd sell them information that you've gathered and it would appear on their map. Your character's map would be a way of keeping a whole lot of information organized.
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Goblin Squad Member
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This is such a good addition for Exploration game play. I guess value of information could vary depending on the danger of the area explored, the type of information, the demand etc.
What I really like is it sounds as if the map is much more dynamic & changeable place where information on different parts of it is useful and surprising. :) I think that's one thing that makes Minecraft "moreish" - is the procedural landscape or digging in the caves waiting to discover something useful or something dangerous (monster in the dark for eg).
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Goblin Squad Member
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I agree.. excellent idea! Not sure how it would work with third party maps... maybe have cartography be able to show you (along with geography) where minerals were located (they would be hidden to normal people). So you'd make a carto/geo check and if you succeed you'd see the mineral. This would all be under the hood and you'd just see the results. conceivably you could pass the same area and see new things once your skill level was high enough.
Once you had that skill level high enough, you could mark that map and sell / give the info away.
A further addition would be to have the location of mineral veins change. Ideally, if you had unlimited processing power, you'd tie it into the weather and/or seasons. However, I think everyone would understand that new areas would sponataneously spring up after X number of veins had been tapped out, so that at any given time there'd always be a minimum number of mineral reserves.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I agree.. excellent idea! Not sure how it would work with third party maps... maybe have cartography be able to show you (along with geography) where minerals were located (they would be hidden to normal people). So you'd make a carto/geo check and if you succeed you'd see the mineral. This would all be under the hood and you'd just see the results. conceivably you could pass the same area and see new things once your skill level was high enough.
Once you had that skill level high enough, you could mark that map and sell / give the info away.
A further addition would be to have the location of mineral veins change. Ideally, if you had unlimited processing power, you'd tie it into the weather and/or seasons. However, I think everyone would understand that new areas would sponataneously spring up after X number of veins had been tapped out, so that at any given time there'd always be a minimum number of mineral reserves.
"Maps should challenge the imagination".
Perhaps implementation is a combination of information logged on a player's map acting a bit like a key to some instanced content in the case of Dungeons and possibly phased content in the case of a secret mob location, which might be subsequently "found" by others using exploration skills and therefore unlock information-keys on their maps?
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Goblin Squad Member
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:) Having made maps professionally, I find that my users get upset when i make their maps "challenging" and route them into a dark and scary forest ;)
Seriously, though. I get where you're coming from and I think it's the same direction as I. CoH had 'door missions' where every door in the city was the entrance to an instanced mission, and you could only enter the door if you had that mission. PFO could do the same with instanced dungeons, secret mob locations et al.
Getting back to the mineral veining, I could see that as a driving force for nation to nation conflict, particularly if the mineral veins are random but localized. Example: Say nations A and B split control of a geographic feature called "the iron hills" (hint: it has iron). There are 5 instances of iron, each giving out 5,000 units of iron. When exhausted, the instance goes away and respawns somewhere else in the iron hills. A given nation (say, nation A) could mine that unit or hoard it, thinking that B will mine theirs. If B mines its unit and depletes it, it has a 50/50 chance of spawning in either country. Nation A could wait until all five mineral resources have spawned in its country (useful if it had additional instances of iron) to achieve a monopoly and deny the mineral to B.
Note: this would probably work best if we didn't know how much mineral was left in the mine. Otherwise you could work it down to 5 units and then sit on it. Although at that point, sabatoge might come into play to mine out those last 5 units to force a respawn.
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Goblin Squad Member
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A small variation perhaps in quantity. But other parameters such as how much mining a hex receives at a given time, how built up it is, what the geology of the hex tends towards eg is it near a river, or in a mountain.
Perhaps rate of extraction depends on the skills and experience and settlement utilities available to the people working the mine, also?
I'm not sure spawning of mines should work, perhaps some with a greater danger threat that cannot be assessed, other at the end of a dungeon. I think tieing other things in is a good way to determine what sort of spawning rules make sense. The activities of other groups of players should only indirectly affect any given vein also, is better than a direct pull-push of spawning mine resources imo. It's all about the site being surveyed and then developed and then excavated and then protected while transport of unrefined resources are being conducted.
Those all feed back on the hex natural state, it's current state and I guess it's recent history around a local area as well as the skill to locate a new vein of ore/minerals?
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Goblin Squad Member
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If there are going to be veins of ore that appear and disappear, they should be timed rather than sized.
I would prefer a little of both. If they're going to periodically spawn and disappear, then they should still go away when they're depleted.
Of course, I'd also be happy to see them be virtually permanent.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Of course, I'd also be happy to see them be virtually permanent.
Small, randomly occurring nodes would be fine for individual adventurers to come across, but it would be awesome if there were full size veins that factions could mine for months at a time and fight over. As soon as one is discovered there's a mad rush to build a quarry and reinforce it before anyone else catches on and tries to steal it.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Part of the great enjoyment I had years ago in the older school MUD's was mapping the areas. A system where I can label and create maps for my own use.
Now allowing others to contribute to my maps through quests/resource sharing etc does sound like a great idea, as long as the core remains that I can explore places myself and get genuinely lost if I don't.
I will never forget the disappointment I felt playing WoW when the 'Shadow Labyrinth' turned out to be one long corridor. I suppose I shouldn't have expected anything different but darnit a 'Labyrinth' should be downright diffcult to explore!
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Goblin Squad Member
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There was talk about manipulating the UI, eg the mini-map as one implementaion of exploration and navigating.
Another idea, is if there is a skill for navigating, there could be a check on it every so often to determine if "Lost". The result of failing such a check, maybe a instanced/phasing of the party into an area that is mazy and same terrain and filled with some dangers for them to stumble into, but generally the party has to find a way to the "exit" and that symbolises finding their bearing again and they return to the actual spot they failed the "Test" at? This way you could slow down and challenge characters and simulate getting lost.
Just an idea if other ideas such as messing with maps/UI do not work?
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Goblin Squad Member
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What Dancy said reminded me of Sid Meyer's Pirates! If you have the right skills in gather information, you might garner information such as, "Baron Blackheart was seen in CareVille", or "CareVille was attacked and has a new Mayor", or "Runes discovered south of CareVille". Information such as this might be worth selling, but if not acted on, may become obsolete if things evolve. A lot of possibilities here for career explorers and career spies. Oh, the rumers one may here in the local tavern!
