Conflict of Interest

[Haba]

The recent dev posts inspired me to flesh out an idea that I’ve been working with on my own projects. It is very far in the future –type of stuff, and requires many of the planned improvements to be implemented before it becomes viable. But I think it could bring forth interesting discussions in the meanwhile.

The issue of PVP has been raised several times on the forums, and a lot of people would like to see more of it. One of the key issues in regard of PVP is "what actually drives it"?

Currently, the main motivator for PVP seems to be sheer boredom, malice or vengeance. People get killed in Wild West fashion, for talking trash over IRC/forums or for stealing from the wrong person. For most, this isn’t enough. Majority of the people simply take no part in PVP nor the drama.


What if the very game mechanics would be designed so that they would lead into natural conflict?

Currently, the game “civilizations” are all the same. Everyone has the same technology, same skills and for the most part, the same resources. Stealing from your neighbor is not that tempting as you know that you could just as well produce the items yourself with lesser risk.

My idea is that different villages in different parts of the world would evolve into distinct civilizations with their own set of interests – interest that could be in direct conflict with another civilization. A kingdom of steel-clad Germans on the other side of the world would threaten your way of life simply through their existence, and not just because they raid your village occasionally.

This would require (at least) two polar opposites. Examples that spring to my mind would be nature over industry or magic over technology.

Let’s say that village would have a belief –slider like an individual hearthling. The slider wouldn’t be adjusted by moving a button, but rather the actions you take. If you cut down trees, build mines and forge iron items, your village moves towards industry/technology. If you tame animals, perform tree-hugging and accumulate magic, you move towards nature/magic. The two forces would be mutually exclusive – mechanical apparatuses would break down/malfunction more often in the sphere of nature/magic and vice versa.

Through simple two polar opposites, we’d already have three distinct types of “civilizations” available (third one being the neutral/midway). This could be expanded by having sub factions within the polar opposites; natural magic/death magic/necromancy/etc. for magic, as an example.

If the very game mechanics are built so that they create conflicting interests, it would create fresh ground for in-game diplomacy, politics and drama. Staying neutral would be much harder, and PVP action would have a "justification" behind it.


How it could work in practice?

We already have "civilization" that radiates from villages and tames the lands around them. Similar fashion, we could have a wilderness that would also have a sphere of influence. Both civilization and wilderness would have a larger radius once the levels would reach certain threshold.

Let’s say that a industrial village discovers a mine in the deep wilds and begins an operation there. This mining would create a zone of civilization that cuts into the wilderness. Lets say that wilderness would have "sites of power" or ancient groves, or whatever - something valuable for nature/magic type of civilizations, and easily disturbed by spread of civilization. The more the industrial village mines, the more irreversible the damage to those sites of power becomes.

The magic/nature civilization (referred from this point onwards as treehuggers) could try to reason with the industrial village. In the return of stopping the mining operation, they could offer something of value for trade. If the talks wouldn’t lead into resolution, the treehuggers could call upon their fairy magics and raid the mine. The industrial village could then attempt to burn the entire forest down in an act of spite. The spiraling conflict could start to imbalance the global magic/technology ratio, forcing neutral parties to intervene as well.

Bottom line: endless source of drama, treachery and bloody murder. A dynamic game world with more unique in-game societies.

What do you think? Could there be alternative "opposing factions"?

[burgingham]

Loftar and Jorb already mentioned they plan to add regionbased industries. Depending on landscape, weather etc. That sounds far better to me than your suggestion of just two poles.

[sonerohi]

Also, the whole technology versus magic part is over the top for what J&L have told us about how they envision things. The magic side would be more like 'Sacrifice a goat to curse their furnace so it consumes more fuel", which is dependent on Jorbs desire to make resources more limited, because otherwise they would knock it down and build a new one.

[Jackard]

My idea is that different villages in different parts of the world would evolve into distinct civilizations with their own set of interests – interest that could be in direct conflict with another civilization. A kingdom of steel-clad Germans on the other side of the world would threaten your way of life simply through their existence, and not just because they raid your village occasionally.

youre in luck, because loftar has been talking about this for a while. except it sounds more related to resources and recipes, not something dorky like pseudoelves vs. pseudodwarves

what are you, some kind of bay12er?

[DasGuntLord01]

Yes, I think this could be easily achieved even by region based rescources. At the moment, every local area has pretty much the same distribrution of resources. If the resources are spread out, that would stimulate trade as well as conflict.

[Flame]

but warning. a noob whitout resource don't find easily a way to play at the begin. And if he's not english, he could also understand only Later, that the trade are importants and how to do that. (A travel on a public market should be helpfull).
The necessary to survive must be guarantee.