Dev Diary: Mad ramblings

[jorb]

What works well: Character stats and their interactions with the Quality system. The quality system -- apart from a few resource trees -- works extremely well.

What works less well: Character stats and their interactions with the combat system. The (old) combat system works surprisingly well, considering how and when it was designed, but it, ultimately, has been proven flawed. Interaction logic between low level players and the environment is extremely strange since wilderness spawns came in.

New game: Basic rule is that archery dominates, and is the intended weapon for PvE combat. All creatures will be set to current level ten, but archery will deal such fuckloads of damage that even a few relative noobs (skills of about ~50) can kill a bear without much ado. In melee, on the other hand, a creature will rape you so hard so as to not make it a laughing matter. The newb players then get a staircase to climb consisting of birds, hedgehogs, rabid squirrels, beeswarms, toads, poison ivy. (My idea is this. Poison ivy has a root herb that is the center of the ivy infestation. The root object can be seen if perc + explore is high enough, if you try to weed out the root object you will be attacked by little kamikaze strands of poison ivy. These strands hit, although less often, as soon as you walk close to the ivy. The rootbulb is potent stuff.) where he will basically be expected to use the (already drawn) sling, the bow or the crossbow (archery + basic mechanics) in order to win, and make that game just the right level of experience. Melee fighting with animals will, quite simply, be much harder. -- Also, introduce a peaceful way to get livestock, accessible to most relatively low characters. You can tame animals by feeding them stuff they like for a few days, in which case they will follow with you and be fun for newbs and strengthen the dairy harvest moon playing base of the game. You also reduce the time investment reuqired for them (I don't even think that would be unrealistic. Historically animals were obviously kept by relatively poor people) Do instead make wild cattle that much rarer. -- In order to climb in melee, and, ultimately, to interesting PvP, you have to learn melee. Why?

It is very hard to hit a player reliably, because he can move around to avoid it. Each time a targeted object moves, the aiming player loses his aim. Animals stand still for long periods. An alarmed player doesn't. This means that, as backup in a PvP fight, archers can be extremely lethal, but that they do need some backup. That also means that, in order to advance in PvP, you will have to do some hard slugging with the animals to get any good at it. It might cost you an arm and a leg, but hey.

This, by the way, is a very excellent picture of germanic bravery. Manly men who traverse the wild and, bare-breasted, fight animals in the snow 'neth pale moons. Think Leonidas' childhood scenes from 300. Thus, our skill/strategy based combat system can actually become relevant, without becoming an absolute must even for people who just want to farm. Hopefully, this could also lead to the development of a more dedicated warrior class, which is as it should.

Thus, we get rid of creature levels, and make hunting (with bow and arrow, or sling) that much easier, and common, and all around reasonable.

We then introduce a rule that says that you level up faster from crafting/farming in civilized areas. This as to abstractly represent the division of labor and ease of exchange of knowledge that can only occur through social interactions. Hunting trolls should still be more rewarding LP wise per time unit spent, but very few people would be able to hunt trolls reliably. Most people will not see trolls at all. Hunting them isn't really the right word for what I would like to do. This will make the civilizing mission that much more appealing to the player. Also, make it so that the really bad stuff only occurs in the border lands between civilization and the dark forests. In the bosom of the dark you are relatively safe, but once you start to humble mother nature with you contraptions and civilization, old and powerful forces will ultimately be disturbed by your progress. Newbs can thus gain skill in the relative safety of complete wilderness, but still have new challenges to face as they start to generate civilization. Really dangerous creatures only exist in terrain specific environs. Mountains, generally, are ominous and bad places. A mountain disturbed by a mining operation... don't dig too deep and greedily in her seams, young hearthlings.

This also allows for the introduction of some real tracking efforts and whatnot for the archery based hunting experience. Shoot the animal and follow the blood trail. Taming wolves into dogs requires high melee effort, and is one of the more challenging things you can do. A dog is a symbol of authority and martial prowess. The taming of the wolf is a process that draws out over several days of living in close proximity to a wolf pack, having it accept you and ultimately subdue it.

This is how I see the game developing in the near future. I'm always open for better ideas.

[jorb]

I should add to the list of creatures: Badgers, moles, lynxes, wolverines, beavers, owls, moose(The king of the forest. He commands other creatures.)

[burgingham]

Love all of it, do it!

[sabinati]

hmm, similar to the conversation on irc last night which prompted a thread or two

[Gauteamus]

Ominous and great sounding!
EDIT: Question: on bows versus crossbows - will one simply better than the other, much like militia -> bronze -> soldier sword, or will there be different situations where they get to shine (oh, noes, not the Bows-versus-Crossbows-which-were-really-meaner debate)?

[Bunny]

Moose? Moose??! Moose are Norse Germanic?? Kings of the forest??

Come to think of it with blueberries and dreamcatchers I think maybe we are talking Vinland here. But moose being the king of the forest? I mean, in a collision with a moose and a sub-compact it is usually a toss up who will come off worse. The moose may walk away instead of the driver of the sub-compact car. But moose are not exactly rare around where I live and they are sort of like big overgrown dumb feral cows, except nowhere near as dangerous as an auroch. Generally the only danger a moose might be to you is if it panicked and ran you down. They can do a lot of damage but when they wander into the town via the mudflat they generally end up tracking mud up and down the road before knocking over a few fences and getting shooed away.

Otherwise I am absolutely drooling. It all sounds so good. Except the poison ivy.

[sabinati]

yeah tbh i'm not that into the poison ivy thing, rest of it sounds great though

[Chakravanti]

yeah tbh i'm not that into the poison ivy thing, rest of it sounds great though

this.

[NaoWhut]

Any time table for this or do we sit
clinging on to our screens for the next
couple of months?

Oh and i like the Archery thing alot,
i can finally live my dream of being
nothing but an archer and just snipe
non-moving noobies all day.

[Jackard]

foxes should probably count among the weaker animals, especially if you set them to raiding chickens