Topia Online -> Inspired by Haven & Hearth

[sabinati]

The game server must execute complex pathfinding queries across hundreds of miles of terrain. Everything is simulated on virtual processors because each creature may have an agenda or objective. This allows players to create cities which have patrol routes for guards, shops that support bartering, land rentals, and anything else that the PLAYERS decide to create.

Is there a pimping option? And if not, how long until the pimping option.

are you referring to cosmetic upgrades or actual pimping?

[Jackard]

I would also like to ask why permadeath negatively impacts a subscription model. At the end of the day, my team is providing a 'live service' that consumes a lot of processing and bandwidth. Although your character may die, the world goes on. Everyone will die, but the joy will be in creating a new character and exploring new styles of gameplay.

Judging from past the two seem incompatible, these games have enough problems with player retention as it is. I have to question how much experience you really have with them for you to even be asking this.

I've said hundreds of time I'd pay up to $14.99 a/month for haven with regular updates and everyone I've mentioned it to agreed......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLrnkK2YEcE

[btaylor]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLrnkK2YEcE

What did I just watch?

[joshrmt]

Permadeath in Topia will not result in hundreds of hours of loss. If any of you have played a roguelike, it may give an idea on the loss associated with death. We are providing tons of account unlocks to encourage players to experiment with new characters each time they die.

I feel that permadeath can increase player retention if it actually 'freshens' the number of gameplay options they have. Most permadeath games result in the player having to repeat content theyve already done dozens of times. We are mitigating that by providing alternate play and advanvement styles.

[joshrmt]

btaylor:

The AI does not need to be 'mindless'. They will be able to talk, offer services, respond to actions, and exhibit some personalitys of the owner. In general, I expect the creatures to be far more intelligent than you would find in any traditional NPCs in MMORPGs.

[btaylor]

btaylor:

The AI does not need to be 'mindless'. They will be able to talk, offer services, respond to actions, and exhibit some personalitys of the owner. In general, I expect the creatures to be far more intelligent than you would find in any traditional NPCs in MMORPGs.

Hm... so what you're saying is you can actually make them respond to questions asked by someone in the vicinity and hold a conversation, to an extent, of what is asked and what was scripted to be answered?

[joshrmt]

Btaylor:

Similar to many RPGs which employ a similar mechanism, you can script your creature to respond to 'keywords' or conversation hints.

Examples:
- You could create a shopkeeper which responds to 'buy', 'sell', 'barter', or 'appraise'.
- An innkeeper could respond to queries such as 'rent', 'purchase room', etc.

Script writers can also develop custom UI to help with the conversation process. For example, you could create a 'landowner' NPC which sells plots of land that you own. An interface could easily be written to show the potential customer the sections of land that are for sale, and their prices.

For more complex 'conversations', the user could write an interface that contains various conversation options. Similar to Mass Effect, his creature could respond to conversation choices that the speaker selects. Here is an example screenshot (from Starwars Galaxies I believe), for an interface that could be implemented in less than an hour:
http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2 ... ptions.jpg

With both a script editor and interface editor, players will be able to create unique scenarios. Even more interesting is the fact that other player's UI can be automated. So you can create a script which interacts with other people's dialogs, interfaces, etc.

[painhertz]

Damn Josh! You just completely ignored my statement! I'm serious! I regged at your forums and it appears so far that you guys have...ONE guy on them. You should hook us up since Haven is in it's doddering old age and Salem is just...bleh. Give us something to play and we'll give you a player base.....

[joshrmt]

painhertz: I just unveiled this project a week or two ago.

I am working on features to allow you guys to start trying out the game as I write this. I want to get you all in-game asap! I will have something for you guys to interact with in a day or two. We only have two developers counting myself, and it takes a lot of time to create an awesome game.

[tempwad]

lol, guys, it is html5 browser game. worst technology than flash.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaHhxRGYjFA