Ridiculously rough draft ideas

Subject: Ridiculously rough draft ideas Thu Jun 30, 2016 4:05 pm

These are just brainstorms... Super super rough ideas. I will not take ANY offense at criticism/changes/suggestions to scrap these ramblings all together. But the baby's taking a nap and my brain is in game idea mode so here goes...

Assuming a browser-based, multiplayer game here. And working with the ideas of before of PvE/PvP options. Forgive my lack of complete sentences; I really am just typing as I come up with stuff.

So every player starts off with a "home." And they can do whatever they want with the place - grow food, build and work in workshops (**maybe make workshops town buildings instead), raise animals, cook food, make furniture, craft weapons, blah blah blah flesh it all out later. Probably start with a small very basic place and have to buy more land/find workshop tools/get resources to expand. Maybe also have the option to let out rooms for players coming through so they have a safe place to recover HP or something. Players have the option to also go out and find resources with the risk of being attacked by animals/bandits/dragons as applicable. Or of drowning while fishing or something.

Players can choose to join an existing town, or to start their own. Towns need a minimum of 20 players to be founded and elections for town leader are automatically done immediately after founding. First elected town leader gets to name the town (no swear words, would like kids to play too). Towns are the only way to build certain buildings like markets, taverns, churches, advanced or just large workshops (think carriage-builders, brickworks, glassworks) (maybe basic workshops too).

The towns work on an advancing scale. Little town of 20 people has a couple of buildings they can put together, maybe town leader and one deputy positions. As the town grows, say 30-50-80-120 people etc, more building options and upgrades open up, and more staff positions as well to manage everything. People do have the option to leave their town and travel to and join another so it is in the leader's best interests to do what keeps people happy. New elections every so often, either as a council or by position. This also means that if people don't like their town, they can either band together and create a new town or wait for elections. Town has to maintain minimum population levels in order to retain the use of certain buildings. (Like if you needed 50 people in the town to build an advanced brickworks and 20 people left, you can't use that building any more until you get back to 50 population).

Maybe certain town buildings can also be funded and started by players individually (thinking taverns and churches here) but they have to be popular in order to be financially viable. Doesn't make any sense to have 10 churches in a town of 20 just because we can. Can be profitable if popular. Taverns/churches have an upkeep fee funded by the profits (sales or tithes) and the building falls into disrepair and eventually crumbles if the fee is not paid. Only the town tavern/church gets to have the town in the name. Anything else has to be named by the player.

Potential player routes include farmer, artisan, many different workshops, gatherer of many different resources, trader, builder, warrior, mercenary (defend travelers/traders), bandit.

Would like to see something like this with a TON of different resource options and paths for those resources (like sand -> glass OR brick mud / glass -> window pane OR drinking glass OR decorative ewer OR mirror OR whatever / brick mud -> house brick OR kiln brick OR municipal building brick OR luxury brick etc etc etc)

Throw in some quests/awards for stuff as well. Trade so many items, make X number of meals, kill X number of fluffy rabid squirrels, get to X level in tailoring.

Would like to see a balance between the once-a-day'ers and the people who like to grind. Maybe make certain actions "all day" and others clickables. Or make it so it is slightly more rewarding to keep clicking than to do an all day action (like you can fish all day and get a max of 200 fish for 24 hours or if you were to click to fish every 5 minutes you would get a fish each time so that's a max of 288 in 24 hours).

Personal skills as well as town upgrades. You can only make that really cool piece of armor if both the town has that level of workshop and you have the level to do so.

Basically make it as open and player-driven as it is possible to do so in a browser.

Subject: Re: Ridiculously rough draft ideas Thu Jun 30, 2016 4:11 pm

Another thought while I'm at it... Maybe instead of once-a-day'ers vs grinders you are just limited by action points with the option to re-up your action points by eating food (better food = more action points).

Subject: Re: Ridiculously rough draft ideas Fri Jul 01, 2016 4:27 pm

Another thing to add (love your ideas so far tbh) instead of towns or individual homes being automatically safe, make it so that you can craft a 'strongbox' that has a limited capacity but where you can store your most valuable items. You can also then craft things like locks for your doors, bars for your windows, etc. to make your home harder to raid and increase the chances of someone being detected.

Also on the idea of grinders vs once-a-day'ers: I like the idea of limiting action points and would like to expand on it. Perhaps by creating an agenda option. So if you are having a busy RL day, you can go to the agenda and fill in your given slots for that day, including eating, sleeping, getting drunk etc. If you come back and decide you want to grind more, then you can cancel all unused agenda slots and do what you like with them. Also, make some activities that benefit the community and not the individual, so if someone wants to gather resources, then that can be used on village projects instead of creating individual advantage.

To balance things out, because I am seeing a village of grinders being stronger than a village of once-a-day'ers, then the strength of a village must be a mixture of village strength and individual house strength. This way, a mixed ability village has the same chance as either extreme.

Subject: Re: Ridiculously rough draft ideas Fri Jul 01, 2016 6:12 pm

Anto and I were talking about my ideas yesterday... One thing that came up was that I brainstormed this all with a medieval-to-Industrial Revolution kind of timeframe in mind. But it really could be any timeframe or futuristic or whatever. Just change the resources to something appropriate.

Subject: Re: Ridiculously rough draft ideas Fri Jul 01, 2016 11:19 pm

Going off one of Bekah's suggestions, I really like the idea of stackable jobs/tasks. I started playing a dumb medieval game in which you cannot stack jobs and it irks me. I don't think I'll be long for that world. On one hand, I like that the tasks aren't literally 24 hours (because who the hell works in their farm or studies for 24 hours straight?...I mean besides people on meth or cramming for finals), but hate that they aren't stackable. Anyhow, that's my opinion there. There could even be a limit to the stack- ten or twenty or so. Plus a person would still have to log in once a day to eat.

I really like the idea of people being able to start their own town, but having a requirement on it. That way there aren't as many towns as there are players. The community aspect is key. Otherwise we may as well just play Sims. To that end, I like that everything requires upkeep. That further enforces the community aspect. My question there would be (and maybe you already answered it and I missed it), where does a new person get plopped in? Is there an NPC town for all newbs? Or do they get randomly generated in a player town that is viable? Perhaps that is one area that the town would have to work on, some 'town center' or something that taxes or some crap would keep it going and attract newborn players. Having a nice town center would be beneficial to the overall health of the town, because towns should WANT new players, not to be closed off. That just isn't inviting to the health of a game.

I really like your ideas. I hope that baby takes lots of naps so they keep coming! Very Happy

Serf Posts : 21 Join date : 2012-10-10

If you don't mind me. . .er barging in, the main problem in that idea is the newbie aspect of it, because noobs gonna be noobs. Rather than making them start solo at "home", make them start at a Admin/AI controled Capital so that they learn the basics and also establish some connection with other player. Think of Dwarf Fortress except in the Capital, they learn what, how and where to get stuff they need to live. After that, send them on mission to explore the world (this would be the real game).

They can go solo or in groups based on who they meet in the Capital. They can be the solitary hunter in the wilderness or build a village of with min of 3. Add productivity bonus or unlock new job as incentive when they build a settlement, to encourage them to build towns. For those who prefer solo, bonus on hunting, foraging, etc. Determine the boundary of a settlement by erecting a town pillar at the center with the settlement boundary basef on the radius around the pillar where certain workshop can be build. Pledge loyalty to the pillar to expand radius. 2 type of radius, one urban and the other rural, so that there's a clear area of where the town is, where the farmland is and the wilderness. Give offering to the pillar to maintain the benefits (so that towns can grow and shrink in accordance with the prosperity of the town). Mayor as the priest of town cult with kingdoms being build by a royal pillar that require several mayor to serve it offerings with the king as chief priest.

In war, it would be interesting as to field archers, they need hunters but to field swordmen, townsmen, assuming they want to maximize the trait of each soldier. Technological progress dependant on the number of towns and citizens in the kingdom (no decline of technological level if they lose population/towns).

As village grow to towns and towns to city, it would reflect how human civilizations grows. To top it all off, set a random event like earthquake or tsunami. Just make sure they can recover from it and they should be fine.

Subject: Re: Ridiculously rough draft ideas Fri Jul 06, 2018 12:39 pm

We've been talking about making a game for a long time, I've been thinking of ideas for a game for even longer. I remember a bunch of my friends were playing starcrat and I talked my grandma into getting it for my birthday even though it was rated T and I was only 11 or 12. I was hooked but wanted something more persistent(though I probably didn't know that word at the time)I went on Google and found Tribal Wars. Shortly after I found RK through an ad on TW and I've been hooked on both since. That's why I went to college for Web Development and have spent days playing games. I've written off all that time as research of now it's time to make it happen. Here's a ridiculously rough draft of my ideas, many of them contradictory some so obviously nothing here is set in stone. I’m going off what I can remember/making it up as I go along.

The general concept I've settled on is a Greco-Romanesque fantasy work so as not to be tied to real cities/historical accuracy. Starting out it would be based around a city I'm going to call "Rome" for now, more cities would be added one later. "Rome" will use more resources than it produces so players would have villas around "Rome" and would travel to the city on market days to sell their goods in the forum. Roman market days historically were every 8 days (possibly 9 with 8 in between). I'm thinking more weekly every saturday or sunday. People will also be able to buy goods directly at workshops and buy food at taverns and directly from bakeries/etc.

You will control a Dynasty (think The Guild/Total War series. Not sure on lifespan yet. Long enough to grow attached to your characters but short enough to keep things moving forward. The general health and education of your children will give you a slight advantage but you will lose most of your stats keeping things from getting out of control. I do know most causes of death will not be old age so you want to make sure you have plenty of extended family.

There will be dynasty members you directly control, as well as AIs you indirectly control like employees and dynasty members you don’t have control groups for. These dynasty members may help you by running business of their own and sharing some of the profits with your dynasty joining the legion and gaining imperial popularity for themselves and your dynasty. Once your dynasty is able to join the senate side characters will support you. Your side characters can also harm your dynasty. Perhaps by pissing off other senators, or by just being hedonistic drunks that feed off your dynasty wealth. Though they do throw the best parties so perhaps there could be an upside as well.

There will be npc AIs as well who do there own thing, buy goods, can be hired as employees, or can own their own businesses (if they are a high enough rank,citizen.etc.) The city will have to supply basic rations to all the inhabitants but players and ai’s can purchase better foods for bonuses. The city can also provides better rations/feast days to increase happiness.

24 hour schedule.

Work/Freetime/Sleep/ect. Can interrupt any time but your character(s) will have to work(unless you work for yourself)/sleep(or you will be grumpy) later to make up the time. You'll also want to leave your character(s) some free time for them to take care of their own needs unless you are very micromanage-y. I think most/all of the raw stats will be hidden though so that might be hard to micromanage (See Stats below). You would be able to set your schedule 2-3 days ahead through your characters will continue to follow their schedule if you don’t log in (though with increasingly decreasing enthusiasm)

You will be able to save schedules so for instance you could log in saturday working your work schedule. Set a travel to Rome for market day schedule for sunday and set it back to the work schedule for monday and you wouldn’t have to log in until next saturday or even longer. There will be mini-games and other bonuses for logging in though. If you run out of money to pay your workers or are just away long enough the city may put your workshop/fields up for auction on market day with notice for bidders and you (email/push notifications)

Stats

57.3 blacksmithing and 28.1 bargaining don't really mean anything. Rather your stats will be reflected through the quality of your products ect. Someone with a higher blacksmithing skill would be able to quiz you to get a rough range. Someone with high any ironworking/metalworking/blade skills would be able to judge the quality of your products. They could watch you make something if they wanted to verify your skills.

Government/Guilds/Corporations.

Once your dynasty members can become senators they can vote in senate meetings. Probably all day meetings that you can join any time and vote to change laws/policies maybe with a set agenda that you can set your votes ahead of time. You could also be appointed to positions requiring various levels of activity.

Trade guild will have communal workshops in each city and will be funded by the members and the city. Members may make their own workshops but you must be a member to (legally) buy resources like iron or to sell products like knives. Stolen items will therefore have to be fenced through guild members in good standing, who could lose their standing if they got caught.

There will also be player run guilds/corporations (think EVE) that can own building and villas etc. with their own internal forms of governance. These will need permission to own land in and around “Rome” and will have to pay taxes. Rouge/criminal/anyone can build on “unclaimed land” and with their own soldiers can claim land around their villa potentially becoming their own city. “Rome” has legions though so they may be forced/want to submit and maybe they will even be pardoned for past crime/allowed to stay in control the city but the city will have to pay tithe to “Rome”. Eventually I would love to have multiple nations but at first all cities will eventually fall to the empire. Villas will have to be a certain distance from the nearest city in order to upgrade to their own town/city.

Players can be a member of the senate as well as multiple guilds with varying rights/levels of ownership in each.

Contacts.
Employment and sales outside market days will be handled with contracts. Breaking contracts is a crime and assets can be seized and auctioned to pay your debts. New players will start in the cities and towns/villas can offer money, housing, food, even land/workshops in exchange for employment or providing certain goods for a time or indefinitely. Sales contracts can be set up between to automatically buy/sell goods over time as well as for barter items for items transactions.

Eventually there will be other cities/colonies with access to different resources for trade, many of which will be in high demand by the citizens of “Rome”.

To be continued..

Subject: Re: Ridiculously rough draft ideas Mon Jul 09, 2018 5:27 pm

some jobs will be passive and some will be active with more reward/possibly risk.

pickpocketing may be better as a passive but it could be active where each hour you assign gives you x many tries at a pick pocketing minigame

highway robbery could be passive

burgalary could be active where you have to/can bring group and have to plan an attack on the building. Building owners can set defences and/or hire guards and/or bribe the legion to make extra patrols/respond more quickly.

theft/embezlement could be an active job built into other passive jobs. For intance you are hired as an employee making daggers at a smithy working passively 8 hours a day, each hour you have the option of a bonus/ to you smithing/minigame or the option to try to steal one of the daggers.

The manager has a general idea of how many daggers you should produce, maybe a little less if your character didn't get enough sleep, or is hung over, or you haven't logged in in a few days, maybe even all three. Who know's what your character will get up to if left with too much free time for too long. Maybe a few more if you log in a few times to play the mini game. But if you log in a lot you can balance it out by playing the minigame then stealing the extra daggers you produce so everything lines up.

If numbers are consistantly low or just as good general principal the owner can hire a spy to watch the shop and see if anybody is stealing/who is working extra hard. Perhaps they won't fire you if you are taking less than the extra you produce, or if you are a slave/plebian maybe they'll just have you lashed and sent back to work. In Rome, at least after a certain point, Citizens were expempt from physical punishments/beatings except by the Centurions Vinewood Staff. Centurions could beat whoever they wanted because they were bosses (afaik).

Spies can also watch buildings to help play burgalaries. See where the traps are, where the guards are, schedules. Does the owner keep working until 2 am and then the guards show up ect. Spies can also follow players or sit in taverns to gather intel. Perhaps spies could be independent or in networks where intel is bought and sold.

Platform

Most of my experience is school was LAMP (Linux(OS),Apache(Server Software),MySQL(Database),PHP(Sever-side Scripting) though we did have a couple courses in C#/ASP.net which runs on a windows server.

At the simplest level this game could be made in PHP with a very low tickrate(minutes-hourly for some scripts) but if we want a lot of AI's truly interacting with the enviroment we need to use a lower level language like ASP.net or Node.js or any number of lanuages. Something that allows asyncronous (parallel) programming to better utalize multi-core CPUs.

For the UI Im thinking something JavaScript based like mithril.js or even one of any number of 3d web engines out there like Unity of Unreal or something simpler. I'd like to get a working proof of concept running with what I think I know first before I go jumping into learning any game engines though.

Subject: Re: Ridiculously rough draft ideas Mon Jul 09, 2018 7:50 pm

The best thing you can do to help at this stage Everyone can do at this point is help brainstorm. Everything I'm posting is just conceptual, some of it will probably conflict, some might not be feasible/with-in my skill-set. Anything you want to come up with will help. Job lists, item lists, minigame ideas for said jobs. City positions that are active and make a difference without being stupid and boring. Most of us have held a lot of position on councils and a few of us were mayors in the grail lords, I only had 1 or 2 small positions there but I think I have held every council position in RK. There are a lot of good ideas/obstacles in the thread earlier, It's just brainstorming. There are no bad ideas, even if it's for a completely different game.

Here's some more of my ramblings and some good input from a few others on discord.

Discord:

» New Game Concepts, Ideas, Etc.