Author Topic: The Ultimate Blockland RP - A Theoretical Discussion  (Read 32040 times)

I think an ammo system for weapons would lower the amount of killing sprees.  You could have the ability to make arrows out of wood and cast bullets out of lead, etc.  The more powerful and complex the weapon the more expensive or time consuming it would be to produce the ammo.  There could be modifiers to the ammo as well, such different arrow tips would do more damage or be poisonous.  I really hope something good comes from this thread, it would make blockland interesting again.
Ammo doesn't make much of a difference.  It costs money at Diggy's server, or you can make it out of ore, and the price varies between 9mm ammo, rifle ammo, shells, and explosive ammo.  It might pause kill sprees for a few minutes while the baddies refill their ammo supply, but it certainly doesn't stop it.

Damage to weapons, however, could be more effective.  If you overheat a gun or if it gets hit by another bullet, etc.  Considering that it would be more time consuming to get a gun than to get ammo, most of the time the loss of a weapon dissuades spreers.

it could be harder to find ammo then find guns

that would be somewhat interesting

There are many times in game design that the solution isn't to come with a way to solve the problem, but instead just remove the problem.  If it isn't a crime stopping rpg, remove the police and the ability to commit crime (ie: have weapons.)

Make the goals of the game to succeed at the main focus of the game.  Have people work so that they can get a house in the best neighborhood with the biggest lots.  Or possibly own the sky scrappers in the middle of the town.  Have people build, and make building well important enough that people will do it.

It's somewhat a shame that the majority of add-ons are guns.  Guns help with DMs.  And personally, if you're looking for a good DM, go to some other game that's designed for it, don't bother with it on Blockland.  Do something that only Blockland can do.

Make the goals of the game to succeed at the main focus of the game.  Have people work so that they can get a house in the best neighborhood with the biggest lots.  Or possibly own the sky scrappers in the middle of the town.  Have people build, and make building well important enough that people will do it.

And the same for more "medieval" RPs. They need a greater goal, or maybe even smaller, multiple goals. I think the main flaw with those would be that the player is not truly entertained by running around and chopping down trees to get a minimal amount of money. There should be a number of mini-quests. For example, a ruby is hidden inside the "Enchanted forest". You go to the town square, check the quest board, and there is a flyer advertising the reward for the ruby. With many quests like this, players will probably get bored less easily.

Another flaw in fantasy RPs would be the limited terrain for the players to explore. Some RPs have several 64 x 64 rooms in which there are different "areas", like desert, arctic, or a mine. These places rely on PlayerTransform events to get to, on account of them being closed off. Terrain in Blockland should be huge and flow together, to simulate a more natural feel. For example, instead of the grass cutting off and going straight into desert, the grass should turn into dirt, and then dirt to sand. Another example would be the mines. Have a cave, and make it a mine. None of this spawning inside a room to mine.

And the same for more "medieval" RPs. They need a greater goal, or maybe even smaller, multiple goals. I think the main flaw with those would be that the player is not truly entertained by running around and chopping down trees to get a minimal amount of money. There should be a number of mini-quests. For example, a ruby is hidden inside the "Enchanted forest". You go to the town square, check the quest board, and there is a flyer advertising the reward for the ruby. With many quests like this, players will probably get bored less easily.
Actually, for this, I would let there be certain goals - randomly generated quests, such as wiping out some bandits, retrieving some lost item from them or somesuch - as well as the persistent goals such as being able to trade between settlements, there being some form of possible reward from wandering the roads and the like. Other players may tie into these quests, if say they're a bandit themselves, or they could post jobs on the job board - perhaps asking for caravan guards so they can safely travel between settlements.

Another flaw in fantasy RPs would be the limited terrain for the players to explore. Some RPs have several 64 x 64 rooms in which there are different "areas", like desert, arctic, or a mine. These places rely on PlayerTransform events to get to, on account of them being closed off. Terrain in Blockland should be huge and flow together, to simulate a more natural feel. For example, instead of the grass cutting off and going straight into desert, the grass should turn into dirt, and then dirt to sand. Another example would be the mines. Have a cave, and make it a mine. None of this spawning inside a room to mine.
The main issue with this is population density, I think. If you have a large, flowing landscape, oftentimes there won't be anyone else in sight. While this is peaceful and somewhat surreal, towns should be bustling with life. Restricting players to smaller areas lets you know immediately who's around and what's going on, and simplifies things in that respect. If these rooms were, say, 512x512 or larger in size, and each one were a server (transporting players between each of these areas by reconnecting them to another server) that would allow for a nice hybrid system - especially if you could work out some kind of caching for datablocks to decrease loading times (and also if you ghosted the bricks to the client fully before spawning them, to prevent ghosting lag if applicable).

If the mod itself is nicely optimized, you could easily run 32 or more players on each server, giving the feel of a lively world. Of course, wilderness areas might be a considerably larger area, to give it a feeling of vastness while keeping the cities still lively.

I'm very interested in this particular idea, of server clustering. Global chat ("shouting" or general channels) could be relayed between servers, as well as some kind of alternate player-list used on these servers to let you see who is online on any server, as well as which server they're on. Chat could be managed as:
- Channels (inter-server chat, these include general chat plus guild channels)
- Shouts (in-server global chat)
- Say (small-radius local chat, influenced by punctuation also - for example "Hello!" might carry further than "Hello." and trailing off like "Hello..." would decrease the radius to a whisper. No /commands, just type like normal. This could appear as 'Clockturn says, "Hello. How do you do?"' or 'Clockturn yells, "God damn! You're such a tard!"'... or 'Clockturn whispers, "I'm going to rape you..."')

Oh and of course I personally wouldn't enforce in/out of character, however out of character chat would be provided using /ooc or just /o - with a clientside handler to prevent word limiting from being an issue with this, just integrating it nicely.

Actually, for this, I would let there be certain goals - randomly generated quests, such as wiping out some bandits, retrieving some lost item from them or somesuch - as well as the persistent goals such as being able to trade between settlements, there being some form of possible reward from wandering the roads and the like. Other players may tie into these quests, if say they're a bandit themselves, or they could post jobs on the job board - perhaps asking for caravan guards so they can safely travel between settlements.
Yes.

The main issue with this is population density, I think. If you have a large, flowing landscape, oftentimes there won't be anyone else in sight. While this is peaceful and somewhat surreal, towns should be bustling with life. Restricting players to smaller areas lets you know immediately who's around and what's going on, and simplifies things in that respect. If these rooms were, say, 512x512 or larger in size, and each one were a server (transporting players between each of these areas by reconnecting them to another server) that would allow for a nice hybrid system - especially if you could work out some kind of caching for datablocks to decrease loading times (and also if you ghosted the bricks to the client fully before spawning them, to prevent ghosting lag if applicable).

If the mod itself is nicely optimized, you could easily run 32 or more players on each server, giving the feel of a lively world. Of course, wilderness areas might be a considerably larger area, to give it a feeling of vastness while keeping the cities still lively.
Perhaps bots or AI's to run the shops or walk around the town, like other gaming RP's from different games. There will be only one or two players in the town at a time, but they don't have to interact with each other because they can get everything they need from the bots. I guess you could simplify the RP using the rooms, and it would be a better solution than the smaller rooms in use now, but I don't think that I would use this method, just because I'm opinionated. The separate server idea is interesting. I don't think that I comprehend it fully, so I won't comment on it past this sentence.

Perhaps bots or AI's to run the shops or walk around the town, like other gaming RP's from different games. There will be only one or two players in the town at a time, but they don't have to interact with each other because they can get everything they need from the bots. I guess you could simplify the RP using the rooms, and it would be a better solution than the smaller rooms in use now, but I don't think that I would use this method, just because I'm opinionated. The separate server idea is interesting. I don't think that I comprehend it fully, so I won't comment on it past this sentence.
There would of course be a number of bots running stores, inns, some giving out quests ("OH DEAR MY BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED. LOL" - I would have this actually be the quest text if I had a quest fitting this archetype.) and others who would simply stand around and serve very little purpose, but I would like it if there was always a fair few players around at any given time to encourage actual player interaction. You're not forced to act like the NPCs but you are a part of their world.

Also rather than "click the bot, have it message your chat" bots would use the same chat system as players, and even respond to such, perhaps even from other bots - this could spawn hilarity if the local bum accidentally talks to the prostitute on his street corner, or if a wandering citizen accidentally says a keyword that triggers a shopkeeper, causing the shopkeep to accuse him of stealing and calling the city guards who then proceed to slaughter this innocent, moronic AI - so hanging around towns MAY WELL BE ENTERTAINING. Who would've guessed. Maybe NPCs could actually talk to each other, so instead of having to rumormonger town yourself for interesting tidbits, the bots themselves might do it and you can just eavesdrop. Of course looking directly at someone within talking range when you speak would indicate that the message is directed at them ("eye contact"), which would modify the chat to be more like 'Clockturn whispers to Treynolds, "I'm going to rape you..."' to indicate that they're speaking to that person. This particular function is void for bots, instead it will indicate this if they're responding to someone elses speech. Maybe bots would only respond to this form of communication.

Rant rant rant.

I Like mostly quest you give to people like "Bring me that and ill pay you *amount*" Quests wich doesnt exist wich YOU Make

I Like mostly quest you give to people like "Bring me that and ill pay you *amount*" Quests wich doesnt exist wich YOU Make
Player economy comes in on this count. You might want to get some swords to sell in another town, but you can't take on the bandits who have them, so you might offer say 100SP per sword players bring you. Once you have a heap of them you go to the other town, travelling as quickly as you can to avoid getting mugged, and resell them on for 120SP to that town, who might not have such good prices for swords at their smithy so there's more demand there. If you have a high barter skill you could potentially buy them off players for a few silver more than they could sell them to an NPC for, then sell them to that same NPC for a few coins more than you paid; this margin would be small (maybe a maximum of like 10-12 coins between someone with no skill and someone who is a master barterer) but still enough to turn a profit for a magical entrepreneur.

Oh also dynamic economy. You sell a lot of swords in town A, they'll get cheaper to buy and sell for less. You buy a lot of swords from town B, they'll become more expensive to buy and sell for more. If lots of people are buying an item, demand is high, so the price it calls for is higher. Being aware of what's being bought where could give you opportunity to also turn a profit.

Yes, I'd like it if it was very trading-centric. C:

There would of course be a number of bots running stores, inns, some giving out quests ("OH DEAR MY BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED. LOL" - I would have this actually be the quest text if I had a quest fitting this archetype.) and others who would simply stand around and serve very little purpose, but I would like it if there was always a fair few players around at any given time to encourage actual player interaction. You're not forced to act like the NPCs but you are a part of their world.

Also rather than "click the bot, have it message your chat" bots would use the same chat system as players, and even respond to such, perhaps even from other bots - this could spawn hilarity if the local bum accidentally talks to the prostitute on his street corner, or if a wandering citizen accidentally says a keyword that triggers a shopkeeper, causing the shopkeep to accuse him of stealing and calling the city guards who then proceed to slaughter this innocent, moronic AI - so hanging around towns MAY WELL BE ENTERTAINING. Who would've guessed. Maybe NPCs could actually talk to each other, so instead of having to rumormonger town yourself for interesting tidbits, the bots themselves might do it and you can just eavesdrop. Of course looking directly at someone within talking range when you speak would indicate that the message is directed at them ("eye contact"), which would modify the chat to be more like 'Clockturn whispers to Treynolds, "I'm going to rape you..."' to indicate that they're speaking to that person. This particular function is void for bots, instead it will indicate this if they're responding to someone elses speech. Maybe bots would only respond to this form of communication.

Rant rant rant.

Sounds very similar to something im working on, but since its mostly an event driven RPG im doing the best i can.

Currently ive hit a few bulleye's on your list there...

- The current city is bursting with life, its nice and full on the side we have done, theres no open areas of nothing.

- The bots wander the city, theres no "quest board", you can talk to bots and get into a conversation.

- The bots have personalities, its not some blank text, im trying to make them memorable.

- Bots have unique names,  more or less fitting the "Oblivion Name style"

- There are guards, and they will chase you down if you break the law, or just kill you and be done with it.

ps. Hope no one thinks im just advertising :p , i just wanted to let people know that im trying to accomplish some things that are lacking in other RPG's

There are many times in game design that the solution isn't to come with a way to solve the problem, but instead just remove the problem.  If it isn't a crime stopping rpg, remove the police and the ability to commit crime (ie: have weapons.)

Make the goals of the game to succeed at the main focus of the game.  Have people work so that they can get a house in the best neighborhood with the biggest lots.  Or possibly own the sky scrappers in the middle of the town.  Have people build, and make building well important enough that people will do it.

It's somewhat a shame that the majority of add-ons are guns.  Guns help with DMs.  And personally, if you're looking for a good DM, go to some other game that's designed for it, don't bother with it on Blockland.  Do something that only Blockland can do.
As much as that would work, crime is fun.  Plain and simple.  If you're making a medieval RP and have a rogue class, they better be able to steal stuff.  You can easily do away with murder by making it so when players enter towns they're a non-combat playertype, which I did with one of my many unfinished RPs.  The wilderness areas etc would be considered PvP.

@M
That bot idea would be glorious, but I hope you're talking about it as a scripted mod and not evented bots.  Also, dynamic economies are a must.  If everyone is mining coal and iron ore to smelt it into steel, steel prices go down, and, assuming no one is selling their coal/iron and only making steel, coal and iron prices go up unless people are also buying it to make steel.  In turn, the decreased steel price lowers some weapon prices.

Hm, what if you got rid of all the typical RPG elements in M's idea.  A simple trade winds like game might be allot of fun.

I think that disabling the message that says when people die is essential. It is really annoying, when you kill someone, and instantly everyone knows who did it.

Also, I think a backpack/inventory system using a GUI would be cool. Maybe even trading, banking, and shopping could use similar features. I like the idea of having more than 5 items. If there was an inventory, there should be a weight limit rather than an item limit. There should also be certain penalties for having weight. It would also be good if you could have bricks/props/vehicles store items. So if I had a covered wagon, I could use it to transport more goods.

I'm gonna drop this here.
http://forum.blockland.us/index.php?topic=104791.0


Now then.
It's essential that we have ideas that are built upon by the players rather than a static rat-maze of pre-assembled bits and pieces.

It would be nice to have a more realistic job system, weather that works on more realistic values than just one random number from one to five.