Realm-Master
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Realm-Master
Intro
I have been thinking about making a MORPG (MMORPG -Massively) for years, reading, dreaming and talking to others. It has gotten to the point where I have a pretty defined Outline, at least I think I do. When talking to a good friend yesterday about one of the aspects of it, and getting some positive feedback, I decided I should document it somewhere, flesh it out, and try to breath life into it. If you know of any system which can be tweaked to do all of this, please let me know. I bought the domain name back in 2009, Realm Masters but at the moment I have my standard 'Kristin is awesome' webpage up. There is a story behind that. My wife, Kristin, is indeed, AWESOME. Hehehe
I will post a thread in the forums when I think I have this complete, or I run out of things to add.
Outline
The basic outline is simple. A Role-Playing game where you can play online, with others. Does not have to be Massively Multi-player, though that would be a nice feature. So a Multi-player Online Role Playing Game, MORPG. Ideally the main feature will be that anyone could create and run their own multiplayer game without having to re-code everything to get it up and running. Coding would be needed to create the pieces, but once they are made they can then be put into different recipes to be picked from by the Realm Masters (RMs). So once someone makes their Steampunk game with whatever features it has, which can be then used to create a realm and then add buildings and mobs and NPCs (like a GM can ingame in many systems, like World Of Warcraft, which I have some experience using) as they recruit and build their community. If they decide to change some factor, then that would be ideally a new ingredient option in the same cookbook, Or perhaps a new recipe, depending on if it works with the old ingredients still. This is the basic concept of recipes and cookbooking we discuss in Glompzilla.
Then you could portal your toon from one realm to another, assuming the one you are in allows the data file or db to be read by the other world (they have to have what I call a "treaty" defining their relationship, though some realm master might just post read only capability to their db so anyone can leave at any time. The Realm you are porting to would then have to actively access the old realm, read the data files and already have a conversion program in place, to "port" you into the new realm. You would then still be in old one, and also in new one, but the 2 would be clones, and any advancement in one would not benefit the other, unless you port back over it. It would be possible to also merge them somehow, but would be more work and both realms would have to agree on details. Of course if you want people to create their toons on your realm, just do not port any in. If you want to port them in, but with a level restriction, you could port them in at lower level, without their gear, or whatever you like. If I seem like I beating this into the ground, understand, I have had more trouble explaining this to others. So many people not only do not want to port toons into their world, they do not want you to port into others, which is fine, but then they also do not want people to be able to port from one realm they do not control to another they do not control. TO that I say, Go play Planeshift and leave us alone, you control freak. If you do not want to play in an open system, that is cool, but please stop working so hard to prevent others from creating and playing the games they want. No one is making you port anyone in or out, but if you do not port out, do not be upset when people suggest players avoid your realm because you do not allow porting. Yes, this annoys me greatly. Can you tell yet?
So one realm might be insta-100, and another might have no leveling at all, so everyone is level 1(Actually those 2 are similar IMO). They might agree to port between each other, so when one gets a request to port, they read the other persons db, and a copy of that toon is not in the new realm, but at whatever level and details they receiving one decided on.
Of course bonus justice points are awarded if the system uses some sort of peer2peer system so a costly dedicated server is not needed to run the realms.
Bamko's Realm notes
These are the personal notes I describe above for what I would want my personal realm to look like, and why. Anyone can use the ideas here, but no one will ever be forced, by me anyways, to use any of them. Anyone who claims me having an opinion infringes on their right to be a troll, will get an epic eyeroll and then, depending on my mood, I might reference elderberries.
leveling
Every MMO seems to be based on the idea of leveling a character to godlike status. Anyone who wants to make more of these games are welcome to do so, but I grow weary of leveling toons. One issue I have is it reduces the effective realm size. If you create a realm which is 10 miles by 2 miles, truly a epic feat, but you have to move to a new area, let's say every 5 levels, and there are 100 levels, you just broke your world up into 20 zones which unless they are instanced, will reduce the effective area of any one player to one square mile. Sure, they will always be able to explore a new area, but not because they want to, but because that is the rail you have set them on. Furthermore what sense does it make having the bad guys respawning in the low level areas and having people who could stop their evil plans, but they move on because they do not get enough xp from it? Immerse with that! Case in point, why don't a guild of level 80+ Gnomes take back Gnomeregan?
I like the idea of having no levels, or being insta-whatever and having the whole world explorable, and a challenge, for everyone. To that end, I also think game mechanics should be used to create the Realm's reality.
Realm Reality
I understand why mobs spawn, and respawn, and why they do not put mobs at a reasonable distance apart. Who wants to spend 40 hours tracking down an animal which would need the whole 20 square mile map, and then some, just to survive? But in MMOs it would not have to cover so much territory, after all look at all the mobs! All we need to do is come up with a theory for why the mobs are so plentiful. Of course I would like to see spawning behavior based on other factors than a ticking clock. I keep hearing how it can not be done, but I find it hard to believe that a spawn point can not be activated based on conditions. The program can get tricky if not done right from the start, but I think the client could be used to update a lot of the states. I imagine it working like thus. If no one is in the chunk (the area) then the area reverts to the starting condition when someone returns to it. This would encouraging camping, in a good way, to be discussed later, to maintain a hard worked for state.
So a char enters the chunk, and its mobs are generated. With much work and effort they can clear an area.
<gtg, more to come>
