My Ideal WoT Game World
Dec 10, 2016 0:57:27 GMT -5
Post by ikaris81 on Dec 10, 2016 0:57:27 GMT -5
Hearmeroar brought up a good point to me the other day, stating that it would be better to just restart a server from scratch... The Shadow Rising servers has too many memories attached to it, and playing on the recycled version is sort of a throw back to old times... But I can see the glamour wearing off, but maybe that's just because I've been leveling solo for the past half a week.
Anyways, I thought I'd bring up a few ideas from great servers that I've played on before:
1) Perma-death / Dismemberment - I saw this feature on The Border Kingdoms, which would punish you for messing up or screwing with the wrong peeps, but more so on Escape From Uncertainty, where if you died even while hunting it was game over. I'm not suggesting we take it that savagely, but it really gave you motivation not to go dig around in holes solo; I think there was a feature where you could respawn, but you lost like 50% of all gained experience, so it was like starting over. It got pretty frustrating at times, but it also made encounters and epic events that much more satisfying, like playing hardcore on Diablo. I get that mode isn't for everyone though, so compromises could def be made.
2)Set Level / Gear Based Progress - Another great thing about Border Kingdoms was that there was no hitting the grind killing waves and waves of crabs, bears, orcs, or whatever... Instead, your goal was to acquire better items through trade, economic progress, or crafting; this means that you could make a good penny gathering materials out in the wilds, try to avoid mobs, because more than one was dangerous to fight, and pretty much form mercenary party's to advance your chosen field (or help your comrades advance theirs). Also, this promoted doing quests through DM's for special gear, helping NPC's for goodies, and in general giving your adventuring a purpose. The level cap on BK was at 8, but I'd suggest 12-15 for all the good spells that make a channeler what they are. In fact, channeling could probably be moved into widgets of learned weaves for more advanced spells that you won't get access to at lower levels.
3)League Based Traveling System - This was seen on Thay, and they pretty much mastered how this worked. Pretty much, the server was set in a grid pattern, and the only maps that remained discovered were roads and cities. When you were outside of a cities confines, you were traveling in a league based system to arrive at other areas... So if you go five right and three down, you could arrive at the next town; you could also go three down, and five right to arrive at the same place... Although you'll encounter totally different areas and enemies. The safest way to travel, by far, is on a caravan, which is time based on leagues. This basically means you hop on a caravan, and sit inside of the caravan for x amount of NWN "hours" before you arrive at your destination; the same for boats, but they were a bit quicker; even better, is there was a random code that you could get waylaid by enemies, and exit the caravan and defend it, or go topside on the ship and fight water zombies or pirates or whatever. It also made the area you were in exceedingly valuable, and really would build a connection to particular regions based on what you needed to do there; I feel that this would be a good addition to a Wheel of Time server considering the heroes from the books had spend a vast amount of time accomplishing their particular missions in various plot areas.
4)Cohorts - How cool would it be to have NPC's that would follow you, with whom you can type a chat command and speak through them? You could totally have a Sul'dam / Damane, Aes Sedai / Warder, Child of the Light gang, Aiel Maiden team, or Noble/Bodyguard dynamic. I saw an excellent script like this on Harrowport and Borderkingdom both, where you could summon your cohort, pass them some gear, and voula, you have additional backup. There was also a "reputation system" on BK where the number of your companions was directly influenced by what you'd done on the server and what your rank was. The amount of cohorts you could sustain was also a goal to grind towards.
5) Frost Fall - Made popular by Skyrim - Enhanced Edition mods, a mod like this would take weather into account so that if you're out in the Aiel Waste or blundering about in the frozen parts of the Borderlands, you're in for gloom and doom; in fact, it might even behoove you to have a channeler around to make things way easier with wards and what not like what has been explained in the books. I suppose this last one is really just flavor, and would require a heavy bit of scripting, particularly for Aes Sedai, Aiel, and Warder resistances to the elements. There would also be a camping aspect to it, such as white cloaks setting up tents and camps, or even sleeping in a farm house like Rand and Matt in the first books. Whatever it takes to survive the night.
Perhaps all of this is just wishful thinking, or maybe it's just a project waiting to be undertaken; I am not sure how much I could do beyond coordination, though there are definitely some resources to use. For example, there is a Wheel of Time mod on Mount & Blade: Warband that is pretty comprehensive and inclusive of the towns, villages, cities, states, and characters. That would be a great resource to utilize in mapping out and constructing areas.
In fact, the server could probably be constructed in portions, I.E. Borderlands / South Coast / East Coast / Aiel Waste / and Central Randland
This might make it a little more manageable to construct a particular plot area for the DM's and Players, while controlling the size and scope of the server. Anyways, it would be a huge project... Still, it's good to have dreams, right?
Anyways, I thought I'd bring up a few ideas from great servers that I've played on before:
1) Perma-death / Dismemberment - I saw this feature on The Border Kingdoms, which would punish you for messing up or screwing with the wrong peeps, but more so on Escape From Uncertainty, where if you died even while hunting it was game over. I'm not suggesting we take it that savagely, but it really gave you motivation not to go dig around in holes solo; I think there was a feature where you could respawn, but you lost like 50% of all gained experience, so it was like starting over. It got pretty frustrating at times, but it also made encounters and epic events that much more satisfying, like playing hardcore on Diablo. I get that mode isn't for everyone though, so compromises could def be made.
2)Set Level / Gear Based Progress - Another great thing about Border Kingdoms was that there was no hitting the grind killing waves and waves of crabs, bears, orcs, or whatever... Instead, your goal was to acquire better items through trade, economic progress, or crafting; this means that you could make a good penny gathering materials out in the wilds, try to avoid mobs, because more than one was dangerous to fight, and pretty much form mercenary party's to advance your chosen field (or help your comrades advance theirs). Also, this promoted doing quests through DM's for special gear, helping NPC's for goodies, and in general giving your adventuring a purpose. The level cap on BK was at 8, but I'd suggest 12-15 for all the good spells that make a channeler what they are. In fact, channeling could probably be moved into widgets of learned weaves for more advanced spells that you won't get access to at lower levels.
3)League Based Traveling System - This was seen on Thay, and they pretty much mastered how this worked. Pretty much, the server was set in a grid pattern, and the only maps that remained discovered were roads and cities. When you were outside of a cities confines, you were traveling in a league based system to arrive at other areas... So if you go five right and three down, you could arrive at the next town; you could also go three down, and five right to arrive at the same place... Although you'll encounter totally different areas and enemies. The safest way to travel, by far, is on a caravan, which is time based on leagues. This basically means you hop on a caravan, and sit inside of the caravan for x amount of NWN "hours" before you arrive at your destination; the same for boats, but they were a bit quicker; even better, is there was a random code that you could get waylaid by enemies, and exit the caravan and defend it, or go topside on the ship and fight water zombies or pirates or whatever. It also made the area you were in exceedingly valuable, and really would build a connection to particular regions based on what you needed to do there; I feel that this would be a good addition to a Wheel of Time server considering the heroes from the books had spend a vast amount of time accomplishing their particular missions in various plot areas.
4)Cohorts - How cool would it be to have NPC's that would follow you, with whom you can type a chat command and speak through them? You could totally have a Sul'dam / Damane, Aes Sedai / Warder, Child of the Light gang, Aiel Maiden team, or Noble/Bodyguard dynamic. I saw an excellent script like this on Harrowport and Borderkingdom both, where you could summon your cohort, pass them some gear, and voula, you have additional backup. There was also a "reputation system" on BK where the number of your companions was directly influenced by what you'd done on the server and what your rank was. The amount of cohorts you could sustain was also a goal to grind towards.
5) Frost Fall - Made popular by Skyrim - Enhanced Edition mods, a mod like this would take weather into account so that if you're out in the Aiel Waste or blundering about in the frozen parts of the Borderlands, you're in for gloom and doom; in fact, it might even behoove you to have a channeler around to make things way easier with wards and what not like what has been explained in the books. I suppose this last one is really just flavor, and would require a heavy bit of scripting, particularly for Aes Sedai, Aiel, and Warder resistances to the elements. There would also be a camping aspect to it, such as white cloaks setting up tents and camps, or even sleeping in a farm house like Rand and Matt in the first books. Whatever it takes to survive the night.
Perhaps all of this is just wishful thinking, or maybe it's just a project waiting to be undertaken; I am not sure how much I could do beyond coordination, though there are definitely some resources to use. For example, there is a Wheel of Time mod on Mount & Blade: Warband that is pretty comprehensive and inclusive of the towns, villages, cities, states, and characters. That would be a great resource to utilize in mapping out and constructing areas.
In fact, the server could probably be constructed in portions, I.E. Borderlands / South Coast / East Coast / Aiel Waste / and Central Randland
This might make it a little more manageable to construct a particular plot area for the DM's and Players, while controlling the size and scope of the server. Anyways, it would be a huge project... Still, it's good to have dreams, right?