Malachite's Suggestion Log #1

Myrlance

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After speaking with oyster I had some ideas that we can probably incorporate this patch, or next patch (probably next patch if please)

REPUTATION BASED ENCOUNTERS
Based on your alignment to evil or good, town or faction. It would be neato to have choices that effect your ties with evil and good, maybe unlocking newer magic, better weapons, quests limited to only those choices.
Adding diversity to Master Sword: Continued.

Perhaps objectives in any map, such as for example : "A BANDIT WARLORD has appeared in your area! playername, search and defeat the npcname for X amount of faction/alignment/town points!"

** Same goes for defending him if you're evil, all that.. this is just a suggestion.

Gain access to areas others cant without having the same reputable progression as you.

RANDOM / UNIQUE / ENCHANTMENTS
I have pondered on this for a while, and also playing many games with this feature; having random enchantments on found weapons, or enchanting them later with scrolls or NPCS, maybe tying into the REPUTATION BASED ENCOUNTERS system.

Let's say you have found a skullblade, okay.. so you found a weapon that everyone can have. That's not a big deal and you will probably throw it in the trash since you probably cant sell it for profit either way.
Well, if we can somehow allow uniqueness to weapons that allow every player to have their own signature ID or access to weapons through REPUTATION or a ID or name extension for weapons to prevent many exploits or hacks to obtain weapons that perhaps can be achieved at any time, forcing the player to actually think before attempting to mess with the system. This is a great way for literally having players to gain access to their own weapons that are theirs.. thus being UNIQUE to themselves.

Merchants or NPCs that look to buy certain extensions or IDs on weapons, or even reputable ones from the REPUTATION system, some NPCS or merchants will NOT buy your weapon if your evil, or if it's from an evil cause, or they are simply not interested in it. This will be very interesting.

RANDOM QUEST-GIVING
Allow procedurally generated quests, that are made by the community or people who would be interested in doing so with simple documentation (like me!) that would be glad to assist; allowing access to new items or tying to the RANDOM / UNIQUE / ENCHANTMENTS idea system for weapons, or simply getting reputable points towards REPUTATION BASED ENCOUNTERS system.

These quests can probably allow some playability if we add over 100 or so different scenarios of dialogue for each PART of the system, this would be interesting.


ALLEGIANCE SYSTEM
I've played Asheron's Call lately, and let's say that game has an amazing system for XP share in groups and assisting others.

Vassals, Patrons, and Monarchs (!)
IN Asheron's Call, you could kneel and literally swear to someone and this is how all the XP passup even begins, it's just a bunch of cooperation and dedication.

** Monarch is the first person who was sworn into the highest position, people below the Monarch are Vassals, then they are Patrons when people swear to them, the chain never ends etc..

This may be a huge breakthrough, because you can LITERALLY help others level and get to decent level, (Which can be altered by the scripters!) to where XP passup and share can be still very slow on the normal rate of progression, but it's a boost over time!

** Asheron's Call Documentation for Allegiance! (perhaps these can be shown under player's name?)
http://asheron.wikia.com/wiki/Allegiance
http://asheron.wikia.com/wiki/Allegiance_Rank

** This would also be neat to take into notice because it can help the higher level players reach those single digit points they want ! ;)

- You can literally make the XP passup little-to-nothing for the more skilled or higher leveled, but literally if you get over 100 people below you working every tiny thousandth of a digit will help!

Example of Allegiance titles under player name or stats:

Name: Kenshin
Status: Wary
Reputation: EVIL
Allegiance: *NAMED BY MONARCH / MONARCHS NAME*
Patron / Monarch : Their Name, Monarch if you swore to him directly.

MORE MAY COME!
I may just make more logs in the future.
I understand most of these may not be achievable, but think of the possibilities!

CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS:

The Oyster Hippopotamus : Let's say after a long talk we've had some fun ideas, we definately may have more ideas to come!

Myself, Kenshin / Malachite : Let's just say I'm an very idealist type of person, keep it at that.

Zeus9869 : Provided an easier way to counter the Allegiance system, do XP passup and share through crests, why didn't I think of that. Zeus also suggested an assassination system for towns or w/e, read comments.
 
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zeus9860

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Where's that tl;dr version?

You want to share xp with others you say? Easy. Add a passive perk to crests, everyone in the server using a crest gets a small % of shared xp each kill. Perk stacks up multiple times and could perhaps increase further if the crests matched each other. It would actually give them some use rather than just for looks and collections.Perhaps add another secondary perk that boosts the % according to the distance in player level, the closer the gap, the higher the boost. This reinforces the idea of people playing in groups of around the same level, while still having benefits if they are outmatched.

Random quests, i believe that is something that is already in the to-do list, or something similiar.

Enchantments are a thing from what i heard, i would probably say it's one of the major changes coming next patch.

Reputation based encounters, this is actually the only thing i read because it sounds like the only "new suggestion" to me. Then again, i would rather have npcs in towns give out assassination assignments. To give the player something to do. Reputation based encounters would only really work in lore maps or some sort of side story gauntlet. And i think there is some sort of reputation based choices down the line, if we ever get there. Basically the whole thing about, good, evil and balance.

I would add one more thing, guild rewards. There should be a new system that gives you points upon completing maps. Accumulate points to get certain items from a vendor that is associated with guilds. This vendor could sell guild crests, so newcomers would actually have to earn the crest and not just wait for the "trial" to end. The list of items being sold could rotate each week or something along the lines. I think any non quest item should have a chance of being sold. By non quest item, i mean the likes of felewyn shards and forge items. Chest related drops would pop up in the vendor randomly.
 

Thothie

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REPUTATION BASED ENCOUNTERS
Basically the Dynamic Quest system we've been working out for what seems like forever. Greatguys1 made some big strides towards it, but sadly, Oyster didn't apply the efforts he went through for this, as I guess it didn't live up to his request, or something. So unless I get around to using it elsewhere myself, it'll have to wait until it's thoroughly tested on some other map.

RANDOM / UNIQUE / ENCHANTMENTS
Sorta the weapon mod system, which we may see some glimmer of in the next patch (maybe, still buggy as hell). Also, should we get around to tweaking up Edana and/or remaking Deralia, we may see faction specific quests and faction currency stores offered by followers of each of the triad gods... And possibly one or two hidden ones for some "other", less savory, factions.

RANDOM QUEST-GIVING
Ties into all of the above.

Also, again, hoping to have main story-line quests, that are ongoing, and story quests tailored to individual characters based on their skillsets, that slowly reveals their hidden past - assuming we go with the plot device that each player character has signed up for a sacred apostle vetting program that wipes their memory when they join. (Since the gods are getting a bit tired of their apostles going rogue.)

ALLEGIANCE SYSTEM
Kinda already have this with the per-player XP multiplier, but if you wanted actual guild allegiances, such as Zeus suggests, don't currently have a function to increase XP for individuals, and am not entirely sure how hard it would be to work one in. Damage increase per crest wearer might be more doable and would have a similar effect.

Similarly, the faction system described above will contain various perks to increase the damage of specific abilities and the like, and access to new Titles, should we ever resolve that "sticky titles" problem. Think Lark is hacking at it now.

Also would like to make guild hall and guild war maps where folks invest resources to spruce them up and/or create defenses for their forts, but that's on the far end of the back burner, especially given the state of PVP. Plus, at the moment, it'd have to be server specific, so each guild would likely end up designating a "home server", and that could be detrimental to getting international players together.
 

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Increased damage and xp for crest wearers sounds pretty easily exploited what with idling and such.

I would like to be able to select my title from ones that my character qualifies for. I don't look forward to being a level 45 assassin for the rest of my days should I ever get there. (Or whatever it defaults to when all skills are maxed.)
 

Thothie

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Bleh, true, it's difficult, if not impossible, to make a reliable AFK checker in this game. We've improved the one we have, but probably not gonna cut it for those determined to get themselves rolled back (some of which have the developer tag under their forum names >_>).

As for Titles, yeah, have been hoping for that for nearly ten years now... Not sure why MiB gave us the playertitle command and then never fixed it - he was active for years after he implemented it, and it's just about the oldest card on our code task list. Maybe @Lark can figure it out.

Probably going to require a series of quests and/or payments, in addition to requirements, to earn the Title, at which point it'll track XP you put into it, and improve as you go. So the "switch penalty" will basically be abandoning that Title XP, or simply starting over on a new Title, depending on which way we decide to go. If we let you keep Title XP for the previous Title, maybe make some Titles mutually exclusive.

Keep an eye on your Darkness Level. Some Titles may require it be below a certain amount to retain them - others may require it be above. Though, I'll probably be kind, and just temporarily repress the Title's abilities and features, rather than reset it. Also, come next patch, Darkness level will make you up to x5 vulnerable to Holy damage, instead of x1. That's not a concern, outside of PVP, at the moment - just slowly introducing "hints" that there maybe consequences later. Next hint will probably come Eswen, where elven clerics you tick off may choose to use holy attacks, if they percieve your vulnerability. We may also introduce a system where certain priests can cleanse some amount of Darkness contamination, for a price.

We'll probably, however, start simple, rather than introduce a slew of radical Titles all at once.
 

Lark

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Similarly, the faction system described above will contain various perks to increase the damage of specific abilities and the like, and access to new Titles, should we ever resolve that "sticky titles" problem. Think Lark is hacking at it now.
Can confirm. Only got a couple hours on it over the week, but should have plenty of time this weekend.
 

zeus9860

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Increased damage and xp for crest wearers sounds pretty easily exploited what with idling and such.

I would like to be able to select my title from ones that my character qualifies for. I don't look forward to being a level 45 assassin for the rest of my days should I ever get there. (Or whatever it defaults to when all skills are maxed.)

Just like every other update added to the game. If you are concerned about exploits, you should be more concerned about the new weapon mod system, as i am sure it will be game breaking at launch to the level of dark staff pre-launch where you could stack beams upon beams and insta kill anything in the game or stack the same beam on top of another weapon and make it even more absurd. Experience on the other hand, can be achieved in many ways.

If crests were to increase damage, then make it so in PVP only. Outside of that, the only benefits it should give to the player is xp increase and perhaps loot increase. It's a common thing in many other games. Right now they are a collection item with the single purpose of showing off vanity. When i talk about xp/loot increase, it should be small values that can stack up with other players, reinforcing playing as a group.

The passives can be made less exploitable if you make the level range have a major impact. Like have the passive check for the highest and lowest level players in the server then proceed to give a % bonus in xp per player in the server based on the difference in levels, except that the closer the gap, the higher the bonus. So we don't end up powerleveling newcomers that fast if they decide to stick around. The samething could be done with loot, have it based on dmg points and voila.
 

Thothie

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if you are concerned about exploits, you should be more concerned about the new weapon mod system
Well, yes, that is certainly a problem - but at least it's a known unknown, rather than a yet-to-be-discovered exploit. What I'm hoping to do is first introduce a system that randomly modifies weapons and adds them to chests at their request, so the first weapon mod combinations will at least be restricted, and get the weapon modder guy who lets you choose the mods ya want in later (though, at the moment, weapon modder guy is all I got - not yet developed the random mod system). Also, at the moment, in addition to some mods being plain not working, not only are certain combinations out of whack, but even just the raw individual mods can get more insane than intended. It's also difficult to tell just how hard the resources required for the upgrades are going to be to acquire. I do intend for it to be a mind-boggling grind to add more than three levels of mods to a high end weapon, but I've so often underestimated just how mind-boggling a grind needs to be before it prevents more than a handful of players from achieving it in a short time. (Also still need to run through ALL the weapon scripts, make sure teirs are marked proper, and flag incompatible mods.)

It's true that crest bonus damage vs. players wouldn't be a problem in PVP, but you'd be taking a situation in which the odds were already stacked against one team, and making it worse, so... Dun see the point (though, maybe it'd encourage you to call your newb guildies into the fray). PVE team damage increase would have a point, but yeah, AFK sploitz.
 

zeus9860

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About the mods frequency, you could always categorize them with tiers, similiar to spells and weapons. Make lesser versions, normal versions and stronger versions. Each version of the mod would require x2 the grind or something like that. So stronger versions could end up being less common due to the long grind (2 times the grind when compared to normal and 4 times when compared to lesser).

I'm not really on point with your weapon modding idea, but something along these lines might help. People could go for the weaker version that requires a little bit of patience of the stronger version that requires 4 times the patience. I think anyone that enjoys playing the game would more than likely go for the last option, it would take time but it wold pay out i guess.

PVP is always unbalanced since the game doesn't even focus on that side. I see it has more of a "chill mode", pvp_canyon and pvp_archery are decent maps to mess around with. You could even add a pvp event to this game, similiar to the XMAS and the gaben events. Except this one would actually turn into a massacre through both pvp and pve.
 
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