Saturday, April 1, 2006
Moderator: Karl G.
10 posts • Page 1 of 1
Saturday, April 1, 2006
by Karl G. » Mon Mar 27, 2006 7:36 am
As usual, 10 AM at my house. I need all of David's models at or before this meeting, and Joe's design document would be nice too.
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Karl G. - Lesser Spirit
- Posts: 2453
- Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 10:26 am
by Joe M. » Mon Mar 27, 2006 10:55 pm
Here's what I have so far. I need to finish out the last section and throw in the combat rules, but other than that, I'm good.
<pre>Born To Rule
Our goal at Unseen Studios is to create a game unlike any seen before. Formed in our high school years, Unseen Studios has been through ups and downs, but our goal is clear: Born to Rule. A fantastic world, populated with strange peoples and frightening monsters, a world that breathes magic. A game that plays this world in a fast-paced shooter-game-influenced style. The basic purpose of any game is to have fun, and we of the Unseen recognize that, because we are gamers ourselves, out to do one better. We believe that the key to making any online game fun is by allowing the players to interact with each other unencumbered by the game itself, and in addition, by keeping the development team closely tied to the players, not locked away in an ivory tower, out of touch with our own supporters.
Born to Rule started with that simple idea: a fast-paced online game that remembers what fun is. We now have some goals???how we plan to accomplish that idea, to make that dream real. What follows is simply a sketch of our plans, to display to the world our vision. So enjoy, and keep visiting the site and supporting us as we try to make this game???for you, for ourselves, for us.
Character Workings:
Attributes and Levels:
*A character is defined by a set of ???attributes??? that outline the core of what is that person???take away all education, all possessions, what are you left with?
Strength???raw physical power.
Agility???quickness, reflexes.
Endurance???toughness, health.
Intelligence???innate intelligence, not education, but quickness of brain.
Soul???supernatural affinity.
*Every character starts with a score of 0 in each attribute, and the player may distribute 6 points among the five attributes at birth. The player may also decrease any attribute to a minimum of -2, but this carries weighty penalties, and is not to be taken lightly.
*As a character lives life and gains power, their abilities naturally increase. This is represented by ???levels,??? which are gained through the accumulation of ???experience points,??? or simply ???xp??? for short. In the Born to Rule system, unlike in similar systems, levels will be relatively easy to acquire, but will have less impact on a character???s power with each one; this better represents reality, in which people to not gain knowledge or power in leaps and jumps, but rather in small bits, over time. These levels grant access to new abilities and powers, as well as increasing natural attributes over time.
Skills:
*On top of natural abilities, all people have certain acquired abilities???through education, through trial and error, through practice???everybody knows how to do something. The characters??? ???skills??? represent these acquired abilities, whether with swordplay, blacksmithing, or spell-crafting.
*Skills in Born to Rule will be advanced in one of two ways:
Education/Buying: When a character first starts, they are granted a certain number of skill points to distribute among basic skills, representing any early education or training that they have received. When a character advances in level, he is given a small number of skill points to distribute in the same manner, representing any education or training that they have come by in addition to regular practice of their skills.
Practice: Once a character has been educated in the basics of a skill, he may advance that skill through practice. After a while of using a skill, however, the player receives less and less benefit from each use of the skill, and may never advance the skill past a certain number determined by their level.
*Skills can also decrease, if they are not used. If skills are not used for a while, they start to go down at a fairly slow rate, but never descend below a certain point???no matter how long it???s been since you???ve practiced that martial art, your body remembers more than you would think.
Special Abilities:
*Unlike many role-playing-style games, particularly the progenitor of all RPGs, Dungeons & Dragons, we believe that the system of ???classes??? is unnecessary in a computer game, but believe instead in other methods to focus character development. At character creation, a player can choose between a list of ???professions,??? which represent what job your character has basic training for???thief or warrior, monk or magician???and translate, in game terms, into bonuses with certain skills.
*A major part in the world of Born to Rule is the system of guilds. Guilds control many resources, and as such are an easy way for a character to gain access to new abilities, items, and quests.
*Access to special abilities (rage attack, multi-spells, dual-wielding of weapons) is therefore determined by a player???s level, skill in certain related areas, and guild membership.
*These guilds are generally institutions in the game world, run by non-player characters (NPCs), far-reaching, and powerful. Player characters (PCs) can form their own guilds as well, but may belong to one NPC guild and one PC guild concurrently.
The World and the Game:
Cities, Transportation, and the Players:
*Cities in Born to Rule are safe-zones in all but very unusual circumstances. This is, while not realistic, designed to allow the players to have fun. Everybody needs an area to relax in. Therefore, cities will be non-combat zones, with no damage given or received. The only circumstances that this would change would be by direct admin intervention???such as in the case of a coup d?????tat attempted by a cabal of dark wizards, or an invasion by a local tribe of troglodytes.
*While in a city or another safe area, a character???s tracking screen will show the presence of other entities and sketch a map out as the character explores, which can be enlarged to view, and to which labels may be appended by the player.
*Transportation between cities of the world will be relatively easy at higher levels, with each town within easy traveling distance of the next. Eventually, there will be a system of transportation between towns, but that is for the future.
*Certain landmarks or special areas will be able to be controlled by player groups, creating tension and possibly war. These landmarks???be they castles or magical sites or ghost towns???will confer some benefits to the owners, making them desirable to own.
Dangerous Areas:
*Any area not immediately outside of a city is considered a dangerous area. This means no law and order for humanity. Other beings???orcs and elves and trolls and goblins and other Tolkein-esque or otherwise creatures???may have established government in the wasteland, but nothing friendly to humanity.
*In a dangerous area, a character may deal and receive damage or malicious influences freely, guided only by his own conscious. (This will relate heavily to the PC Interactions section later on.)
*In a dangerous area, a character???s tracking screen is a dead black in normal circumstances. The screen can be activated either through special abilities, such as danger sense or tracking, or supernatural abilities, such as a detect evil spell, with potency determined by the power of the ability used. Players with a cartography skill of sufficient level will see a sketched-outline map of dangerous areas they explore similar to that they see in cities, and with a higher skill, may copy out maps of areas they are visiting for other players to use. Certain enchantments, cast at the time of creation, can enable maps to show beings on the character???s tracking screen.
*In dangerous areas, ???monsters??? spawn. ???Monsters??? is here used as a very general-purpose word (thanks to the terminology that Dungeons & Dragons has spawned) to mean beings hostile on general principle toward PCs. These monsters are controlled by the game, and will seek to harm any players that trespass into their territory.
*Different types of monsters are of different intelligence levels, but overall, these beings are not stupid: they are protecting their home and their lives, so don???t expect the masses of weak monsters that can be found in other computer games???we at Unseen Studios think that that???s just plain boring.
*Also in dangerous areas, unexplored by humanity, there are treasures to be found for those clever enough to find them. Hidden areas, elaborate puzzles, and tricky maps are to be expected in certain dangerous areas???nobody should expect that the crypt of the greatest mage of the last century be a gazebo of joy: nasty traps, fabulous jewels, devious guardians, mazes and difficult riddles are the order of the day (in some higher-level areas, at least).
PC Interactions:
*Bounty Hunting
*Auction House
*Parties
*Guild System
*Faction
*Quests</pre>
<pre>Born To Rule
Our goal at Unseen Studios is to create a game unlike any seen before. Formed in our high school years, Unseen Studios has been through ups and downs, but our goal is clear: Born to Rule. A fantastic world, populated with strange peoples and frightening monsters, a world that breathes magic. A game that plays this world in a fast-paced shooter-game-influenced style. The basic purpose of any game is to have fun, and we of the Unseen recognize that, because we are gamers ourselves, out to do one better. We believe that the key to making any online game fun is by allowing the players to interact with each other unencumbered by the game itself, and in addition, by keeping the development team closely tied to the players, not locked away in an ivory tower, out of touch with our own supporters.
Born to Rule started with that simple idea: a fast-paced online game that remembers what fun is. We now have some goals???how we plan to accomplish that idea, to make that dream real. What follows is simply a sketch of our plans, to display to the world our vision. So enjoy, and keep visiting the site and supporting us as we try to make this game???for you, for ourselves, for us.
Character Workings:
Attributes and Levels:
*A character is defined by a set of ???attributes??? that outline the core of what is that person???take away all education, all possessions, what are you left with?
Strength???raw physical power.
Agility???quickness, reflexes.
Endurance???toughness, health.
Intelligence???innate intelligence, not education, but quickness of brain.
Soul???supernatural affinity.
*Every character starts with a score of 0 in each attribute, and the player may distribute 6 points among the five attributes at birth. The player may also decrease any attribute to a minimum of -2, but this carries weighty penalties, and is not to be taken lightly.
*As a character lives life and gains power, their abilities naturally increase. This is represented by ???levels,??? which are gained through the accumulation of ???experience points,??? or simply ???xp??? for short. In the Born to Rule system, unlike in similar systems, levels will be relatively easy to acquire, but will have less impact on a character???s power with each one; this better represents reality, in which people to not gain knowledge or power in leaps and jumps, but rather in small bits, over time. These levels grant access to new abilities and powers, as well as increasing natural attributes over time.
Skills:
*On top of natural abilities, all people have certain acquired abilities???through education, through trial and error, through practice???everybody knows how to do something. The characters??? ???skills??? represent these acquired abilities, whether with swordplay, blacksmithing, or spell-crafting.
*Skills in Born to Rule will be advanced in one of two ways:
Education/Buying: When a character first starts, they are granted a certain number of skill points to distribute among basic skills, representing any early education or training that they have received. When a character advances in level, he is given a small number of skill points to distribute in the same manner, representing any education or training that they have come by in addition to regular practice of their skills.
Practice: Once a character has been educated in the basics of a skill, he may advance that skill through practice. After a while of using a skill, however, the player receives less and less benefit from each use of the skill, and may never advance the skill past a certain number determined by their level.
*Skills can also decrease, if they are not used. If skills are not used for a while, they start to go down at a fairly slow rate, but never descend below a certain point???no matter how long it???s been since you???ve practiced that martial art, your body remembers more than you would think.
Special Abilities:
*Unlike many role-playing-style games, particularly the progenitor of all RPGs, Dungeons & Dragons, we believe that the system of ???classes??? is unnecessary in a computer game, but believe instead in other methods to focus character development. At character creation, a player can choose between a list of ???professions,??? which represent what job your character has basic training for???thief or warrior, monk or magician???and translate, in game terms, into bonuses with certain skills.
*A major part in the world of Born to Rule is the system of guilds. Guilds control many resources, and as such are an easy way for a character to gain access to new abilities, items, and quests.
*Access to special abilities (rage attack, multi-spells, dual-wielding of weapons) is therefore determined by a player???s level, skill in certain related areas, and guild membership.
*These guilds are generally institutions in the game world, run by non-player characters (NPCs), far-reaching, and powerful. Player characters (PCs) can form their own guilds as well, but may belong to one NPC guild and one PC guild concurrently.
The World and the Game:
Cities, Transportation, and the Players:
*Cities in Born to Rule are safe-zones in all but very unusual circumstances. This is, while not realistic, designed to allow the players to have fun. Everybody needs an area to relax in. Therefore, cities will be non-combat zones, with no damage given or received. The only circumstances that this would change would be by direct admin intervention???such as in the case of a coup d?????tat attempted by a cabal of dark wizards, or an invasion by a local tribe of troglodytes.
*While in a city or another safe area, a character???s tracking screen will show the presence of other entities and sketch a map out as the character explores, which can be enlarged to view, and to which labels may be appended by the player.
*Transportation between cities of the world will be relatively easy at higher levels, with each town within easy traveling distance of the next. Eventually, there will be a system of transportation between towns, but that is for the future.
*Certain landmarks or special areas will be able to be controlled by player groups, creating tension and possibly war. These landmarks???be they castles or magical sites or ghost towns???will confer some benefits to the owners, making them desirable to own.
Dangerous Areas:
*Any area not immediately outside of a city is considered a dangerous area. This means no law and order for humanity. Other beings???orcs and elves and trolls and goblins and other Tolkein-esque or otherwise creatures???may have established government in the wasteland, but nothing friendly to humanity.
*In a dangerous area, a character may deal and receive damage or malicious influences freely, guided only by his own conscious. (This will relate heavily to the PC Interactions section later on.)
*In a dangerous area, a character???s tracking screen is a dead black in normal circumstances. The screen can be activated either through special abilities, such as danger sense or tracking, or supernatural abilities, such as a detect evil spell, with potency determined by the power of the ability used. Players with a cartography skill of sufficient level will see a sketched-outline map of dangerous areas they explore similar to that they see in cities, and with a higher skill, may copy out maps of areas they are visiting for other players to use. Certain enchantments, cast at the time of creation, can enable maps to show beings on the character???s tracking screen.
*In dangerous areas, ???monsters??? spawn. ???Monsters??? is here used as a very general-purpose word (thanks to the terminology that Dungeons & Dragons has spawned) to mean beings hostile on general principle toward PCs. These monsters are controlled by the game, and will seek to harm any players that trespass into their territory.
*Different types of monsters are of different intelligence levels, but overall, these beings are not stupid: they are protecting their home and their lives, so don???t expect the masses of weak monsters that can be found in other computer games???we at Unseen Studios think that that???s just plain boring.
*Also in dangerous areas, unexplored by humanity, there are treasures to be found for those clever enough to find them. Hidden areas, elaborate puzzles, and tricky maps are to be expected in certain dangerous areas???nobody should expect that the crypt of the greatest mage of the last century be a gazebo of joy: nasty traps, fabulous jewels, devious guardians, mazes and difficult riddles are the order of the day (in some higher-level areas, at least).
PC Interactions:
*Bounty Hunting
*Auction House
*Parties
*Guild System
*Faction
*Quests</pre>
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Joe M. - Developer
- Posts: 996
- Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 10:14 am
- Location: Texas
by Karl G. » Wed Mar 29, 2006 6:53 am
Yeah. Say a person wants to get better faction with some group, they go trade with them more than another group. This would also discourage "aiding the enemy" in trades (maybe it would be based on value of trade?)
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Karl G. - Lesser Spirit
- Posts: 2453
- Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 10:26 am
by Karl G. » Sun Apr 02, 2006 10:05 am
"Good news everyone! I'm still technically alive!" (Futurama)
Character login is officially working...and you can move around in the world, which--by the way--has a textured landscape whose height can be modified. Groovy, eh! I'll see what else I can get done today.
Character login is officially working...and you can move around in the world, which--by the way--has a textured landscape whose height can be modified. Groovy, eh! I'll see what else I can get done today.
-
Karl G. - Lesser Spirit
- Posts: 2453
- Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 10:26 am
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