A way to do Crafting & Items (From A Dev)

[Tormunda]

Some of you may know, I am a game developer (you can check my profile) and although it is fun to just throw out cool ideas (like quest chains), some things just do not scale well and are too complex to be added without becoming a nightmare to upkeep.
So I have thought about a few ways to do some great additions without being too complex.

Not-Micro
I guess the thing to keep in mind is that not all players will want to micro manage the game. So it is important to add in systems that will allow for some of us to get very micro while still being simple enough to work for those who do not.

CRAFTING
This would only require 1 new numeric variable added to each character. Resources

Resource nodes (like an Iron Node)
The best way to do this, would be to allow some extra creature slots that are resource only. They have hit points but do not attack back. You can pick one of several resource images/models to place in the world, just like an elite monster. (iron node, wood pile etc)
Because they act like an elite monster, you can target them in a quest.
Upon returning the quest, you can then reward resource points as well as gold and xp.

Skinning creatures.
The classic, kill 10 crocodiles quest could now also return some resource points when handed in.

This would allow every character to have a pool of gold and resource points. Shops can sell items based upon gold, real life money and resources.

If the developers do go down the road of allowing us to add a series of items to a shop, then we could then allocate various costs for each item. (see below)


ITEMS
I have also been thinking of how to add a simple method for each class to use class items and have a power value. My thoughts are:

Each class has 2 new variables. 1) Armour Type. 2) Weapon Type.

Armour Types would be: Light, Medium, Heavy
Weapons would be: Magical, Melee, Ranged.

Weapon types: Each of these type does not mean that a ranged character cannot do melee damage from their skill. It just means that they will purchase weapons of type ranged. If you want to allocate the 'flag' ranged to a sword, then you will see ranger types walking around with a sword. These flags are just for better cosmetics.

Armour Types: Adding new armour images for each character would be a never ending rabbit hole for the developers. At most I would add the option for the main armour colour to have 3 settings. Poor (below level), Average (At level), Good (Above level).

Each item available in a shop would now require the following variables.
Type
Level
A Flag could be added to separate armour from weapons, although this could be done in the type variable.

Character Shopping
Each character would now try and purchase the highest level Armour and Weapon based upon the gold and/or resource cost.

This system would allow the following to be added into the game.

Crafting Shops (User defined, no code needed). A player can now make a shop that has only items for sale with the resource value. This would replicate a crafting station.

Boss / Dungeon Loot. Killing the end boss in a dungeon can reward a weapon or armour to that character of its type and 1 level above (or 2 for raid bosses).

Models and Images. The devs can add their own flags to their weapon models to decide if that model is a Magic, Ranged or Melee model.

This system would keep things simple to code and debug as well as allow for expansion at a later date if the devs decide to add more complex types like daggers, 2 handed, 1 handed and shield, spears etc etc. The best systems are always ones that start simple.

Please give feedback and ideas.

[Morvana]

I am not sure i understood evrything, but I think I would like a bit more freedom if I was able to create items (which is THE feature missing for me).

For me, equipements should be made like this:

For weapons:
Skin: X
Type of attack: contact/short range/longue range.
+X HP
+X Mana
+X Rage
Give access to skill X
Price: X

For armors:
Skin: X
+X HP
+X Mana
+X Rage
Give access to skill X
Price: X


After that, we just need to be allowed to give the items as result of fights/quest or to allow them to be sold. Crafting would be a good thing, but it isn't necessary for me.

What would be REALLY nice is for players to actively search specific items (because they are the best, the community favorite, or anything), like in a real MMO.
The AI would need to know how the items are obtainable, and go for it (example: going to fight this type of monster without a quest because it can drop the item, going to this NPC because it has a quest allowing to guet it...)

Like that, you could have player movement to new territory like in a real MMO, with player rushing to new places to get the new best items for example, or you could give some life back in some old places by adding a new type of monsters dropping a good weapon for the zone level.


The must of the must would be to have prices evolving with how many players have an item, and this price could influence how many players seek the item (with players selling equipement to get new ones, you would have some stability after some time, but you could have mad rush to certain part of the map because of that, like in reality)

[Tormunda]

Цитата допису Morvana:

I am not sure i understood evrything, but I think I would like a bit more freedom if I was able to create items (which is THE feature missing for me).

For me, equipements should be made like this:

For weapons:
Skin: X
Type of attack: contact/short range/longue range.
+X HP
+X Mana
+X Rage
Give access to skill X
Price: X

For armors:
Skin: X
+X HP
+X Mana
+X Rage
Give access to skill X
Price: X


After that, we just need to be allowed to give the items as result of fights/quest or to allow them to be sold. Crafting would be a good thing, but it isn't necessary for me.

What would be REALLY nice is for players to actively search specific items (because they are the best, the community favorite, or anything), like in a real MMO.
The AI would need to know how the items are obtainable, and go for it (example: going to fight this type of monster without a quest because it can drop the item, going to this NPC because it has a quest allowing to guet it...)

Like that, you could have player movement to new territory like in a real MMO, with player rushing to new places to get the new best items for example, or you could give some life back in some old places by adding a new type of monsters dropping a good weapon for the zone level.


The must of the must would be to have prices evolving with how many players have an item, and this price could influence how many players seek the item (with players selling equipement to get new ones, you would have some stability after some time, but you could have mad rush to certain part of the map because of that, like in reality)

Although this is more in-depth, I think it should not be so hard.

Each item would need to be assigned to a class.
The game would calculate a power rating for the item, based upon the various bonuses.
Each character would then seek out an item with a higher power rating than they currently have.
Solo players would look for quests in their level zones.
A party of adventurers would also look at dungeons and zones +1 level higher.

[Tormunda]

Having thought about this some more, I can see an issue. However, as always - I will provide a solution.

Issue:
The game has no idea what Classes you are going to make. An example of this is, in my game I have a Dire Wolf class, so that the Stark family can go adventuring - lol.

Solution:
There are 4 types of weapons. Melee, Ranged, Magic and Custom. Custom allows you to select a drop down of class. (A flag to display or not display weapons on each class would solve any non-humanoids)

The Dev's just need to make a few template default weapons for Melee, Ranged and Magic and then each class is allocated to one of these 3 by default.

This way, players who do not want to micro-manage can just play default classes in their game and weapons will populate levels 1-20.
For those of us who want to get in deeper, we can make new weapon templates and select custom to assign them to classes.

[Tormunda]

On a separate note. I may as well throw another idea out there.
Feature or Game mode: Faction Wars

Each Class is assigned to a Faction. You can then set up multiple start points - one for each faction HQ. Each land zone is assigned to a faction when you create it.

The level of the zone NPCs are = 21 - zone level.
This would make each Faction HQ a level 20 zone to all other factions.

You could then place NPC of opposite factions in each zone with quests to kill key NPCs. This would be great fun to watch as each faction goes to war against the others.
It would be interesting to see how class balance and numbers of players takes a role in that simulation world.

The game designer in me would love to try and balance the more complex aspects of that world. Things like re-spawn point locations and terrain balance would be a worthy of a game designers degree assignment.