The World of Layonara
The Layonara Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: Pen N Popper on June 05, 2007, 08:08:02 PM
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People! Let me pose a question to you: What do you want in a new game system? Wouldn't it be nice to have a system where our creative and talented team can implement anything our collective hearts desire?
Now, please understand that I have no insight into the direction of the new Layonara game system. I'm sure too that many of our crazy ideas (well, mine at least) are just that, crazy. So just like all our other suggestions for the current NWN game, they are just suggestions.
Here are some of mine:- Ingame adjustable "floaty text" names for our PCs
- Ingame adjustable portraits for our PCs
- Ridable animals (including giants)
- Climbing, jumping, swimming
- Physical emotes for RP (crosses arms, etc.)
- More variety of combat emotes (jab, slash, chop, etc.)
- Hats, headbands, open helms
- Grappling hooks
- Thrown spears, daggers, swords
- New poison system
- New trap system
- Adjustment to invisibility and stealth functioning
- Flying mounts and aerial combat (griffons, giant eagles, dragons)
- Water travel and combat (ships, canoes, rafts)
- Persistent objects anywhere without worry of lag
- Ingame progression for use of skills (sneak, trap, listen)
- Barkskin that only applies to the skin, not clothing
Phew! I'm sure you too can think of cool things that haven't been done in NWN. (Yes, I know some of the above have been done in NWN elsewhere.)
It's clear that the Layonara storyline will continue. It's clear that our PCs will not only impact the remainder of V3's lore but also the next generation's lore as well. That is, of course, if we choose to.
Leanthar and the project have given us the resources to keep on going across the NWN desert to a new land. We are pioneers marching towards the setting sun. When the morning sun rises once again over our shoulders, what it will illuminate is unknown. Do you seriously think, though, that it won't be worth exploring?
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What do I want in a game system? I'll take this to mean the entire game software. On day, many years ago I encountered a game called Dungeon Seige, the thing that blew me away was that it didn't pause to load between levels; there were no transitions. This was a joy in multiplayer-coop. Since then I have expected every game to be the same.
What do I want in a game system?
No Transitions!
If the game system means the 'combat magic and dice mechanics' behind the world then I favor classes systems as opposed to DnD type class based systems. Though I do admit that d20 works well in a computer game. But I can see the need for something similar to classes in a layonara based computer game, due to the rigid structure of the world as it is currently defined.
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*imagines G'ork in a canoe battle and just starts laughing*
The one thing I'd like to see is a lot of the community moving over and the RP experience only to have got better.
Besides that....I guess something like...*thinks for a while* Ah!
Adding to the subject of horses, dual mountable saddles, so two people can go somewhere on a single horse.
What and what won't be able to go in, I've no idea!
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Well, asthetically speaking of for player customization ability, another few additions that might be nifty would include:
- Models that are scaled to match the height given in a character's description at creation, so people can create characters of varying stature and actually see the difference in-game.
- Adjustable eye-color at character creation.
- In-game player-alterable hairstyles (independent of aforementioned headbands / open helms brought up by Pen'N'Popper)
- Belt, Glove/Gauntlet, Boot, Amulet models that show when equipped, independently of the main suit of clothing/armor worn. (Like Helms and Capes do in NWN.)
- Personalizable Items, i.e. the ability to spend a resource (gold or XP perhaps) to give an item a unique name.
- A Printing Press (Gnomish or otherwise) or system for making multiple copies of player written scrolls/books. Obviously there'd be a price for each copy equivalent to the type of parchment used plus 20%-50% or some-such.
Given time I could probably think of a whole lot more interesting ideas, but for now these are some I'd be really happy to see.
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Mechanics transparency.
One of the things I enjoy about having a system based on D&D is that most game calculations are simple to understand, displayed when they happen, and there is no mystery about exactly what items, spells, skills, etc. do.
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Dogs and cats that can live in our houses, with floaty names like the horses. And for our farms, sheep we can herd with summoned border collies!
:)
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Well, if we're going to be paying for the privilege of playing, then I'd like to see a more servile attitude from the staff. Customer service people! Personally, I need somebody to come over and dust and vacuum my place. And clean the bathrooms. And that trash isnt going to walk itself out to the curb tonight. If Leanthar, Orth and OneSt8 could hop on a plane and take care of all that for me, that'd be super.
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*smiles*
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A virtual bed you can sleep in in real life!! :p
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I love the way you think...right on! I don't know how many of your suggestions are possible right now, but those are some great ideas.
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Mine's just out-there.:o
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An additional decimal place added on to the lb. of items so every small thing wouldn't be forced to weigh either 0.0 or 0.1
Money
Coin Weight
Multiple Coinage (http://forums.layonara.com/histories-content/108688-currency.html) (To see all coin varieties installed, and used differently throughout the world)
-The True being the basic standard most people in the world accept.
-The elves of Voltrex using thier Towers, and maybe both True and the Queen's Gold at a very poor exchange rate, and not even touching the dwarven coin.
-Inns and dwarven merchants more inclined to use the Inkeeps Piece.
-And richer merchants and other wealthy cities using the Queen's Coinage
-Pawnshops(in whatever form they will exist) paying out in True only.
A fluctuating exchange rate based on region, and also varies over time.
A slightly slower day/night cycle
A night sky (whenever it clears of clouds) that shows Orn and Ausir, and maybe the deity constellations.
A camera POV not limited to the 0-90 degree arc.
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Well off the top of my head, I want to be able to name the items I craft, or at least add to the discription. I would like everything I ever craft to have my name on it. Perhaps at the bottom of the discription, "Made by so and so".
Small detail, but cool.
Other than that I just want what is promised. If it says flying monkey, i want a flying monkey!
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- To be able to draw on the ground from the DM client. Just a pencil tool in several colors that generates a bitmap overlaid on the ground polygons. This would also alleviate the need to create art for a large number of "floor rune" placeable objects. Also allows for the ooc labeling of stuff on quests that there isn't an appropriate model available to represent (no matter how many models there are you'll always be missing the one you want at some point.)
- - Let PCs draw tattoos on their characters with the pencil tool too.
- Ability to embed images in item descriptions beyond generic "item type" or "appearance generated" images. Think maps and illustrated books.
- Ability to equip an unidentified item.
- - Cursed items (This requires the item above really.)
- Three dimensional coordinate system.
- - Combat mechanics that allow advanced tactics (requires the item above.)
- - - Altitude/height advantage (easier to fight down a hill than up one.)
- - - Cover
- Lighting that affects game mechanics.
- - Partial concealment in dark spots (this would give a purpose for low-light and darkvision equivalents.)
I could go on and on really...
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- Dynamic areas! Areas (or even "overlays" of placeables) that can be created and saved, then reloaded by a GM when needed (say, after a server crash, for example)
- Custom NPC creation from within the GM client
- Talan's list ;)
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Flanking and cornering; the advantage goes either way!
Freedom to equip weapon/armor of choice
POV: First-person
More flexible ranged weapon range (The better trained can shoot farther)
Deitey choice has some effect on the weapons and armor the religous classes are allowed start with
Projectile deflection should happen by chance without training; more often with (but still should be super difficult)
Launched projectiles can be avoided
Launched projectiles have drift
Allow two stats (STR, DEX, INT, CON, WIS, CHA) to start at eighteen (Example: 16 STR, 18 DEX, 16 CON, 12 INT, 18 WIS, 10 CHA)
I'm out of ideas for now.
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All excellent suggestions. What I'd like to see most of all is a combat engine that factors in how "fresh" a fighter is when he attacks and does damage. Naturally a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed unwounded fighter will perform better than one who's dangling at 1hp near death. Long battles should be truly brutal, with the same foes you're fighting getting progressively tougher as your endurance runs down and your physical body is being torn apart. This is why I love Shadowrun so much; it obliterates the Rambo stereotype that a guy can run around all day with 6 bullets in his chest as if nothing was wrong.
Another thing I'd like to see is a shift away from the cast&forget system of magic. Instead, a mana system where you drain energy as you cast more spells is far more realistic, witht he mana bar slowly replenishing so that spellcasters are best off resting between big blasts. Also, spells themselves should gain in power and ferocity as you train them, so that a lvl 15 wizard's fireball blows a lvl 5 wizard's one out of the water. If the spellcaster could further set his OWN power level with his spells, say he wants to cast a lvl 5 fireball vs the lvl 15 one his can surely cast, then it should drain him less and he should be able to cast more of them before resting. Furthermore, the spellcaster should get *tired* from casting spells, not just simply run out of mana. If his mana bar is half full, he should be moving at half speed and disorientated/exhausted, and when his bar is empty, he should pass out in the field of combat. Maybe also casting spells PAST the "zero mana" point should not only knock him out, but also take a chunk out of his actual health to represent his body being overtaxed by uncrontrolled energy.
As for classes, I say abandon them altogether ala Shadowrun & Oblivion. It's far more realistic to say that a man is a collection of the skills he possesses rather than a stereotypical cookie-cutter class like we have in D&D. Maybe somebody would like a martial artist who casts healing spells and has high scholarly and diplomacy skills like a holy monk... or perhaps a spellswordlike blaster/fighter combat mage who gets in the thick of it for maximum carnage... or a "dirty fighter" type who has the offense and defense of a melee master but takes cheap shots and sneaks around like a rogue. What they are should be a factor of what they train, and no form of training should be entirely restricted from anybody who's willing to sink in the effort to do so.
The very notion of levels altogether is abhorrent; far better is it to just train skills and stats directly with experience points than to save up all your training for certain murderous thresholds of "x amount of enemies are dead, now I can get better!" Training ones abilities should be a constant and gradual thing; people get stronger, people get better, but not overnight.
In essence I'd like to see a classless, levelless, capless system of character advancement where it's less about seeing a power-rating over people's heads, but more to actually see a player in action for one to gauge their "experience". I for one am far more afraid of the guy who confides in me that he was a sniper in 'Nam who killed 14 vietcongs with his survival knife vs. some guy who tells me what color/degree his blackbelt is.
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Nice stuff Lon :)
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To go along with D Blaze's money comments, I'd like to see a more robust background economy. It's cool to have characters be a part of the economy, but not completely drive and be the totality of it.
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I'd like to see the ability to switch multiple items in inventory simultaneously (equipment configuration hot keys) Put on all your undead hunting gear and set the hot key then switch over to you giant slayer gear with a single button push. This concept would also be nice for spell books. Set all the slots for memorized spells in your book and then define that as a spell configuration that can be restored with a single button push. Then you could have your solo config and your party buffer config and your party mega artillery config available with a single button push and rest.
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I'd like to see the ability to switch multiple items in inventory simultaneously (equipment configuration hot keys) Put on all your undead hunting gear and set the hot key then switch over to you giant slayer gear with a single button push. This concept would also be nice for spell books. Set all the slots for memorized spells in your book and then define that as a spell configuration that can be restored with a single button push. Then you could have your solo config and your party buffer config and your party mega artillery config available with a single button push and rest.
Macro-friendly hot-keys! I used to love zMUD for having these; you could assign a button to do multiple ingame commands like "backstab -> trip -> attack" or "equip x, equip y, equip z" all at the touch of one button. That would make the User Interface a whole lot more streamlined.
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Customizable armor and weapons and things... Always. The simple loom setting for armor changing in Layo is by far my favorite, and you don't need to spend hours to get anything to do it or have to have tailor levels or anything weird like that. I can't play a badly dressed character.
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The one thing I would like , is crazy character customization. Seriously, something along the lines of Starwars Galaxies or Sims 2 type customization. Yes, I want to be able to customize my character down to the last nose hair.
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I'd like combat to be more dynamic in the non-magic field of it all. The only thing I've always frowned at with D&D is that I may as well be rolling dice. The variation is limited. I mean, as it is in NWN you only have a few variations that show some degree of 'skill' or tactic:
- Feat based KD, disarm (wish it worked for PW's), called shot, etc
- Group strengths tactics, i.e. rogues flanking, using natural features, defensive formations to protect weaker assets
- Mechanics flanking for the +2 AB bonus
- Corner sneaking and the like
Things like that. It's pretty limited and the variability I would say is unimpressive. You don't really acquire more combat 'skills' by mastering the game further. To a slight degree you do, and the 5 year veteran has more tricks up their sleeve then the new guy, but it seems most of the time they are mechanics based instead of skill based. And a heck of a lot more flair will be present in the character if he's thinking on his style of battle moreso then number crunches in his head.
I'd love something beyond 'click red target, now sit back and see who wins'.
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Crowded cities full of NPCs with no lag what so ever so that the player can remember they're in the minority in the world. Really flesh out the NPC population more than one was capable of with NWN.
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*vague unspecific smile*
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How about Epic battles,20, 50, 100+ players per side and no lag.
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Adjustable eye-color at character creation.
Already there. The first tattoo color affects the eyes. The second tattoo color affects the lips.
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Only for a few custom heads, twidget. There are some with freckles you can change too :P
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All excellent suggestions. What I'd like to see most of all is a combat engine that factors in how "fresh" a fighter is when he attacks and does damage. Naturally a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed unwounded fighter will perform better than one who's dangling at 1hp near death. Long battles should be truly brutal, with the same foes you're fighting getting progressively tougher as your endurance runs down and your physical body is being torn apart. This is why I love Shadowrun so much; it obliterates the Rambo stereotype that a guy can run around all day with 6 bullets in his chest as if nothing was wrong.
Another thing I'd like to see is a shift away from the cast&forget system of magic. Instead, a mana system where you drain energy as you cast more spells is far more realistic, witht he mana bar slowly replenishing so that spellcasters are best off resting between big blasts. Also, spells themselves should gain in power and ferocity as you train them, so that a lvl 15 wizard's fireball blows a lvl 5 wizard's one out of the water. If the spellcaster could further set his OWN power level with his spells, say he wants to cast a lvl 5 fireball vs the lvl 15 one his can surely cast, then it should drain him less and he should be able to cast more of them before resting. Furthermore, the spellcaster should get *tired* from casting spells, not just simply run out of mana. If his mana bar is half full, he should be moving at half speed and disorientated/exhausted, and when his bar is empty, he should pass out in the field of combat. Maybe also casting spells PAST the "zero mana" point should not only knock him out, but also take a chunk out of his actual health to represent his body being overtaxed by uncrontrolled energy.
As for classes, I say abandon them altogether ala Shadowrun & Oblivion. It's far more realistic to say that a man is a collection of the skills he possesses rather than a stereotypical cookie-cutter class like we have in D&D. Maybe somebody would like a martial artist who casts healing spells and has high scholarly and diplomacy skills like a holy monk... or perhaps a spellswordlike blaster/fighter combat mage who gets in the thick of it for maximum carnage... or a "dirty fighter" type who has the offense and defense of a melee master but takes cheap shots and sneaks around like a rogue. What they are should be a factor of what they train, and no form of training should be entirely restricted from anybody who's willing to sink in the effort to do so.
The very notion of levels altogether is abhorrent; far better is it to just train skills and stats directly with experience points than to save up all your training for certain murderous thresholds of "x amount of enemies are dead, now I can get better!" Training ones abilities should be a constant and gradual thing; people get stronger, people get better, but not overnight.
In essence I'd like to see a classless, levelless, capless system of character advancement where it's less about seeing a power-rating over people's heads, but more to actually see a player in action for one to gauge their "experience". I for one am far more afraid of the guy who confides in me that he was a sniper in 'Nam who killed 14 vietcongs with his survival knife vs. some guy who tells me what color/degree his blackbelt is.
All of these are great ideas, but sadly they are the exact opposite of everything I love about D&D, and again what has always sent me running back to D&D/NWN. =P Good ideas, but personally for me they are exactly waht I can find any a vast majority of other MMORPGs.
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The difference between MMORPGs we can buy off the shelves and the MMORPG Layonara will become is we won't have l33t-speakers spamming the chats with OOC and it'll be what I believe good and fun roleplay :)
For another suggestion, emotes where you can interact with others, sort of like Sims.
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I still like the idea of the language ears! Its always fun insulting ones mother in another language while smiling.
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The one thing I have always wanted to see is a real 3-d environment. I like the flying idea. With mounts, items like flying carpets, or spells. I also would like characters to be able to climb up walls and cliffs. Drop ropes for others, etc. Fall and take damage. Levitate. Dimension door. With this idea, all creatures should have both ranged and mele weapon. Yah you can climb a ledge and shoot down on those giants, but they are going to chuck rocks at you.
I also understand that there has to be a reason I have never seen this kind of world on line. Besides the fact that I have not played many on line games...
Oh and a Scifi spin off :D
AeonBlues
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Those "rocks" are boulders! RUN!! :p
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I would like to see a system where skills and feats (or their equivalents) are earned by specifically training them, or at least training in that general area. So, for example, a character can't go out and bash his way to the next level and then take skills in Diplomacy and Basket Weaving. He could take skills in combat-oriented stuff, though.
Not only do I think this makes sense, but it could help make non-bashy builds more viable, which is a great thing for a world heavily devoted to RP. Yes, this can be done the way things are now, but requiring the character to roleplay her way into certain skills (rather than relying on the honor system) adds diversity, creates choice, rewards RP, and takes some of the emphasis off bashing. More emphasis would be removed by making sure there are plenty of ways to gain experience and/or levels that don't involve combat.
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A lot of what I'd like to see has already been covered by people but there is one really simple thing I'd like.
I'd like to see attractiveness be a Stat in it's own right.
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Animal Companion - MONKEY!
With it's special throwing attack...
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Whatever character system is implemented, I would like to see some way of recreating our current characters. This doesn't mean that there needs to be a class called "monk" but some way to make a viable unarmed combat character. There doesn't need to be a class called "druid" but some sort of nature-oriented skills or magics. And so on.
Also... please please abandon the nine little box style of alignment. =)
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Also... please please abandon the nine little box style of alignment. =)
I agree with this. I would rather have my character's live by a religious dogma then a set alignment.
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Agreed. Law vs Chaos & Good vs Evil is all too nebulous and subjective. In every villain's mind, he is the last bastion of justice and righteousness, while criminals and rebels find the governments they oppose to be unilaterally criminal and evil. In short, everybody is Lawful Good in a Chaotic Evil world of their own illusionary megalomania.
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There is a difference in what the character thinks of himself and what the player knows is going on because of the definitions of the alignments. What the character thinks should have nothing to do with the alignment choice made by the player. You shouldn't give Darth Vader a Good alignment just because he thinks he's in the right; by the rules, he's Evil no matter what he thinks.
That may sound like I'm trying to argue against dropping a D&D sort of alignment system. Actually, I don't really care. I think the D&D alignment system works fine, giving a nice reminder to the players of how they have chosen to play their characters. But I also think that removing it and replacing it with another system, or even nothing at all, won't really change the way characters behave or interact with each other.
To add another thing I'd like to see...
Separate Knowledge Skills. Whatever way characters will be built in the new Layonara, knowledge should come in separate, distinct categories rather than a big lump of a know-it-all Lore skill.
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I wonder what all that has been suggested was all ready implemented prior to it's suggesting. :D
If my musing is true, are they allowed to be pointed out?
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Since they aren't sharing, hehe, just keep suggesting...
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They have to be pointed out at some point! :)
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Adding to character customization features: Better and more voice-sets to choose from. Or even the ability to turn off voice-sets, or individual voice-lines. For example, when there's a voice-line or two in a set that your character just wouldn't say, but the rest fo the voice-set goes well with the character, it'd be nice to turn off the ones you dont' want to hear or have others hear.