So clearly, the classes are in a symbiotic relationship with each other. Everyone needs Shadowsingers to make the world bigger. Everyone needs Rot Priests to push for higher level materials. Everyone needs Darkbreakers to defend against monsters and collect those materials. Everyone needs Truthbuilders to create...well, everything worth having.
My plan is to not give people a choice in class. When they start a new character, they are assigned a class and put in the world. As their guardian spirit levels, they will have better control over percentage chance of getting the class they want. Do they seem to like Darkbreakers? Well, a starting guardian has a 25% of any class, but an advanced guardian might have a 50% or even 75%.
This does several things. First, it forces a relatively even distribution of classes. If someone cannot stand not starting as a Darkslayer, then they can kill their character and come back for another go. Or they could ask a Rot Priest to make a Return to the Guardians sacrifice, and ritually pass away. Now the Rot Priest is empowered to do some fun things
Well, actually, I lied. I'm going to give people a choice in the second tier of class. You see, you may start as a Darkbreaker. But then you do things. A Darkbreaker is highly skilled at killing and looting, but every player can do a few things of the other classes' focus. A Darkbreaker might be able to hum a tune, allowing him to run through the shadows unscathed, without building a world beyond a barren road that will quickly disappear. He could build a simple blade or armor. He could heal himself using some simple prayers. Other people can fight and loot some basic resources, but without the efficiency of a Darkbreaker. Experience will be typed. Some actions give you Explorer experience. Some actions give you Killer exp. Once you gain enough exp, you can reach a new tier in a class. The first tier you gain is easiest. The second and third tier are harder. By nature, if you are a Darkbreaker, you will reach the second tier of Darkbreaker easiest. It's the exp you are most likely to acquire.
But you can get exp in the other classes and work towards them. And then you are a player with two tiers, one in Darkbreaker, one in Shadowsinger, let's say. You can create the world and you can loot the world you create. You are not as good at finding as a Shadowsinger and not as good at killing as a Darkbreaker. But there's something you can do that a Tier II Breaker and a Tier II Shadowsinger cannot do. Maybe you can Sing a zone with more monsters. Maybe you can create a camp of deranged bandits that no Shadowsinger without a Tier in Darkbreaker can make. And maybe you can empower your allies with a buff that no other combination can do. You are a multiclass and you can do more than the combination of your parts.Of course, if you took a second tier in Darkbreaker, you'd be a better Darkbreaker. Maybe you could wear another style of armor. Maybe you could use a new self-buff or attack.
Now, this talk of tiers may make you wonder, how many levels are in this game? 90? 60? Nope, just 4. You can level once in each class or three times in one class. This will be made reasonable in a few ways. We need 60 levels because each level is meaningless. Getting to level 40 just lets you do level 40 things with other level 40s. But in this game, a Tier 1 can do things with a Tier 4 quite easily. There isn't that barrier between the top and the bottom. And the time to Tier 4 will be quite small. Maybe 7 days of reasonable play will allow it. You can get enough exp for your Tier 2 in about 3 hours of play. There will be a daily cap on exp, limiting how fast you can level, so that people who don't have as much time won't feel unnecessarily left behind. If you die, you lose all that progress and have to try again.
So, you've play 7 days, you're top Tier, you're amazing. You have 7 more days of reasonable play time (maybe 3 hours a day?). Then you die of old age. Because this game is not about a permanent character, preserved and immune to the decay of the world. It's about an eternal fight against the shadows, across generations and reincarnations.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Classes
The ideas of classes have always interested me. That there are certain mechanics and properties that you only will be able to use as one class in the game. I want to tie the classes of Zoroaster to the categories in the Bartle Test: Achievers, Killers, Socializers, and Explorers. There is another unique concept I want to implement in this game.
Death of a particular character will be permadeath. When a character loses his last hit point, there will be an optional 120 second period, and then he will cease to be. But the death of a character means little, because the character is only a tool of the guardian spirit. You see, the guardian spirit is where the player's experience progression will really lie. He can create a character and that character can pass away, but when it does, the exp that the character gains is deposited with his guardian spirit. And another character can be created and the process continues. The core of this idea comes from the game "Don't Starve". Death is expected in the game. Living is earned, not assumed. As you live and die, you accrue exp that unlocks characters. Thus, even with permadeath, you have a sense of progression.
These are the four core classes I want to invent, interspersed with some basic concepts I want to see in the game. Things will get messier, but we will start with these.
The Shadowsinger: "I find the world", Explorer Type
This class is, perhaps, the most important. And it is a bard class. I savor that irony. The Land of Zoroaster is a sea of shadows, dotted with a few points of permanent light. The Shadowsinger is the brave soul who tells the tale of the world beneath the shadows, and in doing so, procedurally generates land in the unknown shadows. I imagine something like a conversation wheel in Mass Effect, with small pictures on the wheel. Certain pictures will be very rare and only appear under certain circumstances. Some will be common. Selecting a picture will cause the Shadowsinger to sing a story about the land and then, in the land before him, it becomes a reality. A Shadowsinger could sing a forest, a lake, a field, many things. But not everything. And not forever. The shadows despise the light and without precautions and vigilance, the world that the Shadowsinger sings will be reclaimed by the shadows.
The Darkbreaker: "I fight the world", Killer Type
The Land of Zoroaster is filled with things that want to kill you. Yes, you. With their teeth and claws and spit and tentacles and magicks and such, they reach into the light and malign its beauty. The Darkbreaker is the best class to fight these back. She carries the weightiest armors, wields the sharpest swords, hefts the furthest spears. But what's more, the Land of Zoroaster is filled with resources. Metals, woods, foods, and more. The Darkbreaker breaks these resources from their place and takes them back to the light.
The Rot Priest: "I fill the world", Socializer Type
The Shadowsinger sings the shadows back and reveals the world. But he does not reveal it all and he cannot fill it well. Some metals, some trees, some small animals. But nothing astounding. He's a big picture type of guy. The Rot Priest fills the world the Shadowsinger finds. Using magicks that some may call unseemly, he takes the shadows and weaves them into mighty monsters, stately trees, fish and birds and metals and dirt. The best animals, the best materials, can only be made by the Rot Priest on any consistent basis. But the Rot Priest can only draw so much from her own strength. To create, she must destroy. She cannot destroy the shadows; she destroys players and their items. She can take a sword and whittle down its durability to nothing and with that strength, she can make the metal necessary to build a stronger sword. The Rot Priest, like all classes, does not know the principle of equivalent exchange. While the price may be steep, she can always create more potential than the actual she destroys. Oh, and one more thing: remember that 2 minute window? If a Rot Priest walks by while you are dying, she can make a bargain: she can take some of your strength or the durability of your items and make you live.
The Truthbuilder: "I refine the world", Achiever Type
If the light only had players and monsters and nature, it would still not be enough for the Truthbuilder. He wants to see swords and armor, robes and rings, books and scrolls. He wants to see great stone walls and towering citadels. He wants to make siege engines and catapults. The Singer finds, the Priest fills, the Breaker takes, and the Builder builds. Remember when I said that the land the Singer finds will be reclaimed by the shadows? Not if the Truthbuilder builds a mighty lantern to keep the shadows at bay. Everything decays in the Land of Zoroaster, though. With each hit, a sword dulls. The Truthbuilder can repair such things, keep them in working condition. But even the Builder cannot keep things working forever. Eventually, the Truthbuilder will see his creations crumble into nothing. And he can build something new in its place.
Death of a particular character will be permadeath. When a character loses his last hit point, there will be an optional 120 second period, and then he will cease to be. But the death of a character means little, because the character is only a tool of the guardian spirit. You see, the guardian spirit is where the player's experience progression will really lie. He can create a character and that character can pass away, but when it does, the exp that the character gains is deposited with his guardian spirit. And another character can be created and the process continues. The core of this idea comes from the game "Don't Starve". Death is expected in the game. Living is earned, not assumed. As you live and die, you accrue exp that unlocks characters. Thus, even with permadeath, you have a sense of progression.
These are the four core classes I want to invent, interspersed with some basic concepts I want to see in the game. Things will get messier, but we will start with these.
The Shadowsinger: "I find the world", Explorer Type
This class is, perhaps, the most important. And it is a bard class. I savor that irony. The Land of Zoroaster is a sea of shadows, dotted with a few points of permanent light. The Shadowsinger is the brave soul who tells the tale of the world beneath the shadows, and in doing so, procedurally generates land in the unknown shadows. I imagine something like a conversation wheel in Mass Effect, with small pictures on the wheel. Certain pictures will be very rare and only appear under certain circumstances. Some will be common. Selecting a picture will cause the Shadowsinger to sing a story about the land and then, in the land before him, it becomes a reality. A Shadowsinger could sing a forest, a lake, a field, many things. But not everything. And not forever. The shadows despise the light and without precautions and vigilance, the world that the Shadowsinger sings will be reclaimed by the shadows.
The Darkbreaker: "I fight the world", Killer Type
The Land of Zoroaster is filled with things that want to kill you. Yes, you. With their teeth and claws and spit and tentacles and magicks and such, they reach into the light and malign its beauty. The Darkbreaker is the best class to fight these back. She carries the weightiest armors, wields the sharpest swords, hefts the furthest spears. But what's more, the Land of Zoroaster is filled with resources. Metals, woods, foods, and more. The Darkbreaker breaks these resources from their place and takes them back to the light.
The Rot Priest: "I fill the world", Socializer Type
The Shadowsinger sings the shadows back and reveals the world. But he does not reveal it all and he cannot fill it well. Some metals, some trees, some small animals. But nothing astounding. He's a big picture type of guy. The Rot Priest fills the world the Shadowsinger finds. Using magicks that some may call unseemly, he takes the shadows and weaves them into mighty monsters, stately trees, fish and birds and metals and dirt. The best animals, the best materials, can only be made by the Rot Priest on any consistent basis. But the Rot Priest can only draw so much from her own strength. To create, she must destroy. She cannot destroy the shadows; she destroys players and their items. She can take a sword and whittle down its durability to nothing and with that strength, she can make the metal necessary to build a stronger sword. The Rot Priest, like all classes, does not know the principle of equivalent exchange. While the price may be steep, she can always create more potential than the actual she destroys. Oh, and one more thing: remember that 2 minute window? If a Rot Priest walks by while you are dying, she can make a bargain: she can take some of your strength or the durability of your items and make you live.
The Truthbuilder: "I refine the world", Achiever Type
If the light only had players and monsters and nature, it would still not be enough for the Truthbuilder. He wants to see swords and armor, robes and rings, books and scrolls. He wants to see great stone walls and towering citadels. He wants to make siege engines and catapults. The Singer finds, the Priest fills, the Breaker takes, and the Builder builds. Remember when I said that the land the Singer finds will be reclaimed by the shadows? Not if the Truthbuilder builds a mighty lantern to keep the shadows at bay. Everything decays in the Land of Zoroaster, though. With each hit, a sword dulls. The Truthbuilder can repair such things, keep them in working condition. But even the Builder cannot keep things working forever. Eventually, the Truthbuilder will see his creations crumble into nothing. And he can build something new in its place.
The Beginnings of an MMO
So I've been having ideas for an MMO lately. Little, fun ideas. I'm not a designer. My ideas will never see the floor of some game designer's studio. But I am having so much fun imaging my favorite MMO, I figure, why not share them?
My game would be based loosely on Zoroastrianism. Loosely because I only know as much as wikipedia tells me about this religion. In Zoroaster's teachings, the world is ruled by two basic principle/spirits: Ahura Mazda (Illuminating Spirit) and Angra Mainyu (Destructive Spirit). It teaches that "active participation in life is necessary for happiness and to keep chaos at bay." Some sects of Zoroastrianism believe in reincarnation and that when one dies, one's experiences are collected by one's guardian spirit to aid in the fight against chaos. You will see these concepts sprinkled throughout my posts. I would not use these exact terms for these concepts, as I would not want to offend those in the Zoroastrian faith. Indeed, if someone started calling their healer class "Jesuses", I suppose I would grow frustrated in their game due to my own beliefs. Instead, I will use them as general principles to guide my game creation.
I will name it "The Land of Zoraster", as a working title.
My game would be based loosely on Zoroastrianism. Loosely because I only know as much as wikipedia tells me about this religion. In Zoroaster's teachings, the world is ruled by two basic principle/spirits: Ahura Mazda (Illuminating Spirit) and Angra Mainyu (Destructive Spirit). It teaches that "active participation in life is necessary for happiness and to keep chaos at bay." Some sects of Zoroastrianism believe in reincarnation and that when one dies, one's experiences are collected by one's guardian spirit to aid in the fight against chaos. You will see these concepts sprinkled throughout my posts. I would not use these exact terms for these concepts, as I would not want to offend those in the Zoroastrian faith. Indeed, if someone started calling their healer class "Jesuses", I suppose I would grow frustrated in their game due to my own beliefs. Instead, I will use them as general principles to guide my game creation.
I will name it "The Land of Zoraster", as a working title.
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