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ADD Failstate for the Server; Players can LOSE; TENUOUS Balance; CONTROL Power Scaling;
Sapiverenus
Member
Nodes are meant to solve the problem of singular player sinks in the world, and provide some new mechanics.
But the importance of player spread can be multiplied and more FUN than Planned.
I'd like something more interesting like a warfront around big threats in the world to keep them contained/ at bay and enemies popping up everywhere that are great at surviving long-term;
Trying to take over things, competing with the players. . . . to the point where entire sections of the world where there used to be Nodes may be 'Owned' by NPCs. They would breed over time. . . set up fortifications. Large weapons such as Ballistas, Cannons, et cetera. . .
A guarded Territory.
Let Death be PUNISHING. Let Strategy BUILD the WORLD and TURN entire 'WARS'.
Winning servers may be opened back up a year(s) later as part of an expansion OR THE EXPANSION SWOOPS IN ONE DAY AND WRECKS SHIT UP without 'pausing' the Won Servers.
LOST servers Shutdown and RESET.
CHOOSE: EXPECTED PLAYTIME FOR ROUGH BALANCING.
Easy Fix to: Ratio of NOLIFERS to 4 WIFEs 12 KIDS FAMILY MEN.
CHOOSE: [PvP, PvE, PvX] Preference?
Easy Fix to: RATIO OF [KILLKILL, HELPME, HAVEFUN] -ers.
Type in Friends Account Name --> You can Join their Server. But if you fuck up the RATIO the Server will be MODIFIED.
Too many PvE? Increase PvE Threats. Make them smarter. Make them more aggressive.
Too many PvP? You sure? That happens? Really? ok. Game requires cooperation anyway so who cares. It shouldn't be a problem since PvP players are basically PvX for the most part.
Too many PvX? You will all become PvX, in Time.
Systems may be updated; some visuals and audio changed; improvements to dogshit for all Phases of the Game; but 'new story/world progression' would be locked behind progression of the server.
I think a 3 - 9 month timescale on Winning would be pretty work/life/fun balanced. This will be based on the average ratio range of NOLIFERs to 12 WIVES 4 KIDS FAMILY MEN .\
Stagnation is a huge issue and simply having a Failstate to the game would contribute to making a fun high friction game. HIGH DYNAMIC. Cool.
If players are need all over, contributing all over to many things, you are man power and wars need manpower.
Economies need manpower.
My suggestion is pretty dogshit if one person can craft 1, 800 Adamantium Swords in an hour after putting in 500hrs to reach that Crafting Level.
If someone can make 1 unsharpened adamantium sword in an hour, being a nearly unbreakable sword doesn't make it magically slice Dragon Scale or Stone like Butter sharpened or not, and spending all your time on Crafting is sometimes detrimental to the Server
BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO STRATEGIZE TO WIN, NOT GRIND but hey it can be great. . .
And often you need to focus on other things just to get to the point where you're Crafting, such as Gathering or Fighting for Resources. . . .
then no matter how long you play the game you can be useful.
With Gear not the be all end all of winning and survival. . . steel is steel of various grades, adamantium is good but a 900 ft Dragon doesn't care about scratches and won't let you near it without you dying.
Killing all the Elephants may piss off the Dragon; since it is its Food Source. Hence the Node is attacked. Instead of having to Kill to Survive, you may need to simply BREED more Elephants or wait until the Dragon finds another Food source.... Seafood?
Maybe the world is populated by all kinds of Monsters and Dinosaurs you should not Mess With. . . and Understand the Feeding Habits and Territory of.
Many things should be done in groups.
In terms of other players though. . .
If power scaling is more realistic it's the same thing as with econ; everyone is needed.
If combat has many realistic mechanics it's the same thing as with econ; everyone is needed and your skill and group often matters more than character progression.
But softlock that shit. ~Minute, ~Hourly, Daily and Weekly softlock. Intermittent softlocking that follows the pattern of EXHAUSTION. Softlock off-class gains like a mofo.
Game shouldn't be a huge range of underpowered or overpowered Players; and softlocking helps balance everything to an EXTREME degree.
You still have the guy with a 100 lb greatsword but if there's
friendly fire
And he is a completely different fighter with completely different consequences for Combat Encounters compared to a ROGUE or RANGER.
Let SOFTLOCKS determine CLASS. Attributes and Skill make up a character or person both; it's realistic and practically designs itself!
Ranger gets softlocked sooner than a Fighter on Strength Growth. . . . but Ranger gets softlocked later than a Fighter on Agility and Bow Skill Growth.
Rogue gets softlocked sooner than a Ranger on Stamina and Bow Skill Growth. . . . but gets softlocked later than a Ranger on Agility and . . . Dagger Skill Growth.
It's a predictable pattern and merely needs to be TUNED and ELABORATED Upon.
But nothing gets done if EVERYONE puts in 30 minutes because then your server LOSES! DEAD!
BECAUSE THE SERVER IS ALIVE AND TRYING TO FUCK SHIT UP!
You can still get stuff done without your Character Progressing. You still make stuff; do stuff; avoid stuff; help or hinder; be productive or deconstructive. . . . sabotage or guard. . . or simply improve your skill, maybe have some Fun eh?
Point of the game isn't the grind; that guy putting in 4 hours should be Defending the Realm or whatever Grief he wishes to cause other players. I can imagine all the drama to read up on and watch videos of already.
You can still sit in one spot and do something easy.
Just hang out in the Node and vote for the most competent person. Go to the Secured Resource Collection Zones and put in an hour while talking over VOIP if ya feel like it.
Run to safety when the Gnolls attack; glance back and see your friend die and barely escape (or be the dead guy lol). Hope the Guards can take care of it.
Guards and anyone. . . should be able to get fucking XP from DOING or 'Training' rather than just Kills or some arbitrary "Quest" XP (jfc).
Some people just wanting to Guard the Gatherers will want to play the 'Training Mini-game' while not doing much or Dueling. . . whatever.
But the importance of player spread can be multiplied and more FUN than Planned.
I'd like something more interesting like a warfront around big threats in the world to keep them contained/ at bay and enemies popping up everywhere that are great at surviving long-term;
ambushing and roaming like living entities and groups;
hunting to kill;
stealing resources;
et cetera;
hunting to kill;
stealing resources;
et cetera;
to give the spread of players more purpose and reward initiative in a non-gimmicky non-TOKEN non-fake way. . .
Trying to take over things, competing with the players. . . . to the point where entire sections of the world where there used to be Nodes may be 'Owned' by NPCs. They would breed over time. . . set up fortifications. Large weapons such as Ballistas, Cannons, et cetera. . .
A guarded Territory.
ADD a Failstate to Servers. Let Players fail. I have BALLS GOD DAMN IT I DON'T NEED THIS SAFE SHIT.
Let Death be PUNISHING. Let Strategy BUILD the WORLD and TURN entire 'WARS'.
With a punishing game you can balance encounters & systems and worry less about power accelerating and scaling out of control.
Those PUNISHED will Organize or struggle to get their Basics down.
Those Winning will Lead (or fuck around).
Low Character Progression and High enemy INTELLIGENCE will BALANCE and more importantly be FUN.
Winning servers may be opened back up a year(s) later as part of an expansion OR THE EXPANSION SWOOPS IN ONE DAY AND WRECKS SHIT UP without 'pausing' the Won Servers.
LOST servers Shutdown and RESET.
NEW servers have Low Max-Logged-In-Chars, Max 1-Char-per-Account, and Max 1-Account-per-Server.
Especially at START. . . 8k char & 8k accounts, gradually up to 15k chars & 25k accounts after a month.
Legacies may be written and available online similar to how Dwarf Fortress has Legacy mode to see the history of the world. This is a History of the World
This may only be available after the server 'wins' or 'loses'.
Player video of the time may be included with the Legacy pulled from Youtube or part of some server-client that collects video/pictures of the server occasionally and based on 'Importance'. Events/ Interactions may be catalogued in great Detail.
DEMOGRAPHICS and "CAN I WIN?" CONCERNS
SERVER DEMOGRAPHICS
PROMPT THE ACCOUNT USER:
CHOOSE: EXPECTED PLAYTIME FOR ROUGH BALANCING.
Easy Fix to: Ratio of NOLIFERS to 4 WIFEs 12 KIDS FAMILY MEN.
CHOOSE: [PvP, PvE, PvX] Preference?
Easy Fix to: RATIO OF [KILLKILL, HELPME, HAVEFUN] -ers.
Type in Friends Account Name --> You can Join their Server. But if you fuck up the RATIO the Server will be MODIFIED.
Too many PvE? Increase PvE Threats. Make them smarter. Make them more aggressive.
Too many PvP? You sure? That happens? Really? ok. Game requires cooperation anyway so who cares. It shouldn't be a problem since PvP players are basically PvX for the most part.
Too many PvX? You will all become PvX, in Time.
Systems may be updated; some visuals and audio changed; improvements to dogshit for all Phases of the Game; but 'new story/world progression' would be locked behind progression of the server.
I think a 3 - 9 month timescale on Winning would be pretty work/life/fun balanced. This will be based on the average ratio range of NOLIFERs to 12 WIVES 4 KIDS FAMILY MEN .\
Stagnation is a huge issue and simply having a Failstate to the game would contribute to making a fun high friction game. HIGH DYNAMIC. Cool.
BALANCE CONCERNS
"But the lifers! The grinders! I have 1 hour a day! I'll be IRRELEVANT!!"
If players are need all over, contributing all over to many things, you are man power and wars need manpower.
Economies need manpower.
My suggestion is pretty dogshit if one person can craft 1, 800 Adamantium Swords in an hour after putting in 500hrs to reach that Crafting Level.
If someone can make 1 unsharpened adamantium sword in an hour, being a nearly unbreakable sword doesn't make it magically slice Dragon Scale or Stone like Butter sharpened or not, and spending all your time on Crafting is sometimes detrimental to the Server
BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO STRATEGIZE TO WIN, NOT GRIND but hey it can be great. . .
And often you need to focus on other things just to get to the point where you're Crafting, such as Gathering or Fighting for Resources. . . .
then it's All Good. Epic, even. . .
If it always takes MANPOWER to do something; and Individual SKILL on Execution! Not that Token Skill either; a Higher standard of FUN TO DO rather than Arbitrary ####s and MISSING FUNCTIONALITY.
If it always takes MANPOWER to do something; and Individual SKILL on Execution! Not that Token Skill either; a Higher standard of FUN TO DO rather than Arbitrary ####s and MISSING FUNCTIONALITY.
then no matter how long you play the game you can be useful.
With Gear not the be all end all of winning and survival. . . steel is steel of various grades, adamantium is good but a 900 ft Dragon doesn't care about scratches and won't let you near it without you dying.
PICK YOUR BATTLES WISELY
and
NOT EVERYTHING IS MEANT TO BE KILLED
and
NOT EVERYTHING IS MEANT TO BE KILLED
Killing all the Elephants may piss off the Dragon; since it is its Food Source. Hence the Node is attacked. Instead of having to Kill to Survive, you may need to simply BREED more Elephants or wait until the Dragon finds another Food source.... Seafood?
Maybe the world is populated by all kinds of Monsters and Dinosaurs you should not Mess With. . . and Understand the Feeding Habits and Territory of.
"But the lifers! The grinders! I want to fight! They're too strong! Everything is Too STRONG!"
Many things should be done in groups.
In terms of other players though. . .
If power scaling is more realistic it's the same thing as with econ; everyone is needed.
If combat has many realistic mechanics it's the same thing as with econ; everyone is needed and your skill and group often matters more than character progression.
But softlock that shit. ~Minute, ~Hourly, Daily and Weekly softlock. Intermittent softlocking that follows the pattern of EXHAUSTION. Softlock off-class gains like a mofo.
Game shouldn't be a huge range of underpowered or overpowered Players; and softlocking helps balance everything to an EXTREME degree.
You still have the guy with a 100 lb greatsword but if there's
friendly fire
then he has a NICHE in Groups.
He's been GRINDING and deserves his gains! You can't get to PHASE 2 without him!
And he is a completely different fighter with completely different consequences for Combat Encounters compared to a ROGUE or RANGER.
COMPLETELY UNIQUE.
Let SOFTLOCKS determine CLASS. Attributes and Skill make up a character or person both; it's realistic and practically designs itself!
Ranger gets softlocked sooner than a Fighter on Strength Growth. . . . but Ranger gets softlocked later than a Fighter on Agility and Bow Skill Growth.
Rogue gets softlocked sooner than a Ranger on Stamina and Bow Skill Growth. . . . but gets softlocked later than a Ranger on Agility and . . . Dagger Skill Growth.
It's a predictable pattern and merely needs to be TUNED and ELABORATED Upon.
For 3x the weekly gains of someone putting in ->30 minutes 5 days a week or so, put in
4 hours 7 days a week or so.
But nothing gets done if EVERYONE puts in 30 minutes because then your server LOSES! DEAD!
BECAUSE THE SERVER IS ALIVE AND TRYING TO FUCK SHIT UP!
You can still get stuff done without your Character Progressing. You still make stuff; do stuff; avoid stuff; help or hinder; be productive or deconstructive. . . . sabotage or guard. . . or simply improve your skill, maybe have some Fun eh?
Point of the game isn't the grind; that guy putting in 4 hours should be Defending the Realm or whatever Grief he wishes to cause other players. I can imagine all the drama to read up on and watch videos of already.
CONCERNS???
"But I just want to chill!"
You can still sit in one spot and do something easy.
Just hang out in the Node and vote for the most competent person. Go to the Secured Resource Collection Zones and put in an hour while talking over VOIP if ya feel like it.
Run to safety when the Gnolls attack; glance back and see your friend die and barely escape (or be the dead guy lol). Hope the Guards can take care of it.
Guards and anyone. . . should be able to get fucking XP from DOING or 'Training' rather than just Kills or some arbitrary "Quest" XP (jfc).
Some people just wanting to Guard the Gatherers will want to play the 'Training Mini-game' while not doing much or Dueling. . . whatever.
There's plenty of room for low-effort and high-effort play if you make it.
CONCERNS???
0
Comments
This is - without a doubt - the worst formatted post I have ever seen in my life.
The only thing I understand is at the end I am being asked if I have concerns. I have many concerns, but right now they are all in relation to the post formatting.
I don't think any of what I suggest is very good on its own, but a "plan" when put together.
---> Edited it a bit
So, just to be clear, anyone that thinks your post (as I quoted it) is a mess to read is - in your mind - a "bit coder"?
Just to be clear: Who is it I've accused of being a botter in the DPS Mega Thread?
Found the TLDR
I expected this when writing it
Which will take away from the node and castle sieges we already have, and you want people who lose to have all their progress taken away with a reset and have the server shut down. Making it a non-persistent world.
And you want to redesign the crafting dynamic and by extension the economic layout of ashes.
So TLDR you want a game that isn't ashes of creation.
So glad I struggled through all that.
Some sort of "Accelerated Start" in New Servers [if said players have lost before] would be good. Not a great acceleration but a small one.
The change to crafting dynamic you'll have to elaborate on since I'm not sure what you're referring to, and why you are attached to it.
Can you maybe stop adding random gifs/pictures to every post and changing the color? Would be very nice of you. Don't want to always scroll trough some non readable post or anime stuff that doesn't belong here.
@OP: please fix your formatting
I tried. I think it looks pretty good.
EDIT: Why'd you quote them lol
I tried more formatting changes.
Then don't act dumb
All I've done in this thread is call out the absolutely horrid formatting of the OP. To be clear, basically every person that has posted in this thread has had issues with the formatting of the OP.
Seriously, stick to default basically everything. Most things are optimized for ease of reading in all cases. Standard formatting works regardless of device type, standard font color works regardless of background color, or indeed colorblindness of reader.
As soon as you start shifting away from the default, you start making things harder for someone.
It has less functionality.
I think this lends itself to "Creating the History of the Server". With less significance, its history does not matter. Failures and Successes mean more; player decision mean more; when there is a win/fail state of the World.
Basically it's more Epic.
@Noaani
Like what? Color seemed to work so I assume everything else does.
It seems the TLDR of all the topics he creates v_v"
Again, those are not "bad ideas" but those are not "ideas fitted for AoC". there is not ONE recipe to do a good game, but lot of recipe.
Lot of people love chocolate cake, not all. and lot of people love strawberrypie, not all. some love both also. But when i want to buy a chocolate cake, i don't want to have it with many strawberrypie part everywhere.
(and yes... this post is an horror to read x_x i don't know what is worse between the monoblock of words and this... )
I enjoy the dude's random gifs, not so much the colored text, but your best bet is to ignore ("block") his account so you can always click "show" and decide if it's worth looking at his anime stuff posts.
Regarding the text you wrote, your work is difficult to read, it has an illegible mix of quotes, "suggestions", questions to the reader, uppercase letters and unnecessary alignments all mixed together and it feels like it expects the reader to share the same ideas/premises/mentality as the writer to understand most of it. The title is not a title and it's hard to correlate the text to the title.
You tried to write an essay and ended up with an unintelligible combination of quotes, sentences, paragraphs and text formatting.
Regarding your "suggestions", I cannot understand why you joined these forums a week ago to share your ideas that basically make Ashes a different, and probably worse, game. I still read your posts expecting something interesting, and I don't want to be rude, but most of your suggestions are bizarre to say the least. In my opinion you should understand what the game is supposed to be, understand Steven's goals and then try to adapt your preferences into the game, without making the game become a completely different (and bad) game.
The Wolves of Verra
are recruiting: https://discord.gg/Rt8G3sNYac
This is the supreme challenge for completionists who want to read every single post.
Also a punishment for saying "use the search" on harmless threads. Definitely nothing similar was posted the last 7 years
I believe he wants a game that leaves emotional scars on people. Still don't know why he thinks reshaping the entire core of this one is the best way to go about it.
Maybe he enjoys people's reaction.
1. Wants an active enemy similar to [Thargoids/FFXI Beastmen/Strategy Game] with the purpose of triggering the human 'band together to win' reaction.
2. Desires a failpoint similar to the above, but no recovery option eventually, no havens, reason given is Testosterone(TM) and Easier Balance?
3. Desires limits on new servers in terms of Alts and max logins.
4. Wants players to indicate their playtime beforehand in order to balance server population distribution OR adapt the server to activity types.
5. Seems to be insisting strategy and manpower should have considerable priority over individuality when it comes to achieving goals.
6. Also seems to want ecological effects to provoke nigh-unkillable or unkillable threats (for my own group, think approx the dragons in Royal Road).
7. Possibly wants more friendly fire mechanics and player Niches? Unclear if it is 'can actually hurt others' or just Monster Hunter Flinch level.
8. Wants the standard 'skills and stats gain by usage' (FFXI weapon Skill Level style, for my people)
9. Suggests that those who are too peaceful or cannot play enough should stick to safe things, presumably with effects similar to Elite Dangerous' Mobius PvE group, but without the ingame enforcement.
Seeks opinions of those who have concerns with the above. Specifics of tuning are not given in the original post, but poster seeks feedback relative to it and may provide them if asked specifics related to tuning.
Parser adjustments will be made for semicolons and spread ellipses.