World Map

Would you prefer a map that already has cities built on it, or a clean one where you can build everything from scratch?

I love the idea that players can build their own cities and guilds. However, it might difficult for some players to find a starting point. So why not a mixture of both? I've got three suggestions for this.

Either you can have 1-2 starting cities in a part of the map and then a larger area where players can make their own cities. Though I could see a problem that players simply wouldn't bother to go with their own cities and would just essentially 'camp' the starting cities.

The second suggestion would be to have two continents, a continent with the starter cities on and then the empty continent in which players can build their own cities. However, this may cause the same issue as the first. Unless a few things like dungeons or rare enemies are included on this second continent.

The third suggestion would fix these issues. Instead of having starting cities, you have a few small villages which the players will start in and be able to expand upon; basically turning them into cities. To couple with this idea, I personally think it would not be a good idea to include leader ranks for these villages. Instead letting the players fight for the position, or icly elect someone they think deserves it. Of course, it would probably be a good idea to add in an area for players to build cities from scratch as well. The only worry would be having a map that's too large and spread out.

The way it is at the moment, there are four continents a player can select when making their character, each with their own terrain. For example the North continent is mostly forest area compared to the Southern continent which is much more like the Antarctic.

I planned on adding a small settlement for each continent that players can either expand upon, or move away from to start their own. Guilds are required to have their own HQ because they make a guild so that they have somewhere to place the noticeboard.

So I think it would be a mixture of the second and third suggestion, in that there are places players can go to encounter enemies and dungeon environments. But there's also the ability to start your own civilization if you will by creating a guild and progressing from there.

The only issue I can see with the large amount of continents is finding enough players to populate them all. Though the game previously did get an extremely high Pb, theres no guarantee that will happen again. Maybe at first, during alpha/beta testing phases, you stick with two continents. Enabling the other two once you are sure the Pb will be high enough to accomodate them all.

My plan was to allow the option to toggle them like in the previous game, where Admin's could enable/disable spawns based on the player base and what not. Even if you only enabled one, you could still use the others for story purposes or what have you.

Aye that sounds like the most logical option, anyways. Its sounding good I look forward to it.

The build verb is easily abusable. I'd give a requirement for players to be able to utilize it.

To be able to build you need role-play certification, so not just anybody can jump in and build. The right to build can also be removed.

I'm debating whether to make an object that the user can obtain, which allows them to place it on the ground and gives them a set boundary where only they can build. I'm not to sure about that though.

Mask of Illusion wrote:To be able to build you need role-play certification, so not just anybody can jump in and build. The right to build can also be removed.

I'm debating whether to make an object that the user can obtain, which allows them to place it on the ground and gives them a set boundary where only they can build. I'm not to sure about that though.

Yes that's more or less what I had in mind. The idea of having an environment created solely by the players is nice, but risky. It makes for good roleplay if done correctly, so they'd be why I support the idea as long as the staff can manage it properly.