Just some random gamer ramblings

So, I was beating my head against a wall in Lies of P, and got to thinking: what would I want if I made Splintered Sky into a game. Obviously, there's a lot of different routes it could go, but something that really stuck with me was "wouldn't it be interesting to try to make an EVE style game out of the setting." So, I got to thinking "how could I make something like that and make it interesting." Full disclosure, I'm not a game designer (obviously) but it could be a fun thought experiment. So, here goes.

• The game is set on an alternate version of Impraecordia, where Selenia and Solaria are still actively are in an alternating cold and hot war with one another across the continent, with the shadow-stalkers acting as a third party to ensure that neither side grows to powerful and overtakes the other.
• At first login, the game randomly generates a character for the player, assigning them a tribe (terran, harpy or eldritch), race (sun-gazer, night-weaver, shadow-stalker), starting location, sex, and stats (including magical aptitudes). After that, the player is allowed to pick a profession (class), and skills. Characters are account bound, so they cannot be changed.
• Character "leveling" is not done through a traditional levels system. Instead, it is done through "skill points," which characters can invest in to improve their character's stats, skills, or abilities. Skill points, however, cannot be assigned except to skills the character is actively using or training in. So, if a character wants to increase their skill with firearms, they need to engage in combat or spend time in a firing range.
• The ratio of the three nations in game would be around 3:3:1 for sun-gazer:night-weaver:shadow-stalker. Each nation is also given a set of goals: for Solaria and Selenia, the overall goals are to: make sure their nation is prosperous and healthy, and ensure that their rival nation (Solaria for Selenia and visa versa) does not claim Impraecordia. Conversely, the shadow-stalkers are tasked with disrupting both sides to ensure that neither of them gain dominance or claim the majority of Impraecordia.
• Like in EVE, there's a starting, high-sec area to help the players get a feeling for the game's systems, and a massive area that is essentially the "null-sec" where they're allowed to do what they want. However, some of these systems include maintaining their home nation's economies. For example, there would be mechanics for farm simulating, which would be necessary to ensure that there is enough food. If not enough farms are maintained, players stop being able to buy food, or prices of food go up greatly if production doesn't match demand.
• Starting locations would be in Solaria, Selenia and within a hidden shadow-stalker enclave. Like in EVE, there would be NPCs in both the high-sec and null-sec areas, but there are no quest givers. Instead, players are given the freedom to do as they wish.
• The other member species of the alliance are present, in the form of NPC nations, and act as trade partners that can provide aid, but have a "loyalty gauge" that decreases if players take aggressive action towards them, or do not engage in active diplomacy and trade. The lower the loyalty gauge, the less likely they are to provide assistance in the ongoing war, and may even withdraw completely if their "loyalty" level goes too low. In the case of the shadow-stalkers, they have "loyalty gauges" with the harmonious monster races, and earn and lose loyalty based on shadow-stalker assistance in attacks on the other nations or providing intelligence on other player activities. So, if a group of Selenian players are mining in camazotz territory, a shadow-stalker can alert the camazotz to their presence, and assist them in driving off the miners to increase the camazotz' loyalty to the shadow-stalkers. Conversely, if the shadow-stalkers give bad information, like alerting them to a false location or refuse to assist in an attack on the miners, the camazotz' loyalty will decrease.
• Magic is handled through minigames. For sun-gazers and night-weavers, these take the form of a rhythm game to represent their spell-dances and spell-songs, respectively. Conversely, shadow-stalker spells are managed through holding button combinations for set periods, and maintenance of their life-pool meters.
• Players are not limited to a specific set of game generated spells. Instead, there is an adaptive spell-craft system that allows players to customize their magic based on which race and tribe they belong to. For example, if a player wanted to create an offensive spell that lobbed a fireball, they would construct the spell using a series of drop-down menus that would create the spell. However, each element of the spell would have an effect on the final spell-dance length and difficulty. Further, the spell isn't considered created until the player successfully casts it (i.e. beats the rhythm game). Once created, they can decrease the difficulty and/or cast time by "mastering the spell" through repeated castings and expenditure of skill points, though there is a diminishing return on investment. Also, once a spell is created, it can be taught to other players.
• In addition to the opposing player nations, there would be "wild" NPCs representing the hostile nations (such as the raptorians for Solaria or the camazotz for Selenia) or monsters. These would include world-bosses, such as dragons, powerful chaos-spawn, etc. These NPCs would act as a non-player created threat, and would periodically attack Solaria or Selenia in some way, and have to be dealt with by the players. If players pass through their territory, those attacks would increase until the players leave their controlled areas. For example, lets say a group of players is heading to intercept a night-weaver army coming from the north passes through the bright-desert, which is raptorian territory. This would provoke the raptorians, who would attack them. And even if the raptorians are driven off, they would periodically harry the Solarian supply lines. These NPC monsters are not immediately aware of the presence of intruders, and must detect them via patrols or being alerted by a player shadow-stalker.
• Periodically, there will be "Chaos incursions," where chaos-spawn manifest. These events trigger a world-crisis state, where all harmonious groups temporarily must work together to defeat a powerful world boss and its minions. Beating these Chaos-spawned world bosses will require assistance from the NPC nations, including the ones that are normally hostile towards the players. Hostile NPC will cease hostility if alerted to the Chaos-spawn by the shadow-stalkers or by encountering them in their territory. To encourage the players to engage with the boss, for every day out of game that it remains on the field, resource production levels drop, slightly at first, but compounding with each passing day, until at a certain point, farms, mines etc., are only producing 1/50th of their normal levels. Once the boss is defeated, production levels return to normal at an inverted rate (large gains, then slower until back to normal). NPCs will give a "grace period" for players to return to their nation, unless attacked, in which case all wild NPC will attack the players, while allied NPCs will lose a large amount of loyalty.

New additions that came to me as I was out running errands.

• Game is played from a 1st person perspective.
• Play takes place in 3D space, with a high sky-box allowing for harpies and other fliers to take advantage of their natural ability to get off the ground.

Anyhow, that's all I've got for now.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

This honestly sounds miserable to me, but then, I never got into EVE Online. Clearly it's fun to someone, you included. More power to you.

[Blackwatch9]

It’s definitely a interesting idea though I wonder if there are any game companies that are interested in making such a game?

[The Voice in the Water]

5815501
I'm honestly confused as to why it sounds miserable. Could you elaborate? No shade. Just curious.

5815531
Gaia willing, I'd be able to make a pitch for it. But I'd need more than a few minutes of brainstorming.

[FanOfMostEverything]

5815569
For one, the random character generation and faction assignment, especially when shadow-stalkers have such a dramatically different play style. What if I want to fly and roll a terran, or cast spells and roll a harpy? What if I want to join Selenia but roll Solaria?

Player characters having to maintain their faction's economies also sounds like a grind that distracts from actual gameplay. Booting up an MMO to work on a farm feels like something's gone awry. (I don't know how long this would take, but I assume it would require a non-negligible quantity of time to avoid runaway resource production.)
Granted, this is coming from a former FFXIV omnicrafter, so I do recognize that this hinges on how fun that economic gameplay is, but I do have to wonder who's coming to a fantasy world specifically to keep its markets going.

NPC loyalty seems very easy to grief with concerted effort, and one should always consider that someone in an MMO is going to have fun by taking it away from others.

Customizable magic in an MMO sounds like a nightmare to balance, even if there's no PvP. Yes, the more complicated spells will require more complicated inputs, but there will always be someone who pushes the system to and past its limits, because that's how they have fun.

Chaos incursions... Well, as long as they drop good enough loot for everyone who participates in the fight, that shouldn't be a problem.

Of course, the big problem is that I've never played EVE Online and, given what I've heard about it, have no desire to. But translating that gameplay style from a galaxy to a continent seems like it would be tricky at minimum. As you said, no shade intended. I'm just not seeing the appeal from a game design perspective.

[The Voice in the Water]

5815574
Makes sense, and most of that's kinda what I was figuring might be the source. As you've said, EVE's a very different kind of game, and a lot of the issues you've mentioned do come into play. That's the thing with EVE, it's entire driving force is this open sandbox and emergent gameplay, where the players are the ones who make most of the things that happen in the world happen. What I'm envisioning is kinda like EVE tossed into a blender with a farming sim and survival game.

To address the character creation thing, I do get that having that control taken away can be disappointing, especially since its an industry standard practice. However, if there's a "make random character" feature in a game, I will usually use it. I actually enjoy these sorts of things because it ironically helps me connect to my character and get me to be more creative with them. In a sense, that rather than this being a doll to drape myself over, its someone from the world, "born" of random happenstance, that I get to experience the world through. A sort of "I may not have control of how I was born, but I control my fate" kinda thing. And it would be a prominent, advertised feature, so nobody would be blindsided by it.

As for PvP, it would feature prominently. Its kinda the point that there would be, since the three main nations are at war and controlled by players. And it wouldn't just be direct combat like a battleground. In EVE, there's player driven diplomacy, intrigue, small scale battles and full on wars. That's the draw. We make the game happen. We drive it. We're given the toys needed, and told "have fun."

But, that's just my $0.02 (on a PC right now, so I can't do the cents symbol like I can on my Mac)

[Blackwatch9]

Say I recently got a new strategy game called “Songs of Silence” and in the setting of that game I found some similarities it shared with Splintered Sky, one of the most notable were that there are two worlds, Sonnan and Irdheim which are worlds of Dark and Light respectively who’s inhabitants descend from a common origin much like Solaria and Selenia.

It got me thinking, instead of a MMO like EVE how about a turn based strategy game much like “Songs of Silence”?

[The Voice in the Water]

5816306
That was an idea that crossed my mind, honestly. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the Iron Kingdoms games (Warmachine and Hordes), but I could see something like that. Or maybe Xcom.