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Personalized Legends

Posted: 15 Apr 2005, 04:21
by Kyokai
One of the main premises of an MMORPG is that every character you meet is another real person with real goals and a real story, some of which may intertwine with your own (thus, parties are formed).
However, I feel that the modern MMORPG game fails to capture the old epic style that has made games like Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy, etc. so much fun. Why is that? It's because no one has a story or a past, and most lack real, world oriented goals. Why isn't my character the fated one to save the world, or even the kingdom, like in the RPG days of yore? And what's to be done about this?

To remedy the situation and give a real story to players, I propose making an optional story generation system, one to which players can sign up in the game, and which will give them a uniquely generated story, one which may even intertwine with other PC stories, and which will involve NPCs in a way such that characters can actually get to know them, and perhaps even fight alongside them.

Anyway, the idea is a bit daunting, and I assume this is why it hasn't appeared in any other MMORPG, but I feel confident that I can sort out the problems and make this thing work. Technical difficulties aside, who would feel like giving some ideas on a system like this?

Posted: 15 Apr 2005, 06:44
by dadaemon
It sounds pretty nice. But I think it would be very difficult to implement this in a game. But the idea of searching for a player instead of a npc sounds very nice :P (Only problem is when the other player is in real life on the other side of the world and can't come online when the other player is online :P)

blah

Posted: 15 Apr 2005, 06:49
by Bear
Letsee... A storyline eeh? well, we can create a series of quests that lead to the same plots, by doing this, a character cna sign up for ONE and only one quest at a time, and can not do the same one twice. When you sign up for 1, the server registers your character as that quest. Each quest should lead to or branch out to even more quests. Not just collecting items or sending letters but to kill a boss monster.

Posted: 15 Apr 2005, 08:01
by Talaroc
It sounds like it would be cool. One thing: if this is implemented, allow the player some room to determine the general shape of their storyline (like, a small quiz at the beginning to determine what type of story it'll be), so that people have a bit more control over what kind of roleplaying they'll be doing.

Posted: 15 Apr 2005, 13:55
by Kyokai
I'm glad. It ;ooks like everyone is interested. There will undoubtedly be a quiz at the begining like Talaroc mentioned, to determine the kind of story and length that the player wants to engage in.and what time of day they usually play (to help with choosing other PCs to join them with.)

As far as it goes, there will basically be one main quest encompassing several secondary quests. example:
Main Quest: Find the 6 swords of the Veshin and return them to the temple of Mana before the fallen gods can get their hands upon them once again.
Quests: You'll have to go into a dungeon in a different part of the world each time in order to find each sword.
NPCs: you'll have to contact various NPCs. In this case, you'll porobably see alot of the mana sage, as well as important fingures in the towns surrounding the dungeons where the swords are kept. The sage might send players to different NPCs, who in turn reveal the location of the swords.
PCs: If the player needs help, he can ask the NPC who gave him the sub quest. That NPC will search the database of story-players and try to fidn one nearby who plays at the same general time as this player (and preferably needs to go to the same dungeon for his own reasons). The player approaches that PC, and an event sequence triggers in which the story is explained and the PC is given the option to join your party, as well as be incorporated into your story.
Conclusions: There will also be recurring villains, and some PCs that join you may have their stories branch over to the villains' side even (based on their character answers to the initial quiz). When each sword is found, and returned, some events play to move the major story along. After all these sub-events are cleared, a final event occurs, in which the hero and villain will have a final confrontation.
Rewards: After this, the hero is rewarded with lots of EXP, and possibly some change is made in the world (all the Veshin enemies lose levels for 2 weeks due to the purification of the swords or something like that). If he fails, the Veshin may end up even stronger for a period of time.

re!

Posted: 16 Apr 2005, 04:06
by Bear
well, i created a npc that does the test for... 4 different kinds of quests.
But ofcourse after taking the test, you can still take a different type of quest. This basically just shows which you would be better off in if you answer the questions truthfully.

4 types of quests:
Quest1, is for a quest with a party that wants to do as much killing as possible.
Quest2, is for people who want to just do errands by talking to npcs by themselves, getting in a few fights.
Quest3, is for party, but does not want to fight as much
Quest4, is for non party but with alot of killing

Posted: 16 Apr 2005, 07:22
by Talaroc
I was talking about more than just the style of play. The type of story a character's given should be determined by that test as well; some people will want to play traditional heroes, some to play troubled, angsty antiheroes, some to play mysterious wanderers, etc etc. It's about roleplay as much as it is about play style.

Posted: 16 Apr 2005, 07:31
by ElvenProgrammer
Talaroc wrote:some to play mysterious wanderers, etc etc. It's about roleplay as much as it is about play style.
Ok, you found my role 8)

Posted: 16 Apr 2005, 08:07
by benjamin
in my personal experience, I tried to get lots of people started playing PlaneShift after their new Crystal Blue release, and I only convinced one person to actually go through the trouble of setting up the character background information. even then, she was cursing and swearing at it and finally just gave up and put in junk info.

I strongly suggest, if it's not already being done this way, that you make it completely optional (something that can be entered in *after* the player has had some time to get used to the game and the other players.)

Posted: 16 Apr 2005, 18:02
by Kyokai
benjamin wrote:I strongly suggest, if it's not already being done this way, that you make it completely optional (something that can be entered in *after* the player has had some time to get used to the game and the other players.)
yes, of course :wink:

a game should only be as immersivwe as people want, but they shouldn't be limited in the amount of immersion they can have if they want it.

Posted: 17 Apr 2005, 15:11
by benjamin
Kyokai wrote:yes, of course :wink:

a game should only be as immersivwe as people want, but they shouldn't be limited in the amount of immersion they can have if they want it.
oh, if only the PlaneShift guys knew that :roll: