Succes Formula

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Mylo
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Succes Formula

Post by Mylo »

Hi all,

i've recently started to play the mana world. As the game is still in development, I would like to share my suggestions with you guys. At the end of my post I have placed a short summary and a visual.
Take a look at some successful rpg games. Pokémon, Final Fantasy & Zelda ofcourse. These games consists of:

1.A Mainquest

An event at the starting in the game will encourage the player to go on investigation. The player is trying to 'solve' the mainquest by accomplishing 'normal' quests (now: Nquest). The player experiences a big push to carry on playing the game, in order to solve the mainquest, through getting information/process of the mainquest by solving Nquests. Sidequests (now: Squests) have nothing to do with the mainquest, but gives the player an opportunity to get extra items.
Mana world:
The starting event could be anything; a kidnapped sister, memory loss of the player or ???. As long as the plot keeps interesting, a mainquest is a huge push for a player to keep playing. As the mana world is a MMORPG it should be fun to keep playing after the mainquest has been accomplished. A player who accomplished the mainquest is a player with a lot of experience in the mana world. He/She knows where to get items, potions etc and could start a shop or give aid to players.

2.Similarities between cities

A city/village should minimal consist of a few buildings that are trough the whole game the same. Think about the pokécentre & the pokémarket. The buildings dont have to look exactly the same, but it does need a sign that represents the use of the building. (like in Hurnscald) When a player comes to a city and see familiar buildings, it gives the player a feeling of trust. A city should feel to the players like a safety haven, while making the player curious with other buildings, like a mansion or something.
Mana world:
A city in the mana world should consist of:


I.Healing centre
(the inn where you can sleep for example)

II.Market
(with each city has it's own assortiment. This also could be different markets like weaponshop, clothshop etc.)

III.Mayor's House
(I will explain myself later on)

IV.Save point
(Soul menhir?)

3.A delimited world/zone

In, for example, pokémon the player has to get a badge in order to get to a new city. By limiting the zone a player can roam through, the player gets focused on discovering more of the virtual world. The player enjoys the effort he made in a quest if he is rewarded with a new piece of world.
Mana world:
This effect could be created in a few ways in the mana world. The best way I can think of is a Mayor's house. The player can only acquire a pass/badge to the next city if the player fullfill the mayor's demands. The mayor could ask the player to help all npc's in his town with their Nquests. Another demand could be to deliver an item to the mayor (which the player only can get by fullfilling various Nquests).
If an player goes to a city without the representive pass/badge, the player will not be allowed into the city, thus limiting the roaming zone and the player's progress of the mainquest. In respond the player returns to the previous city and starts to do Nquests to acquire the pass/badge. All Nquest should be started from within a city. Squests could be started from anywhere in the manaworld.

4.Zones, Cities and Monsters

The level of monsters should be placed according to the progress in the mainquest. At the start of the mainquest there should be lowleveled monsters. As the player moves to another city, the monsters that will appear should be higher of level.
Mana world:
This is done alright in the Tulimshar village (maggots etc), but between Tulimshar village and Hurnscald, the player has to run for his life among those black scorpions. This is a great block for players. They encounter the black scorpions and think: I shouldn't go that way, too hard/difficult monsters. So I think that the placement of cities and monsters should be redesigned. It should be obvious for a new player where to go next (by signs or by npcs telling directions).


Summary:
1.Create an Mainquest.
2.Create similarities between cities
3.Mayor's House for pass/badge
4.Zones, Cities and Monsters

Visual:
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Jaxad0127
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Re: Succes Formula

Post by Jaxad0127 »

Mylo wrote:1.A Mainquest
An event at the starting in the game will encourage the player to go on investigation. The player is trying to 'solve' the mainquest by accomplishing 'normal' quests (now: Nquest). The player experiences a big push to carry on playing the game, in order to solve the mainquest, through getting information/process of the mainquest by solving Nquests. Sidequests (now: Squests) have nothing to do with the mainquest, but gives the player an opportunity to get extra items.
Mana world:
The starting event could be anything; a kidnapped sister, memory loss of the player or ???. As long as the plot keeps interesting, a mainquest is a huge push for a player to keep playing. As the mana world is a MMORPG it should be fun to keep playing after the mainquest has been accomplished. A player who accomplished the mainquest is a player with a lot of experience in the mana world. He/She knows where to get items, potions etc and could start a shop or give aid to players.
Remember, there are potentially hundreds of people playing the game. Having them all arrive with a missing sister, or so, detracts from the realism. Creating a bunch and giving each character a random one won't work too well either, as you'd need to play through the whole game many times to see it all.
Mylo wrote:2.Similarities between cities
A city/village should minimal consist of a few buildings that are trough the whole game the same. Think about the pokécentre & the pokémarket. The buildings dont have to look exactly the same, but it does need a sign that represents the use of the building. (like in Hurnscald) When a player comes to a city and see familiar buildings, it gives the player a feeling of trust. A city should feel to the players like a safety haven, while making the player curious with other buildings, like a mansion or something.
Mana world:
A city in the mana world should consist of:


I.Healing centre
(the inn where you can sleep for example)

II.Market
(with each city has it's own assortiment. This also could be different markets like weaponshop, clothshop etc.)

III.Mayor's House
(I will explain myself later on)

IV.Save point
(Soul menhir?)
Every city does have the basic amenities already, but they will each have a different style.
Mylo wrote:3.A delimited world/zone
In, for example, pokémon the player has to get a badge in order to get to a new city. By limiting the zone a player can roam through, the player gets focused on discovering more of the virtual world. The player enjoys the effort he made in a quest if he is rewarded with a new piece of world.
Mana world:
This effect could be created in a few ways in the mana world. The best way I can think of is a Mayor's house. The player can only acquire a pass/badge to the next city if the player fullfill the mayor's demands. The mayor could ask the player to help all npc's in his town with their Nquests. Another demand could be to deliver an item to the mayor (which the player only can get by fullfilling various Nquests).
If an player goes to a city without the representive pass/badge, the player will not be allowed into the city, thus limiting the roaming zone and the player's progress of the mainquest. In respond the player returns to the previous city and starts to do Nquests to acquire the pass/badge. All Nquest should be started from within a city. Squests could be started from anywhere in the manaworld.
There are other ways to do this, I don't particularly like this method, as it is rather unnatural. Players should be free to roam as they please, limited by monsters and travel between continents (where we could restrict levels, etc).
Mylo wrote:4.Zones, Cities and Monsters
The level of monsters should be placed according to the progress in the mainquest. At the start of the mainquest there should be lowleveled monsters. As the player moves to another city, the monsters that will appear should be higher of level.
Mana world:
This is done alright in the Tulimshar village (maggots etc), but between Tulimshar village and Hurnscald, the player has to run for his life among those black scorpions. This is a great block for players. They encounter the black scorpions and think: I shouldn't go that way, too hard/difficult monsters. So I think that the placement of cities and monsters should be redesigned. It should be obvious for a new player where to go next (by signs or by npcs telling directions).
That is being worked on.
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Mylo
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Re: Succes Formula

Post by Mylo »

Ok, I understand your explanation why a mainquest ain't gonna work.
The reason why I noted the similarities between cities down, was that it is not obvious for a player which npc is a shop and which is not at this moment in-game.
I like the level-limited travel between continents idea.

I will keep an eye on this project, if i have more spare time i will try to contribute some stuff to the project.
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