The Mana World Forums

This topic is to work on and discuss the main storyline. I have been working on several things at once and it's time to start laying out some of the most fundamental parts.

The three factions.
There are three main factions in Gasaron. The player will meet all these shortly after their introductory quests on Drasil island. Here is a summary of the names of the factions, when they are met (at what level) and where.

The Legion of Gasaron - Lvl. 7-10 in Artis
The Restless Brotherhood - Lvl. 10-15 in the Artis Sewers
The Mana Order - Lvl. 15-20 in Tulimshar

Each faction has control of some human cities. Control of each city can be changed by players who engage in PvP above lvl. 25. Once a week, an opportunity will arise to change control of one of the cities and players will be able to fight on behalf of their faction.
At the start of the game, up to lvl. 15, the player will be in an instanced version of Artis where the city is by default under the control of the Legion (otherwise the starting quests would not make sense).

More to follow...

This looks good overall. The concept of factions for which the players can actually fight and change the game world is very nice and interesting. An interesting point to think about would be their relation to how we experience our clans, should clan wars also be a thing.

Here are some questions that came to mind while reading this:

• Once a player joins a faction, will this have permanent consquences, or are we going to be able to change our faction in the future?
• Are the levels required ranges or just what you expect the player to be at when the meeting occurs? If it's the former, how can the game make sure that the player will be on a correct level? What if someone, for example, keeps hunting unnamed fluffy mobs in a single area and does not visit the required location until when they're on a much higher level?
• Why should I want to join a faction where I won't be able to get any rest? (Not to say if I was a lady!)
• Will giving new players a vision of the game world different from the one the rest of players have not have bad effects for their game experience?

Tirifto wrote:This looks good overall. The concept of factions for which the players can actually fight and change the game world is very nice and interesting. An interesting point to think about would be their relation to how we experience our clans, should clan wars also be a thing.

Here are some questions that came to mind while reading this:

• Once a player joins a faction, will this have permanent consquences, or are we going to be able to change our faction in the future?
• Are the levels required ranges or just what you expect the player to be at when the meeting occurs? If it's the former, how can the game make sure that the player will be on a correct level? What if someone, for example, keeps hunting unnamed fluffy mobs in a single area and does not visit the required location until when they're on a much higher level?
• Why should I want to join a faction where I won't be able to get any rest? (Not to say if I was a lady!)
• Will giving new players a vision of the game world different from the one the rest of players have not have bad effects for their game experience?

• They cannot join more than one faction at one time because otherwise they would fight against themselves in PvP. It would also be lore-breaking. There might be a future quest to allow players to switch faction at one point.
• The lvl requirement would be a minimum lvl. However, the player will have to join at least one faction around lvl 25 (expected lvl) in order for the story to progress.
• I don't understand that one.
• No. This basically allows to have a fresh game experience several times over. If anything it's a good thing. See Skyrim or any other game with multiple factions.

WildX wrote:

• I don't understand that one.

The Restless Brotherhood. Restless. Brotherhood.

WildX wrote:

• No. This basically allows to have a fresh game experience several times over. If anything it's a good thing. See Skyrim or any other game with multiple factions.

I was trying to think of a scenario where a new player would find others playing as if the city was controlled by other factions, but that would probably only become a problem during some dedicated roleplaying.

As a side note, I would rather mention Morrowind (a predecessor of Skyrim), since it can run on weaker hardware and most importantly can be played with a free engine.

Tirifto wrote:

WildX wrote:

• I don't understand that one.

The Restless Brotherhood. Restless. Brotherhood.

LOL that was too subtle for me to comprehend. Well played.

Tirifto wrote: I was trying to think of a scenario where a new player would find others playing as if the city was controlled by other factions, but that would probably only become a problem during some dedicated roleplaying.

This would not happen often. If this ever occours, like in the beginning in Artis, we will have an instanced version of the city that is always controlled by the faction that we want.

Maybe you should make a neutral city someplace? Or maybe move the Legion and Make Artis Neutral?

There won't be pvp in the streets unless it's a special event. I don't think we need a neutral city.

One of the bigger problems that TMW has suffered from has been retaining new players, generally newbies like high quality content and prefer their mmos to not be ghost towns.
There have been attempts to remedy this by redesigning the tutorial, the latest of which is wushin's new Candor island(I still don't know why he didn't just put the tutorial in hurns ).
The longer a newb goes without seeing another player in-game the more likely it is that the newb is going to quit, the island doesn't take long to complete so it's not that big of a deal, but I doubt anyone would tolerate being stuck in an instance by themselves for another ten levels.

Mikko wrote:One of the bigger problems that TMW has suffered from has been retaining new players, generally newbies like high quality content and prefer their mmos to not be ghost towns.
There have been attempts to remedy this by redesigning the tutorial, the latest of which is wushin's new Candor island(I still don't know why he didn't just put the tutorial in hurns ).
The longer a newb goes without seeing another player in-game the more likely it is that the newb is going to quit, the island doesn't take long to complete so it's not that big of a deal, but I doubt anyone would tolerate being stuck in an instance by themselves for another ten levels.

The instance would group together all players under level 10-15, it wouldn't be just for that one player.

Hm... I agree with WildX for once.

Reid wrote:Hm... I agree with WildX for once.

Praise the Mana Gods, the day of judgement has come upon as and it has found me worthy of entering the Divine Kingdom of Reid's approval.

Reid wrote:Hm... I agree with WildX for once.

Meh, it's not like arguing works around here.

Mikko wrote:

Reid wrote:Hm... I agree with WildX for once.

Meh, it's not like arguing works around here.

Sorry but I didn't see what you were trying to argue, Artis won't be a closed instance for lvl <15, everybody will be free to join there, and it's still the hub that will connect every other cities.
So technically I both agreed to what WildX said and what you said, as Evol was technically doing what you said.

If there is Restless Brotherhood, there should also be Snoozing Sorority.