Awesome features that will add even more depth

Dakuan

Let me drop a few ideas in this pool of creativity.

Feature #1: Expanding ikons 

I know Lusternia recently got collection cards minigame (ikons). I also know they are only used for duels against players. Now how about expanding this feature, make it more popular and important? This how I see it:

Many NPC characters that reside in big cities can now be interacted with by "PARLEY" command. This starts ikons duel, like the one you do against other players. Every time NPC is severely hit by ikon (looses like 20% hp), he reveals a small part of story - it can be lore fragment or something interesting about game world. When player wins parley, he gets full story to read. Which story is told chosen randomly from big pool (you can use for this books from Libraries). If player looses parley, he cant interact with this NPC for one RL hour.

Now this where it becomes interesting. Every NPC is connected to one type of city leveler, and each of those levelers is responsible for diferent buff. When you win parley from NPC A, leveler A goes up while few others go down. When leveler A reaches its peak, everyone who visits a city recieves major buff for few hours. Same goes for leveler B, C, etc.

Why this is awesome?

People work together for one common goal.

Newbies can be useful even for high level characters.

You can tell all kinds of lore this way, and it is more interesting then just reading a book.

Players get buff. Players love buffs.

This is dynamic. You never know what kind of buff city has (all buffs should be equally useful, so people didnt just rush for one particular).

It makes ikons not just a minigame between players, but a huge part of the game!

Feature #2: Master goes, character stays

After logout characters disappears from the world. I know it sounds crazy, but what if they didnt? What if you could leave your character to keep working on your goals. And what if online players could somehow interact with those offline characters? This how I see it:

When you about to logout, you can choose to order you character stay in game and do something. He can earn gold by doing some work (online players will see description, that character is hardworking. And there can be all kinds of jobs, from sweeping the streets of Magnagora to feeding zoo animals), he can practice his skills and slowly progress them, stay as shopkeeper at his master's shop (and invite customers with roomwide shouts), he can go hunting or seeking treasures. Or random thing between all those. 

Offline characters are marked, so everyone can distinguish them from real.

Those are not just mere AFKers. There is full description for every thing they are doing, and online players can see it. Offline characters can even do basic emotes once in a while.

Character stays in game for 24 hours after logout (then disappears, this will prevent overflood of left souls). Or until master comes back.

After player logs in, he can check what his character have achieved while he was away.

If offline character dies, player finds him where he died with a message how he died. This can happen only if master chooses to hunt or if character is killed in PvP.

Online players can interact with offline characters. For example, ask them for a lesson and if player allowed that, lesson will be given. Or play ikon game with them for money, if master allowed (used same type of AI as NPCs in #1). There could be many creative ways to bring this online-offline interaction.

Why this is awesome?

It gives players sense of progression even after they logout.

You can do what you like, when you're in game, and make your character do what you hate (but have to do), when you logout.

This makes population look bigger, world feel more alive. And with smart online-offline interaction, it will not be just for numbers.

Players can write reactions of their offline character on key words, and go very far with it. So far, that chatting with offline character could be as interesting

as with real person. And making offline character a worhy RP interlocutor becomes a new unique goal for players. 

Feature #3: Rare mobs

I dont know if there are rare monsters in this game, but if there are not, its a good idea to add some. Basically rare mobs are mobs, that are spawn like usual species, but they have unique name, abit stronger, have like 12-16 hours spawn timer and have a chance to drop very good loot. Imagine joy when during boring hunting session you encounter rare beast which drops something special for you. You can tie achievements to killing particular rare mobs and add honour title for killing every single of them.

Why this is awesome:

During casual hunting you can meet rare creature, which suddenly makes hunting more rewarding.

Can integrate rare mob loot into crafting for better crafted items.

More achievements, more goals.

Feature #4: Big Hunt

Imagine that you're doing something and suddenly see a huge red warning, that something big spawned at <Zonename>. You go there with your guild/city comrades, and upon arriving see crowds from enemy city. Bloodbath follows, and the winners get the privilege to fight enormous beast (which can be only defeated by group or very very strong person), claiming the trophy. Trophy can be brought to the city, so that every citizen recieved benefits from it. It is attached to city walls for, lets say, 24 hours. Then it disappears and in random timeframe creature respawns again (shouldnt happen too often, so people werent bored with it).

Why it is awesome:

Cool PvP event, that brings group fights on regular basis without any hard work from GMs.

Participants fight for their city benefits.

You can attach rating, which city defeated The Beast how many times and leads the race. Competition is always a good thing.

Feature #5: Treasure maps

Again I assume this feature is not in game yet, since I didnt see it. But it could be a great addition. This how I see it:

Every NPC trader has a slight chance to offer a treasure map for sale. Player who buys it, must go through unique type of quest, where he has to figure the location of treasure chest in limited time frame. Chest could spawn anywhere in the world, even at enemy city. Treasure map is basically a series of clues that lead to this location. When you buy the map, you see the first clue. It brifly describes where you should go first. Description should not be obvious, but contain enough info for players to know where to go. When you reach certain room, you get second clue, and after you do that, final third leading to the chest. Best way would be to make everything randomly generated, so that people didnt just farm those quests (for those vets who know every bush in the world they will be easy anyways, but its okey). 

Why this is awesome?

Gives more reason to learn all the wonderful places in Lusternia. Thoroughly read room descriptions, since this knowledge will help alot in treasure hunts.

New unique way to get gold or even credits, if devs are generous enough.

Possibility of awesome adventures if chest spawns on hostile territory.

Gives reason to pay a visit to shopkeepers even for experienced players (who I doubt ever visit them)

Thats it for now. Any kind of feedback welcome

Enyalida

I'm glad you've got so many ideas! As some other people have posted, you might want to wait until you've got a fuller grasp on the existing game mechanics before posting big changes though! 

The quote engine is gimpy, so I'll just have to respond in the quote box, sorry! I'll italicize  my responses.

Dakuan said:

Feature #1: Expanding ikons 

Well, there's already a bit of pushback against increasing minigames within the game. Ikons already are a pretty huge minigame, that gives out prizes for competition, and can be consumed for (quite huge, if you get the right kind) influencing exp buffs. Not to mention that just having a gestalt up already buffs influencing!

I don't really understand what you're talking about with 'city levelers'.

Feature #2: Master goes, character stays

 

Besides being a big bloat/logistical problem, rewarding people for being afk with passive gold accrual is a bad idea, our economy is already absolutly flooded with devalued resources!

Keep in mind that while there are a few hundred people activly playing any given RL month, there are COUNTLESS alts and characters no longer being played. The world would be flooded by AFK players doing automatic tasks while offline, progress with no effort or input! That's a Bad Idea!

Feature #3: Rare mobs

There are quite a few named mobs' already. Some take quests to weaken to fight, others can just be taken on. A few fall into the 'supermob' category, requiring both a quest and a big group of players to take down, or they murderize you! Anyways, the game engine doesn't really support any major sort of random npc generation. They're all pre-written, and their levels are set by a complicated algorithm that uses hp values, level values, and attack values to set those three things and gold/xp.

Feature #4: Big Hunt

This is encompassed by supermobs. Some quests summon a big giant mob that helps or harms one or another org. For instance, you can do the Tainted Broadcasting Centre to raise GlobGlob. He then stops any other org from gathering bards or scholars. To take him down, you can either amass a HUGE group (like, 20+ players) or you can do a quest to weaken him down so that only 5-6 players are needed to kill him, stopping his evil propaganda! 

This idea is really a classic MMO thing, that wouldn't get much steam here. We already do have planned combat times, villages/flares/domoths/wildenodes, that hinge around more than just bashing a big mob with a damage attack. They give free power, free commodities, free constructs (some of which give massive perks) and other benefits.

Feature #5: Treasure maps

Scavenger hunt quests would be cool, though not really in this incarnation. What it would do is make the rich get richer, as they farm all the npcs for their maps, and plug the clues into a database of all of them, to churn out free profits. '

This already happens with some quests, like the Throne. Part of it has you finding the pieces to a logic-grid puzzle. You can bet everyone has the rooms with the pieces aliased to automatically grab them all! You just then have to solve the logic puzzle, and you get all of your friends a whopping bonus to health/mana/ego.

A few of these ideas are already in existance, a few others aren't likely to happen, for a variety of reasons. I urge you to participate in what conflicts/perks the game DOES have to offer, though! Some of them have their issues, but we (players, envoys, and admins) are working to improve them to make them more fun!

Dakuan

Can I ask, which ones are in game and how they are implemented?

Enyalida

Well, ikons already do provide character buffs! 

There are already quite a few named mobs that are tougher and give out bonuses. Some are the result of a quest, or must be killed for a quest!

Same with 'big hunt', there are a few mechanics like that:

 Once every two weeks, a few of the villages go into revolts, which sends out an 'ahoooga, ahoooga' to all players. Then, you start what is essentially a village wide influencing minigame to try and sway that village to your side. Some of these villages may call down 'peace' on their borders, which means that you have to keep to the influence mini-game and the debating mini-game, others do not and it becomes a bloodbath as each side tries to keep out any other org that might be swaying the populace! The victor gets a temporary territory that tithes power and commodities!

Another is wildenodes, which is once a month. Again, all players are notified when it happens (and it's always at about the same day each month, one of the sundays.. I forget which). You then rush up to the Astral plane to try and play a "capture the flag" type game, again with open-pk! You grab up as many of six nodes as you can, and try to plant them in your org's appointed sphere on astral. Each second, each node accrues points for your org. After an hour, the org with the most points wins! Each org gets as many points as they accrued, each IG 'month', with the winner getting a bonus to culture. 

You just missed the nature challenge, which was a big special scavenger hunt, with huge credit prizes. There's guaranteed to be at least one a year, but there are usually more. Some quests also have similar 'scavenger hunt' type mechanics, though they often aren't new each time, and will be confined to one area. 

Enyalida

As far as giant mob hunts, the TBC is a good example, but there are quite a few other quests that either require you to take down a big, tough, named mob, or that raise one in the process. One you may become acquainted with is the Marani quest: Once it's done, she sings her song, which echos throughout the mountain roads. When you hear it, it afflicts you! To take her down, you've got to get into her compound and bring a bunch of friends to kill her. 

Xenthos

"Rare loot" is encompassed by quests that provide certain item rewards.  For example, you can get vernal artifacts (temporarily, of course!) by doing Meliashmora quests.

Permanent "rare items" don't really work in a game of this sort, because items themselves on a whole do not give +stats, so there is no item that is inherently better than another; most things are crafted.  About the best thing that can be done is temporary artifact powers.

Moi

Enyalida said:

As far as giant mob hunts, the TBC is a good example, but there are quite a few other quests that either require you to take down a big, tough, named mob, or that raise one in the process. One you may become acquainted with is the Marilynth quest: Once it's done, she sings her song, which echos throughout the mountain roads. When you hear it, it afflicts you! To take her down, you've got to get into her compound and bring a bunch of friends to kill her. 

Marilynth and Marani, despite both being ghosts that sing at people, are totally not the same thing.

Enyalida

I meant Marani, sorry!

Elanorwen

I guess the crown of D'varsha (Could be getting the name wrong, apologies if so) can be considered a rare item reward where you get an item you can wear that allows you to eavesdrop on tells sent from and to players in your current location. The item stays with you for a few hours until the quest resets when you either have to do it again or not have it anymore.

Still, there are a ton of rewards that happen during events already, like that messaging cube, the snow phoenix curio, the solstice dragon mask and so on. Those are items that people can no longer acquire that were obtained with a quest during an event. Granted, the quests were pretty straight-forward and it was more a case of... repeat x amount of times during a month. Still, some of the rewards are pretty nice... the stocking comes to mind, which is sadly unobtainable anymore.

EDIT P.S.: Here's another reason having automated tasks happen while offline won't work. I know it's rather situational, but still. Presently, the ascension event is pretty much in full swing, meaning that any sealbearer will be getting randomly jumped by Kethuru mobs. Considering we don't really have a server-side auto-curing system, I don't see how some poor sealbearer won't end up spawning a bunch of those and randomly getting people (and themselves) killed while mindlessly producing gold.

Llandros

There actually is a server side health sipper but agreed that a seal bearer spawning dozens of keth bits to run rampant and slaughter newbies is not ideal. 

Elanorwen

Llandros said:

There actually is a server side health sipper but agreed that a seal bearer spawning dozens of keth bits to run rampant and slaughter newbies is not ideal. 

They don't simply hit. They have afflicts as well, so you don't just need a sipper, you also need some sort of curing involved. Most aren't too bad... the tongue keeps throwing in blackouts, the tentacles keep entangling, etc... of course there's the fun broken limb here and there too. And a large enough group can bring anyone down, really.

Akyaevin

Doesn't the Seal only spawn like one an hour? 

Xenthos

Way more than that. I think it can even double spawn.

Last year I had clusters of them numbering in the hundreds in my manse. It was a keth-bit-farm.

Ssaliss

It can definitely double-spawn (I saw Kregarn's do that). I think it can even triple-spawn if you're unlucky.

Elanorwen

Have had double-spawns on more than one occasion. The average spawn rate seems to be around 12-14 mobs/hour. Sometimes it goes faster, sometimes it goes much slower... and I think it might be affected by what you're doing at the time. I know I've had cases when I'll be sitting in my manse and I'll spawn 5-6 critters in under 10 minutes, while if I'm out there bashing, it seems to be going at a much slower rate... something like 1-2 in 15 minutes.

Cyndarin

new strategy: Fly above Celestia and spawn kethbits for hours.

Xenthos

Problem: Any sealbearer kills them on entry, and there are lots by now.

I found it more amusing just to make a manse death trap.

Elanorwen

Xenthos said:

Problem: Any sealbearer kills them on entry, and there are lots by now. I found it more amusing just to make a manse death trap.

There's a bunch, yes.... but none from Celest. And yeah, I was quite tempted to go spawn a bunch of them on some random Celest plane.

Xenthos

Elanorwen said:

Xenthos said:

Problem: Any sealbearer kills them on entry, and there are lots by now.

I found it more amusing just to make a manse death trap.

There's a bunch, yes.... but none from Celest. And yeah, I was quite tempted to go spawn a bunch of them on some random Celest plane.


Uh, yes, there are plenty from Celest. Any medallion from any year works.

Elanorwen

Oh, duh... didn't think of that... even though I saw Tacita use hers just yesterday.

Valen

Xenthos said:

Xenthos said:

Problem: Any sealbearer kills them on entry, and there are lots by now. I found it more amusing just to make a manse death trap.

There's a bunch, yes.... but none from Celest. And yeah, I was quite tempted to go spawn a bunch of them on some random Celest plane.

Uh, yes, there are plenty from Celest. Any medallion from any year works.

So spawns are tied to the medallion?  Or the seal bearer?

Elanorwen

Valen said:

So spawns are tied to the medallion?  Or the seal bearer?

It is my personal opinion that they're tied to the sealbearer rather than the medallion. Otherwise each and every medallion would be spawning each and every year.

Ssaliss

Only this years medallions will spawn kethbits, yeah. Older ones will still zap them though.

Elanorwen

Ssaliss said:

Only this years medallions will spawn kethbits, yeah. Older ones will still zap them though.

He was asking if it was the medallions themself.... i.e. if I gave my medallion to someone, would that someone spawn kethbits, or will it still be me.

Ghrowlii

Personally I think I like your second idea best.  Though of course it shouldn't last too long: like maybe a couple in-game days?  And also the character shouldn't be allowed to go hunting/influencing or sparring, and no one can harm them during this time.  And the character shouldn't be allowed to do anything that goes towards their achievements or quests.  However, doing a job and getting some gold might be a good idea.  And of course other people can learn lessons from them or greet them, and depending on their job, be something like NPC's, maybe give out bits of stories and legends.