Longterm goals for storyline and game progression.

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Ingolifs

Grandmaster Knight
This thread, I feel, is mainly for brainstorming ideas for the eventual addition of some sort of story.

First of all, i recognise that the ideas posted in here are for a long time down the track, and if they ever do get implemented (not likely) it will be after all the town are sorted out and stuff.

Currently in the game, apart from your stats and the cost of your equipment, very little changes in the game. You start off with leather armour, a low quality sword or axe and a handful of townsmen fighting river pirates, and you finish off with Black armour, a sword of war and a handful of swadian knights and crossbowmen fighting dark knights. Apart from that, nothing much changes in terms of who you are.

In order for this game to have really lasting potential, i think it needs to be set up as a microcosm of real (mediaeval) political situations, i.e. There exists the possibility that you could actually turn the tide of war one way or another. Counts and kings could be people who do more than just give you random quests. I'd like to feel that the game is a whole dynamic world where there other people like you, NPC heroes going about their own business.

At the start, it somehow doesn't feel right commanding an army. I'd like to be in a position in the early parts of the game, where you're just another soldier, and have to ride with a War party to wherever the leader deems fit. After a while of outstanding performance in the army, you could be Knighted and given your own piece of land. And from this land you can levy a small army. Further down the track you might even become a count, and have command of a town, and be able to raise a large peasant army along with a small army of knights.

Also, i think in big battle situations, there shouldn't just be one party with 220 people in it, but instead several smaller parties with 30 people each. And npc parties should have the ability to join fights that other people are fighting, as long as they can join one side.

I also like the idea of besieging towns, i remember someone posted it a while ago, and it was a better idea than the usual siege suggestions. In that suggestion, a certain type of party, maybe a 'war' party or 'siege' party could go to a town and surround it, at which point the town will change status to 'besieged' and noone will be able to get in or out until the siege party is defeated.

Does anyone else have lofty (and unlikely) ideas for the game's storyline and progression?
 
I'd like to see some story progression as well. Maybe small settler towns that are neither Vaegir or Swadian, in which you can recruit people or pick up quests.

However, a story usually has a beginning, a middle and an end, and I don't think anybody wants to see the game end. Keeping it open-ended means having a story is a bit more difficult.

One thing that could work is to have your NPC followers (like Borcha and Marnid, and others if there are going to be more) have stories and histories that catch up with them as you progress through the game. Or maybe choose a different starting town for your character. Neutral would be Zendar, but also have the choice of starting in on of the two people's capital city.
 
Another thought. I think you should always be ble to have soldiers. They just happen to be mercenaries, and you have to pay a fair amount to them to keep them

It's just when you become a Knight and own some land that you really should be able to start raising an army.

Another thing. I think all knights should be heroes, and therefore named. If you're a count or duke, you can hire them just like you can with Borcha and Marnid.

I don't think a name generator would be too hard to make, just ask me for some sample name pieces from which you could generate names.
 
Before any storyline, Calradia needs a thick backgroud.

For know we know:

The country is dominated by two balanced strenghts, Vaegir and Swadian. Both are monarchies

What type of monarchy exacltly? why are they in war? which ideologies do they follow ?


A good part of the bandits seem to be rallied under the banner of the Doragh keep

Why? Is there kind of a Godfather behind this? lots of possibilities.

Who are hte Black Kargut Raiders? Where do they comme from? Why?
Who are the Dark knights/hunters? Where do they com from blablalba


We have to answer all these questions before we start thinking of an in-game storyline. But i htink devs have probably already done this work.

I would be overexited to help for this background, but i think developpers have theyre ideas already.
 
I don´t really care for a storyline for the main character, "help me Toby Skullchrusher, your my only hope", but it would be nice to see a dynamic game world where war/siege parties actually could change something.

And npc parties should have the ability to join fights that other people are fighting, as long as they can join one side.
If you hang around a NPC/NPC battle you will see it often takes a day or so (at that time one party will try to escape). If all NPC parties could join a battle in progress, you would have never-ending battles on the border between the Vaegir and Swadian. Of course it would always be easy to find some action [/quote]
 
Which is why i think A: that fights should progress more quickly, and B that time should pass during a fight of your own, so that another NPC party could potentially join it.

The storyline could be quite simple. To me, it looks like the Vaegiers are defending and the swadians attacking. I say that Swadians believe they have a right to the land because at one point in old history a vaegir king produced a line of legitimate heirs that can be traced to the swadian king.
It's pretty much the situation in mediaeval france vs britain.
 
Ingolifs said:
I'd like to feel that the game is a whole dynamic world where there other people like you, NPC heroes going about their own business.
Hear hear! :smile: This is exactly what I'd like to see as well, and this is the reason I don't play any MMORPGS: None of them are truely dynamic.
 
If this can make a break from all the strict linear games out there, it'd be great. I'd say it's be the main selling point of the game. (apart from combat, but Armagan has that pretty much sorted anyway).


Oh and something else, i feel it quite odd that as a Vaegir with -15 relations with swadia, i am still able to venture deep into swadian territory without resistance. You may come across the occasional scout party or patrol while in Swadia, but there's nothing physical actually stopping you from going wherever you want. I'd think that the enemy towns, especially Sargoth would have a large number of soldiers patrolling around it.
And maybe if you had really bad relations with them, a War party would come out of the town whenever you approached it.
 
A good story should contain love, braveness, marriage, fight and so on...
Just like the movie: Brave Heart

A game only for fight will never be a good game.
 
I agree. Have people going about their own business while the world revolves around them is a great idea becaunse it allows unlimited quests that are always changing so it is impossible to become bored with "go there, fight this."
A good example would be, say, the Swadians take a Vaegir city (note at this point that I am a Vaegir Knight with -75 relations with Swadians, so I wouldn't be very popular if I tried to enter), so the nearest town decides to sneak supplies in to help the resistance (again, the local populace wouldn't be too pleased about the change in ownership), or, if the Vaegirs took a Swadian town, the King would tell you to stop any supplies entering for the rebels to use. This would be great as there are so many possible variations on this theme and the game could come up with them quite easily.
Also, why, when a bunch of Swadians get in a scrap with the Vaegirs, does a 100-man-strong Vaegir war party steam on past ignoring the fight when it could annihilate the Swadian lot easily? This means I always have to intervene to whup Swadian ass because the Vaegirs are pretty hopeless. This is why I joined the Vaegirs - they need all the help - and improved AI - they can get.
 
Yes Calradia needs much more depth. But it's a tricky one. Making a convincing world will require lot's of work.

I do like the land ownership idea. And it would lead to a justification for fighting for one side or another. As in... this this is my land and I will fight to defend it.

I also like the idea about the early levels where your character should be following orders rather than issuing them.

In terms of storyline. One thing is essential... why are these nations fighting? There needs to be a cause in my opinion. And yes... the whole situation needs to be fluid, with towns changing hands and player intervention having a lasting effect.

As other posts have mentioned - religion could be a cause for the war. Perhaps once upon a time Calradia was a peaceful land, with one god (or many gods) however at some point aschism occurred - harmony was distrupted and war broke out. Maybe it was years ago, maybe it was yesterday...

Perhaps the cause for war should be plain greed. The swadians have all the gold, oil or whatever.

Perhaps both sides are evil slave traders and a new free order needs to arise.

Perhaps the ultimate goal of the game should be to bring peace back to Calradia...

--

As an ex paper and dice roleplayer I thought it might be a useful add-on to have random history assigned to your character (as an option).

For instance in the character generation phase you should be able to choose your age. 14 - 40 for example. Depending on the age you choose you should have a generated history (and associated stats).

I'm thinking things like:

Status: noble birth, son of a merchant, daughter of a forester, illigitimate son of a king etc etc.
Cash: variable on status and experience
Military service: giving starting characters better combat skills
Other: parents murdered by a Vaegir war party (axe to grind etc)

This could go on and on - and would mean that your character would have a history and have a purpose.

Just a thought.
 
I was just going thought the conversations in the editor and found a lot of new things.Will they be in the final version?
 
You guys want to change the entire game around, I want to see the full game come out in a few months or so...Not in a few years, with the ideas like "land ownership" This game will get to confusing way to fast.
 
Before we [they...] can mod it, we need to know what's in and what's not.
Not everybody needs a plot, a dynamic world, mass-combat resolution engine, or whatever.

But we need a framework for modders to work on.
And the more flexible that framework will be, the greater freedom modders will have.

That's why Armagan needs an idea of our wants/wantsnot - so he can plan accordingly.
Maybe he'll be saying "sorry guys, it's a no do", but at least we tried.

He's actually listening for input; it's not like we're wasting his time.
First of all he's got moderators filtering nonsense out.
Second, he's out to create a game people will buy; as beta-testers and first buyers it's only natural for us to tell him what his prospective customers will ask or expect.

:smile:
 
I completely agree. Most of the game developers hide their games like a military secret until the full release, then naturally players start to complain about a lot of thing they find missing or they dont like in the game. Armagan's approach is very logical since he gets the feedback during the entire creation period of the game. So it can be said that the final product will satisfy most of the gamers, and will be bug free.

You guys want to change the entire game around, I want to see the full game come out in a few months or so...Not in a few years, with the ideas like "land ownership" This game will get to confusing way to fast.

No way. Final game will not come out in a few months. It shouldnt. Its not ready yet. Furthermore, people are happily playing the beta and he is updating regularly, well at least he will after the mod tools. We shoulnt rush him.
 
Agreed. Good things come to those who wait. A finished game in a few months? It's been a few months since the last version and the game isn't even anywhere near finished, nor will it be after the update! Have some patience, people, Rome wasn't built in a day! :wink:
 
GonZ said:
As an ex paper and dice roleplayer I thought it might be a useful add-on to have random history assigned to your character (as an option).

For instance in the character generation phase you should be able to choose your age. 14 - 40 for example. Depending on the age you choose you should have a generated history (and associated stats).

I'm thinking things like:

Status: noble birth, son of a merchant, daughter of a forester, illigitimate son of a king etc etc.
Cash: variable on status and experience
Military service: giving starting characters better combat skills
Other: parents murdered by a Vaegir war party (axe to grind etc)

This could go on and on - and would mean that your character would have a history and have a purpose.

Just a thought.

That is something that I think would help greatly. Although, I know, its too much trouble to add multiplayer to this version of the game, I do think its very possible to add such features. You just need some good (rpg veteran) folks to help come up with ideas and such for random names/ histories/ etc. If the randomness also affected the skills and class of the character, that would also be a major plus.

I think that a "storyline" is not what is needed for this game, but rather a "developed setting". As of right now, we know VERY few things about the setting (mentioned earlier), but if it is developed more, the game becomes less of a senseless brutality game, and more of a tangible world, leading to legends, stories, ideas for expension, ect.

Just my humble opinion...
 
I agree with the idea of a changing world, when for each character, there's a different enviroment, due to the effects the character has on the place that surrounds him/her. Regarding the background... that could be done by normal people, meaning that we don't neccesary need Armagan to do it, as long as "someone" can pull out of a hat a reasonable story and the past history of the land, including things such as the type of government, etc.
 
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