what features would you like in a text-based online game? i'm building one and i'd like to know what other features i should implement. could you give me some more ideas/opinions? [edited by - the-zapper on October 3, 2003 10:31:31 AM]

thats pretty broad
what exactly is the game?
just saying its text based is like only describing a game saying its 3D or isometric. who cares how its viewed.
what features do you got allready?

Back in college, I played around with a few MUDs, MUSHes, etc... I was partial to the mushes that allowed you to in effect create your own little piece of the online world. Instead of having a pre-built world to adventure in, ala MUDs, you were given commands and tools to construct rooms and objects, link them together with various triggers, etc... You build a room, write the description, link any exits to their proper destinations, etc... It was a lot of fun, and a welcome change from the constant chain of c ''acid blast'' %1 of Barren Realms.

You might consider giving players this sort of flexibility.


Josh
vertexnormal AT linuxmail DOT org

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Check out Golem: Lands of Shadow, an isometrically rendered hack-and-slash inspired equally by Nethack and Diablo.

quote:

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Original post by the-zapper
what features would you like in a text-based online game? i''m building one and i''d like to know what other features i should implement.

could you give me some more ideas/opinions?

[edited by - the-zapper on October 3, 2003 10:31:31 AM]

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pretty graphics lol
sorry about that, but really, what kind of game is it?

So... more details about the game...
The game is called Kingdom of Heroes. It''s a text-based game like www.kingsofchaos.com but more complex. Like wsa.level7.ro but with no graphics. It uses only html (using php to generate) and a few images (optionally).
It''s basically a rpg combined with a mmorpg, economy.

I want from you some suggestions of cool features you would like to find in such a game.

I used to play the game Fed on AOL. You didnt have to do anything or you could do everything. There was no way to beat it. You could explore or stay in the bars or work or just talk to people. It was a really good game. If you made a game like that im sure it would do well b/c a lot of times Fed was full and it took a while to get into it. i970chevelleguy@yahoo.com

Large scale combat is something that isn't often addressed in games like this. KoC does it in an abstract way, but it'd be interesting to see a more detailed implementation. For instance, maybe people could be fighting over land as well as money.. everyone starts out with a certain amount of land, a keep, and a small militia. On these lands there are villages of commoners that can be recruited for your army with the promise of money or land; maybe recruiting them is automatic but requires a certain amount spent on village "advertising" (i.e. messengers, and flyers -- I want you!).

Each battling lord has a specific region of land.. it'd be cool if you could work out a simple map system (even if its text-based) where attacking lords whose borders touch your borders allows you to use your full army's strength, but attacking more distant lands reduces your army's effectiveness due to the long journey... it also makes your keep more vulnerable, so you'll have to leave some of your army back at the keep to defend it.

Just throwing out ideas.. take or leave.

Edit: Oh, and of course you could have alliances and stuff.. doesn't have to be implemented in-game, but would just mean two lords have agreed to work together would make for an interesting diplomatic situation kind of like Civ, only would be with other people. You could send "Messengers" to other lords using a simple IM system.. would be cool but perhaps overkill if the messages were delayed a number of days based on the distance... I.E. Lord A is being attacked by Lord B, sends word to Lord G who is very far away so it takes longer to get there... i dunno, stuff like that.

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Brian Lacy
ForeverDream Studios

Comments? Questions? Curious?


"I create. Therefore I am."

[edited by - irbrian on May 6, 2004 2:57:57 PM]

Well there have been some changes in the development of the game... First of all we stoped making it. Temporarily were working on other different stuff but maybe in the near future if we get some feedback (btw thanks for the replys) we''ll do it.

But the changes:
The game''s name is Kalimdorim (the elvish translation of the original title). It''s not completly text-based, I mean we''ve introduced some graphics (buildings, units, a mini-map in the city/kindom view, ...).
Alliances... Of course. We thought of that and it''s a must-be
The game became more complex every day. We created 6 races (based on the 6 basic elements - fire, earth, moon/light, dark, water, air) with differentiated spell trees (with about 68 spells per race - i mean it!), units and buildings.
So it got pretty big and we didn''t have the time to implement it. And we had another problem... The space required to host such a game... Huge... Well, at that time we didn''t have the resources.
Thanks again for your interest and keep sending feedback because we need all the support we can get. ))

I''ll keep u posted with the game and let u know as soon as we start working again...

You can mail me at: dan_mailat@zappmobile.ro

I''m not sure I understand why it would require so much space. A text-based online game, especially a dynamically-generated one with a Database back-end, should take very little server space to implement. If you''re talking about Bandwidth, for most Hosts that''s pretty easy to scale based on the number of visitors.

But if you''ve put the project on hold, then it doesn''t really matter.