Well, the idea I''d had, that I''ve mentioned in barely related threads, is that a character has a mood. Similar to the Sims, actually, except tweaked to better match the settings. Happiness depends on having ones needs for shelter, food, warmth, and sociability being met. But being happy all the time will be a practical impossibility, and unhappiness hinders the actions your character performs. Unhappiness can be cured over the short term with drugs, but an addiction will make you unhappy if you''re in withdrawal, and a built up resistance makes it have less effect on you... That''s in addition to any stat effects that various superdrugs might have.

But if you're doing it in medieval days, no one cared for addiction not to mention they did know about it then. I don't think that if you're doing a medieval rpg then addiction should be a concern. Maybe it should be included somewhere in the behind the scene's calculations going on somewhere but it really shouldn't be something that the player gets concerned about. This is purely medieval talk btw.

I love Game Design and it loves me back.

Our Goal is "Fun"!

Edited by - Paul Cunningham on September 23, 2000 2:10:37 AM

Paul : actually, some clever people knew about it.
The sect of the Assassins, where druged by their master the King of the Mountain using Haschich (hence the name Assassins, it comes for Haschicheens or something like that ...) and they had to come back to him regularly to get their fix. All this circa 1400, during the Crusades, the Templars and all.
Well, at least, that''s how the legend goes.

No one commented my previous post ?

youpla :-P

sorry ahw but i couldn''t see much to comment on as i agree with most of it and anything i could have commented on would have taken this way off topic of which i didn''t want to do.

Can someone tell me the exact dates that the medieval ages spread over?!

I love Game Design and it loves me back.

Our Goal is "Fun"!

IIRC, in Redneck Rampage (a FPS), drinking returned health points. Only the game started distorting the display if you had too many.

Uhuhuh, the medieval period, is pretty vast actually. Something like a millenia.
If you look at Europe, and if my memory is not too corrupted, I''d say it starts around 500 AD, and usually everybody agrees it ends around the Renaissance period, which is near 1600 AD.
500 AD is after the Roman empire collapse, and the colonized countries start to handle themselves, now equipped with the knowledge they gained.
Renaissance is considered the end, if I am correct, because of the sudden surge of creativity, in Art, in Technology, etc...
Of course, this only apply for Europe, and to be more careful I''d almost say to France...
for instance, Japan changed is very different ways, and at very different dates, mainly because of the fact they are an island.
Same for America, unfortunately, the great havok we european brought with us over their prevent us now to now more about the local civilisations (and I won''t even talk about the fate of the Native tribes here ...)

PAul : yeah, I suppose there is not much to say to the kind of rambling I do... basically, what I was trying to say is that pubs and alcohol serve social purposes that are no longer needed (we think!) in the context of online gaming.

youpla :-P

You could also consider basing a game around a world such as that in the book Dune, where water is the most precious element on the planet. It''s an interesting concept.

It''d be pretty interesting if in a mmorpg, when you type text in to talk to other people the text appeared over the characters head. This way players would have to be within ears range to see what other people are saying. So rather than going out of the game to have a talk you''d have to do it within the game and go to specific locations like pubs to meet up and talk. It would also encourage team play which has always been a problem in these games.

I love Game Design and it loves me back.

Our Goal is "Fun"!

The problem I see Paul, is why create an artificial limitation such as that one. how do you justify this to the players ?
you can''t just forget the fact that on the Internet, people want to talk to each other, because they can''t do it in RealLife (don''t try, don''t dare, you get the idea).
As I said, pubs don''t exist because they don''t have a *meaning* in the game. In RealLife, you go to the pub to meet people, because it''s acceptable to talk to strangers in a pub, and alcohol tend to help this kind of forward behaviour that you wouldn''t have otherwise (actually, talking to complete strangers is differently accepted depending on the culture, but that''s another story).
In a chatroom, the first thing llamas do when they mee if ask their Age/Sex/Location .... do you do that a lot when you meet someone in the street ? Plus people know your name (that is, you handle) when you''re in a chatroom. In the street, people would first have to ask you your name before they adress you. There is no such thing as "hello, I am ahw" in the Internet, because there is a big flashing poster saying it.

The social interactions are very different online than in RealLife, and that''s something you''ve got to take into account.
Now you''ll tell me, yeah, but we could do this to allow better Roleplaying. And I agree I WANT that to happen.
But how do you tell llamas that an MMORPG is not jsut another chatroom where you can go in the forest to frag some goblins ?

As you see, I am pretty far from the original topic, but I think it''s quite relevant, if you catch my drift

Balloon-speech is one of those ideas which sounds really neat, but in implementation is just obnoxious. First, it severely limits how much you can say at a time. Second, it''s a lot of visual clutter if there''s more than a few people. Third, if you look away from the screen for twenty seconds, you''re likely to miss something, since the balloons have to disappear if there''s going to be any screen left at all. Fourth, if you want people to have to be nearby to hear stuff, make it so they can''t hear a person unless they can see them- You can still have a nice, normal, scrolling textbox for chat.

And just for the record, pubs are almost -always- the center of roleplaying-based worlds... in fact, the usual problem there is that no one ever -leaves- the pub, they just sit around drinking imaginary drinks, tell numerous lies, and complain about being bored. Or roleplay getting drunk, which is usually much more entertaining for all concerned. (These are the sort of people who will ask your character''s name before addressing him/her by it, too. Most of them, at least.)

As for how to get people to roleplay... that''s a good question. Even if you eliminate the goblins, or the rewards for fragging them... you''re left with the chatroom. There are many, many people who like to chat, and especially like to chat in places where there are pretty graphics, semi-customisable characters, and virtual pubs. And they don''t care if those particular features were designed for roleplayers, who are gradually being forced out of the world by the endless yammering, LOL''ing, and a/s/l checks of the chatting populace.

I''m not bitter. Really I''m not.

Okay, I am, but at least I''m trying to do something constructive with it. There''s got to be a way to keep this from happening. I''m kinda for the ''ban all non-RPers!'' philosophy, but if you''re trying to keep paying customers happy, that''s not going to fly. Is it feasible to try to design a MMORPG for a tiny fraction of the population, that probably has no interest in giving you any money? Mind you, I''m not concerned about actually turning a profit. Just whether you could find volunteers to work on that basis, whether you''d actually get anything done or flounder halfway through, and whether you could keep the thing running, considering that servers cost and broadband costs, and you''re probably going to need a permanent staff just to help newbies and settle disputes.

Okay, I think I''m sufficiently depressed now. Not to mention off-topic

-Moth