players can build kingdoms in a pvp/pve action rpg inspired by mirrors edge, dark souls, wurm online, final fantasy, elder scrolls and many other games.

starting from a one man camp to a metropolis how could a player build a succesful city that doesnt end up as a ghost town or seem unrealistic? transportation and logistics is a major concept in the game i am designing. and travelling between cities could take days. travelling alone at night would be slow and dangerous. the player cao build a campfire in order to rest and gain helpful buffs. as well as keeping away potentially dangerous creatures and animals, but making an easy target for other players and bandits. players can also buy or make tents which can be set up at a campfire for additional protection and buffs. some serving as a simple one man shelter or a more permanent outpost, and take time to set up or take down. they could also be attacked and destroyed, making them a risky investment. getting into pvp and playermade towns and structures, they make an important stepping point. after setting up a large tent you could begin creating a mine (mines would work similar to wurm online) for resources. the player could mine solo or pay npcs to work for them, in hopes that the mine provides a greater profit. eventually the player could build (or hire others to build) permanent houses and structures which other citizens would flock to as long as at least say 90 percent of the population was employed, eventually becoming a village, growing to a city or kingdom, which could be sieged by other player and npc kingdoms or raided by bandits.
Do you personally like this idea? why or why not? what would you change. can you think of any jobs and structures that could be built that would affect the town?

It's a bit funny that you start your entire post with TLDR, which usuaslly serves as a quick summary to a long post before it.

However, if a player spends days creating their kingdom, only to have it get destroyed, I don't think much people will enjoy playing this game. If it takes under an hour, then maybe, but then it gets into a "RTS vibe" which, if I understand your intentions, is not the design of the game. You want more progression and a more sim city / RPG vibe?

This is the only concern I would have as a player.

the tl:dr was supposed to be sepparate, but im on my phone and cant insert linebreaks. it would take a while to build a city, and could be a potentially risky investment, but it would take quite a while to raze an entire city as well, and to raze a city would be difficult for a small group of people to accomplish, so you wouldnt have to worry about some random person causing trouble, and you'de normally be aware of any threats nearby, for example, an intelligent person wouldnt invest in building a city in an area near where an army of tyrants is known to attack, but might risk a small outpost.

the way you would build a city would be similar to assassins creed 2 or neverwinter nights 2, but with more customisation and the ability to micromanage details rather than predefined upgrades.

I'd definitely make it so that a raze of your city can't undo all of your progress, that just seems like too harsh a punishment for this type of game. Take a look at something like travian, tribal wars etc.

hey have the same basic mechanics but are of course completely different game. (a whole lot less engaging than what youn intend to make) As a rule, a punishment for getting raided in a game like that can be more severe than one inn a game like yours.

I'd like some more details on how you see the actual gameplay of your game by the way, it sounds interesting on teh surface, but there is not a lor of concrete information to go on.

It sounds like you're wanting to do something like Shadowbane (here's another link for more info: Morloch Wiki)

That game allowed players to build kingdoms, and was an open pvp world (you could even pk your own guild members). Aside from Star Wars: Galaxies, it was the only game at that time (I believe) that had dynamic content.

Shadowbane was a kingdom vs kingdom game. A tree of life was needed to build your kingdom. It allowed players to build walls (individual sections, you could actually design the layout); create guards to patrol (you assigned them the patrol path); forges, churches, barracks, siege tents, that you staffed with blacksmiths, merchants, trainers, etc. Players could upgrade their kingdom to level 7 I'm pretty sure.

The game allowed players to attack other kingdoms. This was known as a 'Bane'. To Bane another kingdom the attacker must place a 'Bane Stone' outside the defender's city. The bane stone must be at least the same level as the defending city. Once the bane stone was placed it gave the defender 24 hours (real life time) to set a time for the bane. No attacks on the city could happen until the bane began.

Once the bane began both forces could use all their armies and weaponry; including trebuchets, ballistas, and catapults. To be a successful bane the attackers would have to capture the defender's tree of life. There were other options too, I believe. Like maybe the defending king could surrender.. and there may have been an option to destroy the tree of life so a new one (that the attacker's owned) could be planted.

And to whoever mentioned it in an earlier post.. yes.. it was very harsh sometimes. Having your kingdom razed, after spending months and months developing it, was not always a ton of fun. I list that game as one of my favorites of all time though. If you make one like it I suspect you'll have a lot of players. PvP isn't for everyone.. but the folks who get into it.. really get into it.

Good luck with the game.

Sorry for the REALLY late reply, I had been enjoying a vacation, and sleeping in lots, and working on the concept and stuff.

It would usually be more profitable for someone to loot a city than to raze it, and it would be quite difficult to do unless you were a very skilled player (levels and "power" dont help much combat-wise, its designed to give everyone a near-equal standing point, with strategy and experience being the main playing factors.) or were working with a group. in which case, the person building the city would usually already know about, and would be taking a known risk by trying to develop a city there when there were hostile factions close by.

In both the case of a group or an individual attacking a city, they would get some sort of bounty points, which could be checked at a bounty board where other players would be REWARDED for killing that player or players. This would make living a life as a bandit or pillaging a city a risky endeavor, as they would become "wanted"

AWith the bounty board idea, players could put bounties on anyone, of any amount. or entire factions. And if three people put a bounty of 50 gold on that player, it would cost them 50 gold in advance, but whoever killed the player, would earn 150 gold. This could easily and quickly stack up if many people were wronged by a certain player.

It would work in a similar way with a faction, but the bounty would be divided for each member, for example, if there is a group of 15 people, and the bounty is 150, the "bounty hunter" will be paid 10G for every one that he kills.

A person could also use the board to hire a killer against someone, whether they did something wrong or not, they would put a bounty for someone they wanted dead, and if it was high enough, someone might take it, it would be easier for someone who was not skilled in combat.

tldr: players can build kingdoms in a pvp/pve action rpg inspired by mirrors edge, dark souls, wurm online, final fantasy, elder scrolls and many other games. starting from a one man camp to a metropolis how could a player build a succesful city that doesnt end up as a ghost town or seem unrealistic? transportation and logistics is a major concept in the game i am designing. and travelling between cities could take days. travelling alone at night would be slow and dangerous. the player cao build a campfire in order to rest and gain helpful buffs. as well as keeping away potentially dangerous creatures and animals, but making an easy target for other players and bandits. players can also buy or make tents which can be set up at a campfire for additional protection and buffs. some serving as a simple one man shelter or a more permanent outpost, and take time to set up or take down. they could also be attacked and destroyed, making them a risky investment. getting into pvp and playermade towns and structures, they make an important stepping point. after setting up a large tent you could begin creating a mine (mines would work similar to wurm online) for resources. the player could mine solo or pay npcs to work for them, in hopes that the mine provides a greater profit. eventually the player could build (or hire others to build) permanent houses and structures which other citizens would flock to as long as at least say 90 percent of the population was employed, eventually becoming a village, growing to a city or kingdom, which could be sieged by other player and npc kingdoms or raided by bandits. do you personally like this idea and why or why not? what would you change? can you think of any jobs and structures that could be built that would affect the town? sorry about the bad grammar and formatting. ill fix it when i get online.

I will provide only one advice here. Formatting is important, so is making paragraphs. You said you would format it when you get online, and yet you haven't. More importantly, why was it so important to post then, and reformat later? You're cutting seriously on your credibility by doing this, and are preventing some of the most useful feedbacks from getting to you only because of formatting. This type of friction really doesn't make for effective communication. Imagine if one was to type without spacing, or punctuations. By the way, this entire reply is made in a single paragraph just so that you can better understand the impact this has on the reader: it takes so much attention to stay focused on the actual word and line that the meaning often eludes you and requires several attempts to re-read. This gives me a headache, and as much as I'd like to lend a hand, I can't be bothered to in this current format.

Orymus3,

I posted it using my phone, which didnt allow formatting, and fully intended to edit it once getting onto a computer, but once seeing the intimidating and almost impossible to read mess that it was, i found it difficult to repair, and procrastinated doing it. And still am. As to why i believed i had to post it right then and there, i have no idea, i just did.