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Author Topic: Increasing the amount of player interaction  (Read 1769 times)

Increasing the amount of player interaction
« on: September 12, 2011, 10:07:48 pm »

Don't get me wrong I like the huge map and all but it is just too big and leaves a lot of empty spaces in terms of players, which of course should exist, but not to the extent we currently have.

It doesn't matter if I am a PK or APK I started out some weeks ago and I am not running into people often enough even on top spots like mutated molerats or the 8 sectors surrounding a major city. At times I wish I get pk'ed because I feel like I am the only one playing the game.

If we would shrink the current map by let's say 50% and decreasing the travel speed at the same rate we change nothing on traveltimes. And if the distance is 4 or 8 sectors is of no real meaning except, that outside the major routes there are half the zones people can be in.

Of course we could also increase the range of which you can enter an encounter, that has a player in it. So e.g. you could find a player from 2 zones away. To give a figurative number.

I mean the huge desert west of Hub. Even if 3 people are there, how big are the chances I would meet any of them in it with the system currently in place.

Next thing I found odd after evaluating is the current rescource system. I read, that we will move on from the current system that caps what an individual player can output per hour to a system, what the world can push out. However even the latter is not true, as PvE comes into play which produces loads and loads of high end weapons everybody needs anyway.

As an example to proof my point: I make an EW sniper and hunt super muties. They refill my ammo, they drop my weapon + bonus weapons and the only limiting factor is my time I invest. But in 2-3 hours i can push out 40 weapons easily and on my own.

The big hassle about farming is, that you end up chasing the right encounter and it is even worse if you need to fight the encounter in TB. The best possible tweak I see is to give the players places, where they know what they will get and where in addition to the current system. Dungeons, outposts however you call them. We would in turn create more hotspots for players to deal with each other in any way they see fit. It doesn't need to be a sophisticated dungeon in the beginning. Players are generally happy with a couple of enemies and a loot chest in the end, but a little something to evaluate if players actually use it or not.

Rescources should be something that people fight for on a different level then TC. If we make the rescources scarce and allow the fighting over it, then people would have to engage or negotiate.

If we detach cities and minerals, then we could use Cities as places to send NPC aid to raid such a rescource location. After all towns are less desireable without anything from it.

The general idea here is not to make items harder to get or rarer, but something to work for rather then mining 10 minutes for every BA you have... Even if it just means protecting your HQ Ore spawn.

Crafting could follow the same scheme. You need a crafter to be present at the crafting station for x minutes. E.G. every 15 minutes you will output one. However the machine works in strange ways. You say you want to craft 5 of them, the more you produce the less time consuming each one of them is. However the more you produce at once the more likely it is for a world message to appear like: Rumours has it, that XYZ is crafting 10 BA at Location ABC.  People know what is at stakes, how long they have to mount any kind of offensive and we basically did what we could to make them engage as they see fit.

I will elaborate on those ideas, when I got more time at hands. Feel free to comment or add some juice.
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Reiniat

  • Humanhunter
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Re: Increasing the amount of player interaction
« Reply #1 on: September 13, 2011, 12:39:09 am »

About map: you are completely right, and also a bit wrong.
The resources and critters in the world map define the people that are in any square. Desert is harsh and boring, nobody go there so you dont encounter many people, wich is obviously realistic. The territory north of V13 have many molerats, and no bad critters so you can lvl up there easily, that means a lot of people killing there. Deserts around Gecko cityes are used to farm weapons from those poor ghouls, etc.
The point here is that borders betweeen places arent easily defined and most players feel the worldmap as a humongous plain rectangle instead of define it by territories. I suggest something about make worldmap more realistic in terms of travelling and farming wich is a posible solution to this problem:
http://fodev.net/forum/index.php?topic=17902.0
Also keep in count that if you are in RT you will never find anybody in the wasteland
Also most PKs work in TB because is easiest to defeat lone players and imposible to flee.
If you want to maximize your posibilities of find players use the Both Modes option.
Real-life hour is important too, most players are europeans so people in America cant find many players

About farming: no you cant make the magic knightin killing because there are low posiblities of find muties in the map, also they are harsh to kill, you need at least 1 friend to defeat they, and you forgot armor lose in the progress: farm system is stable.

Yes there are places where players know what they will find, its easy if you ask in towns or go through the whole map for yourself, this might help you too: http://fodev.net/forum/index.php?topic=4463.0

ONE LAST THING (and this may dissapoint you about this postapocalyptic community): People in the wasteland are mostly cowards, if the posibilities of kill you are big they will, but if they can lose, they will ask for peace like pussyes, my advise is KILL THEM ALL, EVERYBODY DESERVE TO BURN IN HELL, and those who dont deserve that, deserve to die aswell because they ignorancy.
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Current char: Oblivion, Oceansoul, Black Tears

Sorry for my bad english
Quote from: Santa Anna
Any action or inaction in a position of power will always grant you enemies
Re: Increasing the amount of player interaction
« Reply #2 on: September 13, 2011, 07:27:50 am »

Metal armor and laser rifle sniper will take out muties like no business in TB mode. Just go next to the vault and wait for the molerats vs super mutants encounter and you have a 3-round headstart and only 2 rifles to incapacitate. But for the sake even add a friend into the mix the main point remains true. High end weapons can be put out in numbers, that will never be used until the next wipe in matters of days.

The encounter finder, while useful, is not what I meant. Just because I know that one of the possible encounters is e.g. Centaurs, doesn't mean, that I get them. I really meant respawning dungeons like glow. Just smaller and easier to do.

The other thing is, that it ain't about enforcing the fight. Of course they can pussie out against each other if they want to and it is even likely, but at least having the opportunity to chicken out is something I would rather see, then nothing at all
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Bartosz

  • Rotator
  • There'd better be a killer reason...
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Re: Increasing the amount of player interaction
« Reply #3 on: September 17, 2011, 09:57:47 pm »

Crafting could follow the same scheme. You need a crafter to be present at the crafting station for x minutes. E.G. every 15 minutes you will output one. However the machine works in strange ways. You say you want to craft 5 of them, the more you produce the less time consuming each one of them is. However the more you produce at once the more likely it is for a world message to appear like: Rumours has it, that XYZ is crafting 10 BA at Location ABC.  People know what is at stakes, how long they have to mount any kind of offensive and we basically did what we could to make them engage as they see fit.

When next time you hear 'faction scenarios' from us (and we will be saying that those are long planned, yet still not implemented gameplay elements), remember that it's something very similar to what you've posted here:)

Yeah, shame on us we still haven't pulled any of them out.
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