God's work. What is it?

From: Takomtor
Date: 2002-03-30 05:22:21

Something about Gods. I would give the mission of technical development for Gods (combining the actual technical development and the in game development). In the beginning Majik would have very few skills and BPs. If players want more, Gods would be the source in form of singular enlightment.

How it would work in practise? Player character talks to another and even more people etc. By forming a religion or Guild or Faction, players could pool enough worship power (yes, whatever) to reach God's attention. God would take their proposal for a new BP or Skill under consideration and if God would grant it, soon it would appear into the game. If God will not grant this innovation, God would risk the possibility of loosing followers as they are dissapointed. This new feature (BP, Skill) would, however, be exclusively known by those in the Faction and if others would like to get the same feature, they would have to learn it from those who have it or have their own debate with their Gods.

God would get this worship energy in form of divine points system. All the actions would also consume these points, so God should be careful about what sort of requests he would fulfill. Now as I think of it, do we need to have some sort of email system that delivers all the prayers and sacrifices for the God? Heh, I wouldn't want to read all that mail, so there would be almost real feeling of Gods never replying for prayers. Hmm, anyway, a person sacrifices an animal and puts forth a prayer. Divine points emerge from this sacrifice and are distributed for appropriate Gods. Gods "email list" for prayers and requests could be updated per person or church, so that all points would be shown accumulated. This way God could decide that when this or that person's "demand" account reaches certain divine point amount, God will grant the wish.

Also this ability of Gods to add new BPs and skills could be a some sort of revard just as in MUDs, we could give players more and more control over the game as they advance. This could complement Dazzt idea of scripting system as a building tool for the game.

The idea behind this kind of all encompassing system is of course to move the mindless ranting from game forums into the game mechanics. If the players want to have changes, they need organize in the game and initiate improvements. Haa, continuous role playing all together.

From: Zaxim
Date: 2002-03-30 09:05:15
In-Reply-To: 1393

I don't think we should have the gods take a visible role. Also I don't want players to be forced to rely on gods for everything, I want the god to help enhance the character not make it.

From: darshan
Date: 2002-04-01 01:02:56
In-Reply-To: 1393

No.I don't think this would work. We can't let players get in charge of design and implementation of game features.

1. Players could try to use this to blackmail arbitrary skills and features into the game.

2. It would be hard/very hard/impossible to keep the collection of skills in tune with each other, if skills were added into the game according to what mortals want. Skills must be designed and implemented with a holistic structure in sight at all times, and presence of mortal influence in the design chain undermines it.

From: Takomtor
Date: 2002-03-30 12:50:41
In-Reply-To: 1394

This would be meant for totally new skills, not for those that already exist in the world. Would take a lot of fervent dedication to get the changes done, so that learning would be always preferred choise, BUT what about, when nobody knows how to make a bridge... that's when the gods come to help you, but only if you have played your role and invested appropriate time for devotion... I would say that players are not forced to rely on gods in anything. Just a way to integrate the development in to the game. There is going to be development anyway, so why not make it Gods work?

From: Archantes
Date: 2002-03-30 13:50:22
In-Reply-To: 1399

Hmh. I think there is one point You're both missing. The development of the world is meant to be assigned to sages. The roles of gods is not (principally) to teach characters. This is what sages do.

If nobody knows how to make a bridge, people should wander to the wise old man and ask him. If the instructions are given from 'heavens', it makes the god and human relation too close. God suppose to be something far more greater. Sages do these minor things. Actually new skill is no minor, but that seems to be one, for players do not even know that there was no Build bridge skill, it is just a character who has the skill. Ask him.

Sages are given much power and possibilities to make the game develop. Them, if someone, should be in connection with gods (as desingers) if there is lack of some skill. And this way the skill is given to sage. Then we can say Yes, we have that skill in game too, find a player who can teach it.

From: Takomtor
Date: 2002-03-31 09:30:24
In-Reply-To: 1401

I am not talking about learning a skill, I am talking about introducing a new skill from game development point of view.

When there is no old man who can teach the skill, when no sage has the skill or BP, I would like to see a mechanism that empowers the players to work in order to get a new skill or BP introduced to the game.

The purpose of religion is to create security and understanding, wouldn't it be great if it (in Majik) actually had this kind of features.

There is talk about Gods being very real in the Majik, there is discussion about stepping up the ladder in church and gaining more power, but isn't all of this bit too tenantive, if we wrap the Gods completely behind Sages?

I wouldn't like to see people sending mail to support etc. If sages work as a interface between Gods and the requests of players, that's fine. That is also the way it should be, otherwise there is too much irrelevant info that reaches the Gods. But having system, where game development happens OOC, I think, is waste of perfectly good entertainment.

From: Zaxim
Date: 2002-03-31 09:44:04
In-Reply-To: 1404

No one is going to roleplay when we have our alpha test. It's going to be riddled with bugs and lag and millions of skills that don't work and the game will be horribly imbalanced. I don't think we need to implement this talking to gods thing

From: Takomtor
Date: 2002-04-01 11:18:48
In-Reply-To: 1405

It could turn out to be much more beneficial from the game's point of view. Every problem in the world could be dealt with relying on the game system.

We are doing it already, we - mere sages and mortals - are discussing about this and that, trying to do the right thing. Then (mostly) the Gods are trying to do our bidding or viceversa. Adding players to the equation and maintaining the roleplay approach would create strong tradition for the ready product.

From: Takomtor
Date: 2002-04-01 11:11:46
In-Reply-To: 1406

Gods create, so they decide what to implement and how. We can have a one holistic approach and only implement the ideas that come close to the original plan... and even then, the original plan should be carried out. The outcome however, would skew the initial benefit towards the people who are organized and creative, instead of PvP people.

I don't understand how they could use it to blackmail. They will anyway do anything in their power to keep on nagging about every possible flaw. Why not direct their game improvment efforts into the game?