From: phunky
Date: 2001-12-09 09:40:22
tonight me and azlok were dicussing breifly the usefulness of low-level shelters after i asked how they would affect gameplay itself. for example, in real life people make crude shelters mainly to sheild themselves from the elements, right? assuming complex things such as weather, temperature, and their affects on abilities and health wont be implemented (i cant relly see how this would be feasible), what would be the point in flooding the gameworld with hundreds of easy to build huts that would serve no purpose and esentially be public property? the obvious practical use for buildings within majik would be item storage, but until the ability to magically seal doors (and even make them, for that matter) is learned (presumably this would be complex and hard to do), i cant really see buildings serving much of a practical purpose. azlok suggested i ask some of the coders, who have had experience designing MUDs, so here i am. any thoughts on this guys?
From: darshan
Date: 2001-12-09 20:15:42
In-Reply-To: 75
Shelter from the elements is the first and foremost reason
for building any kinds of buildings at all. They must be
implemented. "Sooner or later, by hook or by crook, we will."
From: hook
Date: 2001-12-10 10:05:35
In-Reply-To: 75
I guess what needs to be done in order to implement this would be to first define "elements" in turms of game play.
there are basicly three elements I can think of:
*animals/monsters
*weather
*people
for animals this mostly includes dumb animals which can't get in the shelters becouse they are to dumb to open the door...basicly goblins on down...it also includes bugs and pests such as rats, ants, etc so long as windows are shut and holes are mended...a house cat wouldn't hurt either.
next is weather...cold can kill especialy while you sleep but this is the extreem and not pertinant to say Nemen which dosn't have cold weather...but it does have rain which can put out fires for cooking food or smelting iron..also is wind which can spread fire. aside from that i can't think of anything else.
last is people...building protect your PC from theft and invation..This i think is the hardest to impliment becouse a thief can pick locks and warriors can kick down doors...but the one thing a shelter can do is put a barrior between your PC and the enimay while you sleep...a big bar across the inside of the door with bells hanging from it would help against thieves becouse any picking would be hard to do and noisy...plus if someone tried to kick it in it would be noisy as well and would attract the neibors and maybe even the town guard. but what if your not there then as phunky said these buildings would be as good as public...one thing would be alegances with your neibors and general town protection friendly PCs would recognize you and not recognize intruders.but this would be iffy. what might be needed are some NPCs like a dog or a town guard are some starters who if you pay (or feed :)) will watch your house while you are gone.
well thats all i have please comment for suggestoions and critisisma
From: yorkaturr
Date: 2001-12-10 10:31:41
In-Reply-To: 75
Leave the MUDs out already, this is not a MUD. MUDs suck ass. Anyway, as for the actual point:
Building buildings wouldn't really have a point unless the buildings were useful in some ways, hence in order to implement building, we would need to implement building functionality. Now, what this means is that, for example, a town would have several buildings that would serve a specific purpose, and with which certain needs could be fulfilled. I have an initial idea:
The town itself and the land area that surrounds it would be defined by a "town hall", a building that is of key importance to the town and the one building that needs to be taken if the town is to be conquered by a player. Here, one could register him/herself as the town's member or conquer it by destroying something, like a town totem or something. This would require the building to be guarded heavily. For this purpose, NPC guards could be generated.
The town hall could be used to define the roles of other buildings in the area, so they wouldn't just be buildings of no particular importance. One could build a building, create a forge and anvil there, and then go to the town hall and ask that it would be assigned as a weapon smithy. The importance of this is that assigned buildings would increase the amount of land area around the city, like in Settlers, and in turn the town hall's size could be increased when certain amounts of buildings are reached. Of course, the buildings that would be assigned as parts of a city would need to be in the vicinity of the already existing ones.
From: Takomtor
Date: 2002-03-08 08:00:30
In-Reply-To: 82
I have not read all the messages yet, so I don't know it this topic has been dealt with etc.
I would like to share some thoughts:
City should define itself by the actions of people and should not be matter of narrowly specified area, for example city walls.
If people of some area decide to found city, they can do it. They shouldn't need any specific systems or tools for that, just living closeby other people would create a habitat. The definition of City would thereby be created by the players. If players start to call 4 nearby campfires a city, they have the right. Of course others would probably laugh. Players, who start the city can try to set up some kind of common/regional law and implement it. Favorable rules might push population to a continuous growth. People and ultimately city, should be able to call any land of its own. On the other hand, somebody more powerful could easily override this ownership, take the land and buildings, massacre citizens or give them chance to submit to new rule etc..
What comes to Yorkaturr's suggestion about town hall - such a building would be handy, but it could issue licences, instead of assign buildings in Settler kinda way.
Person wants to be smith, he goes to city hall, buys a licence for practising smithing (well, there could also be free cities that don't find this important, instead they could just accept any action of their citizens) carries :) his anvil and forge to a small shack (rented or owned) and starts practising profession. Bypassers could then spot his City hall issued licence on the door etc. and stop by.
City "totem" doesn't sound too generic idea. As long as there is resistance, the city is not occupied. Taking important structures won't necessarily kill defenders motivation.
Nodes could be different thing, if it is captured, it's power could be redirected to destroy the city. That could quickly turn around the battle..
