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Shadowbane Designer Diary - Resources
Waylander-SB
Member Posts: 31
[quote]http://chronicle.ubi.com/Articles/News/060204_designerdiary.htm
Lietgardis, Shadowbane Designer
July 2, 2004
Resources have been a long time coming in Shadowbane, and we are really excited to finally be bringing them into the game environment. There were challenges involved in coding and implementing the system, but now we have a different kind of challenge: perception.
The Shadowbane community has had a long time to think about, and imagine, what a resource system in Shadowbane should or shouldn't be. As a result, the simple term "resources" means something completely different to everybody. I'm writing this diary to help clarify what the new system is, what it isn't, and what our design goals were while creating it. Readers who have followed the resource arguments and speculation will find some aspects of the new system familiar, as well they should; player feedback was a large factor in our design. Hopefully, the unfamiliar bits we discuss will come as a pleasant surprise.
The Resource System
So what IS the resource system? Or to rephrase the question using words we have gotten used to hearing from the public, "What were you thinking?" The answer arises from one of our design goals and strategies we had while developing the new system.
Our primary goal in adding resources to the game is to deepen Shadowbane's strategic layer, and we are confident the new system does so in several ways: it provides skirmish points for players to fight over; it makes city location matter; and it makes it much easier for guild leaders to maintain their cities.
A Goldmine in the Icelands
Later, guilds will find that resources and resource control also provides a new way to equip their troops by way of PvP activities instead of PvE (that's a topic for another time best not get ahead of myself).
Adding More Skirmish Points
Why are skirmish points a big deal? Battles between bands of players are a lot of fun, and we wanted to give players new opportunities for fighting in groups that didn't involve the organizational hassles (or high stakes) of a full-blown siege, and were more structured (and rewarding) than simply hunting for random farming groups. One of our inspirations for skirmish points were the fights over the Commander rune dropper that cropped up soon after Shadowbane launched.
A Goldmine in the Grasslands
The Commander was a popular discipline with only one dropper per game server. Entire guilds rushed to place their cities near the only zone where it dropped. Those guilds had an advantage during the dropper's predictable spawn times, but other players would cross the world and show up just for fun, for the fight they knew they'd find there. The fact that any bystander could run in and loot the rune added to the tactical challenge. In the end, the dropper would die, and one hero or heroine would walk away with a discipline to show for it. Everybody else would rest for the next few hours, knowing that they would get another shot at it soon.
Resource mines are the skirmish points in the new system. There is one mine per adventure zone. Why adventure zones? First, they are the only places on the map we can guarantee we would not have to displace a player city (short of adding lots of new islands, which would seem contrived), and secondly, players already know where the adventure zones are (they adventure in them) and are used to the idea of controlling them.
Capturing a Resource Mine
Once per day, every mine becomes vulnerable to attack, and the last guild to claim the mine by the end of that "window of opportunity" keeps the mine until the next day. Though nation leaders can to choose when that window opens, everybody will know when it happens; the time is listed on the world map. So, everyone knows when to show up for a good fight. This system rewards clever play as much as brute force, and if we have done our job right, even small forces from minor guilds will have a decent chance tp grab some of these mines.
Even if your guild isn't interested in controlling a mine, you can still show up and bash some heads, just for the fun of it.
The resource system has its own heroes and heroines, too. Guilds claim the mine because a lone player casts a power on it, and that player has to give up a discipline slot to do so. The reward is gold (in the first phase, anyway) for the guild, and glory if you're the one who last successfully cast the power before the window closes, your name will be broadcast as the victor.
Making City Location Matter
The second goal we had for the resource system was to make a city's location matter. Obviously, guilds that are headquartered close by a mine will have an easier time scrambling to defend (or conquer) it, and be at an advantage. There is another factor here as well: the amount of resources a mine produces diminishes over distance: the farther away a controlling city is from their mine, the less reward they will get for holding it.
This forms another big incentive for locating your city in a "prime spot," and perhaps dislodging other cities that hog the best locations. Also, in time the mines will all produce different resources, and the base amount produced will also vary from mine to mine, creating even more strategic reasons to hold this mine as opposed to that other one.
We expect that the pressures will lead to lots of new wars. Once there is more than one resource to fight over, and mine variations could even promote trade.
Helping City Management
Finally the resource system needed to help with city management. One of the biggest obstacles we've had to overcome with Shadowbane is the amount of pressure we put on guild leaders and city managers, When these players burn out, entire nations can be left paralyzed, or even vanish.
As part of the new resource system, players can now build a Warehouse in their city (one per city grid), and all resources generated by all controlled mines of that city pour into that warehouse for storage.
A Resource Warehouse
City leaders can then use the Warehouse as a "slush fund" to pay building maintenance: walls and other structures can be set to draw their maintenance out of the Warehouse instead of their own strongboxes. So instead of scurrying from wall to wall paying maintenance, now guilds can simply keep an ample supply of cash or resources in the Warehouse. This was running a big city just got a lot easier.
Those were the three goals we had for the new resource system.
A Warehouse Hireling: The Seneschal
What the Resource System is Not
Okay, now that we have covered and explained just what the new system is, let me now tell you the biggest thing the new resource system is NOT: it's not fully implemented yet.
The latest patch ushers in phase 1 of resources and resource mines. Much more is yet to be revealed. If you think the resource system that is about to launch is too limited, or doesn't offer enough rewards to enough players, don't worry: we think so too. We split the implementation of the system over two patches for a number of reasons, logistical and strategic. Rest assured that more is on the way.
In coming months, the types of resources guilds can harvest and the uses players will get out of them will expand dramatically.
I'm looking forward to seeing how the skirmishes play out on the Test server in the coming weeks. If they work out as we intended, there will be daily activity at predictable times with non-predictable outcomes at dozens of locations across the game world. Resource mines will give you an opportunity to help maintain your home city without farming gold, earn some glory, or simply kill some enemies or total strangers just for the fun of it!
Lietgardis
By: Vosx[/quote]
There's some screenshots in the article that I couldn't import over, but I included the URL for those interested.
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Shadowbane, Chronicle of Strife
Lead Class Advocate
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Shadowbane, Chronicle of Strife
