Originally posted by MMOmaker It was done the same way laws are made in real life. Someone has or claims the authority to make them. They get written down and published and then the authorities can try to enforce them. We had a wiki that players could edit to post things like that. Not everything needs to be coded in. Keep in mind that the game software did absolutely nothing to enforce any laws. Well, except for when NPCs were enforcing them such as the gate guards at Stondar City. That was done with the same sort of scripts that typically control any NPC action. Player-made laws could have been enforced by NPCs the same way, but in the actual game, there was only one player-controlled realm ever established and there were no NPCs in it except a foreign visitor or two.
So essentially, the system was the same as in UO, EVE or Darkfall. NPCs enforced the rules the way the devs programmed them and the player-created laws were only enforceable as far as the player who decreed them was able to convince/bribe/force other players to follow those laws.
Not exactly. It was a lot more open than that implies. The NPCs were designed to act as much like real people as possible. So it was entirely possible for a player to get NPCs to help enforce the player's laws even though that never actually happened in the game. (No one even tried.) Also, the game devs did not just program the NPCs to enforce Prince Noreg's laws and that was the end of it. Those NPCs could be permanently killed. They could also be convinced to change sides. There was even a situation where a group of player characters helped an NPC set up his own realm. (The NPC was Garon, who became Lord of Sheep Island.) It was also possible, with enough magic, to change the programming of NPCs or create your own NPCs. You could create an entire playable race if you had enough magic. No one ever did, but it was possible.
On the issue of laws, we tried hard to make it so that the NPCs were just people like everyone else, even if they were princes. The laws passed by Noreg and other NPCs had no special status in the game. I always expected that some player character would overthrow Prince Noreg someday and become the ruler of Stondar. If the game had stayed online longer, it probably would have happened.
This sounds to me like a step in the right direction, reading the MMOs story gave me a real laugh (Dwarf NPC making all non dwarf characters miserable, racism?).
Community hardships can easily lead to revolt, and a revolution really unites the players, a problem which cannot be doen by one man unites the community to get rid of the injustice.
I hope to taste this world in the near future and see how it plays out.
Everyone loves, revolts, conspiracies, piracy, it just sounds exciting instead of just being there doing quests...
Unlimited exploration, player accountability, and all items in game are player crafted. Very few discovered in treasures.
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
Interesting but I doubt it is usable in larger scale. Those ideas are generaly very short sighted.
Why do you think so? It was designed to operate on a large scale. A lot of it would have actually been easier on a large scale.
Damn.... Just read alot of stuff on the site. Would love to have play'd this. Should deffinitly work on getting it back online.
What type of money would it take to pay a programmer for somthing like that?
I don't know exactly. I had a company in Beijing approach me and offer to redo the whole game using Unity 3D, but I never did get a firm quote from them. Now that I think about it, the hold up was that I needed to run a demo session of the game to show them what it's like and I was too busy with other things to do it. Also, I knew that the quote would be more than I could afford anyway.
So what does it take to pay a programmer for something like that? It's best not to just have one programmer starting from scratch. It's better to have a team and license someone else's game engine and toolset so you don't have to create a new game engine and toolset before you can even start working on the game.
It would cost anywhere from $0 (with a pure equity deal) to $500,000 or more to really do it right.
To do it well and quickly I'd want a team that includes a game designer, a programmer, a scripter or two, two graphics arts guys at least one of whom can do animations. The graphics and animation can be paid for on a piecework basis so we don't have to actually have them on the payroll. The same can be done with a webmaster, a sound effects guy and a music composer or bands. A marketing guy would be good, too and but can be paid on commission from revenues generated by the game and need not get a penny of startup capital.
The three jobs of designer, programmer and scripter could be done by just two people like we were doing just before Magic of the Gods went offline, but progress is slower that way.
I'd probably be crazy enough to get working on it full time again if I had $30,000 USD to work with, and I'm about 80% sure I could get it to a playable but somewhat unfinished state (like it is now) before that money ran out. I'm estimating that would take 3 - 6 months. A larger amount of money could bring the certainty closer to 100%, shorten the development time and result in a larger, more finished game.
Although normally an unfinished game is not a commercially viable game, the particular storyline of MotG makes the fact that it's unfinished part of the scenario. In some respects it's actually a plus. Also, we've already demonstrated that a good proportion of players like playing that game even in an unfinished state because that's how we ran it before.
A key point about MotG is that a lot of what kept that game changing and interesting is that the game devs were constantly working on the game. That means that having enough startup capital to get the game to a playable state is not necessarily enough. What's really needed is enough capital to get the game to the point where revenue is enough to continue paying for ongoing development work and generating a profit. Of course, once the game is back online and generating revenue, I would have a lot more options to raise capital.
I hope that answers your question. Obviously I'm giving this matter some thought and trying to find a way to get MotG back online.
I find three things commonly missing in sandbox games: 1) Emphasis on faction, with faction changes being the consequences of erratic player behavior (sort of like you referring to "Law"). Faction means when you interact with the world, the world sort of interacts back. 2) Dynamic events. Many sandbox worlds are a bit too static. It is good to have some events, GM events even, to liven things up. Ex. a roaming band of high level werewolves wanders out of forest and starts wayling low level players in the noobie area. Stuff like that is fun. 3) Polish. This is most important. Many sandbox games with great ideas seem like the were put together by an underfunded development team. Polish is sort of the "first impression" an MMO makes.
Comments
So essentially, the system was the same as in UO, EVE or Darkfall. NPCs enforced the rules the way the devs programmed them and the player-created laws were only enforceable as far as the player who decreed them was able to convince/bribe/force other players to follow those laws.
Not exactly. It was a lot more open than that implies. The NPCs were designed to act as much like real people as possible. So it was entirely possible for a player to get NPCs to help enforce the player's laws even though that never actually happened in the game. (No one even tried.) Also, the game devs did not just program the NPCs to enforce Prince Noreg's laws and that was the end of it. Those NPCs could be permanently killed. They could also be convinced to change sides. There was even a situation where a group of player characters helped an NPC set up his own realm. (The NPC was Garon, who became Lord of Sheep Island.) It was also possible, with enough magic, to change the programming of NPCs or create your own NPCs. You could create an entire playable race if you had enough magic. No one ever did, but it was possible.
On the issue of laws, we tried hard to make it so that the NPCs were just people like everyone else, even if they were princes. The laws passed by Noreg and other NPCs had no special status in the game. I always expected that some player character would overthrow Prince Noreg someday and become the ruler of Stondar. If the game had stayed online longer, it probably would have happened.
Interesting but I doubt it is usable in larger scale. Those ideas are generaly very short sighted.
Why do you think so? It was designed to operate on a large scale. A lot of it would have actually been easier on a large scale.
This sounds to me like a step in the right direction, reading the MMOs story gave me a real laugh (Dwarf NPC making all non dwarf characters miserable, racism?).
Community hardships can easily lead to revolt, and a revolution really unites the players, a problem which cannot be doen by one man unites the community to get rid of the injustice.
I hope to taste this world in the near future and see how it plays out.
Everyone loves, revolts, conspiracies, piracy, it just sounds exciting instead of just being there doing quests...
Unlimited exploration, player accountability, and all items in game are player crafted. Very few discovered in treasures.
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
Curseth fools who failed in the game's software.
I really wish this game were still running, can't wait to see it up again even if its not the same setting.
Rare treasures adds so much to role play
, instead of just giving everyone treasure every 20 mobs.
Interesting but I doubt it is usable in larger scale. Those ideas are generaly very short sighted.
Why do you think so? It was designed to operate on a large scale. A lot of it would have actually been easier on a large scale.
Damn.... Just read alot of stuff on the site. Would love to have play'd this. Should deffinitly work on getting it back online.
What type of money would it take to pay a programmer for somthing like that?
Please check out my channel. I do gaming reviews, gaming related reviews & lets plays. Thanks!
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Interesting but I doubt it is usable in larger scale. Those ideas are generaly very short sighted.
Why do you think so? It was designed to operate on a large scale. A lot of it would have actually been easier on a large scale.
Damn.... Just read alot of stuff on the site. Would love to have play'd this. Should deffinitly work on getting it back online.
What type of money would it take to pay a programmer for somthing like that?
I don't know exactly. I had a company in Beijing approach me and offer to redo the whole game using Unity 3D, but I never did get a firm quote from them. Now that I think about it, the hold up was that I needed to run a demo session of the game to show them what it's like and I was too busy with other things to do it. Also, I knew that the quote would be more than I could afford anyway.
So what does it take to pay a programmer for something like that? It's best not to just have one programmer starting from scratch. It's better to have a team and license someone else's game engine and toolset so you don't have to create a new game engine and toolset before you can even start working on the game.
It would cost anywhere from $0 (with a pure equity deal) to $500,000 or more to really do it right.
To do it well and quickly I'd want a team that includes a game designer, a programmer, a scripter or two, two graphics arts guys at least one of whom can do animations. The graphics and animation can be paid for on a piecework basis so we don't have to actually have them on the payroll. The same can be done with a webmaster, a sound effects guy and a music composer or bands. A marketing guy would be good, too and but can be paid on commission from revenues generated by the game and need not get a penny of startup capital.
The three jobs of designer, programmer and scripter could be done by just two people like we were doing just before Magic of the Gods went offline, but progress is slower that way.
I'd probably be crazy enough to get working on it full time again if I had $30,000 USD to work with, and I'm about 80% sure I could get it to a playable but somewhat unfinished state (like it is now) before that money ran out. I'm estimating that would take 3 - 6 months. A larger amount of money could bring the certainty closer to 100%, shorten the development time and result in a larger, more finished game.
Although normally an unfinished game is not a commercially viable game, the particular storyline of MotG makes the fact that it's unfinished part of the scenario. In some respects it's actually a plus. Also, we've already demonstrated that a good proportion of players like playing that game even in an unfinished state because that's how we ran it before.
A key point about MotG is that a lot of what kept that game changing and interesting is that the game devs were constantly working on the game. That means that having enough startup capital to get the game to a playable state is not necessarily enough. What's really needed is enough capital to get the game to the point where revenue is enough to continue paying for ongoing development work and generating a profit. Of course, once the game is back online and generating revenue, I would have a lot more options to raise capital.
I hope that answers your question. Obviously I'm giving this matter some thought and trying to find a way to get MotG back online.
This person pretty much has it.
/agree