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Hero's Journey: Dev Journal: Wyr
Dana
Member Posts: 2,415
Simutronics presents another developer journal here on MMORPG.com. This week, Jay Miller drops by to let us know about one of the game's defining features: wyr.
;) So I was trolling through the forums today - you know, chattin' it up with the little people, listening to their plights, beheading the odd finger-pointing, nay-saying miscreant - when I discovered a startlingly alarming statistic: of all the gamers across the globe who follow Hero's Journey, we haven't a single Merfolk among our ranks! Now I know what you're thinking: "There's no such thing as Merfolk, ya bleedin' maroon!" But how can we know that? For all we know, the oceans are teeming with the fellers and all we have to do to lure them out is give them something amazing to get excited about!
It got me thinkin', it did! If we could bring out something so phenomenal, so undeniably brilliant that no one man nor mer could deny its greatness, then I'd say we stand a pretty good chance of luring those feisty little buggers out of their hidey-holes and into LAN gaming centers everywhere! Hell, maybe with the extra income I can stop sleeping on the floor of the office and get a flat of my own! |
You can read more here.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Comments
"Dude, you're wearing a fluffy pink bunny suit."
"But, it's the fluffy pink bunny suit...OF DEATH!"
"Yeah, but you look like an idiot."
Agent_X7 AKA J Star
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Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com or its management.
That guy Jay Miller sounds borderline insane lol, i hope he runs a lot of ingame events come release, if his aticles alone can be such a fun and crazy read, he should be interesting to see in action.
Wte system looks amazing, i thought of it more along the lines of the diablo socket system, where you just min/max socketing all the pimp stuff, but it sounds way cooler, starting with generic skills then having the ability to customize and change them to whatever element you like is awesome. I hope they have lightening as an element, word is the elements are Fire, Ice, and earth, hope their are more, or certain combination add more.
Quotations Those Who make peaceful resolutions impossible, make violent resolutions inevitable. John F. Kennedy
Life... is the shit that happens while you wait for moments that never come - Lester Freeman
Lie to no one. If there 's somebody close to you, you'll ruin it with a lie. If they're a stranger, who the fuck are they you gotta lie to them? - Willy Nelson
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When you do something right people won't be sure you've done anything at all.
I'm guessing (and hoping) that I misinterpreted the information presented, but I wanted to bring it up just in case. I'm hoping that part of the crafting system or core mechanics will provide a method of merging new equipment slots into your current gear (applying the extra slots in that new full metal helm to your old pirate hat, ninja hood, etc).
That is the way I interpreted it too. However, since wyr is removeable you should be able to easily trade, craft or buy what you need for a reasonable price. It is not hard to infer that they are taking the customization aspect of the game to heart and arn't going to limit the population with a few looks. In other words, I believe unsocked items will be common and easily attained, but that is just my guess.
Part of the EXP system is the gaining of Hero Points. These can be spent on adding extra sockets to various things. Deciding to wear a new item for more sockets is an option if you want to save the points for elsewhere. While I don't know what kind of new item customization, colors and look, we'll have in place. I'm sure we'll most likely add in something.
To answer the question about what kind of things to expect from set bonuses. The Val Zeair set was showcased at E3. When the 2 Wyr are added to the body stat it makes the character sparkle and gives the Heroic Jump ability. Which doubles the characters normal jumping range. Which caused us builders to groan collectively when we saw it because we'd have to go over some old areas to "fix" places that shouldn't be jumped onto.
GM Illuminatis
World Builder
Hero's Journey
Very cool article. I love this system.
Question: You give some examples of Wyr with their backstory, effects, etc. Will I be able to tell all that by mousing over or clicking on the wyr? Or will I only be able to tell part of it and the rest concealed, to be discovered some way?
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
I like this article a lot more than the recent ones that were posted about this game. It gives some actual data which the last few have lacked. I was one of those lurkers who agreed with those posting about wanting more meat with the articles. I'm primarily posting as the writer stated:
I've grown more skeptical about this game as time has gone on; I keep looking for the innovation and what the developers are doing to make the players feel llike they're playing heros. Wondering what tedious things they are going to revamp or get rid of.
Based on this article, Wyr is certainly an aspect of the game that peaks my interrest. While not a new concept, the way it's being implemented to match the goals and vision of the game is unique. I'm not one to get all excited and my hopes up about games, but articles like this keep me watching for updates and information.
I'm looking forward to finding out what else this game might offer. Keep the info coming!
Regards,
Gabriel
I am wondering if each Wyr is unique to a server - or will every player doing quest X get the same wyr as a reward?
Or do you have a wyr random name/stat/ description generation tool, so when a player gets wyr it randomly generates everything?
What I wouldnt want is every player being able to get the set of wyr that gives them heroic jump.
Yes, I have been a huge supporter of HJ since I heard of it.
I would hope that certain quests would be rare/unobtainable unless you were to gain some amazing factions, or maybe completed some very rare and hard to complete tasks (say some tasks are only obtainable at certain times because of rotating NPCs and such, maybe because of seasons, who knows) or maybe some quests will take months to complete because of season changes where an NPC only comes out at say winter, but needs something that you can only get in spring, but he only comes back out at winter, etc.
I just simply hope that mechanics will be in place to try and balance the number of unique items available. Again, everyone being able to readily achieve every special item just by knowing where it is or how to get it shouldn't be enough. Think of how hard it was to get Jedi status in old SWG. Something along those lines should be how hard it should be to get special Wyr sets.
Also, as far as spending hero points on extra slots... I think it wouldn't be that hard to balance. Sure, that helm gives you more slots than your ninja armor, but your ninja armor might give you some advantage over that helm. Therefore, if you have the ninja armor you might have to buy slots, but with that helm you might have to buy more stealth or the like. Just random thoughts though.
Can't wait, as always
The main problem I see with spending Hero Points on equipment slots is that those points might be better spent in other areas. A couple of questions surround this:
It may balance itself out, but there's really not enough information available to determine this. Simutronics may not care too much if it doesn't balance itself out as they would see it as offering alternatives to help those that want to role-play. As long as they are providing alternatives, they may not care what the players are choosing to give up.
There have been plenty of games where choices like this were added where the developers weren't too concerned about balance. Their goal was to provide alternatives for those that wanted to role-play and if the cost to the role-players was the inability to get XYZ, then so be it. It's the player's choice afterall.
Regards,
Gabriel
I agree - as its a PvE game it doesnt matter if particular choices are a bit unbalanced. So you could choose to have armour with less slots becuase you like the look without it handicapping you too much.
But if I want to play a monk running around in a loin cloth and sandals can I use Hero Points to add slots to my body? Kind of like - tattoos?
From my understanding the points can be spent on anything that has sockets. That way you can provide more boosts to your abilities and stats. Also the sockets added to items are permenent. So you could in theory sell an item you added a bunch of sockets to.
One thing that wasn't touched upon in the article but we discussed at E3 was that Wyr have point values based off their commonality. In reality when you add sockets or have an item with X sockets. It's not really a bunch of empty slots. It's a point value. So if you had a 5 Socket item. You could place 5 common (1pt) Wyr in it, one Rare (5pt) socket, or any combination up to 5 pts. (Points values are just off the top of my head, and shouldn't be thought of as real.)
When you get an item, ability, or look at your stats. You'll see no sockets on them at first, but you will see a small solid circle. You click on the circle and then select the point value of the socket you want it to be. If any points are leftover a new circle will appear below the socket and you can then select it and add another socket. If you wanted to change a sockets value you could click on it when empty and change it's value or even remove it to free up points for another socket.
Also there will be rare and unique Wyr. How rare and unique will they be? I don't know since it's not my area of development. I'm pretty sure there will be some awarded as prizes at special events.
On the topic of rares. It was also mentioned at E3 that some of the rare and powerful Wyr will not be removeable without destroying them. I can't go into much detail on this, because again it's not my area of development.
Shadowmage. I'll see if I can find out how we're handling empty item slots for those who want to go without some clothing. How you choose to look isn't supposed to hinder how powerful you are. So I don't see them making it so the naked ones have less socketing options.
GM Illuminatis
World Builder
Hero's Journey
I think something not as well understood is that there is not a limited amount of hero points you can gain.
Therefore there isn't really any need to save them for something special, if they are used for anything else besides Wyr. (I don't know too much about them so I can't say..)
HJ-Diviana
Hero's Journey GM
Hero's Journey Official Site
Hero's Hall
I would love to see an article on Hero Points now.
Something else that bugs me that I haven't addressed yet:
I played DragonRealms from Simutronics for over 6 years, starting from the end of it's beta. I saw a lot of changes in the game, was one of the players who was well known and seen as a leader. I tried to change the game from a player's standpoint, starting when AOL went to their flat rate plan which saw the game flooded with players. For a game that never expected players to get past level 20, there were a lot of things that happened.
I did what I could, and the game changed it's vision to something that I found difficult to change in myself. I eventually left the game as it's vision was too different from what I was led to expect and I couldn't succesfully change myself to match it. Nothing like condioning offline-scripting, even for a short period of time.
What I fear with Hero's Journey is that the elitism that exists in other Simutronics games (which I took part in), the favoritism (which I was a participant in), and the dynamics of having hundreds of GMs who are all shaping the game will create a game that doesn't have a cohesive vision that will stand through time.
I have no doubt that this is a concern of the head GMs and executivies, but I do not know what they are doing to address these issues. For some, they see it as a good thing. It's easy to see it as a good thing when you're on top. It's different to see it as a good thing as a peon in a dynamic environment such as these virtual worlds.
I do not know, as an ex-Simutronics fan, if I want to even dedicate a small percentage of my time to Hero's Journey.
I'll end this post with a wish to see 2 new articles:
Regards,
Gabriel
..and if thats the case, isnt it just the same old, but in different colour?
__________________________
Reality is for people who lack imagination
..and if thats the case, isnt it just the same old, but in different colour?
I dunno. As a player, I don't mind forced upgrades. Forced generalities make me nuts. I don't mind that my level 20 sword will need to be replaced by a level 30 sword, but I do mind that my sword's design rests with a weaponsmith GM's template rather than with me. I would welcome the chance to determine my weapon's (or anything else's) stats and looks so that it can do any variety of things to compensate for my character flaws!
And yes, Jim is wild, isn't he? I loved reading that article, it was like a roller coaster ride
And what I mean is, what will keep me ingame? Will it become an endless hunt for a better Wyr? Will the only reason I enter a dungeon be to get the Wyr at the end, only to be strong enough to enter the next dungeon?
Its at the End Game I will see the quality of the MMORPG. The character customization seems to be very nice in HJ, but that does not help if theres nothing to do with your nice and unique looking toon.
Its not uncommon in MMORPG´s (as far as I know) that it ends up in a choice between two thing, either PvP or massive raids (sometimes just one of these, depending on the game). And if your arnt very interested in PvP (and the community that usually follows) you end up in the worst spectra of PvE gaming ever; Big Raids. And I havent seen any other reason for doing these raids yet but to get better equipment. Its fun to see the new dungeon the first time, but after a hundred runs it tends to be horrible. And out of a RP perspective it will be harder and harder to explain why you are killing "Mr Bad guy" over a hundred times, just to get his pants. And it wont help if it will be a Wyr instead of pants, its still the same old boss farming...
I fully understand the problem developers have with MMORPG´s; how do you keep me in the game forever?
Im not sure how others think about this... But if the only way is to announce new über-equipment (or Wyrs) I will be disapointed.
So far, we dont know much about HJ´s end game; will it become another raid or pvp game? But, at least to me, it seems like the Wyr will be one of the things we will hunt for in our struggle to develop our toon after the level cap.
(sorry if my english is crap)
__________________________
Reality is for people who lack imagination
Every game has this dilemma. This happens because content, however dynamic, is finite; it has to be finished at some point so it can be published. If you reach the end of the game quickly, you'll find yourself twiddling your thumbs until the expansion arrives. Since the expansion usually includes additional material for the highest-level users as part of its offer, the game doesn't really end at the original top levels, but players still consider the original end to be the "end game."
And I agree with you, there's nothing worse than getting to level "whatever" only to find that the thing you've been reaching for is a raid. I want responsibility and influence! I want to be able to affect the physical, political, and social landscapes! I want to dooooo stuff, not sit in my house spamming the LFG channel out of boredom!
But this topic is about wyr, so I'm gonna stay there