1

Topic: Buildable plots

One problem I have in faldon is a lack of goals other than kill the same stuff and get marginally stronger or raise skills to watch the numbers go up.  It's would be amazing if, on the next server, you could get plots of land and be able to map edit it.  You could make various tiles cost certain resources and it would another objective other than kill the same stuff over and over.

Pennywise - 7 Seconds - Fugazi - Husker Du

2

Re: Buildable plots

I sometimes wonder if it would be possible to implement instanced maps for this purpose.

So, basically like a transition/entrance that leads to a small instance map (one assigned to each player, or guild). They could be accessible by invitation or maybe some filtered way to visit other plots. This would accommodate for expansion in a limited world. I don't know how much map editing could be supported, but if you've ever played Stardew Valley it would be interesting to emulate that style. So, presumably you could work to clear the plot and then use it to farm, plant gardens, orchards, and raise animals. And/or have a place to build up industrial structures for refining & crafting, or a fortification for PvP.

I like the idea tremendously. Games like this are fun, but sometimes it's a little one dimensional just killing and character developing. It's nice to chill and build/maintain an area for some purpose.

3

Re: Buildable plots

Honestly, the best thing about UO and Archeage was being able to actually have skin in the game world.  Being able to purchase a plot and build was my favorite thing in all those games.  They wouldn't even need to be bigger than the current plots for guild halls and houses.

As a new player, I would go by these awesome houses and aspire to have one.  As a vet, I liked being able to show off.

You could add more complexity to farming skill if you have land, too.

Last edited by pennywise (July 15th, 2024 11:36 AM)

Pennywise - 7 Seconds - Fugazi - Husker Du

4

Re: Buildable plots

I think this is a great idea and would be a hard one to implement. Runescape does house instances, and its cool, but I don't think it is the flavor of Faldon. Faldon seems more public to me, everything is accessible by everyone.

I think maybe in its testing phases, having towns with empty lots of land to purchase would be a great way to do it. Then you could watch a town build from the people, more similar how it would be in the midieval times.

It always could be expanded to limited amounts of raids and damages in later phases, although this might be very hard to do fairly. But this, and adding farming land, etc would be a cool addition.

You could even add more to carpentry with furniture and add more diversity in the Faldon economy.

For house building, you could start out with wooden material (wood shack like structure), Then have to upgrade your house with better materials over time.

I think mining needs to be revamped a bit, or at least the nodes need shorter reset times, but this could structure more economy too.

Pennywise is right, and Faldon is a lot about showing off, its just part of the fun.

5

Re: Buildable plots

Didn't mean that they wouldn't be accessable. I just mean that having everyone on the same map is problematic when you introduce ownership and customization. Unless your aim is to always have under 40 or 50 players with janitorial functions to cleanup abandoned area and such.

Instancing just magically solves a lot of introduced problems & limitations, and introduces other possibilities like an instanced battle map, or instanced dungeons, etc.

6

Re: Buildable plots

Master Wu wrote:

Didn't mean that they wouldn't be accessable. I just mean that having everyone on the same map is problematic when you introduce ownership and customization. Unless your aim is to always have under 40 or 50 players with janitorial functions to cleanup abandoned area and such.

Instancing just magically solves a lot of introduced problems & limitations, and introduces other possibilities like an instanced battle map, or instanced dungeons, etc.

For janitorial functions, couldn't we just make a script like houses, after so many days of not paying taxes, your house gets demolished and put back on the market?

This project would definitely be a big undertaking, but 50 players per map would be fine. Everyone should have a place to live in Faldon right?

Also currently, I don't think there could be more than 200 players in a single server(realistically, not player server capacity). So it depend on how far James wants to go with this. are we making a game for a couple hundred, or thousands?

Some instanced leveling dungeons might not be a bad idea if player count gets high. Maybe even 1 dungeon per 50 players online, etc...

Last edited by travis (July 20th, 2024 11:54 AM)

7

Re: Buildable plots

Sure. This is all just hypothetical talk anyway. So, scripting vs. code, player count, and such is all nebulous.

The concept of being able to have control over some portion of land and build on it in whatever shape that is, is not out of the realm of possibilities.

I mostly just wanted to chime in and add that instance maps make this much more palatable in my opinion, and also opens up more game-play possibilities.

8

Re: Buildable plots

Master Wu wrote:

nstance maps make this much more palatable

  I don't see this in other MMOS.  In Archeage, SWG and Ultima Online, housing was a focus of large swaths of their player bases. 

Look at something like Wildstar, a game which was known for having some of the best instanced housing in MMOs.  It was a complete waste of resources and only used by fringe portions of the playerbase.  Same goes for LoTRO and that's the best RP MMO on the market. 

I've seen WoW and Lost Ark try to shoehorn purpose into instanced plots, but it's not the same as owning a piece of the game world and remained largely underutilized.

Pennywise - 7 Seconds - Fugazi - Husker Du

9

Re: Buildable plots

pennywise wrote:

but it's not the same as owning a piece of the game world and remained largely underutilized.

I agree here. Having a regular house in faldon has some meaning today.

I would strongly side with staying away from instances until the game needs it.