Suggestions, leave them here.

So think of RK and all the things it gets right, and all the things it gets oh-so-very-wrong. This game isn't an RK clone, but based on the good things that a similar style of game can bring.

New ideas already include:

-clothes that wear out
-temporary boosts from eating certain meals
-anyone can create a group, army, merchant, thieving, escorts, etc, with different stat boosts depending on the function
-being able to create guilds or families
-being able to have children that then become npcs and assets to your household
-not just taverns but player controlled shops and businesses
-dangerous travel with a chance of being attacked by npc brigands or wild animals
-proper rp robbery with the game mechanics only disclosing a description of your attacker, the amount of info disclosed based on your infamy/notoriety
-market prices are determined by supply/demand automatically so anyone can sell to a market but the price is determined by the amount of activity
-when fined for robbery, the judge determines how much of the fine goes to pay back the victim, how much goes to the town or county....and how much he can keep for himself if he's corrupt. (Hi, Edward! )


And we have so many more!

Not all ideas can be rolled out in the first phase of the game, but so far we haven't thrown anything at Grave that he has said no to.

So talk to me! What do you want to see!!

- Robbing people in towns!
- Boarding and capturing ships!
- Ships!

Idk how good are you at programming and coding but if possible crew management (this is a really late phase idea). For example your ship need 10 people 1 captain and 9 crew, but you have 13 stations for example 5 sailing,5 gunning, 3 repairs, so you have to sacrifice something over the other. For example you want more firepower well max out the gunners, then you will have only 4 people on which you can split between 8 stations.

RK is a game that is based on the misconception that the 15th century was a fancy and cool era to live. Over-glamorized, glorified crap.

So I am suggesting certain survival elements. Like the blistering wet and cold weather you got up there. The danger of getting sick or a slight accident that can cost you a limb or two.

RK marginalizes villains making it impossible for them to do what villains do. In reality though, in such a world, being self-centered was the easy way to make ends meet. The really challenging thing was to be all altruistic, help others and be a goody good two shoes.

We don't call them Dark Ages because it sounds cool.

A trade system. Bartering.

One thing that was very fun about old Runescape was that players themselves chose locations to mass gather (such as behind a bank or in a park) to both sell and buy all different kinds of wares. Negotiation would be done person to person as opposed to market. Eventually the game added in a market (Grand Exchange) but i always felt a special part of player interaction was lost in the process. In general though an actual trading system between players would be nice.
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Crimes inside towns. Pick pocketing, burglary, attacking/assassination attempts. Towns do not always have to be safe havens. Perhaps there could be both player and NPC guards on the lookout for such crimes.
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Alchemy.

Gathering ingredients and creating potions. Perhaps even a system where players can discover and create their own potions that they themselves have figured out a recipe for from a large amount of ingredients for many possible combinations. Not magical portions but something more realistic. A similar system could be used for cooking.
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A hunting system and/or mini game. Hunting is usually a popular activity in games that allow quite a bit of freedom in a medieval setting. It could be survival to one family and sport to another.

Frankie: Hadn't thought about ships! Yes! I like the idea of having to make choices that mean you can't have everything perfect all the time. And robbing everywhere!!

Daegron: Totally agree! This is not going to be some "Wedding Simulator 1345" crap. Siren and I already spoke about illnesses and battles that can have long term health consequences. As for villains, that goes without saying. At its heart RK should actually be a pvp game but it the gameplay itself is so unbalanced it's impossible. Totally one sided. Conflict is good for for a game!

Raider: That's why we will be implementing player run shops. So just like you can make a tavern in RK, you'll be able to open whatever type of shop or business you like, in game, sell your stuff and role play it anyway you want! I like the idea of pickpocketing and such!

Alchemy, I'm not sure how much magical stuff we want? Hadn't thought about it too much. Maybe you could discover "cures" this way? Or yes, food recipes. Not sure about how difficult this will be so need to run it past the Great Guardian Grave first!

Hunting/Fishing mini-game already planned. We're looking at ways of breaking up your day so you can do more than one thing, but only up to say 12 hours worth of activities, if that makes sense.

KEEP IT COMING!!!

As far as activities, how about a queuing system?  There are 24 hours in a day, in these hours, your character needs to:

Sleep (8 hours optimum)
Eat/cook (3 hours optimum)
Work (10 hours optimum)
Travel (this one could probably create a separate 'itinerary'?)
Relax (2 hours optimum)
Forage (1 hour optional)
Mend (depends on what needs repairing up to 3 hours maybe)

So you choose which of these things need to be done and just like Frankie suggested with the ships, you will always need to do more things than you have time for, so something has to be put off.

So a schedule could look like this:

Sleep 6 hours (penalty for sleeping less than eight hours = slightly tired 3% less efficient the next day)
Eat/cook 1 hour (penalty for eating too little = hunger must eat 5% more the next day)
Relax 4 hours (if spent in the tavern possible hangover consequences?)
Forage 3 hours (bonus % chance of finding a rare item)

etc ..

I think you get the picture?

I am happy to help with working out the various levels of advantage/disadvantage though it would probably have to be tested to tweak the balancing.

The advantage of an optional schedule would be if I know that I am going to have a busy day, I can set my character to do tasks and not worry about it.  If I am not as busy as I thought, then being able to change the parts of the schedule not yet done would be a nice option too.

Oh and alchemy is not magic.  Alchemy was the forerunner to chemistry.  So yes, mixing chemicals and seeing what happens would be great!  I would love to see someone accidentally dyeing their face blue for a week because they mixed two things that shouldn't be mixed

Sorry for the double post btw.

Yeah definitely the non-magical alchemy. I think RK actually has a very basic version of apothecary which is interesting. Lol'd at somebody's face turning blue due to a wrong combination :p

Ah that kind of alchemy, yup, kinda got that in the healer thing?

And Siren, that is exactly how we have already done it. You will, for example, be able to say you want to go fishing for 2 hours and your catch, which will vary anyhow, be adjusted by time.

Siren, what I could do with help on is actually crafting recipes and such. Ping me on Steam when you're around and I'll get you access to the google doc Grave and I have been using. <3

System of governance?

I gather we are going into a more feudal period, so we need ig titles (boo to a player exclusive coh)  And how does progression work?  I guess I start as a penniless vagrant and work up to what?

Route one: Vagrant labourer Tenement farmer landowner baron etc

Route two: pickpocket petty thief vagabond brigand robber baron etc

Route three: cannon fodder militia recruit soldier knight etc

Hmmm...something we hadn't decided yet, though we have gone with your suggestion of skills leveling up the more you do something.

RK is a game about social ascension. As time passes, that happens through unrealistic methods. Because NOONE offers vagrants land to own. There's no such thing as a University. You are not going to be voted to be a part of the government. and sure as hell you don't build boats like that. You need to fail a few dozen times to make one float. You are not master of everything.

And no your vote doesn't really count. Piss off, you lowly serf.

Anyway, skill advancement is more to my liking. It does not have to mean that you can climb the social ladder that way.

What I am suggesting is a system that is based on three things:

Skills that are increased by using them.

Influence that is gained or lost depending on player interactions.

And a thing like karma. Fate points. Depending on your starting path/status/background, Karma is lost or gained in varying rates. I don't know if it makes sense, but a character focused on being heroic, he'd gain or loose massive amounts of karma with his actions compared to a simple farmer.

Because the future belongs to the brave. Or to the guileful.

Higher positive or negative karma would create more dynamic or static events for the character.

Also, events. Not that crap from RK. Depending on your karma you have chances of a special event happening that may or may not involve some random quest with a reward, or a special kind of interaction with PCs or NPCs. Like people loving or hating you, random disasters etc.

Also questing. Gives you bad or good karma, but it's dangerous and you miss your chance to increase more mundane skills.

Skills all the way. Has anyone ever played Gurps ?

Fuck stats like strength and intelligence and endurance and charisma, Skills !

One could choose a general starting status or social background. It would have it's pros and cons. Sure, start out as a noble. But you need to manage your earnings, keep yourself safe from usurpers, keep your property safe, pay people to keep it that way. By all means, have daily events of people questing to grab all they can from YOURP PROPERTY to make ends meet, because it's the dark ages, and who wouldn't steal a sheep or two to keep his children from starvation ?



alright, there I rambled on again. 'scuse me.

Daegron I agree with a lot of what you have said but not with all.

In a game there has to be a compromise because we are never going to be able to recreate real life events and neither should we want to. You need a progression to give you a reason to keep playing. It doesn't have to be from nobody to King. Skills progression is already going to be a thing. So you first start out making inferior goods and progress towards the perfection of your craft.

There does however need to be a chance to change your mind. If I start a game and it asks me to pick a character type, I take a long time to read through all the options open to that character. If I don't like my choice, then do I have to restart - usually yes. Do we want that here? I'm not sure. It could maybe be a 'pay' option to be allowed to reroll your character.

The problem with RK is that there was a top ceiling that everybody eventually hit and could go no further. So which ever route gets chosen, we do need to allow for progression. It doesn't have to be easy to achieve but it does need to be there.

I do love your idea about events. I would love to see seasons and weather. A bad storm? Lose 50% of your wheat harvest. A hot summer? Your well dries up.

Daegron wrote:
What I am suggesting is a system that is based on three things:

Skills that are increased by using them.

Influence that is gained or lost depending on player interactions.

And a thing like karma. Fate points. Depending on your starting path/status/background, Karma is lost or gained in varying rates. I don't know if it makes sense, but a character focused on being heroic, he'd gain or loose massive amounts of karma with his actions compared to a simple farmer.

Number 1 and 2 already part of the game. Stat points increase as you use skills that depend on them. Fighting builds strength, for example. And influence and notoriety as well, both by actions and what you own such as which books, weapons and such.

Karma, that is a good one! I can see if from a coding point of just being a multiplier but yeah, seems to me it's in the same vein as influence, luck, and such. Really good idea!

It dawned on me in my dreams last night.

A full blown maid system. I'm talking cleaning, cooking and special massages. Domestic maids. Battle maids. Defensive maids. An entire maid operation.

Oh, RaiRai! <3

I'm pretty sure Battle Maids is a different, and probably hugely successful, game. Definitely next on the list for development if it doesn't already exist!!

(By the way, I tried to find that house again to get a screenshot but can't. I know it was in Heidel but not sure which house. It might be worth your while to login and try and find it as with the way the game is being coded, you could actually use that screenshot as the inside of your own house if you wanted. )

Really?? I actually found it again a while back but it was different. Less maids and clutter, but i am 90% sure it was the same one we saw. Will have to check again sometime

Daegron wrote:

And no your vote doesn't really count. Piss off, you lowly serf.

.

I loved Daegron's rant, particularly that part. It would be tres amusing if there WAS a vote button that looked really inviting, but if you pushed it some guy came along and shoved you in the mud and said, "Piss off, you lowly serf, no one cares what you think." or something like that.

Corwyn wrote:

Daegron wrote:

And no your vote doesn't really count. Piss off, you lowly serf.

.

I loved Daegron's rant, particularly that part.  It would be tres amusing if there WAS a vote button that looked really inviting, but if you pushed it some guy came along and shoved you in the mud and said, "Piss off, you lowly serf, no one cares what you think."  or something like that.

I want that button too!

And so, to order, said button:



And the result of pushing said button:



Next graphic?