Making travel interesting

[Thunkkin]

So, I started to reply to the thread about danger and travel, but then realized that I was about to post a derail because my suggestions aren't really about danger and also require coding that I doubt anyone has the time to do.  So, I'm creating a thread here.

To make travel more interesting and unpredictable ...

Random encounters would be neat.  Especially non-lethal ones.  Say, a very, very small random chance (that sets off a timer on the player, so that the player won't get one again immediately due to good/bad luck) that something spawns as you enter a room.

Possibilities:
"A haggard, bronzed figure steps from the sands, holding up some pathetic trinkets for sale."  --> An npc vendor that sells some tribal jewelry crap and maybe a muddy water gourd, plus an interesting item or two that one can't find just anywhere.  Despawns after 10 minutes.

"As you enter the area, you notice a half-buried box in the sands, recently uncovered by the winds."  -->  May contain some sids, an interesting artifact, or an ancient demonic force waiting all these eons to be unleashed.  Despawns after 5 minutes, with a message about the sands recovering it.

"As you enter the area, you spy an unusual creature."  Basically, any of the normal creatures ... but this would be an "elite" version.  Non-aggro perhaps, but tougher to kill.  The reward is a rare pelt, claw, etc., if you can kill and skin it.

"Lying limply by the road is a fearsome yet obviously diseased and sick gith."  So, non-aggro because it's sick, but it's a veteran and dangerous, so if you attack, be prepared for a big fight.  It may bite you and give you a disease.  On the other hand, such a creature may have an interesting item or two from its long life of raiding.  Despawns after 20 minutes.

"You notice a drunken elf passed out by the road, obviously overcome by an unaccustomed exposure to Kuraci liquor and spice."  You can steal from it.  Kill it.  Or ignore it.  Despawns after 60 minutes.

How about rare/infrequent TRAVELERS.  Npcs moving from one town to the next.  Lightly guarded, possessing some goods/treasure.  Gives raiders an additional target and makes travel more realistic.  I mean, isn't it a bit weird to never see ANY npc on the roads except ones that want to eat us?

[Gimfalisette]

I like it all.

[Myrdryn]

I think 'danger' is a subjective term.  In regards to my other post, I pretty much consider danger to be the same thing as what you're saying here, and that is to say something unexpected.  But then again, -generally- in Zalanthas 'unexpected' -is- dangerous, because Zalanthas is dangerous (but not always).

[Gimfalisette]

If each room on a given travel route had a % chance of spawning something for each PC who is traveling, then both the frequency and the size of encounters would likely be appropriately tuned.

Amos is traveling alone, so his chance of encountering anything is based just on him. Won't be very high.

Amos and the entire Kadian group of five PCs is traveling, so they have 5x the chance of encountering something.

Bonus for wagons, perhaps.

This actually would give incentive toward group travel (higher chance of something fun or cool happening) while not disadvantaging off-peakers or dedicated indies. (Except insofar as they miss out on fun/cool.)

[mansa]

I would like to see some interaction on the roads that are designed with a "temporary quest" in mind, with a hardlined real life end date.

Like a group of NPC raiders, that raid a specific spot for two real-life weeks, and then stop.  Whether the playerbase finds them and kills them or whether they do not is not the goal.  The goal is just to create a random encounter that may or may not be completed.

I feel like a lot of quests are set up in game with the full intention of the playerbase to find out and complete the quest.  I think that prolongs and weakens the quest line, when you need to delay the ending.   If a quest was set up with the intention of time to pass by, rather than player interaction and completion, it might throw some different sort of entertainment in, for the whole playerbase, rather than those specific users who log in from 9 - 12 pm every night.

[jmordetsky]

I think random spawns would be awesome. The desert is utterly boring. And the general view I've heard in the past for putting more NPCs into it has been "people will just spawn camp them and use them to get l33t stuff". Which is unfortunately true.

If it were purely random, you could do things like well-armed raiders, guided caravans, peasant traders etc and the tw1nks wouldn't be able to spot wait and loot them.

[Synthesis]

The problem with putting "things with gear" out in the desert is that as of yet, nobody's coded a foolproof script that would allow these NPCs to respond appropriately to a various number of ranged and/or magickal attacks.

Although it would be funny as fuck if someone coded a random encounter where a certain type of magicker did a certain type of magickal shit and wtfpwned newbs who thought they could sit there and lob arrows ftw.

[Old Kank]

In order for a PC clan of raiders to be playable, they need many code 'perks' that aren't currently available to the general player base (like masks, secret hide outs with special access).  Without these things, players generally aren't interested (IMO it's too difficult/not fun).  We did have a raider clan a few years back (Zimand Gur, without said perks) which sort of fizzled out.  People often say they'd like to see more PC raiders, but the realities (I hate using that word when talking about a virtual world) are that people don't want to do this, or they'd be doing it.

Treat raiders like gladiators and gith have been treated in the past.  Allow select players to create secondary characters and then unleash them on the world, complete with code perks and an understanding that their raider PCs are not for character development or plot involvement beyond helping bring the world to life for other primary PCs.

Yes, a single player could learn IC info from two distinct IC streams, but so what?  Choose the players carefully and tell them not to abuse the special scenario they've been given.

[jcljules]

I love Old Kank's idea.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I really love this idea.

Also, I would just like to say that quests can be unlimited in nature. Yes, they may follow the same sort of archetype from time to time, but the wording and personalities and rewards are nearly unlimited. Moreover, if you made quest encounters low-percentage and random, you could easily go RL years without seeing the same quest again.

For instance, take a look at the WoW quests. Not a one is alike, yet they obviously follow patterns. But if you take the time to read the wording of the quests, you appreciate the time it took to be unique every time.

Match 100 quests with a percentage of chance that equals 1/10000 hours played, and you've got surprises for life. And that's just quests, not stuff like 'sick gith' or 'box of crap' or 'random vendor'.

[Myrdryn]

In order for a PC clan of raiders to be playable, they need many code 'perks' that aren't currently available to the general player base (like masks, secret hide outs with special access).  Without these things, players generally aren't interested (IMO it's too difficult/not fun).  We did have a raider clan a few years back (Zimand Gur, without said perks) which sort of fizzled out.  People often say they'd like to see more PC raiders, but the realities (I hate using that word when talking about a virtual world) are that people don't want to do this, or they'd be doing it.

Treat raiders like gladiators and gith have been treated in the past.  Allow select players to create secondary characters and then unleash them on the world, complete with code perks and an understanding that their raider PCs are not for character development or plot involvement beyond helping bring the world to life for other primary PCs.

Yes, a single player could learn IC info from two distinct IC streams, but so what?  Choose the players carefully and tell them not to abuse the special scenario they've been given.

This is a good idea.  When my to do list clears up, I'll see what the rest of the staff thinks (unless another staffer beats me to it).

[jcljules]

 

Hooray?

[Dahomey]

In order for a PC clan of raiders to be playable, they need many code 'perks' that aren't currently available to the general player base (like masks, secret hide outs with special access).  Without these things, players generally aren't interested (IMO it's too difficult/not fun).  We did have a raider clan a few years back (Zimand Gur, without said perks) which sort of fizzled out.  People often say they'd like to see more PC raiders, but the realities (I hate using that word when talking about a virtual world) are that people don't want to do this, or they'd be doing it.

Treat raiders like gladiators and gith have been treated in the past.  Allow select players to create secondary characters and then unleash them on the world, complete with code perks and an understanding that their raider PCs are not for character development or plot involvement beyond helping bring the world to life for other primary PCs.

Yes, a single player could learn IC info from two distinct IC streams, but so what?  Choose the players carefully and tell them not to abuse the special scenario they've been given.

This is a good idea.  When my to do list clears up, I'll see what the rest of the staff thinks (unless another staffer beats me to it).

Shoot. If this was available, I would be willing to make my main character a raider. There's quite a lot of potential RP that's available if this is regulated well, and doesn't become an excuse for mass PKs.

[jcljules]

Derail: Woah, I just realized that Myrdryn is also Kokopelli. I totally didn't realize that or intend to steal that avatar.

[Twilight]

One of my favorite characters was a gith.  One of the few I wish I had a chance to play longer, his life was cut short so abruptly, taken from us so young...

[RogueGunslinger]

In order for a PC clan of raiders to be playable, they need many code 'perks' that aren't currently available to the general player base (like masks, secret hide outs with special access).  Without these things, players generally aren't interested (IMO it's too difficult/not fun).  We did have a raider clan a few years back (Zimand Gur, without said perks) which sort of fizzled out.  People often say they'd like to see more PC raiders, but the realities (I hate using that word when talking about a virtual world) are that people don't want to do this, or they'd be doing it.

Treat raiders like gladiators and gith have been treated in the past.  Allow select players to create secondary characters and then unleash them on the world, complete with code perks and an understanding that their raider PCs are not for character development or plot involvement beyond helping bring the world to life for other primary PCs.

Yes, a single player could learn IC info from two distinct IC streams, but so what?  Choose the players carefully and tell them not to abuse the special scenario they've been given.

This is a good idea.  When my to do list clears up, I'll see what the rest of the staff thinks (unless another staffer beats me to it).

I'd love this so much.

[number13]

Devil's advocate -- a merchant with things of actual value to raid could use his second character to gain an insider's perspective on what other raiders are doing.  You might also end up with a Legion Sarge always being unavailable to chase down Amos the Raider, because he is Amos the Raider.

[Qzzrbl]

Not all raiders will be connected to one big network.

[brytta.leofa]

Treat raiders like gladiators and gith have been treated in the past.  Allow select players to create secondary characters and then unleash them on the world, complete with code perks and an understanding that their raider PCs are not for character development or plot involvement beyond helping bring the world to life for other primary PCs.

Yes, a single player could learn IC info from two distinct IC streams, but so what?  Choose the players carefully and tell them not to abuse the special scenario they've been given.

This is a good idea.  When my to do list clears up, I'll see what the rest of the staff thinks (unless another staffer beats me to it).

Man, this could be terrible, or it could be the best thing to happen to the game since buttery sliced kalan bread. 

If people can start to enter raiding situations with the idea that the raider's player is out to Create Situations, not to Win At Any Cost...

[ianmartin]

I really dislike the giving certain players portion, I think it promotes favoritism.   Why not have a select group of imms do the job, or get people who would not normally play a character to be able to play a gith or some other random crap. 

[ianmartin]

Personally, I'd like to see Karma go away entirely.  I have seen many 'leet' characters who couldn't rp their way through a  paper bag, but can play high level chars for krath knows what reason or the other.

[X-D]

Karma is not from RP but trust.

And how do you know they cannot RP? You on staff?

[Kryos]

I doubt, given the world in its current state, that travel needs to be made more dangerous.  If you're bored because you're a massively skilled PC wondering around safer parts of the world, you can certainly solve your own problems.

[RogueGunslinger]

IF you're playing your pc like an actual living person, you won't be thinking "Hey I'm going to go find something dangerous that will very possibly kill me!"

[tortall]

IF you're playing your pc like an actual living person, you won't be thinking "Hey I'm going to go find something dangerous that will very possibly kill me!"

[Kryos]

I think you misunderstood what I meant by solve your own problems.  On another, more amusing note, there are very well role-played, sane PCs who DO think "I'm going to go find something dangerous that will possibly kill me!" Think about it.

[Qzzrbl]

Either way, I'd rather danger to my PC on the roads be other PCs.

It's pretty much always conducive to an enjoyable RP experience.

Rather than the, "HEY! THAT LOOKS FLESHY!!" *KILLKILLCHOMPCHOMP* or the, "HEY! THAT'S NOT OUR RACE!" *KILLKILLCHASECHASE* that comes about with NPCs.