8 réponses à ce sujet

[The_Tormented]

Hello all. I am leading up a small indie development project and was hoping to get some insight from the community. Before we announce the project publically and starting looking for feedback from our own community I wanted to come straight to the heart of the group we are looking to get interest from.

In not so much detail, we are basically building a set of tools and functionality specifically targetted at CMORPGs (Community Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) where the focus is on allowing communities of players to build, host and manage their own multiplayer worlds. The initial goal is for fantasy settings, but we have plans to expand that into modern and sci-fi depending on how well recieved it is.

I myself played and DMed a PW in NwN1, and others on the team have/are doing so for NwN2. However, we want to make this as functional and easy to use out of the box for the communtiy as possible so we want to make sure we get all the right input and not miss something important.

As such please tell us what you would want to see as base functionality built into an engine for PWs, DMing and Multiplayer.

Some of the things we are already working on include:
Built in DB Functionality
Auto-Install/De-Install tools for worlds
Cross-Server Communication
UI Extensability
Optional procedural area generation
And much more!

[kamal_]

Is this you?
http://www.kickstart...yworld?ref=live

[The_Tormented]

Nope not us . As I mentioned we haven't announced yet. We are really trying to get all our ducks in a row and get our tech demo on it's way before we even bring it to the public. This is more a fact finding mission. Here are some of the details from our vision statement to give you a better idea of what we are trying to do:

CMO: The community multiplayer online market is largely untapped with the only software available either being dated and under maintained or complicated and lacking in features. A true CMORPG allows options for structured persistent worlds, easy implementation and maintenance, easy access to system customizations, and functionality for cross-server communication.

In ***TITLE*** these features are key to providing a meaningful and enjoyable experience:

Persistent Worlds: In past iterations of similar software the focus had not been on persistent worlds. This is our key difference. We want to provide the tools for communities to be able to create their own persistent worlds where vital information such as players, game state, characters, items, areas, factions, calendar, loot drops, locations, quests, banks, and stories all can retrieve their state from a database. Furthermore, we want to provide the functionality already present in the game for the database creation, implementation and maintenance.

From a player's standpoint they should be able to login to a server create a character, play that character and log out. When they log back in again the character should be in the same place they had left, they should have the same items, quests, etc. It should seem like a seamless world... Unless of course some the player didn’t stop somewhere safe or an event occurred that changed the world around them while they were gone. The player should then find themselves in the appropriate situation upon returning. From the builders standpoint they should be able to dictate when, where and how players enter a world. Not only from initial character creation, but while the game is happening. If a player logged out in a forested area that got overrun by goblins the during the night, they should log back into find themselves surrounded by goblins or even captured. Builders should be able to dictate what happens to players that have a their location stored in an area that is altered in some way.

Implementation & Maintenance: We want the build to be easy while still maintaining flexibility for the users. The second most important aspect of this project will be to provide tools to the community for building their own persistent worlds this will include a GUI for actual world building, prop placement, character development, and quest creation. The next step once building is complete is to provide means of getting content to the public; as such we will include tools to create automatic installation and uninstallation utilities. Finally, once players are involved there needs to be a means of providing updates. We will also include functionality to push out updates to clients as well as tools for builders to maintain their PW content.

For players this means that they should be able to find a server they want to play on, go to log-in be prompted of any additional resources that need to be installed and if installation is accepted be taken through the process of installation all in one step and not have to go out searching for files or complicated instructions on how to get things installed. For builders this means that as they create make changes and updates to their world those changes and updates are pushed out to the client automatically when they next log-in.

Customizations: Another key goal is to allow for customizations so the community can build as they desire. We want to provide opportunities to allow for the game to be as system agnostic as possible for those who want to do heavy customization while also maintain a base structure that will provide an easy start point for smaller teams that want less customization. We also plan to provide detailed documentation on customization so that the community will be able to easily adopt the tools and standards used for world creation and customization.

For players this means that they will have a nearly unlimited amount of options for games they want to play. As long as there are people to build there will be games to play. For builders this means that they won’t be limited to hard-coded game functionality at every turn. If they want to change how fast a class of character moves they can, if they want to define how a character's hit points are calculated they can. If they want to change how quickly or slowly a day occurs in-game time they can. We want to provide a solid base to build from but allow builders to change the game to fit their needs.

Cross-server communication: To allow for bigger and better worlds we plan to implement functionality to enable cross-server communication. This will provide two unique advantages. One, communities will only be limited in the size of a world they can build based off the server architecture they can provide. This doesn’t mean you can’t have a vibrant world with only a single server nor does it mean you can’t create personal sessions that you host independently, but the capability will be there to allow you to create very deep and expansive worlds. Two, smaller communities will be able to group their efforts, if desired, and allow for characters to be able to move between different realms. While providing the cross-server communication we will also design standards and documentation to detail how the functionality works to enable both possibilities mentioned prior.

For player this means that for servers or groups of servers that utilize the same standards they will be able to transfer their characters between them without any additional work aside from possibly having to install new files as mentioned above. For builders this means that the world they can build is truly only limited by their imagination and their budget. You can build a small campaign and host locally to play or GM some of your friends, you can build a single server that has an detailed world with several locations or you can setup multiple servers to each have their own plane of existence within the world and have players move between servers seamlessly.

[MasterChanger]

This seems very interesting! I have often felt that MMOs had two big shortcomings when it comes to meeting the needs of people from the NWN community: 1) no DM'ing, which severly limits the ability to tell interesting stories in a dynamic way, and 2) no (or very limited) customization, which means no new settings.

So what you are planning seems very cool!

[The_Tormented]

Thanks! That is really our hope, to make solid tools and an engine that can benefit the community. We're really excited about the work we are doing!

[rodkinnison]

This niche is essentially totally unserved right now, with NWN2 and even NWN1 worlds still the only option I can find out there. Love them both and have and do enjoy playing in them but there's no question that the aging of the game platform on which they are based is causing the player community to decline, as old hands slowly drop out and new players are scarce.

Essentially, NWN1 and NWN2 had the basics down, though a more flexible scripting engine would have helped (especially for NWN2, where a lot of the functionality seemed to be hard-coded and it took a long time for the player community to script around the problems).

The underlying ruleset is not too important, though support for a "skill-based" or "point-buy" system, I think, gives more flexibility for non-combat optimized builds that work better in a multiplayer, role-playing setting. But the D20 rules offer that and don't require you to get licenses from companies that are difficult and expensive to work with, as one example.

The biggest area where I think NWN1 and NWN2 fall short is in making it easier for players to create good-looking content. The NWN1 engine did a great job of this but has really aged now. The NWN2 engine made creating bug-free walkmeshes a job for the highly-trained expert. I think it is possible to provide a system where a terrain mesh can be smoothly stretched to provide true 3D geometry without having to be an expert -- but no one has done this yet that I know of.

[Sin7]

Sounds like a very cool project and very much needed.

One of the best in game editors I have actually come across is Warcraft III and I think any game that wants to allow customisation should take alot of features from that. Similar to NWN2, you could edit models, scale them etc. however the real hidden gem was the spells editor with it. You could literally create tons of abilities or spells very easily. Doing so in NWN2 or the original is flexible, but it requires alot of work - 2DA editing, .TLK editing, scripting etc.

One of the biggest drawbacks and put offs with NWN2 custom content for PWs is they are large and require downloads - what would be amazing is having the basis for this content already within the game system i.e. skins that can be tinged or a different texture applied to the model, heads and bodies for monsters that can be swapped with hundreds of different models i.e. a troll with a chickens head .. just for example

Anyway my two cents

[The_Tormented]

Thanks for the feedback and keep it coming! All great ideas and suggestions.

[Happycrow]

Agreed with Sin7.
Also, having software that can ACTUALLY HANDLE ARRAYS, unlike nwn2, would be a big help.