I see your point about lag and game size, but what if you split the map down into smaller, more manageable chunks? Maybe you only ship the city, the starting zone, on disk, and as you play other map data is quietly streamed to minimise loading screens, balanced, of course, against maintaining ping. Each of the large overall areas is invisibly divided up into smaller neighbourhoods, each being run on their own server, so in reality the game world is a patchwork of smaller areas, each of which contains up to roughly 100 players. This would be a first step towards resolving lag issues for an fps MMO, but I'm sure there are other systems that could help as well. I've not played Fallout 3 (shock!) but I've heard good things about its system - what is it, hybrid fps/rpg point and click?Nooners said:
Making it single player or small group coop would probably work, but it's kinda small in scope. L4D's done the small online coop zombie fest, but noone's done an MMO horror survival
Imagine if there were very few npcs and quest-givers, no 'kill 20 zombies and I'll give you a jacket of 10+ grapple resistance'. You start the game and there's just you, and axe and a city full of zombies - who you team up with and how you survive is then completely up to you. It would kinda take away from the purity of the game to have NPC allies you collect - mindless mooks like mobile gun turrets, sapping your supplies, offering none of the intrigue that player interactions could. Maybe available as an option for those who don't like having to play with others?In your fuel example, would Desmond be an NPC? I presume so, given the nature of the game you envision. Just imagine if he was a player, instead. A lucky player came across an overturned fuel truck and built a little barricade around it and a stash to keep supplies in. He's got more fuel than he can use, so he sells it to passing motorists, trading for supplies and ammunition in between patrolling the area to make sure the zombies aren't massing and growing crops to sustain his own eventual excursion. You happen along, fuel low. Do you try and kill him? He's got a bullet proof vest, cover and is well nourished. In a firefight, your car could get damaged, you have no armour and your low on ammunition as it is. Then again, he's bound to have supplies, and lots of them, and free fuel's the best sort. There's always the possibility he might decide to just kill you and take your stuff - you've heard good things about him, but your car's much better than the rust truck behind the fuel tanker.
So what is it? Trade, shoot or be shot? Or maybe camp out of sight, wait for him to log off and steal some fuel? Could be a long wait...
There would have to be a system of saving your items in stashes when you log off - a distinction between items you own and resources you claim, with the former logging off with you, whilst the latter become vulnerable.
I'm also still not completely sure about the death mechanic. The way I envisioned it was that when you die you return to the starting city, just as alone and vulnerable as when you began. Basically, it's like those early games - once you lose, you start over. The difference here is that it's a persistent universe, so you can get separated from your friends and have them come back to get you, or you can explore a different plot, or go to new areas, or do anything that you didn't the first time through. After a few deaths you might start finding other players to take each other through the opening areas to get to the later content faster, though there's all ways the potential for strangers to turn on you when the chips are down, you're on your last rations and there's a zombie horde right behind you
Perhaps it would be possible to create a limited respawn point at your farm/fortress/whatever, a player constructed point that you could return to in the inevitable event of your death? but that would again take away from the real sense of danger you would get venturing into those creepy ruins after having survived for three days - that's real loss, right there - if you fuck up, you're back to the beginning. Compelling gameplay, and potentially frustrating, but that's what the pillars of gaming were built on
I also had a though about choosing character traits, changeable each time you create a new character, and new ones of which you could unlock through gameplay - adding an element of persistence. You could have a huge range of traits allowing for subtle and large difference between everyone, some of which could even force physical differences on your avatar (which, of course, would have to be fully customisable, heh) - eg, "body builder" would give you large strength and stamina, but also wrap you avatar in muscles, whilst "in shape" would give you a smaller bonus but force no physical change. Potentially a persistent levelling system could be used to allow you to use more traits, and thus give you an edge restarting.
