Pirakahunter788 said:
When it comes to the MMO/Open Multiplayer format, this particular setting could work very, very well... as long as there's a clear vision going into it.
I'm seeing a lot of talk about "atmosphere," and I just want to be sure that we understand exactly what we each mean by that word. To me, it's maintaining the "post-apocalyptic tone" of gameplay, which hinges entirely on two principles that
must be present in order for the game to work right--
scarcity and
entropy. Each of these also introduces separate challenges, so we'd have to deal with those, too.
SCARCITY: We should have learned long ago that in an MMO, there's no such thing as "rare." On a long enough timeline, everyone will have seven of them. That means making something drop less often won't make it rare, and we have to use other ways to create the
illusion of rarity. Here are some suggestions:
1. No uber weapons: This is the best solution for making something appear rare. If it's indisputably the best item, you'll see it everywhere. Instead, make the "best" items only maybe 5% better than the next best--enough for an edge, but not enough to make it a "must have." This will encourage variety by
allowing variety, which means you'll see the same thing less and less. (This will also ease the pain of #1 under Entropy below.)
2. If something is super great, you can't make it rare.
You can make it expensive to use, though. Okay, so you got the epic motorcycle tank (or whatever). It gives you a pretty big advantage... as long as you can keep it fueled. In this way, everyone
might have one, but you're not going to see them all the time. The same thing works with ammo for super-guns. The idea is to make sure the expense of using the item is enough that
most of the time, people tend to just use the normal stuff.
3. "Bind on Pickup": Totally forced and undesirable mechanic. It's understandable, don't get me wrong, but it's a bad way to enforce rarity on an item, as it just comes across as arbitrary. It doesn't have the right feel to it. But it's an option, just the same.
4. Economic Control: In order for something to be rare, you can't just run off and find it on any NPC vendor. Low-quality junk food and water? Sure. The good stuff? If you make it readily available, there won't be any sense of scarcity. You've got to make players go to
each other if they want the really good stuff. Whether it's crafted or looted, they'll have to trade with another player or go get it themselves. Scarcity isn't just about how much of something there is, it's also about how hard it is to get it.
But what's to stop a player from farming the crap out of it and then selling it wholesale on the Auction House (or equivalent)? Localized vendors. Borrowing from SWG, there was a terminal that allowed you to see what was for sale anywhere in the Galaxy... but you still had to
go there to pick it up. This could be done for each "region" of the game world.
The next step is limiting which players can put things on vendors, and how much those players can put on the vendor. You could link it to Barter skill, for instance. You can limit it by the type of item they're selling (you could put 100 common things, but only 10 super-rare things, for instance).
The idea isn't to keep people from selling things. It's to keep the process from being too easy, since convenience eliminates scarcity. If a player wants to buy something, let them... but don't make it one-stop shopping!
ENTROPY: Everything breaks. This has to be the first law of a post-apocalyptic game. You can make it last longer, but you can't make it last forever. This means items must decay over time, and eventually they must break. In between, repairs can delay the inevitable, but it must happen. This introduces several problems, but they have easy solutions.
a.
But I just spent all this time/money on getting my uber, one-of-a-kind weapon, and it's going to break someday? Will I be able to get another? See above--do away with the idea of the "uber weapon." That boss? He's using a shotgun. Not some super-magic shotgun. It's a shotgun. It might have a slight edge, but mostly it's the
user making it so powerful. So when it breaks? Get another shotgun, no worries.
b.
Why not just have the item stop working until it's fixed--surely you don't have to destroy the item! Yes, you do. Otherwise, it's not entropy. It's just a money sink. Those are important, too, but it's not doing the whole job. You can keep that pistol working for a long time, but eventually it won't be worth fixing it. Just get a new one. You could use the old one for spare parts, though!
c.
Too much hassle having to replace everything all the time! There's often an assumption that "item decay" means everything will be breaking all the time. People forget that decay rates can be
tuned to fit the needs of the population. Let's say a gun has "100 durability." Does that mean it has only 100 uses? Of course not. The gun might only decay in certain situations. Armor might decay slower or have different rules. Vehicles, it might just be certain
parts that decay, not the whole vehicle. For instance, weapons might decay:
- When the weapon scores a critical hit (extra wear-and-tear).
- When an attack critically fails.
- When the player is killed.
- When a repair fails.
And the item's maximum durability might decrease by one each time it is repaired. Damage might go down with condition, too (as it already does in the other games). Look at all the different ways this process could be tuned to ensure it's "the right kind of inconvenient."
Overall
Because that's what it's about. Scarcity and entropy are
inconvenient. They are limitations. Players generally don't
like limitations themselves, but they enjoy challenges... and challenges
rely on limitations. I think balancing these two forces would go a long way toward keeping the right balance, atmosphere, and tone for a Fallout MMO.
