UPDATED! 23rd Jan - Call of Cthulhu MMORPG: A Design Proposal
- Thread starter Keyser_Soze
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This is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too well thought out not to be made.
Good job, OP. Although, online lag could make insanity a ***** to deal with.
Good job, OP. Although, online lag could make insanity a ***** to deal with.
@Clik
@Firmater
Ok so, still working on the pdf due to a MAJOR snafu - dont ask...
Nevertheless spent the day re-writing some new parts, here is the outline on Agencies, Research and Crafting.
Will update the rest Asap.
Agencies, Legacies and Artifacts.
As stated before players are represented in the game world not only by a particular set of investigators, but also the Agency that the player creates.
Agencies do not merely signify the investigators that the player has drawn up, but also involves such matters as Institutional history, resources, archives and specific items and infrastructure which form the bed-rock of the investigation.
Consider Agencies to be "Meta-characters" with their own attributes, resources and skill sets.
However, just as individual investigators may need to specialize in specific tasks, so too do agencies be crafted to meet specific demands or tasks.
This specialization allows for different play-styles to be explored and also creates the space for player co-operation. Resources tend to be finite, and while a jack-of-all-trades method would be possible, it may not be best suited to the end-game situation.
Agency Specialization
Agencies have their own stat sheet and abilities, as determined by how the player invests his resource points that accrue to the agency as it progresses.
Agencies have five Primary stats:
Forensic Sciences - Dealing with Biology, Anatomy, Chemistry, and so forth.
Procedural Disciplines - Archival Data, Archealogy, Logistics, Human History
Behavioural Sciences - Linguistics, Anthropology, Psychology, Law Enforcement training etc.
Engineering Sciences - Physics, Mechanics, Electronics, Demolitions, and so forth.
Mythos Lore - Knowledge dealing specifically with Mythos History, Culture, Technology and so forth.
Each of the above provides players access to specific skill bonuses, in-game resources and possible artifacts that can either be researched or crafted.
Agencies gain experience every time an investigation's objectives are successfully completed.
Like agents, Agencies will level to a maximum of 20, gaining a single resource point per level, and access to specific legacies once they meet the pre-requisites.
All of the above stats are inter-related however, and I see an Agency specializing in atleast one or two stats. This will have a direct effect on legacies as well as research and crafting.
Legacies (Working label)
Legacies are in-game resources, infrastructure or abilities that an agency gains access to once they meet specific pre-requisites.
For example:-
An Agency which has invested heavily in Procedural Discplines can gain access to the "Rapid Response" ability which reduces investigator travel time during an investigation by 15%, in effect ensuring that more time is available for dealing with other matters.
An Agency which has invested in Forensic Sciences can select the "Xenobiology Laboratory" which allows for additional research into Mythos creatures and artifacts that would yield bonuses to damage against specific creatures or allow for the crafting or research into an artifact.
An Agency which invested in the Behavioral Sciences can select "Psychological Conditioning" which would allow investigators a bonus to sanity checks.
An Agency which invested in Mythos Lore can select the "Black Archive" which would reduce penalties when using Mythos Artifacts
An Agency that invested in Engineering can select the "Machine Shop" that can allow for the manufacture and modification of human and mythos items.
Artifacts and Research
Alien technology is just that - alien.
A human may be able to grasp some basic concepts, but how is a human to understand let alone use a piece of technology devised for non-human minds and physiology?
Does the Mi-Go's lightning Rod weapon have a trigger or button considering they have pincers and not fingers? Do Serpent Men have the same physiology as humans in order to be affected by toxins?
In order to use an Artifact - any item of Mythos technology - that item needs to be researched. However, given that alien technology will require an inter-disciplinary approach, some degree of Agency collaboration or exchange of resources would be required.
Lets take the Mi-Go lightning rod as an example.
Assuming that we have an agency each specializing in two of the disciplines, and all meet the needed legacy pre-requisites to boot.
In order to research the artifact, each of the agency must contribute some piece of the puzzle.
An un-researched artifact will provide details about what resources are required as follows:-
[Un-Researched Artifact]
Item Level - 10 (Represents the pre-requisite level of resources needed)
Forensic: Biology - General 5, Anatomy - Mi-go 5
Procedural: Archival Data - Historical 2, Archeological - 5
Behavioral Sciences: Linguistics (Mi-go) - 5, Psychology - 2
Engineering: Physics (Electromagnetism) - 10, Electronics - 5
Mythos Lore: Mi-go Culture: 3
Taking just one example of the above:
For Forensics the player needs five level 10 General biology reports and five level 10 Mi-Go Anatomy reports.
Assuming that the player has invested heavily in Forensics and Procedural, he can draw up his own resources to meet the first two requirements, for the next three however he will need to look to other players that will provide him with the needed reports - either in exchange or purchase.
Reports are NPC procured items, that are awarded to players upon completion of investigations, or through tomes which then in turn generate specific categories of reports. Players can generate their own reports as well, by conducting research in specific fields. In order to generate a report, players need to acquire components that are found in lairs or in the case of forensics, by harvesting Mythos bodies.
Once he has all the needed reports, he selects one of his investigators to conduct the research, which works as an activated ability. This ability goes on a 24 hour cooldown, but with legacies this duration can be reduced.
Researching the artifact will generate a new named Artifact:
[Mi-Go Lighting Rod]
Item Level - 1 / 10
Mythos Lore: 35
Firearms: 50
Charges: 10
Recharging: 1 Minute per charge.
Damage: 1 - 10 (Electrical)
Sanity Check: 15
Sanity Damage: 1 to 4
Going through each of the above stats:
Item Level: This represents the maximum level of the item, which represents the actual total power of the item.
Active Level: The level of the item as it currently stands, taking into account the player's experience with the item, the more the player has an investigator use the item, the more the powers of the item is unlocked up too its maximum level. i.e the 1 /10 represents the current active level which is 1, while the maximum level is 10.
So for example: At an active level of 1, the lightning rod does 1 -10 points of damage. At an active level of 10, the Rod would do 20 to 60 points of damage, and may have other effects.
Mythos Lore and Firearms: The minimum required skills of the investigator in order to use the rod.
Sanity Check: Every use of the Rod involves making a sanity check. A difficulty of 15 means that the investigator must roll above this on a 100 percentile, in order to be not affected.
All of the above is further affected by Legacies and also by further research.
By conducting follow-up research and expending additional resources, Players can unlock higher levels of the Rod without risking their investigator's sanity, but with diminishing returns. (i.e more and more resources needed to unlock higher levels)
A quick Word about Skill Checks and so on.
Skill rolls are based on a base d100.
The unmodified base skill score of an Investigator is [PRIMARY STAT] X [SKILL SCORE]
Assuming that a investigator is invested in combat skills and has a Dexterity Stat of 5 and a Firearms skill of 10 means that his base unmodified score is 5X10 = 50.
In a Skill vs Skill roll, Firearms Vs Dodge for example: Each side rolls a d100, adds their skill score, and whichever is higher wins the challenge.
In the case of a sanity check, the same applies. Assuming that the Investigator has a Will Stat of 5, and a Mythos Lore score of 5: 5X 5 = 25. A Mi-go Lightning rod has a Sanity check of 15.
Upon activating the rod, the following calculations take place:
Player: Rolls 10 on a d100 and adds his 25 = Result is 35
Rod: Rolls 20 on a d100 and adds its 15 = Result is 35
In the event of a tie, sanity checks favor the player, ergo the player is not affected.
Crafting Items and Spells
Crafting new items is done by reverse engineering researched Mythos technology and then forming a blue print (An automatically generated ingame item)
However, there is always a % chance of failure, and more than one Mythos Artifact would need to be sacrificed in order to successfully create a Blueprint.
For example: Continuing with the Mi-go lightning Rod, an Engineering Agency would like to produce a Human variant of the the Rod.
Firstly he must conduct the same research as above and to whatever level he desires.
Once this is done, he selects an Investigator and activates the Reverse-engineering ability.
He now spends additional resources to increase the base chance of a successful reverse engineering feat. If he succeeds, the Artifact is consumed and he gains a Blue-print of the Human variant at the level it was researched
Unlike Mythos Artifacts - Human Variants cannot scale up. So a Lighting rod at level 5 will produce a Human variant at level 5 , which cannot level up.
The same is true for other such items - lets say that the player is a Forensics specialist. He can generate a toxin that harms low level Mi-go for a duration at the specific level and below. He has in his possession a researched Mi-go organ harvested from a previous investigation:
[Mi-Go Toxin Organelle - Item Level 6 / 10]
This organelle seems to be the means by which the Mi-go defend and flush out alien pathogens from their system.
The organelle acts as a repository for alien matter that may affect the Mi-Go physiology, neutralizes it by a metabolic process and then flushes it out of the system via an unknown process. This organelle still holds a large amount of possibly harmful pathogens that may harm the Mi-Go.
Just as with the Lightning rod, the player undertakes the same process which if successful creates a Pathogenic Toxin, which can then be combined with a stock Blue print of a dart gun at that particular level:
[Mi-Go Pathogen Dart]
Level: 6
Damage done: 15 - 30 (Viral)
This dart contains an intravenous delivery system that can inject a powerful pathogen into the Mi-go. Ignores Armor and Spell based defenses.
[h4]A Word on Item categories.[/h4]
Items generally come in four categories:
1. Components: Components such as strange crystals, ancient tomes, strange bits and bobs and even harvested alien organs are resources that needed in order to research Artifacts and craft usable equipment, and are the primary means to obtain reports. Components can be obtained by undertaking what are effectively solo investigations generally involving a "puzzle" like situation - for example excavating some ancient tablets buried at some archeological site, discovering some exotic lifeform that may actually be Mythos ecology etc etc.
2. Equipment: Any Investigator equitable, non-mythos item is considered equipment, and are generally anything from weapons and armor to med-kits, torches and so forth. No sanity checks for use are involved and most items will be available via NPC vendors.
3. Artifacts: Mythos items that can be used by investigators. All the pre-requisites apply including research and skill requirements along with Sanity checks. Such items will only be found in encounter zones and generally will involve a degree of danger.
4. Crafted: Any item that is derived from a reverse engineered Mythos artifact and then turned into a blue print is considered crafted. Crafted items generally need a number of NPC bought components as well as Mythos components in order to produce them. The benefits however is that they can be almost as powerful as the original Artifacts they came from and without the usual sanity check and drawbacks.
@Firmater
Ok so, still working on the pdf due to a MAJOR snafu - dont ask...
Nevertheless spent the day re-writing some new parts, here is the outline on Agencies, Research and Crafting.
Will update the rest Asap.
Agencies, Legacies and Artifacts.
As stated before players are represented in the game world not only by a particular set of investigators, but also the Agency that the player creates.
Agencies do not merely signify the investigators that the player has drawn up, but also involves such matters as Institutional history, resources, archives and specific items and infrastructure which form the bed-rock of the investigation.
Consider Agencies to be "Meta-characters" with their own attributes, resources and skill sets.
However, just as individual investigators may need to specialize in specific tasks, so too do agencies be crafted to meet specific demands or tasks.
This specialization allows for different play-styles to be explored and also creates the space for player co-operation. Resources tend to be finite, and while a jack-of-all-trades method would be possible, it may not be best suited to the end-game situation.
Agency Specialization
Agencies have their own stat sheet and abilities, as determined by how the player invests his resource points that accrue to the agency as it progresses.
Agencies have five Primary stats:
Forensic Sciences - Dealing with Biology, Anatomy, Chemistry, and so forth.
Procedural Disciplines - Archival Data, Archealogy, Logistics, Human History
Behavioural Sciences - Linguistics, Anthropology, Psychology, Law Enforcement training etc.
Engineering Sciences - Physics, Mechanics, Electronics, Demolitions, and so forth.
Mythos Lore - Knowledge dealing specifically with Mythos History, Culture, Technology and so forth.
Each of the above provides players access to specific skill bonuses, in-game resources and possible artifacts that can either be researched or crafted.
Agencies gain experience every time an investigation's objectives are successfully completed.
Like agents, Agencies will level to a maximum of 20, gaining a single resource point per level, and access to specific legacies once they meet the pre-requisites.
All of the above stats are inter-related however, and I see an Agency specializing in atleast one or two stats. This will have a direct effect on legacies as well as research and crafting.
Legacies (Working label)
Legacies are in-game resources, infrastructure or abilities that an agency gains access to once they meet specific pre-requisites.
For example:-
An Agency which has invested heavily in Procedural Discplines can gain access to the "Rapid Response" ability which reduces investigator travel time during an investigation by 15%, in effect ensuring that more time is available for dealing with other matters.
An Agency which has invested in Forensic Sciences can select the "Xenobiology Laboratory" which allows for additional research into Mythos creatures and artifacts that would yield bonuses to damage against specific creatures or allow for the crafting or research into an artifact.
An Agency which invested in the Behavioral Sciences can select "Psychological Conditioning" which would allow investigators a bonus to sanity checks.
An Agency which invested in Mythos Lore can select the "Black Archive" which would reduce penalties when using Mythos Artifacts
An Agency that invested in Engineering can select the "Machine Shop" that can allow for the manufacture and modification of human and mythos items.
Artifacts and Research
Alien technology is just that - alien.
A human may be able to grasp some basic concepts, but how is a human to understand let alone use a piece of technology devised for non-human minds and physiology?
Does the Mi-Go's lightning Rod weapon have a trigger or button considering they have pincers and not fingers? Do Serpent Men have the same physiology as humans in order to be affected by toxins?
In order to use an Artifact - any item of Mythos technology - that item needs to be researched. However, given that alien technology will require an inter-disciplinary approach, some degree of Agency collaboration or exchange of resources would be required.
Lets take the Mi-Go lightning rod as an example.
Assuming that we have an agency each specializing in two of the disciplines, and all meet the needed legacy pre-requisites to boot.
In order to research the artifact, each of the agency must contribute some piece of the puzzle.
An un-researched artifact will provide details about what resources are required as follows:-
[Un-Researched Artifact]
Item Level - 10 (Represents the pre-requisite level of resources needed)
Forensic: Biology - General 5, Anatomy - Mi-go 5
Procedural: Archival Data - Historical 2, Archeological - 5
Behavioral Sciences: Linguistics (Mi-go) - 5, Psychology - 2
Engineering: Physics (Electromagnetism) - 10, Electronics - 5
Mythos Lore: Mi-go Culture: 3
Taking just one example of the above:
For Forensics the player needs five level 10 General biology reports and five level 10 Mi-Go Anatomy reports.
Assuming that the player has invested heavily in Forensics and Procedural, he can draw up his own resources to meet the first two requirements, for the next three however he will need to look to other players that will provide him with the needed reports - either in exchange or purchase.
Reports are NPC procured items, that are awarded to players upon completion of investigations, or through tomes which then in turn generate specific categories of reports. Players can generate their own reports as well, by conducting research in specific fields. In order to generate a report, players need to acquire components that are found in lairs or in the case of forensics, by harvesting Mythos bodies.
Once he has all the needed reports, he selects one of his investigators to conduct the research, which works as an activated ability. This ability goes on a 24 hour cooldown, but with legacies this duration can be reduced.
Researching the artifact will generate a new named Artifact:
[Mi-Go Lighting Rod]
Item Level - 1 / 10
Mythos Lore: 35
Firearms: 50
Charges: 10
Recharging: 1 Minute per charge.
Damage: 1 - 10 (Electrical)
Sanity Check: 15
Sanity Damage: 1 to 4
Going through each of the above stats:
Item Level: This represents the maximum level of the item, which represents the actual total power of the item.
Active Level: The level of the item as it currently stands, taking into account the player's experience with the item, the more the player has an investigator use the item, the more the powers of the item is unlocked up too its maximum level. i.e the 1 /10 represents the current active level which is 1, while the maximum level is 10.
So for example: At an active level of 1, the lightning rod does 1 -10 points of damage. At an active level of 10, the Rod would do 20 to 60 points of damage, and may have other effects.
Mythos Lore and Firearms: The minimum required skills of the investigator in order to use the rod.
Sanity Check: Every use of the Rod involves making a sanity check. A difficulty of 15 means that the investigator must roll above this on a 100 percentile, in order to be not affected.
All of the above is further affected by Legacies and also by further research.
By conducting follow-up research and expending additional resources, Players can unlock higher levels of the Rod without risking their investigator's sanity, but with diminishing returns. (i.e more and more resources needed to unlock higher levels)
A quick Word about Skill Checks and so on.
Skill rolls are based on a base d100.
The unmodified base skill score of an Investigator is [PRIMARY STAT] X [SKILL SCORE]
Assuming that a investigator is invested in combat skills and has a Dexterity Stat of 5 and a Firearms skill of 10 means that his base unmodified score is 5X10 = 50.
In a Skill vs Skill roll, Firearms Vs Dodge for example: Each side rolls a d100, adds their skill score, and whichever is higher wins the challenge.
In the case of a sanity check, the same applies. Assuming that the Investigator has a Will Stat of 5, and a Mythos Lore score of 5: 5X 5 = 25. A Mi-go Lightning rod has a Sanity check of 15.
Upon activating the rod, the following calculations take place:
Player: Rolls 10 on a d100 and adds his 25 = Result is 35
Rod: Rolls 20 on a d100 and adds its 15 = Result is 35
In the event of a tie, sanity checks favor the player, ergo the player is not affected.
Crafting Items and Spells
Crafting new items is done by reverse engineering researched Mythos technology and then forming a blue print (An automatically generated ingame item)
However, there is always a % chance of failure, and more than one Mythos Artifact would need to be sacrificed in order to successfully create a Blueprint.
For example: Continuing with the Mi-go lightning Rod, an Engineering Agency would like to produce a Human variant of the the Rod.
Firstly he must conduct the same research as above and to whatever level he desires.
Once this is done, he selects an Investigator and activates the Reverse-engineering ability.
He now spends additional resources to increase the base chance of a successful reverse engineering feat. If he succeeds, the Artifact is consumed and he gains a Blue-print of the Human variant at the level it was researched
Unlike Mythos Artifacts - Human Variants cannot scale up. So a Lighting rod at level 5 will produce a Human variant at level 5 , which cannot level up.
The same is true for other such items - lets say that the player is a Forensics specialist. He can generate a toxin that harms low level Mi-go for a duration at the specific level and below. He has in his possession a researched Mi-go organ harvested from a previous investigation:
[Mi-Go Toxin Organelle - Item Level 6 / 10]
This organelle seems to be the means by which the Mi-go defend and flush out alien pathogens from their system.
The organelle acts as a repository for alien matter that may affect the Mi-Go physiology, neutralizes it by a metabolic process and then flushes it out of the system via an unknown process. This organelle still holds a large amount of possibly harmful pathogens that may harm the Mi-Go.
Just as with the Lightning rod, the player undertakes the same process which if successful creates a Pathogenic Toxin, which can then be combined with a stock Blue print of a dart gun at that particular level:
[Mi-Go Pathogen Dart]
Level: 6
Damage done: 15 - 30 (Viral)
This dart contains an intravenous delivery system that can inject a powerful pathogen into the Mi-go. Ignores Armor and Spell based defenses.
[h4]A Word on Item categories.[/h4]
Items generally come in four categories:
1. Components: Components such as strange crystals, ancient tomes, strange bits and bobs and even harvested alien organs are resources that needed in order to research Artifacts and craft usable equipment, and are the primary means to obtain reports. Components can be obtained by undertaking what are effectively solo investigations generally involving a "puzzle" like situation - for example excavating some ancient tablets buried at some archeological site, discovering some exotic lifeform that may actually be Mythos ecology etc etc.
2. Equipment: Any Investigator equitable, non-mythos item is considered equipment, and are generally anything from weapons and armor to med-kits, torches and so forth. No sanity checks for use are involved and most items will be available via NPC vendors.
3. Artifacts: Mythos items that can be used by investigators. All the pre-requisites apply including research and skill requirements along with Sanity checks. Such items will only be found in encounter zones and generally will involve a degree of danger.
4. Crafted: Any item that is derived from a reverse engineered Mythos artifact and then turned into a blue print is considered crafted. Crafted items generally need a number of NPC bought components as well as Mythos components in order to produce them. The benefits however is that they can be almost as powerful as the original Artifacts they came from and without the usual sanity check and drawbacks.
Hey, at running the risk of beating a dead thread... any new developments on this? I bookmarked this thread because it's the single most intruiging thing i've seen on the escapist, so a.) I want it to get the attention it deserves, and b.) I'm curious as to whether anyone might have the magical connection to get you into a legitimate pitch meeting.Keyser_Soze said:
Well, no time at the moment really: Work, Studies, RL etc etc. Plus I was hoping more people would join the discussion. As for a legitmate pitch meeting - nope, nothing nada. Anyone you know? =Dsaintchristopher said: