Vowlesy needs ideas!

Post by **Roman Totale** » July 14th, 2006, 20:45

Sandwich wrote:there are a lot of cliches out there. it's best to go with something completely out of the box. How about a wild western theme? sombrero wearing mexicans, rootin' tootin' cowboys, and a choc load of jokes from that red dwarf episode. I'm thinking you'd have classes like "brawler", "quickshot", "knife expert", etc..

Something like Firefly/Serenity?

Just finished watching that again - it rocks! Can't believe they cancelled it.

Vowles · Post by **Vowles** » July 14th, 2006, 21:06

Grab yer thining caps lads we need a name!

Ive come up with a (rather poorish) setting -

Its X amount of time in Earths Future. At X point a Gobal Nuclear War left 60% of Earths populance dead. Now... 400 years after The world is back on track. Instead of huge countries like before, Earth was spilt into 1000s of colonies all trading and some times having a few skirmishs. However, mans new found peace would soon be broke, records of the Great 3 World Wars are uncovered, masses of war and graphic footage are found as quickly spread... like a diease throughout Earth.

Now, You must take charge of one of these colonies.... and forge your density...

Or well something like that...

And dont you agree that banner is really top quality!

P.S - Please do tell me not to try and think late on a friday after intake of boose.

shot2bits · Post by **shot2bits** » July 14th, 2006, 21:34

i was just writing a really long thing and then reread your one vowles and it made my version kinda pointless in change and the idea not make sence in how you wanted it

oh well

Puggers · Post by **Puggers** » July 14th, 2006, 21:41

Question 1) why would this footage destroy the peace reigning, for the most part, between these colonies? Seems to me that it would just be like a kid discovering porn for the first time, it doesn't turn him into a pervert, just sexually aware.

Could place it around about 75-100 years after the nuclear war, where the survivors are just emerging from cover and the land is starting to recover, I think it would help tp have a initial mini-game where you are given a list of choices i.e. colony placement, idealologies, religious direction, farming or foraging, pirates or ninjas etc. and your choices create a certain kind of society, leading to several different starts. Could have like a central meeting room where players could interact online.

Could place a storyline in it where democracy comes into it, i.e. 4th World war, and you can choose to be good, bad or Switzerland. I think an experience system would be good, like in oblivion etc. and maybe one for how much the younger members of the tribe/colony/society/cheese listen to you, rebel, and other such things. Maybe a hero type that you can't control, only if you gain his/hers/its respect.

hmmm.... name, possibly Viral (i.e. uncontrollable spread of material that has no money behind it)

I've recently been reading a series called 'the dreamers' by David and Leigh Eddings which would seem to be quite good for development of your idea.

Those are my views and suggestions, including that the banner is rather spiffing

EDIT: RO-BO are evil gun toting voles that were mutated in the nuclear fallout and have sporks instead of tails, thus making them far, far more deadly, yet less balnced

Post by **Roman Totale** » July 14th, 2006, 21:53

Puggers wrote:Could place it around about 75-100 years after the nuclear war, where the survivors are just emerging from cover and the land is starting to recover

Ooh, I like this idea. It would tie in with the taking charge of a colony and forging your destiny bit (plus I agree that it doesn't make much sense that finding stock footage would cause a war).

Still needs more RO-BO though.

Vowles · Post by **Vowles** » July 14th, 2006, 22:43

Wooo Puggers just what I was looking for! I knew if I posted a rough idea I could get some deep input thats thats what I got =). I like your idea of starting and having the whole game change as they play.

But then, when new players join will they start as the others started (IE Just coming out from the cover) or do the just jump straight in the timeline.

It'd also make for a good deep feeling to the game which... alot apart from maybe Urban Dead dont have.

While I do have quiet a bit of budget from Vowlesy.com to throw at marketing Ive been researching alot of viral campaigns. One that has stuck was Eon8.com. Iam sure most of you seen. In six months it became MASSIVE. I was thinking for the viral campaign could be something to do with the nuclear war.. infact Eon8 would of been perfect. But something like that...

Cheers for all the help so far guys! =)

Edit:As for the war footage starting gobal rage I was thinking along the lines of "monkey see monkey do". Any suggestions on the rapid lunge into war would be great!

mrbobbins · Post by **mrbobbins** » July 15th, 2006, 0:17

Roman Totale wrote:Still needs more RO-BO though.

This X RO-BO + WIN <= RO-BO PW*NS / LOL²³

Post by **Roman Totale** » July 15th, 2006, 11:54

Vowles wrote:Any suggestions on the rapid lunge into war would be great!

Here's my idea: Doomsday Seed Bank!

As mentioned in that article, there are places in the world where there are these vaults of all the crops in the world. My idea is that after whatever war has occurred and everyone has left their shelters, there is a great rush to find these vaults and the "treasures" within. Anyone with access to a seed bank would naturally be able to re-cultivate thousands of acres of land, leading to a fertile and prosperous proto-empire. Unlike the article, these things would have to be all over the place and not just Norway (I mean, they don't even have lions or tigers in Norway!)

As the hundreds of small colonies spread out in an attempt to find them, greed and the desire to survive causes friction between the factions (nice). The inevitable happens and war breaks out between the seperate colonies. Not a world war though, as I don't think that would make sense. Guerilla wars between factions, fighting for land and trade routes with other colonies; forming alliances either for protection, expansion or trade.

Damn, I'm getting excited about this game now!

Vowles · Post by **Vowles** » July 15th, 2006, 14:12

Oh wow! What a great idea RT! This is really coming to shape

Post by **Dog Pants** » July 15th, 2006, 14:21

Roman Totale wrote:
Here's my idea: Doomsday Seed Bank!

*Contributes*

Vowles · Post by **Vowles** » July 15th, 2006, 14:30

I think I have come up with a solution to the question I posed a bit back.

"Would new players start at the start or at the same time as every one else".

Well I propose Eras!

3 Eras,

First Era-Emgerance from the Wreck: Tech is pretty low level, Can only build simple things like farms,huts and stuff.

Second Era-Lunge into War: This era is when man begins the chase for the "Seed Banks" across the globe. Players in this era can build more advance tech such as large plantions and fractories.

Third Era-Life After the War:The finale era, Begin mass producing things. Research lasers (Maybe a bit too high tech?) and other fancy stuff.

You play against people only in your era (To be fair!).

shot2bits · Post by **shot2bits** » July 15th, 2006, 18:15

how do you plan that to work though, you reach a certain level and go into the next era, or you research stuff and get to the next era or you play for a certain amount of time and then you reach the next era?
or would it be you choose your era at the start and you stick with it?

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » July 15th, 2006, 18:37

shot2bits wrote:how do you plan that to work though, you reach a certain level and go into the next era, or you research stuff and get to the next era or you play for a certain amount of time and then you reach the next era?
or would it be you choose your era at the start and you stick with it?

Surely the bast way would be doing it like guildwars searing?

you can go to the next era at any point, but how skilled/equipped you were in the previous era affects how much skill you have in the next era.

shot2bits · Post by **shot2bits** » July 15th, 2006, 18:57

wasnt pre searing basicly a tutorial and then onwards was the game, and the era didnt seem to change again after that

Vowles · Post by **Vowles** » July 15th, 2006, 18:58

Berk got it in one. Nothing stops you advancing but how well your doing in X era is how well you start off in X2 Era

.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » July 15th, 2006, 19:00

shot2bits wrote:wasnt pre searing basicly a tutorial and then onwards was the game, and the era didnt seem to change again after that

not really, it does partly act as a tutorial, but you can't do shit post searing unless you're like L8

Post by **Joose** » July 15th, 2006, 23:31

wait, wait. You seem to be talking about some kind of civ style game, yes? With building of huts/plantations/factories etc. But its also mulitplayer, yes?

Surely, if this is the case, everyone in one "world" would have to advance to the next era at the same time. Otherwise vast tracks of land would keep appearing/disappearing.

For example: Me, Berk and Roman are all playing in the same world. Im being slow and shit, Roman is average and Berk is a fucking ninja bastard. We all share borders.

Berk (due to his ninjing) get to a stage where he wants to be in the next epoch way faster than us two. By your system, he chooses to advance.

However, whilst Berk is ready to build big factories of death, Roman is still making houses out of mud and im sat in a river trying to work out how to stand up. So what happens? Does Berk and his land disappear from out world? Does some wierd and slightly concept breaking barrier appear between his land and ours? Or does he just drag us along with him, giving him a clear advantage over the rest of us?

No, whilst i think some kind of scale to show what stage your at would be nice, I dont think it would work as a noob protection system.

Just to clarify, is this game going to be based on one ongoing server (traditional MMO style), or is it (like nova wars) going to be kind of open source, with games starting and stopping all over? Cos if its the latter, I dont think you should worry about new players coming in to a game late on. If they are silly enough to start a game with a bunch of advanced people, thats their own stupid fault, as there should be a bunch of other games going that are less far along. If its the more traditional view, you may need some more clever game mechanic to keep players with massively disperate levels of progress from interacting in a bad way.

I do have a thought forming about that, but it needs more thinking. Plus I need sleep. I shall post it tomorrow at some point.

Post by **FatherJack** » July 15th, 2006, 23:43

Perhaps once berk and Roman learn to stand up, they walk out of the "training camp" and settle in the real world. When berk subsequently discovers technology his area blasts off into space, leaving a hole which you can eventually populate on discovering how to get out of the training area. Then berk arrives in a new region populated by other techies.

Post by **FatherJack** » July 15th, 2006, 23:46

I like the comparison with the Guild Wars searing, as similarly to the way in an online footy manager game I play, you can effectively choose when to be promoted/relegated - thus deciding if you want to be a big fish in a small pond, or a tiddler in the ocean.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » July 15th, 2006, 23:53

FatherJack wrote:Perhaps once berk and Roman learn to stand up, they walk out of the "training camp" and settle in the real world. When berk subsequently discovers technology his area blasts off into space, leaving a hole which you can eventually populate on discovering how to get out of the training area. Then berk arrives in a new region populated by other techies.

i suppose the way to do it would be letting you basically sell up and move house/planet/era.

allow you to take possessions, money and skills etc into the next era, get/buy a new house in your new area.