Archive:Dynamic world environment
This article is currently only a proposal
The features or design guidelines described in this article are only a proposal made by one or some persons. It has not been evaluated or accepted by the core development team yet. Feel free to add your personal opinion about them or make counter proposals.
I think it would be a really interesting feature when the game world around the players is not static like in most MMORPGs but can be influenced by the actions of the players. The best way to do this is by having locations which provide different services (free heals, unique items for sale, skill trainers etc.) depending on how well the community does on the quests the location is offering. Some examples:
The town in the desert
There is a town in the desert which lacks any water source and thus depends on water supply from player characters. The town got a "water counter" which is decremented at regular intervals. Players can bring water from an oasis which is a few maps away to refill the "water counter" (multiple tours are required to refill it). The services the city is providing depend on the current state of the water counter. When it is full the town offers service like free healing or good equipment for cheap prices, at medium level it only offers basic service like consumable items for average prices and when the water is depleted no NPC does anything but begging for water.
Two cities at war
There are two cities which are in a constant state of war. Players can do Dynamic Quests for both sides and thus influence which side is currently "winning" and which side is "losing". When the players support both sides equally both sides are in a state of "stalemate" which means that both cities offer normal services to the players. When the players support only one side this side will sooner or later "win" the war which results in the occupation of the enemy city. When in this state the winning side offers cheap services and equipment the other side isn't offering when in the same situation while the losing side offers only minimal services. Players can still do quests for the occupied side and thus "liberate" it and bring both cities in a state of "stalemate" again.
The quests the players are doing are never direct combat missions ("kill 10 rats" quests suck) but mostly logistic or special operations. Examples:
- Gather resources
- Bring supplies or messages to soldiers in the field
- Scout the battlefield (walk to some waypoints in a dangerous area)
- Find important battle plans (which lie around somewhere in a dangerous area)
- Sabotage an enemy siege engine without being seen by enemy NPCs which guard it
- PvP sabotage quests for any of the above
The outpost under siege
There is an outpost at the border to a very dangerous territory occupied by very dangerous and intelligent monsters. The monsters attack the outpost at irregular intervals (every attack is announced hours before it happens so that the players needn't camp there all the time). When the monsters are defeated in a given amount of time the outpost is rescued and continues to provide its NPC services. When the monsters aren't defeated on time the outpost is damaged by the attack and has to be repaired. Thus it doesn't offer any NPC service until the next attack. When the monsters lose, their next attack will be stronger. When they win, their next attack will be weaker. Thus the challenge for the player base balances itself.
