| Tangible, non-instanced player equity is where it's at imo. Non-instanced property in the form of stores, farms, factories, training facilities and barracks are something I've been thinking about for my mmog idea. After playing Shadowbane and EVE it's hard to see any value in 'cosmetic' player equity.
I'd avoid instancing altogether but instead apply a scaling build-cost to newer buildings, where as a city grows, the price of 'new' real-estate space to build upon gets more and more prohibitive; becoming an upper limit to the actual size of the city. It would have to be scaled to a comfortable area though, so that it behaves more like a 'softcap' where although you can still build your new bordello for example, to build it at a reasonable cost it would have to be outside the city walls, etc.
The city owners can ADD to the build costs, so as to have a hand in the direction of their city's growth; but the base cost algorithm would remain the same to limit the maximum city sizes. The base cost is only directly affected by developer discretion and by the food production of surrounding farms.
Obviously the concept doesn't apply to every mmog concept, but the idea I've been toying with is more of a necromunda/DOTA meets shadowbane mmorpg, and player owned cities would be central to it, where you can go recruit new troops, train them, house them and produce weapons/armor for them. |