Lobby World

[Faille]

This will be the first area that I plan to put together.

One of the drawbacks to multiverse atm is that its terrain editing is very ghey, though they promise to be releasing a new one with the next version of the tools. What that means is that its almost pointless trying to implement anything unless its exactly what you want, since its very hard to change things later, at least with landcapes.

Anyway, back to the lobby world. It needs to be like a player city with all the facilities you would expect in such, guessing pok combined with a bazar.

So what are the sort of things people would expect in such a place.

Here's my list :

NPC shops
Player Housing
Player Bazaar
Temples for Gods
Tutorial area
Portals to other worlds.
Tradeskill areas

Personally I like to model citys in games like SimCity or Caesar4 to get the layout working logically. If anyone can think of anything else that should be in place I'll try and fit it in also.

[Hatorade]

A arena to test skills.

[Tuco]

If I were you, I'd look for artists sometime soon and get them to start working on getting stuff generated in Maya or equivalent and find a way to import it into the game's terrain editor. Overcoming that hurdle can be difficult.

Also, if you can't expand the terrain easily post-release (believe me, I've had similar problems with the game my team is making now that's using Unreal's engine), I'd suggest you implement empty shops like Blizzard has done with WoW.

Other than that your list seems good, but again, plan small for the first iteration, put placeholders etc for your stuff and don't spend a great deal of time implementing things like quest scripts for the gods in your temples until you have the technology for the temple and the temple itself in. All stuff I'm sure you're aware of already =)

[Faille]

I think I'll probably start with just flat terrain for the first version. hopefully by the time I want to add hills and islands and stuff, then the editor will have support for terrain modification.

As long as the layout is ok, and it has everything that might be needed, with room to expand, I'll be happy.

Oh, and once I have a clear idea of everything I want to have, I'll create a project for it listing all the art assets needed as well as other stuff. Hopefully people will help out and do some of those things, but if not, I'll work my way through the list.

[Vatoreus]

A good program to try out if you want to do basic design would be NWN2 Toolset. I've been dabbling with it here and there and it's great for really detailed settings. Obviously most of the stuff is set in a medieval fantasy setting, but it would work for a basic design layout.

[Vinen]

Just stating the obvious. But, an NPC area.. etc which could be used to reinforce the lore of the area... etc

[Vatoreus]

It’s the end of days in the world. After a very long war, the world is left in ruin and chaos. Only one city remains and the survivors of the war flock to it for refuge. The war employed the usage of great weapons of destruction that have left rips in the time-space continuum. These rips lead to different eras of the planet, as well as to alternate versions of the world. Left with no choice, adventurers begin going through the rifts in an attempt to discover worlds that will offer them shelter, as well as attempting to bring hope back to the present time.

Not fully fleshed out, but we have to have an idea start somewhere, eh?

[Moontayle]

Not a bad take on it but it's unbelievable. One of those things that sounds cool at first but once you sit back and think about it, it doesn't make sense.

My take:

On the distant planet of Rel, an ancient civilization achieved what could only be described as perfect harmony with the space time continuum. They learned to control space and time in such a way that everything, past, present, and future, was open to them. However, they saw how devastating misuse of their technology could be, and kept the technology which allowed for jumping restricted to the city of Ispen, a gathering place for their best and brightest.

It is unknown exactly what happened to the citizens of Rel, as there are no records to indicate anything occurring which would explain the absence of life. Their technology, however, survived, including that which allows for jumping. Time has eroded much of what they accomplished, which has caused many of the portals to malfunction and open without outside influence. Some beings have even found these portals, and stepped through to discover the wonders of Ispen. Only time will tell if they use the technology they have discovered for good or ill.

----

I know it's sort of Stargate-ish, but it offers up a nice way to explain why the portals are all in one spot, while allowing for continued expansion as more people become involved, i.e. a new portal could open whenever a new "world" is created by someone.

[Faille]

I wonder its if plausible to even have 2 cities eventually, one that opens their portals using science, and another that uses magic.

[Moontayle]

It's plausible but like Tuco keeps saying, best to keep it simple to start. Will likely have to choose one or the other at some point.

[xilsharn]

Yeah, basically I love this concept but it seems like this is turning into a mega theorycraft subforum

[Zarcath]

Here's my idea for a Lobby World, more or less something like the Jem Hadar from Star Trek.

Two societies of one alien race. One science/higher-learning, other are warriors, brutal soldiers. Big war blah blah blah, we end up in space, home planet destroyed, etc etc.

The higher beings want to keep the warriors under control, so they grab data from other worlds and try to create simulated environments to satisfy their needs. Warriors gobble it up, playing docile but secretly training to overthrow the sceince-types and go out and do some real conquering.

In this fashion, starting out we can have our Lobby World Ship, and if this pans out, we can include other actual "real" worlds that the warriors have conquered. Then you can get some sort of PvP going down between the World Ship and a Planet.

[Zarcath]

Originally Posted by xilsharn

Yeah, basically I love this concept but it seems like this is turning into a mega theorycraft subforum

Well what do you expect? That we'd all agree on one thing and snap our fingers and have some product the next day? You think real dev teams don't have any sort of brain storming session?

[xilsharn]

No, we just need more moderation in this section. Threads are turning into trainwrecks.

[Faille]

I don't mind the general forum to be more open. once things start rolling though, there will be sub forums where the real work will take place, and access to read and post there will be closely moderated.