Camp scenes & other applications of the basic idea

The topic of setting up camp has come up many times in the forums since the game has been in development. I wanted to discuss a possible way to do it, one which I think would open a host of potential for many other forms of role-playing, not just camping — but, for instance, setting up a cart by the road to peddle your wares, ambushing PvP targets, having a private meeting or event with your friends, and even setting up a breadcrumb trail of player quests.

[Note that I'm going to try to reserve the second post in this thread in case I want to add images to it, because of the image limit per post]

CAMP SCENES

The way his would be done is by being able to go to any location on the map and start up a "camp scene," which would depend on the biome in the map hex, exactly like random encounter scenes. In the middle of the camp scene would be something like an ad-hoc lot, which you, and anyone you gave permission to, could decorate as you see fit.

So, to start our story, we'll begin in a well hidden corner of Novia.



The main town here is Eagle's Head, which has a moon tower and wind generators, and is interestingly, though completely coincidentally, reminiscent of Owl's Head. Just down the road is the forest of Eagleswood, in which lies Deep Eagleswood. Passing through the wooded path, you eventually come to the cave of Eagle's Nest. To the north of the cave, and up in the peaks of the mountain is a black tower known as Eagle's Tower. To the south of the forest is the settlement of Eagle's Hold, which is mostly the residence of humble villagers, except for the lord of a large castle, whose great home casts a shadow over the village.

That lord is a knight, Sir Chris the Magnificent, and lately, he's grown bored of sitting in his castle and counting his gold. So he arranges by messenger that his squire meet him in Deep Eagleswood, to set up camp, from where they would launch an expedition into Eagle's Nest.

His squire, DarkStarr, is near Eagle's Head, and promises to set up the camp before Sir Chris arrives, so that he would have to do none of the work, and have all the comforts of warm food, lively music, and a private tent.

CAMP SCENE

DarkStarr braves the forest path alone, defeating several wolves and bandits, goes deep in the forest and sets up camp. He lights a campfire so that Sir Chris will be able to see the location of the camp by its smoke, and by the bright light of the fire at night.

After setting up the campfire, he puts down a cooking pot, a tanning rack to process the skins of the wolves he's slain, a tent for Sir Chris, and a bedroll at the foot of the tent for himself. He sits down on a small bench and plays a song on his lute while he waits for Sir Chris to arrive.



The sound of his lute can be heard far and wide, even to those a great distance outside of the camp. Its pleasant to the ears of passing travelers.

Unfortunately, the campfire, music, and wafting smell of roast venison also attract a pack of hungry wolves, who enter the scene in ambush. DarkStarr pulls out his trusty flaming dagger and meteoric iron buckler to defeat the wolves.



After a quick and dirty fight, he has several more wolf skins to tan on his rack, and uses one of the wolf skulls as a foot stool. This turn of events was all to his advantage, since now he has less grinding to do to earn some gold.

The evening grows longer, and eventually starts to darken into a black night. Sir Chris finally shows up on his trusty steed, and is ready to eat some victuals, listen to some bard songs, and retire to his tent. Come the morning, they would then plan the journey to Eagle's Nest. DarkStarr has already had his fill, both of venison and wolf-meat, but Sir Chris is tired and hungry from travelling such a long distance on his horse. He needs to abate some of his hunger and exhaustion.

He eats some venison, and laying down for some time on his squire's bedroll, he feels a bit less tired.



He calls on his squire to play some music. DarkStarr knows tunes in many modes.



Tutored by Lord British in all things having to do with bardcraft, he also knows music theory, and that philosophers since ancient times — both in New Britannia and on Earth — have noted that music speaks to the soul — which part of the soul depending on the specific melody and musical mode. Each type is also associated with a particular virtue, and as the mind and body are connected, also can enable the listener to do things he normally could not. DarkStarr also knows how to do mixed melody types, which combine, but halve, each mode's effects.

He plays a melody of a mixed somber and jovial spirit as Sir Chris gets up from his bedroll and retires to his own private tent.

PEDDLER SCENE

As noted, north of Eagle's Nest is a wizard's tower. In that tower is a mysterious and cranky wizard. He never leaves his tower for any adventures — to him, adventures are magnificently boring — and only leaves whenever there's an opportunity to do PvP. His tower goes down below the earth several stories, where, down on the lowest floor, he sleeps, eats his meals, and researches from his dusty magical tomes. Occasionally, he looks forlornly at his reagent bottles, wishing he could get more reagents with which to fill them, but he doesn't want to grind to get them. The only time he ventures to the top of his tower is at night, to see the stars, and, with his spyglass, scout the forests of Eagleswood, with the hopes of finding a campfire, and with a campfire, the opportunity for a PvP battle.

So, on the night that DarkStarr and Sir Chris set up camp, he sees them immediately, and the burning glow of their campfire sets aflame a burning glow in his heart. His opportunity had finally arisen. He would set out in early dawn.

Not far along the road upon leaving his tower, the wizard came across a travelling peddler.



The man had a sad story to tell. For the time being, he'd lost his home and his shop in Eagle's Hold due to a dragon attacking the village, after the local lord, Sir Chris, had left and gone gallivanting on some great adventure. Sir Chris had been too cheap to provide a moon tower or any guards for the village, exposing it to the dragon's attack. So he took some of his goods, a cart, and an ox to pull it, and travelled down the road looking to make some gold to pay for repairs. When he found a nice spot, he unloaded his goods, tied his ox to a stake, and set up his wares for sale.

That was all well and good, thought the wizard, but the real question is if he had any reagents. He did not, and neither did he want to engage in a PvP battle, so the wizard harrumphed and left the scene.

AMBUSH SCENE

Travelling a bit further down the road to Eagleswood, the wizard was randomly pulled into another scene. There, in the middle of the road, lie an unattended cart, and on it, some goods.



But did the cart have any reagents? That was the question this wizard wanted to know the answer to. Such a mysterious random encounter.

As he came in closer, a gang of red-capped bandits came out from behind the nearby trees and revealed themselves, weapons readied for attack, standing in fighting stances. He understood the situation: he was looking for PvP, and so was this gang of bandits who set up this ambush scene. One of the bandits came forward — apparently the leader — introduced himself and his party. His name was Guy Redfish, and his gang was known as the Redcap Gang. There was a bit of brief confusion, as one of the bandits thought their caps appeared white to him. Another of the bandits pointed out this was a texture rendering problem, and the matter was settled. The focus returned on the travelling wizard, and whatever he was carrying with him — which was to be their prize.

The wizard was prepared to defeat them with his awesome magic, but he found out they were only interested in a DPS war, so that was that, he turned invisible to escape from their sights, and left the scene.

EVENT/MEETING SCENE

Eventually he made his way to Deep Eagleswood, and found his way to DarkStarr and Sir Chris' camp. Sir Chris stayed in his private tent, while DarkStarr stood up to valiantly fight the mysterious wizard. The wizard, however, was stymied by the fact that DarkStarr could proficiently use magic — without any use of reagents — even though he wasn't a wizard himself, and even though he only had a dagger and buckler in hand. While this might be a fun PvP battle, he was against it on principle. So, once again, he turned invisible, and left the scene without a fight.

Still upset, he decided this problem needed a solution. He sent his messenger owl to invite the mysterious wizards from all across the realm to come to his location in Deep Eagleswood. He put down an ancient oak stump in the middle of a slightly less ancient grove and waited for his party to arrive. One by one, they slowly joined him.



With some words of power and some ritual, the mysterious wizards created a mysterious magic philtre. When the event was over, they all each went their separate ways.

QUEST SCENE

Occasionally, the mysterious wizard of Eagle's Tower is visited by wandering adventurers. Although he used to avoid those who were not selling reagents, or those who did not want to PvP battle, he now dutifully answered the door, just to tell these travelers of a quest, where they could obtain an item of great import.



"For the Philtre of Reagent Dependency, go seek the wizard in Deep Eagleswood to find out where its hidden. And don't come back unless you want to PvP!"

When the adventurers would find their way to Deep Eagleswood, they'd now see a quest location, and upon entering a wizard, that the wizard of Eagle's Tower had hired and instructed to stay there. A jovial mage who frolicks with deer, he instructs the adventurers to find the philtre in a cave southwest of Eagle's Nest on their map. Upon arriving around that spot, they'd see a different quest location, marking the entrace of the cave. Therein, they'd find a scene with a cave entrance the wizard placed there, and which connects to a dungeon he connected it to.



Upon completing each stage of the quest, the quest locations vanish from their map. The wizard is happy, because one less person is able to use magic without reagent cost.

As to Sir Chris and DarkStarr, while DarkStarr wanted to venture forth into Eagle's Nest, Sir Chris decided that he missed his castle, and told his squire he wanted to return home. It was a long journey back, but he was content he made the right decision. He looked around the village, now burned down by a rampaging dragon, smiled, and retired to his castle keep.

 

[Reserved post]

 

Supurb ! Endorse !

 

Btw, part of the idea here is you could set up a campfire for any number of purposes.

For example,

- Preparing for an adventure.
- Meeting with your party.
- Attracting other players, who see your campfire on the map, to join a party with you.
- Attracting enemies to fight.
- Field crafting, cooking, etc.
- Waiting out the night. Just for the darkness to pass, or to avoid night-time encounters. The time could be spent sitting, or laying down, which would remove fatigue de-buffs, or aide in healing injuries if there are injury de-buffs.

 

Yes, we have had many chats on this...I love the way you fleshed it out....this would be awesome.

One issue, with the amount of PoT's now, it may be to crowded on the map if you have campfires all around as well.

 

Yea, you'd have to limit it greatly by selective multiplayer. But as long as we don't see any more campfires than we see people walking around the map, I don't think it would be an issue.

 

True....man I hope they take these ideas....

A much better idea then even PoT's IMO.

 

Could be good for people who don't want a home in a town also. They could be travelling vagabonds, and whenever they need to craft or whatever, they'd set up a camp in the woods.

 

it actually was used (sort of) in the old ultimas if I remember correctly...you could find camps in the woods...

 

I love it !!

 

Gypsies!

 

This is what I drew from for the musical modes,



The idea that different types of melodies had different ethical qualities and speak to different parts of the soul started with Plato, but was expanded on through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and going forward from that. The 8 modes here nicely correspond to 8 virtues.

 

one possible solution is if it is a pvp scene, only those flagged pvp can interact with it - as part of the selective multiplayer aspect the game is using.

besides, there will be much less overcrowding when the devs release the next continent, several PoTs will probably opt to move to it.


----

another solution for the overcrowding, when you are the last to leave the scene, it dissappears, maybe the devs set a timer system - 1-5 in game days or something, where you have to provide enough wood for the campfire, which designates how long the scene stays open..


----


i do not like the vendor idea though. the overland map will turn into an overly-laggy bazaar type atmosphere that you cannot get away from. in eq1 i avoided the bazaar like the plague due to the lag, but we CANT avoid the overland map..

 

@ThurisazSheol,

I was using the word "vendor", but I realized that might be the wrong term, because I was thinking about players sitting around in a scene selling their own things.. rather than putting an actual hired vendor there... and the scene would disappear when the player got up and left. Basically just another version of the basic "camp scene," but the player would be using his camp to sell stuff. It could also be either very limited visibility / or you have to choose to get in.

 

that i can see.


as far as the idea of camping itself for the regenerative benefits, i think the devs could use that random encounter scene with the vendor, his horse, and his cart...that scene is kinda large to just house him and some trees/cotton... why couldn't we set up campfires there too? heck, he could SELL camping gear, for another gold sink.

 

Exactly...lets have this as an in game thing and not a purchasable thing on the store.

 

I am with you in a sense, but I also would like to see more money for development. I would be happy with either.

 

What I was thinking is every one of the examples I gave in the OP except the last one would basically just be the "camp scene" re-utilized for a different purpose. It would disappear when the player, or every member of his party, left the scene, and if any items were left behind because of server disconnects, they'd be dumped in the bank.

The only slight variation would be the "ambush scene", which would have to be made invisible, and would come up only to those PvP flagged, or in an enemy guild.

The "quest scene" thing would be much harder to work out, and would have to be tied to a quest giver.

I'll rename "vendor scene" to "peddler scene" to avoid confusion.

 

why not have both? in game buildable and purchasable items for the camp - but better quality, lower weight, longer lasting, cash store items. i'd love to carry around a 1lb camp stool with me that i built, or a 0.5lb one that i bought in the store, that looks really neat, and has an animation that i'm actually unfolding or something.

 

Love it.

We had an old proposal that all adventure scenes would contain mini lots that you could temporarily take control of. But that everyone and anyone had access to.