Increased rewards for OPO mode

I think implementing something like this is a very good idea for all parties, and will also help a great deal in giving the OPO version of this game a "real MMO" feel to it. In an attempt to make all parties happy, there are several ways to play this game online, each with their own advantages and disadvantages, however this lets each group of gamers to play the game the way THEY want to play it.

For example, someone who wants to be able to craft weapons and armor without worrying about be PK'd and having their stuff stolen, they can play the game in SPO or FPO mode and mine all night long in peace without any worry of a PK showing up to steal your freshly mined ore.

Unfortunately, this scenario makes it close to impossible for a PKer to ever even find someone mining for ore to PK in the first place. I mean, if your main char is a blacksmith, why would you ever want to risk doing your mining in OPO mode when you can do it safe and sound in SPO mode, and then turn back on OPO mode once you're all done.

To combat this I propose one of two scenarios. Either A: allow players to earn better, or more exclusive loot when playing in OPO mode. For example; you could have a special type of Iron Ore that is only able to be mined in OPO mode. This ore when smelted down could be used to create weapons and armor far superior to those created with the best ore found in SPO and FPO modes. This would effectively give crafting players a reason to want to expose themselves to the possibility of getting PKd and robbed.

Option B would be to have the OPO mode be COMPLETELY separate from ALL other modes, just as the single player offline mode with be separate from any of the online modes.

My favorite solution would be the first one. This way players can still switch between OPO, FPO, and SPO modes as they please, but it actually gives them a reason to expose themselves to some sort of risk. It just doesn't seem fair to me that a player can decide to have their whole SotA experience be in the OPO version, but they switch into FPO or SPO whenever an activity arises that might carry some risk with it.

 

One thing to keep in mind is you will only have one character so you don't have to worry about your blacksmith not being able to defend himself if he is properly trained. The interesting dynamic of the game will be how you've deployed your skill points so that you're an efficient miner while still being able to defend yourself if the time comes.

I think all of your points are very valid and I agree that without risk there should not be any ability to reap anything near maximum reward from the situation.

 

For what it is worth, I do not agree with granting anything extra for playing in OPO mode.

However, I am not sure that players can be both uber warriors and uber miners as well. I think that if players can be both combatants, gatherers, and crafters, that will kill the economy, since there is no incentive for players to buy goods from other players, since i can collect the materials and do my own crafting.

Clarification on this is needed.

 

Owain - I know you played tons of Ultima Online but I'm seriously confused by your response. Players could be combatants, gatherers, and crafters on a single shard, just under different character names. What stopped all of us warriors from making a GM Blacksmith? Time and effort, plus I personally think it is boring. This is where economies develop as my time killing monsters is worth someone else's time crafting. I understand your reluctance about the one character system but you can't think you'd be able to adjust your current skills on the fly, it will probably either take time or a trip to a certain NPC. Think of it as logging off one character and back on another if you'd like but I personally like the one character system because people are forced to be honest to their name and not have multiple personalities (barring separate accounts).

 

Illesac, LB has stated that the skill system will not involve repetitious activity, so no making 10000 heavy bows to max out your bow crafting. We don't know how time consuming the crafting system will be, but if it is reasonably easy, everyone will do their own crafting/mining/etc, and that will kill the player economy.

If there is some form of cap on skills, then with one character per account, a crafter will be a valuable member of the community rather that if everyone crafts for themselves.

If people want to buy more than one account to have a warrior and a crafter, more power to them. They are paying for it, and helping the game to be a success.

 

He also states that people don't forget activities that they have practiced but it is how you arrange your 'stack' that will impact gameplay. Also, I don't think it is reasonable to think that you won't have to make heavy bows in order to become better at making bows! Unlike UO where you didn't exactly know when your next skill point would hit I think it is going to be very clear the milestones up the Apprentice, Journeyman, ...Grand Master ladder of any said crafting skill. Again, do you want to gather wood and feathers making 200 arrows, 300 bolts, 400 bows, etc. or leave it to someone else because 500 gold for a GM bow is the same as a few minutes of killing because you are strong warrior? I know you remember the days before all of these fancy colored weapons and attributes and that is exactly how it was. The reason you none of us made GM crafters was because it was cheaper to just buy their gear and play the game the way I wanted to play, specifically for me it was killing liches and fire elementals in Deceit.

Hopefully us disagreeing over our interpretation of what we've heard will lead us to some answers like we got on housing!

 

Clarification needs to be provided, assuming even the dev's have a grip on it. The design may not yet even exist, like the magic system.