My Rough Game Design

I've been thinking about this off and on for about 10 years. Some of this might apply to Shroud of the Avatar, but some won't, and much of it would apply only to a single player mode, perhaps as an option, I don't know. At any rate, here's a peek inside my skull.

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Here are some random game ideas inspired by Ultima Online/Civilization/Silmarillion.

First, some background. In the Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien, the Valar create the world as agents of Illuvatar, the chief deity in Tolkien?s mythology. Illuvatar also creates the races of Elves and Men, which apparently appear in Middle Earth spontaneously at a time of Illuvatar?s choosing, which was unknown to the Valar. Elves appear first, some of which are then corrupted into the race of Orcs by Melkor, a Vala who serves as a Satan equivalent in the mythology. Later, Dwarves, originally created by Aule but blessed by Illuvatar, appear, and last of all, the Race of Men appear.

This same rough framework could be used in an Ultima like game, with or without Elves or Dwarves. The world exists, and when the game starts, the player appears in the world, newly created. From here, the game can take elements from the game Civilization, in that to start with, only rudimentary skills are known, such as use of animal skins for clothing, stone tools, and knowledge of fire. Any other skills must be learned. There are other civilizations in the world, such as the familiar Ultima Rat Men, Lizard Men, Orcs, and so forth.

To learn new simple skills, tools could be featured as drops, such as a shovel from a Rat Man for mining, or perhaps something as simple as the tinker?s toolkit from Ultima Online. I think that by using a Tinkers toolkit, and a few iron ingots obtained as loot, the entire crafting system from Ultima Online could be recreated. In UO, a blacksmith could make any smith item just by equipping a hammer at a forge. In this game, elementary items could be made, but before a smith can fashion a dagger, for example, a specification for crafting a dagger would have to be discovered, much like a mage in UO could not cast a spell until a scroll for that spell was added to their spell book. In addition, a low level smith simply could not comprehend a high level specification until a greater skill level is attained. Mages would operate in the same way. Instead of just dropping a spell on their spell book, mages would first have to have enough skill to be able to comprehend the spell first, and a spell specification to learn a spell would be different than a scroll used to cast a spell.

As with Ultima Online, instead of a class/level RPG system, this game would use a skill based system. If the game is developed as a multi player game, players would fill the niches necessary for the budding civilization, but it might actually be better as a single player game. Initially, the player would be alone in the world, but through exploring, human NPCs would be encountered. These might be hostile, or they might be friendly. The hostile ones must be fought or avoided, the same as other hostile humanoids, but the friendly ones could be added to the budding civilization. As the leader of the new tribe, the player could assess the new person, and depending on their skills, the person might be the clan blacksmith. If the clan already has a smith, as clan leader, they might be repurposed as a miner instead.

For every skill present in Ultima Online, for example, an NPC could be assigned to specialize in that skill. One game mechanism would be for that NPC to gain skill over time, but the obsessive compulsive in me would prefer to be able to take control of any NPC in the game, and play them myself, developing their skills as part of building my mini-society. So every character in my tribe, tinker, tailor, soldier, or spy, would function autonomously, but would also be subject to my direct control, as I please, as if he/she was a player character.

In this way, players wouldn?t have to choose between crafting skills and combat skills. Most of my time, for example, would be spent as a warrior, but to supply the best gear for my warrior, I could spend some time as a weapon smith, or an armor crafter. I can also train and equip party members in the same fashion. An archer for ranged support, a healer, a caster, perhaps a squire to serve me, the knight. They are usually support characters for my main character, but if I wish, I can control them directly to go on solo quests of their own. This would allow players to experiment with what character type they like best. The number of characters they can play equals the number of NPCs in the game, giving maximum flexibility. Players who don?t want to mess with that can configure the game to play all the NPCs and train them appropriately, or the player can micromanage his tribe entirely, or perhaps somewhere in between. I don?t imagine I would enjoy farming much, but tailoring, smithing, etc, yes, I would probably do most of the professions that existed in Ultima Online, if they were available.

With respect to dying in the game, another aspect present in Tolkien?s world might be used. The Elves in Tolkien?s universe, for example, lived forever. They suffered no sickness, nor did they age, but they could be killed. In that case, their spirit would go to the Halls of Mandos where they would wait to be born again into the world. For game play purposes, this could work the same way, being resurrected by either a Priest or at a shrine to the deity, much as players in UO could be resurrected by wandering healers or at a Virtue shrine.

Another game play feature I would like to see would be a dynamic spawn system. In a game like Ultima Online, creatures appeared in dungeons automatically, and you could never really ?win?, so to speak, since no matter how many times you killed things in a Dungeon like Shame, they?d always be reappear. At the start of the game, the world is filled with evil, however, and survival is a struggle. As time goes by, however, your tribe grows, and your influence expands. Going from nomadic tribesmen, you develop villages, towns, and eventually cities. To do so, you have to conquer and displace opposing forces. Similar to humans, the Orcs/Ratmen/Lizardmen are resurrected by their respective Priests/Shaman that serve the Dark Powers, but if a settlement of Orcs can be sieged and defeated, and the Orc shamans slain, that settlement can be razed to make way for a human settlement, and dungeons can be cleared as well.

But as with Tolkein, whenever the Dark Powers are defeated, after a respite, the Shadow returns and grows anew. So once Shame is cleared, for example, if Men are occupied elsewhere, evil might spawn anew in the depths of the dungeon, and before long evil is loosed again on the world. A group of Ratmen, unnoticed in the wilderness might give rise to an infestation of Lizards, Orcs, Wraiths, Liches, and so forth. The longer evil goes unnoticed somewhere, the more powerful it becomes.

Additional detail for crafting skills. One think I liked initially about Star Wars Galaxies was the idea of varying quality for materials. If I used standard ore, I could only craft standard equipment, even if I was an exceptional crafter. Conversely, if I had exceptional ingredients, I would be able to craft exceptional items, assuming I had the necessary skill to make use of the exceptional ingredients.
Ultima Online touched on this with different color ores, but the difference was only cosmetic, I think (I quit playing UO after EA/Origin screwed it up beyond all recognition after Lord British lost control of the game). Instead of different color ores, you could have different grade ore. A miner with 30 mining skill can only mine ore with a grade of 30 (out of 100), which can only produce at most ingots with a grade of 30. A smith, even if he can craft a katana, a high skill item, can at best craft a level 30 weapon with level 30 ore. This would apply to tools as well. A low quality tool cannot craft a high quality weapon, even if high quality materials are used by a highly skilled crafts person.

This all leads eventually to the ability for a crafter to be able to produce not only exceptional items, but legendary items. Again, from the Silmarillion, Feanor was the most skilled craftsman in the world, resulting in the production of the Silmarils. From the Lord the Rings, Elven smiths crafted the rings of power, and Sauron produced the One Ring. So, for people with a high interest in crafting, allow them to combine skills, tools, and ingredients to allow them to create rare and wonderful one of a kind artifacts. Let them become Feanor, if that is what they wish, but make it HARD. Each step along the way in what should be a very complicated process, subject to failure at every turn, should be required. It took Feanor thousands of years to gain the skill necessary, for example, to create a Silmaril, but a legendary craftsman, using legendary tools, and legendary materials should be able to craft legendary items.