Liberal Arts Major
This is fine, possibly, but I wonder if a linear storyline would work out - in other words, NPC's are just there to get the story going, and the results of one person's questing have a direct effect on everyone in the game.
There are some downsides and upsides to this, which should be quite plain, but I think it's doable. The question is if it's really worth it. We could even have a mix of systems: normal quests would be instance, but certain quests (let's call them "events") could change the story.
What do you think?
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~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Liberal Arts Major
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~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Editor
That said, it's not a deal breaker and could potentially be interesting, so...
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
+++
"Enough is enough! I have had it with these monkey-fighting snakes on this Monday-to-Friday plane!" - TV Edited Snakes on a Plane
Liberal Arts Major
Now whether or not you consider that a bad thing is a matter of debate.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Legend
Liberal Arts Major
It is indeed a bad thing.
The way I see this being implemented is twofold:
(1) Make the story-relevant text of unique events public so that although only one person triggers the event and beats the Big Bad or whatever, a piece of the pie is available for everyone.
(2) Make these things uncommon and stratify by time. For instance, if there's a conflict between two parties, have numerous instanced quests (like fetch quests) and a few open quests (like assassinating somebody) that will resolve the conflict in some way over time.
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~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Liberal Arts Major
But to Ogor? Hey, it might mean more people playing more frequently to prevent me from doing that by getting to that story content first!
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
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~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Liberal Arts Major
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
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~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Liberal Arts Major
You have Group A and Group B in conflict. The players can take options to either side with either group, or if not formally do so, then at least get enough of a view to favor one over the other.
Now there comes a point in which there is an event in which Player 1 can decide which Group triumphs and that effect will be felt by all players in the game. If Player 2, whether they played at the same time as Player 1, but just not at the same rate or time or just joined after this had all already happened, if they favored the other group, they might be annoyed that they are forced to live with the effects of another player's choice that they themselves would not have made.
Now granted, speaking objectively, I don't see anything wrong with this, but I could see it annoying people (including potentially myself) if they end up having the story pushed in a way they didn't want to see it go.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
I'm not sure people will feel so strongly about resolving an event in some way however given that most of the time there will be a large number of these things going on and relatively few quests and unique choices in each one.
Perhaps it would be better if most of the unique quests were given to everybody. For instance, say there's a skirmish somewhere, and any player can choose to fight for Group A, Group B, or nobody, then after the skirmish ends the results of NPCs will be generated and added to the PC results to determine a winner.
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~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Liberal Arts Major
You could do that, but I'll admit you sold me with the first part of that post, well, I was already onboard that, but that basically shot down even my "devil's advocate" arguments.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
For some events, yes, but not all of them. I don't see any other way to allow participation in the aforementioned skirmishes.
You could do that, but I'll admit you sold me with the first part of that post, well, I was already onboard that, but that basically shot down even my "devil's advocate" arguments.
Top-notch.
The problem I see with requiring a large number of players to participate in an event in order for the story to progress is that it seems entirely possible to me, based on previous SS versions, that this will cause the story to never progress ever. <_<
In the aforementioned skirmish scenario, the players affect the outcome but an NPC component is also generated. So if a skirmish happens and there aren't any players around to care, there will still be an outcome.
based on previous SS versions, that this will cause the story to never progress ever.
So true. =(
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~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Liberal Arts Major
I mean, I wouldn't complain about the "have everyone do it" version either, especially since you addressed my main concern which was, "...that requires a large enough number of people to do it."
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
New Moderator
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~ Ogordemir ~
When I feel like being awesome in another way.