What makes something worth playing?

What drives you to try out something, graphics, gameplay, uniqueness, hype?

I'm asking this because I'm working on some software/game/tech demo, and I'm curious what would be the best way to pull it off.

The heart of it is pretty much, I have my own game engine. Which can use next gen features OGL3.0. Its lightweight, and I can achieve pretty amazing graphics with a very respectable speed/fps. However its physics, collision detection, AI isnt really that great. And I'm trying to avoid from using other api's such as physx/havok/newton because the pipeline I have setup works extremely fast and allows me me to do some neat things, I also want to avoid clutter so its easy for people to whip prototypes together.

I'm not expecting this to go anywhere, its purely just for fun. However If it did turn out well I could make it into a low budget commercial game engine or just a free open-source modifiable code base for those wanting to prototype a idea.

Right now im busy with a couple competitions for the next month, however after Im back to work on this project. And im wondering, for a beta what type of simple gameplay should I incorporate.

The main lacks of my engine are no support for proper animations, so everything is just either floating/sliding when it moves or just some really simple leg/arm movements.

I need to make up for this, over time the quality will increase in animation.etc but for the first version I need to get everything down. And wondering if you guys could help me answer these questions in your opinion so I can see what the majority of gamers prefer.

Questions:

1. What type of world would you prefer more:
A. Very Large world with very little detail that increases/builds upon over time.
B. A World were areas of the map are unlocked when they are detailed and finished, a slowly growing map.

2. What would seem more appealing to you:
A. A world were you can construct things anywhere and they can be raided/looted if you don't setup defenses/locks.etc.
B. A world were you can construct things, get a deed, and no one can destory/loot or ever build there until the deed is gone.
C. A mix of the two above were deeds are for places in designated citys/official areas, and loot-able would be in vast areas were no political structure or governing is.

3. Crafting System:
A. To craft, it requires a Design Book and you must follow instructions.
B. You put in what ever you think will do well and you can discover combinations that no one else knows.
C. You can either guess, or use a Design Book.

4. Political System:
A. NPC's govern over main citys were laws/rules can be effected by players voting.
B. Citys have no NPC Police/Government, have no political structure and are non-pvp and will stay non-pvp forever.

Thanks, this will help me decide were this project is going and what the majority of people prefer.

If you guys want me to Ill eventually post screens and updates on here if you are interested in where this will end up.

 

1) A
2) B, because A will just degenerate into people trying to destroy others' stuff for the sake of destroying others' stuff, if you know what i mean.
3) C, but the stuff from the Design Book has to be low- to mid-level - the really good stuff should be chance discoveries
4) A

 

If you want to make it easier on yourself, you ought to repost your question as a Poll. That way you'd have all the numbers right in front of you.

1. A 2. C 3. B 4. A

 

This sounds like it's for an MMO so Im going to answer based on that assumption:

1. B. A was tried in Asheron's Call II and didn't work out. Even though you may believe you can handle it those areas won't progress fast enough and it will wear on people's enjoyment. It's better to have some fully complete areas that players can at least repeat until new areas open up.

2. B. Areas that can be destroyed and looted don't work because players cant stay logged on 24/7 to defend them. Players will ninja-raid your constructs at odd hours when there's little to no resistance.

3. A. However you try to implement a guessing system it's going to end up as A anyway since people will share recipes and post spoilers on the internet. The original Asheron's Call tried something like that with thier spells and eventually someone created a mod that figured out all your spells for you.

4. A without the voting system. If you implement B for question 2 then people will eventually create their own towns...if you allow for an open PVP system then they will also govern those towns for themselves.


If this is for an MMO I'd suggest the following as well:

-Non-instanced dungeons and PVP. Instances cause people to play MMOs with a single-player game mentality. The game world itself loses value and everything is looked at as a mini-game. Raids can be instanced but that's about it.

-Penalties for dying are better than rewards for winning in PVP. Reward systems promote zerging, Penalties make you think twice about attacking and worry about losing. Groups formed for protection because you're scared to die create stronger bonds than groups formed for greed because you want phat lewts.

 

It can be summed into one word really.

-Fun-

As long as a game is fun its worth playing, no other factor has to come into play.

 

Its gonna start out as a single player test RPG, then work its way onto online over time. I went for this because it seems to get most people interested, and it will be free.

Anyways, for the crafting, that will not be the case. I have a old computer set up with a custom application for my engine, its a module part of my engine, and you run the application on a low-budget machine, because its a really simple app. And all it does is use that computer as a lookup through the server on recipes. Checking if that recipie is ok and what it will create, of course theres some random generation to it, like what quality the item will pop out, maybe it will require some fine-tuning/fixing after to get it usable.

However, no one will ever figure out all the recipes and spam them, the system allows me (Creator/Admin) set a limit. I can make a recipe that requires X this, X that, and there will be a craft limit, maybe only a possible of 100 successes throughout the whole game. So the first person who figures it out, if they craft say 50 and another person happens to find out too and crafts 50 more. Then that item no longer can be crafted like that anymore, maybe it cant be crafted ever. I pretty much have control over making the recipes switch or making rare items appear one day and craft 8 successes in one day and then be un-craftable for months and then show up again. This way I can always add new items and surprises.

Its a great feeling when a player tries out something for fun and ends up getting discovering a item no one else has, and then crafting it a couple more times and then they the only person in that game with that set of items that may not be available again for months if ever. Im trying to add fun, without the need of crazy collision detection and stuff that my engine lacks in.

 

Agreed with all your answers heh.

 

1. A
2. C
3. C
4. A

 

A
C
C
B
is my answer

 

Still say A.

Random qualities are okay but I don't see how a craft limit...where you know how to build something then all of a sudden forget how...would ever be fun. If someone finds a random recipe that they know has a limit on how many can be made they'll bot it 'til it's used up. You'll end up with way too few haves and way too many unhapppy have-nots.

To tell you the truth I don't really see the need to have a crafting skill system in the first place. Crafted items are enjoyable but it's just as easy to implement those without a crafting system by using mob drops. It's been my experience in the MMOs Ive played over the last 14 years that if the game itself didn't force you to take crafting skills on your main characters with things like bind on pickup recipes or skill level requirements to use most people would leave their crafting skills to level 1 mules. Even gathering skills are just a boring distraction.... oh there's a mining node, got to stop what Im doing and hit it a few times.

 

True, however crafting in this tech demo/beta thing isnt really gonna be a main part of the game, its just a odd thing you might be able to do if you feel really risky. So im not too worried about that. However I would like to encorporate crafting as kinda like a repair method to upgrade your weapon when it breaks. Weapons will eventually decay, but you can fix them and even mod them, if you have a machete you can take out the blade and put in a chainsaw blade. However the process wont be too easy it will require materials that you may need to get from certain places or things. Pretty much the thought was to have items have ups' and down's depedngin on their condition and having the users be able to change that by doing some basic modifications at teh NPC repair. Or they can try to perform it themselves to be able to do more advanced modifications. I don't see people being able to spam craft in anyway. Since when crafting a item, it may take a week or so of gameplay to eventually loot the required items to attempt a craft. It will be on of those things were the odd time somone will risk it big and it may reward big. But ill keep what you say in mind, and maybe hold off on the whole crafting theory until i get everything worked out or find a way to incorporate it reasonably. Thanks.