What if player cities opened new content?

[Orlun]

I was daydreaming on players cities and how they can be made to hold value for all the shards population when I thought up this.

What if when a player city reaches a certain population, a pathway to new exclusive content opens?

Lets say if we see a medium size village appear, they are granted the option of building a church. As the town grows, so does the power of this church. Finally, after a certain threshold is reached, a spire of light burns up into the sky and pierces into a new plane. Anyone praying at the alter is transported to this plane.

Rather then limiting access to city residence, I think keeping this access open to all would be a great draw for others to your city. Maybe a portion of the 'offering' could go to the player cities coffers.

I'd even like to see the portal closed if the city falls into disrepair or the population drops.

Thoughts?

[Eclipse]

It would have to be a huge church in a very bustling city.
I'm thinking more along the lines of a massive holy temple in one of the top three player-made cities in all of Telon.
Something like this would give the game an INTENSE step up, but it could only be for the biggest and best...not for some scraggly little church in a village!

:)
I like the idea though...and as an Inquisitor I would warn you to take a slight step back from such heresy.

-Eclipse

[Havelock]

That's a damn good idea. I wonder if any of the "dynamic content" we've heard about takes into accoutn what might happen as players develop cities. I wouldn't put it pats Sigil to already have something like this in the works, but if they don't they really ought to give your idea a hard look.

[nubbins]

i agree that dynamic player driven content is a great idea and something that mmorpgs really need to consider seriously

[Skarlath]

On a small scale, towns could definitely mess up local spawns. The formation of player settlements should provoke things like an exodus of a creature from the area (moving spawnpoints would do the trick), or perhaps would encourage the arrival of a new creature?

Picture a small hamlet forming in deepest thestra, only to have strange humanoid creatures begin to lurk in the trees, building up their own little town before launching attacks against the player town.

Once the town was destroyed, or the monsters were, spawns might become normal again. But for a while there would be a new situation arising in the world that people might enjoy taking part in. :)

[Eclipse]

Actually Skar, they're proposing that when you set up a town near where mobs spawn usually, they will attack the town instead of slinking away.

Sounds very cool to me. So you would have to build your town in such a way as to be aware that it could be frequently attacked at any moment. So if this means your town can hire guards, build walls, build watchtowers, I have no idea.

Very neat stuff though.

-Eclipse

[Labyrrinth]

That's an amazing idea Orlun.

I can see this idea being used the way you described or as a way to revitalize a dying or dead city, especially after expansions when people tend to move away from the original content areas.

Imagine a portal opening up in an abandoned church, one that lead to a forbidding and hostile society. The society in question would use that portal to gain access to the abandoned town, where they would set up forces in order to try and conquer or overtake specific areas. Conversely, if we secured the area, we then could use that portal and be transported to new content...

[Orlun]

Another branch of this is that portals can move.

Imagine if the plane the portal transported players to was called the "Plane of Success". This portal could be portable in that it always moves to the player city with the largest population or best economy. Let your city drop in status and you loose your portal.

Niche content could be based around other factions of player communities. "Plane of creation" could be accesses from the city with the strongest crafting infrastructure. "Plane of Wealth"... "Plane of Decay" accessed from the most recent city to be destroyed or drop below a percentage threshold?

I see it as an easy way to provide a bit of a dynamic world easily because only the portal to the newer content moves. Those simple moves have a drastic effect on the player community though.

[lokien]

The only problem with that Orlun is that we would end up with GW syndrome. In guild wars, certain areas were determined by PvP, and if one side was doing really well the others would never get to access the content. This became really annoying. I hope something like this doesn't happen in VG.

[Korsal]

That would be great, would that also then spawn a whole series of new player classes? ie.. guards and such for the folks that maybe aren't so hardcore and out raiding and exploring every single shred of new content to be had?

Also does this apply to the tradeskill sphere as well? The cities, does this mean you might possibly build your own forge, or in cooperation with some other smiths build a forge?

The possiblities are endless.

Korsal

[Orlun]

Oh, I suspect when they impliment player cities, that they will allow those citys to create crafting workstations, maybe banks, venders and other normal city functions. What would be really cool though would be a line of crafting recipes that are only able to be made on a player city forge, loom, etc.

So, player citys opening up new content could mean new tradeskill items or new diplomacy gear too.

[Skarlath]

An interesting 'dynamic' concept might be if the world was inhabited by a number of NPCs who wandered around were attracted to towns of various criteria.

If your town excelled at weaponsmithing, perhaps had a particularly advanced type of forge that catered specifically for bladesmiths, then the an NPC master of some sort may migrate your way. He might take up residence in your town, often seen in the forge. He might bring benefits such as modifiers to bladesmithing (people would improve under the supervision of a master, surely) but he might also sell or teach new skills and recipes. Give special quests and such.

Cities might compete to provide the best facilities in hope of attracting various NPCs. A city may deliberately specialise in one thing, and if they commit to it enough then they may be rewarded further than the normal bonuses.

[Orlun]

An interesting 'dynamic' concept might be if the world was inhabited by a number of NPCs who wandered around were attracted to towns of various criteria...

LOL, when I read this I pictured this...

Mayor Oloh "OK, I just got a tell that a few hours travel to the west someone saw a wandering NPC Blacksmith! Smithing team, go now!"

*smithing team runs off... arms full of rusty daggers.

:p

hours later... the smithing team is seen crawling back, leaving a trail of rusty daggers. "OMG! its working, he's following!"


Mayor Oloh "OK town, get that forge fired up! He's almost here!"

:)

[Skarlath]

Haha, that's great! :p

But how about if the crafters have to enlist a diplomat or two to negotiate with the NPC a little? Hooray for cross-sphere utility!

[Orlun]

Haha, that's great! :p

But how about if the crafters have to enlist a diplomat or two to negotiate with the NPC a little? Hooray for cross-sphere utility!


hrmph! well, I suppose of you want to do it the easy way. :confused:

[hdawg06]

This was done in SWG. As your town grew, you could place parks, cantinas, med centers, shuttle ports, and other cool items. The problem with this is that, if people keep moving around and can have multiple houses, it may become stale.

[Skarlath]

Allowing access to new tiers of decorations is one thing, and some buildings in SWG did add improved functionality to a city. However the idea of player cities competing for control of a doorway to content that most player are going to want to use means that player cities are truly put on the map.

In SWG you never had to go to a player city if you didn't want to, and you wouldn't really be losing out at all.