Last time I thought about my dream game and about what it look like as far as story line and progression would like that. This week I'm thinking more about the mechanics.
The actual game-play part of the game starts as soon as the king finishes his speech and lets the players loose on the world.
Firstly: the players will notice is there is no text chat available in the game. Instead there is a voice chat that is proximity based (meaning that you can hear people who are close to you, and the further away they get the fainter their voices get, until you can no longer hear them). So right away the game is breaking a long held tradition.
They will also notice that the king who talked to them will just hang around, and will talk to any players who want to speak to him. They'll quickly realize that the king is being controlled by an actual person. This person is the GM of that realm. He runs it, making sure that the server is behaving normally, and resolving any major crises. The GM, as directed by the players, though certainly not constrained by them, will promote a player to be the high commander of the kings forces on the ground. He'll promote four lesser commanders and a larger group known as the King's Police, or some such, and these players - players who take the game seriously and will act with honor and dignity - will lay out laws for the other players and take action against player killers and griefers.
Secondly: as the players explore the town they will see that it is quite large and it is cleanly divided into several sections, such as the Magic Quarter, the Arms Quarter, the Trade Quarter, and the Residential Quarter, (there may be more areas, and probably will, but these are just ideas that spring to mind) each section will have an impressive number of buildings, with shops and residence and the like. I intend to put as many shops as you would see in a real city. I don't know how feasible that would be, I may have to back off on that eventually. In any case, I would like the city to be big enough, with enough NPCs and shops and buildings and such that a player could really get into just exploring the city and looking for things to do. And those who do not wish to, need not explore further than buying their first set of armor and weapons.
Thirdly: once the players are geared up and ready to go, they'll leave in groups (grouping will be strongly suggested to the players, especially in the initial stages). They'll find many dangerous creatures and monsters outside the walls. As they fight and destroy these threats, they'll notice that monsters do not respawn. anything they kill stays dead. They'll move through the wilderness clearing monsters and perhaps trees and brush.
I will mention, briefly, the nature of grouping in Blink World. As the User Interface for Blink World will be very minimal, there will be no in-game component for grouping. Since there is no experience point mechanic in Blink World, (your character grows stronger by using skills, killing monsters doesn't give you anything extra, only fighting them matters) grouping for XP is not important. Grouping will take place because it is convenient and will save you from dying, which is very inconvenient. Loot will have to be worked out by the players. I want to foster a sense of community in this game, and simply dividing loot automatically will waste a valuable chance to build that community by making players work together and be real allies.
At this point in the game the servers will be closed. The initial batch of 1,000 players will be by themselves. The wilderness outside is vast. Imagine a city two or three miles wide and sending a group of one-thousand people outside its walls to just move out and kill stuff. If I balance it right, the groups will be thin for the amount of wilderness they have to clear. Monsters don't respawn (at least not out of thin air right on top of you) but they do move back into an area if nothing is put there.
Eventually the players will learn how to build structures, and they'll build houses and walls to protect those houses and maybe smithies and tanning sheds so they can build stuff. As they build these impromptu towns, NPCs - freshly able to leave the confines of the city by some mysterious force - will move into the outposts. They'll move into the houses with the players, they'll man the forges and tanning sheds while the players are out. In short, they'll make it into an actual town.
Fourthly: there are no classes in Blink World as we understand them. Instead, every player has access to the same skills available to all other players. Every usable action is governed by a skill. Want to be a swordsman? The blade skill is for you. Magic? there's a skill for magic. Also, every skill is double governed by its primary skill and secondary skills within it. For example a swordsman might use broadswords or rapiers. Whichever he uses, his blade skill will raise, but he'll also raise the skill for the specific weapon he uses. There will be lots of skill. Skill for reading, for magic, for fighting, for singing, for writing, for speaking foreign languages, for creating weapons, armor and trinkets, for erecting buildings, for making friends with NPCs, for lying, cheating and stealing. In short, there will be skills for many, many things. Perhaps hundreds, each one governing a different action, each one available to every single player.
With that in mind, some people will be concerned with how balance will be governed. How will I be sure that a player won't just get skill points in everything to make the strongest character? The short answer? There will be no checks there for balance purposes (though I will do everything possible to balance one combat type against another, I don't want swords to just be flat-out better in every way than axes). Instead, balance will be inherent, as raising a skill to very high levels becomes more and more difficult. If a player is achieving outrageous success with a skill combination, it won't take long for other players to catch on and raise those skills as well. One upside to this method, its not possible to "ruin" a character by allocating their points wrong. You can always just start building other skills up. Also, I've always been of the opinion that a player who is more diligent at the game should be stronger, potentially much stronger. That being said, they will never eclipse all the other players, and will need their aid to succeed.
Fifthly: as players expand outward, no goal in mind but kicking ass and getting stronger, they'll eventually run into intelligence humanoids outside of Center City. These will be things like, Orcs, Elves, Trolls, Dwarves, Goblins, Gnomes, Halflings, Fairies, Dryads, Treants, Undead (maybe), demons(again maybe), and other races. Some of these races will be thrilled to make new friends and will offer to join with Center City with no strings attached, just a free flow of information, trade, and friendship. Others will ask that the players prove themselves, or help in a desperate feud between a rival race. In these cases the players will have to work together to gain new allies, and in some cases make a hard decision between races (for instance it is likely that the Elves and Orcs will be at war, and only one will join your alliance, while the other becomes a bitter enemy).
Each race will bring new benefits, new weapon and armor types, new building styles, new writings and magic, and so on. Also, and perhaps even more importantly, as the players gain new allies, the rosters will open up again, and new players can join Blink World as new and different races. I'm thinking a limit of new players for each race, maybe another thousand or so.
Sixthly: as the players expand outward they will eventually run into some randomly placed, but precisely designed, encounters. Things like an evil necromancer in a tower who will require a large group of players working together to conquer. An ancient dragon living in a magical lake, being disturbed by these new adventurers, destroys nearby settlements until a group of players gathers and slays it. As they expand outward, the challenges will become ever more frequent and difficult.
To compound these difficulties, the player groups will quite naturally become thinner and thinner as they expand outward, as the area to cover becomes larger and larger. In time it will be an appreciable hike getting back to Center City, and focusing on just four directions, letting outlying lands be, will prove disastrous, as insidious beings will gather large forces and assault from their flanks. In short, as the players grow stronger and expand outward, the challenges will grow stronger as well.
With the large distances involved in travelling in mind, we bring up the subject of death of a player. Should a player die (it will be less frequent than in some games, but definitely happen) their soul is returned to the temple of Center City. Their body is recreated with holy magic. They are clothed, given a small amount of gold to get back on their feet, and sent out into the world. If they want to reaquire their gear, they have to find their corpse. Hopefully their companions are trustworthy and won't just steal it.
Seventhly: I'm thinking that the players will have to really work together to get through this game. There will be a leader of the realm, chosen by the players and crowned by the king. This player will have authority over other players, with the right to command them as he sees fit, with real punishments if players break the rules or grief others (I'm thinking something like jail time, which basically amounts to a day long restriction for the player in question). Of course, the player may resist, killing the guards who come after him. He could become an outlaw, running from the authorities, slaying players he once called friend and living outside the law. This kind of play might be fun for some, and opposing them fun for others. Blink World is really about freedom.
Speaking of working together, some players will have to dedicate much of their time to crafting and building up their crafting skills. Only basic arms and armor are available in Center City. To get the gear needed to clear the highest level content, players will have to create all the most powerful gear. I want it balanced so it will basically be impossible for someone to become a top tier fighter and an amazing artisan, meaning, in practical game terms, at least 20% of whatever players are actively trying to clear the game will have to be devoted to creating things and running shops and basically being a support role. And I think that there will be many people who will love that! There are so many players out there who just want to play their farming games, or cooking games, or whatever, and given the chance to do that same stuff, but being part of something bigger, something that actually matters to others, I think they'll jump at it.
Eightly: eventually the players will clear the map. They'll reach the edges of the island and discover the secret that keeps them there and how to escape. The king will take the city and jump to a new place - hopefully home (It won't be, it will just be a new island) - and give the players the chance to stay and play on the island they've cleared. At that point it becomes mine craft. Its just the players exploring what remains of the world, building massive cities and playing house. Some players will want to do that. And they can, for free at that point. Basically, the GM (who runs the game) will log in like once a week to make sure everything is running fine. The players who took part in clearing the island can play on that island for as long as they like, for free.
I think, that in the end, that might be peoples favorite part.
Next week I'll talk about something else. Promise!
Joseph is an aspiring writer. He is currently working on his forthcoming novel "The Last Shadow" and writes this (supposedly) weekly blog. His avatar is used by permission of the author, Graffitihead, of Deviant Art. Visit his Webpage if you like his art.
