More Ranting on Quests
Stop making quest chains that span multiple levels. It breaks up the pacing. I hate doing one quest at level 20 only to find out that the next quest is marked as level 25.
Stop making me return to a ridiculously distant area for an single quest in an unimportant chain. If I have to keep making return trips, I should have more than one quest for the area.
Make quests mesh better. If you have a quest to kill 20 wolves in one quest chain and then another quest to kill 30 wolves in a different quest chain, make them at the same place in the chain. I do not like having to kill 50 wolves when I could have only killed 30.
Stop writing a novel just to tell me you are hungry and want some boar meat. I do not care about your dreams and aspirations. I am a mercenary and I am just doing a job. You have friends and family to talk to. I am neither.
Stop giving me group quests followed by solo quests followed by group quests. And for that matter, stop giving me group quests followed by group quests. If you are going to have a quest chain, have it all soloable up until the final quest and make that quest for a group. This way, if I cannot find the group, I at least completed most of the quest line instead of missing huge numbers of quests.
Make drop rates more intelligent. If you want me to collect 10 orc medallions, do not make a set drop rate of 20%. Perhaps start the drop rate at 20% and then for every orc I kill in a row without getting a medallion, increase the drop rate by 20%. Once I get a medallion, reset it to 20%.
When I get back to writing more about Dawn of Steam, one of the things I will elaborate on is quest placement. It will be a "contract" system. Instead of running to town and seeing 30 people who want you to do quests for them, you will see a notice board that has contracts. These contracts will not have huge descriptions and can vary between repeatable quests and one-time quests.
Running into a town may show you a contract board like follows:
Tinker Town Contract Board:
Farmer Joe needs meat. (Daily)
Contract text: Farmer Joe recently broke is leg and is seeking someone to provide meat for his family. Collect 10 boar flanks.
Farmer Steve lost his cow. (One-time)
Contract text: Farmer Steve's cow Bessie has run off. Please return her to Farmer Steve if you find her. Find Bessie.
Mayor Bopkins issues wolf bounty. (Repeatable)
Contract text: Mayor Bopkins is rewarding citizens for helping curb the wolf problem. Rewards are issued for every 10 wolves killed. Kill 10 wolves.
Engineer Meyers is collecting gears. (Repeatable)
Contract text: Engineer Meyers is offering rewards for anyone who brings him gears. Rewards are given for every 5 gears. Collect 5 gears.
Tinker Smith needs a bodyguard. (Daily)
Contract text: Tinker Smith needs is seeking to hire a bodyguard to escort him to his place of work. Protect Tinker Smith.
So few people read the flavor text of a quest, doing quests like this would be more efficient and less overwhelming. Another benefit to this system is that when people eventually do find a quest that is a novel in length they are more likely to actually read it since it it stands out.
Dawn of Steam Wiki – More on Factions
Last week, I went over the three different factions within Dawn of Steam. I have a million different ideas going through my head but at the current time not all of them can be transcribed clearly.
I have been thinking about different splinter groups within each faction. The splinter groups may often disagree with each other, but in the end they all work together for the goal of their main faction. The splinter groups there to add some different flavors for each faction. They serve as a way to encompass multiple different art styles and philosophies under one main faction and also serve to add at little drama and flavor for role-players. Most splinter groups have a similar group within the other factions.
I have not come up with names for each splinter group and the ones that do have names are probably just going to end up as temporary names.
Julian Splinter Groups -
The Enlightened - A religious group. They believe in technology someday leading them to the promised land.
The Iron Hammer - A militant group. They believe war is the first and usually the only answer to any problem and technology is just a means to an end.
The Tinkers Union - An independent group. They work for whoever is paying and just live to create, not caring for politics too much.
Organic Splinter Groups -
Harbingers of Balance - A religious group. They believe that the gods and goddess are peaceful but that the Julians and Synthetics are upsetting the balance of the world. They wish, albeit fanatically, to bring harmony back to the world by eliminating the Julians and Synthetics.
The Forest Keepers - A militant group. They believe that the gods and goddess are vengeful and wish for them to reclaim the world by force. They conquer so that they can dominate.
The Paragons of Hope - An independent group. This group wishes for equality of all three factions. While they may not understand the motives of the Julians and may not approve of the existence of the Synthetics, they wish that each faction just shared the land equally.
Synthetic Splinter Groups -
The Heralds of Andras - A religious group. This group of Synthetics worship a demon lord from the Void and consider themselves heralds of his coming. They believe that their worship will give them power under the demon lord in the next life.
Guardians of the Void - A militant group. This group is out for revenge. They blame the Julians and the Organics for what they have become and wish to subjugate the world and transform everyone into Synthetics.
The Blight of Night - An independent group. This group has come to terms with who they are and just wants to live their lives without persecution from the other factions. They do not wish to dominate them, they just do not want to be persecuted and will do whatever it takes to stop it.
Dawn of Steam Wiki – Faction Preview
Dawn of Steam is set in a Victorian steampunk world with three dominant factions fighting for control of the land and resources. Each factions has its own unique flavor.
The Julians are your standard steampunk factions. They are a mixture of Full Metal Alchemist, Fable, Hayao Miyazaki, and Jules Verne (hence the name). They live Victorian-style cities where steam power and technology dominates.
The Julians are split up into multiple social classes. The rich live a lavish and decadent lifestyle and are often arrogant and care little for the suffering of the poor. The middle class is filled with the intellectuals of society. The scientists, machinists, and tinkerers fill the middle class. They are often personally contracted out by upper class nobles for work. The lowest class is the poor which is mostly mercenaries, manual laborers and vagabonds. Overall, the Julians are a very industrial society that tends to consume without giving much back. The governmental style is a monarchy with a parliament-like advisory council.
For combat, the Julians use guns, machines and robots as well as advanced mechanical melee weapons. They have lost their connection to the planet and use alchemical practices to make up for that loss.
The Organics are a more primal and nature oriented faction. They are of a more fantasy style. The Organics are attune with the planet and harness its power to fight off its enemies. They are mostly druidic and shamanistic in style, constantly in contact with the spirits of the planet and the animals that inhabit it. Other Organics focus on using the elemental forces of the world to cause destruction of their enemies.
The Organics believe in the equality and sanctity of all life so long as you are respectful of the planet. They see the outsiders as people who just lost their way at best, and an infection to the planet at worse.
For combat, the Organics use standard fantasy weapons, spirit weapons, animal companions, and standard fantasy elemental magics.
The Synthetics are the result of a Julian disaster. One of the largest Julian cities was one day wiped from the planet due to the accidental detonation of an immensely powerful, and extremely experimental bomb. The explosion wiped out the nearby forests filled with some Organic settlements as well. The event killed thousands and everyone else was mutated. Not only that, but the explosion was so powerful that it opened a void to another world filled with strange beasts and demonic aberrations. The corruption of the Void and the beasts from within poured into the area of the cataclysm. The Void imbued the Synthetics, as they called themselves, with dark powers.
Now outcasts from their respective factions of the Julians and Organics, these Synthetics seek to claim vengeance upon their former comrades and make everyone Synthetic. They are the "evil" faction of the game.
For combat, the Synthetics call upon the dark power of the Void. They use demonic weaponry, necromancy, dark magic and have control of void aberrations and other strange beasts.
Dawn of Steam Wiki – Introduction
Months ago, I was working on a series of blog posts outlining all the features I would like to have within a dream MMO. Dreaming is nice, but it is easy to talk about a lot of interesting design choices without looking at the full picture of how they integrate into the game and the impact they have on the rest of the system.
So after talking to Rynala a month or so ago about this MMO idea I had, I decided I would make it my pet project to actually write up full design proposals for the game. I have quite a few blog post outlines but a lot of them need further thought development.
I have started a wiki at http://dawnofsteam.wikia.com/ to serve as the living design document for the game. This is not ever going to be a real game, but it is instead a chance for me to be creative and pretend to be a designer and developer for while. I am using a wiki as my design document so that I can easily reference other aspects of the game and make sweeping changes when needed. If there is one thing we all know about MMOs, it is that visions change.
I will post articles from the Wiki here initially though the pots here will be used as just a start on that topic. As different aspects of the game develop, all the articles will increase in length and complexity. Anyway, my first post will be following this one and will be a bit about the world, the factions, and the lore since I always enjoy developing stories first and then working off that.
I hope you all enjoy it.