Game Making thoughts need some stories

Hey all, so I downloaded unity, (a game design engine) and recently purchased a preloaded MMORPG kit. Been learning how to use it, and at this point I am ready to start developing a game. That said, I need your help. I need some ideas. Its a medieval based game, so think about it in that context. its fantasy, so you got monsters in it. I'm really looking to develop a really awesome story line for it. So the question is, what ideas have you had that you'd be willing to share for a story? Can you give me some ideas?

Example:
Setting forest- Arn a young farmer and hunter must leave his mother and father to find medicine for his dying father. he ventures from the farm to an old healers shack, which agrees to give him the medicine in exchange for Arn going on a quest for him. Arn agrees, father is healed, gives Arn a gift to give to the healer. Arn can either keep the gift and not return, or return to the healer and keep the gift, or return to the healer and give the gift. Each one has different results. Next phase, what are those result, where do you see this going, do you see the quest being out in the open, or in buildings/caves. What are the enemies? how hard should it be, should it be "The Quest" and then be used to pick up others along the way? what does the quest give the healer?

Anyway, thought I would share as you all have some pretty decent writers. The game will have range, magic, and sword play. you can craft stuff in it, and you can trade/buy sell stuff at auction houses. Has a mail system.

Anything else you would like to see in the game and whats your story?

Camain

a reply to: camain

I like the idea but as with many games I don't want to end up as 'fodder' for paying members. Is there a game where you can, build, increase prosperity and fight a war in the long term without having to pay all the time. And I'm not talking "mindless craft,"

My thoughts,

bally

a reply to: bally001

my thought on monetizing the game was through purchase of rarity items. Basically the game would be free, and all the quests are free to play, however all drops are common drops. That said, you can convert a common to a higher level by purchasing an upgrade. The levels would be

common- Free
uncommon- ability to hold one recipe- 5 dollars
very uncommon- ability to hold two 2 recipes 10 dollars
rare- the ability to hold 4 recipes- 20 dollars
very rare- the ability to hold 6 recipes- 40 dollars
Unique- 10 recipes- 60 dollars

you can also craft items, and actually it is encouraged, as a crafted item has a level to it, which increases its base stat.
Level 1 sword, 10 damage
level 10 sword, 100 damage, so the thing is, people can skill up their crafting, but won't necessarily want to buff their stuff till they been playing for a while.

now hear is the thing, you can only purchase recipes from the store. Each recipe is 2 dollars. the different recipes are
+1 to a stat
combine recipe with +1

The +1 give you a +1 buff
the combine take another recipe and adds +1 to it. so if you have a +1 strength and a +1 combine, you get a +2 recipe. You drop 20 bucks and you can get a +10 stat.

With that said, I want dungeons that you can instance to with bosses at the end that drop recipes. The problem is, its hard to beat the dungeon, you can't beat it alone, it only drops one recipe, and you need alot of guys to get through it to get the recipe. This encourages group work/ guilds working together, etc.

Another thought I had was the trade system. If you are in the forest, you can harvest trees and mushrooms, not worth much in its zone, but you can take them to another zone and they are worth more, stone and minerals in mountains, fish and pearls near the sea. You can only collect gems in cave dungeon instances, meaning they are hard to get, which can be used to create rings and amulets that give you buffs. With the trade system, you have to establish a caravan and walk your caravan from point A to B. That said, the game is PVP so once your caravan leaves the safe zone, it can be ganked. The plus side though is you can hirer mercs to protect the caravan. Basically high level NPC that fight for you when attacked. So when a level 70 decides to raid you, you get two level 70's that defend you, plus yourself.The way the caravan works is

2 mercs take 25% of profits
4 - 50%
6 - 75%
8 - 100% (I left this open, because mercs will stay hidden until the caravan is attacked)

This leads to death. If you die, you are allowed to keep your highest level item, thats it. To me, this encourages two things, team work, cause there will be a count down of two minutes till your dead dead. and since if you die, you lose everything save one, your friends can grab your stuff, and hold it for you, till you get back to your body. My thought is 1, you won't necessarily want to go out on your own, and two if you two, you will want to prepare for it, and make sure you can protect yourself.

Lastly, a justice system. Yes you can PVP, however with every PVP, one stat randomly drops 1%. the more people you kill, the more your stats drop. So yes, you can occasionally partake in a gank, but you suffer for it as a result.

Reputation- The more trades you do, the more reputation you gain, the better prices you get at the market. Every trade deal increases the next one by .01% meaning the more trades you do, slowly, the better price you will get.

Master Level- Eventually you will get a character that is an old codger in the game. At this point, if you hit the required level, You can craft recipes. These recipes though will require ALOT of resources, which you can't get on your own, from all over the map. Yes it can be done, but not without your guild, and not without putting in the time. Also, you can only master in one thing, so if you have a guild, you will want a weaponsmith, an armorsmith, a amulet & ring smith, etc Basically this encourages guild cooperation.

originally posted by: bally001
a reply to: camain

I like the idea but as with many games I don't want to end up as 'fodder' for paying members. Is there a game where you can, build, increase prosperity and fight a war in the long term without having to pay all the time. And I'm not talking "mindless craft,"

My thoughts,

bally

If Sci-Fi is your thing then I'd suggest EVE Online. There's truly no other game like it.

a reply to: Revolvacron

yea, i played it, but I'm over playing other peoples games, basically most are either crawls, with no story line, or story line, with monetization peaked. I was looking to make my own game with something in the middle. kinda like WOW, (Great story line, but you got to pay monthly to be a benefit) I was basically looking for help in developing the world. What would you like to see in the game. Different races?

I had thought of making the story post armagedon, where God didn't defeat Satan and as a result, you have 4 factions. Demons, Twisted Humans, Humans, and Angels. with the map being a map of the world. Basically with Angels defending Europe, Humans in North and South America, Twisted humans in Asia and Australia, and Demons in Africa.

In that way, you would basically have 4 "Clans" then maybe 3 races under each.
Demons- 3 different types of demons
Twisted Humans- Werewolves, Vampires, Necro
Humans- Warrior, Ranger, Mage
Angels- need 3 different types.

Thats alot more complicated to do though.

Camain

a reply to: camain

I am interested in your impressions of Unity as a game making system.

Cheers

a reply to: F2d5thCavv2

better than Unreal, lots of capability, and not to hard to move around. that said, you need to be a programmer to fully utilize it, otherwise you need something pre developed that you can modify. Thats what I did. I'm a basic programmer. (taken it in school, and I do alot of scripting) that said, I'm uncomfortable troubleshooting. So I bought ummorpg ce for 40 bucks, that gives you a base. I was going to buy a landscaper next, so that I can build the map. then purchase the add-ons for different enhancements to the game experience such as the UI, trade, auction, etc. I basically plan to drop $500 on getting as much options into the game as I can. Once I have the map, UI, and zones done, I want to build quests for the landscape, then the quests in Instances. I'm looking at 1-2 years down the road, but eventually I want something better than Runescape, differnt but on level with WOW, and something that will feed itself. My goal is to keep my day job, then start buying enhancements to improve the overall game. Starting with mesh enhancements, and fx, then servers and instancing. Once all that is done, we will see. If its making a ton, partner with Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix, and Fox. To make 4 different versions of the same story, with each controlling their Narative, then having 4 teams develop add-ons to fit their story into the game. In this way, we can advertise in a given zone, the partnership agreement.

Example being Amazon controls the Demon Faction- and its story line- so you go into an instance, and you get a cut scene about whats playing on Prime, or whatever else they want to sell. They get a free advertising platform, I get a partnership with a player, they make money, I make money, everyone is happy. If it starts dying out on a given platform, we can write that in with the season finally. Example, Netflix's Angel faction is struggling, so they abandon it. (well, then we show one of the other factions basically beating the crap out of the Angels, and eventually them being destroyed. Write that into the game, and you get an expansion pack to boot. Then lets say Hulu abandons the twisted Humans, well you show Humans managing to kill them all off, leaving Demons and Humans. (Amazon and Fox) Again another expansion pack. Eventually Fox caves, so demons win. Now things get really interesting, Amazon spins off a second series, Rebels against Demons. (Another expansion to the game for me, and now you have Angels, Humans, and Twisted Humans fighting the demon horde. Who wins?) Then there is the final peace, then we jump into the future. The planet and tech has recovered, and we now have a steam punk game world. Move forward again, and now we have the solar system colonized, and different factions on different planets. Move forward again, and you got space colonization and werewolf star trek captains if you will, with Magic and tech meshing together with Vampires, demons, and Angels.