* NOTE I AM ALSO POSTING THIS IN THE TEAM DEVELOPMENT FORUM TO HELP GET A TEAM GOING. I''M NOT TRYING TO SPAM THIS OR ANYTHING * This is for the MuD (MMORPG) Heresy Online. This game is like a mix of Final Fantasy Tactics, Diablo 2, and Nightmist Online. This planning took about 5 months. This is the basic engine: Character Creation: You start off by naming your character. After you roll your stats. I have Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, Vitality, and Stamina last two cannot be rolled for. I''m sure you can figure out what most of these stats effect but anyway: Leveling: Experience - gained after every successful hit. 10% of the monsters total experience is gained after each hit. 100% of the monsters total exp is gained when you kill him. When you level, Life, Stamina, and Mana increase. Experience is NOT gained vs players. Job Level - Level of efficiency for a job. Increased using JP (job points) instead of EXP. JP gained everytime an ability is used that is part of the job you currently are. JP then adds onto that job you are. Cannot be gained from techs that require 0 mana to use. Counter attacking does not count to JP. JP not earned through healing or supporting someone already at full health or enchanted. More JP is give towards abilities that have a higher mana casting cost. Weapon Proficency - Determines how much extra damage is to be added with an equipped weapon. Everytime a weapon is used and hits, it adds 0.01 to the current number. Weapon damage is normal, plus it is enhanced in % of the WP (weapon proficiency) Job Skills - Abilities learned after acquiring a certain number of JS (Job Skill points) required to learn the ability. JS is acquired the same way as EXP except Healing and Support spells also add JS. JS not earned through using healing or support spells when the reciever is already at full health or enchanted. More JS given towards higher mana costing abilities. Guild Skills - Guilds teach specialty skills and abilities only learned from a guild. Once chosen to learn a Guild Skill, everytime you are with a guild member who you are learning it from, you gain points to learning it. Guild skills include Blacksmithing and Alchemy. You must be active to continue to gain GS. And skills are learned in parts. For example you must learn Sword making 4 times before you can actually use it. Ability Level - How many times you have learned an ability (think of Diablo 2). Ability power and properties improve with higher AL. Supporting Spells can be overlapped # of times. # = current Ability Level Countering - 25% chance for counter to activate Continuous Support and Counter - Cannot Increase AL The Job System: The character is started off as a Bare. The tech tree that opens to them is based on their caste. There are 4 different seperations for classes. Light Fighting, Light Magick, Dark Fighting and Dark Magick. The Bare, once gained enough JP can advance to the next Job Level. If the class requirement for number of Job Levels has been met, the new class can be opened. Total of 56 different classes. A character''s abilites look like this: 1: Use of Current Job Skills 2: Use of any other Job Skills you''ve aquired before V: Counter attacking as of current job skills (must learn before it can be used). O: Continuous Support. These abilities are activated all the time and are class specific. I have 56 diffent Classes arranged in a tech tree fashion. For instance, in order to become a Guardian, you must first become a level 4 Protector and a level 3 Errant and to become a Divine Knight you must first become a level 4 Guardian and a level 4 Paladin. Each class has their own lists of abilities and spells available to them. Dark Fighting: Warrior, Hunter, Barbarian, Assassin, Ninja, Slayer, Sentry, Berserker, Reaver, Crypt Knight, Black Knight, Warlord, Heretic. Dark Magick: Warlock, Dark Sage, Death Caller, Black Mage, Sorcerer, Necromancer, Necrocon, Conjurer, Demon Bringer, Biomancer, Defiler, Battlemage, Dark Templar, Archon. Light Fighting: Fighter, Monk, Missionary, Errant, Hero, Protector, Guardian, Ranger, Sniper, Crusader, Paladin, Divine Knight, Angelic Knight, Avatar. Light Magick: Cleric, Priest, Bishop, White Mage, Holy Emissary, Minister, Banisher, Summoner, Divine Caller, Cardinal, Enchanter, Saint, Mithra, Mystic. Guilds: Sorta like clans except alot harder to make... You have to be REALLY advanced to start a guild. Starting - Once a character has reached final classes of their job tech tree (Avatar, Mystic, Archon, or Heretic) they can begin their own Guild. Upkeep - For every character in the clan, a monthly upkeep of 2500 gold is required. Prohbation - In order to join a guild, one must past a series of requirements based upon the divinity of the clan. Ranks - Given out by founder and founder alone. Death: Loss - A character who dies loses all gold currently held, drops all items in backpack, and loses 1/4 of experience to current level. Limit - A hardcore character may die only once, otherwise this is unlimited. Hardcore: Rules - Can Only die once. May disrupt or restore balance. Benefits - Double EXP, JP, JS, WP, and Gold received. Balance - Once enabled, you cannot harm others or be harmed. Opposite for disabled. 5 minute cool-down time between switching. Player Killing: Restrictions - May not PK someone under level 15 or in balance. No experience gained. Parties: Restrictions - Different divinities may NOT party. Benefits - The entire party is moved by the leader. Can clear areas as one group. Equipment: Sets - Bonus when multiple set items equipped. Relic - Much more powerful than normal weapon. Given a name. Dropped by special monsters, bosses, or found in hidden treasures. Only one of the same type of Relic may exist in the world. New Relics are added monthly. Bonuses - Certain classes give certain weapon bonuses (Ranger gets enhanced damage with bows). Weapon Skills - Some skills (eg. Blood Sword) require certain weapons to be equipped in order to use. Here is the basic storyline: You find yourself running from the Empire in a dark forest with your friend. You both just escaped from a slavery campground and are running blindly. Along the way, your friend explains the whole engine, combat, how to move and the like. You both arrive at the starting town. You run inside an abandoned barn and sleep there for the night. The next morning you both decide to cautiously roam around town and learn more information about your surroundings. The townsfolk give information on how to play the game also. You learn that the town you are in is one of the only government controlled towns allowing no religions. Most every place in the world is run by either the holy or unholy side. After learning some details you come back to the barn as it starts to get dark. Your friend is not back yet. After 2 hours he finally arrives sweating. He''s been running from the government all day. You both cautiously step outside and look for the closest exit to the town. As you both start moving towards it hordes of guards come and start chasing you. You run into another forest. The darkness outside provides no light and you eventually lose your friend along the path. You arrive at a clearing in the forest where you spy on a group of holy soldiers and magic users one-by-one burning unholy soldiers to a stake. Suddenly a horde of dark warriors come and combat the holy warriors. A holy man yells at you to fight for God and against anarchy. An unholy man yells at you to fight for freedom and against tyranny. Thus you are given your two paths. This is when you actually enter the online world. Each city is either run by Holy or Unholy leaders. You are given missions by your leaders to perform tasks that are suitable to your caste. Your rewards can be anything to increased rank, to experience points, to a rare item. You can give orders to lower ranking players for them to follow and gain experience themselves. This has been my major dilemna. I''m having trouble graphics wise. My friend can make music like a pro, my other friend can draw pictures like a pro, except I have nothing to use for ingame graphics such as sprites and the like. Due to this I thought about making it a point-and-click/text based MuD. In all hopes, I would LOVE to be able to make a game with Ragnarok Online style graphics. The other major dilemna has been the whole online factor. This would add oodles of extra programming, extra network programming and the whole idea of being an online only game would require me to dedicate an expensive and fast server 24/7 for the game. I don''t know... I could make this only single player... I''m using Visual Basic to program this and I am currently learning advanced game programming features with VB and DirectX. Eh... tell me what you guys think. It goes much deeper... I just can''t really properly convey all of my ideas on paper. -Kronikle

I think you should alter hardcore, so that you can''t switch back and forth. Make all players start as regualr and can become hardcore whenever they wish, but once you become hardcore you can never go back. Otherwise people will just expliot the system, such as becoming hardcore for easy areas and being normal when they go somewhere dangerous or new.

Also add a luck stat that improves item drops give the hardcore characters a luck bonus as an added insentive.

Heh, I think you misconstrued what I meant by disrupting balance and restoring balance. That doesn''t mean you can switch back and forth, it means that Hardcore players and ONLY hardcore players get a special feature that lets them be invulnerable to being PKed. It''s not something that you can exploit by switching back and forth whenever you''re about to be attacked. It takes 5 minutes to activate and 5 minutes to shut down. Balance also does not effect monsters. Whether you are in balance or not, monsters can still hurt you.

I like the luck idea. Usually luck affects aim, dodge, and critical strike rate but having it affect the chance of finding items is a much better idea. I think I might just run with it. Thanks!

-Kronikle

-Kronikle