Unique Twist Joins P2P and F2P

[joexxxz]

Pid73, you got some talent, but hmm, hate to bring this up, what about lag that we experience all the time? :laugh:

[pid73]

lag? what lag? when other players get near you?

even the UT3 engine has lag, but with the zeroping algorithm you don't feel it
DF uses client-side hit detection (zeroping), too.

http://www.zpmode.org/

Once Jordi decides to use dead reckoning you won't notice it that much.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/featur...iding_for_.php

The other kind of lag (clicking a button and having to wait 3 secs to see the action done) is something different... with Ajax you use spinners and such:

http://ajaxload.info/

What else do you want to know?

[Cunk]

I'm sorry but that kind of feature would be a griefer's paradise. Anonymously playing a creature for free that could harass paying players by attacking them? That would be laying out the red carpet for them.

In addition it could be used for risk-free spying. (Here I'm making the assumption that spying will serve a purpose in this game which may or may not be accurate.) Imagine being able to run around the map as an inconspicuous raccoon or squirrel, checking up on enemy layouts or activities.

[pid73]

yes, these are issues that should be addressed, but I think (hope?) there could be some safeguards in place to avoid some of these abuses. for example you start at a random location. you have limited time (15 minutes until you will be kicked, then another player may take over). you cannot choose the mob. it will be quite slow and have very little options to interact with the world. the vision will be adapted to the mob (much like as bullfrog did in Dungeon Keeper, e.g. blurred, deformed, limited, colored vision). the mob will be medium/large size (easy to spot) and well-known to be that kind of thing (there is no equivalent NPC). like radiant zombies you can see from afar, because they shine with green radiation...

[Xsyon]

but you can't play a human.

What what? Have you been spying on my game documents, pid?

What you propose is actually under consideration for post-Prelude. It was part of our game documents written over 10 years ago.

Players could opt for free or a low monthly fee to be able to play creatures and monsters. They could attack humans and each other but would not be able to loot or otherwise destroy anything.

Basically they would act as more intelligent MOBs. Or less intelligent, depending on who plays them

There would definitely need to be some limitations such as:

These creatures can't enter tribal territory.
Players can't delete their creature. They can only create a new creature when it dies.
A limit on creatures / account and a time delay for creating a new creature after the old one dies.

These limits would tie in to the 'cheap' rather than 'free' account so that griefers couldn't create an unlimited number of accounts.

Well, these are all things I'm considering for the future. It will definitely need to be tried out extensively on a seperate test realm before adding something like this to the real game world.

[pid73]

I just made it up

Someone said "slaves" and I thought "human slaves playing the mob part so that the human master (paying player) can have more fun"
That's much like in medieval times when there were no more foxes in the shire and the King took a peasant, put him a pelt on the back and then yelled "RUN!"...

[zephar123]

Xsyon wrote:

but you can't play a human.

What what? Have you been spying on my game documents, pid?

What you propose is actually under consideration for post-Prelude. It was part of our game documents written over 10 years ago.

Players could opt for free or a low monthly fee to be able to play creatures and monsters. They could attack humans and each other but would not be able to loot or otherwise destroy anything.

Basically they would act as more intelligent MOBs. Or less intelligent, depending on who plays them

There would definitely need to be some limitations such as:

These creatures can't enter tribal territory.
Players can't delete their creature. They can only create a new creature when it dies.
A limit on creatures / account and a time delay for creating a new creature after the old one dies.

These limits would tie in to the 'cheap' rather than 'free' account so that griefers couldn't create an unlimited number of accounts.

Well, these are all things I'm considering for the future. It will definitely need to be tried out extensively on a seperate test realm before adding something like this to the real game world.

interesting idea,

[VowOfSilence]

pid73 wrote:

even the UT3 engine has lag, but with the zeroping algorithm you don't feel it
DF uses client-side hit detection (zeroping), too.

http://www.zpmode.org/

huh? i don't get it, how does that work? why does client-side detection make a difference? if anything, it sounds more risky. i'm surprised that DF (=Darkfall?) does that.


On topic: My favourite model is still the one that GuildWars/GW2 uses, Buy2Play. Pay once, then play at your own pace. Strange that nobody picked it up. I guess Cash shops just make more money, even though everybody on the internets seems to hate them...
Although using emotes to communicate with F2P zombie-slaves sounds hilarious xD

[pid73]

darkfall, yes.

response time is very important for the look and feel of an interface.
it makes a great difference but it has some caveats (for usability) because there still is no frame of reference (and never will).

it is more risky because you expose stuff to the clients. but security can be enforced by other means.

[KeithStone]

another thing that could be done, is don't allow the f2p player delete their town. Once the character is created, they can't delete it and they are locked with that character forever or until they upgrade account.