Terraforming wasted?

[pid73]

Spitfire5 wrote:

I think i recall a read from Xsyon that you might possibly be able to get a second totem for a smaller piece of land, or mayb it was just a suggestion.. But i think that would be cool Mayb a little camp in the mountains by some good spawns.

It would be cool to have a tribe totem and then a "personal totem" too. In the "personal" you "play around" like a kid in the sandbox, with no way to be pvp-ed or robbed or looted or whatever. A safe zone to have fun with terraforming and what not.

you could point people to that spot so you can undertake social relations.

the tribe totem would then be the full-blown reference for you game...

OR this: as in SWG, the player made town major (here: tribe leader) assigns a spot to a member where to place the house (here: terraform and/or place the tent or whatever).

this requires the tribal territory to be large enough to keep the "housing" territory inside the tribal area but away from the actual functional parts of the village.

[Spitfire5]

Or just vote amongst the tribe and have a good leadership in place and whatever is voted gets built

No in-game system needed for that one.

[Jadzia]

pid73 wrote:

Spitfire5 wrote:

I think i recall a read from Xsyon that you might possibly be able to get a second totem for a smaller piece of land, or mayb it was just a suggestion.. But i think that would be cool Mayb a little camp in the mountains by some good spawns.

It would be cool to have a tribe totem and then a "personal totem" too. In the "personal" you "play around" like a kid in the sandbox, with no way to be pvp-ed or robbed or looted or whatever. A safe zone to have fun with terraforming and what not.

you could point people to that spot so you can undertake social relations.

A personal totem is a great idea, it could help the solo players to terraform too. And a little camp somewhere in a quiet place sounds lovely, hope we will be able to get it....

Spitfire5 wrote:

Or just vote amongst the tribe and have a good leadership in place and whatever is voted gets built

No in-game system needed for that one.

I agree with this, as long as the tribe leader is allowed to assigned as many member as he likes...if he is not limited by any game mechanic then its ok.

[pid73]

I know this pic sucks but it shows what I mean.

- the total tribe area (the circle) is limited around the totem (the spot in the center);
- there are "zones" where things (buildings, stations, whatever) can be placed (crafting, market, other);
- there is a "zone" that is expressily dedicated to the tribe members;
- each patch of land is separated by a street that allows the other members to get to their patch without crossing the neighbour's.

All this is already possible. The tribe just has to get organized and everybody needs to honor the rules.

What I am trying to suggest here, is that the game itself offers more "tools" to the leader to enforce these rules... it would be enough to declare 2 levels of grants (officer and civilian or something like that) and then the leader can assign the zones to officers (for tribe purposes) or civilians (for personal stuff).

the equal subdivision of the land patches would be a matter of tribe organization. no need to get too much into detail.

[img size=500]http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/5245/territory.gif[/img]

[TheMap]

The problem with your suggestion is that you are taking the sand outta the sandbox. Quite simply, you are asking for the Devs to play the game for you. Have a chat with your leader/s and go over this with them.

[tredo]

pid73 wrote:

Spitfire5 wrote:

I think i recall a read from Xsyon that you might possibly be able to get a second totem for a smaller piece of land, or mayb it was just a suggestion.. But i think that would be cool Mayb a little camp in the mountains by some good spawns.

It would be cool to have a tribe totem and then a "personal totem" too. In the "personal" you "play around" like a kid in the sandbox, with no way to be pvp-ed or robbed or looted or whatever. A safe zone to have fun with terraforming and what not.

you could point people to that spot so you can undertake social relations.

the tribe totem would then be the full-blown reference for you game...

OR this: as in SWG, the player made town major (here: tribe leader) assigns a spot to a member where to place the house (here: terraform and/or place the tent or whatever).

this requires the tribal territory to be large enough to keep the "housing" territory inside the tribal area but away from the actual functional parts of the village.

A personal Totem.... PERFECT IDEA!!!

[Jadzia]

prokop15 wrote:

You guys are acting like we're going to be making structures out of terraforming like we're presently fucking around with in beta. Post-release there will likely be buildings to build. Post-release it should serve a functional purpose (roads, advantageous terrain) and give players some ability to create a nice landscape in their area. We don't need to be able to make ridiculous land formations, especially not all over the game world.

On the videos I've seen great and useful structures, not any ridiculous land formation. And functional can be meant in a lot of ways...is a maze functional ? If the tribe makes tournaments for people with rewards, with some great gifts for the ones who find their way out of it then it is functional for me... its not good to limit creativity.

And of course its not all over the world, only in tribe (or perhaps personal) totem areas.

With that said, I agree that it should be accessible by solo players - I think it will likely be solved by allowing solo players to make just have a solo tribe and a small tribal plot.

Thats the same as a personal totem, so far everyone seems to love the idea of it.

As for terraforming itself, it can't exist in-game as it does presently as it is far to easy to exploit. A cost and/or limit to terraforming must be imposed (It would seem this is planned due to dirt and granite/stone resources).

In what way can it be exploited inside a tribe territory ?

[sicarius]

Personally i think that only the tribe should be able to terraform within its limits, but that should be the only limit, also terraforming should be slower outside of tribe area, have a long cool down, or have a cool down on the grid square for a certain time so that it can't be raised or lowered, or something to stop people from greifing horribly, but to limit to such a small area, its sorta ruined the reason I preordered the game. Such possibilities wasted.

[JCatano]

As cool as terraforming is, it needs to be limited and should be permission-based within the tribe. It's going to be a huge mess if anyone can just do as they please. "Sandbox" arguments do not apply.

Structure and playability > Sandbox computer game

(A sandbox can have structure, and needs it for an MMO to run well.)

Costs and permission-based, please. A free-for-all, even only within areas-of-influence, will be a disaster waiting to happen.

[Spitfire5]

Completely close off a entrance and reopen it by terraforming everytime you want access in or out of the city.