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Would you be interested in a Wild West-themed game? (SPECIFICS)
4507
Member UncommonPosts: 351
Last week I posted a poll asking the same question (results in comment below this), but did not provide any gameplay specifics for such a game so that I could gauge the interest in the underlying theme. This poll IS about gameplay specifics.
I have a general idea of what I would like a Western game to entail, which is briefly described below. Please vote based on the gameplay and setting details I have provided. Please do not vote based on monetization system, which I have intentionally not included to avoid unnecessary bias (if it helps, assume that the game would be whatever your preferred monetization system is).
---SPECIFICS---
Setting: (historical) American frontier circa 1870 (just after completion of the First Transcontinental Railway) as well as parts of western Canada and northern Mexico. You are an American who has just arrived in one of the frontier towns of the West from the East.
General concept: Classless player skill-based sandbox open world PvP (without safezones)
Combat: FPS style firearm/bow combat (though with less range, longer reload time and LOTS more gunsmoke), action combat with melee weapons (cavalry swords, bowie knives, pool cues, etc). Includes mounted combat as a major pillar (only mount is a horse, however, of which there are many varieties and variations)
Crafting: EVE style AFK crafting with lots of focus on design (for example, when crafting a vest you can choose from a variety of fabrics, lapel sizes, straps, patterns, button locations, number of buttons, colour of buttons, etc) grants XP towards crafting skills (tanning, woodworking, brewing, tailoring, ranching, etc).
Progression: Restrictionless XP/skill-based for crafting, level based for combat, but without direct combat benefits such as higher health, more damage, etc; instead, gives indirect combat advantages through a level up point-based tree with selections such as faster/longer run, higher resistance to snake venom, slower hunger bar depletion, etc. Direct combat advantages come from gear (hat, boots, horse and gun, mainly).
Sandbox: Non instanced land may be bought on the outskirts of NPC towns throughout the world to farm, ranch, build or run a business on. Cities thereby grow and shrink based on player population and activity, and most shops are completely player run. Players may also purchase claims, which do not have to be near cities and give the claimholder the legal right to extract resources on the claim until it expires (24-72 hours, with longer costing more money), but cannot be built on.
Multiplayer: Players have an entertainment bar refillable only by reading expensive and consume-on-use books or listening to player musicians other than yourself (musicians cannot gain entertainment from listening to themselves) for a time, creating downtime for communication in player run saloons, concert houses, etc.
Death penalty: Lose all property, including land, claims, banked assets and carried items as well as a small (5-10%) amount of XP.
PvP: Killing other players decreases your lawfulness (also decreased by theft, vandalism, NPC murder, harvesting resources without a claim, robbing banks and trains, etc) by a large amount, which, depending on the amount of (un)lawfulness causes NPC sheriffs to attack you on sight, causes the government to place a bounty on your head (killing a player with an active bounty on their head increases lawfulness instead of decreasing it, as well as giving you a monetary reward in addition to the player's belongings), or causes up to 100 NPC marshalls, rangers, guard or mounties to relentlessly track you down and execute you with their superior weaponry such as cannons and gatling guns.
PvE: Mainly bank and train robberies, but also big game hunting such as buffalo, wolf, cougar, bear, etc. Perhaps also Indian village raiding, but that may be too controversial.
---NOTE---
I realize that this is not fully fleshed out, and I have probably left a lot out (I've got about 5 pages of notes on this idea right now), but please ask if something is unclear, and if you dislike any aspect, suggest ways to improve the design.
I have a general idea of what I would like a Western game to entail, which is briefly described below. Please vote based on the gameplay and setting details I have provided. Please do not vote based on monetization system, which I have intentionally not included to avoid unnecessary bias (if it helps, assume that the game would be whatever your preferred monetization system is).
---SPECIFICS---
Setting: (historical) American frontier circa 1870 (just after completion of the First Transcontinental Railway) as well as parts of western Canada and northern Mexico. You are an American who has just arrived in one of the frontier towns of the West from the East.
General concept: Classless player skill-based sandbox open world PvP (without safezones)
Combat: FPS style firearm/bow combat (though with less range, longer reload time and LOTS more gunsmoke), action combat with melee weapons (cavalry swords, bowie knives, pool cues, etc). Includes mounted combat as a major pillar (only mount is a horse, however, of which there are many varieties and variations)
Crafting: EVE style AFK crafting with lots of focus on design (for example, when crafting a vest you can choose from a variety of fabrics, lapel sizes, straps, patterns, button locations, number of buttons, colour of buttons, etc) grants XP towards crafting skills (tanning, woodworking, brewing, tailoring, ranching, etc).
Progression: Restrictionless XP/skill-based for crafting, level based for combat, but without direct combat benefits such as higher health, more damage, etc; instead, gives indirect combat advantages through a level up point-based tree with selections such as faster/longer run, higher resistance to snake venom, slower hunger bar depletion, etc. Direct combat advantages come from gear (hat, boots, horse and gun, mainly).
Sandbox: Non instanced land may be bought on the outskirts of NPC towns throughout the world to farm, ranch, build or run a business on. Cities thereby grow and shrink based on player population and activity, and most shops are completely player run. Players may also purchase claims, which do not have to be near cities and give the claimholder the legal right to extract resources on the claim until it expires (24-72 hours, with longer costing more money), but cannot be built on.
Multiplayer: Players have an entertainment bar refillable only by reading expensive and consume-on-use books or listening to player musicians other than yourself (musicians cannot gain entertainment from listening to themselves) for a time, creating downtime for communication in player run saloons, concert houses, etc.
Death penalty: Lose all property, including land, claims, banked assets and carried items as well as a small (5-10%) amount of XP.
PvP: Killing other players decreases your lawfulness (also decreased by theft, vandalism, NPC murder, harvesting resources without a claim, robbing banks and trains, etc) by a large amount, which, depending on the amount of (un)lawfulness causes NPC sheriffs to attack you on sight, causes the government to place a bounty on your head (killing a player with an active bounty on their head increases lawfulness instead of decreasing it, as well as giving you a monetary reward in addition to the player's belongings), or causes up to 100 NPC marshalls, rangers, guard or mounties to relentlessly track you down and execute you with their superior weaponry such as cannons and gatling guns.
PvE: Mainly bank and train robberies, but also big game hunting such as buffalo, wolf, cougar, bear, etc. Perhaps also Indian village raiding, but that may be too controversial.
---NOTE---
I realize that this is not fully fleshed out, and I have probably left a lot out (I've got about 5 pages of notes on this idea right now), but please ask if something is unclear, and if you dislike any aspect, suggest ways to improve the design.
Comments
^ The results of the original, unspecific poll
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
and FYI: Frontier Sandbox MMO is by far number 1 on my list of wants but not PvP no safezones...nope
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
Currently Playing: DAOC Uthgard
Previously Played: UO, DAOC, Shadowbane, AC2, SWG, Horizons, COX, WOW, EQ2, LOTRO, AOC, WAR, Vanguard, Rift, SWTOR, ESO, GW2.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
- RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right?
- FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
@SEANMCAD, @LynxJSA: would seperate PvE (non PvP) servers solve that?
I would imagine that it would take quite a bit of game time to acquire all your personal assets. The longer you survive without dying the more it's going to sting when you do. Seriously with a death penalty that harsh, you might as well make it permadeath.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Kidding aside, from the days of RPGs, the genre has never sold. I agree it sounds like fun. Not really sure why it doesn't sell.
Seaspite
Playing ESO on my X-Box
- RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right?
- FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
just to add even more to the list.
railroad building in which the villa you created if it has a railroad it could thrive. in fact the villa could provide resources to even have it built in that direction including supplies and workers
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
MAGA
I think the market would be huge if they factor in PvE players. Westerns are still popular and when done right as a genre its very compelling.
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
Don't let criminals build up a bounty, only to have their alts or friends cash in on the bounty.
In Eve, it was all the players that could put a bounty on other players, but this was abused, and only helped the bandits getting money by collecting their own bounty with an alt character.