Last Steps About Factions

[Muratus del Mur]

Ok i've been talking with Cryxus trying to establish the first faction and we both realised some things don;t add up right.
I need a feedback on the following questions. I think these questions sum all the things needed to put factions in motion.


1. _Exact_ location of a faction. Exact scene names of where factions members can go, OR if they can go the entire land ?
Cryxus faction is the Pirates one, suggestions can go for that or for any other too, anyway i am more interested to see what you think about how factions should be spread across locations, after that i can apply same logic to the first faction i will be working on.

2. Point of entrance. I have two options,
a) start of game at register time. It involves faction staff to handle lho support and new players will have no creatures and experience about md. This is best for the ffirst impact on new players but its very dificult to setup correctly especialy with all the new things a player needs. They might enter at MP2 illusion stage but illusions wont be related directly to factions.
[img]http://magicduel.invisionzone.com/public/style_emoticons//cool.gif[/img] after story in mp3. Once players are in freemode they can subscribe to a faction and seek admitance. They could select the faction at register time and then have a "mission" to get admited there, but its just a suggestion (i am not sure of the things it involves yet). That also involves that other older players could join factions and its a risk of factions becoming used as alliances, AND I DON'T WANT THAT.

3. Scoring system. I think i can make it related to worshiper system. All worshiping a central leader are part of the faction and are marked with the faction signs. Faction staff can give score points based on faction internal rules such as quests tests etc. This score determines the exit point out of the faction and the end of the training.

4. Appearance. All faction members should have NO AVATAR / NO TAG when joining. That is allright with new players and old players should not join factions anyway! As part of a faction you will get a avy, one that is shared by all faction members (some scholar avy or something related to that faction). The tag will describe your position in the faction and your score!

5. Exit point. Once you fulfill all the training of a faction, you can and should exit it. Upon exit you should receive a reward. What is this reward and how should it be given.
a) manually selected by a central leader. permanent stats, rare creature and such (abusable but more accurate and adaptable to players)
[img]http://magicduel.invisionzone.com/public/style_emoticons//cool.gif[/img] automated based on final score.
Please also make exact suggestions with rewards, giving figures.


Thats all,
i think with this factions can go live.....eventualy

[cryxus]

Alright, here are my personal feelings on how i think factions would be best suited through what i would like to see if the pirates get implemented. Mind you i realize factions are a community thing, and hopefully some of you will also put in how you envision factions... that being said...




1. _Exact_ location of a faction. Exact scene names of where factions members can go, OR if they can go the entire land ?

To be honest i think it would be best to limit the players a bit, but not too much, that way it gives another aspect that can be given as the player matures.

Perhaps with the pirates keep them from being able to go up the ascent or on fenths beach, and as the little bucaneers develope they are awarded the privledge to explore further, perhaps after they are informed about the land they inhabit, or something of the sort... that way when other GG factions get implemented they can use those areas for their factions




2. Point of entrance.

I would have to say i like it more as an MP2 thing, as long as they have some fighting ability and it is somewhat limited




3. Scoring system,

I think this will work well long as there are no ways the player can fudge the details himself... i.e. sacraficing creature to boost score, though with illusions that should eliminate that problem, for the most part, unless the person is rewarded with a creature




4. Appearance.

you can't look cooler than a pirate... it's science [img]http://magicduel.invisionzone.com/public/style_emoticons//cool.gif[/img]




5. Exit point. Once you fulfill all the training of a faction, you can and should exit it. Upon exit you should receive a reward. What is this reward and how should it be given.

I think manual awards would be appropriate, that way a bit of thought would go into it... perhaps a single item that fits your character upon completion? or access to the land they are alligned with? ... just a couple thoughts




*checks his bottle* anyhow im running low on fuel so i'll leave that at that, i look forward to all the interesting ideas.


Cheers,
~Captain Cryxus X'hal

[Grido]

1. _Exact_ location of a faction. Exact scene names of where factions members can go, OR if they can go the entire land ?

definitely restricted (ditto on Cry's), having a restricted view of the map i think would be good as well, but i think disorientation is fun, and mazes....but i dont think i can work that in here...


2. Point of entrance.

i think mp2 would be good, because then they dont have the wide expanse of NML and MB that they get used to in mp3, and then when completing mp3, to get the "achievement" of having a severely reduced movement area. If it is done where it starts off small and slowly becomes bigger, then it gives them the impression of the game being ever expanding, which is good i think.


3. Scoring system.
I dont really know what you mean here...is there going to be a box in the Daily Progress page like that of your protector? Is there a max points you can get? max amount of time in faction? some way to restrict the player from remaining in it for huge amounts of time so that they get the most powerful creatures when they leave?


4. Appearance.

Yarrrr!!!
Similar to my idea for appearance, so i like, also possibly similar to others, but you know, i'm awesome


5. Exit point.

is there a max amounts of points you can have? a required number to leave? cos players could just stay in the faction as long as possible so they get huge amounts of points and then redeem them for huge statsor extremely powerful creatures

[Udgard]

1. _Exact_ location of a faction. Exact scene names of where factions members can go, OR if they can go the entire land ?
I would agree that a faction should be limited to some scenes. But maybe a bit bigger then just a few scenes.. an entire land maybe? It might/might not also be a good idea to have a few scenes overlap between factions, to create a sense of interaction early on. It can also be used as part of faction quest (like for example, pirate faction's quest can involve travelling and getting an object from the leader of another faction)

2. Point of entrance. I have two options,
It's just me, but I think in roleplay it's important to have a stable storyline, and having a person already interacting with the realm then suddenly arriving at the papercabin as a newcomer who just arrived is not. I'm suggesting that people start at mp3 as usual (IIRC, mp2 is currently disabled?), and when they finish the chapter two story mode, they get teleported to the faction they choose instead of the usual teleport to the marind bell park. We can even make an integrated option in the story mode involving all currently active factions (so we add an entry to the story mode where they meet a number of groups, each representing a faction, and there we have multiple options to choose from. Using cryxus's faction as an example again, there would be an entry like "follow this band of merry pirates to their base). During this stage, the story mode task changes to "learn from the faction or soemthing like that", and upon completion, the faction leader/staff unlocks the story mode advances for that player, and they continue the normal story mode again, and teleported to the marind bell park. IIRC the system for manual unlocking of a player's story mode is already made during the golemus mp2 era, so it should only require little coding adjustments.

3. Scoring system.
I have no idea here. But probably, tying it to worshipper system might lead to problems with the current system?

4. Appearance. All faction members should have NO AVATAR / NO TAG when joining.
Considering that new players should make the bulk of faction members, this seems like a good idea. What about faction leaders and faction staff though? They will mostly be veteran players that already have an avy, and losing them wouldn't be so nice. It might even deter people from helping as a faction staff if they lose their avy. Maybe make it like alliance logo instead (the one under the avy, not the icon besides our name on the list).

5. Exit point. Once you fulfill all the training of a faction, you can and should exit it. Upon exit you should receive a reward. What is this reward and how should it be given.
I'd say manual, but maybe there should be a standard guideline, so it is not entirely based on subjectivity. Personal valuation can alter the reward a bit, but not entirely. Otherwise, people with high scores might feel cheated if others with less point get more than them. Might lead them to have bad thoughts about favoritism etc. With a guideline based on points, people can also determine for themselves how much they are willing to work for.

For rewards, here are some extra suggestions:
- Raw material items.
Each faction gets a different set of raw material items, so there will be a lot of interaction with people trying to get different items.
- Creatures with no CtC
Creatures with no CtC, that is a valuable thing yet cannot be traded for abuse. It can be hard-to-get creatures, creatures with extra age, upgraded creatures, creatures with some basic tokens, etc..

[Burns]

1. I think that a faction should be limited to a few scenes, maybe just one sanctuary, at the beginning, and as people start their first tasks, they get the ability to travel around, first on a few limited scenes, lateron all the land, and for a final task all the realm. (kind of like the tutorial)

2. The only real option is sending them to a faction right after leaving the first chapter of mp3, meaning after the fighting tutorial against the shades, but before they start actually playing.
#
3. I think it could be as simple as marking PLs for scoring, when players manage to solve a task (which should obviously not be a totally hard quest anyway), they get a point for that, and that's it

4. An avatar related to the faction might be nice, but a tag showing your score? I don't think that would work out good, people don't need to have a lot of points to be able to help others, specially if tasks are not ladder-based quests, but to some extent separate quests/tests...
Apart from that, everything would get a lot more complicated with centralized tags and scoring-systems, coded moderators would be needed, if one is not around for a week, things would get stuck... the less 'code-powers' the people involved have, the better, imo...

5. That could be something completely different for every faction...
Just a few examples:
Mage faction could get a few casts of a weak combat-spell
Pirates could get a special weapon (equip-item)
Crafters could get raw materials (RP-item)
Archies could get a tiny chat-log-spell (30-100 lines)

all to be handed out as they leave the faction, based on the points they achieved... maybe a spell like the mp3_key for two-three leaders of each faction? with seperate spells for the different rewards?