Warning: long self-indulgent comments. Read at your own peril.
I think we all enjoy thinking about what the game would be like if only we could somehow be in charge of things... Which, ultimately, is a stupid idea because if I had been in charge of the game up to this point, it'd be as exciting as watching paint dry. I'm generally impressed and happy with the direction of the game and the job FD has done; it's taken more of my time so far and is on a very short list of what I'd consider great games.*
But it's fun to muse. And, since this forum appears to be intended for our self-indulgent musing, I'm going to float a few ideas of what I'd want to see happen in the game going forward.
Powerplay
I hope but doubt that powerplay is intended as a stepping-stone to something I'd love to see. I'm guessing it's a stepping stone to something else I'm going to enjoy just fine but hop into my shoes and imagine along with me...
Imagine that Powerplay is the beginning of an in-game dynamic infrastructure that will eventually be used for a massive strategic simulation when a hostile alien species is introduced into the game. The factions and goals system, as it stands, would be extended to include some tier-2 (more on that later) NPCs and a more fractally detailed goals-system, then players would be embroiled in fighting to save humanity's little "bubble" along the edges of where it encounters something truly hostile. Of course there would be factions that were opportunists, or working with the enemy, or - whatever. But there would be broad goals set (probably by the game-masters, more on that later, too!) and players would be able to pitch in either as direct parts of military action: go to SYSTEM WOSSNAME and help destroy the alien base - or support: SYSTEM WHOSITS needs missiles desperately!
The infrastructure of Powerplay lends itself to that sort of thing, but of course it would need evolving: forward bases of operations, fleet operations, logistics, etc. I'd imagine that'd be advanced stuff but in the meantime, FD could expanf powerplay's underlying engine to handle technolgical disasters or related events. For example, what if the concept of "faction" were extended to "plague" and the same sort of mechanics were kicked in? We'd have the usual: carry 10000t of performance enhancers to SYSTEM 6. But we'd also have: blockade SYSTEM INFECTED DEATH and don't let anyone who has been in-system into one of our orbitals. Imagine the fun if there was an emergent AI at some orbital; you know that particular genie can break out of the bottle any time someone cobbles together enough processing power and edits out the restraining modules in the software. Imagine if humanity, in all its squabbling, disagreeable, ruthless and gentle glory had to re-orient itself in-game to deal with a threat that could actually wipe us out. Imagine if the number of stations available dwindled... or expanded.
If you think about it, it would be expressed using Powerplay's underlying rules system, just turned sideways. In my imagination, because I'm a horrible person who doesn't care much for others, if humanity were wiped out in-game, FD'd reset the database, dust off their hands, and restart it, "better luck next time."
Anyhow, it's still super early innings, yet, on Powerplay so I'm not spending much time on it because I think it's going to change and evolve a lot and it's not interesting following along that evolutionary path, to me, at this time.
Missions
There are gamers who want a more programmed experience, and there are gamers who are comfortable setting their own agenda. I don't think either is better or worse, but can we agree that they tend to present opposed goals? I think Powerplay is an attempt to inject broader goals than just "grind so I can get my Anaconda" - now you can, uh, do the same thing as part of a faction. OK. That's not bad. Powerplay is moving in the direction of grand strategy, while the existing mission system is not even tactics; there's very little sense of the relevance of what is going on in the bigger world to what's happening at the player's level. If you don't think that larger world strategic issues don't generally bear on individuals' lives, go talk to a business owner in Greece... What I think FD needs to consider is how to weld the grand strategy stuff in Powerplay to the tactical missions that everyone is presented with. Where they are now is a start. But only just.
One idea I've knocked around for years is to build user-generated quest content into the game's underlying engine. That'd tie directly into what I'll discuss next but, for the time being let's stay focused. I used to wish so desperately that Blizzard would do something like I'm about to describe, in World Of Warcraft! So the idea is to have a mission structure programming system and simple event structure programming system. I can imagine it as giving the operator a tree ("+new branch") diagramming tool that allows them to create an event and dependent events; each node might be a different type of node:
OK, so now there's an improved questing system, now what?Let players make quests. Let's say if you have enough time in game and are triple Elite or something, you can apply to become a loremaster. Loremasters would have to be players who've done it enough that there's no value at all for them to just give themselves money-pump quests, or something stupid like that. Someone who's played enough to be a loremaster isn't going to lose their character by writing a quest line in which you need to secure a live goat and _______ it ______ in SYSTEM ______ (I don't even know, but assume I put some obscene suggestion in there). Whenever one of a loremasters' quests is completed they get a point. Whenever a player is killed horribly on a loremaster's quest they get a point. Every 10,000cr a quest pays out comes out of the loremaster's questing budget. NPCs in quests also cost cr from the loremasters' budget. Imagine being a loremaster is like being a movie producer with a limited budget, and maybe when you start out you can't afford to have 3 battle Anacondas interrupt your questers' search for coffee. You start with 2 Sideys and some rock-throwers. But loremastering now becomes a challenging process of creating stuff that is interesting enough to attract players, hard enough to earn the loremaster more resources until they can put on quests as crazy and full of explosions as a Michael Bay movie, and unlock various abilities as the loremasters progress. A max level loremaster might be able to give imperial promotions, or grant ships, or who knows what; those are all nodes in the tree that unlock as you get the ability to make more and more complex stories.
Loremasters whose quests get run a lot are ranked somewhere. Popular quests are ranked somewhere. Maybe call them "adventures" instead of just "quests" because I'd imagine a loremaster might spend all their credits to make a branching quest that has dozens of possible endings and plot turns and twists and witty dialog that might take a player days to work through.
If you played "Privateer" or "Strike Commander" or "Wing Commander" basically what I'm talking about is user-generated content like that, running atop/within an existing game framework and economy. Tie that into my fantasy suggestions about Powerplay and you've now got another role: strategic commanders. No, you couldn't command your own space fleet but if several loremasters got together and made adventure-lines that were in the service of the strategic goals of a power, now you're getting to the point where there are significant user-contributed emergent game-play. The key point is that if you make access to such game-play contingent upon having a long-term character in-game with good standing, characters become valuable. You won't risk having your long-term character deleted by making "the adventure of trying to find Aisling Duvall's giant glass b_______"** That was something I learned from watching what happened to World Of Warcraft when they switched to letting people buy instant level 90 characters: nobody felt any sense of the investment they had in the characters they spent months getting to level 90 anymore. If being a strategic commander or loremaster was a position that took a lot of effort to achieve, which could be lost in a second if you misbehaved, people would tend to behave.
Enough on that.
Tier 2 NPCs and Personal Power
This ties into the other 2 things I describe above: have some NPCs we can get to know and befriend. Or hire and order about. Or threaten and order about. Tie that into the quest-lines. Imagine if the reputation system that works for factions and station was extended, just a bit, to individual NPCs. When some NPCs get important enough, perhaps they become nearly unkillable (or just hang out in an orbital surrounded by armed guards) Some of the NPCs would be associated with jobs. So you could earn rep with "Squeezo the Clench" the money-lender by, uh, interviewing his customers to encourage them to pay. But the ultimate idea would be to build your own network of NPCs; essentially your own in-game faction. And, sure, it would have to tie into Powerplay and the adventure system. Perhaps once a loremaster is high level, they can use NPCs that they have high reputation with in their quests. So I might eventually "own" Squeezo the Clench and then be able to have people following my quest go meet him and try to get a loan from him.
Also, (and this would make Sarah Jane smile - I hope) you'd be able to use a simplified version of the questing engine to send 'your' NPCs on missions for you. And they'd be able to interact with other factions, other NPCs, and players. So, yes, I could hire an army of thugs and send them after your army of thugs. And every couple days we could check the status of our private thug-war. Or, you could send your army of thugs after my smaller faction of NPC traders that are just making money for the faction and occasionally smuggling a few things for Imperial Intelligence. If you're familiar with WoW's "Garrisons" that's a good example of how not to do the kind of thing I am thinking of. WoW's garrisons became tamagotchis like Farmville because the NPCs couldn't interact with eachother. Imagine the fun if my small collection of NPCs banded with your small collection of NPCs and we told them to both try to go kill a single NPC under the control of CMDR Fred? Oh, the fun.
NPCs need to be persistent, anyhow; it's anti-immersive that the orbitals' factions and the faceless hordes that post in the Bulletin board are nameless and faceless. Take a hard look at "Shadow of Mordor"s nemesis system; there are some lovely ideas in there. In Shadow of Mordor you are, effectively, your own faction (albeit small, and with very stupid followers) I will shed tears of joy if I ever jump into a system in Elite: Dangerous and am interdicted by Pirate Sam who says "Oh it's YOU again?! You got another 100 bars of platinum for me, Space Dust?" Or perhaps an NPC that says, "Oh, please don't hurt me this time, I swear I just scanned you to say hello..."
This kind of stuff is critical to having a game where you feel that NPCs mean something. That's important because otherwise the in-game universe is just a lifeless space occupied with
a) things you blow up
b) things that blow you up
c) stuff you buy
Anyhow, I've rattled on enough. Loving the game. Look forward to seeing where it goes. We've all read the many passionate forum-postings like "XYZ is killing the game" and this isn't one of those. Because, actually, I really dont' care. I'm having a great time and if I stop... I'll unemotionally move along and find something else. I played WoW hard for a year and it was a fun year but ... eventually I wore out my interest. I hope FD keeps making good creative choices to keep this game vibrant and interesting. If they do, I'll stay here and be happy. If they don't I'll eventually move on.
It's been an interesting 6 months for me. I look forward to the next 6.
(* Master of Orion 1/2, Xcom, Laser Squad Nemesis, X-wing/Tie Fighter)
(* bracelet - her giant glass bracelet. Get your mind out of the gutter)
I think we all enjoy thinking about what the game would be like if only we could somehow be in charge of things... Which, ultimately, is a stupid idea because if I had been in charge of the game up to this point, it'd be as exciting as watching paint dry. I'm generally impressed and happy with the direction of the game and the job FD has done; it's taken more of my time so far and is on a very short list of what I'd consider great games.*
But it's fun to muse. And, since this forum appears to be intended for our self-indulgent musing, I'm going to float a few ideas of what I'd want to see happen in the game going forward.
Powerplay
I hope but doubt that powerplay is intended as a stepping-stone to something I'd love to see. I'm guessing it's a stepping stone to something else I'm going to enjoy just fine but hop into my shoes and imagine along with me...
Imagine that Powerplay is the beginning of an in-game dynamic infrastructure that will eventually be used for a massive strategic simulation when a hostile alien species is introduced into the game. The factions and goals system, as it stands, would be extended to include some tier-2 (more on that later) NPCs and a more fractally detailed goals-system, then players would be embroiled in fighting to save humanity's little "bubble" along the edges of where it encounters something truly hostile. Of course there would be factions that were opportunists, or working with the enemy, or - whatever. But there would be broad goals set (probably by the game-masters, more on that later, too!) and players would be able to pitch in either as direct parts of military action: go to SYSTEM WOSSNAME and help destroy the alien base - or support: SYSTEM WHOSITS needs missiles desperately!
The infrastructure of Powerplay lends itself to that sort of thing, but of course it would need evolving: forward bases of operations, fleet operations, logistics, etc. I'd imagine that'd be advanced stuff but in the meantime, FD could expanf powerplay's underlying engine to handle technolgical disasters or related events. For example, what if the concept of "faction" were extended to "plague" and the same sort of mechanics were kicked in? We'd have the usual: carry 10000t of performance enhancers to SYSTEM 6. But we'd also have: blockade SYSTEM INFECTED DEATH and don't let anyone who has been in-system into one of our orbitals. Imagine the fun if there was an emergent AI at some orbital; you know that particular genie can break out of the bottle any time someone cobbles together enough processing power and edits out the restraining modules in the software. Imagine if humanity, in all its squabbling, disagreeable, ruthless and gentle glory had to re-orient itself in-game to deal with a threat that could actually wipe us out. Imagine if the number of stations available dwindled... or expanded.
If you think about it, it would be expressed using Powerplay's underlying rules system, just turned sideways. In my imagination, because I'm a horrible person who doesn't care much for others, if humanity were wiped out in-game, FD'd reset the database, dust off their hands, and restart it, "better luck next time."
Anyhow, it's still super early innings, yet, on Powerplay so I'm not spending much time on it because I think it's going to change and evolve a lot and it's not interesting following along that evolutionary path, to me, at this time.
Missions
There are gamers who want a more programmed experience, and there are gamers who are comfortable setting their own agenda. I don't think either is better or worse, but can we agree that they tend to present opposed goals? I think Powerplay is an attempt to inject broader goals than just "grind so I can get my Anaconda" - now you can, uh, do the same thing as part of a faction. OK. That's not bad. Powerplay is moving in the direction of grand strategy, while the existing mission system is not even tactics; there's very little sense of the relevance of what is going on in the bigger world to what's happening at the player's level. If you don't think that larger world strategic issues don't generally bear on individuals' lives, go talk to a business owner in Greece... What I think FD needs to consider is how to weld the grand strategy stuff in Powerplay to the tactical missions that everyone is presented with. Where they are now is a start. But only just.
One idea I've knocked around for years is to build user-generated quest content into the game's underlying engine. That'd tie directly into what I'll discuss next but, for the time being let's stay focused. I used to wish so desperately that Blizzard would do something like I'm about to describe, in World Of Warcraft! So the idea is to have a mission structure programming system and simple event structure programming system. I can imagine it as giving the operator a tree ("+new branch") diagramming tool that allows them to create an event and dependent events; each node might be a different type of node:
- meet/dialogue (depending on answer, branch to node..)
- narrative text
- find/kill
- encounter (classic ambush/escort/assassination/NPC says hi...)
- locate item
- obtain (by whatever means, or specific means) item
- deliver item
- look at thing (the quintessential WoW: "go talk to bob!" quest)
- give money
- get money
OK, so now there's an improved questing system, now what?Let players make quests. Let's say if you have enough time in game and are triple Elite or something, you can apply to become a loremaster. Loremasters would have to be players who've done it enough that there's no value at all for them to just give themselves money-pump quests, or something stupid like that. Someone who's played enough to be a loremaster isn't going to lose their character by writing a quest line in which you need to secure a live goat and _______ it ______ in SYSTEM ______ (I don't even know, but assume I put some obscene suggestion in there). Whenever one of a loremasters' quests is completed they get a point. Whenever a player is killed horribly on a loremaster's quest they get a point. Every 10,000cr a quest pays out comes out of the loremaster's questing budget. NPCs in quests also cost cr from the loremasters' budget. Imagine being a loremaster is like being a movie producer with a limited budget, and maybe when you start out you can't afford to have 3 battle Anacondas interrupt your questers' search for coffee. You start with 2 Sideys and some rock-throwers. But loremastering now becomes a challenging process of creating stuff that is interesting enough to attract players, hard enough to earn the loremaster more resources until they can put on quests as crazy and full of explosions as a Michael Bay movie, and unlock various abilities as the loremasters progress. A max level loremaster might be able to give imperial promotions, or grant ships, or who knows what; those are all nodes in the tree that unlock as you get the ability to make more and more complex stories.
Loremasters whose quests get run a lot are ranked somewhere. Popular quests are ranked somewhere. Maybe call them "adventures" instead of just "quests" because I'd imagine a loremaster might spend all their credits to make a branching quest that has dozens of possible endings and plot turns and twists and witty dialog that might take a player days to work through.
If you played "Privateer" or "Strike Commander" or "Wing Commander" basically what I'm talking about is user-generated content like that, running atop/within an existing game framework and economy. Tie that into my fantasy suggestions about Powerplay and you've now got another role: strategic commanders. No, you couldn't command your own space fleet but if several loremasters got together and made adventure-lines that were in the service of the strategic goals of a power, now you're getting to the point where there are significant user-contributed emergent game-play. The key point is that if you make access to such game-play contingent upon having a long-term character in-game with good standing, characters become valuable. You won't risk having your long-term character deleted by making "the adventure of trying to find Aisling Duvall's giant glass b_______"** That was something I learned from watching what happened to World Of Warcraft when they switched to letting people buy instant level 90 characters: nobody felt any sense of the investment they had in the characters they spent months getting to level 90 anymore. If being a strategic commander or loremaster was a position that took a lot of effort to achieve, which could be lost in a second if you misbehaved, people would tend to behave.
Enough on that.
Tier 2 NPCs and Personal Power
This ties into the other 2 things I describe above: have some NPCs we can get to know and befriend. Or hire and order about. Or threaten and order about. Tie that into the quest-lines. Imagine if the reputation system that works for factions and station was extended, just a bit, to individual NPCs. When some NPCs get important enough, perhaps they become nearly unkillable (or just hang out in an orbital surrounded by armed guards) Some of the NPCs would be associated with jobs. So you could earn rep with "Squeezo the Clench" the money-lender by, uh, interviewing his customers to encourage them to pay. But the ultimate idea would be to build your own network of NPCs; essentially your own in-game faction. And, sure, it would have to tie into Powerplay and the adventure system. Perhaps once a loremaster is high level, they can use NPCs that they have high reputation with in their quests. So I might eventually "own" Squeezo the Clench and then be able to have people following my quest go meet him and try to get a loan from him.
Also, (and this would make Sarah Jane smile - I hope) you'd be able to use a simplified version of the questing engine to send 'your' NPCs on missions for you. And they'd be able to interact with other factions, other NPCs, and players. So, yes, I could hire an army of thugs and send them after your army of thugs. And every couple days we could check the status of our private thug-war. Or, you could send your army of thugs after my smaller faction of NPC traders that are just making money for the faction and occasionally smuggling a few things for Imperial Intelligence. If you're familiar with WoW's "Garrisons" that's a good example of how not to do the kind of thing I am thinking of. WoW's garrisons became tamagotchis like Farmville because the NPCs couldn't interact with eachother. Imagine the fun if my small collection of NPCs banded with your small collection of NPCs and we told them to both try to go kill a single NPC under the control of CMDR Fred? Oh, the fun.
NPCs need to be persistent, anyhow; it's anti-immersive that the orbitals' factions and the faceless hordes that post in the Bulletin board are nameless and faceless. Take a hard look at "Shadow of Mordor"s nemesis system; there are some lovely ideas in there. In Shadow of Mordor you are, effectively, your own faction (albeit small, and with very stupid followers) I will shed tears of joy if I ever jump into a system in Elite: Dangerous and am interdicted by Pirate Sam who says "Oh it's YOU again?! You got another 100 bars of platinum for me, Space Dust?" Or perhaps an NPC that says, "Oh, please don't hurt me this time, I swear I just scanned you to say hello..."
This kind of stuff is critical to having a game where you feel that NPCs mean something. That's important because otherwise the in-game universe is just a lifeless space occupied with
a) things you blow up
b) things that blow you up
c) stuff you buy
Anyhow, I've rattled on enough. Loving the game. Look forward to seeing where it goes. We've all read the many passionate forum-postings like "XYZ is killing the game" and this isn't one of those. Because, actually, I really dont' care. I'm having a great time and if I stop... I'll unemotionally move along and find something else. I played WoW hard for a year and it was a fun year but ... eventually I wore out my interest. I hope FD keeps making good creative choices to keep this game vibrant and interesting. If they do, I'll stay here and be happy. If they don't I'll eventually move on.
It's been an interesting 6 months for me. I look forward to the next 6.
(* Master of Orion 1/2, Xcom, Laser Squad Nemesis, X-wing/Tie Fighter)
(* bracelet - her giant glass bracelet. Get your mind out of the gutter)
