Post by Zaimus on Dec 17, 2021 5:26:02 GMT
The main gist of it is that a system for GMs to utilize in running live events, while simultaneously allowing for automation. In theory, there would be two additional type of Source files that may be used to accomplish this.
Let's say for whatever reason, a GM wanted to spawn a group of hostile NPCs. The slow way would be searching for, spawning them one by one, or making a big list ahead of time. If we had preset groups of NPCs that we may call "Swarms", it would make for an easier way to find and load groups of NPCs in an instant. Setting up a Swarm should basically be like setting up a Spawn item in a Zone; and they may be accessed in builder window, or by inputting a command, such as "gm-swarm <swarm number or namestring> <zone.room or default current room if not set> <# of NPCs to spawn from the swarm>". gm-swarm goblin-hunters wc.113 5 -- that wouldn't be so tedious, right?
Besides being useful for GMs wanting to manually make invasions, ambushes, etc., as part of their own little live events. This is when the GM would be interacting with players in a way to give them a little bit of a unique challenge, or fostering a storyline in some roleplay. Let's use the idea of an invasion, let's say the Crushbone Orcs wish to invade Toldara to kidnap the mayor's wife. So, the GM may do some World Echoes about rumors that the orcs sent some scouts to Toldara, and they raise an army. Players may go to Crushbone to fight them first, so maybe the GM would spawn some groups of extra orcs and other units of the amassing armies, or maybe block off part of crushbone during it.
At some point the invasion begins, and maybe the GM spawns a couple dozen orcs at the gates for awhile or until the guards all get killed, then start spawning some of the orcs inside Toldara, more and more towards where the Mayor's wife is. Have an orc general, or some leader(s) of the army, something akin to a boss or mini-bosses. If the players kill the leader(s), the players win the event. If the orcs kidnap the mayor's wife the players lose the event, although they probably gained some experience, wealth and gear in participating. Sounds fun, and easy enough to do with the aforementioned Swarms system, but it would still require a lot of footwork for the GM to enter all the commands in the right order, and keep an eye on what all the players are doing to narrate the echoes, etc., etc..
While GM led events can be done mechanically, if there were a way to set-up more of the event beforehand, so that it can run more-or-less automatically would allow the GM to focus much more on the players, or doing other things while the burden of typing all the commands to spawn the NPCs, items, etc., would be off their shoulders. If doing quests, or getting the right conversations or even some zone scripting could automatically trigger an event to run without any GM's input would further the fun factor exponentially even for game worlds that have few players.
Basically, the idea of an event is an occurrence of special gameplay elements that temporarily supersede the standard functioning of the game world or a specific zone. It may function something like an off-the-record quest, or just something more for roleplay value than for exp/wealth gain. We so far described the idea of an invasion, but it could be something more benevolent, such as something like "The One's Favor" which would grant bonus XP and/or faster ability learning during the course of the event; instead of some parameters of Win/Lose, it would just have a timer and expire when finished. Perhaps some Events could be set to only work automatically, and some that could allow a GM to activate at their own discretion. For example a command like: "gm-event ones-favor 00:30:00" and that would turn on the bonus mode for 30 minutes.
So, the second type of Source files to have would be good to call Events. These would be kind of a mix between a Zone file (spawns) and a Quest file (objectives, rewards,) plus variables / parameters and flags, and also a hierarchy of if/then scripting for when to output which Echoes, which spawns to do, etc.. Maybe it would be good to designate if an Event affects only single zone, (or few zones??) or is a global event. The Crushbone Invasion event only really affects WC gates, and Toldara, (and maybe crushbone itself,) but the One's Favor event would make sense to affect the whole world, more than a single area. Overlapping events is another issue to consider, that may be solved with flags? For example, an event such as The One's Favor would be fine to run at the same time as other events, such as the Crushbone Invasion event. However, the Crushbone Invasion event would probably be no good to run at the same time as another Toldara invasion event.
[[At the end (way post launch) of Event source files, and handling of the Event, it would be great if they were able to modify the normal functioning of specified zones and rooms. For example, maybe there was an event where all the guards disappeared from Toldara; it would require the event to stop the Guards from spawning. Maybe another event was a fire in Toldara, (maybe we coudl have several fire events programmed in, that could trigger randomly ever so often... that would be interesting(!!)), but this would modify room titles, descriptions. That would probably take the most work, but the effect would be simply awesome. ]]
Events would also integrate well with the Quest system, in either how automated events may be activated, or how an Event may allow for completing some quest objective, etc..
If we could have some sort of semi-automated event system at launch or soon after, i think that would be a decent draw for making a player's time int he world more interesting and dynamic. Even if we are talking very basic functionality, it would go far to improve excitement even for players who are playing alone.
Let's say for whatever reason, a GM wanted to spawn a group of hostile NPCs. The slow way would be searching for, spawning them one by one, or making a big list ahead of time. If we had preset groups of NPCs that we may call "Swarms", it would make for an easier way to find and load groups of NPCs in an instant. Setting up a Swarm should basically be like setting up a Spawn item in a Zone; and they may be accessed in builder window, or by inputting a command, such as "gm-swarm <swarm number or namestring> <zone.room or default current room if not set> <# of NPCs to spawn from the swarm>". gm-swarm goblin-hunters wc.113 5 -- that wouldn't be so tedious, right?
Besides being useful for GMs wanting to manually make invasions, ambushes, etc., as part of their own little live events. This is when the GM would be interacting with players in a way to give them a little bit of a unique challenge, or fostering a storyline in some roleplay. Let's use the idea of an invasion, let's say the Crushbone Orcs wish to invade Toldara to kidnap the mayor's wife. So, the GM may do some World Echoes about rumors that the orcs sent some scouts to Toldara, and they raise an army. Players may go to Crushbone to fight them first, so maybe the GM would spawn some groups of extra orcs and other units of the amassing armies, or maybe block off part of crushbone during it.
At some point the invasion begins, and maybe the GM spawns a couple dozen orcs at the gates for awhile or until the guards all get killed, then start spawning some of the orcs inside Toldara, more and more towards where the Mayor's wife is. Have an orc general, or some leader(s) of the army, something akin to a boss or mini-bosses. If the players kill the leader(s), the players win the event. If the orcs kidnap the mayor's wife the players lose the event, although they probably gained some experience, wealth and gear in participating. Sounds fun, and easy enough to do with the aforementioned Swarms system, but it would still require a lot of footwork for the GM to enter all the commands in the right order, and keep an eye on what all the players are doing to narrate the echoes, etc., etc..
While GM led events can be done mechanically, if there were a way to set-up more of the event beforehand, so that it can run more-or-less automatically would allow the GM to focus much more on the players, or doing other things while the burden of typing all the commands to spawn the NPCs, items, etc., would be off their shoulders. If doing quests, or getting the right conversations or even some zone scripting could automatically trigger an event to run without any GM's input would further the fun factor exponentially even for game worlds that have few players.
Basically, the idea of an event is an occurrence of special gameplay elements that temporarily supersede the standard functioning of the game world or a specific zone. It may function something like an off-the-record quest, or just something more for roleplay value than for exp/wealth gain. We so far described the idea of an invasion, but it could be something more benevolent, such as something like "The One's Favor" which would grant bonus XP and/or faster ability learning during the course of the event; instead of some parameters of Win/Lose, it would just have a timer and expire when finished. Perhaps some Events could be set to only work automatically, and some that could allow a GM to activate at their own discretion. For example a command like: "gm-event ones-favor 00:30:00" and that would turn on the bonus mode for 30 minutes.
So, the second type of Source files to have would be good to call Events. These would be kind of a mix between a Zone file (spawns) and a Quest file (objectives, rewards,) plus variables / parameters and flags, and also a hierarchy of if/then scripting for when to output which Echoes, which spawns to do, etc.. Maybe it would be good to designate if an Event affects only single zone, (or few zones??) or is a global event. The Crushbone Invasion event only really affects WC gates, and Toldara, (and maybe crushbone itself,) but the One's Favor event would make sense to affect the whole world, more than a single area. Overlapping events is another issue to consider, that may be solved with flags? For example, an event such as The One's Favor would be fine to run at the same time as other events, such as the Crushbone Invasion event. However, the Crushbone Invasion event would probably be no good to run at the same time as another Toldara invasion event.
[[At the end (way post launch) of Event source files, and handling of the Event, it would be great if they were able to modify the normal functioning of specified zones and rooms. For example, maybe there was an event where all the guards disappeared from Toldara; it would require the event to stop the Guards from spawning. Maybe another event was a fire in Toldara, (maybe we coudl have several fire events programmed in, that could trigger randomly ever so often... that would be interesting(!!)), but this would modify room titles, descriptions. That would probably take the most work, but the effect would be simply awesome. ]]
Events would also integrate well with the Quest system, in either how automated events may be activated, or how an Event may allow for completing some quest objective, etc..
If we could have some sort of semi-automated event system at launch or soon after, i think that would be a decent draw for making a player's time int he world more interesting and dynamic. Even if we are talking very basic functionality, it would go far to improve excitement even for players who are playing alone.