Marosia

[Wolfsong]

Skimming this topic while at work - can someone summarize how far along it is, what features currently exist, etc.?

[LittleSoul]

All basic mechanics (as far as saying yes to the question 'is it playable enough to have a good RP experience') are in, but are being tested by myself so I can get the obvious big bugs out of the way.

It's taking a while because it's huge, and I've had either full time classes or a full time job over the summer to do. Sorry about that :/

I will come back when I have the opportunity and post a full currently finished feature list, possible tweaks/changes I'm considering, and a rough percentage of where I am at so that there's a better idea of how close it is being finished.

[Alutka]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this poject! I wonder how you find the time to play Cantr, develop a game and have a life?

[Breezy]

I'm looking forward to trying this out. I've been working on a game for years. At first it was a MUD, then a MUSH, now it's Browser game. I was super disappointed in FTO, but kinda liked how the game played. Now, I've been playing Cantr, I haven't touched it since. I would love a similar game with a fantasy setting. Or, even Cantr-in-space.

[KVZ]

Cantr-in-space.

Cantr in space would be amazing.

[LittleSoul]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this poject! I wonder how you find the time to play Cantr, develop a game and have a life?

Unfortunately that's the most difficult part. When I started making this game I was able to do so full time ten hours a day every day, but now I have other obligations. I still find time when possible though. Luckily I am an introvert so 'life' for me is just school, work, and my husband.

Cantr-in-space.

Cantr in space would be amazing.

If Marosia takes off and gets all the features people want I'd be more than happy to make a game like that my next project.

[LittleSoul]

Until Beta Testing 68% (Group User Testing Opened, Online)

Lifespans [Implemented] [Tested] 100%

Races [Implemented] [Tested] 100%

Hybrids [Implemented] [Not Tested] 50%

PVP [Implemented] [Not Tested] 50%

PVE [Implemented] [Tested] 100%


Persistent Real Time Gameplay 77%


-Time [Implemented] [Not Tested] 50%

-Decay 50%

-Items [Implemented] [Not Tested] 50%
-Buildings [Implemented] [Not Tested] 50%

-Ageing [Implemented] [Not Tested] 50%

-Death 50%

-Old Age [Implemented] [Not Tested] 50%
-Starvation [Implemented] [Not Tested] 50%

-Pregnancy [Implemented] [Tested] 100%

-Birth [Implemented] [Not Tested] 50%

-Projects [Implemented] [Not Tested] 50%

-Items
-Buildings
-Edible Resources
-Material Resources
-Farms
-Mines

-Traveling [Implemented] [Half Tested] 75%

-Animal Spawning [Implemented] [Tested] 100%

-Skill Rolling [Implemented] [Half Tested] 75%

-Health Regeneration [Implemented] [Tested] 100%

-Auto Eating [Implemented] [Tested] 100%

-Becoming Hungry [Implemented] [Tested] 100%



Spawning 66.6%


-Race [Not Implemented] [Not Tested] 0%
-Gender [Implemented] [Tested] 100%
-Placement [Implemented] [Tested] 100%




Family System 100%


-Mating and Requests [Implemented] [Tested] 100%
-Player Birth Line (The Tier) [Implemented] [Tested] 100%



Skills 75%


-Initial Skill Selection [Implemented] [Tested] 100%
-Skill Experience [Implemented] [Tested] 100%
-Skill Level Up [Implemented] [Not Tested] 50%
-Skill Consideration In Projects [Implemented] [Not Tested] 50%



Crafting 75%


-Crafting Tree [Implemented] [Tested] 100%
-Crafting Menu [Implemented] [Tested] 100%
-Crafting Selection [Implemented] [Not Tested] 50%
-Crafting Completion [Implemented] [Not Tested] 50%



Story-Arcs and Random Events 0%


-Admin Tools [Not Implemented] [Not Tested] 0%



Player Made Societies 44%


-Ability to Build [Implemented] [Not Tested] 50%
-Ability to Write (Books)[Not Implemented] [Not Tested] 0%
-Ability to Gather [Implemented] [Not Tested] 50%
-Ability to Process (Craft) [Implemented] [Not Tested] 50%
-Ability to Communicate (Events, Send Messages) [Implemented] [Tested] 100%
-Ability to Travel 16%

-Taming [Not Implemented] [Not Tested] 0%
-Mounts [Not Implemented] [Not Tested] 0%
-Groups (Following A Leader) [Implemented] [Not Tested] 50%



Perma-death 50%


-You Can Die (Combat, Starvation, Age) [Implemented] [Tested] 100%
-Dead Bodies [Implemented] [Not Tested] 50%
-Disposal of Dead Bodies [Not Implemented] [Not Tested] 0%

Until Considered Finished (None of these are implemented yet.)

Mobile Friendly

-Add in Grid


Magic

-Add in Around Eight Types of Different Magic

Artifacts

-Ongoing Addition of Items with Special Abilities

Ruins

-Confusing Mazes with Dangerous Creatures and Treasure

Note: Finished does not mean I will stop working on the game, and no I am not pulling any new programmers onto the project right now but thank you!

[LittleSoul]

As you can see, testing is quite literally half the battle and that's mostly where I'm at right now. Testing to get all the major game breakers, debugging, and reworking. Then I'll be opening it up to you guys so you can tell me where the more subtle bugs are that you notice while playing normally which is going to be extremely helpful and necessary in smoothing out the rough edges.

[Wolfsong]

From my brief skimming, it looks like a rebooted FTO clone. How are you handling FTO's piss-poor pregnancy mini-game? Are all spawns going to be limited by the amount of pregnant female characters in the game at any one time (like FTO) or have a more Cantr-esque approach, or a mix between the two? I've always liked the idea of having pre-existing familial ties in game, but in practice it's an ugly, ugly way of doing things and drives away players when you have to wait over 8 RL months to just get in game, and then are stuck for another few weeks doing nothing, and then your character has a lifespan of only a few RL months after that.

[LittleSoul]

How are you handling FTO's piss-poor pregnancy mini-game? Are all spawns going to be limited by the amount of pregnant female characters in the game at any one time (like FTO) or have a more Cantr-esque approach, or a mix between the two?

Now, spawning will be immediate and is cantr-like in action. You can spawn a character any time, it is not affected by anything regarding male or female, and the only requirement that's looked for when searching for a position is there needs to be at least one other character in the location.

Pregnancy is similar to fto in that there is a line, but there is nothing stopping someone from playing the game with a spawned character at adult age while they wait. I expect the spawning feature will bring down the number of people in line for a birth in comparison to FTO by -quite- a lot considering it was their only option. We'll have to see how it works out in testing. If lines get too ridiculous even with the spawning feature I'll have to have more than one line so that multiple pregnancies will be bringing in players at once.

I've always liked the idea of having pre-existing familial ties in game, but in practice it's an ugly, ugly way of doing things and drives away players when you have to wait over 8 RL months to just get in game, and then are stuck for another few weeks doing nothing, and then your character has a lifespan of only a few RL months after that.

I'm in agreement with you, and I am intent on keeping anything like that wait time from happening. It's a game killer, and I want no part of it in Marosia.
I'm considering getting rid of lifespans all together at the moment, but I will be setting up threads in a new forum when I set it up that will be covering that topic as well as a few others I'm debating with to see what's more desirable.

[Wolfsong]

I like limited lifespans, but I also feel that for a character to truly be worth playing, the lifespan has to be long enough to give the character a chance to be/feel meaningful. In quite a few RP MUDs, lifespans stretch for quite a few RL years (barring death by unnatural causes, of course, which is the more likely cause.) Lifespans should be long enough for a player to get attached, but also long enough for the player to have a sense of closure, too, when they do get attached - so they won't feel like their character is being taken from them abruptly. Measuring it in months isn't any good, that's what I'm getting at.

I'll go into more about spawning mechanics later, but I generally like the way you're going.

[LittleSoul]

A very fair and understandable point. That's why I want to discuss it with everyone. I've played some of those muds myself, so I know what you're talking about.

I'm glad to hear I'm on the right track, but I'm really curious about what everyone has to say. There's some important aspects such as combat, healing, dragging, a currency system, and so on that I'd like to hear opinions on. I know combat for cantr is a hot topic around here a lot of the time so I'm betting the opinions will offer some ideas that will help make everyone happy.

I'll post the new forum link when I get a chance to set it up.

[SumBum]

I don't think I ever engaged in PVP within FTO but I do really like the way hunting is done. It's far more interactive than just whacking a wolf once a day. I think PVP is done similarly, though. The char being attacked fights back in the same way the animals do so there's a chance of defending yourself automatically. I also like the "furniture provides healing" aspect and that you have to manufacture all healing items.

I like that Cantr has random animal attacks even if you don't hunt.

I hate that FTO does not have the ability to drag chars (but I like that you can move furniture!). You never realize how much you use dragging in non-violent situations until you can't toss someone out of your house or toss someone inside so they don't die of cold.

That brings up another thing I like about FTO - weather affects your health.

A huge huge request from me would be regarding crafting. I think the best (only?) way to truly have "careers" and valuable skills is to require a certain skill level to be able to make things beyond basics. Cantr and FTO both fail in this. Interaction and cooperation would get a great boost if chars had to seek out someone who has invested time to become specialized at something. That specialized char then has a marketable ability.

[Wolfsong]

PvP in FTO is pretty easy to cheese if you know what you're doing - and the way the actual game is coded makes it incredibly easy to "cheat." I didn't care for PvP as it's done in FTO (it felt hacked in and is entirely one-sided) but then PvP in Cantr also leaves a fair bit wanting. The problem is that, in both cases, you're going from a slow turn-based game to an instant action. No matter what happens, combat is going to be unfair toward one of the parties because, most times, one of the parties won't be online when it occurs.

Example #1:

In FTO, if you stockpile enough healing food, you can kill someone within 5-10 RL minutes, even if they're of a much higher strength/skill level. You just attack them until you are injured, then flee and use healing food until you're at full health again, then rinse and repeat. Eventually, because they won't be online to heal after the same fashion, you will win and they'll log in to a dead character. That doesn't happen on Cantr currently due to the one attack a day limit, though it /can/ still happen if you bring 4-5 of your friends to the party. But then, with that many friends, it probably should happen.

---

Going back to spawning mechanics a moment - even though I like the fusion between having the ability to be born into a family, and the ability to spawn as an adult without one, I'm not sure that's entirely balanced. Another frustrating part of FTO is the forced 0-10 year period where you're basically either a mouth-breathing moron who giggles or a stupid baby who poops themselves. I know a lot of people who play Cantr really enjoy playing children, but I am definitely not one of those people - but at the same time, I enjoy family ties. How do you plan on reconciling grown characters just appearing, versus children taking several years to actually become worth playing? Will children have more opportunities for the improvement of skills/stats relative to the grown adult? I guess what I'm getting at is if the child reaches age 20 with godly stats and skills, due to the prior 20 years having been spent mindlessly baby grinding up their base stats and skills up, what's the draw to playing an "orphan" adult and starting with base stats and skills? You would be completely dominated by these people who have a (perceived) unfair advantage. But then, vice versa, if the grown adult has the same stats and skills as someone who grew organically to 20 would, what's the draw to playing a child BESIDE family ties, which can be formed by grown characters anyway, as evidenced in Cantr?

[SumBum]

PvP in FTO is pretty easy to cheese if you know what you're doing - and the way the actual game is coded makes it incredibly easy to "cheat." I didn't care for PvP as it's done in FTO (it felt hacked in and is entirely one-sided) but then PvP in Cantr also leaves a fair bit wanting. The problem is that, in both cases, you're going from a slow turn-based game to an instant action. No matter what happens, combat is going to be unfair toward one of the parties because, most times, one of the parties won't be online when it occurs.

Example #1:

In FTO, if you stockpile enough healing food, you can kill someone within 5-10 RL minutes, even if they're of a much higher strength/skill level. You just attack them until you are injured, then flee and use healing food until you're at full health again, then rinse and repeat. Eventually, because they won't be online to heal after the same fashion, you will win and they'll log in to a dead character. That doesn't happen on Cantr currently due to the one attack a day limit, though it /can/ still happen if you bring 4-5 of your friends to the party. But then, with that many friends, it probably should happen.

If someone takes the time to gather and make all that healing food, then I say well done. lol It at least requires effort. FTO has a pretty high rate of rot, especially compared to Cantr, so you don't have quite the stockpiles of onions a newspawn could stumble upon.

Maybe the best approach is some sort of hybrid. Something like: use FTO's combat system so that the defending char has a chance to fight back automatically, but the attacking char can only initiate an attack once or twice in a 24hr period. At least with FTO's system, the attackers suffer -something- instead of being able to attack then leave the room. The attackers have to use resources if they want to engage in an attack.

Of course, any decent sized group could work around the game mechanics, but I don't think there's any way to prevent that unless you change it to where a "defending char" can only have attacks initiated against them twice in a 24hr period, regardless of which char(s) initiate those two attacks. But people will always find ways around it. Similar to how chars are just dragged into a dungeon in Cantr and left to wait until the attackers can strike again.