WildWest - How to finish this project?

[Chris]

This is one of these "Too weak to live, too healthy to die" projects. I don't want to make it a masterpiece, I just want it finished, playable and out of the door.

www.wildwestmmorpg.com

So far it is not so thrilling, most players quickly resign and there is not much to do there. On the other hand, there are very few people who refused to give up playing it even though it was abandoned for a few months and unfixed bugs were present. So there must be some potencial here (most likely hidden very deep )

There are 3 areas of activity:
- PvP - Duels between players, not much tactic but seems that is the part players like the most
- PvE - Adventures, absolutelly pathetic, most players just press refresh to get the goodies
- Economy - Can mine for gold nuggets or manage a ranch

Any ideas how to make it more playable? Or any other ideas at all?

[Scion]

If the PvP element is what most people like....then how about concentrating on that aspect...do you have any other pure PvP games in your stable? can you easily add in any of their PvP elements?

(you could add some realisim, make the duels have a risk of permanent character death....)

add gangs/possies....add a few goodie/badie ways to make money....perhapes add a gambling aspect...(they were allways gambling out west wernt they)

or just grab a few beers and sit back and watch a few modern westerns for some ideas....and if your getting grief from the missus ...well its all research

[jannesiera]

If the PvP element is what most people like....then how about concentrating on that aspect...do you have any other pure PvP games in your stable? can you easily add in any of their PvP elements?

(you could add some realisim, make the duels have a risk of permanent character death....)

add gangs/possies....add a few goodie/badie ways to make money....perhapes add a gambling aspect...(they were allways gambling out west wernt they)

or just grab a few beers and sit back and watch a few modern westerns for some ideas....and if your getting grief from the missus ...well its all research

I saw a pretty good western yesterday. (it was old and without color, but pretty nice still ^^)

[Zeggy]

Are you looking for new ideas or ways to make your current features more interesting?

I have a new idea that might be fun:

Players can open up their own 'mine', and each day are able to mine for gold or other treasures.
They are also able to upgrade their mine in different ways, to improve their reward each day.

[Barrikor]

Are you looking for new ideas or ways to make your current features more interesting?

I have a new idea that might be fun:

Players can open up their own 'mine', and each day are able to mine for gold or other treasures.
They are also able to upgrade their mine in different ways, to improve their reward each day.

Maybe there could be "claim jumpers" that you'd have to duel sometimes 

[Chris]

Are you looking for new ideas or ways to make your current features more interesting?

More for something that would let me finish it quickly. But I'm not picky

What "claim jumpers" is?

I have another PvP game but it is completely different so no way to steal from there

Gambling is implemented already, there is also saloon and gangs/clans.
I can easily add barber (you need to visit it once per 2 days to shave yourself )
There are no banks, travel, horses, railroads so far.

[Scion]

no railroads?

well theres a major problem....have you ever seen a western that didnt have a train robbery in it....with leaping along the wagoon roofs....gotta have that....

oh and red necks....or are they red skins....you know it probably needs some of those guys from india...indians, yep needs some indians.

and mechanical scorpions....or am i going too far off track again

claim jumpers were gold diggers that didnt respect the boundaries of a mining claim...you would find gold then go make a claim at the post-office (or whereever) that would mean that all the gold from that area belonged to you.....but people would go mine there anyway...those people are claim jumpers.

[jannesiera]

no railroads?

well theres a major problem....have you ever seen a western that didnt have a train robbery in it....with leaping along the wagoon roofs....gotta have that....

oh and red necks....or are they red skins....you know it probably needs some of those guys from india...indians, yep needs some indians.

and mechanical scorpions....or am i going too far off track again

claim jumpers were gold diggers that didnt respect the boundaries of a mining claim...you would find gold then go make a claim at the post-office (or whereever) that would mean that all the gold from that area belonged to you.....but people would go mine there anyway...those people are claim jumpers.

Oh, I hate these bloody claim jumpers!  Mechanical scorptions? Why not? 

[codestryke]

Ok I'm not very well versed in Old West culture, I don't really like westerns but I did like Deadwood so all my "historical" ideas will be derived from that

First I would think westerns are hard when it comes to weaponry. Medival is easy cuz you have spells and such to enchant swords but in westerns all that "spell" crap was thrown out. You have a 6 shooter, shotgun and rifle. You can get sorta creative with those but it's still pretty limited. Defense.. Umm nothing other then maybe an iron plate.

What would make a cool western game (IMHO) is the PvE element of it. The gold mines, claim jumpers is an excellent idea and true to history. Allowing players to setup shops is another one, player controlled banks, shops, restaurants etc. All that would need to be built and supplied which brings in another category of shop owner the "carrier" which was a big part of Deadwood. The gambling you added is another big one, but having multipule to chose from each with payout structures that can be tweaked would be a neat aspect. Hey it was all about "Let the buyer beware" back then and gambling houses loved to cheat people out of there money. Brothel.. You can't have a western without a brothel Then you have quests to find land you can sell for mines, hunt or defend against Indians...

Problem with western games as they are now is, like yours, it's just PvP. With such a rich history and ample amount of activity it could be a very awesome game it's just all the economics to figure out and PvE elements to code.

Ok I'll stop babbling now

[Chris]

First I would think westerns are hard when it comes to weaponry.

Yeah, you don't need to tell me that, you don't need at all

Problem with western games as they are now is, like yours, it's just PvP. With such a rich history and ample amount of activity it could be a very awesome game it's just all the economics to figure out and PvE elements to code.

Exactly, but no one managed to made the PvE in WildWest theme yet. Not even one game and no one really have any idea how it should work...

Anyway, I have like 1, maybe 2, weeks budget for this project left An simple but striking idea how to make it reasonably playable would be the best. Not that such idea is likely to be found

[Zeggy]

Well, for PvE...

How about every so often, groups of bandits attack the town, and the players need to work together to kill them off?

Say, 100 bandits attack, and players can attack them on at a time. The battle itself would just be 1vs1, like a player vs a bot. If the player loses, the bandit count goes up by one, or something else happens (a shop loses all its inventory so players can't buy anything for a while?). Otherwise the bandit count goes down by one.

The town (players) 'wins' by defeating all the bandits. Each bandit a player kills means they get a 'kill count' or some item (bandit head ) to show which players killed the most. Maybe they get special loot for each kill, or the loot gets divided amongst all players involved when all the bandits are killed.

This would make all the players feel like they are 'working together' but still competing with each other.

[Chris]

Locations

There are 6 major and 4 minor cities. Player gets 100 travel points per day, travel to one city costs 40-50 points (depending on horse). All major cites are connected by railroad (costs 30 travel points + money, you can travel only once per day via railroad "locomotive sickness").

There are several NPCs located randomly (major cites have bigger chance of NPC placement), the placement is changed every 1-3 days depending on NPC.
- 8 famous villians - found upon 'adventuring' on that location, reward depending on the villian 'quality'. Information on villians placement publicly available at sheriff's office.
- 2 mapmakers - there is an old treasure, you need to collect 4 parts of the map to dig it. Each mapmaker can give the map part once per day. You can dig for treasure once per 5 days.
- 3 different travelling merchants that sell unique stuff - more items in a local shop if they are there
- 2 mad doctors - they sell MiracleCure (the thing you can buy in saloon at the moment).
- 3 girls - found in saloon, provide information on other NPC placement, can spend adventure points to flirt with one of them, if spend enough time pursuing her you have an option to marry (no clue what benefit yet )

Events (one per day, apply to one city):
- gold rush - a gold vein has been found near city, all gold prospecting there yelds +50% gold
- indians raid - all players in that city lose 5% money
- bank robbery - all players in that city lose 1% of money in bank (it does not matter in what city they deposited money only where they are now)
- railroad (repair/problems/?) - can not use railroad from/to that city

Players can duel with players only in that city (controversial, lack of targets possible...)


I wonder if this is a good idea. It might couse some annoyance due to the need of constant travelling...

[jannesiera]

I think it's cool. Maybe ad some (very simple) 'laws'. So if a player breaks a law he gets a 'wanted' status. Other players have to go look for him (so travel around to cities) and try to kill him, that will give them a reward (probably money?). The wanted status is then gone offcourse.

// start edit
And maybe also give a reward if the wanted player stays alive for x days etc. So you can have a career as bad guy to . And you can also give a ranking where players are ranked for how much wanted persons they killed / how many times they survived as a wanted guy .
// end edit 

I wouldn't add the railroad problems, and be carefull with players losing money, I wouldn't like that .

[trollface666]

If you need an artist, hit me up

[Chris]

If you need an artist, hit me up

I PMed you about 2 weeks ago and never received a reply... I hate the message system here Anyway, I will resend it tomorrow once I'm not so sleepy.


Hmm, but wouldn't this whole travelling be boring and tiresome? I mean, you have to travel everyday looking for these NPC who hide in random places. I wouldn't like it (not that I'm the target audience for WildWest themed games, I'm rather not representative since I don't even watch westerns ). So, wouldn't it be boring for you if you were to do for 2-3 months everyday?

[anbeck]

I had the idea for a western browsergame a long time ago, being a huge fan of Once upon a time in the West. 

I think this could be a very cool game, if the location idea is implemented. And I would certainly improve the PvP stuff, interaction between players is the way to go for a game if it wants to attract many players.

Players should be allowed to form posses or gangs. If they (hat is, one of them) captures a wanted person, the money is divided between them.

Players themselves should be able to be the target (as the idea above about making them 'wanted'.

You have to have bank and train robbing.

And for a game like this you need to have dynamically created graphics (such as the wanted posters), so if you need somebody with php GD knowledge, let me know.

[indiana]

Hi my friend.

Congratulation for project, are excellent. Is possible send the script of the game to me ? For study only.

Thank´s

Marcello - Brazil

[Chris]

Is possible send the script of the game to me ? For study only.

Nope, it is a commercial script, not for sale. Check the 'vault' for free scripts.