Comments on: MMORPG Design Challenges http://www.vectorstorm.org/2008/08/01/mmorpg-design-challenges/ Creating games, one brightly glowing line at a time. Sun, 29 Jan 2012 11:47:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: MrCheese http://www.vectorstorm.org/2008/08/01/mmorpg-design-challenges/comment-page-1/#comment-270 MrCheese Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:51:23 +0000 http://www.vectorstorm.org/?p=219#comment-270 I suppose you could average out the mobs over zones of equal level range, but I think it would need micro-management. As you said, towns would be better placed in quieter areas. Something that could be a feature a little further down the line, higher XP rewards for denser zones; which would attract 'hardcore' players. I suppose you could average out the mobs over zones of equal level range, but I think it would need micro-management. As you said, towns would be better placed in quieter areas. Something that could be a feature a little further down the line, higher XP rewards for denser zones; which would attract ‘hardcore’ players.

]]> By: CogDissident http://www.vectorstorm.org/2008/08/01/mmorpg-design-challenges/comment-page-1/#comment-268 CogDissident Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:24:00 +0000 http://www.vectorstorm.org/?p=219#comment-268 I described that monsters per unit-of-space thing poorly. Ex: I have no idea what your internal scale is, but lets say a small zone is 50units, and a large one is 200units. If the slider is at 3, then it spawns one monster per 3 units of space (thus the small zone gets 16-17 monsters (depending on rounding) and the big one gets 66-67 monsters, spread out randomly among its area. And this would give it that even look cross-zones. I described that monsters per unit-of-space thing poorly.

Ex:
I have no idea what your internal scale is, but lets say a small zone is 50units, and a large one is 200units. If the slider is at 3, then it spawns one monster per 3 units of space (thus the small zone gets 16-17 monsters (depending on rounding) and the big one gets 66-67 monsters, spread out randomly among its area. And this would give it that even look cross-zones.

]]> By: CogDissident http://www.vectorstorm.org/2008/08/01/mmorpg-design-challenges/comment-page-1/#comment-267 CogDissident Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:05:06 +0000 http://www.vectorstorm.org/?p=219#comment-267 You could continue with the slider for "monster density" and simply have that relate to how many monsters per unit-of-space. Making big regions have many more monsters, and smaller regions have less (giving the game a more uniform look in terms of monsters). That way it would encourage players to place towns and structures in smaller zones (because they have less monsters and thus can support more players), and try to coerce players to go monster-hunting in the bigger zones farther away from towns. It handles the micromanagement issue (just one global slider), and adds a rather transparent level of depth (easy to understand and take advantage of). Keeping the 300 creatures/players per zone is good though, this would just work alongside it. You could continue with the slider for “monster density” and simply have that relate to how many monsters per unit-of-space. Making big regions have many more monsters, and smaller regions have less (giving the game a more uniform look in terms of monsters). That way it would encourage players to place towns and structures in smaller zones (because they have less monsters and thus can support more players), and try to coerce players to go monster-hunting in the bigger zones farther away from towns.

It handles the micromanagement issue (just one global slider), and adds a rather transparent level of depth (easy to understand and take advantage of). Keeping the 300 creatures/players per zone is good though, this would just work alongside it.

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