The Shartak Wiki - User contributions [en]

Suggestions:Miscellaneous

2006-03-30T19:21:07Z

Richard Rose:

Suggestions:Skills

2006-03-30T19:17:01Z

Richard Rose: /* Plunder */

{| cellpadding=10 align=right
| __TOC__
|}

{{Suggestionsnav}}

Suggestions for Shartak are always welcome, although there's no guarantee that anything will be added. Comments on or modifications for any of the suggestions below can be added by editing this page. Please be considerate and don't just remove ideas that you don't like.

Begin a new item with a * and "sign" your suggestions using <nowiki>-- ~~~~</nowiki> so we know who to blame ;)

Bug reports should go on the [[Bugs]] page.

This is the suggestions page for [[Skills]]. See also the [[Suggestions]] page for other suggestions.

== Skills ==

===Planting/agriculture===
Both outsiders and natives with this skill should be able to plant trees (mango, banana) on fertile land. By clearing away jungle, and applying an example of the fruit of the tree you wish to plant, you could sow the seed. A tree of that type would then sprout X days later. This would open up for plantation, and help feed the villages/settlements. --[[User:DKChannelboredom|DKChannelboredom]] (2 March)

''Comments''
:Interesting idea, perhaps only a chance that a tree will grow, and to ensure a tree grows you have to plant a certain number of fruit of the same kind on the same block. Of course, does this mean that existing trees should occasionally die off, say if they get surrounded by 8 blocks of highest density jungle and the tree block is also highest density jungle.. maybe explained as something to do with lack of sunlight reaching the tree because of the amount of jungle around it. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 09:47, 2 March 2006 (GMT)
::Why not treat existing trees and planted trees separately? My initial thought is that if I did not have this skill, I would still like the opportunity to gather resources from a dependable source. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Weapon Skills ===
The Warrior/Soldiers class should get weapon skills, like spear skills for the warrior and rifle skills for the soldier, make the soldiers skills make the rifle have better to hit then the natives spear but the rifle requires the searching of ammo, this makes the difference between natives and outsiders warrior classes more than the blowpipe and rifle (blowpipes do 1 less damage) EDIT: I ahnotice that the outsiders do indeed have rifle training, freshly added to the wiki I guess.-- [[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 11:07, 17 February 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''

We have been doing some research(see the talk page in character classes) and it appears that warriors are no better at fighting(unless you count 10 extra hp as being really great) than any other class, correct me if I'm wrong but if there is no warrior only fighting skill what makes them warriors and not shamans w/ blowpipes(pardon the pun but they "blow") and +10hp? and if that is all they are how come soilders get extra skills? -- [[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 02:55, 3 March 2006 (GMT)

Also, if you've got a machete and the three melee skills, there's never any point in using a blowpipe (unless you've got 1AP left and a victim with only 4HP remaining). There should be a skill that increases the chances of hitting with a blowpipe, to at least 30% - especially since you have to search for darts. Viveca Lindfors, 6 March 2006, 17:25 GMT

It should be over 30% as even at that it still makes blowpipes worse than the heavy sword(which while apparently being really rare itdoesn't mean everybody can't search and find one and 5 dam 45%[2.25 dam/ap] outclasses even 4 dam, search ammo, 2ap per shot, 80%![approaxamitly 1.6 dam/ap not counting search ap] anyday, hell the heavy sword is the uberest weapon in the game![the rifle is 5 dam, 1.5 ap/shot,60%=2dam/ap not counting searching!]) I think you should at least be able to make them have the same to hit as the rifle, It would be balanced by the fact you can only load a single dart at a time(i think),they have lower damage, but you can find darts in more places (check the regular search odds page you'll see they were found in d10 jungle!) I could see this fact alone justify the lower damage and single shot load, but not the lower to hit chance. Unless of course poison darts actually poison(has anybody checked this out?) then I see why they have a low to hit, you can dart somebody, run away then they would die trying to find you, But even if they do poison, outsiders can use them too(with a skill) so I still believe native warriors should be more effective at darting then any other class to balance the superiority of rifles.But all in all problems are solved if blowpipes get some skills to raise to hit% and the heavy sword is removed for being too uber(just cause it is rare doesn't mean we all can't/won't find it!) --[[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 23:09, 9 March 2006 (GMT)

Maybe there can be a skill to create blowpipe darts (with poison berries or snakes)

=== Tracking ===
Anyone with the Tracking skill should be able to track where people have gone, either generic "A native passed by here recently" or more specific "Average Joe left heading north 2 days ago".

''Comments''
* Should probably be a timelimit so you don't see "Average Joe left heading north 90 days ago". - [[User:Snarf|Snarf]]
*Could work for animals, too. How many times have you logged off near an animal, planning to pounce on it when you have more AP, only to find that, in that time, it's moved? The worst part is that it's never actually moved far; no, it definitely just moved a few squares in some direction, and you have no idea which. I like this skill idea.--[[User:Wifey|Wifey]] 01:50, 30 March 2006 (BST)

=== Religious Devotion ===
Required to use "Holy Scriptures" --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 23:22, 16 February 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''

=== Jungle Skills ===
The jungle environment has great potential to add significant dynamic to this game. These could be a set of skills to reflect this.
: Jungle Lore: Player has x% chance of discovering item/artifact. Might work in conjunction with search skill.
: Make/Detect Traps: Spikes, Pits etc... Not sure this is possible and what would be need to time degrade this.[[User:Nankilstlas|Nankilstlas]]
: Some kind of "hiding" skill where you can spend AP to conceal yourself in fauna, so you can't be seen by passersby. Visually, it could take the form of "reforesting" a block to dark green, and someone who chops through would "uncover" you, perhaps getting some XP? --[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 19:34, 25 February 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
:: A 'trapping' skill looks like it would be exploited by greifers (surrounding someone with traps, for example), but I like the 'Hiding' and 'Jungle Lore' ideas.--[[User:Grigoriy|Grigoriy]] 02:26, 26 February 2006 (GMT)
:: The hiding skill shouldn't conceal you from animals or someone with the Sixth Sense, Exploration, or Jungle Lore skills, otherwise the player would be invincible.--[[User:Grigoriy|Grigoriy]] 21:15, 27 February 2006 (GMT)
:::Agreed, hostile animals should be able to sniff out hidden players, and Sixth Sense makes sense as well. Hidden players have to remain motionless to stay hidden, using items, searching, etc, would "unhide" the person. I was also thinking how the "reforesting" aspect could be abused to create vast areas that needed to be chopped down, so maybe a player could only hide in an already dark green area, (getting a message like ''there is not enough foliage to suitable hide in'' when trying in a cleared area) limiting its effect somewhat, and creating a little extra tension when on the run from someone and trying to find an overgrown area to hide in. --[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 22:37, 27 February 2006 (GMT)
:::: I like the hiding skill, maybe with different AP required depending on jungle density. Also, first hidden could make you invisible from 2 squares away, while hiding further would hide you from any adjacent square, and a third hide would keep you hidden on the same square unless they chopped. --[[User:Qberry|Qberry]] 3/29/06
::::like the hiding thing as well, maybe it could work in that if you use it then you are only visible if they are in the same square as you? it would certainly keep you quite hidden anyway. -- [[User: fitzcarraldo|fitzcarraldo]]|[[User talk:fitzcarraldo|T]] 15:42, 28 March 2006 (BST)

=== Skinning ===
This is a skill that does not have a pre-requisite. Upon coming across an area where a dead animal is present, the player is given an opportunity to skin the animal. The process of skinning costs 1 AP and has a chance of producing items such as '''Animal Hide''' or '''Animal Tooth''' or '''Animal Feathers'''. These items can be traded to an NPC found in villages and exchanged for Gold Coins. This skill should be available to all classes to grant them all with an equal opportunity of earning Gold. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 21:48, 23 February 2006 (GMT)
* Extend skinning to killed players? No, that's just wrong. We are civilized.
* Make skinning have a pre-requisite of '''Exploration'''? Perhaps.
* Make skinning always produce an item, rather than chance? No, I like a good challenge.
* Perhaps it could be tied to the Meat suggestion? Possibly.

''Comments''
* Good idea, perhaps natives don't have a pre-requisite, but outsiders need exploration? *cough* --[[User:Grigoriy|Grigoriy]] 02:12, 26 February 2006 (GMT)
** While that may be a more realistic way to handle it - since natives would conceivably be more experienced with such matters - I think that changing the skill tree for such a minor skill would upset the general sense of game balance between the two sides. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 02:43, 26 February 2006 (GMT)

=== Animal Spirit ===
(native only) Upon gaining this skill, an animal type is associated with the player. Any attacks by the player on that animal result in negative xp, but the animal is less likely to attack the player. Additionally, if the player dons the skin of the animal (perhaps via the Skinning skill) then a bonus is given to the player, such as faster movement, hit bonus, damage bonus. Bonus could be dependant on animal. Upon player death, there is a chance the player's animal spirit will change. --frisco

''Comments''

=== Build Training ===
(Outsiders only) They gain the ability to build walls around the outsider settlements. There would be different levels like reinforced, light, massive, etc. Whoever can attack them and destroy them. Maybe there would be a skill for building gates? --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 03:33, 1 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* Natives should be able to make walls too - think King Kong, plus if there are native ruins on this island, then they must still have some decent construction knowledge lingering around. However, Outsiders should have an "Advanced" skill that allows for stronger walls. --[[User:Frisco|Frisco]] 04:41, 1 March 2006 (GMT)
:Yes, any human should be able to build, and they should ONLY be able to build in certain areas, so as not to have some group lay claim to a section of the island with key resources (assuming there are some). Also, it should take a LOT of AP. --[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 00:18, 2 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Trap Laying ===
(Native only) They can place one time use traps that dmg outsiders only. This skill can only be used in the jungle. Maybe a skill to be able to detect traps? --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 03:36, 1 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* Again i'm thinking Outsiders could make traps too - some of them must have been hunters in the Old Country - but perhaps an Advanced skill for natives, leading to higher success rate, since they are more used to the environment. This skill seems dangerous, though, possibly leading to clans just laying traps in every single square of jungle, making it ridiculous for the other side. Perhaps a trap can only be made in certain jungle types, and only lasts until the jungle changes in level (either growing up naturally or down by the same character type chopping it). --[[User:Frisco|Frisco]] 04:53, 1 March 2006 (GMT)
:This was already proposed in the "jungle skills" section. I agree, it seem too easy to abuse by griefers.--[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 00:18, 2 March 2006 (GMT)

===Comment Cartography===
Applies to Natives & Outsiders, most likely best applied only to the classes, scouts & explorers. I am thinking that it would be great to get more out of the map. This skill would allow those who have it to be able to add a limited number of short comments to their maps. These comments could work as references so as to be able to use the map to help find points of interest at some other time. I could see this probably difficult to implement, but perhaps it could work in that one could click in a quadrant on the map which would reload the page and allow you to add a text comment / description to a form. This text comment on a save would place a reference number on that quadrant of the map and the text would be listed to the right or below the map with accompanying reference number. -- [[User: fitzcarraldo|fitzcarraldo]]|[[User talk:fitzcarraldo|T]] 17:05, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
*This is a great idea, I am not an explorer/scout but I am all for class-specific skills, that are in character, because as of right now there aren't too many differences(which I'm guessing will change.-- [[User:Daylan|Daylan]]00:37, 10 March 2006 (GMT)

*I think this is a great idea too, and very much the way a real cartogragher would operate, making small notations as they explored and surveyed.--[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 00:49, 10 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Revive skill ===
Applies to doctors and shamans, a skill to revive spirits, would require Sixth sense (obviously). It is simple enough premis: a skill that revives dead players similar to the regular shamans instead of requiring them to go to town shamans, the revive players aren't as skilled at the craft so the revived players would have only 80% of there hp when revived by other players. --[[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 00:43, 10 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* Does raise a risk of multi-abuse, but I agree that player shamen should have this ability. Maybe it requires a special powder or item in order to do?--[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 00:49, 10 March 2006 (GMT)
* I am trying to think of some cost right now but can't decide. I do know that the xp gain rate should be comparable to fighting(and healing when there are more players) so players will want to be a revive player. --[[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 01:41, 10 March 2006 (GMT)
*I don't like the idea of Doctors getting the ability to revive the dead, but that's definitely within the rights of a shaman. Sixth Sense as a requirement, and you must be standing in the same area as a spirit. Give either a 100% chance to work and a relatively high AP cost (10?) or a lower chance to work and lower AP cost. Blam. There you go. Player shamans can now do their part.--[[User:Wifey|Wifey]] 07:18, 28 March 2006 (BST)

===Polymorph===
Requires Animal Spirit. Allows character to take the form of an animal. Perhaps one skill per animal, and each transform requires the use of an (AP expensive) animal mask. Upon transforming, people around you cannot tell it is you. If you die as an animal, you turn back to human, having lost half the HP the animal lost. To allow polymorph for outsiders, maybe a skill like "Ancient Reading" with the presumption that this allows them to read the right glyphs in the ruins would give them the ability to learn this skill. --[[User:Frisco|Frisco]] 03:52, 10 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* I like the idea of having some kind of weird supernatural kind of skill for the natives... But, I think that if you get killed while in animal form, you should be dead and have to seek the assistance of a shaman. Because all the natives would do when logging out is morph into an elephant. That's a boat load of HP for someone to whittle down and kill, only to have the human pop out and have to be hacked away at. Granted, nobody will KNOW outright that the person has assumed the guise of an animal. Would you propose that if someone "kills" the animal form they get the XP bonus of killing an animal? -- [[User:Schmeckel|Schmeckel]] 06:09, 11 March 2006 (GMT)
*Special masks that turn you into animals? They'd need to be quite hard to make, maybe special wood from a certain type of tree, a bit of the animal and something to stick it together. It'd have to be harder to get the ones for better animals. [[User:MorkaisChosen|MorkaisChosen]] 12:19, 11 March 2006 (GMT)

===Will o' the Wisp===
Type: Skill addition 
Scope: Spirits (all classes) 
Will o' the Wisp (can't think of another name) is a potentially simple skill to give a little more incentive to play as a spirit for a bit. It is a sub-skill of '''Ghostly whisper'''. If a player possesses this skill, then as a spirit they will have an option to "Wisp" for 30 AP. Wisping operates on a similar mechanic as the Flare guns and Feeding groans in Urban Dead. Any players posessing '''Sixth Sense''' within a 5x5 range of the spirit will be informed: ''A faint flicker of light catches your eye (x blocks east/west), (y blocks north/south). (timestamp)''.

This skill also has the potential to stack. More spirits on the same square will produce a brighter effect. Possibly in base 5. Ranging from faint flicker, slight illumination, to brilliant flash.

Fixes that I made last minute: reduced the Wisp range and upped the Wisp cost in an attempt to reduce spamming, also making Sixth Sense a prerequisite for recognizing Wisps as it would otherwise nerf the skill to a degree. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 07:53, 25 March 2006 (GMT)

* I like it. The AP cost might be a bit on the high side, but there may be other alternatives to reduce spamming. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 10:44, 25 March 2006 (GMT)
* What's the point of it? Or is there something I'm missing? I mean, is it just to light up for kicks? Wll o' the Wisps in folklore always attempted to lead travellers into dangerous parts of bogs, where they would find their doom. Since that isn't really an option (and since people, noticing this, would just stop paying attention to them), is there any practical use for this? Still neat, if there isn't, but better if there is.--[[User:Wifey|Wifey]] 07:25, 28 March 2006 (BST)
** As a Shaman with Sixth Sense, I've only come across 1 spirit. I sought a means to encourage the realm of the living and the dead to interact more. It is admitedly mostly aimed towards flavor and roleplaying than mechanics. The most practical application would be to attract people to revive points (in the possibility that they are created). In retrospect, I now see that this suggestion overlaps with the '''Haunting Scream''' description to a fair degree. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:33, 28 March 2006 (BST)
::* Does it overlap? I haven't seen a Haunting Scream in action, yet. I'm all for flavor and RP skills, I just doubt that people woud bother with them too often without some mechanical benefit, which would be a shame. I'll admit, though, that I hadn't thought of attracting shamans to get yourself revived.--[[User:Wifey|Wifey]] 06:48, 29 March 2006 (BST)

===Construction===
construction points, would be implemented and would act like exp, but players earn it by setting up camp, ex: 5exp everytime a player sets up his/her cabin, costs 10ap to set up, to keep from spamming and getting free exp.
*'''construction'''allow players to build 1(one) single hut per GAME that is collapsable, non collapsable, players out in the jungle would have to cut down the jungle to re-construct the hut
this would give players a reason to stay out in the jungle,

simply what it says, first off, we could/should have different buildings because i find it annoying to have to look around at the same picture not knowing where the trading post is. im implying that new icons be put in for huts, like the pirate ship, have different pictures, ex:
there is an armory hut, it's icon would be a hut with a silver tip/ sword on the roof
and etc...

SKILLS:
*'''hut maitenance'''
can change hut 1(one) time into another kind of hut ex: armory hut, extra chance of finding wpns etc
**'''cupboard''' accesible inventory in hut that players can "lock" and recieve a "key" item, other players could break open the "lock" for x amount of AP
*'''bed''' players in hut are shown the "get into bed" option which heals 2 hp every hour they arent logged in
**'''fluffy bed''' heals and extra 1-2 hp
*'''running water'''
if the hut is within x amount of squares to water, they can refill gourds and bottles (i think someone suggested we keep empty bottles, this would require that to be implemented)
*'''fire-pit''' players can cook meat (as suggested, only used if implemented)
*'''craftmanship'''players can see the hut's creator, ex: Richard's Hut, if skill isnt aquired, players see the hut as "dishevelled hut" or "ragged hut" etc.
*'''hut upgrade 1''' hut is given one extra ring of squares
**'''hut upgrade 2''' hut is given extra floor
***'''hut upgrade 3''' hut second floor is enlarged, door locks are given
****'''hut upgrade 4''' hut is given a basement

the use of hut upgrades is to help people hide, when upgrade 3 is given, and locks are attained, players can "lock" their houses up, requiring a devastating amount of AP to open, suggesting around 60-70 AP

*'''house trap 1''' spike trap, inflicts 1 wound
**'''house trap 2''' heavy spike trap, 1 wound and 3 dmg
*'''house trap 3''' blast trap, 7 hp
**'''house trap 4''' heavy blast trap 14 hp

traps are triggered upon breaking into a house, players can attain a new skill:
*'''lockpick''' breaking in only costs 30 AP
with this skill, traps are disabled

*'''animal cage'''
if animal trapping were implemented, then this would keep them from running away when u died,
**'''animal care''' animal care section of the house, determining your pet's status ex:
Richard clicks the button "give pet food" mr whiskers smiles and gobbles it up. it could also just be flavor text, and a way to get rid of meat.
*'''attack animal'''
player buys skill animal now acts like trap, player types in names of people allowed to be in house, anyone not on the list is attacked by animal, animal is treated as "wild" to intruders, as per, it will follow them several blocks away from the house before returning, and can be killed, but is also agressive no matter what breed. ex: mr.parrot attack john doe for 2 dammage and returns home.
**'''rabidity''' animal is now "rabid" and has a 20% chance of "infecting" (wound) the intruding player

other tidings can be added, ex:
*'''taxidermy''' players can pick up dead bodies and mount them in their house ex:
in the second story of richard's hut is a grey elephant head, mounted on oak

my finale,
*'''garden''' allows players to plant a tree/ bush 1 square away from their house, planting requires, 5 of the said fruit and the plants disappear when the hut is packed up, players also have the ability to "kill" the plant and re-grow a different one.
**'''green thumb''' allows players to garden for only 3 fruits
**'''verdant thumb''' allows players to change to growths around their house, ex: a house surrounded by dirt can be changed to light undergrouwth or heavy forest
**'''spade''' allows player to dig a "cellar" 1-3 squares away from house to "hide" or store items.
skill also allows players to loacte any tunnels within 5X5 of the checked area. players can only check within a 3X3 area around the house

house experience does not raise everytime a skill is bought, but the price is set at 100-200 (your choice)

"comments Below"

Sounds like it would be a good idea if the island was bigger but otherwise a 3x3 would be gigantic if everyone had one--[[User:Slith|Slith]] 21:40, 29 March 2006 (BST)
*not really, but the huts are still the same single square size on the outside, it is the inside that changes. --[[User:Richard Rose|Richard Rose]]

I think it would be better to implement this skill while implementing clans - i.e. having clan camps. One way to implement this would be to establish camp/ a hut automatically when a certain number of players from a given clan stand on a single square. This would reward organization and prevent individual players from spamming.

===Plunder===
{{suggestion|
suggest_time=07:15, 30 March 2006 (BST)|
suggest_type=Skill|
suggest_scope=Pirates|
suggest_description=So. Pirates have been added, at long last. We all love pirates. They're swarthy, greedy people. Like mobsters, only with eyepatches, bandanas, peg legs, parrots, and the clap. There's something lacking in the pirates on Shartak, though. To get a better idea of this, let's look at the check list.

[x] 1. Pirate ship

[x] 2. Swarthy attitude

[x] 3. Pirate lingo

[x] 4. Murder

[ ] 5. Plunder

Aha! So we've identified the problem: a distinct lack of plunder. For this reason, I've come up with the idea for a plunderin' skill. Now, when you kill some poor sap, you take one coin out of his inventory per level--his level, that is. This keeps it a little balanced, in that you won't be taking away the life savings of some poor little level 1 when you kil him. Unless he happens to have only 1 coin, but that's neither here nor there. Now, of course, if you kill a level 5 who only has 4 coins, you'll only get those 4 coins. If he has 6 coins, however, you'll only get 5 of them.

Is it overpowering pirates to give them this class-restricted skill? Not really. I mean, despite being a combat class, they can't really get any good with rifles. Pretty much all of their kills are made with a cutlass. And what's the real usage of the gold coins? Typically, to buy ammunition. Obviously, the pirates won't be using it on that, as they're terrible shots. They'll just buy themselves some medical supplies, some back-up weapons, and hoard the rest. I can't say I know that many players who hold onto the coins, anyways, though I'm sure there must be some. Still, they generally tend to be spent pretty quickly. Really, I just think that this could lend pirates a little more depth; sure, they're fellow outsiders, but can you trust them? How quickly will they cut your throat for you wallet?

So... Thoughts? Agreement? Death threats?|
suggest_author=[[User:Wifey|Wifey]]|
suggest_comments=

*'''Keep/Change''' (Yarr) I agree that this fits with theme and perhaps rightfully rewards Pirates in that they do not have a Trader NPC at the shipwreck (at least that was the case when I left it several days ago). And I'm glad that this is being presented as a purchasable skill (I believe?) rather than an inherent one. I do generally follow one of the basic tenets of UD - "Don't <del>Tread On Me</del> Mess With My Inventory!" But gold appears to have become fairly plentiful with the Trader NPC; having more gold than your current level is a fairly easy feat and losing gold won't lead to an entirely unpleasant gaming experience. However, I would like a few more mechanics set in place to minimize the avenues to zerging, griefing, and general abuse that this suggestion would open up. The only simple amendment I can think of may be to give '''Plunder''' a percent chance of success. Perhaps allowing for degrees of advanced plundering skills. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 20:07, 30 March 2006 (BST)
i agree with both of them, and with you, id love to see this flavor added, and the trader NPC at the pirate camp has yet to be found, so they would have to go to another village to use it. the closest village (where my pirate is) is dalpok, which, is, as you know native. this hostility would mean pirates would REALLY have to work to hoard medical supplies and weapons, thusly this would be well balanced. i also want to discuss the % success rate. as pirates are VERY good at "plundering" the % chance success rate should start at a reasonably high %, such as 50% and above. as putting it any lower would simply be ridiculous. there could be several level ups to raise the % but if there are no advanced levels then i suggest putting the starting % at around 75%
--[[User:Richard Rose|Richard Rose]]


}}

Suggestions:Skills

2006-03-29T23:00:21Z

Richard Rose: /* Construction */

{| cellpadding=10 align=right
| __TOC__
|}

{{Suggestionsnav}}

Suggestions for Shartak are always welcome, although there's no guarantee that anything will be added. Comments on or modifications for any of the suggestions below can be added by editing this page. Please be considerate and don't just remove ideas that you don't like.

Begin a new item with a * and "sign" your suggestions using <nowiki>-- ~~~~</nowiki> so we know who to blame ;)

Bug reports should go on the [[Bugs]] page.

This is the suggestions page for [[Skills]]. See also the [[Suggestions]] page for other suggestions.

== Skills ==

===Planting/agriculture===
Both outsiders and natives with this skill should be able to plant trees (mango, banana) on fertile land. By clearing away jungle, and applying an example of the fruit of the tree you wish to plant, you could sow the seed. A tree of that type would then sprout X days later. This would open up for plantation, and help feed the villages/settlements. --[[User:DKChannelboredom|DKChannelboredom]] (2 March)

''Comments''
:Interesting idea, perhaps only a chance that a tree will grow, and to ensure a tree grows you have to plant a certain number of fruit of the same kind on the same block. Of course, does this mean that existing trees should occasionally die off, say if they get surrounded by 8 blocks of highest density jungle and the tree block is also highest density jungle.. maybe explained as something to do with lack of sunlight reaching the tree because of the amount of jungle around it. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 09:47, 2 March 2006 (GMT)
::Why not treat existing trees and planted trees separately? My initial thought is that if I did not have this skill, I would still like the opportunity to gather resources from a dependable source. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Weapon Skills ===
The Warrior/Soldiers class should get weapon skills, like spear skills for the warrior and rifle skills for the soldier, make the soldiers skills make the rifle have better to hit then the natives spear but the rifle requires the searching of ammo, this makes the difference between natives and outsiders warrior classes more than the blowpipe and rifle (blowpipes do 1 less damage) EDIT: I ahnotice that the outsiders do indeed have rifle training, freshly added to the wiki I guess.-- [[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 11:07, 17 February 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''

We have been doing some research(see the talk page in character classes) and it appears that warriors are no better at fighting(unless you count 10 extra hp as being really great) than any other class, correct me if I'm wrong but if there is no warrior only fighting skill what makes them warriors and not shamans w/ blowpipes(pardon the pun but they "blow") and +10hp? and if that is all they are how come soilders get extra skills? -- [[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 02:55, 3 March 2006 (GMT)

Also, if you've got a machete and the three melee skills, there's never any point in using a blowpipe (unless you've got 1AP left and a victim with only 4HP remaining). There should be a skill that increases the chances of hitting with a blowpipe, to at least 30% - especially since you have to search for darts. Viveca Lindfors, 6 March 2006, 17:25 GMT

It should be over 30% as even at that it still makes blowpipes worse than the heavy sword(which while apparently being really rare itdoesn't mean everybody can't search and find one and 5 dam 45%[2.25 dam/ap] outclasses even 4 dam, search ammo, 2ap per shot, 80%![approaxamitly 1.6 dam/ap not counting search ap] anyday, hell the heavy sword is the uberest weapon in the game![the rifle is 5 dam, 1.5 ap/shot,60%=2dam/ap not counting searching!]) I think you should at least be able to make them have the same to hit as the rifle, It would be balanced by the fact you can only load a single dart at a time(i think),they have lower damage, but you can find darts in more places (check the regular search odds page you'll see they were found in d10 jungle!) I could see this fact alone justify the lower damage and single shot load, but not the lower to hit chance. Unless of course poison darts actually poison(has anybody checked this out?) then I see why they have a low to hit, you can dart somebody, run away then they would die trying to find you, But even if they do poison, outsiders can use them too(with a skill) so I still believe native warriors should be more effective at darting then any other class to balance the superiority of rifles.But all in all problems are solved if blowpipes get some skills to raise to hit% and the heavy sword is removed for being too uber(just cause it is rare doesn't mean we all can't/won't find it!) --[[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 23:09, 9 March 2006 (GMT)

Maybe there can be a skill to create blowpipe darts (with poison berries or snakes)

=== Tracking ===
Anyone with the Tracking skill should be able to track where people have gone, either generic "A native passed by here recently" or more specific "Average Joe left heading north 2 days ago".

''Comments''
* Should probably be a timelimit so you don't see "Average Joe left heading north 90 days ago". - [[User:Snarf|Snarf]]

=== Religious Devotion ===
Required to use "Holy Scriptures" --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 23:22, 16 February 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''

=== Jungle Skills ===
The jungle environment has great potential to add significant dynamic to this game. These could be a set of skills to reflect this.
: Jungle Lore: Player has x% chance of discovering item/artifact. Might work in conjunction with search skill.
: Make/Detect Traps: Spikes, Pits etc... Not sure this is possible and what would be need to time degrade this.[[User:Nankilstlas|Nankilstlas]]
: Some kind of "hiding" skill where you can spend AP to conceal yourself in fauna, so you can't be seen by passersby. Visually, it could take the form of "reforesting" a block to dark green, and someone who chops through would "uncover" you, perhaps getting some XP? --[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 19:34, 25 February 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
:: A 'trapping' skill looks like it would be exploited by greifers (surrounding someone with traps, for example), but I like the 'Hiding' and 'Jungle Lore' ideas.--[[User:Grigoriy|Grigoriy]] 02:26, 26 February 2006 (GMT)
:: The hiding skill shouldn't conceal you from animals or someone with the Sixth Sense, Exploration, or Jungle Lore skills, otherwise the player would be invincible.--[[User:Grigoriy|Grigoriy]] 21:15, 27 February 2006 (GMT)
:::Agreed, hostile animals should be able to sniff out hidden players, and Sixth Sense makes sense as well. Hidden players have to remain motionless to stay hidden, using items, searching, etc, would "unhide" the person. I was also thinking how the "reforesting" aspect could be abused to create vast areas that needed to be chopped down, so maybe a player could only hide in an already dark green area, (getting a message like ''there is not enough foliage to suitable hide in'' when trying in a cleared area) limiting its effect somewhat, and creating a little extra tension when on the run from someone and trying to find an overgrown area to hide in. --[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 22:37, 27 February 2006 (GMT)
:::: I like the hiding skill, maybe with different AP required depending on jungle density. Also, first hidden could make you invisible from 2 squares away, while hiding further would hide you from any adjacent square, and a third hide would keep you hidden on the same square unless they chopped. --[[User:Qberry|Qberry]] 3/29/06
::::like the hiding thing as well, maybe it could work in that if you use it then you are only visible if they are in the same square as you? it would certainly keep you quite hidden anyway. -- [[User: fitzcarraldo|fitzcarraldo]]|[[User talk:fitzcarraldo|T]] 15:42, 28 March 2006 (BST)

=== Skinning ===
This is a skill that does not have a pre-requisite. Upon coming across an area where a dead animal is present, the player is given an opportunity to skin the animal. The process of skinning costs 1 AP and has a chance of producing items such as '''Animal Hide''' or '''Animal Tooth''' or '''Animal Feathers'''. These items can be traded to an NPC found in villages and exchanged for Gold Coins. This skill should be available to all classes to grant them all with an equal opportunity of earning Gold. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 21:48, 23 February 2006 (GMT)
* Extend skinning to killed players? No, that's just wrong. We are civilized.
* Make skinning have a pre-requisite of '''Exploration'''? Perhaps.
* Make skinning always produce an item, rather than chance? No, I like a good challenge.
* Perhaps it could be tied to the Meat suggestion? Possibly.

''Comments''
* Good idea, perhaps natives don't have a pre-requisite, but outsiders need exploration? *cough* --[[User:Grigoriy|Grigoriy]] 02:12, 26 February 2006 (GMT)
** While that may be a more realistic way to handle it - since natives would conceivably be more experienced with such matters - I think that changing the skill tree for such a minor skill would upset the general sense of game balance between the two sides. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 02:43, 26 February 2006 (GMT)

=== Animal Spirit ===
(native only) Upon gaining this skill, an animal type is associated with the player. Any attacks by the player on that animal result in negative xp, but the animal is less likely to attack the player. Additionally, if the player dons the skin of the animal (perhaps via the Skinning skill) then a bonus is given to the player, such as faster movement, hit bonus, damage bonus. Bonus could be dependant on animal. Upon player death, there is a chance the player's animal spirit will change. --frisco

''Comments''

=== Build Training ===
(Outsiders only) They gain the ability to build walls around the outsider settlements. There would be different levels like reinforced, light, massive, etc. Whoever can attack them and destroy them. Maybe there would be a skill for building gates? --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 03:33, 1 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* Natives should be able to make walls too - think King Kong, plus if there are native ruins on this island, then they must still have some decent construction knowledge lingering around. However, Outsiders should have an "Advanced" skill that allows for stronger walls. --[[User:Frisco|Frisco]] 04:41, 1 March 2006 (GMT)
:Yes, any human should be able to build, and they should ONLY be able to build in certain areas, so as not to have some group lay claim to a section of the island with key resources (assuming there are some). Also, it should take a LOT of AP. --[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 00:18, 2 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Trap Laying ===
(Native only) They can place one time use traps that dmg outsiders only. This skill can only be used in the jungle. Maybe a skill to be able to detect traps? --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 03:36, 1 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* Again i'm thinking Outsiders could make traps too - some of them must have been hunters in the Old Country - but perhaps an Advanced skill for natives, leading to higher success rate, since they are more used to the environment. This skill seems dangerous, though, possibly leading to clans just laying traps in every single square of jungle, making it ridiculous for the other side. Perhaps a trap can only be made in certain jungle types, and only lasts until the jungle changes in level (either growing up naturally or down by the same character type chopping it). --[[User:Frisco|Frisco]] 04:53, 1 March 2006 (GMT)
:This was already proposed in the "jungle skills" section. I agree, it seem too easy to abuse by griefers.--[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 00:18, 2 March 2006 (GMT)

===Comment Cartography===
Applies to Natives & Outsiders, most likely best applied only to the classes, scouts & explorers. I am thinking that it would be great to get more out of the map. This skill would allow those who have it to be able to add a limited number of short comments to their maps. These comments could work as references so as to be able to use the map to help find points of interest at some other time. I could see this probably difficult to implement, but perhaps it could work in that one could click in a quadrant on the map which would reload the page and allow you to add a text comment / description to a form. This text comment on a save would place a reference number on that quadrant of the map and the text would be listed to the right or below the map with accompanying reference number. -- [[User: fitzcarraldo|fitzcarraldo]]|[[User talk:fitzcarraldo|T]] 17:05, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
*This is a great idea, I am not an explorer/scout but I am all for class-specific skills, that are in character, because as of right now there aren't too many differences(which I'm guessing will change.-- [[User:Daylan|Daylan]]00:37, 10 March 2006 (GMT)

*I think this is a great idea too, and very much the way a real cartogragher would operate, making small notations as they explored and surveyed.--[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 00:49, 10 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Revive skill ===
Applies to doctors and shamans, a skill to revive spirits, would require Sixth sense (obviously). It is simple enough premis: a skill that revives dead players similar to the regular shamans instead of requiring them to go to town shamans, the revive players aren't as skilled at the craft so the revived players would have only 80% of there hp when revived by other players. --[[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 00:43, 10 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* Does raise a risk of multi-abuse, but I agree that player shamen should have this ability. Maybe it requires a special powder or item in order to do?--[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 00:49, 10 March 2006 (GMT)
* I am trying to think of some cost right now but can't decide. I do know that the xp gain rate should be comparable to fighting(and healing when there are more players) so players will want to be a revive player. --[[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 01:41, 10 March 2006 (GMT)
*I don't like the idea of Doctors getting the ability to revive the dead, but that's definitely within the rights of a shaman. Sixth Sense as a requirement, and you must be standing in the same area as a spirit. Give either a 100% chance to work and a relatively high AP cost (10?) or a lower chance to work and lower AP cost. Blam. There you go. Player shamans can now do their part.--[[User:Wifey|Wifey]] 07:18, 28 March 2006 (BST)

===Polymorph===
Requires Animal Spirit. Allows character to take the form of an animal. Perhaps one skill per animal, and each transform requires the use of an (AP expensive) animal mask. Upon transforming, people around you cannot tell it is you. If you die as an animal, you turn back to human, having lost half the HP the animal lost. To allow polymorph for outsiders, maybe a skill like "Ancient Reading" with the presumption that this allows them to read the right glyphs in the ruins would give them the ability to learn this skill. --[[User:Frisco|Frisco]] 03:52, 10 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* I like the idea of having some kind of weird supernatural kind of skill for the natives... But, I think that if you get killed while in animal form, you should be dead and have to seek the assistance of a shaman. Because all the natives would do when logging out is morph into an elephant. That's a boat load of HP for someone to whittle down and kill, only to have the human pop out and have to be hacked away at. Granted, nobody will KNOW outright that the person has assumed the guise of an animal. Would you propose that if someone "kills" the animal form they get the XP bonus of killing an animal? -- [[User:Schmeckel|Schmeckel]] 06:09, 11 March 2006 (GMT)
*Special masks that turn you into animals? They'd need to be quite hard to make, maybe special wood from a certain type of tree, a bit of the animal and something to stick it together. It'd have to be harder to get the ones for better animals. [[User:MorkaisChosen|MorkaisChosen]] 12:19, 11 March 2006 (GMT)

===Will o' the Wisp===
Type: Skill addition 
Scope: Spirits (all classes) 
Will o' the Wisp (can't think of another name) is a potentially simple skill to give a little more incentive to play as a spirit for a bit. It is a sub-skill of '''Ghostly whisper'''. If a player possesses this skill, then as a spirit they will have an option to "Wisp" for 30 AP. Wisping operates on a similar mechanic as the Flare guns and Feeding groans in Urban Dead. Any players posessing '''Sixth Sense''' within a 5x5 range of the spirit will be informed: ''A faint flicker of light catches your eye (x blocks east/west), (y blocks north/south). (timestamp)''.

This skill also has the potential to stack. More spirits on the same square will produce a brighter effect. Possibly in base 5. Ranging from faint flicker, slight illumination, to brilliant flash.

Fixes that I made last minute: reduced the Wisp range and upped the Wisp cost in an attempt to reduce spamming, also making Sixth Sense a prerequisite for recognizing Wisps as it would otherwise nerf the skill to a degree. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 07:53, 25 March 2006 (GMT)

* I like it. The AP cost might be a bit on the high side, but there may be other alternatives to reduce spamming. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 10:44, 25 March 2006 (GMT)
* What's the point of it? Or is there something I'm missing? I mean, is it just to light up for kicks? Wll o' the Wisps in folklore always attempted to lead travellers into dangerous parts of bogs, where they would find their doom. Since that isn't really an option (and since people, noticing this, would just stop paying attention to them), is there any practical use for this? Still neat, if there isn't, but better if there is.--[[User:Wifey|Wifey]] 07:25, 28 March 2006 (BST)
** As a Shaman with Sixth Sense, I've only come across 1 spirit. I sought a means to encourage the realm of the living and the dead to interact more. It is admitedly mostly aimed towards flavor and roleplaying than mechanics. The most practical application would be to attract people to revive points (in the possibility that they are created). In retrospect, I now see that this suggestion overlaps with the '''Haunting Scream''' description to a fair degree. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:33, 28 March 2006 (BST)
::* Does it overlap? I haven't seen a Haunting Scream in action, yet. I'm all for flavor and RP skills, I just doubt that people woud bother with them too often without some mechanical benefit, which would be a shame. I'll admit, though, that I hadn't thought of attracting shamans to get yourself revived.--[[User:Wifey|Wifey]] 06:48, 29 March 2006 (BST)

===Construction===
construction points, would be implemented and would act like exp, but players earn it by setting up camp, ex: 5exp everytime a player sets up his/her cabin, costs 10ap to set up, to keep from spamming and getting free exp.
*'''construction'''allow players to build 1(one) single hut per GAME that is collapsable, non collapsable, players out in the jungle would have to cut down the jungle to re-construct the hut
this would give players a reason to stay out in the jungle,

simply what it says, first off, we could/should have different buildings because i find it annoying to have to look around at the same picture not knowing where the trading post is. im implying that new icons be put in for huts, like the pirate ship, have different pictures, ex:
there is an armory hut, it's icon would be a hut with a silver tip/ sword on the roof
and etc...

SKILLS:
*'''hut maitenance'''
can change hut 1(one) time into another kind of hut ex: armory hut, extra chance of finding wpns etc
**'''cupboard''' accesible inventory in hut that players can "lock" and recieve a "key" item, other players could break open the "lock" for x amount of AP
*'''bed''' players in hut are shown the "get into bed" option which heals 2 hp every hour they arent logged in
**'''fluffy bed''' heals and extra 1-2 hp
*'''running water'''
if the hut is within x amount of squares to water, they can refill gourds and bottles (i think someone suggested we keep empty bottles, this would require that to be implemented)
*'''fire-pit''' players can cook meat (as suggested, only used if implemented)
*'''craftmanship'''players can see the hut's creator, ex: Richard's Hut, if skill isnt aquired, players see the hut as "dishevelled hut" or "ragged hut" etc.
*'''hut upgrade 1''' hut is given one extra ring of squares
**'''hut upgrade 2''' hut is given extra floor
***'''hut upgrade 3''' hut second floor is enlarged, door locks are given
****'''hut upgrade 4''' hut is given a basement

the use of hut upgrades is to help people hide, when upgrade 3 is given, and locks are attained, players can "lock" their houses up, requiring a devastating amount of AP to open, suggesting around 60-70 AP

*'''house trap 1''' spike trap, inflicts 1 wound
**'''house trap 2''' heavy spike trap, 1 wound and 3 dmg
*'''house trap 3''' blast trap, 7 hp
**'''house trap 4''' heavy blast trap 14 hp

traps are triggered upon breaking into a house, players can attain a new skill:
*'''lockpick''' breaking in only costs 30 AP
with this skill, traps are disabled

*'''animal cage'''
if animal trapping were implemented, then this would keep them from running away when u died,
**'''animal care''' animal care section of the house, determining your pet's status ex:
Richard clicks the button "give pet food" mr whiskers smiles and gobbles it up. it could also just be flavor text, and a way to get rid of meat.
*'''attack animal'''
player buys skill animal now acts like trap, player types in names of people allowed to be in house, anyone not on the list is attacked by animal, animal is treated as "wild" to intruders, as per, it will follow them several blocks away from the house before returning, and can be killed, but is also agressive no matter what breed. ex: mr.parrot attack john doe for 2 dammage and returns home.
**'''rabidity''' animal is now "rabid" and has a 20% chance of "infecting" (wound) the intruding player

other tidings can be added, ex:
*'''taxidermy''' players can pick up dead bodies and mount them in their house ex:
in the second story of richard's hut is a grey elephant head, mounted on oak

my finale,
*'''garden''' allows players to plant a tree/ bush 1 square away from their house, planting requires, 5 of the said fruit and the plants disappear when the hut is packed up, players also have the ability to "kill" the plant and re-grow a different one.
**'''green thumb''' allows players to garden for only 3 fruits
**'''verdant thumb''' allows players to change to growths around their house, ex: a house surrounded by dirt can be changed to light undergrouwth or heavy forest
**'''spade''' allows player to dig a "cellar" 1-3 squares away from house to "hide" or store items.
skill also allows players to loacte any tunnels within 5X5 of the checked area. players can only check within a 3X3 area around the house

house experience does not raise everytime a skill is bought, but the price is set at 100-200 (your choice)

"comments Below"

Sounds like it would be a good idea if the island was bigger but otherwise a 3x3 would be gigantic if everyone had one--[[User:Slith|Slith]] 21:40, 29 March 2006 (BST)
*not really, but the huts are still the same single square size on the outside, it is the inside that changes. --[[User:Richard Rose|Richard Rose]]

Suggestions:Game mechanics

2006-03-29T19:31:52Z

Richard Rose: /* Building */

{| cellpadding=10 align=right
| __TOC__
|}

{{Suggestionsnav}}

Suggestions for Shartak are always welcome, although there's no guarantee that anything will be added. Comments on or modifications for any of the suggestions below can be added by editing this page. Please be considerate and don't just remove ideas that you don't like.

Begin a new item with a * and "sign" your suggestions using <nowiki>-- ~~~~</nowiki> so we know who to blame ;)

Bug reports should go on the [[Bugs]] page.

This is the suggestions page for game mechanics. See also the [[Suggestions]] page for other suggestions.

== Game Mechanics ==

=== Conversion ===
When an Outsider/Native dies they are reborn as a Native (don't really understand the spirit thing too well). The Outsiders then get a new class/skill, "Religious Conversion" that requires a "Holy Scripture". This allows a "Priest" to convert one native into a Outsider". The converted native would most likely start off as a Settler. --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 23:22, 16 February 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* I believe that Natives are reborn as Natives and Outsiders are reborn as Outsiders, but I could be wrong. From a game balance perspective, I am not in favor of type-swapping skills unless Natives are presented with an ability to counter or convert Outsiders as well. It does fit nicely with the theme though. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 23:41, 16 February 2006 (GMT)

* That would probably be the shamans job, however it may have worked for Urban Dead but I don't think it will work in this game as whichever group has the most players to begin with will, once conflicts begin to arise, dominate by switching people from the side they are on the side the priest/"whatever the natives use" side making you able to graph one groups population by looking at the graph pop=(1/2)^x. Also since there wouldn't seem to be a way, short of finding a converter player to switch you back, to go back to playing as you once did would make the amount of people on one side quickly die off (even though thats what would happen in real life, favouring the outsiders) it would be a very unfun aspect of the game. And really these are HOSTILE natives, or so it seems, why would they let some devilman outsider tell it how it is? They wouldn't, they would simply spear them and laugh! In short all the converting ideas suck, I know I wouldn't want to log on to find I'm playing for the wrong side. -- [[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 10:55, 17 February 2006 (GMT)

* So that means if my soldier dies, he's reborn as a native? Not only that, but to become an outsider again, first I would have to find a priest (which would be next to impossible with such a small number of players), and then he could convert me into a settler. That means I'll never be able to be a soldier again, which is a real punch in the throat for RPers. -- Grigoriy

*All valid points. I guess this wouldn't really work we have the same number of players as Urban Dead. But this would be a great way to balance out the sides later on. Say there are too many natives, you just drop more "conversion items" and balance out the sides. Too many Outsiders? Just drop the number of conversion items. Doubt it would catch on though. --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 02:44, 19 February 2006 (GMT)

*Conversion doesn't have to be forced. It could require action on both sides, like a native doning a religious item and an outsider using the skill on that native. After all, conversion isn't real without true faith. The native counter to this could be similar, requiring an outsider to die holding a packet of that headshrinking powder while a shaman uses the Zombification (ala Haitian witchcraft) skill. -- frisco

*You don't change class or anything when you die. --[[User:Murk|Murk]] 12:31, 4 March 2006 (GMT)

*I gave a response t othis idea under "Holy Scriptures," I think, offering another idea for it that may piss a lot less people off. *points over there*--[[User:Wifey|Wifey]] 07:15, 29 March 2006 (BST)

=== Capturing villages ===
Since this is like some war between Outsiders and Natives I thought this appropriate. If all the (say) Outsiders are killed in York and there are none left, then it becomes a Native village and vice versa. Probably needs harder requirements to capture settlements though. Maybe each side could have one permanent place that can never change hands? --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 03:41, 1 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
:Not sure about this - what about all the idle players within the village? They might "wake up" after a couple of weeks to find they're in enemy territory. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 11:00, 1 March 2006 (GMT)

:You could have it so idle players goto the nearest friendly village-- [[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 02:58, 3 March 2006 (GMT)

:Turf control in a limited AP browser game like this just invites lame zerging behavior. I don't like it. --[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 00:00, 4 March 2006 (GMT)

:Not villages, perhaps 3x3 square 'forts'? --[[User:Grigoriy|Grigoriy]] 01:10, 4 March 2006 (GMT)

:I do like the idea, but I think Jackel's observation hits a key point. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

:Agreed with Jackel and Lint and Simon. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 13:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT) Additionally:
::* Please don't impose your assumption that Shartak is at heart a "war between Outsiders and Natives" on the rest of us. That is not the only possible direction in which this game can go. For example, an Outsider village might turn out to be populated by a trading company that views the other Outsider villages as competitors whose extermination would be good for business, but it could just as easily develop into a peaceful scientific outpost, a pirate haven of drunken debauchery, or a missionary settlement devoted to finding the Natives and learning their language (gotta spread that old time religion). I believe it would be better to keep the objectives more freeform, and let the players create the course of history. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 13:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
::* On a hopefully more helpful and positive note, one could simulate/approximate capturing a village by amassing an army of suitable size, carving messages of ownership all over the territory of the village in question, killing all members of the village, and repeatedly killing the village shaman so they can't get back as easily. (Ouch. I hope no armchair megalomaniacs out there have been taking notes.) --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 13:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Unique skills ===
I think that each class should start off with one unique skill that the others may never aquire. That way it stops all the classes from becoming too generic. For example Settlers could have a "farming" skill, Soldiers could have a "bravery" skill, etc. Or mabey they could just have a attribute like Soldiers have an extra 10% chance of striking the target, Warriors have an extra 10% chance of finding animals, Settlers have an extra 10% chance of finding an item, Scouts have a 3% chance of recovering 1 HP per AP spent, etc. --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 02:34, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
*Perhaps a Research skill of some kind for the Scientist, maybe allowing them an advantage when doing things with dead animals (would need something to do with dead animals, obviously!).[[User:MorkaisChosen|MorkaisChosen]] 16:09, 16 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
:I am in favor of this (if it is not in effect currently). We'd have to work out the details to make sure each class is getting their fair share, but something that encourages players to try other classes or team up with other players using different classes for a better playing experience sounds good to me. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
:I am in favor of each class being able to acquire (but not necessarily starting off with) a unique skill or attribute that the others may never acquire. Sounds to me like the kind of thing that would be unlocked as one's reward for a rite of passage, rather than granted as a right of birth. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 12:53, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
:Pirates should have a skill to steal their fallen enemies' gold coins. Arr. Would probably result in a lot of outsider in-fighting, though, and outsiders are currently outnumbered.--[[User:Wifey|Wifey]] 07:18, 29 March 2006 (BST)

=== Pet System ===
I will combine aspects of the '''Animal''' and '''Pirate''' suggestions and propose a pet system that allows you to tame one of the animals on the island. First, you have to weaken the animal. Then you throw a sphere device at it and shout "SHARTAK SPHERE! GO!" for 1 AP. There's a slight chance that you have captured and tamed the animal. The more powerful the animal, the less success chance. You earn no XP for taming an animal. Players can only have 1 pet at a time. They can release a pet whenever they want. If the owner dies, the pet runs away. Pets have fixed HP, attack, and accuracy based on the type of animal they are (ie. they do not level up or heal, just to keep it simple to design). They follow the player around and only attack when the player attacks. It would be nice if they attacked while you were not playing, but auto-defense mechanisms are unnecessary. Enemy animals randomly determine whether they are attacking the owner or the pet. Other players will have an option for targeting the owner or pet. There is no XP gained for attacking or killing a pet to deter any attempts at farming pet killing (I can't believe we even have to consider preventing such a thing). For added flavor, owners can name their pets. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
:ROTFL. Sounds a bit like Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh (don't worry, I'm not a fan, I have kids that were!). Perhaps instead of spheres, you could keep the monkeys on a leash, heal a tiger or elephant to make it less likely to attack you, tame deer by feeding them, etc. Some animals like the wild boar would have to be pretty difficult to tame. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 15:14, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
:I was with you right up until you got to the "sphere device" bit, and I rejoined you afterwards. ;) The rest of your suggestion otherwise seems to be pretty well thought out. Personally, I'd prefer to attempt to tame the animal into becoming a pet purely by offering it food, rather than "weakening" it by other means. Especially since food is scarce enough that offering it to an animal would be a real sacrifice and therefore an interesting decision for the player to make. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 14:49, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
::I will confess that I had a lot of fun with the references. The problem I have with using an existing item to tame a pet is how to implement it. The player can't click on the fruit, because that will just heal themselves. And I think it is unecessary to redesign fruits like First Aid Kits and Medical Herbs, just so they can feed it to an animal. And a database check to see if the player possesses a fruit before providing a "tame" command seems awkward. Perhaps there is just one item called "animal bait" (from the Trade Hut most likely). It works much like a FAK or Herb, but can only be applied to animals (though there will be a "Yourself" option by default for those players that decide they enjoy the taste). Animals will then have a value called "tame count" in the database. For each successful feeding, this number is incremented. When a specific number is reached, the monster is successfully tamed. If a monster is killed, the number is reset to 0. Acquiring a pet should not reduce the population of animals on the island (ie. one should respawn to take its place). Furthermore, those with '''Animal Affinity''' should have a better taming success rate. (This is another attempt to give Villagers and Settlers a little boost.) --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 17:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
:::This idea, while somewhat interesting, is not very realitic. The animals of the island are wild. In reality, tigers, elephants, deer, "WILD boars" etc can only be made LESS WILD by extensive and careful training and handling when they are young, not be tamable by any means, certainly not enough to follow a person around and fight on their behalf. Maybe it would be possible with parrots and monkeys, but if Simon is going to implement changes, I'd rather see some of the more believable ones first. I do agree with Lint that it would give more value to '''Animal Affinity'''. Animal attacks, even from a tiger or elephant (which would realistically be very dangerous) are hardly to be feared, making this skill currently seem pretty useless.

=== Profile Effect Items ===
These are useless baubles that take up 1 unit of a player's inventory space, but if anyone views their profile they will see that the players possesses the item. Using the item won't accomplish anything and merely produce flavor text. However, if a player is in the presence of another player, using the item would show it off. As with all items, there's no way to trade them with other players. We can have eyepatches and peglegs. We can have tribal masks and warpaint. Maybe some clans would require a certain dress code. Maybe they need 30 pieces of flair. I think it provides an outlet for the less serious gamers. Problems: Serious gamers might be plagued with finding such items and dropping them, wasting (in their opinion) AP and Page Hits. Also, arguing over what items fit with the theme of Shartak will be a headache-inducing process. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* I like this suggestion. How about finding the pieces of the masks and making your own - combine the baubles with mini-quests? --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 11:18, 8 March 2006 (GMT)
:For example, to make the sacred warrior mask of Raktam, you must find 5 parrot feathers, a tiger tooth, some berries and a piece of driftwood that can be carved into the appropriate shape with a knife or dagger. Once you have all those items, you get a "create mask" option which then removes the required items and the mask appears in your inventory (and profile).
::Having the database check to see if they have all the ingredients seems a bit unwieldly. After every action or inventory use it might have to run the check to verify that they are alive, still have the items, etc. I'd just settle for having them take the items to a specific NPC. But yes, a mixing quest would be fun. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 18:02, 8 March 2006 (GMT)

* I just hope that this idea motivates players to try new things ("I'm going to join a clan that wears such-and-such a mask and attack the others! Yarr!") and not feel that the game is just about collecting items ("Well, I got all the masks. I guess I'm done with the game."). --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 18:02, 8 March 2006 (GMT)

*Maybe the different masks have different effects, from some simple ones (attracting/scaring animals, making them less likely to attack or easier to hit) to the downright blatavt video game reference that turns you into a huge brown rocky guy who can punch boulders apart. OK, maybe not the second one. [[User:MorkaisChosen|MorkaisChosen]] 20:53, 9 March 2006 (GMT)
:I think that's something to be worked on in a separate suggestion. The point of this suggestion is to make useless "fancy hats" that neither add or take away from the established gameplay. However, in the eyes of certain players, they may be invaluable because of how they can incorperate such items into their goals and roleplaying. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 23:52, 9 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Unique Item Hunt ===
'''Event''' ''Capture the Flag''-ish minigame. Somewhere on the island is a single conch shell item. It can be found by searching anywhere. It takes 1 inventory space and appears when anyone views their profile. When the conch holder is in the presence of other players, flavor text is added to the area description to inform the others that the conch holder is in the area. If the person in possession of the conch drops it, dies, or is idle for more than 5 days, the conch returns to the system. The person who holds the conch the longest gets recognized in the statistics. Killing the conch holder earns special bonus XP. Adept conch holder killers may also be recognized in the statistics. Problems: Someone with multiple characters could take advantage of having the conch on one character and reap the XP and fame with another. There will be a point where a race condition will occur and might result in multiple conches and a broken game. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* This kind of thing has been on my ideas list, although this is much more detailed version than the one-liner I had. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 15:05, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
*''I'' have the conch! I'm allowed to speak! *ahem* I mean, um... >.>--[[User:Wifey|Wifey]] 07:21, 29 March 2006 (BST)

=== Know your foes ===
As a native, I get killed a lot by outsiders, but I just can't strike back when I come back to life, as nothing allows me to identify my agressors amongst the outsiders I meet. I expected some basic language skill to give me access to clickable outsiders profiles, but it doesn't. So. I don't like much the fact that, in this game, the only alternative you have is "attack random outsiders" or "attack none". I'd like to be able to protect myself without being too unfair to peaceful outsiders (and being part of some snowball effect).

This would be partly solved by some profile access (allowing to check people's amount of human kills), or some limited displayed info on the present players (it would make -almost- sense for natives to automatically carry visible scalps or shrunken head of their victims, but I'm not sure how to justify the kills display in the case of outsiders, despite of the fact white men were actually quite fond of indian scalps at some time). Another useful tool would be some urban-dead-like contact list.

Of course, ideally (but absurdly) the most useful stat to be able to see would be the number of kills of people without human kills at the moment of their death, but... -- Leaf

''Comments''
Perhaps seeing the profile of someone on the opposite side if you or they have the advanced language skill would be good, it would be cool to hang around with some natives without worrying about aggressors. --[[User:Grigoriy|Grigoriy]] 21:30, 18 March 2006 (GMT)

If you had a contact list and some way to target individuals on your list ala Urban Dead, I'm guessing that would probably help. Not so sure about the scalp display approach. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 23:36, 18 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Forest Fire ===
'''Event''' This is a potential temporary minigame that will either lead to players to band together and save the island or perhaps just lead to all-out chaos. A fire script is created which designates one block as fire (it is identified by a little fire.gif in the background). Every 20 minutes the fire script will check if there is <del>Grassland or</del> Jungle nearby with density from 1-10. If there is, it spreads to the next block. It will not spread to any other terrain (including villages and ruins). Thus, the best way to prevent the spread of the fire is by chopping vegetation down to 0. The initial fires will be placed randomly around the island. Actions performed in a fire occupied space deal 2 damage. For this event to be more devious, there should be a means to quickly restore vegetation (dropping driftwood, planting fruit, watering with gourds). --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 03:58, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
*I like some things about this suggestion, I think it could work really nicely if there was also a rain algorithingamajig, so that maybe, if some part of the island dried out, wildfires could break out, or if it rained too much villages could flood and get swamped. Its a neat idea. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 04:55, 17 March 2006 (GMT)
* I like the idea of rain and fire, however there's no telling if the server would handle the database access/calculations required when the number of players gets into the range that Urban Dead has. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 11:17, 17 March 2006 (GMT)
** I thought it might be a bit much. Ah well. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 19:32, 17 March 2006 (GMT)
** Not the idea of fire itself, that may well be quite feasible. I meant having rain causing flooding, or not enough rain leading to fires might be a bit awkward.. unless I can think of some way to reduce the work that needs to be done regularly. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 23:38, 18 March 2006 (GMT)
* Maybe fires could also destroy huts, and then there could be a skill to rebuild them. Maybe even give people the ability to start their own fires. It might make for interesting tribal wars. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 18:22, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
** I kind of wanted to restrict fires to the Jungle (removed my Grasslands comment from the original suggestion) since a lot of Huts provide resources for starting players and players that have just been revived. I think it would be unfair to prevent them with the opportunity to gather supplies. As a tactic, it may also be unfair. Native villages appear to be completely surrounded by burnable Jungle, while Outsider villages are bordered by the Beach. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 19:46, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
** Good point. The pirates would be completely free of burning too. I still think a way to temporarily damage structures could be fun -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 19:59, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
** As a general rule, real world jungles don't burn terribly well, although there are a few notable exceptions (such as the Indonesian forest fires in 1997-98). Grasslands, however, burn quite regularly, and in fact such fires are necessary for the good health of the grass. Fire kills off sapling trees in the area which would otherwise grow to the point that they overshadowed and killed the grass. I don't know whether the game has any grasslands large enough to make this kind of thing interesting, though. --[[User:Jackdaw|Jackdaw]] 15:55, 25 March 2006 (GMT)

=== The Ghost Elephant ===
'''Event''' Somewhere on the island is an animal that exists purely as a temporary event. The Legendary Ghost Elephant - in reality, an aggressive albino pachyderm of incredible size - is said to roam the island of Shartak. Some Natives revere it, others desire to be recorded as the one who slayed it. Some Outsiders wish to study it, others desire to have it as a trophy. It behaves much like any other elephant on Shartak. However, it has a different label, an unfathomable amount of HP, and deals horrific damage. If you heal the Ghost Elephant with a FAK or Herbs, you receive double XP. And to further serve a challenge, don't place an HP cap on the Ghost Elephant, just give it a starting amount. If possible, a log of all actions performed on the Ghost Elephant should be kept by the server and revealed in the event that it dies. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 03:58, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''

Ha! I like this one, Lint, and simple to implement. It should really have a boatload of HP, as I think few will consider expending valuable healing items on it, when its far easier (and more rewarding) to hack away at it for 40 AP then make a run for it! --[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 16:42, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

Arr! I would ride that ghost beast like a horse jus' fer fun, then slay 't t' sell its tusks t' them outsiders an' th' meat t' them natives. --[[User:El Pirata Cofresi|El Pirata Cofresi]] 17:46, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

In the Congo they refer to it as Mokele Mbembe - he who stops the flow of rivers - and it is rumoured to be a lost dinosaur. The island could do with some cryptozoology. Would this creature be able to disappear or hide or move incredibly fast? If not, then once one person finds it, they can just call everyone over to the same square. This kind of defeats the mythical aspect as well as adding potential server problems. --[[User:Frisco|Frisco]] 18:24, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

I should make the animals attack back in near-realtime first (as in you attack them and they may or may not get an attack in).. just to add a bit of interest to it and stop people running up to the creature and hacking and then running away. Making an animal with an almost unlimited number of HP would be possible.. I guess probably start it with at least double a normal elephant and max of about a thousand HP to prevent people healing it to the point where it'd be impossible to kill. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 18:37, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

It could be cool, especially if it moved around in a way that made tracking it possible, maybe by destroying the foliage, or moving in a pattern. Also having it move might help keep people from all winding up in one square beating it up. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 18:41, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

:I've tried to offset the game's focus on combat by encouraging healing (double XP may be too much of a reward, so I'm willing to remove that), but that alone will most likely be not enough to counter the horde of blood-thirsty savages! Healing with the Herbs and FAKs may actually be seen as healing the Ghost Elephant spiritually rather than merely physically, which is why it's health can grow high. I don't see a problem if it became near-unkillable. I like keeping some myths and legends around. I thought that it would be best if it traveled like an elephant, but it is true that it limits the people that are able to participate in the event. Perhaps it should "teleport", after a certain amount of time in an area - "A wall of fog sweeps in through jungle. When it fades, you see that the Ghost Elephant has vanished as well." I requested for a log of actions to determine who killed it, who attacked it the most, who healed it the most, and who got hurt the most. Also, rather than a recurring animal, I thought it would be best to release it as an event that occurs every now and then. Or maybe only once! --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 19:32, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

I like it. And of course, you needn't stick to land animals; a mysterious sea creature that patrols the island waters and is reported to be 30ft long could prompt more people to vernture into the waters for a glimpse/trophy etc. Sharks will also be a problem for those searching! --[[User:Malphas|Malphas]] 15:52, 19 March 2006 (GMT)

I ''love'' this idea.--[[User:Wifey|Wifey]] 07:08, 28 March 2006 (BST)

=== Auto Attack ===
I've never liked the fact that while I am away from the game, things can happen to my character, like being chewed on by a tiger or slashed with a machette. How about a setting where you can turn your character on to auto attack anything that hits you. It should, of course, be user selected. This would change the game mechanics a bit, as you could no longer move in on a target and attack it withough fear of a counter-strike. To me this is far more realistic, in that even if you are sleeping, when somebody hits you, you're going to wake up and do something about it with whatever engery you have left.

An alternative selectable action might be an auto-run. You can pre-specify the direction you want to run and how many squares upon being hit. A character with trekking could stay alive just by running a few square whenever they are hit.
--[[User:Qberry|Qberry]] 02:34, 20 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* The main problem with this is that players will be discouraged from attacking other players, as this will become extremely dangerous, and the native warrior who wants the outsiderts out will effectively be penalised.[[User:MorkaisChosen|MorkaisChosen]] 15:47, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* Sorry, but I don't like this. I feel that that this will lead to interactions with players that are no different than interacting with an NPC. Could someone theoretically max themselves out by just leaving this option on and checking in every now and then to make sure they haven't become a spirit? --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 17:28, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* Yeah, I'm not a fan of being able to do something by not doing something, such as fighting or running without being there to fight or run. Also, would it be free of AP and IP hits, or would it be possible to come back and have no AP or hits left? It seems like these problems would wreck any sort of auto action. I can understand not enjoying being macheted while away, but I don't see any way around this. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 18:20, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* I must admit that I don't like the idea all that much, but if it was implemented it would probably be something that was user configurable. I don't think running away would make sense, but fighting back does. For example, no more than X AP to be used fighting back until you next log back in, and they wouldn't be used unless you had more than Y AP left. This way you could set X to 10 and Y to 6 and if you ran out of AP, set those values, it would be 2 hours (6 x 20m) before you were likely to attack, and it would use no more than 10 AP fighting back. Because the values are configurable, it would be hard to know who would fight back and who wouldn't. Setting X to 0 would disable the feature. I think probably the attacks would gain XP if successful, same as normal, but because you wouldn't be able to set the number of AP to use to more than your max AP value, it would be impossible to level up a character by simply leaving them alone (not to mention you would disappear from the map after being idle for a bit). --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 21:01, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* i like the idea of counterattack , but with some limits. You have only a % of counterattacking someone (25%?) , you don't consume AP , you don't get XP. But , whit wich weapon do you attack?--[[User:JonesDye|JonesDye]] 10:05, 27 March 2006 (BST)

===Flavor Text===

this section is where "users" add "flavor" to the game, im just suggesting that every few steps the computer say a message depending on location, here ill give a few examples:

*'''grasslands'''
**the grassy field sways under the wind's rush as you take a step.|
**something far off squaks and makes a strange throaty bellow.|

*'''water'''
**a wave crashes calmly in the distance|
**a spalsh can be heard from far off|

*'''jungle'''
**a parrot's call can be heard distantly|
**the bushes nearby are rustling from the small wildlife in them|

*'''village (outsider)'''
**the smell of gunpowder wafts into your lungs|
**the smoke comming from a nearby hut smells of fresh turkey|

*'''village (native)'''
**the shaman's voice can be heard traveling through the village|
**you step on the bones of what appears to be a rattlesnake|

*'''beach'''
**the hot sand burns your feet, yet feels wonderfully different|
**several sea shells catch your eye from far off|

please feel free to update these with more, as they are just a list (if simon decides to) that will be used for flavor.
i want to do this because the game gets kinda boring simply traversing through square after square

===slots/ new inventory===
slots and inventory could be implemented where, a picture of a silhouette was shown, with names of equiped items in slotted areas, ex: you skin a goat, find some sharp rocks and fashion yourself some claws, you then put them on, giving you +1 damage to all melee attacks
[[animal wearings]]

"Comments below"

Making Claws? and not "all melee attacks" but only punch attacks --[[User:Slith|Slith]] 06:45, 29 March 2006 (BST)

===Building===
Ok, Just throwing this out there, how about the ability to build huts and boats? Either to expand a settlement or to say "This is mine" I think it should take lots of Wood. Boats wouldn't be able to go into The very deep water people can't go into because the tides would rip them apart but could go move in all water for only 1 AP and it also prevents sharks from biting you. Multipule people could get into a boat based on how much wood is use like
n*.001 x 1 = People Where n = The amount of wood used.
--[[User:Slith|Slith]] 06:42, 29 March 2006 (BST)

"Comment Below"
check out the skills section, i already suggested something like that.... anyway, check it out
--[[User:Richard Rose|Richard Rose]]

User:Richard Rose

2006-03-29T04:17:52Z

Richard Rose:

yo, my name is Richard, i have several accounts on urbandead.com and shartak, my shartak ones are as follows: 
EmeraldS 
Mr Whiskers 
Richard Rose 
Godly Entity 
 
my urbandead's are: 
Stashzilla 
zombie6 
Richard Rose 
EmeraldS 
and for those of you who are wondering, yes, yes i do have arms 
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a102/hotnessmakesmedirty/explosm1.jpg

Trading

2006-03-29T04:10:10Z

Richard Rose: /* wikisik */

Trading is a new feature added on the 23rd March.

=== Raktam ===
The trading post is at [-70.319,+26.472]. The traders name is Tamdal Tik.

As an outsider, I exchanged a rifle for 5 bananas. I have no idea what he was saying though as it was all gibberish, I asked to trade rifle for bananas and got the Accept/Reject buttons. Clicking Accept made 5 bananas appear in my inventory. Also managed to trade for a first aid kit, but when I tried it a second time, I got some kind of error (spoken in native) and first aid kits were off the list of things to trade for. --[[User:Snarf|Snarf]] 12:57, 26 March 2006 (BST)

You ask to trade your gold coins for his healing herbs.
Tamdal Tik makes you an offer, "Ick wiknik tameck gaklal coonik fal sikmog hokackickgak hokbak"

Once accepted:

Tamdal Tik says, "Gakack, hokrak'sik 1 hokackickgak hokbak fal 3 ock yakuck gaklal coonik"

It cost me 3 gold coins for 1 healing herbs!
--[[User:Snarf|Snarf]] 13:14, 26 March 2006 (BST)

===wikisik===

i was in wikisik the other day and traded one gold coin for around 32 poison darts, when i traded a second time, he gave me only 12... is that a bug?

and also, this is getting really confusing, some things are just far too overpriced, even poisonous berries cost me... i think 5 mangos...

i think the price are based on what the trader have. I tried to sell one heavy sword for 49 gold coins , but the trader said me it haven't so much money..--[[User:JonesDye|JonesDye]] 15:25, 28 March 2006 (BST)

I dont know about that, but i want to know what the schedule is for "items" that the trader does not have, doees he ever get new shipments?
..--[[User:Richard Rose|Richard Rose]] 15:25, 28 March 2006 (BST)

=== Durham ===

I am an outsider, and went to the trading hut in Durham (-70.649,+26.347). There I recieved 5 Rifle bullets for 1 gold coin, 4 Rifle bullets for a knife (repeated 3 more times) and 3 Rifle bullets for a blunt machete (repeated twice). [[User:Anothertwilight|Anothertwilight]] 00:15, 28 March 2006 (BST)

Suggestions:Game mechanics

2006-03-29T04:01:55Z

Richard Rose:

{| cellpadding=10 align=right
| __TOC__
|}

{{Suggestionsnav}}

Suggestions for Shartak are always welcome, although there's no guarantee that anything will be added. Comments on or modifications for any of the suggestions below can be added by editing this page. Please be considerate and don't just remove ideas that you don't like.

Begin a new item with a * and "sign" your suggestions using <nowiki>-- ~~~~</nowiki> so we know who to blame ;)

Bug reports should go on the [[Bugs]] page.

This is the suggestions page for game mechanics. See also the [[Suggestions]] page for other suggestions.

== Game Mechanics ==

=== Conversion ===
When an Outsider/Native dies they are reborn as a Native (don't really understand the spirit thing too well). The Outsiders then get a new class/skill, "Religious Conversion" that requires a "Holy Scripture". This allows a "Priest" to convert one native into a Outsider". The converted native would most likely start off as a Settler. --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 23:22, 16 February 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* I believe that Natives are reborn as Natives and Outsiders are reborn as Outsiders, but I could be wrong. From a game balance perspective, I am not in favor of type-swapping skills unless Natives are presented with an ability to counter or convert Outsiders as well. It does fit nicely with the theme though. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 23:41, 16 February 2006 (GMT)

* That would probably be the shamans job, however it may have worked for Urban Dead but I don't think it will work in this game as whichever group has the most players to begin with will, once conflicts begin to arise, dominate by switching people from the side they are on the side the priest/"whatever the natives use" side making you able to graph one groups population by looking at the graph pop=(1/2)^x. Also since there wouldn't seem to be a way, short of finding a converter player to switch you back, to go back to playing as you once did would make the amount of people on one side quickly die off (even though thats what would happen in real life, favouring the outsiders) it would be a very unfun aspect of the game. And really these are HOSTILE natives, or so it seems, why would they let some devilman outsider tell it how it is? They wouldn't, they would simply spear them and laugh! In short all the converting ideas suck, I know I wouldn't want to log on to find I'm playing for the wrong side. -- [[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 10:55, 17 February 2006 (GMT)

* So that means if my soldier dies, he's reborn as a native? Not only that, but to become an outsider again, first I would have to find a priest (which would be next to impossible with such a small number of players), and then he could convert me into a settler. That means I'll never be able to be a soldier again, which is a real punch in the throat for RPers. -- Grigoriy

*All valid points. I guess this wouldn't really work we have the same number of players as Urban Dead. But this would be a great way to balance out the sides later on. Say there are too many natives, you just drop more "conversion items" and balance out the sides. Too many Outsiders? Just drop the number of conversion items. Doubt it would catch on though. --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 02:44, 19 February 2006 (GMT)

*Conversion doesn't have to be forced. It could require action on both sides, like a native doning a religious item and an outsider using the skill on that native. After all, conversion isn't real without true faith. The native counter to this could be similar, requiring an outsider to die holding a packet of that headshrinking powder while a shaman uses the Zombification (ala Haitian witchcraft) skill. -- frisco

*You don't change class or anything when you die. --[[User:Murk|Murk]] 12:31, 4 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Capturing villages ===
Since this is like some war between Outsiders and Natives I thought this appropriate. If all the (say) Outsiders are killed in York and there are none left, then it becomes a Native village and vice versa. Probably needs harder requirements to capture settlements though. Maybe each side could have one permanent place that can never change hands? --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 03:41, 1 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
:Not sure about this - what about all the idle players within the village? They might "wake up" after a couple of weeks to find they're in enemy territory. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 11:00, 1 March 2006 (GMT)

:You could have it so idle players goto the nearest friendly village-- [[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 02:58, 3 March 2006 (GMT)

:Turf control in a limited AP browser game like this just invites lame zerging behavior. I don't like it. --[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 00:00, 4 March 2006 (GMT)

:Not villages, perhaps 3x3 square 'forts'? --[[User:Grigoriy|Grigoriy]] 01:10, 4 March 2006 (GMT)

:I do like the idea, but I think Jackel's observation hits a key point. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

:Agreed with Jackel and Lint and Simon. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 13:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT) Additionally:
::* Please don't impose your assumption that Shartak is at heart a "war between Outsiders and Natives" on the rest of us. That is not the only possible direction in which this game can go. For example, an Outsider village might turn out to be populated by a trading company that views the other Outsider villages as competitors whose extermination would be good for business, but it could just as easily develop into a peaceful scientific outpost, a pirate haven of drunken debauchery, or a missionary settlement devoted to finding the Natives and learning their language (gotta spread that old time religion). I believe it would be better to keep the objectives more freeform, and let the players create the course of history. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 13:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
::* On a hopefully more helpful and positive note, one could simulate/approximate capturing a village by amassing an army of suitable size, carving messages of ownership all over the territory of the village in question, killing all members of the village, and repeatedly killing the village shaman so they can't get back as easily. (Ouch. I hope no armchair megalomaniacs out there have been taking notes.) --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 13:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Unique skills ===
I think that each class should start off with one unique skill that the others may never aquire. That way it stops all the classes from becoming too generic. For example Settlers could have a "farming" skill, Soldiers could have a "bravery" skill, etc. Or mabey they could just have a attribute like Soldiers have an extra 10% chance of striking the target, Warriors have an extra 10% chance of finding animals, Settlers have an extra 10% chance of finding an item, Scouts have a 3% chance of recovering 1 HP per AP spent, etc. --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 02:34, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
*Perhaps a Research skill of some kind for the Scientist, maybe allowing them an advantage when doing things with dead animals (would need something to do with dead animals, obviously!).[[User:MorkaisChosen|MorkaisChosen]] 16:09, 16 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
:I am in favor of this (if it is not in effect currently). We'd have to work out the details to make sure each class is getting their fair share, but something that encourages players to try other classes or team up with other players using different classes for a better playing experience sounds good to me. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
:I am in favor of each class being able to acquire (but not necessarily starting off with) a unique skill or attribute that the others may never acquire. Sounds to me like the kind of thing that would be unlocked as one's reward for a rite of passage, rather than granted as a right of birth. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 12:53, 7 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Pet System ===
I will combine aspects of the '''Animal''' and '''Pirate''' suggestions and propose a pet system that allows you to tame one of the animals on the island. First, you have to weaken the animal. Then you throw a sphere device at it and shout "SHARTAK SPHERE! GO!" for 1 AP. There's a slight chance that you have captured and tamed the animal. The more powerful the animal, the less success chance. You earn no XP for taming an animal. Players can only have 1 pet at a time. They can release a pet whenever they want. If the owner dies, the pet runs away. Pets have fixed HP, attack, and accuracy based on the type of animal they are (ie. they do not level up or heal, just to keep it simple to design). They follow the player around and only attack when the player attacks. It would be nice if they attacked while you were not playing, but auto-defense mechanisms are unnecessary. Enemy animals randomly determine whether they are attacking the owner or the pet. Other players will have an option for targeting the owner or pet. There is no XP gained for attacking or killing a pet to deter any attempts at farming pet killing (I can't believe we even have to consider preventing such a thing). For added flavor, owners can name their pets. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
:ROTFL. Sounds a bit like Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh (don't worry, I'm not a fan, I have kids that were!). Perhaps instead of spheres, you could keep the monkeys on a leash, heal a tiger or elephant to make it less likely to attack you, tame deer by feeding them, etc. Some animals like the wild boar would have to be pretty difficult to tame. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 15:14, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
:I was with you right up until you got to the "sphere device" bit, and I rejoined you afterwards. ;) The rest of your suggestion otherwise seems to be pretty well thought out. Personally, I'd prefer to attempt to tame the animal into becoming a pet purely by offering it food, rather than "weakening" it by other means. Especially since food is scarce enough that offering it to an animal would be a real sacrifice and therefore an interesting decision for the player to make. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 14:49, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
::I will confess that I had a lot of fun with the references. The problem I have with using an existing item to tame a pet is how to implement it. The player can't click on the fruit, because that will just heal themselves. And I think it is unecessary to redesign fruits like First Aid Kits and Medical Herbs, just so they can feed it to an animal. And a database check to see if the player possesses a fruit before providing a "tame" command seems awkward. Perhaps there is just one item called "animal bait" (from the Trade Hut most likely). It works much like a FAK or Herb, but can only be applied to animals (though there will be a "Yourself" option by default for those players that decide they enjoy the taste). Animals will then have a value called "tame count" in the database. For each successful feeding, this number is incremented. When a specific number is reached, the monster is successfully tamed. If a monster is killed, the number is reset to 0. Acquiring a pet should not reduce the population of animals on the island (ie. one should respawn to take its place). Furthermore, those with '''Animal Affinity''' should have a better taming success rate. (This is another attempt to give Villagers and Settlers a little boost.) --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 17:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
:::This idea, while somewhat interesting, is not very realitic. The animals of the island are wild. In reality, tigers, elephants, deer, "WILD boars" etc can only be made LESS WILD by extensive and careful training and handling when they are young, not be tamable by any means, certainly not enough to follow a person around and fight on their behalf. Maybe it would be possible with parrots and monkeys, but if Simon is going to implement changes, I'd rather see some of the more believable ones first. I do agree with Lint that it would give more value to '''Animal Affinity'''. Animal attacks, even from a tiger or elephant (which would realistically be very dangerous) are hardly to be feared, making this skill currently seem pretty useless.

=== Profile Effect Items ===
These are useless baubles that take up 1 unit of a player's inventory space, but if anyone views their profile they will see that the players possesses the item. Using the item won't accomplish anything and merely produce flavor text. However, if a player is in the presence of another player, using the item would show it off. As with all items, there's no way to trade them with other players. We can have eyepatches and peglegs. We can have tribal masks and warpaint. Maybe some clans would require a certain dress code. Maybe they need 30 pieces of flair. I think it provides an outlet for the less serious gamers. Problems: Serious gamers might be plagued with finding such items and dropping them, wasting (in their opinion) AP and Page Hits. Also, arguing over what items fit with the theme of Shartak will be a headache-inducing process. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* I like this suggestion. How about finding the pieces of the masks and making your own - combine the baubles with mini-quests? --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 11:18, 8 March 2006 (GMT)
:For example, to make the sacred warrior mask of Raktam, you must find 5 parrot feathers, a tiger tooth, some berries and a piece of driftwood that can be carved into the appropriate shape with a knife or dagger. Once you have all those items, you get a "create mask" option which then removes the required items and the mask appears in your inventory (and profile).
::Having the database check to see if they have all the ingredients seems a bit unwieldly. After every action or inventory use it might have to run the check to verify that they are alive, still have the items, etc. I'd just settle for having them take the items to a specific NPC. But yes, a mixing quest would be fun. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 18:02, 8 March 2006 (GMT)

* I just hope that this idea motivates players to try new things ("I'm going to join a clan that wears such-and-such a mask and attack the others! Yarr!") and not feel that the game is just about collecting items ("Well, I got all the masks. I guess I'm done with the game."). --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 18:02, 8 March 2006 (GMT)

*Maybe the different masks have different effects, from some simple ones (attracting/scaring animals, making them less likely to attack or easier to hit) to the downright blatavt video game reference that turns you into a huge brown rocky guy who can punch boulders apart. OK, maybe not the second one. [[User:MorkaisChosen|MorkaisChosen]] 20:53, 9 March 2006 (GMT)
:I think that's something to be worked on in a separate suggestion. The point of this suggestion is to make useless "fancy hats" that neither add or take away from the established gameplay. However, in the eyes of certain players, they may be invaluable because of how they can incorperate such items into their goals and roleplaying. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 23:52, 9 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Unique Item Hunt ===
'''Event''' ''Capture the Flag''-ish minigame. Somewhere on the island is a single conch shell item. It can be found by searching anywhere. It takes 1 inventory space and appears when anyone views their profile. When the conch holder is in the presence of other players, flavor text is added to the area description to inform the others that the conch holder is in the area. If the person in possession of the conch drops it, dies, or is idle for more than 5 days, the conch returns to the system. The person who holds the conch the longest gets recognized in the statistics. Killing the conch holder earns special bonus XP. Adept conch holder killers may also be recognized in the statistics. Problems: Someone with multiple characters could take advantage of having the conch on one character and reap the XP and fame with another. There will be a point where a race condition will occur and might result in multiple conches and a broken game. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* This kind of thing has been on my ideas list, although this is much more detailed version than the one-liner I had. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 15:05, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Know your foes ===
As a native, I get killed a lot by outsiders, but I just can't strike back when I come back to life, as nothing allows me to identify my agressors amongst the outsiders I meet. I expected some basic language skill to give me access to clickable outsiders profiles, but it doesn't. So. I don't like much the fact that, in this game, the only alternative you have is "attack random outsiders" or "attack none". I'd like to be able to protect myself without being too unfair to peaceful outsiders (and being part of some snowball effect).

This would be partly solved by some profile access (allowing to check people's amount of human kills), or some limited displayed info on the present players (it would make -almost- sense for natives to automatically carry visible scalps or shrunken head of their victims, but I'm not sure how to justify the kills display in the case of outsiders, despite of the fact white men were actually quite fond of indian scalps at some time). Another useful tool would be some urban-dead-like contact list.

Of course, ideally (but absurdly) the most useful stat to be able to see would be the number of kills of people without human kills at the moment of their death, but... -- Leaf

''Comments''
Perhaps seeing the profile of someone on the opposite side if you or they have the advanced language skill would be good, it would be cool to hang around with some natives without worrying about aggressors. --[[User:Grigoriy|Grigoriy]] 21:30, 18 March 2006 (GMT)

If you had a contact list and some way to target individuals on your list ala Urban Dead, I'm guessing that would probably help. Not so sure about the scalp display approach. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 23:36, 18 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Forest Fire ===
'''Event''' This is a potential temporary minigame that will either lead to players to band together and save the island or perhaps just lead to all-out chaos. A fire script is created which designates one block as fire (it is identified by a little fire.gif in the background). Every 20 minutes the fire script will check if there is <del>Grassland or</del> Jungle nearby with density from 1-10. If there is, it spreads to the next block. It will not spread to any other terrain (including villages and ruins). Thus, the best way to prevent the spread of the fire is by chopping vegetation down to 0. The initial fires will be placed randomly around the island. Actions performed in a fire occupied space deal 2 damage. For this event to be more devious, there should be a means to quickly restore vegetation (dropping driftwood, planting fruit, watering with gourds). --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 03:58, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
*I like some things about this suggestion, I think it could work really nicely if there was also a rain algorithingamajig, so that maybe, if some part of the island dried out, wildfires could break out, or if it rained too much villages could flood and get swamped. Its a neat idea. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 04:55, 17 March 2006 (GMT)
* I like the idea of rain and fire, however there's no telling if the server would handle the database access/calculations required when the number of players gets into the range that Urban Dead has. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 11:17, 17 March 2006 (GMT)
** I thought it might be a bit much. Ah well. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 19:32, 17 March 2006 (GMT)
** Not the idea of fire itself, that may well be quite feasible. I meant having rain causing flooding, or not enough rain leading to fires might be a bit awkward.. unless I can think of some way to reduce the work that needs to be done regularly. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 23:38, 18 March 2006 (GMT)
* Maybe fires could also destroy huts, and then there could be a skill to rebuild them. Maybe even give people the ability to start their own fires. It might make for interesting tribal wars. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 18:22, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
** I kind of wanted to restrict fires to the Jungle (removed my Grasslands comment from the original suggestion) since a lot of Huts provide resources for starting players and players that have just been revived. I think it would be unfair to prevent them with the opportunity to gather supplies. As a tactic, it may also be unfair. Native villages appear to be completely surrounded by burnable Jungle, while Outsider villages are bordered by the Beach. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 19:46, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
** Good point. The pirates would be completely free of burning too. I still think a way to temporarily damage structures could be fun -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 19:59, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
** As a general rule, real world jungles don't burn terribly well, although there are a few notable exceptions (such as the Indonesian forest fires in 1997-98). Grasslands, however, burn quite regularly, and in fact such fires are necessary for the good health of the grass. Fire kills off sapling trees in the area which would otherwise grow to the point that they overshadowed and killed the grass. I don't know whether the game has any grasslands large enough to make this kind of thing interesting, though. --[[User:Jackdaw|Jackdaw]] 15:55, 25 March 2006 (GMT)

=== The Ghost Elephant ===
'''Event''' Somewhere on the island is an animal that exists purely as a temporary event. The Legendary Ghost Elephant - in reality, an aggressive albino pachyderm of incredible size - is said to roam the island of Shartak. Some Natives revere it, others desire to be recorded as the one who slayed it. Some Outsiders wish to study it, others desire to have it as a trophy. It behaves much like any other elephant on Shartak. However, it has a different label, an unfathomable amount of HP, and deals horrific damage. If you heal the Ghost Elephant with a FAK or Herbs, you receive double XP. And to further serve a challenge, don't place an HP cap on the Ghost Elephant, just give it a starting amount. If possible, a log of all actions performed on the Ghost Elephant should be kept by the server and revealed in the event that it dies. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 03:58, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''

Ha! I like this one, Lint, and simple to implement. It should really have a boatload of HP, as I think few will consider expending valuable healing items on it, when its far easier (and more rewarding) to hack away at it for 40 AP then make a run for it! --[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 16:42, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

Arr! I would ride that ghost beast like a horse jus' fer fun, then slay 't t' sell its tusks t' them outsiders an' th' meat t' them natives. --[[User:El Pirata Cofresi|El Pirata Cofresi]] 17:46, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

In the Congo they refer to it as Mokele Mbembe - he who stops the flow of rivers - and it is rumoured to be a lost dinosaur. The island could do with some cryptozoology. Would this creature be able to disappear or hide or move incredibly fast? If not, then once one person finds it, they can just call everyone over to the same square. This kind of defeats the mythical aspect as well as adding potential server problems. --[[User:Frisco|Frisco]] 18:24, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

I should make the animals attack back in near-realtime first (as in you attack them and they may or may not get an attack in).. just to add a bit of interest to it and stop people running up to the creature and hacking and then running away. Making an animal with an almost unlimited number of HP would be possible.. I guess probably start it with at least double a normal elephant and max of about a thousand HP to prevent people healing it to the point where it'd be impossible to kill. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 18:37, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

It could be cool, especially if it moved around in a way that made tracking it possible, maybe by destroying the foliage, or moving in a pattern. Also having it move might help keep people from all winding up in one square beating it up. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 18:41, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

:I've tried to offset the game's focus on combat by encouraging healing (double XP may be too much of a reward, so I'm willing to remove that), but that alone will most likely be not enough to counter the horde of blood-thirsty savages! Healing with the Herbs and FAKs may actually be seen as healing the Ghost Elephant spiritually rather than merely physically, which is why it's health can grow high. I don't see a problem if it became near-unkillable. I like keeping some myths and legends around. I thought that it would be best if it traveled like an elephant, but it is true that it limits the people that are able to participate in the event. Perhaps it should "teleport", after a certain amount of time in an area - "A wall of fog sweeps in through jungle. When it fades, you see that the Ghost Elephant has vanished as well." I requested for a log of actions to determine who killed it, who attacked it the most, who healed it the most, and who got hurt the most. Also, rather than a recurring animal, I thought it would be best to release it as an event that occurs every now and then. Or maybe only once! --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 19:32, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

I like it. And of course, you needn't stick to land animals; a mysterious sea creature that patrols the island waters and is reported to be 30ft long could prompt more people to vernture into the waters for a glimpse/trophy etc. Sharks will also be a problem for those searching! --[[User:Malphas|Malphas]] 15:52, 19 March 2006 (GMT)

I ''love'' this idea.--[[User:Wifey|Wifey]] 07:08, 28 March 2006 (BST)

=== Auto Attack ===
I've never liked the fact that while I am away from the game, things can happen to my character, like being chewed on by a tiger or slashed with a machette. How about a setting where you can turn your character on to auto attack anything that hits you. It should, of course, be user selected. This would change the game mechanics a bit, as you could no longer move in on a target and attack it withough fear of a counter-strike. To me this is far more realistic, in that even if you are sleeping, when somebody hits you, you're going to wake up and do something about it with whatever engery you have left.

An alternative selectable action might be an auto-run. You can pre-specify the direction you want to run and how many squares upon being hit. A character with trekking could stay alive just by running a few square whenever they are hit.
--[[User:Qberry|Qberry]] 02:34, 20 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* The main problem with this is that players will be discouraged from attacking other players, as this will become extremely dangerous, and the native warrior who wants the outsiderts out will effectively be penalised.[[User:MorkaisChosen|MorkaisChosen]] 15:47, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* Sorry, but I don't like this. I feel that that this will lead to interactions with players that are no different than interacting with an NPC. Could someone theoretically max themselves out by just leaving this option on and checking in every now and then to make sure they haven't become a spirit? --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 17:28, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* Yeah, I'm not a fan of being able to do something by not doing something, such as fighting or running without being there to fight or run. Also, would it be free of AP and IP hits, or would it be possible to come back and have no AP or hits left? It seems like these problems would wreck any sort of auto action. I can understand not enjoying being macheted while away, but I don't see any way around this. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 18:20, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* I must admit that I don't like the idea all that much, but if it was implemented it would probably be something that was user configurable. I don't think running away would make sense, but fighting back does. For example, no more than X AP to be used fighting back until you next log back in, and they wouldn't be used unless you had more than Y AP left. This way you could set X to 10 and Y to 6 and if you ran out of AP, set those values, it would be 2 hours (6 x 20m) before you were likely to attack, and it would use no more than 10 AP fighting back. Because the values are configurable, it would be hard to know who would fight back and who wouldn't. Setting X to 0 would disable the feature. I think probably the attacks would gain XP if successful, same as normal, but because you wouldn't be able to set the number of AP to use to more than your max AP value, it would be impossible to level up a character by simply leaving them alone (not to mention you would disappear from the map after being idle for a bit). --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 21:01, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* i like the idea of counterattack , but with some limits. You have only a % of counterattacking someone (25%?) , you don't consume AP , you don't get XP. But , whit wich weapon do you attack?--[[User:JonesDye|JonesDye]] 10:05, 27 March 2006 (BST)

===Flavor Text===

this section is where "users" add "flavor" to the game, im just suggesting that every few steps the computer say a message depending on location, here ill give a few examples:

*'''grasslands'''
**the grassy field sways under the wind's rush as you take a step.|
**something far off squaks and makes a strange throaty bellow.|

*'''water'''
**a wave crashes calmly in the distance|
**a spalsh can be heard from far off|

*'''jungle'''
**a parrot's call can be heard distantly|
**the bushes nearby are rustling from the small wildlife in them|

*'''village (outsider)'''
**the smell of gunpowder wafts into your lungs|
**the smoke comming from a nearby hut smells of fresh turkey|

*'''village (native)'''
**the shaman's voice can be heard traveling through the village|
**you step on the bones of what appears to be a rattlesnake|

*'''beach'''
**the hot sand burns your feet, yet feels wonderfully different|
**several sea shells catch your eye from far off|

please feel free to update these with more, as they are just a list (if simon decides to) that will be used for flavor.
i want to do this because the game gets kinda boring simply traversing through square after square

===slots/ new inventory===
slots and inventory could be implemented where, a picture of a silhouette was shown, with names of equiped items in slotted areas, ex: you skin a goat, find some sharp rocks and fashion yourself some claws, you then put them on, giving you +1 damage to all melee attacks
[[animal wearings]]

Suggestions:Items

2006-03-29T03:59:11Z

Richard Rose:

Suggestions:Skills

2006-03-28T20:54:40Z

Richard Rose: /* Construction */

{| cellpadding=10 align=right
| __TOC__
|}

{{Suggestionsnav}}

Suggestions for Shartak are always welcome, although there's no guarantee that anything will be added. Comments on or modifications for any of the suggestions below can be added by editing this page. Please be considerate and don't just remove ideas that you don't like.

Begin a new item with a * and "sign" your suggestions using <nowiki>-- ~~~~</nowiki> so we know who to blame ;)

Bug reports should go on the [[Bugs]] page.

This is the suggestions page for [[Skills]]. See also the [[Suggestions]] page for other suggestions.

== Skills ==

===Planting/agriculture===
Both outsiders and natives with this skill should be able to plant trees (mango, banana) on fertile land. By clearing away jungle, and applying an example of the fruit of the tree you wish to plant, you could sow the seed. A tree of that type would then sprout X days later. This would open up for plantation, and help feed the villages/settlements. --[[User:DKChannelboredom|DKChannelboredom]] (2 March)

''Comments''
:Interesting idea, perhaps only a chance that a tree will grow, and to ensure a tree grows you have to plant a certain number of fruit of the same kind on the same block. Of course, does this mean that existing trees should occasionally die off, say if they get surrounded by 8 blocks of highest density jungle and the tree block is also highest density jungle.. maybe explained as something to do with lack of sunlight reaching the tree because of the amount of jungle around it. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 09:47, 2 March 2006 (GMT)
::Why not treat existing trees and planted trees separately? My initial thought is that if I did not have this skill, I would still like the opportunity to gather resources from a dependable source. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Weapon Skills ===
The Warrior/Soldiers class should get weapon skills, like spear skills for the warrior and rifle skills for the soldier, make the soldiers skills make the rifle have better to hit then the natives spear but the rifle requires the searching of ammo, this makes the difference between natives and outsiders warrior classes more than the blowpipe and rifle (blowpipes do 1 less damage) EDIT: I ahnotice that the outsiders do indeed have rifle training, freshly added to the wiki I guess.-- [[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 11:07, 17 February 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''

We have been doing some research(see the talk page in character classes) and it appears that warriors are no better at fighting(unless you count 10 extra hp as being really great) than any other class, correct me if I'm wrong but if there is no warrior only fighting skill what makes them warriors and not shamans w/ blowpipes(pardon the pun but they "blow") and +10hp? and if that is all they are how come soilders get extra skills? -- [[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 02:55, 3 March 2006 (GMT)

Also, if you've got a machete and the three melee skills, there's never any point in using a blowpipe (unless you've got 1AP left and a victim with only 4HP remaining). There should be a skill that increases the chances of hitting with a blowpipe, to at least 30% - especially since you have to search for darts. Viveca Lindfors, 6 March 2006, 17:25 GMT

It should be over 30% as even at that it still makes blowpipes worse than the heavy sword(which while apparently being really rare itdoesn't mean everybody can't search and find one and 5 dam 45%[2.25 dam/ap] outclasses even 4 dam, search ammo, 2ap per shot, 80%![approaxamitly 1.6 dam/ap not counting search ap] anyday, hell the heavy sword is the uberest weapon in the game![the rifle is 5 dam, 1.5 ap/shot,60%=2dam/ap not counting searching!]) I think you should at least be able to make them have the same to hit as the rifle, It would be balanced by the fact you can only load a single dart at a time(i think),they have lower damage, but you can find darts in more places (check the regular search odds page you'll see they were found in d10 jungle!) I could see this fact alone justify the lower damage and single shot load, but not the lower to hit chance. Unless of course poison darts actually poison(has anybody checked this out?) then I see why they have a low to hit, you can dart somebody, run away then they would die trying to find you, But even if they do poison, outsiders can use them too(with a skill) so I still believe native warriors should be more effective at darting then any other class to balance the superiority of rifles.But all in all problems are solved if blowpipes get some skills to raise to hit% and the heavy sword is removed for being too uber(just cause it is rare doesn't mean we all can't/won't find it!) --[[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 23:09, 9 March 2006 (GMT)

Maybe there can be a skill to create blowpipe darts (with poison berries or snakes)

=== Tracking ===
Anyone with the Tracking skill should be able to track where people have gone, either generic "A native passed by here recently" or more specific "Average Joe left heading north 2 days ago".

''Comments''
* Should probably be a timelimit so you don't see "Average Joe left heading north 90 days ago". - [[User:Snarf|Snarf]]

=== Religious Devotion ===
Required to use "Holy Scriptures" --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 23:22, 16 February 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''

=== Jungle Skills ===
The jungle environment has great potential to add significant dynamic to this game. These could be a set of skills to reflect this.
: Jungle Lore: Player has x% chance of discovering item/artifact. Might work in conjunction with search skill.
: Make/Detect Traps: Spikes, Pits etc... Not sure this is possible and what would be need to time degrade this.[[User:Nankilstlas|Nankilstlas]]
: Some kind of "hiding" skill where you can spend AP to conceal yourself in fauna, so you can't be seen by passersby. Visually, it could take the form of "reforesting" a block to dark green, and someone who chops through would "uncover" you, perhaps getting some XP? --[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 19:34, 25 February 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
:: A 'trapping' skill looks like it would be exploited by greifers (surrounding someone with traps, for example), but I like the 'Hiding' and 'Jungle Lore' ideas.--[[User:Grigoriy|Grigoriy]] 02:26, 26 February 2006 (GMT)
:: The hiding skill shouldn't conceal you from animals or someone with the Sixth Sense, Exploration, or Jungle Lore skills, otherwise the player would be invincible.--[[User:Grigoriy|Grigoriy]] 21:15, 27 February 2006 (GMT)
:::Agreed, hostile animals should be able to sniff out hidden players, and Sixth Sense makes sense as well. Hidden players have to remain motionless to stay hidden, using items, searching, etc, would "unhide" the person. I was also thinking how the "reforesting" aspect could be abused to create vast areas that needed to be chopped down, so maybe a player could only hide in an already dark green area, (getting a message like ''there is not enough foliage to suitable hide in'' when trying in a cleared area) limiting its effect somewhat, and creating a little extra tension when on the run from someone and trying to find an overgrown area to hide in. --[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 22:37, 27 February 2006 (GMT)
:::: I like the hiding skill, maybe with different AP required depending on jungle density. Also, first hidden could make you invisible from 2 squares away, while hiding further would hide you from any adjacent square, and a third hide would keep you hidden on the same square unless they chopped. --[[User:Qberry|Qberry]] 3/29/06
::::like the hiding thing as well, maybe it could work in that if you use it then you are only visible if they are in the same square as you? it would certainly keep you quite hidden anyway. -- [[User: fitzcarraldo|fitzcarraldo]]|[[User talk:fitzcarraldo|T]] 15:42, 28 March 2006 (BST)

=== Skinning ===
This is a skill that does not have a pre-requisite. Upon coming across an area where a dead animal is present, the player is given an opportunity to skin the animal. The process of skinning costs 1 AP and has a chance of producing items such as '''Animal Hide''' or '''Animal Tooth''' or '''Animal Feathers'''. These items can be traded to an NPC found in villages and exchanged for Gold Coins. This skill should be available to all classes to grant them all with an equal opportunity of earning Gold. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 21:48, 23 February 2006 (GMT)
* Extend skinning to killed players? No, that's just wrong. We are civilized.
* Make skinning have a pre-requisite of '''Exploration'''? Perhaps.
* Make skinning always produce an item, rather than chance? No, I like a good challenge.
* Perhaps it could be tied to the Meat suggestion? Possibly.

''Comments''
* Good idea, perhaps natives don't have a pre-requisite, but outsiders need exploration? *cough* --[[User:Grigoriy|Grigoriy]] 02:12, 26 February 2006 (GMT)
** While that may be a more realistic way to handle it - since natives would conceivably be more experienced with such matters - I think that changing the skill tree for such a minor skill would upset the general sense of game balance between the two sides. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 02:43, 26 February 2006 (GMT)

=== Animal Spirit ===
(native only) Upon gaining this skill, an animal type is associated with the player. Any attacks by the player on that animal result in negative xp, but the animal is less likely to attack the player. Additionally, if the player dons the skin of the animal (perhaps via the Skinning skill) then a bonus is given to the player, such as faster movement, hit bonus, damage bonus. Bonus could be dependant on animal. Upon player death, there is a chance the player's animal spirit will change. --frisco

''Comments''

=== Build Training ===
(Outsiders only) They gain the ability to build walls around the outsider settlements. There would be different levels like reinforced, light, massive, etc. Whoever can attack them and destroy them. Maybe there would be a skill for building gates? --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 03:33, 1 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* Natives should be able to make walls too - think King Kong, plus if there are native ruins on this island, then they must still have some decent construction knowledge lingering around. However, Outsiders should have an "Advanced" skill that allows for stronger walls. --[[User:Frisco|Frisco]] 04:41, 1 March 2006 (GMT)
:Yes, any human should be able to build, and they should ONLY be able to build in certain areas, so as not to have some group lay claim to a section of the island with key resources (assuming there are some). Also, it should take a LOT of AP. --[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 00:18, 2 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Trap Laying ===
(Native only) They can place one time use traps that dmg outsiders only. This skill can only be used in the jungle. Maybe a skill to be able to detect traps? --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 03:36, 1 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* Again i'm thinking Outsiders could make traps too - some of them must have been hunters in the Old Country - but perhaps an Advanced skill for natives, leading to higher success rate, since they are more used to the environment. This skill seems dangerous, though, possibly leading to clans just laying traps in every single square of jungle, making it ridiculous for the other side. Perhaps a trap can only be made in certain jungle types, and only lasts until the jungle changes in level (either growing up naturally or down by the same character type chopping it). --[[User:Frisco|Frisco]] 04:53, 1 March 2006 (GMT)
:This was already proposed in the "jungle skills" section. I agree, it seem too easy to abuse by griefers.--[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 00:18, 2 March 2006 (GMT)

===Comment Cartography===
Applies to Natives & Outsiders, most likely best applied only to the classes, scouts & explorers. I am thinking that it would be great to get more out of the map. This skill would allow those who have it to be able to add a limited number of short comments to their maps. These comments could work as references so as to be able to use the map to help find points of interest at some other time. I could see this probably difficult to implement, but perhaps it could work in that one could click in a quadrant on the map which would reload the page and allow you to add a text comment / description to a form. This text comment on a save would place a reference number on that quadrant of the map and the text would be listed to the right or below the map with accompanying reference number. -- [[User: fitzcarraldo|fitzcarraldo]]|[[User talk:fitzcarraldo|T]] 17:05, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
*This is a great idea, I am not an explorer/scout but I am all for class-specific skills, that are in character, because as of right now there aren't too many differences(which I'm guessing will change.-- [[User:Daylan|Daylan]]00:37, 10 March 2006 (GMT)

*I think this is a great idea too, and very much the way a real cartogragher would operate, making small notations as they explored and surveyed.--[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 00:49, 10 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Revive skill ===
Applies to doctors and shamans, a skill to revive spirits, would require Sixth sense (obviously). It is simple enough premis: a skill that revives dead players similar to the regular shamans instead of requiring them to go to town shamans, the revive players aren't as skilled at the craft so the revived players would have only 80% of there hp when revived by other players. --[[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 00:43, 10 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* Does raise a risk of multi-abuse, but I agree that player shamen should have this ability. Maybe it requires a special powder or item in order to do?--[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 00:49, 10 March 2006 (GMT)
* I am trying to think of some cost right now but can't decide. I do know that the xp gain rate should be comparable to fighting(and healing when there are more players) so players will want to be a revive player. --[[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 01:41, 10 March 2006 (GMT)
*I don't like the idea of Doctors getting the ability to revive the dead, but that's definitely within the rights of a shaman. Sixth Sense as a requirement, and you must be standing in the same area as a spirit. Give either a 100% chance to work and a relatively high AP cost (10?) or a lower chance to work and lower AP cost. Blam. There you go. Player shamans can now do their part.--[[User:Wifey|Wifey]] 07:18, 28 March 2006 (BST)

===Polymorph===
Requires Animal Spirit. Allows character to take the form of an animal. Perhaps one skill per animal, and each transform requires the use of an (AP expensive) animal mask. Upon transforming, people around you cannot tell it is you. If you die as an animal, you turn back to human, having lost half the HP the animal lost. To allow polymorph for outsiders, maybe a skill like "Ancient Reading" with the presumption that this allows them to read the right glyphs in the ruins would give them the ability to learn this skill. --[[User:Frisco|Frisco]] 03:52, 10 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* I like the idea of having some kind of weird supernatural kind of skill for the natives... But, I think that if you get killed while in animal form, you should be dead and have to seek the assistance of a shaman. Because all the natives would do when logging out is morph into an elephant. That's a boat load of HP for someone to whittle down and kill, only to have the human pop out and have to be hacked away at. Granted, nobody will KNOW outright that the person has assumed the guise of an animal. Would you propose that if someone "kills" the animal form they get the XP bonus of killing an animal? -- [[User:Schmeckel|Schmeckel]] 06:09, 11 March 2006 (GMT)
*Special masks that turn you into animals? They'd need to be quite hard to make, maybe special wood from a certain type of tree, a bit of the animal and something to stick it together. It'd have to be harder to get the ones for better animals. [[User:MorkaisChosen|MorkaisChosen]] 12:19, 11 March 2006 (GMT)

===Will o' the Wisp===
Type: Skill addition 
Scope: Spirits (all classes) 
Will o' the Wisp (can't think of another name) is a potentially simple skill to give a little more incentive to play as a spirit for a bit. It is a sub-skill of '''Ghostly whisper'''. If a player possesses this skill, then as a spirit they will have an option to "Wisp" for 30 AP. Wisping operates on a similar mechanic as the Flare guns and Feeding groans in Urban Dead. Any players posessing '''Sixth Sense''' within a 5x5 range of the spirit will be informed: ''A faint flicker of light catches your eye (x blocks east/west), (y blocks north/south). (timestamp)''.

This skill also has the potential to stack. More spirits on the same square will produce a brighter effect. Possibly in base 5. Ranging from faint flicker, slight illumination, to brilliant flash.

Fixes that I made last minute: reduced the Wisp range and upped the Wisp cost in an attempt to reduce spamming, also making Sixth Sense a prerequisite for recognizing Wisps as it would otherwise nerf the skill to a degree. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 07:53, 25 March 2006 (GMT)

* I like it. The AP cost might be a bit on the high side, but there may be other alternatives to reduce spamming. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 10:44, 25 March 2006 (GMT)
* What's the point of it? Or is there something I'm missing? I mean, is it just to light up for kicks? Wll o' the Wisps in folklore always attempted to lead travellers into dangerous parts of bogs, where they would find their doom. Since that isn't really an option (and since people, noticing this, would just stop paying attention to them), is there any practical use for this? Still neat, if there isn't, but better if there is.--[[User:Wifey|Wifey]] 07:25, 28 March 2006 (BST)
** As a Shaman with Sixth Sense, I've only come across 1 spirit. I sought a means to encourage the realm of the living and the dead to interact more. It is admitedly mostly aimed towards flavor and roleplaying than mechanics. The most practical application would be to attract people to revive points (in the possibility that they are created). In retrospect, I now see that this suggestion overlaps with the '''Haunting Scream''' description to a fair degree. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:33, 28 March 2006 (BST)

===Construction===
construction points, would be implemented and would act like exp, but players earn it by setting up camp, ex: 5exp everytime a player sets up his/her cabin, costs 10ap to set up, to keep from spamming and getting free exp.
*'''construction'''allow players to build 1(one) single hut per GAME that is collapsable, non collapsable, players out in the jungle would have to cut down the jungle to re-construct the hut
this would give players a reason to stay out in the jungle,

simply what it says, first off, we could/should have different buildings because i find it annoying to have to look around at the same picture not knowing where the trading post is. im implying that new icons be put in for huts, like the pirate ship, have different pictures, ex:
there is an armory hut, it's icon would be a hut with a silver tip/ sword on the roof
and etc...

SKILLS:
*'''hut maitenance'''
can change hut 1(one) time into another kind of hut ex: armory hut, extra chance of finding wpns etc
**'''cupboard''' accesible inventory in hut that players can "lock" and recieve a "key" item, other players could break open the "lock" for x amount of AP
*'''bed''' players in hut are shown the "get into bed" option which heals 2 hp every hour they arent logged in
**'''fluffy bed''' heals and extra 1-2 hp
*'''running water'''
if the hut is within x amount of squares to water, they can refill gourds and bottles (i think someone suggested we keep empty bottles, this would require that to be implemented)
*'''fire-pit''' players can cook meat (as suggested, only used if implemented)
*'''craftmanship'''players can see the hut's creator, ex: Richard's Hut, if skill isnt aquired, players see the hut as "dishevelled hut" or "ragged hut" etc.
*'''hut upgrade 1''' hut is given one extra ring of squares
**'''hut upgrade 2''' hut is given extra floor
***'''hut upgrade 3''' hut second floor is enlarged, door locks are given
****'''hut upgrade 4''' hut is given a basement

the use of hut upgrades is to help people hide, when upgrade 3 is given, and locks are attained, players can "lock" their houses up, requiring a devastating amount of AP to open, suggesting around 60-70 AP

*'''house trap 1''' spike trap, inflicts 1 wound
**'''house trap 2''' heavy spike trap, 1 wound and 3 dmg
*'''house trap 3''' blast trap, 7 hp
**'''house trap 4''' heavy blast trap 14 hp

traps are triggered upon breaking into a house, players can attain a new skill:
*'''lockpick''' breaking in only costs 30 AP
with this skill, traps are disabled

*'''animal cage'''
if animal trapping were implemented, then this would keep them from running away when u died,
**'''animal care''' animal care section of the house, determining your pet's status ex:
Richard clicks the button "give pet food" mr whiskers smiles and gobbles it up. it could also just be flavor text, and a way to get rid of meat.
*'''attack animal'''
player buys skill animal now acts like trap, player types in names of people allowed to be in house, anyone not on the list is attacked by animal, animal is treated as "wild" to intruders, as per, it will follow them several blocks away from the house before returning, and can be killed, but is also agressive no matter what breed. ex: mr.parrot attack john doe for 2 dammage and returns home.
**'''rabidity''' animal is now "rabid" and has a 20% chance of "infecting" (wound) the intruding player

other tidings can be added, ex:
*'''taxidermy''' players can pick up dead bodies and mount them in their house ex:
in the second story of richard's hut is a grey elephant head, mounted on oak

my finale,
*'''garden''' allows players to plant a tree/ bush 1 square away from their house, planting requires, 5 of the said fruit and the plants disappear when the hut is packed up, players also have the ability to "kill" the plant and re-grow a different one.
**'''green thumb''' allows players to garden for only 3 fruits
**'''verdant thumb''' allows players to change to growths around their house, ex: a house surrounded by dirt can be changed to light undergrouwth or heavy forest
**'''spade''' allows player to dig a "cellar" 1-3 squares away from house to "hide" or store items.
skill also allows players to loacte any tunnels within 5X5 of the checked area. players can only check within a 3X3 area around the house

house experience does not raise everytime a skill is bought, but the price is set at 100-200 (your choice)

Suggestions:Skills

2006-03-28T20:45:36Z

Richard Rose: /* Construction */

Suggestions:Skills

2006-03-28T19:42:27Z

Richard Rose: /* Construction */

Suggestions:Skills

2006-03-28T19:36:54Z

Richard Rose: /* Construction */

Suggestions:Skills

2006-03-28T19:34:17Z

Richard Rose:

Suggestions:Game mechanics

2006-03-28T19:19:47Z

Richard Rose: /* Flavor Text */

{| cellpadding=10 align=right
| __TOC__
|}

{{Suggestionsnav}}

Suggestions for Shartak are always welcome, although there's no guarantee that anything will be added. Comments on or modifications for any of the suggestions below can be added by editing this page. Please be considerate and don't just remove ideas that you don't like.

Begin a new item with a * and "sign" your suggestions using <nowiki>-- ~~~~</nowiki> so we know who to blame ;)

Bug reports should go on the [[Bugs]] page.

This is the suggestions page for game mechanics. See also the [[Suggestions]] page for other suggestions.

== Game Mechanics ==

=== Conversion ===
When an Outsider/Native dies they are reborn as a Native (don't really understand the spirit thing too well). The Outsiders then get a new class/skill, "Religious Conversion" that requires a "Holy Scripture". This allows a "Priest" to convert one native into a Outsider". The converted native would most likely start off as a Settler. --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 23:22, 16 February 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* I believe that Natives are reborn as Natives and Outsiders are reborn as Outsiders, but I could be wrong. From a game balance perspective, I am not in favor of type-swapping skills unless Natives are presented with an ability to counter or convert Outsiders as well. It does fit nicely with the theme though. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 23:41, 16 February 2006 (GMT)

* That would probably be the shamans job, however it may have worked for Urban Dead but I don't think it will work in this game as whichever group has the most players to begin with will, once conflicts begin to arise, dominate by switching people from the side they are on the side the priest/"whatever the natives use" side making you able to graph one groups population by looking at the graph pop=(1/2)^x. Also since there wouldn't seem to be a way, short of finding a converter player to switch you back, to go back to playing as you once did would make the amount of people on one side quickly die off (even though thats what would happen in real life, favouring the outsiders) it would be a very unfun aspect of the game. And really these are HOSTILE natives, or so it seems, why would they let some devilman outsider tell it how it is? They wouldn't, they would simply spear them and laugh! In short all the converting ideas suck, I know I wouldn't want to log on to find I'm playing for the wrong side. -- [[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 10:55, 17 February 2006 (GMT)

* So that means if my soldier dies, he's reborn as a native? Not only that, but to become an outsider again, first I would have to find a priest (which would be next to impossible with such a small number of players), and then he could convert me into a settler. That means I'll never be able to be a soldier again, which is a real punch in the throat for RPers. -- Grigoriy

*All valid points. I guess this wouldn't really work we have the same number of players as Urban Dead. But this would be a great way to balance out the sides later on. Say there are too many natives, you just drop more "conversion items" and balance out the sides. Too many Outsiders? Just drop the number of conversion items. Doubt it would catch on though. --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 02:44, 19 February 2006 (GMT)

*Conversion doesn't have to be forced. It could require action on both sides, like a native doning a religious item and an outsider using the skill on that native. After all, conversion isn't real without true faith. The native counter to this could be similar, requiring an outsider to die holding a packet of that headshrinking powder while a shaman uses the Zombification (ala Haitian witchcraft) skill. -- frisco

*You don't change class or anything when you die. --[[User:Murk|Murk]] 12:31, 4 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Capturing villages ===
Since this is like some war between Outsiders and Natives I thought this appropriate. If all the (say) Outsiders are killed in York and there are none left, then it becomes a Native village and vice versa. Probably needs harder requirements to capture settlements though. Maybe each side could have one permanent place that can never change hands? --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 03:41, 1 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
:Not sure about this - what about all the idle players within the village? They might "wake up" after a couple of weeks to find they're in enemy territory. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 11:00, 1 March 2006 (GMT)

:You could have it so idle players goto the nearest friendly village-- [[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 02:58, 3 March 2006 (GMT)

:Turf control in a limited AP browser game like this just invites lame zerging behavior. I don't like it. --[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 00:00, 4 March 2006 (GMT)

:Not villages, perhaps 3x3 square 'forts'? --[[User:Grigoriy|Grigoriy]] 01:10, 4 March 2006 (GMT)

:I do like the idea, but I think Jackel's observation hits a key point. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

:Agreed with Jackel and Lint and Simon. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 13:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT) Additionally:
::* Please don't impose your assumption that Shartak is at heart a "war between Outsiders and Natives" on the rest of us. That is not the only possible direction in which this game can go. For example, an Outsider village might turn out to be populated by a trading company that views the other Outsider villages as competitors whose extermination would be good for business, but it could just as easily develop into a peaceful scientific outpost, a pirate haven of drunken debauchery, or a missionary settlement devoted to finding the Natives and learning their language (gotta spread that old time religion). I believe it would be better to keep the objectives more freeform, and let the players create the course of history. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 13:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
::* On a hopefully more helpful and positive note, one could simulate/approximate capturing a village by amassing an army of suitable size, carving messages of ownership all over the territory of the village in question, killing all members of the village, and repeatedly killing the village shaman so they can't get back as easily. (Ouch. I hope no armchair megalomaniacs out there have been taking notes.) --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 13:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Unique skills ===
I think that each class should start off with one unique skill that the others may never aquire. That way it stops all the classes from becoming too generic. For example Settlers could have a "farming" skill, Soldiers could have a "bravery" skill, etc. Or mabey they could just have a attribute like Soldiers have an extra 10% chance of striking the target, Warriors have an extra 10% chance of finding animals, Settlers have an extra 10% chance of finding an item, Scouts have a 3% chance of recovering 1 HP per AP spent, etc. --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 02:34, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
*Perhaps a Research skill of some kind for the Scientist, maybe allowing them an advantage when doing things with dead animals (would need something to do with dead animals, obviously!).[[User:MorkaisChosen|MorkaisChosen]] 16:09, 16 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
:I am in favor of this (if it is not in effect currently). We'd have to work out the details to make sure each class is getting their fair share, but something that encourages players to try other classes or team up with other players using different classes for a better playing experience sounds good to me. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
:I am in favor of each class being able to acquire (but not necessarily starting off with) a unique skill or attribute that the others may never acquire. Sounds to me like the kind of thing that would be unlocked as one's reward for a rite of passage, rather than granted as a right of birth. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 12:53, 7 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Pet System ===
I will combine aspects of the '''Animal''' and '''Pirate''' suggestions and propose a pet system that allows you to tame one of the animals on the island. First, you have to weaken the animal. Then you throw a sphere device at it and shout "SHARTAK SPHERE! GO!" for 1 AP. There's a slight chance that you have captured and tamed the animal. The more powerful the animal, the less success chance. You earn no XP for taming an animal. Players can only have 1 pet at a time. They can release a pet whenever they want. If the owner dies, the pet runs away. Pets have fixed HP, attack, and accuracy based on the type of animal they are (ie. they do not level up or heal, just to keep it simple to design). They follow the player around and only attack when the player attacks. It would be nice if they attacked while you were not playing, but auto-defense mechanisms are unnecessary. Enemy animals randomly determine whether they are attacking the owner or the pet. Other players will have an option for targeting the owner or pet. There is no XP gained for attacking or killing a pet to deter any attempts at farming pet killing (I can't believe we even have to consider preventing such a thing). For added flavor, owners can name their pets. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
:ROTFL. Sounds a bit like Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh (don't worry, I'm not a fan, I have kids that were!). Perhaps instead of spheres, you could keep the monkeys on a leash, heal a tiger or elephant to make it less likely to attack you, tame deer by feeding them, etc. Some animals like the wild boar would have to be pretty difficult to tame. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 15:14, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
:I was with you right up until you got to the "sphere device" bit, and I rejoined you afterwards. ;) The rest of your suggestion otherwise seems to be pretty well thought out. Personally, I'd prefer to attempt to tame the animal into becoming a pet purely by offering it food, rather than "weakening" it by other means. Especially since food is scarce enough that offering it to an animal would be a real sacrifice and therefore an interesting decision for the player to make. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 14:49, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
::I will confess that I had a lot of fun with the references. The problem I have with using an existing item to tame a pet is how to implement it. The player can't click on the fruit, because that will just heal themselves. And I think it is unecessary to redesign fruits like First Aid Kits and Medical Herbs, just so they can feed it to an animal. And a database check to see if the player possesses a fruit before providing a "tame" command seems awkward. Perhaps there is just one item called "animal bait" (from the Trade Hut most likely). It works much like a FAK or Herb, but can only be applied to animals (though there will be a "Yourself" option by default for those players that decide they enjoy the taste). Animals will then have a value called "tame count" in the database. For each successful feeding, this number is incremented. When a specific number is reached, the monster is successfully tamed. If a monster is killed, the number is reset to 0. Acquiring a pet should not reduce the population of animals on the island (ie. one should respawn to take its place). Furthermore, those with '''Animal Affinity''' should have a better taming success rate. (This is another attempt to give Villagers and Settlers a little boost.) --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 17:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
:::This idea, while somewhat interesting, is not very realitic. The animals of the island are wild. In reality, tigers, elephants, deer, "WILD boars" etc can only be made LESS WILD by extensive and careful training and handling when they are young, not be tamable by any means, certainly not enough to follow a person around and fight on their behalf. Maybe it would be possible with parrots and monkeys, but if Simon is going to implement changes, I'd rather see some of the more believable ones first. I do agree with Lint that it would give more value to '''Animal Affinity'''. Animal attacks, even from a tiger or elephant (which would realistically be very dangerous) are hardly to be feared, making this skill currently seem pretty useless.

=== Profile Effect Items ===
These are useless baubles that take up 1 unit of a player's inventory space, but if anyone views their profile they will see that the players possesses the item. Using the item won't accomplish anything and merely produce flavor text. However, if a player is in the presence of another player, using the item would show it off. As with all items, there's no way to trade them with other players. We can have eyepatches and peglegs. We can have tribal masks and warpaint. Maybe some clans would require a certain dress code. Maybe they need 30 pieces of flair. I think it provides an outlet for the less serious gamers. Problems: Serious gamers might be plagued with finding such items and dropping them, wasting (in their opinion) AP and Page Hits. Also, arguing over what items fit with the theme of Shartak will be a headache-inducing process. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* I like this suggestion. How about finding the pieces of the masks and making your own - combine the baubles with mini-quests? --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 11:18, 8 March 2006 (GMT)
:For example, to make the sacred warrior mask of Raktam, you must find 5 parrot feathers, a tiger tooth, some berries and a piece of driftwood that can be carved into the appropriate shape with a knife or dagger. Once you have all those items, you get a "create mask" option which then removes the required items and the mask appears in your inventory (and profile).
::Having the database check to see if they have all the ingredients seems a bit unwieldly. After every action or inventory use it might have to run the check to verify that they are alive, still have the items, etc. I'd just settle for having them take the items to a specific NPC. But yes, a mixing quest would be fun. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 18:02, 8 March 2006 (GMT)

* I just hope that this idea motivates players to try new things ("I'm going to join a clan that wears such-and-such a mask and attack the others! Yarr!") and not feel that the game is just about collecting items ("Well, I got all the masks. I guess I'm done with the game."). --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 18:02, 8 March 2006 (GMT)

*Maybe the different masks have different effects, from some simple ones (attracting/scaring animals, making them less likely to attack or easier to hit) to the downright blatavt video game reference that turns you into a huge brown rocky guy who can punch boulders apart. OK, maybe not the second one. [[User:MorkaisChosen|MorkaisChosen]] 20:53, 9 March 2006 (GMT)
:I think that's something to be worked on in a separate suggestion. The point of this suggestion is to make useless "fancy hats" that neither add or take away from the established gameplay. However, in the eyes of certain players, they may be invaluable because of how they can incorperate such items into their goals and roleplaying. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 23:52, 9 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Unique Item Hunt ===
'''Event''' ''Capture the Flag''-ish minigame. Somewhere on the island is a single conch shell item. It can be found by searching anywhere. It takes 1 inventory space and appears when anyone views their profile. When the conch holder is in the presence of other players, flavor text is added to the area description to inform the others that the conch holder is in the area. If the person in possession of the conch drops it, dies, or is idle for more than 5 days, the conch returns to the system. The person who holds the conch the longest gets recognized in the statistics. Killing the conch holder earns special bonus XP. Adept conch holder killers may also be recognized in the statistics. Problems: Someone with multiple characters could take advantage of having the conch on one character and reap the XP and fame with another. There will be a point where a race condition will occur and might result in multiple conches and a broken game. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* This kind of thing has been on my ideas list, although this is much more detailed version than the one-liner I had. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 15:05, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Know your foes ===
As a native, I get killed a lot by outsiders, but I just can't strike back when I come back to life, as nothing allows me to identify my agressors amongst the outsiders I meet. I expected some basic language skill to give me access to clickable outsiders profiles, but it doesn't. So. I don't like much the fact that, in this game, the only alternative you have is "attack random outsiders" or "attack none". I'd like to be able to protect myself without being too unfair to peaceful outsiders (and being part of some snowball effect).

This would be partly solved by some profile access (allowing to check people's amount of human kills), or some limited displayed info on the present players (it would make -almost- sense for natives to automatically carry visible scalps or shrunken head of their victims, but I'm not sure how to justify the kills display in the case of outsiders, despite of the fact white men were actually quite fond of indian scalps at some time). Another useful tool would be some urban-dead-like contact list.

Of course, ideally (but absurdly) the most useful stat to be able to see would be the number of kills of people without human kills at the moment of their death, but... -- Leaf

''Comments''
Perhaps seeing the profile of someone on the opposite side if you or they have the advanced language skill would be good, it would be cool to hang around with some natives without worrying about aggressors. --[[User:Grigoriy|Grigoriy]] 21:30, 18 March 2006 (GMT)

If you had a contact list and some way to target individuals on your list ala Urban Dead, I'm guessing that would probably help. Not so sure about the scalp display approach. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 23:36, 18 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Forest Fire ===
'''Event''' This is a potential temporary minigame that will either lead to players to band together and save the island or perhaps just lead to all-out chaos. A fire script is created which designates one block as fire (it is identified by a little fire.gif in the background). Every 20 minutes the fire script will check if there is <del>Grassland or</del> Jungle nearby with density from 1-10. If there is, it spreads to the next block. It will not spread to any other terrain (including villages and ruins). Thus, the best way to prevent the spread of the fire is by chopping vegetation down to 0. The initial fires will be placed randomly around the island. Actions performed in a fire occupied space deal 2 damage. For this event to be more devious, there should be a means to quickly restore vegetation (dropping driftwood, planting fruit, watering with gourds). --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 03:58, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
*I like some things about this suggestion, I think it could work really nicely if there was also a rain algorithingamajig, so that maybe, if some part of the island dried out, wildfires could break out, or if it rained too much villages could flood and get swamped. Its a neat idea. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 04:55, 17 March 2006 (GMT)
* I like the idea of rain and fire, however there's no telling if the server would handle the database access/calculations required when the number of players gets into the range that Urban Dead has. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 11:17, 17 March 2006 (GMT)
** I thought it might be a bit much. Ah well. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 19:32, 17 March 2006 (GMT)
** Not the idea of fire itself, that may well be quite feasible. I meant having rain causing flooding, or not enough rain leading to fires might be a bit awkward.. unless I can think of some way to reduce the work that needs to be done regularly. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 23:38, 18 March 2006 (GMT)
* Maybe fires could also destroy huts, and then there could be a skill to rebuild them. Maybe even give people the ability to start their own fires. It might make for interesting tribal wars. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 18:22, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
** I kind of wanted to restrict fires to the Jungle (removed my Grasslands comment from the original suggestion) since a lot of Huts provide resources for starting players and players that have just been revived. I think it would be unfair to prevent them with the opportunity to gather supplies. As a tactic, it may also be unfair. Native villages appear to be completely surrounded by burnable Jungle, while Outsider villages are bordered by the Beach. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 19:46, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
** Good point. The pirates would be completely free of burning too. I still think a way to temporarily damage structures could be fun -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 19:59, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
** As a general rule, real world jungles don't burn terribly well, although there are a few notable exceptions (such as the Indonesian forest fires in 1997-98). Grasslands, however, burn quite regularly, and in fact such fires are necessary for the good health of the grass. Fire kills off sapling trees in the area which would otherwise grow to the point that they overshadowed and killed the grass. I don't know whether the game has any grasslands large enough to make this kind of thing interesting, though. --[[User:Jackdaw|Jackdaw]] 15:55, 25 March 2006 (GMT)

=== The Ghost Elephant ===
'''Event''' Somewhere on the island is an animal that exists purely as a temporary event. The Legendary Ghost Elephant - in reality, an aggressive albino pachyderm of incredible size - is said to roam the island of Shartak. Some Natives revere it, others desire to be recorded as the one who slayed it. Some Outsiders wish to study it, others desire to have it as a trophy. It behaves much like any other elephant on Shartak. However, it has a different label, an unfathomable amount of HP, and deals horrific damage. If you heal the Ghost Elephant with a FAK or Herbs, you receive double XP. And to further serve a challenge, don't place an HP cap on the Ghost Elephant, just give it a starting amount. If possible, a log of all actions performed on the Ghost Elephant should be kept by the server and revealed in the event that it dies. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 03:58, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''

Ha! I like this one, Lint, and simple to implement. It should really have a boatload of HP, as I think few will consider expending valuable healing items on it, when its far easier (and more rewarding) to hack away at it for 40 AP then make a run for it! --[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 16:42, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

Arr! I would ride that ghost beast like a horse jus' fer fun, then slay 't t' sell its tusks t' them outsiders an' th' meat t' them natives. --[[User:El Pirata Cofresi|El Pirata Cofresi]] 17:46, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

In the Congo they refer to it as Mokele Mbembe - he who stops the flow of rivers - and it is rumoured to be a lost dinosaur. The island could do with some cryptozoology. Would this creature be able to disappear or hide or move incredibly fast? If not, then once one person finds it, they can just call everyone over to the same square. This kind of defeats the mythical aspect as well as adding potential server problems. --[[User:Frisco|Frisco]] 18:24, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

I should make the animals attack back in near-realtime first (as in you attack them and they may or may not get an attack in).. just to add a bit of interest to it and stop people running up to the creature and hacking and then running away. Making an animal with an almost unlimited number of HP would be possible.. I guess probably start it with at least double a normal elephant and max of about a thousand HP to prevent people healing it to the point where it'd be impossible to kill. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 18:37, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

It could be cool, especially if it moved around in a way that made tracking it possible, maybe by destroying the foliage, or moving in a pattern. Also having it move might help keep people from all winding up in one square beating it up. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 18:41, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

:I've tried to offset the game's focus on combat by encouraging healing (double XP may be too much of a reward, so I'm willing to remove that), but that alone will most likely be not enough to counter the horde of blood-thirsty savages! Healing with the Herbs and FAKs may actually be seen as healing the Ghost Elephant spiritually rather than merely physically, which is why it's health can grow high. I don't see a problem if it became near-unkillable. I like keeping some myths and legends around. I thought that it would be best if it traveled like an elephant, but it is true that it limits the people that are able to participate in the event. Perhaps it should "teleport", after a certain amount of time in an area - "A wall of fog sweeps in through jungle. When it fades, you see that the Ghost Elephant has vanished as well." I requested for a log of actions to determine who killed it, who attacked it the most, who healed it the most, and who got hurt the most. Also, rather than a recurring animal, I thought it would be best to release it as an event that occurs every now and then. Or maybe only once! --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 19:32, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

I like it. And of course, you needn't stick to land animals; a mysterious sea creature that patrols the island waters and is reported to be 30ft long could prompt more people to vernture into the waters for a glimpse/trophy etc. Sharks will also be a problem for those searching! --[[User:Malphas|Malphas]] 15:52, 19 March 2006 (GMT)

I ''love'' this idea.--[[User:Wifey|Wifey]] 07:08, 28 March 2006 (BST)

=== Auto Attack ===
I've never liked the fact that while I am away from the game, things can happen to my character, like being chewed on by a tiger or slashed with a machette. How about a setting where you can turn your character on to auto attack anything that hits you. It should, of course, be user selected. This would change the game mechanics a bit, as you could no longer move in on a target and attack it withough fear of a counter-strike. To me this is far more realistic, in that even if you are sleeping, when somebody hits you, you're going to wake up and do something about it with whatever engery you have left.

An alternative selectable action might be an auto-run. You can pre-specify the direction you want to run and how many squares upon being hit. A character with trekking could stay alive just by running a few square whenever they are hit.
--[[User:Qberry|Qberry]] 02:34, 20 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* The main problem with this is that players will be discouraged from attacking other players, as this will become extremely dangerous, and the native warrior who wants the outsiderts out will effectively be penalised.[[User:MorkaisChosen|MorkaisChosen]] 15:47, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* Sorry, but I don't like this. I feel that that this will lead to interactions with players that are no different than interacting with an NPC. Could someone theoretically max themselves out by just leaving this option on and checking in every now and then to make sure they haven't become a spirit? --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 17:28, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* Yeah, I'm not a fan of being able to do something by not doing something, such as fighting or running without being there to fight or run. Also, would it be free of AP and IP hits, or would it be possible to come back and have no AP or hits left? It seems like these problems would wreck any sort of auto action. I can understand not enjoying being macheted while away, but I don't see any way around this. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 18:20, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* I must admit that I don't like the idea all that much, but if it was implemented it would probably be something that was user configurable. I don't think running away would make sense, but fighting back does. For example, no more than X AP to be used fighting back until you next log back in, and they wouldn't be used unless you had more than Y AP left. This way you could set X to 10 and Y to 6 and if you ran out of AP, set those values, it would be 2 hours (6 x 20m) before you were likely to attack, and it would use no more than 10 AP fighting back. Because the values are configurable, it would be hard to know who would fight back and who wouldn't. Setting X to 0 would disable the feature. I think probably the attacks would gain XP if successful, same as normal, but because you wouldn't be able to set the number of AP to use to more than your max AP value, it would be impossible to level up a character by simply leaving them alone (not to mention you would disappear from the map after being idle for a bit). --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 21:01, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* i like the idea of counterattack , but with some limits. You have only a % of counterattacking someone (25%?) , you don't consume AP , you don't get XP. But , whit wich weapon do you attack?--[[User:JonesDye|JonesDye]] 10:05, 27 March 2006 (BST)

===Flavor Text===

this section is where "users" add "flavor" to the game, im just suggesting that every few steps the computer say a message depending on location, here ill give a few examples:

*'''grasslands'''
**the grassy field sways under the wind's rush as you take a step.|
**something far off squaks and makes a strange throaty bellow.|

*'''water'''
**a wave crashes calmly in the distance|
**a spalsh can be heard from far off|

*'''jungle'''
**a parrot's call can be heard distantly|
**the bushes nearby are rustling from the small wildlife in them|

*'''village (outsider)'''
**the smell of gunpowder wafts into your lungs|
**the smoke comming from a nearby hut smells of fresh turkey|

*'''village (native)'''
**the shaman's voice can be heard traveling through the village|
**you step on the bones of what appears to be a rattlesnake|

*'''beach'''
**the hot sand burns your feet, yet feels wonderfully different|
**several sea shells catch your eye from far off|

please feel free to update these with more, as they are just a list (if simon decides to) that will be used for flavor.
i want to do this because the game gets kinda boring simply traversing through square after square

Suggestions:Game mechanics

2006-03-28T19:19:34Z

Richard Rose: /* Flavor Text */

{| cellpadding=10 align=right
| __TOC__
|}

{{Suggestionsnav}}

Suggestions for Shartak are always welcome, although there's no guarantee that anything will be added. Comments on or modifications for any of the suggestions below can be added by editing this page. Please be considerate and don't just remove ideas that you don't like.

Begin a new item with a * and "sign" your suggestions using <nowiki>-- ~~~~</nowiki> so we know who to blame ;)

Bug reports should go on the [[Bugs]] page.

This is the suggestions page for game mechanics. See also the [[Suggestions]] page for other suggestions.

== Game Mechanics ==

=== Conversion ===
When an Outsider/Native dies they are reborn as a Native (don't really understand the spirit thing too well). The Outsiders then get a new class/skill, "Religious Conversion" that requires a "Holy Scripture". This allows a "Priest" to convert one native into a Outsider". The converted native would most likely start off as a Settler. --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 23:22, 16 February 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* I believe that Natives are reborn as Natives and Outsiders are reborn as Outsiders, but I could be wrong. From a game balance perspective, I am not in favor of type-swapping skills unless Natives are presented with an ability to counter or convert Outsiders as well. It does fit nicely with the theme though. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 23:41, 16 February 2006 (GMT)

* That would probably be the shamans job, however it may have worked for Urban Dead but I don't think it will work in this game as whichever group has the most players to begin with will, once conflicts begin to arise, dominate by switching people from the side they are on the side the priest/"whatever the natives use" side making you able to graph one groups population by looking at the graph pop=(1/2)^x. Also since there wouldn't seem to be a way, short of finding a converter player to switch you back, to go back to playing as you once did would make the amount of people on one side quickly die off (even though thats what would happen in real life, favouring the outsiders) it would be a very unfun aspect of the game. And really these are HOSTILE natives, or so it seems, why would they let some devilman outsider tell it how it is? They wouldn't, they would simply spear them and laugh! In short all the converting ideas suck, I know I wouldn't want to log on to find I'm playing for the wrong side. -- [[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 10:55, 17 February 2006 (GMT)

* So that means if my soldier dies, he's reborn as a native? Not only that, but to become an outsider again, first I would have to find a priest (which would be next to impossible with such a small number of players), and then he could convert me into a settler. That means I'll never be able to be a soldier again, which is a real punch in the throat for RPers. -- Grigoriy

*All valid points. I guess this wouldn't really work we have the same number of players as Urban Dead. But this would be a great way to balance out the sides later on. Say there are too many natives, you just drop more "conversion items" and balance out the sides. Too many Outsiders? Just drop the number of conversion items. Doubt it would catch on though. --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 02:44, 19 February 2006 (GMT)

*Conversion doesn't have to be forced. It could require action on both sides, like a native doning a religious item and an outsider using the skill on that native. After all, conversion isn't real without true faith. The native counter to this could be similar, requiring an outsider to die holding a packet of that headshrinking powder while a shaman uses the Zombification (ala Haitian witchcraft) skill. -- frisco

*You don't change class or anything when you die. --[[User:Murk|Murk]] 12:31, 4 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Capturing villages ===
Since this is like some war between Outsiders and Natives I thought this appropriate. If all the (say) Outsiders are killed in York and there are none left, then it becomes a Native village and vice versa. Probably needs harder requirements to capture settlements though. Maybe each side could have one permanent place that can never change hands? --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 03:41, 1 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
:Not sure about this - what about all the idle players within the village? They might "wake up" after a couple of weeks to find they're in enemy territory. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 11:00, 1 March 2006 (GMT)

:You could have it so idle players goto the nearest friendly village-- [[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 02:58, 3 March 2006 (GMT)

:Turf control in a limited AP browser game like this just invites lame zerging behavior. I don't like it. --[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 00:00, 4 March 2006 (GMT)

:Not villages, perhaps 3x3 square 'forts'? --[[User:Grigoriy|Grigoriy]] 01:10, 4 March 2006 (GMT)

:I do like the idea, but I think Jackel's observation hits a key point. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

:Agreed with Jackel and Lint and Simon. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 13:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT) Additionally:
::* Please don't impose your assumption that Shartak is at heart a "war between Outsiders and Natives" on the rest of us. That is not the only possible direction in which this game can go. For example, an Outsider village might turn out to be populated by a trading company that views the other Outsider villages as competitors whose extermination would be good for business, but it could just as easily develop into a peaceful scientific outpost, a pirate haven of drunken debauchery, or a missionary settlement devoted to finding the Natives and learning their language (gotta spread that old time religion). I believe it would be better to keep the objectives more freeform, and let the players create the course of history. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 13:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
::* On a hopefully more helpful and positive note, one could simulate/approximate capturing a village by amassing an army of suitable size, carving messages of ownership all over the territory of the village in question, killing all members of the village, and repeatedly killing the village shaman so they can't get back as easily. (Ouch. I hope no armchair megalomaniacs out there have been taking notes.) --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 13:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Unique skills ===
I think that each class should start off with one unique skill that the others may never aquire. That way it stops all the classes from becoming too generic. For example Settlers could have a "farming" skill, Soldiers could have a "bravery" skill, etc. Or mabey they could just have a attribute like Soldiers have an extra 10% chance of striking the target, Warriors have an extra 10% chance of finding animals, Settlers have an extra 10% chance of finding an item, Scouts have a 3% chance of recovering 1 HP per AP spent, etc. --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 02:34, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
*Perhaps a Research skill of some kind for the Scientist, maybe allowing them an advantage when doing things with dead animals (would need something to do with dead animals, obviously!).[[User:MorkaisChosen|MorkaisChosen]] 16:09, 16 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
:I am in favor of this (if it is not in effect currently). We'd have to work out the details to make sure each class is getting their fair share, but something that encourages players to try other classes or team up with other players using different classes for a better playing experience sounds good to me. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
:I am in favor of each class being able to acquire (but not necessarily starting off with) a unique skill or attribute that the others may never acquire. Sounds to me like the kind of thing that would be unlocked as one's reward for a rite of passage, rather than granted as a right of birth. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 12:53, 7 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Pet System ===
I will combine aspects of the '''Animal''' and '''Pirate''' suggestions and propose a pet system that allows you to tame one of the animals on the island. First, you have to weaken the animal. Then you throw a sphere device at it and shout "SHARTAK SPHERE! GO!" for 1 AP. There's a slight chance that you have captured and tamed the animal. The more powerful the animal, the less success chance. You earn no XP for taming an animal. Players can only have 1 pet at a time. They can release a pet whenever they want. If the owner dies, the pet runs away. Pets have fixed HP, attack, and accuracy based on the type of animal they are (ie. they do not level up or heal, just to keep it simple to design). They follow the player around and only attack when the player attacks. It would be nice if they attacked while you were not playing, but auto-defense mechanisms are unnecessary. Enemy animals randomly determine whether they are attacking the owner or the pet. Other players will have an option for targeting the owner or pet. There is no XP gained for attacking or killing a pet to deter any attempts at farming pet killing (I can't believe we even have to consider preventing such a thing). For added flavor, owners can name their pets. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
:ROTFL. Sounds a bit like Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh (don't worry, I'm not a fan, I have kids that were!). Perhaps instead of spheres, you could keep the monkeys on a leash, heal a tiger or elephant to make it less likely to attack you, tame deer by feeding them, etc. Some animals like the wild boar would have to be pretty difficult to tame. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 15:14, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
:I was with you right up until you got to the "sphere device" bit, and I rejoined you afterwards. ;) The rest of your suggestion otherwise seems to be pretty well thought out. Personally, I'd prefer to attempt to tame the animal into becoming a pet purely by offering it food, rather than "weakening" it by other means. Especially since food is scarce enough that offering it to an animal would be a real sacrifice and therefore an interesting decision for the player to make. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 14:49, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
::I will confess that I had a lot of fun with the references. The problem I have with using an existing item to tame a pet is how to implement it. The player can't click on the fruit, because that will just heal themselves. And I think it is unecessary to redesign fruits like First Aid Kits and Medical Herbs, just so they can feed it to an animal. And a database check to see if the player possesses a fruit before providing a "tame" command seems awkward. Perhaps there is just one item called "animal bait" (from the Trade Hut most likely). It works much like a FAK or Herb, but can only be applied to animals (though there will be a "Yourself" option by default for those players that decide they enjoy the taste). Animals will then have a value called "tame count" in the database. For each successful feeding, this number is incremented. When a specific number is reached, the monster is successfully tamed. If a monster is killed, the number is reset to 0. Acquiring a pet should not reduce the population of animals on the island (ie. one should respawn to take its place). Furthermore, those with '''Animal Affinity''' should have a better taming success rate. (This is another attempt to give Villagers and Settlers a little boost.) --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 17:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
:::This idea, while somewhat interesting, is not very realitic. The animals of the island are wild. In reality, tigers, elephants, deer, "WILD boars" etc can only be made LESS WILD by extensive and careful training and handling when they are young, not be tamable by any means, certainly not enough to follow a person around and fight on their behalf. Maybe it would be possible with parrots and monkeys, but if Simon is going to implement changes, I'd rather see some of the more believable ones first. I do agree with Lint that it would give more value to '''Animal Affinity'''. Animal attacks, even from a tiger or elephant (which would realistically be very dangerous) are hardly to be feared, making this skill currently seem pretty useless.

=== Profile Effect Items ===
These are useless baubles that take up 1 unit of a player's inventory space, but if anyone views their profile they will see that the players possesses the item. Using the item won't accomplish anything and merely produce flavor text. However, if a player is in the presence of another player, using the item would show it off. As with all items, there's no way to trade them with other players. We can have eyepatches and peglegs. We can have tribal masks and warpaint. Maybe some clans would require a certain dress code. Maybe they need 30 pieces of flair. I think it provides an outlet for the less serious gamers. Problems: Serious gamers might be plagued with finding such items and dropping them, wasting (in their opinion) AP and Page Hits. Also, arguing over what items fit with the theme of Shartak will be a headache-inducing process. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* I like this suggestion. How about finding the pieces of the masks and making your own - combine the baubles with mini-quests? --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 11:18, 8 March 2006 (GMT)
:For example, to make the sacred warrior mask of Raktam, you must find 5 parrot feathers, a tiger tooth, some berries and a piece of driftwood that can be carved into the appropriate shape with a knife or dagger. Once you have all those items, you get a "create mask" option which then removes the required items and the mask appears in your inventory (and profile).
::Having the database check to see if they have all the ingredients seems a bit unwieldly. After every action or inventory use it might have to run the check to verify that they are alive, still have the items, etc. I'd just settle for having them take the items to a specific NPC. But yes, a mixing quest would be fun. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 18:02, 8 March 2006 (GMT)

* I just hope that this idea motivates players to try new things ("I'm going to join a clan that wears such-and-such a mask and attack the others! Yarr!") and not feel that the game is just about collecting items ("Well, I got all the masks. I guess I'm done with the game."). --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 18:02, 8 March 2006 (GMT)

*Maybe the different masks have different effects, from some simple ones (attracting/scaring animals, making them less likely to attack or easier to hit) to the downright blatavt video game reference that turns you into a huge brown rocky guy who can punch boulders apart. OK, maybe not the second one. [[User:MorkaisChosen|MorkaisChosen]] 20:53, 9 March 2006 (GMT)
:I think that's something to be worked on in a separate suggestion. The point of this suggestion is to make useless "fancy hats" that neither add or take away from the established gameplay. However, in the eyes of certain players, they may be invaluable because of how they can incorperate such items into their goals and roleplaying. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 23:52, 9 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Unique Item Hunt ===
'''Event''' ''Capture the Flag''-ish minigame. Somewhere on the island is a single conch shell item. It can be found by searching anywhere. It takes 1 inventory space and appears when anyone views their profile. When the conch holder is in the presence of other players, flavor text is added to the area description to inform the others that the conch holder is in the area. If the person in possession of the conch drops it, dies, or is idle for more than 5 days, the conch returns to the system. The person who holds the conch the longest gets recognized in the statistics. Killing the conch holder earns special bonus XP. Adept conch holder killers may also be recognized in the statistics. Problems: Someone with multiple characters could take advantage of having the conch on one character and reap the XP and fame with another. There will be a point where a race condition will occur and might result in multiple conches and a broken game. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* This kind of thing has been on my ideas list, although this is much more detailed version than the one-liner I had. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 15:05, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Know your foes ===
As a native, I get killed a lot by outsiders, but I just can't strike back when I come back to life, as nothing allows me to identify my agressors amongst the outsiders I meet. I expected some basic language skill to give me access to clickable outsiders profiles, but it doesn't. So. I don't like much the fact that, in this game, the only alternative you have is "attack random outsiders" or "attack none". I'd like to be able to protect myself without being too unfair to peaceful outsiders (and being part of some snowball effect).

This would be partly solved by some profile access (allowing to check people's amount of human kills), or some limited displayed info on the present players (it would make -almost- sense for natives to automatically carry visible scalps or shrunken head of their victims, but I'm not sure how to justify the kills display in the case of outsiders, despite of the fact white men were actually quite fond of indian scalps at some time). Another useful tool would be some urban-dead-like contact list.

Of course, ideally (but absurdly) the most useful stat to be able to see would be the number of kills of people without human kills at the moment of their death, but... -- Leaf

''Comments''
Perhaps seeing the profile of someone on the opposite side if you or they have the advanced language skill would be good, it would be cool to hang around with some natives without worrying about aggressors. --[[User:Grigoriy|Grigoriy]] 21:30, 18 March 2006 (GMT)

If you had a contact list and some way to target individuals on your list ala Urban Dead, I'm guessing that would probably help. Not so sure about the scalp display approach. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 23:36, 18 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Forest Fire ===
'''Event''' This is a potential temporary minigame that will either lead to players to band together and save the island or perhaps just lead to all-out chaos. A fire script is created which designates one block as fire (it is identified by a little fire.gif in the background). Every 20 minutes the fire script will check if there is <del>Grassland or</del> Jungle nearby with density from 1-10. If there is, it spreads to the next block. It will not spread to any other terrain (including villages and ruins). Thus, the best way to prevent the spread of the fire is by chopping vegetation down to 0. The initial fires will be placed randomly around the island. Actions performed in a fire occupied space deal 2 damage. For this event to be more devious, there should be a means to quickly restore vegetation (dropping driftwood, planting fruit, watering with gourds). --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 03:58, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
*I like some things about this suggestion, I think it could work really nicely if there was also a rain algorithingamajig, so that maybe, if some part of the island dried out, wildfires could break out, or if it rained too much villages could flood and get swamped. Its a neat idea. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 04:55, 17 March 2006 (GMT)
* I like the idea of rain and fire, however there's no telling if the server would handle the database access/calculations required when the number of players gets into the range that Urban Dead has. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 11:17, 17 March 2006 (GMT)
** I thought it might be a bit much. Ah well. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 19:32, 17 March 2006 (GMT)
** Not the idea of fire itself, that may well be quite feasible. I meant having rain causing flooding, or not enough rain leading to fires might be a bit awkward.. unless I can think of some way to reduce the work that needs to be done regularly. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 23:38, 18 March 2006 (GMT)
* Maybe fires could also destroy huts, and then there could be a skill to rebuild them. Maybe even give people the ability to start their own fires. It might make for interesting tribal wars. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 18:22, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
** I kind of wanted to restrict fires to the Jungle (removed my Grasslands comment from the original suggestion) since a lot of Huts provide resources for starting players and players that have just been revived. I think it would be unfair to prevent them with the opportunity to gather supplies. As a tactic, it may also be unfair. Native villages appear to be completely surrounded by burnable Jungle, while Outsider villages are bordered by the Beach. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 19:46, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
** Good point. The pirates would be completely free of burning too. I still think a way to temporarily damage structures could be fun -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 19:59, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
** As a general rule, real world jungles don't burn terribly well, although there are a few notable exceptions (such as the Indonesian forest fires in 1997-98). Grasslands, however, burn quite regularly, and in fact such fires are necessary for the good health of the grass. Fire kills off sapling trees in the area which would otherwise grow to the point that they overshadowed and killed the grass. I don't know whether the game has any grasslands large enough to make this kind of thing interesting, though. --[[User:Jackdaw|Jackdaw]] 15:55, 25 March 2006 (GMT)

=== The Ghost Elephant ===
'''Event''' Somewhere on the island is an animal that exists purely as a temporary event. The Legendary Ghost Elephant - in reality, an aggressive albino pachyderm of incredible size - is said to roam the island of Shartak. Some Natives revere it, others desire to be recorded as the one who slayed it. Some Outsiders wish to study it, others desire to have it as a trophy. It behaves much like any other elephant on Shartak. However, it has a different label, an unfathomable amount of HP, and deals horrific damage. If you heal the Ghost Elephant with a FAK or Herbs, you receive double XP. And to further serve a challenge, don't place an HP cap on the Ghost Elephant, just give it a starting amount. If possible, a log of all actions performed on the Ghost Elephant should be kept by the server and revealed in the event that it dies. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 03:58, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''

Ha! I like this one, Lint, and simple to implement. It should really have a boatload of HP, as I think few will consider expending valuable healing items on it, when its far easier (and more rewarding) to hack away at it for 40 AP then make a run for it! --[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 16:42, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

Arr! I would ride that ghost beast like a horse jus' fer fun, then slay 't t' sell its tusks t' them outsiders an' th' meat t' them natives. --[[User:El Pirata Cofresi|El Pirata Cofresi]] 17:46, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

In the Congo they refer to it as Mokele Mbembe - he who stops the flow of rivers - and it is rumoured to be a lost dinosaur. The island could do with some cryptozoology. Would this creature be able to disappear or hide or move incredibly fast? If not, then once one person finds it, they can just call everyone over to the same square. This kind of defeats the mythical aspect as well as adding potential server problems. --[[User:Frisco|Frisco]] 18:24, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

I should make the animals attack back in near-realtime first (as in you attack them and they may or may not get an attack in).. just to add a bit of interest to it and stop people running up to the creature and hacking and then running away. Making an animal with an almost unlimited number of HP would be possible.. I guess probably start it with at least double a normal elephant and max of about a thousand HP to prevent people healing it to the point where it'd be impossible to kill. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 18:37, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

It could be cool, especially if it moved around in a way that made tracking it possible, maybe by destroying the foliage, or moving in a pattern. Also having it move might help keep people from all winding up in one square beating it up. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 18:41, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

:I've tried to offset the game's focus on combat by encouraging healing (double XP may be too much of a reward, so I'm willing to remove that), but that alone will most likely be not enough to counter the horde of blood-thirsty savages! Healing with the Herbs and FAKs may actually be seen as healing the Ghost Elephant spiritually rather than merely physically, which is why it's health can grow high. I don't see a problem if it became near-unkillable. I like keeping some myths and legends around. I thought that it would be best if it traveled like an elephant, but it is true that it limits the people that are able to participate in the event. Perhaps it should "teleport", after a certain amount of time in an area - "A wall of fog sweeps in through jungle. When it fades, you see that the Ghost Elephant has vanished as well." I requested for a log of actions to determine who killed it, who attacked it the most, who healed it the most, and who got hurt the most. Also, rather than a recurring animal, I thought it would be best to release it as an event that occurs every now and then. Or maybe only once! --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 19:32, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

I like it. And of course, you needn't stick to land animals; a mysterious sea creature that patrols the island waters and is reported to be 30ft long could prompt more people to vernture into the waters for a glimpse/trophy etc. Sharks will also be a problem for those searching! --[[User:Malphas|Malphas]] 15:52, 19 March 2006 (GMT)

I ''love'' this idea.--[[User:Wifey|Wifey]] 07:08, 28 March 2006 (BST)

=== Auto Attack ===
I've never liked the fact that while I am away from the game, things can happen to my character, like being chewed on by a tiger or slashed with a machette. How about a setting where you can turn your character on to auto attack anything that hits you. It should, of course, be user selected. This would change the game mechanics a bit, as you could no longer move in on a target and attack it withough fear of a counter-strike. To me this is far more realistic, in that even if you are sleeping, when somebody hits you, you're going to wake up and do something about it with whatever engery you have left.

An alternative selectable action might be an auto-run. You can pre-specify the direction you want to run and how many squares upon being hit. A character with trekking could stay alive just by running a few square whenever they are hit.
--[[User:Qberry|Qberry]] 02:34, 20 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* The main problem with this is that players will be discouraged from attacking other players, as this will become extremely dangerous, and the native warrior who wants the outsiderts out will effectively be penalised.[[User:MorkaisChosen|MorkaisChosen]] 15:47, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* Sorry, but I don't like this. I feel that that this will lead to interactions with players that are no different than interacting with an NPC. Could someone theoretically max themselves out by just leaving this option on and checking in every now and then to make sure they haven't become a spirit? --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 17:28, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* Yeah, I'm not a fan of being able to do something by not doing something, such as fighting or running without being there to fight or run. Also, would it be free of AP and IP hits, or would it be possible to come back and have no AP or hits left? It seems like these problems would wreck any sort of auto action. I can understand not enjoying being macheted while away, but I don't see any way around this. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 18:20, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* I must admit that I don't like the idea all that much, but if it was implemented it would probably be something that was user configurable. I don't think running away would make sense, but fighting back does. For example, no more than X AP to be used fighting back until you next log back in, and they wouldn't be used unless you had more than Y AP left. This way you could set X to 10 and Y to 6 and if you ran out of AP, set those values, it would be 2 hours (6 x 20m) before you were likely to attack, and it would use no more than 10 AP fighting back. Because the values are configurable, it would be hard to know who would fight back and who wouldn't. Setting X to 0 would disable the feature. I think probably the attacks would gain XP if successful, same as normal, but because you wouldn't be able to set the number of AP to use to more than your max AP value, it would be impossible to level up a character by simply leaving them alone (not to mention you would disappear from the map after being idle for a bit). --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 21:01, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* i like the idea of counterattack , but with some limits. You have only a % of counterattacking someone (25%?) , you don't consume AP , you don't get XP. But , whit wich weapon do you attack?--[[User:JonesDye|JonesDye]] 10:05, 27 March 2006 (BST)

===Flavor Text===

this section is where "users" add "flavor" to the game, im just suggesting that every few steps the computer say a message depending on location, here ill give a few examples:

*'''grasslands'''
**the grassy field sways under the wind's rush as you take a step.|
**something far off squaks and makes a strange throaty bellow.|

*'''water'''
**a wave crashes calmly in the distance|
**a spalsh can be heard from far off|

*'''jungle'''
**a parrot's call can be heard distantly|
**the bushes nearby are rustling from the small wildlife in them|

*'''village (outsider)'''
**the smell of gunpowder wafts into your lungs|
**the smoke comming from a nearby hut smells of fresh turkey|

*'''village (native)'''
**the shaman's voice can be heard traveling through the village|
**you step on the bones of what appears to be a rattlesnake|

*'''beach'''
**the hot sand burns your feet, yet feels wonderfully different|
*8several sea shells catch your eye from far off|

please feel free to update these with more, as they are just a list (if simon decides to) that will be used for flavor.
i want to do this because the game gets kinda boring simply traversing through square after square

Suggestions:Game mechanics

2006-03-28T19:18:59Z

Richard Rose: /* Flavor Text */

{| cellpadding=10 align=right
| __TOC__
|}

{{Suggestionsnav}}

Suggestions for Shartak are always welcome, although there's no guarantee that anything will be added. Comments on or modifications for any of the suggestions below can be added by editing this page. Please be considerate and don't just remove ideas that you don't like.

Begin a new item with a * and "sign" your suggestions using <nowiki>-- ~~~~</nowiki> so we know who to blame ;)

Bug reports should go on the [[Bugs]] page.

This is the suggestions page for game mechanics. See also the [[Suggestions]] page for other suggestions.

== Game Mechanics ==

=== Conversion ===
When an Outsider/Native dies they are reborn as a Native (don't really understand the spirit thing too well). The Outsiders then get a new class/skill, "Religious Conversion" that requires a "Holy Scripture". This allows a "Priest" to convert one native into a Outsider". The converted native would most likely start off as a Settler. --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 23:22, 16 February 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* I believe that Natives are reborn as Natives and Outsiders are reborn as Outsiders, but I could be wrong. From a game balance perspective, I am not in favor of type-swapping skills unless Natives are presented with an ability to counter or convert Outsiders as well. It does fit nicely with the theme though. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 23:41, 16 February 2006 (GMT)

* That would probably be the shamans job, however it may have worked for Urban Dead but I don't think it will work in this game as whichever group has the most players to begin with will, once conflicts begin to arise, dominate by switching people from the side they are on the side the priest/"whatever the natives use" side making you able to graph one groups population by looking at the graph pop=(1/2)^x. Also since there wouldn't seem to be a way, short of finding a converter player to switch you back, to go back to playing as you once did would make the amount of people on one side quickly die off (even though thats what would happen in real life, favouring the outsiders) it would be a very unfun aspect of the game. And really these are HOSTILE natives, or so it seems, why would they let some devilman outsider tell it how it is? They wouldn't, they would simply spear them and laugh! In short all the converting ideas suck, I know I wouldn't want to log on to find I'm playing for the wrong side. -- [[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 10:55, 17 February 2006 (GMT)

* So that means if my soldier dies, he's reborn as a native? Not only that, but to become an outsider again, first I would have to find a priest (which would be next to impossible with such a small number of players), and then he could convert me into a settler. That means I'll never be able to be a soldier again, which is a real punch in the throat for RPers. -- Grigoriy

*All valid points. I guess this wouldn't really work we have the same number of players as Urban Dead. But this would be a great way to balance out the sides later on. Say there are too many natives, you just drop more "conversion items" and balance out the sides. Too many Outsiders? Just drop the number of conversion items. Doubt it would catch on though. --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 02:44, 19 February 2006 (GMT)

*Conversion doesn't have to be forced. It could require action on both sides, like a native doning a religious item and an outsider using the skill on that native. After all, conversion isn't real without true faith. The native counter to this could be similar, requiring an outsider to die holding a packet of that headshrinking powder while a shaman uses the Zombification (ala Haitian witchcraft) skill. -- frisco

*You don't change class or anything when you die. --[[User:Murk|Murk]] 12:31, 4 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Capturing villages ===
Since this is like some war between Outsiders and Natives I thought this appropriate. If all the (say) Outsiders are killed in York and there are none left, then it becomes a Native village and vice versa. Probably needs harder requirements to capture settlements though. Maybe each side could have one permanent place that can never change hands? --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 03:41, 1 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
:Not sure about this - what about all the idle players within the village? They might "wake up" after a couple of weeks to find they're in enemy territory. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 11:00, 1 March 2006 (GMT)

:You could have it so idle players goto the nearest friendly village-- [[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 02:58, 3 March 2006 (GMT)

:Turf control in a limited AP browser game like this just invites lame zerging behavior. I don't like it. --[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 00:00, 4 March 2006 (GMT)

:Not villages, perhaps 3x3 square 'forts'? --[[User:Grigoriy|Grigoriy]] 01:10, 4 March 2006 (GMT)

:I do like the idea, but I think Jackel's observation hits a key point. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

:Agreed with Jackel and Lint and Simon. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 13:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT) Additionally:
::* Please don't impose your assumption that Shartak is at heart a "war between Outsiders and Natives" on the rest of us. That is not the only possible direction in which this game can go. For example, an Outsider village might turn out to be populated by a trading company that views the other Outsider villages as competitors whose extermination would be good for business, but it could just as easily develop into a peaceful scientific outpost, a pirate haven of drunken debauchery, or a missionary settlement devoted to finding the Natives and learning their language (gotta spread that old time religion). I believe it would be better to keep the objectives more freeform, and let the players create the course of history. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 13:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
::* On a hopefully more helpful and positive note, one could simulate/approximate capturing a village by amassing an army of suitable size, carving messages of ownership all over the territory of the village in question, killing all members of the village, and repeatedly killing the village shaman so they can't get back as easily. (Ouch. I hope no armchair megalomaniacs out there have been taking notes.) --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 13:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Unique skills ===
I think that each class should start off with one unique skill that the others may never aquire. That way it stops all the classes from becoming too generic. For example Settlers could have a "farming" skill, Soldiers could have a "bravery" skill, etc. Or mabey they could just have a attribute like Soldiers have an extra 10% chance of striking the target, Warriors have an extra 10% chance of finding animals, Settlers have an extra 10% chance of finding an item, Scouts have a 3% chance of recovering 1 HP per AP spent, etc. --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 02:34, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
*Perhaps a Research skill of some kind for the Scientist, maybe allowing them an advantage when doing things with dead animals (would need something to do with dead animals, obviously!).[[User:MorkaisChosen|MorkaisChosen]] 16:09, 16 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
:I am in favor of this (if it is not in effect currently). We'd have to work out the details to make sure each class is getting their fair share, but something that encourages players to try other classes or team up with other players using different classes for a better playing experience sounds good to me. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
:I am in favor of each class being able to acquire (but not necessarily starting off with) a unique skill or attribute that the others may never acquire. Sounds to me like the kind of thing that would be unlocked as one's reward for a rite of passage, rather than granted as a right of birth. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 12:53, 7 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Pet System ===
I will combine aspects of the '''Animal''' and '''Pirate''' suggestions and propose a pet system that allows you to tame one of the animals on the island. First, you have to weaken the animal. Then you throw a sphere device at it and shout "SHARTAK SPHERE! GO!" for 1 AP. There's a slight chance that you have captured and tamed the animal. The more powerful the animal, the less success chance. You earn no XP for taming an animal. Players can only have 1 pet at a time. They can release a pet whenever they want. If the owner dies, the pet runs away. Pets have fixed HP, attack, and accuracy based on the type of animal they are (ie. they do not level up or heal, just to keep it simple to design). They follow the player around and only attack when the player attacks. It would be nice if they attacked while you were not playing, but auto-defense mechanisms are unnecessary. Enemy animals randomly determine whether they are attacking the owner or the pet. Other players will have an option for targeting the owner or pet. There is no XP gained for attacking or killing a pet to deter any attempts at farming pet killing (I can't believe we even have to consider preventing such a thing). For added flavor, owners can name their pets. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
:ROTFL. Sounds a bit like Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh (don't worry, I'm not a fan, I have kids that were!). Perhaps instead of spheres, you could keep the monkeys on a leash, heal a tiger or elephant to make it less likely to attack you, tame deer by feeding them, etc. Some animals like the wild boar would have to be pretty difficult to tame. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 15:14, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
:I was with you right up until you got to the "sphere device" bit, and I rejoined you afterwards. ;) The rest of your suggestion otherwise seems to be pretty well thought out. Personally, I'd prefer to attempt to tame the animal into becoming a pet purely by offering it food, rather than "weakening" it by other means. Especially since food is scarce enough that offering it to an animal would be a real sacrifice and therefore an interesting decision for the player to make. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 14:49, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
::I will confess that I had a lot of fun with the references. The problem I have with using an existing item to tame a pet is how to implement it. The player can't click on the fruit, because that will just heal themselves. And I think it is unecessary to redesign fruits like First Aid Kits and Medical Herbs, just so they can feed it to an animal. And a database check to see if the player possesses a fruit before providing a "tame" command seems awkward. Perhaps there is just one item called "animal bait" (from the Trade Hut most likely). It works much like a FAK or Herb, but can only be applied to animals (though there will be a "Yourself" option by default for those players that decide they enjoy the taste). Animals will then have a value called "tame count" in the database. For each successful feeding, this number is incremented. When a specific number is reached, the monster is successfully tamed. If a monster is killed, the number is reset to 0. Acquiring a pet should not reduce the population of animals on the island (ie. one should respawn to take its place). Furthermore, those with '''Animal Affinity''' should have a better taming success rate. (This is another attempt to give Villagers and Settlers a little boost.) --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 17:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
:::This idea, while somewhat interesting, is not very realitic. The animals of the island are wild. In reality, tigers, elephants, deer, "WILD boars" etc can only be made LESS WILD by extensive and careful training and handling when they are young, not be tamable by any means, certainly not enough to follow a person around and fight on their behalf. Maybe it would be possible with parrots and monkeys, but if Simon is going to implement changes, I'd rather see some of the more believable ones first. I do agree with Lint that it would give more value to '''Animal Affinity'''. Animal attacks, even from a tiger or elephant (which would realistically be very dangerous) are hardly to be feared, making this skill currently seem pretty useless.

=== Profile Effect Items ===
These are useless baubles that take up 1 unit of a player's inventory space, but if anyone views their profile they will see that the players possesses the item. Using the item won't accomplish anything and merely produce flavor text. However, if a player is in the presence of another player, using the item would show it off. As with all items, there's no way to trade them with other players. We can have eyepatches and peglegs. We can have tribal masks and warpaint. Maybe some clans would require a certain dress code. Maybe they need 30 pieces of flair. I think it provides an outlet for the less serious gamers. Problems: Serious gamers might be plagued with finding such items and dropping them, wasting (in their opinion) AP and Page Hits. Also, arguing over what items fit with the theme of Shartak will be a headache-inducing process. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* I like this suggestion. How about finding the pieces of the masks and making your own - combine the baubles with mini-quests? --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 11:18, 8 March 2006 (GMT)
:For example, to make the sacred warrior mask of Raktam, you must find 5 parrot feathers, a tiger tooth, some berries and a piece of driftwood that can be carved into the appropriate shape with a knife or dagger. Once you have all those items, you get a "create mask" option which then removes the required items and the mask appears in your inventory (and profile).
::Having the database check to see if they have all the ingredients seems a bit unwieldly. After every action or inventory use it might have to run the check to verify that they are alive, still have the items, etc. I'd just settle for having them take the items to a specific NPC. But yes, a mixing quest would be fun. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 18:02, 8 March 2006 (GMT)

* I just hope that this idea motivates players to try new things ("I'm going to join a clan that wears such-and-such a mask and attack the others! Yarr!") and not feel that the game is just about collecting items ("Well, I got all the masks. I guess I'm done with the game."). --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 18:02, 8 March 2006 (GMT)

*Maybe the different masks have different effects, from some simple ones (attracting/scaring animals, making them less likely to attack or easier to hit) to the downright blatavt video game reference that turns you into a huge brown rocky guy who can punch boulders apart. OK, maybe not the second one. [[User:MorkaisChosen|MorkaisChosen]] 20:53, 9 March 2006 (GMT)
:I think that's something to be worked on in a separate suggestion. The point of this suggestion is to make useless "fancy hats" that neither add or take away from the established gameplay. However, in the eyes of certain players, they may be invaluable because of how they can incorperate such items into their goals and roleplaying. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 23:52, 9 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Unique Item Hunt ===
'''Event''' ''Capture the Flag''-ish minigame. Somewhere on the island is a single conch shell item. It can be found by searching anywhere. It takes 1 inventory space and appears when anyone views their profile. When the conch holder is in the presence of other players, flavor text is added to the area description to inform the others that the conch holder is in the area. If the person in possession of the conch drops it, dies, or is idle for more than 5 days, the conch returns to the system. The person who holds the conch the longest gets recognized in the statistics. Killing the conch holder earns special bonus XP. Adept conch holder killers may also be recognized in the statistics. Problems: Someone with multiple characters could take advantage of having the conch on one character and reap the XP and fame with another. There will be a point where a race condition will occur and might result in multiple conches and a broken game. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* This kind of thing has been on my ideas list, although this is much more detailed version than the one-liner I had. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 15:05, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Know your foes ===
As a native, I get killed a lot by outsiders, but I just can't strike back when I come back to life, as nothing allows me to identify my agressors amongst the outsiders I meet. I expected some basic language skill to give me access to clickable outsiders profiles, but it doesn't. So. I don't like much the fact that, in this game, the only alternative you have is "attack random outsiders" or "attack none". I'd like to be able to protect myself without being too unfair to peaceful outsiders (and being part of some snowball effect).

This would be partly solved by some profile access (allowing to check people's amount of human kills), or some limited displayed info on the present players (it would make -almost- sense for natives to automatically carry visible scalps or shrunken head of their victims, but I'm not sure how to justify the kills display in the case of outsiders, despite of the fact white men were actually quite fond of indian scalps at some time). Another useful tool would be some urban-dead-like contact list.

Of course, ideally (but absurdly) the most useful stat to be able to see would be the number of kills of people without human kills at the moment of their death, but... -- Leaf

''Comments''
Perhaps seeing the profile of someone on the opposite side if you or they have the advanced language skill would be good, it would be cool to hang around with some natives without worrying about aggressors. --[[User:Grigoriy|Grigoriy]] 21:30, 18 March 2006 (GMT)

If you had a contact list and some way to target individuals on your list ala Urban Dead, I'm guessing that would probably help. Not so sure about the scalp display approach. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 23:36, 18 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Forest Fire ===
'''Event''' This is a potential temporary minigame that will either lead to players to band together and save the island or perhaps just lead to all-out chaos. A fire script is created which designates one block as fire (it is identified by a little fire.gif in the background). Every 20 minutes the fire script will check if there is <del>Grassland or</del> Jungle nearby with density from 1-10. If there is, it spreads to the next block. It will not spread to any other terrain (including villages and ruins). Thus, the best way to prevent the spread of the fire is by chopping vegetation down to 0. The initial fires will be placed randomly around the island. Actions performed in a fire occupied space deal 2 damage. For this event to be more devious, there should be a means to quickly restore vegetation (dropping driftwood, planting fruit, watering with gourds). --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 03:58, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
*I like some things about this suggestion, I think it could work really nicely if there was also a rain algorithingamajig, so that maybe, if some part of the island dried out, wildfires could break out, or if it rained too much villages could flood and get swamped. Its a neat idea. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 04:55, 17 March 2006 (GMT)
* I like the idea of rain and fire, however there's no telling if the server would handle the database access/calculations required when the number of players gets into the range that Urban Dead has. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 11:17, 17 March 2006 (GMT)
** I thought it might be a bit much. Ah well. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 19:32, 17 March 2006 (GMT)
** Not the idea of fire itself, that may well be quite feasible. I meant having rain causing flooding, or not enough rain leading to fires might be a bit awkward.. unless I can think of some way to reduce the work that needs to be done regularly. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 23:38, 18 March 2006 (GMT)
* Maybe fires could also destroy huts, and then there could be a skill to rebuild them. Maybe even give people the ability to start their own fires. It might make for interesting tribal wars. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 18:22, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
** I kind of wanted to restrict fires to the Jungle (removed my Grasslands comment from the original suggestion) since a lot of Huts provide resources for starting players and players that have just been revived. I think it would be unfair to prevent them with the opportunity to gather supplies. As a tactic, it may also be unfair. Native villages appear to be completely surrounded by burnable Jungle, while Outsider villages are bordered by the Beach. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 19:46, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
** Good point. The pirates would be completely free of burning too. I still think a way to temporarily damage structures could be fun -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 19:59, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
** As a general rule, real world jungles don't burn terribly well, although there are a few notable exceptions (such as the Indonesian forest fires in 1997-98). Grasslands, however, burn quite regularly, and in fact such fires are necessary for the good health of the grass. Fire kills off sapling trees in the area which would otherwise grow to the point that they overshadowed and killed the grass. I don't know whether the game has any grasslands large enough to make this kind of thing interesting, though. --[[User:Jackdaw|Jackdaw]] 15:55, 25 March 2006 (GMT)

=== The Ghost Elephant ===
'''Event''' Somewhere on the island is an animal that exists purely as a temporary event. The Legendary Ghost Elephant - in reality, an aggressive albino pachyderm of incredible size - is said to roam the island of Shartak. Some Natives revere it, others desire to be recorded as the one who slayed it. Some Outsiders wish to study it, others desire to have it as a trophy. It behaves much like any other elephant on Shartak. However, it has a different label, an unfathomable amount of HP, and deals horrific damage. If you heal the Ghost Elephant with a FAK or Herbs, you receive double XP. And to further serve a challenge, don't place an HP cap on the Ghost Elephant, just give it a starting amount. If possible, a log of all actions performed on the Ghost Elephant should be kept by the server and revealed in the event that it dies. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 03:58, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''

Ha! I like this one, Lint, and simple to implement. It should really have a boatload of HP, as I think few will consider expending valuable healing items on it, when its far easier (and more rewarding) to hack away at it for 40 AP then make a run for it! --[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 16:42, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

Arr! I would ride that ghost beast like a horse jus' fer fun, then slay 't t' sell its tusks t' them outsiders an' th' meat t' them natives. --[[User:El Pirata Cofresi|El Pirata Cofresi]] 17:46, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

In the Congo they refer to it as Mokele Mbembe - he who stops the flow of rivers - and it is rumoured to be a lost dinosaur. The island could do with some cryptozoology. Would this creature be able to disappear or hide or move incredibly fast? If not, then once one person finds it, they can just call everyone over to the same square. This kind of defeats the mythical aspect as well as adding potential server problems. --[[User:Frisco|Frisco]] 18:24, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

I should make the animals attack back in near-realtime first (as in you attack them and they may or may not get an attack in).. just to add a bit of interest to it and stop people running up to the creature and hacking and then running away. Making an animal with an almost unlimited number of HP would be possible.. I guess probably start it with at least double a normal elephant and max of about a thousand HP to prevent people healing it to the point where it'd be impossible to kill. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 18:37, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

It could be cool, especially if it moved around in a way that made tracking it possible, maybe by destroying the foliage, or moving in a pattern. Also having it move might help keep people from all winding up in one square beating it up. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 18:41, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

:I've tried to offset the game's focus on combat by encouraging healing (double XP may be too much of a reward, so I'm willing to remove that), but that alone will most likely be not enough to counter the horde of blood-thirsty savages! Healing with the Herbs and FAKs may actually be seen as healing the Ghost Elephant spiritually rather than merely physically, which is why it's health can grow high. I don't see a problem if it became near-unkillable. I like keeping some myths and legends around. I thought that it would be best if it traveled like an elephant, but it is true that it limits the people that are able to participate in the event. Perhaps it should "teleport", after a certain amount of time in an area - "A wall of fog sweeps in through jungle. When it fades, you see that the Ghost Elephant has vanished as well." I requested for a log of actions to determine who killed it, who attacked it the most, who healed it the most, and who got hurt the most. Also, rather than a recurring animal, I thought it would be best to release it as an event that occurs every now and then. Or maybe only once! --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 19:32, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

I like it. And of course, you needn't stick to land animals; a mysterious sea creature that patrols the island waters and is reported to be 30ft long could prompt more people to vernture into the waters for a glimpse/trophy etc. Sharks will also be a problem for those searching! --[[User:Malphas|Malphas]] 15:52, 19 March 2006 (GMT)

I ''love'' this idea.--[[User:Wifey|Wifey]] 07:08, 28 March 2006 (BST)

=== Auto Attack ===
I've never liked the fact that while I am away from the game, things can happen to my character, like being chewed on by a tiger or slashed with a machette. How about a setting where you can turn your character on to auto attack anything that hits you. It should, of course, be user selected. This would change the game mechanics a bit, as you could no longer move in on a target and attack it withough fear of a counter-strike. To me this is far more realistic, in that even if you are sleeping, when somebody hits you, you're going to wake up and do something about it with whatever engery you have left.

An alternative selectable action might be an auto-run. You can pre-specify the direction you want to run and how many squares upon being hit. A character with trekking could stay alive just by running a few square whenever they are hit.
--[[User:Qberry|Qberry]] 02:34, 20 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* The main problem with this is that players will be discouraged from attacking other players, as this will become extremely dangerous, and the native warrior who wants the outsiderts out will effectively be penalised.[[User:MorkaisChosen|MorkaisChosen]] 15:47, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* Sorry, but I don't like this. I feel that that this will lead to interactions with players that are no different than interacting with an NPC. Could someone theoretically max themselves out by just leaving this option on and checking in every now and then to make sure they haven't become a spirit? --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 17:28, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* Yeah, I'm not a fan of being able to do something by not doing something, such as fighting or running without being there to fight or run. Also, would it be free of AP and IP hits, or would it be possible to come back and have no AP or hits left? It seems like these problems would wreck any sort of auto action. I can understand not enjoying being macheted while away, but I don't see any way around this. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 18:20, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* I must admit that I don't like the idea all that much, but if it was implemented it would probably be something that was user configurable. I don't think running away would make sense, but fighting back does. For example, no more than X AP to be used fighting back until you next log back in, and they wouldn't be used unless you had more than Y AP left. This way you could set X to 10 and Y to 6 and if you ran out of AP, set those values, it would be 2 hours (6 x 20m) before you were likely to attack, and it would use no more than 10 AP fighting back. Because the values are configurable, it would be hard to know who would fight back and who wouldn't. Setting X to 0 would disable the feature. I think probably the attacks would gain XP if successful, same as normal, but because you wouldn't be able to set the number of AP to use to more than your max AP value, it would be impossible to level up a character by simply leaving them alone (not to mention you would disappear from the map after being idle for a bit). --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 21:01, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* i like the idea of counterattack , but with some limits. You have only a % of counterattacking someone (25%?) , you don't consume AP , you don't get XP. But , whit wich weapon do you attack?--[[User:JonesDye|JonesDye]] 10:05, 27 March 2006 (BST)

===Flavor Text===

this section is where "users" add "flavor" to the game, im just suggesting that every few steps the computer say a message depending on location, here ill give a few examples:

*'''grasslands'''
the grassy field sways under the wind's rush as you take a step.|
something far off squaks and makes a strange throaty bellow.|

*'''water'''
a wave crashes calmly in the distance|
a spalsh can be heard from far off|

*'''jungle'''
a parrot's call can be heard distantly|
the bushes nearby are rustling from the small wildlife in them|

*'''village (outsider)'''
the smell of gunpowder wafts into your lungs|
the smoke comming from a nearby hut smells of fresh turkey|

*'''village (native)'''
the shaman's voice can be heard traveling through the village|
you step on the bones of what appears to be a rattlesnake|

*'''beach'''
the hot sand burns your feet, yet feels wonderfully different|
several sea shells catch your eye from far off|

please feel free to update these with more, as they are just a list (if simon decides to) that will be used for flavor.
i want to do this because the game gets kinda boring simply traversing through square after square

Suggestions:Game mechanics

2006-03-28T19:18:30Z

Richard Rose: /* Flavor Text */

{| cellpadding=10 align=right
| __TOC__
|}

{{Suggestionsnav}}

Suggestions for Shartak are always welcome, although there's no guarantee that anything will be added. Comments on or modifications for any of the suggestions below can be added by editing this page. Please be considerate and don't just remove ideas that you don't like.

Begin a new item with a * and "sign" your suggestions using <nowiki>-- ~~~~</nowiki> so we know who to blame ;)

Bug reports should go on the [[Bugs]] page.

This is the suggestions page for game mechanics. See also the [[Suggestions]] page for other suggestions.

== Game Mechanics ==

=== Conversion ===
When an Outsider/Native dies they are reborn as a Native (don't really understand the spirit thing too well). The Outsiders then get a new class/skill, "Religious Conversion" that requires a "Holy Scripture". This allows a "Priest" to convert one native into a Outsider". The converted native would most likely start off as a Settler. --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 23:22, 16 February 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* I believe that Natives are reborn as Natives and Outsiders are reborn as Outsiders, but I could be wrong. From a game balance perspective, I am not in favor of type-swapping skills unless Natives are presented with an ability to counter or convert Outsiders as well. It does fit nicely with the theme though. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 23:41, 16 February 2006 (GMT)

* That would probably be the shamans job, however it may have worked for Urban Dead but I don't think it will work in this game as whichever group has the most players to begin with will, once conflicts begin to arise, dominate by switching people from the side they are on the side the priest/"whatever the natives use" side making you able to graph one groups population by looking at the graph pop=(1/2)^x. Also since there wouldn't seem to be a way, short of finding a converter player to switch you back, to go back to playing as you once did would make the amount of people on one side quickly die off (even though thats what would happen in real life, favouring the outsiders) it would be a very unfun aspect of the game. And really these are HOSTILE natives, or so it seems, why would they let some devilman outsider tell it how it is? They wouldn't, they would simply spear them and laugh! In short all the converting ideas suck, I know I wouldn't want to log on to find I'm playing for the wrong side. -- [[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 10:55, 17 February 2006 (GMT)

* So that means if my soldier dies, he's reborn as a native? Not only that, but to become an outsider again, first I would have to find a priest (which would be next to impossible with such a small number of players), and then he could convert me into a settler. That means I'll never be able to be a soldier again, which is a real punch in the throat for RPers. -- Grigoriy

*All valid points. I guess this wouldn't really work we have the same number of players as Urban Dead. But this would be a great way to balance out the sides later on. Say there are too many natives, you just drop more "conversion items" and balance out the sides. Too many Outsiders? Just drop the number of conversion items. Doubt it would catch on though. --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 02:44, 19 February 2006 (GMT)

*Conversion doesn't have to be forced. It could require action on both sides, like a native doning a religious item and an outsider using the skill on that native. After all, conversion isn't real without true faith. The native counter to this could be similar, requiring an outsider to die holding a packet of that headshrinking powder while a shaman uses the Zombification (ala Haitian witchcraft) skill. -- frisco

*You don't change class or anything when you die. --[[User:Murk|Murk]] 12:31, 4 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Capturing villages ===
Since this is like some war between Outsiders and Natives I thought this appropriate. If all the (say) Outsiders are killed in York and there are none left, then it becomes a Native village and vice versa. Probably needs harder requirements to capture settlements though. Maybe each side could have one permanent place that can never change hands? --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 03:41, 1 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
:Not sure about this - what about all the idle players within the village? They might "wake up" after a couple of weeks to find they're in enemy territory. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 11:00, 1 March 2006 (GMT)

:You could have it so idle players goto the nearest friendly village-- [[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 02:58, 3 March 2006 (GMT)

:Turf control in a limited AP browser game like this just invites lame zerging behavior. I don't like it. --[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 00:00, 4 March 2006 (GMT)

:Not villages, perhaps 3x3 square 'forts'? --[[User:Grigoriy|Grigoriy]] 01:10, 4 March 2006 (GMT)

:I do like the idea, but I think Jackel's observation hits a key point. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

:Agreed with Jackel and Lint and Simon. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 13:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT) Additionally:
::* Please don't impose your assumption that Shartak is at heart a "war between Outsiders and Natives" on the rest of us. That is not the only possible direction in which this game can go. For example, an Outsider village might turn out to be populated by a trading company that views the other Outsider villages as competitors whose extermination would be good for business, but it could just as easily develop into a peaceful scientific outpost, a pirate haven of drunken debauchery, or a missionary settlement devoted to finding the Natives and learning their language (gotta spread that old time religion). I believe it would be better to keep the objectives more freeform, and let the players create the course of history. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 13:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
::* On a hopefully more helpful and positive note, one could simulate/approximate capturing a village by amassing an army of suitable size, carving messages of ownership all over the territory of the village in question, killing all members of the village, and repeatedly killing the village shaman so they can't get back as easily. (Ouch. I hope no armchair megalomaniacs out there have been taking notes.) --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 13:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Unique skills ===
I think that each class should start off with one unique skill that the others may never aquire. That way it stops all the classes from becoming too generic. For example Settlers could have a "farming" skill, Soldiers could have a "bravery" skill, etc. Or mabey they could just have a attribute like Soldiers have an extra 10% chance of striking the target, Warriors have an extra 10% chance of finding animals, Settlers have an extra 10% chance of finding an item, Scouts have a 3% chance of recovering 1 HP per AP spent, etc. --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 02:34, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
*Perhaps a Research skill of some kind for the Scientist, maybe allowing them an advantage when doing things with dead animals (would need something to do with dead animals, obviously!).[[User:MorkaisChosen|MorkaisChosen]] 16:09, 16 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
:I am in favor of this (if it is not in effect currently). We'd have to work out the details to make sure each class is getting their fair share, but something that encourages players to try other classes or team up with other players using different classes for a better playing experience sounds good to me. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
:I am in favor of each class being able to acquire (but not necessarily starting off with) a unique skill or attribute that the others may never acquire. Sounds to me like the kind of thing that would be unlocked as one's reward for a rite of passage, rather than granted as a right of birth. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 12:53, 7 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Pet System ===
I will combine aspects of the '''Animal''' and '''Pirate''' suggestions and propose a pet system that allows you to tame one of the animals on the island. First, you have to weaken the animal. Then you throw a sphere device at it and shout "SHARTAK SPHERE! GO!" for 1 AP. There's a slight chance that you have captured and tamed the animal. The more powerful the animal, the less success chance. You earn no XP for taming an animal. Players can only have 1 pet at a time. They can release a pet whenever they want. If the owner dies, the pet runs away. Pets have fixed HP, attack, and accuracy based on the type of animal they are (ie. they do not level up or heal, just to keep it simple to design). They follow the player around and only attack when the player attacks. It would be nice if they attacked while you were not playing, but auto-defense mechanisms are unnecessary. Enemy animals randomly determine whether they are attacking the owner or the pet. Other players will have an option for targeting the owner or pet. There is no XP gained for attacking or killing a pet to deter any attempts at farming pet killing (I can't believe we even have to consider preventing such a thing). For added flavor, owners can name their pets. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
:ROTFL. Sounds a bit like Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh (don't worry, I'm not a fan, I have kids that were!). Perhaps instead of spheres, you could keep the monkeys on a leash, heal a tiger or elephant to make it less likely to attack you, tame deer by feeding them, etc. Some animals like the wild boar would have to be pretty difficult to tame. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 15:14, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
:I was with you right up until you got to the "sphere device" bit, and I rejoined you afterwards. ;) The rest of your suggestion otherwise seems to be pretty well thought out. Personally, I'd prefer to attempt to tame the animal into becoming a pet purely by offering it food, rather than "weakening" it by other means. Especially since food is scarce enough that offering it to an animal would be a real sacrifice and therefore an interesting decision for the player to make. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 14:49, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
::I will confess that I had a lot of fun with the references. The problem I have with using an existing item to tame a pet is how to implement it. The player can't click on the fruit, because that will just heal themselves. And I think it is unecessary to redesign fruits like First Aid Kits and Medical Herbs, just so they can feed it to an animal. And a database check to see if the player possesses a fruit before providing a "tame" command seems awkward. Perhaps there is just one item called "animal bait" (from the Trade Hut most likely). It works much like a FAK or Herb, but can only be applied to animals (though there will be a "Yourself" option by default for those players that decide they enjoy the taste). Animals will then have a value called "tame count" in the database. For each successful feeding, this number is incremented. When a specific number is reached, the monster is successfully tamed. If a monster is killed, the number is reset to 0. Acquiring a pet should not reduce the population of animals on the island (ie. one should respawn to take its place). Furthermore, those with '''Animal Affinity''' should have a better taming success rate. (This is another attempt to give Villagers and Settlers a little boost.) --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 17:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
:::This idea, while somewhat interesting, is not very realitic. The animals of the island are wild. In reality, tigers, elephants, deer, "WILD boars" etc can only be made LESS WILD by extensive and careful training and handling when they are young, not be tamable by any means, certainly not enough to follow a person around and fight on their behalf. Maybe it would be possible with parrots and monkeys, but if Simon is going to implement changes, I'd rather see some of the more believable ones first. I do agree with Lint that it would give more value to '''Animal Affinity'''. Animal attacks, even from a tiger or elephant (which would realistically be very dangerous) are hardly to be feared, making this skill currently seem pretty useless.

=== Profile Effect Items ===
These are useless baubles that take up 1 unit of a player's inventory space, but if anyone views their profile they will see that the players possesses the item. Using the item won't accomplish anything and merely produce flavor text. However, if a player is in the presence of another player, using the item would show it off. As with all items, there's no way to trade them with other players. We can have eyepatches and peglegs. We can have tribal masks and warpaint. Maybe some clans would require a certain dress code. Maybe they need 30 pieces of flair. I think it provides an outlet for the less serious gamers. Problems: Serious gamers might be plagued with finding such items and dropping them, wasting (in their opinion) AP and Page Hits. Also, arguing over what items fit with the theme of Shartak will be a headache-inducing process. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* I like this suggestion. How about finding the pieces of the masks and making your own - combine the baubles with mini-quests? --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 11:18, 8 March 2006 (GMT)
:For example, to make the sacred warrior mask of Raktam, you must find 5 parrot feathers, a tiger tooth, some berries and a piece of driftwood that can be carved into the appropriate shape with a knife or dagger. Once you have all those items, you get a "create mask" option which then removes the required items and the mask appears in your inventory (and profile).
::Having the database check to see if they have all the ingredients seems a bit unwieldly. After every action or inventory use it might have to run the check to verify that they are alive, still have the items, etc. I'd just settle for having them take the items to a specific NPC. But yes, a mixing quest would be fun. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 18:02, 8 March 2006 (GMT)

* I just hope that this idea motivates players to try new things ("I'm going to join a clan that wears such-and-such a mask and attack the others! Yarr!") and not feel that the game is just about collecting items ("Well, I got all the masks. I guess I'm done with the game."). --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 18:02, 8 March 2006 (GMT)

*Maybe the different masks have different effects, from some simple ones (attracting/scaring animals, making them less likely to attack or easier to hit) to the downright blatavt video game reference that turns you into a huge brown rocky guy who can punch boulders apart. OK, maybe not the second one. [[User:MorkaisChosen|MorkaisChosen]] 20:53, 9 March 2006 (GMT)
:I think that's something to be worked on in a separate suggestion. The point of this suggestion is to make useless "fancy hats" that neither add or take away from the established gameplay. However, in the eyes of certain players, they may be invaluable because of how they can incorperate such items into their goals and roleplaying. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 23:52, 9 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Unique Item Hunt ===
'''Event''' ''Capture the Flag''-ish minigame. Somewhere on the island is a single conch shell item. It can be found by searching anywhere. It takes 1 inventory space and appears when anyone views their profile. When the conch holder is in the presence of other players, flavor text is added to the area description to inform the others that the conch holder is in the area. If the person in possession of the conch drops it, dies, or is idle for more than 5 days, the conch returns to the system. The person who holds the conch the longest gets recognized in the statistics. Killing the conch holder earns special bonus XP. Adept conch holder killers may also be recognized in the statistics. Problems: Someone with multiple characters could take advantage of having the conch on one character and reap the XP and fame with another. There will be a point where a race condition will occur and might result in multiple conches and a broken game. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* This kind of thing has been on my ideas list, although this is much more detailed version than the one-liner I had. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 15:05, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Know your foes ===
As a native, I get killed a lot by outsiders, but I just can't strike back when I come back to life, as nothing allows me to identify my agressors amongst the outsiders I meet. I expected some basic language skill to give me access to clickable outsiders profiles, but it doesn't. So. I don't like much the fact that, in this game, the only alternative you have is "attack random outsiders" or "attack none". I'd like to be able to protect myself without being too unfair to peaceful outsiders (and being part of some snowball effect).

This would be partly solved by some profile access (allowing to check people's amount of human kills), or some limited displayed info on the present players (it would make -almost- sense for natives to automatically carry visible scalps or shrunken head of their victims, but I'm not sure how to justify the kills display in the case of outsiders, despite of the fact white men were actually quite fond of indian scalps at some time). Another useful tool would be some urban-dead-like contact list.

Of course, ideally (but absurdly) the most useful stat to be able to see would be the number of kills of people without human kills at the moment of their death, but... -- Leaf

''Comments''
Perhaps seeing the profile of someone on the opposite side if you or they have the advanced language skill would be good, it would be cool to hang around with some natives without worrying about aggressors. --[[User:Grigoriy|Grigoriy]] 21:30, 18 March 2006 (GMT)

If you had a contact list and some way to target individuals on your list ala Urban Dead, I'm guessing that would probably help. Not so sure about the scalp display approach. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 23:36, 18 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Forest Fire ===
'''Event''' This is a potential temporary minigame that will either lead to players to band together and save the island or perhaps just lead to all-out chaos. A fire script is created which designates one block as fire (it is identified by a little fire.gif in the background). Every 20 minutes the fire script will check if there is <del>Grassland or</del> Jungle nearby with density from 1-10. If there is, it spreads to the next block. It will not spread to any other terrain (including villages and ruins). Thus, the best way to prevent the spread of the fire is by chopping vegetation down to 0. The initial fires will be placed randomly around the island. Actions performed in a fire occupied space deal 2 damage. For this event to be more devious, there should be a means to quickly restore vegetation (dropping driftwood, planting fruit, watering with gourds). --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 03:58, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
*I like some things about this suggestion, I think it could work really nicely if there was also a rain algorithingamajig, so that maybe, if some part of the island dried out, wildfires could break out, or if it rained too much villages could flood and get swamped. Its a neat idea. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 04:55, 17 March 2006 (GMT)
* I like the idea of rain and fire, however there's no telling if the server would handle the database access/calculations required when the number of players gets into the range that Urban Dead has. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 11:17, 17 March 2006 (GMT)
** I thought it might be a bit much. Ah well. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 19:32, 17 March 2006 (GMT)
** Not the idea of fire itself, that may well be quite feasible. I meant having rain causing flooding, or not enough rain leading to fires might be a bit awkward.. unless I can think of some way to reduce the work that needs to be done regularly. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 23:38, 18 March 2006 (GMT)
* Maybe fires could also destroy huts, and then there could be a skill to rebuild them. Maybe even give people the ability to start their own fires. It might make for interesting tribal wars. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 18:22, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
** I kind of wanted to restrict fires to the Jungle (removed my Grasslands comment from the original suggestion) since a lot of Huts provide resources for starting players and players that have just been revived. I think it would be unfair to prevent them with the opportunity to gather supplies. As a tactic, it may also be unfair. Native villages appear to be completely surrounded by burnable Jungle, while Outsider villages are bordered by the Beach. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 19:46, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
** Good point. The pirates would be completely free of burning too. I still think a way to temporarily damage structures could be fun -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 19:59, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
** As a general rule, real world jungles don't burn terribly well, although there are a few notable exceptions (such as the Indonesian forest fires in 1997-98). Grasslands, however, burn quite regularly, and in fact such fires are necessary for the good health of the grass. Fire kills off sapling trees in the area which would otherwise grow to the point that they overshadowed and killed the grass. I don't know whether the game has any grasslands large enough to make this kind of thing interesting, though. --[[User:Jackdaw|Jackdaw]] 15:55, 25 March 2006 (GMT)

=== The Ghost Elephant ===
'''Event''' Somewhere on the island is an animal that exists purely as a temporary event. The Legendary Ghost Elephant - in reality, an aggressive albino pachyderm of incredible size - is said to roam the island of Shartak. Some Natives revere it, others desire to be recorded as the one who slayed it. Some Outsiders wish to study it, others desire to have it as a trophy. It behaves much like any other elephant on Shartak. However, it has a different label, an unfathomable amount of HP, and deals horrific damage. If you heal the Ghost Elephant with a FAK or Herbs, you receive double XP. And to further serve a challenge, don't place an HP cap on the Ghost Elephant, just give it a starting amount. If possible, a log of all actions performed on the Ghost Elephant should be kept by the server and revealed in the event that it dies. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 03:58, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''

Ha! I like this one, Lint, and simple to implement. It should really have a boatload of HP, as I think few will consider expending valuable healing items on it, when its far easier (and more rewarding) to hack away at it for 40 AP then make a run for it! --[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 16:42, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

Arr! I would ride that ghost beast like a horse jus' fer fun, then slay 't t' sell its tusks t' them outsiders an' th' meat t' them natives. --[[User:El Pirata Cofresi|El Pirata Cofresi]] 17:46, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

In the Congo they refer to it as Mokele Mbembe - he who stops the flow of rivers - and it is rumoured to be a lost dinosaur. The island could do with some cryptozoology. Would this creature be able to disappear or hide or move incredibly fast? If not, then once one person finds it, they can just call everyone over to the same square. This kind of defeats the mythical aspect as well as adding potential server problems. --[[User:Frisco|Frisco]] 18:24, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

I should make the animals attack back in near-realtime first (as in you attack them and they may or may not get an attack in).. just to add a bit of interest to it and stop people running up to the creature and hacking and then running away. Making an animal with an almost unlimited number of HP would be possible.. I guess probably start it with at least double a normal elephant and max of about a thousand HP to prevent people healing it to the point where it'd be impossible to kill. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 18:37, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

It could be cool, especially if it moved around in a way that made tracking it possible, maybe by destroying the foliage, or moving in a pattern. Also having it move might help keep people from all winding up in one square beating it up. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 18:41, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

:I've tried to offset the game's focus on combat by encouraging healing (double XP may be too much of a reward, so I'm willing to remove that), but that alone will most likely be not enough to counter the horde of blood-thirsty savages! Healing with the Herbs and FAKs may actually be seen as healing the Ghost Elephant spiritually rather than merely physically, which is why it's health can grow high. I don't see a problem if it became near-unkillable. I like keeping some myths and legends around. I thought that it would be best if it traveled like an elephant, but it is true that it limits the people that are able to participate in the event. Perhaps it should "teleport", after a certain amount of time in an area - "A wall of fog sweeps in through jungle. When it fades, you see that the Ghost Elephant has vanished as well." I requested for a log of actions to determine who killed it, who attacked it the most, who healed it the most, and who got hurt the most. Also, rather than a recurring animal, I thought it would be best to release it as an event that occurs every now and then. Or maybe only once! --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 19:32, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

I like it. And of course, you needn't stick to land animals; a mysterious sea creature that patrols the island waters and is reported to be 30ft long could prompt more people to vernture into the waters for a glimpse/trophy etc. Sharks will also be a problem for those searching! --[[User:Malphas|Malphas]] 15:52, 19 March 2006 (GMT)

I ''love'' this idea.--[[User:Wifey|Wifey]] 07:08, 28 March 2006 (BST)

=== Auto Attack ===
I've never liked the fact that while I am away from the game, things can happen to my character, like being chewed on by a tiger or slashed with a machette. How about a setting where you can turn your character on to auto attack anything that hits you. It should, of course, be user selected. This would change the game mechanics a bit, as you could no longer move in on a target and attack it withough fear of a counter-strike. To me this is far more realistic, in that even if you are sleeping, when somebody hits you, you're going to wake up and do something about it with whatever engery you have left.

An alternative selectable action might be an auto-run. You can pre-specify the direction you want to run and how many squares upon being hit. A character with trekking could stay alive just by running a few square whenever they are hit.
--[[User:Qberry|Qberry]] 02:34, 20 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* The main problem with this is that players will be discouraged from attacking other players, as this will become extremely dangerous, and the native warrior who wants the outsiderts out will effectively be penalised.[[User:MorkaisChosen|MorkaisChosen]] 15:47, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* Sorry, but I don't like this. I feel that that this will lead to interactions with players that are no different than interacting with an NPC. Could someone theoretically max themselves out by just leaving this option on and checking in every now and then to make sure they haven't become a spirit? --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 17:28, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* Yeah, I'm not a fan of being able to do something by not doing something, such as fighting or running without being there to fight or run. Also, would it be free of AP and IP hits, or would it be possible to come back and have no AP or hits left? It seems like these problems would wreck any sort of auto action. I can understand not enjoying being macheted while away, but I don't see any way around this. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 18:20, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* I must admit that I don't like the idea all that much, but if it was implemented it would probably be something that was user configurable. I don't think running away would make sense, but fighting back does. For example, no more than X AP to be used fighting back until you next log back in, and they wouldn't be used unless you had more than Y AP left. This way you could set X to 10 and Y to 6 and if you ran out of AP, set those values, it would be 2 hours (6 x 20m) before you were likely to attack, and it would use no more than 10 AP fighting back. Because the values are configurable, it would be hard to know who would fight back and who wouldn't. Setting X to 0 would disable the feature. I think probably the attacks would gain XP if successful, same as normal, but because you wouldn't be able to set the number of AP to use to more than your max AP value, it would be impossible to level up a character by simply leaving them alone (not to mention you would disappear from the map after being idle for a bit). --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 21:01, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* i like the idea of counterattack , but with some limits. You have only a % of counterattacking someone (25%?) , you don't consume AP , you don't get XP. But , whit wich weapon do you attack?--[[User:JonesDye|JonesDye]] 10:05, 27 March 2006 (BST)

===Flavor Text===

this section is where "users" add "flavor" to the game, im just suggesting that every few steps the computer say a message depending on location, here ill give a few examples:

*'''grasslands'''
the grassy field sways under the wind's rush as you take a step.
something far off squaks and makes a strange throaty bellow.

*'''water'''
a wave crashes calmly in the distance
a spalsh can be heard from far off

*'''jungle'''
a parrot's call can be heard distantly
the bushes nearby are rustling from the small wildlife in them

*'''village (outsider)'''
the smell of gunpowder wafts into your lungs
the smoke comming from a nearby hut smells of fresh turkey

*'''village (native)'''
the shaman's voice can be heard traveling through the village
you step on the bones of what appears to be a rattlesnake

*'''beach'''
the hot sand burns your feet, yet feels wonderfully different
several sea shells catch your eye from far off

please feel free to update these with more, as they are just a list (if simon decides to) that will be used for flavor.
i want to do this because the game gets kinda boring simply traversing through square after square

Suggestions:Game mechanics

2006-03-28T19:17:34Z

Richard Rose:

{| cellpadding=10 align=right
| __TOC__
|}

{{Suggestionsnav}}

Suggestions for Shartak are always welcome, although there's no guarantee that anything will be added. Comments on or modifications for any of the suggestions below can be added by editing this page. Please be considerate and don't just remove ideas that you don't like.

Begin a new item with a * and "sign" your suggestions using <nowiki>-- ~~~~</nowiki> so we know who to blame ;)

Bug reports should go on the [[Bugs]] page.

This is the suggestions page for game mechanics. See also the [[Suggestions]] page for other suggestions.

== Game Mechanics ==

=== Conversion ===
When an Outsider/Native dies they are reborn as a Native (don't really understand the spirit thing too well). The Outsiders then get a new class/skill, "Religious Conversion" that requires a "Holy Scripture". This allows a "Priest" to convert one native into a Outsider". The converted native would most likely start off as a Settler. --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 23:22, 16 February 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* I believe that Natives are reborn as Natives and Outsiders are reborn as Outsiders, but I could be wrong. From a game balance perspective, I am not in favor of type-swapping skills unless Natives are presented with an ability to counter or convert Outsiders as well. It does fit nicely with the theme though. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 23:41, 16 February 2006 (GMT)

* That would probably be the shamans job, however it may have worked for Urban Dead but I don't think it will work in this game as whichever group has the most players to begin with will, once conflicts begin to arise, dominate by switching people from the side they are on the side the priest/"whatever the natives use" side making you able to graph one groups population by looking at the graph pop=(1/2)^x. Also since there wouldn't seem to be a way, short of finding a converter player to switch you back, to go back to playing as you once did would make the amount of people on one side quickly die off (even though thats what would happen in real life, favouring the outsiders) it would be a very unfun aspect of the game. And really these are HOSTILE natives, or so it seems, why would they let some devilman outsider tell it how it is? They wouldn't, they would simply spear them and laugh! In short all the converting ideas suck, I know I wouldn't want to log on to find I'm playing for the wrong side. -- [[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 10:55, 17 February 2006 (GMT)

* So that means if my soldier dies, he's reborn as a native? Not only that, but to become an outsider again, first I would have to find a priest (which would be next to impossible with such a small number of players), and then he could convert me into a settler. That means I'll never be able to be a soldier again, which is a real punch in the throat for RPers. -- Grigoriy

*All valid points. I guess this wouldn't really work we have the same number of players as Urban Dead. But this would be a great way to balance out the sides later on. Say there are too many natives, you just drop more "conversion items" and balance out the sides. Too many Outsiders? Just drop the number of conversion items. Doubt it would catch on though. --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 02:44, 19 February 2006 (GMT)

*Conversion doesn't have to be forced. It could require action on both sides, like a native doning a religious item and an outsider using the skill on that native. After all, conversion isn't real without true faith. The native counter to this could be similar, requiring an outsider to die holding a packet of that headshrinking powder while a shaman uses the Zombification (ala Haitian witchcraft) skill. -- frisco

*You don't change class or anything when you die. --[[User:Murk|Murk]] 12:31, 4 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Capturing villages ===
Since this is like some war between Outsiders and Natives I thought this appropriate. If all the (say) Outsiders are killed in York and there are none left, then it becomes a Native village and vice versa. Probably needs harder requirements to capture settlements though. Maybe each side could have one permanent place that can never change hands? --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 03:41, 1 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
:Not sure about this - what about all the idle players within the village? They might "wake up" after a couple of weeks to find they're in enemy territory. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 11:00, 1 March 2006 (GMT)

:You could have it so idle players goto the nearest friendly village-- [[User:Daylan|Daylan]] 02:58, 3 March 2006 (GMT)

:Turf control in a limited AP browser game like this just invites lame zerging behavior. I don't like it. --[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 00:00, 4 March 2006 (GMT)

:Not villages, perhaps 3x3 square 'forts'? --[[User:Grigoriy|Grigoriy]] 01:10, 4 March 2006 (GMT)

:I do like the idea, but I think Jackel's observation hits a key point. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

:Agreed with Jackel and Lint and Simon. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 13:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT) Additionally:
::* Please don't impose your assumption that Shartak is at heart a "war between Outsiders and Natives" on the rest of us. That is not the only possible direction in which this game can go. For example, an Outsider village might turn out to be populated by a trading company that views the other Outsider villages as competitors whose extermination would be good for business, but it could just as easily develop into a peaceful scientific outpost, a pirate haven of drunken debauchery, or a missionary settlement devoted to finding the Natives and learning their language (gotta spread that old time religion). I believe it would be better to keep the objectives more freeform, and let the players create the course of history. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 13:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
::* On a hopefully more helpful and positive note, one could simulate/approximate capturing a village by amassing an army of suitable size, carving messages of ownership all over the territory of the village in question, killing all members of the village, and repeatedly killing the village shaman so they can't get back as easily. (Ouch. I hope no armchair megalomaniacs out there have been taking notes.) --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 13:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Unique skills ===
I think that each class should start off with one unique skill that the others may never aquire. That way it stops all the classes from becoming too generic. For example Settlers could have a "farming" skill, Soldiers could have a "bravery" skill, etc. Or mabey they could just have a attribute like Soldiers have an extra 10% chance of striking the target, Warriors have an extra 10% chance of finding animals, Settlers have an extra 10% chance of finding an item, Scouts have a 3% chance of recovering 1 HP per AP spent, etc. --[[User:One of many doctors|One of many doctors]] 02:34, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
*Perhaps a Research skill of some kind for the Scientist, maybe allowing them an advantage when doing things with dead animals (would need something to do with dead animals, obviously!).[[User:MorkaisChosen|MorkaisChosen]] 16:09, 16 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
:I am in favor of this (if it is not in effect currently). We'd have to work out the details to make sure each class is getting their fair share, but something that encourages players to try other classes or team up with other players using different classes for a better playing experience sounds good to me. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
:I am in favor of each class being able to acquire (but not necessarily starting off with) a unique skill or attribute that the others may never acquire. Sounds to me like the kind of thing that would be unlocked as one's reward for a rite of passage, rather than granted as a right of birth. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 12:53, 7 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Pet System ===
I will combine aspects of the '''Animal''' and '''Pirate''' suggestions and propose a pet system that allows you to tame one of the animals on the island. First, you have to weaken the animal. Then you throw a sphere device at it and shout "SHARTAK SPHERE! GO!" for 1 AP. There's a slight chance that you have captured and tamed the animal. The more powerful the animal, the less success chance. You earn no XP for taming an animal. Players can only have 1 pet at a time. They can release a pet whenever they want. If the owner dies, the pet runs away. Pets have fixed HP, attack, and accuracy based on the type of animal they are (ie. they do not level up or heal, just to keep it simple to design). They follow the player around and only attack when the player attacks. It would be nice if they attacked while you were not playing, but auto-defense mechanisms are unnecessary. Enemy animals randomly determine whether they are attacking the owner or the pet. Other players will have an option for targeting the owner or pet. There is no XP gained for attacking or killing a pet to deter any attempts at farming pet killing (I can't believe we even have to consider preventing such a thing). For added flavor, owners can name their pets. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
:ROTFL. Sounds a bit like Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh (don't worry, I'm not a fan, I have kids that were!). Perhaps instead of spheres, you could keep the monkeys on a leash, heal a tiger or elephant to make it less likely to attack you, tame deer by feeding them, etc. Some animals like the wild boar would have to be pretty difficult to tame. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 15:14, 5 March 2006 (GMT)
:I was with you right up until you got to the "sphere device" bit, and I rejoined you afterwards. ;) The rest of your suggestion otherwise seems to be pretty well thought out. Personally, I'd prefer to attempt to tame the animal into becoming a pet purely by offering it food, rather than "weakening" it by other means. Especially since food is scarce enough that offering it to an animal would be a real sacrifice and therefore an interesting decision for the player to make. --[[User:Berry|Berry]] 14:49, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
::I will confess that I had a lot of fun with the references. The problem I have with using an existing item to tame a pet is how to implement it. The player can't click on the fruit, because that will just heal themselves. And I think it is unecessary to redesign fruits like First Aid Kits and Medical Herbs, just so they can feed it to an animal. And a database check to see if the player possesses a fruit before providing a "tame" command seems awkward. Perhaps there is just one item called "animal bait" (from the Trade Hut most likely). It works much like a FAK or Herb, but can only be applied to animals (though there will be a "Yourself" option by default for those players that decide they enjoy the taste). Animals will then have a value called "tame count" in the database. For each successful feeding, this number is incremented. When a specific number is reached, the monster is successfully tamed. If a monster is killed, the number is reset to 0. Acquiring a pet should not reduce the population of animals on the island (ie. one should respawn to take its place). Furthermore, those with '''Animal Affinity''' should have a better taming success rate. (This is another attempt to give Villagers and Settlers a little boost.) --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 17:32, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
:::This idea, while somewhat interesting, is not very realitic. The animals of the island are wild. In reality, tigers, elephants, deer, "WILD boars" etc can only be made LESS WILD by extensive and careful training and handling when they are young, not be tamable by any means, certainly not enough to follow a person around and fight on their behalf. Maybe it would be possible with parrots and monkeys, but if Simon is going to implement changes, I'd rather see some of the more believable ones first. I do agree with Lint that it would give more value to '''Animal Affinity'''. Animal attacks, even from a tiger or elephant (which would realistically be very dangerous) are hardly to be feared, making this skill currently seem pretty useless.

=== Profile Effect Items ===
These are useless baubles that take up 1 unit of a player's inventory space, but if anyone views their profile they will see that the players possesses the item. Using the item won't accomplish anything and merely produce flavor text. However, if a player is in the presence of another player, using the item would show it off. As with all items, there's no way to trade them with other players. We can have eyepatches and peglegs. We can have tribal masks and warpaint. Maybe some clans would require a certain dress code. Maybe they need 30 pieces of flair. I think it provides an outlet for the less serious gamers. Problems: Serious gamers might be plagued with finding such items and dropping them, wasting (in their opinion) AP and Page Hits. Also, arguing over what items fit with the theme of Shartak will be a headache-inducing process. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* I like this suggestion. How about finding the pieces of the masks and making your own - combine the baubles with mini-quests? --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 11:18, 8 March 2006 (GMT)
:For example, to make the sacred warrior mask of Raktam, you must find 5 parrot feathers, a tiger tooth, some berries and a piece of driftwood that can be carved into the appropriate shape with a knife or dagger. Once you have all those items, you get a "create mask" option which then removes the required items and the mask appears in your inventory (and profile).
::Having the database check to see if they have all the ingredients seems a bit unwieldly. After every action or inventory use it might have to run the check to verify that they are alive, still have the items, etc. I'd just settle for having them take the items to a specific NPC. But yes, a mixing quest would be fun. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 18:02, 8 March 2006 (GMT)

* I just hope that this idea motivates players to try new things ("I'm going to join a clan that wears such-and-such a mask and attack the others! Yarr!") and not feel that the game is just about collecting items ("Well, I got all the masks. I guess I'm done with the game."). --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 18:02, 8 March 2006 (GMT)

*Maybe the different masks have different effects, from some simple ones (attracting/scaring animals, making them less likely to attack or easier to hit) to the downright blatavt video game reference that turns you into a huge brown rocky guy who can punch boulders apart. OK, maybe not the second one. [[User:MorkaisChosen|MorkaisChosen]] 20:53, 9 March 2006 (GMT)
:I think that's something to be worked on in a separate suggestion. The point of this suggestion is to make useless "fancy hats" that neither add or take away from the established gameplay. However, in the eyes of certain players, they may be invaluable because of how they can incorperate such items into their goals and roleplaying. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 23:52, 9 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Unique Item Hunt ===
'''Event''' ''Capture the Flag''-ish minigame. Somewhere on the island is a single conch shell item. It can be found by searching anywhere. It takes 1 inventory space and appears when anyone views their profile. When the conch holder is in the presence of other players, flavor text is added to the area description to inform the others that the conch holder is in the area. If the person in possession of the conch drops it, dies, or is idle for more than 5 days, the conch returns to the system. The person who holds the conch the longest gets recognized in the statistics. Killing the conch holder earns special bonus XP. Adept conch holder killers may also be recognized in the statistics. Problems: Someone with multiple characters could take advantage of having the conch on one character and reap the XP and fame with another. There will be a point where a race condition will occur and might result in multiple conches and a broken game. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 08:40, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* This kind of thing has been on my ideas list, although this is much more detailed version than the one-liner I had. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 15:05, 5 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Know your foes ===
As a native, I get killed a lot by outsiders, but I just can't strike back when I come back to life, as nothing allows me to identify my agressors amongst the outsiders I meet. I expected some basic language skill to give me access to clickable outsiders profiles, but it doesn't. So. I don't like much the fact that, in this game, the only alternative you have is "attack random outsiders" or "attack none". I'd like to be able to protect myself without being too unfair to peaceful outsiders (and being part of some snowball effect).

This would be partly solved by some profile access (allowing to check people's amount of human kills), or some limited displayed info on the present players (it would make -almost- sense for natives to automatically carry visible scalps or shrunken head of their victims, but I'm not sure how to justify the kills display in the case of outsiders, despite of the fact white men were actually quite fond of indian scalps at some time). Another useful tool would be some urban-dead-like contact list.

Of course, ideally (but absurdly) the most useful stat to be able to see would be the number of kills of people without human kills at the moment of their death, but... -- Leaf

''Comments''
Perhaps seeing the profile of someone on the opposite side if you or they have the advanced language skill would be good, it would be cool to hang around with some natives without worrying about aggressors. --[[User:Grigoriy|Grigoriy]] 21:30, 18 March 2006 (GMT)

If you had a contact list and some way to target individuals on your list ala Urban Dead, I'm guessing that would probably help. Not so sure about the scalp display approach. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 23:36, 18 March 2006 (GMT)

=== Forest Fire ===
'''Event''' This is a potential temporary minigame that will either lead to players to band together and save the island or perhaps just lead to all-out chaos. A fire script is created which designates one block as fire (it is identified by a little fire.gif in the background). Every 20 minutes the fire script will check if there is <del>Grassland or</del> Jungle nearby with density from 1-10. If there is, it spreads to the next block. It will not spread to any other terrain (including villages and ruins). Thus, the best way to prevent the spread of the fire is by chopping vegetation down to 0. The initial fires will be placed randomly around the island. Actions performed in a fire occupied space deal 2 damage. For this event to be more devious, there should be a means to quickly restore vegetation (dropping driftwood, planting fruit, watering with gourds). --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 03:58, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
*I like some things about this suggestion, I think it could work really nicely if there was also a rain algorithingamajig, so that maybe, if some part of the island dried out, wildfires could break out, or if it rained too much villages could flood and get swamped. Its a neat idea. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 04:55, 17 March 2006 (GMT)
* I like the idea of rain and fire, however there's no telling if the server would handle the database access/calculations required when the number of players gets into the range that Urban Dead has. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 11:17, 17 March 2006 (GMT)
** I thought it might be a bit much. Ah well. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 19:32, 17 March 2006 (GMT)
** Not the idea of fire itself, that may well be quite feasible. I meant having rain causing flooding, or not enough rain leading to fires might be a bit awkward.. unless I can think of some way to reduce the work that needs to be done regularly. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 23:38, 18 March 2006 (GMT)
* Maybe fires could also destroy huts, and then there could be a skill to rebuild them. Maybe even give people the ability to start their own fires. It might make for interesting tribal wars. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 18:22, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
** I kind of wanted to restrict fires to the Jungle (removed my Grasslands comment from the original suggestion) since a lot of Huts provide resources for starting players and players that have just been revived. I think it would be unfair to prevent them with the opportunity to gather supplies. As a tactic, it may also be unfair. Native villages appear to be completely surrounded by burnable Jungle, while Outsider villages are bordered by the Beach. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 19:46, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
** Good point. The pirates would be completely free of burning too. I still think a way to temporarily damage structures could be fun -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 19:59, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
** As a general rule, real world jungles don't burn terribly well, although there are a few notable exceptions (such as the Indonesian forest fires in 1997-98). Grasslands, however, burn quite regularly, and in fact such fires are necessary for the good health of the grass. Fire kills off sapling trees in the area which would otherwise grow to the point that they overshadowed and killed the grass. I don't know whether the game has any grasslands large enough to make this kind of thing interesting, though. --[[User:Jackdaw|Jackdaw]] 15:55, 25 March 2006 (GMT)

=== The Ghost Elephant ===
'''Event''' Somewhere on the island is an animal that exists purely as a temporary event. The Legendary Ghost Elephant - in reality, an aggressive albino pachyderm of incredible size - is said to roam the island of Shartak. Some Natives revere it, others desire to be recorded as the one who slayed it. Some Outsiders wish to study it, others desire to have it as a trophy. It behaves much like any other elephant on Shartak. However, it has a different label, an unfathomable amount of HP, and deals horrific damage. If you heal the Ghost Elephant with a FAK or Herbs, you receive double XP. And to further serve a challenge, don't place an HP cap on the Ghost Elephant, just give it a starting amount. If possible, a log of all actions performed on the Ghost Elephant should be kept by the server and revealed in the event that it dies. --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 03:58, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''

Ha! I like this one, Lint, and simple to implement. It should really have a boatload of HP, as I think few will consider expending valuable healing items on it, when its far easier (and more rewarding) to hack away at it for 40 AP then make a run for it! --[[User:Jackel|Jackel]] 16:42, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

Arr! I would ride that ghost beast like a horse jus' fer fun, then slay 't t' sell its tusks t' them outsiders an' th' meat t' them natives. --[[User:El Pirata Cofresi|El Pirata Cofresi]] 17:46, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

In the Congo they refer to it as Mokele Mbembe - he who stops the flow of rivers - and it is rumoured to be a lost dinosaur. The island could do with some cryptozoology. Would this creature be able to disappear or hide or move incredibly fast? If not, then once one person finds it, they can just call everyone over to the same square. This kind of defeats the mythical aspect as well as adding potential server problems. --[[User:Frisco|Frisco]] 18:24, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

I should make the animals attack back in near-realtime first (as in you attack them and they may or may not get an attack in).. just to add a bit of interest to it and stop people running up to the creature and hacking and then running away. Making an animal with an almost unlimited number of HP would be possible.. I guess probably start it with at least double a normal elephant and max of about a thousand HP to prevent people healing it to the point where it'd be impossible to kill. --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 18:37, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

It could be cool, especially if it moved around in a way that made tracking it possible, maybe by destroying the foliage, or moving in a pattern. Also having it move might help keep people from all winding up in one square beating it up. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 18:41, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

:I've tried to offset the game's focus on combat by encouraging healing (double XP may be too much of a reward, so I'm willing to remove that), but that alone will most likely be not enough to counter the horde of blood-thirsty savages! Healing with the Herbs and FAKs may actually be seen as healing the Ghost Elephant spiritually rather than merely physically, which is why it's health can grow high. I don't see a problem if it became near-unkillable. I like keeping some myths and legends around. I thought that it would be best if it traveled like an elephant, but it is true that it limits the people that are able to participate in the event. Perhaps it should "teleport", after a certain amount of time in an area - "A wall of fog sweeps in through jungle. When it fades, you see that the Ghost Elephant has vanished as well." I requested for a log of actions to determine who killed it, who attacked it the most, who healed it the most, and who got hurt the most. Also, rather than a recurring animal, I thought it would be best to release it as an event that occurs every now and then. Or maybe only once! --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 19:32, 17 March 2006 (GMT)

I like it. And of course, you needn't stick to land animals; a mysterious sea creature that patrols the island waters and is reported to be 30ft long could prompt more people to vernture into the waters for a glimpse/trophy etc. Sharks will also be a problem for those searching! --[[User:Malphas|Malphas]] 15:52, 19 March 2006 (GMT)

I ''love'' this idea.--[[User:Wifey|Wifey]] 07:08, 28 March 2006 (BST)

=== Auto Attack ===
I've never liked the fact that while I am away from the game, things can happen to my character, like being chewed on by a tiger or slashed with a machette. How about a setting where you can turn your character on to auto attack anything that hits you. It should, of course, be user selected. This would change the game mechanics a bit, as you could no longer move in on a target and attack it withough fear of a counter-strike. To me this is far more realistic, in that even if you are sleeping, when somebody hits you, you're going to wake up and do something about it with whatever engery you have left.

An alternative selectable action might be an auto-run. You can pre-specify the direction you want to run and how many squares upon being hit. A character with trekking could stay alive just by running a few square whenever they are hit.
--[[User:Qberry|Qberry]] 02:34, 20 March 2006 (GMT)

''Comments''
* The main problem with this is that players will be discouraged from attacking other players, as this will become extremely dangerous, and the native warrior who wants the outsiderts out will effectively be penalised.[[User:MorkaisChosen|MorkaisChosen]] 15:47, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* Sorry, but I don't like this. I feel that that this will lead to interactions with players that are no different than interacting with an NPC. Could someone theoretically max themselves out by just leaving this option on and checking in every now and then to make sure they haven't become a spirit? --[[User:Lint|Lint]] 17:28, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* Yeah, I'm not a fan of being able to do something by not doing something, such as fighting or running without being there to fight or run. Also, would it be free of AP and IP hits, or would it be possible to come back and have no AP or hits left? It seems like these problems would wreck any sort of auto action. I can understand not enjoying being macheted while away, but I don't see any way around this. -[[User:BananaBear|BananaBear]] 18:20, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* I must admit that I don't like the idea all that much, but if it was implemented it would probably be something that was user configurable. I don't think running away would make sense, but fighting back does. For example, no more than X AP to be used fighting back until you next log back in, and they wouldn't be used unless you had more than Y AP left. This way you could set X to 10 and Y to 6 and if you ran out of AP, set those values, it would be 2 hours (6 x 20m) before you were likely to attack, and it would use no more than 10 AP fighting back. Because the values are configurable, it would be hard to know who would fight back and who wouldn't. Setting X to 0 would disable the feature. I think probably the attacks would gain XP if successful, same as normal, but because you wouldn't be able to set the number of AP to use to more than your max AP value, it would be impossible to level up a character by simply leaving them alone (not to mention you would disappear from the map after being idle for a bit). --[[User:Simon|Simon]] 21:01, 20 March 2006 (GMT)
* i like the idea of counterattack , but with some limits. You have only a % of counterattacking someone (25%?) , you don't consume AP , you don't get XP. But , whit wich weapon do you attack?--[[User:JonesDye|JonesDye]] 10:05, 27 March 2006 (BST)

===Flavor Text===

this section is where "users" add "flavor" to the game, im just suggesting that every few steps the computer say a message depending on location, here ill give a few examples:

*'''grasslands'''
the grassy field sways under the wind's rush as you take a step.
something far off squaks and makes a strange throaty bellow.

*'''water'''
a wave crashes calmly in the distance
a spalsh can be heard from far off

*'''jungle'''
a parrot's call can be heard distantly
the bushes nearby are rustling from the small wildlife in them

*'''village (outsider)'''
the smell of gunpowder wafts into your lungs
the smoke comming from a nearby hut smells of fresh turkey

*'''village (native)'''
the shaman's voice can be heard traveling through the village
you step on the bones of what appears to be a rattlesnake

*'''beach'''
the hot sand burns your feet, yet feels wonderfully different
several sea shells catch your eye from far off

please feel free to update these with more, as they are just a list (if simon decides to) that will be used for flavor.
i want to do this because the game gets kinda boring simply traversing through square after square

Suggestions:Classes

2006-03-27T19:32:41Z

Richard Rose:

Skills

2006-03-27T16:56:09Z

Richard Rose:

There are a number of skills which have different effects on things within the game. Some skills are only available to certain classes or only to natives or outsiders. Skills are learned by [[XP Gains|gaining XP]] and the more skills you have, the more XP the next skill takes.

*Skill 1 = 100 XP
*Skill 2 = 125 XP
*Skill 3 = 150 XP
*Skill 4 = 175 XP
*Skill 5 = 200 XP
*Skill 6 = 225 XP
*Skill 7 = 250 XP
*Skill 8 = 275 XP
*Skill 9 = 300 XP

== Generic Skills ==

* '''Basic Language''' - Understand the smaller words of foreign languages
** '''Advanced Language''' - Better understanding of foreign languages
*** '''Expert Language''' - Full comprehension of foreign languages

* '''Close quarter combat''' - Gain 10% to hit with melee attacks
** '''Advanced close quarter combat''' - Gain 15% to hit with melee attacks

* '''Body building''' - Increases melee damage (''Appears to be +1 damage'')
** '''Stamina''' - Increases max HP by 20

* '''Triage''' - Be able to tell who is most injured
** '''Natural Medicine''' - Heal 10 HP with healing herbs (''Native only'')
** '''First Aid''' - Heal 10 hp with first aid kit (''Outsider only'')

* '''Ghostly whisper''' - Allows spirits to speak
** '''Haunting scream''' - Attract other spirits and scare nearby living players

* '''Sixth Sense''' - Sense presence of and hear spirits

* '''Exploration''' - Helps you remember some of the places you've been
** '''Cartography''' - Stops you forgetting anywhere you've visited
** '''Trekking''' - Faster movement through the jungle (''Reduced AP usage in jungle terrain'')
** '''Swimming''' - Faster movement through water (''Reduced AP usage in water terrain'')

* '''Animal Affinity''' - Lessens the chance of animals attacking (''Settler and Villager only'')

* '''Firearms Training''' - Gain 20% on firearms attacks (''Soldier only'')
** '''Advanced Firearms Training''' - Gain 20% on firearms attacks (''Soldier only'')

* '''Blowpipe Training''' - Gain 20% on blowpipe accuracy (''Warrior only'')

== Native Only ==
* '''Outsider knowledge''' - Natives gain basic outsider knowledge

This skill allows you to use and recognise items that would generally only be available to the other kind of player.
Includes:
:* GPS

== Outsider Only ==
* '''Native knowledge''' - Outsiders gain basic native knowledge

This skill allows you to use and recognise items that would generally only be available to the other kind of player.
Includes:
:*healing herbs (seen as dried herbs to outsiders before skill is attained)
:*berry difference (can tell poisonous or not)

Trading

2006-03-27T16:52:28Z

Richard Rose:

Suggestions:Classes

2006-03-24T23:55:54Z

Richard Rose:

Suggestions:Miscellaneous

2006-03-24T21:47:03Z

Richard Rose: