Topics

1

Precursors / Money

« on: June 16, 2005, 10:19:08 pm »

Credits? dollars? gold coins? iridium ounces?

OK, so what we call it isn't too terribly important.

I'd like to talk about what it can buy, and how important it will be to a character.  Also of importance is banks, credit, lotteries, and real estate.

Oh yeah, and anything else to do with CASH.

As for what it can buy... I kinda imagine a universe where anything is for sale: planets, solar systems, moons, spaceships, technology, weapons, beer...  For the right price.  I'd like to see real estate being a real status symbol among players, (possibly real estate and bank accounts are common across characters?) and I'd also like to see to it that any character with enough money can buy real estate.  

Now, this entails some problems, mainly the characters that join early, and make a land rush, combined with characters that join late and don't get a chance to buy land.  Well, let others TAKE land, if they have the military might, and the takee doesn't have anything to back up his property claim.  Require some sort of development on the land within 30 days or the property reverts to an unowned status.  Continue to "find" new star systems, possibly offering naming to discovers, and a discount on purchasing wholesale land...

Banks should generate minor interest, and serve a real safegaurding function.  Unless all money is electronic, in which case, all money is in a bank anyway.  Credit lines should be available, and I personally think it'd be great to see a head contract going out on really bad debtors that went to disreputable banks just to get a huge loan they couldn't pay back in time...

Lotteries could work in a very real way: perhaps the cops fund thier operation through galaxy-wide lotteries in addition to charging for thier services, and skim off 50% of all ticket sales for themselves, the rest goes into a pot and every month a lucky winner is chosen at random?

I think that's all my ideas right now...  Let's hear yours!  (yes, you.)

2

Precursors / Experience system

« on: June 14, 2005, 10:44:32 pm »

Now, it's been a given that players will gain experience and gain levels and get better, like any RPG.  

I'd put forth two propositions:  1) experience is a linear sacle, every level you need 100 XP to advance, and so to make 50th level you need exactly 5000 XP.  This makes any XP transfer setup much more feasable.  Just make it so you get less XP based on the difference in levels between the character and the (to borrow a D&D term) challenge rating of the "baddie".  Add rules for multiple "baddies" and multiple people attacking.  Tada.  Ok, it's a little more complicated than that, but I think it's a good way to go.
2) um.  I may have frogotten 2.  OH YEAH!  no "hit point" or "endurance" or things like that increasing.  Make the person harder to hit or something on higher levels.  People don't magically get harder to kill as they get more experienced: just because you're good doesn't mean that you will take more shots to the chest to die, but it may mean that it's harder to hit you.
2.5) Maybe this makes items/armor particularly important? Well, in a war zone, don't you think that armor is going to be pretty important in real life?

Lets hear other people's thoughts on how advancement should work!

3

Precursors / Law Enforcement in the Galaxy

« on: June 14, 2005, 08:02:50 pm »

That's a sticky spot as far as I'm concerned.  I want to see it realistic enough that people can't get shot 3 times in the face and then pull out a rocket launcher and kill you (not that that has happened to me in unnamed FPS games before), yet don't want death to happen too often.  

Perhaps there should be a strong police presence (automated turrets?) on lawful planets so that if you try to hurt someone, you get knocked out by tranquilizer darts and thrown in jail for a while (can't play except to look at a static picture of a cell?), and if you actually manage to kill someone in a "law zone", you are forever in danger of the above in any "law zone" on any planet.  Oh, and make the death penalty mandatory for murder universally.

Now, we can see that most people aren't going to try to kill other people.  Unless they go outside of the law-abiding areas of space, in which case they damn well better be prepared first, cause they're risking thier lives and they know it.