Contributor Greetings!

[Kazimir3701]

Hello everyone! Some of you might already know me as Nytemare3701, creator of one of the oldest and most ambitious minecraft RPG servers: Realmz Minecraft.

I say "ambitious" because the server was characterized by extreme experimentation and feature creep, not stability. For an example, On day one of Minecraft Survival Multiplayer, I spent 20 hours a day for a week pretending to be a Quest NPC. This insane dedication to being the first to try new things attracted a solid core player base who created wondrous things that stretched the limits of Minecraft's capabilities. We reversed gravity. We created jumping puzzles in the void. We did these things in Vanilla. When modding became a thing with HMod and later Bukkit, we lost our edge without a dedicated programmer. The project continued in a lesser form as "that one server that is always imploding from feature creep", but the glory days of Realmz were gone.

Enter Terasology!

With all the limitations of Minecraft removed and the ability to be an independent game (attributing Terasology for the engine and core modules), Realmz can finally be the game that I dreamed of while pretending to be an NPC for 20 hours a day.

Passion > Funding
Open Source > Proprietary
Ambitious > Generic

-Kazi

 

[Cervator]

We've already talked on IRC quite a bit, but welcome to the forum anyway!

Good to have you on board, and I'm interested to see what sort of extra support needs we end up with. A "quick start" option for a flavored version of Terasology would indeed be cool, and it doesn't seem like it would be a stretch to do (tweak runtime parameters or script, vary the starting facade, etc)

Bring on the suggestions and design documents! And don't shy away from "code" you can get a long way barely going beyond plain text!

 

[Kazimir3701]

I might as well do a real intro for the project here:

Realmz is a fantasy RPG: The tropes and mainstays of a classic medieval fantasy are all there. Killing goblins, casting spells, saving the peons, you know the drill.

Realmz is a young world: The game takes place a relatively short time after the end of a previous world. The inhabitants of the world are about as aware of the world's birth as we are of the colonization of america, and remember the previous world about as well as we remember the fall of the Roman Empire.

Realmz is self aware: The inhabitants of the world KNOW that the world is new. They are aware the rules of the world are supernatural in nature, and have an uncanny knack for trying (and failing) to subvert classic tropes. The NPCs know that narrative drama influences outcomes. When a character would normally say something like "it's meant to be", you are more likely to get a shrug and a " the gods have a flair for the dramatic".

Realmz is a (faux-m)mo: Every Realmz client "phones home" with a simplified list of events and character advancements that transpired during a play session. This data is aggregated and used to determine the outcome of any event the local player doesn't participate in. Character data is also aggregated, normalized against the community (to prevent outliers) and sent out to other players. The characters are weighted a second time (this time heavily towards the local player) to create an endless stream of uniquely configured NPCs.

Realmz is as free as possible: From the skill system to the cost, Everything about the Realmz is about freedom. Realmz is designed to have 0 operating costs (thanks to a decentralized system for handling the multiplayer data), while allowing development to continue at any pace I can afford.

Next up: The World, in which I show off a cliche novelty.

 

[Kazimir3701]

The world: the world takes full advantage of Terasology's cubic chunk system in the form of a massive* mountain in the center if the world. Geologically speaking the whole world is just an extension of this mountain, sloping down as it expands in a large cylinder out into the aether. This area is the portion of the map hand sculpted and containing customized content. As additional content is released, the border is pushed back and the cylinder grows. At the peak is a "Mt Olympus" type of setup, providing the divine impetus to keep the world from sinking back into the Aether.

The Aether: outside of the known world is an undefined mass of potential. This area is randomly generated and includes broken physics, impossible geography, and embedded chunks of architecture from all periods of time. This area makes up the random content and teasers for possible new content in the game world.

*Approximately 50,000 meters. For reference, a MC world is 255 meters from bottom to top, and Mt. Everest is 8,800 meters. This mountain is almost 200 Minecrafts high!
Next up: The Skill System, where progression is both insignificant and rewarding.

 

[Kazimir3701]

The Skill System. One of those things everyone has an opinion about, and everyone is wrong in a different way. I went through dozens of iterations of skill systems before I threw up my hands and said "pony IT, LET THEM DO WHAT THEY WANT!". Then I stopped for a minute and remembered that was the point.

Realmz has a skill system that borrows heavily from all types of RPGs. In fact, it'll probably feel like it's simultaneously ripping them all off somehow. It totally is(n't?).

A Character has Primary Attributes (Brawn, Agility, Knowledge, etc) which determine a number of secondary attributes. (Health, Mana, Endurance, etc). Standard fare here.

When a Character gains XP, they can spend it training skills. Skills and Attributes synergize, with Attributes granting small (but virtual) bonuses to all related passive skills, and skills granting REAL bonuses to their related Attribute (which in turn gives bonuses to the related skills as well as the secondary attributes). Still nothing revolutionary here.

Here's where it gets a little more crazy. XP is gained for almost* any action. Some actions give more than others of course, and the game won't notify you of the smallest gains outright (it'll still show up in the character screen, just not in the log). No curve either. XP always has the same value.

What can you spend that XP on? A truly LUDICROUS** amount of different skills. If a person can be reasonably expected to try something during an adventure, there's probably a skill for it. Ever wanted to be an investigator? Pick up Search and start reading excessively detailed descriptions on every block. Bounty Hunter? Take Tracking and start reading logs of creature activity. Every time a new skill gets added, every block in the game updates with it.

Remember how every skill contributes to an Attribute? This is where the synergy gets useful. The expert Tracker is probably going to be halfway decent at any passive intellectual skills as well, whether they are aware of them or not. The guy who can run forever can probably hold his breath pretty well too.

Note that "Character Level" is never mentioned here. Instead of a Level, Your total Attribute points are displayed. Nameplates show*** that total next to the system's best guess at what you would be if you were a traditional RPG class.




*Seriously. Walking around? XP. Reading a sign? XP. Waving your arms wildly in the town square? XP.
**Currently at 300 and still going strong.
***If you have the passive skill that lets you "size up" people, you can see increasing amounts of information. smart characters get better at this naturally because it's an intellect-based passive skill. The untrained eye sees "Warrior/Rogue/Scholar" depending on the dominant stat. The trained eye sees something like "Warrior (Light Weapon Specialist). The master can even target them and see a short list of their highest skills.

Next Up: "Gear and the myriad ways I ripped off diablo."

 

[Kazimir3701]

Gear runs the whole spectrum of different methods in games, from the "Get a higher level to wear this awesome gear" to the "there are only 3 types of gear and all but 1 sucks", to the "here's a spreadsheet, figure out your stat requirements".

Screw that. Gear is a way to customize your character and is supposed to feel like a real part of them, not a stack of stats.

The core rule for gear in Realmz is "The strongest weapon in the game is only numerically 100% stronger than the weakest, and both are available at level 1"

Don't raise those pitchforks just yet. Gear in Realmz is a matter of taking a very simple object and perfectly matching it to your character. That said, looted gear is intentionally random as hell.

Again with the pitchforks! Let me explain with an example of Bob crafting himself an Iron Longsword:

Bob wants to make an Iron Longsword. This costs 2 Iron Bars. Bob is lazy and just grabs the cheapest two he sees, disregarding the Quality listed on the bars.

Bob opens his skill list, finds Crafting(Strength), clicks "Weaponsmithing" in the submenu, and sees a list of recipes he knows.

Bob is still lazy. Bob clicks "Longsword(Iron)" and after a moment of fancy animation and sound effects, takes a look at his new sword:

Iron Longsword
Quality: 0%
Damage: 100-800 (Slashing)
Properties: None

Man, that thing is boring. Let's see if Tom can do better.

Tom's first improvement is that he takes the time to find a better Longsword recipe*. He's making a Steel Longsword. His longsword is Uncommon, giving it a potential property of some sort.

Serrated Steel Longsword (Crude)
Quality: 0%
Damage: 100-800 (Slashing)
Properties: Bleed 0%

Tom's sword had potential to do something interesting, but he made the same mistake as Bob. Poor quality materials.

Learning from Tom's mistake, Bob goes and gets some high quality Steel Bars to make his own Steel Longsword. He ends up with a 59% and a 93%.

Fencer's Steel Longsword (Average)
Quality: 59%
Damage: 159-1272 (Slashing)
Properties: Parry 59%

Whoops. Bob wasted a pretty nice piece of Steel there. If he hadn't used that 59% quality bar and had found another 93% that would have been almost perfect. Bob really wanted that "Bleed" property though, so he tries again. This time, he's also sure to get perfect Steel Bars to make his sword. He gets enough to make 5 swords if he has to.

When Bob opens up his crafting menu, he sees an option to use those additional bars. More is better right? He throws in the extra 8 bars, paying a total of 5x the normal price to craft his sword.

Steel Longsword (Flawless)
Quality: 100%
Damage: 200-1600 (Slashing)
Properties: Click to Choose[5]

Whats this? Bob clicks the properties field and is given a list:

• Versatile (Damage type has a % chance of changing to Piercing/Slashing/Bludgeoning depending on enemy resists)
• Bleed (Damage has a % chance to cause Bleeding. Bleeding enemies take damage when they move and leave a trail.)
• Parry (Incoming melee attacks have a % chance of being parried, reducing the damage by this weapon's minimum damage)
• Necrotic (% of this weapon's damage is Necrotic. Necrotic damage does not heal naturally)
• Crippling (% chance to reduce the target's movement speed by 5%. This effect stacks.)

He picks Bleed and his sword updates to reflect it:

Serrated Steel Longsword (Flawless)
Quality: 100%
Damage: 200-1600 (Slashing)
Properties: Bleed (100%)

Bob learned today that using high quality materials raises the base stats and the effectiveness of special properties, while using extra materials gives you more chances to roll the properties you want.

Not to be outdone, Tom goes all-in and spends a fortune for enough materials to make 3 Mithril Longswords. He's sure the resulting Rare weapon will be awesome.

Mithril Longsword
Quality: 100%
Damage: 100-800 (Slashing)
Properties: Click to Choose [3](2)

Huh? Tom chooses a property like bob did (although his list is only 3 long), but there's still something here...

Mithril Longsword
Quality: 100%
Damage: 100-800 (Slashing)
Properties: Click to Choose [3], Parrying (100%)

Tom just learned that Rare items have TWO properties.

Meanwhile, Bob goes adventuring and finds a Unique monster that drops a Unique weapon. He loots a few of them over the next hour and notices something odd about them: The all have 3 properties and the properties are always the same for that Unique. The quality is still random though.​

As for the random loot I promised...Well, there are plenty of other stats that aren't shown in the example. An entire spectrum of weights, reaches, critical modifiers, and other tweaks make up a long list of different weapon types. While the World has a relatively small number of variants (because it's a cohesive world with culture-dependent weapons and such, there is only one name for each configuration of stats), the Aether has a mind-boggling number of them (Seriously, I'm just going to just keep making more until I run out of names for them. Do you know how many regional names there are for a "double edged straight sword"?)




*Items can be Common, Uncommon, Rare, or Unique, usually named after the material they are made from:

• Common recipes can be found in books or from NPCs who craft those items.
• Uncommon recipes can be found as loot (in the form of spontaneously learning a recipe upon looting materials that you have the stats required to use).
• Rare recipes require the deconstruction of an existing rare.
• Unique items do not have recipes.

Next up: NPC Interactions, aka "Haven't I seen you before? Please stop hanging around my shop." More skill system examples and some associated subsystems (Dangit Cervator!)

 

[Kazimir3701]

Thanks to some prodding from Cervator on the IRC, I'm compelled to explain some of the skills that unlock entire subsystems.

Skills can have any number of tags that describe how they interact with the rest of the system. The most common ones are [Passive], [Active], and [Attribute].

• [Passive] Skills grant an effect requiring no activation. Things like increased sprint speed or starting disposition towards animals.
• [Active] Skills grant an ability you can bind to a key or use from the menu. All skills are [Passive], [Active], or both.
  
• [*Name of an Attribute*] Skills scale with the named Attribute. MOST skills are [Attribute] skills.

Some skills have more than one [Attribute] tag, while others gain an equal bonus from all attributes. These skills are listed as [Universal] skills.

Animal Empathy [Passive, Active, Universal]
Benefits:

• [Passive] For every level of Animal Empathy, your starting Disposition towards animals increases by 1.
• [Active] You may attempt to train a friendly animal. Your chance of success is based on the difficulty of the training and your Animal Empathy.

Runic Magic [Active, Intelligence]
Benefits:

• You may attempt to use Runic Magic. Runes are a form of magic that imbue powerful effects onto targeted objects. Novices of Runic Magic must draw runes carefully onto stationary objects and the effects are usually limited to a small radius around the Rune. Masters of Rune Magic can draw "shorthand" runes, draw runes onto portable objects for later use, or even draw them in midair.
• [Active] Holding the Runic Magic key and drawing on a surface creates a rune. Your chance of success is determined by how exact the rune is and how stable the material is. the higher your runic magic skill, the less precise you need to be and the softer the material needed.