So here is what we know so far, Mark plans to sell the game for a flat amount along with expansions and an in game store for in between cash flow. The question remains, how exactly is this all going to effect how the final game plays.
I am not sure how much thought has been put into this as yet since we are still very very early in game development, perhaps my suggestion isn't even feasible, perhaps this won't even work with the unreal engine, but I wanted to throw this out there for consideration.
If any of you have played Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO you are familiar with the way they do story instancing. For those who have not just a bit of a run through. Basically in tOR there is a giant main map in which all players run around in, but in various sections, ranging from a single room up to a reasonably large complex the map is divided off by a glowing plane which once passed actually splits the players off seamlessly into a private instance in which they can play through story driven missions without having to fight other players for mobs and collectible items.
https://youtu.be/SVDPfReFpfs?t=1257
(can't embed video with a specific time)
In essence when you are inside a private instance you disappear to anyone in the main area, but you yourself can look back over the instance threshold and still see anyone close by in the main instance. What is really cool is that there is NO loading screen, you walk between the area's without any noticeable change. If you are grouped up with other players then the person who goes into a private instance pulls everyone else into the instance with them.
How exactly does this relate to EM-8ER? Well what I would like to suggest is using this same style of instancing for this game as well. Here is how I picture it working. Firstly we have a single large map in which everyone has access to, but certain sections of this map can be “roped off” to separate players out, either for storyline missions or to differentiate between “free” players and those who have paid money for the game. In terms of graphic design all of the instances will basically be identical, so no extra work will be required on that end. The big key here is that the home base on any map is also one of these instances as well.
What happens is that players who haven't payed any money get dumped into a "basic" home instance that is missing key characters, whether it is vendors allowing for paid item content or quest givers that introduce side quests or further any main questline. The paid instance will have these characters, and perhaps an extra building or some other graphical adjustments. The border of this area could be represented by a glowey shield that protects the base from environmental threats (other locations might not have any visible indication).
Outside of the central base on a map the whole area is open to everyone. Various sections of the map will be instanced for questline stuff, but the base area will also be open to everyone for use in events like what Firefall had. When grouped up, players will always default to the unpaid zone if they have a “free” player in the group rather than splitting people up. If a player doesn't have a quest active for a particular area then they will remain in the open world rather than being spun off into a private instance.
So why bother with all of this complexity? The answer is player population. One of the key parts in any MMO type game (whether we want to refer to EM8ER as an MMO, it is still a multiplayer focused game) is maintaining a large population within the game world for people to play with. At the same time it is important that players not become frustrated by being forced to compete with all of these people for key quest items that might result from random drops/kills/spawns. By taking this aproach we can have both players who have bought the game as well as players who have not yet committed, all able to interact while still allowing full monetization.
There is another aspect to this as well, and that is the ability to sequester resource intensive activities into carefully controlled boxes. As an example, I remember when Thump Dump would have an invasion and we would get tons and tons of players all congregating within that instance which slowed the entire game as a whole to a crawl as well as limited the npc AI to the IQ of a lima bean. With this option there would not be any of this issue as all those players would have been spun off into smaller instances outside of the main zone. And that is the other thing, smaller instances means larger population per square meter. 10 players over 100 square meters is going to look more populated than 50 players over 10,000 square meters. (numbers obviously for example) The key here is to keep the world busy whether there are a few players or a lot of players on at the time.
TL
R This is how I see the instancing broken up within the game:
~Main Game (Demo)~
Full game instance with access to standard resources and full instance events (like tornado's or drop ships in Firefall).
“Freemium” home base iteration which contains all generated buildings, and some vendors allowing access to a limited range of basic gear as well as access to "in game store" vendors for some small monetization. It would also be good to include the first couple main story quests to get players hooked into the game world.
~Main Game (Paid)~
Full game instance with access to all resources and full instance events.
Home Base iteration with all generated buildings and all Quest and Vendor NPC's thus allowing main quest and all available gear options.
Storyline Area's overlayed on top of event area's which split the player off into main or side questlines without interrupting other players.
Expansions would work exactly the same way, those who have paid money for the expansion will have access to all of the content while those who have not paid will be able to access the zone and participate in group activities but will not have access to the premium content. Note that the only difference between a paid and free account would be flags telling the game what base instance to place the player in and possibly flags for what resources they can own (if there are any to be excluded).
I am not sure how much thought has been put into this as yet since we are still very very early in game development, perhaps my suggestion isn't even feasible, perhaps this won't even work with the unreal engine, but I wanted to throw this out there for consideration.
If any of you have played Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO you are familiar with the way they do story instancing. For those who have not just a bit of a run through. Basically in tOR there is a giant main map in which all players run around in, but in various sections, ranging from a single room up to a reasonably large complex the map is divided off by a glowing plane which once passed actually splits the players off seamlessly into a private instance in which they can play through story driven missions without having to fight other players for mobs and collectible items.
https://youtu.be/SVDPfReFpfs?t=1257
(can't embed video with a specific time)
In essence when you are inside a private instance you disappear to anyone in the main area, but you yourself can look back over the instance threshold and still see anyone close by in the main instance. What is really cool is that there is NO loading screen, you walk between the area's without any noticeable change. If you are grouped up with other players then the person who goes into a private instance pulls everyone else into the instance with them.
How exactly does this relate to EM-8ER? Well what I would like to suggest is using this same style of instancing for this game as well. Here is how I picture it working. Firstly we have a single large map in which everyone has access to, but certain sections of this map can be “roped off” to separate players out, either for storyline missions or to differentiate between “free” players and those who have paid money for the game. In terms of graphic design all of the instances will basically be identical, so no extra work will be required on that end. The big key here is that the home base on any map is also one of these instances as well.
What happens is that players who haven't payed any money get dumped into a "basic" home instance that is missing key characters, whether it is vendors allowing for paid item content or quest givers that introduce side quests or further any main questline. The paid instance will have these characters, and perhaps an extra building or some other graphical adjustments. The border of this area could be represented by a glowey shield that protects the base from environmental threats (other locations might not have any visible indication).
Outside of the central base on a map the whole area is open to everyone. Various sections of the map will be instanced for questline stuff, but the base area will also be open to everyone for use in events like what Firefall had. When grouped up, players will always default to the unpaid zone if they have a “free” player in the group rather than splitting people up. If a player doesn't have a quest active for a particular area then they will remain in the open world rather than being spun off into a private instance.
So why bother with all of this complexity? The answer is player population. One of the key parts in any MMO type game (whether we want to refer to EM8ER as an MMO, it is still a multiplayer focused game) is maintaining a large population within the game world for people to play with. At the same time it is important that players not become frustrated by being forced to compete with all of these people for key quest items that might result from random drops/kills/spawns. By taking this aproach we can have both players who have bought the game as well as players who have not yet committed, all able to interact while still allowing full monetization.
There is another aspect to this as well, and that is the ability to sequester resource intensive activities into carefully controlled boxes. As an example, I remember when Thump Dump would have an invasion and we would get tons and tons of players all congregating within that instance which slowed the entire game as a whole to a crawl as well as limited the npc AI to the IQ of a lima bean. With this option there would not be any of this issue as all those players would have been spun off into smaller instances outside of the main zone. And that is the other thing, smaller instances means larger population per square meter. 10 players over 100 square meters is going to look more populated than 50 players over 10,000 square meters. (numbers obviously for example) The key here is to keep the world busy whether there are a few players or a lot of players on at the time.
TL
R This is how I see the instancing broken up within the game:~Main Game (Demo)~
Full game instance with access to standard resources and full instance events (like tornado's or drop ships in Firefall).
“Freemium” home base iteration which contains all generated buildings, and some vendors allowing access to a limited range of basic gear as well as access to "in game store" vendors for some small monetization. It would also be good to include the first couple main story quests to get players hooked into the game world.
~Main Game (Paid)~
Full game instance with access to all resources and full instance events.
Home Base iteration with all generated buildings and all Quest and Vendor NPC's thus allowing main quest and all available gear options.
Storyline Area's overlayed on top of event area's which split the player off into main or side questlines without interrupting other players.
Expansions would work exactly the same way, those who have paid money for the expansion will have access to all of the content while those who have not paid will be able to access the zone and participate in group activities but will not have access to the premium content. Note that the only difference between a paid and free account would be flags telling the game what base instance to place the player in and possibly flags for what resources they can own (if there are any to be excluded).
Likes:
NanoTechnician
