Eragard Official Website
I got a MUD/website host so I no longer need WordPress’s services.
The new website is located at http://eragard.slayn.net
Eragard in story format
Perhaps it’s the difficulty of coding a MUD to completion while designing every aspect of it as well as formulating a proper world history and storyline. Perhaps it’s the fact that I’m creating this MUD by myself when I should be working with another designer, coder or at least a motivator. Perhaps it’s the fact that I’ve been attending a literature class three times a week, forcing me to read a lot more than I’ve read in years.
Whatever the reason, I’ve decided to tackle the design aspect and storyline in separate manners. The designing of Eragard will be accomplished through my blog posts, where I can write down my ideas and have others critique them. The storyline and world history of Eragard will be done in literature format, which is a bit exciting for me.
I’ve never written a story before and though I don’t expect the story to win a Pulitzer Prize or some other literary award, it should be a fun project. It will be a refreshing change from coding and designing, that’s for sure.
I will post more about the story of Eragard if this plans goes through.
Goals in Eragard
I came across another interesting entry over at Tobold’s MMORPG Blog. This article focused on the different types of goals in massively multiplayer games, including levels, quests, rankings and fame. As Eragard is going to be a MUD, not a graphical MMORPG, some of Tobold’s points don’t apply in the exact manner that he describes, but all of his points generally do apply to MUDs as well.
The point of a goal is to make a playing session (or a chain of playing sessions) have meaning. Because of the unending nature of MUDs, there is no way to “beat the game” in a concrete manner. As such, players devise artificial, personal goals for themselves in the game world. Why? Because goals offer a reward to the player. Different goals offer different rewards, which is why a player might enjoy crafting and hate leveling, while another feels the opposite. The first player might feel that riches from tradeskilling is a worthwhile reward, whereas the second player might feel that a high ranking is a worthwhile reward.
So what kind of rewards should a MUD offer? Richard A. Bartle wrote an interesting article detailing the four main types of players in MUDs and MMORPGs: Achiever, Explorer, Socializer, Killer. A MUD should offer enough rewards to satisfy each of these personality types.
What exactly are do these personality types seek?
Achiever: These players usually set numerical and concrete goals for themselves, usually involving the accumulation of “points” and “treasures” or accomplishing a task that has never been achieved, such as defeating a powerful dragon.
Explorer: These players tend to seek out every secret that dwells in a game. At the surface, this entails the mapping of a world’s geography but can go as deep as experimenting with the game’s engine and figuring out internal mechanics, such as damage, experience and skill formulas.
Socializer: These players enjoy utilizing a MUD’s communicative features and, if relevant, role-playing. They enjoy player interaction and feel that it is one of the most important aspects of a game.
Killer: These players have a desire to impose themselves upon others. In its most common form, this involves the player causing distress and/or grief unto another player, usually through player-vs-player interaction.
Though the numbers of each personality type will not be balanced, you can expect to have at least a few of each type. It is in your best interest, therefore, to devise a way to reward all four personalities (if you run a MUD or MMORPG and intend to keep your players occupied and satisfied). You might be wondering about some methods for rewarding your players. Lucky for you, I’ve been thinking about a few methods myself!
First things first, my MUD will not be player-vs-player oriented. As such, players of the Killer type will probably not find much fun in Eragard. I don’t plan on catering towards this player type. Yes, I said it’d be in my best interest to cater all types. Oh well!
Obviously, the most obvious goal for an achiever is to achieve a certain level, usually the highest. The trouble with levels is that a game needs to reach that perfect balance where the leveling curve is neither too slow nor too fast. A prime example would be old-school Everquest and new-school World of Warcraft. In Everquest, getting to level 10 was somewhat easy and getting to level 50 (the maximum level before expansions) was nearly impossible. In World of Warcraft, getting to 10 is pretty easy and getting to level 60 (the maximum level before expansions) is somewhat easy.
There are benefits and problems with both games. In Everquest, getting to level 50 was an incredible feat and it was applauded by fellow players. However, players usually grew frustrated of the leveling treadmill and would normally quit leveling in order to pursue other goals or quit the game altogether. In World of Warcraft, getting to level 60 is pretty easy compared to other MMORPGs. However, once achievers reach level 60, they’ll need another goal to occupy their time, not to mention that reaching level 60 isn’t that big of an accomplishment when everyone else has achieved it as well.
For Eragard, I’m planning on having a level cap of 100. I don’t want leveling to be perceived as a chore, but I don’t want a world full of 100s either. My solution to this problem is to have a leveling curve of varying steepness. While Everquest’s leveling curve grew difficult almost immediately and World of Warcraft’s leveling curve remained quite easy until the end, I’m planning on making the curve simple up until 50 or 60 and increasingly difficult up until 100. What does this accomplish? The casual achiever can enjoy leveling up until a reasonably high level and the hardcore achiever will still be recognized for his feat of reaching 100.
Other goals for achievers include grandmaster crafting (the number of grandmasters will be a set number and only the best tradeskillers of each profession will be recognized as grandmasters), highest skill levels (since they will be limited by level), and rankings (for more than just levels, like quest count and kill count).
Being that the nature of a MUD is all text, explorers will be extremely easy to please. New areas will be easy to create compared to modern 3D MMORPGs. A constant influx of new area content combined with ever-changing world geography (based on roleplay and story events) will keep the explorer occupied. Explorers with an achiever tendency will also have a grand time figuring out the secret locations and quests of Eragard.
Finally, socializers. These will be the easiest of all to cater to. The socializer, by nature, does all the work by himself. As a coder, I just need to create the tools that the socializer will want to utilize. Such things could include emotes and chat channels. Socializers in a MUD will most likely be seeking quality roleplaying, which can be supplied through quality roleplay staff.
In the end, catering to all types of player goals is the best way to maximize the number of players that you’ll retain in your game.
Dargo… Who?
I suppose it’d be a good idea to write more about who I am in order to reveal my credibility (or lack thereof) on the topics I discuss.
My real name is Joel. 18 years old. I am currently a first-year at Stevens Institute of Technology, a small (very small) university in northern New Jersey. I am majoring in Computer Science and intend to get my Bachelor’s in four years. I started programming way before coming here, though.
About four years ago, I found an open-source project that aimed to reverse-engineer server software for a popular MMORPG called Ragnarok Online. I found myself drawn to the concept of being able to be head of my very own private server, which would have been the closest I’ve ever been to designing and coding my own MMORPG. Yes, yes. Unfortunately, I (like thousands of others) had delusions of grandeur when I first decided to learn how to code.
I headed my own server for nearly a year, fixing various bugs in the server software as I learned C programming. It was around that time when ethics caught up with me and I learned that what I was doing is illegal. In the end, I took down my Ragnarok Online private server and spent loads of time playing various MMORPGs and MUDs instead of coding them.
I’ve played Legends of Terris and Legends of Cosrin, both MUDs which have been around since 1995-ish. They run on the same engine but have drastically different designs and content. I’ve also played on Achaea and Imperian, but not too long since I just couldn’t get into them for some reason. As for MMORPGs, I’ve played Everquest for four years as a hardcore gamer. Lots of free MMORPGs, mostly of the badly-translated Korean variety, have crossed my path. After Everquest, I didn’t play many commercial MMORPGs as I feared the addiction that plagued my childhood. Currently I’m in the Lord of the Rings Online closed beta after having decided to be a casual player and not a hardcore player.
Every day I read blogs by other gamers and programmers, such as Tobold’s MMORPG Blog, which happens to be my current favorite. Alongside that, I visit Zen of Design, Casual Game Design and Sierra Kilo, where I can brush up on MMORPG design thoughts from other, more established bloggers.
In my experience, people are usually one of two types: research or experiment. I’m not talking about science here, where you’d need both research and experiment. I’m talking about how people would go about solving their problems, whether it be designing a MUD or purchasing a car or what color to paint their room. Some people tend to research, meaning they read about their problem, probably on the Internet, and formulate a best possible approach to their solution. Others tend to be experimental, meaning they just try different solutions until they find one that is satisfactory.
I am a researcher. I read lots of articles and blogs on the topic of game design and use those opinions and ideas to formulate the best approach to designing my MUD. As such, lots of my design entries will link to other blogs and articles.
This entry is too long. Way too long. I thought it’d be a paragraph or three at most but it’s turned into a monster! Better end it before I ramble even more.
Crafting in Eragard
I’ve been thinking about my MUD for the past few weeks, deciding how I want to approach the design of game mechanics. Do I want classes with pre-defined skills or a classless system with open-ended skill trees? Should skills gain power by training at an NPC or gradually increase in strength as you use them? Relatively quick leveling with remort or difficulty reaching the max level so that max level is something to be respected?
As I was contemplating my MUD’s mechanics, I took a break and came across Tobold’s MMORPG Blog, a popular blog where Tobold speaks his thoughts and opinions on various MMORPGs that he plays and the MMORPG genre in general. In one of his articles, he discusses how SWG’s tradeskills system is the most fun of all MMORPGs he’s played. This brought me to design a tradeskills system for Eragard that isn’t tedious and boring, but rather fun and enjoyable.
However, there is an obstacle that sets apart MUD crafting from MMORPG crafting: a GUI. Whereas in MMORPGs all you have to do is drag a few icons into a container and click “Combine” (EverQuest) or open up a crafting window, find a recipe and click “Make” (Lord of the Rings Online) or something similar, a MUD doesn’t have that kind of freedom. Instead, my lack of creative juices can come up with 2 methods for MUD crafting.
First, a long chain of “mix” commands where the item in the right hand and the item in the left hand are combined, resulting in a new item or component. The good thing about such a system is that this method is logical and intuitive. Hold a “steel ingot” in the right hand, a “blacksmith hammer” in the left hand, type “mix” and voila! A “beaten steel ingot” that can be mixed further with a “two-handed sword mold” to create a “steel two-handed sword” or some such. Creating new recipes for such a system would be simple and the possibilities are endless. The drawback is that once a recipe is discovered, it quickly descends into a macro-fest once a player retrieves the needed ingredients.
The other method of crafting is not that different from the first and is basically a textual representation of EverQuest’s crafting system. There would be various stations around the world (forge, kiln, oven, bench, etc) that players would venture to. They would then access these stations and input items. Stick a few “piece of worn leather” along with a “tailoring needle” and “sewing thread” and “tunic pattern” and issue the “tailor” command. Voila! You now have a “worn leather tunic” or some such. This method relieves the issue of constantly mixing and unpacking ingredients, but it does introduce the drawback of difficult recipe discovery. Two “piece of worn leather” instead of three? Too bad!
I’ll most likely go with the first method since the results are nearly similar, it’s easier on the players and they’re less likely to grow frustrated, and it’s simpler for me to code!
There is also the issue of inter-dependency of different tradeskill professions. Here are the tradeskills I have planned for Eragard:
Arcana: An ancient knowledge of the world’s elements allows those of a mystical nature to imbue permanent effects into worldly objects, including jewelry, scrolls, weapons and armor.
Blacksmithing: The art of metalworking allows skilled blacksmiths to beat metal ingots into various shapes, resulting in forged weapons and armor.
Herbalism: A keen sense of nature allows those of the outdoors to understand the different herbs and plants of Eragard, which they can manipulate to create powders and pastes.
Jeweling: The art of jeweling entails expert refinement of crude gemstones and the ability to set gemstones into jewelry in order to amplify them.
Mining: The skill of mining is an ability that allows for the extraction of valuable minerals and ores, which can be refined and used by others.
Poisoning: An ancient art of manipulating the flora and fauna of the world in order to brew powerful venom, which can be applied to weaponry for aid in combat.
Tailoring: The ability to sew different textures and materials together into ornate patterns, resulting in light but wonderful armor and decorations.
Woodworking: The ability to whittle down blocks of wood into useful tools, which can be utilized by others. Mostly used for creating bows and staves, but has other uses.
With these eight crafting professions, I am planning on limiting players to two of the professions per character. Based on the profession combination that a player chooses, I figure each character can be self-reliant and/or offer their abilities for others. For example, an herbalism/poisoning would be self-reliant, as one would use herbalism to find the herbs needed to make poisons.
Hopefully this tradeskill system will allow for character uniqueness between those of similar non-tradeskill abilities (because of unique tradeskill sets), as well as encourage player interaction (some tradeskills are symbiotic with others). And because new recipes will be simple to create, constant patches with new content should keep the players interested and occupied.
