IDEAS FOR RYZOM

(Story Time!)

Homins are curious creatures, always thirsting for discovery. We yearn to know more about our own past, much of which was lost, in spite of the Karavan telling us to forget all about it. We also constantly search for new resources, or perhaps to find anyone who may have been lost during the Great Swarming, if it is even possible anyone is still out there.

Kitin constantly move about, always on the hunt for new resources. Whether they must find an existing, navigable path or whether they must dig new paths, they are always on the move. Separate entities though they are, they appear to act with a singular purpose: the colony must grow, it must thrive. We just accidentally got in their way; it was destined to happen sooner or later (though later would have been much better).

If we want any hope of a chance to combat the Kitin armies, we need to know what they're doing. We need to track their movements. If possible, we need to disrupt their activities and defeat some of their leaders and commanders.

At the same time, we know the Kitin swarmed over the lands we used to call home. They were the last ones to come into contact with relics of our past, our heritage. Could they have knowingly or unknowingly taken anything with them?


We know the Kitin will often dig new passageways to accomplish their goals, and then collapse them afterwards. If we were to find any of these collapsed passages and carefully re-open them, we might find Kitin Sites.

If we send capable forces into these Kitin Sites, perhaps we can begin to disrupt the Kitin activities, claim their resources for our own purposes, and maybe defeat Kitin leaders on a smaller scale than what we saw in the Great Swarming.

We only need to start digging. It is impossible to tell what we might find!

(End of Story Time)

Okay, so that was a cheesy attempt at building up an idea for randomly-generated exploration content. Basically, there are underground sites of Kitin activity of various types, and the Kitin connect these sites via natural and artificial tunnels.

I propose that we should be able to find previously-used, collapsed Kitin tunnels, dig them to expose a path and a portal. On the other side of the portal is a short tunnel leading into various areas, perhaps underground, perhaps above ground.

But each random location serves a single purpose. Once players complete whatever tasks are related to that random location, they may look for another. The Kitin Site may have additional tunnels, whether exposed or collapsed/hidden. Maybe the players may need to return to previous locations or even back to their starting point to look somewhere else. The passageways are also not stable, and will collapse, becoming truly unusable after a short period of time.

The level(s) required for these sites are completely random. There would be content suitable for lower-leveled players, as well as multiple level 250 groups of players, on the order of the NPC Marauder bosses. Not every site need to be combat-related or even Kitin-specific. I'm sure -some- places aren't suitable for Kitin.

An important characteristic of this idea is that this content is randomly generated from a group of specific templates, and always available. One should be able to get a few friends together, go searching for a Kitin tunnel, and explore it for riches or research or whatever, whenever the mood strikes.

Hmmm, sort of reminds me of EVE missions where it'd create a random mini-dungeon for you, that'd disappear again after you're done with it.

Certainly interesting.... and in particular I'm a fan of the idea that little sub-locations would pop up in the existing world, for a certain time, then disappear again. Makes it seem as if the world is much bigger and the parts we normally walk around in are just the 'safe' parts.

Rather that just kitin tunnels in PR, these random locations could also be a bandit camp hidden in the bamboo, or a gibbaï colony just behind the Goo, or a hidden passage in the maze in GoC or HH, or a hidden island in the lakes of Tryker, a hidden canyon in the desert, etc etc.

One problem though, is that a true random location generator would be a LOT of work and probably unrealistic for our small dev team? Any ideas for making something "close enough" to this with less resources?

Well, I had already come up with a few "types" of locations, and was considering making some "proof of concept" scenarios in the Ring, if I could ever tear myself away from goofing off in the normal part of the game and figure out how the Ring works. It's random, but random based on templates which can be easily expanded upon as time progresses.


One example was an area that could be considered a Kitin Farm. Above ground or under ground, this would be an area where Kitin gather animals from various parts of Atys together for whatever purposes, and where they perhaps transplant intelligent flora and control their growth. There may be only plants or animals present, or both may be present. The species of each would be random, and they would not be necessarily restricted to animals from any particular region; the Kitin are bringing them here, they are not developing naturally.

Because of the ordeal they've been put through, any animals present would be hostile. All animals would be caged up, blocked in by fences that need to be attacked and destroyed before the animals can be accessed.

There would be worker Kitin, er, working, and maybe some soldier Kitin patrolling. All "Kitin Farms" would look similar, maybe with minor variations (one animal cage, two animal cages, slightly different layout, etc); but in general, if it works and is efficient, why would the Kitin change it much, eh?

The worker-Kitin would be social/non-aggressive, but would instantly attack if anyone tried to access the animals. If the patrol was within range of the worker Kitin raising an alarm, they would also rush to help. Workers would not necessarily help the patrol unless the fighting happened close by, since their primary duty is tending to the plants and animals. Patrols would continue to respawn for as long as the workers and/or the plants/animals still remained.


The plants and animals would drop a mix of Basic, Fine, and Choice mats; the Kitin did choose these plants and animals specifically for a reason! In very, very rare cases, there could be a chance for an Excellent-grade specimen (at least 10 levels higher than the rest). To clear the site, you specifically need to kill the worker Kitin and kill any plants and animals present. The patrols would stop spawning and patrolling, and the location would become inactive.

The level range of everything would be random. One Kitin Farm could have creatures in the q50 range, but the next time you visit a Kitin Farm, it could be q250. Because higher-grade mats are more useful as the level rises, chances for a q50 Excellent are higher than for a q250 Excellent.


In this particular type of location, I didn't make a note for any forage resources. In areas that would have them, they are a limited quantity, similar to PR resources, and they could randomly contain mats from Basic to Supreme, q50 to q250. Once you deplete all the fields in the area, they're gone. It would be best not to node-kill dig in these kinds of areas =)


This is sort of what I was thinking, with a bunch of other kinds of discoverable locations. Some could be as simple as an old abandoned (Homin?) distribution site which might not have anything to find. There could be a destroyed town from the Old Lands that has since been overgrown; looking around might lead you to discover an Amber Cube that the Civs would dearly love to have and maybe (?) add information to the group's Encyclopedia once it was decrypted.

Others could be the rare Kitin Swarm Gathering where you could face multiple waves of groups of high-level soldier Kitin, led by one or more q270 Supreme bosses in close proximity. This could be a way to introduce un-implemented bosses, such as Kincherkoo, without upsetting the balance of existing areas. If you fail to clear this site before it despawns, it could trigger a short-term Kitin invasion =)

(Oh, and if.. well, when you wipe to the Kitin Swarm Gathering location, you aren't guaranteed to find your way back in because the tunnels could have collapsed permanently behind you)

Heh, i had almost the same idea, slightly different though, but been toying with it for a while, as i couldn't decide if it worth posting or not. But, since it's already came up, i just put my two dappers here.

Hidden treasures: dens and hideouts

Basic idea is the implementation of creature dens and marauder hideouts, spawning randomly all around the world in hard-to-reach areas and containing some valuable goods, to encourage players for daily exploration.

There would be three kinds of such spots: Goo creature den, Kitin Nest, Marauder hideout. Each kind would appear in one of three grades, based on its size and number of mobs or NPC's guarding it: small, medium, large.

Examples below:

Small Goo creature den

4-6 Goo creatures of average or low level compared to the level of the region (i.e. 101-120 levels in 150th level region).

Loot: specific goo infected bodyparts, that can be exchanged for racial honor points by any racial merchant. Being exchanged, also can slightly increase fame with given race.

Rare loot: a couple of excellent mats.

Medium Goo creature den

5-7 mobs of average or slightly higher levels compared to the level of the region (130-140 in 150th level region). Sometimes may consist a mini-boss - a differently named creature, i.e. Lethal Gingo or Goo Gibbai Hunter, of level equal or slightly higher than level of the region.

Loot: goo infested bodyparts, mini-boss drops some excellent mats.

Rare loot: 2-3 pieces of supreme mats, dropped by mini-boss.

Large Goo creature den

10-15 mobs of level equal the level of the region and mini-boss of higher level.

Loot: goo infested bodyparts, excellent mats and 2-3 pieces of supreme mats, dropped by mini-boss.

Rare loot: 3-4 additional pieces of supreme boss mats.

Kitin Nests would be pretty much the same, but presenting kitins instead of goo mobs.

 

Small Marauder Hideout

4-6 Marauder Thugs of low level.

Loot: xp crystals, sap crystals, maybe some npc-made equipment and also tokens, that can be converted into racial honor points and fame.

Rare loot: xp crystals of higher level, some random excellent PR mats.

Medium Marauder Hideout

5-7 Marauder Thugs of average level, sometimes a mini-boss, Marauder Headhunter of higher level.

Loot: xp crystals, sap crystals, tokens.

Rare loot: xp crystals of higher level, few random PR supreme mats.

Large Marauder Hideout

10-15 Marauder Thugs of high level and Marauder Headhunter.

Loot: crystals and tokens, random PR supreme mats.

Rare loot: plans or parts of Marauder armor, dropped by mini-boss.

The higher the grade of the den or hideout, the lesser the chance of rare loot being dropped. Small dens and hideouts supposed to be soloable, medium ones supposed to be tough, but still possible to do solo, and large ones would be a team-level challenge.

All that would served as another way to obtain some fame, racial points, crystals and valuable mats on random occasion, and searching for hidden treasures could become another daily activity for those willing to hang around looking for troubles and adventures.

 

(The next few posts are from my notes that I've been compiling for a few weeks of various random types of hidden sites)


Kitin War Camp

• Group of Kitin soldiers, all aggressive, gathered for unknown purposes. This group may or may not be led by a larger Kitin. The kitin soldiers drop a mix of basic and fine mats. If a leader Kitin is present, the leader drops choice mats. The leader will be at least 10 levels higher than the other soldiers.
• Smaller groups of 2-4 Kitin will enter and leave via the various tunnels. If a leader is present, the groups in the tunnels will also defend/attack.
• When any of the main, static, group of Kitin soldiers are defeated,
  they do not respawn. When the entire group is defeated, the small patrols in the tunnels also stop.
• There are few, if any, forage spots in a Kitin Warp Camp. It is possible that there are none, and this is a dead end, or there may be only the rubble of an abandoned tunnel to clear.

Kitin Distribution Area

• This may appear as active or abandoned. If it is abandoned, the quantity of contained resources is drastically smaller, but the danger is also almost non-existent.
• Resources found here do not replenish themselves. When they are dug up, they are gone permanently.
• Active sites contain a number of worker Kitin scurrying around, and several Kitin soldier patrol groups. The worker Kitin are social, but non-aggressive. However, they will attack if someone starts digging.
• There may exist, rarely, a larger Kitin overseeing the work in progress. This overseer is also social/non-aggressive and is at least 10 levels higher than the workers. There will be no soldier leader.
• Kitin Workers and Soldiers drop a mix of basic and fine materials. Any Kitin Overseer present will drop choice mats. They do not respawn when killed. The soldier patrols stop when the workers are gone.
• Once the Kitin are eliminated, the area may be safely harvested. Areas with lower level Kitin will have lower quality materials. The grade of materials is completely random; one Distribution area could have q250 Fine mats, another could have q50 Supreme mats. Choice mats are the most common, and Supreme is rare.

Kitin Metamorphosis Room

• Eggs laid by Kitin Queens are carried here for nourishment and hatching. There are worker Kitin, soldier Kitin, and sometimes newly-metamorphosed Kitin.
• New-hatches will not be social or aggressive, and will run from any hostilities. They will be very low level, and workers and soldiers will defend them immediately if attacked.
• Kinrey, guardians of the queens may be present on rare occasion. They would drop choice mats, and be at least 10 levels above the rest of the Kitin in the area.
• Kitin Larvae may be foraged in this area. Quantities will be small as most of them have grown to chrysalis stage.

Flower Room

• Minor Kitin patrols through area. The Kitin patrols do not despawn until the flowers have been harvested. Successfully killing a patrol causes a double patrol to spawn. After the double patrol is killed, spawns are delayed a few minutes.
• There are small nodes of Outpost flowers available for foraging. Quality is random and matches the level of the Kitin patrols.
• Effective "Rate" for foraging the flowers is a maximum of a "Rate 1" stanza.

Hidden Flora Room

• Inaccessible by other means, these isolated areas have become a haven for the various intelligent species of plants.
• However, due to the tight, confined spaces, the plants have become highly territorial and aggressive. Approaching them will trigger an attack. They are also socially aggressive.
• The plants will all be the same level, and drop either Basic or Fine mats, unless a dominant plant exists in the midst of the others. The dominant plant will be at least 10 levels higher than the rest, and will drop Choice mats. Attacking the dominant plant will social-aggro the entire group of plants.
• There will be no forage-able materials here.

Lost Tribes

• The area is a peaceful (except, possibly, for the tribe itself), settled area with structures similar to other tribal camps. There are no Kami or Karavan ambassadors, and the tribes' acceptance of strangers is random.
• There are three types of tribes that might be randomly found: Friendly, Neutral but isolationist, Cannibal
• Friendly tribes are nomadic homins that are trying to find a way out of the Prime Roots. They have just been down there a little too long (over a full generation) and would be grateful for any assistance. If you offer assistance, the tribe will pack up their belongings and follow you. (Effective Fame > 25)
• Neutral, isolationist tribes were originally lost in the PR, but decided to make their home there after a while, instead of stressing about being lost. They are not interested in leaving to go to the surface, and they are not exactly welcoming of strangers. They aren't immediately hostile, and some tribes may trade with you, but they want you to leave. (Effective Fame: -50 .. -15)
• Neutral trades: they will accept random items that you can find in the hidden sites in exchange for items that they can create, such as weapons, armours, tools, etc. The stats would be better than stock vendor items, but not as good as well-crafted player items.
• Cannibalistic tribes have also made their home in the PR, but they are immediately hostile and their intent is to eat whatever they can. The camp must be cleared. (Effective Fame < -50)
• All tribal fighters use a combination of very powerful Prime Roots magics and weaker versions of their racial magics. They WILL try to focus on your healers if they see anyone healing, and individuals will try to escape if it looks like they might die.
• Each tribe has a leader, and the leader drops random jewels.

Special notes about Friendly tribe:

• If you successfully lead the friendly tribe to the surface, the tribal leader will grant one jewel to each person accepting the mission to bring them to the surface; the grade, quality, stats, and racial pattern are all random per person, but all jewels are within a certain range of each other.
• The mission is timed (couple of hours), and they will give up and leave when the time runs out. Once the tribe leaves the camp, it is no longer possible to accept the mission. You cannot attack the friendly tribe once you agree to help them.
• When the first person to accept the mission enters a portal, the tribe will follow that person into the portal and appear on the other side.
• The friendly tribe will not fight for you or assist you in any way. They will wait by the portal until the location is cleared and safe for travel.
• If the group wipes, the tribe is broken-hearted by your defeat, loses faith in you, and then disperses.

Kitin Swarm Gathering

• Once in a while, dumb luck will have you following a tunnel back to a MAJOR Kitin location.
• There are Supreme-grade q270 bosses (bosses, multiple) in this area. They have a very large aggro radius of at least 125m ... if you see them, they see you, and they're coming to get you. Run. Haven't seen a Kincherkoo yet? Better hope he doesn't see you either.
• As you attack, waves of soldier Kitins periodically spawn and retaliate. If not dealt with, these supplemental soldiers can overwhelm the largest and most powerful groups.
• A sufficiently LARGE group of homins, multiple groups, may have a chance to get to the Supreme bosses.
• There are no mats to forage to speak of.
• Failure to destroy the bosses before the location despawns will result in a short-term Kitin invasion in one random Civ lands

Goo Infestations

• Occasionally, Kitin tunnels lead to areas of Goo infestation. Usually, it was some normal area that has since become infested with the Goo. Normal rules apply, except all life is aggressive, and you constantly suffer Goo damage; the strength of the Goo damage is random per area.
• There are no Kitin in the Goo areas.

By "Random", I really meant that the location that sits on the other site of that portal you just discovered is randomly chosen from a list like what was mentioned above (and many others that have yet to be mentioned). Each site has a certain "cast" of actors, and certain things that can (or must) be done to consider the site "completed", though some specifics are left to vary randomly.

By necessity, some areas will need to be suitable for high- or max-level players only, but there is no reason why most random locations couldn't be suitable for a group of mid-level players. Rarely should a site be suitable for a solo player.

All locations that spawn as active locations, meaning there are Kitin present, should have a varying sized group of patrolling Kitin. They would walk around the boundaries of the open space in the middle of the area, and randomly walk up and down any passageways that the room may have. Sometimes it would be possible to hide in a dead-end, and sometimes it wouldn't. The patrols would have a set starting point (portal or dead-end passageway) and a set ending point (portal or dead-end passageway). When they reach the ending point, they disappear unless in combat.


When you find a portal leading to one of these hidden sites, there may be another visible, unhidden, unblocked portal inside. There may also be minor obstacles in the way that need to be cleared. I would prefer the digging, searching, and clearing of obstacles to rely on harvesting abilities, that way it could be suitable for someone who may not have a high combat level, or who may enjoy digging and exploration but not necessarily combat.

Portal mechanics should work the same way here as everywhere else: standing next to the portal protects you in a safe zone.

Randomly, when you leave the portal safe zone, a small obstacle may appear at any time blocking your quick return to the safe zone until it is cleared (by foraging).


The only complication I have right now is a way to "discover" these hidden entrances in the known lands. Should it be left to random dumb luck where they appear? Should there be a way to discover and/or track them, and if so, how?

Inside the hidden sites, it is fairly easy to determine if there is a continuation of the hidden system: prospect a small area at the end of each "dead-end" passageway. If a forage source appears, dig it, and it may clear away rubble leading to another portal.

Well, the idea of banditscamps/goo-infestations/kitinnests randomly appearing in the existing world is quite difference from the idea of portals to seperate temporary zones containing a banditscamp/goo-infestation/kitinnest appearing in the existing world. Both would be quite cool, though.

The zones as you describe them, Erizon, I could probably churn out a dozen of those in the Ring within a week. I could even semi-randomise the amount+level of the mobs in each scenario. Can't do the same with scenery objects though, at least not in the Ring.

However, for this to work, it can't use Ring-mechanics. The devs would have to implement these zones into the actual server.

Hmph, this would've been a perfect idea for allowing Ring-volunteers to make content for the actual game. Have the Ringers make these little zones so that all the devs have to do is add them to the pool. Makes me even more sad they never used the Ring for anything like this.

+1 To the general idea, can't make my mind up for the detailed implementation yet.

The more I think about Marelli's initial perception about randomly spawning locations in the existing world, the more I like that as well. It also shouldn't take as much development time as creating new randomly-spawning zones and making sure they all link up properly.

If a site spawns in Loria, it would be a q250+ site and offer Lakes materials for Choice and above. If a site spawns in Imperial Dunes, it would be a q50+ site and offer Desert materials for Choice and above.

I still dearly love caves (especially the PR caves that I've seen) and don't want to give up hope for that, but the existing-world spawns would be welcomed too, and perhaps in a shorter period of time than the cavern system. And they could have the chance to offer the very rare supreme mats above-ground, and provide something for max-level players to do.

I spent the weekend in the Kitin Lair for the first time, and I have to say this is EXACTLY the kind of place I was thinking of, though quite a bit larger scale than I was asking for. There are very few non-mission materials to forage, the creatures appear to be social (I admit that I didn't do extensive testing there *cough*), and there are hostile patrols running around that visitors need to actively avoid.

The Cattle room, in particular, is nearly identical to my vision of the "Kitin Farm" encounter, though implemented much better than I was proposing. The Prime Eggs room is similar to my vision of the Kitin Metamorphosis encounter, though it seems to be aimed at an earlier stage of growth. Perhaps when the lair is expanded in the future, there will be another, nutrient-rich room where the larvae can feed, grow, and then morph.

What I wanted to touch on primarily are the breaches in the valley, surrounded by Kizaraks and aggressive Kipees. Watching the "cowboy" Kincher and the Terminator Kipucka appear and disappear into the one breach, and then seeing the others in that valley, provides the answer to the "portal" implementation question: the breaches are the means for kitin transportation. Right-click one, and choose to enter that tunnel. After a loading screen transition, you are in an underground tunnel.

These breaches could also be a way into unknown lands, though highly dangerous. The breaches in the Lair would appear to be well-used and well-maintained, so they should be exceptionally dangerous. But other breaches could appear randomly throughout the world, with a few guards around them. Take out the guards, enter the breach, and prepare for a wild ride!

The Kitin Lair is easily now my favourite location in the game, provides a perfect example of what I wanted to see expanded upon.

Try Tunnel of Woe in KoD in Verdant heights...
It's not as large as Kitin lair of course but it's been there for ages.