Help fleshing out an idea

[TheDarkDildo]

I've been working on this map idea for a bit now. The idea is to create a game with decisions that completely effect the story line. No quests or missions are required, and what you do decides what options are available to you. I haven't worked out the story yet but the idea is to use dialog boxes to choose whether or not to help someone, kill someone, etc.

The other aspect is to focus on base building and maintenance rather than rpg stuff, as I've found WC3 (vanilla) to be really limited in hero development. Instead the emphasis will be on a dungeon keeper-esque base. Resources will be scarce and buildings expensive, so monetary interest should be a key factor in what missions are done.

The final element goes along with the first. A simple variable will keep track of good (or) bad standing with individuals and organizations, certain missions, building, and units will only be available to heroes they favor. Again influencing what missions you do.

So to start, how interesting does the idea sound? I'm more doing this for myself but it'd be nice to see others enjoy it. At this juncture, I need help deciding a few major points, which ultimately come down to preference.
- Should buildings be very expensive or should resources be incredibly scarce?
- What should the health and damage be like? Do most people like having a lot of health and doing massive damage, or is doing only a few points of damage and having very limited health preferable?

That's all I can think of atm, any thoughts?

 

[Drunken_Jackal]

Maybe make the map a gang map with karma system. Work your way up by being a police/gangster.

 

[TheDarkDildo]

^I'd like to maintain the fantasy setting, mostly to avoid having to get/make too many new models and skins. The idea of working your way up the ranks is good though. Maybe you can start as a gate guard or cultist and work up to full knight/death knight.

 

[Drunken_Jackal]

Make Gangster - mercenray/theive/robber and police - knight or enforcer

 

[TheDarkDildo]

Any ideas for some interesting side quests?

 

[Switch33]

Mainly benefiting side quests:

Mercenary-Kills for hire
Thieves-Steal for hire
Knight/Enforcer-Protect for hire

But you could do plenty of different ideas based on these like;

Guard or Steal from caravans.
Steal from an ogre while hes sleeping.
Guard an castle from pillagers before they knock the side castle wall down.
As a mercenary try to buy your way to get an assassination on an castle or person.
Thieves could pickpocket as many people as you can within a duration; guards will basically detect you if you pick pocket an unit in their sight range. (The units randomly patrol an area.)
Thieves could try to infiltrate an guild posing as part of the group with a disguise bought for a price etc.
Catch as many thieves as you can spot within an time limit(Use like peasants where they get gold bags from the unit by having them play that animation.)

A game based on the person's role as a Thief/Mercenary or Knight/Enforcer would be a fun idea .

What should the health and damage be like? Do most people like having a lot of health and doing massive damage, or is doing only a few points of damage and having very limited health preferable?

To answer this is part of what your map style your going for really. Preferably the stats should grow longer as you play in an rpg type and thats why it's common-place to start at least somewhat low though so there is more room for growth.

 

[TheDarkDildo]

Some cool suggestions, thanks. Some more side quests/suggestions would be nice, ideally stuff with some moral grounding to help develop the sense of good and evil. Any suggestions or ideas for the main story line would also be awesome, as that is still in its infancy.

And again, would you prefer to do 100 damage or 10, have 10,000 health, or 100? Would you rather an expensive building cost 1,000 or 100,000?

I was thinking of doing it D&D style, where you only do a few points of damage, maybe 10 or so to start, but have only ~100 health. And make buildings very expensive, ie thousands of gold at the least.

 

[Drunken_Jackal]

Go for smaller values. Buildings/weapons/armors are high costing. This technique makes players keep on playing a game/map.

 

[TheDarkDildo]

Should the creeps level with you like in Oblivion? I know some people hated that but it's an easy way to let the player have free roam and still maintain some challenging combat.

 

[Drunken_Jackal]

Whats Oblivion? Havent heard of it.

 

[TheDarkDildo]

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

I could also make additional enemies spawn in areas as you level up.

 

[PsykhoMarc]

It depends, is killing things going to be the main focus, or is questing the focus?
If the latter, the levels of the creeps doesn't really matter, it could just be regional, not necessarily world-wide scaling.
However, if you make the players' level tied more to the creeps' death, definitely scale world-wide.