Help me decide the direction of my map... please?

[flabbergasted]

Ok, hypothetical situation, somebody plans on making an epic RPG. Not somebody like me who has little experience with the world editor, no, let's say it's somebody with a reputation of making really really good custom maps. Somebody who you would actually want to play there map when they were done and so you actually would care the direction they took their RPG in. So, said person, uber-map maker, is faced with a dilema:

1) He wants his RPG to be story driven
2) He wants his RPG to be multi-player
3) He wants his RPG to be epic
4) Those three criteria do not go hand in hand

So this guy, who inevitably is going to make this great map that you will want to play, wants to know what kind of game you would rather play and thus make his efforts more rewarding. The choices are:

1) Make it story driven, but only single-player
2) Make it multi-player, but "open"
3) Try his durndest to meld the two even if the combination might be less than intuitive.
4) Well ker-duh! He could just do insert genius idea here! It's a perfect solution!

Well? Thoughts please? I would greatly... erm, ehem... hypothetical genius map-maker would greatly appriciate your thoughts, I'm sure.

 

[jruland]

i read your post earlier and i know you really want to make a single-player RPG, so i feel for ya. the problem, as i am sure you know, is that like all map-makers you want people to play your map, and thus it's hard to devote the next few months to a single-player RPG that will only be played by a relatively small number of people compared to a multiplayer map. on the other hand, there are already a lot of open RPGs on bnet, so making a multiplayer open RPG would not really be the most original thing you could do...

so why not make it multiplayer with a storyline? i'm sure you could find a way to make it work, even with save/load. give it a modest storyline and set it apart from all the other RPGs on bnet.

 

[Dragon_Lord the Second]

While it's ultimately up to you, there are few multiplayer RPGs with storylines on bnet. They are fun to play, but I prefer to play a singleplayer map with a great storyline as opposed to playing it with other people - other people can leave, and also make the expirience unenjoyable.


So, again, I think it would be best to make a singleplayer RPG/campaign. If the person you were talking about was you, then if you need help or have questions, feel free to contact me at [email protected] or simply PM me.

 

[Waldbaer]

1) He wants his RPG to be story driven
2) He wants his RPG to be multi-player
3) He wants his RPG to be epic
4) Those three criteria do not go hand in hand

?? Why not? :shock:
Nothing is impossible. Ideally it should be playable completely independent from the player count, even single player. Maybe make a limit to four or six players, but always with smaller playercount possible.

I'm sure this is not easy and I doubt that this is possible for any not very experienced mapmaker, but if you want to make a really good RPG, than it should feature
1) Interesting story (driven by cutscenes)
2) Some Custom Heroes and Spells (better few but balanced ones than 20 or more useless ones)
3) Single and variable multiplayer capability

If you (or your mapping friend) aren't that experienced, you should first try to do make an RPG with the first two features. You can still update it to a multiplayer later.
But the most important: Take you time for learning and testing!

 

[flabbergasted]

Thanks for your thoughts guys.

It's not that the three things are impossible to implement together, but they do restrict eachother. And figure out where the best balance lies can be difficult.

 

[Teifi]

1) He wants his RPG to be story driven
2) He wants his RPG to be multi-player
3) He wants his RPG to be epic
4) Those three criteria do not go hand in hand

?? Why not? :shock:
Nothing is impossible. Ideally it should be playable completely independent from the player count, even single player. Maybe make a limit to four or six players, but always with smaller playercount possible.

I agree with that statement.

In my opinion, this "person" of which you describe should make an RPG which is completely story-driven, but can still be epic. Maybe designed for 4 players to play in a private game, not really designed for the odd play with strangers, but with people who actually care about the story. I admit its hard for everything to follow the storyline with 12 players, but with a small playercount its alot easier, and thats what should be done.

 

[VGsatomi]

RPG maps can have both good stories and single/multiplayer compatability. For examples, try out some of Taz's RPGs. I suggest tryiogn to make something along those lines, so it could be enjoyed on and offline. Its hard work to balance such things, but thats what shows you good a mapper you can be.
-VGsatomi