One slight problem with this system is that no one would really want to play an online game for ages and just be the "servant" of some god.
It sounds great in theory though, sort of religious wars, giving favours etc and acting like your god should act (mean, friendly etc). Perhaps if there was questing and other RPG elements and other stuff for the commoners to do then it could work, with the gods just being a feature.
Or it could be a single player game, where the player is the god, and must convert computer controlled characters, and do all the above stated godly stuff, and try to conquer other religions - like a religious RTS...? But then there is less feeling of controlling humans...
Hmmm, I like the idea though, just I would want to be a god, not a peasant! And I don''t know if I could be bothered playing a game where all I had to do was pray to a god or something like that...
wise_guy
🎉 Celebrating 25 Years of GameDev.net! 🎉
Not many can claim 25 years on the Internet! Join us in celebrating this milestone. Learn more about our history, and thank you for being a part of our community!
Summoning
Landfish:
Ok, my fault, replace the words "high level" with "more evolved"
wise_guy:
The whole point of letting players be the gods would be the reason to play the game. You may start off as a weak peasant, but one day as you gather your power you may eventually reach godhood...Say, there has to always be a certain number of gods, if one gets killed, the person who kills him gets to take his place.
Ok, my fault, replace the words "high level" with "more evolved"
wise_guy:
The whole point of letting players be the gods would be the reason to play the game. You may start off as a weak peasant, but one day as you gather your power you may eventually reach godhood...Say, there has to always be a certain number of gods, if one gets killed, the person who kills him gets to take his place.
Has anyone played a MUD called Faerun? It's set in the Forgotten Realms setting, but it's very good IMHO. Anyway, they have a system that is similar in some ways to what you're proposing. You actually have to pray and pay dues to the god that you choose every so often or you'll get thrown in hell where you can't do anything for like a real-time hr. The gods are actually players, and they do perform favors occasionally. Well that's my $0.02
Edited by - Nazrix on June 2, 2000 1:29:17 AM
Edited by - Nazrix on June 2, 2000 1:29:17 AM
Landfish, I hope that when you make your first million off this idea you''ll remember us little people at gamedev.net .
Anyway, this sounds like a very interesting idea IF you can make the playing experience equally interesting for the players as well as the gods. How would one do this? Here are a couple ideas:
1) Allow players to have quite a bit of power against gods. For example, maybe a group of semi-experienced players could expel a god from an area if they worked together to get rid of them.
(warning: weird idea coming
)
2) To add to the last idea, what if the plot set it so that all the gods were "bad", and the players needed to keep them in check? Think about it, the fun in being a god would probably be abusing your powers anyway, so why not let the players do what comes naturally anyway?
In fact, taking this a bit further, you could grant the evil gods the power to give gifts to people who chose to follow them. So basically, this would allow some players to become mercenaries for the gods for the promise of gold, power, whatever!
This isn''t a complete idea, of course. You''d have to do some things to limit the number of gods there are and the amount of power they have. But it could be somewhat interesting.
--TheGoop
.Anyway, this sounds like a very interesting idea IF you can make the playing experience equally interesting for the players as well as the gods. How would one do this? Here are a couple ideas:
1) Allow players to have quite a bit of power against gods. For example, maybe a group of semi-experienced players could expel a god from an area if they worked together to get rid of them.
(warning: weird idea coming
)2) To add to the last idea, what if the plot set it so that all the gods were "bad", and the players needed to keep them in check? Think about it, the fun in being a god would probably be abusing your powers anyway, so why not let the players do what comes naturally anyway?
In fact, taking this a bit further, you could grant the evil gods the power to give gifts to people who chose to follow them. So basically, this would allow some players to become mercenaries for the gods for the promise of gold, power, whatever!
This isn''t a complete idea, of course. You''d have to do some things to limit the number of gods there are and the amount of power they have. But it could be somewhat interesting.
--TheGoop
Author
Wise_guy, bet you never played a paladin in D&D did you? Anyone who liked paladins should really go for this idea. As for all the other ideas put forth, they are all really good. Which one you go with is primarily based on what kind of mood you want. Since I wanted a kind of "Faust" thing, I like The Goops idea of them all being demons. But thas just me... =)
Edited by - landfish on June 3, 2000 11:32:13 PM
Edited by - landfish on June 3, 2000 11:32:13 PM
Must it be gods?
It kinda takes the mysticism away when you can trade with your gods like that (holy wrath&smitings - sacrifice 3 goats or 8 other small animals. requests from 2-6pm).
Why not inhabitants of some spirit plane. Those you could automate far better, and you have something concrete to deal with. You could even generate their stats (what they can do for you) and their personality at random or dependant on the power level of the summoner.
If you really want to implement gods use them very very carefully. 99 of a hundred invocations should have no visible effect at all. THe one that is granted shold be very powerful and you should have to "pay" for it dearly.
It kinda takes the mysticism away when you can trade with your gods like that (holy wrath&smitings - sacrifice 3 goats or 8 other small animals. requests from 2-6pm).
Why not inhabitants of some spirit plane. Those you could automate far better, and you have something concrete to deal with. You could even generate their stats (what they can do for you) and their personality at random or dependant on the power level of the summoner.
If you really want to implement gods use them very very carefully. 99 of a hundred invocations should have no visible effect at all. THe one that is granted shold be very powerful and you should have to "pay" for it dearly.
Author
YES! That''s what I wanted, kindof. I wanted to make magic unreliable enough that you dare not depend upon it... well, you could always pray to "benevolant god", as a last ditch effort, but you hardly expect a reply, right? That''s why I REALLY dislike the idea of a point system. If anything, the gods may occasionally choose their agents on the mortal plane, and imbue them with powers to USE AT WILL! No point restrictions. Very rare, too.
Also, in discussing it with my friends in the real world, I''vem been refering to them as demons, because we want to make it very HP Lovecraftish. You can trap the demons in circles and whatnot, force them to obey you with certain incantations.
This lead to the idea of an angelic order as well, though far fewer in number. Essentially, you have three layers of game going on, but the Angel and Demonic ones could only affect eachother through the services of humans... So humans have usually chosen an affiliation. Keep in mind that if I implement this, it will NOT be in a fantasy setting! That would be no fun at all. I''m sick of fantasy, and I want it to die. But I digress.
Still, there are many ways to handle it, and mine is a bit risky. But I don''t see many problems, because those who side with demonic entities will always get what''s coming to them, right?
This post was brought to you by the letter "Land", and the number "Fish"!
Also, in discussing it with my friends in the real world, I''vem been refering to them as demons, because we want to make it very HP Lovecraftish. You can trap the demons in circles and whatnot, force them to obey you with certain incantations.
This lead to the idea of an angelic order as well, though far fewer in number. Essentially, you have three layers of game going on, but the Angel and Demonic ones could only affect eachother through the services of humans... So humans have usually chosen an affiliation. Keep in mind that if I implement this, it will NOT be in a fantasy setting! That would be no fun at all. I''m sick of fantasy, and I want it to die. But I digress.
Still, there are many ways to handle it, and mine is a bit risky. But I don''t see many problems, because those who side with demonic entities will always get what''s coming to them, right?
This post was brought to you by the letter "Land", and the number "Fish"!
If you want it to be "Lovecraftish" you´ll have to leave out the angelic beings alltogether. Then magic would be something that´s always risky and most of the times very, very evil.
Then you´d have to deal with malevolent demons (or maybe not evil, just very, very different - give them their own goals) every time you do magic, not just having to strike a bargain but also preventing it from breaking through the barrier and munching the summoner (or worse, transforming him into something not quite of this world).
Maybe there´d be a hierarchy of demons, low-power drones at the one end (easily manipulated, hardly sentient) and really biggo nasties (Ctullhu or his friends) at the other.
Give the player the chance to cross some really powerful ones to get more than his share - and then let them come after him (always indirectly, creating an atmosphere of paranoia). Maybe make crossing some of the big evils unavoidable ..?
Then you´d have to deal with malevolent demons (or maybe not evil, just very, very different - give them their own goals) every time you do magic, not just having to strike a bargain but also preventing it from breaking through the barrier and munching the summoner (or worse, transforming him into something not quite of this world).
Maybe there´d be a hierarchy of demons, low-power drones at the one end (easily manipulated, hardly sentient) and really biggo nasties (Ctullhu or his friends) at the other.
Give the player the chance to cross some really powerful ones to get more than his share - and then let them come after him (always indirectly, creating an atmosphere of paranoia). Maybe make crossing some of the big evils unavoidable ..?
Author
=)
There''s a man who knows what I''m on about!
Fact is, I have at least three very different variations in mind, all of which dcould be implemented well. Keep ''em comin.
There''s a man who knows what I''m on about!
Fact is, I have at least three very different variations in mind, all of which dcould be implemented well. Keep ''em comin.
call me a pessimest, but I''ve had some of my game ideas fall out. If the evil gods can reward people, cant'' they make some godly-weapon-to-end-all-other-godly-weapons and distribute it freely to all who mail 10 dollars to the guy monthly? You would need some distribution/weapon selection restriction, but how would you judge that?
This topic is closed to new replies.
Advertisement
Popular Topics
Advertisement
