Development Cycle Archive

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Princess_Chibi wrote:

There used to be an old MUD with a similar issue and they came up with a most interesting way of unlocking. Basically, to let you in on the backdrop noone knew how close they ever were to unlocking, although occasionally while crafting something they might get an oddball message once every 10,000 tries that "You feel strange and complete this item slightly ahead of schedule." or "You have a good feeling that this weapon will be most exceptional."

The path to actually becoming FS was also as mysterious. There was a small shopping list of about seven items you had to fly all over the galaxy to get from wierd places. I remember the focusing chamber for a lightsaber everyone knew where it was, it was down an alley and lying in a small pile of items which spawned every few minutes off on a trashed Imperial colony. But only a JEDI could do something with them. You would have to fly around, grab these items, and then fly back to a stone temple on Yavin IV, and go into one of three meditation chambers. While someone was in these chambers, noone else could enter or interrupt. These chambers were strong in the Force, specifically light side as Luke was usually somewhere in this temple. There were only a few of these "Strong in the Force" rooms around the entire game, and most knew where they were because the messages would change if you did something Force related around or in them. (One was on Degobah in the Force Cave. The Dark Jedi used these.)

Now in actually trying to become a Jedi most players would just live their normal lives. Youcould seek out Luke and he might give you items and things, but there was no set way to become a Jedi. You basically ran some missions for money, went out and killed Stormies for fun, and when you had some spare time you might go to Yavin and meditate for awhile in one of these rooms, or go kill Force-mobs and things like that. The actual mechanic here was each player when they created their characters was issued a random number between 1 and 800 out of a 1,000 (and a total1,200 scale, the last25points of the extra 200were thetriggerwhich made you aJedi as it would unlock the abilities for Jedi as well. You were FS at 775+.)scale, two scales representing the light and dark sides of the Force. You could do things which would raise and lower your respective numbers for each scale. At the end of the scale, say if you reached a random value between 895 and 975, you could go to the temple and Yavin and it would give you a message telling you you are in tune with the Force.

At this point you would get another twelve sets of skills which you could train, you could now build a lightsaber and use one, although you weren't a Jedi yet so occasionally for some random damage you might injure yourself (and once for 3/4's of my life.) I forget where it states but only Jedi can handle a lightsaber with ease, for most others they're more likely to harm themselves than their enemies. (It's also in the Jedi Academy manual, they did NOT use this in the game which is why JA is considered one of the insta-Jedi games.) Now you could meditate which would raise your points a random number or go out and kill stormies if you were light side, rebels if you were dark, and that might help you or not at random. Basically though, you would spend at least 20 minutes a login meditating if you logged8 hours a day if you were seeking FS or Jedi. Once you were FS, it would also give you slight ability increases for the next two hours or so, which made meditating worthwhile even as FS and not Jedi.

Now in actually constructing your lightsaber, you would gather the pieces from across the galaxy, and then you would fly back to Yavin (if you were dark you had another temple elsewhere, I never did find out where as I was lightside.) At this point you would enter a meditation chamber (by the way, these rooms shut off your tells and ability to hear or talk to anyone but an Admin. This was meant to be a private room which you couldn't attack, or be disturbed in. I sometimes went to sleep here which kept me safe for a short time. It was a !ATTACKor no-attack room.) and you could assemble the lightsaber. It would take time, meditation, and until your LS crafting ability was about 75%,one out of every three lightsabers would fail. At Jedi, one out of every twenty I think it was, and you didn't have to replace them more than once a month or two. Anyways, the actual process of crafting them took time as you had to draw in the Force. 10-15 realtime minutes per saber, and on average I made two as I double-wielded. If you were successful, it would allow you to name your lightsabers and equip them. As a Jedi further meditation would give me enhanced combat abilities. If I was between FS on my way to Jedi, I could meditate to increase my count to unlock Jedi.

So now you're a FS or Jedi, you have some skills (and yes, occasionally powers crossed over, I could use Force lightning as a Light side, but it would drain me and affect my alignment a little each time.) I was stronger than the level 100's by the time I was level 80 as a Jedi. I would deflect 99% of what came at me, and only SEVERELY weakened, and one time unconcious wasI killed. (I fell unconcious because of a strong poison after fighting a major Mon Cal, and some guy who was harassing me tracked me down, and deathblew me while I was already down, he didn't even have to work for it. After I recloned I went after him, and he said I didn't have the right as those that just cloned had no idea of what happened in their previous life. I killed him for that. 20 minutes later the MUD got hacked and that was that.... That was almost four or so years ago.) In space flight, yes you could fly in space in a text-based game; Jedi had increased resistances, although not much and higher reflexes by about 10%.

All in all, THIS is a cool system for unlocking. You never know how far along you are unless an Admin tells you what percentage. You HAVE to live your life inside the game and can't just drop everything to go meditate for four months, even after which you might not get anywhere. That's not to say you won't, that's just to say I saw many do it, and it never happened for them.You went on doing your own thing, and occasionally, if you were lucky, you might have a run-in with the Force or get a mysterious feeling via a system message. Lightsabers could be used by FS, but only Jedi were flat-out deadly with them. And once you were a high level Jedi, you were all but invincible, but it took time, dedication, and some Adminpoints (points you would get from God [Admin's name] occasionally for doing good [or bad if you were Dark side] deeds.)

Mysterious is the way to go. Certain things should be a given. Like when you post the notes for patch 10 you could say, "If you become Force Sensitive, it would be wise to construct a lightsaber. This must be done alone, and you must use the Force to complete one." <--- This doesn't tell how, where, or why, but it gives a good idea. Get the pieces first obviously, you have to be FS, you can't do it anyplace public, and you need to find someplace strong in the Force or be strong in it yourself.

I'd also like to point out that as a high level Jedi, because you had Admin-approval, if you were annoyed by someone or harassed in the game, the Jedi had the option of using their mindtrick to put that player to sleep (like a sleepcurse where you couldn't just type /wake to wake up.) On average they stayed asleep for 10 minutes so you could fly off the planet and be LONG gone by the time they got up. It was also effective in battle.

I don't know what you could do with the dark side. Some of it has to be meditation like this, but a lot of it should be more combat based and taking hits for hire. Anyways, here you go, hope it was a good read.

--Princess Chibi

Princess of Bounty Hunters

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I like this one, good post

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Tiaga wrote:
I think much of peoples answer to the other thread were about becoming force sensitive. The player perception is there are 2 phases.. Before you're force sensitive, and after you're force sensitive. At some point you can start advancing in force sensitivity. It is getting to that point that most people seemed to be talking about.

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First a couple of points that I want to see, then I'll toss out a few ideas...

1. Do NOT make it static and the same for everybody. It will get camped, and in order to control the rampaging mob of people camping, you will need to make it difficult.

2. Do NOT make it difficult, combat-wise. If it requires difficult combat, it will completely shut out casual players, and the non-combat professions, and will encourage even more loot-camping so that people can get the best weapons and armor to enable them to complete the quests quicker.

3. Don't make it just a series of known static quests or actions. This takes the fun out of it and will allow people to make force sensitive in a day or two. The players have shown that they WILL find a way to get past any obstacles put in their path, if they know that path to the objective, and it then boils down to who has the best equipment, the largest PA, or the most credits.

4. Make it mysterious, but PLEASE give us an idea of how far along we are, and some vague idea of what we did to get us closer. The random stabbing in the dark without feedback creates feelings of frustration, not mystery. I would like to see something along the lines of system messages telling me I have gained some insight into the force whenever I do something leading me to force sensitivity, and somewhere I can look to see my current status (either as a percentage completed, or maybe a 'force sensitive xp' meter of some sort.


I don't really have any concrete solutions for how to make it follow the above rules and still be fun, but I have a few ideas that maybe can spark some thoughts from someone else:

1. Random NPCs in towns giving missions - while walking in town, you get a system message that you notice something odd about [insert NPC name here]... You go talk to that NPC, and he/she/it gives you a mission that brings you closer to Force Sensitivity (please make it a mission that actually has something to force powers, such as a delivery mission where you 'notice something odd' about the person you're delivering to, and find out he's a thief, or something)

2. Utilize the existing resource spawn system to make 'force-heavy' zones around the planets - make it so no one can survey these zones, but if you are in a zone of high force concentration, you have a significant chance of either getting a system message that leads you to a quest, or having something you interact with to earn you 'force-sensitive xp', or merely having normal actions (crafting, combat, entertaining, etc.) give you a number of 'force sensitive xp' points, up to a certain limit.

3. After combat, you get a system message saying you notice something odd about the corpse. You loot it, and notice an item enscribed with a random name and location. You go to the location, find that NPC, and that triggers a series of quests that lead you to force sensitivity. Not sure how you can make this idea applicable to non-combat players, though... Maybe a system message that you notice an object out of the corner of your eye in a town somewhere?

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JustG wrote:

(Now with 75% more info!)

There are many stages in the path to becoming a Jedi...

The first among them is becoming Force Sensitive. Once you become Force Sensitive you can choose to continue on the path to becoming a Jedi or not. The path to becoming a Jedi will be a long and dangerous one.

Publish 10 is focussing largely on the path FROM Force Sensitive TO becoming a Jedi... this is going to be very quest and story-driven, and will take some effort and time on the part of the players. This path will be directed, and you will know how to get through, but it will also contain an element of mystery.

My question has to do with the step before all of this... with how you actually become Force Sensitive.

The question to continue discussing is this:

Should the method of becoming Force Sensitive (not the path from Force Sensitivity to Jedi) be a mysterious, unknown mechanic orone that is visible and known to everyone?

Thanks for the continued feedback!!

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The method of BECOMING Force Sensitive should be in (or before) publish 10. (I know it may seem obvious to many, but may not be something you're currently considering, especialy by the sounds of your post...)