Hey @Mr-Johnson, a friendly note:
You seem to be doing okay with the input, but it's okay to think that Game Design by Soapbox is one of the worst ways to do it. Take everything said with a grain of salt or two. Or ten. Hell, have a whole salt-lick.
“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos
@seraphim73 Well hey hey, that is astounding my friend! I like what I see on that, and I think we can sure as shinola use it. I don't think we'll need to make any of the higher levels as pregens since those should only be for leaders/experienced players anyway. (I think I'll take the advice and start leaders at 10, and keep the cap at 12), but the more easy to use pre built level 3's that allow people to just slap a background onto and make their own the better!
A suggestion I'd have is something like what Sera demonstrated but include areas where it could be 'this or this' options for players along with a brief description of what each does. There's so many ins and outs of Saga Edition that narrowing the 'common' choices for players while still providing choices might be a great move.
@tempest said in A New Star Wars game? (Legends of The Old Republic (Name pending)):
Boba Fett is pretty watered down, iirc. In terms of Mandalorians anyways.
You know, THIS guy:
Watch him soar! And then turned into Sarlacc nomz.
ETA: Relevant to the actual discussion, prologue RP is my favorite. Except not actual prologue RP. Flashback RP, however, is amazing. Because I just approach it like it's a Highlander kind of thing, and everyone knows everyone else from wayback when. Works best for Immortals or Vampires or whatever, but Star Wars is ripe for the pickings, too.
@bobgoblin I agree that it would be great to be able to have like "ranged or melee" and the game choose your feats/talents for you based on that (or even branched: Ranged > Rifles > Teamwork-focused). Pretty sure that would be relatively deep on the code-intensive side of things, especially with Dahan-code. Not being a coder myself, I was just offering up a no-code solution.
@seraphim73 You could probably write up a generic 'ranged rifleman' or 'melee jedi' template and copy the sheet over.
I was thinking what you just did but have it branching. Could do it via the wiki really in some way with a collapsible box or what not, who knows it's midnight. My brain is fog.
@bobgoblin Truth. Though I think Dahan's code has capacity for sheet transfers built in, so you'd just have to allow transferring from X to Y, which shouldn't be too difficult depending on how it's set up.
@bobgoblin said in A New Star Wars game? (Legends of The Old Republic (Name pending)):
A suggestion I'd have is something like what Sera demonstrated but include areas where it could be 'this or this' options for players along with a brief description of what each does. There's so many ins and outs of Saga Edition that narrowing the 'common' choices for players while still providing choices might be a great move.
You know, this could actually be a stellar way to do CG.
Provide two options:
the 'crunch' method for people who know Saga and the CYOA method where people pick via branching options like that. Build the character as they go through guided questions.
It'd allow them to build the character they want without having to worry over all the fiddly bits.
Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
@auspice The only difficulty might come by different interpretations of 'optimal' in the building/coding of such a CG.
All I hear when I see this is "more code MORE CODE MOAR COOOOOOOOOODE" and it scares me.
@mr-johnson said in A New Star Wars game? (Legends of The Old Republic (Name pending)):
All I hear when I see this is "more code MORE CODE MOAR COOOOOOOOOODE" and it scares me.
Oh, I'm not exactly thinking don't do this right now! and maybe not even for this game.
But as an idea for games down the road. WoD, even. It's always the biggest issue for newcomers to a game/system: it's hard to learn.
But if you could design a system (even via wiki like @BobGoblin said) where they could pick through branching options (do you want to be this or this? Would you rather be more inclined to this or that? etc) to build their character... Give standard backgrounds, personalities, etc. to choose from....
and out comes a character sheet. Yes, you might have a number of fairly "standard" builds, but it'd be meant for entry-level characters and since it's just the very starting character, they'd obviously become more customized over time and how many of us who Staff in WoD see cookie-cutter copies of certain builds in spheres anyway because certain people build things the same way?
(I may be in this mindset because last month I spent 3 weeks building an Interactive Fiction game so I was building branched dialogue/game options.)
@mr-johnson Yeah, that's why I was suggesting just putting 2-3 options per faction on the wiki, probably with short descriptions of what they do and how, along with the steps to create them.
There's probably some way to create an object that can copy a sheet from an NPC stored somewhere onto a PC's sheet, but that's way more coding than I at least have any idea how to do.
Collapsible branching on the wiki is certainly doable... like for the example I posted, there could be a couple of options for skills, there could be an option for pistols vs rifles, and there could be an option for More Damage (Weapon Spec) vs Works Well With Others (Comrades in Arms). All of that would be under the basic "Republic Soldier PC," who would be presented alongside the "Republic Pilot PC," "Lightsaber Jedi Padawan PC," and "Force Power Jedi Padawan PC." My only concern would be that branching options once again introduces complexity that just "enter these commands, choosing my own gender, height, weight, and second language of choice" does not.
I'd suggest not allowing Indies up front. The MUing population is small, and you want that small populace concentrated into one of the two opposing factions at first. Allow indies... six months in, and reward those with a demonstrated ability to run story and drive themselves with a ship, or some such.
He/Him
@tinuviel I can certainly see that. What I think I'll wind up doing in the end is opening up independents AFTER the prologue as a way for people to continue playing their characters from it who might not initially pick a side. Use the prologue as a testing ground to see where the wind blows with the playerbase, so long as we can keep a stable playerbase.
Now, while I'm doing writeups and waiting on a clean version of the DB (We've got a DB, but some of my staff want a nice clean version so I'm giving them time to find it while I do work that can be rapidly transferred to the new clean database. I figure if they can't find it in say a week or so we're pretty much a go for just using what we've got and working with it!) How would people mind giving some planet sugjestions/corners of space for us to hang out in? I'm thinking to start we go one planet per faction to start with (Plus an independent world during the prologue for people to get in that sweet sweet cross faction rp.) So what worlds do you guys think we should add, and who should control them? If you think we should have more planets then that what AREA do you guys want to see us use?
@mr-johnson I would suggest focusing the Jedi/Republic side on a single capital ship (probably an Inexpugnable because a Hammerhead is still relatively small -- only 12 fighters, although the 400 passengers would be fine), so that they can move between various locations, which could them be built out of just 2-3 rooms as necessary (unless they're in orbit over an Indy world or something like that). I would suggest the same for the Sith when they come into play. If the Indy characters are all tied into the war in some way (and they really, really, really should be), then they'll have excuses to visit whatever world the Sith/Republic are over. You can also use Indy worlds (or slightly-behind-the-front-lines Republic or Sith worlds) for R&R periods and for RP with associated Indies.
There are definitely downsides to this plan (people tend to turtle up in their ships for RP and not branch out, but that's a culture thing that hopefully could be countered), but I think it's better than basing the "War Factions" on planets and then having to come up with excuses as to why they're involved in offenses across the sector/galaxy.
Whichever method you go with, I would strongly, strongly suggest focusing on a single sector of the Galaxy. I might suggest either the slice of space along the Hydian Way and just galactic northwest of Mandalorian Space (Arkania, Taris, Serenno, Yavin) or the slice directly galactic south-east of it, along the Perlemian Way (Feluccia, Rhen Var, Lantilles, Tanaab). Korriban and Dromond Kaas are right in between those two, as is Mandalorian Space.
@thenomain said in A New Star Wars game? (Legends of The Old Republic (Name pending)):
Hey @Mr-Johnson, a friendly note:
You seem to be doing okay with the input, but it's okay to think that Game Design by Soapbox is one of the worst ways to do it. Take everything said with a grain of salt or two. Or ten. Hell, have a whole salt-lick.
Only just noticed your post on that, and I'm aware there's quite the risk to taking on advice from musoap land, but I don't exactly have many other sources of inspiration out there you know? Even wrong advice is still something you can research examine and come to your own conclusions around.
Absolutely, but make the game you want to play and you will enjoy running it.
“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos
@thenomain Ayup. Build it how you want it, and those that share your vision will come.
And they will also visit your game.
He/Him
@tinuviel Giggidy!
I have every intention of making the game I want to make. At the end of the day I'm the final say on what I actually put into it I just love the idea crafting that comes out of this thread and it really helps me solidify the kind of ideas I want to explore with this project.
Hey @Mr-Johnson, a friendly note:
You seem to be doing okay with the input, but it's okay to think that Game Design by Soapbox is one of the worst ways to do it. Take everything said with a grain of salt or two. Or ten. Hell, have a whole salt-lick.
