[dengar]

Things may be a bit slow information wise, but that just means we've had some time to process what we know and come up with some good ideas. The jist of this is to look at something different from the usual theme park grind. After all, the beauty of a sandbox game is that we make the content. Now, that doesn't mean we're going to be seeing an astronauts because, well, we can't create rocket ships. But given the information about what's already in game, what can we do?

Turf Wars

This is probably one of the easiest things you can do in a sandbox game. You can do it in theme park games as well, but it's rarely meaningful. The basic idea is that your friends/guild pick a town, hunting spot, city, whatever and stake your claim. In Asheron's Call 1, a bunch of friends and I went with a bandit theme. We weren't looking for long term control, but we'd regularly hit certain towns and tell people to hand over their goods or die, and players eventually formed counter gangs to protect their homes.

Now, this is a bit harder since FFA wasn't encouraged in CB3 (and there's no item loss), but we know the open seas are lawless and force players to respawn... well, let's just say it's a bit of a swim. Playing a pirate, navy-man, or privateer (that'd be a sea mercenary ;P ) are all within your options, with 2 of those ideas supported by in game factions and the third being a bit more creative. There's even mobs at sea you can fight, but I'm not sure of the spawn density of risk vs. reward, but it's something that can be explored, at least until the pvp continent comes out and there's player towns we can focus on. Of course, there's always farm raiding, so the bandit idea isn't totally dead, but the value of this sort of thing could be dubious if people don't build gardens (or don't care about them enough to guard them). The idea is that there's different areas people may try to hold on to, and you can choose what interests you most: towns, individual homes, ships, shops, ports, quarries. If it hold value for someone, you can figure out how to start a fight.

Supply and Demand

We know the labor system has its limits, and some of this can be overcome with alts, but just the same, you can take advantage of the situation and try your hand at the game's economics. People can't harvest resources night and day, so you can start, say, a lumber business (unless someone reads the above section and thinks, "I'm going to be a druid and protect the forest!"). For example, maybe get 3 characters, focus on purchasing lumber, and find someone looking to buy large quantities of wood, who will need it for awhile, and offer to sell your resources at a set price in order for the crafter to have a reliable supply of materials and to give you reliable income.

Potions have been hyped up a bit, so one could potentially start an apothecary, having harvesters, potion crafters, and a few folks advertising the business and taking order, should auction houses not make it into release. Even then, a smart entrepreneur can figure out a way to discourage use of the auction house and have people opt to make direct purchases (worked for in WoW's BC, and I was able to dominate gem market for months before getting lazy and using the auction house).

With mounts having multi-passenger options (and staying dead until rezzed at a stable), you can offer taxi-services to low levels, or offer extra mounts to explorers or even armies in situations where it's nearly certain that mounts will be killed.

Text Based

Offer a service that isn't in the game mechanics. This tends to be a role play thing, but it can be pretty fun for non-RPers at times, especially on a pvp server since it'll draw crowds. This is also where meta-gaming can come in, in that players can play spies, but it's frowned upon by many, and once you've been revealed, it's hard to be friends with anyone who knows your past and doesn't know you IRL. However, less extreme, you can act as a scout, scoping out an enemy location and offering it to those who may want to harm someone.

It's a tad unsavory, but I'm sure if I mentioned role players in World of Warcraft's Goldshire tavern, some ideas may pop up. Red light districts aside, there's also story tellers. I was once part of a group of "traveling lore-keepers" who met once a week in a new location to tell stories. Drew a decent crowd, including GMs. This can be modified to comedian, actor's troupe, churches, etc. Think of this like adding toppings to ice cream. If you're, say, attacking a group of elves and shout, "Die knife ears!" those elf players are going to remember your assault more than a random PK's, and will probably come after you, hopefully with their own battle cry.

Future Endeavors

This is just the start of what's possible... or what may lie ahead. Don't even get me started on guild politics until we know what exactly guilds will be able to do, and whether or not expeditionary forces are in. Depending on jail mechanics, a pirate guild could potentially employ a few members to work on getting caught for the purpose of finding escape tools to sell as a "get out of jail free card" once they're out. And, my personal favorite, is what sort of devious gameplay options will be open to use should germ warfare eventually make it in? I'd love to see groups infecting new players and sending them into cities, then offering the cure for huge prices (a man can dream!).

[Random Dude #13]

I thank you. You've just made me want to play this game a hell of a lot more! In fact, I might just move to Korea to get in on the Closed Beta.

[Hazujin]

dengar, on 23 June 2011 - 03:15 AM, said:

...Red light districts aside...

But I want...


Nice read, increases the hype (:

[Zil]

Since the world is vast, exploration can also be a nice thing to do. That's if the game provides hidden spots.

[ArcheAdmin]

Supple and Demand? Might have meant Supply, but hey, supple sounds cool too.