Salty's Skyrim Surprise

During a gameday a friend threw, ideas for a mod started popping up in my head.  I want to tell you some of the plans, but we don't even have the mod kit yet.  Besides, it's a surprise.  I'll make a blog post for the mod, which will start off only have a few changes, then one for each update...but I won't tell you what's in it.

Dead Man's Land Death Penalty and Character Creation Options

So, I was talking with someone about the behavior of the zombie hordes, while explaining a few of the features, and he pointed out that the code would be a little more complex than I thought it would, in order to prevent people from exploiting the hordes.  My response was that was part of the game.  If a group of players wants to take the risky tactic of herding zombies in an attempt to defeat a group of rivals then they can, but if they screw up, they may be the ones that end up being eaten.

I figured that I'd share the fact that we now have a really fun, viable origin for the zombie plague, and then share that bit of conversation with you.  Now, the origin won't be shared directly from us, you'll have to wait until someone in the game explores and figures out the cause.  Hell, the first server might actually have someone get their medical and related skills high enough to figure out a cure for the plague.  That's part of what we want to do here, the players have the chance to change the direction of the game, and not just by talking on the forums with us.

Now the bad thing about this tactic, is that when you get turned by the plague, you lose that character.  You can't even use the slot, until your zombie is killed cured, or...other, although you'll always have a free slot.  For that slot, you can log in, wheel the camera around and watch him wreak havoc, but that's about it.

PvP there's no permadeath, but it can lead to some really bad results if you pick a fight in a heavily infected area.

The next part may seem unrelated, but it's something that popped up over and over while tinkering with the system, especially with the prospect of permadeath, which is something I think would work really well with
this title, especially because this one is going to a little experimental, and we'll be trying a few things that may not work, but I want to see how they work.

I'm trying to come up with an option on how to make the permadeath not a game killer.  This game is wanting to have benefits for hardcore players that want to put in the time and build something amazing, while not
excluding more casual players.

Something that we're going to try is options for jumping into the game.

You want to start at level one and grow your character organically, that's awesome, you'll
level up your skills at an accelerated rate, at least for the first chunk of your character's life.

The standard method of character creation will be to create a character that's around (in WoW formula terms) level 30.  That way you can jump right in, be capable but not great at what your character does.

The third option, which might not be in the game, due to possibility of griefing, is that you can make a character that's a little higher level but more generalized that isn't persistent.  Effectively a throwaway
character.  This would let people jump into the game more quickly if they knew they didn't have time to spend a ton of hours with it.

It's very possible that the first and third options will only show up one a clan stakes their territory, secures it, and makes it into an actual clan hall.

That's my ramblings for the moment, comment below and I'll try to address any questions that you have.

Thanksgiving Hiatus

Apologies for the lapse in posting, Thanksgiving week was followed by a local convention that I staff the tabletop gaming area, so preparations for those distracted me as usual.  I shall begin regular posting in a day or two, though.