Mana Resource Concept

Why mana? I've asked this question before.

I started thinking, what if we did mana like how magic does. During a fight we build a type of mana, and then, we can cast spells, and let that mana type come back. The idea was kinda working like a more complicated version of energy building from Champions Online.

So as a thought experiment, I figured, lets look at Magic the Gathering. There's an MMO being made of it, and so I thought, what if I were designing that game? How would I make planeswalkers work?

Magic has different types of mana: White, Blue, Black, Red, Green, Colorless and Generic. Generic is paid with any kind of mana, while the other colors and colorless requires a specific mana type. But in MtG, mana is locked behind the land mechanic. Each turn you get to play a land, and that might mean that if you do not have a land in hand you would not gain mana that turn. The game also has mana ramp spells. Spells that allow additional lands to be put into play, and therefore the player trades a turn now, for greater mana faster the following turn.

In an MMO, you don't have turns. So you have a few choices, slow paced fighting, or fast paced movement and spell casting. This affects how complicated you can have a mana building mechanic. I think I'd have players pick a color first. Maybe ask them questions that would tie them to philosophies of a color, and probably tie some things to other choices (similar to how Guild Wars 2 does it).

So this version we could do something very similar to energy builders, but I think maybe a combination of other resource managements would be more interesting. For example, let's start with a Red Planeswalker. The Red walker would see some monsters out in the wild to kill, and so they would start by gathering mana.

Gather Resource: Mountain
Ability: 1 second, channel, add 1 Mountain resource (max x).

Lightning Strike
Ability: Use 1 Red Mana and 1 Generic Mana, deal 3 damage to a creature.

Pass Turn:
Ability: Takes Abilities off Cool down.

So when a fight starts, the player Gathers Resource, then Passes Turn. This resets their available mana, lets them add another resource, and resets their spells.

So why would a player not just always reset? Maybe the spell choices are a bit randomized.

Maybe there is a cooldown rotation (a time spent before they can cast spells, like an untap second). Maybe everyone in the fight has to pass before abilities reset (this would be a bad idea, could cause griefing other players in a party). Maybe, if the player Passes too many turns, they run out of draws and "lose".

Makes me think a bit of MegaMan.exe chip system.

I think each walker could be given a resource gathering attack. Something representative of their Color and Land type. They have to hit an enemy with it, to add a resource, which are like Death Knight runes. You generate mana of the type you want, up to a certain amount, and then spend them on your spells.

Passing the turn, resets what spells you can cast, but allows for you to generate another Land rune. While not doing so, generates generic mana that can be used to cast the spells as well.

We could also gate end of turn to a time limit.

This feels like it would be a slower, more methodical game type.

I feel like I should explore this idea more later. For right now, it feels like there is a conflict in player desire to ramp into powerful spells and having some sort of negative for not casting spells or using abilities.

Champions Online: State of the Game

Well Tobold pointed out real quick that Champions Online is going F2P. But they are also pushing through several improvements to the game. I'll try to go over all the benefits of being either Silver (free) or Gold (paid) member.

First of all, if you are a lifetime subscriber you get Gold for free. Essentially, you are in the same boat you are in now, and perhaps a bit better off. If you are paying a monthly fee, you can keep paying and play the game the same way. If you are not paying for Champions Online, playing F2P will be best for you. I think some people who are Gold will switch to Silver, as the restrictions would not be enough to keep them from enjoying the game.

So with those claims made, lets review what the main difference is for not paying a monthly fee.

As Silver your main limitations (or perhaps advantages) are:

• no customized power sets: You get Basic Archetypes (8), and purchasable Gold Archetypes (coming later, these are automatically available to Gold Members, it is more cost effective to do one time purchases for these). These are predetermined power sets. You can only customize where you spend your advantages. The Archetype examples they gave were "The Blade" or "The Brute". Since choosing if you are a Brick or a Striker is based on what advantages you choose, it is not exactly like picking a class.
• Only 2 character slots: You can purchase more. Gold members start with 8 and can not only purchase more, they can EARN (having a Gold account for over 200 days, and 1 for each character that reaches 40) more, which Silver members cannot.
• Need to pay for Adventure Packs: although like other F2P games, it might be better to be able to do the one time purchase. This will depend on the cost of the adventure packs.
• Not all costumes available at start: There are over 3,000 costume pieces available. There are then Gold Costumes that Silver will have to purchase, as well as Premium Costumes that both have to purchase. Again, it might be better to just be a Silver player and purchase these costume pieces as you need them.
• No Bonus Costume Slots: Except for the Super Group bonus, Silver members must pay for additional Costumes. Gold Members earn costumes at 15, 30, SuperGroup and by being a Gold member for 300 days (as well as purchasable).
• Only 1 bag slot: 3 more purchasable. This may end up being cheaper as a one time purchase.
• Not all Travel Powers Accessible: They have Basic and Gold Travel powers, this is once again a situation where the one time purchase is better.
• No Power tinting: Only Gold Members can change the colors of their powers. Not purchasable.
• Auction House limited: Silver members can only post 5 items at a time. Gold can post 10 at a time. The ability to post more at a time is available to both Silver and Gold members.
• Temporary Limitations for Chat, Mail and SuperGroup CREATION: for the first 20 hours there are some chats and mail can not be done and the rate (or amount) you can send is limited, and SG creation is not available for the first 20 hours of Silver Accounts.
• Forum limitations: Silver members can read all forums, but can only post in certain areas.
• Customer Service: Silver members only get Knowledge base type help. Gold Members get live support (they say free, but you are paying $15 a month for it).
• No priority Login: Only Gold members get priority login.

So looking over the above bullet points, it will be better for most people to switch to a Silver account, and purchase things as they need or want them. Silver members will have access to all base zones, and all levels. Silver members would have to purchase 2 character slot packs (comes with 4 slots each) character slots for $30, 1 costume slot pack (which gives 2 additional costume slots) for $5, 3 bag slots (price unknown), adventure packs (unknown prices), gold archetypes (unknown prices), gold costumes (400 of them at an unknown price) to come as close to a Gold Membership without having to pay a monthly fee.

They are reworking the opening tutorial, and the progress and narrative of the first 10 levels or so into a more streamlined experience (their claim, I'll post about it when it happens). The other question is, if you still need to buy the game to start playing it (and if you get a free month of Gold). I posted the question in the forums, and I'll let you guys know if I get a response.

Are all these changes final? Actually no, they are going to start a F2P beta in November, and this isn't slotted to come out until the first quarter of 2011. Some things might still change, regardless of all that, is that as it is right now, if you don't care about changing the color of your powers, priority login and or making a customized power set, then Silver will be your best choice.

Edit:
Got my answer pretty quick:

Hey Pangoria,
When Champions Free-to-Play launches, a retail copy will not be required. Players can download the client for free.

Because physical retail copies are still in circulation and digital clients will continued to be offered at places like Steam and D2D, we're going to try and price that client at $14.99. It will also still include 30-days of free gameplay, which will functionally become 30-days of Gold Membership. So, if you buy the box or a digital client when Champions Free-to-Play launches, you pay the same price as one month of Gold Membership and you get one month of Gold Membership out of it. That seemed like the most elegant solution.

To reiterate, a box will not be necessary. You can still download the free client and either play as a Silver Player free of charge or elect to subscribe and become a Gold Member.

I hope that answers your question.

NWN - Without Roper

After two years, Chief Creative Officer, Bill Roper has left Cryptic to pursue something else (apparently to start a new company).

Now, for the past year, they've been working on Neverwinter Nights, and since they are starting to do interviews, I'm guessing that its starting to reach fulfillment. Now, Bill Roper was heavily involved with Champions Online, but he said he only barely touched on Star Trek Online. So how much involvement did he have with NWN, and if not enough, could that be why he left? Was he suddenly feeling stifled by it all?

Depending on how involved he was with this game, will decide for many people how much they feel they will like or dislike this game. Now, apparently I'm a big fun of Bill Roper (I may be the only one!?), so how sure can we be about the quality of this game? Who is involved?

So, I found an interview that Gamespot recently did with Jack Emmert (chief operating officer). Some points from the interview are as follows:

The game is not massively at all. It is simply an online multiplayer game. Imagine logging into (unmentionable MMO) and only using the Dungeon Finder. Some zones will be public, and some will be for teammates only. But not in the concept of a "hub world".

They are translating D&D4e rules into computer lingo, so, even though the starting classes are only five or so (fighter, wizard, rogue, ranger, cleric), we can expect that many can be showing up further down the line.

With how they break down the abilities, they translated D&D4e's, at-will, encounter, and daily powers into any-time, each encounter, and every few hours. This means that you would log in, play through a session, and log out for a few hours.

They are investing in including flanking, positioning, and tactics into the gameplay (not sure how it will be implemented, but in D&D4e, flanking makes it easier for you to hit).

The character editor, will be similar to CO and STO, and they will have Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and a few mysterious others (Drow, Eladrin, Warforged, Teifling, what? Honestly, being mysterious about this now is just stupid). It might mean that they are currently incomplete.

The storyline is tied into R.A. Salvatore stories (though not necessarily written by him). The adventures will occur within Neverwinter, and just outside of it, at least in the beginning. They have plans to expand after release. The game will take place 100 years in the future.

Players will be able to create stories, maps, and create quests for the map. Emmert specifically made the effort to point out that people will easily be able to tell they are using User Generated Content versus in-game content. So, that is almost a guarantee that "Forge" (their ingame creator) will be pretty lame.

It is set to be released in tandem with the R.A. Salvatore book, Gauntlegrym, which is being released October 5th, 2010.