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Author Topic: Zonk's Ideas  (Read 17923 times)

Toady One

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Zonk's Ideas
« on: June 09, 2001, 11:18:00 am »

[Zonk's post from the other forum is below my response to it]

Death/Afterlife:  That sounds like a great universe variable.  In certain types, it could even be forced that you play your game, and then play again in a different world after you die...  your legend/score would be a composite of the two experiences.  Maybe in another kind of world, when you die, you can elect to play some kind of game with Death, and if you win, a little game time elapses and your dead character is resurrected.  The reincarnation option you mentioned would be fantastic, especially if you maintain some of your previous characteristics (if you don't, it would be like starting over, and might seem pointless to a lot of people).  I also like the general theme in this post of the player being saddled with curses/being a reincarnation and having to discover it throughout the game.
All kinds of thing could happen when an atheist dies.  It depends on who/what controls where the atheist goes (if anywhere).  In a simple set-up, the atheist might be sent to a hell-type world, or the atheist might be sent to a heaven-type world (perhaps because the deity is actually more forgiving that its followers think).
He he -- yeah, if we have afterlife worlds, the creatures that can move between them (demons, angels, etc.) would be able to meet the player when the player dies and before.  That would be fun.  Although there would have to be some game-playing reason why you'd want to let the demon torture you for a million years.  Depending on how memory intensive all of this is, I'd apply the general Armok principle that monsters-are-players and players-are-monsters (meaning that the things a player can do, any other creature can do, and vice-versa).  This would lead to the reincarnation scenarios you mentioned involving peasants, etc.  One problem is that we'd bump into the problems associated with real-world religions based on reincarnation (sometimes the numbers of creatures of one kind or another just don't add up).

Player backgrounds:  Sure, the player will have an in-depth background if they want, including enough special features to make them heroic or special.

Rainbows:  In general, I suppose the game needs to keep track of environmental metaphysics like this.  Hopefully I can think of an engine to cook up some novel scenarios as well.

Shape-shifting:  This is complex to implement, but I had counted on putting it in.  Mimicking a specific creature is not much harder.  In general, I'll need to think of ways that creatures can impersonate each other.  The interface for this might be strange...

Revenants:  Hmmm...  How would the game handle the ways to circumvent the curse that you mentioned?  It probably wouldn't -- if the target of the revenant is crafty enough to hold off the monster (by doing any of the things you mentioned), he or she should be allowed to live.  Of course, in later versions the stronger Revanant-style curses would be augmented to circumvent as many of thes hold-off tactics as possible.

Ghost/Mummy:  The only problem with having a player character in one of these positions is combating boredom.  How does one keep it interesting?

Immortality:  A problem with this in a computer game would be that it makes the character very powerful by default.  Unless I find a way to program it in, the player wouldn't see this as a curse.  They'd eventually conquer the world, do everything they want to do, press retire and consider themselves winners.  They don't have to grapple with emotions or philosophical problems.  However, non-players can be made to do these things (and it adds to the plot).  Players are a different story...

Sleep-walking:  This would be entertaining.  Like the werewolf scenario, you could wake up in a vastly changed world.  In both the sleep-walking and werewolf cases, it would be nice to incorporate the dream interface, either to drop hints to the player regarding their condition or to allow them some control (maybe without knowing it).

-------------------------------------------
Zonk's Post from the Old Forum:

Death/Afterlife:When you die you could have the option of quitting or going to heaven/hell/similar place where you could meet someone(EVEN OTHER DEAD PLAYERS!) You could even reincarnate in another entity...think to a evil player who gets killed and must reincarnate in varius creatures to get forgiven for his sin....This player could be reincarnated in this way:


First Reincarnation: Beetle
Second Reincarnation: Mouse
Third Reincarnation: Snake
Fourth Rencarnation: Dog
Fifth Reincarnation: Monkey
and simlar things---

Also you would also have SOME memories of your paste life(including skills)?
YOU COULD EVEN BE THE REINCARNATION OF ANOTHER PLAYER!Think to a very powerful
player who gets killed,then you create another character and this character
is the reincarnation of the other character(but you don't realize it at the beggining)..

Here are some questions:
What would happen when an atheist dies?(I mean a player who has no religion but
he is in a world where the gods DO EXIST,like the "Atheist Mode"option is OFF)

What about applying these ideas to a monster?..Think to this:An evil player
kills a demon to steal his treasures..then the player dies and get sent to hell...
Here the Demon and the player meet again *grin*(of course the Demon would be more powerful
than when he was killed,because he is in hell)..

Also..you could kill a paesant and later be attacked by a mouse that is the reincarnation
of the paesant...
If a demon gets killed,he would return to hell and could return to the "surface world"
after some time...,a year,100 years,1000 years?

Some "special stories/backgrounds" for character generation(also for some entities?):


The entity/character is a sort of SuperHero/Freak/Mutated guy.
The entity/character is a demi-god(son of a mortal and of a god)
The entity/character has a curse but he does not know it(like he is a Werewolf
but he has not realized it..not yet)
The entity/character has a destiny that has been choosen for him.


Folklore/Mytology:


Rainbows:If you follow a rainbow until it ends,and you are in a fantasy/faery world,you get
       a pot full of gold?(this is a part of Irish folklore)

Doppledanger:A doppledanger is someone who spapeshifts to look like you and could ruin your
       reputation ecc.ecc..

Revenant:If an entity(including the player)dies in a moment of incredible anger or
dies by being killed by someone they trusted,they could be re-animated as Revenants...
When a revenant get's "destroyed",he goes back to his tomb/place where his remains are
and he ressurects as a Revenant after about a month(only some days if he was killed
by his killer in life).When the revenant destroys the killer,the revenant becomes dust
and finally rests in peace...but..what would happen if the killer threw the varius body
parts in varius places?..Or if the killer got ressurected?Also being a revenant could be a
CURSE!

Ghost/Mummy:Similar to being a Revenant,you could guard/haunt some place...

If you need other ideas about folklore/mytology,go to www.pantheon.com


Idea for some new Curses(also see Revenant and Ghost):


Curse of Immortality:Yes!This is a curse!The player can't die,like even if all off limbs
are chopped off,he regenerates/his body reforms.He is not SUPER-POWERFUl,just immortal..
he could try to kill 5000 paesants,but they would cut him to pieces,and then he would
rise again and be cut again...of course he DOES feel the pain...The player will be
forced to live for thousand of years,unless he finds something like a weapon that
can kill him...like in some legends and in an episode of
"Xena:Warrior Princess" when Callisto becomes immortal but she wants to die,so she begs
Xena to find her a god-slaying dagger to use it on her,but when Xena finds it she refuses
to kill Callisto(Callisto killed her son),then Callisto sees Xena best friend(Olimpia)die
nd she says she no longer wants to die...so Xena kills her..
(Forgive my for my "TV reference"...)

Curse of SleepWalking:While sleeping the character walks and does varius things..this
       is not a true "magical curse".

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