Dev wants some Help with Game Ideas

Crickettwb
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by Crickettwb » Post

Great game, i see a ton of potential with it.

Going back to the first posts, I really like the idea of a mini-map, especially one with a fog-of-war effect that is cleared when the player discovers new areas. I would definitely like if that was incorporated in to a hotkey which you could press to view a larger version in the middle of the screen.

Another thing that I think could really improve the game would be the addition of an encyclopedia or an almanac. This would either show all of the possible building recipes that can be made, or could at first only show a couple of the basic recipes; aka sticks, wood, a crafting bench, the basic tools; and then more would be added as the player discovers them and uses them. That would be another feature that would be accessed by a hotkey.

The almanac could also be adapted if you choose to take the game in an RPG direction. The almanac could include only the recipes that the player can make at that point in the game, until they receive or find more as they progress in the game. This would make more dynamic gameplay, because in the beginning the player would be limited to what they could do or make, and give him an incentive to follow and complete the story.

So those are my ideas. Unfortunately I can not code, as much as I would like to, so I can not contribute to the project in that way, but I hope my ideas are good.

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titformatt
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by titformatt » Post

I just had a little thought about the whole concept of blocks and crafting...

Modular Robotics

I remembered these things. Crafting items that you can interact with in real space instead of in your inventory... kind of like Garry's Mod I suppose, but an interesting thought no?

milkmandan
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by milkmandan » Post

titformatt wrote:I just had a little thought about the whole concept of blocks and crafting...

Modular Robotics

I remembered these things. Crafting items that you can interact with in real space instead of in your inventory... kind of like Garry's Mod I suppose, but an interesting thought no?
Hmm... maybe like the chests, when you put a certain combination of blocks down in right pattern you get a new item.

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titformatt
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by titformatt » Post

milkmandan wrote:
titformatt wrote:I just had a little thought about the whole concept of blocks and crafting...

Modular Robotics

I remembered these things. Crafting items that you can interact with in real space instead of in your inventory... kind of like Garry's Mod I suppose, but an interesting thought no?
Hmm... maybe like the chests, when you put a certain combination of blocks down in right pattern you get a new item.
Yeah like, you put down an "engine/power" block in combination with a "body" and "wheel" (cube or tapered corners to keep the blocky feel) block you get something that you can drive around. The beauty of it would be the user could dictate the size and shape. It would be dynamic in that sense... like Garrys Mod as I suggested before. It would be awesome to do a big logic thing like that, like the red stone stuff... but more compact and useful. Could you imagine a wooden or soil mech for instance? I know can, and it would be awesome.

X3TH
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by X3TH » Post

I have an idea! :D
What if we add more medieval MMORPG elements into the game (quests, npcs, monsters/mobs, equips), we could have a main server where we can make our own "continents". Also, we could add a Capture the flag mode into the game as well. Another thought I had was programmable NPCs that could harvest/mine renewable blocks for you. Lastly, I was thinking maybe adding more inventory space perhaps?
^^

Hoschi
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by Hoschi » Post

Do you know Deliantra (www.delintra.net)

It's a MMORPG with a server (C++ and Perl) and a Client (Perl). Basically it's a beefed up version of Crossfire.

The game is (currently) strictly 2D. There can be lots of players online, which normally don't fight each other. There's a huuuuge number of different monsters. Players have different skills which help them fighting but also crafting. Oh, and crafting is very different than in minecraft.

Now my idea is this: make a mix between minetest & Deliantra. The monsters/spellcasting/fighting etc should be similar as in Deliantra. However, both the landscape and the buildings should be similar to minecraft.

In Deliantra, almost all rooms have a "reset" timer. When this timer expires, the map get's unloaded ... at the next entry, the map will again have it's monsters & loot. As long as a player is in a map, the map never expires. In my hypothetical game, one would define cubic areas with such a reset logic. And now comes the good part: some player builds stuff, e.g. a new house. He now submits this house (or, actually an area that contains this house) as a "please make this permanent" suggestion. Some dungeon master or voting logic would then look at the stuff and include it into the map database. But if some player just builds stuff randomly, e.g. he mines for minerals, then after some time the map will be like before, similar to how Deliantra works.

That would allow (like in Minecraft) collaboration of Players. Every player would be also a potential map contributor, every game client would be a map editor.

And yet one can "just" play the game, visit different contintens, solve Quests, kill Death Heads in the Hell and so on ...

SpeedProg
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by SpeedProg » Post

Hi
I'll present my ideas to you. Feel free to ask some questions if you don't understand something. My english isn't that good.

At first here are some ideas about the account and right thing. Most of them about handling those destructive people.

1. Accounts:

I would make reall acound that can cover more than one player (at least I'm using 6 of them already because of the large distances)
don't know how they are saved actually by the server, but this could be done this way:
BASEDIR/accounts/
BASEDIR/accounts/ACCOUNTNAME/
BASEDIR/accounts/ACCOUNTNAME/account.txt
BASEDIR/accounts/ACCOUNTNAME/characters.txt

having the account.txt containing things like privilegs (teleport and so on)
like:

Code: Select all

password=kjdflgsdkfhsdfheulrslkfh
privilegs=ABCDEFG
and the character.txt containing the characters and there positions, inventory and those things.
could be of a formate like:

Code: Select all

<player>
<name>SpeedProg</name>
<inventory>
    <slot1>
        <item>pickaxe</item><count>1</count>
    </slot1>
</inventory>
<posx>100.0</pox>
<posy>210.5</posy>
<posz>10.0</posz>
</player>

2. Privileges

I don't actually know which one are already there. I know sth. of teleporting and so on but.
I'm suggesting privileges for:
  1. logging in
  2. moving the player
  3. modification of the world (not set at creation of the account)
  4. teleporting your self
  5. teleporting others (you should really implement that to make administrating easier)
  6. changing login privilege
  7. changing moving of the player privileges
  8. changing all privileges
  9. reading/marking tickets

3. Ticket System

there should be something like at ticket system to inform Admin/Game Masters about problems or player who are destructive.
Something like PMs everyone who has the privileges for that can read.

4. Teleports

I think teleporters would be a nice thing to have because sometimes you have to go through very large distances.
They would be even more useful if you are able to decide who can teleport them. So there must be one side where you can change that, the first or the last of the teleporters. (every teleporter should consist of 2 parts)


I hope this are constructive and useful ideas, I will add some new if I have some new :D

And you are doing a really good work I enjoy playing your game really much.

Tempest
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by Tempest » Post

Scale the blocks down, so we could create things with more detail. This would REALLY set this game away from minecraft.

It could also be nice to create more mechanics like this gif: http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/5402 ... 078211.gif
Notch even said that minecraft will never feature such "complex" enviroment, since it's supposed to be kept simple. Here you could also implement oil, engines, pumps and other ways to make more advanced systems/machines.
Last edited by Tempest on Sun May 29, 2011 22:35, edited 1 time in total.

darkhog
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by darkhog » Post

My ideas:
1. Better sprite handling
2. Player's sprite customization & server list

Open links, because I didn't want to write it 2nd time and didn't know about this topic when posting those two.

worldsayshi
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by worldsayshi » Post

Plug-in architecture: In the Minecraft community there's a lot of modding and never ending stream of requests for this and that mob and item. Mods are all good but they are kind of a separate game. I'm agreeing with some ppl here saying that the game should be dynamic and scriptable. But a script engine seems like a lot of work and might not pay off anyway.

Instead, allow loading reoccurring entities as plug-ins. People always wants this and that mob. The answer is "Go get Mo creatures.". But they want it in the real game! So make general 'mob' interfaces and allow loading mobs as plugins from inside the game. Get the server to distribute the plugins to anyone connecting to it (following a consensual request of course). People want this and that biome. Biomes might be made as plugins (a tad more advanced for the general case I imagine). "I want this and that concentration of pigs spawning in my backyard" - So adjust the settings of default plugin x and replace the default one with your new.

Kagato
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by Kagato » Post

I posted one idea to Reddit a while back that's more probably applicable to your project than Minecraft itself:

"Voxel"* Models

http://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comme ... el_models/

Have only two basic entity types:
  • Cubes, as currently used in the terrain map
  • "Voxel" models
Voxel models would allow for more complex designs while retaining an essentially blocky style that would suit the world.

This is basically how character models work in 3D Dot Game Heroes. You can play around with an online version of their modeller here: http://designer.3ddotgameheroes.eu/

Each model fits in a 16 unit cube, and is built much the same as any structure in the map.
This technique could be used to model players & monsters, but also any other static map entities: flowers, fences, stairs, doors etc. (Larger models could work in multiples; eg. humans could 2x1 blocks tall, 32x16x16.)

Animated objects (monsters) could be made of multiple model parts, with some sort of skeletal or keyframing animation; or, if more appropriate, could cycle between different voxel representations (more like sprite animation).

Here's a mockup of a voxel creeper, with some subtle 3D details.

Aside from allowing more detailed shapes, it can also allows modelling of an object's interior, if that offers advantages. (Damage to an object could be visually represented, for example.)

Solid blocks wouldn't be rendered this way... but they could be defined in voxels. A player could place a stone or wood block on a sculpting table, and carve out an ornamental object that would retain the inner detail/grain of the original block.

This could be a massive boon to modders. You wouldn't need modelling & skinning skills to add new game entities; if you could build your design as a map structure, you could build it as an entity.

*I say "voxel" in quotes, because as was pointed out in the Reddit thread, that mostly refers to rendering technique rather than data structure. Minecraft-style cubic terrain is essentially defined as voxel terrain, but it isn't rendered as voxels. The same could apply to the models, which could be converted to polygonal representations for rendering purposes.

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benajamin
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by benajamin » Post

I just had an idea that I thought might be fun. Minecraft is very tool based, like you need to make and use tools in order to manipulate blocks. Minetest could be spell based in that a player could manipulate blocks and engage in combat using magic in a system similar to the game "Magicka". The player would arm themselves with some combination of blocks that creates a spell effect. Spells would consume blocks and rare blocks would be needed for more powerful spells. Spells to create the more commonly needed blocks would help solve the problem of using up all of the blocks in an area. (Maybe a spell to reset a region to its original form?)
Spells to quickly remove or add blocks in a large array (a wall or column or cube) would cut down on the drudgery of mining basic block types and building basic structures, while fancier spells would add new dimensions to combat. Spells affecting areas, rather than single blocks, would also allow the blocks to be made smaller (for more detailed building) without multiplying the effort in adding/removing them by the same factor.
You could also mix things together to have both tools and magic, or character classes that can use either with varying efficiency. I have noticed on the Minecraft forums that a lot of people use editors and server commands to shortcut boring stuff and the spells I am describing could replace these things with an in-game mechanic.

harrison
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by harrison » Post

1. More rats! The rats are great. Don't ruin them by polygonalization.

2. As Kagato points out, "[m]inecraft-style cubic terrain is essentially defined as voxel terrain, but it isn't rendered as voxels..." This is true. Rendering voxels either directly (by tracing) or indirectly (by tracing for visibility and then rasterizing) is better in lots of ways. The second of these, the tracer-rasterizer hybrid renderer approach, is not well understood (yet).

stormrider2
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by stormrider2 » Post

Here are some suggestions:
1. Add doors
2. Add cows, sheep, chickens for food
3. Make it so the player needs food like health drains down for a certain amount of time without food.
4. Add minecarts.
5. Add sounds and music.
6. Add more blocks.
7. More monsters.
8. Sun and Moon.
9. Pets (Cats and Dogs)
10. Make a cluster of structures a town.
11. Empire building.
12. Leadership system.
13. Wars.
14. Swords need pictures.
15. Vehicles (Boats, Cars, Trains, Planes)
16. Achievement system.
17. Quests.
18. Furniture.
19. Crouching physics.
20. Jobs.
21. Currency.
22. Leveling System.
23. Flowers.
24. Fruits and vegetables.
25. Establish Laws.
26. Town and nation elections.
27. Markets.
28. Lava
Last edited by stormrider2 on Sun Jun 05, 2011 00:28, edited 1 time in total.

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benajamin
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by benajamin » Post

OK Stormrider2, wtf do you mean by "19. Crouching physics." ????

stormrider2
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by stormrider2 » Post

benajamin wrote:OK Stormrider2, wtf do you mean by "19. Crouching physics." ????
Means the ability to crouch.

Moros
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by Moros » Post

Suggestion for the crafting system:

Right now, Minetest is basically copying MC's crafting system, right? I've played Minecraft enough that the crafting gets a little annoying sometimes. Having to place all the ingredients in the correct layout makes it more time-consuming and irritating, because people have to remember the ingredients, the number of ingredients, and the positioning of the ingredients.

Has anyone seen Terraria? The crafting system they have is much easier and faster than in Minecraft. Basically, just let the player press 'c' (or some other crafting key) and then pull up a menu that displays all the available recipes given the player's inventory contents. If a player is away from a crafting table, then he/she can only craft a limited set of items. If the player is using a crafting table, then the player has access to more recipes. Right now, Terraria lists all of the available recipes in a single column that players have to scroll through, but I would like to see a 2D menu of craftable items so that players have to do far less scrolling to find the item they want to make.

No need to waste time memorizing the placement of items and putting the items into certain shapes. It would essentially be a simplified recipe book - the player just chooses the item to create from a menu populated by the combination of the available recipes and the player's inventory.

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celeron55
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by celeron55 » Post

Moros: Something quite similar to what you just explained has been planned for a long time already. Will take time to get to making it, though.

Zamolxis
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by Zamolxis » Post

Why not make ships and sail them to islands and stuff... make some villages where player gather and politics, jobs ( missions ) by colecting and a trading sistem ?
Last edited by Zamolxis on Sun Jun 12, 2011 13:16, edited 1 time in total.

bcmpinc
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by bcmpinc » Post

The most important feature of the game should be that it minimizes micromanagement. That probably means that the crafting system should be replaced by a much simpler one. One that does not require positioning the items, but instead just gives a list of what you can make with your current inventory. Food for replenishing health is also no option. Replenishing over time would probably work better. Being able to 'equip' tools such that they are used automatically and don't take up one of the 1-9 slots would also help.

One thing that would be cool, would be in-game script-able actors. In-game meaning that the script is written client-side and uploaded to the server from within the game (either using a file on disk or an in-game editor). These actors can then be used to do various repetitive and time consuming, but simple tasks (like mining, building or converting certain resources to tools). Or for controlling various mechanisms. This would require a special api (kind of like the one in robocode, but with some additional items that allow for in-game configuration and interaction.) for programming the actor. Also there must be a mechanism that prevents the actor from using to much processing time. And last, the state must be store-able and block unloads containing actors must be handled somehow.

I have to agree that its probably a good idea to drop the medieval theme. However that means that magic is also no option. A theme that minetest could adopt is high-tech (mostly '80-style with some futuristic stuff added). That would nicely fit with the idea of spaceships and space travel. Electricity can be used to drive various mechanism (like the actors (depleting energy by cpu cycles & movement) or something like an oil rig or monorail) and must be generated by a power plant. And a way to create pneumatic mail would be awesome.

For the idea of traveling to the moon, there is plenty of space up there (about 30000 blocks high) that could be used to contain the moon. Then only a single world is required, so it could be implemented relatively easy. (Yeah, you could fall off of the moon, or build a space ladder to the moon. But thats fun, isn't it?)

mstoykov
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by mstoykov » Post

My advice is simple :) :
add content or easy way to add one for example write tutorials on how to add simple mobs (like chikens which dont have any real AI but a basic one which makes them wonder around ) and how to make new items (add them to crafting, give them skin, and properties when they are put down) - this wont make it possible for some random guy with basic programming exp like me to implement red stone but could probably give me the chance to implement something like a new weapon with new material you made freeing you to implement something else.

this way the game will get more tes^Wplayers

All the ideas here are very nice but hard to implement and will be pointless if there is no content . I think it's too early to make such big things as ships and my idea of implementation for all the planet stuff and others is to just make them like different worlds (with new coards maybe even on different server instance - which will probably be cooler :P and harder)
Last edited by mstoykov on Mon Jun 20, 2011 03:27, edited 1 time in total.

Pyro_Phoenix
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by Pyro_Phoenix » Post

1. Combination lock chests (combination so can share with friends).
2. Doors! And please give them a combination lock too.

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benajamin
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by benajamin » Post

Pyro_Phoenix wrote:2. Doors! And please give them a combination lock too.
Locking a door doesn't achieve much if you can easily tunnel through the wall. Or do you plan to make your house entirely out of locked chests and doors?

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O'Hara
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by O'Hara » Post

Or we could skip a step and make a combonation lock item that you can put on anything. much simpler.
People can fly.

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benajamin
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by benajamin » Post

You mean, kind of like a sign? But that the block it is attached to can't be opened or mined until the lock/sign is removed, which requires a correct pin? That sounds like a very good idea!

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