Ideas thread.

[Jack Half a Prayer]

As the first post in the idea's thread I think I've got a really top notch one. Make XP based on post length. Maybe word count / 10?

[weienw]

That's definitely an idea, but a problem would be finding a bulletin board system that counts words. Then we'd have "quotes" and things to worry about, which sometimes are quoting someone else's stuff, or (for example, Wyndisis' 'note' that we found in Saria) at other times are original text.

I guess it depends on the platform; if it's viable, I'd certainly be for the idea. ^^

[Jack]

Erm, a word counter is probably impossible, unless I find a really rare mod that can do such a thing.  :-\

[weienw]

Then one more or less viable way to do it would be to have a mod count or estimate (for huge posts) lines of text. With a proper mod-to-player ratio, experience could possibly be tallied by that method, though it's a bit of extra work for the admin/moddy types. But with a good 2-3 click system of covering every post, it could be doable.

Eh, yeah... it is a bit far fetched. Thoughts?

[Master Goron]

You have to have very dedicated mods, and they would probably only have certain areas to cover.

Like we could have 10 mods + Narrator, and give each mod a couple of areas to mod, because I couldn't imagine having 2 or 3 people being able to do it. 5 mods would be for N. Hyrule, and 5 for S. Hyrule.

Mod 1- Ruto town- Pheonix Eyes
Mod 2- NCC- Dark Acolytes
Mod 3- Rauru- Canyon Crossroads
Mod 4- Mido town- Saria town
Mod 5- DMR Caves

Something like that, which wouldn't be too hard, but still challenging because it requires dedication from everyone.

I would be willing to do it, but we would need to have guidelines so we knew how much to give people, but anyway, I don't know that it's the greatest idea, but I would be willing to try.

Also, I think that grammar and maybe vocabulary should have some effect on xp gain.

My main concern is that alot happens while I'm at school. Sometimes I come back and there's 20 new posts in one thread. If I had to give xp to all of them, it would take a while.

So maybe it's a little far-fetched, but definately doable as long as our mods are fair and stuff.

[Jack]

So you guys are telling me you want xp to be a reward for good storytelling rather than base participation?

[Jack Half a Prayer]

Yeah that's some thing I'd like to see. Too bad its not a simple as a word count...

[Master Goron]

I really don't care, as long as I can get xp I'll be happy. What do other people think?

An idea: What if for the first week or two, our characters could only travel through one of the halves? So we would choose either N/S Hyrule, and then(even if we did it ourselves) just travel and post on one side. Then at the one or two week limit, have something happen to get them together at the border, and then have both sides open to all.

[weienw]

Hm... well, for the exp ideas, if we wanted totally drastic changes in play, I've heard of systems for RPG's that don't use exp at all... but rather "skill tree" based advancement. Anyone heard of something like this? Not completely sure how they work, but I think that, per what Dylan mentioned, they could help newbies get right in the action rather than be useless for 500 posts.

Shiva's game beginning idea: Hey, I think that that's as good a way as any to begin HA2. One cool thing about that would be that character "roots" would be established in a very clean manner. I like the idea of having a big event of sorts a couple weeks into the game; I think that having a rough "timeline" of events would be beneficial for HA. I remember when I first joined, there would regularly be updates from the Colonel (or whoever) who would tell us about the happenings of the land, giving us more of a sense of time rather than a never-ending story (which HA1 sort of ended as, in my humble opinion).

[Red_Fury]

I'm sure everyone know what I want to see in HA2 *cough* Potion Shops *cough*. Basically I want to see the same HA but with some modifications.

One of the things most discussed was the quests. In HA the quests usually involved hitting enemies until they fell down, because of this various ideas were put forward to make the quests more involving or more cerebral.

For example; Using the characters stats for more than one thing. Instead of the ATT just being used to determine hits in could be used as a gauge of strength. So there could be a block that needs to be moved to bridge a gap but in order to move the block they need to have a strength total of 100 or more.

Another example would be finding items during the quest, instead of an enemy only having keys or rupees how about finding a magic vial or heart.

Also another thing in would like to see would be unison attacks.So two wizards use fire, the attacks merge to form double-fire which does extra damage than two normal fire attacks.

One thing that I don't want HA2 to become is a stat-fest after reading through the Zelda D20 Soucebook I felt relieved at how simple HA is in comparison. D20 is very in depth (and I mean very). I mean Hylains have 7 racial traits and Deku scrubs have 11 also there are, at least, 20 pages deciated to spells.

[Master Goron]

Korind: I believe HA's ending was so neverending (ooh) because we had no plot-driven quests after the Peaktop quest. So HA 2 should be better timelined because of more quests.

About the skill-trees: That might be doable, but would it be based on a post or time based system? Another idea we could have would be the apprenticeship idea we had earlier, with you spending time with a "master" to learn new abilities.  

One question: Are we going to restart HA's timeline, and have new events in place of the Goriya's Cave? Or are we going to redo Goriya's Cave, and do the quests over again? Or are we just going to go from where we left off in HA? (That was a good one question, huh?)

Red: Potion shops would be cool, and our bottles would actually have a more important use than the occasional water or something.  

I don't know if I like unison attacks, but if I'm the only one against it, that's fine by me.

But I definately want to see more items in quests, because we never found anything but rupees and keys.

[Jack]

Lemme respond to the ideas as they've been posted.

(1) MG, I like the split idea so the characters can develop backgrounds first, but I don't think this will work unless the players regulate themselves and stick to one side of the map. Also, this would presume that both sides of the map are equally civilized, whereas with HA the south was wild and untamed, while the north was civilized.

(2) Weienw, I like your skill tree idea. How about this: when you first create a character you start with say, three points of some kind. Now, there'd be a large list of skills that you buy using these skill points. Example: Lockpicking (for use in dungeons), or Conditioning (+3 to STR, or something like that). Certain skills would have prerequisites, like you can't get "Goron Strength" (+12 to STR) without Conditioning I-III. And certain skills would be available to only certain classes. Then to get skill points you'd have to participate in certain events, accomplish certain mini-solo quests, etc. Then if you participate in a large World Event, like Ganon attacking North Castle, you'd get say three points. They wouldn't be too rare, but at the same time be a great indicator of the role you're playing in Hyrule. Thoughts?

(3) Red Fury, potion shops are definitely on my list. As is an expansive skill check system. And, I like your spell-mixing idea.

Now, i have a couple of questions for everyone:

(1) What kind of world so we want? I was thinking of using the same map, but changing the areas around a bit, and making a situation where there is civilization on the outer rims of Hyrule, but most of the interior, especially around Death Mountain is quarantined due to the strength of Ganon's forces.

(2) Storyline--would it be okay to make HA2 chronologically following HA? Say the situation of #1 is due to some catastrophic event and the Adventurers have to work their way around the quaratined zones to defeat Ganon's plots while returning to civilization to rest/buy stuff, etc.

(3) Classes--do we want more or less classes? How about a small number of classes that, using the skill point system, can shoot off in different directions from each other, so that no two members of a class are alike and almost are like different classes. Also, name the classes you'd like to see in HA2.

(4) Races--I'm thinking Hylians, Humans, Zora, Gorons, Rito, Deku Scrubs, Fairies, Shiekah, Gerudo. Any other suggestions are welcome, but I doubt we'll see an Subrosians (since they don't leave their underground world much), Tokay (sine they are socially inept), or Kokiri/Koroks (since they're kind of bound to helping the Great Deku Tree).

Overall, my main goal for HA2 is to make it much more of a "world" than HA was. I want large, more expansive towns that you can explore. I want it to take more than three clicks to cross half of Hyrule. Any other suggestions to this effect are welcome.

Because a fully automated game is impossible I'm going to need like 5 or so volunteers to help me out in the modding department. Remember how long it'd take me to have the mayor respond to someone showing a trophy? If I had five people watching that, it would make things much easier, and proceed much faster!

Finally, I need some help from you guys. If we have any talented artists among the players here, I will probably need some help in that area. I don't want to have to use the same map from HA, and I'd like to say have ten locations graphics (one for forests, mountains, hills, grassland, road, desert, tundra, etc.) and one drawing of each major town. I'd coordinate this task with the artist to make things easier. Basically, I'm not looking for full paintings or color drawings, but almost sketches of each locations, black and white, so its an abstract representation of what kind of area your character is in.

As always suggestions are appreciated! Hope this wasn't too much of a long read.  8)

[Jack]

An addendum to the skill points matter: because it may get to a point where someone would join and find out all the other players have 100 skill points, there would be a "handicap" of x number of points, so there is an opportunity for new players to catch up to a degree.

[Master Goron]

Responses:
1) I wouldn't mind regulating myself, and if others would do that too, I think that would work nicely. It would be more realistic, so anyone else willing to do that, or is it just a stupid crazy idea?

2) Also, maybe the skill points would be earned on a bi-weekly basis. Like 1 point/2 weeks, and then earn say... 3 per quest.

Questions:
1) Yeah, civilization would stay away from death mountain, and Ganon's forces. So that should work fine...

2) Sounds like a plan to me, and that allows people to recreate their characters if they so choose, or to create anew. Also, I agree that most shops should be away from battle zones, but maybe a few scrub shops near DMR would be a cool addition.

3) I would say combine the classes to what they do best, and have branching paths based on skill choices. So maybe mages would be the overarching magic class, but through skills, you could become a cleric, or a wizard, maybe you even get to choose what to name your character's class...

And we could have a warrior class, which would combine Soldiers and Barbarians, and a traveler class which could be Scribes, Ranger's and Rogues. But your character would have hand picked skills to make them different. It would be great.

That way in a person's sig, they could write:

Shiva(Name)
Goron(Race)
L9 Traveler(Class)
(Ranger)  (Sub-class name)

[or](I'm making this one up)

Pedro
Hylian
L4 Mage
(Necromancer)

4) The only people-race I can think of that we don't have is dwarves, the smiths from ALttP. Those aren't really anywhere else though, so probably not a good candidate. For and enemy-type guy, it would be cool if we could be a Lizalfos, or Dinolfos. Other than those, which aren't even really good choices, I can't think of any. My one concern is that if we still have racial skills, a few need to be changed. Gerudos(oes?) didn't have a racial ability, a Moblin's War Cry was useless if you wanted to be able to do any kind of damage. For the most part, the rest are good.

Other suggestions:
I think if you want a world-like feel, make it huge! And stuff needs to happen a lot. Even if it wasn't extremely big, as long as stuff's happening, it'll feel a lot bigger. For towns, make the forums like in Saria town compass clicks. So to get to the south end, you would click "South." Maybe even split those up a little, by which way you go, make it so you can explore the town, almost get lost, scratch that, so we can get lost! Not really, but you get the idea...

I think first choice for mods should be offered to those who've been with the site the longest. I think contribution to HA should also be taken into account. I would love to do it, but there's others who are better qualified to be a mod than me...

As for artists, I might be able to do some, but I don't know how I'd get it up. Also, I'm not the greatest artist, but I can try some stuff. If I get something worthy of being put up, I'll let you know...

And finally, a handicap would be good, get them started to be caught up, that way it's not like HA, with newbies having no chance to do anything at all in quests and stuff. Sounds good to me.

I can't wait!!! It's gonna be awesome!!!

[Master Goron]

Another thing I would like to see is a wider array of weaponry, so my question to people is what Zelda-esque weapons would you like to see?

Myself, I would love to see a ball-and-chains, possibly scimitars, axes, and maces, basically more freedom in weapons for people.

Maybe a weapon requesting system could be used. Where someone who wants a weapon currently unavailable could PM a mod and the mods get together and try to decide if it's viable, possible stats, abilities, or stuff to align with it.

Say I wanted a ball-and-chain, I could suggest it to a mod, and then they would decide if it was worth it(maybe if at least 3 people want one). Then they would get together, talk it over, and they would decide it's stats, like.

Ball-and-Chain - 20 DAM, -2 DEF, -2 SPD, range = 10 ft.

Maybe an unarmed fighting style could be instituted also, around our HQ I suggested it earlier kinda like this. Since weapons only control DMG, unarmed could be simple:

Warriors:
1.25 x L = DMG
1.25 x 5 = 6.25 ~ 6
1.25 x 9 = 11.25 ~ 11
Travelers:
1 x L = DMG
1 x 5 = 5
1 x 9 = 9
Mages:
.75 x L = DMG
.75 x 5 = 3.75 ~ 4
.75 x 9 = 6.75 ~ 7

See how while they don't do massive DMG(and they shouldn't), it represents the differences in strength between the classes. I think it's fairly well balanced(as long as PG's can't be used). Thoughts?