1.0. Design Philosophy and Game Experience

The sections below will detail the vision for the game. There have been many MMORPGs made lately, so the question is why another one ? Well then intent is to provide a level of realism in the world simulation thats far beyond any that have been attempted to date. One of the major goals is to allow for a player dynamic world. By this is meant that a player should be able to change the world in natural and expected ways. This means that a player could dig a hole somewhere to hide treasure and that it would persist, or that a player or players could dig a tunnel out of a trap, or break down a door, and that these changes woudl persist.

Other major goals will be listed below, but again the overall vision is of playable realism.

1.1 Player Experience and Game Levels

Since there are many things the each player looks for in a game we will try to accomodate some of them. Some players just want to log on for a little while and "hack and slash". Some want a more in depth approach and some are looking for a real challenge. To address these needs we will try to have three levels of gaming.i
1. The basic game where one can login in quickly, pick some gear to play with, pick the char type and stats, and go hack and slash quickly. But there is a limit to advancement, and a limit to the areas that can be played. Low challenge and low risk give low rewards.
2. The middle road. Where some choices are removed, some other things like stats are a little more constrained, but the rewards are also higher. The areas of play are greater and the advancement is higher.
3. The hig game. Where you play the character you are given, you dont get to pick a "character type", where there is a haracter lifetime, but where there are no limits to advancement, and the areas of play are unlimited, and where the highest levels of achievement are open to the player.
It is thought that the middle game will be much like many other MMORPGs in terms of play style. While the low end game will probably appeal to more casual or even younger players. But that the high game will be there for those who are really interested in a true challenge.

1.2 No Arbitrary or Inconsistent Limits

As with any game or simulation there are limits to what one can do or simulate or to where a player may go. This is, of course, unavoidable. However to the extent possible these limits should be based on hardware limits, or failing that disguised as well as possible. For example:
1) There should be no concept of "zones"
2) There should be no limit to the numberof players per server, beyond those imposed by hardware limitations.
3) A player ought to be able to "climb" things (if appropriate for the character), instead of having buildings always be magical walls that always block movement.

1.3 Games Rules Scripted

A script engine is being written for the game to allow for game rules to be captured in script form. The intent is to be able to change and add game rules with out having to recompile the game engine itself. However due to the demands placed on the server a great amount of attention will be placed on optimizng the script engine. It will be highly customized for this particular game engine and server environment.