Designwork

Well, on the codework side of things, I am currently in the process of revamping my creature and item systems. Basically, I had creatures/characters in, but they needed a bit of polishing, I've given the attributes and skill system a bit more thought, so its closer to being the "final" system, bar testing of course.

The item system I am completely overhauling. Before I would pretty much define an item in the DB, and thats how it would appear in the world. Now, I am making it hugely customisable, not just for me as a designer, but for players. Basically, everything is made from base items with various traits and properties layered on. And then enchantments layered on top of that. And the whole system is set up for player crafting, so there are skills and recipes for all this kinda thing.

So, for example, you can get a smithing skill to make a steel longsword. But you can also learn smithing techniques which you can apply when you create the base item, such as "balanced" which cause the resulting item to have lesser strength requirements for use. Or more fantastical modifiers, like "silvered", which adds alchemical silver into the metal mix, doing more damage to lycanthropes.

And then, you can bind magic into the blade, such as giving it a flaming aura. Base items have an enchantment rating, determining how much magic they can hold.

All recipes/formulaes will require components which you collect in the world, some very rare, so for example the heart of a fire elemental might be needed for that fire enchantment.

There will also be a way of "commisioning" items. Say you are a warrior mage who knows how to enchant items, but you aren't a weaponsmith, and you want to make that flaming sword I mentioned. You can find an NPC weaponsmith, bring him the necessary components, and he will build you the base sword, for a substantially higher cost than if you'd done it yourself, of course.

I plan to make this a major part of the game, with the cooler items in the game having to be custom made, and rare recipes hidden in fantastic locations, or given out as rewards for quests/getting high in a faction. In fact, magical items in general will feel rarer. You can't just go to a store and choose from a huge selection of magical items. Its not like there is this surplus of enchanted weapons in every shopkeepers store room ;), which is kinda rediculous, and makes magic feel a bit lamer and less "magical" overall IMHO. I am also not fond of the "randomly whack monsters till awesome items pop out" action-RPG gameplay style. Its enjoyable enough for a while, moreso in multiplayer , but gets real old real fast. I haven't even finished Titan Quest yet. And I had to push myself to beat Diablo 2 even once.

But with this system, combined with the fact that you don't kill monsters for experience ( it all comes from completing tasks), should encourage a more thoughtful style of gameplay, I hope, and a more personalised one. When you kill something, its for a purpose, and makes sense. You aren't just a random homicidal maniac. And creatures aren't just jackpot machines.

However, since those components are rare like I said, there are plenty of vendors in the world who will be happy to buy them from you :D. I think its kinda cool to allow the option of playing as a sort of hunter/finder for the mages guild say, a person who travels to rare locations and hunts assorted magical and dangerous beasts for components for the mages spells, for a handsome profit of course ;)

I've also been thinking about the social skills and iteraction, but thats something for another post I think.