Zoric 8 thoughts/ideas

Kynn · Post by **Kynn** » Sat Jul 10, 2004 8:47 pm

Spider wrote:Its hard to see how hidden vehicles can help the longetivity of the islands. Also, its not that practical. Either its easy to see where they are (is that an island over there?) or its not, in which case the rich guys get the booty anyway.

I'm going out on a limb here, and assuming (from what zar described) that he's intending to "camoflauge them as trees etc. Personally, I'm not in favor of hidden vehicles...to me it just seems like a gimic to get you to wander around the island aimlessly. On another online game I've played, the top ore "fell from the sky on a meteor" and the first person that found it got it. Honestly, I hated it

It meant that you either had to a) be damn lucky in your travels and stumble upon it or b) spend a PILE of time hunting for it. I guess I'm just more in favor of things having to be earned. The up side to this was that it couldn't be made by any other method, so the "luck" of finding it wasn't taking profit from a manufacturer. But again, that's just my thoughts, and it's not my island

Spider wrote:Vehicles could be made a lot cheaper too. Making vehicle production cheaper would mean that new players would not lose all their money because they have suddenly spent half of it on vehicles. Also, I think that expensive car showrooms are a bad idea.

Mkay, this I can't agree with. I disagree with the mentality that you have to prevent a new player from being able to do something. If they *really* want to spend their money on an expensive car, who are you (island creator) or anyone else to stop them? Suggest it might not be a wise idea, sure...offer alternatives, sure...but when it comes right down to it, if they're goal in the game is to have an expensive car and drive it around, that's *their* choice. Provide them with accurate, unbiased information (this game is in SERIOUS need of a good how to guide), and past that, you have to let them choose how they want to play the game.

Spider wrote:In my opinion, fewer cars should be available. Maybe 1) a cheap and reasonable vehicle 2) a medium speed vehicle and 3) a fast vehicle. Then a truck could be added, with a huge capacity, and a plane , and also a boat. This will also stop those who buy a car at the top of the range, then go and buy the one above it for an extra xxx sheckles, using up xxx sheckles to get a whole extra 5 mph top speed.

Again, why stop them??? To me, flexibility in a game, allowing for personal goals and personal preferences is vital. I don't want to play a linear game.

Spider wrote:Calren's going to hate me for this, but a government building buying stuff is a good idea for an economy.

Ok, I guess my question then would be, why not just hand the player the money and skip the whole making, and selling part? It's the same thing...if they sell the building the "stuff" and get money in return, then the stuff "disappears", they're essentially getting free money.

Spider wrote:One of the problems with new players is that they seem too uncertain about what buildings to make. It seems that only a small percentage are willing to go and start a building (100 people in a-tractor remember).

It's very hard as a new player to figure out what building to make, agreed. I think it's part of the huge learning curve you have starting to play the game. Good guides, reference doc's etc would go a long way in helping with that.

Spider wrote:Of course, encouraging people to transfer would be a big help too. Don't know how to do that, except for a minor piece of lobotomy...

Tax is a real hinderance in transfering things...the profit margin when transfering isn't that high, and if you add tax to the mix...well, it's not a very good use of your time. What if tax were only charged on the end product?

I think that something to keep in mind (and seems like Zar is by asking for input) is that not everyone plays the game the same way or with the same goals. Allowing for a variety of paths for a player to take from start of the world to end of the world is going to help get and keep players interested, and help longevity...a linear path makes a very cut and dry game.

scrag · Post by **scrag** » Sat Jul 10, 2004 9:17 pm

u dnt like wat spider wrote much do ya kynn

tipster · Post by **tipster** » Sat Jul 10, 2004 10:13 pm

doesn't look like it XD

zaroba · Post by **zaroba** » Sat Jul 10, 2004 10:27 pm

kynn's pretty much got the same ideas as i do for an island.
many paths to choose (hence the many different production lines), many goals (hence all the different building things and vehicles), and its not meant to be a newbie island. zoric never was planned as an easy island, and it probably wont ever be made with ease of play as the main task (because i don't like super easy islands).

true though that hiddin vehicles wont work nicely, now that i have hinted about the idea of hiddin vehicles on the island, people will look for them by (as i think tom said) by just driving around with the building info menu open.
it woulda been alot more interesting if i diden't say anything about them and somebody just happened to find a hidden vehicle by trying to build and seeing the "too close to building" message, then did a control and found the vehicle for sale for 1s in the building

more buildings needed for stuff is a pretty good thing, especially combined with low building ownership limits. this will force more people to work together, instead of letting inactives easily get stuff. this need for more buildings will also provide more industries for new players to go into, so they will be able to find a business to run.

cheap vehicles i also think is a bad idea, as this will 1. make it easier for all lines to be built up, 2, make rich people get bored faster, 3, be one less goal for people who get rich.

few vehicles also does the above. it makes less production lines, makes the businesses get made faster, and is also less goals for people (remember, a goal of many people that actually PLAY the game is to get 1 of each vehicle)

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Sun Jul 11, 2004 12:29 pm

Ok some interesting idea's...

the tax on purchasing i don't think is to bad, its just like real life i spose, and yes it cuts into profits slightly but its not too bad.

The thing that seriously needs work is the island yearly tax. say the island has a 10k tax limit (the amount you reach before you pay tax) and then the tax % is 50% if i had 10000s and the 1st of april came along... (tax day) it would take 50% of 'my years profits' but it doesn't it just tax 50% of my wealth... so now i only have 5k... i mean how pointless?

the way to get around that is leaving lots of invest in your buildings... but then thats hiding your actual wealth and so isn't really a true perception of the wealth of the people on the island. its just a hinderance to those that do well, i don't want all my money taken by the taxman!

one of the points spise made that really interested me was the 'ladder' type idea, where you have the low profit buildings being low cost (good idea) i was planning this kind of thing for my world, but thats helped outline it a lot, and gives me more of an idea into what buildings exactly should be like this. Chemical labs as every experienced player knows won't make you more than you spend on the building, thats often why the newbs have these types of buildings. i think we do need to change this into a ladder system where you can build yourself up. atleast it gives you something to aim for.
like "oh i just need another 500s to get that brewery, then i can sell this on" and so on.

zaroba wrote:(as i think tom said)

not me, think that was tippy.
also, you don't need the screen open, when you go past a building the little house (building) symbol flashes

how about... instead of hidden 'perminant' vehicles. you just have the mapvehicles, like 1 or 2 of them hidden around the world, and when u want to replace them you can easily just wipe them and hide some new ones, this way nobody really benefits that much! but the whole world can share the vehicle in a way... car pooling

tipster · Post by **tipster** » Sun Jul 11, 2004 8:14 pm

The island is so small, the only time you really need a vehicle is to ride it for less than a minute to another town. You could even walk there, just take around 5 minutes. Just scrap the hidden vehicle idea, i say.

If anything should be hidden, should be a bag of money. XD Imagine walking on the streets, "hey a bag with the $ sign on it!". That'd be sooo cool....

*dreams away*...

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Sun Jul 11, 2004 8:43 pm

No offence tipster but your posts are starting to annoy me.

your lack of content and contributions to the topics is irritating. you often seem to start talking about something completely differant.

tipster wrote:doesn't look like it XD

... please contribute to the topic or don't post.

tipster · Post by **tipster** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 1:10 am

Tom wrote:No offence tipster but your posts are starting to annoy me.

your lack of content and contributions to the topics is irritating. you often seem to start talking about something completely differant.

tipster wrote:doesn't look like it XD
... please contribute to the topic or don't post.

No 'offence', but this also makes a fine example too huh?

It's ok, it's alright to be a hypocrite. If you're mad because I make fun of you drinking, then I'll stop.

You like to pick on me purposely as well huh?

scrag wrote:u dnt like wat spider wrote much do ya kynn

Not that I'm trying to blame you scrag, just using this quote to show something to Tom.

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 2:35 am

well, calling me a hypocrit was the obvious thing to do there, and i knew you would use that argument. but i'm trying to get my views across and spider pointed out the other day your just making random posts here n there.

this is all i have to say on this subject, talk to me in game if u want to discuss our views, but im not going to continue to write in this topic, hijacking the post and make 'another' flaming topic.

but im not 'picking' on you.

and im not sure what that quote had to do with anything :/

hedgehog · Post by **hedgehog** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 3:14 am

not to get on-topic or anything, but i always found the hidden vehicle thing just too unsavory due to mapvehicles still being well under WIP status. were you thinkin about doing a building zar? probably a better route.

one thing i was thinking of for reine way back that might be fun, is having a "camoflague" model: an ornamental that's just kinda shaped like a hill or something, and has the same texture as the ground. you could put it over buildings to hide them from the enemy, similar to the rb forcefields.

might be somethin fun for the hidden vehicle bits - players drivin around trying to find a hill they'll pass through

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 12:47 pm

i think zar was thinking of a building, which would then sell the vehicle for like 1d... or a long the lines of that

zaroba · Post by **zaroba** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 1:40 pm

yea, a building with a....maybe a cube the size of a tractors front tire, and a transparent blue texture.

but mapvehicles were another thing i was thinking of.
maybe i'll put 1 or 2 of them on too.

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 2:41 pm

i remember when you did that on um... (losing count of zorics here...) zoric 4.. i think, the one that was all the equivalent to a 03 island ... with 100d

and you had loads outside the bank looking like someone had robbed the bank with the cop cars there... but i kept driving them and moving em, and you got annoyed and hid them in the sea

lol.

i think one or two map vehicles would be cool, like not a great car, but maybe a v2

Spider · Post by **Spider** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 5:06 pm

Come to think about it, a government building which buys stuff isn't a good idea for the simple reason that if someone produces something which is useless and nobody wants, then they can still sell it.

However, its has good points, such as pushing up transfer rates. If the gov buy building bought for 1d above the production price, then the players will have to buy for 2d above the production price. This will help to increace the profit in transferring things. It would be a good feature in a easy island.

Tactical · Post by **Tactical** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 1:02 pm

10d per sheckle... NAH, i like the idea of stuff to do in spare time..

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 4:55 pm

if u could have it so that people cant have the option to not sell or not buy it would make it better. Then people would have to realy on each other.

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 8:33 pm

they could just set the price extremly high so nobody buys it...

zaroba · Post by **zaroba** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 2:59 pm

....and not invest so people can't sell to the building

zaroba · Post by **zaroba** » Tue Jul 27, 2004 7:09 pm

kick goes the old topic to the top

anybody have any vehicles they'd like to see on the island?
i'm currently in the process of making models for the island. the island will (probably) use nothing but brand new models used nowhere else before. so, if anybody has any vehicles they'd like to see on the island, please mention them, pics would also be nice.

currently i have a ton of buildings done so far.
but only vehicle so far is a Scion XB

scrag · Post by **scrag** » Tue Jul 27, 2004 7:20 pm

a few types of bikes

this 1 would be hard but wat about a kinda helicopter