Maps and identifying items

[Citrick]

During my time lurking on this forum, reading through posts about realistic mechanics and such, I thought of a couple of things that I think might work in this instance.

Firstly, maps in games have always been a strange thing. Either they are already full and show everything (e.g. Oblivion), or they draw themselves as you travel throughout the world (e.g. Minecraft, even though that isn't a good example of a well designed game, the map is the most obvious example). I came up (someone may have thought of this before) with a way of making the map useful, yet hopefully not too overpowered or tedious to obtain. In towns of at least decent size, and other places dotted around, there could be cartographers who could take a piece of paper, parchment or whatever, and draw the surrounding area on it. Then, you could take it to other cartographers and they might have different interpretations and their information could conflict (I admit this might become a bit annoying).Also, you could draw on it yourself and mark areas of interest and paths to cool places. Obviously it would cost time and money for them to draw the map for you, but I think this would be a good way to make the map system a bit more realistic.

Secondly, I believe identifying powerful items shouldn't be as simple as using an identification scroll. When you find an item which you believe could be special (perhaps from visual cues such as the material the sword is made from, or runes inscribed on the item), you could take it to a blacksmith and have him/her identify what the weapon is made from and it's history (if it has a significant one). On top of that, if it is an item that is very powerful etc, they would only be able to identify the basest attributes of the weapon, and indicate to you that you might want to visit a loremaster or some such person. To balance this out a bit, you would be able to tell what basic items are, and maybe as you get more experienced you could begin to able to tell apart the stronger items.

I don't know how difficult these would be to implement in-game as I am by no means a programmer, but I just thought I would add a couple of my own ideas to the pool.

 

[Parco]

i think it would be fun if you wanted a map you either had to buy it or steal it from someone, or draw it yourself as you go with a pen and ink on a piece of paper (not autodrawing but manually ) this way you can mark stuff on the map if you are somewhere you want to remember

 

[Citrick]

i think it would be fun if you wanted a map you either had to buy it or steal it from someone, or draw it yourself as you go with a pen and ink on a piece of paper (not autodrawing but manually ) this way you can mark stuff on the map if you are somewhere you want to remember

That actually sounds fun

 

[ac566]

I think it would be cool if at multiple places you could buy different maps. Similar to your ideas each of these maps would be a bit different or inaccurate in ways. So say you bought a map from the SE part of the map. The surrounding areas would be quite accurate while distant locations would be inaccurate or disfigured sort of like real medieval maps. More accurate ones could be more expensive since the cartographer would be more experienced. I really like the idea of having maps that aren't exactly right. I also would like to see a sort of merging of maps. So if you found that 2 maps are really accurate in some areas, you could place them on top of one another so that you could have the best of both.

 

[Cooper Holt]

In towns of at least decent size, and other places dotted around, there could be cartographers who could take a piece of paper, parchment or whatever, and draw the surrounding area on it. Then, you could take it to other cartographers and they might have different interpretations and their information could conflict (I admit this might become a bit annoying).Also, you could draw on it yourself and mark areas of interest and paths to cool places. Obviously it would cost time and money for them to draw the map for you, but I think this would be a good way to make the map system a bit more realistic.

But that way people could mark important areas with willies.
Not that there's anything really wrong with that.

 

[Cooper Holt]

Secondly, I believe identifying powerful items shouldn't be as simple as using an identification scroll. When you find an item which you believe could be special (perhaps from visual cues such as the material the sword is made from, or runes inscribed on the item), you could take it to a blacksmith and have him/her identify what the weapon is made from and it's history (if it has a significant one). On top of that, if it is an item that is very powerful etc, they would only be able to identify the basest attributes of the weapon, and indicate to you that you might want to visit a loremaster or some such person. To balance this out a bit, you would be able to tell what basic items are, and maybe as you get more experienced you could begin to able to tell apart the stronger items.

I think that's a great idea, but I believe that if it was a not-so-special weapon, then your character could use his/her common sense to figure it out. Also, if they had gone to smiths to find out the history/material of a certain weapon, then (over time) you should slowly become better at identifying them yourself.

 

[Komuflage]

Will there even be item identification in this game?
Dunno if it would make sense?

 

[Parco]

i think it would be fun if the only one doing the item identifications in this game would be the player and specialists (blacksmiths, swordmasters, etc,...) you yourself have to look at its shape and color to judge if its good enough/better than the one you already have. to have someone else identify the item will require to pay them or that they owe you a favor.
while at it i thought about item naming, normally you get the items name and stats by selecting it, what if it shows no stats or name when selecting it/hovering the mouse over it, but you can write the description yourself and name it yourself. how does that sound?

 

[ZaratanCho]

It sounds pretty amazing. The ability to give/change the names of your weapons or even armor, it makes it more personal and creates an attachment. It would be cool to give your trusty sword a name. There was a quest in Diablo 2 that allowed you to rename a piece of your equipment, if i recall correctly, and it was nice. All in all you should be able to name your things however you want, "realism". It will be ok if you can't, but it will be so awesome if you can. ;D We don't know exactly how stats will be implepented for the weapons and armor, but your idea is very nice, it adds to the whole realism thing and overall concept. At least that is how it seems to me.

 

[Komuflage]

But since the damage etc is based on physics, stats (Except from weight) doesn't make any sense?

Some description like "A old rusty long sword, due to its excessive use in combat, the blade is almost blunt."
or "A Foreign sword, the blade is long but thin, it looks exceptionally sharp, but fragile." maybe better?

Also, the idea of naming a weapons sounds awesome, However I think the original name should be displayed as well.

"Dino's cutter"
(Steel short sword)

 

[ZaratanCho]

Yes, exactly. Original name should be around too, as type maybe. Pretty much like the example you have given. I didn't meant stats in the usual sense, doesn't really matter. ;D

 

[Citrick]

I think that's a great idea, but I believe that if it was a not-so-special weapon, then your character could use his/her common sense to figure it out. Also, if they had gone to smiths to find out the history/material of a certain weapon, then (over time) you should slowly become better at identifying them yourself.

That's what I was beginning to get at, your idea sounds a bit better though.

 

[BrecMadak]

We also need cursed weapons, so if an impatient player refused to id the item before hand, and used. He could end up by having a cursed weapon which sticks his hand untill he could find a possible cure to drop it. This way, gameplaying would be even more thrilling and much more fun than we can imagine hehe. More importantly this implementation would increase decision intensivity fairly.

 

[Komuflage]

We also need cursed weapons, so if an impatient player refused to id the item before hand, and used. He could end up by having a cursed weapon which sticks his hand untill he could find a possible cure to drop it. This way, gameplaying would be even more thrilling and much more fun than we can imagine hehe. More importantly this implementation would increase decision intensivity fairly.

Yes Cursed weapons!
Having to weight the Pros and Cons with using Sword of the Damned.

Demon's Souls had a few of these weapons (Although the Curses was very simple) like "Makoto" Which drained a percentage of the user's hp while wielded, however it had a very high damage and bleeding effect, or Hiltless which dealt a percentage of the damage you inflicted, back to the user.
"Insanity Catalyst" Which reduces you max mana by 50%, but increased your magic damage, "Clever Rat's Ring" which increased your damage output with 50% when >30% hp.

 

[the0thMonkey]

In terms of naming weapons and armours, Warband had a decent but really simple system. Each type of weapon or armour (and item for SG) would have a base name. Then a prefix would be attached to describe the attributes of the piece. So you end up with weapons like "rusty iron sword" or "dented bascinet with aventail". I realize this would have to be adapted to work for SG, but the principle is the same. You get a larger and more interesting variety of weapons, armours, items, etc. with appropriate names.

By the way, this would really only work for generic items. Unique weapons would be handled seperately, as would items that you had named yourself.

 

[Cooper Holt]

In terms of naming weapons and armours, Warband had a decent but really simple system. Each type of weapon or armour (and item for SG) would have a base name. Then a prefix would be attached to describe the attributes of the piece. So you end up with weapons like "rusty iron sword" or "dented bascinet with aventail". I realize this would have to be adapted to work for SG, but the principle is the same. You get a larger and more interesting variety of weapons, armours, items, etc. with appropriate names.

By the way, this would really only work for generic items. Unique weapons would be handled seperately, as would items that you had named yourself.

I think you should be able to name all items at any time. If I want to call my sword fruitbat, then it shall be done. It takes no actual skill IRL/IG to call a weapon a certain name.

 

[BrecMadak]

Actually I thought it should be indeed cursed and would have more debuffs rather than buffs which would struggle you in your journeys so that you have to get rid of that thing as soon as possible.

 

[Komuflage]

Actually I thought it should be indeed cursed and would have more debuffs rather than buffs which would struggle you in your journeys so that you have to get rid of that thing as soon as possible.

But then what's the point of picking it up?
At one point you'll learn most weapons and can just throw away those "junk" weapons.

Having different type of damage buffs and different type of armor/health/stamina debuffs can let you create some really cool cookie cutter builds, and it would introduce some more decision taking, in whatever it's worth using the weapon on not.

Imo, those types of weapons are awesome and it really adds to the experience.

 

[BrecMadak]

I think there is a misinterpretation either by one of us; just a speculation below !

You wouldn't know if X item is cursed unless it is identified to a witch f.e Curse effect may show its effect bit by bit the longer time you are wielding/wearing X item. So untill you aware that something goes wrong, you would want to find a solution/cure around npcs and such.

 

[Komuflage]

I think there is a misinterpretation either by one of us; just a speculation below !

You wouldn't know if X item is cursed unless it is identified to a witch f.e Curse effect may show its effect bit by bit the longer time you are wielding/wearing X item. So untill you aware that something goes wrong, you would want to find a solution/cure around npcs and such.

Ah ok I understand

I still like the idea of buffs and debuffs though