The Gang of Five
The Land Before Time => Cancelled and old projects => LBT Projects => LBT Multiplayer RPG Project Discussion => Topic started by: action9000 on June 19, 2008, 04:35:33 AM
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Okay, we're making a multiplayer LBT game....great, what do you do in it?
Well.....
Here's the topic where we answer that question! B)
First of all, I'll post up what I'm picturing this game to be like:
First and foremost, this game is intended to be a social experience: a place for LBT fans to log in and chat while having fun with their characters.
The game takes place ENTIRELY online. When you run the program, you have the option to either host an online game or join an online game. If you want to play by yourself, just don't tell anybody you have a game hosted. We can possibly set up the option to password-protect games if we need to as well.
The game will NOT have a central server, meaning that anyone can host a game.
When you host or join a game for the first time, you will be given the option to create a new character: a dino of approximate the Gang's age. YOu will be able to choose one of a number of dino types: Swimmer, Flyer, Longneck, Threehorn, Spiketail, perhaps more as we decide on more content. You will be able to personalize your dino a bit by changing the colour, gender and size (somewhat). The amount of customization will depend on how well I can get the programming working and how good I get at 3D modelling. :p
(NOTE: You will be able to create and save multiple characters on one computer.)
Once you choose a dino, you'll be able to name him/her. Once you have chosen a name, you are placed into the world as that dino. You start off at your nest in the Great Valley (or perhaps in a sort of central meeting place in the Valley, as opposed to your nest).
Now...what can we do?
Like any good LBT dino kid, you can explore things! Your character will gain experience points by exploring the world. For each region of the map that you explore, you will gain so many points (based on a few factors, such as the difficulty of reaching that region as compared to your character's level). After you reach a threshold of points, your character gains a level. When you gain a level you are able to learn new skills and/or improve existing skills.
The actuall skills available to each dino have not yet been decided on.
Fighting will probably exist in the game but it will occur EXTREMELY rarely, only with the situation absolutely demands it. As a result, most of your character's experience points will come from exploring and completing "tasks".
Tasks come from non-player characters (NPCs), such as Grandpa Longneck (for example). Talking to an NPC will result in possibly getting a task from them for you to do. Some tasks are too complex or difficult for a single dino to manage on their own, so you must group up with other players to succeed.
The idea of the game is to let your character explore more of the world as he/she levels up. By the time you reach the maximum possible level, you will be able to explore nearly all of the world, depending on the skills you have chosen to upgrade. A max. level longneck will never be able to swim as deep/long as a max. level swimmer, of course, so there are limitations based on your dino.
Tasks could be as simple as "explore this area" or "bring me 10 pinecones" (though carrying 10 pinecones at once would be rather difficult for any dino :p) to as complex as "These sharpteeth have made their home in a cave very close to my nest. Please, help rid the area of these monsters so I can raise my family in safety!" (for example). The latter task would require much more skill and technical ability, as well as teamwork and coordination to succeed.
As for what else we can have the players do besides just wander around collecting tasks from NPCs...
That's what we need to decide on.
Kor suggested earlier that perhaps sports/games would be a nice addition, such as the soccer-like game played in the TV series, where players can get together and play in the Valley. I'd love to do that but it won't be for much later, due to programming complexities.
Options that players can turn on at any time, such as "Invite group to play Hide and Seek". Members of the group then can start a game in whatever area of the world they're in, just randomly, for fun.
What other cool stuff could we throw into the game?
I'd love to have a day/night sky system, so we can show the scenery at different times of day. Perhaps some special events will only occur at certain times of day (like the Night Flowers in the Valley of Mists) that we can play with.
Bottom line:
I'm looking for a pleasant social game where LBT fans can get together and enjoy LBT like never before. How can we best do this?
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It sound like you have a great plan for a game basis there already mate! :yes
Task: "Boost me trough MB"! lol, kidding. :lol
Nah, seriously, I belvie that if we hit our heads togehter we might come up with exelent ideas! I'll sure post mine if I come up with something!
/Lillefot
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Okay well I'm a bit anoyed because before I tried to post something but it didnt work at the time. So I'll try to say thesame things as I said before *sigh*.
I'd like helping you thinking of tasks, and I'm sure there are more of those people around here. Maybe it's an idea for a topic.. Discussing some tasks.. Or do you want to make them all on your own so that they'll be a surprise?
Exploring is a good thing! Will a player be able to find hidden places? Maybe by leveling up or by completing tasks? That would be cool.
Where does the character start? Will it have its own nest/house..? Or will everyone start on thesame place? Or will you start at the place you left the last time?
If you think of choosing a house. Will the player be able to get new 'furniture' for the nest? By doing quests, finding items or maybe even buying them from others?
With furniture I'm thinking of a pile of treestars... Or a rockband of turtles making music(good solution if you want to have something modern in an lbt game.. Like a stereo set :p Just create it in dinosaur style.)
Maybe you could make some sort of market place where they can buy stuff when they want to go exploring.
O and for the characters.. could there be a dinosaur looking a bit like Guido? I love him soo much.. :^.^:
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One task could be Threehorn could say, "Tria likes pretty stones bring her some!" which could explain how she has so many at the beginning of the tv episode The Canyon of Shiny Stones. Maybe the farther the stone is from Tria's nest the more points you get, or some dangerous places like the Canyon of Shiny Stones you get more points since it is farther, and is also dangerous since it is next to Smoking Mountain.
A good task also could be based on some tv episodes, like The Great Egg Adventure. Though you'd need help with that, depending on how many fastbiter eggs there are.
Some games would be nice, the easiest ones to code, maybe, would be maybe hide and seek and maybe tag. Maybe bowling, they had one, I don't remember where it was shown, but they showed the end of it and Littlefoot and Spike were rolling a rock at a collection of pinecones stacked up sort of like bowling pins.
The night thing may be easy or hard to code, no idea. Part of the code may be color substitutions, if code can do that easily. As seen on the show and movies, this color at night or in a dark cave is this other color. Some silent movies would add a color filter, I think blue, to signify night.
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O yea if you want to make a day/night thing how are you going to do that with the timezones? Or can the hosters say how late it is?
Is this topic already for tasks? in that case just ignore my earlier option of creating a topic for it.
Edit: You know I like things organized :p
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It could be up to the hoster, or what their pc says the time is.
As for other task or quest ideas, maybe episodes from other things in the similar genre, like Dink, could give some ideas, if some have seen those other series, or scenes from certain movies.
I wonder if it would have pvp, I don't like it, but from what I hear most players love that sort of thing.
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There are several scenes in the movies where following the tracks of others is involved. Maybe there could be a task involving the following of the tracks of another character in order to find him / her and to do so as quickly as possible as the tracks disappear before long. However, I must point out that I'm quite sure something similar was employed in a computer game of the Disney's Dinosaur. Maybe here we could make a kind of contest between players. One of them is on the run leaving tracks behind, the other one must find him or her. The one on the run must try to "escape" the pursuer. There could be stuff involved like track remaining visible on sand much longer than on rock but rock would usually be found along slopes and walls which would slow down the runaway respectively block his or her way in some directions.
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As for "sporting activities", we could have something like capture the flag. Is this going to be a sidescroller or is it going to be 3d like Furcadia?
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Is this topic already for tasks? in that case just ignore my earlier option of creating a topic for it.
Edit: You know I like things organized
This topic is really for general ideas for game content. We can make a topic for Tasks, sure!
By the way, you don't have to wait for me to make topics. If you think we need a new topic, feel free to make one! :yes
As for "sporting activities", we could have something like capture the flag.
I agree, this would be awesome!
Is this going to be a sidescroller or is it going to be 3d like Furcadia?
I've never played Furcadia but I think I saw screenshots.
It's going to be a 3D world, similar to MMO RPGs such as World of Warcraft, Silkroad, Guild Wars, etc.
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Are there going to be classes, like story speaker, leader (? bad leader or whatever class Threehorn is that would include intimation), far walker, resident, ect.
And any restriction on certain types like good fast biters or sharpteeth that can live in the valley and do not eat dinos since some may want to play those types.
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Are there going to be classes, like story speaker, leader (? bad leader or whatever class Threehorn is that would include intimation), far walker, resident, ect.
That is something we will have to agree on.
Right now I was picturing that the player simply chooses a type of dino (swimmer, longneck, etc.) and that choice of dino is the only variable with regards to the kinds of skills the player gets.
We can have a "class" system I suppose, but remember that our characters are kids. They don't have the background to be a store speakers or herd leaders just yet.
Eventually we can have "Great Valley Resident" or "Farwalker", once we get the rest of the world closer to completion. This will determine where in the game you start and what sorts of natural abilities you have, among other things.
Other than that....the kids probably won't have enough background to set up very destinguished "classes". I'm interested to hear other thoughts though. :yes
sharpteeth that can live in the valley and do not eat dinos since some may want to play those types.
Sharpteeth..another one up for debate:
Will sharpteeth be playable (characters such as Chomper)? How could this work? Do we want to go there?
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It would be difficult to have sharpteeth in the valley. You would probably have a lot of people trying to play as sharpteeth. On the other handwe could have playable oviraptors like Ruby. That would be cool.
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Kids would likely not have classes, but to make things easier it may be easiest, at the start, to have a type class like you mentioned, Swimmer, Longneck ect. Classes could be introduced later once the rest of the code is smoothed out and the wanted the most areas are finished. If the game will have skills one could have classes then done like a prestige class type of thing where one would need certain things to qualify for the class. Maybe type specific classes, like whatever they'd call a flyer who is good at aero gymnastics and other fancy looking flying, a swimmer who does that but in water, ect.
As for young friendly sharpteeth or fastbiters, it may be nice to be those, but they are fairly rare in the great valley, but maybe up to the majority. Fastbiters may be easier since once they are adults they are, I think, not to large and could maybe live on creepy crawlies, snapping shells, fish, crawlers, a full grown t-rex would be harder, though the pc's would be kids so maybe different. Not sure what others think about this. And some very small sharpteeth like Compagsanathus may be even easier then a fast biter, if anyone would want to play such a tiny when adult, dino. Not sure about Troodons, since I've read that is some debate that they may have been omnivores and not just carnivores.
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As for playable characters/species:
Malte says (4:13 PM):
Longneck: Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus
Swimmer: Saurolophus, Lambeosaurus, Corythosaurus (more possibilities here)
Malte says (4:13 PM):
Flyer: Pteranodon, Rhamphornychus (spelling), Guido
Malte says (4:14 PM):
Threehorn: Triceratops, Pachyrhinosaurus, Chasmosaurus
Malte says (4:14 PM):
Spiketail: Stegosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Nodosaurus
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As for playable characters/species:
Malte says (4:13 PM):
Longneck: Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus
Swimmer: Saurolophus, Lambeosaurus, Corythosaurus (more possibilities here)
Malte says (4:13 PM):
Flyer: Pteranodon, Rhamphornychus (spelling), Guido
Malte says (4:14 PM):
Threehorn: Triceratops, Pachyrhinosaurus, Chasmosaurus
Malte says (4:14 PM):
Spiketail: Stegosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Nodosaurus
That looks very good!
Shall we add omnivore dinos(think Ruby, oviraptor) to that aswell?
Or is there different species of fastrunners etc?
We might just discuss 'till we get something good outa it! :yes
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Not sure where Maiasaurs would be classified.
As for different types of fast runners, maybe Troodons if we choose to go with the fact that Troodons may be omnivores instead of carnivores, or maybe even a herbavore.
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Shall we add omnivore dinos(think Ruby, oviraptor) to that aswell?
Or is there different species of fastrunners etc?
fast Runners will officially be added to the game. :)
Discussion about the playable characters, their stats and what they can do may continue here:
http://z7.invisionfree.com/thegangoffive/i...?showtopic=3701 (http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=3509)
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Kor said in another topic:
I also wonder how hard it would be to code a marker on the map, and maybe the directional thing, like in Oblivion where you can see where your quest goal is, if it is a set place like, can you take this to x place, can you go to x and do y.
Yes, absolutely we can do this. I agree, a marker on a map is an absolute MUST in a game this size. This will 100% happen eventually.
As for telling you where the quest goal is, I'm torn between simply showing it on the map and having the player talk to NPCs in order to gather clues to figure it out. Marking it on the map would be easier. Getting clues would probably be more interesting.
Bear in mind that while I'm asking for assistance here, I will be throwing in my own touches to the game that I won't announce here. I want to leave some surprises for my fellow developers. B)
Exploring is a good thing! Will a player be able to find hidden places? Maybe by leveling up or by completing tasks? That would be cool.
For sure! Hidden stuff will be a major feature of this game! We're encouraging exploration and hidden stuff is a perfect way to do it. :)
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Maybe you can do both. Maybe the marker can be an option to be turned on or off, up to the player. I'd prefer to have it on, since I get lost VERY easily, but someone else may prefer to not have a marker. Or for some in the middle ground they can try to find it using the given clues, then when they start to get frustrated then can just turn on the marker. Just one idea, no idea how hard it would be to code.
Hopefully no pvp, or it's only on certain very clearly marked servers.
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Hopefully no pvp, or it's only on certain very clearly marked servers.
There won't be any PvP except when all players agree to play a game together, like bowling or something. That is the closest thing we'll see to PvP.
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As for playable characters/species:
Malte says (4:13 PM):
Longneck: Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus
Swimmer: Saurolophus, Lambeosaurus, Corythosaurus (more possibilities here)
Malte says (4:13 PM):
Flyer: Pteranodon, Rhamphornychus (spelling), Guido
Malte says (4:14 PM):
Threehorn: Triceratops, Pachyrhinosaurus, Chasmosaurus
Malte says (4:14 PM):
Spiketail: Stegosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Nodosaurus
:^.^: Yay. Guido is in, great! I'll talk about him in the other topic though.
Hidden places, cool. All these ideas are sure going to lead somewhere
:^.^:
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I have two more questions at the moment.
1. Will there be a chat feature like many other rpgs have? It will make communicating a lot easier.
2. Is this game going to be exclusively for members of this site or will anyone on the net be able to play?
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1. Will there be a chat feature like many other rpgs have? It will make communicating a lot easier.
Sure will!
Here's what I'm thinking for chat features eventually. By typing the command before chatting, you can address specific groups of people. If you don't enter a chat command, the last one you used is assumed. If you never used one, "All" is assumed.
/a - chat to everybody (all) connected to the game.
/p - chat with everybody in your group/party.
/w playername - whisper to a specific person (with the name playername).
so if I type
/a Hey all!
How's everyone doing?
Everyone in the game will receive
"Hey all!"
"How'everyone doing?"
2. Is this game going to be exclusively for members of this site or will anyone on the net be able to play?
Anyone will be able to play as long as they have this game on their computer. Anyone will be able to host a game. Anyone may join a game if they know the IP address of the host.
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Fighting will probably exist in the game but it will occur EXTREMELY rarely, only with the situation absolutely demands it. As a result, most of your character's experience points will come from exploring and completing "tasks".
If you lose the fight, do you die? Or just retreat or something?
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If you lose the fight, do you die? Or just retreat or something?
That's something else still up for debate.
We were thinking one of two things:
1) You wake up back at your nest in the Valley, and it was "just a dream". You can then continue on (you're back at your nest though) but you lose some experience points for dying.
2) You lose experience points, but you are brought back to life in a nearby safe location, so you don't have to get all the way back to where you were.
I plan on having a transportation system in the game for players to move around the large world relatively quickly. We haven't agreed on a system for doing this.
I told Malte about an idea of simply setting up flyers' nests around the world, where you can hitch a ride to a location you've previously traveled to in exchange for treestars.
Malte gave me the idea of setting up points (probably rocks or something). When you're near a location, you can click on the location to activate it. You can then move yourself to another one of these points elsewhere in the world, basically skipping the "walking all the way there" step, fast-forwarding to getting there.
I figured that if we have a travel system in the game like one of the above (or something different), we can have the player wake up back at their nest in the valley, with a bit of inconvenience for dying but nothing too, too serious.
There are other ways to die besides combat, too. If you fall off a steep cliff, jump into a volcano or meet some other unfortunate end, something has to happen.
It's something else to discuss, for sure.
Those are the ideas that we came up with so far.
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Malte gave me the idea of setting up points (probably rocks or something). When you're near a location, you can click on the location to activate it. You can then move yourself to another one of these points elsewhere in the world, basically skipping the "walking all the way there" step, fast-forwarding to getting there.
that could also be something you earn, one of the early quests, i.e. befriend the Rainbowfaces of LBT 7 and in return they'll beam you where you need to go when you want to. Also saves the dilemna of how to explain teleporting rocks.
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that could also be something you earn, one of the early quests, i.e. befriend the Rainbowfaces of LBT 7 and in return they'll beam you where you need to go when you want to. Also saves the dilemna of how to explain teleporting rocks.
When it comes to LBT 7's aliens and technology, I like to pretend they never existed. :lol
I have no intention of beaming players anywhere in the game.
Also saves the dilemna of how to explain teleporting rocks.
They aren't so much "teleporting rocks" as they are "pressing the fast foward button on your DVD player while watching a movie" rocks. The game basically takes you to your destination, with minimal wait time. The idea is that your characters still walked there, you just didn't have to spend the hours in front of your computer making them walk there.
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They aren't so much "teleporting rocks" as they are "pressing the fast foward button on your DVD player while watching a movie" rocks. The game basically takes you to your destination, with minimal wait time. The idea is that your characters still walked there, you just didn't have to spend the hours in front of your computer making them walk there.
Ah, I understand! Cool, that is a nice feature.
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I didn't think of those rocks as some kind of "Teleporting device" when you go to them there could be a question like "Where do you want to go?" and a list of the other places with such stones which you have already visited. Once you choose a place there might be a little clip where you can see your character walk out of the screen or something. Those stones are NOT meant to be anything but something to help the player orientate him- or herself. Those rocks should never be referred to by the characters. They are not meant to be anything unrealistic. There would be just a time skip about some uneventful minutes of walking through places thoroughly explored already.
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O yea if you want to make a day/night thing how are you going to do that with the timezones? Or can the hosters say how late it is?
As for the day/night transitions:
I understand that some people will only be able to play in the evenings/mornings, etc.
As a result, instead of having the in-game time be directly the same as the server's time, I will use a ratio:
Game time will pass faster than the server time and game time will start at a random time when the host starts up the game. As for exactly how fast time will pass, we haven't decided yet. The day/night cycle will be significantly faster than real-life time though (probably 3-4 times faster but we're not sure yet), to give everyone an opportunity to experience all times of day in the LBT world.
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Will there be any weather in the game like rain?
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Will there be any weather in the game like rain?
That one's a "maybe". The answer is:
If I can program weather effects, yes. If I can't figure it out, no.
I know I can get fog effects, shadows, day/night/cave lighting to work, as well as colour filters for different environments if necessary...but rain...I don't know. I'll try but no promises.
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Today I had one idea which may be interesting for the game. Unlike most RPGs this game won't be primarily about fighting. Most of those games work with a Live energy bar which you can fill up by eating stuff (great cure to eat a piece of bread if an orc just hit you with an axe, no doubt about it). I think that perhaps we should make a different set of rules for such an energy bar.
LBT dinosaurs have to eat no matter whether they are injured or not. If they are well fed they would be best at performing their tasks. If you haven't eaten anything for a day or two you are not likely to be a very energetic climber or swimmer. Therefore I suggest that the energy bar will gradually lower itself through the game (faster while performing difficult physical tasks, slower while you are just walking or doing nothing very strainous). You won't die when that bar runs out (in case of the rare fights I suppose we need a different bar), but will have great difficulties to do any tasks your points for climbing, swimming, running and similar abilities may be halved or quartered if your energy goes below a certain point. Within the Great Valley it should be easy of course to find food to fill up the bar (there must be a way to let plants regrow), but in tasks which lead the characters into more hostile regions maintaining enough energy to perform tasks may be difficult. We might really come to appreciate what green food / a treestar means for the LBT characters when shortage of those disables our characters from doing many tasks. Also this setting of the game may come as kind of a "conscience" test in some situations. What if a group of characters is out in the wastelands and they happen to find one of the extremely rare treestars out there? Who is the one to get it and thereby being enabled to run, climb, swim, do whatever much easier than any of those who didn't get the treestar?
I really think such a setting may make the game much closer to LBT point of view than the traditional fighting game setting.
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One has to be careful that it's not done in such a way to be annoying to the players.
As for fast travel, that would mean time would be suppose to have passed during the travel, but since it's a muli player it doesn't really. Folks would have to know that going from point a to b takes time instead of just a load screen. Though it would be better then forcing folks to have to walk or run everywhere just to get to point b.
Not sure about dieing, it could be you wake up in your nest and it was a bad sleep story, that is one idea, or at some other point is where you appear, as mentioned above.
Also will the game have save points like console games have, or you can save anywhere or a mix of the 2?
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Okay, I didnt think about the time thing in that way. Sounds a good idea in my ears.
Malte's idea of energy use is quite good, i think.
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Maybe there should be an energy bar and a health bar. Also, fighting shouldn't be the only way to die or lose health. You could fall off a cliff, into a volcano, or stay under water too long, or listening to Spike trying to do Opera :lol .
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Or Mo sing. :lol
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or making cera's dad angry, <_<
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Or talking to much with Chomper's parents... There is a lot of reasons, why HP bar can be reduced. :)
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Just a thought, but depending on how complicated these tasks become and how many the players may have at once, could some journal system be introduced? A little thing you can bring up to remind you of what needs doing?
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Just a thought, but depending on how complicated these tasks become and how many the players may have at once, could some journal system be introduced? A little thing you can bring up to remind you of what needs doing?
For sure! Actually I was planning on having a journal system all along. :)
The only debate with that:
How many journal entries will the player be able to store? From a realism point of view, a limit of 5-10 (since the characters' memory will only keep track of so much!) would probably make sense. I know MMOs that have a limit of 25. I don't know if I'd like to set it that high.
Probably 8 or so would be good.
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If you can delete journal entries how many would one need since how many open quests or tasks would most folks have at any 1 time? Also do not know if you mean a journal where you have to type in the information yourself, or some sort of recording of what the npc said.
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Also do not know if you mean a journal where you have to type in the information yourself, or some sort of recording of what the npc said.
It's not so much a "diary" as it is "a way to read your character's memory". :lol
When you get a task, the details of it are automatically saved to your journal, which you can refer to at any time. The journal will also keep track of your progress through the task:
If you have given the NPC 6 out of 10 pine cones, the journal will tell you that automatically.
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Similar to the one in Oblivion then, and in might and magic 6 and 8.
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i sorta had this question for awhile, but would we be able to create our own charicters in the game? or will we be given one?
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I assume you would be able to make a character, and customize the character as well.
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LBT dinosaurs have to eat no matter whether they are injured or not. If they are well fed they would be best at performing their tasks. If you haven't eaten anything for a day or two you are not likely to be a very energetic climber or swimmer. Therefore I suggest that the energy bar will gradually lower itself through the game (faster while performing difficult physical tasks, slower while you are just walking or doing nothing very strainous). You won't die when that bar runs out (in case of the rare fights I suppose we need a different bar), but will have great difficulties to do any tasks your points for climbing, swimming, running and similar abilities may be halved or quartered if your energy goes below a certain point. Within the Great Valley it should be easy of course to find food to fill up the bar (there must be a way to let plants regrow), but in tasks which lead the characters into more hostile regions maintaining enough energy to perform tasks may be difficult. We might really come to appreciate what green food / a treestar means for the LBT characters when shortage of those disables our characters from doing many tasks. Also this setting of the game may come as kind of a "conscience" test in some situations. What if a group of characters is out in the wastelands and they happen to find one of the extremely rare treestars out there? Who is the one to get it and thereby being enabled to run, climb, swim, do whatever much easier than any of those who didn't get the treestar?
I really think such a setting may make the game much closer to LBT point of view than the traditional fighting game setting.
This looks a LOT like my idea (cross posted from Abilities thread):
This is my interpretation of the food/energy gauge:
The food gauge steadily depletes as you explore or do tasks. It can be replenished by eating green food, some green food fills it up more than others. In general, the further you get from the Great Valley, the less filling the food is. However, there are exceptions, such as an oasis where Treestars grow. Treestars will fill it very quickly, while the food on Chomper's Island will be less filling than others.
The food gauge depletes at a different rate and has a varying capacity for the classes. It depletes the slowest and is the largest in the Longneck class (large stomach and slow metabolism), it depletes the fastest and is the smallest in Flyers (small and very active, flight requires lots of energy). The other classes have depletion rates and gauge sizes between them. I am visualizing the guages as the same size (appearence wise) for all the classes, it's just the value that's different.
I don't know if the size and depletion rates should be modifiable or not.
The food gauge does affect the gameplay:
100% of gauge - abilities at max level (whatever level they have been leveled up to), healing is at max speed
75% of gauge - abilites at max level (whatever level they have been leveled up to), healing is slowed down slightly
50% of gauge - abilities drop 1 level from whatever level they have been leveled up to), healing is obviously slowed down
25% of gauge - abilities drop 3 levels from whatever level they have been leveled up to), healing ceases
0% of gauge (totally empty) - abilities revert to level 1, character takes damage
All level drops in abilites are temporary and will be reversed once the gauge passes the critical point.
Example:
Shorty with level 6 tail whip at with a full food gauge doesn't eat and his gauge becomes totally empty, he will now have a level 1 tail whip. Once he gets the gauge past 25%, he'll have a level 3 tail whip, once he reaches 50% of his gauge he will have a level 5 tail whip. Once he reaches 75% of his gauge, he will have his level 6 tail whip restored.
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I feel that there should be an HP gauge. Combat is obviously not the only way to be injured.
As for what happens if the HP gauge empties:
I'm leaning towards a "reincarnation" at the nest (or central meeting place if desired) with the premise of "it was just a dream" but with the loss of some EXP points.
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Also, someone mentioned treestars. Will those serve as food or currency?
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Also size should matter how long it takes one to fill it up again. Flyers may deplete fast but it takes little to fill their stomachs since they are small, though with a small stomach they can't hold as much, same with swimmers. But someone of Littlefoot would take longer to eat to fill his stomach. Also does it have to be treestars or can grass help to fill it also?
Some oasis have been seen in the movies, others may be in surprising and unexpected places.
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^ I love the idea of the larger dinosaurs using up their food gauge slower than the small ones :yes
This would also give good sense to another ability that has been suggested elsewhere, namely the ability of larger characters to let smaller characters (swimmers, flyers) ride on their backs. This would increase the "range" of the smaller ones at the expense of a little more food gauge than the larger ones would need if there was no rider on their back (it mustn't bee too much though or we will end up with no player of a larger character being ever ready to give a ride to one of the little ones :lol).
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[JOKE] And recall how many times we see Spike, Cera, and Littlefoot collapse in total exhaustion from carrying Ducky or Petrie. [JOKE]
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^ Err... did we ever see them collapse in exhaustion caused by carrying Petrie or Ducky? I don't recall an instance where the exhaustion could be really traced back to the weight of either of the two.
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I meant it as a joke hense the :p . Guess I should either be always serious or put [JOKE] before and after each bad attempt at humor that I do there. I'll edit the post be reflect that and use that on all future posts, including the ones I do in the rp threads from now on to avoid any confusion.
as for weight it seems to them carrying Ducky or Petrie is much like a person putting an extra pen in their pocket, they don't notice the extra weight at all.