Tasks / Adventures

[action9000]

will it be with just the 1 species or will it effect your standing with other species also?

That would depend on the task and situation.  We'd have to work out which events would affect your reputation with what species or group.  

Remember too, that if you're a Threehorn and you do something against one "group" of longnecks, not every longneck in the world may hear of this event. We will probably have to break up the reputation system beyond simply "longneck", "threehorn", etc., but into "Tribes' of sorts as well, in some cases.

[Kor]

The same may apply to threehorns since some of them may be more like tria instead of like cera's dad.

[Serris]

I like the tribal faction idea.

One of the things I thought about is this:

The Mysterious Beyonders offer much more challenging and rewarding quests (possibly even some combat oriented ones). However, they cannot be approached for quests until you reach a certain level (or reputation or both) threshold.

[NaNaNa]

Maybe if you do tasks for the mysterious beyond tribes, they'll offer you some "homes" outside of the Great Valley. As in you'd be welcome there anytime, and their places would function like the Great Valley. So this would also expand the map even further.

[action9000]

Maybe if you do tasks for the mysterious beyond tribes, they'll offer you some "homes" outside of the Great Valley. As in you'd be welcome there anytime, and their places would function like the Great Valley. So this would also expand the map even further.

I like it in theory.

I'm just thinking here:
What would be the difference between a "home" and just "being in an area around some neutral or friendly dinosaurs"?  What would make a "home" particularily special or useful in the game?

The first thing that comes to mind is some kind of "shortcut" or "fastforward" button to instantly move from one home to another.  I am against this because I was planning on using a different system to accomplish this.

[NaNaNa]

Well then I believe we'd have to distinguish the mysterious beyond from the Great Valley.

[action9000]

Well then I believe we'd have to distinguish the mysterious beyond from the Great Valley.

I agree and that won't be a problem. We have a very easy way to determine which part of the world the player is in.

Another use for a "home" could be:
If you talk to an NPC at one of your "homes", you instantly regain all of your HP and Stamina, sort of like "resting".  Whether or not this is particularily useful is debateable but it's the best I can come up with.

[NaNaNa]

I mean distinguish the two as in, besides physical appearance, whats the difference?

But I like the resting thing. also, maybe if you're in a "home", you can take supplies or something from a stockpile. Though I know we still haven't ironed out the inventory feature yet

[action9000]

also, maybe if you're in a "home", you can take supplies or something from a stockpile.

Hey, now that's pretty cool!  I guess the only question that remains here is, is there a benefit to stockpiling stuff at a home rather than elsewhere in the world?  Why couldn't I just leave a bunch of stuff sitting somewhere?  How would the game respond to that?

My idea to that is, once the game is saved and closed, items at your stockpile would remain as-is but everything else in the world would be reset to some sort of default state (with the exception of some events based on tasks, etc.) .  This could be justified by simply saying that "some dinosaurs moved your stuff" or something.

I think that works! Nice one!

Though I know we still haven't ironed out the inventory feature yet

Some ideas have been thrown around between Malte, Littlefoot1616 and myself in MSN chats but I don't think they're posted up here.  I should get the latest updates to the inventory system on the forum. Nothing finalized yet but we have a system that seems pretty decent.

[NaNaNa]

Right, so basically the stockpile's where you put stuff if you want to keep them after signing off. Stuff like food or vines. But they'd naturally have a limit. Or maybe the more tasks you do the more you can store in.

I took a look at the inventory discussion thread. Interesting ideas. I could imagine how hard it would be to put in a realistic inventory in the LBT universe

[action9000]

I took a look at the inventory discussion thread. Interesting ideas. I could imagine how hard it would be to put in a realistic inventory in the LBT universe

It took a lot of beating heads against trees but we figured out something that works for both single player and the team aspects of the game.

[Malte279]

Thing is that unlike most RPGs the inventory does not play a major role. While characters with arms and hands may be able to hold a few things (or more if they are working along with a character who has no arms but can carry more stuff while a character with arms is sitting on his or her back to hold the stuff in place). However, there are except for quest-relevant items not too many cases where stuff would have to be carried around.
Most RPGs have a strong focus on getting better equipment for your characters and that's also what the currency in these games is mostly for. But in case of LBT characters there isn't much equipment they would need except in very special situations. As the game is not planned to be focused on fighting (another thing to differ this game from most other RPGs) Ducky is not likely to walk around with a big wooden club in her hands all the time
As for stockpiling leaves, I think this could work but only for a limited time. If the characters are to set out to cross a region with scarce food they might want to take as many leaves along as possible. But once they have fallen of their trees leaves are not likely to last many days.

[Kor]

Yes, they likely wouldn't and how many leaves can someone carry, even if you break off a branch with leaves on it and have someone like Ruby carry it, it still would only last a certain span of time, and in the movies as I recall none of the gang thinks about carrying leaves with them as I recall.  

The one thing is if the quests is done for dinos outside the Great Valley they may allow your character to rest there and get water and food, if they are the non nomadic but resident types, and they may have some knowledge also.  Farwalker, nomadic types may have some information about other places since it's unlikely a resident herd would have much first hand info about other then where they live.  & a nomad herd may let you rest with them also.

[NaNaNa]

As I remember there always seemed to be an abundance of food everywhere in the Mysterious beyond, except when there were natural disasters like in LBT I or snow like in VIII or a swarm of locusts like in V.

Nomadic herds obviously dont have any "homes", but yeah, basically what Kor said, they could offer you benefits and allow you to rest with them or something of the like. Since theres the constant threat of sharpteeth in the mysterious beyond, sleeping in the wild is ill advised.

[Belmont2500]

all right this might be a cool and interesting quest

maybe if Action includes the lake in the original you could go over to it and a talkbox would appear saying acouple things then the ghost of the original Sharptooth would appear and you would have to push a boulder(that's in the same posistion as in the 1988 film" on him the same way Littlefoot did Its not exactly good but it would be interesting to see another could simply be explore the hidden canyon and what not.

[Lilfut]

A concept I came up with:

TV series episodes and original ideas can be done at any time. Movies might last all of every other year or something, and progress made by one player can be seen by anyone.

For instance, someone blocks the pass in VIII by meeting up with Mr. Thicknose, and then there will be a huge pile of snow for everyone else to climb for a while until Thicknose comes back. Someone finds the Tinysauruses in XI, and all of the NPCs try to go after them and give special quests until they're found by someone else.

[Serris]

The only problem with that is people may decide to alter their system clocks, giving them an unfair advantage.

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As for sleeping in the Mysterious Beyond, how about you need to be in a sheltered place to do so?

If you try to sleep in an open area, your character will say something to the effect of "I can't sleep when there's sharpteeth about!"

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

^You could always shut the game down, forcing them to sleep.

Wait, why are we making them sleep? Most people want to play dinosaurs who are awake. When the dino falls asleep, would it go into "speed mode" until he wakes up?

[Malte279]

We had the idea that perhaps we are going to let the characters of players who are currently not logged in appear as sleeping in the game at the spot where they were when they logged out. The idea of not allowing people to drop out and sleep at any point (sharptooth right behind you etc.) does make sense and perhaps finding save places in hostile regions could become an integral part of the game play outside the Great Valley (where it would be pretty save in most locations). The idea of letting logged out characters appear as sleeping has the advantage that the Great Valley would look more "populated" that way even if it is impossible to interact with sleeping characters.

[Lilfut]

@Serris

Actually, suppose every other year the server just adds the features in quietly, like during some special quests in WoW?