going MMO?

So guys, I think its time to let you guys know what's going on. Initially, we've designed Green Page to be a classic singleplayer with heavy modding capabilities. Since our development took off, we've been having more and more internal discussions about it supporting multiplayer and probably a full MMO experience.

This concept didn't really catch fire until we released our first build which in our opinion, showcased something that could potentially be a good MMO.

Developmentwise, we've always aimed at making Green Page into a dynamic game engine with some multiplayer capability - mostly a 4 player coop. So it won't take us a terribly long time for us to handle this. The problem is, we really have to decide now whether we will focus on adding content for singleplayer/modding or MMO game. It will make it extremely difficult for us to change the direction after this point in development.

As for the game play, it will stay brutally real and it won't become another RUST, NETHER, DAYZ, WARZ and so on...so don't worry. Just imagine Green Page with other peeps.
  

We are working on a 0.0.2 build which will probably be an online experience. I would like you guys to try it and see how it feels. We can all probably set a time together to play it together - there will be a single server for the time being anyway. TBH, our dev team is really 50/50 on this thing, so we'd like to try it first and decide whether it should be a full-on singleplayer or a MMO style multiplayer. I am currently setting up test servers and client packages.

I would like to know what you guys think though. I mean, you guys were here supporting Green Page from the very beginning, and probably the only ones who've tried something remotely close to the game(0.0.1) so we'd really like to hear honest opinions and feelings about this. I know that you guys definitely have something to add.

I like the idea of the game being a mmo. or a coop. other players in game would make it alot more fun. Its up to you guys on what you make it into ill be supporting your guys either way.

Coop.
Turning it into an MMO will make sure problems of insta killing newly spawned players and probably make the costs a teeny bit higher.
Coop for me since I find it fun to play with my friends, and I can trust them not to kill me when I start out.

Either coop or more testing and developing before the multiplayer. Let's be honest here we all know the problems with Rust and DayZ is that players that already have a big group and guns and **** just spawnkill or kill with no reason.
I don't want to kill any more newbies either. You don't know how many times I'm just like, chilling, and suddenly some noob decides to attack me 'cause I didn't have my M4 out.

The reason why we wanted to make Green Page a singleplayer experience was because of that. See, at first its the fact that we play "with" other people that makes the experience awesome, but after a while, it gets to a point where other people are simply disturbing the game experience. Same goes for in game purchases for free to play games. It just ruins the whole freaking game!
  

So yes, we know about the current mess in the MMO industry but it also true that multiplayer can still be fun and awesome if done right. I mean, I still love the classic rainbow six multiplayer which was released a decade ago.
  

To cut to the chase, let's talk about GP.

What we have in our mind is something radical and against the norm. And we love to do this. Here it is. We are thinking of a MMOFPS with elements of RPG (so nothing changes from the initial game play style). But instead of slapping users with subscriptions or in game purchases or a lame one time purchase that ends up being a 16 people tops per server MMO game, we've come up with something different.

We are thinking of a MMO where one has to purchase "life". We are still very much discussing this value but will probably not be able to come up with one until we have a functional server. But for the purpose of this post let's just say a dollar for life and upon death, you are really dead and won't be able to respawn without the life credit. So in a sense, it will be very similar to in game purchases except that it will really damage you in real life. No subscriptions or anything. Clean Pay as You Go style.

So let me write down a possible scenario.

rookie
1. You purchase 5 lives for 5 dollars.
2. As a level 1 rookie, you will be cautious, scared and will be looking for help/guidance
3. May do something stupid but will probably stop after learning the hard way that life is valuable.

I am not going to elaborate more as we've all played dayz and the similar sister games so just imagine what people will do when life costs you. Just think of the potential online interaction without the users acting like they have nothing to lose.

We will also have a murderer/bounty system where killers will become murderers(in game). Then the server will allocate bounties for taking that murderer down. As a reward we will award free lives to players and so on. Eventually, we will have a healthy autonomy where the player's behavior is at an equilibrium. Let's face it, there will always be guys who want to feel superior with the help of money. But this time, skilled guys could probably play the game with couple bucks and some insanely good ones, with a single life - a dollar - that would be quite a sight though.

So, No more spawning right away to pickup your loot, no more tanking for your mates...and so on. If it happens, then we know the burden of it. This game concept is still very much not polished and we are seeking legal advice to check whether this type of game interaction is legal. I mean, your accidental discharge may kill someone else and make him lose his life hence his dollar. We will also have a report-a-death-dispute center to prevent people from losing life from disconnections other than player death. eg. thunderstorm, power outage, glitches and so on. We will probably make it not so strict to not bother people so much about this.

I would like to hear what you guys think about this. We do have a big picture in mind and are making adjustments everyday. I am currently working on a test master server that will eventually be able to have a minimum of 100 players in a single map - no joke. nonetheless, I hope that this post doesn't send out wrong impressions. We are not trying to make quick bucks or make people spend money beyond the scopes of the game's worthiness. We will probably use statistical data to match the average money spent GP to other major MMOs so you will end up paying the same amount give or take. The benefit is gameplay and that skilled players will probably play at a significantly lower price than unskilled guys.

Feel free to add to this gameplay concept. We are actively brainstorming for something radical and out of the box.  

ps. the 0.0.2 build will be a MMO with a single server instance. It looks like it will be based in the US so non-US guys might experience some latency. It should be ready in a bout a week's time.
  

I like your idea. but a dollar per life seems. like a bit to much. if you are new to the game, and get killed a lot. Pay a dollar per life might set a bad example on new players. Some guys might look at the game as trying to profit from new players.

dollar is just an arbitrary value to explain the concept. But it is true that the entry wall may be there. We could think of something to smooth that out.

In my opinion this won't work without some type of starter immunity system. Obviously balanced. Exempli gratia, a 10-hour playtime grace period where the newbie can't kill or be killed.
Also if you're going Steam and go through the pay-per-life idea, please look up if you can make it so you can buy lifes with the steam wallet.

I'd also suggest a small no-kill zone, make it kind of a small trader outpost where players can rent space to sell their items.

Definitely, this is what we have in mind. Names are arbitrary and just trying to explain the topology.

inner town -> outer town -> open field -> dungeons(undeground subways)

so a player starts in inner town, safe as guns are not allowed in the area. A definite green zone.

goes out to outer town and to the lockers area, where a player will have his previous gear and loot or starter items. This area does not allow gun shooting at all but you can still kill someone. There will be NPC guards waiting to take you down. Ofcourse you could take down these NPC guards and take off and become a murderer.

After Leaving the town area, the out field area will be a large area like the current build. And don't worry, the transition between areas will be seamless.

And you choose to go the subway station and boom. You are dead.

ps. Steam is what we always had in mind so yeah. This will probably happen at Steam.

Go Steam Wallet! Current build's town is now named Everdead Groove.

      

How will you handle griefers and cheats?
Dont get me wrong, I think this is a wonderful idea :P

We will be setting up a authoritative server environment to minimize security issues. Including safe keeping account info and preventing people from playing around with the game. User clients will not contain any info nor the game logic (so think of WoW) so it should be pretty good.

Great, First weekend home in 3 weeks, get's me some game time in   

So, for the interested mind, here is a vague foot print.

We will be testing MMO environment on my LAN for testing database sync and general playtesting. Once that is done, which shouldn't take that long (a week maybe?) then we will setup test servers in the US side - sorry non-US guys - for general test. We will probably have to set a time and invite more guys from IndieDB to join the test. Then, we will have an alpha version of the game with a test public server open for an indefinite amount of time until launch. Yep. That pretty much sums it up. I think.

Rock~n~Roll!

Yup, we did a small unit test to see how the game would feel. And it looks like we are heading MMO. Yup!

Expect to see some online action in about 1~2 weeks.

I just hope the Multiplayer doesn't becomes like Dead Island witch stupidly focuses on zombie level and feel untrealistic like you're playing World of Warcraft with enemy's reskinned to zombies.

vol4ok wrote:I just hope the Multiplayer doesn't becomes like Dead Island witch stupidly focuses on zombie level and feel untrealistic like you're playing World of Warcraft with enemy's reskinned to zombies.

I would like to refrain from commenting negative traits about games other than GP here, but if you are looking for a comparable game, it would be closer a mixture of ARMA and Rust. While the first build (singleplayer) was inspired by Stalker games, the current build (no longer singleplayer, but MMO) should be categorized somewhat differently now...

To be more precise, it was heavily influenced by Ultima Online although it really isn't an RPG but more MMOTPS.

Hey icenoodle how many pll will be in the us server.




BACON