GH2: A Minimally Complete World?

[Joseph Hewitt]

I've been playing Arena mode a lot recently, and now I want to play a RPG campaign. In order to do this, the campaign world needs to be reasonably complete- not entirely complete, but complete enough that my character will have everything that he'll need for the campaign without starting over.

Here's a list of things which I think are needed. Let me know if there's anything else.

Locations- Every major faction should be represented. In the L5 pattern I need to add some more Rishiri stations, the Bohemian asteroids, the Crihna home port, and the Privateer asteroid. Because each location requires at least two quests, this part is taking a long time.

Factions- Each faction needs a recruiter, a skill trainer, and at least one faction store. The faction advancement mechanism should be determined as well. Each faction also needs missions and earnable advancement points, though these can be added after a campaign has already begun.

Stuff to Do: All characters need stuff to do. Since it's possible to add plots while in the middle of a campaign, I won't worry about this for now.

Services- I think the basic services are pretty well covered already. Is there anything that hasn't yet been added?

Lancemates- There should be a number of recruitable lancemates. Several potential lancemates already exist, but I'm not sure whether there are enough or not.

Goals- There should be several goals for the PC outside of the core story. Right now there are the arenas and a few other guaranteed quests, but that's about it.

Once these things are in place, the world should be plenty big enough to run an entire campaign in. The two big tasks are expanding the game world and reworking the faction advancement. The faction advancement rework should be pretty easy- instead of each factiion maintaining separate rank variables, a global rank variable will be kept. This way when the PC switches factions he doesn't enter the new faction at the ground level. This will prevent faction scumming, and so will allow me to allow mid-campaign faction switching.

Comments?

[Anticheese]

This is kind of a locations gripe, but the spinners seem to lack individuality.

Would there be some way to add landmarks on the overworld (over-spinner?) map? I'm not sure what you could do that would work in both versions but in GH1 I mainly relied on landmarks to navigate. (I.E "Okay..that's the swamp..Pirates point should be somewhere near here).

[Joseph Hewitt]

Quoting: Anticheese

This is kind of a locations gripe, but the spinners seem to lack individuality.

I agree. I think there are two causes for this problem: First, most spinners offer the same generic services. Second, there isn't a lot of hand-crafted individually placed content yet. This should improve as more content is added and the world details are fleshed out.

You know, this might be a good time to provide some details on the plot system rework/city mood system that I'm planning. I'll start a separate thread for that.

Quoting: Anticheese

Would there be some way to add landmarks on the overworld (over-spinner?) map?

Yes, this will be possible.

[palefire]

Quoting: Joseph Hewitt

Services- I think the basic services are pretty well covered already. Is there anything that hasn't yet been added?

Non-faction Skill Trainers? Right now I have seen only a music shop, a bodyguard, and gyms (occassionally).

Quoting: Joseph Hewitt

Stuff to Do: All characters need stuff to do. Since it's possible to add plots while in the middle of a campaign, I won't worry about this for now.

Another small thing for a character not to start over. At the beginning you have to fly about ten missions and remember to collect the weapons manually in order to afford a Dora, the cheapest mech in game. You are out of luck if you lose your mech before that. You can sell your body parts at Theles Spinner (eeek! ), but what about other colonies?

[macksting]

Ouch. That's what sewer crawls used to be for, right?

[Burzmali]

How about adding color traits or, dare I mention it, alternate tilesets for the buildings in the spinners?  It won't do a lot, but it will help you remember where you are at a glance and add enough distinctiveness make people and places stick out in your memory a bit more.

[Erathoniel]

Actually, spinners could just have flags that are displayed rather often. Or similar stuff, like beacons and what not

[Joseph Hewitt]

Quoting: palefire

Non-faction Skill Trainers? Right now I have seen only a music shop, a bodyguard, and gyms (occassionally).

Mullins will also become a skill trainer after you complete the Privateer's Arena.

Quoting: palefire

Another small thing for a character not to start over. ...

Yes, that's right. I had been planning to add a guaranteed free mecha quest to the PC's home town. In GH1 you can earn three mecha right off the bat if you know what you're doing; the same should be possible in GH2, and there ought to be more mecha given away in the regular quests as well.

Quoting: Burzmali

How about adding color traits or, dare I mention it, alternate tilesets for the buildings in the spinners?

Quoting: Erathoniel

Actually, spinners could just have flags that are displayed rather often.

These are good ideas, but low priority for the time being.

[JohnnyDmonic]

Quoting: Joseph Hewitt

In GH1 you can earn three mecha right off the bat if you know what you're doing;

SPOILER ALERT



Five mecha in short order.

Arena (strip sell, or you can lie later if you want the chaotic), tutorial (start then let stall), Go to snake lake do data card get Buru Buru from guardian, back to do tutorial, back to Hyoge finish tutorial, get the Wolfram from the mines,  take the wolframs helmet, pilot it (or the Buru Buru), sell it out from under yourself, bus to Wujung, walk to the temple, talk to the mechanic for an Esher.  Ride it back to Hyoge.  Elapsed time < 1 day.

[Joseph Hewitt]

Tonight I fixed the faction ranks. Now, if the PC changes factions, he won't start at level one but will enter at the same level that he had in the previous faction. This will allow the player to switch between factions without reward scumming being a concern.

I think I'm going to bite the bullet and expand the core story even before the world is completed. Most of the important cities are there now, at least, and I'll have a better idea of what's missing after playing through the RPG campaign for a while.

I suspect that the core story needs another state description to handle episode storylines, but I should playtest the current system a lot before I can really decide. I'm not certain that the mechanism that currently exists for episode change is sufficient; again, it's going to take playtesting to find out.

For playtesting purposes, I usually create a random "Basic Mode" character and use that. Using a random character means that I'll be forced to flesh out activities for all different character types, not just my favorites.

Let's see how it goes.

[palefire]

I think doctors should be able to tell you how to treat permenant injury or at least say that they can do nothing about it, instead of being totally blind to it.　(How to treat permenant injuries, by the way? I think at least you should be able to do it with cyberware... that's what they were originally for, isn't it? And maybe for the spiritual people monks offer some alternative solution?)

I suggest adding trainers and more opportunity for non-combat skills? That might not be minimal requirement for a minimal complete world but not forgetting to do it now can integrate these skills better into the world; and of course hints that you can use them. (How about a daily event in each spinner?)

Also, don't start in a wraith. You can't pick up loot with a wraith, and right now you have to do that tedius thing manually, and wraiths don't have hands. You lancemate crashes in space for no apparent reason in a wraith.

[Onisuzume]

Well, I think that Cyberware is the only way to "heal"  permanent injuries.
Or at least some of them.
E.g. Cyberware spine - spine injury.
Cyberware eyes - half-blindness.
Cyberware heart - heart injury.
Cyberware skeleton  crushed bones.

The only one I wouldn't know an answer to is torn ligaments.
Though I guess that a cyberware skeleton would take care of that as well.

And maybe for the spiritual people monks offer some alternative solution?

Divine Sight for blindness?

[palefire]

Quoting: Onisuzume

Divine Sight for blindness?

Well, I meant monks as in monks in Gearhead, holding lost clues to lost artifacts of lost technology.

[Zereth]

Yeah, if anybody knows where to find regeneration pods that can restore your original state rather than having to resort to cyberware, it'd be the monks. EDIT: And maybe Biocorp.

[Varil]

Failing that, adequate spirituality and martial training(and any willpower related stats...) could lead to one being able to eventually heal such injuries...maybe a skill roll every now and then to see if your character suddenly is "Divinely Inspired" to go on a holy quest of self restoration. Or something. Spirituality could be a skill heavy, light on cash solution to wounds, while cybernetics is just the opposite...

Whatever. I like the idea of a cybernetically enhanced martial artist myself, but I'm just powergamey like that.