Era Ideas
 

Era is interested in the ideas that Era player's have. While every management typically does a thread like this, I have a feeling we can produce many of the good ideas hopefully listed below. If you will, please keep your post clear and organized - with as much detail as possible. Some topics to consider:

• New gang system
• Events
• Player Businesses
• Alternatives to making money

As you post your ideas, I will be putting them in the assignments comments where each development member will take work from. Unlike other managements we will not tolerate laziness or missing deadlines. We hope that keeps us off the path to failure.

Anyone interested in being a LAT or Scripter should PM Alf or myself and we can go from there.

Lastly, many players often want to redo a level or an image, but not work for Era. If this is you, you are welcome to do so. Upon review/approval, your image/level will be added.

I can't wait to see the ideas below!

I ask that the moderators please remove any negativity or arguments within this thread. This is a place for ideas, not debates.

I have a dream that requires a few great LATs and lots of work, but would be definetly worth it if other ideas have been implemented into a better playercount. Since you guys removed the south island, it just seems the step that was taken was negative, deciding to cram in everything at the top level, not a bad thing when it comes to convenience, but the gmap is very small afterwards. Servers like Zodiac and UN have large gmap. If we get that higher playercount I say we can have north island be more for business and chilling, while still being able to PK, then when you cross the bridge, warning signs to scare the noobs, they go to south island where its a complete warzone, everywhere is pk, insides buildings, abandoned warehouses, etc. And is layed out for strategic pking, places where flaks are useful, places where osiris are useful, etc so that all guns finally have a use instead of forgetting about.. whats that.. AC Cannon? never heard of that gun before heh. Also to keep from players running from non-pk areas, grabbing a door a few times, then being safe with the pk timer off. Every where is pk. They can have their luck running away, but you could cut off the top half if youve pked with 15secs. If respawning seems problematic you can warp to the nearest small hospital where it kicks you straight out once you fully heal, infront of the door, and to keep from campers sitting there you cant shoot within a multiple tile radius, and since there should be multiple small hosiptals around the area it shouldnt be a problem. And use of the sewer system aswell since its nearly useless and less traveled as ever since the new gang system. Just a few thoughts for later implications if we go on a upward path.

1)you should finish the "new gang system"
2)hire some better developers because our staff team is a joke ;x

This is basically what I was going to say.
Also that Alfonso has about a dozen things he was 'going to do' (or said he was going to do?), last I checked none of those were completed.

@Willa UN and Zodiac's Gmaps are WAY to large... about 5 levels are actually highly frequented or used for each server. As-is the same with Era.

You can already PK anywhere, there's centralized bases to draw heavier conflicts... I doubt (if all this was completed) it would be frequented for more than a week before everyone gets bored and goes back to raiding for actual points/etc.

Gang related ideas: Im sick and tired of being K'sed ( kill stolen by a team mate ) and im sure they are tired of me stealing their well earned points.. SO i think a assist system is in order.. instead of geting 1 pt for a ks.. the person who didnt get the pt for acually working hard should get 1/2 a point meaning 2 assists = 1 pt

Add gang guns i think we should be able to buy cheep nice guns or somthing like hats to represent each gang.

Gun related ideas: Give the neo rifle sniping Capabilities.. it would be cool and would open the door for more gun development.

another idea is create attachments for weapons.. u can do 1 wep a week or somthing era only has soo many guns.. if u want i can do it lol just saying ( attachments such as red laser.. like the ap0 has its pritty useless but would make it seem COOLER... isnt that the point of era cool guns do cool things.. other attachments consist of silencers, gun slings so u can put ur gun behind your back .. why all guns cant do this idk.. umm other sht would be like add extra mags to ur gun .. u pay for it of course.. and u might need to lvl up that attachment by killing alot with it and u get upgrades u get like 2 more bulets for each lvl or somthing.. another idea is Dual mags faster reloading by just a tad idk..

Money making ideas: give us more ways to make cash.. u took away casinos.. replace it.. give us fishing.. idk let us buy boats i wana party on a boat.. give us a mission type quest where 2 - 5 people can go as a swat type mission and for each completion u get cash or rewards sorta like raiding on zodiac just saying.. could work.. i would love to get into dat sht. MAKE ERA FUN DUDE I WOULD SELL MY PS3 if it had half the crap im saying.

another idea is for the mele weapons.. dude im not gona buy a light saber if all i can do with it is spin it.. change the colors and hit 40 afther chasing down the runers.. i say give who ever uses the light saber the ability to use THE FORCE!!! meaning u can throw the light saber and it comes back to u ive seen jedis do that.. give people with sabers the ability to dash but it needs to charge sorta like a crizen needs to charge to shoot.. allow people with the saber to push people that are pking them away with the auto lock on feature newbies use but it also charges .. basicly make a bar on the top left saying the force and its a crizen bar but it needs to charge.. same sht gose for the SS give them special powers they can disapear with a smoke bomb and apear like 3 seconds later..

Enviroment ideas: first of all what the fk is the point of cars in era.. no one drives its stuuuupid which is why u should idk make cars more usefull as in drag races or give us the ability to Drift omfg lol just sayin i would totally buy a car just for dat.. allow us to customize our cars.. let us put drifting wheels on em or give em nitrox. give us a bus that gose around era 1 that gose from the beach to the hosp.. for newbies that die alot.. lol so they can dig and not cry about running for ever.. 1 dat gose from unstick me to the hospital.. i dont wana die just to go to the hosp for a reason.. do somthing..

an idea for the water would be add sharks to it so newbies cant just swim they will get shark attacked.

There should be a shark infestation problem and you can buy a harpoon and kill the sharks for cash

Now theres a fking idea.. too bad none of this crap is gona be done =/ if era really wasnt lazy and tried new things we would be over zodiac..

I know era made a fishing concept and made the gfx and ganis i don't know why it isn't implied into era yet though :/

First off, use proper grammar if you want anyone to take you seriously. I can't tell if this is a huge trollol or you're being serious half the time.

Finish your kill if you don't want to be ksed.. or pk alone. Assists could be cool I suppose.. but not exactly needed. The kill-point-reward system works fine.

I recall Vimes was working on some sweet projectile stuff when he came back as NAT (before the second... spawning?). Stuff such as bullets traveling at different speeds and whatnot. I don't think he ever finished it. (Chris, clarify if you can)

Making the ganis to put every gun on your back would not only be a waste of time for the staff team, but wouldn't make sense for most guns. Attachments.. same thing.

I believe there is a fine variety of jobs for you to cycle through and not get bored.. while obtaining a constant flow of cash. Especially with '/dropmoney' covering your ammo and capp costs now (if you're good enough @ pking)... more jobs wouldn't really improve the server in a substantial way. However I still support them finishing the fishing for the sole purpose of building boats (+ on the lumberjacking) and possibility of expanding Era onto a watery battlefield. (Whole new scope of ideas for events, jobs, pking, travel, etc.)

Walking is by far the most efficient means of transportation. But cars, skateboards, and even the subway are viable choices. Buses would be redundant for the subway system.. and I can't see them being used much more than it. There is a car-race event, but it is rarely hosted because few players join.

Sharks for anti-run purposes and to prevent 'abusing' the dive skill was an idea already proposed. I don't know if it'll ever be finished.. but if it is; it will also add another dimension for the 'Fishing Job'.

ITT, we kill everyone elses ideas, and then suggest one of our own.

Step 1: Hire competent Staff that are willing to actually do stuff.
Step 2: Updates...

• Finish the gang system. (Purpose for points/those fuseboxes/point displays)
• Redo the events (more universal commands... up-to-date levels/arenas).
• Sharks/Fishing/Boats.
• Fix or Remove PPA.
• Rotate out new MVP/EC items.
• Mining GUI.
• Make all those 'new' events. :3
• Spreadsheet all the weapons (Wil has it) and add price ranges in preparation to add them all to shops.
• All the other stuff (I forget, I'm sure Alf has it all in his comments or I can check MSN history).

Step 3: Add everything to shops, Balance out the jobs a bit, Reset.

Sorry, I usually just tell Alf directly whenever I think of something cool.

It's finished but not implemented into the gun system yet. All of the guns need to eventually be changed to use the new gun system I wrote last time I was staff (which is using the flexible projectiles), although that will require a real scripter as that part isn't totally done.

@rogue

better c:


remind me sometime, i have an addition to the mining system i need to take a day and script out :<

rather than the bus idea i think bringing back the pay phones and allowing you to call taxis and order food and ammo and stuff and have an npc show up and deliver it for an additional fee would be cool, idk how often it would actually be used tho

I third this, as I keep reiterating to staff.
You guys have a cornucopia of issues on era, and a vast multitude of systems which were created with the thought of EXPANSION in mind.
Before you open extra doors, fully walk through and explore the ways already opened for you.

The Gang System: To be honest, Sales spoon-fed most of the new gang system that was released. He completed 15% of it and the last 10% was dropped (3 months to do it, rofl).

In any event, where's the other 75%?
There's an overwhelmingly VAST multitude of things that can be added to expand this system. An organizational and rational administration would even design a DEVELOPMENTAL FOCUS TEAM just for this system.
I mean, the improvements LITERALLY go on for days and as always, Gangs are a KEY component to Era. Therefore, any efforts invested in this system, are not wasted (unlike Instruments rofl).

Beyond that, we have events.
Era has a vast multitude of events that definitely can be expanded on, improved, and in the least... FIXED. <- Sheesh.
Tactical Skirmish levels have been in Old Era style for lord knows how long.
The doors are too small, levels are out-of-date, fix 'em first.
Before we go off building new events and asking for ideas.

Weapons: There is a vast multitude of things that can be added to weapons.
To be honest, customized weaponry (shifting bullet speeds and etc), is a good idea that can EASILY go bad, but can also drastically and positively change the facet of era if executed correctly. Therefore, shift some focus on completing ANOTHER major system almost spoon fed to us.

Secondly, weapon attachments are not a bad idea. They just take a lot of work to implement, <- Do it?

Lastly, Masa had a distinct idea for Melee Weapons he wanted to put into place. Not sure he wants it disclosed, so holla at him.

ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS:

A fricken Tutorial for christ sake. I mean, how can we expect to reel in new players when there's NOTHING to show them the ropes.
We removed FAQs because we said PRs could do their job. PRs hardly even investigate matters let alone answer questions (lol).
A massive improvement (as planned in my outlined proposal) is the addition of a fully intuitive tutorial.

ANOTHER IMPORTANT THING:
An economic rebalance (which was MY next goal before tutorial).
This must occur before the completion of a tutorial (like gang system).
It'd be counterproductive to teach someone a game then completely alter its dynamics right after.

An economic rebelance can be done without a reset.
A specific (partial) application of Keynsean Economics, the overall idea is to "prime the pump".
Put in the economy (jobs giving more money etc), to get out (more comfortable players and fluent economy).
It is not as effective as a reset which would allow you to place preventative measures, but it will still be assistive to new players.

An economic rebalance is simply the realtering of prices, money-making etc.
The amount gained from jobs *MUST BE DONE CAREFULLY AND MATHEMATICALLY* in relation to the average cost-of-living.

The problem with Era is the amounts given from jobs is completely random so no one actually knows if its even enough to help a player excell.
This needs to be addressed, and furthermore, the cost-of-living = price of weapons, food, ammunition, etc.

To not have too hard of an impact on players, the cost-of-living should be changed the least. It shouldn't be impossible to change the other variable to match this one.
This process is probably as, if not more, delicate than a weapon rebalancing.
Like the previous, this affects EVERYONE. How drastic the impact depends on how well it is done.

And, even when all those are complete.
There's a whole 'nother look at businesses.
What can be done? There needs to be a SET-IN-STONE business system.
A fully integrated and intuitive system that requires more than just stock a billion items and walk away. It actually needs to provide challenge, risks and etc for owners and workers. I never was business-oriented on era, so the specifics haven't been drawn up. But I'm sure, given time, they can be.

Businesses as of right now are a profit-whole for players who own them, without any effort. That shouldn't be.
As well as, what is the purpose of PPA? o.O?
It was returned without even once thinking about FIXING the problems that caused its removal in the FIRST place. That is absolutely terrible judgement, fix that.

In conclusion, finish whats on your plate before asking for seconds.

Wil, while there isn't a tutorial, there is a FAQ section in the Support Center which I helped author. It does a decent job explaining how to make money, basic controls, etc.

It's fairly outdated and not very descriptive.
Even the Wiki (better description, w/ pictures n stuff) is outdated on a few points due to lack of administration.

A tutorial that actually shows what to do would be best (and is mandatory.. unlike 'wanting' to read FAQs and Wikis), especially with the player-base we're discussing.

The problem with the FAQ is that it's too wordy. Few players want to jump into a game by reading walls of text.

let us make pancakes...need more player owned businesses and a dodgeball arena a car race track and i want a pet (not tryna be like zod or gk) you know EraPetz lol idk man lets do some stuff that is like out of the box you can have a dog nd stuff gotta feed it and other stuff. i mean why should era just revolve around Gangs and Guns there needs to be some stuff to do. yall took away treadmills bcuz of lw pots bring treadmills back so ppl can get faster and stronger nd stuff fix bet spar.

FAQs would be cool hire Rogue since he acts as if he knows EVERYTHING about era and could someone please update the wiki and the support center.

Common sense says this is a really poor substitution for an FAQ Team and Tutorial. It more turns players away than anything else. Like Chris said, who wants to read walls of text to play a server? Screw that.

Many Eras ago there was a note locked into the RC made when a certain Blaze was a staff.

In there were a bundle of ideas that with the help of Mange, and several other staff members, we were working to test.

In the event that the note was most likely erased, here is a general layout of a gang-system-based idea I had written from scratch.

Gang System:

First of all, the idea of having a party-like gang system was a step in the right direction. But only so little was done to the system and it can be primed to really be great.

As a player what most newcomers want is the ability to afford some nice things. What Era seems to forget is about its novelty value. In the past, cars, bikes, and even bull**** weapons (BB Mag comes to mind) sold well simply because they offered a cool and almost unique experience. Gangs are that new novelty and should be advertised better throughout Era - giving players that just start a reason to call a friend and say: "HEY LET'S PLAY THIS GAME... CREATE A FAMILY - yadda, yadda."

With this in mind, more of a reusable value could be placed into objects to actually HELP gangs earn more points - which should be substituted with money. In order for a gang to stay afloat it would have to remain active, the money collected through various means (later explained in this post) can play a part in funding for weapons and paying for the services a player is offering the leader of the gang.

Gang/Business Integration

I had this idea recently about letting businesses purchase other venues that become convenient to players. Party bases should have a weekly rent period in which businesses can purchase a license to operate that building - which can help a business "strategically" have its sales closer to the spawn point of every player, thus hyping sales for them. A gang can still decide to terrorize party bases (these bases will also act like gang-bases) raiding them allows a joint-venture to be made between the gang and business, or if the gang is truly evil, they could just steal supplies and money from the business - this satisfies the "CHALLENGE" aspect Wil mentioned earlier and makes it so that other businesses can spawn from this (again, later explained).

Protection businesses (like PPA) would actually have a reason to be around. Instead of just protecting individual players and going against what used to be immoral for the classic PPA (working with gangs) they could go back to their classic ways of helping the people, not terrorizing them. PPA would be able to sign a weekly contract to protect a property for a business, this also tests the ability of a business to strategically use PPA to their advantage if their limit becomes a single contract per week. PPA could do a "bid-like" system to see which business offers the most income.

Businesses can also pay for and purchase say a special-unit division for the company which would allow them security posts with specific weapons to help with gang-raids on intellectual properties.

One other idea I had was to have people use CARS to transfer goods from one location to the other, therefore adding an extra usefulness to cars and making an abundance of supplies at one business location a good thing so that players can help disperse the goods to other locations. However, while this happens, gangs can also try to sabotage the driver (which, should have higher damage dealt and more recoils when is being shot at).
================================================== ======

There are more ideas that constantly spring up out of my head, I'll add more as time comes but this is something in essence I wrote up a while back, with a few new things added but the idea is to have players ALWAYS be doing something. If the point for many players is to own a nice gun, be in a gang or own one, and suddenly you can rob businesses, take money and goods, or etc. Well, then you have much more activity.

In the same way, I want to add, businesses will be able to retaliate and attempt a takeover at a gang stronghold (which should be upgradeable with the money made and made to be stronger so that stuff like this can be prevented) and when they do take one over, they don't have to worry about the rent as it becomes territory for them until the gang can seize the location back.

In defense of PPA, as it shouldn't come to a suprise I'm writing this, we have solid plans for our future to secure a proper place in Era. We have discussed these with Alfonso and they have been approved. And Zao has also been completely supportive of our business.

So before ruling us out due to 'your' standards, just know things take time before they can be implemented, as help around the server seems extremely limited right now.

And before you criticize our practices, just know it takes radical changes in order to completely turn around a business that was once in the depths of failure due to previous ownership.

Thank you!

that is a lot!!

A lot has to be done. ^^

This died fast, rofl.
Seems like they bit more than they could chew (again).

It doesn't matter what you do as a business owner, the business itself is flawed and needs to be redone under a new concept (giving it a legitimate purpose and improving era), with a rivalry business instated... otherwise it's a monopoly which is how economies get even worse.

*Not to mention you guys lack the ability to protect yourselves, let alone your clients.* Jus' sayin'.

Changing owners doesn't fix the flaws in the business itself, PPA should've been fixed before being re-released (or not released at all, seeing how it still serves no purpose). Not released, then left to rot again before anyone actually decides to fix it.

Well we pretty much summed up everything they need to do. Alfonso isn't even here for awhile so not much is getting done. There are very few assignments lined up on Dev to be completed... pretty much everything got halted.

One, when cars came out you could run people over that were standing around in the streets. That was fun, bring it back please?

Also, I think for a job there should be burglary. Kinda like how GTA did it? Create some NPC houses in Southridge that can be broken in during certain times of the day/night. Go in and look for objects to take like TVs, stereo systems, jewelry, etc. Then sell them to a pawn shop. But if you move around too quickly, or move around carrying way too much stuff you'll make a lot of noise and wake up the owner who will possibly come to attack you or call the police.

Also van vehicles could be nice for stowing the stolen goods in, along with holding 2 people like normal cars do.

Just my idea, I mean Era is a modern server, why not?

This game turns out to be more expensive then buying a call of duty or battlefield game. either 10 bucks a month, or one of those starter packages, are all still expensive and after awhile add up, its worse then xboxlive, spend 50 on there, then 50 on a good game and your set for a year, only paying 50 a year, now this game, you have to pay 120 for a year if you dont own credit card or paypal, since not everyone is over 18, if you do it may be cheaper. Then some lucky bastards with there 10 classic accounts, when some got them for free etc, making 1/3 of era classic, another 1/3 wasting money down the drain and another 1/3 either sticking to trial because the game isnt innovative enough, or doing the illegals. Main problem is the REAL money, nothing to do with era's economy.

Lol, I pay 500k (Zodiac Gold) a Month to stay gold...
I make 500k (Zodiac Gold) in like 2 days of farming (if I don't find anything good).

Seems good to me, Stefan makes the same amount of money so who cares? :D
I don't get how this is an idea though...

This job would probably require more work than it's worth (re-adding an area with houses, re-scripting cars, making all the homes (inside and out), scripting the 'catch' thing if you make noise, scripting/gfxing all the objects you pick up, balancing the payout with other jobs, this is just what I can think of from your SHORT description...) The concept is good, but would it be worth it for just 'another job' that probably wouldn't be used much more than recycling?

I'd like to see cars run people over again though. :3

Just wait about 10 years for this sht to get done...

Era is just going to slowly die, sorry, but it's true. I try to get on era, but it get's boring so fast, I can't keep myself logged in, I just have to 'X' Out of it. I don't know what it is, but, era's not going to get much better, even if we suggest ideas, the chance of them changing era for the better get's smaller every day.

So true, we can only wait for the inevitable end that is era it's self, the iPod server's will prevail, and what many know as era, will change.

why?

Do you think any of these ideas in this thread would actually get you to play for more than a couple hours before you fell back into the 'Era is dying' slump?

Maybe Era/Graal just isn't for you anymore.

I really like some of the idea's contributed here. I agree that it would be nice to give a purpose to southern Era. Maybe combining a few of the ideas together?

1) Make the island a complete battle-zone, nowhere is "safe".

2) Infest the southern part with npc zombies? (Who doesn't like zombies?)

3) Implement gang-related PvE missions where gangs can earn points towards the future "gang shop".

i love zombies woo woo swag

Era has been dying for the last... since it's been out. It's not going to die.

EVER

This.

I hope your joking....

No one who runs or "staffs" this server has a great enough imagination and the willing to go after the idea, i don't even know if anyone gets paid real money to manage a real time server, i wouldn't be surprised if stefan began paying his staff, getting legit people from everywhere who have great imagination to come on this server and do what they set out to do. Correct me if I'm wrong, but other then stefan and the global staff, if they do, who else gets paid? This would be great for employment since people are already getting laid off, and would significantly increase traffic on these games. I played games of worse quality than this, and they manage a 1000 player count on one server. And the staff get paid. Think about this.