Dev overview

[Understood]

Here's a brief outline of what we've been planning and working on. This is your chance to object or pose any questions/concerns. Hopefully I can clarify everything as much as possible. Keep it friendly.

Sections will be marked depending on the state they are currently in.
For example,

{D} - undergoing development
{X} - complete
{B} - brainstorming stages

Please note: sections marked with {B} are merely ideas on how it should work and are not set in stone.

----------------------------------------------------
{D} New overworld

• Much smaller than the current one
  - Improves pking because of no wasted space
  
  
• Organized into "4 corners" each with its own theme
  - The buildings and businesses will match the theme
  
  
• Unstick me and majority of nopk zones are centered in the middle of the map (Hospital included)

{D} Gang System

• If you haven't read the gang system I proposed, read it (That is basically what we're doing).
  http://forums.graalonline.com/forums...ad.php?t=82633
  
  
• There will be four gangs which each control their own corner of the gmap.
  -The gang will match the themed area.
  
  
• If a gang goes inactive - The area will be up for grabs and anyone can make their own guild to try to take it over for a period of time.
  -After the time period is over, whichever guild dominated that area the most steps in as the new gang for that area.
  
  
• Gangs will have advantages in their area

{B} Business System

• The biggest change you will notice with businesses is that the owner will no longer have complete control over the safe
  - The business will be player-run, but the safe will be controlled by NPC.
  
  
• Paychecks (including the owner's) will be automatic, and will depend on the percentage of labor one does.
  - If you are fired before payday, you'll still receive the paycheck for whatever you worked.
  
  
• Stocking will no longer be just pressing "A" repeatedly. It will involve multiple steps, and it might actually be fun!

{B/D} Houses/Apartments

• Houses will no longer be permanent and will work on a rent system
  - Every week the rent will be withdrawn from your atm, if you do not have the money, you will have one week to make up the payment or your house will go for sale
  
  
• There will no longer be account locked storages in homes
  -Instead, there will be storage units that belong to whoever owns the house.
  • The storage units will work similar to a combination of the mall and lockers (Players have a certain number of spots and can place piles of items for everyone to see).
  • More spots can be purchased, but when a house is sold, the number of spots will go back to a default amount.

{B} Jobs

• All jobs will be limited
  -This prevents mass amounts of money from entering the economy, and also prevents everyone from doing the same thing over and over again - diversify please.
  
  
• Some jobs will still be NPC run, but I'd like to incorporate jobs that are run strictly on supply and demand.
  -For example, mining
  - Miners will gain their profit from selling minerals to a shop where businesses that need those minerals go to get their supplies.
  -If businesses don't need any more lead/iron, then mining lead and iron won't be very profitable, so players will have to switch to something else
  
  
• Will also be introducing more jobs such as fishing

{D} Boats

• Self-explanatory
  
  
• {B} Considering adding an island which is only accessible by boat
  - this island will be a place for fishing, maybe a quest or two, etc.
  - So that we don't split pking, it would most-likely be its own gmap.

{B} Quests

• If you haven't read Demisis' thread on quests, please do
  http://forums.graalonline.com/forums...ad.php?t=81282
  
  
• Quests will be unique, fun, and not over with all in one day.
  
  
• There will be several 'strings' of quests which give smaller prizes and get progressively harder. Final prize being an HP boost.
  
  
• Quests will not interfere with pking, but will hopefully attract new players.

{X/D} Mall

• Yes, some of it is finished and has been released...however, I plan on doing much more with it.
  • {B} Trading stations for non-currency transactions will exist (see trading section)
    - These will be used with item for item trades
  • Mall will also include a food court and other shops to make it more mall-like

{B} Trading continued from "Mall" section

• I'm highly considering removing the trade window all together.
  - It played a huge role in destroying the economy.
  - There would be a safe way to trade in the mall, that way ALL trading will be centered in one location.
  - This allows players to become familiar with prices, and to not rush into stupid trades. Also, everyone will be able to see what you are trading and can either inform you, or inform themselves on what is worth what.
  
  
• Also, dropping items on the ground will be completely disabled.
  - Storing items will be done in houses, lockers, in the mall, etc

I know I am forgetting some stuff and will add on as I remember. This thread was made to not only to inform you, but to help me record and finalize all plans.

[cbk1994]

I like most of the ideas here. The biggest things that stick out to me are in trading. I like that you are forcing trades to be done in one place, rather than being able to somehow send items anywhere at any time. However, I believe disabling the dropping of items would be silly. Imagine you're in a business, and you want to drop some minerals to some stockers or something. Yes, you could go through some storage bin or something, but I think it'd be much more beneficial to simply leave the drop trade as-is.

EDIT: Perhaps disable dropping of guns.

[Understood]

Originally Posted by cbk1994

However, I believe disabling the dropping of items would be silly. Imagine you're in a business, and you want to drop some minerals to some stockers or something. Yes, you could go through some storage bin or something, but I think it'd be much more beneficial to simply leave the drop trade as-is.

EDIT: Perhaps disable dropping of guns.

I believe someone has already made storage bins for businesses...but yea, maybe disabling dropping completely would be a bit overkill, and certain items such as supplies could, perhaps, still be droppable.

[Nonepwnz]

This sounds so damn nice! lol.. Good luck everyone!

[Logic]

Do something with the beach area,

Like actual waves, crabs, birds, etc.

Make the tide come higher during the day.

Stuff like that.

[DKH89]

I'm loving it =P

[Understood]

I didn't really add much about the systems that are being worked on by Andy on Era Dev. But I guess I will mention a few even though he's already posted about them I think

Guns

• Guns are being completely rebalanced. The item system is being completely remade on Era dev which is why we cannot implement these things on current Era.
  
  
• Lame guns will not determine "skill"
  
  
• There is a primary/seconday feature...certain items such as melee, handguns, etc can be set to your secondary weapon for easy switching.
  
  
• Some weapons have their own melee feature such as pistol whipping and bayonettes.

Item window/GUI

Have both been remade. The item window makes it really easy to organize the items because you can place them where you want. The GUI is also very simple and convenient.

[Logic]

So, basically there will be a hotkey for secondary weapons?

[Nonepwnz]

Originally Posted by Logic

So, basically there will be a hotkey for secondary weapons?

Yeah ;] That sounds really nice.

[cbk1994]

Screenshots of the item menu? The one I saw on Era Dev/in the screenshots was not very easy to use.

[knightfire35]

Sounds good, now can you pull it off?

[Understood]

Originally Posted by cbk1994

Screenshots of the item menu? The one I saw on Era Dev/in the screenshots was not very easy to use.

It looks the same, but andy has been working on it to make it more user-friendly.

[Nataxo]

departments :'(

[Understood]

Originally Posted by Nataxo

departments :'(

You're going to have to explain what you mean by this =S

[Nataxo]

of course...

You see... there are not enough houses/departments for the whole Era... and the ones that exist, are EXTREMLY expensive. so why not use the following buildings to use the department system again?






so, my point is that we should add this departments back...

[TSAdmin]

I'd like to see that one Kinetaro and I worked on about 2 years ago doing something - For the simple: it's the building in the top of the map that has a big gaping black hole for a garage entrance and balcony landings; Above Tachi. We were stupidly thinking of calling it "Mountain..something"

[DKH89]

I love the new world and gang system ideas.
This will help bring era back from its slump.

[Frankie]

good to see that at least a few of my ideas are still being considered.

[salesman]

Originally Posted by Frankie

good to see that at least a few of my ideas are still being considered.

Most of these plans have been derived from other ideas...hopefully they'll finally be implemented

[Frankie]

also, disabling the trade system is okay. don't disable item dropping though. that's just stupid x.x

[CharlieM]

Nat its Apartment in english Department is either a store or when someone leaves in english

[Nataxo]

Originally Posted by CharlieM

Nat its Apartment in english Department is either a store or when someone leaves in english

O_O

Omg Vulcan pmed me the same thing xD! Yeah, my bad.

[xFuture]

Who cares about that.. Great idea's!

[Sinkler]

Limiting jobs will benefit the economy how? If I want to fish for hours don't I have the right? If I want to pile up money by doing my own honest work isn't that permitted?

[salesman]

Originally Posted by Sinkler

Limiting jobs will benefit the economy how? If I want to fish for hours don't I have the right? If I want to pile up money by doing my own honest work isn't that permitted?

Economics - The study of how people use their limited resources in an attempt to satisfy unlimited wants.

It's called supply and demand. You can fish all you want, but you won't be able to sell it if it is not demanded. The reason Era's economy always screws up over time is because there is not a "limited supply"...hopefully by limiting jobs, it will delay the economy from screwing up, if not prevent it.

It will also make players alternate what they do instead of only doing the same job over and over again...if you're one of those people who insists on working non-stop, then you'll have to put down the fishing pole every once and a while, and go mining.

[Frankie]

it's only going to delay it, and at the same time piss players off.

imo staff are too controlling on the server.

[Cloven]

If you believe limiting occupations as a whole will delay and/or correct your problems you're still simply just practicing fuzzy economic math, which is the root of economic imbalance in any possible instance.

Of course very few (if any) of us are truly econ-wizards, though, there is a plethora of common sense that exists to govern these economy simulations that unfortunately are either ignored or overlooked. The ignorance and laziness exists throughout Graal, I might add.

[salesman]

Originally Posted by Frankie

it's only going to delay it, and at the same time piss players off.

imo staff are too controlling on the server.

I think it would actually probably be more enjoyable. There's going to be more jobs than the current ones, so there will be a variety to choose from. We're also going to make it more worth-while and FUN?!?!?! to work for player-run businesses, so the options will be almost endless. The limits won't be harsh either, just enough to prevent everyone doing the same thing and allowing tons of money to pour into the economy at once.

Also, if nobody has been doing a certain job for a while, there's a small bonus and you will earn a little extra for doing it.

As far as the economy goes...I know it will never be perfect, but the limits are more in place to spread things out...hopefully by balancing prices and the inward/outward flow money we'll be able to better stabilize things.

[Frankie]

the economy is going to turn out worse if you try too hard to control it. that's how I see it though.

I've never really had a chance to tell people my economic plans. maybe I'll make a thread cuz I'm bored

[Sinkler]

Originally Posted by salesman

Economics - The study of how people use their limited resources in an attempt to satisfy unlimited wants.

It's called supply and demand. You can fish all you want, but you won't be able to sell it if it is not demanded. The reason Era's economy always screws up over time is because there is not a "limited supply"...hopefully by limiting jobs, it will delay the economy from screwing up, if not prevent it.

It will also make players alternate what they do instead of only doing the same job over and over again...if you're one of those people who insists on working non-stop, then you'll have to put down the fishing pole every once and a while, and go mining.

All right,
I misunderstood the concept, I thought you were LIMITING our ability to fish...
I understand the selling part.
So essentially, we sell to the shop and shop sells the fish and when the fish is bought we get money? Or is that going to be way too complicated?
Will there be Fishing Levels as well?

[Vman13x]

i know i quit and all but maybe add a lending system where the owner of the item chooses when to have their item back?that way scamming is kept to a minimum,it even works if they are logged off.