I had this crazy idea...

konidias · #1 04-18-2005, 12:37 PM

Okay so I was bored and decided to visit the Graal forums and went straight to my favorite area, which is the playerworlds. The problem I found doesn't really concern originality. My concern is that people are straying too far away from what made Graal so great. I never would have even came to Graal if it would have looked like Zone, or Era or any other totally non-Graal type world. I came to Graal because it had a fun and friendly environment, much like that certain RPG and it's green capped hero.

We've all tried too hard to make something that would "blow everyone away", and that is far too complex for its own good. So many incompleted and abandoned projects... which I am sadly all too familiar with. So many clone servers modeled after popular Graal playerworlds. "Okay, so Era has lots of players... lets copy it exactly and then add our own spin to it, and people will flock to us!"

I'm afraid that Graal has lost its roots. Classic is a shell of its former self. I barely recognize what I once knew as Graal. What with the futuristic shoot'em up servers, and the drastic changes to the game engine which seems to have caused nothing but trouble. (in terms of fun and accurate sparring) What is with all the "realism" and the blood and the slaving away for money, and "power leveling" and lack of player support?

Graal was once a good thing. No, it was a great thing. At first I thought I only appreciated the old Graal because I was new to the game. But after being away for a while, I understand that it's because things were kept simple. I remember when I'd love getting challenged to a sparring match, and I would follow the person to their arena of choice, and we would spar with others looking on. The matches were intense, fast-paced and most importantly, fun. They required skill and strategy, and there was no worry of some guy having more max health than you, or better armor, or a better weapon. Everyone was even, and skill actually mattered.

You could sign on for a moment and spar a few rounds, talk to some people, maybe help someone through a quest... It was simple and fun. No needing to worry about having to feed your character, or having some high level person come up and kill you, or day and night effects with tons of lights that lagged your game down. Just pure and simple fun.

So what I'm suggesting is basically that someone... a group of people... form together to make a new version of the old Graal we knew and loved. The graphics would be new, but polished and clean. Kept simple, and resembling what Graal once was. The systems would be bare bones. Gralats would be reborn. There would be yin-yangs for health. You would have a basic bow and arrow that shot in 4 directions....

And sure, the barebones of the Graal system are still built around this. But they are too dated to really be appealing to anyone nowadays. All I'm proposing is that somebody makes a fun and simple server that wouldn't have all the flashy lights and bells and whistles. Blending in the good qualities of both Classic and 2k1/Bomy Moon. Something sort of like Mario from the NES turning into Super Mario for the Super NES. You would just be re-inventing the wheel. Polishing it, making it work better, and not adding rims and mud tires and noise-making spinners.

I'd like to see Graal reborn.

WanDaMan · #2 04-18-2005, 12:49 PM

I'm at college so I didn't read the majority of it.

You revolutionized it by creating some of the new tiles, if anyone is to blame for this revolution in Graal it'd be you for starting a trend.

Ah I read.

I understand what you're saying though.

Velox Cruentus · #3 04-18-2005, 01:10 PM

I was always in Graal for the development aspect of the game. I'm quite pleased with the release of GS2, as for it intensely expanded it's scripting capacities when I was starting to get bored of the limited ones of GS. In all sense, I'm quite happy of what Graal is, and going to become. I wouldn't be very great for the server -- I'm a lot more interested in something complicated/challenging for me. I do suppose you can easily find people for this project, however. Good luck!

xXDuMajuXx · #4 04-18-2005, 01:32 PM

Kondias, this is a nice idea, and I may take it up, if I could ever get the server to make it on, since I can't afford my own. I'd like to see this idea happen

Crono · #5 04-18-2005, 05:40 PM

Koni wtf I so agree, it's what i've always been saying.

HOWEVER! The current tileset ruined Graal.

zell12 · #6 04-18-2005, 05:44 PM

Bleh, the current tileset is ****. Aside from the hundreds of errors, it looks retarded.

Inspiration · #7 04-18-2005, 05:57 PM

Classic is supposed to represent the ideas you've just stated. This is what I've been saying all along.

It's fine and dandy that people want to be creative, and make their own servers with their own ideas.

However, a Classic Graal server that plays nearly exactly like classic graal should always exist.

Every new manager comes to Classic with their ideas, thinking that it is a playerworld to mold into their image of what they THINK "classic" should be like. Classic should be like Classic, not "Sort of like Classic, except with a bunch of totally different content, new systems, complex weapons, ect".

Kaimetsu · #8 04-18-2005, 05:59 PM

Dude, there are already about a hundred rented playerworlds that don't bother to innovate. But they don't seem very popular. Why do you think that is?

ETD · #9 04-18-2005, 06:01 PM

Log on N-Pulse maybe? :P cuz that's what we are shooting for in the past few weeks of development (since I was hired there)

We have a custom tileset, with pretty nice tiles, but they are all themed after the Graal default tiles... so it still has a classic feal, but nicer graphics (we are still working on perfecting the tileset)

We do have a weather system, day/night system, and custom GUI, but that is totally optional. You can leave it classic, or add the features you want to see.

Not to push the PW I work for too much in your thread or anything, but I just think that you should see if there is a classic tab PW which is already trying that before you work on your own project.

Inspiration · #10 04-18-2005, 06:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaimetsu

Dude, there are already about a hundred rented playerworlds that don't bother to innovate. But they don't seem very popular. Why do you think that is?

Yeah, but there is a difference between a well made classic style playerworld, and a poorly planned out playerworld that just appears to be classic due to unintentional poor levelwork, planning, and scripting.

Rufus · #11 04-18-2005, 06:18 PM

Graal was never the same once it became P2P as everyone says so the old Graal will no longer be.

Inspiration · #12 04-18-2005, 06:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ETD

Log on N-Pulse maybe?

N-Pulse, in many ways, is far from the world Konidias was speaking of.

Kramer · #13 04-18-2005, 06:20 PM

I've noticed Delteria seems to be the most un-npc enhanced server, and i've really been enjoying it lately, i jut think it needs a little cleaning up in some areas and it could be awsome.

Kaimetsu · #14 04-18-2005, 06:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inspiration

Yeah, but there is a difference between a well made classic style playerworld, and a poorly planned out playerworld that just appears to be classic due to unintentional poor levelwork, planning, and scripting.

From what Konidias says, it seems that he would prefer there to be no scripts at all.

Either way, the point is that those worlds have zero players. If there's any demand for this kind of thing, wouldn't at least some people be making use of the nearest approximation?

Rufus · #15 04-18-2005, 06:27 PM

There is no demand because everyone is either managing a playerworld or working on one.