I think the idea for districts on Era isn't bad (see the previous ideas for a N S E W and Central Era), but I don't think the inclusion of districts calls for a larger GMAP. Honestly, we should expect that the highest peak in playercount Era will ever have to handle at once will be around 100. In my opinion, a GMAP half the size of our current one would be more than sufficient. The bottom half of the current GMAP (Ocean and SR) is hardly used, and the northern quarter of the GMAP hardly gets any use either. The same goes for the sewers GMAP which could be sized down significantly.

That being said, I think it might be neat to have the new Ear divided into two pieces by a waterway, giving us a north and south Era, or an east and west Era, or maybe even a downtown district on one side and a "projects" district on the other. Two gangs could be situated on either side. OSL could be a park area near the center of the map. I think two bridges crossing over the water way would be sufficient for passage between the districts, and having only two passageways restricts traffic flow to two points and provides parties with a fun place to set up ambushes. The sewer systems from both parts of Era could empty into the waterway, so players could also go throw the sewers, emerge on the GMAP and swim across the waterway, then enter a sewer passage on the other side. Industrial-type complexes could be located along the waterway, because water is an important resource in many industrial processes (like cooling hot machinery). Also, a toxic river due to industrial chemical dumping (HP drains slowly while in the water) would add a nice grunge element.

The beach is a pretty popular place, so the waterway could empty into a lake or ocean on one side of the map, and this could be the location of a fishing job. I do think mining is kind of a staple of Era, and an important source of industrial resources, so a mountainous mining region could be on the side of the map as the lake/ocean. Between the mountains could be a large dam, which is the origin of the waterway that partitions Era and also the source of electricity for the city.

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On a different note, the discussion of guns has been popular. I think that guns should mainly be specialized with different attributes. One way to balance guns would be to have certain stat categories, and then limit the number of stat points each gun will be allocated. In this way guns with lots of spread and fast firing rates will have to trade off for more freeze and less damage. Although it adds complication to the balancing process, I don't think the number of guns available on Era should be reduced. Having lots of gun options makes the server for colorful, if there were just like 6 guns to choose from the server would be very bland. On the same note, god-guns like the SMGPK also make the server bland because that's all anyone (with enough wealth) will want to use. Emphasizing trade-offs in gun pros/cons allows for players to develop unique styles of play, makes combat less generic, and allows Gang/Party groups to be more versatile.

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I don't think NPC police forces are a good idea. For one, a lot of the lag on Era has been attributed to NPCs-- more NPCs won't help that problem. Secondly, the AI sucks and so battle encounters with NPCs are anything but smooth. Your bullets can appear to hit NPCs but not do any damage, and they can appear to miss them and do damage. Plus NPCs constantly get stuck, have no ability to dodge, and aren't fun to fight. In reality dealing with NPC opponents is just a matter of spraying bullets until the problem goes away. If we can't even find an artist to bring the tileset up to standard, an NPC cop system would surely be a disaster.

Love it!
I posted ideas that was the same before. (I think?)
But I agree, Era needs to have some variation, and give the world some unique looks. ^^

Hate to say it but maybe you should do a gun system like zone has, except still have the guns able to be bought ingame and kept ingame, with ingame money. I mean the rental type thing zone uses, might make some money for Graal as long as its not forced to pay or you can't ever get the gun

It makes sense from a business perspective, and I have no doubt a lot of money could be made, but I'm completely against any gelat shops on Era.

Making Era to have Gelat Shops will destroy everything, it's just ****. :mad:

I think Era having a set of customizable guns would be wicked sick.

Like the Fn2k, I've seen the image for it and there is seriously like 50 different images for it with different attachments, like the Grenade launcher, the sights, and the scope.

These should be taken advantage off. I say make a system where people can customize a gun. (If they have a gun that is eligible for it.)

Foresight Attachment: More accurate shots, and less spread.

Scope Attachment: Kinda the same concept as a sight but I'd say add something to it that makes it different in a way. Like maybe like even more spread or something I'm not sure.

Grenade Launcher Attachment: Do I need to explain this one?

Extended Magazines: Bigger clips, you can hold more ammo then regular. But reload time takes a small toll of being a bit longer.

Rapid Fire Tap: A gun enhancement increasing fire rate of your gun by a small amount.

Higher Caliber Bullets: This just means the bullets do more damage, but they are a lot stronger and have more kick back then other bullets so they cause more freeze. Maybe increasing damage by 2-3 or maybe even 4-5.. with a toll of extra freeze.

Also some kind of add that could increase the speed of reload time.

Certain attachments can be added together! But only things that make sense, like say you can't have the higher damage attachment + the faster fire rate attachment. It would make it completely over powered. Say something like, extra mags + faster reload, or say the Scope/Sights with Mags/Reload, or even maybe higher bullets with a grenade launcher. But nothing super ridiculous.

There would be about 5-6 weapons that are not super hard to obtain that are eligible for these attachments, and the attachments cost a small fee to replace, add, or remove.

I think it allows Era to be able to customize their own originality in PKing and not waste time buying a totally different gun in a minor change they want with their weapons.

Yes most of the changes would be seen/noticable in-game, yes you'd need more GFX's/Ganis.

Lets give Era the power to be creative.

I've never liked the idea of a wide variety of guns, or being able to customize guns, but Sales does, so it looks like you're in luck >_<

owned.

It's not a lot of guns. 5-6?

If you're planning on keeping 2-3 guns on Era after the reset. Era's population will drop to a good 5-10 people on normally. :)

I think there should be like at least 15 - 20 different kinds of guns after the reset there's like some what over 50.

Its a cool idea, just has to allow multiple attatchments if you do it..One thing that makes me pissed at mw2 im not going to use bling when I have marathon pro..Sorry im ranting

More guns, more variety, more history, I love to have alot of choices.

I myself think Era should remove every "Plamsa" gun, like the Bulldog, Crizen Etc etc.

Era should have as many as possible guns, and the guns should have attachments yes, like taking Scope off or on. Would really make PK'ing interesting.

But ofc it's my opinion, dont get angry about the "Remove" Plasma line.

There were at least a couple of months (probably more, but I remember these) with just the base guns (Uzi, Handgun, Ak47, Shotgun) where Era managed to easily keep 100+ players on most of the day.

Why did you guys ruin the car for a while?

got boring eventually though and everyone wanted more guns

One thing that drags the attention of players are updates! That is the secret behind gettin' people to check the server out if the update(s) sounds interesting.

And if the player haven't tryed Era before, he / she checks the update and think like "Oh it was cool, but not that good." OR he may love it. ;)

Then the player explores alittle more because the guns and players drags the attention, and then the player starts thinking and wanna try more, and he starts trying to earn money to get a gun and ammo.

Players wants updates!

I want to see a zombieland event

What do you think im making in Graal Editor? lol :p

i think u guys should bring nothing new from the current era to the new era besides basic graphics and tileset. all guns and business and gangs and quest should be erase. damn were bored out of our mind with the guns u guys have now and was in the past so why use them for the new era. why not make everything new dont even think about era even exist. like i said before. Erase the economy and stuff and have maps like bf2 where its just fighting the end

Would been cool if it all started over! :D

Then the players had only a few guns to buy, and the map was pretty small, but then more and more updates comes and people starts loving it more and more.

I would love to experience Era from the start thil' the end.

I'm also up for farming as a job after the reset.

You can grow crops, use tools, rent equipment/machines, ect. ect.

There's a market you sell the produce to, and like.. there's seasons where some produce sells for more then others. Like times where something grows richer then others. Like better corn, or better tomatoes.

Also same thing with fishing. Like say in the Era News there's a story (kinda like a role play story) about a warm current that came in and a ton of fish are around so they are easier to catch or bigger and sell for more.

Things that make jobs unique at certain times. Could work for mining, farming, fishing, wood cutting, almost anything.

It'd be nice if newer players could find out the quality/value of guns.

A tooltip showing accuracy (spread), power (damage per bullet), firing speed would be a good start for this.

There should be more interesting jobs yes, like who haven't said it before?

And car missions would be cool if they were more... Dangerous.

why don't you just make more player owned houses like the sewer houses or something, clearly people are happy when these things come about

but then I couldnt have 2 south ridge houses and feel special

To be honest sewer houses suck because theres no sense of "levels" as in upstairs, downstairs, etc.

The only reason people like them is its because its right near unstick which = quick healing place.

If i had one of those sewer houses, I wouldn't like having it because it is close to unstick me.

I would like having a house to sit down and store my items.

Yeah well to be honest I shouldve bought a SR house, but belive it or not they do get boring unless its some mystical wonderland with like 20 levels.

I also think for this new Era that there should be like a list you can pull up where people can put their events up, and people join their events, and basically these "events" would be a warp to their house for whatever reason they want.

Lets say i wanted to have a house party, then I would go to the events list, type the name of what it is, type a description, pay like 500 bucks, then hit ok. Boom a bunch of players come to my house for whatever reason now.

hotkeys plz

I think Era should have a large system of caves for the mines, like a cave gmap.

solve the playermarket problem
people earning money with trading is ridiculous and not server friendly, also destroys the community because all players just want to sell weapons
someday nobody wants to buy anything anymore

you need an infrastructure or so

I'd like to see another Twee >_<

I want Dippin' Donuts to sell jelly donuts!

i concur

Make the new tileselt, you've been at 0% completion for months now.

Our biggest problem has been trying to find a competent artist who would actually be willing to take on the task. We've recently hired a new staff member (Luke) and might have a second one to help out soon, as well.

The tileset is a top priority, but it is not the only priority. There is still much development in other areas that needs to be done, so the tileset hasn't set us back as far as overall development goes. If it had been finished "months" ago, we would still be waiting on other things before being able to use it publicly anyways.

But why is it such a top priority? I know having a new tileset would be very nice, but I would truly hope you guys dont hold back the release of new Era.

To me, I dont think a bunch of new pretty pictures made on the tileset is going to change the gameplay that much, a top priority in my opinion would be to get a bunch of kick ass systems done. Then after the whole basis of that is done, make all the gmap-levels-etc, with the old tileset. At this point you guys could let players on, then update the tileset as players are playing the new Era.

Chris and I are not artists, so our time is spent on kick ass systems.

I agree with this, new Era should build up more and more like when first Era came. There would also be many updates each day, something fresh each day is nice to see. :)

Easier said than done.

Not really, all they have to do is put their nose to the grind, Im sure people arent going to prosecute staff if they dont have a tileset at the moment.

I dont know about you but Id just like to get onto the new server, then ill worry about how pretty the pictures are, its the gameplay that counts.

He means because of technical limitations, not because of how much work it'll take.