Gameplay Design Rants (tm) - Analisys of successful examples

[Horis]

I have to say this is rather quickly getting away from what salem should be about (witch craft and pioneering) to something a bit more military and tactical. I am all for a simple intel network, but not some complicated system of control points.

I see your point but... has it ever really been? I mean, there is pvp and towns but no witches...
I'm not trying to invalidate your argument, just really confused.

For a game about witches to work you must basically have two factions: the pioneers and witches. Those two faction should then have an impicit or explicit agenda, they could be fighting for territory or fame or it could be as simple are pioneers are hunters and witches are hunted.

Am I totally blind or nothing of the above made its way into the game? Not even the "about" page of site says much about it, where you could easly mistake them for a high end mob.


I can see why you say I'm going off the "intended" track for Salem (even if not off topic) but are you sure the type of game we are playing now isn't already off track compared to what you are referring to?

Do you know where can I find a clearer statement from the previous devs about the witches role and gameplay? Cause JC says "I'll give you witches" like everyone is expecting them (Yes, I know, game's title says "witches", but...).

I see a possibility where witchcraft is the answer to questions about relevance to the the theme when implementing features that otherwise seem artificial or inorganic to the Salem environment.

If a character has the employ of a witch residing in the dark region or has converted to witchcraft as opposed to the other two possible religions (say, christian or native american), conjuring creatures to do their defensive intelligence work or serve as a first contact for defense can be believable (in effect, not seem out of place in the game)

Players can also dance to the spirits of the animalist native american religion to employ services from more native american themed apparitions for defensive roles.

Christians would also have their benefits if they learn proper prayers for example.

Employing such a system would allow for a structure of hierarchy in player advancement that creates player alignment to factions as well as allowing for protective help from raiders attacking without any defences to vacant homesteads.

(Sorry if my wording is confusing. I hope you can understand what I'm saying. re-reading it confuses me lol.)

What I'm thinking is using religions to get help against what is otherwise a very easy raiding opportunity once your claim is discovered while you are absent.

And there can be three religions to choose from; witchcraft, native and christian; that each specialize in their own bonuses towards defence of claimed space.

Cheers!

[Scilly_guy]

I agree with both of you, that the game itself has perhaps strayed from the course of witches but JC is promising them and has mentioned "10 hexes", and I like how Horis has linked witch craft and the ideas in this thread.

I would like to point out that some kind of Province mechanic would give a way for people to play together without having to trust them, as more than one town could belong to the province. This would be a first step toward trusting someone without having to let them into your base.

[Horis]

Imagine instead of towers we had a choice between building a crucifix, a totem pole and a "burning man" as structures that through spiritual sacrifice by the player has protections attached to them. In order to recharge the spirit or piety of totem pole or cross or burning scarecrow, the owner has to charge it with his spiritual fervor. A player would build up fervor through various actions that are favored by the chosen religion. These fervor points are gained and stored in the character and released into the defensive icon through a ritual. once the ritual is done the icon takes time to charge up. charging up is the event when the spirit or the minion or the divine presence arrives at the icon to station itself there and take on the role of alarm for when characters not affiliated with the icon owner are nearby. During the charge up time the icon building is defencless and requires protection from the players.

There can be other rituals that summon different spirits that are more in tune with specific religions; debuffs, bonuses, hexes or whatever is found to work. What is important is that it takes the fight away from claims and production buildings. It should center the fight more on using your characters.These icon buildings would need to be attacked and defended before the actual production buildings on a claim get destroyed. Setting up these defence icons in a pattern would make any attack on claims require that you take out the icon buildings.

That is something like Eve's system. I think the O.P. has a great idea and it could be very important for claim asset defence. It may not be the answer that the devs seek but it does answer to the O.P.'s great ideas.

[springhorse]

Edit: Apologies, was writing from a colleague pc and didn't notive he was logged in with hes account...

[nonsonogiucas]

Horis, that is actually a great idea for an implementation! I can see now by comparison how your way to put it is a lot more in line with the "intended theme of Salem" *.
This kind of thematic adaptation has potential to fit all the "design" requirements borrowed from EVE.

It takes time to build / demolish a province ownership on land. (You have to build a shrine, build a ritual, sustain it or wathevs)
A prolonged player presence on site is required, leaving space for confrontation. (You can have to feed both the defesive and the disrupting rituals / devices)
Acting on the ownership level generates intel. ("Feel the disturbance in the force" type of thing)

The nice thing about a "proper" design principle is that you usually can find a way to immerse it into a particular theme, so you coming up with this awesome retheme compels me to explore the thing even further!

The witches role
I now see a reason for the whole "witch idea" to exist in terms of actual gameplay as you describe it. One could imagine a certain number of factions where the main difference is religious alignement and then the witches: some kind of independent mercenary force you can both love and hate depending on the circumstances. I can envision mostly peaceful settlements not wanting witches living around them while others may want to employ witches for their higher destructive potential. That of witches could be not a player-damaging ability but rather a set skills aimed at undermining those devices (shrines, churches, crosses, totems, you name it) that hold up a province claim over an area. Also a witch to operate at full power would need a certain amount of land of her own, maybe that land would also become in some way cursed for the purpose of normal townsfolk, thus making a witch neighbor both a positive (active protection from attackers) and negative (you pay in land).

* I put it in quotes "intended theme" because I believe it doesn't pop out very well right now, at least in actual gameplay, so I'm kind of deducing it from forums posts and veteran players expectations.