To start I am not a developer… I would love to be able to design and program my own RL but I only have basic skills in python and perl. That being said this is just an idea for an RL I had that I would love to program myself but given how much free time I have it would take me many years… If anyone else is looking for an idea and like this one or parts of it feel free to run with it. I have looked but haven’t really found any RLs out there that have these features so if you know any for me to try let me know!
Heroes of
/Fallen Heroes
World Creation: A world is procedurally generated with a set number of objectives to be completed (each could be it’s own dungeon possibly) in order to win. the set number of objectives will be randomly selected form a larger set of objectives so each world generated is unique with its own set of objectives providing replay value.
Evolving History: in the beginning the world history for as far back as anyone can remember would be one of peace until now. Evil or whatever has entered and a hero arises to fight back. This hero will inevitably die (permadeath of course). Upon death the hero becomes part of the ever growing history of the world and a new hero arises to take his place. The world itself and the objectives would be persistent. This means if a previous hero has completed one of the objectives the rising hero will not have to complete it. History for the world now notes that that feat was accomplished by a previous hero. The new hero will pick up where the other hero left off but without any equipment or increased stats.
objectives could either be equally difficult or they could vary in difficulty and players would (most likely) work from easiest to hardest. both would have pros and cons. If they were all equally hard you would need to figure out how hard to make it so it’s not like beating a traditional RL 6 times in order to win (very hard) but if it’s too easy that won’t be any fun either. If the objectives are scaled so you have gradual progression the most challenging objective can be pretty dang hard and may take many many attempts to complete. the challenge to this is what to do with a new character who starts at zero and all the easier objectives are complete?
I have thought of several options that could be used “prepare” new hero. 1) ”training" dungeons or arenas that spawn monsters based on your character level so a new hero can gain experience and equipment. in these "training" dungeons experience is gained faster (monsters are worth 1.5-2.5x experience?)until you reach a level sufficient to be able to reasonably attempt uncompleted objectives. once that level of efficiency is achieved experience in these training dungeons comes VERY slow or your training becomes “complete” and you are forced to leave the dungeon. this dungeon would have to be developed in a way so that it isn’t boring and you don’t feel like you are just experience grinding. 2) you could have a quest system where you are given specific quests to complete. overall they would be fairly simple quests but would have to be extremely varies and have a lot of entertainment value because chances are you will be “questing” a lot as the objectives get harder. quests could reward you with both experience and equipment to prepare you for the unfinished objectives.
Equipment Creation/development: Just as previous hero become part of history you could develop an equipment system that is also developed as you play. All (or most?) objects are generic (at the beginning). Based on the lack of any wars until now in the history this would make sense… As you use equipment you become familiar with it and its stats increase (almost as if it gains experience). this is the case in real life… if you train with specific equipment you become familiar with its weight, balance, etc. switching equipment will require you to become familiar with your new equipment so picking a weapon early and sticking with it would be recommended. of course as you use a specific type of equipment you become familiar with that type of equipment and your stats for using such equipment also increase. becoming familiar with one sword will make you better at wielding other swords. legendary equipment is made as you use it in battle and defeat foes. The longer you wield a weapon and the more foes you kill (especially major bosses) the more powerful the weapon becomes. The equipment becomes “legendary” after you die and all increased stats become permanent and the equipment becomes part of the worlds history (may carry the heroes name in it’s title or description?). once it becomes part of the history it can be found in dungeons by all future heroes. As time goes on finding “legendary” items will become more common and varied. Dying often to try to increase the rate of “legendary” drops will be pretty useless because the quality of “legendary” items depends on the amount of time it is used so you will just increase the chance of finding sub-par “legendary” equipment. As equipment grow in power they can gain special useful characteristics based on enemies you fight. A sword used to slay a fire breathing dragon has a chance to become fire branded dealing fire damage or armor worn to defeat an ice troll boss could gain resistance to cold etc. maybe defeating any monster may give you a chance to pick up a new attribute but the chance would be very low in normal monsters and higher in rare and unique monsters. You could even make it possible to have negative attributes gained which may force you to use alternative equipment which could be a huge set back. Equipment could also be improved in randomly generated forges. maybe you meet a smith who can for the right price reforge your sword using superior materials or imbue it with magical properties. The unique development of “legendary” equipment also adds replay value because each new world will have completely different equipment based on its history. Players often enjoy the process of developing characters, with this equipment development mechanism players can also enjoy developing their own equipment which then becomes a part of the worlds lore.
Hall of heroes: instead of having a page of high scores there is a building “The Hall of Heroes” that generates a statue or monument maybe it could even be their spirit for each fallen hero (could be an optional choice upon death to include your hero in the hall of heroes (and history) or not so you don’t have a hall full of “heroes” that fell on their sword and died at level 2!)each monument/spirit would list the achievements of the hero (bosses defeated, quests passed, etc…) could even list their legendary equipment. the hall of heroes could be where you go to train or receive quests as you level up in order to beat the main objectives.
