One idea I had for a game a while back was that each game was made up of a dungeon of five floors, with each floor being chosen at random (i.e. the floors were predefined, but there would be multiples to choose from - for example, there might be 10 Level 1s, 10 Level 2s, etc.). And when you completed each dungeon, you would get a special item that was based on the sequence of the floors chosen (e.g. Level 1-B, Level 2-F, etc.).

So, you get your really good stuff by completing dungeons. Could implement it so that each floor has a quality of the special item (weapon name generator, anyone? ), and combine those qualities into the treasure you get at the end.

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What most people don't understand about "enlightenment" is that it is not an end-goal; but where you find yourself just before taking a new "first step."

I'm reminded, some time ago, I made a dungeon map for wc3, where upto 10 players could choose a hero (which were custom made), and as a team would progress through a predefined dungeon tackling a series of monsters.

It seemed very popular. If a team failed, many of the players would ask me to rehost so they could complete it. So they clearly enjoyed it.

Almost everybody knew instinctively how the raid worked, what role everyone should play, and who gets what loot, although there was predictable squabbling over mana potions, and the odd player who would grab at everything. I guess that's a potential problem for us too -- what do we do about those who grab all the loot and won't share it?

If our game had a format reminiscent of that, I know how popular that would be. Although that was a real time game, with 3D models, which is beyond the scope of our project.

Limit how many itens someone can loot from a monster.
If monster X has 1000 HP and 3 players damaged it, I think the 3 players will have the right to loot it, so if the monster drops 6 itens, each player can only loot two.
This will also give people the sense of justice. I'm a fighter and I got a magic wand, and the other foe, wizard, got a master sword. Well, what is he going to do with the sword? Then he'll be able to trade with me.

Although this will also bring some problems...

But guess something. If I'm an archer and I'm fighting in a party, I'll never be able to grab any loot at all, all the other guys will clean it up before I can make to the dead monster.

Could just make the player's in-quest (or whatever) inventory be limited to X number of items (like Diablo, etc.).

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What most people don't understand about "enlightenment" is that it is not an end-goal; but where you find yourself just before taking a new "first step."

A loot roll system could always be added and automatically used for distributing.

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Microsoft XNA MVP

I have an idea.

When the loot is gathered, it opens a loot distribution window, where all newly looted items are in a centre circle, and players can drag and drop them into their own pile/circle, or from other people's circles into their own circle. A player may also bring items to the table from their own private inventory as barter for the new loot.

Players can hit a "I'm happy with my share" button, and when a majority click this button, the shares/exchanges are made permanent.

If anybody interrupts the sharing after the button is pressed, the button resets, so that everybody can review the shares again.

The system may automatically share the loot out into the player piles, roughly so, considering class and need.

The GUI would have to handle cases where two people try to drag an item into their pile.

An alternative - a GUI pops up with two options for each item - give to person or random roll. The party leader controls this but if the give to person is select, each party member must confirm it. If he selects random roll it just happens. Something like this should be very easy to whip up using the NeoForce GUI. I have the first couple of screens done already using this and hope to upload something soon for everyone to check out.

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Microsoft XNA MVP

Why not do like Diablo 3 and have separate loot drops for each player? And you don't even see what items other players are getting (unless they drop it themselves).

Then you need to figure out how loot drops. While it's not a huge task it's more difficult then just letting the player divide things up.

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Microsoft XNA MVP

How is that more complicated than building an interface for loot sharing? It ought to be no more work than doing loot for one person, you just make more loot drop and randomly pick a person to have it drop for. And as an added bonus it is less information to have to send over the network.

If it's totally random, though, you'll end up with players wanting/needing to trade with each other as it's almost inevitable that players will end up with loot they can't use/don't want.

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Microsoft XNA MVP

Random or not, players will want to trade, and getting items that aren't necessarily useful to you can be useful if you want to use multiple characters. Or they can just sell it to NPCs for gold.

They can still trade if they want. The characters for a player will not interact with one another.


That can still do that with the random roll stuff.

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Microsoft XNA MVP

How do you intend to prevent someone from using 2 characters on two separate computers?

I don't. Or, at least at this point I don't care. A login system can easily be implemented.

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Microsoft XNA MVP

Maybe I am missing something fundamental here.

What is the basic flow of steps to get into the game?

I am imagining...

1) Start Program
2) Pick Server
3) Login
4) Choose Character
5) Create Game/Lobby/Whatever
6) Start Playing Game

1) Start game
2) Pick game type - single, multi-online, multi-LAN
3) Pick character (necessary first to find best match)
4) Pick/start server
5) Players join
6) Start game

There are no dedicated game servers. Game info will be stored in a central database and queried to find matches.

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Microsoft XNA MVP

What if players want to use alternate central servers?

I am assuming you skipped the login step before picking the character.

Is there matchmaking or do players choose servers?

How are you going to prevent cheating if games are hosted locally?

There is no alternate central server.


No, there is no login.


The latter


I'm not.

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Microsoft XNA MVP

What if people want to make an alternate central server?

Then what stops me from playing your characters?


You said there would be leaderboards. They will be completely dominated by cheaters.