Politics

[mathwizard]

Often I get the impression that the Crossfire world is far too static. Also I often wonder, how Scorn, Navar, Brest, Dtabb Land etc. are politically connected. Do they belong to one large country, or do they form various countries? Why do I need a gate pass for Scorn but can enter the by far larger Navar without problems? Of course also other questions have to be asked, like where do all the dwarves/elves/halflings come from, since they have no cities? Or why do I have to pay the same price in every city for something?

So basically the question to be asked is, how can we create a more active world, in which the hero moves? Here are some of my suggestions:

Hero origin
Why do all heroes come from Scorn? The answer is of course that all the beginner quests are in Scorn. This could be changed. Beginner maps are usually small and could therefore easily be created. A hero might later identify somewhat with his hometown. Maybe a dwarf city could be created as a hometown for dwarves, etc.

Politics
Now if we split the main continent into various countries - maybe Scorn+Santo Dominion, Brittany, Lake country, Navar+Dtabb Land - they could interact in various ways. They could for example declare war upon each other, so that for some time a hero from one country could not enter a city of the oppsing country, except by some secret ways with interesting quests. Trade treaties might affect prices in both countries.

Technology
It might be ineresting to make some items available only after some time. This might be done by having random technological advances. Of course this must be limited, so we do not run around with laser guns after some time, but still it might be interesting to get new items after some time.

Economy
Different regions of the map should have different technological levels and different ressources available. If a city has much iron and a high technological level for example steel items might be cheaper than in a city, which has little iron and is not so much advanced in technology. But maybe wooden items might be cheaper there, since the city is in a wood.

These are some suggesions that would certainly take a long time to be implemented, even more because I cannot code. I put them up for discussion anyways.

[hoxu]

Good ideas.. the difficulty of implementing them is another story, sadly.

Well, hopefully *someone* takes it as a challenge..

[dnh]

These ideas have been discussed.. You will notice there are apartments in every town (at least there used to be) and you wake up in the last bed you left from. Therefore you can quite easily make navar your home for example.

You are also quite welcome to make some newbie levels .

[mathwizard]

These ideas have been discussed.. You will notice there are apartments in every town (at least there used to be) and you wake up in the last bed you left from. Therefore you can quite easily make navar your home for example.

Well, apart from the fact that Navar does not have a apartment building, this is not what I was thinking about. Somehow my heroes always seem to return to Scorn, making Scorn their hometown. However I believe now that this si not as bad as I thought before.

[dnh]

Well, apart from the fact that Navar does not have a apartment building, this is not what I was thinking about. Somehow my heroes always seem to return to Scorn, making Scorn their hometown. However I believe now that this si not as bad as I thought before.

Really? I was pretty sure it got added when save beds got fixed. I am however likely to be wrong becase i haven't played in quite a long time .

[Lauwenmark]

Often I get the impression that the Crossfire world is far too static. Also I often wonder, how Scorn, Navar, Brest, Dtabb Land etc. are politically connected.

What I do know about this, quickly summarized:

Scorn, Navar and some other cities were initially built by the Ancient Empire. After several centuries of relative peace, the Empire declined and finally left the Great Continent, now a place of wilderness. Most of the ancient cities disappeared when trade mostly ceased. Scorn managed to survive by heavy recruiting of Heroes of all sorts. Navar did it in a different way, turning into an open neutral trading city.

Most of the cities of the Great Continent are State-Cities. Santo Dominion is part of the Scorn Kingdom; Lake Country is the personal property of Lord Butakis. Pupland is ruled by Lord Eureka.

In the very old times, when even the Ancient Empire wasn't born, it is said that elves, halflings or dwarves had their own cities. The Pax Imperialensis contributed to the massive mix of the population we still see today. In nearly every part of the Great Continent, most sentient races have the same legal rights and duties as humans.

That's for a background information
Now let's talk about technical details...

Hero origin
Why do all heroes come from Scorn? The answer is of course that all the beginner quests are in Scorn. This could be changed. Beginner maps are usually small and could therefore easily be created. A hero might later identify somewhat with his hometown. Maybe a dwarf city could be created as a hometown for dwarves, etc.

True. Probably the first reasons was the lack of quests and map-makers. It was easier to regroup what existed in a few points, so players could find them without spending too much time 'running in the dark'. As time passed, most quests were bound in the Scorn neighborhood because that was the most visited city.

Providing more diversified cities would certainly be a good thing, and doesn't require code-tweaking. On the other hand, making maps is a time-consuming task. Anyone volunteering (Maybe I'll do some if I get enough time) ?

Politics
Now if we split the main continent into various countries - maybe Scorn+Santo Dominion, Brittany, Lake country, Navar+Dtabb Land - they could interact in various ways. They could for example declare war upon each other, so that for some time a hero from one country could not enter a city of the oppsing country, except by some secret ways with interesting quests. Trade treaties might affect prices in both countries.

Interesting idea, although I think we shouldn't attempt automagically doing it - we should instead let players make wars or establish prices. However, that also requires much more players than we do have now. I see no easy solution to that question right now.

Technology
It might be ineresting to make some items available only after some time. This might be done by having random technological advances. Of course this must be limited, so we do not run around with laser guns after some time, but still it might be interesting to get new items after some time.
<snip>

I don't agree with that idea - on the other hand, technological differences between various cultures could be worth trying. For examples, you'd find good axes in the dwarven cities only, while the elves may be experts of the nature's wizardry. This would force people to travel more often to find what they need (NB: the travel itself should represent some fun - if you just need to walk from one city to another without any challenge, then it'd be useless and boring).

Again, such cultural differences wouldn't be very hard to implement - probably nothing to do on the coding side.