Caravans (Spring 2005)

What came to my mind is basically creating a sort of "Traveling Hub", a "Caravan" if you will. A mobile node built around the characteristics of both a homebase and an adventure focal point -- a mobile "Campire" as well as an encounter generator. An inviting traveling community that would inspire a level of comraderie and friendship that's all but disapeared in the steamlined, solo, or elitist nature of many current MMOs.

The Traveling Hub

To expand on the first point, you could log out while attached to this "Traveling Hub", and when you log in, you'll still be with the Caravan (or what's left of it, more on that later). This could let a group of friends basically use it as a mobile homebase, and it would help friends stay together. Instead of getting left behind, a more casual friend could simply go to sleep in the wagon (read: /logout).

It could further live up to it's title of hub by applying certian ideas from the "Campfire" design. Still dynamic but simpler in nature since the utility of the this hub is only a fraction of its design. Basically a caravan could have NPCs that join, have their goods or the variety of their sales based on various factors, etc. Without getting needlessly deep into specifics, the caravan itself could be a dynamic entity in itself, that is effected by the world around it. Such dynamics are key to to last appealing.

But simply making a mobile hub isn't going to make traveling fun or an adventure, so what's the next step? Design an encounter system that turns this "Traveling Hub" into a "Mobile Encouter Generator".


The Mobile Encounter Generator

To start of, you could have your basic encounters. Is the caravan traveling through a mountain pass? The encounter system makes you get attacked by hill giants. Are you on a water-based caravan, a merchant fleet perhaps? Bring on the pirates.

These encounters would be best off as spawns I believe. If you tried to have static mobs apart of the world actually get attracted to the caravan, not only could these raise a lot of issues, but the gameplay itself wouldn't be very fun. The caravan would be basically just aggro'ing them and we all know that certianly want "take adventure to the next level" in our genre.

However, using a spawn system, you have have potential. Not only is it more controlled so the aformentioned potential "issues" are not a problem, but since these spawns are isolated to "Caravans", you're given far more freedom in scripting. This basically means that these random encounters have the potential to be exponentially more interesting. Instead of simply having a generic group of random ogres zerg your Caravan, you can script your ogre spawn to ambush you in a mountain pass, with rock giants bombarding you with boulders from atop the rocky cliff walls, while an named-Ogre Lord can run through a scripted event charging your front-line with a little bit of dialouge.

Such encounters would spawn in two different forms. The first would be off of Nodes statically placed along all the Caravan Rail Lines. These would serve as rare encounters to avoid becoming too monotonous or predictable. The second form would be fully random, based simply off of your region. If you're in a desert, the "Mobile Adventure Node" is constantly rolling a dice to spawn a basic encounter. These would make up more of the bulk of adventure. Additionally, there is potential of non-spawn based encounters related to the general world. Local mobs could be scripted to interact with Caravans. An orc warlord may have a patrol spawn pass by a Caravan Rail Line, or a dragon whelp that likes to fly around a certian forest may often visit caravans whenever they set up camp for the night.

Also, even those "basic random encounters" still have quality potential, as you could script specific AI into these. For example, that basic spawn in the desert could be a cadre of Dark Elves that first approach and try to bribe your Caravan with a threat, then retreat if denied only to attack you with a shock unit of camel cavalry which retreats to a line of archers and heavy warriors when weak, with a named-Captain at the center of it that carries desired treasure. All that is fairly basic AI and scripting by current MMO standards yet would really spice things up. If the Sigil team creates a nice Faction or Reputation system, they can work that in as well to add another dynamic.

Lastly, to make it appealing as an end-game form of gameplay, rather than something that just makes interesting memories while leveling up, most encounters should be given a Boss of some sort, perhaps optional, like a Overlord that appears near-by after the encounter is defeated that lower-levels can ignore but level-capped players can kill for desirable treasure. There could also be super rare encounters (with desired endgame treasure) that help make traveling with a caravan appealing as an alternate form of "personal stat progression". Dungeons would still be the prefered and most effecient form bar none, but that potential would still be there, since simply being fun isn't always enough, people often want a worthwhile reward too (or atleast the chance to achieve one).


The Quest Node

Beyond serving as a "Mobile Encounter Generator", you're "Traveling Hub" could also work as a "Quest Node". While traveling, an NPC may request that you scout an orc fort nearby or request your group to go kill a troll under a bridge up ahead. Quests may also involve the politics of the caravan itself, perhaps someone wants a rival merchant killed, a wagon sabatoged, or a barrel of ale stolen. When your caravan sets up camp for the night, NPCs may give simple quests to hunt for food or kill rats (!), or perhaps just listen to their story, in turn inspiring a the classic fantast visage of adventures sitting around a campfire, something that sadly few people can say they've ever experienced in a genre that was built upon such hopes.

The emphasis of the Quest design would certianly be on dynamic and random content. Static content is obviously of higher quality by nature, but something like Anarchy Online's Mission Generator helps give a lot of life and lasting value any system or a game in general. However, there is certianly potential for more serious static content too. Perhaps the Level 40 Rogue Quest may ask for the assassination of a certian Caravan leader, which would require you to not only track down it's current location but chase it down and the infilitrate it as well.

Regardless of the type of content, it needs to be a detailed and dynamic system. If the system was too basic, it would be boring and simply not fun. Caravans would be basically like a Final Fantasy XI boat ride than lasts for 5 hours or a very slow multi-person DAoC horse-taxi that aggros nearby mobs.


The next-level of Adventure & Comraderie

There's a lot of potential here and I think it could definitely offer a new experience and creating some truely lasting memories. Imagine being a new player without a guild and deciding you want to move to a major city in the south. So you check around taverns in town and find a merchant caravan making the 3 day journey across the desert. You head to the gathering location and sign-up for this caravan, and you're thrust into a small community of adventurers all with a shared goal that inspires a sense of comraderie and friendship in everyone. It would basically make teamwork and group-based adventure a very appealing and comfortable thing to engage, in a way that mob grinding groups can never achieve because of their min-maxing nature that often spawns elitism.

Not only would these caravans achieve a very desirable & comfortable level of community, but it would also serve as a sort of persistent attachment. Think of Tamagotchi virtual pets or Animal Crossing, a constant enviroment. Your character would be apart of that caravan. You could go to sleep after a couple hours of adventure, and you'd still be progressing your own personal story. It would achieve a large dose of immersion since it would feel that your character is constantly in and living in the fantasy world, even when he's logged out (read: sleeping in the wagon).

And lastly, it would achieve a type of adventure we haven't experienced before. The quality itself may not be revolutionary, but the enviroment would certianly be. It puts a fresh face on old gameplay. We've killed bandits before, but have we ever protected a merchant caravan from [i]them[/i]? Have we ever had them ambush [i]us[/i] while [i]we[/i] sit around a campfire? We've fought ogres and giants before, but have we ever had them bombard us with boulders from atop the cliffs of a mountain pass?


Conclusion

Basically our fantasy world genre really needs to take adventure to new levels. It's what brought so many of us into it in the first place, not the lure of gameplay that revolves around min-maxing stats and grinding fattened loot. It's also the area of our genre that's the still by far the youngest and in it's infancy. And within the long treks and epic journeys that many games seek to remove rather than expand, we find one potential venue to acheive classic comraderie & adventure. "To travel with trade caravans across deserts", as Sigil says.

Within such adventure is where lasting memories can be made, and our personal tales written. Think back to the first long journey to a distant city you made in EverQuest, or of exploration in Asheron's Call. Some of our most treasured memories were in those moments of fantasy immersion. How many of us can say that World of Warcraft gave us such memories with its streamlined and static world?

An personal adventure fueled by inspired comraderie has the potential to be a truely memorable and lasting memory, in a way that a linear quest themepark can never achieve. And I think if we can breath life & adventure into making a journey across the Vanguard world, we can certianly achieve that.