Cyclopean: an MMO with depth, Part 2

A key element to make this game work is unpredictability. As an MMO player, I always thought it shocking that players could go on a website and know exactly what to do and where to go to complete a quest, level faster and get the best gear. The goal of any MMORPG should be adventure, and these adventures should be highly entertaining and fun. And yet, it's extremely frustrating sometimes to search for hours to complete a quest. Some MMO addons even offer full ingame support to search, complete and turn in quests.


One solution is to allow players to generate their own content. Games like Neverwinter Nights allowed the players to build dungeons, keeps and even entire areas for other players to explore. One problem that would sometimes arise, such as in Ultima Online or Shadowbane, is the time and effort involved in building stuff that could be destroyed overnight. Those were hardcore games.

Cyclopean is a game which would allow players to build whatever they liked without fearing the sudden destruction of their creations. And of course, their creations would become things of adventure and exploration for other players. Building things would be extremely easy:

• Choosing a spot - Before building, players would have to choose a spot. These spots would be totally free but of course only available to one player, on a first-come-first-serve basis. These spots can be any surface in the outside world, underwater or underground. An abandoned spot can also be claimed by a player (more on this below).
  
• Basic layout - Once a spot has been chosen by the player, they would use an editor to create a dungeon, a mineshaft, a cave or whatever they wanted using easy to use tilesets. The basic layout, such as walls, stairways and tunnels would be indestructible.
  
• Populating - Once the basic layout of their hideout has been designed, players could then populate it with monsters, booby traps, interactive elements such as doors and switches, and of course treasure. These elements would be destructible.
  
• Introduction - Finally, once the player's hideout - or property, or castle, or snake pit - is ready, it is opened up to the player community. Since it is visible to them while being under construction (it may take many days or weeks until it is ready), it might get stormed if a formal date and time had been announced beforehand.

Maintaining, Upgrading, Repairing

Using a modular engine for dungeon-building, every cubic module in a player-built structure would be made of various materials - some salvageable, some available from merchants - of various quality and would require various time frames to build. Sometimes, building something would require the participation of dozens of players - crafters, gatherers, monster herders, archeologists, advisors, etc.

Players would need to maintain their property, as adventurers, monsters, the elements and time would damage it. After a week or two, creatures would inflitrate and damage walls and spread their waste around. Players would break in, loot treasures and kill the assigned NPC guards and monsters.

Repairing and upgrading is done using the building editor. For any action, NPCs would be dispatched to actually do the work in real time. Therefore, if players were actually visiting the property, they would have to deal with these NPCs, peacefully or otherwise. The player could also visit the property as an adventurer and do the work himself, surrounded by hired NPC guards, player mercenaries or guildies.