[WIP] The World of Akria

[Gahduvdeth]

Just gonna go ahead and get this thread going.

Please keep in mind, The World of Akria is generally a Roleplay-heavy game, and was designed with RP in mind.

The World of Akria is a small project I've been working on for a while, and is something I'm passionate about. Really just a hobby project, although I've already been receiving funding for it. So there's that. It's being designed by my team, Triad Entertainment, which currently only consists of me and one other person.
I don't have any screenshots available to show, but there are a few old ones on the team's Facebook page (check my sig).
The game's in Early Alpha. As such, there's really not much of anything worth showing. However, that hasn't stopped my playerbase from enjoying the game on a daily basis. :P
It's a 2D open-world fantasy MMORPG, and it has a player-based economy.
What this means, is that every single item in the game has real-world value. Just crafted a powerful Voidium Sword? Feel free to sell it to another player for actual money, or the game's currency (Gold).
Even the currency has real-world value. It's not naturally obtainable in the game (from NPCs, quests, etc) but is instead funded by the players. There's a limited amount in circulation. Players can purchase Gold from my website (and it'll usually arrive in their account within 12 hours. They can then use those coins to trade with other players. Alternatively, a player can save up their coins in-game, and then sell them back to me and make a bit of real-world profit.
As certain in-game regions are released, they'll be marketed off to other players. (one player in particular has already purchased a region, and I'm designing it to his heart's content). These players can then do whatever they want within their region: it's theirs - they own it, they rule it, they're the kings/queens of their region.
Essentially, as the game is developed, the players that are in-game during development are helping to shape and mold the game itself. Player-A wanted a region designed in a certain manner? Done. Player-B wants an unusual culture to be woven into the game's lore? Done.
This game is shaped by the players. The story is written by the players. The lore is created by the players.
If you're interested, have any questions, etc, let me know. I'll try to keep this thread updated frequently.

*****Features*****
Stabilized Vitality Regeneration
Bounty System
Player-Based Economy
Player Housing
Mystery Boxes
Farming and Cooking
*****Features*****

*****Special Events*****
December: Ceiliúradh (equivalent of Christmas)
*****Special Events*****

[Woo, Lore!](http://www.3xent.co.nf/lore.html)

[Screenshots!](http://imgur.com/a/9iOVh)

[Mohenjo Daro]

I won't lie, I love your economy, it's a great way to keep it in check, granted it does have it's issues, it's a great idea. Now, I don't know how players gain better weapons or if buying is the only way, but it's really a neat idea, I don't think I've seen it before. I do also like the player designing of the world, really gives it a nice feel that the player is important. Overall, I love the concept, I'll need to see it in action though ;)

[Gahduvdeth]

@'Mohenjo:

> Now, I don't know how players gain better weapons or if buying is the only way

Just about every single item in the game is craftable. A player can sit there and effectively obtain EVERY item in the game without spending a single coin if they wanted to, but it'd take a lot of time. The game's economy just helps to smooth that over. Made too many throwing daggers? Give them away, or trade them to another player. Need Silver for a new sword, but you're on the other side of the world and you're too lazy to travel? There's bound to be someone that's happy to deliver some to you!

EDIT
Please note that the game is by NO MEANS WHATSOEVER a pay-to-play game. At first glance, it may seem like it. But I assure you, it's not. Almost every item is obtainable through crafting. As such, there's only a limited amount of each item in the game. So you either make it yourself, or you trade with another player.

[Exception]

@'Gahduvdeth':

> What this means, is that every single item in the game has real-world value. […] Feel free to sell it to another player for actual money, […].Even the currency has real-world value.

Please, please, please reconsider this:

* From a **gameplay** perspective: this means that players do not have an even footing, your game becomes pay-to-win
* From an **economical** perspective, this harms you: you end up competing with your own players on pricing if you actually intend on monetising this.
* From a **major ****legal** perspective, this can be used for money laundering (YOU would be implicated) which is precisely the reason why practically every online game never, ever considers this model. You may think to yourself "meh, who's going to bother with that on this", but money laundering is a serious crime and not one to chance on.

[Gahduvdeth]

@'Exception':

> @'Gahduvdeth':
>
> > What this means, is that every single item in the game has real-world value. […] Feel free to sell it to another player for actual money, […].Even the currency has real-world value.
>
> Please, please, please reconsider this:
>
> * From a **gameplay** perspective: this means that players do not have an even footing, your game becomes pay-to-win
> * From an **economical** perspective, this harms you: you end up competing with your own players on pricing if you actually intend on monetising this.
> * From a **major ****legal** perspective, this can be used for money laundering (YOU would be implicated) which is precisely the reason why practically every online game never, ever considers this model. You may think to yourself "meh, who's going to bother with that on this", but money laundering is a serious crime and not one to chance on.

Aion
Mortal Online
Albion Online
Wurm Online
Ultima Online
Entropia Universe
Life is Feudal
EVE Online

All of those have player-driven economies. Wurm and Entropia, though, are the two that match mine the closest. Especially Entropia.
I have a relatively small player-base so far (about 9 or 10 accounts, last I checked), and while Gold Coins ARE circulating in the game, I've noticed my players tend to just do what they can to obtain items themselves, for the most part. The major exception to that are things that can't be obtained through crafting: Land Plots, keys for Houses, etc.

Economic-wise, I've thought that through completely and have turned over every outcome.

As far as the legal standpoint goes, there's not much I can do for that except for keeping an eye out for anything suspicious that just doesn't fit with the game.

Trust me, I've thought about the risks on this. Thanks for the words of wisdom, though! Much appreciated. (:

[Exception]

I'm not concerned on the type of economy and whether it's player driven or whatever, my concern is on the inclusion of real-world currency.

[Gahduvdeth]

Even still, a few of those games have included real-world currency into their system.

[Gahduvdeth]

Update: Just added Mystery Boxes!!!

These boxes have a random chance to drop one of several items, depending on the type of box.

[Jeppe]

You shouldnt use RPG maker graphics in my opinion..

[Gahduvdeth]

A massive majority of the graphics are just placeholders for when I find someone that's an actual pixel artist.

[Gahduvdeth]

EDIT
Updated the Special Events and Features.

Yes, the game's holiday names are Irish, with the Christmas name being "Celebration" and Halloween being equal to "Death Night".

Also, as for the "cooking" thing, I added a crap-ton of different food items that can be found/farmed and either eaten by themselves, or crafted into different types of meals.

[Agoraphobic]

You can do it! ^_^

[Gahduvdeth]

@'Agoraphobic':

> You can do it! ^_^

I sure hope so! I've been wanting to get this thing finished for the longest time. And periodically, I completely just lost any inspiration and the development goes stagnant. (just went about a month without touching it, sadly)

But I really do think it's just the players that help to keep me going. They started asking me to get back on and maybe help them mine some ores or design some weapons, so that definitely boosted my spirits.

[GalacticGlum]

That's really cool. I do think that players play a big part in the development of the game.

[Zetasis]

The idea of player regions sounds pretty cool but how do you plan on giving them the ability to create it? Are they going to be given admin access but only on that map or will they have to put in a request to an admin to do so? Also, I'm not a fan of the inclusion of real-world currency. I've always felt that by doing so it kind of takes the fun out of a game, even if its free to play.

[Gahduvdeth]

@'Zetasis':

> The idea of player regions sounds pretty cool but how do you plan on giving them the ability to create it? Are they going to be given admin access but only on that map or will they have to put in a request to an admin to do so? Also, I'm not a fan of the inclusion of real-world currency. I've always felt that by doing so it kind of takes the fun out of a game, even if its free to play.

While the game is in the Alpha and Beta phases, I'll be designing the player-owned regions to their heart's content (within reason). Any un-owned regions will be designed by myself without any player input. After the full release, any modifications that a player wishes to do to their region must be submitted on the forums, and will take place during scheduled maintenance. At least, that's how I figured I'd do it.

And yeah, games with a currency that's funded by real-world currency… they're not for everyone. Not to mention, I've noticed quite a few of my players either ignore the currency altogether (it seems they'd rather gain experience through gathering the resources and crafting themselves), or they use it to trade with other players when they're just having trouble obtaining something otherwise. There aren't any "cash shops", so it's not like a player can purchase a ton of gold and then use that to buy a bunch of legendary gear, giving them an unfair advantage. The only shops that trade their items for gold are either the players themselves, shops that sell piddly items that don't have a very beneficial use, useless cosmetics (not sure why, but a LOT of gamers love their cosmetics...it's weird) and that sort of thing. Despite the existence of real-world funded currency and a couple other things, I've made sure to balance it out so "paying" players don't obtain an unfair advantage, and vice versa. Fairness is something I've really cared about when it comes to this game.

[BeNjO]

You could, create new access's that allow a map editor with no item/npc spawning, just tile/block placement with animations (if you have them). I would actually have leader and rank 1's in a guild able to edit a guild owned region. This takes the workload off the actual game staff and lets the players do whatever they want within reason to their region.

I'd set some ground rules for editing, Like no writing or drawing images with tiles (prevents profanity, drawings of genitals ect). This would be a main one as I would hate it if some guild made a map full of male parts and female upper body parts that would ruin the game for 95% of the role players.

Just a thought though :). Good luck!

[Gahduvdeth]

@'BeNjO':

> You could, create new access's that allow a map editor with no item/npc spawning, just tile/block placement with animations (if you have them). I would actually have leader and rank 1's in a guild able to edit a guild owned region. This takes the workload off the actual game staff and lets the players do whatever they want within reason to their region.
>
> I'd set some ground rules for editing, Like no writing or drawing images with tiles (prevents profanity, drawings of genitals ect). This would be a main one as I would hate it if some guild made a map full of male parts and female upper body parts that would ruin the game for 95% of the role players.
>
> Just a thought though :). Good luck!

Interesting thought! Although I'm not entirely sure how to begin doing that, I'll definitely have to keep it in mind for future reference! :D

[Gahduvdeth]

Okay, so this is a day or so old, but Open Beta has been launched.

[BeNjO]


You can kill your self, admins and targetting your self messes up picking up items. Other than that looks like a cool game :D

[Gahduvdeth]

Interesting.. I'll definitely have to fix the admin-killing. Not sure if I should fix self-killing, though… Suicide seems like it would have it's uses somehow.

[Exception]

@'Gahduvdeth':

> Not sure if I should fix self-killing, though… Suicide seems like it would have it's uses somehow.

At the very least, add an "Are you sure?" dialog so players don't do so by accident.

[Gahduvdeth]

@'Exception':

> @'Gahduvdeth':
>
> > Not sure if I should fix self-killing, though… Suicide seems like it would have it's uses somehow.
>
> At the very least, add an "Are you sure?" dialog so players don't do so by accident.

"Dammit, I don't need a therapist. No, I don't want your meds, I want to kill myself!"

[BeNjO]

You should make it built into the Options menu, Toggle on for allowing suicide. That way people can't claim it didn't show or it was an accident etc. an attempt to get items etc. back.

[Gahduvdeth]

Just a quick update.

Several new regions have been added, a few others have been expanded. Dozens of new items, monsters, resources, NPCs, spells, animations, etc have also been added. The first "actual dungeon" is currently being created, but the point is that it's there.

Also added a new "feature": Souls and Soul Shards. Basically, everything has a minuscule chance of dropping a Soul Shard, unless it's a boss or a powerful entity in which case it has a very high chance (or even a guaranteed drop) for a Soul Shard. Find as many of these Shards as you can, and take them to the Soul Master (found at the top of Mount Gaia) and he'll convert the Shards into a Soul, which can be used for [snip]. Sorry, not giving away this secret here. (;