Fruition Online- Personal House Map
This is one of my best creations, I think. So that means I'm right. Moving along...
Various MMOs I played contained various ideas I thought were pretty good ones. However, none of them had all the ideas at once. That's where I come in. It helps to be cultured in metamedia and experienced in as many games as possible. Personally, I say if you only know a couple games, then either you're a fanboy (male/female not specified) or a new gamer.
Alright. So, here are some of the ideas I thought were pretty great:
- Able to place a house just about anywhere outside the city. If there was a tree or something in the way, it would be cleared. If it was on the edge of a cliff of a certain size or less, then it would have an exposed basement; granting huge freedom to players in where they felt like living. A wireframe appeared so you could see where it would be three-dimensionally so you could be sure it was good.
- Able to fully customize your house. That means every 3.5 feet of wall, or every 3.5x3.5 foot area of flooring could be a different color or material or whatever. If you so chose. There were also basic templates and house sizes you could start with before customizing it.
- Able to access your living space from any city, so you don't have to walk all the way across the game, or whatever, in order to access it.
- Able to charge a fee of players attempting to enter your house if left open. Or no fee. Whatever you felt like. Monsters nearby chasing players? You aren't online? Well monsters can't enter houses (generally) so players have to pay your house to allow them access or die.
- Able to restrict player interaction with your house- such as each door and container has a different list of people allowed to open/close or take stuff out of it or interact with it in some way.
- Able to 'ban' someone from your house permanently.
- Able to manage basic permission levels for the house as a whole. Can keep 'open to public', 'owner / co-owners only' or have a friend list so it's closed besides specific individuals.
- Able to allow access to your property to a character, and the rest of the characters on that account are also granted access without bothering with the hassle of 'friending' each individual character. They're all the same guy behind the monitor.
- Able to decorate your house using whatever you've found in the wild, through quests, crafted, got as rewards or trophies- whatever. You can even set up full suits of armor along the entry hall towards the living room if you want, or couches and a fountain. Real house stuff.
- Able to sell your crap via a computer terminal set up in your house, or hired NPCs (non-player characters) so you can have a home business if you want.
Like I said before. That's where I come in.
My Personal House Map idea is that each account gets an instance. An 'instance' is basically a game space that you, and only you, have access to. Unless you choose otherwise.
You get an item at the beginning of the game (see Quests) that teaches you how to initially access, and also customize, your Map.
You like a frozen tundra? Okay, go have a certain spot there act as the center of your Map. It doesn't affect the game area, all it does is dictate that your Map will use that spot as a center, and will copy the area. There. That's your instance.
You can go home and customize the place- and if you get it big enough (various ways, mostly by paying me to expand the instance size) you can have a gigantic house, even made of solid gold if you want. Surrounded by a moat stocked with dangerous fish you caught yourself. You know what? Just check out the Add-Ons and Buildings.
Forge and Anvil- Basic blacksmithing skill stuff. You need something to heat up and form the metal you're pounding away on.
Lathe- Machine that does certain cuts that are damn near impossible by hand. Also takes way less time.
Hand Tools- All technological ages. Depending on the set/s you get, you can only do certain things. No, the sets like this aren't portable.
Tanning Rack- Dry and stretch skins into leather.
Sales Display- You can put things on sale here, for whatever price you name. You can also allow some items to be stolen if you mark it possible. Also items that are on sale for a long time automatically become stealable (you've been trying to sell a dagger for 6 months in real life time, and still no one even LOOKED?). See "Bounty" under "Combat".
Runebook- Customizing spells means you have to take the runes of the spell apart before you make a new one. This book stores extras you would otherwise have to give up on for one reason or another (a skill not unlocked, too many of it already).
Alembic- One of the three alchemy tools. Raises potency of positive effects of the potion. 'Positive' means the effect you're going for; not 'Restore Health', as an example. You can make 'acid damage' more potent.
Calcinator- One of the three alchemy tools. Decreases a potion's weight a certain amount, and helps purify contaminants. Sometimes potions might get a random new effect you don't see on any of its ingredients, or it activates in the wrong way.
Retort- One of the three alchemy tools. Decreases negative effects of a potion. 'Negative' doesn't mean making a poison potion weaker; it means decreasing the accidental 'fire resist' on it, as example.
I already know most of these aren't actually buildings- but stick with me here.
Moat- I've talked about this a few places, and in detail if you read "Pets".
Racetrack- Yes, you can make a racetrack and have some of your own pets, or your pets plus that of visitors (guild or public or something) participate. You can have an NPC do the betting and payouts. Also don't just think horses. There are all sorts of monsters and things you can race, too!
Dueling Arena- Sure there is an official Arena planned for the game anyway, but you might want a friendly 1 on 1 that isn't in public. No deaths here, just 'to the KO' so there's no reason not to do it gamewise. Plus its good for testing out character types against each other.
Smithery- You wanna craft metal stuff? Well, too bad. You can craft with metal, stone, glass, fibers like wool, dyes, cloth, leather, wood- I don't care. As long as you have the right Add-Ons. This is the building you'll wanna put your big ass clumsy crafting installments.
Kitchen- I don't need to tell you what a kitchen is. There are things to make food as well as store it (most of it doesn't need to actually be stored, though).
Bedroom- Certain events take place here, and there are benefits to going offline while your character is in their bed, or at least the room. So there's that.
Taxidermist- An NPC can be hired to 'recycle' the pets you have that you don't need or want because it bred wrong (if you pay that much attention to Husbandry). Just come back later and he'll have a material you've chosen ready. You can choose from skins, bones, and meats.
Vault- Hey! Let's be honest. You want a giant money vault to shove coins and gems into, don't you? Why shouldn't I just let you, and make it official? You can put windows in or something so people can peek in, but not access. That's a 'you only' deal.
Stable- In order to allow your pets to breed, they have to be a type that'll breed to begin with. Then they each need their own stable slot- which you have to build. Then a third slot has to be available so the egg can appear. I don't care what kind of pets you're breeding, even if its a gorilla and a cat. They still lay eggs. Game purposes! Though trees, humans, and fish are all effectively born from eggs anyway. So leave the stable doors open, and something will breed with something. Leave a bunch of doors open and who knows what bred with what. You'll have to hatch the egg to find out.
Garden- Using your lab to make potions or other similar things is cool. But what if you aren't a potion drinker and you don't sell them for profit? You can use potions to help your plants grow. Use them for decoration, alchemy ingredients, or something else- it doesn't matter. You can grow all sorts of stuff. Some of it doesn't even make sense!
Laboratory- You can use your alchemy skills here, as well as store your empty bottles and ingredients as needed.
Atalier- You'll do a lot of spell customization (read Magic), and you'll want somewhere to work on it with all your tools handy. Use this room to do so.
Gopher- this is a dude (or chick), not a building or a room! But she (he) is related. Run out of iron ingots, flour, or painblossom? Have this guy go get more of them. Paid for in advance.