Golems V2

I'll spare you the "boy, it's been a long time I haven't updated this blog..." and jump straight to the interesting part.

Building an MMO was a big task. Enormous task. There's good reasons why everyone is telling don't do this as a first project. I did it anyway because that was honestly the only thing I was interested to build.

The downside is that when you try to do a lot of systems at the same time, you obviously won't be able to make everything as deep as you wanted (unless you're ready to delay release like Duke Nukem Never... eh... Forever...

The golems in Golemizer were never quite what I had in mind in the first place. Well, yes and no. My initial plan was to go with something simple. Make something simple, easy to handle, update. I wanted my own small project to play with. At first I was aiming for something like Urban Dead. But I wasn't satisfied enough to build something too simple.

So I started going in various directions and ended up with systems not as complete as I wanted like the golems. It's kinda ironic because the game is named Golemizer but I could as well have named it something like "Sandboxer" since it was first a sandbox game in my mind.

So golems ended up like "fire and forget" weapons. Not all golems were of the same power so players ended up building the same golems over and over. I don't blame them, the game was pushing them in that direction. In a game where players are mad scientists experimenting on various devices, golems were pretty much just static beings. They all looked the same (on a stats level) with some differences on HP and bonus damages for golems such as rougarous and zombie horrors.

Building interesting combat content was becoming really hard because I the content was too hard to beat, it was pretty much like saying "build that one golem that can beat it and forget about everything else". So it was a simple system yes, but not a system I was satisfied with.

Another reason why players weren't interested to build other type of golems is that there was no reward for doing so. The only "reward" or way to measure success were the global points gained from combat (and now quests). Why bother having a hard time by doing the same content with a mechanical bull as you know the player with the zombie horror will always be ahead of you...

So that brings me to the golems update. In this update, players can customize the stats of their golems. Some golems can update X stats while others can update Y stats but in the end, golems of the same "level" of power can beat each other according you switch you strategy correctly. So while in the past a rock cleaner was useless, now it's able to fight a zombie which is of the same level of power.

So what's the point of having golems of equal powers? Aren't they basically the same golem with a different skin? They key is in progression and rewards. Before, there wasn't any way to improve your golems. You were stuck with the same stats until you got rid of your golem. The crafting process is also different to make it more interesting.

Mechanical golems like rock cleaners and mechanical bulls come with a number of experimentation points based on the quality of the parts used to craft them. With these experimentation points, you're able to customize them to your liking. Do you want a damage dealer? A tank? Do you want to customize it to fight a specific type of opponent? You now have the choice.

Bio golems like zombies and rougarous don't have any experimentation points at first. But their stats are set by the stats of the parts used in the crafting process. Will you use this arm with +5 damages or this other arm with +8 HP? Your choice.

So both type of golems can be customized, it only depends on which way fits more your playstyle. Some will hunt for hours to find the parfect arm, leg, flower... While others are ready to take a chance and go with mechanical golems (experimentation success is based on the number of points used for each experiment).

Of course, it doesn't stop there. When your golem defeats an opponent, it works its way to get more experimentation points. If you fight weak targets, it will take a long time to customize your golem. If you take more risk, you'll get experimentation points faster.

Ok, so why would I build a clockwork gnome while I could build a zombie horror? Well, rankings by global points are now "removed". The chart is still there because I know some players are interested to still check it but things like special titles on login and rewards are now monthly and per golem type based. So your clockwork gnome is the best gnome there is? That means you'll be at the top of the rankings for gnomes. At the end of the month the rankings are set back to 0, trophies are awarded to the best player for each golem type and we go for another round. The global rankings are now rankings by trophies.

Trophies can be earn if you are the best master for a golem type, if your city is the most active city (only for mayor), if you attend an event and the GM rewards you with a trophy, if you are helping new players and a GM notice you, if you have builded something amazing like a very pretty house, if you are the most popular quest builder and so on.

The trick here is to have various ways to be recognize. With the previous system of prestige points only, you basically had to be into combat to be top ranked. For a game claiming to be sandbox, that wasn't quite interesting. The point is that whatever you are doing well, this might make you a top player in the rankings. Plus you get trophies you can brag about and show in your houses or cities.

With this update, I'm getting a little bit closer to something I'm completely satisfied with. Of course, the question is can I ever be satisfied? ;) There's still another level of customization I want to add to golems. Players have suggested the possibility to add weapons/new attack to golems and Maple suggested some module system. I think that's where I'll be heading next for golems. Not just give the possibility to players to add new attack modules but also things for players less interested in combat like a "greeting" module (golem would say hello to people it's meeting), or other behaviors that would give more personality to golems and make each one a little bit more unique.

So much to do yet so little time! There's no lack of ideas here (and I won't even talk about the numerous other ideas I'd like to turn into MMO one day...).

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Little update

Haven't been very active online recently though it doesn't mean I'm not at work behind the scene.

So no new big changes are planned for Golemizer short term though I'm still juggling with a possible weapon system. I want to make sure it doesn't shift the focus away from golems but I know such system would probably be a popular addition. If I come up with something satisfying me, it might be added after the holidays.

Other than that, I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out the huge problem of the game server hanging the CPU at 100%. I got a small patch ready to push online that tweak some weaker spots in the code but I'm not 100% convinced it will fix the problem. I still have to do a global check on all zones to check if no dependencies are missing or something. A bug like that was causing problems some months ago, maybe it's still related. What's bugging me is that everything can go fine for some days and then I have to manually reboot the game for 2-3 days, but never more than once a day. This tells me it involves player actions with something buggy but what?...

I played a bit with Flash... the trial was enough for me to know that I'd be able to create a new Flash interface for Golemizer (which would help to be hosted on games portals...) but that the learning curve would require my full dedication for at least a month just to figure out how to translate all the systems in Actionscript. It can be done but I'm not yet ready to spend that much time on this.

I also did a return on the state of Golemizer. Basically, what are the biggest difficulties development wise, which are: getting new art, creating new content, a lot of new data created by players (zones, items, golems).

I'm always working on more than a project at once, which helps me to keep interest and helps a lot to clear your mind on some problems (which makes them easier when you come back with fresh ideas). The other project was Ereptoria. But the points I previously enumerated are telling me that at this point it cannot be done. Ereptoria would bring about the same problems related to development so I need something less heavy on my end to be able to push enough energy in both projects.

I went back to my old notes and found something interesting. In fact, probably an idea I should have done before Golemizer. What I'm trying to say here is that a game like Monopoly, once done, doesn't require any maintenance. An MMO is constantly evolving and changing. This project is still an MMO but requiring much less involvement on my part post-launch.

I already have a working prototype, built using the same code base as Golemizer. I'm not reinventing the wheel here, I already have my MMO engine. However, I'm not just applying a new skin over an existing game. Having all basic systems already built (movement, inventory, chat, crafting) it really speed up the development and I can concentrate more on subtle mechanics and data.

I'll leave it at that for now. You can however expect to hear more about it after the holidays.

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Interesting endgame article

Tonight I fixed a bug, fixed a dungeon and approved a bunch of quests and still feel like I didn't do much. Bah, send your time over here, I need more. Without going into too much details, there might be an opportunity opening for me with my current employer that might help dedicate more time to Golemizer (and upcoming projects) in the long run. Anyway, waiting an answer from the boss...

So to relax a bit, I found this article where Damion Schubert talks about endgame in MMOs.

Mr. Schubert's blog is on my regular reading list (though it's been a bit quiet recently because he's working on SWTOR!) and there's some great stuff over there. So I'd recommend that you check the article if you're interested about endgame stuff. Great guidelines for my next project there.

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Stages of MMO development with no experience

Psychochild has an interesting post on stages of MMO development. While reading this, I realize that MMO development is not really different from any other web or desktop application.


Without any experience of MMO development, I basically followed the same path based on my experience at my day job. I have rarely seen posts linking traditional software development with games so I'm wondering why there's seems to have a line between the two.

Is it because game designers never did other software development? Is it because traditional software developers have never crossed the line over to games?

Between the two, I see little differences. I don't mean that someone that worked 10 years doing accounting softwares would automatically be able build a successful game, just that the steps of production are really the same.

The game designer is able to come up with something "fun" while the software developer is able to come up with something useful. This ability isn't related to stages of development so that's what telling me that someone with the right project management background would be able to go on either side of the line, with the right knowledge and interest (one that can manage the development of an acounting sofware doesn't mean he would make a game that people would enjoy even if development is done the right way).

So what's the point of all this? Well, I guess I'm just playing with it trying to see if I'm someone that comes from traditional software development that will be able to cross the line and finish my current project in a successful way (not talking about financial or numbers matters here, just about what is wrong and right with the project compared to another).

Of course, being the only developer in this project is blurring a bit each stages but over the years, I learned to work step by step just like an analyst and not "all-in" like a programmer. So far I think I did a pretty good job following each stages but what will be really interesting to see here is what could have I done better to improve the result. What can I learn here that will help me with the next project. Does my lack of "game development" knowledge have been filled back by my experience working with business web and desktop applications.

Oh, by the way, step 6 is right around the corner. Next week, hopefully, we'll see some more people in Golemizer!

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Smart advices I shall use carefully

http://lostgarden.com/2008/02/gdc-past-lessons.html

Simple but quite useful for a project like mine. There's already some element from this list that made it into the current version currently in testing:


Build in the "Norm Effect" if at all possible

I think the first NPC that talked was welcoming every new characters in a given zone. Simple to do and can be extended to add more fancy stuff like "Welcome [character name]! Congratulation for your recent achievement [badge name]".

Include spectators

The "Log as guest" button is all about that. Instant access to the game without any boring account creation process (at the cost of limited interaction).

Legends must grow

Not currently implemented but planned from the start, access to characters stats from a web service (to start) and then a web interface (like the WoW one).

Facilitate relationships

There's a guild system but a friends system is probably needed as well. To know if you're friends are online or not in a single glimpse makes it a lot easier than sending random /tell to check if the character is online or not.

Include cooperation

The way crafting will operate will surely require many people to cooperate or at least do quite some trades to achieve the high end items. Ex.: To craft a large chest, you first need a small chest. You can buy it from someone or craft it yourself since it's easy to craft.

However, to craft a tavern, you need small wood modules to craft medium wood modules to craft the require number of large wood modules to craft the tavern. This means a lot of resources and probably a considerable amount of time. But if you're able to get right away the large wood modules from someone else, the task becomes easier, faster, funnier.

Facilitate special events

I think GMs' commands can be easily used to create events on-the-fly. Some tweaking might be needed and more is planned (like the ability to award custom badges for the futur badge system).

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