a story idea for RK2....*crazy but hear me out please*

[______________Tahrus]

is it just me, or is RK2 the unwanted bastard child of whatever "story" there is to AO?

I know its probably a tired subject, but I really don't wanna have to start all over on RK1 just to be involved in the storyline..if there even is one.

anyway. I've got a suggestion for RK2. it might sound a bit crazy, and most 'uber, I got a level 160 *insert class here* so i'm the lord of crap" players will probably act like jerks and flame me for this but, here goes:

I say we consider..for storyline purposes, RK2 not a different dimension, but actually a different PLANET altogether. this would take a nice bit of work and imagination.

how would this come about? well story-wise it is easy to explain.

rumors come out of another source of Notum...a previously unscanned planet on the edge of Rubi-Ka's galaxy. Both Clan and Omni-tek scramble their technology, in a race to colonize this planet first, and take is notum resources. The Clans think this is a way to defeat Omni-tek, by using this planet's Notum to take Omni-tek's customers from them. Omni-tek is simply greedy (yeah I'm Omni, and I'm greedy!), and wants a monopoly on Notum. both clan and omni settle on the planet and begin shaping it, much like Rubi-Ka. the planet is named Rubi-Ka 2(who woulda thought???), and many of the features of the planet are made to match Rubi-ka 1, in order to make the settlers more comfortable in their new surroundings.

now game wise how would this work? I'm not an expert on making games, but i don't imagine it would be too hard. you could go one of two ways with this. You could:

1) Create all new content..specific to RK2 Only. Now i am not talking about UBER LOOT ITEMS. I am talking about cities, landscapes, FACTIONS, Story Characters, dungeons, things like that.

before I continue... a bit about Factions. what I mean by this is...suppose The Clans didn't come to the new planet...but Sol Banking Corp. (or any other Hypercorporation) did? Or suppose a few clans united to create their own fledgling Corporation? Instead of the conflict being Omni-tek vs. Clans...it would be Omni-tek vs. Sol Banking Corp. this would mean that the GMs and the game developers would need to flex their minds a bit and come up with a decent backstory for whatever new faction there is.

now. on to number 2.

2) Take the current AO content, and tweak it just a little bit to show some individuality. Take the same city layouts...but simply rename the Cities, and rename the places within the cities. or place them in a different location on the map. Omni-1 becomes Omni-2. Old Athen becomes New Athen. doesn't really have to be that creative with it. just enough to show that RK2 is DIFFERENT than RK1. Change a few names here and there (people, MOBS, etc.) and you got a new planet without a lot of hassle(I think). keep in mind I am not a programming code expert, so i don't really know how hard this would be for the guys at FunCom. *NOTE* I PREFER THE 1ST WAY AS THE 2ND WAY IS THE EASY AND LAZY WAY TO GO ABOUT THIS.

combine this concept with another GREAT concept I read on these forums (GM-RUN ORGANIZATIONS WHICH GUILDS CAN CHOOSE TO ALIGN WITH OR 'WORK FOR'), and it would give a new RP twist on the game in my humble opinion.

and create a new webpage strictly for RK2 stories and events..so there are not confused with RK1(I swear, you don't know how long i ran around RK2 looking for Meister cause I wanted my character to join Omni-Pol.)AND KEEP THE STORYLINE FOR RK2 SEPERATE FROM THAT OF RK1.

now. how will this affect players you say?? Here is where the flaming begins. I would call for a TOTAL SERVER RESET as far as characters and guilds are concerned. start over. completely. I mean we would be colonizing this new planet...wouldn't we?

GIVE THOSE WHO ARE TOO ATTACHED TO THEIR HIGH LEVEL CHARACTER THE OPTION OF SWITCHING TO RK1 LONG BEFORE THE SERVER WOULD BE RESET. AND DO THE SAME FOR GUILDS. GIVE GUILDS THE OPTION OF SWITCHING AS WELL.

and from this beginning we would begin to shape the story which will belong to Rubi-ka 2.

there you have it. my idea. agree with it, flame it to death, make it sticky, do whatever suits you with it. If anyone from FunCom ACTUALLY reads this, I would love to volunteer to help with this, if I ACTUALLY thought there was a CHANCE of this happening.

thanks.

[_____________Mr Bean]

Crazy No
Possible? Prehaps
Will funcom even think about it? No

Like the plane cars of the 1950s(Bascily Planes where the wings could detach and form a car)
Nice but not pratical

And furhtmore getting that GM Working for thing is gonna be tough enough as it is on RK1 let alone RK2

[_________GoldenAngel]

This is exactly the reason why im moveing to NeverWinter Nights. In a game where the players drive the story the players actually have control of the story.

Ive always gotten the perception, and probably always will, that the customers are more of a 'developing force' in the game than the developers. No, im not saying that they are the ones that slave away hour after hour, day after day. What I am saying is that if theres a bug the players beat it into the ground and submit all the information on it to the developers so the answer will reach up and bite them in the nose when they look at the submitted.
The general perception is that the developers are lazy. To give them the benifit of the doubt they are probably just understaffed. The 'managers' are the real problems, like aways. They are given a list of bugs that the players have found and they go unfixed so they can 'tweak' another profession to subdue the whiners. Instead of reparing something simple and may only take them 5-10 minutes of fix-time they are forced to work 5-10 hours on patching up another problem. And even then they end up takeing the shortcut because they have other problems the PHB wants them to finish before they go home for the day.

Now keep in mind im giveing the developers a big bag-o-credit here. They may just be lazy and inept but in my opinion, you have to at least be semi-intelligent to be a developer. Even if you are fed up with the code and just want a break they cant be stupid enough to pull off some of what they have pulled off.
And if some of the other rumors on the board are even partially true it would lend more credit to my perception.
Well according to the rumors. (Which is all we ever get since Funcom dosent have the time to respond to many of the posts. Cosmik has been doing a half-way decient job at trying to keep up but he still only posts to a small number of forums that ive seen.) According to them, they are pulling people from AO to work on projects they feel they will get more profit from. (Midgard was one I heard mentioned by name) Consitering they are probably wanting good help on it they would pull their better developers over. What does that leave us? The amature developers that just graduated from collage. Not neccessarlly that they are 'morons' but just dont have a lot of experience. They would most likey keep one senior developer around, who is probably fed up with all the crap laid on him by his boss, to keep things going in the right direction.


Now I look at NWN, sure they had developers in the begining to get things running. And sure I have some complaints about the game already. (I always hated "Living City" campaigns and their point based systems) But being that they have stated that they will support it for the community and have already stated that the primary purpose of the game is for 'modders' it seems like it will really fly.
They tell you right up front that the players are what is going to make the game good. They dont give you a storyline that they 'say' they are going to follow. The players make them.
Ill admit its more of a hack/slash and your not able to raise levels by trade skills. But its an adventure game, not an action game at heart. (Though I could argue that AO isnt an action game either... "FIRE!... <wait three seconds> FIRE!... <repeat until dead>" <Yawn> Tis why ive always prefered support classes.)

Well your here for AO chat and here I am talking about NWN. Sorry for the interruption, flame away. Dont know if ill be back to see them after today.

[_________Crazynotion]

Each time a developer deploys a fix to live, they have to go through a process that takes around about 5 weeks from making the fix to deploying the fix. That 5 weeks remains about the same regardless of whether it is one fix, or 20.

So it really makes sense for them to get as many different things done as possible in a single build. If the tweak team have some profession tweaks, the bug team have some bug fixes, the content team have some content changes and so on, then the best approach - both in terms of time and money - is to put them all together and call it a patch.

Going through a five-week process in order to fix one 'five minute' bug is really not sensible. Which is why they don't do it

As for pulling developers off a product to put it on a more financially viable product, that's called good business sense. However, I would be incredibly surprised if the picture painted (graduates and cynical people only) is what is true. Last time I checked they were working on an expansion pack. Expansion pack = furthur perceived commercial viability.

NWN and AO are two VERY different games, with VERY different premises. NWN is *not* a massively multiplayer game, and never ever will be.

Me, I plan to play both.