Imagine the game you developed for your item to submission was online in a massively multi-player mode.
Agera: Factions
1. How do you plan to deal with the issue of new players arriving in the middle of
a long game? Get rid of the victory condition, or find a way to make sure that players are matched with those of similar ability?
New players arriving in the middle of a long game, the persistent world, will undergo the basic tutorial missions. The tutorial missions will guide the player through the basic gameplay mechanics and mission structures and types with an ease-in pace. In the tutorial missions the areas that the player will transverse through will be instanced, they will be free from the intrusion of other players more accumulated into the world. Player grouping is a social game mechanic that will keep players evenly matched in PVP. As the player moves through the world, only other players in a similar range of level will be allowed to fight each other. A similar process will be used and calculated in groups.
2. What will happen to the gameplay when a player vanishes? How will it affect
the other players’ experience of the game (what they see and hear)? Does it disrupt
the balance of the game? Will it make the challenges easier or harder? Is the game
even meaningful anymore?
When the player vanishes the persistent world will still go on. When disconnecting from the server the player will fade out of the game world with a pixelated effect that will be reminiscent of older game's glitches. Other players' experiences will continue to go on. When a player vanishes it might disrupt the balance of gameplay if the player is in a group and the group is in a mission, dungeon raid or PVP battle. The challenges will become harder depending on the group's players' levels. PVE opponents' levels are initialized to the original group's levels. A similar process occurs in PVP. The game becomes more or less challenging and the game's meaning changes.
3. What happens to the game’s score when a player vanishes? Is the game still fair?
When a player vanishes, the game's score still continues as is to the remaining players. During a solo experience the game keeps track of the player's progress, and the player can continue where left-off, within the boundary of non-combat areas. In a single one on one PVP situation the remaining player gains an automatic win, and the vanishing player forfeits the battle. In a group PVP battle the game's fairness is dependent on the skill of the remaining players.
4. Does your game offer a player an advantage of some kind for intentionally disconnecting himself (whether by preventing himself from losing or by sealing his
own victory)? Is there any way to minimize this without penalizing players who
are disconnected accidentally?
The game does not offer an advantage to a player that intentionally disconnects them self. Players who are disconnected accidentally receive an indication in the disconnection stat instead of a loss stat indication during PVP to minimize the penalty of accidental disconnection.
5. In a turn-based game, what mechanism will you use to prevent a player from
stalling play for the other players? Set a time limit? Allow simultaneous turns?
Implement a reasonable default if the player does nothing?
In a situation where the game is turn-based, there will be a timer for the players complete their actions before the next player's turn to prevent stalling. When the timer is complete, an default auto-action will occur.
6. If you offer a chat mechanism, what features will you implement to keep it civil?
Filters? A complaint system? An ignore system? Or will your game require moderated chat spaces?
In the text chat system, there will be a built-in profanity filter that will be updated as necessary by the development team. The filter may be turned-off by players. To regulate player behavior there will be a complaint system that will be vigorously over-seen by a special task force of the development team, referred to jokingly as the thought police. There will also be an ignore system.
7. Is your game designed to prevent (or alleviate) collusion? Because you can’t prevent players from talking to each other on the phone as they play, how will you
address this? Or can you design your game in such a way that collusion is part of
the gameplay, as in "Diplomacy"?
The game is designed to alleviate collusion by player behavior complaints. The thought police also handles these complaints and distributes punishment accordingly. Bad complaints will be noted and that player's credibility and priority will diminish slightly with bad complaints. The opposite will happen with good complaints. Because players are able to talk to each other on the phone as they play, there will be in-game chat features to make the game fair.
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