While I am at work...

[Vizion]

I want to present an idea, and see if it get's some traction. In my time here on the EMU I haven't seen a server like this before. (My time has been brief-ish.) I was sitting at work thinking about something I would like to play, that would be different than anything available at the moment. This is what I came up with.

Now then, before we move on, I would ask that you keyboard warriors refrain from the comments about, we don't want ideas, we want to see work being done! This is an idea. If it does gain traction and enough want to play, I have the skillset to begin working on it.

With all that being said, I am open to criticism and welcome it. I want to hear what you have to say. You thoughts, ideas, questions. Lay it on me.


Server Name: TBD
Server Idea: Prison, Hardcore, PVP
Prison Zone: Plane of Justice
Warden: (Server Owner, TBD)
Guards: Scripted NPC’s and Staff (Staff optional. They can be prisoners too!)

Starting idea: You stand in front of the judge. He is sentencing you for your crimes against humanity. As you receive your sentence, you are transported to your cell by the guards.

** Your crimes will be chosen randomly from a pool of crimes. Your sentence is also chosen randomly from the same pool. **

WARNING: Rated “R” server. This server will contain profanity, violence, and even murder. NSFW.

What will you do while in prison? Well there are a multitude of possibilities here, with an ever expanding set of options.
1. Survive. Since PVP is enabled, survival is a top priority. I want everyone to have that fear of looking over their shoulder, waiting for someone to shank/shiv them.
2. Events. Time-based events take place every day. These are scripted events that take place at X time. Whether it be chow time, or a security lockdown.
3. Gangs. These are what used to be called guilds. You can create or join a gang and rule the prison population. The rules of the gang are set by the leader of the gang. (Staff will only step in when things are getting messy.)
4. Work. Did you think you were going to prison to sit around and do nothing? Not here.
5. ETC…

Crimes. Committing a crime while in prison doesn’t go without punishment. If you are caught murdering another person. The guards can put you into solitary confinement for up to TBD amount of time. Going into solitary confinement will put you into a room by yourself and render you unable to move. If the guards are feeling a little pissy that day, they can kill you as well.

A special note: Guards do NOT have special immunities though. Should a guard unjustly murder a prisoner, they will have their guardship removed and they themselves will become a prisoner.

Economy. Well this is a tough one to do. Because it doesn’t always work out the way it is designed. So, with that being said, there are not going to be any merchants in prison. All trading will be done with other players via a physical currency. Cigarettes? Yeah, I am thinking about doing that.

Death. Death in prison is a very real thing. While you are able to continue playing as your character, you corpse and all your belongings will be left behind. You can make a full recovery by beating everyone else back to your body! In this prison, there are few ways to die. Should you neglect to eat, you will starve and die. Should you contract a disease, and do not seek medical attention, you could die. You can be murdered by another player, or even killed by a guard.

Gangs. Gangs will play a somewhat important role in the prison. Being in a gang will allow players to work together to achieve a common goal. Whether it is to escape, or do your job, your fellow gang members would be able to help. (Note: Not being in a gang doesn’t limit you from doing these things.) Having gangs in prison also allows for gang warfare. Rival gangs can engage in war with each other on the inside.

[Vizion]

I am preparing another statement, further explaining these features I have highlighted and will release it tomorrow. It will go into further detail why I am choosing to go in this route and what can be expected.

[Ueguvil]

Not to sound mean, but it sounds like a very interesting concept but would likely take a lot of time and work and probably would not hold players' interest for very long.

[Vizion]

Originally Posted by Ueguvil

Not to sound mean, but it sounds like a very interesting concept but would likely take a lot of time and work and probably would not hold players' interest for very long.

Thank you for your feedback. The time and work portion is not an issue. The main concern I have, you mentioned. Holding a players interest. That is in fact the main issue in any server I would think, how do I hold the players interest, and make them want to stick around.

This is the exact reason, I wanted some feedback. I do not want to sink the time and work into it, if the interest is not there.

[Vizion]

Prison Server Explained.

The Prison Theme

I was sitting at work today, watching YouTube, and an ad came on about prison reform. Then I thought to myself about all the minecraft prison servers that are out there. A thought came to me, I have yet to see one in the EQEmu. I am not saying there has never been one, just never one that I have seen. With my thought process behind it, I think it can be truly some magnificent. You enter the world as a prisoner and work to earn your freedom.

The “R” Rating.

The reason I am going in this direction is because of the mature content that will be displayed here. The profanity, violence, and murder are just mere things to point out. There will be vulgar material. This is prison after all. We all know what happens here.

Warden and Guards

These are going to be primarily rolls filled by players. (Population depending.) I have done some thinking and am going to make these rolls filled by application. Do you want to be the Warden? Tell me why. Do you want to be a Guard? Tell me why. Nothing outrageous, just something that is going to tell me what kind of a player you are, or intend to be. My position as the game developer is simply going to be making sure everything flows as smoothly as possible. I want the entire game to be ran by the players. With my interference only happening when needed.

Crimes

Everyone knows that crimes happen in the real world, but did you know crimes happen in jail as well? Of course you did, I know that. This will be no different here, are crimes allowed? That is a two-sided answer. Yes, and no. Yes, crimes are allowed to the extent that you are able to commit them, and no crimes are not allowed and committing them has consequences. The consequences will vary depending on the crime. From death to solitary confinement, from a slap on the wrist to more time added to your prison sentence.

Economy

This is tough, an economy rarely ever works out the way it is planned. So how do I do it? Leave it entirely up to the players to create. That’s right my hands are tied, the only thing I am doing to help push this agenda is not putting merchants in the prison. That’s right! If you want something, either go get it, or get it from someone else. The price is set by the person, whether that price is free or costs you a pack of smokes.

The Zone

So, why did I choose Plane of Justice. Simple. It is actually a prison zone. For those unfamiliar, which I assume is few and far between. The zone is filled with prison cells. Using these cells, I am going to be able to manage where each player stays. This is going to tie in heavily with events.

Events

I had to think about this, having never been to prison myself. What kinds of things go on in prison? I know, they get fed 3 times a day. Well that’s an event, you want to eat, be at the meal area when the chow time event goes off. I also thought about lockdowns, and hey this can be done as well. Using proximity scripts, I can require players to actually be in their cell during a lockdown. Punishments TBD. This is one area where I would need some public opinion on types of events to incorporate to the server.

Gangs

Gangs are real. Gangs are absolutely a thing in any prison. That is why I chose to bring them here as well. They are replacing guilds, but I am not going to lie, will function the same, just a name change.

Work

Work will vary from different jobs. Whether it be cleaning up trash, getting X amount of lumber, or X amount of stone. I have a very cheap way of doing this, until I am able to figure out something better.

Death

I had mentioned death and some ways to die. Starving of course is going to be the main one, with one of your only sources of food being the chow hall event. Gang warfare can also be one of the ways you can die. I would think rivalries would be huge here. Murder, you can be murdered, by the previous way or just by another player, while the server is not focused on PVP, it is active. Sickness. You can die from the common cold, to a severe disease. If it is not treated. There will be a medical bay, where you can get treatment for your illness’s and have them taken care of.

Freedom

As explained in the opening paragraph. You can earn your freedom. Whether it being from escaping from jail, or just serving your nickel. So, what happens when you do earn your freedom? I have been thinking about this as well. I have come up with another simple solution. You will be freed into the real world. You will be let out, and put into TBD town. The town will be fully fleshed out, with custom things to do. You will able to work and live an honest life outside the system, or you can even become a criminal and do some nasty things.

Notes

So, how do you get stronger? Simple, either fashion yourself a weapon, and be prepared. Or, make some powerful friends. Everyone in prison will be in the same gear. The orange jumpsuit. Who has a weapon though? Be the person who everyone needs, not the one everyone hates. Be it the dealer, or the person who has everything.

So, how does experience factor in here? Experience and leveling play a very, very minor role here. Your level is going to simply be reflected on how much time you have served. With a 7 to 365-day ratio. (Every week, you have been in jail 1 year. Subject to change.)

I have made the decision to make every player and NPC attackable. This adds a bit more realism I think, that means you will be able to kill the guards, even the people in the cities. The reason I think it adds a bit of realism is; Once an NPC is dead, it stays dead. Another will take its place. That means, If you kill the butcher in some town, and he has no sons or daughters take fill the position, that town has lost it’s butcher, if it wants a new one, an actual player will have to fill the job.

[DanCanDo]

I can only give my own opinion on this, but that's one hell of a vision. Although some have
already taken a route of "thinking outside the box", there could be such a thing as thinking
too far out of the box, when trying to come up with something that players may just be
interested in. This idea, sure, players may very well log on to check it out. It's hard to say.
Myself, I've been playing nothing but EQ or slightly customized EQ for a long time now.
When I look at playing on something like this, it would make me feel like I just bought
the game version of the TV series, OZ. But I can honestly tell you, I wouldn't hesitate to
log on at least once to take a look at the work that was done on the content, just to see how
far one got with a goal like that.
There is only one little hurdle in a thread like this, because I've noticed it's difficult to
get feedback from more than (what I call) a handfull of players. The general player base can
reach well over 3K at peak times, but on the forums, with threads like this, even 20 responses
is a small example to try and determine a popular interest. But that's not written in stone.
You just never know until the server is up and running, it could end up taking off fast.

[Vizion]

Originally Posted by DanCanDo

I can only give my own opinion on this, but that's one hell of a vision. Although some have
already taken a route of "thinking outside the box", there could be such a thing as thinking
too far out of the box, when trying to come up with something that players may just be
interested in. This idea, sure, players may very well log on to check it out. It's hard to say.
Myself, I've been playing nothing but EQ or slightly customized EQ for a long time now.
When I look at playing on something like this, it would make me feel like I just bought
the game version of the TV series, OZ. But I can honestly tell you, I wouldn't hesitate to
log on at least once to take a look at the work that was done on the content, just to see how
far one got with a goal like that.
There is only one little hurdle in a thread like this, because I've noticed it's difficult to
get feedback from more than (what I call) a handfull of players. The general player base can
reach well over 3K at peak times, but on the forums, with threads like this, even 20 responses
is a small example to try and determine a popular interest. But that's not written in stone.
You just never know until the server is up and running, it could end up taking off fast.

No offense, but I had to google that TV show. Had never heard of it before. It actually has some big movie stars in it. I started recognizing names immediately. I'm really surprised I hadn't heard of it before.

However, after reading the plot, I can see how you can make that connection. It looks like I am just going to have to make it happen. Going to start developing it tonight.

[Vizion]

Server has been launched under the name: Death Row

---

In game screenshots coming soon!

[Maze_EQ]

Not to shit on your vision...but this doesn't seem sustainable.

Plane of Justice is totally not big enough to support a population.

Players won't roleplay.

Players want linear progression and shit.

But keep developin and i'll check it out.

[Vizion]

I have decided to cancel this project, and start on anew. Maze, you brought up some good points that I failed to see.

1. Players won't roleplay.
- While the players are not required to roleplay, some would be forced if certain actions are made. Which could present a problem.

2. Players want linear progression and shit.
- While I somewhat agree with you on this, I also disagree. I see a mixed bag on this topic. Some do, some don't.

Some problems that I foresee.

1. Population. I see population being a huge problem for this type of server. Not enough players and nearly all the ideas fall apart.

2. Player Interaction. This type of server would require players to work together at certain aspects. I have seen, in my experience, no one really likes to play together. They want solo content, or the ability to box X numbers of characters.

*** Moderator Note ***

Please lock this forum post, so no more posts can be made.

[NostalgiaEQ]

I'm not a fan of the prison idea but I do think the future of gaming will trend this way. After DnD which was a live GM creating content for a small group, game devs have been rebelling from that model this whole time trying to make something robotic where they can just let it run and not have to do anything. I think an interactive game that is live GM'd a few hours a week on a set schedule is most definitely the future of gaming. So whether you want to pursue the prison theme or not; this type of DnD style live GM'd gaming will be all the rage in the coming years.

[jpyou127]

Thats an awesome idea NostalgiaEQ!

Celestial