I ask a little help from you writers out there.

ID:85812
 
Nov 17 2009, 7:32 am
Keywords: help
As you may have read in my last post, the game I'm working on is taking a heavy turn away from fan game, and in that course I've come up with alot of unnamed territores and such.

Anyway, I'm led with some areas that I'm having trouble naming... Not the main ones in the story mind you, but just general zones. So I'm calling out all of you wordsmiths that follow my blog for help.

I ask of you to provide a few fantasy-sounding names for general climates. Forests zones, Mountains, Strongholds/forts, villages, caves, pubs, inns, and maybe a few names for some fantasy-sounding NPCs. I'm sure I could come up with all of this on my own, but naming things can get a little tedious and I figured while I'm at it I may as well allow my players to have some sort of attachment to the game. If I use your name I'll credit you of course, but please don't recycle things from popular media like LotR, Eragon, Pendragon, etc... (Although using them as a basis isn't against my nature)

To help with the naming I might as well provide some information about the races in my game:
  • Humans: Like to inhabit fertile lands near bodies of water, seldom forests. Very proud and diplomatic.
  • Dwarves: Inhabit mountainous areas, living inside of them or hills if there is no mountain close by. Well known for their adept abilities to craft from rock or metal.
  • Elves: Inhabit forest areas, generally stray away from the other living races with a few exceptions. Take pride in their magic and their ability to work well with wildlife.
  • Uurks: Elves who were tainted by dark magics, exiled from their home lands many centuries ago. They live inside cavernous areas and are known for their dark powers and merciless tendencies.
  • Sayns: An old race of savages who are said to be ancestors to the humans (I'm sure you can guess my basis for the characters by the name :p). They tend to live in large tribes similar to native americans and are well known for their strength and spirituality.


I'll post a bit more about the game sometime over the week, currently I'm working alot of overtime however in lieu of the holidays.

<3 Ken
Nov 17 2009, 7:51 am
I don't know about where you live but where I live share some of that brain means a completely different thing.
Nov 17 2009, 8:46 am
I've always wanted to use "The Pendericki" in a game, just didn't have an exact purpose for it, yet :/
Nov 17 2009, 9:57 am
A lot of games stick to certain naming algorithms. WoW names regions according to their inhabitants.

Orcs usually name things after their ancestors. Orgrimmar, the main Orc capitol is named after the former orc Warchief, Orgrim Doomhammer. The surrounding area of Durotar is named after Durotan, the current Warchief's father.

Night Elf regions go by names like Teldrassil and Moonglade. Blood Elves use words like Quel'Thalas and Silvermoon.

Trolls use word combos such as Zul'Farrak, Sen'jin, and Zul'Aman. The prefix depends on the particular tribe and type of troll inhabiting that region. There are forest trolls, jungle trolls, etc.

Pokemon just used colors for all their towns. Veridian City, Pewter City, Cerulean City; they're all colors. The town you start in is Pallet Town, as in color palette town.
Nov 17 2009, 1:48 pm
Race relating names I think are more fitting when your naming a region, I think it gives it more relevance and it just seems better to me.
Nov 17 2009, 5:16 pm
mount deathscum
Nov 17 2009, 5:43 pm
Thanks for the help, I suppose the best route is to stick to Algorithms.

I don't know exactly how many race-specific areas I'll have in game but I'm sure I can come up with something beneficial.
Nov 17 2009, 5:58 pm
Your best bet is to create a rough sketch of the world while taking the specific needs of each race into account. They all need adequate space in their own unique climate regions. Each race needs a homeland and room for whichever factions they're affiliated with.

You'll then have to decide which factions are at war with each other and place them accordingly. The major factions (with capitol cities) need enough of a buffer zone between them to act as contested regions.

As an MMO you're going to have to design the starting areas of the world to funnel into shared regions populated by warring factions. Players need enough space to quest, but they also need to be condensed into smaller areas in order to interact with each other.

A big problem with a lot of adventure games is there are huge tracts of empty land populated only by the occasional tree. There aren't defined regions with entrances and exits.

In all honesty, naming things is probably the last thing you need to do.
Nov 17 2009, 6:15 pm
I do plan on having contested regions and safe regions (homelands). I hadn't really considered a decent way to handle PvP yet honestly, I've practically created a PvE game so far with a flowing story.

I do want PvP to be a big part of the game, especially towards the end but I also don't want it forced so I guess I'll probably make it sort of a guild-war type contest since I do want to encourage guilding. I may add a mercinary approach as well or I may just create two static opposing guilds to join and keep sub-divisions player controlled... I guess that'll have to be taken into account as well.

So far the story is loosely defined as the king of the underworld and an extremely powerful necromancer had put into action a plot to overthrow the three kings/gods of the land and to turn the mortal inhabitants into servants and slaves under their new rule, of course you would play as part of the resistance. There is alot of story expanded from that but that is the general confrontation with the game, I suppose even in times like those however opposition between mortals would still exist. Maybe for control of limited resources... Hmm, you've given me a lot to think about :p
Nov 17 2009, 6:32 pm
Player interaction doesn't necessarily mean stabbing each other in the face. It could mean group questing, trading, or just simply chatting.

If you're on the fence about PvP you could have the player enlist in a faction's army in order to fight opposing forces. In order to unflag for PvP they'd simply talk to the army recruiter again and take leave. It would enable people to specifically play for PvP or avoid it entirely without having to split servers or manage PvP subzones.

Along with a system like this you could throw in faction-specific ranks and rewards for dedicated PvPers.

Another way would be to simply have the player type /pvp and flag or unflag for PvP. Though considering the effort you're putting into the project you'd probably opt for the in-universe approach.
Nov 19 2009, 1:44 pm
Lord of light wrote:
I don't know about where you live but where I live share some of that brain means a completely different thing.

LOL'D

Anyway...I don't know about names but..

You shouldn't make it so the player has to be a part of the resistance. In all honestly, I want to destroy and enslave mortals to. :|
Nov 19 2009, 5:28 pm
Riku 123q wrote:
Lord of light wrote:
I don't know about where you live but where I live share some of that brain means a completely different thing.

LOL'D

Anyway...I don't know about names but..

You shouldn't make it so the player has to be a part of the resistance. In all honestly, I want to destroy and enslave mortals to. :|

I never thought of it that way but it would require a bit of work on the story. Playing as the opposing side of the story could be relatively interesting. Generally there is darkness players can control and manipulation available in certain dark magics, but the resistance is against this fallen king of the underworld and his followers plaguing the world into a mindless slavery.
Nov 27 2009, 9:01 pm
The Naked Ninja wrote:
Riku 123q wrote:
Lord of light wrote:
I don't know about where you live but where I live share some of that brain means a completely different thing.

LOL'D

Anyway...I don't know about names but..

You shouldn't make it so the player has to be a part of the resistance. In all honestly, I want to destroy and enslave mortals to. :|

I never thought of it that way but it would require a bit of work on the story. Playing as the opposing side of the story could be relatively interesting. Generally there is darkness players can control and manipulation available in certain dark magics, but the resistance is against this fallen king of the underworld and his followers plaguing the world into a mindless slavery.

Yeah I see where you going with this.
All of the races are against the fallen king, So naturally they wouldn't join him.
I figure the underworld king and his followers/loyal subjects are of some kind race right, well then maybe that race/those races should be available to players so they can be apart the underworld army and shiz.

Kerchuns:Tend to live in dry and hot areas, most commonly live in deserts. These create are known for their extremely hard and tough skin referred to as Iron Defense and skilled use of weaponry.