NEStalgia: Showing your colors

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ID:89396
 
Jan 8 2010, 12:41 pm
Keywords: nestalgia
It seems like most BYOND RPGs have a guild system in one form or another. With NEStalgia, the aim is to refine the formula.

Even in full scale professional MORPGs, the main function of Guilds is to join up with a group of people who you enjoy being around in order to chat, and to find help completing quests/tackling PvP. Therefore, the NEStalgia guild system will be very familiar. The basic features:

  • A customizable cape worn by all members of the guild.
  • A world-wide "Guild Say" channel for communication within the guild.
  • A "Guild Pane" that is separate from the game screen, which allows you to control your personal guild settings, and to access/control information about other members.
  • A simple ranking system which allows the leader to both name and set the privileges for each rank.
  • (Eventually) Access to a home base and a shared guild bank.



Talking to the Guild Master
Creating the guild cape


It all starts by going to talk to a Guild Master. This NPC offers to sign you up as a guild leader for 10,000 gold (a pretty hefty sum). You start by customizing your guild's cape, which is identical to the way you originally customized your character. You are then asked to name the guild, another pretty self-explanatory process.

Once your guild is created, you'll have access to the aforementioned Guild Pane which has all sorts of options for customizing and controlling your guild (more options for Guild Leaders or high ranking members, as pictured here).


Naming the guild
The Guild Pane


The most convenient part about the NEStalgia guild system is that members are recruited and bestowed ranks based upon their key, not individual characters. This way your guild status will carry over to all of your characters saved under that key. This eliminates the need for leaders to re-recruit and re-rank all of your alts. If you want to join multiple guilds, then you'll need to login using a different key. But really, who does that?

Guild leaders can make changes to the cape design, ranks, and recruit/dismiss members at any time. All changes will take place instantly for players who are online, or will automatically be applied the next time offline guild members log in.


Now you can go afk in a bar with your friends in style!


All of this is pretty simple stuff, but as with everything else found in NEStalgia, it has been refined to the point of excellence. The guild capes are also a pretty fun touch, as there is something to be said for showing off your allegiance, whether you're traveling the world or ganging up to gank opposing guilds.

*************

On a different note, I want to answer a question that has been bubbling forth lately. If NEStalgia looks to you like it's already ridiculously polished and finished, that's because it basically is. Could we release the game right now? Yes... but I don't want to do so until we've stacked on a bit more content. We have only one chance to make a lasting first impression with NEStalgia, and I don't want people burning through the game and getting bored. Keep in mind that I'm going to be promoting NEStalgia on major sites outside of BYOND shortly after release, and it needs to be ready for that kind of scrutiny.

So right now my focus is exclusively on content, included some 'end game' stuff that will keep players well occupied until more content patches are released. As much as I hate giving release dates, I may very well do so in the near future once I am 100% certain of the pace at which I can sustain progress.
Jan 8 2010, 12:43 pm
Awsome
Jan 8 2010, 12:54 pm
Cool. If you want to keep your community apart from BYOND (at least to start), you might try the new "Build EXE" w/ BYOND distributable functionality. I still have to write an article on that stuff, but the gist of it is in the v.461 notes. As of v.462 there is a visible "Guest" key in the pager for new users to login (you can also force this behavior). In future versions we plan on incorporating inclusion of resources and custom splash screens, basically everything you need to make BYOND games seem more like homegrown software.

I'm always eager for feedback on this stuff so let us know as you being to take things more public.
Jan 8 2010, 12:59 pm
I'm just going to second here how cool the new EXE functionality is, but I do have a question that I've been trying to work with in my own games: what are you going to do about BYOND keys?

Are you going to have your own login system, where BYOND keys are simply not necessary and you login to the game with a SilKGamesUserName and associated password? Or are you going to require non-BYONDers to register a BYOND key? Some combination of the two?
Jan 8 2010, 1:00 pm
Looking really good, Silk. Very eager to see the game in action. Keep up the good work.
Jan 8 2010, 1:18 pm
Tom wrote:
Cool. If you want to keep your community apart from BYOND (at least to start), you might try the new "Build EXE" w/ BYOND distributable functionality. I still have to write an article on that stuff, but the gist of it is in the v.461 notes.

I was really excited to see that, but I have yet to play around with it. This, however, sounds even more exciting:

Tom wrote:
In future versions we plan on incorporating inclusion of resources and custom splash screens, basically everything you need to make BYOND games seem more like homegrown software.

Especially when it comes to bringing in outsiders, this stuff would be a huge advantage. As you obviously already realize, it's tricky to find a way to explain to outsiders interested in NEStalgia that they're going to have to install this thing called "BYOND" to play it. Being able to say that it was made using BYOND but showing a custom installer would be incredible.


Airjoe wrote:
Are you going to have your own login system, where BYOND keys are simply not necessary and you login to the game with a SilKGamesUserName and associated password? Or are you going to require non-BYONDers to register a BYOND key? Some combination of the two?

I've debated this back and forth, but I think that I'm going to go with allowing the guest key for trials, but strongly encouraging and requiring that players sign up for a BYOND key.

If there were some way to have a custom NEStalgia skinned BYOND key sign up system, that would be the ideal method. The only hurdle is getting them past that initial sign up, and then we're golden.


Tom wrote:
I'm always eager for feedback on this stuff so let us know as you being to take things more public.

Indeed. As I get my stuff together I'll show you what my plans are for promotion, but here are some (old) mockups for the basic promo website:

Splash Page
Download Page
Live Servers Page
Jan 8 2010, 1:22 pm
Dark Prince X wrote:
Looking really good, Silk. Very eager to see the game in action. Keep up the good work.

Thanks :)

Hopefully it won't be too long now.
Jan 8 2010, 1:28 pm
Tch.
I was planning on doing a guild system similar to that, now it won't be my own ideas. Damn you.
Then again, I won't be doing it for quite a while.
Jan 8 2010, 1:34 pm
DivineTraveller wrote:
I was planning on doing a guild system similar to that, now it won't be my own ideas. Damn you.

haha - don't worry, I'm basically taking my cues on this guild stuff from games like WoW anyway. If there is a good way to do something like this, it doesn't necessarily matter who did it first, so long as you do it well yourself.

That said, I personally hold my breath every time I hear about a new popular script or independent film floating around Hollywood, praying that someone hasn't beat me to the punch with a concept that I'm working on.
Jan 8 2010, 1:38 pm
those mockups look really nice

also, you mentioned 'ganging up to gank opposing guilds'. can you say more about the pvp?
Jan 8 2010, 1:40 pm
Those page mockkups are really nice. In theory, if you distribute BYOND and force a guest login (via ##guest) in the Make EXE url, you don't actually have to ever mention BYOND to your user base. However, if you want to use keys they do have to signup at some point so it's inevitable. And I think it is wise to use keys because you get various hub features like medals, score tracking, subscription stuff, and anything else we add. Also, of course it's in our best interest to get more players in the community.

We have plans to make the signup process more seamless, as more people begin to use this distribution method. One thing that may be feasible is doing a key registration in-place from the pager (using the pager's embedded browser), with the email confirmation link redirecting back to the pager and logging the user in with his newly minted key. Another thing we've discussed is using OpenID to allow users to quickly register with their existing yahoo/gmail/etc accounts to eliminate the email step.

Ultimately from my POV it's a double-edged sword because while I want to make things cleaner for you guys, it's also in our best interest to have people visiting the site (which they do currently when downloading/registering). So we'll try to come up with a good middleground.
Jan 8 2010, 1:48 pm
Zaole wrote:
also, you mentioned 'ganging up to gank opposing guilds'. can you say more about the pvp?

You can be attacked by other players at almost anytime, although there are certain story areas where this is disabled in order to prevent frustration (areas that open up immediately after beating a big boss etc.). Lower level players can not be attacked by higher players until level 7. The winner takes half of the loser's gold on hand, but you can keep your gold in the bank to help alleviate this loss.

I expect there to be both "Good" guilds that will police the towns and protect other players, and "Evil" guilds set on reeking havoc. Guilds will probably become like prison gangs - you'll need to join one for protection.

I'll put whatever systems in place that I need to in order to prevent PvP from becoming a terrible annoyance, but players should definitely expect some action. If the game becomes popular enough, a separate PvE server isn't out of the question, although you certainly won't find me on there ;)
Jan 8 2010, 1:59 pm
Tom wrote:
And I think it is wise to use keys because you get various hub features like medals, score tracking, subscription stuff, and anything else we add.

Exactly. The benefits of using BYOND keys far outweigh the potential negatives of losing some players who have an aversion to signing up for one.


Tom wrote:
One thing that may be feasible is doing a key registration in-place from the pager (using the pager's embedded browser), with the email confirmation link redirecting back to the pager and logging the user in with his newly minted key. Another thing we've discussed is using OpenID to allow users to quickly register with their existing yahoo/gmail/etc accounts to eliminate the email step.

All of this sounds brilliant. This would really streamline the system by allowing a new player to install the game and then create a key without the confusion of visiting BYOND in the middle of the process.


Tom wrote:
Ultimately from my POV it's a double-edged sword because while I want to make things cleaner for you guys, it's also in our best interest to have people visiting the site

Totally understandable. I'm definitely all for working with you guys to ensure that users are traveling both ways!
Jan 8 2010, 3:24 pm
Looks excellent, Silk. Thumbs up.
Jan 8 2010, 3:28 pm
Why not let game developers choose whether or not users using the packaged game logs in with a guest key or not.

Have it set up to where the developer could just set a variable to where they want users using the packaged game to auto login with a guest key, or be prompted to login with a byond key.
Jan 8 2010, 3:28 pm
I plan to have my guild absolutely dominate this game.
Jan 8 2010, 5:59 pm
Yammen, that is the way it works already.
Jan 8 2010, 9:58 pm
Ooo, looks fancy. :P
Just one thing, will there be guild-related easter eggs too? :D
Jan 8 2010, 10:03 pm
Metamorphman wrote:
Just one thing, will there be guild-related easter eggs too? :D

There are definitely easter eggs in the game... but I'm not sure what you mean by that.
Jan 9 2010, 3:54 am
The game looks promising, from what I remember you have a tendency to capture the feel of a classic console game so I'll definitely give it a review when it comes time to play.

With that said my only complaint is the actual guild pane. The font and style looks very out of place compared to the rest of the game, is there not a system/terminal font you could use to make it feel like it was more part of the game?

I could be wrong though and a popup may blend rather well, but from what I've seen in your captures that's not the case.
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