From PTS Wiki

Contents 1 Original Design Document 1.1 Overview 1.2 Target Audience 1.3 Technical Specs 1.4 What We Expect From Our Dev Teams 1.5 Gameplay 1.6 Mounts 1.7 Breeding 1.8 Riders 1.9 Skill System 1.9.1 Skills List 1.10 Equipment 1.11 Combat System 1.12 Tracks/Environments 1.13 Towns 1.14 Personal Space 1.15 Auction House 1.16 Guilds 1.17 Crafting 1.18 Items 1.19 Economy 1.20 Cash Shop 1.21 Social Systems 1.22 Sounds 1.23 Additional Features 1.24 User Interfaces 1.24.1 General Specifications 1.24.2 Interfaces Identified 1.24.3 Interface Requirements 1.25 Future Additions

Original Design Document

Overview

Project Top Secret is a new game breed, based on an old genre. It involves riding mounted beasts, on exciting race track environments. Players, via their rider avatars, will ride the beasts and control their actions, a combination which will offer a wide variety of various game play situations.

Beasts will come with a wide array of stats, skills and in-born abilities, all of which, when combined, will allow them to participate in a variety of PvP and PvE actions and situations. While on the tracks and engaged in PvP they will have to deal with obstacles, terrain types, and environmental challenges of various kinds. One beast type may have sharp claws or enhanced strength for smashing or crushing a track impediment, such as a stack of crates, a large boulder or even a thicket of impenetrable brush. Other breeds of beasts will have special jumping abilities, or be exceptionally fleet of foot. Riders, will eventually have classes that influence events both during races and outside of racing, as well as engaging in combat from the backs of their beasts.

Tracks will range from the more standard racing types to quest modes and battle arenas where beast and riders may fight for dominance or the best racing position. Exciting PvP modes will be offered, along with tamer, but interesting, speed and goal oriented races, to offer a racing type suitable for almost any type of gamer.

Off the track, breeding will be a profession that will allow players to produce offspring, in the hopes of obtaining mounts that are vastly superior to the starter variety that everyone will begin the game with. Crafting will be introduced as a means for players to not only provide much needed goods and services, but also as a "game within the game" for those who enjoy the merchant and manufacturing pursuit. Guilds will give players the opportunity to enjoy the sort of social experiences that is only available in on-line gaming, and personal space will offer the chance to showcase your creative side.

Target Audience

• Male and female
• Ages 12-35

Technical Specs

Server Details

• Each server must contain a separate, identical instance of the complete game world.
• Servers should individually support approximately 3000 users.
• New servers will be added as necessary to support the growing number of users.
• Players will initially choose a server to join, but may switch to any other server that is not full.

Player Numbers

• Total combined player population of one million or greater.

Recommended Client Hardware

• Minimum 512 MB RAM
• 2 GHz or faster Intel or AMD processor
• Minimum 256 MB Dedicated Video RAM
• Shader Model 2.0 or higher
• Broadband Internet Connection (1.5 Mbps or higher)
• 5 GB hard drive space

Text File Format

• Acclaim requires all games they license/create to have a specific XML format for text (NPC dialogue, game rules, directions) within the game. For a sample, please email tandy@acclaim.com.

What We Expect From Our Dev Teams

This design document contains our design, for our game. It's your job, for this contest, to show us that you can do what we want. We do not expect you to create every beast, rider, track, town, and item in our document. We know that your time is limited, and that the game is massive. It's up to you how many of each type you put into your game demo, and what you choose to leave out.

What we're looking to do is create the following experience for our gamers; to become a jockey, to explore a town and be a part of our gameworld, to ride mounts, and to use their rider weapon and mount skills to win races and PvP events. We want to create social interactions between our gamers through game events, crafting and trading of items, development of professions and breeding of mounts. Essentially our minimum requirement is that we need to see the core components of our gameplay elements.

It's very possible that the winning team will be one who gives us a very minimal demo, that's excellently done. On the other hand, it's possible that we will be more captivated by a game that shows us a broad cross section of our design, in a manner that shows promise, but is less polished. It's up to each team to decide how they'll proceed, and which avenue they're most comfortable taking. Keep in mind that the ultimate goal is to "make it fun, make it fun, make it fun!"

Development teams interested in the priority of features desired by the community should contact Mjuricek77 (Martin) or Tandy (Michelle) via email or forum PM.

Tandy@acclaim.com

mjuricek@yahoo.com

This Design Doc is a working doc and will be updated periodically. It contains many features that we do not expect to see in the final entry each team submits. You can view the "Minimum spec" doc here: Limited Design Doc.

Gameplay

Game Modes

Interactive environments. There can be up to 8 rider/mounts per race instance. Innate mount abilities, rider weapons, rider/mount skills can be used as weapons, as status effects on rider and beast or on opponents, or to affect the environment. Environmental interactivity includes destructible or movable items, and items that may pose a threat to riders and beasts. Player options will include setting parameters for individual races, such as weather effects, challenge types, level caps, skill caps, mount/rider type limitations, etc.

Racing

Each event starts all competitors in one horizontal row at the starting line.

Each event ends at the finish line (which can also be the original starting line).

The goal of general races is to be the first to reach the finish line.

Racing modes may extend the goals with additional goal criteria. NOTE: Possibly hidden mission goals may affect the ultimate goal of some racers, meaning that coming in first is less important than completing other tasks.

Waypoints are established to ensure all competitors follow the same “track” and face the same environmental challenges. This does not dictate the skills or approach to managing challenges.

Teams can be designated for each mode configuration

Mode 1: Standard start/finish line, 3 laps, way points to enforce running on track, position based winner (speed racing)

Mode 2: Standard start/finish line, 3 laps, way points to enforce running on track, least amount of damage taken based winner (combat racing)

Mode 3: Escorting, while the other team only has to knock out the escort, so the protection team wins if the escortee crosses the finish line, and the attacking team wins if they knock out the escortee

PvP Modes

This mode will leverage the same environments as racing. Here, up to 8 players can go head-to-head using their abilities to "disable" other opponents. Depending on the gamer designed settings, gamers may respawn. Other modes may be "last man standing." Actions and results may contribute to experience and/or rank.

Player versus Player matches

Each event starts all competitors (where)

The goal of a Player versus Player event is to disable competitor mounts

PvP modes may extend goals with additional goal criteria

No way points are used opening the entire environment for use

Teams can be designated for each mode configuration

Mode 1: First to get X # of kills wins (count based)

Mode 2: Last mount standing (survival based)

Mode 3: Highest number of kills at the end of X time wins (time based)

Race Rewards

1/3 of the competitors (rounded up) will get a prize (in the case of drops, "competitors" are counted as per the disconnection scenarios specification).

2, 3 players = 1st place gets a prize

4, 5, 6 players = 1st, 2nd get prizes

7, 8 players = 1st, 2nd, 3rd get prizes

Team races and PvP

There are two options players can choose from. The first option (and likely the default one) is scaled prizing. The second is equal prizing.

Scaled prizing

1/3 of the teams get prizes:

2, 3 teams = winning team gets prizes

4 teams = 1st and 2nd place teams get prizes

Everybody on the winning team(s) gets a prize, but scaled in the same tier method as described above. Example: in a 4 person team:

1st (within their team) = Tier A

2nd = Tier B

3rd = Tier C

4th = Tier D

If there is more than 1 winning team, then the 1st place team would get a higher tier set of prizes. Example:

1st place team

1st place on their team = Tier A

2nd place on their team = Tier B

2nd place team

1st place on their team = Tier C

2nd place on their team = Tier D

Equal Prizing

As above, 1/3 of the winning teams receive prizes. The difference is that each person on the winning team gets a prize from the same tier. In exchange, the tiers they would be getting their prizes from would be lower than 1st place would get in the scaled prizing. Example:

Tiered prizing model

1st = Tier A

2nd = Tier B

3rd = Tier C

4th = Tier D

Equal prizing model

All places would get a prize from tier C.

Race Accomplishments

What They Are - What Racer Receives

Small reward for achieving various goals during a race

Can only complete a given achievement once per race

Majority of the awards will be crafting items and consumables, while rare and/or very difficult achievements may give better items

You get nothing if you drop or disconnect

The prize for an achievement may or may not be from the same tiers of race prizing

Specific Accomplishments

"Knockouts" - "Knock out" 5 opponents

"Survivor" - Avoid being knocked out for an entire race

"Undisputed" - Come in 1st 10 seconds ahead of the 2nd place finisher

"Naturalist" - Don't use any healing skills or items

"(Double/Triple/etc) Whammy" - "Knock out" (2/3/etc.) people at the same time

"Hack and slash" - Don't use any skills or items (only rider weapon)

"Punching Bag" - Sustain the most damage out of all players

"KO King" - Deal the highest number of KOs out of all players

"Kindly Master" - Keep your mount's pain meter out of the red for the entire race

"Saint" - Deal no damage

"Pacifist" - Deal no damage with your rider weapon

Event Instances

For each instance type there are two creation methods:

System created

Gamer created

System created instances are managed by the system and created on a schedule. Gamers can select them through the event gateway and be placed directly into the waiting room for that system event. When it hits full capacity (8 players for race) the event begins. These instances will reward participants with at least one skill point to encourage public, community participation. There should be a few system instances available at all times with different rank requirements to help partition the community and skill levels and help ensure "fair" races.

The following instances and beast rank requirements need to be available:

beast ranks 1-6

beast ranks 7-12

beast ranks 13-18

beast ranks 19-20

Mounts

Basic Mount Movement/Features

Jump

Ability to use skills (attacking, defensive, supportive)

Go backwards/reverse (or turn around)

Stop / Stand / Halt

Mount Models

Number of Models (Skeletons) = 6

Number of Skins per Skeleton = Minimum of 2

Mount Stable Slots

2 Free starter slots

Maximum 6 slots

2 can be opened through gameplay

Others can be opened through Acclaim coin purchases

Mount Body Types (Models or Skeletons)

Striders

Move like Velociraptors, and as such, stand on two feet in a similar way.

Crawlers

Crawl on the ground like lizards, and as such, stand on four feet in a similar way.

Knuckle Draggers

Move like Gorillas, and as such, stand on two feet and use their arms for support.

Pouncers

Move like Canines and/or Felines, and as such, stand on four feet in a similar way.

Stompers

Move like Elephants or Rhinoceros, and as such, stand on four feet in a similar way.

Rollers

Most of them curl up into a ball-like position, but some already come in that shape, and in their ball form they roll to move.

Defaults for Mounts

Mount attribute and base stats for each mount type have default value ranges using the following key:

Inferior, Very Unstable, Very Sensitive: 30-44

Mediocre, Unstable, Sensitive : 45-58

Acceptable, Average, Tolerable: 59-72

Exceptional, Stable, Very Resilient: 73-86

Superior, Very Stable, Impervious: 87-100

Defaults for each specific mount type can be found here, along with the concept artwork for each beast. Details for the skills spheres can be found in the Skill Sphere section of the design document.

Striders

Crawlers

Knuckle Draggers

Pouncers

Stompers

Rollers

Mount System Values

An organic set of attribtes and statistics has been established to support the racing/PvP and breeding systems. The exact formulas which leverage the following attributes and statistics can be found in the on the Core Game Formulas page.

Mount Attributes (value system: 30-100 pts)

Muscle Mass

Endurance

Ferocity

Fitness

Instinct

Reflexes

Additional Stats:

Mount Mood

Mount Pain levels

Base turn rate

Base Balance

Base Jump

Mount Ranks

This game uses a rank system rather than a traditional leveling system. Ranks are spaced further apart than levels, and there are less of them; unlike levels, achieving the next rank is based on completing specific events, not accumulating points.

The list of Mount Ranks can be found on this page.

Breeding

General Notes:

"Tweaking is your key to Domination."

This breeding system is all about tweaking. Instead of going for the mount with the highest attributes, go for the mount producing the best figures.

Attributes and attribute tweaking

Each beast has an upper and lower attribute limit for each attribute. During the beast's lifetime, the attributes can be tweaked within those limits (through various means), but can never increase or decrease outside them.

All attributes, when increased and decreased, affect another attribute, e.g. When Muscle Mass is increased Reflex Decreases (However, this effect is not propagated, e.g. Reflex would not then affect another attribute)

Like in real life, traits(attributes) are not measurements of how good you are at a certain thing. They aren't inherently good or bad. It is the combinations that work well together that produce the best beasts.

This makes it more fun and interesting to breed: breeding is not just a matter of finding "the best" and breeding with them and hoping for good luck; it also involves thinking about what is the best in your situation

Required for breeding

Two parent beasts

A breeding area (if two different people are breeding their beasts, they have to use a public one or rent a semi private one)

Breeding Process

Two beasts enter a breeding area

If possible and desired, breeding items are used (these items can help increase the chance of getting certain attributes, looks, traits, breeding success etc.)

The mounts go to breed; If the breeding is successful, a single egg immediately appears (there is no "gestation" time)

The egg is an item that can be sold and traded, until the current owner decides to hatch it.

When the egg is hatched, the beast is instantly ready to race.

Breeding areas

There are three places mounts can be bred:

Private (Personal Stable) (You may add items to breeding here)

Semi-Private (Rented Stable) (You may add items to breeding here)

Public (Free, open to everyone stable) (You may not add items to breeding here)

Private stables can only be used to breed your own beasts and are the best place to breed them

The Breeding Market(Two Player Breeding)

"A good breeder knows that it's quicker to create the ultimate beast with more than one person"

Two players can decide to breed two specific beasts just like one player breeding two of his own beasts, except:

The beasts go to breed into a "public/semi-private breeding ground" instead of the player's stable.

The players may agree to apply special items in secret from each other, so the outcome is a bit of a surprise (more of a vs. breeding), or they may agree to collaborate, and not proceed with breeding until both agree on what items each applies to their beast.

Before the breeding starts, The players agree on who gets the egg and what compensation(studding fee) the other player gets (assuming breeding is successful - if breeding fails, no one gets anything)

Breeding Chance

Attempting to breed two beasts is not always successful; in some cases, the breeding will fail (and not produce an offspring). For each act of breeding, a chance of success is calculated (and displayed to the player). Details on Chance can be found here:

Breeding Chance

Inheriting Traits From Parents

Gender

This is decided randomly, you have a 50/50 Chance of receiving either gender

Skeleton/Species

The child's species is selected randomly from one of the parents. For example, if a choboga and a salamander breed, the result is either a salamander or a choboga. (but see also coloration/texture)

Skills

"Abilities and skills we inherit are just as important as what our bodies are made to do"

If there are any innate skills associated with the inherited skeleton/species, the beast inherits those skills as well.

Any other skills are acquired through gameplay, not inherited.

Attributes

"A good beast has weighted stats, a fantastic beast has highly balanced ones"

Each attribute's Upper and Lower limit (see above, under "Attributes and Attribute tweaking") is determined from the parent beasts' Upper and Lower limits (of the same attribute); the starting attribute value (when the beast is born) is then the average of the Upper and Lower limits for that attribute.

The formula for determining the Upper and Lower limits can be found here:

Attributes

Coloration and patterns

"An amazing beast isn't amazing, unless it also looks amazing."

There are three inherited traits that determine the way the beast looks:

Pattern style

Primary Color

Secondary Color (the color of the pattern)

The Pattern style is inherited from one of the parents, at random.

The Primary and Secondary color for the offspring have each a 50% chance of being inherited from either parent. 50% chance for primary colour from either parent and 50% chance for secondary colour from either parent.

If a beast has the same primary color as their secondary color, then their pattern design is simply invisible, it will appear entirely covered in their primary/secondary color. But their pattern information does get stored in case this beast ever breeds.

Complete details and samples can be found in the Coloration/Textures Guide.

Riders

Rider Features

Riders are humanoids that ride the beasts during the races

Enter their beast in official world defined races and PvP events

Enter their beast, and invite others, to their own custom created races or PvP events

Acquire, manage and breed mounts

Work with trainers to develop new skills for themselves or their mount

Buy/Sell/Trade items to other gamers or non-player characters

Attack with weapons and use items while in a race or PvP event

Walk in and travel to towns

Express themselves through emote animations

Rider Ethnicities (Races)

Ethnicities are similar to "Races" in other games

Rider Ethnicity:

Nibi("Techies") - front right

Lokyrim("Chaotic") - back left

Anaterra("Good") - back right

Bon-Pira("Beastmen") - front left

Ethnic Logos

Each group within the game has a logo/emblem associated with their ethnicity or faction, as follows:

Anaterra

Bon-Pira

Lokyrim

Nibi

RaCom

Rider Professions

The concept of profession is closer to a "job" than a traditional class. By default all riders are "Jockeys." Additional professions will be added post-launch.

Rider Models

Riders will have a male and female main model for each ethnicity

Various equipped items will cause changes to the avatar

Level of customization and options (hair, face, body type/size, etc.) needs to be specified by the developer based on engine and capabilities

Rider Ranks

This game uses a rank system rather than a traditional leveling system. Ranks are spaced further apart than levels, and there are less of them; unlike levels, achieving the next rank is based on completing specific events, not accumulating points.

A list of Rider Ranks and their requirements can be found on this page.

Skill System

Basic Approach

The community designed system is built around a few key concepts: skill rings, skill slots, skill spheres, and skill points. By placing various skill spheres into skill slots on skill rings that skill becomes available. Skill points are used to "level" the inidividual skills.

What is a SKILL

A skill for our game has been defined as an active or passive effect

A mount skill represents any action a mount can take in a race/PvP beyond basic movements

A rider skill represents the ability to use weapons, realize passive effects in race/PvP, or support professions functions (crafting, breeding, etc.) in towns

What is a SKILL SPHERE

Each skill is represented by one skill sphere

The power of the skill is determined by power points applied to the sphere

A skill sphere will have requirements to activate

What are the attributes of a SKILL SPHERE

Ring level (core, middle, outer)

Name of skill

Description

Two required sub-skills to open

Relative energy cost to use skill (light, moderate, heavy, significant, extreme)

What it impacts (mount, oppontent mount, rider, opponent rider)

Number of targets (single or multiple, general area of effect)

Duration of skill (very short, short, average, longer, longest time)

Visual effect description

Final technical specific impact (attribute impacts, actions impacted, etc.)

Active or passive skill

WHERE DO YOU GET SKILL SPHERES

Every rider and mount comes with default skill spheres to begin with

Riders can earn skills spheres from skill masters or via profession "assignments" (quests)

Mounts can earn skill spheres from trainers and possibly breeders

WHAT ARE SKILL POINTS / HOW DO SKILLS GROW

Skill Points are the "progression currency" for our skills

There is a maximum of 30 skill points for any sphere

There are 7 tiers within the 30 points which bump the effectiveness level

1-4 = 40% skill potential actualized

5-9 = 50% skill potential actualized

10-14 = 60% skill potential actualized

15-19 = 70 % skill potential actualized

20-24 = 80% skill potential actualized

25-29 =90 % skill potential actualized

30 points = 100% skill potential actualized

See Proof sheet:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pa8xZ-KR2CeIrykNDhGqIcg

(Lowest RA, Middle RA, High RA, Top RA for examples of how skill points impact resulting modifier for attack skills)

Skill Points are earned through activities, races and PvP events

Once earned, they can can be applied any time to skill spheres

Once applied, they can not be removed and moved/reapplied elsewhere

GETTING SKILL POINTS

The number of skill points awarded is based on

specific criteria with points awarded only at

the conclusion of each race or PvP event. There are

no mid-game awards of skill points (not a real-time skill point award system).

Skill points can be earned in both system created and gamer instanced races and PvPs, with slight variations on criteria.

SKILL POINT REWARD CRITERIA

There are four major configurations for earning skill points based on the type of event (race and PvP) and whether it is a system created instance or gamer created instance. The points earned in those four modes are presented below.

System Created Instanced Races Tiered Winning System

Everyone participating in a public, system created race will get a minimum of 1 skill point. This encourages community and rewards gamers competing in a public vs private space. The following positions get additional points:

7-8 person race

1st place 5 pts

2nd place 4 pts

3rd place 3 pts

4th place 2 pt

5th place 1 pt

6th place 1 pt

7th place 1 pt

8th place 1 pt

5-6 person race

1st place 4 pts

2nd place 3 pts

3rd place 2 pts

4th place 1 pt

5th place 1 pt

6th place 1 pt

7th place 1 pt

8th place 1 pt

4 person race

1st place 3 pts

2nd place 2 pts

3rd place 1 pts

4th place 1 pt

5th place 1 pt

6th place 1 pt

7th place 1 pt

8th place 1 pt

Gamer Instanced Races Tiered Winning System

Gamers must win in private modes to earn points Points are only awarded for gamer instances with 4 or more competitors. This encourages community and discourages tons of individual instances running on our servers. To progress, you must partake the community in some respect.

7-8 person race

1st place 4 pts

2nd place 3 pts

3rd place 2 pts

4th place 1 pt

5-6 person race

1st place 3 pts

2nd place 2pts

3rd place 1 pts

4 person race

1st place 2 pts

2nd place 1 pts

System Created Instanced PvP Tiered Winning System

Everyone participating in a public, system created PvP will get a minimum of 1 skill point. This encourages community and rewards gamers competing in a public vs private space.

The following positions get additional points:

8 person PvP

Winners: 5

Losers: 1

6 person PvP

Winners: 4

Losers: 1

4 person PvP

Winners: 3 points

Losers: 1 point

Gamer Instanced PvP Tiered Winning System

Gamers must win in private modes to earn points

Points are only awarded for gamer instances with 4 or more competitors. This encourages community and discourages tons of individual instances running on our servers. To progress, you must partake the community in some respect.

The following positions get points:

8 person PvP

Winners: 4 pts

Losers: 0 pts

6 person PvP

Winners: 3 pts

Losers: 0 pts

4 person PvP

Winners: 2 pts

Losers: 0 pts

ACTIVATING SKILLS: Using the Skill Ring

Skill rings enable a gamer to define what skills are active for mounts and riders

Skill rings contain skill sphere slots

Each skill sphere slot can hold one sphere

The more advanced the avatar, the more skill sphere slots a ring will be available

Mount Skill Ring Structure http://www.videogameteam.com/wiki/index.php?title=Image:Mount_skill_rings.jpg

Rider Skill Ring Structure http://www.videogameteam.com/wiki/index.php?title=Image:Rider_ring.jpg

What are SKILL RINGS

Skill rings contain skill sphere slots

Each skill sphere slot can hold one sphere

The more advanced the avatar, the more skill sphere slots a ring will be available

The gamer can only place skill sphere in the center-most ring

A skill becomes active for an avatar once the sphere is equipped in the skill ring

Skill Ring Configurations

Mounts have three levels of skills possible and therefore have three ring levels

Each ring represents a new power level of skill

Mounts have 4 outer slots, 2 middle slots, 1 center slot

Riders have 4 slots

EQUIPPING REQUIREMENTS

Possible Mount Skill Sphere equipping requirements:

Ring level (core, middle, outer)

Related skill spheres that must be equipped as well

Related skill point levels in related skill spheres

Possible Rider Skill Sphere equipping requirements

Currently active profession

Maximum of one weapon skill sphere allowed at any one time

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU UN-EQUIP A SKILL SPHERE

Anytime you un-equip or swap out a skill sphere it returns to your pool of skill spheres

Emergent skills that require equipped core spheres will become unequipped when required components are removed

Power Points previously applied to a skill sphere are never lost

Skills List

• Mount skills technical detail: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pa8xZ-KR2CeKr90KAxYiJFg
• Rider skills technical detail: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pHvb9u1iYSbj1y84Vs8O9cA

Equipment

Weapons

Riders can acquire the following weapons:

Melee

Glaives

Rods

Maces

Swords

Metal Claws

Ranged

Steam guns

Crossbows

Blow pipes

Note: None of the weapons require ammunition

Rider

What can be equipped

Helmet

Body Armor

Accessory (2x)

Mount

What can be equipped

Barding Head piece

Barding Side pieces

Barding Rear piece

Consumables

Combat System

The combat system uses a number of formulas and sub-systems to determine how riders and mounts interact in environments.

Those formulas can be found on the Core Game Formulas page.

Players can perform the following combat actions during a race:

Use a weapon (Rider can hold only one weapon at a time, determined pre-race/PvP event)

Use a rider skill

Use an item

Trigger an environmental trap or object

Who Attacks and How

Mounts have skills that can be offensive/defensively

Riders use weapons to attack

Riders can have one weapon equipped in a race/PvP

How Weapons Damage

Weapons have skill spheres that can be equipped and leveled to impact damage inflicted

There will be a base damage a weapon can do

Weapon Usage

When a rider attacks with a weapon there is a cool down timer that must expire before the weapon can be used again

How Damage/Defense/Status Effects Works

Mounts are the entities attacked and take damage in all cases

Damage to the mount takes energy away from the pool

A defense value is obtained based upon the defense properties of equipped armor.

Negative effects can happen to both riders and mounts

Combat Status Effects

The list of combat effects can be found here: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pa8xZ-KR2CeLRjOypNinOEQ

How Things Are Targeted

System manages who is within range

Selector will allow gamer to visually see a target

Gamer will have controls to cycle through possible valid targets

Opponents and environments can be targeted

Only opponents AHEAD of you can be targeted (this is a game balancing dynamic)

Disable

Disabling can be used to determine gameplay outcome for specific PvP and specific race modes

Disabling would occur in those modes when the energy bar is fully depleted

Attack Types:

Area effects (skills/abilities)

Short range (short melee weapons/skills)

Medium range (long melee weapons/skills)

Long range (ranged weapons/skills)

Single target

Multiple-target

Mount Battle System Specifics

There are three components to the battle system: Mount energy, pain and mood.

All modifier values resulting from energy, pain and mood should be summed then applied against resulting calculations from the core formulas.

Energy

Every mount has an energy pool from which to draw upon. See core formulas on how to calculate this.

Every mount has an energy pool regeneration rate. See core formulas on how to calculate this.

When the mount's energy level drops to specific points there are negative consequences:

75% remaining energy: strength drops 10%, top speed drops 10%

50% remaining energy: strength drops 20%, top speed drops 20%, turning rate drops 10%

25% remaining energy: strength drops 40%, top speed drops 30%, turning rate drops 20%

To perform any skill (this does not include standard movement or regular jumping ability) takes energy. There are five skill energy cost tiers based on difficulty and how advanced a skill is:

Cost Level 1: 10 pts

Cost Level 2: 19 pts

Cost Level 3: 30 pts

Cost Level 4: 57 pts

Cost Level 5: 117 pts

Please view the "Skills List" section above to see what cost tier is applied to each individual mount skill.

Moods

This is to determine the final details behind the mood system proposed. It's intention was to help establish an emotional link between the gamer and her beast. The mood will have direct impacts on the effectiveness of the mount's actions, in addition to helping to simulate a basic type of "personality."

We want beasts to be stable, true to their default mood disposition, and add predictable behaviors to a mount to help empower bonding a gamer to their "real-life virtual creature" through understanding how races/PvP skills and damage taken impacts their creature.

The original list was a mixture of moods and states. The new list are the core moods, and their extreme states.

Sad, Depressed (blue)

Happy, Elated (yellow)

Mad, Enraged (red)

Mood Overview

There are three total moods: happy, sad/tired, mad. Each has its own value register for mood points. Each register can have from 0-25 points in it. Any points attempting to be added once 25 is hit will be discarded.

When a mount is created, it will randomly select that beast's "inate disposition" (sad, happy or mad). The corresponding register to the inate state will have a permanent base of 4 points. The others will have a base of zero points.

Each mount will also have a mood resistance attribute (30-99) which will dictate how quickly a mount changes into and recovers from mood alterations

When 15 points is reached in a register, that mood is considered in an extreme state and magnifies that mood's impact until it has fallen below 15 points. "Extreme states" are displayed with a more extreme visual effect on the mood indicator to help inform the gamer of the extreme mood state of their beast

Determining current mood

The register with the highest value is the dominant mood

In the event of a tie, the mount's disposition mood would be the resulting dominant mood

In the event the two tied registers do not include the disposition, use the register from the mood last added to

Getting mood points

Skills, weapons and items specify the number of points contributed to the target's mood registers upon use or being hit

Formula proof sheet:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pa8xZ-KR2CeJQ1-4naBEMJQ

Formula to determine how many mood points are applied to a register:

 % applied = ((100-mood resistance) / 100)) * potential points to apply

Example: hit by weapon for 4 points of mad damage, with a mood resistance of 33

 % applied = ((100-33) / 100)) * 4

 % applied = 2.68

Mood resolution

Which ever the selected mood disposition is, it will have a lower-bound limit of no less then 4 at all times. Regardless of time or values in other registers.

All other registers degrade over time based on the emotional stability attribute of the mount

Resolution Formula: -Log10(mood resistance * Modifier)

Modifier based on mood resistance value:

30-39: .25

40-49: .95

50-59: 2.5

60-69: 5

70-79: 9

80-89: 14

90-99: 20

Example: mood resistance is 33, happy disposition, mad=3, happy=4, sad=4

Points resolving per second: Log10(33 * .25)

Points resolving per second: -.91

Mad would take 4 seconds to resolve, sad 5 seconds if not additional points were added

Mood impacts

Happy

No modification to attack

No modifications to defense

No modification to speed

Turn Rate +10%

Balance +10%

No energy recharge rate modification

Sad

Decreases attack by -10%

Increases defense by 10%

Decreases top speed -10%

Increases Balance +10%

Decreases Turn Rate -10%

Decreases energy recharge rate -10%

Mad

Increases attack by 10%

Decreased defense by -10%

Increases top speed +10%

Decreases Balance -10%

Increases Turn Rate 10%

Increases energy recharge rate +10%

Extreme versions simply increase the +-20%

Mood will impact

Beast performance

Beast responsiveness

Beast energy recharge rate

Mood will not impact

Base/Max energy level

Pain levels

Pain

There was a desire to create a sense of emotional connection and responsibility to the mount. Pain management was the second of the factors seen as helping to create care for how their beast is treated.

Pain overview

A pain indicator has been documented to work with energy and mood to help emotionally tie the gamer to the well being of their mount. There are three levels of pain: none/low, medium and high. The amount of pain the mount is in will temper the effectiveness of the mount's skills and ability to perform in races and PvP.

There are four pain measures:

no / none

low

medium

high

There will be one pain register

Actions performed by the mount may impact the values in the register

Actions taken against the mount may impact the values in the register

The total register size will be 47 points

The value ranges within the 47 points will be based on the pain threshold for the mount

The register will naturally decrease over time based on the fitness and pain tolerance of the mount.

Pain System Behind The Scenes

Mount Attribute: Pain Threshold (Value between 30-99)

Pain Point Bucket Max: 47

Scaling 4 Pain Ranges

As mount increases it's "Pain Theshold," what is considered no, low, medium and high pain should change.

This excel proof contains the data and supporting diagram to justify the distribution of ranges given various point totals: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pa8xZ-KR2CeJYWBv6AH4Mdg

Defined Ranges

Threshold: 30-39 (resolution modifier value 1)

None: 0 - 5

Low: 5 - 12

Med: 12 - 24

High: 23 - 47

Threshold: 40-49 (resolution modifier value 1)

None: 0 - 7

Low: 7 - 15

Med: 25 - 29

High: 29 - 47

Threshold: 50-59 (resolution modifier value 1.25)

None: 0 - 9

Low: 9 - 20

Med: 20 - 33

High: 33 - 47

Threshold: 60-69 (resolution modifier value 1.5)

None: 0 - 11

Low: 11 - 23

Med: 23- 36

High: 36 - 47

Threshold: 70-79 (resolution modifier value 2)

None: 0 - 14

Low: 14 - 27

Med: 27 - 38

High: 38 - 47

Threshold: 80-89 (resolution modifier value 3)

None: 0 - 18

Low:18 - 32

Med: 32 - 40

High: 40 - 47

Threshold: 90-99 (resolution modifier value 5)

None: 0 - 23

Low: 23 - 35

Med: 35 - 42

High: 42 - 47

Pain Resolution

Each second will diminish pain by the following formula:

FORMULA: Current Pain Value - (log10([Current Pain Value] * Threshold Modifier))

Proof sheet: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pa8xZ-KR2CeLxrH80GhUUDw

Effects OF PAIN

"No" Pain

Awards bonus to optimal mount performance and good riding!

Max energy +5%

+10% effectiveness to attack and defense values

No limitations or effects

Low

Max energy drops -5%

-10% effectiveness of skills (attack and defense values)

No negative effect on control

No limitation to skill use

Medium

Max energy drops 10%

-20% effectiveness of skills (attack and defense values)

-10% turn rate, -10% balance, -10% jump

Inability to perform "core" skills

High

Max energy drops 15%

-40% effectiveness of skills (attack and defense values)

-20% turn rate, -20% balance, -20% jump

Inability to perform "middle and core" skills

Pain presentation in Racing and PvP User Interface

As the pain level increases, the "wave form" in the pain/mood/energy indicator becomes more erratic and faster

each range (low/med/high) should have a signature wave form style that can be recognized for instance:

no = slow waves, patterned, rhythmatic, even

low = medium speed waves, patterned, occasional skips, rhythmatic, even

medium = fast waves, patterns breaking, occasional skips

high = very rapid waves, erratic patterns

Pain will impact

Beast performance

Beast responsiveness

Base/Max energy level

Skills that can be used

Pain will not impact

Beast energy recharge rate

Beast Mood

Tracks/Environments

Overview

Tracks in this game have full 3D environments in which PvP and racing events take place. These environments will offer immersive and interactive environments with interesting challenges that will cover varying levels of difficulty depending on mounts and skills. Various traps and triggers should be able to change elements of or on the track. In addition, moving objects (creatures, environmental objects) should be available as track challenge elements.

Environmental Variables

Environments should implement a physics engine to support mount running, jumping and combat dynamics. A number of variables have been defined to provide numerous options for track building.

Aspects defined on a track-by-track basis:

Weather

Time of day (lighting)

Starting on track:

Opponents will start lined up in a straight line (no pole positions)

Number of Tracks at launch - 10

Track Themes

The track theme ranking task determined the priority order for track development. The tracks are linked below, in priority order:

Oceanus

Village Pillage

Overgrown City

Epic Graveyard

Ice Fields

Volcanic Mountain

Race to the Center of the World

The following tracks have a very low priority with the community:

Coliseum

Ancient Tunnels / Broken Clockworks

Surreal Racing/Teleportation

Platform Racing

Vitreous Track (Bonus Track)

Original concept art for tracks can be found on the Concept Art pages.

• Any development team who feels they can create more than 10 tracks should inform the Advisory Board. It's our intent to have more than 10 tracks, and more tracks will be designed for any team that feels they're up to the challenge.
• Environments will include "failure points" where the mount is reset to where they "fell off the track" (i.e., deep chasms, cliff edges, rushing rapids that mounts should never be able to cross (versus shallows that they could, and would be considered a barrier)).
• Environments will be used for both racing and PvP.
• Due to the open nature of PvP, environments must be designed beyond the core "track" through the area, i.e., the environment is totally open to run around and explore/kill each other in so the entire thing has to be designed (no doing one side of the model because you'll never see the other side type short-cuts).

Track Builder Objects

Track Elemental Attributes

Towns

Definition of Towns

In our game a town is a main hub where gamers can gather, interact, purchase things, talk with friends and access racing venues. Our current design assumes a 3D design and 3rd person perspective. Here gamers will be able to walk around, enter buildings, see and interact with other gamers also in that town in addition to buying, selling and crafting items, breeding mounts, view leaderboards, access personal space and guild spaces, talk to NPCs, gain professions and profession assignments, and gain access to tracks.

Towns exist for three primary reasons

1- to foster a social environment

2- to provide support for characters during gameplay

3- to enhance the atmosphere

Town construction needs to provide for these aspects, future game additions, and reduction of lag. The following are features that are desired within the towns:

- streets that wind around

- "crescent" designed town (few right angles)

- placement of buildings to reduce "line of sight"

- positioning of elements to avoid wide open areas

- uses levels (tiers or multi-storied open structures) of areas to break up large groups

- have buildings that people go into

- shops

NOTES: Although four town sizes are listed, only the City structure type will be available at launch.

Structure Types

Shops

Jockey Quarter

Armor - sells rider armor; largest towns have multiple armor shops, divided by types. Smaller towns will have one shop, which sells a variety of items, although not all items in the armor category.

Weapons - sells weapons; largest towns have multiple armor shops, divided by types. Smaller towns will have one shop, which sells a variety of items, although not all items in the weapons category.

Riding Supplies - sells saddles and mount armor; largest towns have multiple armor shops, divided by types. Smaller towns will have one shop, which sells a variety of items, although not all items in the saddles and mount armor category.

Pharmacy Supplies - sells health, stamina, heal, enhancement potions for beasts / riders. This shop type is only found in the largest cities.

Food - sells foods that enhance beast / rider stats. In smaller towns these items will be sold by the Innkeeper

Acclaim Coin Stores - sells items for cash. There will be a very large variety of items in this category

Salon - allows players to change their appearance by means of a vendor in the building. Hairstyles for example will be pictured as an item for sale. By purchasing that item and clicking apply, your hairstyle would be changed. This shop is only located in the largest cities.

Fashion Center - allows players to change their basic clothing colors / styles by means of a vendor in the building. To change clothing color, for example, you choose the dye color from the sales menu. When you click apply, while targeting the selected clothing item, the color would change.

General Items - items from all categories would be sold here. This store acts like a "Quick Mart" and is located near the busiest areas. Nibi 7-11.

Market area which includes:

Open area for people to stand and have bazaars - currently this function isn't in the game, so the area will be mostly vacant, with perhaps some random NPCs standing about chatting.

Auction House - allows player to put items for auction to other players. Each AH needs to be large enough to house 3 Auctioneers, and have a fairly large number of players inside.

Bank - allows players to store excess items in XX slots for free. Additional bank slots could be purchased at the Acclaim store. (This may turn out to be for ambiance only).

Inn - no real function other than a gathering spot for players. The Innkeeper, however, will be a working NPC. Inns should be multi-roomed, with areas where players can chat with friends, log out, or simply go AFK.

News Stand - players can access the latest news, including ranks, or game announcements. This function is accessed via the Leader Board.

Auction House - allows player to put items for auction to other players

Bank - allows players to store excess items in XX slots for free. Additional bank slots could be purchased at the Acclaim store. (This may turn out to be for ambiance only).

Inn - no real function

News Stand - players can access the latest news, including ranks, or game announcements

Available at the News Stand:

News

Game Announcements

Racing Stats

For each track, the racer with the best overall time

For each track, "this weeks" best overall time

Player with the most races

Player with the most wins

Person who's dropped out of races the most often

Guild Stats

Guild with the most new members this week

The name of each guild and the artifact it owns (only shows if the guild has one)

General Stats

Newest (length of time playing wise) player in the game

Oldest (length of time playing wise) player that logged in this week

The tracks/territories each faction controls (this function is currently on hold)

PVP Stats

Player with the most kills ever

Player with the most kills this week

Capitol / Embassy - how and where you change factions, etc (this function is currently on hold)

Riding Center

Rental NPC - has mounts that can be rented

Breeding Barn - allows players to breed mounts

Training Field - allows players to train beasts in additional skills

Stable - ambiance only

Corral - ambiance only

Gateways - "portals" to one of the places listed. Portals would be specific (i.e., city portal only takes you to the specific town listed, and not all portals are found in all locations).

to other cities/towns

to race track

to personal space

Guild House - "home" for all guild members (this structure will be non-functional at launch)

Hospital - there is no provision for this function so this would essentially be a structure to add to the ambiance of a town. It should be multi-roomed.

Post Office - allows players to send / receive mail.

Crafter's Structure(s) - (this structure will be non-functional at launch)

Fighter's Hall - (this structure will be non-functional at launch)

Bounty Hunter's Hovel - (this structure will be non-functional at launch)

NPC Types

Dialogue for NPCs is being written

Trainer - trains beast or rider in skills / professions / crafts.

Clerks - enables purchase transactions from any non-player vendor.

Auctioneer - allows the Auction House UI window to open. Offers help on how to use the AH (how to purchase, sell, claim items won or money for items sold).

Ambassador - facilitates the changing of factions. This NPC currently has no function because factions have been removed from the contest design. The NPC will offer random statements about factions, when queried, and act as a placeholder until factions are returned to the design.

Banker - there is no provision for this function. This NPC is mainly for ambiance in a town. He will dispense directions to the AH, and various merchant locations.

Innkeeper - offers basic foods / drinks (for rider consumption), and some directions or advice on where to find information.

Veterinarian - there is no provision for this function. This NPC is mainly for ambiance in a town. He may offer dialogue that includes basics of mount treatment.

Stylist - enables the change of appearance, via sales of items as an Acclaim vendor. This will include hair styles, color changes.

Fashion Designer - enables the change of clothing, via sales of items as an Acclaim vendor. This will include all clothing and clothing color changes (dyes).

Breeders - information source for breeding techniques.

Wandering Citizens - NPCs who wander about town but have no function. They will offer random chat dialogue, as well as comments about actual players who are in the immediate vicinity.

Guild Master - dispenses information on guilds, allows the formation of guilds, sells guild related items, and guild space additions.

The following NPCs currently have no function, but will be added post-contest:

Illusionists (found in public areas-near auction houses and shops, learn/talk/get assignments there)

Fighters (have a building)

Bounty Hunter (get assignments from hovel or ethnic embassy's)

Ethnic Capitals (Size = City)

Structures

Shops

Jockey Quarter

Armor

Weapons

Riding Supplies

Pharmacy Supplies

Food

Acclaim Coin Stores

Salon

Fashion Center

General Items

Market Area

Open market space populated by vendor tents

Auction House

Bank

Inn

News Stand

Capitol / Embassy

Riding Center

Rental NPC

Breeding Barn

Training Field

Stable

Gateways

to other cities/towns

to race track

to personal space

Guild House

Hospital

Post Office

Crafter's Structure(s)

Fighter's Hall

Bounty Hunter's Hovel

NPCs

Trainers

Clerks / shopkeepers

Banker

Auctioneer

Innkeeper

Veterinarian

Acclaim vendors

Fashion Designer

Stylist

General Sales

Breeders

Illusionists

Nomads

Fighters

Bounty Hunter

Town Specifications

- Population centers comes in 4 sizes: Cities, towns, villages, outposts

- Only cities are included in the initial launch spec

- No collision of rider/characters in town

- No beasts roaming in town

- Natural barriers would be used to give towns interest and to help with potential lag problems

- Some buildings will have doorways that could be opened (or are open) that you pass through to go inside.

- Open booth/window buildings would be used for some functions

- Example: vendors or housing NPCs whose function is conversation only

- Tents/Booths might be used for some shops

- Multiple town squares/town criers with bulletin/ranking boards could be used to help spread towns out and mitigate potential lag problems

Things to do in Towns

Tutorials: New players can access to tutorials that teach them the game.

Races: Players can join races from towns, villages/outposts.

Stables: Players can access their mount(s) where they can manage pet related activities.

Game News: Game information can be distributed in towns through rank boards and town criers.

Guilds: Players can form, visit and join guilds. (This function is not expected to be in the initial launch).

Characters: Characters can have their appearance modified in a town.

Themes: Towns can have different themes.

Trading: Players can trade with each other, set up bazaars or shop in towns.

Story: Story can progress in towns, possibly through NPCs or profession tasks.

Ethnic Cities

Bon-Pira

Anaterra

Nibi

Lokyrim

The links above will take you to concept art for a specific ethnic town type.

New Rider Experience

Starter/Tutorial Town

Personal Space

General Info

Players/Guild will be given a set amount of space at first, but will be able to increase the size. This will involve a purchase of some kind ie. Acclaim Coins, In game money.

Items placed into a room:

Players will be able to purchase or craft items for their personal/guild space.

Those items are as follows: (There will be multiple variations of each item)

Categories:

Creatures

Cockroaches

Rats

Mice

Bats

Birds

Dogs

Cats

Chickens

Ferrets

Yanabot

Leprechaun

Wall Items

Windows (Curtains Included)

Pictures (In-games shots)

Plaques

Posters

Certificates

Mirrors

Wallpaper

Animal Head Wall Mounts

Clocks

Doors

Decor

Flowers

Trees

Shrubs

Fountains

Sculptures

Trophies

Statues

Rugs

Toys

Balls

Cards

Bats (Baseball, Cricket)

Frisbees

Darts

Appliances

Television

Radio (Maybe we could have in game radio stations with real DJ's)

Lights / Lamps etc.

Spa / Jacuzzi

Fans

Furniture

Stool

Recliner

Rocking Chair

Love Seat

Bed

Bench

Tables (Small Medium Large)

Bar

Performance Stage

Lecturn

Couch

Normal Seats and Chairs

Throne

Sofa

Storage

Chest of Drawers (Small Medium large)

Cabinet

Dressing Table

Footlocker

Locker

Hatchery case (to store eggs)

Bookcase (Store Tutorials Information Evolutions Guide Etc.)

Staff

Bar Tender

Cleaner

Referee (For games with toys)

Librarian

Guards

Doorman

Butler

Waitress' / Waiters

Maids

Performers (Jugglers, Belly Dancers, Musicians Etc.)

The UI (Still in progress)

Details

The UI is a 2D space representing a 3D World

Players/Guilds have a set amount of space and can only place items in this space. More space can be purchased either by upgrading a current room or purchasing a new one

The space will be represented by a series of squares These squares are split into 4 smaller squares which are again split into 4 small triangles. This allows the player to line up objects at a 90 and 45 degree angle. (See picture)

Each item category, will be assigned a color based on this category

Certain items can be rotated and the way they are facing is determined by a small dot. (See Picture)

Players will be required to place a main entrance door, and doors that connect adjoining rooms

Layout

Space Detail

This is an example of the Space Details

50x50sq

40x40sq

30x30sq

20x20sq

10x10sq

Minimum Item Size 1sq

1 Player fits on 1sq

Players can upgrade space to the maximum size

Players Space starts at 10x10

Guild Space Starts at 20x20

Space can be upgraded

It's more expensive to upgrade then to buy outright

50x50=17pnts

40x40=14pnts

30x30=11pnts

20x20=8pnts

10x10=5pnts

Upgrade by 10x10 = 5pnts

Upgrade by 20x20 = 8pnts

Upgrade by 30x30 = 11pnts

Upgrade by 40x40 = 14pnts

Auction House

One auction house will be provided in each of the four ethnic capitals.

Categories of items that can be bought and sold at the auction house:

Rider Weapons

Armor (Rider and Mount)

Consumable items

Crafting Materials

Things that can not be included in the auction house:

Mounts

Skills Spheres

Selling items in the auction house

Selecting the Auction House NPC in a capital displays the AH window

Selecting the "Selling" tab displays the selling interface options

Each rider can start with 8 sales slots

Items are dragged and dropped from the inventory window into an open slot

Once dropped in a slot the gamer is asked to set a price and quantity to be sold (single or stack of 12).

Items placed up for auction are removed from the active inventory of the rider.

Items expire from the sale block after 3 earth days (72 hours)

Expired items remain in the AH slot, but are visually distinct as expired

To stop an item from being sold, it can be dragged back into the inventory window

Clicking an item in a sales slot displays the following item information:

Item category

Item name

Item description

Gamer's asking price

Sale Expired indicator (when appropriate)

Requirements to use/equip

Special features

Lowest Cost (for that item in the AH currently-may be displayed for Merchant profession only)

Average Cost (for that item in the AH currently-may be displayed for Merchant profession only)

Last Sale (for that item in the AH-may be displayed for Merchant profession only)

Remove button (enabled if rider has an open inventory slot. Returns selected item to inventory)

Resell button (appears only if the item has expired and gamer wants to place item back up for sale in auction house)

Buying items in the auction house

Selecting the Auction House NPC in a capital displays the AH window

By default the "buying" tab is displayed

Gamers can select which category they want to browse

Gamers can set "quick filters" if desired or just click "Update List" to see the items available based on the filter criteria.

The available item list shows the following:

Buy Button (enabled only if they have the cash to purchase it and the available inventory slot space to hold it)

Item Name

Number currently in stock in the AH house

Current lowest cost for that item

Quanity Type (single or stack of 12)

Clicking buy is an instant purchase

Clicking an item in a sales slot displays the following item information:

Item name

Item description

Requirements to use/equip

Special features

Guilds

Definition of Guilds

A Guild is a group of players who play under a single banner.

Guilds can contain players from many factions.

Artifact Grab

The artifact grab is a competition between competing guilds

There are 16 Unique Ancient Artifacts, 32 total.

Each Faction houses 2 unique Artifacts (4 total)

Guilds declare their intention to control an artifact, and the opposing guild must respond within a certain period of time, or risk losing control.

Each individual artifact will have its own unique battle mode (this could be racing PvP etc.) and the guild must compete against each other in this game mode only.

A guild can only hold the artifact for a certain period without battling to control it.

While a guild controls an artifact, they receive a certain resource from it. This resource can be used for crafting advanced items, or even sold for high prices.

The amount of resources a guild receives is based on the Guild Faction HoPS that match the Faction which owns the Artifact.

Example: A guild controls the Diamond Artifact.

This artifact is owned by Faction 3.

The Guild guild Faction 3 HoPS is Faction 3: +1000 HoP so they receive 1 Diamond every 24 hrs for every guild they defeat.

A guild with negative HoPS cannot compete for an artifact controlled by the same Faction

If a guild drops below 0 whilst controlling an artifact they instantly lose control of that artifact and cannot re take control till that HoPS is above zero again.

What Happens if no guild has an artifact, or a guild loses an artifact due to inactivity?

If a guild doesn't accept any challenges after a certain period of time, then all guilds (except those that lost it) can declare their intent to control the artifact and the guild with the highest HoPS that match the faction who owns the artifact gains control

The complete Artifact Grab design is stored on the linked page.

Guild Attributes (Possible and Proposed)

Guilds will be able to share resources among it members

Guilds will have in-guild leader boards

Guilds will have a request/classifieds board

Guilds "May" have inter-guild chat rooms

Guilds "May" have storage space

Guilds "May" be allowed to assign names and ranks to guild members

Guilds "May" have forums

Guilds "May" have guild-shops / merchants

Crafting

How Crafters and the Crafting Profession Work

All players start out with the ability to craft, and the ability to access the crafting interface.

At start, crafting can be used only to create poor-quality, common, indistinct, basic equipment, and you can only use indistinct materials.

Once you get the crafting profession, the quality restriction is lifted.

By ranking the crafting profession, you gain more skills. These skills (passively) add more options to the crafting interface, and allow you to use better and distinct materials, and craft different types of equipment.

Crafters eventually gain the preview skill. This skill allows them the:

Ability to view % chance on slots.

Ability to view what distinctions a certain item gives.

Ability to see partial art of the weapon before it is made.

The Crafting System

There are 5 slots in the system and every recipe uses between 2 and 5 items.

There are no "recipe items". Every recipe is static (recipes do not change) throughout the game, and you do not have to have an actual "recipe item" to create the item or learn the recipe.

There is no adding on to recipes or changing recipe ingredients for any recipe -- the recipes are strict, and combinations of items that don't make up a recipe should not do anything and should be rejected by the system (won't use items) and/or return some kind of error message to the player telling them that they can't craft those items together.

Every recipe results in the creation of a basic item, and uses the slot system below to determine the quality and the distinction of the item.

Origin is picked by the player before crafting begins. The origins available to a player are determined by what skills they have.

Depending on slot and crafting item, you get a chance to get distinctions from that item or the quality from that item.

Crafting-specific items get a maximum of 3 distinctions to open, most of them have only 1. The last distinction (labeled distinction C) is usually the most powerful one of a group.

Each slot has a different amount of chance to give a distinction and quality.

File:Craftingkilledthecatfb0.png

Only one distinction is chosen: the % chance is on a single roll, not for each individual distinction.

Quality is determined by what Quality has the highest percentage. For instance, if you have a poor quality item in slot 4 and a superior quality item in slot 1, 2, and 3 then the item quality will be poor, since the total percentage of the quality given by slots 1,2 and 3 (4+8+16 = 28) is less than the total percentage given by slot 4 (32).

Crafters do not have to use any particular slots when making an item; a crafter can craft a 3-item recipe in slots 2-4 or 3-5, or even 1, 3 and 5, to appropriate the different slot percentages.

Depending on the origin you pick the chances will change on each slot. The % chance for each slot remains hidden unless the player has the preview skill.

Recipes also have a "quality order": recipes that use more than 3 slots, have certain orders where if you put the items in a certain order, can cause a boost or detriment in the quality of the resulting item.

This is a post-randomization check: it changes the quality after the quality has been decided through the above.

Every time you stumble across a new recipe, it should automatically be added to a reference book of some kind.

The players are somewhat expected to experiment with the crafting itself, and make discovery about what items do what.

The system has to check against the recipes in the system and get the correct base item, then add the randomizing factors to get the result. It also has to check to insure that the slots above are changeable for balancing purposes.

Summary

Starting players can only create poor quality, common, indistinct, basic equipment, and you can only use indistinct materials.

Starting players also do not get to preview what they are making, this is a skill they have to earn, which will allow them to view %chance on slots, and a partial preview of the item getting made

Eanking the crafting profession unlocks more abilities in crafting, such as making higher quality items and using better materials

There are 5 slots, ordered by quality of the slot

Recipes can use between 2 and 5 items

You can only make things as defined by recipes, items for recipes can be put in any order in any slot available

If you try to create something not in a recipe, nothing happens and you don't lose your items

Recipes do not have to be earned to craft them, you simply need to use the right items and discover the recipe

When discovered, recipes are kept in a small recipe menu that can be referenced

There is a hidden "critical order" and a "negative critical order" for each recipe over 3 items, where putting it in the right or wrong order has an extra effect on the quality of the item

Each "crafting item" has up to 3 distinctions, only one from all crafting items used in a recipe can appear

Each slot has a different %chance for each distinction on a crafting item in the slot being the selected one

Each item in a slot has a quality, and each slot has a %amount that the item's quality counts toward the end result

Origins are selected from a list, and affect many of an items basic properties, as well as the chances for distinction appearance on slots

Equipment has a quality, an origin, sometimes followed by a distinction, followed by an item name, and finally a distinction (if it didn't have one before)

Quality - How good the item is, i.e., superior, good, poor.

Origin- Style of construction. These can give the items some effects/stat boosts.

Distinction- Describes a quality of an item, such as flaming, sharp, effusive, etc. If the distinction is at the end of the name, the form has an "of" on it, i.e., of fire, or of ice. These can give items effects and stat boosts too.

Item name- The raw name of the item. Sword would be a type. Kind would be a subtype of the item, such as short sword, or long sword.

Note: Details of crafting are still in the design phase

Recipes can be found on the [Recipe Spreadsheet]

Items

Item properties:

Item Type (equipables, battle, healing, crafting, breeding, trinkets)

Name

Description: String Description

Art: Some way to link artwork to this item.

Item Cost: Monetary value before multipliers

Stackable: A boolean value which tells us if the item is stackable.

Quest: A boolean value which tells us if it the item is a quest item. Quest items are not droppable and might not even be usable.

Equipment/Consumable: A value that will tell us if the item is a consumable or a piece of Equipment

Usability/Equipability: A range of values that tells us when an item can be used, or where an item can be equipped

Values can be like: Only during Action or Breeding/Action. Or like: Beast Accessory, Rider Helmet.

Craftable: A value that signifies if the item can be used in crafting or not. (NOT if the item can be crafted.)

Crafted: A value which signifies if this item was crafted. (To prevent the re-crafting of items.)

Weapons

Weapons are only used by riders.

Weapon Attributes

Range (melee/near, middle, far)

Attack value

Innate Damage Effects

Requirements to Equip

Hit Chance

Critical Chance

Weapon Speed

Cool down time

Mass

Ammo Type

Armor

Currently there are (6) armor types:

Riders: Helmet, Body Armor, Rider Accessory

Mounts: Saddle,Barding,Beast Accessory

Armor Attributes

Innate defensive value (for armor calculation)

Innate positive/negative effects

Complete information can be found in the [RCO Spreadsheets]

Economy

The economy will be balanced, as much as is possible, to insure that the game currency is robust.

In game money will be known as Cynari.

Cash shop items (from the Acclaim Coin store) will not be allowed to be sold or traded in game.

Cash Shop

Definition

The cash shop will sell items using Acclaim coins. These will be items which do not affect game play.

Acclaim Coins

These coins are purchased from Acclaim, for cash, and may be used in the Acclaim shops.

(Possible) Items

Additional rider slots

Additional mount slots

Special coloration options (dyes) for equipables

Special items (still undefined as to what)

Special holiday items

More auction house sales slots

More slots for personal inventory

Expanded emotes (possibly)

Guilds spaces (multiple rooms, different environments)

A small pet that accompanies you and helps you collect droppings

Personal space/guild space furniture

Basic personal space is free, but unfurnished. Additional space, furnishings, and decorations for the space may be purchased from the Acclaim store.

Additional Auction House slots

Social Systems

The Social System

The games social systems will be split into three different 'levels', each of which carry out a different role and level of social interaction.

Teams – formed temporarily for a specific race or series of races

Groups – Formed for the duration of play and span races

Guilds – Formed permanently (not discussed here)

Teams

Teams are created inside a race automatically for players who will be 'on the same side' during the race and should therefore be helping each other. Competition during the race will consequently be between the different teams and not the specific players. When the race ends the team is disbanded unless the race is a part of a series and the same teams will be used throughout. Leaving the race or the race room will remove the player from the team.

Creating a team depends on the race mode and the race set-up options. If the race mode allows the creation of teams then the player who created the race room (race organiser) can choose how teams are to be created, either:

Randomly

Player selected – each players chooses which team they are on

Race creator selected – race organiser chooses

Whether teams are balanced and the numbers on each team will depend on the race mode selected.

During a team race, credit for winning or losing is given to all members of the team not just the player who came in first or last place. However the credit for winning can be given out in two systems, chosen by the race organiser:

Equally to all

Performance based

In the equal system all team members get the same reward regardless of how well they performed. For performance based rewards it is not equal and altered depending on how well each player performed.

This is determined by examining a measure of success for each race mode, in a straight race this would be race time but in a combat race for example it might be number of opponents knocked out of the race. The actual value is calculated by taking the average performance for the team and assigning this the normal level of reward and then giving each player a smaller or greater value of this reward based on a ratio comparison with their own score. However a player on the winning team will always get more reward than one on the losing team and the actual values will have maximum and minimum limits e.g. 25% above or below the average.

Ban List

A gamer can add other players too. Those added to the ban list cannot communicate with the gamer in anyway and will not be able to see if they are online.

Events

Events are an extension of the Group idea and are similar in most respects. They serve the purpose of allowing players with a shared interest to stay in touch; such interests as a long-running tournament, breeding circle or maybe just friends who are not in the same guild. The most significant change is that a player does not leave an event when they log off. They also do not get some of the abilities of a group, particularly they cannot see where the other event members are and they do not get a dedicated chat channel. Information on who is a part of the event is viewed through an 'event screen' and is not displayed on the HUD. Players can be members of multiple events but only one group.

Gamer Profile The gamer profile will show the following:

- Profile Tab

-Looking for Race. Players can have the option to set themselves as 'looking for race', which has the effect of making them appear on a list of players viewable by race organisers. From here the race organiser can then invite them into their race room. The player can enter a short description of what sort of race they are looking for when they set themselves as looking for race to cut down on being invited to the wrong race types.

- Netizen Vital Stats

- Gamer since

- Ignored by

- GM Reported

- Friends listed

- Guild member:

- Competitor History

- Races Run

- Average position

- Best Track/Time

- Races quit

- PvPs

- Wins

- PvPs Quit

- Report To GM (available on other gamer's profiles only)

The ability for a player to flag another player to a GM if they feel they are behaving inappropriately. The player will be required to enter a short description of the behaviour which can then be reviewed by a GM.

- Ignore player feature (available on other gamer's profiles only)

- Community Invites Tab

- List of friend and guild invitations

- ability to select individual invitations

- ability to accept or reject

- Friends List Tab

- List of friends

- ability to select individual friends

- ability to remove selected from list

- Guild Tab

- Guild Information

- ability to quit guild

Rider emotes in towns

-Salute: Salute a superior or other figure of respect.

-Laugh: If someone cracks a good joke, reply appropriately.

-Cry: Weep over some tragic occurrence.

-Wave: Wave in acknowledgment.

-Joy: Jump for joy, or otherwise express happiness.

-Cheer: Root for the home team.

-Sigh: Sadness, regret, disappointment, u-pick-'em.

-Surprised: Express, well, surprise.

-Blush: Hey, no flirting in public!

-Angry: Spread a little negativity around.

-Kiss: Simulate blow a kiss

The following are secondary emotes, for the extended design

-Dance

-Panic

-Bow

-Nod

-No

-Clap

-Think

-Slap

-Hug

-Doze

Chat Modes/Channels

City

Racer/PvP (when event is currently taking place or on invite screens)

Friends

Guild

Sounds

• Music In Race
• Music In Towns
• NPC Voices
• Character Voices
• Beast Noises
• Weapon Sounds
• In game MP3 Player

Additional Features

• Player Login System

Follows Acclaim's standard login procedures

• Password Protection

Follows Acclaim's standard password protection procedures

• Server Select

Displays active list of servers available and current load

Allow gamer to select which server to go into

• Anti Hack Software

Follows Acclaim's standard anti-hacking features

• Signup (Acclaim to handle)

Follows Acclaim's standard signup procedures

User Interfaces

General Specifications

• Elements should be able to free-float and be moved around by the gamer, or hidden all together
• XML configuration would be preferable to allow for quick changes and possible gamer modifications

RACE/PvP Controls

Keyboard (and Keyboard/Mouse folded) setup

1) Control the beast

forward: numeric pad #8, up arrow, W

backward: numeric pad # 2, down arrow, S

left: numeric pad #4, left arrow, A

right: numeric pad #6, right arrow, D

jump: numeric pad #5, space bar

2) Targeting

select a target: auto-done, use mouse to select (selecting a target with mouse turns off auto targeting, deselecting targets with mouse could re-activate auto targeting)

cycle forward through available targets: numeric pad "7", "[" key

cycle backward through available targets: numeric pad "9", "]" key

3) Activate a skill: press mapped key for skill (defaults: 6,7,8,9,0,-,=), click skill box

4) Use a specific item: press mapped key for item (defaults: y,u,i,o) , click item box

5) Use rider weapon: numeric pad '+', press mapped key for weapon (default: "Enter"), or click weapon box

6) access system menu: esc key, click menu bar

Default Mouse Only Configuration

1) Control the beast

Note: assumes there is an "equilibrium" location

forward / speed up: mouse move up over equilibrium

backward / slow down / reverse: mouse move down below equilibrium

left : mouse move left

right : mouse move right

jump : left click

2) Targeting

mouse over target, it will highlight (yes, your beast will turn toward it)

3) Selecting a skill, item, or weapon: right click to scroll through available, or mouse wheel

3b) Triggering skill, item, or weapon: left+right click or mouse wheel down

4) Use a specific item: See #3b above

5) Use weapon: See #3b above

6) access system menu : click the menu

Town Controls

Keyboard (and Keyboard/Mouse folded) setup

1) Control the beast

forward: numeric pad #8, up arrow, W

backward: numeric pad # 2, down arrow, S

left: numeric pad #4, left arrow, A

right: numeric pad #6, right arrow, D

Keyboard shortcuts

L: Invitation Review pop-up

I: Rider Inventory pop-up

F1: Rider Equipment pop-up

R: Rider Skills pop-up

M: Mount Equipment pop-up

F2: Mount Skills pop-up

R: Crafting pop-up

B: Bazaar Manager pop-up

C: Chat overlay

G: Guild Manager pop-up

Q: Assignments (quests) Manager pop-up

F8: Acclaim Store pop-up

F9: Game Options pop-up

F10: Help pop-up

F11: Logout confirmation dialog

F12: Quit confirmation dialog

Camera Controls

Third person over the shoulder view

First person view (FPS style)

Additional camera controls or modes based on developer engine welcomed

2) Targeting

select a target: auto-done, use mouse to select (selecting a target with mouse turns off auto targeting, deselecting targets with mouse could re-activate auto targeting)

cycle forward through available targets: numeric pad "7", "[" key

cycle backward through available targets: numeric pad "9", "]" key

3) Take action on target: enter key, number pad enter

4) access system menu: esc key, click menu bar

Default Mouse Only Configuration

1) Control the rider

Note: assumes there is an "equilibrium" location

forward: mouse move up over equilibrium

backward / reverse: mouse move down below equilibrium

left : mouse move left

right : mouse move right

2) Targeting

mouse over target, it will highlight (your beast will turn toward it)

3) Take action on target: left+right click or mouse wheel down

4) access system menu: click menu bar

Interfaces Identified

Mock-ups and details for the game UI can be found:

• http://phpbb.acclaim.com/topsecret/viewtopic.php?p=71654#71654

• You can find the Status Effects icons here.

Listing of Interfaces:

• Login
• Rider Select
• New Rider Wizard: Ethnic selection
• New Rider Wizard: Mount

• Main Town UI structure
• Town NPC Dialog UI
• Town Menu (also mostly same in race ui)
• Town Right Click / Select activate NPC target menu

• Inventory
• Shop Buy View
• Shop Sell View
• Auction House
• Trading
• Bazaar Buyer View
• Bazaar Owner View

• Rider Equipment
• Rider Skills

• Mount Equipment
• Mount Skills
• Skill Structure Configuration Get/Save

• Stable (Mount selection not town building)
• Breeding Studder View
• Breeding Egger View
• Breeding general selecting item
• Breeding general selecting mount

• Event Gateway: join Screen
• Event Gateway: create event view
• Waiting Screen - creator view
• Waiting Screen- competitor view
• Competitor Search UI

• Gamer Profile - owner's view
• Gamer's Profile - public view

• Racer UI Structure
• PvP UI Structure

Interface Requirements

Future Additions

• Voice Communication Integration
• AI racers and opponents in battle modes

Replaces those that were logged out

Optional racers for playing

Quest modes