I called it a "cooperatively created world" but that's a bit of a silly term really.

Basically the actions of one player affect the gameplay of all players.

If people are generaly losing to vampires, then vampires control more of the world. That kind of thing.

There are different element acting on a local scale (one event) to a map scale, to a region scale, to an entire world scale.

The kinds of changes that are affected include:

- Which NPCs will be happy to talk to the player
- Scenery and layout changes
- Which enemies are friendly and which are hostile
- Which buildings a player can enter
- What purpose a building performs

Each individual map should have one map level conflict of some sort. That sounds a bit over the top perhaps but that could be something as small as these examples:

- Fisherman successfully overfishing a lake, so now there are no fish to catch
- A bear colony being wiped out so now there are none to fight
- Bandits taking over a town
- A cave entrance being successively sealed or opened
- Players generally pissing off a merchant so now they won't trade with anyone

I'm starting on a small scale and working my way outwards. The first maps work together. Port Tiben, and two maps of the trade route.

Here's an example of scenery changes:





They may be a bit subtle, I dunno. The place generally being dirtier, that sort of thing.

On top of that the town officials will be gone and replaced with hostile bandit enemies. The merchant that runs the cart is gone, and the buildings have been repurposed for the bandits. Other things like fish being scared to come to the surface, and the message board reading different messages.

How is this triggered?

I haven't got there all the way yet but currently:

- A bandit patrols map 2 on a horse, surrounded by a few hostile bandits
- Defeat this bandit and the hostiles disappear; he flees to map 3
- Help the bandit on map 3 and he will respawn on map 2 again

So basically: help the bandits and their strength goes up. Defeat them and it goes down.

I need some sort of heavy trigger to say "the bandits are strong enough to take over the town". So I will come up with some bigger events.

Perhaps some guardsmen are fighting the bandits and if you choose to fight the guardsmen instead, wiping them out, they can take over the town.

It doesn't have to be limited to these three maps either of course. Perhaps far in the distance some bandits are in a boat ready to launch. Aid them and they take over the town many miles away.

On a local scale there are small events that switch for all players. On a map or region scale there is a kind of defcon level. You can imagine the maps being set up like this:

1 - Bandits control the town
2 - Bandits control the trade route
3 - Bandits are retreating
4 - All is calm

I think tonight I will implement the town scenario.

Adding some extra defcon ranks to it.

5. No bandits at all; town is bustling with people, tourists, etc. Merchant puts his prices up and sells some more exotic things.

4. Relatively calm and normal.

3. Rumours spreading around the town. Fights break put every now and then.

2. Bandits have taken over the town.

1. The town is burning

There will then be an alternative 2 where the townspeople attempt to rebuild the town following the retreat of the bandits. That will give some opportunities to use your merchant skills.

Going to also add some animation so you can make your surroundings move. Making the cranes go up and down, ships coming on every now and then, seagulls, etc.

THIS SERVES NO PURPOSE

So I have implemented a very basic two state version of that grand plan. I am going less with the defcon kind of way and more with individual events instead as it feels more dynamic.

Yes, lack of planning and coherent design.

I have a counter which basically goes up by varying degrees when you do certain things, and down by varying degrees when you do others.

Some examples, but not all of them (spoilers, sweetie):

Things that aid the Bandits

- Disrupt dock activities (move the cranes around, poke holes in grain sacks, etc)
- Help the injured bandit horseman in map 3

Things that impede the bandits and help the town

- Clean up rubbish
- Put out beacons lit by the bandits (only show when bandits control the trade route)
- Put back moved things in the docks
- Kill bandits
- Kill the bandit horseman boss

Now obviously that's weighted far too much one way at the moment, so I need to add many other Things to it.


I'd still say at this point it is not worth replaying the game. I will let you know when it's significant enough an update.

Another thing to aid the bandits would be killing guards, and maybe you could kill NPC's too? Like how Runescape has random men and women in towns you can fight lol

Sounds good to me. I won't have general men count towards this one though as I'm trying to veer away from "good vs bad". The bandits aren't necessarily evil, they're just enemies of the guardsmen.