Developer Journal #1

Water which we are considering to be most important resource on Sigonyth and other resources are significant part economy. There will be a typical currency, but resources, especially water, are very precious and will be critical for healthy and working world economy.

Our goal is to have a player driven economy. We want players to be the makers of most items existing in world. Resources will be necessary for crafters and couple of them (water and maybe also food) will be required for any settlements to function.

We are planning to have a lot of activities focused around the resources in the world – resource convoys, ambushes, mining operations takeovers and raids, resource supply gauging – those are example of player driven economy of Sigonyth.

Racial Differences

Game play for every race will be different. While all will lead towards achieving similar goals, the methods will vary significantly. Mutants will be using bio-tech and biological resources of human race as well as local species, the cyborg will rely on high-tech implants and embedded gear while regular humans on machines, devices and vehicles.

We are considering adding additional character development possibilities, by allowing full body transformation after reaching end of regular character development. Cyborgs will transform into robots, mutants will transform into ethereal, psionic beings, while humans will have option to implant symbiotic bio-implants of alien origin, that can be found on Renegade farms, which will allow new skills and various alien abilities.

Guilds & World Championships

There will be world championship tournaments organized periodically, where players will be able to compete against other players in combat and possibly crafting as well. Winner of Championship will not only awarded a prestigious title but also receive a significant reward. Guilds will be able to sponsor and promote one participant and we are planning to allow guilds to participate in championship organization with advertisements, promotion and possibly even running final rounds in their settlements.

World will run a tournament elimination system which will span quite some time and require players to prove themselves in many rounds before even getting close to final round.

We are committed to making guilds more then just a virtual entity, line in statistics and/or a chat channel. We want guilds (player associations, naming is not yet final) to be able to build own settlements, industry, commercial centers, guard own territory, engage in politics and influence economy worldwide as well as locally.

Housing

We are planning to have certain areas ready for construction. Those areas will be split into lots, which players can purchase and then build houses on. Houses are bought as a self-replicating nano-bot kits, which construct buildings almost instantly. Every lot of build-able land will be able to fit a biggest house. Houses will be available in a dozen predefined styles with customizable interiors (by adding house equipment) and storage facilities.

Game Mechanics

First thing we set for our world is the difference in “power potential” between a fully advanced character and a well equipped newbie. Our plans assume this difference will be approximately few hundred percent. We think that such difference will allow interesting advancement for players and will make grouping with less advanced players far easier.

Next, we decided to abandon the typical class system, replacing them with skill based system. While races do provide certain advantages and disadvantages, abilities your character will poses depend only on player choices and their adventures.

Additionally we are aiming for importance of player skills to be as important as character skills in combat, to allow situation where a skilled player with weaker character can beat weaker player with a better developed character.

Combat itself is a mixture of real-time and typical RPG turns. Player will control character movements, weapon choice, special skills used, while character stats will influence accuracy, aiming, damage done, defense and other combat related skills.

Sigonyth is an open PvP world. There will be a method to avoid PvP combat if a player wishes, however we are planning significant amount of systems and mechanics that will require PvP to participate. Open PvP is a direct result of our approach to create a truly virtual world. We will allow almost unlimited PvP between players, however there will be very harsh consequences for criminals, murderers and general scum. We will have Law Enforcement agencies, guards, various different armed forces and Bounty Hunters... not to mention prisons!

Bounty Hunters

We are planning to have specific Bounty Hunter skills that will enable players to become one of them. Bounties are issued by law enforcement and other organizations as well as player bounties. Details on bounty systems are yet incomplete, and those kinds of mechanics are hard to develop and balance, therefore beta testing will answer the question of if and how bounties will be implemented.

We thank Dawid and the team for taking the time to let us get an insight into their title.

Please, leave your comments in this thread on our boards!