Friday 12 February 2010

Changing the landscape of WAR

There’s this friend of mine who is not only an MMO player, but is also the proud owner of a most spectacular beard... And as everyone knows, a man with a beard is a man worth listening to. Has history ever given us a greater symbol of wisdom? Sigmund Freud, Alan Sugar, Abraham Lincoln, Gandalf, Socrates, the Chuckle Brothers, Albert Trotter, the list of hirsute heroes goes on and on.
 
Now then, this is relevant to WAR because in a moment of true bearded genius, my hairy friend had the following idea…
 
Why can’t WAR’s landscape change dependent on which faction is dominant? Not change in any huge physical way, nothing requiring masses of complicated new models and effectively whole new zones, but change the textures used. Have the colours and feel of the zone adapt to the theme of the owning faction. So when you kill the enemy king, not only do you get some shiney orange pixels in your loot bag, you also get to see the fruits of your labour made real in the game world. As the city rebuilds it also triggers your game client to access different texture files… How hard can it be?
 
Imagine a corrupted Eataine. Once a land of rolling hills covered in vibrant green grass, now reduced to a rotting and decayed realm of filth. The sleek Elven buildings covered in chaotic symbols daubed in Elf blood. The sky itself smouldering with purple fire, rivers red with blood.  Or the city of Praag, fires doused and replaced with a tranquil snow covered city, snowflakes drifting through the streets, but be wary, this is just the calm before the storm…
 
And the landscape retains the controlling faction’s theme until you manage to siege the enemy city and kill their king. Your action defines the whole character of the game world.
 
Just a visual change perhaps and probably far more complicated to implement than my Top Gear “how hard can it be” style post suggests, but man, think about it. Wouldn’t it be better to have a truly changing landscape?

8 comments:

  1. The funniest thing about your list of men with Beards is that I suspect once you get past Socratese most people outside the UK won't know who you mean....

    "To me..."
    "to you"

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  2. to me
    to you
    to me
    to you

    Though I just realised they only have 'taches. Which perhaps suggests only flawed genius in their case... Still, even if a mistake I'm still happy just to be getting the Chuckle Brothers into a WAR post :P

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  3. I like it, would make it really feel like your actions have consequence.

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  4. If we can't have any real change and/or expansion I suppose this will do. Oh wait hey another Live Event what was I saying.

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  5. good idea; which resulted in my entry today; take a look :D

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  6. Jomu - Chuck me a link pls matey, your profile linked by your name isn't playing ball.

    Talsor - I totally feel your pain. I'm totally bemused that Mythic dont seem to have any sense of urgency regarding giving us real hope for the future.

    Werit - /wave :)

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  7. http://justonemoreunlock.blogspot.com/2010/02/war-post-king-take-down.html

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  8. Ahh hadnt put the name to the blog :) ta

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Half man half pixel. Music obsessive, likes a drink, occasional bastard.