Rock_Spider Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 When I woke up this morning I had a completely random thought. I have no idea where it came from, as I dont even like sandboxes. Anyway with that in mind let me tell you the brief spark of thought I had. Please keep in mind that as a brief thought it will have loopholes and grey areas. With a little more thought Im sure those could be problem solved. Also keep in mind that I am fully aware that this will most likely never happen. Games cater to specific markets... No game tries to cater to all markets. Anyway onto my idea..... Take it as you will... use it or dont use it. Its just an idea... (maybe even a bad one... w/e) My idea was why not have a sandbox area inside a themepark. Basically when you ding lvl 50 you unlock a large planet, or a system of say 3 planets. It costs a large amount of cash to transport there as they are "far" away. Think of them as a retirement system. You have fought hard for the republic/empire and now you would like nothing better than to put up your feet and retire whilst tending your sheep. You pay a large chunk of cash to get to this system and buy into its culture. Maybe you start off with a small chunk of land in the community. New skills will become available when you get to the planet. Skills like mining or farming or w/e. Basically the extra crafting stuff from SWG is available in this system. During the themepark aspect you keep your simple crafting system then when you get to this area the crafting is revamped and more complicated for the sandbox ppl. You make unique items of similar level to the themepark guys from lvl 1-49 with the exception that you can make far superior post lvl 50 items. These however will take ages to craft and will cost other players a small fortune. You can list them on the GTN as per usual. This way themepark players can buy your goods. If you dont like sandbox you stay away from that system and carry on raiding etc and playing as normal. If you want that item you simply save up and buy it or you raid HMs to give similar level items. Anyway... the idea was the sandbox area is for those that want it... you can go there and farm and do whatever you like. You can get promoted in the community and get bigger plots of land or houses etc. It would be based on the community so you wouldnt be able to come from themepark having saved millions and buy into the best place. Once you land in this area for the 1st time you start at the bottom. This area is not focused on combat or leveling your toon, as you will all be max lvl. All you will be able to level is the extra new farm skills. You can RP in cantinas about how you are a retired hero of the ..... etc So basically its not hardcore sandbox. Its just a small slice of sandboxing that co-exists with a big themepark. Everything will be alot slower in the sandbox area tho, so if you do craft anything it will be a huge achievement. And whatever you craft will be better than stuff you can craft in the themepark but not OPed so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annedromeda Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 I like this idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rammur Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 Truth is everytime a company puts out a decent sandbox game they just become niche because todays mmo players are kids and dont really understand the purpose behind a true sandbox game they just look for the epic loots and the epic storys in the quest chains and true sand box is all about the player to player interactions and what the player does in the gameworld to keep them selves alive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
albynomonk Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 That would be cool. You could settle down on a farm with your companion and have kids. Then the Empire could show up at your door and ask you to re-enlist. You'd say no, so they'd kill your family and burn your farm to the ground. They'd beat you to within an inch of your life and leave, but you'd survive and vow revenge on them. You'd start all over again with no gear, no cash, and no transport off the planet. And no quests to help you raise funds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MORTTUUM Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 Awesome idea. But, maybe rather than whole new worlds, just an additional zone on the existing ones that you can only access under your "sandbox" rules. For example, they're NEVER EVER going to have all of Coruscant (for example) as playable areas. So they could just set aside duplicates (or upside-down mirror-images) of existing areas as "Special Access Only" zones. You could have a Penthouse on Coruscant, a beach-front property on Alderaan, a ski-weekend-chalet on Hoth, and a Hunting Lodge on Endor... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dext Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 Awesome idea. But, maybe rather than whole new worlds, just an additional zone on the existing ones that you can only access under your "sandbox" rules. This is really what I would like them to do. Adding new worlds to the game is nice but, when we can only see a small zones on each world I can see them just adding more to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macumba Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 I totally support this. I also think there need not be a versus between sandbox and themepark. I think the new modern MMO should incorporate both, because no developer in the world will be able to put out content as fast as it's consumed and people get bored in between content updates and quit because of that. I also think that some of the people who only know themepark environments will learn sandbox much easier when added to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyersfan Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 That would be cool. You could settle down on a farm with your companion and have kids. Then the Empire could show up at your door and ask you to re-enlist. You'd say no, so they'd kill your family and burn your farm to the ground. They'd beat you to within an inch of your life and leave, but you'd survive and vow revenge on them. You'd start all over again with no gear, no cash, and no transport off the planet. And no quests to help you raise funds. This sounds like my uncle except that the Empire is the mob and the farm is south Philly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord_Ravenhurst Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 I am all for sandbox, check my sig. Even more for a hybrid solution like suggested. Also I made the suggestion once to build real planetary sandboxes around the square themepark maps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sly_swg Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 I think the most important thing is having a sandbox that still caters to themepark players, in other words, thb I still think swg did this: you could play the game without every needing to craft a single item, just pick up stuff from vendors... So if you launch it, do it with a Laz-E guide the tells themeparkers how to spec, what to buy etc to be relatively competitive... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charell Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 You could have a Penthouse on Coruscant, a beach-front property on Alderaan, a ski-weekend-chalet on Hoth, and a Hunting Lodge on Endor... i like this idea. you could have a vacation house to get away from the war. something customizable. or the with warier could have a palace, smuggler a hideout, agent a safe house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord_Ravenhurst Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 Awesome idea. But, maybe rather than whole new worlds, just an additional zone on the existing ones that you can only access under your "sandbox" rules. For example, they're NEVER EVER going to have all of Coruscant (for example) as playable areas. So they could just set aside duplicates (or upside-down mirror-images) of existing areas as "Special Access Only" zones. You could have a Penthouse on Coruscant, a beach-front property on Alderaan, a ski-weekend-chalet on Hoth, and a Hunting Lodge on Endor... The mirroring would be better than nothing but still a cheap solution. I am more for auto generated areas, but really, really vast outbacks which actually resemble planetary sizes. And big cities to walk around GTA style, at least Coruscant needs to be EPIC. Loving the chalet and penthouse idea! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MORTTUUM Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 The mirroring would be better than nothing but still a cheap solution. I am more for auto generated areas, but really, really vast outbacks which actually resemble planetary sizes. And big cities to walk around GTA style, at least Coruscant needs to be EPIC. I'm certainly no programmer, so I have NO IDEA how hard it is to generate terrain. But I figured it shouldn't be too hard to scramble the X-Y-Z axes and generate an descent-sized area that only the really observant would realize is the same as somewhere else. I certainlt agree that the world-city of Trantor... I mean Coruscant... should be epic. But think about how long it takes to speeder from the "Senate Tower" to "The Works". I wouldn't want to be all that far from the Spaceport. A little ways, but not real planet-scale distances. You'd spend a half-hour just traveling, and that wouldn't get you very far at all, really... Unless it took place during a cut-sceen... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arbeiten Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 Great idea. But that would be all-out hell for the OCD-type player like myself, who wants to experience and master everything. I can't imagine being able to pay for repairs as well as dump millions of credits into this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord_Ravenhurst Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 I'm certainly no programmer, so I have NO IDEA how hard it is to generate terrain. But I figured it shouldn't be too hard to scramble the X-Y-Z axes and generate an descent-sized area that only the really observant would realize is the same as somewhere else. I certainlt agree that the world-city of Trantor... I mean Coruscant... should be epic. But think about how long it takes to speeder from the "Senate Tower" to "The Works". I wouldn't want to be all that far from the Spaceport. A little ways, but not real planet-scale distances. You'd spend a half-hour just traveling, and that wouldn't get you very far at all, really... Unless it took place during a cut-sceen... If they are smart they could combine the plethora of assets they have with auto generated terrain. Create some new modular bulidings - or, even better, let players create their houses where they want. Would work great on Tattoine for example. I remember when I built a nice little bounty hunter hut somewhere in the outskirts of the desert in SW Galaxies. Had all my discovered items there. It was somehow very entertaining. Check out the "player housing" video in my signature and you know what I´m talking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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