Thoughts on the original god and some tips

Write up front: This article will not cover the business aspects of the game, including fee models, card pool probabilities, etc., but only at a higher level. The reason is that, as an outsider, I do not know the business plan of Miha Tour, nor the current operation data of the original God, nor their public opinion analysis report, nor the results of the questionnaire survey. There’s no point in speaking out without a company strategy and data base, and game design is the foundation of everything. No commercial use without the author’s consent. Please indicate the source.

I won’t go into the details of the game in the first place for the sake of understanding, so let’s start by thinking about the original gods from the top down. (There is no “top” or “bottom” for morPGs like the original god, so a point is chosen to start and then explore the layers down)

The information that can be collected so far is as follows:

1. Situation: In a world called “Tiwat,” the person chosen by the gods is given the eye of the Gods to guide the elemental power. Players will play the role of “traveler” with different personalities and unique abilities of companions on an adventure, and discover the truth of the “original god”. Players can choose to take on the role of a traveler’s brother or sister in search of their only lost relative. (from official website)
2. Domain: Fantastical overhead worldview, tentatively called the Tivat worldview.

If a game designer chooses an established domain, such as the Middle Ages, then he has to look up a lot of material from the middle Ages, and the original gods are on the shelf, the real world doesn’t exist, and the designer’s source of information is the novels and comics of the original gods, or the screenwriters.

So now we have four goals

1. Understand context
2. Identify core concepts
3. Understand how context works as a system
4. Game design

Gameplay design comes last, with the first three goals being the basics.

Context (fictional worlds) is very important in game design, so let’s talk about the context of the original god.

The construction of

World building is the process of building an imaginary world, such as the Galaxy in Star Wars or Middle-earth in Lord of the Rings. It can also be the construction of a special system, like the world of Harry Potter, which is like the real world in some ways but not in other ways.

World building often involves the problem of creating the rules and structures of fictional worlds, and thus brings considerable depth. Such as:

• Geographic features: What is the water area of the world? How many continents are there? How many forests are there? What are the geological features?
• Physics: Are constructed worlds like alien worlds in science fiction that operate according to known laws of physics?
• Biology: What kind of people, animals and plants exist in the world? What kind of self-conscious life is there? Can Ozzie talk as a crow? Are relic puppets life?

If there are humans and other life in the world, what is their social system like? What is human administration like? Is there caste, taboos, laws, traditions, religion? What do fictional characters do every day and, most importantly, why do they do it?

This way of thinking maximizes the depth and breadth of a world that players want to immerse themselves in.

Why is world building important?

In game design, the goal of world building is to create a context for the game, which in layman’s terms is narrative packaging.

Even in games that are less story-focused, or less driven by the author’s experience than novels and movies, the world in which the game takes place is just as important. Even games like CS, which were created purely for players to shoot at each other, introduce a backstory in Zeros.

In an MMO, world building provides an incentive for the protagonist you control to participate in the world and its mechanics. It creates curiosity, drives the player to explore, level up, acquire resources, provides goals and puzzles, and pushes the player deeper into the game.

World building also relates to some of the mechanics in the game. In the case of the original gods, if you want your character to fly, why does he fly? What does he fly with? So the audience of the original gods introduced wings and derived elements associated with them, such as driving tests, flying instruction manuals, racing and so on.

Unlike movies, novels, or comics, in games the player is part of the story, part of the world created by the creator. Solid, rich world building helps draw players into the game mechanics and keep them engaged.

It gives players the opportunity to create their own story and find the experience engaging and entertaining. Mechanics provide compelling loops, narratives provide emotional connections, enthralling mysteries, and the joy of discovery.

Rationality is very important in world construction, because even if the world is fictional, players will engage with the same passion and emotion as they would in real life.

The player will spontaneously explore things in the fictional world because of the narrative rationality given by the designer, and as a participant has agency in the world created by the designer.

So how do designers do this? There are some basic principles that can be followed, some of which have to do with fictional worlds, but most of which have to do with how to fill them.

• consistency

The player trusts his feelings, thoughts, and time to the designer. Narrative packaging helps to entice players to spend time. If there are inconsistencies in world construction (such as the collapse 3 tradition of art eating books), it is easy to break the player’s immersion, especially in an MMO. Inconsistencies can occur if the designer doesn’t think logically about the rules of the fictional world, or if the characters don’t play by the designer’s rules.

In a world as large and multi-vehicle (novel, comic, game) as protogod, there should be a person or team inside michal to check the rules of consistency. Some mature companies build a library of rules so that future designers can follow them and maintain consistency.

Of course, players will tolerate minor inconsistencies most of the time. Too often, however, and the player will lose engagement, lose trust in the designer, and AFK.

• Role of emotion

Every story with a living thing must have an emotional response. Every virtual character needs to embody some element of human nature, and the game world must reflect the depth and richness of human nature, which is one of the reasons why players can resonate emotionally.

We love The main character in Red Dead Redemption, Marco, because he is loyal and willing to give up a safe life to avenge his brother. We are afraid of fleeing MOBS and cultists because we are born to fear unaccountable violence.

So, all avatars are extensions of real humanity. So how can designers create true reflections of their inner humanity?

• diversity

The real world is not made up of just one kind of people, so the virtual world is not made up of just one kind of people, for example, there are people in the virtual world, and the designers have to make sure that “human” doesn’t just mean male, or thin. Diversity is also an important factor to test whether the designer has subjective bias.

Diversity covers so much ground that it’s impossible to tell the whole story here. But many designers make the mistake of stereotyping characters.

Good design should subvert the player’s stereotype about something, for example, if his or her elder brother or sister is black, it’s easy for the player to imagine that he or she is being manipulated by someone behind the scenes, but what if he or she is black? This allows the player to enjoy the thrill of surprise, but also to realize that they should not make simple judgments about people they meet in real life.

• Use neutral language

It’s important to use neutral language for players, especially in the West. Players should not be addressed as “he” or “she” by default, but rather as an alternate, and the Original gods have done a good job of this, using “Traveler” in most situations, occasionally depending on the gender chosen by the player.

World construction in the original god

Having talked briefly about world building in the game, let’s take a look at how well the original gods are doing in this area.

Based on the information available so far:

1. World Background: Tiwat is a fantasy world where seven elements meet. In the distant past, people were given the power to drive the elements through their belief in the gods, so that they could build their homes in the wilderness. Five hundred years ago, the fall of the ancient country has made the world variation… Now that the disaster that swept the continent has ceased, peace has not yet arrived. (The name of the continent may have a meaning, meaning ark in Hebrew, but the writers have already buried a mystery.)

2. Geography of Tiwat: there are 7 regions in total, only 2 of which are open at present. The landform covers the plain represented by the wind, the forest represented by the whispering forest, the ocean represented by the Cloud Lake, the lake represented by the star Falling Lake, the mountain represented by the cloud, and so on.

3. Physical features: Basically consistent with reality, bow and arrow will fall due to gravity after shooting, treasure chest out of the items will fall due to the lack of landing point, Wendy’s large range of items can also be swept into the wind eye, etc.

4. Biology: there are humanoid creatures, there are non-human creatures, humans in general account for a larger proportion, Slim’s share is not small. Non-human beings are represented by the Mound people, the Abyss wizards and so on.

5. Humanity: the human society has a perfect social structure. To take Maunder as an example, it is deeply influenced by Western Europe. The church was the highest authority in The Monde, the god of the wind, Babatos, and the Knights were responsible for policing the country. Monde has its own traditional festival — badminton festival, with a culture of advocating freedom. There are various functional buildings in the city, such as pubs, churches and libraries. The library has a large collection of collectible, player-readable books, but some books are incoherent in two volumes and lack any connection to the game world. Most of the NPCS in the area have a job to do, and talking to them gives you a background of the character, and even some of the roving NPCS have their own rules of action. Among the inhumans, the mounds and pit mages have their own language, social system, and purpose of action.

6. Rationality: As mentioned above, the original god has sufficient consideration for rationality. In order to give the character the ability to glide, wings were introduced, along with a variety of derivative elements, such as a pilot’s license, flying racing challenges, etc. The reason why the traveler gets the power of the wind element in Mond is because Mond is guarded by the wind god Babatos, etc. But I have a personal question, why do the Chuqiu people cook slime? Maybe it was my oversight that didn’t find the reason, if anyone found the reason in the game, please correct it.

7. Consistency: The original consistency of god in general there is no problem, but in some detail point exists defects, but also don’t rule out the possibility that still haven’t finished the development, for example you can talk from NPC mouth (specific name forget), because he want to go in ruins exploration by relics guard wounded feet, but I didn’t find any nearby ruins, ruins but could not find the guards. But at the very least, it’s nice that the designer can allow the player to explore it spontaneously in this way, and I can see the signs of deliberate design.

8. Characterization: Most of the characters in the game have their own characteristics and are easy to impress the player. For example, the emperor’s daughter in Middle 2, the greedy but stupid Piper, Barbara who can be in a good mood just by looking at her, and even NPCS, such as the cook who is afraid of ghosts in the Hall of Nations, and the couple at The Cape of Lookout.

9. Diversity: The landscape of Tiwat is rich and varied, with each country having its own culture and characters.

10. Use neutral language: As mentioned above, the vast majority of the event texts refer to the player as “traveler,” occasionally referring to the gender of the player’s choice.

System decomposition

Now that we’ve laid the groundwork, let’s begin to break down the system, using the aforementioned game context as our starting point.

Activity maps may not have ends and ends, at least for a long time to come

Decompose the OPM graph after one layer

What the OPM diagram means is, what does it take to find the truth for the end goal of the game’s main line? High combat power, and clues to the mission. So what does the player need to do in order to get high power and clues? Increase combat effectiveness and complete the mission. In order to improve the combat power, you need equipment, character support, and in order to complete the mission, you need additional experience support, otherwise you can’t take the main mission level enough. There is a certain tie between completing missions and equipment, because you can get equipment for completing some missions, and equipment is necessary for completing missions, as are characters and experiences, but in order to avoid complexity, we won’t discuss it here, just focus on one level.

In the same way, we can break down a layer and figure out what we need to do in order to get equipment/characters/experiences, which I won’t draw later, in order to release to other platforms…

If you look at how these three elements can be acquired, they all seem pretty rich except for characters, but why is there nothing to do after level 30? Hold your horses. Keep analyzing it.

To explore the world

World exploration mainly includes the following types:

• Organ puzzles
• The wild treasure chest
• Shooting challenges
• A fairy
• Reach the finish line within the time limit
• Pupil Collection/Idol Upgrade
• Flight racing challenge
• Field random event
• Mining/fruit-gathering elements

Among them, random events and collection in the field cannot obtain equipment and experience, and other elements have a fixed number in the whole map, which is easy to be quickly consumed in the case of high-intensity play.

This is not a problem in a single-player buyout game, but in an online game that is expected to run for a long time, it is easy to fall behind and the development team must work around the clock to keep up with the pace of the players. From an earlier post shared by the dev team, it was clear that the protogod development was influenced by Breath of the Wild, so it’s not hard to guess why.

So how can you extend the exploration time? The answer is to deepen the variety. The easy way is to add more random events, or you can do a set of stylized generated side quests like Ubisoft. But what about elements that are already solidified, such as the location of chests, and various challenges?

The world explores suggestions for improvement

• Treasure chests: Increased the variety of treasure chests that can be opened only when a certain condition has been met. The condition does not have to be limited to cleaning nearby monsters, unlocking mechanisms can also be locking mechanisms, element collection mechanisms (such as random passwords provided by NPCS).
• Faeries: Faeries’ current paths are mostly deliberately designed, so it’s not a good idea to change their paths, but adding health to faeries and adding enemies to their paths to attack faeries is an option.
• Shooting challenge: It doesn’t have to be a simple matter of shooting 3 slimes, you can increase the number, adjust the flight path and speed of slimes, and increase the score gear and leaderboard if development ability allows.
• Flight racing challenges: same as above, but these challenges can be randomly adjusted for the route.
• Wild random events: the current type is a little short, and the trigger range seems a little too close, maybe the development speed is not enough? The difficulty can be increased, and the reward can be increased accordingly. In addition, the random event ratio of the collection class can be lowered.
• Others: learn more from the predecessors, the stronghold design of the Division series is a good choice, there are a lot of hill tribes in the original god map, but I don’t know why it is not made in this form, according to my understanding, it is not difficult to develop, it can be achieved with the existing technology. (In games, fun is the most important thing, and this is not plagiarism); One more thing, and one that needs to be tested, is the option to reset the map exploration element when upgrading the world level.
• Other elements that may be involved in the modification: You can look it up according to the system model diagram. From my perspective, except for random events and stronghold design that may affect other elements, such as map modification, I don’t think other changes will be involved too much.

All of the above modifications have the prerequisite that they are highly programmatic and configurable.

Forging system

The crafting system in Primordia is mainly used to craft refined ore, an item used as weapon upgrade material, and can also use certain materials and primordia to craft 4-star weapons, which is insurance for light players to experience the story. In order to use the forging system, a large amount of minerals such as iron/white iron/crystal are consumed. The scarcity of these minerals increases from low to high, with a fixed amount of production per day, and of course, players can choose to go into other players’ worlds to collect them. In general, minerals are valuable if players want to experience a high-level deep spiral, but the level of demand should level off with iteration.

A copy of the system

The original god replica design style is very different from the open world design, and the level design is very immature. But with that in mind, hopefully the later replicas will also be designed to work seamlessly on the map, which brings me back to the Division… The original god’s copy is divided into plot copy and secret territory, plot copy in addition to the North wind Wolf and dragon, some lack of background. In terms of secret world replicas, the current process is too short, and if it doesn’t reach the expected output of the player, it’s easy to give the player the illusion of not playing.

Suggestions for replica system improvement

• Story replicas: As mentioned above, players need to be given a good reason to make them. I’m not talking about rewards, I’m talking about story, and only with story will designers know what to put in the replicas.
• Dungeon Dungeon: maybe it could be expanded to a tower-climbing challenge, the higher the level the team can reach, the higher the reward, but this change will affect the travel system.

Elite Enemy in the wild

The wild elite of the original god is an important source of weapon breakthrough materials and character breakthrough materials, which can be divided into two types. One is BOSS type, such as Wind/Thunder/Rock without phase, and the other is ordinary elite enemies, such as Chouchehua, Lei Ying warlock, Axe-wielding Qiuqiu people, etc. After the BOSS enemy dies, the player needs to spend a certain amount of energy to harvest output, and both types of enemies have a certain refresh cycle. I think the design of both types of enemies is very good, but I won’t discuss it much here.