Things you should know before you do a suggestion Thread - Olvand

• Once you've posted your suggestion, you no longer own it. That sounds rude, but I think it really is necessary to have it this way: otherwise everyone who posts an idea could claim I have stolen the idea, even if I already planned the thing years ago! Of course, I will give credit when reasonable, but keep in mind it's very well possible I already thought of your idea before you even knew the game existed.
• Please remember it's not very likely your idea will end up in the game. I have a very clear idea of where I want go, and a lot of the ideas people tell me simply don't fit in my picture. Don't hesitate to give it a shot, though: I'm always interested, and you never know. Also, the smaller the suggestion is, the bigger the chance that I will include it.

Signs above house?
Easier ladder maybe?
Furniture and able to sit on chairs
Keyboard Above the person's head to tell if they are typing
Able to change your person ( This might be already coming soon )

More to come....

Edited by: HeroxZ

If you throw out something on the ground so it will be there in x number of minutes. So other players can pick it up.
Player List.
Simple server admin cmd. (/kick, /ban)
A better user guide
stacking things

Edited by: TomasOlsson

A big thing in sustaining a community is moddability. The more moddable your game is, the more content can be created without your interference and the longer the community sticks around because they aren't done burning through content.

You don't even have to give players the tools to do it. Just make sure there's a way and they're good, usually. Just look at Minecraft, Project Zomboid, all those games that have been decompiled for the sake of modding.

HeroxZ wrote:
Signs above house?

Yeah, or another way so can know who's house you've found.

HeroxZ wrote:
Easier ladder maybe?

I was indeed thinking of creating a ladder blueprint as well. For the lazy .

HeroxZ wrote:
Furniture and able to sit on chairs

Definitely, but later in development, as it doesn't really add anything to the game.

HeroxZ wrote:
Keyboard Above the person's head to tell if they are typing

I discovered this too: sometimes you want to know if someone is typing. I don't know if I'm going to do it with keyboards above heads, but I want to do at least something.

HeroxZ wrote:
Able to change your person ( This might be already coming soon )

You mean with hair color and stuff? That will come someday, but not soon, because you can already use cloths to look different from others.

TomasOlsson wrote:
If you throw out something on the ground so it will be there in x number of minutes. So other players can pick it up.

More people have said this, but I'm not sure; what would be the benefit of this? Because you can trade stuff as well.

TomasOlsson wrote:
Player List.

In the member area, in the server or in game? And you mean a list of players currently playing, right?

TomasOlsson wrote:
Simple server admin cmd. (/kick, /ban)

I definitely want to add this in the next patch, maybe the patch after that. And other server configurations as well (player limit, permadeath, etc.).

TomasOlsson wrote:
A better user guide

I actually thought the player guide was pretty detailed and clear. What do you think I should improve?

TomasOlsson wrote:
Stacking things

Yeah, or something else to make handling large numbers of items easier. The problem with stacking is that item-specific info gets lost (like in which color you painted it), which is of course not what we want.

johnmatthais wrote: A big thing in sustaining a community is moddability. The more moddable your game is, the more content can be created without your interference and the longer the community sticks around because they aren't done burning through content.
You don't even have to give players the tools to do it. Just make sure there's a way and they're good, usually. Just look at Minecraft, Project Zomboid, all those games that have been decompiled for the sake of modding.

Wise words, I've indeed heard other people say that about other games as well. Problem is that I've got no experience at all when it comes to modding, so I feel a bit uncomfortable with the idea. I know it's usually a good thing, though, so I will never discourage it. However, for now I also won't encourage it, because then we're going to have problems with different versions connecting to each other and that kind of stuff :s. But when the community is larger, that shouldn't be a problem anymore.

Edited by: Woseseltops

Add Different Screen Options (1280X720,1920X1080 Etc...)
Paint Houses (Coooooooool)
Paint Scooters (:D)
Server List (Sorta Like on the Website)
Cities (Like u Said that would be AWESOME!)
Maybe Pets? (You Can name them have to feed them or else they can die)
Planting (You might be adding this already but a huge Food System Cause if some people like farming )
Weather (Snow,Rain)
Random Events (Earthquakes,Volcano Errupting,etc.)
Cabinet (Less Space instead of infinite Maybe add more cabinets?)

Edited by: HeroxZ

An actual forum in the Member's Area of the site would be nice.
Also, a better explanation of mining.
Hovering over items in the ingredients list to see what they are. Dunno what the heck that yellow stuff in the Large House recipe is.

Smooth Stone u get it in cave
dont really know how to get it tho

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I'll go through them one by one again:

HeroxZ wrote: Add Different Screen Options (1280X720,1920X1080 Etc...)

You don't mean full screen (ALT-ENTER), right? I fear other screen options might be incredibly hard to add, but I'll try.

HeroxZ wrote: Paint Houses (Coooooool)

This will be a vital aspect for features that I'll add later, you've probably seen the pixel art impression of painted houses. Who wants a city of 100 houses that look exactly the same? Painting will be included once I flesh out the town functionality a little bit (because now, building towns is nothing more than putting houses close to eachother).

HeroxZ wrote: Paint Scooters

Will be added around the same time. Not because it's vital, but because it's cool.

HeroxZ wrote: Server List (Sorta Like on the Website

I never realised it, but it's probably true that it's a bit weird that the only place you can have a full server list is the website. I'll add it once we have >5 servers online at the same time.

HeroxZ wrote: Maybe Pets? (You Can name them have to feed them or else they can die)

I definitly want to do something like this. However, in most other games I know that have pets, they either fight (which I don't think fits this game) or are useless. So maybe I limit the pets to Alots. This is how I think Alots will work: they are big hairy animals with randomly generated personalities. If you tame / befriend them, you can name them, and they'll listen to your commands as long as you don't ask too much. They'll let you ride them, and pull multiple carts with (heavy) stuff around.

HeroxZ wrote: Planting (You might be adding this already but a huge Food System Cause if some people like farming )

Food wouldn't have a use right now, so not in the near future. Once the need arises (for example, as food to please the Alots), farming might be a very good idea. It might also not be a bad idea to have people regrow plants around their towns.

HeroxZ wrote: Weather (Snow,Rain)

I want to start with a day/night cycle. Man, big cities will look beautiful at night.

HeroxZ wrote: Random Events (Earthquakes,Volcano Errupting,etc.)

I've been thinking about this a lot, but I'm not sure how to do it precisely. It's going to be far in the future, anyway: there's a lot of 'regular' stuff to be added first !

HeroxZ wrote: Cabinet (Less Space instead of infinite Maybe add more cabinets?)

Yeah, the cabinets have infinite space at the moment. This started as laziness from my side, but it turned out to be quite handy because there is no other place to save your stuff atm. I'll fix this once I implement banks.

SaintKaru wrote: An actual forum in the Member's Area of the site would be nice.

Oh really? Is there functionality you're missing in this one?

SaintKaru wrote: Also, a better explanation of mining.

Indeed, I've explained that nowhere. I'll add it to the manual once I finish writing this post, and I'll include it in the tutorial once I make one.

SaintKaru wrote: Hovering over items in the ingredients list to see what they are. Dunno what the heck that yellow stuff in the Large House recipe is.

I've heard more people complained about that, yeah. Hovering over items is an excellent solution, I'll try to add it in the next build!

-Torches (Can be placed to provide lighting) (Can be crafted with a stick and coal)
-Coal (Can be found underground) (Can be used to smelt or craft items)
-Stone bricks (Can be used to build stone houses or roads) (Can be made by smelting rocks)
-Rocks (Can be found underground)
-Pickaxe (Can be crafted by using a stick,a rope and 3 stones)
-Removal of Light and Dark Softstone (Replaced with rocks,metals and gems)
-Deletion of unused houses

This game so far is great but this would make it a bit nicer....
-Smother walking (ex. when you press W then still holding it press D your player doesn't move left, you have to let go of W first) like a key override.
-A hover menu (move mouse over item to see its info)(already addressed)
-Configurable settings (ex. different screen resolutions, sound settings, maybe a customize character menu??????)
-Key mapping (chose your keys to use items and stuff)
-For newbies in game messages to help with things like "press E to interact with an object". It took me 10 mins to figure that out after finding the guide :/
More suggestions to come?????? The game is promising ☺

Thanks both of you for your comments. My responses:

ConAndreas wrote: -Torches (Can be placed to provide lighting) (Can be crafted with a stick and coal)
-Coal (Can be found underground) (Can be used to smelt or craft items)
-Stone bricks (Can be used to build stone houses or roads) (Can be made by smelting rocks)
-Rocks (Can be found underground)
-Pickaxe (Can be crafted by using a stick,a rope and 3 stones)
-Removal of Light and Dark Softstone (Replaced with rocks,metals and gems)

You clearly want the game to be more like Minecraft, but that's actually something I'm carefully trying to avoid; looking like Pokemon is one thing, but I really don't want to make a game that looks like Pokemon AND plays like Minecraft . I hope my 'shooting stuff until it breaks' approach is a good alternative. And instead of removing the Softstone, I'm actually planning to add much more different types of rock, so you can encounter lots of different rocks while mining. Which type you need will depend on the architectural style you want to use for your house, and which you type you find will depend on in which area you are mining. This will give people who know the server well a nice financial advantage: imagine a big city build of rock x, and you know where lots of rock x can be found!

ConAndreas wrote: Deletion of unused houses

Good one. I should have added this already, but I'm not sure how to implement it. I think it will be something like that houses left empty for some time will decay or something.

Twillypop wrote: Smother walking (ex. when you press W then still holding it press D your player doesn't move left, you have to let go of W first) like a key override.

Interesting. I will investigate if that feels better indeed .

Twillypop wrote: A hover menu (move mouse over item to see its info)(already addressed)

I've got (a simple version of) this working in the blueprint info already, but it might indeed be a good idea to extend it to the whole game. It's not essential, because you can see info of an item by clicking on 'Info', but it'd be a nice user friendly feature for later .

Twillypop wrote: -Configurable settings (ex. different screen resolutions, sound settings, maybe a customize character menu??????)
-Key mapping (chose your keys to use items and stuff)

Also nice user friendly settings for later!

Twillypop wrote: -For newbies in game messages to help with things like "press E to interact with an object". It took me 10 mins to figure that out after finding the guide :/

I've heard that one before. In the next build, the space key will have the same functions as the E key. I guess that one is a bit more intuitive.

#1:Looting system:If someone beat his friend he can loot him,and same thing with monsters.If someone beat monster he can loot him.
#2:Merchant:A merchant with some basic items like:Axe,Fishing Rod and Shovel
#3:Gold:A typical valute.With gold you can buy a items from merchant.Gold can be gathered from monsters and from mining.
#4:Quests:Just some tasks.You going to right person,talking to him and accepting quest.Rewards:X ammount of Gold (Always),Items
#5:Animals (Pets):Animals can be found everywhere on map(Cow,Pig,Horse,Dragon,Lion,Wolf,Fox).You can caught them and make them friendly (Pets).Pets can defend you and if this is Horse,Dragon you can mount them and travel on them like on Scooter.But Dragon can fly and make you travel faster.
#6:Firearms:Like Pistols,Carabines or even Rocket Launchers.Ammo can be bought from merchant or found on map.But Rocket Launchers uses Rockets,and rockets can be bought from Merchant.
#7:New items:Gunpowder,Bullet shells Cal.45,Bullet shells ACP.45,Pistol Magazine,Carabine Magazine,Wheat,Bread,Potato,Tomato,Ham,Lion Fur,Wolf Fur,Fox Fur.
#8:Clothes:Clothes can be made from Lion(The Best),Wolf(Very Good) or Fox fur.(Good)
#9:Armors:Armors can be made from Iron(Bad),Steel(Good),Gold(Very good),Mithril,(The Best)
#10:Stealth Meter:Stealth Meter(will be)in Left Top Corner.
#11:Camo Suit:Very Very Rare item.Can be found Underground and dropped from Monsters.
#12:Standing,Crouching and Prone system:These Three options can give you aditional Camo.Middle of Tree:Standing{40%}(With Camo Suit 60%),Crouching{55%}(With Camo Suit 70%),Prone{65%}(With Camo Suit 80%) Bush:Standing(35%),Crouching{50%}(With Camo Suit 75%),Prone{85%}(With Camo Suit 100%)
#13:Torch:If you equip it you provide light for medium range.And torch have durability,if you have it equiped for 5 mins it will burn out.Can be bought from merchant of made with Stick,Cloth and Gasoline
#14:Gasoline:Can be bought from merchant or taken from underground source with Empty Bootle.But if you take it from source it will be Raw Gasoline.You must transform it into Gasoline in Alembic.
#15:Alchemy Set:It have Alembic,Mortar and Pestle and book "Alchemy Basics"
I was making it good 50 Minutes.My hand are shaking:D
#16:Cooking:Adds new item:Pot.With pot you can cook food like Ham,Potato and much more
#17:Bootles:Bottles can be filled with water or gasoline.Bottle filled with Water can recover you stanima(Sprint)
#18:Damage Marker:If you hit someone on top of his head will apear marker with NDD (Number of Done Damage)
I was making it good 50 Minutes.My hand are shaking:D
P.S. I was warning it will be long list Wose:D
Oh and sorry for many Edits:/ I just was forgoting some sugestions:P

Edited by: isioxd

That is a huge list indeed, thanks! I hope your hands are fine . For a lot of the ideas I have the same reply: sounds cool, I'll see if it fits in the game somewhere. Maybe in a way a little different than you described it, though, as I try to avoid the 'cliche RPG' solutions whenever I can . For some ideas I have a more detailed answer:

Isioxd wrote: #1:Looting system:If someone beat his friend he can loot him,and same thing with monsters.If someone beat monster he can loot him.

I'd like the idea of actually having something to lose / win when playing minigames, but I'll probably make it something like a bet. So the players agree what they're playing for beforehand. Good idea though, it will make minigames a lot more interesting.

Isioxd wrote: #3:Gold:A typical valute.With gold you can buy a items from merchant.Gold can be gathered from monsters and from mining.

I'm planning to experiment a little bit with currencies actually. That is, I want to try to not define a 'standard' currency, but let every community pick one themselves. So one community uses coins from material x, while another uses coins form material y, etc. I like this in particular because this means you can get rich by being a currency exchanger on servers where multiple currencies are used. But if this turns out not be fun or too complicated, I'll of course make one material the basic currency.

Isioxd wrote: #5:Animals (Pets):Animals can be found everywhere on map(Cow,Pig,Horse,Dragon,Lion,Wolf,Fox).You can caught them and make them friendly (Pets).Pets can defend you and if this is Horse,Dragon you can mount them and travel on them like on Scooter.But Dragon can fly and make you travel faster.

There will be animals everywhere in the forest, and they will be randomly generated, just like fish. The only animal you will see on every server is the Alot; large hairy animals you can't catch. Instead, you'll have to make them like you. If you succeed, you can name them and ride them, and they'll carry your stuff.

Edited by: Woseseltops

Maybe being able to add multiple upper and lower (or just lower, 'cause that's reasonable if the ghost ones do less) exits to olb generator olbifiers.

Interesting suggestion! Do you ask this because you want to generate multiple ghost olbs (the small white ones) at once? You can of course also do that by putting multiple generators after each other, but maybe you discovered that already .

-Beds
-Night and Day
-Farming (Ex: Wheat, Tomatoes, etc)
-Add some light sources like lamps or outdoor lamps
-Fences to keep tresspassers out
-2 floor houses (For more space)
-Random NPCs you enounter and can battle with
-Large bodies of water
-Boats
-Random animals (Dogs, cats, cows, pigs, sheep, etc)
-Other vehicles with different speeds (Bicycle= faster than scooter, wooden car= Faster than Bicycle, etc)
-Commands for admins

That's all I can give

Mygelz your suggestions look really good!
but i was thinking of battling the NPCs, i don't think that's a good one.
We need a reason to battle people, not like ''hey i see you NPC and now i'm gonna blast you with my gun'' that seems a bit unrealistic to me.
but your other suggestions are really good!

Wow, Mygelz... every single thing you mentioned already is on my to-do list (secret to-do list, so you coulnd't have known)! Is this a coincidence or do great minds think alike?

@Joey: I agree with the NPC-thing, but at the same time I think it's a good thing to give players opponents to practice with or to play with when nobody's online. Two plans for NPCs:
* Randomly generated caves with a chest with cool stuff at the end, guarded by monsters. You can try to reach the end together or with friends.
* Possibly NPC's underground, so mining becomes more exciting.

A Quest Editor ?

Hi, what would you mean by a quest editor? Something so players can make their own quests? Could be nice, if I/you figure out a good way to do it. I was thinking about something along the lines of Guild Wars 2's dynamic events myself. In any case, I plan to stay far away from the standard 'kill 5 rats'-type quests.

I'll try to explain myself, sorry for my poor english, I'm french.

I also thought a system of dynamic quests as you, but I think it must be quite difficult to implement. And if you can implement it, you should also add multiple choice in quests, which would influence the quest completion and the popularity of the character.
Otherwise for the quest editor, I was thinking about a something like "World Edit" of Warcraft III with three main steps:

- Trigger (entering an area, talk to an NPC, etc ...)
- Quest (talk to such person, killing enemy, retrieve an object )
- Reward (Gold, reputation, object)

Another thing, but since I haven't been a alpha-key for play I don't know if it exist in the game. A trading system, stock exchange, supply and demand for materials between players and if possible between server.

Don't worry about the language, it's about the message. And I like the way you think . About the trading: I was actually planning to set up an inter-server trade platform on olvand.com, which you can access from trading houses in cities. With a lot of useful features and statistics, so buying low and selling high can be a game of itself. And, believe it or not, I was also considering stock exchange, but I cannot think of a system that would be simple enough for everybody to understand. I'm currently thinking about treasure chests that are closed when you find them, but gradually open up to reveal more of their content (so you know how much they are worth, which will make them go up or down in price).

Also, thanks for elaborating the quest editor. I'm going to give this some hard thoughts .

what about a food system because in the game we are humans right? and humans need to eat

I was indeed thinking about adding one

Edited by: Woseseltops