03-14-2018, 11:04 AM
I changed my mind.
Haven probably needs to be redone, with new mechanics AND a rebranded game in a different setting. The core game can almost certainly stay. But moving the game to either a different Real World setting, or keeping it in Haven but making the grid more diverse would be great. Ideally, we shouldn't really NEED to fly off all over the world, or do cool psychic dream battles, or go off into Totally-Not-Arcadia-Land. That should be the exclusive territory of Storytelling. Or even hunt monsters in the Forest. The Nightmare and the Forest could be totally taken away, and replaced with something else entirely.
Were I writing out the Lore and the Setting, I'd have the vast bulk of the game take place in a Mirror Version City of Haven, which is where all the most powerful supernaturals hang out. Probably with a malleable grid, because of Supernatural Gubbins, that changes up the roads and territories; I'd also make it larger than Haven Prime. Keep Haven Prime as a pretty basic, small town to allow for Spooky Stuff to occur. Allow the Mirror Havenites to run schemes/events/rituals/whatevs to try to breach into Haven Prime, thus creating Spookums. Something more like that.
As for the theme, I really don't think a Horror MUD can be coded very well, if it's a competetitive MUD. Or, really at all. Horror is so subjective. I don't find torture-porn and gore to be particularly spooky. Just gross and tiresome. Whereas other people don't like Surrealist/Psychological Mindfucks to be very scary. So, I'd just rebrand it to be Grimdark Urban Fantasy. "In the grim darkness of Haven, there is only Shadows and Mist..."
I think the game is overall just too much of a contest between people. It'll never develop into cooperative storytelling, if you give people coded incentive to just treat other players like shit. I also don't think we should reward people that play Standard Naturals, with the ability to play the Monsters. But, tbh, I also think we should just separate out the Monsters from the Naturals, and let the Naturals who WANT to be victimized, go into the spooooky Mirror Haven. Let people do their circle jerky w/e sex home RP, in an area where it can't really have any impact on you. But, that would be the best way to ensure you were getting quality victims that WANTED antag RP. Let them come to the Antag Zone, or whatever. Reward Naturals that take part in the Mirror 'Verse RP and get picked on. Something like that. And most people win.
And, just change up the code. Make territories more localized, instead of going off to Lima, Peru to build a fortress that noone will care about in 2 months. Put hard lifetimes on characters (I'm fond of making characters more monstrous the more powerful they get, through coded means; IE, allow some of the low level Boogens slip freely between Haven Prime and Mirror Haven, to do spooky type stuff), and just make life harder on the stronger guys. No one NEEDS to be the strongest. If they need specific powers, they should have an idea for a story arc, and they should find ways to wrap it up after a certain period. To let other people have a chance to shine.
That's all mostly just train of thought word vomit. I really admire Tyr, as a game creator. I think he kind of lacks in the Lore/Setting department, and he can definitely be bullheaded and stubborn about certain things. But despite how much I'd have decried him ten years ago (I was pretty awful on the Interwebz 10 years ago too), I do genuinely think he's just trying to make a cool game, with cool features, that play to the theme. I just think he'd merit from getting someone outside of his current Friend Group to help him out with the setting and lore of Haven, and writing code to MATCH that Lore.
Also, I'd posit that Inferno failed because it was a really watered down, poor man's version of World of Darkness in terms of the setting, but with Super Power Code, and it wasn't very intuitive. Haven's a lot cleaner and more intuitive, with a much better set of available Lore compared to Inferno. Inferno was a pretty cool concept, but when I tried it out, it was pretty Empty-Ville. Zane was kicking around, giving away free drinks or something. And some Vampires were fighting some Werewolves were fighting some Wizards I guess.
Haven probably needs to be redone, with new mechanics AND a rebranded game in a different setting. The core game can almost certainly stay. But moving the game to either a different Real World setting, or keeping it in Haven but making the grid more diverse would be great. Ideally, we shouldn't really NEED to fly off all over the world, or do cool psychic dream battles, or go off into Totally-Not-Arcadia-Land. That should be the exclusive territory of Storytelling. Or even hunt monsters in the Forest. The Nightmare and the Forest could be totally taken away, and replaced with something else entirely.
Were I writing out the Lore and the Setting, I'd have the vast bulk of the game take place in a Mirror Version City of Haven, which is where all the most powerful supernaturals hang out. Probably with a malleable grid, because of Supernatural Gubbins, that changes up the roads and territories; I'd also make it larger than Haven Prime. Keep Haven Prime as a pretty basic, small town to allow for Spooky Stuff to occur. Allow the Mirror Havenites to run schemes/events/rituals/whatevs to try to breach into Haven Prime, thus creating Spookums. Something more like that.
As for the theme, I really don't think a Horror MUD can be coded very well, if it's a competetitive MUD. Or, really at all. Horror is so subjective. I don't find torture-porn and gore to be particularly spooky. Just gross and tiresome. Whereas other people don't like Surrealist/Psychological Mindfucks to be very scary. So, I'd just rebrand it to be Grimdark Urban Fantasy. "In the grim darkness of Haven, there is only Shadows and Mist..."
I think the game is overall just too much of a contest between people. It'll never develop into cooperative storytelling, if you give people coded incentive to just treat other players like shit. I also don't think we should reward people that play Standard Naturals, with the ability to play the Monsters. But, tbh, I also think we should just separate out the Monsters from the Naturals, and let the Naturals who WANT to be victimized, go into the spooooky Mirror Haven. Let people do their circle jerky w/e sex home RP, in an area where it can't really have any impact on you. But, that would be the best way to ensure you were getting quality victims that WANTED antag RP. Let them come to the Antag Zone, or whatever. Reward Naturals that take part in the Mirror 'Verse RP and get picked on. Something like that. And most people win.
And, just change up the code. Make territories more localized, instead of going off to Lima, Peru to build a fortress that noone will care about in 2 months. Put hard lifetimes on characters (I'm fond of making characters more monstrous the more powerful they get, through coded means; IE, allow some of the low level Boogens slip freely between Haven Prime and Mirror Haven, to do spooky type stuff), and just make life harder on the stronger guys. No one NEEDS to be the strongest. If they need specific powers, they should have an idea for a story arc, and they should find ways to wrap it up after a certain period. To let other people have a chance to shine.
That's all mostly just train of thought word vomit. I really admire Tyr, as a game creator. I think he kind of lacks in the Lore/Setting department, and he can definitely be bullheaded and stubborn about certain things. But despite how much I'd have decried him ten years ago (I was pretty awful on the Interwebz 10 years ago too), I do genuinely think he's just trying to make a cool game, with cool features, that play to the theme. I just think he'd merit from getting someone outside of his current Friend Group to help him out with the setting and lore of Haven, and writing code to MATCH that Lore.
Also, I'd posit that Inferno failed because it was a really watered down, poor man's version of World of Darkness in terms of the setting, but with Super Power Code, and it wasn't very intuitive. Haven's a lot cleaner and more intuitive, with a much better set of available Lore compared to Inferno. Inferno was a pretty cool concept, but when I tried it out, it was pretty Empty-Ville. Zane was kicking around, giving away free drinks or something. And some Vampires were fighting some Werewolves were fighting some Wizards I guess.