TYLER Projects | the blog

There are some major changes to the Facebook policy governing apps coming Dec 16th.

“Don’t undermine the integrity of the social graph by encouraging the creation of fake accounts or inauthentic friend connections. For example, don’t gate content or provide rewards based on the number of a user’s friends who also use your application. (DPP V.2)”

To comply with the new FB rules, we have the following plan:

• All your crew will be removed on Dec 15th
• Only people who joined using your referral link will remain
• Crew != friends. Crew don’t have to be your friends (for compliance with Facebook rules)
• If refer you someone they will join your crew and vice-versa. You cannot be in more than 1 player’s crew
• “Main crew” renamed “Squad”. Your squad mates can be any of your friends but won’t count as crew unless they were referred
• Everyone who bought robot crew will get a refund and their robot crew removed (this may happen after the 16th)
• You can hire any player as crew for 1 million gold as long as they accept and are not already in someone else’s crew
• Crew usage will be drastically reduced:

1. Crew requirements for quests have been temporarily reduced to 0
2. 1 referral to get +1 regen, 2 more referrals to get the next +1AP regen
3. Referrals will only count as successful once the player has chosen their first Tier job class (level 11) and passed a PV check
4. New robot crew will cost 30 Ochos each

Ocho players (players who have purchased Ocho) will not have their crew AP regen bonus affected (will receive 3 robot crew members once their old robot crew has been removed and you have received your refund)

I understand that it does take quite long to level up at the higher levels so I’ll be making the following proposals to the Tyler “senate”:

- Improved returns from exploring
- New quests which cost even more AP but give higher XP per AP
- CW token system: CW anytime you want as long as you have tokens (bought using WPs maybe)
- Scheduled CW: discussed before
- Spread level curve over 300 levels: This means some top players will break the lvl200 barrier immediately. Levels above 300 only get reduced stat pts per level.
- Alternative means of getting stronger other than leveling: grinding for “skill points” used to increase the activation % chance for skills.

- minor AP regeneration upon level up (yeah this is from Mafia Empire and it’s really for the lower levels)

The underlying approach to BSv2.0 storytelling technique is that every player is his or her own captain in the world of Sios.

The concept works like this. Quests are designed such to be that they are jobs, missions and tasks that any mercenary captain in the world of Sios would normally be hired to do. You have a ship, you run cargo, escort merchants, maybe do a bit of patrol, aid the Knights in raiding bandits, explore new lands, etc. None of the players are given control of a specific character like the way we did in Mafia Empire, or the way other RPGs do it. You’re not a Grey Warden, nor are you a Spectre, Cloud Strife or Luke Skywalker. You’re not that special. If everyone was special, then no one really is. You are whoever you want to be, as long as whoever you want to be captains an airship and wants to fly around Sios. Why are you playing Battle Stations if otherwise?

But there’s a story going on in the world of Sios, and it’s going to happen whether the player participates in it or not.

The trick is that we’re building a world, not simply telling a story. There are going to be a multitude of plots going on, a few conspiracies being conspired, politicians realpoliticking, bandits banditing, nations on the brink of war. When a player first enters Sios, after the initial Tutorial area, he’ll be presented with a number of options for quests. They’re what could be expected of an Airship captain just getting started in life. As he progresses, he might get in touch with certain contacts, certain individuals who have need of mercenary aid. If the player helps that guy, he gets drawn in further into the ongoing stories. If he simply pursues the routine of merchant running, patrolling and bandit raiding, well…. more power to him. That’s the basics of your choice for now. You can certainly level to 100 delivering pies to the border guards, but you’re not really gaining a lot of experience are you?

So the quest system works like this. Each port is divided in several districts. You can freely travel between the districts without AP. The idea is that within a nation, all the trade routes are so easily mapped out that it’s mostly inconsequential flying around. (Also, gameplay wise, it’s less annoying to keep sucking your APs). Those district icons at the top of the Quest page, yeah, you don’t need to unlock them. Fly there, see what quests there are, do them if you like. Fly elsewhere if you get bored, or find a better paying job. That’s the life of a captain.

Quests all still have random outcomes. This means that just because you’re escorting a merchant through a peace trade province, it isn’t going to be plain sailing. Bandits might attack, the merchant might stiff you on payment, you’ll run into a thunderstorm. If you go squid hunting, you’ll occasionally get lucky and capture the squid without the need for battle, or you might run into something much worse than a simply flying squid. Who knows? Only you do when you go on the quests. Things happen, that’s life in the world of Sios.

Other quests get unlocked as you master others. You might, as a captain attract enough attention that some people think you’ll be useful for certain jobs. You certainly won’t be the only one. These jobs might appear once a day, they might always be available or they might appear only once. If you don’t do them, they’re gone. Maybe they’ll return, maybe they won’t. Who knows. Well, we do, but that entirely depends on our ability to design and code those quests in as much as we can during the course of the week. If opportunity knocks on your ship, you should take it. That’s the life of a mercenary.

The world is there for you to explore. Go on, explore, and eventually you discover things about Sios that will end up being a story in itself.

The comic ties directly into that. There’s an actual character driven story there. It takes place in Sios, and where the protagonists of the comic end up, players will have a chance of visiting themselves. Or even the other way around. Players do a quest that will have its repercussions in the comic down the line. Players who make a name for themselves in the clan wars, in the island bases, in the bounty hunts might appear in the comic (as their captain counterpart). Players might even have a chance to run into the protagonist in the game, based on some random encounters, or in their explorations. We don’t actually know. The possibility is coded in, but the random outcome generator doesn’t mean you will actually see them. But the comic, that’s where the story takes place. The game is where the players can poke around the world and discover the hidden stories that motivate, intersect and create the world around them.

Of course, this is all theory. It remains to be seen if we can pull it off.

Next Up: Instance Runs, Boss Hunts, and the Renaissance.

This is a work in progress version of BSv2.0’s quest page.

We’re actually further along in some of the design elements, and art assets but the basics of the layout are there. On first glance, detractors might claim that it is too similar to ZYNGA, Mobsters, and whatever other plethora of facebook games are out there. The thing to remember is that the goal of BSv2.0 is to create a friendlier, more accessible interface for new players. The new design is an amalgamation of Mafia Empire’s interface and BS’s steampunk theme; we’ve added a lot of our own spit and polish to suit the needs of our system, and to tell the story of the world we’re building.

The cool stuff goes on under the hood. More details on that in a bit.

Edit: Quests will not require Weapons. That requirement icon is for trade goods. Things like little geisha dolls, spiced perfumes, pies, ramen, etc. You collect them in quests, exploration and markets and can turn them in, or sell them to a merchant quest. There will not be any weapon requirements for any quests. Every quest can be done if you’ve unlocked it and are the proper level.

*Note. I started this as a response to Luis Blondet Raul’s theory on MMO storytelling and DnD Dungeon mastering and it exploded into an informal essay on personal storytelling and the MMO.”

I was a dungeon master once.

The stories I enjoyed most when playing RPGs of the yesteryears and even RPGs now are the ones that start the player off with a clear personal purpose, only to have that quest spiral into something hugely epic, hugely complex as your progress. Planescape: Torment, Baldur’s Gate II, Fallout series all that that single goal that starts you off in the game, but slowly build up the world around it through a series of events.

The goals there rarely fell into the easy mediocre tropes fantasy story usually comes with, stuff like, “Save the world, mercenary crew looking for money, adventurer come to vanquish ancient evil.” They were more personal; they start out more intimate; why you got resurrected in a morgue, get the water chip for your dying town, or rescue an old friend. Saving the world came secondary to the personal story that game revolved around.

So similar to when I was a dungeon master, I found it easier to herd my players when I motivated them with personal quest amidst a war torn world. No one really bought into the fiction about some Big Bad evil, but everyone bothered to play characters when some warlord they worked for swindled them out of treasure and left them stranded on a desert island, or that they were lured as convenient scapegoats into some political plot, or that they were blamed on a murder they didn’t commit.

People come into RPGs with varying different motivations. A lot just want to game the system, build an Uber powerful character to crush his enemies, see them fall at their feet and hear the lamentation of their women. Others want loot, big shiny loot they can wave around to their friends and brag, engendering e-peen envy. Some come for the story. On facebook, that some is nearly negligible.

I think most people on facebook come for the spreadsheet, the genial time wasters that are easy to understand, easy to get into, and easy to play. It’s casual entertainment, quick enjoyment in between your real games, or your real life stuff. Given the limitations of the medium, it’s much harder to tell a good story, much less a great one, that players can buy into. But telling that good story, that’s what I’m trying to figure out.

What I’ve figured out for facebook and MMOs in general, is that it’s hard to tell a specific story about a specific character for a multitude of players. If everyone is that character, than the story, and the world building loses that social gaming feel. The story feels claustrophobic, and the content generation becomes dangerously unscalable to the tech we have at hand.

On the other hand, telling a story with repetitive meaningless tasks means players simply don’t buy into the fictional world. There are only so many pimps I can kill, or pizzas I can make before I realize there isn’t much of a world, or a concept to play around with. These activities may tickle the compulsive clicker is most gamers, but it could hardly be called a decent attempt to create a world, or even a game that has more interactivity than filling a spreadsheet and hoarding virtual goods.

So, given the limitations of facebook, in terms of tech, time, accessibility and gaming conventions, how do we, as developers, write and design a game that could ideally build a steampunk fantasy world full of airships and adventure, while allowing gamers of all creed to come, click around, casually enjoy the art and gameplay while providing a deeper experience for those who seek it.

Given that this post has run its length in terms of loquacity, I’ll write that up in another post.

THIS ISN’T READY YET… but it will be and we’ll make an announcement when it is. It’s not easy to create a reward system for inviting new players while still balancing the rewards for existing players.

+25 50 AP when you refer someone and they complete Azure Atoll (that’s the new starting port). * Update: the 50 AP is awarded when the referred player hits level 11 and chooses their 2nd class.

+10 Ochos – when someone you referred buys their first 50 Ochos.
+10 Ochos – when someone you referred has bought 100 Ochos total.
+50 Ochos – when someone you referred has bought 500 Ochos total.

So that’s a total of 70 Ochos you can get by referring someone.

For players who buy Ocho, every 1000 Ocho coins you buy/bought will get you +1500 bonus APs (which are non-transferable). Referral Ochos do not count towards this recurring 1000 Ocho bonus.

So basically, you won’t be forced to create a multi and refer yourself. It’s better to just stick with 1 Ocho account and earn the recurring bonus (there will be other loyalty benefits added in the future). We’ll do another Ocho “rebate” when this system is ready. So every past 1000 Ochos you bought will get you the bonus +1500 APs.

We were preparing some marketing materials when LL mentioned, ” How about a  Battle Stations wallpaper with this design?”

So thanks to Coy’s magic hands (our designer) and LL,  Ta-da!!

We present to you our new Battle Stations 2.0 wallpapers!!

You can download it at http://www.ocho-online.com/battlestations/downloads.html .

We have 2 different versions for you to choose from so take your pick. (i really like remy!!though i personally prefer him wt black hair..haha)

We’ve had some great suggestions on the forums for the skills in BS2.0 (Thanks Lim Kai for contributing some very detailed skill descriptions and effects). We’re going to keep things simple so we can add more skills later on (for the crew combat). Skills are unlocked when you have the appropriate level and class.

Here are the skills for now (subject to change, I also didn’t display their activation probability):

Sailor

• Evasive Action – +5 armor for this battle, +10 speed

Soldier

• Take Aim – +10% cannon + subcannon damage, -10% speed
• Preemptive Strike – Fire first on defense

Pirate

• Ambush – Start combat 400 yards from the enemy only during attacking
• Broadside Barrage – +20% subcannon damage

Mechanic

• Battle Repair - +15% chance to repair 5-10% of HP each round Chance to recover 2-5% HP during each round
• Blinding Flare – Enemy miss chance of 50% for first round

Scout

• Power Fuel – +50% Speed Smoke machine – Opponent has 10% miss chance
• Torpedo Warfare Blitz – +10% Missile / Torpedo damage + 5% Melee damage

Knight

• Iron Clad – +20 Armor, -50% Speed
• Line Battle – Chance to fire all cannons again, opponent fires all cannons as well

Mercenary

• Bounty Hunter – Get +25% gold if you sink your opponent
• Shredder Shot – Damage = level * 50, attack at start of combat + slow opponent by 250. Only works when attacking

Corsair

• Cloud Cover – Opponent has 10% miss chance Armour piercing: -15 armour on enemy for both attacking and defending.
• Summon Kraken – The sky Kraken attacks your enemy! Kraken damage = lvl x 100; slow opponent by 25%

Engineer

• Magnetic Mines – Damage and slow opponent every round: damage= level*20 and slow = -5% speed. Only works when defending
• Siege Mode- +300% weapon range for cannons and subcannons, +50% cannon damage, -90% Speed. Transforms into floating cannon platform. Only works when attacking.

Alchemist

• Defensive Matrix – +20 Armor, immune to slow
• Arc Lightning – Damage = level * 100 35, attack lands in a random special round

Saboteur

• Sabotage – Enemy skills do not activate
• Bombvoyage – Ram enemy ship for damage equal to current HP and your HP reduced to 1
• Ramming Speed – +500 Speed, +10% Ram Damage

We’ll be removing the trade function in BS2.0. It was kinda boring, generally not a very efficient use of APs and you had to have alot of ship capacity to make it work for you.

Mining isn’t all that fun/popular either. So, I thought we’d combine the 2. We’ll code the new mining so that it has more “events” just like exploring. There will be opportunities to make gold (even though mining will probably still cost gold) and find rare items, treasure chests, etc. Could make the outcomes more crew based than luck and class based as it is now.

I also thought it’d be cool if you could use your Ruby Ray as a mining laser.

Things will be slightly different in BS2.0, one of the major complaints in BS is that there isn’t enough to differentiate the 5 classes.

In BS2.0, new players will start as the generic “sailor” class,

• Sailor – gets +1 to each stat per level and 1 allocatable per level

then after completing the tutorial missions at about level 10. You’ll get to pick 1 of 4 classes:

• Solider (replaces commander) – same stats growth as before
• Pirate – same stats growth as before
• Mechanic (replaces engineer) – same stats growth as before
• Scout (replaces explorer) – same stats growth as before

Your allocated stats will remain unchanged when you change classes. Existing traders will be changed to Scouts (everyone will get a class reset, Traders will get a stats reset).

At level 100, you’ll be able to do a job promotion quest. There 2 2nd tier classes to choose from for each class.

• Knight (upgrade from Soldier) – +1.5Craft, 3 allocatable per level
• Mercenary (upgrade from Soldier or Pirate) – +1 to all stats, 2 allocatable stats per level
• Corsair (upgrade from Pirate) – +1.5 GUN, 3 allocatable stats per level
• Engineer (upgrade from Mechanic) – +1.5Craft, 3 allocatable per level
• Alchemist (upgrade from Mechanic or Scout) – +1 to all stats, 2 allocatable stats per level
• Saboteur (upgrade from Scout) +1.5 NAV, 3 allocatable per level

As before your stats will be reset when picking the new class. So what’s in it for you upgrading your class? Ans: More class skills and maybe a different outfit for your character.

Anyway that’s the plan for now. Things might change; they always do.