Frontier 1859 Interview

Part 2

RPGDot: Besides killing people/critters, what can I do?

You will need to hunt for food and water, buy it, grow it, or find it. Your action-figure will need to find shelter from the elements. Because when the temperature really drops - you could freeze to death.

The game encourages people to earn a living and build a homestead. Become good model citizens. Raise a family. Start a business. Get socially involved. Yet, it is possible to be a lone mountain man, and live off the land. That would mean not exhausting the resources around you by building too much.

RPGDot: Is the tradeskill system window dressing or a money sink? I.E. is the game set up so ONLY someone seriously gimped for fighting can obtain enough skills to become a master crafter, and thus create (notice I said create) the uber swords (etc) of the game.

The first businesses naturally were those that met the immediate needs of a frontier settlement. The trade-skill system will be 4 parts. Time, effort, vestment, and use. The tradeskill system will be viable, it will be a way to make a living, raise some health stats, but by no means will someone be able to macro up their health stats by working just to skill themselves for fighting. And how could you live your life as a fighter and also spend the time it takes to have a strong tradeskill?

The purpose of not making one character a "Jack of all trades" is to encourage interaction between players. If you are a cavalry officer, you need to rely on your local gunsmith for weapons, and weapon supplies. If you are a farmer, you need to rely on local law officers to go after the bad guys. A hunter/trapper would be skilled at killing animals, not necessarily skilled in killing people.
In all honesty, why would someone who is living their life as a farmer need to be good at offensive fighting? The trade system should help him to build up strong defenses in his health stats, but he has no need as a farmer to rake someone to death.
The trade skill system will of course effect the in-game economy, trading goods for goods will probably more prevalent than trading gold for goods, due to the authentic nature of the game.

RPGDot: Will PC tradesmen be forced to compete with NPC merchants?

NPC trades will rise and decline. Also, the NPCs will never be around all of the time. They come and go as part of the balance to a unique and dynamic game world. Their prime directive is to initialize things, but eventually the PC towns will have to meet the needs of the cause and demand they create.

There will be times when demand for an item is in great need, but rare to find. If there is a shortage of iron per say, then a gunsmith might not be able to meet the demand for fire-arms. On the other hand, it may cost the smithy too much to make a mediocre quality item at a certain time. This brings timing and resources into play, just like it did back then. There were a lot of one-horse towns. This opens up opportunities for PCs to start a trade that is highly in demand. Providing they can find the resources, or perhaps have stocked some of the material, and have acquired the skill to offer something favorable. If the market is saturated, they might look for another trade to learn, and in any case, there are NPCs who will purchase there inventory.

RPGDot: What are the 'barriers to entry' for crafts? [In EQ, anyone with a bit of time and money could master all the crafts, hence no real barriers to entry.]

In those days, the barrier was whatever resources were accessible, or could be conjured up as substitute. PCs in "Frontier 1859" will have the same challenges to face.

RPGDot: What kinds of player housing do you support?

Some of the preset and predetermined buildings, can't be owned but others can be bought or rented, either furnished or unfurnished.
Custom sod, wood, and brick structures can be built just about anywhere, but geography can restrict the size or type of the structure being built. Tents can be set anywhere on the game-board.

RPGDot: Assuming no mishaps with mobs or players, how long would it take me to circumnavigate the world (if go from end to end if the world is flat) ?

An appropriate scale will be determined through extensive play-testing. The goal is to simulate the actual travel-time on foot at a days pace. (minus a little).

RPGDot: Could I even do so? Might I need to build a city, then build a ship, then cross an ocean, etc...

As planned, the first release, entitled "Frontier 1859" includes the "Carson Valley / Tahoe region as depicted on the map at the "Frontier" web-page. You could build a trade post, or get enough people together to build a fort, and then use wagons to traverse the land.

RPGDot: What are the main influences in the creation and design of the game world?

The actual historical locations and records of Bodie, Aurora, and Virginia City, Nevada. Roger D. McGrath's "Gunfighters, Highwaymen, & Vigilantes." Dan De Quilles' "The Big Bonanza." Eliot Lords' "Comstock Mining & Miners." "Harper's School Geography," "The American Frontier" by William C. Davis, "A Peep at Washoe" by J, Ross Browne, and "Mark Twain in Virginia City."

RPGDot: How smart are the mobs? I mean, if I keep showing up at their daycare center, luring single young monsters away to a nasty death, can I do this forever, or do they eventually take action? Is the mobs behavior static, or is there a pseudo random component?

Pseudo random. They migrate, and bed-down. They hunt and they roam. They are also affected by the presence of humans.

RPGDot: By this I mean, if I shoot a mob with an arrow, A) It always chases directly at me, back to the waiting hoards for slaughter, or B) 70% give chase, 20% attempt to use an evasive maneuver, and 10% run for help?

Most mobs will flee or expire when successfully wounded. Also, PCs can play some of the mobs. They can reserve one of their 4 character slots for an indigenous carnivore. Of course this PC is not gifted with human attributes, but rather (for instance) could become quite the legendary bear, attaining more efficient stealth, strength, and attack modifiers. On the other hand, whose to say that some side-show would not come along with a dancing bear?

RPGDot: Many games have attempted to slow their rate of level advancement by introducing downtime. Players are very concerned about it. In EQ, downtime was severe - up to 20 minutes. In DAOC and AO, it is under 1 minute. I view this as an excellent trend. If I was the most powerful fighter possible in your game and wanted to rest after a nasty combat in which I was nearly killed, how long would it take me to get back my full hit points? Mana?

Ah, everyone's dread - the infamous Death Penalty. Let me tell you that this gets into a fragile area that I want us to handle with care. First, I place the time vested by players, as important, if not more important than the game itself. You cannot have one without the other. Second, taking away days and weeks worth of effort in a single stroke is a lousy rotten thing to do to your patrons.

The current design for the PCs in "Frontier 1859" are planned to accumulate damage over time, possibly shortening their overall life-span. Fatal wounds are not likely, but can happen, just as it did back then. There is a chance that a player will live, even with several wounds, but obviously become incapacitated. The fighting action, in itself, happens very quickly - slightly slower than reality. A wound can occur before you realize it has happened, rather than sit back and watch it whittle away at a hit-point meter. Also, there are other modifying factors to death, one major one being medical attention. A doctor can change the outcome of a mortal wound getting infected and/or turning fatal, as time goes by. In most cases, a PCs' disposition will not restore to "fullness of life" until it has fully healed. This kind of cost can affect the length of skirmishes, and certainly will affect the decision to start one.

Remember that the random factor in a possibility "to hit" is greatly reduced by several modifiers. Therefore, there will be the person who is defending a fort from an Indian attack, and lives while the guy next to him dies.
You can bet that we will be experimenting with variations until we collectively decide the best-fit scenario for "Frontier 1859." Currently, the starting place calls for each PC to flag one of three death penalties to choose from, with the fourth one being determined by the game, and sometimes the re-awaken locations will be forced by the game, or about the PCs bind-spot of choice.

1. Ghost for a time. (Dropped items can be looted, with Rep. of "Grave Robber")
2. Notoriety Loss. (In some cases, with additional modifier to "Credibility")
3. Loss of LE (Life Essence = longevity) A person who would have lived until 60 suffered a mortal wound, and will now only live until 59.
Special case: Permadeath - The PC was tried and found guilty by a jury {PCs carrying the flag of witness showed up to court} and therefore has been publicly executed. (No choice here at all except for "Governor's Pardon.")

RPGDot: In AO, we were introduced to vehicles. These were not independent things that could be parked, stolen, sat upon, etc - they were very lame morphings of the character into the vehicle (ie man becomes car). In SOL (EQ) this will be repeated. In DAOC, their vehicles amount to buy ticket and sit on horse till it gets to the destination (whereupon it disappears) or jump off enroute. Will your game have vehicles?

Yes. Wagons, horses, mules, carts, ore cars, and canoes. All pertinent stuff, but your PC will not morph into the vehicle.

RPGDot: Will the character models 'morph' into the vehicle, be forced to only go along vehicle routes or will the vehicles be completely separate from the characters?

Our goal is to have the kind of in-game action that allows PCs to hop in a wagon, flee under fire, and/or have someone shooting while the other drives. Forcing routes works for steam locomotives.

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