   RPE
 Role-Play Environment What makes a good one?  I'm trying to develop an idea for an online game/community.  It's going to be more like a world than game, the point not to level up and grow powerful, but to create and co-exist in a world with other users.  This is going to involve a lot of immersion, but not through any new kind of technology.  Players will have the storyline somewhat pressed up against them.  The game will be left somewhat under explained to give a sense of awe and make exploration more entertaining.  A large set of skills will need to be developed as the player wanders through the world.  Think of it as an online adventure where players make their own storylines as they go along.  Each player should be able to right a journal of their characters life with each day filled with some new thing. Skills Every player is going to choose a few basic skills.  One of these will be chosen as their main skill, which can be advanced very rapidly, and higher than the others.  This allows for unique characters and no jack-of-all-trades character that can do anythign they please. Grouping Players will rely on their Guilds for support.  Because a player who is a farmer will not have good fighting skills, and the player who is a warrior can't grow crops very well, the two rely on each other to advance.  A well balanced and diverse guild will grow more powerful. Advancement and Leveling There are 4 levels, the first 3 not being very hard to advance through.  Newborn, Squire, Knight, and Hero.  After a newborn gains some experience and picks his main talent, he becomes a Squire.  For a Squire to become a Knight they must gain much experience and complete a certain challenge/quest which may take up to a few weeks.  To advance from a Knight to a Hero is a different story.  After mastering the main skill, and advancing the others, your experience bar will transform into the hero bar.  Only after killing a few Giants and completing the Hero trials, a set of challenging quests, will you gain the option to compete in the last hero challenge.  You'll need to gain 10 followers, and choose an opposition.  Once you defeat your opposition, and your followers approve, you'll be granted the hero title.  Most Heros will usually be guild leaders and their guild may help them through the challenges. The World The world will be a combination of three layers.  Sky, Terra, and LowerTerra.  Terra is the land and sea, where every Newborn lives, and main events happen.  Sky is the land above.  It's comprised of the clouds and floating islands.  It is for students of magic, and the only way to get to Sky is through high magic.  For special events, or possibly through a hero with magical abilities, a staircase may be conjured and common people may access the Sky.  LowerTerra is the underworld.  It's accessed through secret passageways in dungeons, and the player will have to find their way through a few caves, and fight some dangerous enemies.  LowerTerra will be the basis for many higher level quests, and the only place to get some items such as poisons, death magic reagents, and various others.  LowerTerra will also be corrupt.  Guards won't care what players do, and will attack you only if they feel threatened. Technology Graphics:  Looking mainly at developing isometric/slanted view 2D graphics with 3D models.  For example, the model will be rendered at a slanted view, and then the render will be used as a sprite/prop on the gamescreen.Coding:  Asking for C++, with DirectX for graphics and DirectPlay for networking. Funding There's no current funding plan, as this is currently just a design idea.  If anyones interested in the design enough, maybe a post will be made in Help Wanted, and at that point once a team is established a funding plan will be set up, such as a donation button on a community page.   
  Well, in my opinion the game mechanics appear to be at odds with the stated goal of "the point not to level up and grow powerful". You have the standard measures of progressive power advancement. It looks like advancement is required to gain access to further content. And it looks like experience is gained by killing things. This is a typical RPG formula and the players will interact with it as such. Although you mentioned farmers under 'Grouping', the next section 'Advancement and Leveling' seems to indicate that everyone advances as a warrior. If 'Hero' is the highest level, but "most Heros will usually be guild leaders" are others expected to stop at lower levels and say "ok I've leveled enough"? I guess I just don't understand what you expect everyone else to do in this world, if not kill stuff and advance to the highest level. Will the non-combat tasks be entertaining enough to keep coming back? Maybe I'm just not seeing the bigger picture.