Ascension? ...or what?

[Ryme]

You know, I was thinking about it. Of course, both the term and the concept are too KoLish.

Er, if by KoL-ish you mean "completely stolen from Nethack." Well, maybe not the precise mechanism, but certainly the name and general concept.

Long term, I probably won't call it ascension. But what I do call it will probably depend on how it works. Which will depend a lot on the plot/conclusion of the ultimate quest.

I guess I run the risk of having "ascension" becoming ingrained if I don't use a different term, but I can live with that.

[IcyFreak]

Heh heh heh. I like the tomorrow's dream concept. Dreams within dreams within dreams.

[Ryme]

So if it's just a dream, does that mean you wouldn't keep any stuff from ascension to ascension?

Next I suppose we'll have to postulate some sort of "dream catcher" that snags money and items right out of your dreams and deposits them into your "real" life, which is of course itself just another dream.

[Ryme]

I like the idea of .... a different 'philosophy' ...

Spooky, man. Just yesterday I started thinking along lines somewhat similar to this. Not entirely as described, but close enough to be recognizable. Rather than a fixed philosophy that applies for the whole run, I'd been thinking more that your characters' noncombat choices would begin to influence their reputations as different types of hero. This reputation would then influence other combat and noncombat areas, and the results that you get there.

Over time, if you start making different types of choices, your reputation can drift, opening or closing options for you, or giving you different results in certain areas.

Like you said, implementing this could be a ton of work, so it might take some time before any of this sees the light of day (or the light of a CRT).

The real shame of this is, I've been trying to figure out a mechanic like this for roughly the past six months. Six hours after I finally feel like I've got something sorted out, someone else comes up with a nearly identical suggestion. How weird is that?

[neocamp22]

That sounds like a brilliant mechanic. I love the idea. Of course that would be a LOT of work to write the material, but I think it is definitely a good idea (although your not thinking about trying to include it before beta, right? Cause that would be insane....)

[Ryme]

Before beta? Goodness no! The next three weeks will be devoted to fixes, patches, security, streamlining, and stuff like that. Plus a few useful features where appropriate. Probably not a whole lot in terms of content, unfortunately.

After beta, when all the chaos dies down and I've fixed the worst of the bugs people dig up, I'll start introducing more content, and this will (slowly) be part of that.

[neocamp22]

Except computer content, of course. Right?

[MagiNinjA]

Awesome. I like the idea of philosophy being so involved. Makes for a ton of interesting viewpoints on the game.

Dreams and philosophies. And unicorns. Hmmm.

[Cristiona]

the morphing reputation thing

Makes me think of Fallout and Fallout 2.

[Jesus]

...perhaps a few particular quests can have alternative, darker-side styles.

Makes me think of the Punisher.

I read too many comic books.

[neocamp22]

Pretty cool idea shokwave. From a coding standpoint, it would probably be one of the easiest options to do. From a content writing standpoint - the hardest. I'm not sure exactly what you were thinking, but actually, there could start out with only a few such storylines (maybe 6 or 7?). It would be very easy to add extra storylines as they were finished, and eventually there could be quite a few.

[TheK3vin]

How about this: After defeating the final boss (whoever that may be, I've been hearing it'll be Mick?), it says he is still alive, although just barely. In order to defeat him, you must muster up all of your strength and sacrifice yourself to destroy him once and for all. You die in your efforts, and are summoned by the Devil (whatever you wanna call him, lucifer, the devil, satan, mephisto, etc.) Who makes a deal with you. You can go back and relive your life, chosing a new class, etc. However there is a catch. Umm... Haven't decided on the catch yet. But something along the lines of you must blah blah blah soul blah blah blah sacrifice blah blah blah hell.

Thoughts?

[neocamp22]

I imagined that by the time something like this might happen, Ryme might be full time, with an extra person or two to help him.

[MagiNinjA]

I honestly despise the idea of ascension. In fact, I despise KoL too.
I'm sure I'm not going to get any props, but I don't like replaying a game with some extra stuff. It's boring. I'm not sure what happens afterwards, but I'm sure between now and the time when that issue becomes deathly important, something will be thought of.

Uhh, yeah, so that's why we're spawning new ways of handling so called "ascension".

I'm not so sure of this idea, but mixing time periods might be cool. An ascension where you're fighting zombies and dinosaurs? I think that's pretty cool. How about the Ice Age, Vikings and Feudal Japan? Hehe. Current TH kinda does that already with the Zions, robots and post-apocalyptic things to relate.

[MagiNinjA]

No offense (might sound a bit flamey) but have you guys even read the rest of the thread? The ideas here reflect upon not having ascension repeat the same quests. As in, you play different quests upon ascension.

Yes?

I'm also going to bump up my idea of alignment as a bystander, hero or supervillain. Or maybe a hero gone supervillain. Or something. Extremely complicated to code I imagine, but it would freakin' freakin' awesome and would not be predictable. I can try to help you on this intensely, if you want. Sounds like a fun project to me.