So Everquest Next is taking player generated content to the next level with "Landmark" It's a great way to get free work out of players and keeps players engaged.
Have you devs given thought to having the players build your expansion packs (the landscapes at least)?
Hell it could even be a side project to open a NEW Layer of the city with players designing districts (I like cityscapes but I like a bit of jungle, desert, forest and virtual virtual reality ) There's a "Land of the Lost" buried deep below Massachusetts.. you just haven't looked hard enough.
So.. Player created open-world submissions (not in Titan City that you create but expansions post launch).. what do you think? Exploit our eager minds and hard work? (Yes I know we aren't using EQN's seemingly amazing constructor.. but I know a lot of kids in South Park who play a little thing called Minecraft)
Note that I do not think this should be a launch feature.. but it's a great way to plan for a long future. My biggest question is will your licensing agreement allow it and secondly would you be interested in launching a stand alone "city builder" tool later on?
Crowd Control Enthusiast
It's an interesting idea. But as you pointed out without a ready-made creator like Landmark for CoT how exactly could players submit in-game designs for Dev review? I'm sure some tech-savvy players may have some of the skills/tools needed to submit data files to the Devs that they might be able to directly incorporate into the game, but I suspect that's a very small number of people overall. It really sounds like post-launch "city builder" tool would have to come first.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
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Well, instead of Open World Areas... how about we start with small Mission Instances? ;)
You can use the standalone Base Builder for it. :D
This is the path to take.
Keep the base builder flexible enough that it'll be able to design for the open world, once the devs are ready for that.
Think big, but take small steps.
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I've tried that already, and it's pretty much inevitable that some [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veruca_Salt_%28character%29#Veruca_Salt]Veruca Salt[/url] type character will come along (singing) "Don't Care How, I WANT IT NAO!" at the top of their lungs, and be horribly offended that you somehow aren't trying to cram 10 years of City of Heroes development on a particular issue into a single topic thread. Even when you point out that you're trying to take small steps so as to make sure you can [url=http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/powers/power.php?id=Inherent.Inherent.Walk]Walk[/url] before you try to [url=http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/powers/power.php?id=Inherent.Inherent.prestige_preorder_Sprintp]Sprint[/url] you'll still be condemned because you aren't doing EVERYTHING all at once to their satisfaction.
Doesn't change the fact that it is far [b]wiser[/b] to take small steps [i]that can be achieved[/i] and build on them incrementally with an eye towards eventually taking larger ones that will let you take on incredible visionary projects in stride once you've mastered the basics and built yourself a solid foundation to build and grow on.
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[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
Well I don't know WHY Minecraft is so popular, but if we can capitalize on even a bit of that "world builder" game population then this game becomes for/by the players which is something I think is awesome.
That being said.. I fully expect a mission architect to be great.
Crowd Control Enthusiast