GUI: World – the main screen

1. GUI: World – the main screen Click on username to go to Account page High Seas “Some quote about sea travel, trading, history, etc” ~ Joe Schmoe (changes daily) Winter 1607 | User: yakinikuman | $2,534 | Forum | Help | Logout Path finding – either implement simple pathfinding or pre-define the paths between cities … this would get pretty tedious. (X cities = something like X! paths – not quite that many, but a lot….) Idea: “hexagonize” the world, designate each as land or sea. Start out with straight line between cities, then adjust if land in the way. World Mouse over cities to see names and some stats Click on to go to that city screen. Ship at city: drop down for go to city screen, or give ship orders to sail. Cities s Oceans s Mailbox* * = unread mail s Ocean regions – mouse over to see names and stats Click on to go to ocean region page Ships “s” = one of player’s ships. (replace with ship graphics.) Click on ship: drop down menu. 1. go to ships page with that ship in focus 2. set new destination (if more than one ship near click point, list all options for all ships near click point). Option to adjust destination by picking waypoints through different ocean regions??? (avoid high piracy areas, for instance) Auction Notification of world news Notification of recent combat results New Mailbox Messages (list first 5) My ships – sort by: departure city/place, destination & ETA (or docked), curent storage / total, … (click on a ship to go to ships screen with that ship in focus) My buildings – sort by: city, type, (production) current production / max possible production, (warehouse) current storage / total (click to go to city screen where building is located)

2. GUI: Ocean regions screen High Seas Winter 1607 | User: yakinikuman | $2,534 | Forum | Help | Logout The Caribbean Sea World Mouse over: “Atlantic Seaboard” – click to go to this ocean region screen. Cities Oceans Mailbox* Ships Auction s Mouse over: “North Pacific Ocean” – click to go to this ocean region screen. Tile-ize or hexagon-ize the region maps? To make ship position easier to define and track. Would probably want realistic ship speeds – if updates happen once every 10 minutes, then figure out how far ship would travel. Each ship calculates where to “be” at next update. List of recent combat results in this region (what ship won, what ship lost), along with some stats on combat activity over the last game-year. List of your ships in this ocean region

3. GUI: Cargo Module High Seas Winter 1607 | User: yakinikuman | $2,534 | Forum | Help | Logout World Basic Manufactured Cities • Some variation of this needs to be in: • Ship screen (at sea) • Ship screen (docked) • City screen (if warehouse present) • Would be nice to have just one main module that works for all, or with slight modification. 1 5 10 50 Max Oceans Mailbox* Ships Auction

4. GUI: City screen High Seas Winter 1607 | User: yakinikuman | $2,534 | Forum | Help | Logout World Buying and selling direct from warehouse – only if warehouse is in city. Basic Manufactured Cities 1 5 10 50 Max Oceans Mailbox* These are buttons Ships Auction

5. GUI: Mailbox screen High Seas Winter 1607 | User: yakinikuman | $2,534 | Forum | Help | Logout World Cities Messages from other players Messages from the game – ie, tutorial information for new players, pirate/navy messages Messages on auction results – items won or items sold Messages on expedition results – artifacts found Quests! “A mysterious letter from a stranger…” Triggers: gold level, visited certain cities, X total ships, Y total buildings, Z combat victories, combat failures, expeditions taken, … Objectives could be to transport X of good Y to city Z by date D, send an expedition to ____ by D, etc. Be creative though … like Space Rangers 2… no “random” or generic quests, but all kind of different. Oceans Mailbox* Ships Auction

6. GUI: Artifacts/Account page High Seas Winter 1607 | User: yakinikuman | $2,534 | Forum | Help | Logout World Cities List of player’s artifacts, what ships/buildings they are equipped on Unassigned artifacts – just sit here until assigned, or sold at auction. Maybe some achievements could be “artifacts” – non-equippable, just for status Could probably meld this with the “Account” page accessible by clicking on user name (Should have a “Sailing Roster” page which lists all players on realm – can see their player page – drool over their Artifacts, buildings, ships, gold.) Oceans Mailbox* Ships Auction Artifacts

7. GUI: Ships screen – at sea High Seas Winter 1607 | User: yakinikuman | $2,534 | Forum | Help | Logout Enterprise Crew 10/10 | Morale 24/25 | Seaworthiness 85/100 | Cargo 99/100 Sailing in the The Caribbean Sea Bound for New Orleans (ETA 3 hr 20 min) < Swifty > Reliant World Link to region screen Cities Link to city page Basic Manufactured Oceans 1 5 10 50 Max Mailbox* Ships These are buttons Auction Click on “Ships” button from any other page – takes player to most recently viewed ship List of artifacts attached to this ship List of awards / achievements this ship has been awarded (ie 5 combat victories, 10 cities visited, …)

8. GUI: Ships screen – on expedition High Seas Winter 1607 | User: yakinikuman | $2,534 | Forum | Help | Logout Enterprise Crew 9/10 | Morale 13/25 | Seaworthiness 55/100 | Cargo 99/100 On expedition in The Amazon | Set sail < Swifty > Reliant World Cities Set sail: Links to world map, with ship selected and “where to?” ready Basic Manufactured Oceans Mailbox* Ships Auction List of artifacts attached to this ship List of awards / achievements this ship has been awarded (ie 5 combat victories, 10 cities visited, …)

9. GUI: Ships screen – docked High Seas Winter 1607 | User: yakinikuman | $2,534 | Forum | Help | Logout Enterprise Crew 9/10 | Morale 13/25 | Seaworthiness 55/100 | Cargo 99/100 Docked at Singapore | Set sail Rename Ship | Join pirates | Join navy < Swifty > Reliant Become navy or pirate – only in cities. “Become pirate” disabled if any of players ships are navy. Likewise for “become navy” if any are pirates. If all ships are just traders, both options are there. World Visit warehouse: “In city” -> “In warehouse”, “Buy” -> “Withdraw”, “Sell” -> “Deposit”. Link changes to “Visit Market” Cities Visit Warehouse Basic Manufactured Set sail: Links to world map, with ship selected and “where to?” ready Oceans 1 5 10 50 Max Mailbox* Ships These are buttons Auction List of artifacts attached to this ship List of awards / achievements this ship has been awarded (ie 5 combat victories, 10 cities visited, …) Click on a good in cargo: drop down menu option to buy/sell, textbox for amount | max.

10. GUI: Auction screen High Seas Winter 1607 | User: yakinikuman | $2,534 | Forum | Help | Logout World Cities World wide auction (don’t see need for city-by-city auctions…) List of buildings and ships (and cities they are in) Also artifacts that haven’t been “equipped” on a ship yet Click on building/ship for more information – basically a “public” version of the selling player’s building or ship page. Auctions – run like ebay: listing fee, set end date, minimum bid Winning – get a mailbox message. If artifact, stays “attached” to player account until equipped or re-auctioned. If ship/building, immediately becomes part of player’s ships/buildings. Oceans Mailbox* Ships Auction

11. Tools Needed • Python 2.6 • Nevow Athena 0.10.0 – built on top of Twisted. Client-server interface. • For Path planning tool: PIL 1.1.7 (Python imaging library)

12. Nevow Athena GM Client GM Client Interface Browser World Map Screen Server Auction House City Screen Mail Manager Mailbox Game Client Client Interface Server Interface Game Server Ocean Screen Account Manager Player Ship Screen All Browser commands come through Player World Mailbox Screen Auction House Screen Expedition City Building Ship Ocean Artifact Warehouse Lookup table for artifact type, color, stats Account Screen Lookup table for ship type, base stats Cargo Maybe embed expeditions in ship screen Expedition Screen

13. Misc • Concern: if journeys between cities take multiple days, will new players be interested enough to keep playing? Maybe each player could start out with several ships? • Another concern: if ships are only bought/sold between players or by microtransaction, then player will create multiple accounts, sell ships cheap, then delete account • If only mechanism of ship transfer is through auctions, then player will have no guarantee of winning…maybe it’s ok. But end result could be too many ships on the market, brining down ship prices and ship demand • Fix: maybe restrict auctionhouse to players with net worth > $5000 or something. • No trading goods, buildings, ships, money directly from player to player … must go through auctionhouse

14. Server / Admin • Need to be able to run multiple “realms” • Could start them at different years? • Admin mode client • Add/delete/modify user accounts, ships, buildings • Add/delete/modify quests • Reports on prices, ships in transit, combat • add/remove cities • Change goods, change prices • Add/modify scheduled events • Change year or rate of time passage

15. Scheduled Events • Text file – each SlowU, the file is searched for the new date and any updates are executed • Makes it easy to add new events if needed • Events: emergence of new ship type; drastic (and likely to continue) population change due to war, famine, or disease; new resource (coal); closure of ports due to war/quarantine?

16. Timers • Start game in year 1600. • Slow timer event AKA turn timer • 1 day = 1 game turn = 1 game season (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) • Therefore, 4 days = 4 game turns = 1 game year • 400 days ~= 14 months = 100 game years • Game downtime while server does SlowU events. (hopefully fast) • Fast timer event • Every 10 minutes, although this is not obvious to the player. • Therefore, slow timer event happens every 6*24 = 144 fast events (maybe fewer depending on how fast SlowU updates take)

17. SlowU • Take down server • Resolve any combat or user events in progress • Back up everything: end of day state • Ships: ratings, position, destination, cargo • Cities: number of goods, prices, population, supply/demand modifiers • Population growth could be based partly on how well current demands (goods) are being met • Perform update • Back up everything again: start of (next) day state • Set game timer to real time • Restart server

18. FastU • SlowU might just be a special case of FastU. • FastU update can start as soon as previous update finishes! • After update, make copy of world object • Update ship positions and combat results • Meanwhile, server is handling user requests: buy/sell goods, auctionhouse stuff, setting sail • Ships: user commands set sail – this just changes the ship’s state to “ready to sail”. Actually doesn’t embark until next FastU (might need to be 2 FastU’s b/c of copied world….)

19. Buildings Building Ingred #1 Building: Good Ingred #2 • Different levels of buildings (can upgrade). Higher levels provide greater production rate. • Raw materials production buildings: • Small: 1 unit produced • Apprentice: 3 • Journeyman: 6 • Master: 10 • Manufacturing buildings: • Small: 1 Ingred #1 + 1 Ingred #2 = 1 G • Apprentice: 2 Ingred #1 + 2 Ingred #2 = 3 G • Journeyman: 3 Ingred #1 + 3 Ingred #2 = 6 G • Master: 4 Ingred #1 + 4 Ingred #2 = 10 G • Make gold cost to upgrade building dependent on current value of good that building produces in the city. This will tend to make specialized cities – cheaper to build more production where there already is a lot. • Takes 1 SlowU to upgrade a building. • Can buy/sell in auction house, or buy with micro-transaction. Start out with buildings in each city owned by the gamemaster and on AH for credits. • Special building: warehouse. Can buy/sell goods like a ship can. (Need to be able to transfer goods between warehouse and own docked ship. Possibility: rent out warehouse space....)‏ • Building options: • Buy ingredients at current price if none in Warehouse • Sell output goods immediately or store in Warehouse. (If no more room in Warehouse, goods will be sold immed, regardless) • Must have a ship currently docked at the city to build a warehouse there • Initial game state: make sure for the world as a whole, total production ~= total consumption. Standard_supply = initial world total / cities

20. Goods – types emerge over time – scheduled events??Intentionally left out: slaves, coffee, tobacco, rum Basic (13+1) Each city produces X + rand(Y) each slow turn Derived (10) Finished (4) Foundry: Bar Iron Ore Armory: Guns Gunpowder Magazine: Bullets Timber Paper mill: Paper Dye Sugar Ink Factory: Ink Cocoa Printer: Books Chocolatier: Chocolate Tea Spice Pharmacy: Medicine Meat Grain Butcher: Sausages Bakery: Cookies Silk Gristmill: Flour Cotton Furs Weaver: Cloth Tailor: Suits Coal Doesn’t appear until 1800s.Steamships use any coal in cargohold for massive speed. Revert to wind power (ie much lower speed)when no coal in hold. Hatter: Hats

21. Economic model: Supply/demand • Per Good • standard_supply: fixed for each good • standard_price: fixed for each good • demand_multiplier : affected by season, some randomness, historical events. SlowU update. • Prices updated each SlowU • demand = standard_supply / supply * demand_multiplier • If supply == 0, demand = standard_supply * demand_multiplier • sell_price = demand * standard_price • buy_price = X * buy_price • Tentatively set X = 1.5. Value of X could also fluctuate each slowU. • Consumption at each city (SlowU) uses up goods • Production at each city (SlowU) uses some goods and creates others (city owned buildings). Player owned buildings – goods used are those from player’s warehouse. • Each point of population uses Cpp unit (make adjustable) of each good every slowU • Cpp: consumption per population • Standard_supply and standard_price are global, per good • Demand_multiplier differs for each city for each good and flucuates. • PROBLEM: player could buy up all the goods in a city at a low price on one turn. Then the next turn, the price will be much higher b/c supply went to 0. The player then sells all the goods back and reaps big profits.

22. Ships • Ships: cog, junk, clipper, ... , steamer • Variations for pirates and variations for navy • Ship seaworthiness degrades over time. Affects speed and combat rating. Must pay to get repaired. • Ships and buildings – bought at auction house or through micro-transaction. Game master could inject new buildings or ships into the market via scheduled events (puts ships/buildings directly in auction house). • Putting ship up for auction – must have no cargo. ship remains docked at city

23. Combat • First time to 10,000 g – letters arrive in player's inbox simultaneously from pirate king and from navy admiral • Thereafter can assign any ship as navy or as pirates (can't have both navy ships and pirate ships at once however)‏. Ship must have empty cargo hold to become navy or pirates … avoids cheating (could fill up cargo, become navy, and then get to destination without any change of being attacked, then become trader and sell) • Pirates patrol oceans and target traders • Navy patrol oceans and target pirates • Random chance combat will be entered • FastU: combat resolved; winner gets gold / goods • Bounty grows on pirates upon each successful pillage? Bounty could be mechanism for Navy payoff. • Navy salary – in addition to bounty. Flat fee paid per SlowU. Amount depends on ocean region (greater $$ for more dangerous regions) • Ship seaworthiness, # of crew, crew morale affect combat outcome • Ship loses in combat: Proceeds to nearest friendly city. Immune from further attack until city is reached. (Would need path-finding from point of defeat to nearest city?? Maybe easier to just proceed to final destination unmolested ………) • Navy ship: prefix “HMS”, Pirate ship: prefix “PS”? Or maybe just different colors – on map and on ship information screen (font) to clearly ID one way or another.

24. Combat 2 • Ship stats • Combat – like NP weapons skill • Crew (size) – like HP / number of ships in NP • Or maybe Crew and Hull (strength), the product or sum of which is like NP # of ships…. • Combat outcome calculated exactly like NP • Speed – how far ships travels in one FastU • Detection • Navy = chance to find pirates • Pirates = chance to find traders and avoid navy • Traders = chance to avoid pirates

25. Combat Entry • For each region • For each Navy ship, ordered from high to low Detection skill • Calculate combat entry odds, then random draw to determine if combat takes place (ie if pirate is found and engaged) • If combat, fight pirate in region with lowest Detection skill (he couldn’t avoid the Navy ship) • For each pirate not beaten after Navy takes turn • Same process as above, but the pirates are fighting traders

26. Incentives, etc • Navy: Cannot carry cargo. Each pirate ship has a $$ bounty based on that pirate’s pillaging • Pirates: take traders cargo. Pirates cannot buy goods, but they can sell goods. If pirate beats trader, takes all cargo it can carry; rest is dumped overboard. If pirate’s cargo full, keep most valuable cargo as determined by prices of port last visited by pirate. • Pirates, navy, and traders should be able to see ALL ships in any region, and their destinations. Then traders can see where to avoid (pirate heavy) or safe areas (navy heavy), pirates/navy can see where juicy targets are. • Options for navy/pirate: • Patrol region until _______ (time limit, ship wear and tear, cargo X% full …), then return to starting port • Chase ship _____ (pick from global list of ships) until ____ (date, destination reached). Navy uses this to defend traders (either own or contract out to other players via PM, forum, auctionhouse), pirate uses this to single out juicy trader target • Trader incentive: way to make the most $$; expeditions • Separate quest lines for pirates / navy • Players will probably have traders + pirates or traders + navy and not exclusively traders.

27. Artifacts • Assigned to a ship (or building); affect stats of that ship only. • Permanently melded to that ship – “Bind on Equip” • Only one artifact of each type per ship. Can put a new one on, but old is destroyed. • Random chance to find on expeditions • Can buy/sell on player market or buy with micro-trans (up to a certain level)‏ • Could have different “drop rate” per type for each expedition site … and it could change with time. Ie - “Go to the Amazon now, good drop rates for muskets”

28. Expedition Ideas • First cut: just have a random chance every FastU that an Artifact will be found. Time spent exploring damages ship and crew morale, strength … limits time ship can explore before heading back to city to re-supply. • Varies per Expedition locale: rate of ship damage (higher to reflect more “difficult” expeditions), chance to find what type of artifact (higher chances to find better artifacts at more difficult expeditions.) • Idea 1 – collaborative fiction. Choose-your-own adventure, players can add a branch to the story. Amazon-type votes (“Like”, “Don’t Like”) used to refine story (give random # of choices). Strength of artifact won/found varies with how the voting goes • Idea 2 – buried treasure, grid map of area and choose where to explore/dig.

29. Design Decisions • Cannot change ship’s course once ship has set sail. If players could change course, you need to implement path finding, and players would want more finely detailed zoomable maps • Only change in course is due to combat defeat. Defeated ship is immune from further attack and will proceed to the nearest port. • Scrapped: being able to “see” ships within your ships’ visual range, but what’s the point if you can’t do anything about it (ie take evasive maneuvers) • Then people would want auto-evasive maneuvers, etc. … • Scrapped: using Google Maps, but there are issues with a for-pay site, and with microtransactions whether HS would qualify or not is unknown. • Scrapped: changing weather in ocean regions that would affect ship speed, combat entry odds, and combat. Seems unnecessary at this point. • Scrapped: any taxes (on buying/selling goods, or property taxes on buildings) – taxes aren’t fun. Can get same money-sucking-out-of-game-world effect with ship repairs.

30. Fun factor – why will people play? • Competition: trying to get the most $, trying to be most powerful pirate / navy • Publish lists: Top 100 Richest players, Most Notorious Pirates, Most Valiant Navy • Achievements/ “medals” – got $X, visited Y ports/regions, won Z combats …. • Problem with this motivation when player population is small … no one to compete with…. • Social aspect • Be sure to add forums, PM • Customization • “paint” for ships • Different colors of artifacts: “Red/Blue/Green Tarnished Compass”, all have the same stats. But if you equip X Red artifacts, you get some kind of a bonus • Could have an RPG element, with player stats, portrait, age; can marry and have kids; when player character ages he dies and oldest son takes his place; can view family tree and each generation’s achievements …. • Exploration • Expeditions • Quests – historical and educational, but also with a sense of humor • Must be easy to get started and easy to log in for 10 minutes and do business once-a-day! Need clean UI, distinctive art style… Browser based game truism: “players need a positive reaction in the first 30 seconds”

31. Tutorial • Maybe have a very small map, separate from the rest of the game, where players start – complete a “prologue” that introduces the basic trading concepts. No combat, just trading. Maybe something like 3 cities on a lake somewhere. Accelerate passage of time when the player sets a destination. Quests: buy X low in city 1, sell X high in city 2; buy Y low in city 2, sell Y high in city 3 • Storyline hook – orphan working for trader uncle, he sends you to the lake to do business. Then you join him on your first big journey, to some city (in the starter area). Then he disappears – you are on your own. (Finding out what happened to him could be quest subject) • After tutorial, maybe all players should start in the same city in a relatively safe region where there are a lot of cities a short distance away – ie Mediterranean or Carribean. Then the wait time for travel won’t be so bad.

32. Path Planning • Use high res map of world. Mark all water white, all land black • Get coordinates of each city • For each city i • For each city j • Use A* or similar algorithm to find series of waypoints that will go from i to j without treading on any black pixels • Save waypoints as the route between i and j • Above algorithm is all offline. In game, just access the database of waypoint routes.

33. To do • List of cities: world positions, sailing distances between them, goods production, population, base/starting demand multipliers • Ship types and stats; prices • (global) standard supply and standard price for each good