I’m very excited to share with you Meishin Tale, a project i’ve been working one for more than a year now ;
You like adventure, action and mysteries ? You’ve always dreamed of traveling into a luxurious island filled with a deep past and a future for you to shape ? Meishin Tale is made for you !
What is it ?
Meishin Tale is a PC video game providing an immersive 1st/3rd person fantasy gameplay with a solo RPG progression style. In a world inspired by medieval Asian and Western imagery, the player embodies his own avatar and is free to move and interact as he/she wishes.
The player will be immersed in a story reflecting some of the debates of the modern world, such as environmental protection and cultural integration, through the interactions of two main factions: the Wu Dynasty and the Kardheim. Story and Lore elements will be keys to enlighten the player over the game changing choices he/she will have to make ; Seek historical background, current situation, but also on arts, religions, customs and traditions to better understand what’s really at stake. Or don’t ! And follow your gut as you please.
I’d love your feedback on the following gameplay element/mechanic i’m implementing in Meishin Tale ; The Relations and Reputation system
Relations between factions as well as with the player (Reputation) can evolve throughout the game, impacting not only the player socially but the whole game dynamic.
I was thinking of something a bit more complex than the usual :
“i’ve done a quest for your faction, so my reputation for your faction rises”
to add more depth to player reputation and link it to the overall factions politics, so it would be :
“I’ve done a quest for your faction, so all my reputations changes depending on current political scene”
This is how i’m thinking to implement this (quite an easy way); Factions Relationships
Each faction feelings towards other factions is represented by a ratio (ranging -100% to 100%), which can be represented in a matrix (see Reputation Mechanic below), in short :
If faction A ratio towards B is 100%, faction A admires or is deeply bound to faction B
If faction A ratio towards B is -100%, faction A wants to rip guts of faction B
The factions relationship Matrix is global, each weights can be updated during play to reflect on player actions or game events (i.e. update the political scene).
Reputation
Player has reputations towards each factions. It represents how the player is socially perceived by that faction (pretty classic in a RPG), illustrated :
How to read : If player gains 100 reputation from Guisi (from a quest for example), he earns in reality (from line Guisi) :
60 reputation for the Wu Dynasty
70 reputation for WuYin
20 reputation for BingYin
60 reputation for KiaYin
Afterward, if the player talks to a NPC affiliated with KiaYin, this NPC will consider our player has 60 reputation.
Therefor :
A high positive weight symbolizes tight political links : Views of both parties are synced, players action (positive or negative) will have the same impact on both parties reputation.
A low positive weight symbolizes a low political links and/or distrust between the 2 parties. Player’s action for 1 party will not much impact his reputation for the 2nd party.
A negative weight symbolizes clans in oppositions (eventually at war) : For example if GuiSi to BingYin weight is -20%, a posit ive reputation gain for GuiSi will result in a negative reputation for BingYin.
An Asymmetrical weight can symbolizes :
a momentary dysfunction from a party (that party is cut from reality, or it’s focus is elsewhere)
a party trait, for example :
BinYin does not care about other clans.
Wu Dynasty, as the leading organisation, is paying extra attention to clans
An old grudge held by one party over another
I’d love to know what you think about ; - The gameplay idea itself : Do you like it ? No ? Why ? - What do you think of this approach ? Do you see better suited approach ?
It reminds of GTA 2 and the reputation with the gangs.
I think it’s a very good idea as long as it really impacts the gameplay, rewards and some other things, but is it feasible in a nice (not rushed nor approximate) manner? Starting with so many factions, it all looks a lot whereas there it seems there is a lot of work left in so many aspects.
It sort of reminds me of Peter Molyneux and his promises that we’re still waiting to pop (out of a bunny’s *ss? ). Hm… that brings back bad memories, some of my youth’s broken dreams. Damn you, Molyneux!
I wish the teaser showed a bit of gameplay instead of some (too fast) traveling camera.
The screenshots look good, I hope we’ll be shown more very soon!
Speaking of this reputation mechanics, it’s technically easy to implement (and hassle free).
However Indeed then its all about the concrete gameplay consequences for the player.
I was thinking mostly (no big innovation here) :
Social impacts : NPCs behaviors will change towards player (Attacking on sight, Dialogues adaptation to different levels, impacts on vendor’s prices, etc)
Progress impacts : Quests will be rendered available or not
Skills impacts : Skills specializations (in particular some magic schools specializations between 2 core elements) will only be available at certain levels of reputation towards associated factions / sub factions.
And with the above mechanic, Player privileges/penalties will automatically be linked to “the political scene”.
Of course it would be terrific to add special events triggered upon relations changes, or triggering those relation changes (but, as you said, we’ll see that later :p).
Duly noted for the teaser, i’ll focus my next video on the gameplay itself !
Thanks a lot for your feedback, I’ll remember to indeed keep my eyes on the ball !
No big innovation, but to me those are cool features. And in a way, it makes sense, as a member of a society, to see that one can access only past a certain level of knowledge/experience/ or circle of acquaintances.
Also, and it unfortunately is happening even in big games, the fact that the NPC/enemies know (almost) all about the player either from afar or by sort of magic is a problem. I’m referring to your “Social impacts”.
Even in our connected world, one can barely identify a famous serial killer if one meets him, whereas he’s been on the news and billboards for weeks or more. So how, in an “underdeveloped” world, could an entire faction know about one member of another group without having ever met him. One can have gathered information, but there is a gap between the facts and when one encounters the actual deal. And that’s considering the situation without any disguise!
I know it sounds nitpicky, but that’s what makes - to me at least - the difference between a rushed game (or one just made to make moolahs - yes, most of the AAA games) and a “real” game, in which the player will feel immersed.
It’s like in politics: we know that is going to be as usual (=so-so) with whoever is coming next, but no one would spit on an individual who’d change our world in a better way and put new standards.
Hum, now i can’t wait to pitch you the Fame mechanics that goes with that reputation system
(it’s basically a reputation diffusion system that would allow to define well connected areas or on the contrary secluded ones, introducing a new gameplay option for very sneaky players )
But first let me share with you some more elements of the gameplay currently implemented with a quick walkthrough :
In this first part i’m showing basic mechanics :
Character Controls
Abilities
Items interactions
Character system (i.e. the stats)
I’d really love to have some more feedbacks if you have some !
The team has grown ; We are now 4 people working on the project (7 if you include casual helpers!) and we’re still looking for a game level designer who can work in Unity !