Grassy Map Expansion & Gang Points
 

Hello Ol'Westerners! It's time for another update. But first, I wanted to get everyone's feedback and opinions on this before we continue. The reason for this is so that everything is balanced and everything that should be included is included.

I am working very hard on re-leveling the top left portion of the map so that it's covered in grass and trees. The reason for doing so is because I thought "Hey, in the west it wasn't all desert, was it? I know there's grass somewhere!". Now because we're putting in grass and rivers, that opens up a whole new range of skill and job possibilities!

We plan to release 4 new skills, and many more, in the new future. Two skills that will be released alongside this grassy map expansion are Woodcutting and Firemaking. Fishing and Cooking will be released shortly after this initial release, as well as other skills. There will be several types of trees scattering the grassy areas which can be cut and used to level up, similar to mining. Each tree will require a different level and will reward you different amounts of EXP. Same for Firemaking, there are different types of fires you'll be able to make depending on which logs you use. Possibly after the fire is lit for a certain amount of time, it will disappear and ashes will be left in it's place and can be used to craft something later on? Do we use Flint & Steel to light to fires? Let us know what you think will work best!

Aside from skills, we plan to release a reward system for gang activities. The reward will be "Gang Points", or possibly another name used for it. These points can be gained into a central bank which the leader has access to. The points are rewarded per-hour for each hour you hold a base, or possibly several at once for other gang activities which can be made in the future. These points will be used in the "Gang Shop" (Also need a new name for this). We have yet to determine what items can be purchased or redeemed in the shop.

Now that you all have the details, get creative! We need a new name for the grassy village, and new names for the points which you receive and for the shop. I'm also curious how you guys think Firemaking should work, as well as Woodcutting! In addition to that, any other skills that you all think should be added, elaborate on it, though it's best to focus mainly on Firemaking and Woodcutting to start off with so that we can add these in and release the new grassy map as soon as possible!

http://i.imgur.com/tH8OKYY.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/DQdaOVz.jpg


We also need ideas on what should be included in the new town, which is the main purpose for this thread. So please, give any and all ideas so that we include everything in the new town which should be there:)

Thank you everybody :)

This update seriously has me hyped! :D

Awesome! I can't wait for more skills to be released in Ol' West. The Grass Map looks really great right now!

Yes yes yes! Those trees will be replaced soon with new ones which can be cut as well.

First of all, I'd like to express how happy I am towards your efforts(and other staff members) in providing great updates.

I really love the idea of having different trees to cut. There are so many possibilities with having different types of logs; it can be used for different types of recipes - used to build furniture, different colored furniture - different colored weapons etc!

Cooking will also be a really nice idea! There should skills for cooking, too. For example, different levels to cook certain types of food! And it should involve the player more, for example - adding a GUI for cutting carrots with a knife etc :D

For creating fires, flint and steel would be a good idea - and a GUI should come up to choose what to put in your fire, plus there would a pretty flame behind the GUI crackling away!
But would it be campfires, or fires in houses? Such as furnaces? And what's the point of having different types of fires?

The gang point system seems like a really great idea. Although i'm not much of a 'baser' myself, i'm sure other people would benefit from this. My idea is if a gang reaches a certain amount of hours, for example 1k - they would recieve a huge point reward in which the leader can choose to give out to his members for them to choose what they want, or spend it all on a 1k hat( the hat obviously needs to be approved)

Names 'n' stuff:
I'm not really creative, but here are some ideas
How about:
-Oasis
-Oasis Resort
-Oasis Corner
-Oasis Village
-Oasis Haven? (Haven because cowboys and Indians are free to roam the town regardless where it is)
You get the idea. Anything with oasis in it, lol. I'm sure someone can come up with something better XD

Gang points? I actually have no idea. How about.... Beans? I'll let someone else think of it.

Now, for the stuff included in the town. Considering it's a healthy, green town - there should be the usual shops. 1-2 hat shops and weapon shops.

A few NPC's would be great. NPC's that provide jobs - dailies. Such as 'I need 30 panned gold minerals. Come back to me when you're done.' These provide rewards, of course. There should be something for cowboys and Indians. Maybe include other wildlife? Such as chickens?

A few places to hang out: Benches - Chairs. Simple stuff. ( Oh, you've already updated the post with a picture)

Since it's more of a green area, there should be markets, stalls. Now should also be the time to introduce more crops/plants to grow and sell - and also cook!

Fishing: If you remove that area with trees around the lake, and expand it a bit more - it can be used to provide a place for people to go fishing? I know it's the desert 'n' all, but it'd be an interesting kind of job.

Well, thanks for reading. These are just the ideas I have.

It looks great!! ^0^ Awesome job! What if there was a pet shop in it? For people to buy and possibly have roam around their house :)

Just some of my ideas:

- Since the new expansion will introduce new images (mushrooms, trees, etc.)
this should be be included in a new furniture shop.

- Should have a new shop where you can buy new house packs (that are like grassy).

- Can craft new foods from the new plants being introduced.

- Outside base? Could be like a maze made out of bushes. Multiple entrances leading to the vault.

- Flint and steel could work for lighting fires. There could be a crafting recipe for it, using an iron ingot and a rock or something. Then maybe it would also use tinder to light? You could find tinder as tufts of grass and cut it with your knife like any other plant. Then you could craft the tinder, flint and steel, and wood log together (portable crafting?) and it would make a fire. The flint and steel would use up durability, and the tinder and log would be consumed.

- As for fishing, there could be a shop nearby that sells different kinds of fishing rods. Better rods have a higher chance of catching rare fish. Then you can either sell the fish to fishermen or cook them.

- Different cooking recipes is always an option too. If you combine several food items and then cook them, it could either come out to be an actual food recipe or just a pile of inedible goop. Once you craft a successful recipe then it automatically gets added to your list of food recipes. That way people will have to experiment and try different food combinations for themselves.

- I'm not very good with naming places, but maybe Paxton or Pax Valley could work. Pax is latin for peace, and this little grass valley looks like a peaceful place. If not, maybe something like Shady Grove, Oak Creek, or Brick Valley. ;)

- I don't really spend my time doing gang stuff, but I think the word "posse" would make more sense for this era. Also, I think credits sounds better than points.

Really looking forward to this alpho. Good job!
Maybe betry picking where there are random bushes in the grassy part and different berries can spawn on the. Raspberries blackberries, strawberries and blue berries. Just an idea :p

Add a crafting recipe for paper and a crafting recipe for a random crafting recipe.

Example- 4 wood arranged in a square gets you a sheet of paper, 1 coal next to 3 sheets of paper placed in a vertical line gets you any crafting recipe at random. Say, in this example, you get a recipe for a diluted health potion, which gives health regen until fully healed, while another person might end up with the recipe for sawing off the barrel and stock on a double barrel shotgun.


Edit: I know it barely has anything to do with a fertile land, but it does have a little something to do with woodcutting.

Someone please work on a new water tile, that one is an eye sore

Gangs
 

For gangs, I think there should be two separate parts of it. Your gang will be neutral once it starts. Basically, you can use that guild shop to choose what type of gang you want it to be. Tribe-Indians, Posse-Cowboys. You can still recruit Indians even if you are a posse if you like or vice-versa. After you choose what type of gang you are, you can only buy things from that part of the shop. If you want to switch, there would or wouldn't be a fee( your choice), but once you switch all your gang points will reset(not hours), and all your rewards will dissapear. If your gang is neutral, you can't use the shop yet.

Also, gang points shouldn't be rewarded just for basing. Perhaps gang events which reward you points if your gang wins and gang spars, every x amount of gang spars you win earns you x amount of points. Stuff like that.

Don't think firemaking should be its own skill, it was kinda pointless in RS lol

Only need two types of skills, gathering (woodcutting/mining/fishing) and crafting (fletching?/smithing/cooking) and thats good enough really, maybe more skills down the line but thats plenty for now.

Not entirely related to the OP but referring back to the skills, I think the max level needs to be looked at, the fact its 99 has obvious ties to a game we all know, there needs to be some seperation (100?)

Another skill that should be added is hunting. Right now, in the rare occurrence of finding animals that drop sellable hides, they don't do so very often, and usually the animals kill you before you can even kill one or two of them. With the addition of a hunting skill, it could be made so that higher levels of hunting increase the damage done to animals and increase the drop rate of hides.

Looks nice :o