Progression Design (Jamal Munir/1700694)

The progression within this hub will be focused on a linear levelling path. With the atmosphere and history of this hub being that of a city focused mainly on self-governance and acting as an open hub for Gifted, players will have their progression here centred heavily on the underlying culture of drug use and black markets. Because of aspect to the city’s culture, this hub will instead act less as a typical city hub where questing is undertaken purely to unlock areas and to strengthen yourself, but instead to indulge the player character in the culture and the city’s good, in an almost tourist-like fashion. Strengthening bonds through questing with NPCs or helping them out will provide benefits not just through typical XP gains, but also through access to things such as shady auctions, back-alley marketplaces and even being invited into the homes of NPCs.

With this focus on diving into the culture of a foreign city, bonding with the NPCs there and using this bond to wedge yourself further into this quite decadent yet small city is where the sense of progression will lie here. Alongside the typical levelling meter to determine your experience points, the player must also keep track of the bond levels they have with quest-giver NPCs. How the player performs on these side-quests will determine how this bond meter is affected. Failing or cancelling the quest after acceptance with damage the bond you have an NPC, which in turn may lock a player out of an item marketplace or auction tied to that character. There will be other methods to increasing bonds with an NPC, including simply engaging in conversation with them, giving them items they prefer or answering questions on their likes and dislikes (which will be mentioned in conversations texts). Bond rewards for quests will also be time-dependent, so leaving the hub or not completing the quest after a certain time threshold may yield very little reward.

This character-focused progression will add a layer of personality to the city and its people, with a much more personal progression than the typical “Talk to NPC, Navigate to Area, Complete Objective, Report Completion” gameplay loop that many MMOs tend to fall into. This will add gameplay variety through the mechanic of bond levels, urgency through the unconscious time limit and attachment to these NPCs.

The NPCs, markets and the bonds surrounding them will also be affected by the mission design and linear narrative that progresses through these missions. As the player character becomes embroiled within the politics of the city hub and the factions within it, certain NPCs heavily tied to certain factions will have their view of you affected by specific events in the story. Whilst these NPCs will not be integral or mentioned in the narrative or main missions themselves, interacting with them and engaging with the characters will add small branches. For example, an NPC may refuse to speak to you again or may even be killed in the climax of the narrative missions through fighting for the opposing forces, but if your bond is high enough you may be able to convince them to remain friendly or to not fight. This would allow the players to have an impactful choice, without impacting the overall narrative, level progression or mission design. With player to player trading included in the game too, any players that do allow their NPCs to be killed, thus losing access to specific auctions or marketplaces, could still have an avenue in which to acquire gear/items that were unique to that specific part of the game world.