My inspiration is a basic RTS game, like Age of Empires, with also sim-like features. Dynamic in that players affect growth for better or worse.
Initially the world has no towns or NPCs to interact with. Players need to build it all. Keep in mind, plots are 10x10 now.
Here is a kind of walk thru...
The first thing players need to do is build a Town Hall. Find a plot, clear it out, goto Build tab, select Town Hall, then click Build button. It will popup asking for a city name. Enter it, hit OK. Then it places a single "building" item (maybe a construction sign?) in the middle of the plot. The system checks to make sure the name is not in use plus no other town hall is within a range, say 2 sectors. Maybe it checks that its plot and surrounding is all flat?
Players double click on the "building sign" item and it opens build tab and gives info like what resources are needed and how much work is needed to build it. Plus it shows the name. Names need approval from 5 players. So an approve, dis-approve button is there for the name. Towns can be rename-able later after built too I guess, with a vote or via admin then can be locked.
Player sees a town hall needs 100 wood plank and 25 nails (any ore type). They drag 10 planks from their inventory to the sign and gain some Prestige. Eventually, enough resources put into the "build sign" then work can be done. It requires 1000 work to complete. Player uses hammer on the sign with carpentry and does 1 work per stamina per real second. Maybe for every 10 skill, 1 extra work point. So carpentry of 20, does 3 points of work per second, per stamina. Doing work also gains prestige.
After 2618763 real hours, the Town Hall building is complete, assuming 5 other players approved the name. The system adds the town hall map (made by an admin in an editor) to the 10x10 plot. Oh, and buildings can be 20x20 or any size really. So maybe a town hall is better as 20x20 so it has meeting space, life stone, job/quest board and stuff. Then the system adds an NPC to run the town hall. NPC would be dynamically named and can be killed but respawn like players and can gain XP and level up. But if their life stone is destroyed... they are perm dead.
At this point, all other buildings are strictly placed, meaning they follow a pattern.
- Like the front door must be connected to a road.
- Must be in certain range of town hall.
- Must buy a building deed (roads and other non-shops are free) to be able to start building but when done, you own the building and can rent it out to NPC or sell it or run it your self
So player is like all "yeah, me good, me build more" so they move to the front of the town hall and open build tab, find road (free to build) and click Build. It shows that it requires 20 stone and 250 work. They put 20 stone in and then use masonry to build a road. BTW, roads reduce stamina cost when running.
Then they go buy a town deed and go south of the road. Open build tab, find General Store, click build. It checks road and town requirements then takes your deed and adds the Building sign. You own it but others can put in supplies and work to earn prestige... maybe... maybe it a rights thing then that the player can control. The General Store requires 30 wood plank and 10 nails for the 10x10 plot. The player gives the resources and does the work and the General Store map gets added. No NPC added yet.
Player clicks on Land tab and sees the General Store listed. They click on it and info is displayed like money earned, items in stock (nothing now), items to buy and the max price, money in register, etc. Player can manage stock and prices and hire/fire NPC, rent it out or sell it. Player clicks on hire NPC and finds an NPC with a decent Barter skill and hires them. The system adds the NPC to the shop. They double click NPC on the map and "sells" over a bunch of food items for free since they the owner. Player checks the Land tab and sets the price for the food and also gives it some money and set it to buy food at 10% of the value.
OK, so I am totally projectile vomiting my idea out but you get the idea of what I am shooting for. Players would also not be the only customers... NPC would buy/sell crap too. I don't know if they would walk around doing it but some kinda dynamic NPC need of players is my goal. Depending on how the players support a town would determine NPC growth. NPCs would also come on their own and interact.
This I think is a huge, radical idea, that I think would separate RPGWO from the millions of other online RPGs.
... or I can put my head down and sleepy sleep.