4Game

PORTAL DESIGN

To the VH devs, well done! One of the best survival games ever.

(insert dozens of praise-worthy design elements)

Hopefully this post will be very positive. Game design is a goldilocks balance and it is a given that it is 100% impossible to please the full spectrum of player personalities. The reception of VH speaks volumes about your game design choices and you should remind yourself of this every day.

Having said this, please allow me to speak my mind on one very crucial game-play element:

Portal Design

Now faced with the harsh portal restrictions, I can report that I do not like it. I understand the gameplay implications. It ("FORCES") the players to encounter the time/space mechanics of the virtual world, rather than insta-portaling to avoid time/space.

There's got to be a better way. And there is.

Games motivate players in 2 basic ways:

Positive reinforcement and

Negative reinforcement.

The portal restrictions qualify as a "negative." There is a way to lift the portal restrictions while also requiring some required travel thru time/space. Here's how:

1) Lift all portal restrictions.

2) Retain the matching names – this is good.

3) Provide 2 kinds of portals: Master and Slave (must be player selectable)

4) Place the on/off portal switch at the Master portal.

5) Slave portals require a matching Master portal name that already exists.

6) Design a player reward for each LEVEL-N base established in a Biome X.

Why am I motivated to build another base from scratch within another biome? Because there is a very serious proverbial "carrot-on-stick" for doing so called: BASE-POINTS.

Why do I want BASE POINTS? Because the VH designers have made me an offer I can't refuse. 🙂 🙂 hint hint.

What is the total cost to construct a 2-way portal?

I must make a complete round trip thru the time/space of the game world to accomplish the links.

Step 1) Place a master portal at home base

Step 2) Travel to remote base

Step 3) Place a slave portal with same name as master.

Step 4) Travel normally back to home base.

Step 5) Engage the on/off switch.

Having paid the hard-core cost round trip time/space thru the game world, I've earned a DIVINE PLAYER RIGHT to move whatever the holy !@#$ I want thru my portal pair. If a monster raid destroys either portal, I suffer the cost of another round trip. This is genuine negative reinforcement to motivate me to PROTECT my portals. This is very fair, and it does not break the spirit of the game.

This means I can make a very serious time investment in a single well-fortified master base where ever I choose without breaking the survival nature of the game. Why? Because the excellent game-design offers a very juicy carrot on a stick that motivates me to build a swamp base for much more worthy reasons than merely proximity to "iron." Right now, the only game design motivation for building a new biome base is proximity to the native resources in that biome. Obviously the players want/need the resources, but right now the basic message from the designers is:

We offer resources as long as you allow VH to suck the time/life from your soul.

If you want your players to build bases in other biomes then implement a BASE-POINTS design (positive reinforcement) system.

Right now the portal restrictions actually prevent your non-cheating players from glorifying your game thru advanced base building; because the masochist non-cheaters cannot easily construct a glorified base as easily as the non-masochist cheaters.

As a general rule, it is a very bad idea to punish players for engaging in a normal game-play activity that glorifies the game design. Normal game play should naturally encourage players to glorify the game.

Bottom line:

Remove portal restrictions

Implement BASE-POINTS