What would a good family-system be?

[Mikodite]

Hello. I was once an active member of the site. I'm thinking of being active again, but am not sure where to start.

Meanwhile, I'm also an aspiring game developer, and I am thinking of making an MMORPG with an insanely heavy emphasis on roleplaying. It would be modeled based on this now-dead browser MMO that, despite its flaws, in fact was able to facilitate free-form roleplaying in a massive world while using common mechanics seen in typical roleplaying video games to maintain balance and prevent god-moding.

The dilemma that I am facing in the design phase involves incorporating a family system. The idea being is that upon signing up a player is automatically assigned to a 'family'. When assigned to a family, they are given a last name and relatives. They can't leave a family, though they don't have to hang out with family members if they don't want to. After all: family.

Course, I'm not sure how to do this. Should the player start play as a child and be assigned as a player's 'kid', and over time age? There would be flaws in this, like how should children aka new players be assigned to veteran players? Would 'female' players request to get pregnant and then wait until a new player signs up to have a child? What should happen if no one wants a kid when a new player signs up? Do we have orphans?

Or should the player simply be given a family name and have the family work more like a 'clan' or 'guild'?

At the beginning, where there will only be a handful of players, how should families be assigned then? What happens if a player quits the game?

Of course, there will be a marriage mechanic. If they get married do they join another family? What happens to their name, if anything? Because I am a lazy programmer, there will be gay marriage (and more likely than not monogamy, again, laziness), so how should a request for a kid from a gay couple work, if that should be allowed (the idea being they are blood relatives versus adopted)?

There will be a race mechanic. Due to laziness interracial marriage will be allowed, but what race would a kid from an interracial marriage be? Should there be half-races? How should half-races look like? What would happen if they request a kid?

Yeah, see my dilemma? I'm curious if anyone has any ideas for me. Thanks.

I plan to have a race system in the game.

[ArchMage]

Isn't that uhm... weird?

I saw alot of family family stuff on other forums, mainly on those who are stocked with alot of members. I think its just weird but I wanna try it out just for experience and all that jazz.

[Dudel]

The family system in FTO was god awful. O.o Why would you want to replicate that in any fashion? It's kinda funny. I know Lumin (the game's developer) from Cantr, where the guy even got the idea. I started RPing via Cantr, actually. x2


ANYWAY... Faery Tale Online's family system had some flaws the last time I looked at it, the primary one being the fact that players were limited during the "aging process." The whole baby deal, and the direct implementation of pregnancy (and sex by technicality) limits the player base a fair bit. Another problem was, indeed, the fact that other players had direct control over other players during that infancy stage. I got stuck with this horrible name, into a forced religion.

There's RPing and then there's... that. People shouldn't be forced to RP things they don't want to.

But onto the actual questions:

At the beginning, where there will only be a handful of players, how should families be assigned then? What happens if a player quits the game?

A HUGE problem with FTO was the birth queue. With a small handful of players, you stick them ALL into a single area, and let them branch out if they want to branch out. If a player quits, their character(s) die?


Edit: Add additional races as your player base grows, NOT before. You stretch out your RPers and limit them something horrible. If this is to be a "real world" then you have to let it grow like a real world.

Of course, there will be a marriage mechanic. If they get married do they join another family? What happens to their name, if anything? Because I am a lazy programmer, there will be gay marriage (and more likely than not monogamy, again, laziness), so how should a request for a kid from a gay couple work, if that should be allowed (the idea being they are blood relatives versus adopted)?

There will be a race mechanic. Due to laziness interracial marriage will be allowed, but what race would a kid from an interracial marriage be? Should there be half-races? How should half-races look like? What would happen if they request a kid?

In an RP encouraged world, a direct "mechanic" for marriage is taking from RP. Forcing mechanics on top of players for kids/birth/etc, I'd make "coupling" a very generic kind of thing, not specific to gender, where all species are essentially hermaphroditic, and all species can mate with one another with a flat 50/50 chance of offspring being either the Mother or the Father. Adding in "half breeds" is code complication, and requires "half breeds of half breeds," etc. It gets ugly, FAST.

I would not state who got pregnant, specifically, but only as a couple. "Yadda Yadda and Bladdy Blah are now pregnant." Let RPers decide who's got the baby... or if they are adopting. Again, RP-centric world should focus on giving players freedom. (I feel like I"m talking to Lumin all over again. O.o?)

---------- Post added at 02:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:48 AM ----------

Missed This, I did...

Course, I'm not sure how to do this. Should the player start play as a child and be assigned as a player's 'kid', and over time age? There would be flaws in this, like how should children aka new players be assigned to veteran players? Would 'female' players request to get pregnant and then wait until a new player signs up to have a child? What should happen if no one wants a kid when a new player signs up? Do we have orphans?

There should be an age cut/off. Something that players can easily play that doesn't limit their first few days of the game. It's best not to turn off possible first time players. A learning curve on game mechanics in an effort to FORCE RP is NEVER a good idea.

12-16 being the age bracket tossed around on the FTO forums, that I remember.

"Pregnancy" should be nothing more than a "request for new players/characters." It's basically a flag to the system that the players in area X want more people. ...so they go in a list of "possible birth points" when a new character is created.

Simplicity is key.

Or should the player simply be given a family name and have the family work more like a 'clan' or 'guild'?

Family name, or Surname sure. Any other names should be strictly up to the player who is actually playing that character.