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Disclaimer: This is strictly a thread devoted to updating my progress in making a roleplay. I have considered putting this elsewhere on site. If such action is indeed best, please inform me.
Hello everyone and anyone. Thanks for stopping by this little discussion/update thread I made. In a way, this should realistically be a means of gathering some information for an aspiring GM. But personally, I have difficulty seeing myself making a habit of showrunning RPs, I may not have the patience to do it for very long. Yet with that in mind, I reasoned that I might as well go that extra mile for the one and possibly only time I do it. But with my limited experience, I believed it wouldn’t hurt to ask for pointers or at least to be open to them. My apologies if you were expecting an original project compared to the game crossover this may ultimately be. I’m not one to put that extra bit of creativity into an experiment that could possibly (nay probably XD) fail to achieve satisfying results. I’ll see how I’m feeling by the end of it all.
A part of me wishes that I was more familiar with tabletop games, the kind with player driven narratives borne from unique or classic mechanisms. And if I’d like to put all my cards on the table, I’m only moderately more familiar with the two properties that I intend to utilize. I have grown rusty since dabbling with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, the friends I could reliably play with very much gone now. And even though Ark Survival Evolved has always interested me to this day, I’ve yet to actually purchase it for myself. I feel like it has the potential to be a very enjoyable experience to the right player, referring to one better able to meet most if not all the right conditions. Unfortunately I don’t. But perhaps this project could be my way of harnessing the time and investment I would have otherwise spent on both franchises towards something uniquely unlikely to be snitched on prior to a DMCA takedown.
Some of this may be subject to change, but as far as a general idea, I intend to center the game world around Ark Survival Evolved as a base and sort of implement as much Monster Hunter as I realistically can. What I mean is that individuals mysteriously plucked from human history are diverted into Arks, primeval habitats that play host to a wide array of species taken from all manner of time period and legend, sentenced to cohabitation under the universal aim of survival. MH monsters will be the newest manner of creature found in a newly discovered Ark, the human natives of said habitat driven to tame both land and beast in order to not just survive, but grow into self-sustaining societies.
I’ve yet to write anything absolute as regards the main story, nor have I gotten a handle on exactly how the players (whom I very much intend to be on the same side) will fit into it. The temptation is naturally there to stick closely to the MH formula of hunters moving up the ranks via the repeated tracking and dispatching of creatures, which in turn allows access of resources necessary to face off against greater foes. Yet even if those aspects are present, I would prefer them to be a supplementation to many of the features found in ASE. Monsters can be harvested for food as well as for crafting materials. Resource gathering isn’t just for the sake of keeping a plentiful stock of utility items or gear, but also in order to build structures and buildings that serve various purposes. And of course, monsters will be tamable, whether by Ark’s knockout method, hatching, or even breeding.
There is certainly something to be said for a simpler, casual approach to setting up an RP. Unfortunately, all I can think of saying is how inevitable it is to be abandoned after a month or so, particularly by me of discouragement, since player participation would be the primary thing I’d look forward to. But guessing that such a fate is common no matter the RP in question, then feasibly my motivation, the goal I work towards, should change from just GMing to making a roleplay that I want to make and have fun in the process. So to start with, I’m leaning heavily on making this all rather complicated: stats and inventory (even for tamed creatures), grid maps that will eventually encompass the entire custom Ark, persistent timekeeping including special events, just to name some key things. Everything will probably be under development for some time, but hopefully it won’t be unbearably complicated by the time it’s through.
Creatures
The idea has been for some time that the Ark would include creatures from both games. What I’d end up worrying about is that if enough can be done to make prehistoric animals a viable choice when compared with MH monsters. I apologize to those interested in a purely ASE lineup of critters, it just isn’t something I’m aiming for this time around. As it stands now, I won’t make a definitive decision on whether to focus just on MH monsters or include some ARK creatures until after I’ve built up the map for the first region to a certain point.
Stemming from a desire to discourage any player from groundlessly claiming one creature’s ability over another’s, each species will have to have their own stat chart, with a handy derivative for every singular beast in play. As you could imagine, the template alone will take a while to complete, let alone applying it to every creature that can ever appear and be tamed (plus suitable monsters can be saddled and wear armor).
Keep in mind that what follows is a very raw list that I made up off the top of my head with the help of some wikis. The first five facts themselves are based on the dossiers in ASE, followed by other information I felt were pertinent at the time. I’ll sort it out eventually.
The Game World
Not confident in my ability to draw, I am seeking out an alternative in an online map-making program named Inkarnate, its option to overlay a grid over any map one makes to be a particularly appealing option for the final product. You see, although I am considerably hesitant to give players free rein to travel about the entire Ark, right now I’m thinking of allowing a good amount of mobile flexibility in a given region of the map, eventually introducing additional regions as the story progresses. Many actions that players can perform or initiate will take a set amount of in-game time to complete, from the crafting of armor/weapons to the construction of whole buildings and other large structures. But perhaps what will be the most prominent consumer of time is travel. Ideally, every square of land that a player, group of players, or even NPC(s) pass over to get to their destination’s square will take a definite amount of in-game time to travel, a baseline that can further be modified based on how fast units are capable of traveling and how able they are to maneuver through the terrain. A group’s rate of progress may depend on its slowest member.
First on my agenda, alongside crafting lore, is making the basic overworld map. It won’t be that detailed, but it is meant to establish where every region will be in relation to each other more or less. Afterward, I’ll get started with a more detailed map of the first region, detailing environments and zones that may stretch over multiple square spaces before moving on to the smaller points of interest like cave/dungeon entrances and of course NPC settlements. In the full game, perhaps if enough players feel inclined to do so, it should reasonably be possible for resources to be pulled into making player-made settlements to serve their needs.
Player Stats and Equipment
The players will very likely have stats similar to monsters, though progression is something that will be looked into, being sure to keep its potential within reason. I’m gravitating towards the availability of all types of MH gear and utility, but special mind should be given to their capabilities as well as to the avenues from which the materials required to build them are present at particular points of the campaign.
There is a deeper matter of how in depth actions and battling will be that will carries important implications throughout the game and very much influence the sort of player this RP will attract, though the matter could rest for now as this particular system is lower on the to-do list. For now however, I’m open to suggestions and pointers if anyone has any.
As is evident or imaginable, it could be various months before I’m at the stage where I can open a real interest check. This thread will be where I’ll probably make updates about my progress, which will be slow unsurprisingly enough. First off, I’ll be working on the lore and the maps, both the overworld and the first region. Feel free to ask me questions or give me advice as the game develops.
I’m especially interested in what you may have to say about…
- If the Ark should be populated with creatures from both games or if only MH creatures should be the priority
- How player death should be handled. Respawning is pretty non-canonical as far as I can tell, but I’m willing to make the ability a personal choice upon making one’s character, with further ramifications lorewise
- The choice and nuances among different systems of fighting and decision-making on the micro level
Hello everyone and anyone. Thanks for stopping by this little discussion/update thread I made. In a way, this should realistically be a means of gathering some information for an aspiring GM. But personally, I have difficulty seeing myself making a habit of showrunning RPs, I may not have the patience to do it for very long. Yet with that in mind, I reasoned that I might as well go that extra mile for the one and possibly only time I do it. But with my limited experience, I believed it wouldn’t hurt to ask for pointers or at least to be open to them. My apologies if you were expecting an original project compared to the game crossover this may ultimately be. I’m not one to put that extra bit of creativity into an experiment that could possibly (nay probably XD) fail to achieve satisfying results. I’ll see how I’m feeling by the end of it all.
A part of me wishes that I was more familiar with tabletop games, the kind with player driven narratives borne from unique or classic mechanisms. And if I’d like to put all my cards on the table, I’m only moderately more familiar with the two properties that I intend to utilize. I have grown rusty since dabbling with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, the friends I could reliably play with very much gone now. And even though Ark Survival Evolved has always interested me to this day, I’ve yet to actually purchase it for myself. I feel like it has the potential to be a very enjoyable experience to the right player, referring to one better able to meet most if not all the right conditions. Unfortunately I don’t. But perhaps this project could be my way of harnessing the time and investment I would have otherwise spent on both franchises towards something uniquely unlikely to be snitched on prior to a DMCA takedown.
Overview
Some of this may be subject to change, but as far as a general idea, I intend to center the game world around Ark Survival Evolved as a base and sort of implement as much Monster Hunter as I realistically can. What I mean is that individuals mysteriously plucked from human history are diverted into Arks, primeval habitats that play host to a wide array of species taken from all manner of time period and legend, sentenced to cohabitation under the universal aim of survival. MH monsters will be the newest manner of creature found in a newly discovered Ark, the human natives of said habitat driven to tame both land and beast in order to not just survive, but grow into self-sustaining societies.
I’ve yet to write anything absolute as regards the main story, nor have I gotten a handle on exactly how the players (whom I very much intend to be on the same side) will fit into it. The temptation is naturally there to stick closely to the MH formula of hunters moving up the ranks via the repeated tracking and dispatching of creatures, which in turn allows access of resources necessary to face off against greater foes. Yet even if those aspects are present, I would prefer them to be a supplementation to many of the features found in ASE. Monsters can be harvested for food as well as for crafting materials. Resource gathering isn’t just for the sake of keeping a plentiful stock of utility items or gear, but also in order to build structures and buildings that serve various purposes. And of course, monsters will be tamable, whether by Ark’s knockout method, hatching, or even breeding.
Planned Features
There is certainly something to be said for a simpler, casual approach to setting up an RP. Unfortunately, all I can think of saying is how inevitable it is to be abandoned after a month or so, particularly by me of discouragement, since player participation would be the primary thing I’d look forward to. But guessing that such a fate is common no matter the RP in question, then feasibly my motivation, the goal I work towards, should change from just GMing to making a roleplay that I want to make and have fun in the process. So to start with, I’m leaning heavily on making this all rather complicated: stats and inventory (even for tamed creatures), grid maps that will eventually encompass the entire custom Ark, persistent timekeeping including special events, just to name some key things. Everything will probably be under development for some time, but hopefully it won’t be unbearably complicated by the time it’s through.
Creatures
The idea has been for some time that the Ark would include creatures from both games. What I’d end up worrying about is that if enough can be done to make prehistoric animals a viable choice when compared with MH monsters. I apologize to those interested in a purely ASE lineup of critters, it just isn’t something I’m aiming for this time around. As it stands now, I won’t make a definitive decision on whether to focus just on MH monsters or include some ARK creatures until after I’ve built up the map for the first region to a certain point.
Stemming from a desire to discourage any player from groundlessly claiming one creature’s ability over another’s, each species will have to have their own stat chart, with a handy derivative for every singular beast in play. As you could imagine, the template alone will take a while to complete, let alone applying it to every creature that can ever appear and be tamed (plus suitable monsters can be saddled and wear armor).
Keep in mind that what follows is a very raw list that I made up off the top of my head with the help of some wikis. The first five facts themselves are based on the dossiers in ASE, followed by other information I felt were pertinent at the time. I’ll sort it out eventually.
The Game World
Not confident in my ability to draw, I am seeking out an alternative in an online map-making program named Inkarnate, its option to overlay a grid over any map one makes to be a particularly appealing option for the final product. You see, although I am considerably hesitant to give players free rein to travel about the entire Ark, right now I’m thinking of allowing a good amount of mobile flexibility in a given region of the map, eventually introducing additional regions as the story progresses. Many actions that players can perform or initiate will take a set amount of in-game time to complete, from the crafting of armor/weapons to the construction of whole buildings and other large structures. But perhaps what will be the most prominent consumer of time is travel. Ideally, every square of land that a player, group of players, or even NPC(s) pass over to get to their destination’s square will take a definite amount of in-game time to travel, a baseline that can further be modified based on how fast units are capable of traveling and how able they are to maneuver through the terrain. A group’s rate of progress may depend on its slowest member.
First on my agenda, alongside crafting lore, is making the basic overworld map. It won’t be that detailed, but it is meant to establish where every region will be in relation to each other more or less. Afterward, I’ll get started with a more detailed map of the first region, detailing environments and zones that may stretch over multiple square spaces before moving on to the smaller points of interest like cave/dungeon entrances and of course NPC settlements. In the full game, perhaps if enough players feel inclined to do so, it should reasonably be possible for resources to be pulled into making player-made settlements to serve their needs.
Player Stats and Equipment
The players will very likely have stats similar to monsters, though progression is something that will be looked into, being sure to keep its potential within reason. I’m gravitating towards the availability of all types of MH gear and utility, but special mind should be given to their capabilities as well as to the avenues from which the materials required to build them are present at particular points of the campaign.
There is a deeper matter of how in depth actions and battling will be that will carries important implications throughout the game and very much influence the sort of player this RP will attract, though the matter could rest for now as this particular system is lower on the to-do list. For now however, I’m open to suggestions and pointers if anyone has any.
Moving Forward
As is evident or imaginable, it could be various months before I’m at the stage where I can open a real interest check. This thread will be where I’ll probably make updates about my progress, which will be slow unsurprisingly enough. First off, I’ll be working on the lore and the maps, both the overworld and the first region. Feel free to ask me questions or give me advice as the game develops.
I’m especially interested in what you may have to say about…
- If the Ark should be populated with creatures from both games or if only MH creatures should be the priority
- How player death should be handled. Respawning is pretty non-canonical as far as I can tell, but I’m willing to make the ability a personal choice upon making one’s character, with further ramifications lorewise
- The choice and nuances among different systems of fighting and decision-making on the micro level