Core System
World Building
Your world begins as empty sea. You paint in the land, shape its terrain, and build the settlements that give adventurers somewhere to spend, rest, and respawn. Nothing is free, so every choice is part design, part gamble.
- Start
- Open ocean
- Build
- Terrain & towns
- Cost
- Every tile counts
Painting the land
You lay down terrain by hand (grass, sand, snow), raise it into hills, and carve out the shape of your islands, or start from a randomly generated one. Each surface plays a little differently:
| Terrain | Notes |
|---|---|
| Water | open sea: only boats cross it |
| Grass, sand & snow | the walkable land your world is built on |
| Mountains | impassable: natural walls and barriers |
| Roads | paths adventurers prefer to travel along |
Roads are more than decoration: adventurers favour them, so a good road network quietly steers traffic where you want it.
Every tile is a bet
Land and buildings cost money you're spending up front, betting that the world you make will draw enough subscribers to pay it back. Overbuild and you go broke before the players arrive; underbuild and they leave for want of things to do. Early on, that tension is the game.
Towns & cities
Settlements are the heart of a populated world: somewhere to shop, rest, and gather. They come in tiers:
| Settlement | Offers |
|---|---|
| Town | an inn to rest at, vendors, quests, and travel |
| City | everything a town does, plus an auction house |
Resting at a settlement leaves an adventurer recovered and in better spirits, and a city does it better than a town.
Islands & graveyards
Land only joins up edge to edge: two shores that merely touch at a corner stay separate islands, each its own little world adventurers can't simply walk between (that's what docks are for). And wherever players fight, they'll need a graveyard nearby to respawn at, so death isn't a long trek back. Where you put these things shapes how your whole population flows.
This article describes MMOS v0.1 behaviour. The game is in active development, so systems will grow and change. Expect this to be revised as it does.