The Chronicles of Nexus started out as a Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Setting that a few of my friends and I came up. It was created for epic adventures while other settings would tend to get rolled over by the powerful player characters that were created. The setting grew and grew until the Dungeons and Dragons system had difficulty containing the world. Most of us had played an MMORPG or two or three, and we all had our opinions on how those games could be better. We'd threw around the idea that wouldn't it be great if Nexus was an MMORPG. Finally, being a developer I decided to give it a try. We got together and wrote up how we would like the game to work. Obviously, we couldn't steal the Dungeons and Dragons rules even with the open gaming license. Besides, we could make the system how we wanted it to be. After a couple months, I had the basis for the rules system. It wasn't complete, but it would be flexible enough that it could be changed for system limitations and as they were tested. The system itself was fairly unique. The next step was concept art. No one I knew could draw people, and I couldn't get anyone I did know that was good at drawing to go along for the ride. At least I would have gotten things like scenes, armors, and weapons even if they couldn't draw people.
It's been a year now since I last updated the system, and I still haven't found a person to do concept art. Instead of letting this get anymore stagnant, I've decided to move forward with the game as a MUDD. This way I will be able to play test the rules system without having to worry about writing the graphics interface or choosing a graphics engine.
The project will come in three major phases or releases.
Phase I. MUD
Reminiscent of old games like Gemstone and other old MUD before there were graphic computer games. Most likely there will be inbetween phases as the system moves from a MUD to a 2D Engine.Phase II. 2D Engine
The interface will be similar to games like Link and the original Ultima series.Phase III. 3D Engine
This is in the distant future, but perhaps with a community developed during previous phases this might be possible.It might be a crazy idea, but I am hoping the make it possible that the different versions from the different phases be able to interact with each other. I had thought about making the client open source. There is some danger to this for hacking the server and being able to steal other users login information, so I still need to consider this option.
Though I do intend to make it so that users can host their own servers. I haven't decided how to structure this. Most likely, the latest and full featured servers will be only available to the official server, while the free (or possibly paid) private servers will be limited. While I don't expect to become a millionaire off this project, I would like be compensated for my time if it becomes a black hole for my time. Either that will be done through paid support or paying for a license with support up to a certain amount. The official server(s) would not necessarily be supported through a monthly or annual fee. In game items and money could be sold for real money. This would be more necessary than the server fees, because I wouldn't necessarily be able to pay for the hosting out of my own pocket if it becomes large enough.
Even if the client isn't open source, I have plans for plug-ins. I haven't used them myself, but I hear that the World of Warcraft plug-ins make the client much more useful. Though I am not against the automation of repetitive, but I don't think everything should be automated. It takes away from the game. Levels and skills should be earned.
Notebook
