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Roadmap

Hello,

in the last weeks we thought about new features and releases in The West. The result is this roadmap, which is only a pattern. None of the undermentioned features will be implemented for sure and it is possible that we will also impement other big features.

Happy reading!

Chat
It is possible to chat in the West. The chat will be placed at the bottom of the screen design. There will be three different chat rooms.

  • Town chat
  • County chat
  • Fort battle chat (as soon as a fort battle starts)

The chat is already usable on the beta, but it will be enhanced further. Insults can be reported.

Health points and dying chances
Players hurt themselves more often and worse during work. Duels also cost more health points. Passing out will be weakened a bit. Energy will not be lowered as much, the duel block will be lifted.

Reasons:

  • More excitement during work
  • Use of food and healing elixiers

Bank Limit
There is no bank limit anymore. The level of the bank sets the amount that can be deposited daily. Players can deposit in other town for a fee (for example 20%)
Reasons:

  • Important for back pack limit
  • Important for dueling players without towns

Stores now sell new items also to foreigner (new)
The stores now also sell the items of the two highest levels to foreign players.

Reasons:

  • Shopping gets easier
  • Limits useless town switches

Duels on the map
Players are no longer attacked using the saloon, but using the map. It is always used the location where the player is right now. There is also a search function on the minimap to find duelable players. A player is attackable in a specific location until he has reached a new location. The duel requirements will be adjusted slightly so that there will be more potential dueling partners.

Reasons:

  • It is easier for new players to attack other players using the map
  • Players can quickly add a duel right after a job
  • Possibly more duels
  • Ambush are possible
  • Speed becomes more relevant (Dueler bonus)

NPC Duels
There will be new locations on the map to start duels against NPCs. Those give experience points and money. New locations will be available for higher dueling levels (ruffians, bandit camps, …)

Reasons:

  • More duels
  • More variety between jobs
  • Players that do not want to do PvP can still do duels

Ambush
Players are protected by foreign town members on the same field. If a player is dueled in a location where other town members are present, each town member fires one shot at the attacker. This only happens for the defender.

Reasons:

  • Towns can stand strong against duels by protecting each other
  • Builders can protect each other
  • Strong players can help their weaker friends

Unlimited building levels
A building in the town (like the church) can now be constructed to virtually endless size, and give minimal advantages.
Reasons:

  • Something to do for builders

Money and luck
Jobs with high earning potential will give less money. The chance to find items is lowered, but the items found will be more valuable
Reasons:

  • There is too much money in the game (As the game goes on)
  • Higher luck is desired by a lot of communities, but it has to stay in relation to the earnings.

Wanted
It is possible to put a bounty on another players head. Once the player is defeated in a duel the player receives the bounty. For each bounty offered a fee is paid to the system. Beat in a duel: 25% fee, killed 50% fee.
Reasons:

  • More duels
  • Good new task for duels
  • Workers can defend themselves

Level 100+ and new jobs
The Levels 100+ will be available. The hall of fame will be redone. There will also be new jobs.

Reasons:

  • Player wish
  • Something to do after level 99

Use of products
The inventory will have a „mouth“ into which items can be placed. They will be consumed by this and the player receives a bonus. At first the bonuses will be only on health points, later on there will be other bonuses, but never energy bonuses. In the general store you can buy health elixirs for a few dollars. They will give the same bonuses.
Reasons:

  • Consumption of products
  • Pulling money back out of the world
  • In the long term boosters might be possible (for example ammunition to raise the duel damage temporarily)

Buying skill points
It will be possible to buy skill points for money. The coses rise quickly: for example 50, 100, 200, 400,…
Reasons:

  • Uses money from the game
  • Workers that work for money get more out of it

Backpack limit
There will be a limit for the items that can be carried in the backpack. This limit can be raised amongst others by horses. If more items are carried than allowed the player moves slower.
Reasons:

  • The bank becomes more important
  • Less items in the game
  • Important for item trade
  • Very good for the servers

Item trade
Players can trade items with each other. Each player can put offers and requests into the player profile. At first it won’t be possible to trade items for items, only sale for money will be possible. Each item will have a minimum and a maximum Price.

Examples:
Request: Grey bowler for 260 dollars
Offer: Fancy hat for 800 Dollars
To trade items the players have to be at the same location. It is also possible to send items using the pony express (for nuggets).
The inventory limit will come at the same time as the item trade.

Poker
You can play poker against other players. A small part of the money played for goes to the bank. The bank always wins .
Reasons:

  • Something to do during waiting periods
  • Meet new players
  • Requested by players

New Duel system
The current system (attack zones, dodging) will be replaced by a new system.
Each duel round has one attack and one movement action. The higher the dueling level, the more rounds are fought. (3-12 rounds).

Attack action: The attack action is be default a hit/shot. With added skills other actions can be learned.
Examples:

  • Hard hit: +50% damage, 20 Vigor
  • Double shot: Two shots, lower chance of a hit, 20 Reflex, 15 shot
  • Curtain fire: Shots keep enemy at a distance, less damage, 40 shot
  • Storm attack: No penalty for wrong distance, Stamina 40
  • Stunning hit: Enemy misses the next round with 50% chance, Vigor 50
  • Kick: Lowers chance for a hit by 50%, only works in close combat

Movement action: Each round also has a movement action. They allow the players to move to the optimal distance to the opponent and by that to cause more damage or to dodge an attack. With added skills other actions will be available

Examples:

  • Move to close combat. No requirements
  • Jump to side: +20% dodging chance, 20 Reflex, 10 dodging
  • Yell: Attacks hit 30% worse, Charisma 40
  • Ridicule: Opponent forgets his attack action and only does a normal hit/shot, Charisma 50
  • Change weapon: changes the weapon, Dexterity 50
  • Unbelievable Reflex: In this round no one scores a hit, Mobility 20, Reflex 200
  • Stay Cool: Verspotten und Brüllen drehen sich ins Gegenteil um, Charisma 30
  • Clinch: Movement action fails with 50% chance, Strength 30, Reflex 30

Those are just examples and will most likely not be implemented into the game like this. It will be balanced so that skills and attributes are equally important. Ranged and close combat will also be comparably strong. Please don’t start to skill towards those examples!
The current dueling skills will be less important for the hitting chance and damage calculation, but they will be more important for the dueling actions. Luck will be minimized.
The equipment and weapons will take a bit role in the calculation of the earned experience points to constrict duel pushing.

The hitting chances will be changed, the skills and attributes used for the duels will most likely stay the same. The soldier will get another character bonus. An exact version oft he new fighting system will be announced with due notice!
Reasons:

  • A system that gets more and more complex over time
  • A very simple system for new players
  • Lots of possibilities
  • Goals to work for
  • Better chances to protect yourself even for a worker

Resources for the building construction

Resources are needed for the construction of builings with high levels (starting at level 3)

Reasons:

  • More use for builders
  • Item trade becomes more attractive

Higher character bonuses
Every character classe should revceive higher bonuses. One thought is to give 6 bonuses for each character classe and to let the player select one bonus per 10 levels.
Reasons:

  • Goals throughout the course of the game
  • Higher concentration of character classes
  • Stronger specialization possible

Town/building deterioration
Buildings with high levels deteriorate over time
Reasons:

  • More use for builders
  • No limitation for new towns

Gambling
The traders will offer „unknown“ items for sale. Those items might be very rare, expensive and even not droppable or not purchasable items. Unknown items cost a LOT of money.
Reasons:

  • Suspense
  • Good reason to spend big amounts of money

The West will get a new start page
The new start page will fit better to the game and also give the same comfort. The start page will be developed independently from the game, meaning, it will not be connected to any version of the game.

Newspaper
A newspaper will be released every 3-7 days. It will hold statistics, a horoscope and short player statements.
Statistics: Fort battle results, finished towns, Players that have reached a milestone level, best dueler, …
Player statements: Player can write short statements into the newspaper. There is a limit to the amount of statements posted. Each player offers a certain dollar amount for each article. The players with the highest bids are printed.
To read the newspaper a symbolic payment has to be paid.

Reasons:

  • Interesting Info for all players
  • Awards for a lot of players
  • The chance to represent yourself

Pants and belts
There will be slots for pants and belts in the inventory. This new feature will be developed by an independent team. Therefore it is hard to set a time for when this will be finished.

Reasons:

  • New items
  • Requested by players

28 Comments

  1. keysey
    keysey February 2, 2010

    This is great! Congratulations! Keep up the good work!

  2. onyx
    onyx February 2, 2010

    when all of these will be implemented?

  3. Colosseo81
    Colosseo81 February 2, 2010

    I just can say ‘WOW’!!!

    If you will implement only half of theese ideas the game will become…wow!

    It’s my first comment and I don’t know if this is the right place to do this, but if it is so I would like to add a couple of point to this ‘roadmap’:

    1- Possibility to organize tournaments among citizens, for ‘the best dueler/soldier ‘(in my city we call it MostWanted), by posting (battle/duel)report somewhere or simply by an automatic city ranking.
    reasons:
    – increasing the relationship/competition among citizens
    – although without a specific tool, it already exists in many cities

    2- Bonus in trading obj for traders.
    A gain of x% dollars in selling an obj for players who has X skill points in trading.
    reasons:
    -give the right importance to that skill

    3- Shops and bank- The possibility to sell an obj to shops only if the bank has money to pay it.
    reasons:
    – no money creation by selling obj (only by working)

    Waiting for news about theese features, pants and belts overall so i’m gonna walk around the west with naked legs anymore!

    Colosseo

  4. Real of Fake?
    Real of Fake? February 3, 2010

    Is this real or fake?
    There is said so many times “NO” towards trading and pants..?
    Most of those update wil get the game out of balance..
    It’s like their trying to ruïne The-West..!

  5. vello
    vello February 3, 2010

    Make those things faster.
    I’m playing in 3 worlds and it’s getting boring. Same things all the time.

    Thank you!

  6. Diggo11
    Diggo11 February 4, 2010

    Awesome! Whilst it looks great, allow me to nitpick:
    ~ Allowing stores to sell the last two levels to foreigners is nice, but a foreign price of x4 the purchase price isn’t going to help anyone. Lower it to x1.5/x2 please, that’d really lower the “useless town switches”.
    ~ I certainly want a pure hider now! Lessening wages is fine if items are equally nerfed too, but at the moment it looks like luck jobs will be equally as profitable as before.
    ~ Buying skill point is RIDICULOUS in my mind. Enough said there.
    ~ Backpack limit I also do not agree with. There are enough threads whining about that already, so I won’t go into details.
    ~ I see the point in ghost town deterioration, but town deterioration is kind of annoying. Would be fine in newer worlds, but old worlds would suck.

  7. fast draw
    fast draw February 5, 2010

    I would add my grain of salt to backpack limitation.
    We live in a town, we have a room there.
    Why not be able to store stuff there and only take with us, in the backpack, a very limited number of items ?
    Have to go back to the hotel to swap items around.

  8. Izec
    Izec February 5, 2010

    Okay, so I understand the desire for more duels but aren’t you in a sense working against yourselves by having more dueling opportunities and then making pointless activities for the workers to do? I mean yes it is important to maintain a town, but you are saying look at all the sweet dueling things that will be happening!!!! or you can built pointless levels on your town.

    Just sharing a random thought I had. I am a worker on world 3 and will remain one so I appreciate the effort.

  9. pt-br
    pt-br February 7, 2010

    Increasing the level 99 +? This change is horrible, I want the game to a close, I want to be part of the hall of fame, I do not want to play for 3 years to get the level 200. Do not do it

  10. The ace of Spades
    The ace of Spades February 8, 2010

    An all new game, that is good 😛

    some things I don’t like

    – couty chat (I don’t see no use for it yet)
    – duel block lifted ? (no 48 without duel or no duel level limitation ?)
    – ambush (i think i understand the idea but this could make it virtually impossible to win a duel agaist well organized ordes of soldiers)
    – buiying skills – not fair
    – level 100+ – game without a goal

  11. Dueler
    Dueler February 10, 2010

    Sounds good, but I’ve got an idea too:
    – Remove the DUELER class.
    Why? Because: The dueler’s bonuses are absolutely useless. Soldiers with double healt point, double tactic, and better weapons are COMPLETLY OVERPOWERED! I’m playing in a world which was started 2 mounths ago, and in there is 1(one) dueler in the top 100 player!!! In my opinion removing the duelers from the game, THE WEST will be more balanced.

  12. Candi
    Candi February 11, 2010

    Hi!

    I speak very little english, sorry for.

    Now, the tie give health points and leadership (this is the default), and 6-10 points from one other skill: the green give +reflex, the black give +fine motor skill, the blue give shooting, etc. This is now the real collection in the game, and revealing for all other equipment too (the indian necklace give animal instinct, the poncho give dodging, the bowler hat give trading, etc.)

    I have the idea: if i found any equipment with work or fort-attack, then the variable skill let randomized skill from the items! The founded tie can give me for example 8 leadership, 10 health points and 6-10 points from one randomized skill. So i can found the tie, what give me 8 leadership, 10 health points and: 9 build, or 7 shooting, or 10 tactics, or 8 swimming, etc. This tie may checked or striped, or maybe his color may randomized too.

    I think, this can make the game more powerful and the lucky-works more useable.

  13. bbluestone
    bbluestone February 11, 2010

    Will it be possible to get some form of faction or alliance chat as well. Where faction hqs can add and remove towns to there faction chat as needed. This feature would greatly ease the pains of running a faction/alliance while greatly increasing the amount of information one could transfer (privately) to the faction members in minamle time. Kind of like u r talking about for fort battles. Oh yes I think most of the comming changes will be great. Thanks for all the hard work!!

  14. MonsieurBreon
    MonsieurBreon February 11, 2010

    I have played the game for over a year, and it is officially BORING now. I used to buy gold – won’t anymore, or ever again, until there’s more of reason to play. Being able to play poker and no bank limit is essential. I’ve got nothing to do w/ my money since my account is full! Adding the purchasing of ‘ranches’ – a personal house that you can buy things for, etc. would be perfect and give a higher level person something to do (although that’s sounding creepily like my kid’s ‘WebKinz’…)

  15. nicholas alexander von pickartz
    nicholas alexander von pickartz February 11, 2010

    i agree with diggo11 on a few things,,for one,,i want more money,,mwahahahaaha!…and coz im broke and find it very difficult to get money without robbing tramps(coz they broke too)

    the county chat will be rather funny,,half o em are at war with one another…funny but i like.

    the hunting a person part sounds odd and the new duel,,think i will have to experience it before i comment ,,but is cool.

    you going ahead without planning,tsk tsk,,you know that’s not how its done, you have shareholders and board members to think about,,,,but getting it done,,nuff said.

    i dont like teaching people to snitch ,,its un-character building,,so maybe a WORD blocker is good for the chat…..if you cant swear ,,then ya just cant and have ta get a bit inventive.

    so far looking good…very interesting actually.

  16. Skychi
    Skychi February 13, 2010

    Hello!
    Please don’t make those pvp updates(the duels on the map), cause they ruin the game… 🙁

  17. Macabre
    Macabre February 13, 2010

    Trading is a great idea.But why didnt u implement it before?
    The main qusetion is what are you gonna do with multiplayers?

    Secondly i`d be gratefull if you will add super weapon for fort battles as Hernando sword ))

  18. Plux
    Plux February 13, 2010

    as diggo11 mentioned: if the 4x price still is in effect, it will make no difference on the “useless town switches” to allow players to buy all items because it will be too expensive.

  19. UNKNOWN
    UNKNOWN February 15, 2010

    i don’t think their should be a bag-pack limit. only that you can store as many as it say that you can stack. wood-20 stackable. in bag pack only 20 wood can be carried.

    the less money earned and less item find but more valuable is not going to work because
    PEOPLE WILL LEAVE THE GAME AND LESS PLAYERS WILL PLAY THE GAME. IT WILL BECOME HARD TO PLAY. I WANT TO SAY DON’T LOWER THE MONEY AS FOR LEVEL-50 JOBS. ABOVE LV. 50 LOWER MONEY EARNED BY 10% LIKE 90% TO 81%. DO NOT CHANGE LUCK.

    DON’T PUT A LIMIT ON ITEM THAT YOU CAN WEAR.
    EACH ANIMAL GIVES YOU A BONUS OF ITEMS THAT IT CAN CARRY. EVEN THE ONCE THAT YOU DON’T USE ARE IN BAG-PACK.

  20. Alan Wilkinson
    Alan Wilkinson February 15, 2010

    I really hope they don’t lower wages. Saving up for items can take forever as is. So lowered wages AND an increased chance of getting hurt would REALLY slow me down.

  21. nicholas alexander von pickartz
    nicholas alexander von pickartz February 16, 2010

    curious what the bank general ledger of the bank and shops will look like..has to be suitable for single proprietor vs pty (ltd) …erm,,one man band towns and alliance …and its fun …kids pick that stuff up easy,,owners of real have nightmares when they see one:D

  22. laccy
    laccy February 18, 2010

    some nice and some really crazy things

    but in this tempo this is just a 5 years plan

    so start implement some things
    starting with telegram system and bank money deposit and then some polls on beta and every new patch 1 major thing

  23. Gryph
    Gryph February 18, 2010

    [b]Level 100+ and new jobs[/b]

    When Im right the 2 new questlines give close to 7000 (6900) exp points total.
    Since Im level 99 already I cant get any experience atm for anything I do. No jobs, quests, fort battles, etc. So I would really like to know :

    Are the level 100+ gonna be implemented and do you have any idea when roughly ? Is it worth waiting for for me to not do the quests yet and wait until I can get the experience too ?

    An answer would be very much appreciated. I think its a rather small update compared to most others, so you might be able to state its gonna be in the next update next month orso ? Its quite hard neglecting those quests, especially since I dont have much better things to do….

    Thanks in advance,
    G.

  24. Blogul lu' Ionut
    Blogul lu' Ionut February 23, 2010

    Good job team the-west , thank you very much for the update, will thank you for having invented the-West that I occupy most of the time.

  25. HUM....
    HUM.... February 25, 2010

    Glad that you delete comments like my previous one that shows some disagreement with some of the implications.

    Like saying that making degrading buildings and pointless levels basically is a minimal incentive to remain as a construction player when you plan to enhance dueling in many more and exciting ways.

    Poor sportsmanship for deleting previous comment.

  26. the black penny
    the black penny March 31, 2010

    i know you all have some polacy about playability vs graphics,
    but some of the new art needs some touch ups.
    the new dude who hands out the daily exp, and the guy who denies you access to the fort supplies.

    1, the daily exp dude, has a odd alienated hand, it sticks out and does not fit the picture, and he has no chin (give him some bristles )

    2, fort guy has some sleeping problem or gum disease, if you could make the picture sharper, and the back ground less hazy and blurry.

    there are only a few back drop pictures and screen shots like this in the game, but i feel that they should depict and capture that image or message in that very moment…
    and yes i know you are all rushing and stressing …

  27. Nietszche
    Nietszche April 20, 2010

    And what about the “daily log bonus”???? :S

    It was a surprise for all of us, but a lot of people are disgusted with such change… Colud it be “optional”, at least???? 😀

  28. laccy
    laccy April 22, 2010

    optional? 😀 the problem is not that players dont want it, just this is a new feature that makes the existing distance bigger

Comments are closed.