The Mansion

I could see a pretty huge problem coming up with rooms and corridors. How exactly are you going to handle player limitations in these areas? I could easily imagine 20-30 players getting stuck in a corridor or some small room.

Otherwise I like the idea of it.. somehow reminds me of BioShock - A city completely isolated from the public.

Try Alone in the Dark 1. It has the setting you're talking about.

edit: oh well, just noticed you mean a MMO :(

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Original post by Christoph680 I could see a pretty huge problem coming up with rooms and corridors. How exactly are you going to handle player limitations in these areas? I could easily imagine 20-30 players getting stuck in a corridor or some small room. Otherwise I like the idea of it.. somehow reminds me of BioShock - A city completely isolated from the public.

I was thinking for an MMO you could handle it like Phantasy Star Online did.
Or like a Counter Strike map limit. Yep, groups would have to be small like 5-7 players so it doesn't feel crowded and remains spooky.

A large ball room area could be a hub.

Awesome idea. I think a little more premise than just wandering in could add a lot. Like maniac mansion, there was a whole twisted tale there and yet you still basically just get dumped at the front door. You could spin a similar sort of humor; spend the introduction scenes building up your villain to be this evil super-genious scientist. He kidnaps you (you are 12 or so, and of interest to an evil-scientist), brings you to his evil mansion, then explains an elaborate and deviously sick plot to you. Then he abruptly zaps himself to dust by accident - and you are left to find a means out of the mansion from the depths of whatever basement he's brought you to.

It reminds me of House of Hell, by Steve Jackson
wiki link

It will be difficult to create a persistent MMO from a scenario with a single mansion though. An FPS is more adequate.

Considering this place has some an enlargement effect you could get some truely large areas like ballrooms, dining rooms, green houses, gardens and similar areas to act like towns. Then pull off a guildwars.


You could even pull off some parody stuff from the "Amber" series and say your mansion is that mansion that all others are built and made from.

Want to limit the number of people in an area? Well, you have doors don't you? Doors often have locks. Haunted house could easily have doors that lock on their own and don't budge.

Also if it is a really strange house, then who says a door always has to lead to the same spot? You could have "Special Doors" that you just have to think of where you want to go, another special door, as you hold the door knob and open it.

You can also have things like, hallways existing for only a limited number of people. There are 50 or 60 people in a hallway at a time, but there are only maybe ten people to any one group of people in the same hallway. You could include an ability to 'shift' in and out of the different realities, to switch between open groups in a given room, basically loading the different instances to find your friends.

Yep I'm not keen on having a lot of people in the same place.
It wouldn't be to scary if an army of players is running around.
A small group like Scooby Doo is more interesting.

Also I prefer a weird place over an evil-scientist for this game.
A villain you think about beating.
An evil infested place you think about surviving.

Hmm...been lost in the place and not meeting someone every minute would be
differnt. IMO

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Original post by Talroth Want to limit the number of people in an area? Well, you have doors don't you? Doors often have locks. Haunted house could easily have doors that lock on their own and don't budge. Also if it is a really strange house, then who says a door always has to lead to the same spot? You could have "Special Doors" that you just have to think of where you want to go, another special door, as you hold the door knob and open it. You can also have things like, hallways existing for only a limited number of people. There are 50 or 60 people in a hallway at a time, but there are only maybe ten people to any one group of people in the same hallway. You could include an ability to 'shift' in and out of the different realities, to switch between open groups in a given room, basically loading the different instances to find your friends.