Avatarus Part Two: The Grind

There's so much I want to discuss, largely due to the thread over on Penny Arcade that the original post regarding Avatarus spawned. My intent in the original post was to lay out an intriguing mechanic, and this bare bones effort left me subject to a few legitimate and whithering attacks. The comments that most resonated with me observation that I have conceived a game that had not just one grind, but DUAL grinds built the game. In order to counter this terrifying prospect, allow me to elaborate...


Avatars
I'll start with the easier of the two to explain: the Avatar. I spoke briefly about two possible systems, the second system described the role of the Avatar as the God's earthly minion, who seeks to spread the gospel of his God. Let's talk about the framework where this occurs.

At the inception of the server's creation, the Mortal Realm will be blessed with a specific number of souls (NPCs). As the server's player population increases, the NPC population will also increase. The NPC population cap will serve the purpose of constantly creating a tension between the fledgling religions and the Avatars who seek to grow them. Avatars must therefore either find and convert an NPC upon his initial entry into the Mortal Realm or steal the follower from another religion.

So, how is this accomplished? Well, through a variety of ways, and certain means will be more successful with certain NPCs and within the boundaries of certain regions on the map. For instance, if you have a desire to create a religion devoted to a bloodthirsty savage God, you would send a VICIOUS ATTACK AVATAR to the Mortal Realm. More importantly, you would send your emmissary to a region that values these traits (such as a warrior nomad tribe) as your message is more likely to be well received and result in converts.

As a Warrior Religion, you may convince this nomad tribe to follow you in a variety of ways. Your Avatar could defeat notable creatures in the surrounding area. He could duel the lead warrior in a display of dominance. He could kill an opposing tribe's chieftan. Each of these actions would leave an impression on the region and its inhabitants. Actions contrary to these behaviors (losing battles, duels, showing benevolence) would likewise decrease your ability to win converts and may even lose you converts. Of course, should you ever achieve a dominant position in the tribe's hearts, you would always need to be wary of competing Avatars attempting to steal them away.

Let's say Warrior Avatar isn't you thing. You want to become the God of Knowledge and seek followers that appreciate you for this trait. You elect to send down your Avatar to MegaCity, a center of knowledge and learning. You seek to convince followers to come to your cause by writing prose/books, delivering speeches, engaging in local politics, and using diplomacy to avoid conflicts. As your Avatar becomes known as a beacon of insight, the religion grows, and the God prospers from the influx of devotion.

Gods
Evading a God grind is somewhat more difficult for me. I believe there are a few mechanisms that may be implemented to evade the grind, but one idea (pirated from a fellow poster on Penny-Arcade) I found intriguing is to have the Immortal Realm function as a PvP realm (this is certainly not the only solution.) Now, the initial difficulty I had with this is: how do we determine the battles? I mean, if a God doesn't just grind levels up, then how does he get stronger? And how do I limit PvP interactions to Gods of relatively strength and power?

Well, the answer comes from the feedback loop I mentioned in my original post on the matter. The Avatar's power and the God's power would be tied together. Success for one would result in success for the other. The key lies in the followers and the strength of the Religion. A successful Avatar would result in a strong religion, which would then result in more power being accorded to the God. The Immortal PvP Realm would therefore contain battlefields devoted to the various different strengths of religions. As the strength of the religion increases, the powers the God may bring to bear increase.

So, a new player may have a Religion of only one follower. Until his Avatar gets cracking, his God will be confined to the lowest PvP realm. The battles would entail relatively uninspired sparring between these lesser Godlings. Small sparks of lightning and brittle heavenly swords would clash.

A more dedicated player would have a massive following. He would enter the highest echelons of the Immortal Realm and the battles would involve breathtaking feats of strength and magic. Gods would summon legions to do battle on their behalf. Earthquakes would rattle the countryside. Destruction, mayhem and so forth.

Well...that's just one take on how the Immortal Realm might work. There is one critical element I am leaving out, which would be the Pantheons. This game mechanism would add an additional layer of complexity to the battles in addition to making the game much more compelling for players that don't have as much time to dedicate to the game. But that's for tomorrow.