Rook Attack- Defending Ur
Rook Attacks of old were exciting at first (as all new things are) but soon became less so/ more mundane, and were sometimes un fun for newer players who would arrive at the very end having had to walk long distances to get there . . . finding they could contribute very little if at all.
So I have some ideas:-
Introducing the rook earlier in game (as it once was when we had the rook egg quest) This could be via lore from the animals (directing to the rook museum) or triggered by being present during a rook attack or rolling rook on the 12 sided dice. Perhaps even bringing back the rook egg quest only more like Esquibeth ?
Small attacks - These would be much as they were ideal for newer players to hone their rook fighting skills, whilst waiting to upgrade meditation for example, in these events animals and plants would be rooked, possible loss of trees/plants and animals from the street/streets attacked depending on if an attack was fought/discovered or not.
Grand Attacks - These would be more area wide or more intense on a few streets, animals and plants/trees would be lost, streets would be degraded and would need restoring by donation to shrine or by a quest/feat triggered at the end of the Grand Rook Attack(GRA) . A GRA would allow for scaling up as skills increase and would better reflect the dire consequences should Glitchen choose to ignore rook attacks.
Consequences for Rook Attacks
Degraded streets would perhaps need more energy to traverse them, have fewer quoins, higher chance of meeting smuggler? These streets would be unable to support piggies and trees, pehaps we would actually need to donate IMG ro repair them ( I know there is a wish for uses for our excess IMG in later game stages)
Defense against the Dark
Sentry Bot - using Feats we could perhaps recruit/build sentry bots for each area (Groddle, Shimla, for examples) these bots would then alert (via God message in chat) Starting with warning rooks are approaching [location], to rooks are attacking [location] it might also denote if this is a normal or a GRA. Maintainence could be via feat or by simple donation/ instead od water/petting perhaps, oiling/tune up?
Shrine Enhancement - We could have maybe a way to donate meditation to a shrine and this would enhance the shrine to enable a warning message via chat if the street the shrine is located in is attacked by the rook. This unlike the sentry bots would require a constant upkeep of the shrine enhancement as once the alert has been made the shrine will need to be refilled with meditation.
The Old Lab - (aka firefly whistle lab) - we could perhaps have a feat to rebuild or use technology from the lab to construct a global rook alert system, this would be a long term project/feat or a series of feats, undone occasionally by the rooks themselves?
So I have some ideas:-
Introducing the rook earlier in game (as it once was when we had the rook egg quest) This could be via lore from the animals (directing to the rook museum) or triggered by being present during a rook attack or rolling rook on the 12 sided dice. Perhaps even bringing back the rook egg quest only more like Esquibeth ?
Small attacks - These would be much as they were ideal for newer players to hone their rook fighting skills, whilst waiting to upgrade meditation for example, in these events animals and plants would be rooked, possible loss of trees/plants and animals from the street/streets attacked depending on if an attack was fought/discovered or not.
Grand Attacks - These would be more area wide or more intense on a few streets, animals and plants/trees would be lost, streets would be degraded and would need restoring by donation to shrine or by a quest/feat triggered at the end of the Grand Rook Attack(GRA) . A GRA would allow for scaling up as skills increase and would better reflect the dire consequences should Glitchen choose to ignore rook attacks.
Consequences for Rook Attacks
Degraded streets would perhaps need more energy to traverse them, have fewer quoins, higher chance of meeting smuggler? These streets would be unable to support piggies and trees, pehaps we would actually need to donate IMG ro repair them ( I know there is a wish for uses for our excess IMG in later game stages)
Defense against the Dark
Sentry Bot - using Feats we could perhaps recruit/build sentry bots for each area (Groddle, Shimla, for examples) these bots would then alert (via God message in chat) Starting with warning rooks are approaching [location], to rooks are attacking [location] it might also denote if this is a normal or a GRA. Maintainence could be via feat or by simple donation/ instead od water/petting perhaps, oiling/tune up?
Shrine Enhancement - We could have maybe a way to donate meditation to a shrine and this would enhance the shrine to enable a warning message via chat if the street the shrine is located in is attacked by the rook. This unlike the sentry bots would require a constant upkeep of the shrine enhancement as once the alert has been made the shrine will need to be refilled with meditation.
The Old Lab - (aka firefly whistle lab) - we could perhaps have a feat to rebuild or use technology from the lab to construct a global rook alert system, this would be a long term project/feat or a series of feats, undone occasionally by the rooks themselves?
Comments
I also really fancy the idea of donating meditation to a shrine. I know that everyone has their favorite street or region they want to protect and I think it would be cool to see which region isn't as protected to see where the community stands. This may also be useful to the devs to see which region is less favored and maybe add more things to that region. Maybe??
Perhaps we could have a month (say the month that glitch closed) where the attacks are really really bad. Where maybe theres a limit of say 30 people to fend off the rook. Maybe the meditation orbs break easier? Maybe the animals drop there goods in an attempt to help? Maybe theres a grandfather rook that attacks alongside the rooks? I loved rook and I love all of your idea's!!
The idea of a minor rooking (an attack by a lesser rook? a rooklet?) that a player could fend off all on their own might indeed make an easier introduction to less experienced players...perhaps they could be set to occur for a given player automatically once an orb is acquired/the first rook combat skill is learned (or perhaps they could be fought off without the need for special skills?) and then occur at random afterwards. Then there could be regular rook attacks like we remember them and grand rook attacks on very rare occasions...
Love the idea of the streets being fixable by iMG...what if that went one step further? If hundreds of thousands of iMG were poured into a street (requiring many donations by multiple glitchen- whoops, I mean levens, over time) it could perhaps be upgraded in some fashion. Say, a bigger fancier shrine with greater rewards and better rook defenses. Or a one-of-a-kind tree that produces something special? Or perhaps a tree could be the indicator for iMG donated; the more it attained the bigger it would get and the more branches it would spread, and every new branch would produce one special item? Then once it was completed the fanciest of rewards would be unlocked.
As for the rook quest...I never had the chance to experience it myself, but from what I know it ends with the smashing of an egg, yes? Granted, this is majorly my own heavy-duty pacifist preferences talking, but I always liked the idea of a less destructive ending...it feels opposing to the common principles of the glitch world, namely peace and creation. (Again this may just be me overthinking things, as I am prone to do.) Perhaps there could be a way of converting rooks into something else via iMG? Just a thought.
minor Rook attacks you discussed have some sort of easy to play minigame involved, like a move your mouse into a circle on the screen and press a button, or an arrow combination like DDR.
Although I am not a fan of destruction, I'd also not want to change any game features, I wouldn't mind, however, elaborating further with a backstory showing how nothing was destroyed, but how the egg was imprisoning animals and that smashing it frees them. It could even be developed that Rooks are corrupted creatures of imagination, and love, meditation and focused iMG can reverse the effect.
The idea needs work, I admit, but to turn the act of smashing an actual physical egg (with potential tiny being inside) into something more of a destruction/refuting of a symbol of darkness might not be a bad way to go.