Scramble for the Duke's Throne

[Corgi Von Puppenstein]

Howdy! I have an idea for rounding out the game's "story" and delivering more multiplayer content at the same time. I think it would be optimal to turn the Duke from a currently nonexistent NPC villain, into a superpowered role filled by players scrambling for control of a throne of sorts.

This would convert 7 Days to Die multiplayer into a king of the hill, battle royal.

               The Duke is a title powered by a throne at the center (or most important point) of the world map, perhaps inside a Casino which is mostly mining-protected fortress and hub for his own personal faction. The Duke receives terrible strength, immunity to zombification, the ability to set bounties on players, and other buffs as seen fit to act as a tyrant in the land. He may do whatever he wishes, but needs to regularly visit four shrines at each periphery of the map to maintain his power, as well as keep an eye on his throne to prevent others from usurping him. If The Duke dies, he respawns at his throne, but is significantly weakened for a time, with cumulative, stacking weaknesses. If one of the Duke’s followers die, they also respawn at the Casino (more on that later.) The Duke may appoint up to two Sheriffs to act as his enforcers, who also gain weaker buffs. The Duke has the ability to summon a quartet of AI melee bandits, and the Sheriffs may summon two at a time. Others may join the Duke’s faction but would gain weaker benefits in the pecking order.

The Duke needs to visit each of the four shrines in the corner of the map to keep his “humors” balanced, with each of the humors being a status bar corresponding to one of the specific shrines. If the Duke neglects one or more of the humors, he grows weaker, and eventually expires (or perhaps mutates into a super zombie, and respawns as a normal player.) The Duke knows the location of all of his faction members, and may revoke the Sheriff title as they see fit, although the title must be given in person.

               Faction Shrines are four or five fixed and indestructible structures in the game world which act as the anchors for special, pre-set factions who have buffs and access to recipes depending on the shrine. A player may be a member of only one shrine faction at a time, with membership of the Duke’s faction overriding any other membership. Each shrine is part of a hierarchy of five factions (players may form their own groups, but these are specific bonuses granted by the game world to players who participate.) At the beginning of the game, no one is in a faction, and whoever claims the shrine becomes its leader, and may invite or kick members of a faction as they see fit. A faction member who places their bed within a certain radius of the Shrine gets a persistent buff to certain stats, as well as access to exclusive faction recipes which only may be crafted by members of the faction. A faction member can identify the owner of a bed by looking at the bed. Each player’s name changes color depending on their faction, allowing for easy recognition.

Faction leadership may be stolen by another claimant to the faction shrine, with each claim taking a preset time to take hold in a king of the hill fashion while a claim timer ticks down, the length of which depends on server settings. The Throne typically should have the longest claim time. While claiming the throne or a shrine, the claimant and anyone in his or her group is open season to any and all who wish to contest the claim, and this may result in a bloodbath.

Each faction has unique buffs, crafting recipes, an exclusive food recipe, and an exclusive beer recipe.

1.      The Casino and Throne Faction are the “antagonists” of the world. If there is no Duke, the throne is open to the first person who claims it and ascends to Dukedom. The more the Duke’s humors get out of balance, the more zombies spawn in the world, or the more aggressive they become until a new Duke claims the throne. The Throne is located in the center of Duke’s Casino in the center (or more important location) of the map, and cannot be destroyed. Players who place their beds inside the Casino gain a buff to movement speed and damage reduction, with the Sheriffs gaining the biggest benefit, and the Servants (i.e. regular members) gaining a much weaker benefit, or perhaps none at all. The Duke and his Sheriffs may place bounties on any players on the server, and should be encouraged to play the part of harsh but fair dictators.

2.      The Bullets Faction are the mercenaries and firearms faction, with a bonus to firearms stats, resistance to the cold, as well as access to incendiary ammunition and other special crafted ammunition types. Their faction color is cool blue, and their shrine is located in the frost biome. Their faction food is hot chicken noodle soup, and their faction beer is Mercenary Martinis.

3.      The Blasts Faction are the industrial and explosives faction, with bonuses to oil chemistry, excavation, and explosives. They gain a bonus to explosive stats, resistance to heat, and access to special fuel and explosive recipes. Their faction color is lemon yellow, and their shrine is located in a scenic rock quarry or oil refinery in the desert. Their faction food is ribeye steak, and their faction beer is moonshine (which plays a yeehaw effect when imbibed, because why not?)

4.      The Bloods Faction are the wastelander faction, with bonuses to armor, melee weapons, and healing. They gain a bonus to armor stats, damage and heat resistance, and access to special melee weapons and medicines. Their faction color is blood red, and their shrine is located in the Wasteland biome. Their faction food is grilled rotting meat, and their faction beer is mead that heals health and infections (perhaps a bit more effective than honey, since it’s made from honey.)

5.      The Bile Faction is the lowest peasant faction, with bonuses to hunger and water resistances, and access to special farming, food, and bow and pitchfork recipes. Their faction color is lime green, and their shrine is located in the forest biome. They gain improved swim speed, because their faction is a bunch of frightened deer and new players who are probably going to be doing a lot of running away. Their faction food is trail mix, and their faction beer is lite beer that gives them a speed bonus, and then a speed penalty when it wears off.

6.      Optional Faction: Mechanical Merchants are a special faction who’s shrine is located in a garage. Their faction color is orange, and they gain bonuses to vehicles and crafting merchant-related things. They gain bonuses to scrapping and electrical stuff. If this faction isn’t interesting enough, perhaps it should be divided up between the others or discarded. I’m not sure if it’s a great idea, but I felt like including this to round out options. Their faction food is canned Vienna sausages, and their faction beer is generic Fireball.

[meganoth]

Note the story is supposedly already written by the developers and it includes two factions and you either eradicating one faction or both and possibly taking over as the new boss. This story will be evident once bandits are implemented, likely in A21

 

At least until release there is also nearly no chance there will be new PvP features like a battle royale as their time is already filled with tasks of finishing the PvE game.