I''m merely wondering about this. In my ideal game the destruction of buildings would be possible somewhat in the style of Warcraft 2 but, of course, there are several concerns over this. Besides the fact that this would be difficult to pull off as a programmer (in my not-so-experienced programmer''s opinion) this would affect a few other factors. 1. Owners of houses would always have to worry about their house being destroyed. What happens when a player isn''t playing but his house is being attacked? Should the house be invincible while the player is offline, for example? 2. What happens to the contents of the house once it''s rubble. Could it be treated basically the same as a treasure chest to loot? Or would the contents also be destroyed? Or some compromise of the two (random destruction of items)? 3. What about people inside a building as it collapses? Do they die? Do they take massive damage? Maybe this one''s simpler. Perhaps they should take damage based on what they''re doing. If they''re using their shield to block then maybe they''d take less damage. I suppose it would also depend on the size of the house but I''m sure you could get much more advanced calculating damage (which is probably not necessary). I''ve been playing around with the idea of building destruction for a while now. Don''t know if any RPG game does this. Ideally it''d be great to invade an enemy castle and destroy homes and shops and such.

I always thought that the one thing games were missing were the ability to burn and destory buildings. I think that was pretty popular in actual medieval times since buildings in castles were built closely together and were made of wood and other "burn-able" materials.

It''d be a great quest to receive from your king: "Take a handful of men with you to one of my enemy''s towns and level every building there, however you do it."

quote:Original post by bishop_pass
Destruction of houses is uncommon in the real world. Make it uncommon in your world. Sure, it can happen, but not often.

That depends where you are. If you''re a Palestinian mother, don''t be surprised if Israelis bulldoze your house in the name of "the war on terrorism."

Destruction was common in medeival times, but it still exists. We just don''t experience it.

Here''s a collection of my favourite ideas, and a few of my own:

1) windows and doors can be broken to enter a house, and valuable posessions broken or stolen if they are not properly protected (hidden in a locked chest in a secret compartment under the carpet, guarded by a flame trap etc...). Windows can be barred, doors can be reinforced to make houses virtually impenetrable.

2) houses can be burned down, but this process takes a long time (I''m thinking 24 hours ish) so the player who owns the house has a good chance to enter the game and rescue it before it burns to the ground. If they don''t enter the game regularly enough they will not be able to protect their house effectively, but hey, should they really own a house if they only login once a month?

Even if your house burns to the ground, you still own the land, of course.

3) if you''re seen setting fire to a house or breaking the door down, there should be consequences (depending on the mechanics of the town). But only if someone sees you do it. If the door is a good one, it will take you longer to break in and you will make a lot of noise, so you are more likely to be noticed.