Cool, I might have several ideas then, considering you'd be working with the torque engine, you should have quite a bit of freedom with what you're doing.
A few questions and suggestions:
Are there any object limits with Torque like there was in Tribes 2? If not, we could completely rework mining to make it much more interesting. Instead of mining from a crystal, how about players actually being able to DIG mines? Ever played Wurm online? You could start digging into a cave entrance, and turn it into a maze of tunnels, or even a huge cavern. I'm thinking we could do something similar in TRPG2. Have a simple cave entrance, and as you mine into the cave, you can find treasures and such, and create your own dungeon while you're at it. Each block would take a good couple thousand wacks to dig out of course. And there'd have to be a special function that would allow players to create an exit through the surface again. Bonus points to make it so that the deeper the cave, the better the riches, and the more enemies that spawn (maybe around veins of ore?). You might also want to consider adding cave-ins to sort of "reset" tunnels that have been dug. Obviously, there are a couple issues here. First, I think digging out a chunk of rock should take a pretty decent amount of time, but obviously be faster with higher mining (larger chunks of stone instead of "small rocks", large chunks could also be used to craft stuff!). Second, if cave ins are added to reset older caves that haven't been accessed, they should obviously happen while players aren't around so that they don't get locked in.
Can the terrain be adjusted real time? Another feature in Wurm online, players could dig up dirt and move it. You could literally move an entire mountain if you had the man power and the time. A guild actually raised an island straight out of the sea, it was pretty cool. I don't know if Torque could support something like that, but it might be interesting. If the mines are possible, though (which they should be, as long as the object count is practically limitless), that might be enough.
Again, depending on the item count, players could actually build their own houses, or even entire towns. Of course, something like that should be a major undertaking. Underground cities anyone?
I think the majority of better items should be crafted, and probably even require a few RL's to make. In fact, your chance to make an improved item could rely heavily on lck (+1, +2, dextrous, etc). Only the first few weapons should be purchasable. This would help support a player based economy.
I also think the RL system should be based around the individual skills, instead of in general. For example, instead of remorting at level 101, you'll remort your individual skills as they get high (depending if you keep skills as they work now, 1000? and maybe increase it with each remort?). You'll also receive lck for completing various tasks (quests?) as well as for remorting a skill. The benefits to a system like this is obvious. It would encourage a more focused class based system, but allow players to still create a more freeform class eventually.
I'm sure you can see that I'm fairly excited about the prospect of more freedom for TRPG. I don't mean to intrude on your ideas, I'm just tossing out some suggestions.
