So crafting would be done like A Tale in the Desert?
If I knew how crafting in that game actually worked, I suppose so.
It's kind of hard to explain, but basically you gather raw materials (sand, mud, grass, wood etc.), and then turn those materials into something else (bricks, straw and the like), and then you build things out of those materials, and those structures could refine the materials further (wood becomes board, flax can be spun into twine), and you can make stuff out of it (boats, clothing). The process to make everything is timed. For instance, if you plant Flax seeds, you can either choose to let it grow wild and harvest the seeds, or weed it to gain the flax itself. But weeding is a timed process, and if you don't weed fast enough, the flax goes wild.
X-Wing Alliance/TIE Fighter quality flight sims meets the Dark Forces series quality ground missions meets The Elder Scrolls style freedom meets EVE Online style economy.
You know, I'm kind of surprised Banpresto hasn't tried their hand at doing an SRW-style M/MO, or maybe something akin to Gundam Online but with all the stuff from the OG universe. Start out with a Gespenst or something and work your way up through the ranks and units if you're more focused on combat, whereas crafter types could work on designing unique unit upgrades or design entirely new models. You could expand it to have stuff like territorial combat on Earth and the moon and various other satellites (maybe even Mars or something) with bonuses like direct access to special materials and technology and pure naval combat, not to mention all sorts of other shenanigans like infiltrating factions, hijacking or destroying resources and units, relaying enemy schematics and formations and plans, and whatever else one can imagine.
Or I could settle for pre-Trammel UO 2.0 . I think a lot of people who never experienced those initial MMO's aren't aware of a lot of the innovative ideas/concepts those games contained that were either a little rough or underdeveloped. In WoW's quest for mass appeal it really just scrubbed out a lot of the early innovation that they should have expanded upon instead of cutting it out entirely. AC had the truly deep skillful combat, a truly unique item generation that rivaled if not exceeded that of Diablo 2 for instance, AND AN EVENT SYSTEM THAT ALLOWED PLAYERS TO AFFECT THE WORLD (if on a somewhat primitive scale, but atleast they did it); UO had the amazing mercantile/crafting and retailer system and completely settle-able land.
I can't think of a genre that has advanced less than the MMO genre -- which has changed so little in it's 15 or so years in existence as a bona-fide genre seperate from MUDs, that it makes me want to cry when you think about all the potential.
The only people I could see believing WoW was a true advancement of the genre must have either played it as their first MMO or have come from EQ -- I can't imagine a UO player or and AC player seeing it in the same light -- even DAoC which was a little later, which was heavily EQ influenced, still managed to pull off PvP in a much better fashion.
Shadowbane was the greatest botching of a terrific concept, and I still think if someone came along and remade that game from scratch with the same ideas with a little refinement, it would be a smash hit.
Right now I'm looking forward to Tabula Rasa and that's about it...
Ant000 on
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
edited June 2007
I want to see Zelda: MM style NPCs. That is to say I want the NPCs to have a schedule during the day and night. Maybe not the average trash mobs, but defiantly the NPCs in town and any Quest related NPCs.
Say I have to kill a Bandit Leader. Well depending on the time of day he might be in his bandit camp or maybe he is off with his cronies doing what bandits do best or maybe he is out at a tavern getting drunk.
Axen on
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
- mine shafts, placing a shaft gave you some kind of mine, digging deeper cost more, but could get better rewards
- field, semi permanent. also did better based on soil
-status quo - actually had a voting/trial based system. only one player could be the top of the game in certain aspects. some handled by first to complete a trial, some handled by popular vote. the "king" was vote based, the leaders of the sciences was first to complete all trials. guilds also go recognition for completing very large projects first.
Neocron
- interesting quests sometimes. involving delving into enemy territory to track down NPC's and such. also involved killing other players " we need you to show them we arent scared.. kill 5 people of X faction, no less than 5 levels below you (on a 1-100 level scale) then report back. NPCs do not count, only other runners"
i want someone to involve a lot of ATitD and neocron into a game that has a better foundation.
What was so good about AC: DT's combat? I know you could actually aim/dodge with projectile weapons and with spells, what else?
It would take a while to describe it, and it probably wouldn't do it justice...basically:
Being able to dodge projectiles and spells and hide behind objects combined with relatively lower health levels than many games and the high damage potential of weapons and magic, the huge suite of armor vunlnerabilities and damage types, the fully positional-based damage model (back, head, torso, arms, hands, upper/lower legs, feet) complete with full collision detection, the super fast run speed and the ability to jump onto buildings and across huge gaps, the huge host of modifying attributes and skills, and the ability to make a completely unique character class...and in the case of Darktide, the ability to attack anyone, anywhere, and be able to overcome them through skill and ingenuity even if they had 20-30 levels on you or if you were fighting multiple players, and have combat either end in a flash or last 10 minutes or more...it was much more FPS inspired than anything since, but was distinctly MMORPG.
It all lead to an extremely frenetic, deep, and very satisfying combat experience. It was much more FPS inspired than anything since, but was distinctly MMORPG. It had issues, but the EQ model isn't in the same league, and I'm sure many AC players hoped that almost a decade later someone would have built on the AC experience.
Edit: It also lended itself very well to PvE, as fighting monsters you could beat them through skillful timing, dodging and other play mechanics aside from your stats and skills. Combined with the ability to encounter groups of dozens of monsters at once....I mean you could delve into an Olthoi hive and aggro 50 of them, and through collision detection you'd get trapped in the hive and have to battle your way out. And don't forget to keep your back to the wall or you're gonna get gored [email protected].
either each person is a trainer, or each player is a pokemon, either way would be interesting imo
This idea has ALWAYS appealed to me.
And I love the online battling on the DS, but if Nintendo put out a Wii/ PC PokeMMO, it could be made of epic quantities of awesome.
First: Variation in skills. Similar to the show, you can choose to be a trainer, breeder, run a shop, or other Pokethings. Each person should be fully customizable to avoid every person looking the same.
Starting pokemons should be randomly selected (3 randomly generated pokemon at level 5 to choose from, preferably in the fire/water/ plant tradition) to increase variety.
Second: PvP should be similar to WoW, in that certain areas are optional PvP, and others are mandatory PvP. A person can duck out of a battle, but will lose twice as much money (Which will be much more valuable in this game).
Third: After the standard 8 Gyms and Elite Four are beaten, a largen world is opened to the player, where land can be purchased, shops and centers set up, and with consent from Admins, even Gyms(!).
I have more ideas, but my hands hurt, so this is it for now...
I think current MMO's generally ignore the main benefit that the genre allows, that is, large scale competition. EVE might do this, but still isn't the same.
My ideal view? An MMO with no classes, no levels, where everyone is a capitalist, and makes all their gains from that which they control, not the player character themselves. They gain power by their armies, their money, their connections, their skill, rather than stats inherent to their play. And all their armies, their money, their connections can be lost.
Of course, this would be extremely harsh, potentially, to new players, but I have thoughts about that.
The idea of having mandatory PVP zones in a Pokemon MMO gives me the wrong kind of vibe - I can just see waves upon waves of trainers with teams 30 levels over the norm stalking the fields and griefing averages to no end.
One thing I'd like to see is the ability to actually perform your own music in a game, maybe even a system whereby several musicians can form up into a band and do the individual scores all in sync. Nothing could be more satisfying after crushing an opposing faction in PVP than to return to a full-on brass band victory march. That, and you could come up with special pieces to act as cues for things, like an order for the left group to move in or fall back, or a warning of approaching enemy reenforcements from some direction, and so on.
The idea of having mandatory PVP zones in a Pokemon MMO gives me the wrong kind of vibe - I can just see waves upon waves of trainers with teams 30 levels over the norm stalking the fields and griefing averages to no end.
One thing I'd like to see is the ability to actually perform your own music in a game, maybe even a system whereby several musicians can form up into a band and do the individual scores all in sync. Nothing could be more satisfying after crushing an opposing faction in PVP than to return to a full-on brass band victory march. That, and you could come up with special pieces to act as cues for things, like an order for the left group to move in or fall back, or a warning of approaching enemy reenforcements from some direction, and so on.
I am pretty sure the LOTR MMO has a rather robust music system.
While using music in combat to signal manuveres would be awesome, I doubt anyone would ever use that over something like ventrilo.
The idea of having mandatory PVP zones in a Pokemon MMO gives me the wrong kind of vibe - I can just see waves upon waves of trainers with teams 30 levels over the norm stalking the fields and griefing averages to no end.
One thing I'd like to see is the ability to actually perform your own music in a game, maybe even a system whereby several musicians can form up into a band and do the individual scores all in sync. Nothing could be more satisfying after crushing an opposing faction in PVP than to return to a full-on brass band victory march. That, and you could come up with special pieces to act as cues for things, like an order for the left group to move in or fall back, or a warning of approaching enemy reenforcements from some direction, and so on.
TO PROTECT THE WORLD FROM DEVESTATION
TO UNITE ALL PEOPLE WITHIN OUR NATION
TO DENOUNCE THE EVILS OF TRUTH AND LOVE
TO EXTEND OUR REACH TO THE STARS ABOVE
JESSIE, JAMES
TEAM ROCKET BLASTS OFF AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT
SURRENDER NOW OR PREPARE TO FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!
MEOWTH, THAT'S RIGHT
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH FETT
Goddamnit pikachu, not these faggots again.
The_Lightbringer on
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
I like the 200 levels idea. Even if skill progression is the same as with 50 levels or something, at least there is a sense of forward movement.
Exactly. It pisses me off when they hand you the first five levels, but to reach the last five levels you have to sacrifice several animals to the pagan gods. It's fucking stupid design, and it annoys the hell out of me that people accept it.
For those who like leveling, why should there be a cap?
Well currently in games like WoW caps exist to maintain the difficulty of PvE content, as well as maintain a level playing field in PvP environments.
In AC there was in theory no level cap, although because of a weird coding design it was in reality 126 -- for all intents and purposes though, for the first year or so people basically viewed the game as one without a cap. But what you did have was a soft cap, where once you hit like 80, you basically would only gain utility and sort of grow your character horizontally if that makes any sense -- broadening your power more so than increasing it, as skills would get harder to raise and you'd reach a point of diminishing returns. I prefer this approach to a hard cap because in AC, it meant the pressure was put on raising skills and not on levels. So a level 50 with 320 war magic would be able to do similar damage to a level 70 with 330 war magic, but the 70 would have more mana and health most likely, faster run speed, fizzle less etc -- but the 50 is still competitive and at a much sooner time relative to games with hard caps in both PvP and PvE.
I think Shadowbane had a similar system? I can't really remember.
(Sorry for the continious AC invocations , and most of this changed with the expansion release that messed with the level cap and stuff, but that's not really central to my post ).
Levels are in MMOs primarily to ease the player into the game. You have twenty minutes to just dick around with autoattack and maybe one spell. Then, you get something new, have half an hour to dick around with that. Then another one.
Later levels take longer because there are more combinations of abilities you have to accommodate.
I wish there were games that had enough gall to actually inflict some really nasty damage to a character - for example, in Fallout, you've got limbs being disabled from critical hits to them, but it never goes beyond that unless you actually gib a dude. Why not have it so that if you cripple a dude's limb, you get a second roll versus your luck, where the shot hit and the weapon that hit it, which winds up blowing off body parts if it succeeds? If you shotgun a dude's kneecap, there should be a very good chance that you wind up taking the sucker right off: if he somehow survives, he'll then have to deal with his disability until he can find a way to replace it.
For those who like leveling, why should there be a cap?
Well currently in games like WoW caps exist to maintain the difficulty of PvE content, as well as maintain a level playing field in PvP environments.
In AC there was in theory no level cap, although because of a weird coding design it was in reality 126 -- for all intents and purposes though, for the first year or so people basically viewed the game as one without a cap. But what you did have was a soft cap, where once you hit like 80, you basically would only gain utility and sort of grow your character horizontally if that makes any sense -- broadening your power more so than increasing it, as skills would get harder to raise and you'd reach a point of diminishing returns. I prefer this approach to a hard cap because in AC, it meant the pressure was put on raising skills and not on levels. So a level 50 with 320 war magic would be able to do similar damage to a level 70 with 330 war magic, but the 70 would have more mana and health most likely, faster run speed, fizzle less etc -- but the 50 is still competitive and at a much sooner time relative to games with hard caps in both PvP and PvE.
I think Shadowbane had a similar system? I can't really remember.
(Sorry for the continious AC invocations , and most of this changed with the expansion release that messed with the level cap and stuff, but that's not really central to my post ).
FFXI has a similar system in place once you hit the cap. Instead of so many exp per level, every 10k exp nets you a merit point, which you can put in different things to raise them. You can merit your combat skills to do more damage, or in your magic to heal more, your defensive skills to survive better etc. They even added new abilities that you can only unlock by spending a certain amount of points on them.
In theory I think it is a cool system, allowing people to expand their character in ways they want. But in practice it's slightly less interesting. People expect you to have all your combat merits if you are a melee or white/black magic if you're a mage, etc. So instead of gaining 30k exp or so to level and gaining a boost to all attributes you end up needing a hell of a lot more to merit everything.
Dangerous on
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
For those who like leveling, why should there be a cap?
Well currently in games like WoW caps exist to maintain the difficulty of PvE content, as well as maintain a level playing field in PvP environments.
In AC there was in theory no level cap, although because of a weird coding design it was in reality 126 -- for all intents and purposes though, for the first year or so people basically viewed the game as one without a cap. But what you did have was a soft cap, where once you hit like 80, you basically would only gain utility and sort of grow your character horizontally if that makes any sense -- broadening your power more so than increasing it, as skills would get harder to raise and you'd reach a point of diminishing returns. I prefer this approach to a hard cap because in AC, it meant the pressure was put on raising skills and not on levels. So a level 50 with 320 war magic would be able to do similar damage to a level 70 with 330 war magic, but the 70 would have more mana and health most likely, faster run speed, fizzle less etc -- but the 50 is still competitive and at a much sooner time relative to games with hard caps in both PvP and PvE.
I think Shadowbane had a similar system? I can't really remember.
(Sorry for the continious AC invocations , and most of this changed with the expansion release that messed with the level cap and stuff, but that's not really central to my post ).
FFXI has a similar system in place once you hit the cap. Instead of so many exp per level, every 10k exp nets you a merit point, which you can put in different things to raise them. You can merit your combat skills to do more damage, or in your magic to heal more, your defensive skills to survive better etc. They even added new abilities that you can only unlock by spending a certain amount of points on them.
In theory I think it is a cool system, allowing people to expand their character in ways they want. But in practice it's slightly less interesting. People expect you to have all your combat merits if you are a melee or white/black magic if you're a mage, etc. So instead of gaining 30k exp or so to level and gaining a boost to all attributes you end up needing a hell of a lot more to merit everything.
EQ and EQ2 did that with Alternate Advancement points... keeps you playing, bragging rights, etc.
I'm in favor of a level cap, really, again to keep PvE stuff in check. I'm one of those who couldn't give two shits less about PvP, at least in most of the games' current form (EQ2, DAOC, and AC were probably the only ones that did it right).
I think current MMO's generally ignore the main benefit that the genre allows, that is, large scale competition. EVE might do this, but still isn't the same.
My ideal view? An MMO with no classes, no levels, where everyone is a capitalist, and makes all their gains from that which they control, not the player character themselves. They gain power by their armies, their money, their connections, their skill, rather than stats inherent to their play. And all their armies, their money, their connections can be lost.
Of course, this would be extremely harsh, potentially, to new players, but I have thoughts about that.
As far as a leveling / skillup system in an MMO goes, I really preferred the way SWG did things pre-CU.
Forget levels, changeable professions and skill trees within them are enough to keep the game fresh for a long time. The grind wasn't so ridiculous as to make you stay your initial choice, but it was difficult enough to not be silly. If they had airtight balance for the combat classes, all the combinations of said professions would amount to insane amounts of diversity within the game. When you're happy with your character's profession and skilltrees, all the upgrades are done via the gear and items you have. Perhaps the only difference I can suggest is not having to sacrifice your combat professions for crafting or merchant ones, similar to the idea of the combat and crafting spheres in Vanguard.
In fact, when I think of ideal MMO characteristics, pre-CU SWG is easily the heaviest outline for what is good. Player housing, an insanely good economy (that made for important relationships between good crafters and their customers. Playing WoW and you need an enchant? Aww, you're friend aint on. SWG? Go to their shop and buy whatever the hell you need. That character has presence on the world aside from their avatar.), incredible environments and things to see, and a solid combat system.
If you could say...combine the polished combat and raid dungeons of WoW, as well as some of the strategy involved in playing certain battlegrounds organized group vs. organized group, with everything else SWG, that'd be ideal.
I don't think MMORPG's need innovation as much as they need someone to put the right pieces of what we have together, and make it all fucking solid.
Man oh man, if I had a couple dozen million, an impeccible team, no time limit, and co-operation from Fox (all four things impossible), I would sit down and carve out a Firefly MMO.
No "levels", not really - you have skill levels yes, but they don't go very deep. You could bottom-out say, your Pistol skill in a day. Instead, the skill system is as wide as the 'verse. Spec in a specific brand of pistol, a specific model, a specific gun entirely ("This piece? It was my daddy's daddy's daddy's. And it's been mine since I were twelve. There ain't never been a better gun - just watch!") to gain improvement and various feats. But it wouldn't stop there - you'd have various toughness trees, speed and agility trees, mental trees, crafting trees, political trees, knowledge trees, and all these trees would have sub-trees within which you could specialize further. And have combat be mostly skill-based. You get bonus feats and abilities that open up OPTIONS for you, they don't just instantly grant you a million more attack points or hitpoints.
To prevent everyone from being a master of all trades, skills would deteriorate, but at a reasonable level, and you could always pick them back up later. I mean certainly you weren't ALWAYS a Shepard, but the old ways do come back when you need them, don't they?
Obviously, with a game where there aren't levels, you skip out on the grind (at least the traditional grind anyway, Achiever gamers will find something to grind on) and get almost immediately to the endgame - which for my money is where the fun is. At least it's where the fun is to the kind of people I'd be catering to, and that's the important part - to know your market, cater slavishly to them, and to hell with everyone else. (Also make sure your market is big enough/rich enough can sustain you, but that goes without saying.)
And there's so gorram much to do in the Firefly universe! You could aid the Alliance, and captain a large cruiser, or even act as security or helm or what-have you. Go investigate distress signals, quell riots, patrol borders, and generally promote peace. Or play a mercenary, hired by various criminal underworlds to do the kinds of things that honest folk won't. Perhaps do those same things for the Alliance, or a homestead on one of the outer planets that's getting desperate.
Or maybe start your own homestead. Planets are big things, you see, and there's plenty of space for all out here. That's why we left Earth-that-was, because we needed space and let me tell you - space we have! Get a group of your closest buddies, buy a plot of land, and found yourself a settlement. Craft buildings, furnish them, bootstrap local industries. Eventually, attract PC and NPC settlers alike as word gets out about your successful settlement. Likely even attract unwanted attention, like those mercenaries mentioned previously, or even the Alliance if you start lookin' too uppity.
Take a cue from Eve and have it be worthwhile to own a settlement, and be worthwhile to defend it. Money buys a lot of things, not the least of which is security. Have the outer planets be more resource-rich (less resources spend terraforming them = more left to exploit), but harsher and more difficult to settle on. The outermost so difficult that settlements don't tend to last long - and the ones that do end up getting raided to bits when they establish themselves as successful - but not before they were able to extract/process/create some very valuable things that help the founders of that settlement.
And do I even NEED to mention Reavers - that perennial badguy hanging over everyone's head? No-one can hit level 70 and casually take on an infernal here. Everyone is just a person, and when a dozen gorram inhuman screaming FIENDS round the corner, arms outstretched and eyes rolling wildly, well you can't just take that in stride anymore, now can you? You may be a crack shot with a pistol, or tough enough to take a few bullets and keep coming, but I swear to God unless you're lucky or well-prepared, they will catch you and rape you and kill you and eat you and skin you and wear you - and you best pray to God that they do it in that order.
tl;dr - Space Cowbay game that emphasizes the endgame to the point where the very first game you start playing is the endgame. Skills that go wide, not deep, and allow you to customize the hell out of your character according to how you want them to have lived instead of being Orc Warlock #13452354. Thoughtfully planned out endgame emphasizing community, resource/location control, and community vs. community interaction/contention instead of 1v1.
Oh and I'd also like to point out the opportunity for someone to do space combat RIGHT - using somewhat realistic models involving broadsides and manouvering, and pesky fighter runs and bombers, and All That Jazz.
Lastly, back around page 2 someone expressed concern that somebody might actually implement an idea on here for real, and that person might take offense to their brainchild being stolen - I have to disagree on that front. Let's not kid ourselves, we're all just shooting the shit here. If any of us were ever going to be famous for this shit, we'd be making it now, not jawing about it. And quite frankly, if someone's out there reading this and has the will and the wherewithal to implement ANY of my idea, I'd be more than happy to let them. I haven't the time, energy, or giant stacks of money to make it happen, so I'd be more flattered (and eager to play) than anything else.
Man oh man, if I had a couple dozen million, an impeccible team, no time limit, and co-operation from Fox (all four things impossible), I would sit down and carve out a Firefly MMO.
We are instead getting a Firefly MMO that will probably suck.
I wish there were games that had enough gall to actually inflict some really nasty damage to a character - for example, in Fallout, you've got limbs being disabled from critical hits to them, but it never goes beyond that unless you actually gib a dude. Why not have it so that if you cripple a dude's limb, you get a second roll versus your luck, where the shot hit and the weapon that hit it, which winds up blowing off body parts if it succeeds? If you shotgun a dude's kneecap, there should be a very good chance that you wind up taking the sucker right off: if he somehow survives, he'll then have to deal with his disability until he can find a way to replace it.
That's one of the reasons why Dwarf Fortress is so awesome. The combat can be really brutal.
Man oh man, if I had a couple dozen million, an impeccible team, no time limit, and co-operation from Fox (all four things impossible), I would sit down and carve out a Firefly MMO.
We are instead getting a Firefly MMO that will probably suck.
Is that even officially licensed? Or is that somewhat of a fan-made thing that got the "well, we won't prosecute anyway" sly nod and wink?
Man oh man, if I had a couple dozen million, an impeccible team, no time limit, and co-operation from Fox (all four things impossible), I would sit down and carve out a Firefly MMO.
We are instead getting a Firefly MMO that will probably suck.
Is that even officially licensed? Or is that somewhat of a fan-made thing that got the "well, we won't prosecute anyway" sly nod and wink?
On December 7, 2006, The Multiverse Network announced that it had obtained the rights from Twentieth Century Fox to develop a massively multiplayer online game based on the series, which is currently scheduled for release in 2008.[84]
God, why make a Firefly MMO? It'll be wrecked by both the developers trying to cater the perceived audience and the audience itself. Just use the idea of the universe as a basis and then invent a new IP and make a game that's good. If the gameplay is good it doesn't need to be based on Firefly.
Honestly, my perfect MMO would basically be EVE with TIE Fighter controls, and no gaining skills over time-everyone maxed out. Just based on who can afford what. Change around details like sov and removing capships, but overall that's all that would be needed.
Honestly, my perfect MMO would basically be EVE with TIE Fighter controls, and no gaining skills over time-everyone maxed out. Just based on who can afford what. Change around details like sov and removing capships, but overall that's all that would be needed.
Posts
It's kind of hard to explain, but basically you gather raw materials (sand, mud, grass, wood etc.), and then turn those materials into something else (bricks, straw and the like), and then you build things out of those materials, and those structures could refine the materials further (wood becomes board, flax can be spun into twine), and you can make stuff out of it (boats, clothing). The process to make everything is timed. For instance, if you plant Flax seeds, you can either choose to let it grow wild and harvest the seeds, or weed it to gain the flax itself. But weeding is a timed process, and if you don't weed fast enough, the flax goes wild.
either each person is a trainer, or each player is a pokemon, either way would be interesting imo
Seriously.
Or I could settle for pre-Trammel UO 2.0
I can't think of a genre that has advanced less than the MMO genre -- which has changed so little in it's 15 or so years in existence as a bona-fide genre seperate from MUDs, that it makes me want to cry when you think about all the potential.
The only people I could see believing WoW was a true advancement of the genre must have either played it as their first MMO or have come from EQ -- I can't imagine a UO player or and AC player seeing it in the same light -- even DAoC which was a little later, which was heavily EQ influenced, still managed to pull off PvP in a much better fashion.
Shadowbane was the greatest botching of a terrific concept, and I still think if someone came along and remade that game from scratch with the same ideas with a little refinement, it would be a smash hit.
Right now I'm looking forward to Tabula Rasa and that's about it...
Say I have to kill a Bandit Leader. Well depending on the time of day he might be in his bandit camp or maybe he is off with his cronies doing what bandits do best or maybe he is out at a tavern getting drunk.
- mine shafts, placing a shaft gave you some kind of mine, digging deeper cost more, but could get better rewards
- field, semi permanent. also did better based on soil
-status quo - actually had a voting/trial based system. only one player could be the top of the game in certain aspects. some handled by first to complete a trial, some handled by popular vote. the "king" was vote based, the leaders of the sciences was first to complete all trials. guilds also go recognition for completing very large projects first.
Neocron
- interesting quests sometimes. involving delving into enemy territory to track down NPC's and such. also involved killing other players " we need you to show them we arent scared.. kill 5 people of X faction, no less than 5 levels below you (on a 1-100 level scale) then report back. NPCs do not count, only other runners"
i want someone to involve a lot of ATitD and neocron into a game that has a better foundation.
Make travel time easily mitigated... it should not feel like work to run to a specific quest/location/NPC/shop.
Really, those are the only two things that piss me off in MMOs.
It would take a while to describe it, and it probably wouldn't do it justice...basically:
Being able to dodge projectiles and spells and hide behind objects combined with relatively lower health levels than many games and the high damage potential of weapons and magic, the huge suite of armor vunlnerabilities and damage types, the fully positional-based damage model (back, head, torso, arms, hands, upper/lower legs, feet) complete with full collision detection, the super fast run speed and the ability to jump onto buildings and across huge gaps, the huge host of modifying attributes and skills, and the ability to make a completely unique character class...and in the case of Darktide, the ability to attack anyone, anywhere, and be able to overcome them through skill and ingenuity even if they had 20-30 levels on you or if you were fighting multiple players, and have combat either end in a flash or last 10 minutes or more...it was much more FPS inspired than anything since, but was distinctly MMORPG.
It all lead to an extremely frenetic, deep, and very satisfying combat experience. It was much more FPS inspired than anything since, but was distinctly MMORPG. It had issues, but the EQ model isn't in the same league, and I'm sure many AC players hoped that almost a decade later someone would have built on the AC experience.
Edit: It also lended itself very well to PvE, as fighting monsters you could beat them through skillful timing, dodging and other play mechanics aside from your stats and skills. Combined with the ability to encounter groups of dozens of monsters at once....I mean you could delve into an Olthoi hive and aggro 50 of them, and through collision detection you'd get trapped in the hive and have to battle your way out. And don't forget to keep your back to the wall or you're gonna get gored [email protected]
And I love the online battling on the DS, but if Nintendo put out a Wii/ PC PokeMMO, it could be made of epic quantities of awesome.
First: Variation in skills. Similar to the show, you can choose to be a trainer, breeder, run a shop, or other Pokethings. Each person should be fully customizable to avoid every person looking the same.
Starting pokemons should be randomly selected (3 randomly generated pokemon at level 5 to choose from, preferably in the fire/water/ plant tradition) to increase variety.
Second: PvP should be similar to WoW, in that certain areas are optional PvP, and others are mandatory PvP. A person can duck out of a battle, but will lose twice as much money (Which will be much more valuable in this game).
Third: After the standard 8 Gyms and Elite Four are beaten, a largen world is opened to the player, where land can be purchased, shops and centers set up, and with consent from Admins, even Gyms(!).
I have more ideas, but my hands hurt, so this is it for now...
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My ideal view? An MMO with no classes, no levels, where everyone is a capitalist, and makes all their gains from that which they control, not the player character themselves. They gain power by their armies, their money, their connections, their skill, rather than stats inherent to their play. And all their armies, their money, their connections can be lost.
Of course, this would be extremely harsh, potentially, to new players, but I have thoughts about that.
One thing I'd like to see is the ability to actually perform your own music in a game, maybe even a system whereby several musicians can form up into a band and do the individual scores all in sync. Nothing could be more satisfying after crushing an opposing faction in PVP than to return to a full-on brass band victory march. That, and you could come up with special pieces to act as cues for things, like an order for the left group to move in or fall back, or a warning of approaching enemy reenforcements from some direction, and so on.
I am pretty sure the LOTR MMO has a rather robust music system.
While using music in combat to signal manuveres would be awesome, I doubt anyone would ever use that over something like ventrilo.
TO PROTECT THE WORLD FROM DEVESTATION
TO UNITE ALL PEOPLE WITHIN OUR NATION
TO DENOUNCE THE EVILS OF TRUTH AND LOVE
TO EXTEND OUR REACH TO THE STARS ABOVE
JESSIE, JAMES
TEAM ROCKET BLASTS OFF AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT
SURRENDER NOW OR PREPARE TO FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!
MEOWTH, THAT'S RIGHT
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH FETT
Goddamnit pikachu, not these faggots again.
Exactly. It pisses me off when they hand you the first five levels, but to reach the last five levels you have to sacrifice several animals to the pagan gods. It's fucking stupid design, and it annoys the hell out of me that people accept it.
Well currently in games like WoW caps exist to maintain the difficulty of PvE content, as well as maintain a level playing field in PvP environments.
In AC there was in theory no level cap, although because of a weird coding design it was in reality 126 -- for all intents and purposes though, for the first year or so people basically viewed the game as one without a cap. But what you did have was a soft cap, where once you hit like 80, you basically would only gain utility and sort of grow your character horizontally if that makes any sense -- broadening your power more so than increasing it, as skills would get harder to raise and you'd reach a point of diminishing returns. I prefer this approach to a hard cap because in AC, it meant the pressure was put on raising skills and not on levels. So a level 50 with 320 war magic would be able to do similar damage to a level 70 with 330 war magic, but the 70 would have more mana and health most likely, faster run speed, fizzle less etc -- but the 50 is still competitive and at a much sooner time relative to games with hard caps in both PvP and PvE.
I think Shadowbane had a similar system? I can't really remember.
(Sorry for the continious AC invocations
Enough said.
I'd much rather see a deep combat system that rewards the player's ability.
Later levels take longer because there are more combinations of abilities you have to accommodate.
Well... in theory.
If they could make it happen I would play forever.
FFXI has a similar system in place once you hit the cap. Instead of so many exp per level, every 10k exp nets you a merit point, which you can put in different things to raise them. You can merit your combat skills to do more damage, or in your magic to heal more, your defensive skills to survive better etc. They even added new abilities that you can only unlock by spending a certain amount of points on them.
In theory I think it is a cool system, allowing people to expand their character in ways they want. But in practice it's slightly less interesting. People expect you to have all your combat merits if you are a melee or white/black magic if you're a mage, etc. So instead of gaining 30k exp or so to level and gaining a boost to all attributes you end up needing a hell of a lot more to merit everything.
EQ and EQ2 did that with Alternate Advancement points... keeps you playing, bragging rights, etc.
I'm in favor of a level cap, really, again to keep PvE stuff in check. I'm one of those who couldn't give two shits less about PvP, at least in most of the games' current form (EQ2, DAOC, and AC were probably the only ones that did it right).
So what you are looking for is EVE without BoB?
Forget levels, changeable professions and skill trees within them are enough to keep the game fresh for a long time. The grind wasn't so ridiculous as to make you stay your initial choice, but it was difficult enough to not be silly. If they had airtight balance for the combat classes, all the combinations of said professions would amount to insane amounts of diversity within the game. When you're happy with your character's profession and skilltrees, all the upgrades are done via the gear and items you have. Perhaps the only difference I can suggest is not having to sacrifice your combat professions for crafting or merchant ones, similar to the idea of the combat and crafting spheres in Vanguard.
In fact, when I think of ideal MMO characteristics, pre-CU SWG is easily the heaviest outline for what is good. Player housing, an insanely good economy (that made for important relationships between good crafters and their customers. Playing WoW and you need an enchant? Aww, you're friend aint on. SWG? Go to their shop and buy whatever the hell you need. That character has presence on the world aside from their avatar.), incredible environments and things to see, and a solid combat system.
If you could say...combine the polished combat and raid dungeons of WoW, as well as some of the strategy involved in playing certain battlegrounds organized group vs. organized group, with everything else SWG, that'd be ideal.
I don't think MMORPG's need innovation as much as they need someone to put the right pieces of what we have together, and make it all fucking solid.
No "levels", not really - you have skill levels yes, but they don't go very deep. You could bottom-out say, your Pistol skill in a day. Instead, the skill system is as wide as the 'verse. Spec in a specific brand of pistol, a specific model, a specific gun entirely ("This piece? It was my daddy's daddy's daddy's. And it's been mine since I were twelve. There ain't never been a better gun - just watch!") to gain improvement and various feats. But it wouldn't stop there - you'd have various toughness trees, speed and agility trees, mental trees, crafting trees, political trees, knowledge trees, and all these trees would have sub-trees within which you could specialize further. And have combat be mostly skill-based. You get bonus feats and abilities that open up OPTIONS for you, they don't just instantly grant you a million more attack points or hitpoints.
To prevent everyone from being a master of all trades, skills would deteriorate, but at a reasonable level, and you could always pick them back up later. I mean certainly you weren't ALWAYS a Shepard, but the old ways do come back when you need them, don't they?
Obviously, with a game where there aren't levels, you skip out on the grind (at least the traditional grind anyway, Achiever gamers will find something to grind on) and get almost immediately to the endgame - which for my money is where the fun is. At least it's where the fun is to the kind of people I'd be catering to, and that's the important part - to know your market, cater slavishly to them, and to hell with everyone else. (Also make sure your market is big enough/rich enough can sustain you, but that goes without saying.)
And there's so gorram much to do in the Firefly universe! You could aid the Alliance, and captain a large cruiser, or even act as security or helm or what-have you. Go investigate distress signals, quell riots, patrol borders, and generally promote peace. Or play a mercenary, hired by various criminal underworlds to do the kinds of things that honest folk won't. Perhaps do those same things for the Alliance, or a homestead on one of the outer planets that's getting desperate.
Or maybe start your own homestead. Planets are big things, you see, and there's plenty of space for all out here. That's why we left Earth-that-was, because we needed space and let me tell you - space we have! Get a group of your closest buddies, buy a plot of land, and found yourself a settlement. Craft buildings, furnish them, bootstrap local industries. Eventually, attract PC and NPC settlers alike as word gets out about your successful settlement. Likely even attract unwanted attention, like those mercenaries mentioned previously, or even the Alliance if you start lookin' too uppity.
Take a cue from Eve and have it be worthwhile to own a settlement, and be worthwhile to defend it. Money buys a lot of things, not the least of which is security. Have the outer planets be more resource-rich (less resources spend terraforming them = more left to exploit), but harsher and more difficult to settle on. The outermost so difficult that settlements don't tend to last long - and the ones that do end up getting raided to bits when they establish themselves as successful - but not before they were able to extract/process/create some very valuable things that help the founders of that settlement.
And do I even NEED to mention Reavers - that perennial badguy hanging over everyone's head? No-one can hit level 70 and casually take on an infernal here. Everyone is just a person, and when a dozen gorram inhuman screaming FIENDS round the corner, arms outstretched and eyes rolling wildly, well you can't just take that in stride anymore, now can you? You may be a crack shot with a pistol, or tough enough to take a few bullets and keep coming, but I swear to God unless you're lucky or well-prepared, they will catch you and rape you and kill you and eat you and skin you and wear you - and you best pray to God that they do it in that order.
tl;dr - Space Cowbay game that emphasizes the endgame to the point where the very first game you start playing is the endgame. Skills that go wide, not deep, and allow you to customize the hell out of your character according to how you want them to have lived instead of being Orc Warlock #13452354. Thoughtfully planned out endgame emphasizing community, resource/location control, and community vs. community interaction/contention instead of 1v1.
Oh and I'd also like to point out the opportunity for someone to do space combat RIGHT - using somewhat realistic models involving broadsides and manouvering, and pesky fighter runs and bombers, and All That Jazz.
Lastly, back around page 2 someone expressed concern that somebody might actually implement an idea on here for real, and that person might take offense to their brainchild being stolen - I have to disagree on that front. Let's not kid ourselves, we're all just shooting the shit here. If any of us were ever going to be famous for this shit, we'd be making it now, not jawing about it. And quite frankly, if someone's out there reading this and has the will and the wherewithal to implement ANY of my idea, I'd be more than happy to let them. I haven't the time, energy, or giant stacks of money to make it happen, so I'd be more flattered (and eager to play) than anything else.
That's one of the reasons why Dwarf Fortress is so awesome. The combat can be really brutal.
Is that even officially licensed? Or is that somewhat of a fan-made thing that got the "well, we won't prosecute anyway" sly nod and wink?
Take me.