Towns & Cities In MMORPG's

Shai-Halud

In Asheron's Call there was no prime town, no focus town of the player types, in this case it ended up creating a group of players who hung around the same town(s) to fend of PKers or PK themselves, evil or good, small towns are something that are needed in more MMORPGS, DAoC mordred got pretty close to it. I still kinda worry about WoW though, just havin a bunch the whole population of Orcs runnin around Orgrimmar like a bunch of IDIOTS.

DO YOU LIKE SMALL TOWNS?!

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Waitin on a new MMORPG with hardcore PvP.

"The angels in my dreams... have turned to demons of greed that's mean.."- Soul to Squeeze

Wotann

I like variety. A game that vill have immense variety is Dark and Light.

10 Different kingdoms with their own environment. A few large town, but a myriad of small towns and villages spread across the world. Lots of castles to fight and resources to fight over. There are many incredible features. If you haven't checked it out yet, do so.

www.darkandlight.com

Nemo sine vitio est

Shai-Halud

No I had not checked it out yet and I just did and it looks incredible, truly looks like something special, I watched the sandstorm video and that brought me back to the good old days of Al-Jalima in Asheron's Call.

Maybe I should be mad at you now, cause now i need to wait for it

Thanks!

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Waitin on a new MMORPG with hardcore PvP.

"The angels in my dreams... have turned to demons of greed that's mean.."- Soul to Squeeze

TianFeng

AC1s small towns were fun, but players generally just all gathered at a few. This was either because of transport routes, or hunting grounds. Most towns were left as ghost towns. The worst case of this was Arwic, a bustling city, close to a series of transport portals called "the sub" or "the hub" depending on what you thought was best. The crowds gathering there were just so big, that lag (and subsequent 'portal storms' were frequent. They were automatic transportation with random people, to take them to a less laggy nearby area). Eventually, the devs wrote into the story, rather amusingly, that the town got hit by a meteorite. When players logged on after a patch one day, the town was just a smouldering crater.

Small towns are great, but you cannot stop the natural gathering of players. The only way is to give each town huge benefits, such as crafting bonuses, that are unique to that town. That way, players will travel around more. The D+L towns may sound fun, but people will just clump in the largest.

Zepee

I agree that small towns r needed. For instance, in some games, small towns r related to higher lvl monsters and equipment, so that in those citys u have a "selected" group of ppl who already know about the game and how it is played, not bothering u with boring a newbish questions like u see in starting towns. Furthermore, these small citys have a lot less ppl than the starting ones, meaning less lag and greater ability to move around.

 

If u take the example or RYL, demon side, Opeiny(starting town) is ALWAYS overcrowded so that u cant move with the huge lag, and Hizna is almost empty(highest lvl town for that map) and u can roam around freely without seeing a slide show instead of a running game.

I vote !YES! for lesser towns!

Annekynn

Personally I love small towns and despise big towns/cities. AC1 and DAoC had great town sizes. Lineage 2 on the other hand, too big.

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Played: AC1, DAoC, E&B, SWG
Tested: AC1, AC2, DAoC, Eve, Planetside, Rubies, Lineage 2

Vengi

Large towns are great for trade, you always get a good deal (if you try long enough).

Small towns are great for picking up groups to hunt with and Buying shop items as they have less lag.

So you need both

Tymora

I think a good mix of small, medium, and large size towns/cities are the best.  I like large towns but only if the building and places within have a purpose.  I don't necessarily like a large town with buildings that are just there for show.  If a building had a few NPC's within that offered something or had a quest or even just spoke to you a little about the background of  the city or storyline, that would be cool. 

Small towns are nice because everything is eassily accessable, they seem comfortable, and they are usually closer to where the action is (hunting spots, quest locations, etc.)

One thing about Everquest 2 that I don't like so much is that fact that there are only 2 cities.  Maybe there will be player made towns and cities eventually, like in SWG.  Now that would be nice . . .