So, I don't know if it's just me, or what, but it seems as though most, or at least a large number of the MMO population is composed of unattractive features that have been blissfully overused and graphic appeal. Don't get me wrong, I like a good looking game as much as the next guy, but IMO graphics do not and never will make a game; and an idea can only be used so many times before it is old and so common that it isn't really a feature anymore.
Now that my mini-rant is over, tell me, just out of curiosity, what do you think composes a good MMO? What are some major turn offs that keep you from even considering an MMO. Describe your ideal MMO!
(Who knows, maybe a dev will get smart, read this, and change some things xD)
So much...
But I will tell what it turns me off. Its quest and Graphic. The genre "MMORPG" is all about questing. If its repetetive quest,with exp reward then im done. Period. Because I'm not gonna mindless grinding on same ole crap that i already did and dont feel very rewarding. What I want out of quest is to be rare and feels very rewarding. Like you get nice unique armor out of that quest. Asheron's Call have the best "quest" based ever. You have to go in dungeon and figure out where to go and you dont know who u gonna encounter and such. That is MUCH more fun than kill X for Y then go back to npc with sign above with Checkmark is UTTERLY boring! I hate seeing npc with icon above them.
If you don't like walls of text, read it anyway, it should interest you if you like gaming and daydream about it.
My ideal MMO would be fantasy in genre (although I guess sci would work just as well), with good lore as to how the human-like race inhabited the planet/came to be, to me it just doesn't make sense that in any fantasy world, any Earth creature should exist. I realize that it would take a long time to fully inhabit a world with unheard of species, but a game that truly cares about the quality of itself for its players should take that extra step, write a good bestiary full of unique creatures that are found in the water, on land, and in the air, and explain how and why the dominant species' came to be.
This MMO should feature the ability to create any and all items featured in-game, including epic rare drops that a player spends three days planning a raid and gathering a group to loot. I know it sounds crazy, but if you use a well thought out way of implementing this, it would work. The way I see it, you should be able to break down and study any item you have and learn how it was made, if your skill in that crafting category is high enough, you can obtain said recipe and learn to make that item. Upon learning to make the item, the instructions on how to make it are consumed/wiped so no one can trade/sell after use. Players will not be able to gain the instructions to make it if their skill for that crafting category is not high enough. Example; you have been working on your wood craft skill, and you have managed to get it to 200 or so. If you are to pick up an amazing sword, you can not break it down and learn to make it, because you aren't a blacksmith.
My next point, any player should be able to learn any skill unless there is a logical reason why they can't (their race can't use magic, so they can't break down a magic wand, or if they do, they should only get instructions to make a wand that doesn't work, so that they can trade/sell it to some one who can fix it). This would stimulate a solid economy in the game, and allow for a realistic feel. You should not be able to attain a high enough skill to make every item in the game in even a years time, there should be no skill cap. In real life you don't automatically stop being able to learn to do something when you pass common knowledge, you experiment/find new things. These 'new things' in the MMO would be updates, patches, added items. It will be hard to catch up with anyone that has an extremely high skill, it will take a long time, but it should to make the game challenging. In a video game you shouldn't be allowed fame overnight unless you manage to pull off something extravagant.
Next; the game should allow the ability to learn (but not start out knowing) other racial languages. This makes me so mad with games like WoW. Who is to say that a Blood Elf shouldn't be able to befriend a Night Elf and speak to them. After all, the Blood Elves (or High Elves at this point) were a part of the Alliance, what, did they somehow magically forget to speak? Being addicted to magic can do strange things man. Basically wrapping up in-game player features, you should be able to do anything that is logical, and the developers shouldn't let the fact that it is time consuming keep them from doing so.
Now about the interface. I think action bars are completely ok, however, there should be clear notification of when you can or can not use something without having to look back and forth from your game screen to your UI to see when your spell has cooled down. I also love the Elder Scrolls' feature of crosshair aim in an RPG. You shouldn't be able to lock onto a target and kill him, it isn't fair and it requires no precision or skill. There should be no auto attack, but the game should not change into a button masher, it should feature a continuous attack; imagine holding left mouse button down and the character continues to chain normal attacks in the direction of aim. Of course if an enemy blocks or attacks you from behind, there should be some form of stun or stagger to gain balance to keep players from running in holding attack to hit everything.
The world map should start out unfilled when the game's first player logs on (with the exception of maybe the main towns/trade routes) as if the world has yet to be fully explored. Most would argue this is not a fair MMO feature because it denies other players the ability to achieve what one player has, but it should be this way, the first person to do something so great as discovering an ancient temple, or a new island, should go down in history, as they do in the real world. This will be the same for major raids, high tier story quests (quests that should require extra effort to complete after the main quests have been completed), and crafting.
Brief explanation of high tier story quests since my stupidity has brought a previous subject (lore) back into a paragraph it shouldn't be: The main story quests should not be anything groundbreaking in the game world, they should be things such as serving in your nations military, or helping your nation, delegating between people, warding off attacks on encampments, et cetera. High tier story quests should be for those who have completed these quests and strive for more, to change the game world. These quests should include things like re-aligning your nation with a certain alliance, making peace between warring nations (ending unrestricted PvP between factions), defeating current nation leaders, and so forth.
Graphics and system requirements are my next topic to tackle. I get so tired of being one of the unlucky gamers with a horrible computer (Intel chipset anyone? I lag on MineCraft) not being able to play so called good games (I wouldn't be able to know if it were good or not because I can't play). In my opinion, players shouldn't be restricted by how old their computer is. People say you can do some things for some people but you can't do everything for everyone, well, I think I have a solution for graphics. Most role playing games offer a third person perspective with the option to zoom in and out (perhaps making your screen first person), some newer games are offering the feature of low system req. textures and high system req. textures. This is a major improvement I know, but what if games offered the option of being 2D or 3D, impossible? I. Think. Not. A while back, years even, a development team started working on a custom game client for the MMO Tibia, I forget what it was called, but Google and do some snooping around you Tibia players, it existed, they took the object ids from the game files and set them to models, achieving the 3D emulation of a 2D game. This project however, was abandoned and is dead for reasons beyond me, but it still lives on in my heart at least. A game could offer separate clients and files for high and low end users, allowing both to connect and play the same game, it is double the work, but you will attain a ton of new players this way, with sacrificing only the ability to jump (It isn't that bad, Guild Wars did it and look where they are, I mean heck, if you wanted to jump that bad, the game could pull a Pokemon style jumping system).
I know i just bashed your face with a wall of text , but these are things I think are in dire need of attention in the MMO world. I may edit this if I think of anything else in the near future. If you have anything to add please say.
My turn: 1 open seamless world like Vanguard 2 combat mechanics and fluidness like WoW 3 housing anywhere in the world AND in the cities like EQ2 4 boats, horses and other means of transportation 5 realilistic grphx but with flair. 6 armor diversity with a separate pane for flavor armor like in LOTRO 7 interesting and expsanive lore 8 player made villages and castles 9 server wide auction houses and banks 10 outland raid bosses 11 raids that are connected to the lore 12 instances dungeons 13 in-depth crafting like Vanguard and old EQ2 14 player made gear almost as good as raid gear. 15 Many classes with AA style talents like EQ2 16 religion playing an inmportant part, picking a god to further your character 17 ever changing world which is affected by the players 18 Ryzom style world AI 19 Aion type character customization
You'd get this response sooner or later anyhow, so I'll just go and do it
My ideal MMORPG:
- Star Wars Galaxies Pre-CU.
That's pretty much it. Despite me not knowing at the time (it was my first real MMO then) it had everything I could possibly ask for. Put a cap on jedi population and have the permadeath and there you go.
This, except not have Jedi class at all. It's been awhile, but if I remember the game was set in time between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, and there weren't any Jedi around at the time, except for Yoda, Darth Vader, and Luke. SOE and Lucasarts totally sold out in desparation to the whiners who wanted to play a Jedi, and completely turned their back on their own lore, it was stupid. If they had to put in the Jedi, I would've excepted it, as long as they were done like you said with the permadeath. I would have also liked to see them add in better content. I loved everything else about the game, especially the profession based class system and the player run economy.
or
a medieval/fantasy setting with:
A hybrid class system like vanilla SWG or a complex, in depth class system like vanilla DAoC's. Also, all skills get trained by using them, not going to a trainer. Trainers can be used to establish a skill, not actually train it. I am a big fan of "on the job training" as it were
RvR based PvP combat where the players can effect the game world, especially in PvP. I hated it in WoW's BG's where you go in and fight, and win or lose nothing really changed. I want a game where if you win you gain something for your faction. Whether its territory for your faction to mine for rare materials, or combat upgrades, whatever. As long as it benefits the faction, and not just the individual players.
No invisible walls. The only walls that I would allow would be the ones that separate the "frontiers (PvP sections) from the PvE sections, and these could be easily "disguised" by mountain ranges, massive fortifications, etc. Players should be able to kill guards, other players from their own faction, it would just mean a massive faction rep hit. If a player did it enough, they would get to the point where they were KoS by their own faction. Make faction rep count for buying from vendors to, as your rep goes down, the prices go up. Conversely, killing other faction players in the frontiers will gradually make your faction rep go up. There would have to be someway to keep people from PK'ing someone from their own faction and then erasing the negative faction with a few kills in PvP, but that mechanic actually should be fairly easy to work out.
SCS - I know, I know. Another invisible wall I'd like to remove is banning people from the game. How you would do this is with the faction rep system. Bannable offenses would hit the player with massive faction rep points. Enough to make them KoS with the faction NPC's. The character in question would respawn in jail (yes, an actual jail in the faction's capitol) with basic clothing. All of his stuff is either in the hands of the government, or sitting in his house, which oddly enough just became lootable by anybody. If the player deletes his character while in "jail", he is then banned from the server. SCS would keep that person from logging on an alt and getting all his stuff while in jail. Plus, a players reputation, both with his faction and his fellow players is tied up in that one avatar, if he is a d-bag with that avatar, there is no starting over, unless he wants to start completely over on another server. Also, no name changes, server changes...ever, for any reason. You could allow a player that has completely pissed off his faction to change factions, "turn traitor" as it were, but with no guarantees the other faction's players would have to accept him.
Complex combat system - I'm not a holy trinity hater, I think its a good template to use to form groups and fight, etc. What I hate is the game mechanics that are so cookie-cutter, they allow players an "auto-win" option of group-forming and playstyle. Make different weapons more and less effective in different situations. Longbows have longer range, but crossbows do more damage against plate and chain mail. Warhammers (especially big, two handers) are more effective than swords, and much more effective than rapiers against skellies. Against flesh and blood opponents, rapiers, stiletto's, etc. have a bleed DoT, but swords do more up front damage. This would also give warriors a bonus over hybrid fighters. Sure, the ranger can do as much with a sword as the warrior, and the ranger can wield a warhammer, but he skill caps a lot lower than the warrior, so the hammer is more effective in the warrior's hands. Also allow for friendly fire. A wizard shouldn't be able to cast fireballs into a fight at will, as it can and will damage friendlies. Force the ranger to get a better angle to shoot his bow, or risk hitting his friends instead of the enemy, etc.
Good, complex, crafting system that supports a player run economy. Crafting shouldn't be a hobby that you do when there aren't any groups to be found, it should be a viable career choice in my ideal mmo
1. Combined RTS with RPG (this is the main thing I look for moving forward)
2. No classes
2. Durablity loss on items
3. 'group crafting'
4. some items for crafting must come from mobs.
5. non-fantasy based.
1-4 is my baseline requirement for me to leave darkfall, 5 would be nice.
If you pick up the core rule set book for World of Darkness and have any level of imagination you can see how an online version of WoD could blow the socks off everyone.
Exactly. WoD will shut a lot of people up, except for those of course, who don't actually play it, but want to try and run the hype down so they don't feel left behind in their disney game.
I'm sorry to quote you just to say that. I'm sure you don't mind tho.
I have a lot of faith in CCP/White Wolf's ability to pull this off, but its not going to be easy to do it "right". I agree though, when this game gets released it will be a completely new style of MMO. Ditto on the apology, but I haven't been able to get excited about an MMO in a long time, but just thinking about White Wolf's IP in the hands of CCP makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. Someone lie to me and tell me CCP is actually working hard on this, and the lack of hype is because they don't feel the need for any premature hype nonsense to ruin the game.
Shadowbane, with Assassin Creed's graphics and animation, a deeper customization system, and player made questing for those who need questings.
So some city building, class % building, a worthwhile (cost & gain) economy. And best of all open pvp so if someone in your party just isn't getting "it". Then you can give "it" to him.
Give people a real reason to group, a real reason to join a guild, and plenty of changing world to explore and simply be apart of.
Zone based can mean almost everything. For example EVE could implemented seamless transfers between solar systems, but they have not. Do not ask me why because it a pretty simple thing to do, I have done it myself and its it about 20 - 30 lines of code.
www.abydosonline.com (The MMO) www.next-gen.cc (The open source MMO Engine)
* Player are not the center of the world - I prefer to have the world continue to evolves even if players do nothing. The storyline that about the game history and lore instead of having player being a choosen one hero who will save the world (like other 10,000+ players who also on the same storyline and have to do the same kill 10 rats and experience the same thing other players experiences. If you miss the event, then you have miss out the event, but the event will still be record in the world history like if you miss out on New Year party, there is no going back but looking forward to the next one instead.
* Player action matter - whatever you do in current MMO does not affect other players much if at all. If one gang of players destroy the bridge, it better left destroyed until some other player who has enough skill to come and rebuild the bridge. If players raid the Orc camp, they better retreat away, and next players who wander to the same area should see the empty camp instead of having the Orc keep respawn forever.
* Economic run by players - each towns should have limited supply of stuffs the barters sell. The market should be populated by players. Allows player to trade from town to town. Buy low and sell high. Avoid PvPers who hunt down the trade caravan along the way.
* Server-wide events - players through out server should work and play together instead of limited to a party of 5-26 max. Again, focus on the world progression, not the player.
* No beginning or end game - because the world is evolving, the progression is focus on the world, new and old players should be able to play together from the beginning.
* Highly customize character appearance - look, armours, hairstyles, cloths. But please have the limit on the customize so there will be no freak characters.
See the opposite of the above for things that turn me off about today MMO.
this is pretty much base of what i would love too - progressing world is the most important thing for me (as horizons (istaria) were at the beginning) - new areas, races etc opened by player actions etc.
i do have pretty concrete idea of a game i would like to play so i will add:
- skill based system without skill cap - it allows specialization, someone who spends all his time swinging the sword should be better then someone who besides this do a lot of crafting and exploring, someone who spends all the time crafting shields should be able to make best shield on the realm.
(with this goes: no cap on group size, full loot for each in the group - it doesnt matter you are new player with extra low skills, you dont hinder the group)
- all wereable items (for multiple equpments like in vanguard (combat, crafting, harvesting ...) ) are made by players, mobs would drop only craft mats
- you can create your own "actions" like in ryzom - e.g. you create "stun attack" which damage and stun length and probability will affect its cost and skill prereq
- world would be completely player shapeable as in wurm
Comments
So much...
But I will tell what it turns me off. Its quest and Graphic. The genre "MMORPG" is all about questing. If its repetetive quest,with exp reward then im done. Period. Because I'm not gonna mindless grinding on same ole crap that i already did and dont feel very rewarding. What I want out of quest is to be rare and feels very rewarding. Like you get nice unique armor out of that quest. Asheron's Call have the best "quest" based ever. You have to go in dungeon and figure out where to go and you dont know who u gonna encounter and such. That is MUCH more fun than kill X for Y then go back to npc with sign above with Checkmark is UTTERLY boring! I hate seeing npc with icon above them.
This is the major turn off for me.
Kain_Dale
Err .. what ? Voiceover makes it HARDER to follow lore and story. Its hella slow compared to reading. Usually it annoys me without end.
Voiceover is the most superflous feature, ever.
Oblivion 5, but you know, MMOey. That's the game I want.
Short of that, a WoD mmo that doesn't stink, CCP making it so it will be good.
After 2010, my standards for an ideal mmo are not really high...
Kk, time for the OP to give it a go!
If you don't like walls of text, read it anyway, it should interest you if you like gaming and daydream about it.
My ideal MMO would be fantasy in genre (although I guess sci would work just as well), with good lore as to how the human-like race inhabited the planet/came to be, to me it just doesn't make sense that in any fantasy world, any Earth creature should exist. I realize that it would take a long time to fully inhabit a world with unheard of species, but a game that truly cares about the quality of itself for its players should take that extra step, write a good bestiary full of unique creatures that are found in the water, on land, and in the air, and explain how and why the dominant species' came to be.
This MMO should feature the ability to create any and all items featured in-game, including epic rare drops that a player spends three days planning a raid and gathering a group to loot. I know it sounds crazy, but if you use a well thought out way of implementing this, it would work. The way I see it, you should be able to break down and study any item you have and learn how it was made, if your skill in that crafting category is high enough, you can obtain said recipe and learn to make that item. Upon learning to make the item, the instructions on how to make it are consumed/wiped so no one can trade/sell after use. Players will not be able to gain the instructions to make it if their skill for that crafting category is not high enough. Example; you have been working on your wood craft skill, and you have managed to get it to 200 or so. If you are to pick up an amazing sword, you can not break it down and learn to make it, because you aren't a blacksmith.
My next point, any player should be able to learn any skill unless there is a logical reason why they can't (their race can't use magic, so they can't break down a magic wand, or if they do, they should only get instructions to make a wand that doesn't work, so that they can trade/sell it to some one who can fix it). This would stimulate a solid economy in the game, and allow for a realistic feel. You should not be able to attain a high enough skill to make every item in the game in even a years time, there should be no skill cap. In real life you don't automatically stop being able to learn to do something when you pass common knowledge, you experiment/find new things. These 'new things' in the MMO would be updates, patches, added items. It will be hard to catch up with anyone that has an extremely high skill, it will take a long time, but it should to make the game challenging. In a video game you shouldn't be allowed fame overnight unless you manage to pull off something extravagant.
Next; the game should allow the ability to learn (but not start out knowing) other racial languages. This makes me so mad with games like WoW. Who is to say that a Blood Elf shouldn't be able to befriend a Night Elf and speak to them. After all, the Blood Elves (or High Elves at this point) were a part of the Alliance, what, did they somehow magically forget to speak? Being addicted to magic can do strange things man. Basically wrapping up in-game player features, you should be able to do anything that is logical, and the developers shouldn't let the fact that it is time consuming keep them from doing so.
Now about the interface. I think action bars are completely ok, however, there should be clear notification of when you can or can not use something without having to look back and forth from your game screen to your UI to see when your spell has cooled down. I also love the Elder Scrolls' feature of crosshair aim in an RPG. You shouldn't be able to lock onto a target and kill him, it isn't fair and it requires no precision or skill. There should be no auto attack, but the game should not change into a button masher, it should feature a continuous attack; imagine holding left mouse button down and the character continues to chain normal attacks in the direction of aim. Of course if an enemy blocks or attacks you from behind, there should be some form of stun or stagger to gain balance to keep players from running in holding attack to hit everything.
The world map should start out unfilled when the game's first player logs on (with the exception of maybe the main towns/trade routes) as if the world has yet to be fully explored. Most would argue this is not a fair MMO feature because it denies other players the ability to achieve what one player has, but it should be this way, the first person to do something so great as discovering an ancient temple, or a new island, should go down in history, as they do in the real world. This will be the same for major raids, high tier story quests (quests that should require extra effort to complete after the main quests have been completed), and crafting.
Brief explanation of high tier story quests since my stupidity has brought a previous subject (lore) back into a paragraph it shouldn't be: The main story quests should not be anything groundbreaking in the game world, they should be things such as serving in your nations military, or helping your nation, delegating between people, warding off attacks on encampments, et cetera. High tier story quests should be for those who have completed these quests and strive for more, to change the game world. These quests should include things like re-aligning your nation with a certain alliance, making peace between warring nations (ending unrestricted PvP between factions), defeating current nation leaders, and so forth.
Graphics and system requirements are my next topic to tackle. I get so tired of being one of the unlucky gamers with a horrible computer (Intel chipset anyone? I lag on MineCraft) not being able to play so called good games (I wouldn't be able to know if it were good or not because I can't play). In my opinion, players shouldn't be restricted by how old their computer is. People say you can do some things for some people but you can't do everything for everyone, well, I think I have a solution for graphics. Most role playing games offer a third person perspective with the option to zoom in and out (perhaps making your screen first person), some newer games are offering the feature of low system req. textures and high system req. textures. This is a major improvement I know, but what if games offered the option of being 2D or 3D, impossible? I. Think. Not. A while back, years even, a development team started working on a custom game client for the MMO Tibia, I forget what it was called, but Google and do some snooping around you Tibia players, it existed, they took the object ids from the game files and set them to models, achieving the 3D emulation of a 2D game. This project however, was abandoned and is dead for reasons beyond me, but it still lives on in my heart at least. A game could offer separate clients and files for high and low end users, allowing both to connect and play the same game, it is double the work, but you will attain a ton of new players this way, with sacrificing only the ability to jump (It isn't that bad, Guild Wars did it and look where they are, I mean heck, if you wanted to jump that bad, the game could pull a Pokemon style jumping system).
I know i just bashed your face with a wall of text , but these are things I think are in dire need of attention in the MMO world. I may edit this if I think of anything else in the near future. If you have anything to add please say.
1 open seamless world like Vanguard
2 combat mechanics and fluidness like WoW
3 housing anywhere in the world AND in the cities like EQ2
4 boats, horses and other means of transportation
5 realilistic grphx but with flair.
6 armor diversity with a separate pane for flavor armor like in LOTRO
7 interesting and expsanive lore
8 player made villages and castles
9 server wide auction houses and banks
10 outland raid bosses
11 raids that are connected to the lore
12 instances dungeons
13 in-depth crafting like Vanguard and old EQ2
14 player made gear almost as good as raid gear.
15 Many classes with AA style talents like EQ2
16 religion playing an inmportant part, picking a god to further your character
17 ever changing world which is affected by the players
18 Ryzom style world AI
19 Aion type character customization
That's it lol. Not to much to ask right?!
Red Dead Redemption with a persistent world with a personal story console sandbox style mmo.
This, except not have Jedi class at all. It's been awhile, but if I remember the game was set in time between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, and there weren't any Jedi around at the time, except for Yoda, Darth Vader, and Luke. SOE and Lucasarts totally sold out in desparation to the whiners who wanted to play a Jedi, and completely turned their back on their own lore, it was stupid. If they had to put in the Jedi, I would've excepted it, as long as they were done like you said with the permadeath. I would have also liked to see them add in better content. I loved everything else about the game, especially the profession based class system and the player run economy.
or
a medieval/fantasy setting with:
A hybrid class system like vanilla SWG or a complex, in depth class system like vanilla DAoC's. Also, all skills get trained by using them, not going to a trainer. Trainers can be used to establish a skill, not actually train it. I am a big fan of "on the job training" as it were
RvR based PvP combat where the players can effect the game world, especially in PvP. I hated it in WoW's BG's where you go in and fight, and win or lose nothing really changed. I want a game where if you win you gain something for your faction. Whether its territory for your faction to mine for rare materials, or combat upgrades, whatever. As long as it benefits the faction, and not just the individual players.
No invisible walls. The only walls that I would allow would be the ones that separate the "frontiers (PvP sections) from the PvE sections, and these could be easily "disguised" by mountain ranges, massive fortifications, etc. Players should be able to kill guards, other players from their own faction, it would just mean a massive faction rep hit. If a player did it enough, they would get to the point where they were KoS by their own faction. Make faction rep count for buying from vendors to, as your rep goes down, the prices go up. Conversely, killing other faction players in the frontiers will gradually make your faction rep go up. There would have to be someway to keep people from PK'ing someone from their own faction and then erasing the negative faction with a few kills in PvP, but that mechanic actually should be fairly easy to work out.
SCS - I know, I know. Another invisible wall I'd like to remove is banning people from the game. How you would do this is with the faction rep system. Bannable offenses would hit the player with massive faction rep points. Enough to make them KoS with the faction NPC's. The character in question would respawn in jail (yes, an actual jail in the faction's capitol) with basic clothing. All of his stuff is either in the hands of the government, or sitting in his house, which oddly enough just became lootable by anybody. If the player deletes his character while in "jail", he is then banned from the server. SCS would keep that person from logging on an alt and getting all his stuff while in jail. Plus, a players reputation, both with his faction and his fellow players is tied up in that one avatar, if he is a d-bag with that avatar, there is no starting over, unless he wants to start completely over on another server. Also, no name changes, server changes...ever, for any reason. You could allow a player that has completely pissed off his faction to change factions, "turn traitor" as it were, but with no guarantees the other faction's players would have to accept him.
Complex combat system - I'm not a holy trinity hater, I think its a good template to use to form groups and fight, etc. What I hate is the game mechanics that are so cookie-cutter, they allow players an "auto-win" option of group-forming and playstyle. Make different weapons more and less effective in different situations. Longbows have longer range, but crossbows do more damage against plate and chain mail. Warhammers (especially big, two handers) are more effective than swords, and much more effective than rapiers against skellies. Against flesh and blood opponents, rapiers, stiletto's, etc. have a bleed DoT, but swords do more up front damage. This would also give warriors a bonus over hybrid fighters. Sure, the ranger can do as much with a sword as the warrior, and the ranger can wield a warhammer, but he skill caps a lot lower than the warrior, so the hammer is more effective in the warrior's hands. Also allow for friendly fire. A wizard shouldn't be able to cast fireballs into a fight at will, as it can and will damage friendlies. Force the ranger to get a better angle to shoot his bow, or risk hitting his friends instead of the enemy, etc.
Good, complex, crafting system that supports a player run economy. Crafting shouldn't be a hobby that you do when there aren't any groups to be found, it should be a viable career choice in my ideal mmo
I have a lot of faith in CCP/White Wolf's ability to pull this off, but its not going to be easy to do it "right". I agree though, when this game gets released it will be a completely new style of MMO. Ditto on the apology, but I haven't been able to get excited about an MMO in a long time, but just thinking about White Wolf's IP in the hands of CCP makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. Someone lie to me and tell me CCP is actually working hard on this, and the lack of hype is because they don't feel the need for any premature hype nonsense to ruin the game.
Shadowbane, with Assassin Creed's graphics and animation, a deeper customization system, and player made questing for those who need questings.
So some city building, class % building, a worthwhile (cost & gain) economy. And best of all open pvp so if someone in your party just isn't getting "it". Then you can give "it" to him.
Give people a real reason to group, a real reason to join a guild, and plenty of changing world to explore and simply be apart of.
I would call it.. "The King's Sandpark."
Zone based can mean almost everything. For example EVE could implemented seamless transfers between solar systems, but they have not. Do not ask me why because it a pretty simple thing to do, I have done it myself and its it about 20 - 30 lines of code.
www.abydosonline.com (The MMO)
www.next-gen.cc (The open source MMO Engine)
this is pretty much base of what i would love too - progressing world is the most important thing for me (as horizons (istaria) were at the beginning) - new areas, races etc opened by player actions etc.
i do have pretty concrete idea of a game i would like to play so i will add:
- skill based system without skill cap - it allows specialization, someone who spends all his time swinging the sword should be better then someone who besides this do a lot of crafting and exploring, someone who spends all the time crafting shields should be able to make best shield on the realm.
(with this goes: no cap on group size, full loot for each in the group - it doesnt matter you are new player with extra low skills, you dont hinder the group)
- all wereable items (for multiple equpments like in vanguard (combat, crafting, harvesting ...) ) are made by players, mobs would drop only craft mats
- you can create your own "actions" like in ryzom - e.g. you create "stun attack" which damage and stun length and probability will affect its cost and skill prereq
- world would be completely player shapeable as in wurm
Vanguard with 30 or 40 devs working on it...
/nuff said