Do you have a site or thread where you document the changes you've made to the map as a result of the input you've received in the previous threads?
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
On the topic of Mahdran as a world, I'd say that bigger is not necessarily better. Nothing really jumps out at me about this particular world map. I doubt I could pick it out of a pile of procedurally-generated worlds like those of Dwarf Fortress. And with so many areas, can they really all be different from one another? If I make it to King Mynx Necropolis for the very first time after a year of playing, am I really going to be awe-struck by it or is it just going to be a remixed Moonryn Temple with sand and zombies in place of water and mermaids? I think that if you took the southeast island and spent as much time on that as you would have spent on all of Mahdran, you'd end up with a game consisting of 6 fantastic and unique zones rather than dozens and dozens of zones with effort and polish spread very thin.
I also have to question the appeal of a "seamless world" to old-school gamers. Standard procedure for many older MMOs was to funnel you into a mountain pass to go from one zone to the next, and quite a few of them had lengthy loading times between zones as well. I can somewhat see that your style of open world would appeal to some players, although I also see the drawbacks. But I wouldn't imagine that there is any correllation between people who want seamless worlds and people who enjoyed old-school MMOs.
Edit: I wanted to add that I am not 100% on this but I'm almost positive that modern games already spread each shard across multiple servers so that each computer is running a handful of zones. It might have even worked this way back in EQ1.
I think you need to understand something first. I used a 2d mapping program to create this map. The program uses symbols. There is a limited amount of symbols that I could use. I tried to make use of them as best as I could. So according to the map I can see why you would feel that every zone would not have a uniqueness about them. This map is to just show the composition of the world and important landmarks. Because most of all the forests have the same symbol set doesn't mean they are the same forest. The Azeria Wilds is a coniferous forest and while the Stormhymn Forest is a temperate forest. I just think the pine tree symbol and it's green tint looks better for a forest.
The Desert of Trials is a very key place in the world. That's why it stands out more than the rest. This map took 30 hours straight to build. It would take about every 30 seconds to just scroll once. I think I might of made the biggest map that program could aquire. Why would you assume that because there is more the quality would drop? That is not the case at all. I would be releasing the world in incriments than all at once. I am more about quality than quanity.
It's not the distinction between a seamless and zoned world, its that a seamless world would provide more enchanced immersion. I know you played Eq, I don't know how you treated your experience there. But it was still one of the most immersive games up until Luclin.
I can't acess the old images but this map looks like what I remeber from the previous ones. I'm interested in how it has evolved over time.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what
it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience
because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in
the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you
playing an MMORPG?"
It's a trivial location in a game world and not a game system or specific campaign. It's not anything to worry about.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
This map took 30 hours straight to build. It would take about every 30 seconds to just scroll once. I think I might of made the biggest map that program could aquire. Why would you assume that because there is more the quality would drop? That is not the case at all. I would be releasing the world in incriments than all at once. I am more about quality than quanity.
"Additionally, a game designer must understand the cost of the decisions they make. Whenever you make a decision as a designer, what you're really doing is asking people to do work. That work represents time and money, and you have a finite amount of work that will ever be done on your project. Your job as a designer is to ensure the most bang for your buck. I know this may not seem like that big a deal, but trust me: this is the #1 cause of failed games. From the giants of the AAA industry to the small-fry hobbyist modders, more game projects fail because of teams with a poor sense of scope than any other reason."
The important part of this quote is the bit about having a finite amount of work that will ever be done on the game. Whether you're doing this incrementally or not, you've only got 2000 or 10000 or however many hours of your time that will be spent making this game. If you spent all of the worldbuilding hours on just Kaiven Fortress and the 4 zones surrounding it, for example, your game would have 5 zones of much higher quality rather than a huge quantity of zones that you only spent a few days on.
Stop for a second and think how much detail, how much lore, how many NPCs, how many buildings and rooms, how many mobs, and how many items you would need to fully flesh out those 5 zones: Kaiven Fortress, Mangled Scar, Monarch Grove, Crusader's Trek, and Stone Forest. If your entire game world was just those zones, how much time (from start to finish) would you take building and populating those zones? To the point where you would say "I am now done making the world." An honest estimate, given that these zones take up hundreds of square miles and are easily a match for all of Azeroth. Take that number of months and change it to days; that's all the time you have to work on those 5 zones. You appear to have about 150 zones (I didn't count), so Kaiven and pals are just 1/30 of the world.
It's inarguable that you're favoring quantity over quality by making a map this large. Understand the cost of that decision: each zone will be significantly less detailed and less interesting than it would have been in a smaller world.
Just to show what I mean about procedurally-generated worlds, I installed Dwarf Fortress and had it whip up a quick world map for me in 5 minutes (click for full size):
Forests, jungles, lakes, mountain ranges and volcanoes, large and small rivers, deserts, cities, temples, etc. All of these things are named, even if the names are all boring. And you can zoom into each square of this map for more detail. Down at the bottom, there's a small desert of red sand. To the northeast of it, there's a blue ~ in the middle of the river. It's this lake:
An enormous world with incredible amount of detail (even if it's done in ASCII art). Even if you spent 30 hours crafting yours by hand, it would be very hard for me to say that it's a better MMO world than this random map that DF came up with.
Thanks Disdena for the information, however, when I designed this world a year and half ago, I did not consider time invested, milestones, or cost. That is guy is dead on. When I was designing it, I guess I took the motto from 38 studios, "How could would it be if..." I guess I beat around the bush and say that this is something for future technology, 5-10 years down the road. Who knows. Ever since then I have been studying the industry rigeriously and more about this genre. It's put a lot of things in perspective for me. Especially my world design. I am still confident in my class and combat mechanics. I have followed the proper format for those design elements.
I see where you say, that some zones have a "centralized theme" in which increases it's quality value. The Stone Forest, Slatenox Mire, and Wither Lands are 3 new additions that I did take my time on. A flaw of mine is impatience and when staying up for 30 hour straight to design this thing, it got the best of me. I wanted to just get it finished before my vision would get blurred in my head. It was a very frustrating project because I couldn't figure out the proper placement of where I wanted zones to flow.
I have been working on my high concept document for my mmo design for nearly 7 years on and off. I have plenty of pre-production work done that would be an excellent starting place. I have a sturdy foundation. I have lore for about 75% of the zones I have. The only work that is needed is to create quests or whatever have you for each area. However, off the subject, I am not implementing quests aka fetch tasks like in mmos now. I think you'd have to understand the overall vision of the project of why I did some of the things I did. However, that does not negate change or improvements.
I do have an idea of how to combat what you say. I do have a nice story element in which would release different parts of the world in incriments so each part of the would can be implemented correctly as well as if there is lack of subscribers. I never said all of this would be released at one time. All I said was this map echoed an open seamless world that would be hosted in a single shard server.
"It's inarguable that you're favoring quantity over quality by making a map this large. Understand the cost of that decision: each zone will be significantly less detailed and less interesting than it would have been in a smaller world."
Please ask more about my project than assume. If you would of asked, how cost would be a factor in determining this product I would of glady told you. Like I said above and in my other post, I will be releasing the world in increments. I have a finished world. If at launch there is 20 zones, there is 20 good zones. If 3 months later, a patch comesout to release 20 more zones so be it. That is how it will be ran.
"An enormous world with incredible amount of detail (even if it's done in ASCII art). Even if you spent 30 hours crafting yours by hand, it would be very hard for me to say that it's a better MMO world than this random map that DF came up with."
I think your looking at this as a large scale project. Your looking at the bigger picture and thats your problem here. I am fully aware that it takes hours to design a good zone. You have to have a white model, texture, populate the world with static objects, creature pathing, scripted events or triggers, good composition of the static models, lighting, patrical effects ect. Again, your assumption is based purely off an image without knowlegde of my project. Do you have industry experience?
The whole point of the thread is to show there is a "possibility" of a single shard seamless world and I have designed a map for it and showed my example. I wanted peoples thoughts and opinions on this idea. And I do apprecaite yours, just next time ask without assumption. I did categorize that most old school players would seem to be more inclined to play such a game. And was also seeing if that was true based off the posters of this forum.
I do have an idea of how to combat what you say. I do have a nice story element in which would release different parts of the world in incriments so each part of the would can be implemented correctly as well as if there is lack of subscribers. I never said all of this would be released at one time. All I said was this map echoed an open seamless world that would be hosted in a single shard server.
I don't mean to completely pick apart what you're saying, but I think there's a big difference between a huge seamless world and a huge world that is broken up into 7 or 8 different expansions. Prior to each set of zones being patched in, you'd need some justification for why players can't get to those areas yet. If you have impassable cliffs and mountain ranges blocking off the restricted content until a mountain pass or bridge to new lands is added in the patch, that's just going right back to the old walled-off zone concept that you wanted to avoid.
Originally posted by Eronakis
If at launch there is 20 zones, there is 20 good zones. If 3 months later, a patch comesout to release 20 more zones so be it.
I fear this is something we won't ever see eye-to-eye on. I see 20 zones and 3 months, and all I can do is shake my head. You said that the reduced map size would be 5000 miles wide. Just looking at a smallish zone like Equindale it comes out to 20000 square miles. If you said you could have that one zone ready for play in 3 months' time, I'd be... skeptical, to say the least. Getting another 19 zones done in the same time frame is pure imagination.
If at launch there is 20 zones, there is 20 good zones. If 3 months later, a patch comesout to release 20 more zones so be it.
I fear this is something we won't ever see eye-to-eye on. I see 20 zones and 3 months, and all I can do is shake my head. You said that the reduced map size would be 5000 miles wide. Just looking at a smallish zone like Equindale it comes out to 20000 square miles. If you said you could have that one zone ready for play in 3 months' time, I'd be... skeptical, to say the least. Getting another 19 zones done in the same time frame is pure imagination.
My question to you is, do you think it's just me working on this project or a full team?
My question to you is, do you think it's just me working on this project or a full team?
The impression that you've given is that so far it has been just you, but that there would be a full team for the actual development. And even with a full team, even with all facets of the game engine completed and working, 3 months to create a single zone of that size from scratch is still recklessly optimistic.
I did categorize that most old school players would seem to be more inclined to play such a game.
So far it seems the people looking for an old school game really like it, which I find extremely interesting as neither the the map nor the replies given offer indication about gameplay, content density or any other aspect truly relevant to whether it would make for a fun game or not. On one hand, I'm impressed with the persistence and passion of the OP, but on the other, I'm just rather surprised that even with MMO veterans and the 'old school' crowd you can dangle a piece of informationless eye candy in front of them and they'll go "Cool! I can't wait to play that!" despite their existing knowledge of how what they saw does not, in any capacity, indicate how fun, "immersive", challenging or interesting the game will be.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
My question to you is, do you think it's just me working on this project or a full team?
The impression that you've given is that so far it has been just you, but that there would be a full team for the actual development. And even with a full team, even with all facets of the game engine completed and working, 3 months to create a single zone of that size from scratch is still recklessly optimistic.
You're right on your accusation. I am still looking for some industry experience. I do want a career in the industry and this project is in my back pocket. Do you have industry experience? I guess we can all speculate how it will or wont work until it's funded and attempted.
Originally posted by Loktofeit
Originally posted by Eronakis
I did categorize that most old school players would seem to be more inclined to play such a game.
So far it seems the people looking for an old school game really like it, which I find extremely interesting as neither the the map nor the replies given offer indication about gameplay, content density or any other aspect truly relevant to whether it would make for a fun game or not. On one hand, I'm impressed with the persistence and passion of the OP, but on the other, I'm just rather surprised that even with MMO veterans and the 'old school' crowd you can dangle a piece of informationless eye candy in front of them and they'll go "Cool! I can't wait to play that!" despite their existing knowledge of how what they saw does not, in any capacity, indicate how fun, "immersive", challenging or interesting the game will be.
That is an interesting point you've brought up. I tend to base my game design elements off the principles of what made the old school gamers enjoy. Community, immersion, diverse class design, and challenge are some of the things that I've noticed the old school community, (EQ/DAoC) would like to have. However, those things seem they are being pushed aside in the majority of modern titles.
Thanks for your comment. I am very passionate about this industry and I want to make it better, rather than be saturated with what we have now. Not many are truly satisfied. In another thread a poster made a great comment. We want a game to call our "home." And I would like to provide that product.
I am going to assume that many players will look at one component and feel that if that matches what they envision for the game they want to play the rest will compliment those other components. I did post my melee combat mechanics intro on the dev corner. I am very confident in that design. As for content, you won't get bored. If somehow the whole world is released at once it will take you many alts to experience the world to level up.
Thanks for your reply. You could say that the world is meant for a sandbox game, but that doesn't negate class design and levels within in it. It's more for a "themepark" world that is more open.
Comments
Do you have a site or thread where you document the changes you've made to the map as a result of the input you've received in the previous threads?
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
I think you need to understand something first. I used a 2d mapping program to create this map. The program uses symbols. There is a limited amount of symbols that I could use. I tried to make use of them as best as I could. So according to the map I can see why you would feel that every zone would not have a uniqueness about them. This map is to just show the composition of the world and important landmarks. Because most of all the forests have the same symbol set doesn't mean they are the same forest. The Azeria Wilds is a coniferous forest and while the Stormhymn Forest is a temperate forest. I just think the pine tree symbol and it's green tint looks better for a forest.
The Desert of Trials is a very key place in the world. That's why it stands out more than the rest. This map took 30 hours straight to build. It would take about every 30 seconds to just scroll once. I think I might of made the biggest map that program could aquire. Why would you assume that because there is more the quality would drop? That is not the case at all. I would be releasing the world in incriments than all at once. I am more about quality than quanity.
It's not the distinction between a seamless and zoned world, its that a seamless world would provide more enchanced immersion. I know you played Eq, I don't know how you treated your experience there. But it was still one of the most immersive games up until Luclin.
Do you mean my 6 world maps that are into one? And then the evolution of the super continent?
Jul 2009 - http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/242631/page/1
Nov 2009 - http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/258937/page/1
Dec 2010 - http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/300116/page/1
Apr 2011 - http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/313951/page/1
I can't acess the old images but this map looks like what I remeber from the previous ones. I'm interested in how it has evolved over time.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Sending you a PM.
You might want to rename bloodstone pass.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodstone_Pass
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
It's a trivial location in a game world and not a game system or specific campaign. It's not anything to worry about.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Extra Credits - So You Want To Be a Game Designer
"Additionally, a game designer must understand the cost of the decisions they make. Whenever you make a decision as a designer, what you're really doing is asking people to do work. That work represents time and money, and you have a finite amount of work that will ever be done on your project. Your job as a designer is to ensure the most bang for your buck. I know this may not seem like that big a deal, but trust me: this is the #1 cause of failed games. From the giants of the AAA industry to the small-fry hobbyist modders, more game projects fail because of teams with a poor sense of scope than any other reason."
The important part of this quote is the bit about having a finite amount of work that will ever be done on the game. Whether you're doing this incrementally or not, you've only got 2000 or 10000 or however many hours of your time that will be spent making this game. If you spent all of the worldbuilding hours on just Kaiven Fortress and the 4 zones surrounding it, for example, your game would have 5 zones of much higher quality rather than a huge quantity of zones that you only spent a few days on.
Stop for a second and think how much detail, how much lore, how many NPCs, how many buildings and rooms, how many mobs, and how many items you would need to fully flesh out those 5 zones: Kaiven Fortress, Mangled Scar, Monarch Grove, Crusader's Trek, and Stone Forest. If your entire game world was just those zones, how much time (from start to finish) would you take building and populating those zones? To the point where you would say "I am now done making the world." An honest estimate, given that these zones take up hundreds of square miles and are easily a match for all of Azeroth. Take that number of months and change it to days; that's all the time you have to work on those 5 zones. You appear to have about 150 zones (I didn't count), so Kaiven and pals are just 1/30 of the world.
It's inarguable that you're favoring quantity over quality by making a map this large. Understand the cost of that decision: each zone will be significantly less detailed and less interesting than it would have been in a smaller world.
Just to show what I mean about procedurally-generated worlds, I installed Dwarf Fortress and had it whip up a quick world map for me in 5 minutes (click for full size):
Forests, jungles, lakes, mountain ranges and volcanoes, large and small rivers, deserts, cities, temples, etc. All of these things are named, even if the names are all boring. And you can zoom into each square of this map for more detail. Down at the bottom, there's a small desert of red sand. To the northeast of it, there's a blue ~ in the middle of the river. It's this lake:
An enormous world with incredible amount of detail (even if it's done in ASCII art). Even if you spent 30 hours crafting yours by hand, it would be very hard for me to say that it's a better MMO world than this random map that DF came up with.
Thanks Disdena for the information, however, when I designed this world a year and half ago, I did not consider time invested, milestones, or cost. That is guy is dead on. When I was designing it, I guess I took the motto from 38 studios, "How could would it be if..." I guess I beat around the bush and say that this is something for future technology, 5-10 years down the road. Who knows. Ever since then I have been studying the industry rigeriously and more about this genre. It's put a lot of things in perspective for me. Especially my world design. I am still confident in my class and combat mechanics. I have followed the proper format for those design elements.
I see where you say, that some zones have a "centralized theme" in which increases it's quality value. The Stone Forest, Slatenox Mire, and Wither Lands are 3 new additions that I did take my time on. A flaw of mine is impatience and when staying up for 30 hour straight to design this thing, it got the best of me. I wanted to just get it finished before my vision would get blurred in my head. It was a very frustrating project because I couldn't figure out the proper placement of where I wanted zones to flow.
I have been working on my high concept document for my mmo design for nearly 7 years on and off. I have plenty of pre-production work done that would be an excellent starting place. I have a sturdy foundation. I have lore for about 75% of the zones I have. The only work that is needed is to create quests or whatever have you for each area. However, off the subject, I am not implementing quests aka fetch tasks like in mmos now. I think you'd have to understand the overall vision of the project of why I did some of the things I did. However, that does not negate change or improvements.
I do have an idea of how to combat what you say. I do have a nice story element in which would release different parts of the world in incriments so each part of the would can be implemented correctly as well as if there is lack of subscribers. I never said all of this would be released at one time. All I said was this map echoed an open seamless world that would be hosted in a single shard server.
"It's inarguable that you're favoring quantity over quality by making a map this large. Understand the cost of that decision: each zone will be significantly less detailed and less interesting than it would have been in a smaller world."
Please ask more about my project than assume. If you would of asked, how cost would be a factor in determining this product I would of glady told you. Like I said above and in my other post, I will be releasing the world in increments. I have a finished world. If at launch there is 20 zones, there is 20 good zones. If 3 months later, a patch comesout to release 20 more zones so be it. That is how it will be ran.
"An enormous world with incredible amount of detail (even if it's done in ASCII art). Even if you spent 30 hours crafting yours by hand, it would be very hard for me to say that it's a better MMO world than this random map that DF came up with."
I think your looking at this as a large scale project. Your looking at the bigger picture and thats your problem here. I am fully aware that it takes hours to design a good zone. You have to have a white model, texture, populate the world with static objects, creature pathing, scripted events or triggers, good composition of the static models, lighting, patrical effects ect. Again, your assumption is based purely off an image without knowlegde of my project. Do you have industry experience?
The whole point of the thread is to show there is a "possibility" of a single shard seamless world and I have designed a map for it and showed my example. I wanted peoples thoughts and opinions on this idea. And I do apprecaite yours, just next time ask without assumption. I did categorize that most old school players would seem to be more inclined to play such a game. And was also seeing if that was true based off the posters of this forum.
I don't mean to completely pick apart what you're saying, but I think there's a big difference between a huge seamless world and a huge world that is broken up into 7 or 8 different expansions. Prior to each set of zones being patched in, you'd need some justification for why players can't get to those areas yet. If you have impassable cliffs and mountain ranges blocking off the restricted content until a mountain pass or bridge to new lands is added in the patch, that's just going right back to the old walled-off zone concept that you wanted to avoid.
I fear this is something we won't ever see eye-to-eye on. I see 20 zones and 3 months, and all I can do is shake my head. You said that the reduced map size would be 5000 miles wide. Just looking at a smallish zone like Equindale it comes out to 20000 square miles. If you said you could have that one zone ready for play in 3 months' time, I'd be... skeptical, to say the least. Getting another 19 zones done in the same time frame is pure imagination.
My question to you is, do you think it's just me working on this project or a full team?
The impression that you've given is that so far it has been just you, but that there would be a full team for the actual development. And even with a full team, even with all facets of the game engine completed and working, 3 months to create a single zone of that size from scratch is still recklessly optimistic.
So far it seems the people looking for an old school game really like it, which I find extremely interesting as neither the the map nor the replies given offer indication about gameplay, content density or any other aspect truly relevant to whether it would make for a fun game or not. On one hand, I'm impressed with the persistence and passion of the OP, but on the other, I'm just rather surprised that even with MMO veterans and the 'old school' crowd you can dangle a piece of informationless eye candy in front of them and they'll go "Cool! I can't wait to play that!" despite their existing knowledge of how what they saw does not, in any capacity, indicate how fun, "immersive", challenging or interesting the game will be.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
You're right on your accusation. I am still looking for some industry experience. I do want a career in the industry and this project is in my back pocket. Do you have industry experience? I guess we can all speculate how it will or wont work until it's funded and attempted.
That is an interesting point you've brought up. I tend to base my game design elements off the principles of what made the old school gamers enjoy. Community, immersion, diverse class design, and challenge are some of the things that I've noticed the old school community, (EQ/DAoC) would like to have. However, those things seem they are being pushed aside in the majority of modern titles.
Thanks for your comment. I am very passionate about this industry and I want to make it better, rather than be saturated with what we have now. Not many are truly satisfied. In another thread a poster made a great comment. We want a game to call our "home." And I would like to provide that product.
I am going to assume that many players will look at one component and feel that if that matches what they envision for the game they want to play the rest will compliment those other components. I did post my melee combat mechanics intro on the dev corner. I am very confident in that design. As for content, you won't get bored. If somehow the whole world is released at once it will take you many alts to experience the world to level up.
Thanks for your reply. You could say that the world is meant for a sandbox game, but that doesn't negate class design and levels within in it. It's more for a "themepark" world that is more open.