My isp tend to block alot of site due to porn filter. I'm a bit lazy to call my isp to remove porn filter.
That is the only site that would take a 19mb picture and allow you to fully zoom in. If you know of any other site that will do that for free let me know please.
Well I was just about to start this thread. I suppose I can put what I want since it won't be redundant. However, If I don't get any responses I will make my own thread anyways...
Great thread. I actually agree that leveled zones eventually are a big waste.
I use to be designing an mmorpg, my vision was to have one colossal world in which zones are seamless like the OP has described. Like the OP, I also favor the themepark gameplay of gameplay rather than sandbox. However, I do like the "free" roaming zones within a sandbox world. For the longest time I have been trying to figure out how to incorperate themepark gameplay with a sandbox world. Can it be done properaly?
Usually, leveled zones are based on the level of mobs that are within the zone. That is themepark, Sandbox usually offers mobs that scale with the character most of the time. That is the issue to balance themepark gameplay vs a sandbox world. The mmo I was designing was of themepark design. I like progression, I like class design and balance and everything that goes with it.
So the question is, how can we solve the issue of leveled zones with free roaming players? Perhaps one solution could have zones in different level sectors. As in instead of a zone being within a certian level range, have multiple zones within that level range. Of course, not all zones should a level 1 be able to access. I really hope this can further evolve the thread and spark some discussion regarding this. I would really like to figure this out. It's always intrigued me.
And OP I hope my post is something what you're looking for. I have been thinking about this for a long time. Anyways, I will post my world map again to see if you would consider it to be the huge world you're looking for :P
the older games were already mentioned. one nice feature was, that they mixed up zones and levels to a certaind degree. in one zone you had mobs from L 5-10 and in the other corner 20-25 and so on.
somebody remembers this damn Seargant from freeport Militia pathing thru East Commonlands killing newbs which were not careful enough? or this dark General in Overthere, patrolling everyday at 5 p.m, the entire zone shouts "General!!!" and all good character were zoning? this was part of the great immersion: mixed zones.
nowdays there are no "red mobs" anymore. even not just 2 or 3 levels above you. everything is perfectly adjusted to your level, so that no carebear is going to fail. you cant just go, forget quests, and kill the red mobs with superior tactics and knowledge of your class. this does not exist. superior knowledge and players, able to kill better stuff than others, would harm the paying masses of carebears. so everything is the same dumb easy quest-treadmill. and everything is adjusted to the level of the local quests.
FFXI, while they had very specific zones built for specific levels, they had "NM's, Notorious Monsters" that were the same "species" as the other mobs in that zome, but they would be way bigger and badder (world boss's pretty much)
And I often found myself coming back to level 1-10 areas to do quest and farm these NM's.
Which worked pretty well, because when you are actually 1-10 you would get smoked by these NM's, so if a higher up was out farming them it helped alot..
.....and then they are in the area to rez me when I died.
so using your logic, someone who's been through countless life and death situations and is a master in their art(sword magic w/e) should be able to be taken down by 5 or 6 noobs wet from the womb who barely know how to handle their choice of weapon? bullshit. there's no point in 'getting stronger' if you can't just run through 20 people(vastly lower lvl than yourself) without even a tiny scratch.
you guys are getting the problem wrong. its not that leveling zones are wasted. everything has its purpose. copper ore has its purpose, once you past its level, you dont need it anymore. the problem lies with leveling speed. most games allow you to level to quickly. so people eat through the content in two weeks time like you said. a game that takes years to make should not be able to be consumed so god damned fast. its retarded. and THAT is the real issue. if it took even the locusts 2 months to reach max level, then i think things would be fine.
just an example of how leveling speed is to fast nowadays, the people that played vanilla WoW should know what i'm talking about. Remember running UBRS 10man over and over and over to hit lvl 60 while trying to get your set pieces? or trying to quest in Western Plaguelands and it taking weeks to get those last couple levels? When you hit lvl 60 you felt like you became god and now rule over the masses. It was an epic achievement. Now you can level 1-max in less than 7 days. It's stupid. OF COURSE the zones are gonna feel like they're wasted when you miss them if you blink nowadays.
the other issue is devs nerfing content due to whiners. which says to me, split servers. have a casual type server, and hardcore type server. the casual servers will have increased exp rate, and stats, while the hardcore will be what the devs originally intended for the game to be set at. i think that will solve everyones problems, the carebears will have their place, and the hardcore will have theirs, same game, no one (but the carebears and its what they want) will blast through the game in 2 weeks time. the end game bosses will be hard and stay hard for the hardcore, and wont be to hard for the casual. thats the perfect compromise.
tldr problem isnt wasted zones, problem is leveling speed. leveling speed = lower, split servers between hardcore and casual, problem solved.
how does it even fix the problem the OP is asking if you just make the leveling longer, it just simply make it take abit longer before it become a ghost town, doesnt solve the issue at all....the only thing I like about slow leveling is that atleast I care less about what level you currently are.
way disagree a vet should be able to roll over 20 newbs, be it NPCs or players, but mainly due to no challange no fun, and only thing this do is to promote griefing.
why should copper go redundant, why not make it needed in recipes where it would make sense? this is a thing I really like in EvE, make it so that even if n00b ore isnt worth much it is still possible to sell if you d not care to craft yourself - I for one want as much interaction between players as possible, even if it wouldnt be directly....also it would make it so you have the choice to go back to an old area to mine, or just buy it on the auction.
absolutely level based zones is waste of space, I would love to see a game like Entropia, that is not tied to the USD, nothing is ever really of no use, even if ofc it would be rare to see a vet kill puny mobs, unless it is to guide/take advantage of new players.....but still you can be lucky to have decent amount dropping on even the smaller NPC, so it is never 100% out of the question to do either....and like in EvE even the ores you can find with low skill level, is still being used in high level crafting recipes...
I kinda feel like it makes sense for a player with uber sword skill to pwn a n00b. thats what happens irl. except irl you get hit once to the neck and vet moves on. having hp kinda makes that hard. plus no one wants to die, and if they do they insist it musn't mean anything.
It is indeed a big waste of space and there are solutions for it.
You can scale the character down or the mobs up of course, but I think the best solution is to make the gap between a new character and a old one a lot smaller.
The whole idea that you become so great that you can run through 20 people without even a tiny scratch is just silly. Not even the most legendary warriors could do that, like Musashi, Wallace, Geronimo, Wilhelm the Bastard, Alexander or anyone.
Early zones should be easy for an experienced character but there is a difference between easy and impossible to die. In most MMOs you can put an old character in a noob zone with mobs on her and just go to lunch and when you are back you still are as good as new.
Many people say that they enjoy getting better and so do i but the whole level system is way too far. I like P&P mechanics like Warhammer fantasy RPG, Runequest and R.I.F.T.S where you constantly becomes better but a trashmob at last theoretically actually can kill you and if you get too many against you you will still die.
Using 90% of the games content the first 2 weeks you play and then spend 2 years in the wait of the next expansion in the last 10% of the game is a huge waste of the work the devs put into the game. MMOs basically takes so long to make and have so huge devolopment cost for content you just pass by in a very short time. If that ain´t a huge waste I don´t know what is.
so using your logic, someone who's been through countless life and death situations and is a master in their art(sword magic w/e) should be able to be taken down by 5 or 6 noobs wet from the womb who barely know how to handle their choice of weapon? bullshit. there's no point in 'getting stronger' if you can't just run through 20 people(vastly lower lvl than yourself) without even a tiny scratch.
you guys are getting the problem wrong. its not that leveling zones are wasted. everything has its purpose. copper ore has its purpose, once you past its level, you dont need it anymore. the problem lies with leveling speed. most games allow you to level to quickly. so people eat through the content in two weeks time like you said. a game that takes years to make should not be able to be consumed so god damned fast. its retarded. and THAT is the real issue. if it took even the locusts 2 months to reach max level, then i think things would be fine.
just an example of how leveling speed is to fast nowadays, the people that played vanilla WoW should know what i'm talking about. Remember running UBRS 10man over and over and over to hit lvl 60 while trying to get your set pieces? or trying to quest in Western Plaguelands and it taking weeks to get those last couple levels? When you hit lvl 60 you felt like you became god and now rule over the masses. It was an epic achievement. Now you can level 1-max in less than 7 days. It's stupid. OF COURSE the zones are gonna feel like they're wasted when you miss them if you blink nowadays.
the other issue is devs nerfing content due to whiners. which says to me, split servers. have a casual type server, and hardcore type server. the casual servers will have increased exp rate, and stats, while the hardcore will be what the devs originally intended for the game to be set at. i think that will solve everyones problems, the carebears will have their place, and the hardcore will have theirs, same game, no one (but the carebears and its what they want) will blast through the game in 2 weeks time. the end game bosses will be hard and stay hard for the hardcore, and wont be to hard for the casual. thats the perfect compromise.
tldr problem isnt wasted zones, problem is leveling speed. leveling speed = lower, split servers between hardcore and casual, problem solved.
im not really fond of the idea of heavily rewarding players with power just because they spent hours and hours grinding.
how about a mmorpg where your characters strength is based on how well you play your character rather than how much you play it. in certain fps games(quake, UT) it is possible for a pro to take out multiple novices because he is good at playing his character, not because he grinded for longer.
slowing levelling doesnt solve the problem. no matter how slow the levelling is a large portion of the game world is going to waste because it is not for your level. i think the effect of levelling on charcter strength needs to the point where a low level character can party and quest with a high level character without being massively handicapped~ ofcourse the high level character will be more powerful statwise. stat boosts need to be replaced with horizontal progression (more choices of spells, gear, builds etc) and player skill (they way you move, aim, talk, trade etc should affect your characters capabilities)
there is a huge market for this time of game imo. the largest franchises have this sort of progression eg battlefield, COD, LoL etc. levelling opens up options rather than pumping HP, mana, damage etc
I kinda feel like it makes sense for a player with uber sword skill to pwn a n00b. thats what happens irl. except irl you get hit once to the neck and vet moves on. having hp kinda makes that hard. plus no one wants to die, and if they do they insist it musn't mean anything.
i completely agree that stronger characters with better gear should beat weaker characters,
the thing is that in current mmorpgs the person who gets the "uber sword" is the person who grinds simple repetitve tasks the most. people who do simple repetitve tasks IRL do no get the "uber sword", they clean toilets or fry chips at minimum wage. people who get the "uber sword" IRL are the people who possess exceptional skill in an area or multiple areas.
i think mmorpgs should only allow players to vertically progress if they play well. i think item decay is an excellent way to implement this. no matter how much you play you will never get stronger unless you play well because your items will decay the more you play. you need to play smart; that means acheiving more resources than how much you lose through item decay.
you could play for 1 hour and get a 10% improvement in gear if you play smart where as somone who is not very good might have 10% weaker gear after 10 hours of play because they didnt play well.
the thing is that in current mmorpgs the person who gets the "uber sword" is the person who grinds simple repetitve tasks the most. people who do simple repetitve tasks IRL do no get the "uber sword", they clean toilets or fry chips at minimum wage. people who get the "uber sword" IRL are the people who possess exceptional skill in an area or multiple areas.
Really?
Usually the only way to get the "uber sword" is to do the hardest raids.
There's no reason leveled zones have to be rail-roaded even in themepark MMOs.
For instance, you could create a zone that has content for level's 1-8 and 25-30 and 55-60, etc. You could head to a new zone whenever you out level the content (through a "go here" quest, like they do now), and come back later. It would give players a greater sense of freedom in going where they choose, and travelling more often. Plus it would give a nice sense of narrative and statistical progression when you "see" high level content early, and then get to comeback and complete it later.
the thing is that in current mmorpgs the person who gets the "uber sword" is the person who grinds simple repetitve tasks the most. people who do simple repetitve tasks IRL do no get the "uber sword", they clean toilets or fry chips at minimum wage. people who get the "uber sword" IRL are the people who possess exceptional skill in an area or multiple areas.
Really?
Usually the only way to get the "uber sword" is to do the hardest raids.
...over and over again until it is no longer challening and uber sword drops.
It is sad that themepark linear zone to zone content is fairly wasteful even after they try to use every meter of land as a means for questing. Once all the quests are complete then there is no reason to return. Yeah slower leveling would help keep the content from being devoured so fast but it doesn't do anything to bring other level ranges back there.
One of those small unique things I noticed playing TOR was when doing a solo mission for this guy. It took us in an instance but instead of scaling everything up, when initiating combat with each encounter it would cause an elite to appear. I think that worked even better than scaling it up. Ofcourse that was in an instance and not an open world. In an open world spawning a lot of additional mobs would favor the use of AoEs in every situation. Maybe it could work with some spawning/scaling variety and mobs having a lot of AE, stuns/ interupts, and knockbacks.
I miss live events that would bring anyone of any level to various places in the world...
Well I was just about to start this thread. I suppose I can put what I want since it won't be redundant. However, If I don't get any responses I will make my own thread anyways...
Great thread. I actually agree that leveled zones eventually are a big waste.
I use to be designing an mmorpg, my vision was to have one colossal world in which zones are seamless like the OP has described. Like the OP, I also favor the themepark gameplay of gameplay rather than sandbox. However, I do like the "free" roaming zones within a sandbox world. For the longest time I have been trying to figure out how to incorperate themepark gameplay with a sandbox world. Can it be done properaly?
Usually, leveled zones are based on the level of mobs that are within the zone. That is themepark, Sandbox usually offers mobs that scale with the character most of the time. That is the issue to balance themepark gameplay vs a sandbox world. The mmo I was designing was of themepark design. I like progression, I like class design and balance and everything that goes with it.
So the question is, how can we solve the issue of leveled zones with free roaming players? Perhaps one solution could have zones in different level sectors. As in instead of a zone being within a certian level range, have multiple zones within that level range. Of course, not all zones should a level 1 be able to access. I really hope this can further evolve the thread and spark some discussion regarding this. I would really like to figure this out. It's always intrigued me.
And OP I hope my post is something what you're looking for. I have been thinking about this for a long time. Anyways, I will post my world map again to see if you would consider it to be the huge world you're looking for :
Originally posted by Sythion
There's no reason leveled zones have to be rail-roaded even in themepark MMOs.
For instance, you could create a zone that has content for level's 1-8 and 25-30 and 55-60, etc. You could head to a new zone whenever you out level the content (through a "go here" quest, like they do now), and come back later. It would give players a greater sense of freedom in going where they choose, and travelling more often. Plus it would give a nice sense of narrative and statistical progression when you "see" high level content early, and then get to comeback and complete it later.
Originally posted by Warmaker
Originally posted by Loktofeit
I think if players were given something to do other than relentlessly murder everything on the map, more horizontal progression and content reusability would surface.
That frame of thinking is extinct in today's MMORPG developers. Old MMORPGs had it right and made greater use of what map space there was available to the players. Because there were far more things to do than swing an axe/sword/etc. But, whatever, the devs can continue to keep lawndarting.
Yeah, all this, pretty much. To summarize:
1. Zones are wasted, and could be used more if content within them had multiple level ranges.
2. Murdering everything makes no sense, and leaves players with no reason to play the game if they have nothing to kill.
3. Having more skill used in games would ensure better use of the content in the first place.
4. There is no 4th reason.
My blog is a continuing story of what MMO's should be like.
I think if players were given something to do other than relentlessly murder everything on the map, more horizontal progression and content reusability would surface.
That frame of thinking is extinct in today's MMORPG developers. Old MMORPGs had it right and made greater use of what map space there was available to the players. Because there were far more things to do than swing an axe/sword/etc. But, whatever, the devs can continue to keep lawndarting.
Really?
There is really NOTHING to do in EQ but killing stuff. At least now we can:
a) queue for dungeons,
b) quest
c) queue for pvp stuff
d) collect pets & mounts
... gaming is much more advanced than before. I am glad we are NOT going back to the old days.
i think they might be referring to SWG, ultima etc
Correct, sir.
There were more options back then. In SWG's case, a veteran has as much business to do in an early planet as he did in harder planets. And these options did not necessarily have to include combat either, but I'll be drifting off to another thread if I get into alot more details.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
Well I was just about to start this thread. I suppose I can put what I want since it won't be redundant. However, If I don't get any responses I will make my own thread anyways...
Great thread. I actually agree that leveled zones eventually are a big waste.
I use to be designing an mmorpg, my vision was to have one colossal world in which zones are seamless like the OP has described. Like the OP, I also favor the themepark gameplay of gameplay rather than sandbox. However, I do like the "free" roaming zones within a sandbox world. For the longest time I have been trying to figure out how to incorperate themepark gameplay with a sandbox world. Can it be done properaly?
Usually, leveled zones are based on the level of mobs that are within the zone. That is themepark, Sandbox usually offers mobs that scale with the character most of the time. That is the issue to balance themepark gameplay vs a sandbox world. The mmo I was designing was of themepark design. I like progression, I like class design and balance and everything that goes with it.
So the question is, how can we solve the issue of leveled zones with free roaming players? Perhaps one solution could have zones in different level sectors. As in instead of a zone being within a certian level range, have multiple zones within that level range. Of course, not all zones should a level 1 be able to access. I really hope this can further evolve the thread and spark some discussion regarding this. I would really like to figure this out. It's always intrigued me.
And OP I hope my post is something what you're looking for. I have been thinking about this for a long time. Anyways, I will post my world map again to see if you would consider it to be the huge world you're looking for :P
i think yours is an improvement on current design. the same number of resources (mobs, area, quests etc) still does to waste like in a regular themepark mmorpg but at least you can taste of each of the zones when you are high level. it doesnt really completely solve the problem.
also; i prefer sandbox over themepark. sandbox mmorpgs also have progression it just manifests differently and isnt just confined to gear/level.
i was thinking of something on the lines of a game where you only have something like 20 levels to keep the power gap small. the only different between a level 20 and level 1 character will be the number of abiltiies/strength of gear and a level 1 character should be able to party up with a level 20 character but he wont be as strong.
levelling to 20 is a fast process. once chracters are level 20 you work on crafting stronger items, capturing cities, fighting through dungeons for rare materials, pvp etc. this isnt really a themepark, but there is a sense of progression, it just isnt as clear raid gear tiers. you would need to have item decay for the economy to work and more player skill based combat would give something else players can work on improving.
Comments
That is the only site that would take a 19mb picture and allow you to fully zoom in. If you know of any other site that will do that for free let me know please.
Haha Lok, forgot about that thread. Some good discussions there. The map has some promise :P It's the best map I've ever made heh.
the older games were already mentioned. one nice feature was, that they mixed up zones and levels to a certaind degree. in one zone you had mobs from L 5-10 and in the other corner 20-25 and so on.
somebody remembers this damn Seargant from freeport Militia pathing thru East Commonlands killing newbs which were not careful enough? or this dark General in Overthere, patrolling everyday at 5 p.m, the entire zone shouts "General!!!" and all good character were zoning? this was part of the great immersion: mixed zones.
nowdays there are no "red mobs" anymore. even not just 2 or 3 levels above you. everything is perfectly adjusted to your level, so that no carebear is going to fail. you cant just go, forget quests, and kill the red mobs with superior tactics and knowledge of your class. this does not exist. superior knowledge and players, able to kill better stuff than others, would harm the paying masses of carebears. so everything is the same dumb easy quest-treadmill. and everything is adjusted to the level of the local quests.
played: Everquest I (6 years), EVE (3 years)
months: EQII, Vanguard, Siedler Online, SWTOR, Guild Wars 2
weeks: WoW, Shaiya, Darkfall, Florensia, Entropia, Aion, Lotro, Fallen Earth, Uncharted Waters
days: DDO, RoM, FFXIV, STO, Atlantica, PotBS, Maestia, WAR, AoC, Gods&Heroes, Cultures, RIFT, Forsaken World, Allodds
FFXI, while they had very specific zones built for specific levels, they had "NM's, Notorious Monsters" that were the same "species" as the other mobs in that zome, but they would be way bigger and badder (world boss's pretty much)
And I often found myself coming back to level 1-10 areas to do quest and farm these NM's.
Which worked pretty well, because when you are actually 1-10 you would get smoked by these NM's, so if a higher up was out farming them it helped alot..
.....and then they are in the area to rez me when I died.
Whhhyyyyy did they ruin that game...whhyyyyyy
/rant
/pethetic sob story
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how does it even fix the problem the OP is asking if you just make the leveling longer, it just simply make it take abit longer before it become a ghost town, doesnt solve the issue at all....the only thing I like about slow leveling is that atleast I care less about what level you currently are.
way disagree a vet should be able to roll over 20 newbs, be it NPCs or players, but mainly due to no challange no fun, and only thing this do is to promote griefing.
why should copper go redundant, why not make it needed in recipes where it would make sense? this is a thing I really like in EvE, make it so that even if n00b ore isnt worth much it is still possible to sell if you d not care to craft yourself - I for one want as much interaction between players as possible, even if it wouldnt be directly....also it would make it so you have the choice to go back to an old area to mine, or just buy it on the auction.
absolutely level based zones is waste of space, I would love to see a game like Entropia, that is not tied to the USD, nothing is ever really of no use, even if ofc it would be rare to see a vet kill puny mobs, unless it is to guide/take advantage of new players.....but still you can be lucky to have decent amount dropping on even the smaller NPC, so it is never 100% out of the question to do either....and like in EvE even the ores you can find with low skill level, is still being used in high level crafting recipes...
I kinda feel like it makes sense for a player with uber sword skill to pwn a n00b. thats what happens irl. except irl you get hit once to the neck and vet moves on. having hp kinda makes that hard. plus no one wants to die, and if they do they insist it musn't mean anything.
im not really fond of the idea of heavily rewarding players with power just because they spent hours and hours grinding.
how about a mmorpg where your characters strength is based on how well you play your character rather than how much you play it. in certain fps games(quake, UT) it is possible for a pro to take out multiple novices because he is good at playing his character, not because he grinded for longer.
slowing levelling doesnt solve the problem. no matter how slow the levelling is a large portion of the game world is going to waste because it is not for your level. i think the effect of levelling on charcter strength needs to the point where a low level character can party and quest with a high level character without being massively handicapped~ ofcourse the high level character will be more powerful statwise. stat boosts need to be replaced with horizontal progression (more choices of spells, gear, builds etc) and player skill (they way you move, aim, talk, trade etc should affect your characters capabilities)
there is a huge market for this time of game imo. the largest franchises have this sort of progression eg battlefield, COD, LoL etc. levelling opens up options rather than pumping HP, mana, damage etc
i completely agree that stronger characters with better gear should beat weaker characters,
the thing is that in current mmorpgs the person who gets the "uber sword" is the person who grinds simple repetitve tasks the most. people who do simple repetitve tasks IRL do no get the "uber sword", they clean toilets or fry chips at minimum wage. people who get the "uber sword" IRL are the people who possess exceptional skill in an area or multiple areas.
i think mmorpgs should only allow players to vertically progress if they play well. i think item decay is an excellent way to implement this. no matter how much you play you will never get stronger unless you play well because your items will decay the more you play. you need to play smart; that means acheiving more resources than how much you lose through item decay.
you could play for 1 hour and get a 10% improvement in gear if you play smart where as somone who is not very good might have 10% weaker gear after 10 hours of play because they didnt play well.
Really?
Usually the only way to get the "uber sword" is to do the hardest raids.
There's no reason leveled zones have to be rail-roaded even in themepark MMOs.
For instance, you could create a zone that has content for level's 1-8 and 25-30 and 55-60, etc. You could head to a new zone whenever you out level the content (through a "go here" quest, like they do now), and come back later. It would give players a greater sense of freedom in going where they choose, and travelling more often. Plus it would give a nice sense of narrative and statistical progression when you "see" high level content early, and then get to comeback and complete it later.
...over and over again until it is no longer challening and uber sword drops.
It is sad that themepark linear zone to zone content is fairly wasteful even after they try to use every meter of land as a means for questing. Once all the quests are complete then there is no reason to return. Yeah slower leveling would help keep the content from being devoured so fast but it doesn't do anything to bring other level ranges back there.
One of those small unique things I noticed playing TOR was when doing a solo mission for this guy. It took us in an instance but instead of scaling everything up, when initiating combat with each encounter it would cause an elite to appear. I think that worked even better than scaling it up. Ofcourse that was in an instance and not an open world. In an open world spawning a lot of additional mobs would favor the use of AoEs in every situation. Maybe it could work with some spawning/scaling variety and mobs having a lot of AE, stuns/ interupts, and knockbacks.
I miss live events that would bring anyone of any level to various places in the world...
Originally posted by Sythion
There's no reason leveled zones have to be rail-roaded even in themepark MMOs.
For instance, you could create a zone that has content for level's 1-8 and 25-30 and 55-60, etc. You could head to a new zone whenever you out level the content (through a "go here" quest, like they do now), and come back later. It would give players a greater sense of freedom in going where they choose, and travelling more often. Plus it would give a nice sense of narrative and statistical progression when you "see" high level content early, and then get to comeback and complete it later.
Originally posted by Warmaker
That frame of thinking is extinct in today's MMORPG developers. Old MMORPGs had it right and made greater use of what map space there was available to the players. Because there were far more things to do than swing an axe/sword/etc. But, whatever, the devs can continue to keep lawndarting.
Yeah, all this, pretty much. To summarize:
1. Zones are wasted, and could be used more if content within them had multiple level ranges.
2. Murdering everything makes no sense, and leaves players with no reason to play the game if they have nothing to kill.
3. Having more skill used in games would ensure better use of the content in the first place.
4. There is no 4th reason.
My blog is a continuing story of what MMO's should be like.
Correct, sir.
There were more options back then. In SWG's case, a veteran has as much business to do in an early planet as he did in harder planets. And these options did not necessarily have to include combat either, but I'll be drifting off to another thread if I get into alot more details.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
i think yours is an improvement on current design. the same number of resources (mobs, area, quests etc) still does to waste like in a regular themepark mmorpg but at least you can taste of each of the zones when you are high level. it doesnt really completely solve the problem.
also; i prefer sandbox over themepark. sandbox mmorpgs also have progression it just manifests differently and isnt just confined to gear/level.
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WARNING: following ideas might not fit with whatever you have planned
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i was thinking of something on the lines of a game where you only have something like 20 levels to keep the power gap small. the only different between a level 20 and level 1 character will be the number of abiltiies/strength of gear and a level 1 character should be able to party up with a level 20 character but he wont be as strong.
levelling to 20 is a fast process. once chracters are level 20 you work on crafting stronger items, capturing cities, fighting through dungeons for rare materials, pvp etc. this isnt really a themepark, but there is a sense of progression, it just isnt as clear raid gear tiers. you would need to have item decay for the economy to work and more player skill based combat would give something else players can work on improving.
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good luck with whatever you choose to do. always nice to see people trying to make improvements