MMORPG without weapons

rafapisco

The question is simple would you guys play a mmorpg with only magic and no weapons?

I am a bit divided between the concepts but would like to know your opinion.

Thanks in advance

Axehilt

An MMORPG without combat could work.

An MMORPG with combat but without weapons seems pretty weird. It would need a pretty good reason why conventional weapons were completely abandoned, and if that reason (logically) was that magic was so reliable, easy, and commonplace that it replaced them entirely then I guess that could work. But at the same time it's going to lack the familiar connections that help keep a world grounded in reality, and probably be less appealing to players as a result.

hallucigenocide

it would have to be some pretty damn impressive magic.. none of that same old fire/frost crap.

and it would probably need some melee type fighting for me to be interested.

KenFisher

Gameplay would change significantly.  Rather than having aggro mechanics as they are, I imagine it playing like a FPS against bots.

 

It would make a lot of sense in a Sci-Fi game where there would be weapons, but not melee weapons.  Everyone fights with Magic and Star Wars styled blasters.

 

How does PlanetSide 2 handle it?  Do they have melee?

Axehilt

Originally posted by ZombieKen

Gameplay would change significantly.  Rather than having aggro mechanics as they are, I imagine it playing like a FPS against bots. 

It would make a lot of sense in a Sci-Fi game where there would be weapons, but not melee weapons.  Everyone fights with Magic and Star Wars styled blasters. 

How does PlanetSide 2 handle it?  Do they have melee?

Guns are still weapons.

PS2 has melee like any other shooter really.  It's a situationally useful tool, but combat is overwhelming ranged.

Personally I imagined the OP's idea was for magic to replace those other weapons, but not necessarily be a game about only ranged combat.  Sort of like how the Gundam series rationalizes its melee weapons by giving those Gundams technological shields capable of absorbing ranged weapons better than melee (which of course still makes no sense, but they do a reasonable job playing to that fiction.)  But in this case the fantasy version would be using magical shields to protect oneself until you could get into melee range with powerful melee magic attacks, and the sci-fi version would be exactly like that except with nanotech "magic".

SavageHorizon

Originally posted by Axehilt

An MMORPG without combat could work.An MMORPG with combat but without weapons seems pretty weird. It would need a pretty good reason why conventional weapons were completely abandoned, and if that reason (logically) was that magic was so reliable, easy, and commonplace that it replaced them entirely then I guess that could work. But at the same time it's going to lack the familiar connections that help keep a world grounded in reality, and probably be less appealing to players as a result.

 

A mmo without combat does work it's called A Tale In The Desert

dave6660

Only magic and no weapons... I'm not sure I'd like it.

If it were hand to hand combat only (martial arts themed) and no weapons then I could get into it.

Loke666

Sure, just like you could make a good hand to hand combat MMO. If ebveryone uses handguns, magic or melee weapons doesn't really change that much. It is far more important that the combat is fun then how you do fight.

rafapisco

When I am talking about magic only, I am talking about using magic for melee and ranged combat. My only doubt is that I think people love to have a weapon and see they character with them. I don't know if the lack of weapons would cut my player base in half or not

azarhal

Originally posted by ZombieKen

How does PlanetSide 2 handle it?  Do they have melee?

There is no melee class, but you can use a knife (or MAX's punch) in melee. They don't work against vehicles (outside of one case) and it is mostly useful for stealth takedowns.

KenFisher

Originally posted by rafapisco
When I am talking about magic only, I am talking about using magic for melee and ranged combat. My only doubt is that I think people love to have a weapon and see they character with them. I don't know if the lack of weapons would cut my player base in half or not

 

I'm mixed.  If done creatively it might work well.  As I see it, the lore / backstory would need to make sense as to why this is; The game mechanics worked out so combat is enoyable.

 

I don't have a clue how you would pull it off, but that certainly doesn't make it impossible.

 

Loktofeit

Originally posted by rafapisco
When I am talking about magic only, I am talking about using magic for melee and ranged combat. My only doubt is that I think people love to have a weapon and see they character with them. I don't know if the lack of weapons would cut my player base in half or not

What is your actual goal? Is it just to not have a weapon in the hand of the player? If so, does this add something to your game or is it just 'to be different'? 

"The question is simple would you guys play a mmorpg with only magic and no weapons?"

If the game was taking some unique direction where that fit with the core gameplay, I would certainly at least try it. If it's just an EQ/WOW variant without weapons other than the wands/comps/whatever for magic then I'll pass. 

rafapisco

My actual goal is to allow the player to create a character and gather skills from the world while exploring it. This skills would have no restriction for who could learn them, and could be melee, ranged or mixed with AOE.

Sovrath

Originally posted by rafapisco
My actual goal is to allow the player to create a character and gather skills from the world while exploring it. This skills would have no restriction for who could learn them, and could be melee, ranged or mixed with AOE.

Then why "no weapons"?

Couldn't you have the same but with what would be considered "physical" weapons?

Loktofeit

Originally posted by rafapisco
My actual goal is to allow the player to create a character and gather skills from the world while exploring it. This skills would have no restriction for who could learn them, and could be melee, ranged or mixed with AOE.

How does removing weapons add value to that? To be clear, I am not saying it doesn't. I am asking you how your design decision adds value to your game because I am currently not seeing the reason for it. 

rafapisco

The classless system goes well with the magic only world because there would not be weapon specific skills.

moonbound

Why would you want an mmorpg without weapons? The more options the better just look at super hero mmorpgs if you dont think so.

Cyrael

It might not be what you intended, but Wizard101 only has magic, no weapons. The game is surprisingly fun, too.

CalmOceans

street gears was a rollerblade MMO with neither magic or weapons

 

probably my favorite MMO after EQ

 

it had a super nice community, helped by the atmosphere of a regular city without weapons

Quizzical

Originally posted by SavageHorizon

Originally posted by Axehilt

An MMORPG without combat could work.

An MMORPG with combat but without weapons seems pretty weird. It would need a pretty good reason why conventional weapons were completely abandoned, and if that reason (logically) was that magic was so reliable, easy, and commonplace that it replaced them entirely then I guess that could work. But at the same time it's going to lack the familiar connections that help keep a world grounded in reality, and probably be less appealing to players as a result.

 

A mmo without combat does work it's called A Tale In The Desert

While that was the first thing I thought of, it does have weapons of sorts in one of the conflict games.

Loke666

Originally posted by rafapisco
The classless system goes well with the magic only world because there would not be weapon specific skills.

Hmm, if you want melee to that you can either allow the players to summon temporary magical weapons or have some kind of hand to hand martial art included. It would work better than crafted weapons.

Are you planning to have spell components for powerful spells?

Anyhow, the idea is good if you can make a good magical system. Ignoring mundane weapons mean that you can focus on making the magical combat really good. I always had the feeling that fantasy MMOs combat would be better if they focused a bit more, no matter if the focus in on melee or magical fighting.

rafapisco

Yes my idea is to have ranged spells and some kind of magic enhanced martial arts Players would have to find spells in the world and/or craft some others.

Panther2103

Originally posted by Cyrael
It might not be what you intended, but Wizard101 only has magic, no weapons. The game is surprisingly fun, too.

See I've always wanted to try it, but during creation of an account it makes me feel super weird trying it out because it is so geared towards kids it feels creepy. But I read a bunch of opinions touting it's combat system saying it's really great. But when it asks are you old enough to chat with other people? Then says it will ask for your parents email if you aren't, that just turns me off from the game haha

Axehilt

Originally posted by rafapisco
The classless system goes well with the magic only world because there would not be weapon specific skills.

Is the concern art bandwidth?

A heroic strike in WOW is weapon-agnostic.  It's a heavy attack regardless of weapon type.

So you definitely can have weapon-agnostic abilities in a game. (And it's not relevant that WOW itself is class-based of course, as any game can offer a "power attack" for use with physical weapons, and that's basically what Heroic Strike is.)

The only concern could be art bandwidth since your total animation count is basically numWeaponAbilities * numWeaponTypes, and that can get out of hand if you don't pay attention to it.  (Which is why games are usually pretty tight about which weapon types they offer, since it can multiply out of control.)

daltanious

Originally posted by rafapisco

The question is simple would you guys play a mmorpg with only magic and no weapons?

I am a bit divided between the concepts but would like to know your opinion.

Thanks in advance

With "magic" you mean magic spells which are WEAPONS? Or not? Otherwise can not immagine MMO without some kind of weapons. :-)

rafapisco

When I say without weapons I am talking a mmorpg with the gameplay of Lichdom BattleMage, but with melee magic  too