Once I acquired my billions I would purchase the rights from EA for the title of Dark age of Camelot then I would give it to City State so they could accurately call "Camelot unchained" Dark age of Camelot 2 or Dark age of Camelot: (other name). Then I would donate a sufficient amount of funds to what is currently called Camelot Unchained so they could have the top of the line everything.
have the net code and and serverside and client side writen, with top end in mind. Why? the only reason pc gamers upgrade or pc fakers buy a new pc is they want to play "that" game. if intel nvidia microsoft amd dell, wallstreet, want pc sales to come back, we need games and productivity items that require upgrades.
examples:
SWG, in july when released most pcs could not run the game smoothly. it was not an optimaziation issue with the game it was the fact everyone still had toasters as pcs.
EQ2, again turning on the setting Past medium durring the beta to 6months after was a bad idea.
One mega server per region
na
eu
sa
jp
kp
cn
nz au
indo
mid east
ru
GRAPHICS:
would do it in dx12 due to the closer to metal (more like a console) api. this wouldn't require much upgrades since most dx11 gpus can run dx12 calls. only upgrade would be the free upgrade to win10
ART:
now for the unique part. consumers could decide what visual pack to run, want a fantasy game magic,swords, bow, or a scifi guns,melee, medic.
this would be the most expensive part of the game. Have multiple art teams make three genres of the game. Fantasy(magic,swords,bow), SciFi(guns,Melee,Medic), Martial arts(Asian influence pre 1600’s), Historical(western culture 1400s-1700’s).
Buildings would all have same dimensions for collision detection but be skinned to fit theme. (Columns beams and tresses, same dimensions different looks)
Characters would all have same hit boxes, clothing/ armor would be pass thru but similar in thickness/area.
Weapon stats would be the same based on object ID so example
Object id:54687
Right handed
Ranged
Ilvl 80
Dmg:1000
Speed 2 sec
Range: 50m
So the fantasy art pack would grab a bow, scifi would grab a rifle, martial arts would grab throwing star, historical would grab a spear. (all with in similar dimentions, but again with some pass thru)
Every player on the client side would experience the game from their chosen art pack. So my scifi loving self could play with my guildleaders fantasy loving self. And join pvp and raids and any other in game event together. With no issues of continuity since the data coming in would always be object id did this.
STORY::
this would require great writers and again be a very expensive part of the game start up cost. that could write an ubiquitous story that would work for all game genres with only having to change npc, location, weapon names per style. Almost like a well written mad lib.
COST and MONETIZATION:
$75 upfront no sub fee, no premium. includes game one free genres pack of choosing, $30 worth of in game cosmetic, quality of life shop credits. 1 character slot. game locked to CPUID and OS ID, dual authenication to approve account on a PC(not required to log in again until cpu id os id change is detected), can have 5 trusted CPUID OS ID combos per account at a time, 3 week intervals to change. and only two accounts max per CPUID OS ID combo, 2 month intervals. this is to slow down multi boxers and hackers. also gives incentive to unlock more slots if an altiholic.
expansions every 8 to 12 months $40 (includes all previous expansions, previous customers get 10% of each expansion if they own all previous expacs, if an expac is skipped no discount, expac 1 $36 expac 2 $33.3 expac 3 $30 ect...)
genres packs $50 each (fantasy, SCIFI, martial arts, historical) RL$ only
cosmetic shop would allow for cross genre skins, armor, housing, races, not weapons or mountables. ($2 -$20)
Quality of life shop:
character slots $15 (max 8)
bank slots $1.5 (max 10 expansions unlock per character not account wide)
merchant slots $20 (earn 3 in game star with 1(per account), max 8 per character)
inventory slots $1.5 (max 10 expansions unlock per character not account wide)
in game currency to in game shop exchange. 500,000 to the dollar. currency drop rate close to FFXIV drop. yes i would want it to be not super easy to earn cash shop in game. US/hoiday sales X2 and x3 black friday.
would be looking to make min $100 off each account in first year. every 3 months send out buddy keys to customers, fully unlocked keys last 6 days can use cash shop. if not activated at $50 discount, account is deleted after 30 days non recoverable(or within acceptable by law).
remember i am a billionare so profit isn't a huge thing, breaking even to pay my guys is all i need. ill use stock dividends from my billions to pay for servers and cost overruns.
GAMEPLAY:
max level 100 (game time to max 2 months) gear level lock outs to new raids which drop catalyst items(whith looted by tags) to have crafters make for players which allow for travel to other parts of the world. +5% stats if catalyst item on gear was looted by wearer.
open world air land and sea. gear lockedout area would be locked out with enviromental damage that would only be mitigated by gear level. players would be allowed to try and get farther into the game with out the gear but will end up dying.
instanced Raid(7 man and 11 man) (at least 1 tank 1 healer 1 dps 1 support)
instanced dungeons(3 and 5 man) (any build)
PvP that matters.
all players choose a faction to play for during story line after lvl 20. would allow for faction change (min 20hr in game quest line) guilds locked to faction of guild leader. if leader and members do not match members are kicked.
Factions that have control points have access to raid and dungeons in that control points influence multiple same lvl dungeons and raids but population will for sure have favorites or ones that work better for class structure. durration of control of the points leads to increase of drop rates in owned dungeon a raid areas.
Control points programmed through boss fights to reset every 3 weeks, when a faction controls point for 48hrs, MOBS will start to spawn to take point back, these will be red to all factions, severity of MOBS will increase every 5 hrs, culminating in a "Map clearing boss" at the culmination of 3 week timer.
this mechanic makes PVP help PVE and PVE help PVP keep control points.
Free choice flagging for PVP. once you flag cannot turn off for 10 minutes or 10 minutes of pvp engagment or 20 mins of pvp kill(not killing blow , just target dying from pvp). auto flag if assiting through heals or buffs or debuff dispell.
Control points also have open world housing districts with-in them. controling guild gets 30% of tax dollars from housing district
same faction killing turned on. if same faction take new control of a point all timers reset.
crime points for same faction killing, points are gained from same faction killing in faction controled areas, unless your guild owns said area. pvp flag is stuck on for 1 real time day for every crime point obtained. 1 crime point per kill, bounties can be put on players with crime points, these bounties can be claimed by everyone no matter faction. 50% of bounty cost is deducted from the bountied players bank. banks can go negitive to a point. bounties are only active while player has crime points.
crime points tick down every 24 hrs or at pvp death.
PVP kills have loot table. loot will not drop from player inventory. loot table is decided by many factors, players kill streak, players KTD ratio. time since last death, level, bounty, time since last kill. pvp loot table can build up to drops from a dungeon boss. death resets loot table
PVP does not have corpse running. PVP death leads to self immolation/spontanious combustion (how ever it fits into story)clone/spirit resurection at spot.
PVE::
run of the mill questing courrier killing, talking, story dungeon, story raid runs. can go from 1-100 if all quests are done including unmarked hidden. not all quest will be available until 45 days after release.
corpse runs if dying in open world. other players can loot corpse, loot come from loot table (decided by Mob kill to death by mob ratio, time since last death, lvl, time not AFK, value of inventory , value of on person bank)
upon death players drops all items and credits they were holding onto corpse. body stays in world for 15 days on players client. other players can only see corpse for 3 hrs or until looted. (time shortens for other players to see bodies as the bodies pile up in vicinity)
no XP loss on death in PVE only additional xp penalty to next level. penalty based on serverity of pve death. (level of mob vs level of player +/- system so if you die to a mob 10 lvls higher it is same as dying to mob 10 levels less penalty is based off of killing blow mob), amount of health and stam at start of engament) sort of a stupidity meter.
items have duribility. if reach zero breaks for good but can still be used for cosmetic. .01% per strike loss of dur, 5% loss on all items if equiped while killed flagged for pvp 8% if pve death, 10% is suicide(falling, drowning,enviromental, poision self ect...)
repairer is a crafter class. npc repairers as well but can only max repair to 50%
Classes:
Healers:: 3 class types
AOE
single
HoT
Tanks:: 4 types
dmg mitigation (classic sword and board style tank low dps, high armor value, high dodge, high block,high hate)
health bar tank (player controlled boss, high health , medium armor, medium dps, high hate, low block ,low dodge, healers worst friend)
sapper (steals hp for every hit on target and gains hp for every hit on self)
self healer (can only heal self not others)
DPS: 6 types (range 0-75m dmg lowers closer to target and melee 0 to 5m of each type)
Single
DoT
AOE
Support: 4 types, low dps medium armor
Group buffs (15min timers 75% potency compared to single buffer)
single target buffs (20 min timer 100% potency)
hybrid buff /debuffer (60% potency group aura buffs, 3 min timer, 60% potency to comparable de buffs placed aoe debuffs 8 second durrations)
Channeler (single/group/ aura, buffs and debuffs and heals, cannot move or use other skills besides one other chanel, while channeling. 100% potency debuffs 50% buffs 40% heals compared to healer)
Crafting:
weapon
armor
carpenter (housing items)
mechanic (mounts, boats, flying things)
jeweler
repairer
alchemist/pharmacist
Gathering::
Fishing no nodes, heat map style like SWG but in water ways, heat map changes every 3 weeks and also gets affected by use in areas,
miner no nodes, heat map style like SWG, heat map changes every 3 weeks and also gets affected by use in areas,
botonist nodes with area 300m RNG spawn
woodsman trees in forest with 100m rng spawn
hunter skinning non human kills
Recoverer Breaks down old items and special classed loot
can only be, 3 classes per character in any combination of combat gathering crafting. classes change by seeing trainer. if you change out of a class you forget the skills and start over.
In game trading:
in home vendors, no stocking fee or sales tax, vend only lists items at vendor
control point market place 5% stocking and 5% tax(goes to control point), lists all sales for vendors in control points area, can purchase vendor items at control point markets, delay delivery of 20 minutes 5% fee.
main city markets
all sales are listed at markets 10% stock 10% tax, only main city markets have access to purchase all sales including in home sales, if item is not at main city market time delay delivery of 2 realtime hours. plus 10% delivery fee.
Originally posted by Rusque I wouldn't play video games at all.
I would have someone else play for me. I'll just tell them where to go.
And yes, I'll pay them EXTREAMLY WELL.
Money is only a motivator to a point - many game devs are already paid to where giving them more money wouldn't make them work harder or better
Overpaying people past the point where money is not an issue has a counterproductive effect to their actual work
This is the truest statement ever written on MMORPG. I work in a lab environment with hundreds of labs around the world. Our top 10% productivity and results labs are either underpaid or paid what they should be. Why? Because if you ask tech at the labs that are crap, they say “ I do not need the productivity bonus I am already paid enough.”
money has to be the carrot on the stick. this should be done with bonus based structure or even better, a profit share ,company wide equally paid out based on hours worked from the mail room to the board room.
On hours worked?? Not a chance. If I work the same hours as a colleague and bring in twice the fees I want a substantially larger bonus.
well hopefully you would bring this up with your supervisor and they would fire him, as long as you live ina right to work state or revolving door state. where people can be fired rather easily.
I would make sure it wouldnt have to be profitable, though.
Because I would make my own personal dream MMO and I have no clue how successful that would be financially.
Basically it would be something like Vanguard. Meaning classic fantasy with many races and subraces, classic "static" classes of beautiful and complex design, massive seamless world full of handcrafted dungeons, really challenging raids, etc. But there would be less bugs (duh), I would want to keep the hardware demands on a manageable level, PvP would be fully supported right out of the box, Diplomacy and Crafting would still be minigames but you wouldnt have to grind them, instead you would require adventurer level, solving quests, and acquire resources (diplomacy cards, crafting gear).
Thinking about it, I would probably try to get the Pantheon team, put them on a payroll, and make sure they would add more Vanguard style class depth to Pantheon.
Originally posted by Rusque I wouldn't play video games at all.
The best things in life cant be bought. If you wouldnt play games as a billionaire - why do you play them now ?
Originally posted by Banquetto Hell no. I'd spend my billions on something that would make me happy, not something that would make an entire internet full of whiners whine about my creation.
Again, theres limits to what you can buy with money.
If I were a Billionaire, and had more money I can handle or spend, my down time inbetween doing all the real cool stuff Billionaire's do would be making an MMO on the side.
Now, I'm not a programmer nor would I bother going to school for it ( Billionaire's don't need to go to school ) BUT I would have the best team of programmers on this Earth. I would buy them an MMO building and pay them well with the best hardware and software money could buy.
I hate what marketing had become. HOWEVER, it would be different. Their job would be keeping the public informed and paint an exciting picture of what they can expect. Full of unimaginable features......Difference being, it would be TRUE....Infact the game will be way better than what is told......Treasures everywhere !
Things I would insist on at our monthly round table meeting would be :
- No cash shop ever. $60 for the game,$15 a month. Being a Billionaire why so much ?.........All profits would be directly reinvested back into the product. 100% to insure updates and expansions. The money would steam roll in because were talking about the best mmo ever.....The product will eventually pay for itself ten fold.
- Fast production, no 7 years in the making. However it will take time no matter how large the developer team. Even dough I'm a Billionaire, I have to be realistic.
- Graphics. It's getting downright silly trying to make mmo's with maximum realism........Billionaire or not there is a limit. Graphics would be World of Warcraft quality or LOTRO......100% concentration on making a cool game with a cool world, with a lot of cool stuff to do.......Any thing else would be wrong, period !......If a percentage of the player base refuses, then they could take there power stations and look for something else, good luck
- Huge world, Open world, Non-instanced world....Not much time needed on this topic. Being a billionaire, you could just imagine what I would do
- Completely solo game....Completely group game.....And everything in between game. Why?....Because it's Huge !!!!!!
- Dungeons and Raids at all levels. Deep ones. No small ones, if you don't like it then kiss my butt. I'm a billionaire !
- 3 Factions, 10 starting areas for each.
- Classes, 20 classes or more. Also, I would search the world for the most open minded thinker to develop even more.
- Fantasy, well that sounds boring ...........Well, remember I talked about re-investing all profits ? One Expansion would be a space ship to take you to a SiFi universe to start over. And I'll have that open minded thinker guy invent other cool stuff that I'm unable to come up with
Please feel free to add more features you would like to see. Remember I'M A BILLIONAIRE, WITH A LARGE BUDGET !
I have "what if I won the lottery" day-dreams too! lol
I get where you're coming from, but realistically....you may want to re-think some of the decision you laid out.
1 - An uneducated billionaire may not be a billionaire for very long. You may not need to learn how to write code, but you should be aware of the software development life cycles, and any amount of business knowledge you can pick up will benefit your operations...and may even influence the design of your in-game economy. IMO - anyone running a business should seek a MBA if feasible.
2 - Previously mentioned economic education would tell you that the higher the cost of the game, the bigger the subscriber base will be needed to not run a net deficit on the operation. In other words....the bigger the price tag...the closer to the WOW model of appealing to the lowest common denominator you'll be.
You mention that the game will be everything for all people....impossible. There is an old saying about efforts trying to please all result in truly satisfying none. People have a tendency to take the path of least resistance and will typically work toward achieving the greatest reward with the lest amount of effort.
WOW is a pretty good example of this....as they've already done a pretty good job at making alternate play-styles available.
You can solo in WOW, or group. Since soloing is easier & more convenient....most folks will solo, leaving a lack of people willing to group....which essentially makes the grouping method of leveling impractical, resulting in those players looking for a group experience resigning to the solo grind, or quitting all together.
As a billionaire....you'd be better served creating 2 separate games, each designed & focused on a specific demographic....removing the need to sacrifice features for some in effort to support the other.
I would find Kurt Schilling and get his team back together to work on Project Copernicus. And I wouldn't care if the venture made a profit. As a billionaire it wouldn't hurt me financially to finance it all out of pocket(within reason). I really enjoyed Kingdoms of Amalur and thought it had lots of potential as an mmo. That and I believe that after everything Kurt has gone through, it would do my heart some good to see him have a happy ending in all of this.
He came into this with the simple desire to make a game that he would want to play, just as we are discussing now that we would like to do. The difference is that he bet his entire fortune on actually making it happen. And he wasn't a billionaire. Yet he bet it all on his venture. I can't help but respect the man for that. How him and his company was used as a political football in Rhode Island by lesser men was a travesty.
Yes, but I would not expect grand (WoW-like) profits. If I could break even each year, I would be happy. Focus would be on gameplay and player interactions, not the bottom line.
Nop. If i was a billionaire and wanted to make a game it would be single player. Im not going to waste my billions running servers without a guaranteed "WoW success". A single player game, perhaps with a coop campaign option.
But being realistic, i probably would not be thinking about making a game if was a billionaire.
Originally posted by Rusque I wouldn't play video games at all.
I would enjoy video games whether I was rich or not. I probably wouldn't play as often, but I would still play.
Yupp, i would definitely still be a gamer. If i had the money i would have every platform i like already set up for playing on a big screen. I dont need billions to do that but hey, its easier to spend money when you are nowhere near going broke lol
People who are billionaires made their money on smart investments.
The MMO market today is not a smart investment. 10-15 years ago if you were making a WoW or Everquest? Sure. But the market today is too saturated with games and unless you're a AAA developer like Blizzard or Square-Enix, you're not going to see the kind of ROI expected on a MMO.
An MMO? Not right off but I would work my way that direction.
I would start out by creating 1 or 2 HD Online GMUDs ( 2D Sprites and not a 3D creation ) with more advanced graphical and animation quality than what the few out there now offer. I would release those on iOS , Android and PC as movement and combat would work more smoothly on those platforms.
Once that is done possibly getting a concept off the ground for a 3D single player open world experience for consoles.
After that I would look into the creation of an Isometric Online RPG with similar rules as the previous games but with the style of UO. Target platform would be PC and maybe consoles
Then research would be begin on whether Isometric or 3D would be the best way to approach and MMO build. Target PC / Console.
It would be easier for me to get blackmail material on the guys at NCSoft to get them to sell me everything related to City of Heroes (including everyone's accounts/characters) for a song. Then I'd hire some developers to get it working again, do a server merge, and make it all available for free. There would be a Patreon/PayPal account to pay some GMs and keep the lights on. I'm not sure there would still be enough interest in the game for it to generate enough revenue to hire more developers to add onto the game but it would be there for everyone to play again.
Originally posted by Alverant It would be easier for me to get blackmail material on the guys at NCSoft to get them to sell me everything related to City of Heroes (including everyone's accounts/characters) for a song. Then I'd hire some developers to get it working again, do a server merge, and make it all available for free. There would be a Patreon/PayPal account to pay some GMs and keep the lights on. I'm not sure there would still be enough interest in the game for it to generate enough revenue to hire more developers to add onto the game but it would be there for everyone to play again.
I actually think that would be a great idea if possible. As for whether it would be worth it financially, I suspect it would still be profitable. It was actually quite profitable before they pulled the plug. Even considering that the costs to run and keep the game updated with new content were also being listed on top of the fact that the studio that ran CoH was also using the same budget to work on CoH2, and they were financing all of that and still making a profit. Even look at all of the CoH revival projects. Despite there being 3 or 4 different projects worked on by different groups of people, they haven't had trouble finding people to help fund them. Some of them are actually being deluged with supporters that want to throw even more at them(because they were late to kickstarter, etc.) . I think the only thing that people would really like is just a graphical update of the original CoH.
Originally posted by Alverant It would be easier for me to get blackmail material on the guys at NCSoft to get them to sell me everything related to City of Heroes (including everyone's accounts/characters) for a song. Then I'd hire some developers to get it working again, do a server merge, and make it all available for free. There would be a Patreon/PayPal account to pay some GMs and keep the lights on. I'm not sure there would still be enough interest in the game for it to generate enough revenue to hire more developers to add onto the game but it would be there for everyone to play again.
might as well let people start from level 0. reset everything!!!
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?"
If I were a Billionaire, and had more money I can handle or spend, my down time inbetween doing all the real cool stuff Billionaire's do would be making an MMO on the side.
Now, I'm not a programmer nor would I bother going to school for it ( Billionaire's don't need to go to school ) BUT I would have the best team of programmers on this Earth. I would buy them an MMO building and pay them well with the best hardware and software money could buy.
I hate what marketing had become. HOWEVER, it would be different. Their job would be keeping the public informed and paint an exciting picture of what they can expect. Full of unimaginable features......Difference being, it would be TRUE....Infact the game will be way better than what is told......Treasures everywhere !
Things I would insist on at our monthly round table meeting would be :
- No cash shop ever. $60 for the game,$15 a month. Being a Billionaire why so much ?.........All profits would be directly reinvested back into the product. 100% to insure updates and expansions. The money would steam roll in because were talking about the best mmo ever.....The product will eventually pay for itself ten fold.
- Fast production, no 7 years in the making. However it will take time no matter how large the developer team. Even dough I'm a Billionaire, I have to be realistic.
- Graphics. It's getting downright silly trying to make mmo's with maximum realism........Billionaire or not there is a limit. Graphics would be World of Warcraft quality or LOTRO......100% concentration on making a cool game with a cool world, with a lot of cool stuff to do.......Any thing else would be wrong, period !......If a percentage of the player base refuses, then they could take there power stations and look for something else, good luck
- Huge world, Open world, Non-instanced world....Not much time needed on this topic. Being a billionaire, you could just imagine what I would do
- Completely solo game....Completely group game.....And everything in between game. Why?....Because it's Huge !!!!!!
- Dungeons and Raids at all levels. Deep ones. No small ones, if you don't like it then kiss my butt. I'm a billionaire !
- 3 Factions, 10 starting areas for each.
- Classes, 20 classes or more. Also, I would search the world for the most open minded thinker to develop even more.
- Fantasy, well that sounds boring ...........Well, remember I talked about re-investing all profits ? One Expansion would be a space ship to take you to a SiFi universe to start over. And I'll have that open minded thinker guy invent other cool stuff that I'm unable to come up with
Please feel free to add more features you would like to see. Remember I'M A BILLIONAIRE, WITH A LARGE BUDGET !
I would buy me a secret island, some guards, develop some Death Ray or pathogen virus and plan to dominate/destroy the world.
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
Yes, of course anyone with a brain and love of MMO's would do it in that case....
"Investment firms do not have that outlook on life. They need to know there is not only a return on their investment but also a solid profit at the end of it." tawess-
If i had 20 billion maybe id invest 3 or 4. Other rthan that , its a high risk market imo, id stay clear and invest into more promising and helpful things.
Currently we see project managers who do not have a clueless about the the process curve at the MMO market.
They wont listen to anything that doesnt sound profitable ...typical Ferengi style
If i had 20 billion maybe id invest 3 or 4. Other rthan that , its a high risk market imo, id stay clear and invest into more promising and helpful things.
Currently we see project managers who do not have a clueless about the the process curve at the MMO market.
They wont listen to anything that doesnt sound profitable ...typical Ferengi style
3 or 4 billion would be the most expensive MMORPG in history and possibly ever going forward as well
Not sure what game i would have made, but it wouldn't need to be profitable. Other billionaires buy sport teams, so why not keep around your personal development studio? And just like gaming is our hobby and certainly not profitable for most of us, it would not be a venture, but a hobby. If it's simple to to make it profitable, sure, why not, but focus would be on the "integrity" of the game, instead of compromising for the sake of profit.
I'll wait to the day's end when the moon is high And then I'll rise with the tide with a lust for life, I'll Amass an army, and we'll harness a horde And then we'll limp across the land until we stand at the shore
Comments
Once I acquired my billions I would purchase the rights from EA for the title of Dark age of Camelot then I would give it to City State so they could accurately call "Camelot unchained" Dark age of Camelot 2 or Dark age of Camelot: (other name). Then I would donate a sufficient amount of funds to what is currently called Camelot Unchained so they could have the top of the line everything.
but back on top of the OP.
I would make an "everymans" game
CODING::
have the net code and and serverside and client side writen, with top end in mind. Why? the only reason pc gamers upgrade or pc fakers buy a new pc is they want to play "that" game. if intel nvidia microsoft amd dell, wallstreet, want pc sales to come back, we need games and productivity items that require upgrades.
examples:
SWG, in july when released most pcs could not run the game smoothly. it was not an optimaziation issue with the game it was the fact everyone still had toasters as pcs.
EQ2, again turning on the setting Past medium durring the beta to 6months after was a bad idea.
One mega server per region
na
eu
sa
jp
kp
cn
nz au
indo
mid east
ru
GRAPHICS:
would do it in dx12 due to the closer to metal (more like a console) api. this wouldn't require much upgrades since most dx11 gpus can run dx12 calls. only upgrade would be the free upgrade to win10
ART:
now for the unique part. consumers could decide what visual pack to run, want a fantasy game magic,swords, bow, or a scifi guns,melee, medic.
this would be the most expensive part of the game. Have multiple art teams make three genres of the game. Fantasy(magic,swords,bow), SciFi(guns,Melee,Medic), Martial arts(Asian influence pre 1600’s), Historical(western culture 1400s-1700’s).
Buildings would all have same dimensions for collision detection but be skinned to fit theme. (Columns beams and tresses, same dimensions different looks)
Characters would all have same hit boxes, clothing/ armor would be pass thru but similar in thickness/area.
Weapon stats would be the same based on object ID so example
Object id:54687
Right handed
Ranged
Ilvl 80
Dmg:1000
Speed 2 sec
Range: 50m
So the fantasy art pack would grab a bow, scifi would grab a rifle, martial arts would grab throwing star, historical would grab a spear. (all with in similar dimentions, but again with some pass thru)
Every player on the client side would experience the game from their chosen art pack. So my scifi loving self could play with my guildleaders fantasy loving self. And join pvp and raids and any other in game event together. With no issues of continuity since the data coming in would always be object id did this.
STORY::
this would require great writers and again be a very expensive part of the game start up cost. that could write an ubiquitous story that would work for all game genres with only having to change npc, location, weapon names per style. Almost like a well written mad lib.
COST and MONETIZATION:
$75 upfront no sub fee, no premium. includes game one free genres pack of choosing, $30 worth of in game cosmetic, quality of life shop credits. 1 character slot. game locked to CPUID and OS ID, dual authenication to approve account on a PC(not required to log in again until cpu id os id change is detected), can have 5 trusted CPUID OS ID combos per account at a time, 3 week intervals to change. and only two accounts max per CPUID OS ID combo, 2 month intervals. this is to slow down multi boxers and hackers. also gives incentive to unlock more slots if an altiholic.
expansions every 8 to 12 months $40 (includes all previous expansions, previous customers get 10% of each expansion if they own all previous expacs, if an expac is skipped no discount, expac 1 $36 expac 2 $33.3 expac 3 $30 ect...)
genres packs $50 each (fantasy, SCIFI, martial arts, historical) RL$ only
cosmetic shop would allow for cross genre skins, armor, housing, races, not weapons or mountables. ($2 -$20)
Quality of life shop:
character slots $15 (max 8)
bank slots $1.5 (max 10 expansions unlock per character not account wide)
merchant slots $20 (earn 3 in game star with 1(per account), max 8 per character)
inventory slots $1.5 (max 10 expansions unlock per character not account wide)
in game currency to in game shop exchange. 500,000 to the dollar. currency drop rate close to FFXIV drop. yes i would want it to be not super easy to earn cash shop in game. US/hoiday sales X2 and x3 black friday.
would be looking to make min $100 off each account in first year. every 3 months send out buddy keys to customers, fully unlocked keys last 6 days can use cash shop. if not activated at $50 discount, account is deleted after 30 days non recoverable(or within acceptable by law).
remember i am a billionare so profit isn't a huge thing, breaking even to pay my guys is all i need. ill use stock dividends from my billions to pay for servers and cost overruns.
GAMEPLAY:
max level 100 (game time to max 2 months) gear level lock outs to new raids which drop catalyst items(whith looted by tags) to have crafters make for players which allow for travel to other parts of the world. +5% stats if catalyst item on gear was looted by wearer.
open world air land and sea. gear lockedout area would be locked out with enviromental damage that would only be mitigated by gear level. players would be allowed to try and get farther into the game with out the gear but will end up dying.
instanced Raid(7 man and 11 man) (at least 1 tank 1 healer 1 dps 1 support)
instanced dungeons(3 and 5 man) (any build)
PvP that matters.
all players choose a faction to play for during story line after lvl 20. would allow for faction change (min 20hr in game quest line) guilds locked to faction of guild leader. if leader and members do not match members are kicked.
Factions that have control points have access to raid and dungeons in that control points influence multiple same lvl dungeons and raids but population will for sure have favorites or ones that work better for class structure. durration of control of the points leads to increase of drop rates in owned dungeon a raid areas.
Control points programmed through boss fights to reset every 3 weeks, when a faction controls point for 48hrs, MOBS will start to spawn to take point back, these will be red to all factions, severity of MOBS will increase every 5 hrs, culminating in a "Map clearing boss" at the culmination of 3 week timer.
this mechanic makes PVP help PVE and PVE help PVP keep control points.
Free choice flagging for PVP. once you flag cannot turn off for 10 minutes or 10 minutes of pvp engagment or 20 mins of pvp kill(not killing blow , just target dying from pvp). auto flag if assiting through heals or buffs or debuff dispell.
Control points also have open world housing districts with-in them. controling guild gets 30% of tax dollars from housing district
same faction killing turned on. if same faction take new control of a point all timers reset.
crime points for same faction killing, points are gained from same faction killing in faction controled areas, unless your guild owns said area. pvp flag is stuck on for 1 real time day for every crime point obtained. 1 crime point per kill, bounties can be put on players with crime points, these bounties can be claimed by everyone no matter faction. 50% of bounty cost is deducted from the bountied players bank. banks can go negitive to a point. bounties are only active while player has crime points.
crime points tick down every 24 hrs or at pvp death.
PVP kills have loot table. loot will not drop from player inventory. loot table is decided by many factors, players kill streak, players KTD ratio. time since last death, level, bounty, time since last kill. pvp loot table can build up to drops from a dungeon boss. death resets loot table
PVP does not have corpse running. PVP death leads to self immolation/spontanious combustion (how ever it fits into story)clone/spirit resurection at spot.
PVE::
run of the mill questing courrier killing, talking, story dungeon, story raid runs. can go from 1-100 if all quests are done including unmarked hidden. not all quest will be available until 45 days after release.
corpse runs if dying in open world. other players can loot corpse, loot come from loot table (decided by Mob kill to death by mob ratio, time since last death, lvl, time not AFK, value of inventory , value of on person bank)
upon death players drops all items and credits they were holding onto corpse. body stays in world for 15 days on players client. other players can only see corpse for 3 hrs or until looted. (time shortens for other players to see bodies as the bodies pile up in vicinity)
no XP loss on death in PVE only additional xp penalty to next level. penalty based on serverity of pve death. (level of mob vs level of player +/- system so if you die to a mob 10 lvls higher it is same as dying to mob 10 levels less penalty is based off of killing blow mob), amount of health and stam at start of engament) sort of a stupidity meter.
items have duribility. if reach zero breaks for good but can still be used for cosmetic. .01% per strike loss of dur, 5% loss on all items if equiped while killed flagged for pvp 8% if pve death, 10% is suicide(falling, drowning,enviromental, poision self ect...)
repairer is a crafter class. npc repairers as well but can only max repair to 50%
Classes:
Healers:: 3 class types
AOE
single
HoT
Tanks:: 4 types
dmg mitigation (classic sword and board style tank low dps, high armor value, high dodge, high block,high hate)
health bar tank (player controlled boss, high health , medium armor, medium dps, high hate, low block ,low dodge, healers worst friend)
sapper (steals hp for every hit on target and gains hp for every hit on self)
self healer (can only heal self not others)
DPS: 6 types (range 0-75m dmg lowers closer to target and melee 0 to 5m of each type)
Single
DoT
AOE
Support: 4 types, low dps medium armor
Group buffs (15min timers 75% potency compared to single buffer)
single target buffs (20 min timer 100% potency)
hybrid buff /debuffer (60% potency group aura buffs, 3 min timer, 60% potency to comparable de buffs placed aoe debuffs 8 second durrations)
Channeler (single/group/ aura, buffs and debuffs and heals, cannot move or use other skills besides one other chanel, while channeling. 100% potency debuffs 50% buffs 40% heals compared to healer)
Crafting:
weapon
armor
carpenter (housing items)
mechanic (mounts, boats, flying things)
jeweler
repairer
alchemist/pharmacist
Gathering::
Fishing no nodes, heat map style like SWG but in water ways, heat map changes every 3 weeks and also gets affected by use in areas,
miner no nodes, heat map style like SWG, heat map changes every 3 weeks and also gets affected by use in areas,
botonist nodes with area 300m RNG spawn
woodsman trees in forest with 100m rng spawn
hunter skinning non human kills
Recoverer Breaks down old items and special classed loot
can only be, 3 classes per character in any combination of combat gathering crafting. classes change by seeing trainer. if you change out of a class you forget the skills and start over.
In game trading:
in home vendors, no stocking fee or sales tax, vend only lists items at vendor
control point market place 5% stocking and 5% tax(goes to control point), lists all sales for vendors in control points area, can purchase vendor items at control point markets, delay delivery of 20 minutes 5% fee.
main city markets
all sales are listed at markets 10% stock 10% tax, only main city markets have access to purchase all sales including in home sales, if item is not at main city market time delay delivery of 2 realtime hours. plus 10% delivery fee.
well hopefully you would bring this up with your supervisor and they would fire him, as long as you live ina right to work state or revolving door state. where people can be fired rather easily.
Yes.
I would make sure it wouldnt have to be profitable, though.
Because I would make my own personal dream MMO and I have no clue how successful that would be financially.
Basically it would be something like Vanguard. Meaning classic fantasy with many races and subraces, classic "static" classes of beautiful and complex design, massive seamless world full of handcrafted dungeons, really challenging raids, etc. But there would be less bugs (duh), I would want to keep the hardware demands on a manageable level, PvP would be fully supported right out of the box, Diplomacy and Crafting would still be minigames but you wouldnt have to grind them, instead you would require adventurer level, solving quests, and acquire resources (diplomacy cards, crafting gear).
Thinking about it, I would probably try to get the Pantheon team, put them on a payroll, and make sure they would add more Vanguard style class depth to Pantheon.
The best things in life cant be bought. If you wouldnt play games as a billionaire - why do you play them now ?
Again, theres limits to what you can buy with money.
Ya if I had endless money I would have so many better things to do then play video games =-)
I have "what if I won the lottery" day-dreams too! lol
I get where you're coming from, but realistically....you may want to re-think some of the decision you laid out.
1 - An uneducated billionaire may not be a billionaire for very long. You may not need to learn how to write code, but you should be aware of the software development life cycles, and any amount of business knowledge you can pick up will benefit your operations...and may even influence the design of your in-game economy. IMO - anyone running a business should seek a MBA if feasible.
2 - Previously mentioned economic education would tell you that the higher the cost of the game, the bigger the subscriber base will be needed to not run a net deficit on the operation. In other words....the bigger the price tag...the closer to the WOW model of appealing to the lowest common denominator you'll be.
You mention that the game will be everything for all people....impossible. There is an old saying about efforts trying to please all result in truly satisfying none. People have a tendency to take the path of least resistance and will typically work toward achieving the greatest reward with the lest amount of effort.
WOW is a pretty good example of this....as they've already done a pretty good job at making alternate play-styles available.
You can solo in WOW, or group. Since soloing is easier & more convenient....most folks will solo, leaving a lack of people willing to group....which essentially makes the grouping method of leveling impractical, resulting in those players looking for a group experience resigning to the solo grind, or quitting all together.
As a billionaire....you'd be better served creating 2 separate games, each designed & focused on a specific demographic....removing the need to sacrifice features for some in effort to support the other.
I would find Kurt Schilling and get his team back together to work on Project Copernicus. And I wouldn't care if the venture made a profit. As a billionaire it wouldn't hurt me financially to finance it all out of pocket(within reason). I really enjoyed Kingdoms of Amalur and thought it had lots of potential as an mmo. That and I believe that after everything Kurt has gone through, it would do my heart some good to see him have a happy ending in all of this.
He came into this with the simple desire to make a game that he would want to play, just as we are discussing now that we would like to do. The difference is that he bet his entire fortune on actually making it happen. And he wasn't a billionaire. Yet he bet it all on his venture. I can't help but respect the man for that. How him and his company was used as a political football in Rhode Island by lesser men was a travesty.
VG
I would enjoy video games whether I was rich or not. I probably wouldn't play as often, but I would still play.
I self identify as a monkey.
Nop. If i was a billionaire and wanted to make a game it would be single player. Im not going to waste my billions running servers without a guaranteed "WoW success". A single player game, perhaps with a coop campaign option.
But being realistic, i probably would not be thinking about making a game if was a billionaire.
Yupp, i would definitely still be a gamer. If i had the money i would have every platform i like already set up for playing on a big screen. I dont need billions to do that but hey, its easier to spend money when you are nowhere near going broke lol
People who are billionaires made their money on smart investments.
The MMO market today is not a smart investment. 10-15 years ago if you were making a WoW or Everquest? Sure. But the market today is too saturated with games and unless you're a AAA developer like Blizzard or Square-Enix, you're not going to see the kind of ROI expected on a MMO.
An MMO? Not right off but I would work my way that direction.
I would start out by creating 1 or 2 HD Online GMUDs ( 2D Sprites and not a 3D creation ) with more advanced graphical and animation quality than what the few out there now offer. I would release those on iOS , Android and PC as movement and combat would work more smoothly on those platforms.
Once that is done possibly getting a concept off the ground for a 3D single player open world experience for consoles.
After that I would look into the creation of an Isometric Online RPG with similar rules as the previous games but with the style of UO. Target platform would be PC and maybe consoles
Then research would be begin on whether Isometric or 3D would be the best way to approach and MMO build. Target PC / Console.
I actually think that would be a great idea if possible. As for whether it would be worth it financially, I suspect it would still be profitable. It was actually quite profitable before they pulled the plug. Even considering that the costs to run and keep the game updated with new content were also being listed on top of the fact that the studio that ran CoH was also using the same budget to work on CoH2, and they were financing all of that and still making a profit. Even look at all of the CoH revival projects. Despite there being 3 or 4 different projects worked on by different groups of people, they haven't had trouble finding people to help fund them. Some of them are actually being deluged with supporters that want to throw even more at them(because they were late to kickstarter, etc.) . I think the only thing that people would really like is just a graphical update of the original CoH.
might as well let people start from level 0. reset everything!!!
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?"
I would buy me a secret island, some guards, develop some Death Ray or pathogen virus and plan to dominate/destroy the world."going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
"Investment firms do not have that outlook on life. They need to know there is not only a return on their investment but also a solid profit at the end of it." tawess-
If i had 20 billion maybe id invest 3 or 4. Other rthan that , its a high risk market imo, id stay clear and invest into more promising and helpful things.
Currently we see project managers who do not have a clueless about the the process curve at the MMO market.
They wont listen to anything that doesnt sound profitable ...typical Ferengi style
3 or 4 billion would be the most expensive MMORPG in history and possibly ever going forward as well
Not sure what game i would have made, but it wouldn't need to be profitable. Other billionaires buy sport teams, so why not keep around your personal development studio? And just like gaming is our hobby and certainly not profitable for most of us, it would not be a venture, but a hobby. If it's simple to to make it profitable, sure, why not, but focus would be on the "integrity" of the game, instead of compromising for the sake of profit.
I'll wait to the day's end when the moon is high
And then I'll rise with the tide with a lust for life, I'll
Amass an army, and we'll harness a horde
And then we'll limp across the land until we stand at the shore