What Character options do you think are missing from most MMORPGs?

esc-joconnor

MMORPGs are pretty cookie cutter when it comes to player character options.

When I see the announcement for Bless mentioning the Naga, my first thought is "I want to play one of THOSE!" That goes back to Naga in Warcraft, 2 not "World of". But even in games like WoW there are a lot of enemies I'd love to see playable. The hyena-like Knolls and Dryads from the Elven areas are great examples from WoW. I'm sure if Murlocks were an option people would jump all over that as well. What we get are reskins of the same old thing though.

And that's only race options.  There are a variety of Roles players don't get the chance to fill. The Operator in a modern or futuristic setting is something I'd like to try. Have some drones providing different views of the mission area to alert players of imminent danger or opportunities. In a few games you can run your own shop or tavern, but the choices are limited. What about Fixers?

What options would you like to see in your favourite MMORPG?

syltmacka

i want to create an older guy sometimes, but all the pre random faces is young looking often.
and as you say naga, i allways wanted to play an alien or a droid in star wars. but that got cancelled quick becasue of ppl who get off on kissing pixels.
more options in creating our toons thats all.

Moregil

How about the ability to be an amputee and have a prosthetic?

esc-joconnor

syltmacka said:

i want to create an older guy sometimes, but all the pre random faces is young looking often.
and as you say naga, i allways wanted to play an alien or a droid in star wars. but that got cancelled quick becasue of ppl who get off on kissing pixels.
more options in creating our toons thats all.

Lack of Aliens and Droids in Star Wars (well, SWTOR) is a big mistake I think. If you go to make a game based on Star Wars you should know players will expect those options. I wanted to play one of the Electrobaton wielding Jedi hunter droids from the animated series. 

A few games have the option for older characters, SWTOR did have that. But with perfect posture
Young characters are pretty non-existent though. 

esc-joconnor

Moregil said:

How about the ability to be an amputee and have a prosthetic?

As a big Cyberpunk fan, I'd have to say yes 100%. It should be more than just a stat bonus. In the PnP games, you have a bunch of options for that. I realize you weren't talking to high tech now though . . . but I only know of peg legs in Sea of Thieves for that!

esc-joconnor

I forgot once again that making a question thread requires selecting a response as "the answer" 
Silly me. 

Pr3sid3ntSkr00b

When I was much younger I used to love to play a game called Archon.  And my favorite character in that game was the shape shifter(idk what they were really called).  But it was just like a plain bloblish character that when engaged another character he completely copied the his enemy.  I know there are classes in games that have steal spell etc...but what about a class that had nothing but basic abilities of their own but their kit was entirely built on abilities stolen from enemies, friendlies and even mobs. Like lvl 1 you steal the boars rush attack and lvl 5 the rats poison etc...maybe the stolen abilities expire after a while or a certain number of uses.  Im sure that would be a nightmare to balance for devs but Id like it.

esc-joconnor

Pr3sid3ntSkr00b said:

When I was much younger I used to love to play a game called Archon.  And my favorite character in that game was the shape shifter(idk what they were really called).  But it was just like a plain bloblish character that when engaged another character he completely copied the his enemy.  I know there are classes in games that have steal spell etc...but what about a class that had nothing but basic abilities of their own but their kit was entirely built on abilities stolen from enemies, friendlies and even mobs. Like lvl 1 you steal the boars rush attack and lvl 5 the rats poison etc...maybe the stolen abilities expire after a while or a certain number of uses.  Im sure that would be a nightmare to balance for devs but Id like it.

That's a great idea with lots of precedents.  I don't think it would be too hard to work out a way to balance that ability. Especially when you consider that no additional work is required for the effect.

esc-joconnor

t0nyd said:

My issue with fantasy style mmo's is the lack of logical factions. Everyone starts in the same cities in similar factions with mostly just reskins of the same humanoid shape.  Why cant someone play an orc. An actual orc in an orc faction. Why isn't there more factions based on race and location? Why just 2 or 3.

Why can't I say, today I will play a goblin, gnoll, giant spider, dire wolf, undead, etc...

I don't know one Fantasy MMO that had player made factions. The Repopulation was supposed to have that, but sci-fi with only humans. I remember you could possess your minions in Dungeon Keeper, if you possessed your hellhound you got black and white vision

I also think your race shouldn't determine your faction. There should be some races that don't have a default allegiance. Playing a "traitor" with some kind of detriment should also be an option. 

wanderica

Real body type and face customization.  Some games let you do pretty varied customization, but even when you put all the sliders to the left, you only get a slightly weird looking toon.  I understand not wanting folks to make wildly disproportionate avatars running around, but a world where everyone has a six pack is also a tad strange.  In this area, SWTOR got it right, but even there, my Jedi named Obese-Wan has a six pack on top of his belly rolls.  SWG was the last game I remember playing that truly allowed me to customize the way I wanted.

cameltosis

So many options missing!

As far as roles go, most are missing. We tend to get stuck with just the trinity which is too limiting in my opinion and results in quite boring combat design. So, we need all the other roles adding back in - buffers, debuffers, crowd control, off-tanks, scouts etc. You can make them hybrids, dual spec or whatever is needed to keep the game accessible, but more roles = more combat options / tactics = more fun. 

Race wise, we're missing practically everything! All we tend to get is humanoids, but even there they tend to not be that adventurous. Orcs are my favourite fantasy race, specifically warhammer orcs, but I've never seen them done right. WAR looked right, but for some reason EAMythic made them really cheesy. But, I want to play non-humanoids! I loved my spider and warg in LotRO. The main thing really is just to break away from humanoids and give us more variety, I hate how everyone is basically the same height and build as everyone else. 

Kyleran

wanderica said:

Real body type and face customization.  Some games let you do pretty varied customization, but even when you put all the sliders to the left, you only get a slightly weird looking toon.  I understand not wanting folks to make wildly disproportionate avatars running around, but a world where everyone has a six pack is also a tad strange.  In this area, SWTOR got it right, but even there, my Jedi named Obese-Wan has a six pack on top of his belly rolls.  SWG was the last game I remember playing that truly allowed me to customize the way I wanted.

My guess is few players share your obsession with fat old men, hence the lack of said option.



"In general" gamers are a shallow bunch, and most aren't interested in making "ugly" avatars so that's likely why there is little focus on being able to create them.

Now, pre-pubecient young girls, apparently no shortage of gamers fascinated in creating those.

Weird.

wanderica

Kyleran said:

wanderica said:

Real body type and face customization.  Some games let you do pretty varied customization, but even when you put all the sliders to the left, you only get a slightly weird looking toon.  I understand not wanting folks to make wildly disproportionate avatars running around, but a world where everyone has a six pack is also a tad strange.  In this area, SWTOR got it right, but even there, my Jedi named Obese-Wan has a six pack on top of his belly rolls.  SWG was the last game I remember playing that truly allowed me to customize the way I wanted.

My guess is few players share your obsession with fat old men, hence the lack of said option.



"In general" gamers are a shallow bunch, and most aren't interested in making "ugly" avatars so that's likely why there is little focus on being able to create them.

Now, pre-pubecient young girls, apparently no shortage of gamers fascinated in creating those.

Weird.

Heh, you know, I was going to defend myself, but I think this hole is deep enough.  Instead I'll just say, "well played."

Po_gg

Moregil said:

How about the ability to be an amputee and have a prosthetic?

wanderica said:

Real body type and face customization.

There was a similar thread a while ago (about non-humanoid or bipedal characters), so I just repeat the notion I dropped there: CO.

You have truckloads of options there, any kind of beasts, robots, demons, zombies... prosthetics too (a lot of different kind, even weaponized ones), almost anything is available what you can imagine. Ugly and old characters too.

Eldurian

I'd like to see abilities based on alternate win conditions. Allow me to explain. In Magic The Gathering the primary win condition is lowering the opponent's health from 20 to 0 at which point you win the game.

You also win the game if the enemy has no more cards to draw:



You also win the game if you put 10 poison counters on an enemy player:



There are also cards that straight up create new win conditions:



I would like to see more of that as opposed to just more builds focused around various aspects of HP. (HP DPS, HP Healing, and HP Damage Mitigation.) Could really bring some interesting new builds into the MMO space.

Also it's not something lacking from most MMOs. But I consider any MMO without decent facial hair options to have bad character customization.

sunandshadow

I would like to see an MMO with more of a focus on the development of personal relationships between the player's character and the various NPCs.  Not just a dating sim, but story about different kinds of relationships from romantic and sexual to friendship and familial relationships to rivals and nemeses.

Vorthanion

I'm sick of avatars that are human bodies with animal heads who all stand upright.  The only character I can remember that didn't have human hands and feet to go with their dog or cat face was the Worgen in WoW.  Yeah, I'm pointing fingers at you Pantheon.....if you're going to give us mermaids in the form of Dark Myr, they damn well better have fish tails and if they want to move around on land, they would need bathtubs on wagons at the very least.  It's bad enough that every damn character is humanoid, but they're far too human over-all.

Jemcrystal

In Mabinogi you can play as your animals.  The argument that making four legged characters is to hard to box collide is silly.  It's already been done.  Underwater dynamics have been done as well in GW2.  Merfolk could trasform to have fish tails underwater and back to feet on land. 

dreamer05

Not being able to pick a deity to follow. That was such a fun part of EQ, although it could have had more impact on the game. I always loved that different races could at least be a little different by what god they worshiped.

Eldurian

Nyctelios said:

Eldurian said:

I'd like to see abilities based on alternate win conditions. Allow me to explain. In Magic The Gathering the primary win condition is lowering the opponent's health from 20 to 0 at which point you win the game.

You also win the game if the enemy has no more cards to draw:



You also win the game if you put 10 poison counters on an enemy player:



There are also cards that straight up create new win conditions:



I would like to see more of that as opposed to just more builds focused around various aspects of HP. (HP DPS, HP Healing, and HP Damage Mitigation.) Could really bring some interesting new builds into the MMO space.

Also it's not something lacking from most MMOs. But I consider any MMO without decent facial hair options to have bad character customization.

Those, in a mmorpg, would be "modes" rather than anything else.

King of the hill, last man standing, faction pvp, world versus world, arena points... Those things already exists. Modes which the winning condition varies from one another - So builds are shaped to said modes. 

Gw2's pvp arena builds are largely different from WvW pvp builds.

And in dungeons WoW already did that several times where bosses don't die from dps but from puzzle mechanics and jump mechanics.

Mmmmmm. I was thinking much more in terms of doing something to completely negates your opponent as a threat other than just straight killing them. For instance building up a condition that ends in your opponent being teleported to a random location on the map or pacifying them to the point that have a condition that doesn't allow them to attack you anymore for a decent period of time (obviously this would be removed if you dealt damage to them.)

Magic exists in many, many MMOs so it would be fun to see some cooler ways of eliminating threats than just killing them every time. Something better than "you are a sheep for a few seconds while I run away."

Obviously powerful effects like that should be nearly as hard or even harder to pull off than just killing your opponent depending on whether what you did to them gives lesser or greater penalties than death itself. But I for one would love to play a monk or druid who wanders around pacifying everyone who messes with him. XD

Cryomatrix

Id like a class that is so narrow it is basically useless wxcept in super rare conditions where it is necessary.

Albatroes

Role-wise I'd like to see support more common/make a comeback and either have pure CC or more classes getting cc again. I'm honestly tired of this one-man-army mentality. Hearkening back to one DMKano said about AA in another thread, say what you will about the p2w in that game, it does have a lot of systems that most games dont anymore, like post cap features that alter how you play and free form class development (to a large degree). PvE in the game is eh unfortunately, but it does have a solid foundation. Unfortunately, greed is a heavy factor. Trion just 1 sub only server, Jesus...

esc-joconnor

cameltosis said:

So many options missing!

As far as roles go, most are missing. We tend to get stuck with just the trinity which is too limiting in my opinion and results in quite boring combat design. So, we need all the other roles adding back in - buffers, debuffers, crowd control, off-tanks, scouts etc. You can make them hybrids, dual spec or whatever is needed to keep the game accessible, but more roles = more combat options / tactics = more fun. 

Race wise, we're missing practically everything! All we tend to get is humanoids, but even there they tend to not be that adventurous. Orcs are my favourite fantasy race, specifically warhammer orcs, but I've never seen them done right. WAR looked right, but for some reason EAMythic made them really cheesy. But, I want to play non-humanoids! I loved my spider and warg in LotRO. The main thing really is just to break away from humanoids and give us more variety, I hate how everyone is basically the same height and build as everyone else. 

Agreed! One thing I loved and miss about CoH was the variety you could have in groups. The Controller Defender only groups that slowly but surely took down the toughest mobs.

I have an obsession with Kobolds . . . they had a D&D article or supplementary rulebook that allowed various humanoids. But mad were they hard on them. Like the original barely allowed non-humans to reach higher levels.

esc-joconnor

Nyctelios said:

Elder characters, monster races (monster as in non humanoids) and background customization - something that could tweak some values here and there so my character could be more unique and interesting.

A "customization progress" would be nice too. A system that you could change your appearance (like change the hair every so months or when dying or killing an important boss you could add a scar to your character) in certain key points of the game progression and it would show how much your character would have changed in some sort of history tab with your tales and achievements.

I was thinking of a system where you don't have HP, and just get various wounds. Then if you get a major wound it could leave a scar.

esc-joconnor

sunandshadow said:

I would like to see an MMO with more of a focus on the development of personal relationships between the player's character and the various NPCs.  Not just a dating sim, but story about different kinds of relationships from romantic and sexual to friendship and familial relationships to rivals and nemeses.

Like what SWTOR is supposed to have had. XD With actual consequences to your actions though.
For MMORPGs having an NPC relationship system should be a must. Something more than Faction Rep.

esc-joconnor

Eldurian said:

Nyctelios said:

Eldurian said:

I'd like to see abilities based on alternate win conditions. Allow me to explain. In Magic The Gathering the primary win condition is lowering the opponent's health from 20 to 0 at which point you win the game.

You also win the game if the enemy has no more cards to draw:



You also win the game if you put 10 poison counters on an enemy player:



There are also cards that straight up create new win conditions:



I would like to see more of that as opposed to just more builds focused around various aspects of HP. (HP DPS, HP Healing, and HP Damage Mitigation.) Could really bring some interesting new builds into the MMO space.

Also it's not something lacking from most MMOs. But I consider any MMO without decent facial hair options to have bad character customization.

Those, in a mmorpg, would be "modes" rather than anything else.

King of the hill, last man standing, faction pvp, world versus world, arena points... Those things already exists. Modes which the winning condition varies from one another - So builds are shaped to said modes. 

Gw2's pvp arena builds are largely different from WvW pvp builds.

And in dungeons WoW already did that several times where bosses don't die from dps but from puzzle mechanics and jump mechanics.

Mmmmmm. I was thinking much more in terms of doing something to completely negates your opponent as a threat other than just straight killing them. For instance building up a condition that ends in your opponent being teleported to a random location on the map or pacifying them to the point that have a condition that doesn't allow them to attack you anymore for a decent period of time (obviously this would be removed if you dealt damage to them.)

Magic exists in many, many MMOs so it would be fun to see some cooler ways of eliminating threats than just killing them every time. Something better than "you are a sheep for a few seconds while I run away."

Obviously powerful effects like that should be nearly as hard or even harder to pull off than just killing your opponent depending on whether what you did to them gives lesser or greater penalties than death itself. But I for one would love to play a monk or druid who wanders around pacifying everyone who messes with him. XD

The Avatar removing the Fire Lord's Bending! On the Epic end of the scale. Awesome idea. Just liek the mobs should be more than homicidal or passive, as a player there should be more options than killing everything. Not quite the same but I love in GW2 that the hostile mobs become passive if you beat their local boss Games should have more fun options. Too many time they are considered "exploits" so they "fix" them, when they should be worked out to keep the fun and remove any benefit that might be considered and exploit. Pushing mobs off ledges in SWTOR for example. One of the most fun parts of being a Jedi/Sith.