A real immersive, presistant, and open online world..

Datawight

Blackmoor and I were talking a good bit tonight, and another subject that came up is group/solo and mobs. It sure seems to us that current development is stuck in a rut. This rut is basically that development of a game has to involve a linear path of advancement, and play styles and mob levels and everything else has to support that.

Maybe it’s just us, but we thought one of the big differences in a MMO is that you don’t HAVE to have a linear progression. You’re supposed to be playing in a living, growing, world. The days of going through levels 1 to 30 in numeric order are for the platform or FPS style games. Doesn’t the very definition of persistent, online, world lend itself logically to being more open and less linear?

Yet almost every MMO we’ve played to date has a very linear progression of zones that you work your way through till you reach max level in the game, and then move onto a similar linear progression via raiding. Once you’ve found this path of what zones are what levels, the next time through is a no brainer. At level 30 you go to this zone.. at level 40 this zone.. etc until max level has been reached. Not to mention IT NEVER CHANGES…

Whatever happened to the idea of creating a world that’s open, changing, and non linear, and letting the natural order of things within that world slowly work its way towards the somewhat linear setups seen in the real world? What happened to the – this is what’s there, period, end of story, and letting the players REACT, INFLUENCE, and EXPLORE for themselves?

The Dark Briar is a nasty, nasty place fully mutated thorns and carnivorous plants.. with a full eco system of flora and fauna living within it… A solo player can go there, and maybe explore a bit, maybe even hunt some of the stuff in there. A group is a much better option and a heck of a lot safer. Thing is the Dark Briar isn’t some zone or area you have to progress up to by transversing several other zones before it. It’s a place not 6km from the starting outpost and any newb can just blunder right into it.

What happened to making the world by design of being a living and breathing place and something to be FULLY experienced instead of a nicely lined up funnel the players are sent through?

Stowaway

i agree

im all about playing characters and enjoying a world/game as that character.

all of the games seem to have a 'grind' and unfortunately, most of them FOCUS on the grind aspect and don't have anything else to offer.

im confident fallen earth will be different, confident and hopeful

admriker444

The answer seems to be a Skill-Based game and NOT level-based. SWG got it right pre-CU where you could roam a planet and see easy mobs near town and progressively harder further out. And you could still find various difficulty types everywhere.

That was the beauty of the game. Hunting meant something there.

Today's dumbed down level games are all the same, kill mobs 1-5 here then move onto next area and kill mobs 6-10, etc bleh

Stowaway

skill-based is a leap of faith.

if you keep with the grind formula, you know the subscribers you do get will be there for a while, you have to have a lot of confidence and faith in your game to go skill-based with subscription because you have to be sure the players are going to stick around to pay to play.

I mean some MMORPGs i dont even classify as games, they just seem to be money-machines to me, specifically designed to draw in and addict the 'victim', before they know it they've been there a year in order to build up their 'lvl 50s' or whatever it may be and realise they haven't actually done much in the way of game playing.

I think some games underestimate the power of their own games and the power of community when it comes to staying power, by supporting both of those aspects they don't need to force long grinds for every damn character we want to play.

Cthulhuvong

I envision a game where you run for your life, fire wildly behind you as you race with the gas you stole from a raider outpost. I envision a game where you and you comrades fight to wipe out the creatures inhabiting an abandoned town so they you may build up the town and defend it from others that would do the same. I envision a game where you need to collect resources to run your town, and to do so you must go and hunt, scavenge parts from mutant-infested junkyards, and build outposts to defend resources.

I envision a game where half of the content is player made. The towns we live in (besides a few NPC outposts where we can also live) should be made by us. Their governments should be run by us, and set up by us. Money should be made by us (a shell, or a piece of metal, or something insignificant). NPCs should join things we create, use currencies we use, live out their lives, and interact with the world. They should defend player-made towns, go to player made establishments (like bars, cantinas, and pubs ), and live around players.

Skill-based or profession-based (like Galaxies before the CU & NGE) would be best. Those that worked hard would gain skills, and would be able to reach higher levels of content, while those that just want to play causally would be able to compete still, though would be out-classed by those that worked for it. Use a crafting similar to Galaxies, or make another that is good and not irritating (as I hear EQ2's crafting is).

Stowaway

Hell yeah.

After I explore the game a bit and have the introductionary fun and giggles and just playing, getting used to it, seeing stuff etc. i am definately building an outpost.

I can not wait to see what they have lined up in the way of abilitys for player input. I hear about player started missions and player citys and it all just sounds great.

I am hoping to really get involved in the fallen earth community and I think a lot of other players will feel the same, and shape the world and tell the story.

cant wait.

edit: on the skills thing, I dont know about swg based pre-nge, I hated the fact you had a limit and skillpoints so you just had people templating etc.. I would love to see something more loose and free. which from the fallen earth site, looks like is how it will be. I really hope they pull off a freeing system where you can truly be the character YOU Want to be and do what you want to do.

without thinking.

'Oh, Id love to take out those bandits, but unfotunately I wanted to craft armour for my gang, so I dont have the skills. doh.'

but like i say, from what we've heard it sounds like the fallen earth guys are right on the money with the 'class system' or however you like to call it. The spiel on their site about it is drool-worthy.