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The Fool's Paradise, what an mmorpg should be.
IvanTheFool
Member Posts: 75
Just my thoughts on what I really really really want to see, and possibly help create as a base system for an mmorpg. Hoping for a lot of feedback from trolls and the other jerks like me that hang around this forum.
Common idea and game mechanic that could end in many scenarios. Balance, a characters strengths and weaknesses are almost all give and take. Lets say Mr. Bob starts off, he chooses his birthland which determines his strongest resist, Earth-Wind-Water-Fire. These resists are changable by where he decides to spend most of his time, and what route he takes through the plot. Always though if he wants to spend 1 mana and light a candle, this skill will raise his fire affinity and inversly effect his water resist / affinity.
These four spheres of elements are one balancing game, the next will be physical vs mental progression of your character. ie be u tank or mage. (Mage-Tanks and battlepriests please dont quit reading now, I'll get to that subject in a sec) If you train your fighting skills, wether you go defensive or fully offensive you are rooted in the physcial constructs of the world, this is your fortee so you grow blind to the magical currents which run through everything. Then on the other hand you can study and follow these flows, forgetting food for days weeks, people give up talking to you because you are seeing and talking to things only a select few can sense let alone see. While your mind and soul dip and drink from the power, your physcial form is neglected, you are more able tyo thwart attacks from the 17th dimension than stop a purely physical and small magical / ethereal footprint being from snapping your neck.
So Element 4 spehere, Mage-tank 2 sphere... so yes, alot of people will want to play the clases that harness opposing spheres, this will be achieved by certain quest tracks or finding specialized trainers, locking into a class that harnesses two opposing spheres will detract from the other spheres in that balance construct though. Lets say Mr Bob decides he wants to be the master of Fire and water, he wants to freeze everyother joe and then boil the whole frozen fleshy mess to steam in his next step. Bob has attuned himself so much with these two opposing spheres he is weak to Wind and Earth. Say Mr. Fred runs across him and Fred loves the earth and the skies, spent all his time pondering them. Mr.Fred and Mr Bob are arch nemisies.
So Mage-Tank might need two more spheres in order to balance out, this could be added Mage-Good-Tank-Evil . So if one wants to be a tank-mage then the forces of good and evil will not be interested in bestowing gifts upon them, they will only bestow gifts to highly skilled mages, or highly skilled tanks. Now would a specialist in Good and Evil be directly opposed to a tank-mage, I think that could be figured in easily. Some priest more inclined to dabbled and truly play roles in the intricate plans and wars of the gods, vs some master of the reality they know via their own senses physical or what theyve learned through thier third sight seeing the magic weaves.
Now for the gritty game implications this system of basic and seemingly easy to implement system.
This system will have unique areas,
General cookie cutter crap : as in One realm for each element, one section of each realm for each of the four spheres of the other system, ie in the fire zone with be areas that favor Good, Evil, Magic , Mellee. Then their will be the added zones between. each of those 'four corner' element zones. Wind Water, Earth-fire etc, withi these areas magic and mellee zones will be randomly distributed, as these non-pure element zones fall sway to the influence of the center zone, which will be the largest, and the domain of chaos.
Within the realm of Chaos will occur,
Dead Magic - Rich Magic Zones - Some areas give bonuses to mana using classes, faster regen, increased damage, etc. Some Areas favor mellee maybe via a war gods blessing or just the lack of that eerie unpredictable magic power allows mellees to exceed in some areas while mana users are strapped for resources at the most extreme degenning mana while in the zone, casting with the chance of insanity and spell misfirings into wrong effects.
Weather that causes areas to give favor to certain elements, circles of mages will be able to attempt to summon certain weather effects to aid them in battles etc.
Ok, thats the rough version of a little of what I think needs to be in an mmorpg. So many companies seem to be looking at a top down approach when I think a real change to the base, and a strong base at that will naturally lead to a better game being built.
Common idea and game mechanic that could end in many scenarios. Balance, a characters strengths and weaknesses are almost all give and take. Lets say Mr. Bob starts off, he chooses his birthland which determines his strongest resist, Earth-Wind-Water-Fire. These resists are changable by where he decides to spend most of his time, and what route he takes through the plot. Always though if he wants to spend 1 mana and light a candle, this skill will raise his fire affinity and inversly effect his water resist / affinity.
These four spheres of elements are one balancing game, the next will be physical vs mental progression of your character. ie be u tank or mage. (Mage-Tanks and battlepriests please dont quit reading now, I'll get to that subject in a sec) If you train your fighting skills, wether you go defensive or fully offensive you are rooted in the physcial constructs of the world, this is your fortee so you grow blind to the magical currents which run through everything. Then on the other hand you can study and follow these flows, forgetting food for days weeks, people give up talking to you because you are seeing and talking to things only a select few can sense let alone see. While your mind and soul dip and drink from the power, your physcial form is neglected, you are more able tyo thwart attacks from the 17th dimension than stop a purely physical and small magical / ethereal footprint being from snapping your neck.
So Element 4 spehere, Mage-tank 2 sphere... so yes, alot of people will want to play the clases that harness opposing spheres, this will be achieved by certain quest tracks or finding specialized trainers, locking into a class that harnesses two opposing spheres will detract from the other spheres in that balance construct though. Lets say Mr Bob decides he wants to be the master of Fire and water, he wants to freeze everyother joe and then boil the whole frozen fleshy mess to steam in his next step. Bob has attuned himself so much with these two opposing spheres he is weak to Wind and Earth. Say Mr. Fred runs across him and Fred loves the earth and the skies, spent all his time pondering them. Mr.Fred and Mr Bob are arch nemisies.
So Mage-Tank might need two more spheres in order to balance out, this could be added Mage-Good-Tank-Evil . So if one wants to be a tank-mage then the forces of good and evil will not be interested in bestowing gifts upon them, they will only bestow gifts to highly skilled mages, or highly skilled tanks. Now would a specialist in Good and Evil be directly opposed to a tank-mage, I think that could be figured in easily. Some priest more inclined to dabbled and truly play roles in the intricate plans and wars of the gods, vs some master of the reality they know via their own senses physical or what theyve learned through thier third sight seeing the magic weaves.
Now for the gritty game implications this system of basic and seemingly easy to implement system.
This system will have unique areas,
General cookie cutter crap : as in One realm for each element, one section of each realm for each of the four spheres of the other system, ie in the fire zone with be areas that favor Good, Evil, Magic , Mellee. Then their will be the added zones between. each of those 'four corner' element zones. Wind Water, Earth-fire etc, withi these areas magic and mellee zones will be randomly distributed, as these non-pure element zones fall sway to the influence of the center zone, which will be the largest, and the domain of chaos.
Within the realm of Chaos will occur,
Dead Magic - Rich Magic Zones - Some areas give bonuses to mana using classes, faster regen, increased damage, etc. Some Areas favor mellee maybe via a war gods blessing or just the lack of that eerie unpredictable magic power allows mellees to exceed in some areas while mana users are strapped for resources at the most extreme degenning mana while in the zone, casting with the chance of insanity and spell misfirings into wrong effects.
Weather that causes areas to give favor to certain elements, circles of mages will be able to attempt to summon certain weather effects to aid them in battles etc.
Ok, thats the rough version of a little of what I think needs to be in an mmorpg. So many companies seem to be looking at a top down approach when I think a real change to the base, and a strong base at that will naturally lead to a better game being built.
Comments
Mobs shouldnt ever think they should just stand in there assigned spot untill someone attacks them. they should watch you attack there friends and not do anything about it. Npcs should all stay put and never move. only NPCs that should move are the quest npcs that you need to find often. they should roam mindlessly all over the place so they are hard to find. Shop npcs should always be at there post and never move away from it. No npc should ever go home because they shouldnt have a home to go to. Objects in the world shouldnt be interactive they should be nothing but decoration. players shouldnt be able to change the world in any way at all. Quests shouldnt have voice overs and every quest should be the same go kill some mob or some group of mobs or go pick up some trash for the npc or... deliver some junk for some npc thats too lazy to do i themself. Quests should feel like a chore not something fun to do. Thats important. Remember games are not to have fun while playing them they are nothing but a time sink you shouldnt enjoy them at all.
Your character shouldnt evolve and grow based on what you do in the game it should only get stronger as you level and only when you level. and Every person that plays that class should have a character exactly the same as every other person of that class.
Killing mobs shouldnt effect the world at all. If you kill a bunch of wolves in the game the small animal population shouldnt grow or anything creative like that the only thing that should happen is the wolves reapear shortly after you kill them. they should just pop into the world instantly from nothing or some weird demension and suddenly appear where they were before like you never killed them in the first place.
A player shouldnt be able to effect the world around him at all. Chopping down trees for wood is absurd. plants dont grow they are just htere and always have been and always will be. Grass and shrubbery shouldnt grow and animals shouldnt eat it to keep it down to size. Killing off all the animals in the area shouldnt have any effect on the plant life. Cause and effect isnt real so it shouldnt be in games.
Animals monsters and other assorted critters shouldnt be doing anything with themself they should just stand around or roam around and wait to die. They shouldnt be going about life doing the basic things like eating or amusing themself or anything silly like that. NPCs shouldnt act life like at all ever! they shouldnt ever read a book or spend time with friends or eat or run errands or anything like that. Any sort of AI that makes them seem real and life like and have any depth at all is just pure EVIL! They shouldnt reproduce or age ever. Young wolf pups shouldnt grow up into a full grown wolf. or anything like that if they are alive long enough.
The games econamy should be totaly frozen and supply and demand shouldnt play a part in it at all. All npc merchants should have fixed prices and should all sell the same things. And most importantly the NPC merchants should only sell very crappy low level gear. never anything useful. Money shouldnt be good for anything after the first few levels of the game. All gear should be dropped or crafted and money should only be spent on stuff like houses and mounts and other pointless things. The game should by no means have a working econamy where players need to buy basic life items and the players shouldnt have to work together to supply those items. Supply and demand should never play a part in any massive multiplayer game except for the price to sell the uber drop you got. It shouldnt effect the mundane things in life like food supplys dyes for armor clothing feed for animals supplys for farming or anything like that. Bringing items your town has in abundance to another town thats short on them shouldnt be a good way to earn money because supply and demand is a bad idea. Free trade is unrealistic and should be left out of any game.
MMorpgs should never have any sort of fluff or minigames in them except maybe crafting and crafting should be very time consuming and very boring and slow. Shoudlnt be any room for creativity in crafting. They shouldnt have board games or card games or dart games or any sports for players to play in the game. the only things they should be allowed to do in the game is mindlessly kill the same mobs over and over again. A player should never be allowed to just go out and own land and a farm with animals and plants supplying the needs of the towns with food and materials to be used for other things.
Melee combat should be you standing there swinging your weapon mindlessly waiting for your special attack timers to refresh so you do a little extra damage. Melee attacks should be exactly the same as spells but without the range They shouldnt feel realistic like you use a attack and the character takes a swing. The special melee attacks should seem like a afterhtought to the class not something that it was built around. Like daocs melee system where you use a attack and your attack is that swing and you can keep using that attack untill your too tired to swing. Thats just absurd. it shouldnt be all nice and fluid like that.
Magic combat should be like Daoc had it you attack with your spells and they should get totaly resisted alot of the time and if the mob your attacking gets close enough to hit you you should stand there and die. That was good fun.
Player housing shouldnt be wide spread and scattered around it should all be bunched up in one specified zone or instance. The house inside should be small and boring and you shouldnt be able to store items in a big pile on the floor or anything. it should be totaly pointless and nothing more then a simple money pit. There should be no way to custimize your house a house shouldnt be personalized at all.
Players shouldnt be allowed to set up npc shops selling goods. And almost all the loot that drops should always be totaly wrothless. Stuff that drops off mobs should always be totaly worthless junk that you sell for a few coins or weapons or armor because we all know bad guys never have any personal items that would be useful to anyone else.
Games should never have customizable attacks or spells you should only be able to get spells that are already in the game. Being able to change the damage type of your spell or the area effect or time of the effect and other things like that is just totaly absurd. The whole idea of the spell build system in the elderscrolls games is just a bad idea. People dont want to be diffrent they all want to be exactly the same. how strong your character is should only be based on how good your gear is and what level you are.
Players should never be able to customize the way they look in the game from day to day. They should only have armor to wear and thats it. We all know wearing clothing over armor is impossable or wearing clothing under the armor. Thats just silly. Guild embloms should only be something you should pick off a list. you shouldnt ever have any simple paint type feature in the game to paint your own basic emblom on objects.
The games website should never have anything useful to the game on it. Like tools for players to develop quest plots and other in game stuff that has a chance to be voted into the game to replace older stale quests that everyone has played through a dozen times. The website should never have a simple crafting interface so you can log in while at work or whatever to craft a few items through your browser. Or a way to check up on your npc merchant and how its doing on selling your stuff.
Mobs like bandits and stuff like that should always stay in the same spot they shouldnt have camps that they pack up and move because we all know thieves and the like like to stay put where they are easy to find. More importantly they should never try to attack towns or villages and rob them of what they have.
We should be forced to always group. Being able to enjoy the game alone is just silly. Making progress is crazy without a large group and 8 hours a day to grind. Always having the option to solo to max level or group the whole time to max level is just absurd. We shouldnt have tons of choices of quests to do solo or grouped.
Basicly... games shouldnt make sence players dont want anything new we all want to play the same old crap over and over again just with new and more fancy grafix. thats all that matters it just has to look pretty. Anything new and creative should be shunned and frowned on.
just another sheep in the flock.