1) Sand-box style end game...i.e. there really isn't one..... except that determined by the players
2) Player controlled landmasses, and buildings that can be captured, destroyed or controlled....
3) Intelligent PVP..... all the fun w/o providing a lot of opportunity for griefers.
4) Good solid launch, no buggy, half finished releases, timely patches and minimal weekly downtime
5) Grouping, but plenty of solo content. Provide good tools/incentives to group..... no one should ever stand around more than 5 minutes looking for a good group
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
1. Character outfit customization on par with City of Heroes/Villians, but still be able to find/loot/wear gear that would show up like the armor and weapons on WoW. This way you could have a unique look AND show off the cool stuff from the raids.
2. A fair balance of PvP and PvE play. Open PVP in some areas so that all players have to take a risk, but optional in others so that non-pvp types can still play their way
3. All classes/races/builds/skillsets can level solo without being gimped, but all can play a viable group role just the same.
4. Realistic combat including terrain considerations, ground cover for ranged classes, collison detection, body part targeting, etc.
5. A well-populated and mature community, where there's always someone around no matter where you are. No huge empty zones.
1) Deep character customization so that you rarely if ever see a clone.
2) Branching storyline that allows you to complete quests in various ways thus leading to different quests depending on how you complete a quest. Basically a choose your own adventure book type quest system.
3) Meaningful PvP
4) Real time event that have a meaninful and lasting impact on the game world. Not some dumb "holiday" events that you see in some games that have absolutely no point to them whatsoever.
5) A class system that has class specific skills as well as general skills that anyone can learn.
1.) Elimination of the "More Time = Better" factor. The game shouldn't have to be my life in order to keep up with the population. In most MMOs, a person who has a job and responsibilities will never be able to compete with someone who plays for five (or fifteen - don't lie, you've seen 'em) hours every day. I should be able to put in an hour or two every couple of days or a nice four-hour stint on the weekend and still be able to keep pace. Getting "hahaha lrn2ply n00d"ed by someone who doesn't have to make the rent and knowing that I can never grind the hours necessary to catch up doesn't add to my playing experience. Time shouldn't be able to eclipse skill. This is not an endorsement for low level caps - that stifles the feeling of meaningful character progression. 2.) Highbie/Lowbie integration/reliance. A lot of the games I've played recently seem to be solely for the high-level players, and they have no use for the lowbies. As a result, a lot of the game turns into work, something that has to be drudgingly done in order to get to the fun. If you do end up running into someone of a higher level, they have absolutely no incentive to lend you a hand or to have anything at all to do with you (or you with them). I'd like to see a game where high-level players need to rely on low-level players to get ancillary tasks accomplished, complete minor quests, or fill roles in which they might be capable. This in turn would cause the lowbies to look up to the highbies as leaders... heck, anything other than in an annoying "giv gold plz kthx" mentality would be refreshing. The jobbing system in Puzzle Pirates is a nice example of this sort of community behavior. 3.) Harvestable/craftable item consistency, variety and complexity. Every mob corpse should be harvestable for the same sorts of goods (like skin, hair, organs, meat) in a consistent fashion - one should only need to kill 20 bears to get 20 bear livers (unless you by chance destroyed it in killing the mob). A character's ability to get these harvestable items should be in some way mutually exclusive to prevent economic inflation (skin but no meat, etc) and skill-based for varying item qualities. Crafting needs to be as complex as the materials available in the world, and meaningful as well. 4.) Realistic milieu. There should be no global communication. You shouldn't be able to communicate with anyone not in earshot. No whispering to people with whom you aren't in hand-to-hand melee range. Mobs should have realistic lines of sight, areas of hearing and zones of smelling - and should aggro accordingly. Collision detection. Long-distance travel should take a long while, and be by some sort of caravaning quest, not by some winged taxi. If you want to quest with your mates, then you and your mates should stick together and remain in the same area. The world should be suitably large (unlike WoW, which could easily fit into a large park) with undocumented and unexplored frontiers. Player-created structures/ excavations. Noone can run and fight non-stop all day without dropping dead of exhaustion, and neither should your character. The world history or backstory should also give a good reason why there are hordes of violent and disposable cads running about. There should be cases where people depart for destinations unknown and aren't seen again. There should be a palpable sense of the unknown beyond the frontiers of your own experience or the tales of the locals, and none of this strategy-guide omniscience. The game should feel real enough to be able to tell a consistent and realistic story about your adventures, not about how many Chuck Norris jokes you had to listen to while getting your dodge skill to 40. 5.) A team with the brains, dedication and magic (because, frankly, most of the above is impossible) to put it all together in a pleasant package and to keep working hard to make sure it retains the luster week in and year out - and I'm only half talking about the development team. Communities make or break these games.
I usually hate huge quotes like this, but YOU HAVE DESCRIBED THE PERFECT GAME! Without even giving it a set genre
The only thing I would add is Skill-based instead of Class-based, though skills should group and provide synergy - if you really understand Biology and Chemistry, Biochemistry isn't that hard to learn; if you don't, then it's very tough. With no classes, most characters ARE viable for grouping - some skills may make or break you [nobody knows first-aid?!], but they should be few and universally learnable.
Doh! I would also add: A TRUE Tabula Rasa - you land on a planet with a month's worth of survival gear, none of the world is explored. People joining 6 months later may land in a city - built and run by players, with vendors [when you log off, your vendor self logs on ] and trainers [again, you teach skills - for cash - when you're logged off]. The fatigue mentioned above is good, but would slow down gameplay too much IMO - nobody is going to want to wait x minutes until their character wakes up...
Originally posted by Nyphur Originally posted by unherdninja EVERYTHING IN EVE ONLINE BUT BETTER GRAPHICS
You know they're working on a big graphics update? The graphics are already nearly a decade old, so it's about time .
When these new graphics come out, will combat still consist of: 1) Choose a perfect orbiting distance and click "orbit" 2) Pick a target 3) Activate automated gun 4) Wait to see what happens 5) Either warp away to hide or stay and pick the next target
I thought the combat was seriously lacking in EVE. (Plus, there are no avatars and no way to explore planets, and it's not possible for new players to ever catch up with vets!)
- Phos
AAH! A troll fire! Quick, pour some Kool-Aid on it!!!
I don't even know where to start explaining why everything you just said is wrong and it would be offtopic, so instead I'll just point you toward the eve-online forum here at MMORPG.com where the topics you describe come up and are addressed daily and I'll use this post to carry on the topic at hand.
My top 5 list for an MMO:
1) Single world and non-instanced. Most MMOs have instances which break immersion and make the game feel fake. They also have multiple identical worlds (shards), which prevents the game's economy and pvp-related gameplay from reaching critical mass. It's all done in an effort to cheapen expansion of the game to accomodate more users but gameplay suffers as a result. You no longer have an online world, you have a dozen identical online playgrounds made specifically so that everyone can have a go on the swings at the same time.
2) Enough character customisation features that it will be incredibly unlikely to find duplicate-looking characters.
3) Gameplay that relies on actual player skill rather than skill numbers. No game so far has managed to do this well enough. Eve-Online comes close, with pvp relying on tactical decision-making and experience than anything else. No fantasy or even ambulatory game has yet done it well.
4) Constant addition of content for all players, free game updates and expansions. Everquest, despite its success, is a prime example of what not to do with an MMO in this case. Selling the expansions limits the content users who already pay a monthly fee can use in exchange for a small money-boost every time an expansion comes out. Release expansions free and increase the monthly fee if you have to. Having users segregated in the world based on what they have purchased is a distasteful trend, as far as I am concerned.
5) An involving and developing storyline and world. Content should change over time, it should not remain identical for three years in a row as many MMO creators seem to think is fine. Content that doesn't change gets stale.
Insert signature that doesn't break the rules here
1. Character Creation from City of Heroes/Villians, I don't want to see my twin every 2 hours.
2. Class/Character levels from FFXI, but add the features that this is based from in FFT.
3. Take the dual sided nature of WoW, I mean Horde/Alliance and make it mean something. Why isn't the Horde or Alliance attacking 500 strong at any given point in a capital city.
4. Have a more player base driven economy.
5. Permadeath, for some reason, whenever a character I had died in game, I never wanted to use it again unless it was resurrected within like 30 minutes.
Comments
1) Sand-box style end game...i.e. there really isn't one..... except that determined by the players
2) Player controlled landmasses, and buildings that can be captured, destroyed or controlled....
3) Intelligent PVP..... all the fun w/o providing a lot of opportunity for griefers.
4) Good solid launch, no buggy, half finished releases, timely patches and minimal weekly downtime
5) Grouping, but plenty of solo content. Provide good tools/incentives to group..... no one should ever stand around more than 5 minutes looking for a good group
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
1. Character outfit customization on par with City of Heroes/Villians, but still be able to find/loot/wear gear that would show up like the armor and weapons on WoW. This way you could have a unique look AND show off the cool stuff from the raids.
2. A fair balance of PvP and PvE play. Open PVP in some areas so that all players have to take a risk, but optional in others so that non-pvp types can still play their way
3. All classes/races/builds/skillsets can level solo without being gimped, but all can play a viable group role just the same.
4. Realistic combat including terrain considerations, ground cover for ranged classes, collison detection, body part targeting, etc.
5. A well-populated and mature community, where there's always someone around no matter where you are. No huge empty zones.
1) Deep character customization so that you rarely if ever see a clone.
2) Branching storyline that allows you to complete quests in various ways thus leading to different quests depending on how you complete a quest. Basically a choose your own adventure book type quest system.
3) Meaningful PvP
4) Real time event that have a meaninful and lasting impact on the game world. Not some dumb "holiday" events that you see in some games that have absolutely no point to them whatsoever.
5) A class system that has class specific skills as well as general skills that anyone can learn.
The only thing I would add is Skill-based instead of Class-based, though skills should group and provide synergy - if you really understand Biology and Chemistry, Biochemistry isn't that hard to learn; if you don't, then it's very tough. With no classes, most characters ARE viable for grouping - some skills may make or break you [nobody knows first-aid?!], but they should be few and universally learnable.
Doh! I would also add: A TRUE Tabula Rasa - you land on a planet with a month's worth of survival gear, none of the world is explored. People joining 6 months later may land in a city - built and run by players, with vendors [when you log off, your vendor self logs on
] and trainers [again, you teach skills - for cash - when you're logged off]. The fatigue mentioned above is good, but would slow down gameplay too much IMO - nobody is going to want to wait x minutes until their character wakes up...
<p align=center><a target=_blank href=http://www.nodiatis.com/personality.htm><img border=0 src=http://www.nodiatis.com/pub/20.jpg></a></p>;
You know they're working on a big graphics update? The graphics are already nearly a decade old, so it's about time
.
Insert signature that doesn't break the rules here
When these new graphics come out, will combat still consist of:
1) Choose a perfect orbiting distance and click "orbit"
2) Pick a target
3) Activate automated gun
4) Wait to see what happens
5) Either warp away to hide or stay and pick the next target
I thought the combat was seriously lacking in EVE. (Plus, there are no avatars and no way to explore planets, and it's not possible for new players to ever catch up with vets!)
- Phos
My top 5 list for an MMO:
1) Single world and non-instanced. Most MMOs have instances which break immersion and make the game feel fake. They also have multiple identical worlds (shards), which prevents the game's economy and pvp-related gameplay from reaching critical mass. It's all done in an effort to cheapen expansion of the game to accomodate more users but gameplay suffers as a result. You no longer have an online world, you have a dozen identical online playgrounds made specifically so that everyone can have a go on the swings at the same time.
2) Enough character customisation features that it will be incredibly unlikely to find duplicate-looking characters.
3) Gameplay that relies on actual player skill rather than skill numbers. No game so far has managed to do this well enough. Eve-Online comes close, with pvp relying on tactical decision-making and experience than anything else. No fantasy or even ambulatory game has yet done it well.
4) Constant addition of content for all players, free game updates and expansions. Everquest, despite its success, is a prime example of what not to do with an MMO in this case. Selling the expansions limits the content users who already pay a monthly fee can use in exchange for a small money-boost every time an expansion comes out. Release expansions free and increase the monthly fee if you have to. Having users segregated in the world based on what they have purchased is a distasteful trend, as far as I am concerned.
5) An involving and developing storyline and world. Content should change over time, it should not remain identical for three years in a row as many MMO creators seem to think is fine. Content that doesn't change gets stale.
Insert signature that doesn't break the rules here
1. Character Creation from City of Heroes/Villians, I don't want to see my twin every 2 hours.
2. Class/Character levels from FFXI, but add the features that this is based from in FFT.
3. Take the dual sided nature of WoW, I mean Horde/Alliance and make it mean something. Why isn't the Horde or Alliance attacking 500 strong at any given point in a capital city.
4. Have a more player base driven economy.
5. Permadeath, for some reason, whenever a character I had died in game, I never wanted to use it again unless it was resurrected within like 30 minutes.
1. Good skill system, no levels what restrict players access to content and be with other players.
2. Highly customized character looks and development
3. A lot of different kind of content and versatile. Not just do one thing, but give multible choise to players to pursue.
4. Huge beautiful dynamic virtual graphics world to explore, not some single path quest drived story from zone to zone.
5. Complex gameplay with many diffrent choises with a lot to learn, no PvP at all.
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