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Brainstorming: playing and leveling offline, when finished you go online.
XxMaticxX
Member Posts: 115
So after reading the "skip the leveling" thread and reading about the new SWTOR game. I was wondering what MMO gamers opinion of the following idea would be ...
so take a game like Dragon age, you go through the game beat it and save the day like normal. however once you've beaten back the evil menace and had sex with morrigan many many times. a Messager comes running to you and says "oh brave grey warden, a rift has open to a strange new world that could use a power (insert class) as yourself. however be warned the rumor is they do not acknowledge the "grey wardens" and if you step through there is no coming back so do this when you are ready."
so basically when you accept this mission and step through the rift you are taken online, to play the MMO portion of the game. expect you are already max level, and you can start raiding or PVPing or crafting and just generally play the endgame of Most MMOs right from the start.
thoughts?
the Evil Raider that outgears you and makes you cry for welfare epics on the forums.
Comments
If you take the levelling up and put it on a "newb" island away from the main play areas (instead of at home) and then head directly to the end game area, you have Guild Wars.
Hedonismbot: Your latest performance was as delectable as dipping my bottom over and over into a bath of the silkiest oils and creams.
but it wouldn't be a newb island, it would be a game unto itself. like my example, you get the cool story, fun interactive character developement and what not. but then once you beat the game you start a new adventure online.
the Evil Raider that outgears you and makes you cry for welfare epics on the forums.
I didn't quite grasp the title and was about to get on you for proposing the character play itself or something, but yes, I very much do think it's possible - but the major kink is in data checking. Without having an internet hookup necessary to start the offline mode and track progression it's simply hack city. I remember online games of Red Alert with a modded ini. file and the game was none the wiser, bad example perhaps tho.
It's pretty much why Diablo could have done this, but didn't. Though again, I remember rampant hackers in D1, never took D2 online.
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4
Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
Darkfall could actually benefit from this. I could put my guy in afk mode for tons of crap and not worry about a GM kicking me. I finish grinding and I can go online and have fun in PVP wars.
i guess the hackers would be a problem, though onced finished with the offline protion of the game, your character would be "transfered" to an online server (of your choice). and with GMs monitoring those servers (like any MMO company does) those character would be caught fairly fast.
the Evil Raider that outgears you and makes you cry for welfare epics on the forums.
Why not just make Dragon Age 2 as an MMO?
Ah k, but I think any designer is going to shrug at the idea of having to complete hours worth of content before getting a chance at the online part. If the online capability was launched long after the initial product you might get away with it, because that's a time frame for the players to actually get that far. Also, theres a personal qualm I would have with the idea of my character going online and then never being able to progress offline again.
Now here's a kicker idea - what if the game required internet connection simply for the authenticator bullshit that's used lately, and that's all you would need to do checks on character data between logins. From there you could have two forms of content in the single-player and multiplayer, and your progress in each affects the other side. Like doing a major questline in the online part opens a string in the offline one, and vica versa. Of course the content between the two would have to be *completely different* or you get a pointless overlap.
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4
Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
There's no reason to "step through". The game is over.
The part I like the most is leveling with other players. Not really into the "end game" as much, so why play?
Or, why not just give me a max level toon to begin with, and skip the single player game?
or why not just skip the PvP and raiding, and just give me whatever you get for that?
I'll give you 300 bucks, you give me a maxed out toon with raiding gear, and I'll look at it. Sounds like a great game.
What difference does it make? You can simply establish the "max", and that's what you rcharacter gets. The "max".
If you just hack your player to the max, or play the single player game, it makes no difference.
When you transfer, all that really transfers is the name, and you are assigned, "max" stats.
Nothing is actually ported over from the single player game.
Why would you need to, since it's the "max"?
Strengh max is 100. Ok, you get a character with max strength 100.
Max level is 100.
Ok, you get a character at level 100.
If you hacked it to level 800, who cares? You still get a level 100 character for the online part of the game.
You're gonna give some of the old farts around here a heart attack with that kind of thinking. They already attack TOR because they think it's too single-player! Hah. It's good to brainstorm, but I don't think this would make much sense. There needs to be some kind of progression at all times. If the MMO portion had some meta-game levels, raid progression, gear progression (hopefully not), etc., then it might work. But what's the incentive to do so after you've beaten the single-player portion? Developers could spend the time and effort to build the MMO part on another single-player game that they can charge money for. Not very viable.
You seem like a smart guy, but ever considered that gear might fall into this? You can check the rdb for the best items and plant them on yourself, max out stats, then hop online. Did I not mention Diablo? *cough cough*
~Plus, you do not end a sentence involving hacking files and online play with "who cares". You're losing tons of credibility lately, why don't you vouch for MW2's lack of dedicated servers while you're at it.
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4
Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
The only problem I really see is that it already takes a ton of time, planning, and money to develop a single-player RPG. Adding an entire new game at the end will mean that'll be like 10 years for the game to be made.
Perhaps my post wasn't clear.
This is what I mean.
You are playing the off line single player game. You hack it to bits, giving your self crazy items, and gear and stats .
Who cares? You are playing by yoruself.
HOWEVER< when you go to the online portion of the game, NOTHING from your single player game is ported over, except your name.
You are JoeRoxxorz! max level Figher.
the "max level" stats are ONLINE. You take a max level toon, and name him "JoeRoxxorz!".
There you go, there's your max level online toon.
Same with gear.
Joeroxxorz! has a max level sword.
NOTHING from off line gets ported over.
You take a Max level toon, ONLINE, give it a max leve sword, ONLINE, and name him JoeRoxxorz!
The ONLY thing that comes from the single player game, is the name.
Why would you need anything else?
It's a max level toon, with max level gear.
So you give the player a max level toon, with max level gear, and import the name.
See what I mean?
I want to disagree, but Torchlight...
~but it's not cut and dry like that though, there are tons of games that feature online multiplayer through single-player content and it releases simultaneously intact. I worked on one in QA and it seemed like both departments knew what they were doing, but it was at SOE, and they know exactly what they are doing (contrary to popular belief). The issue at hand is only the 'extra' content that doesn't overlap the single-player game - so technically - once the base game is finished and has online capabilities, the rest is just content addition and will go at the speed that it typically would. It's not like working from scratch or anything.
~but yes, I can see the online part coming as a sequel that just syncs with the first game as well. Oh, prime example is a recent one; Mount and Blade: Warband. From what I get, it could be doing exactly what the OP is suggesting.
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4
Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
Perhaps the OP and I were not clear - this hypothetical is about if your character's progression *does* port over. Why would we be discussing a game that does online and offline gameplay completely seperately, beyond importing aesthetic character data? That's probably been done before, but it's basically like every FPS game out there if you're willing to drop the personalization aspects. Hell, again - Diablo.
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4
Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
Yes, I understand.
But I"m describing HOW you port it over.
I'm Joeroxxorz. Level 3 fighter, with XYZ sword.
So, we don't ACTUALLY port the stats from your OFLINEE game.
Instead, we create, brandnew, ONLINE, a level 3 fighter with a level XYZ sword. We import you name, JoeROxxorZ.
Ta Da!
your character from OFFLINE is now ONLINE< with no hacking.
the ONLY things we read from OFFLINE, is your level, and your gear, but NONE of your stats, those are created ONLINE, to prevent cheating.
I'm Max level fighter. That means my Strength is 100.
So when you "port" your character over, we give you a max level fightter, with Strength 100.
We don't port over yoru hacked stats of 8 million strength.
See what I mean?
Your level is ported over, not the stats of anything, becuase if you're not cheating, and we won't allow that, then the stats are what the stats are, so there's no need to port them, we just create them ONLINE, based on your level.
And we dont' care what your level is, why would we? The idea was you start the online game at max level.
Who cares if you actually played offline or not? Taht's up to you.
*rubs head*
So now the level/stats don't port but the gear does? Is that the lesser evil?
So it's fine to import the best gear over, or maybe the new level limits on online play make it so you can't use it or something?
~Very much defeats the purpose of any rollover characters from on-to-offline play. Besides making sure you can import uber gear to seed to other players if not yourself. Whole thing is fubar, return to base.
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4
Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
the game isn't over, and grats that you like leveling with others. I would say the Majority ARE into the endgame of MMOs (raiding, PVP, epic quests and what not)
as for the rest of your post, sorry i don't discuss rational topics with irrational people spewing exaggerated nonsense to try to get their point across.
So to make things more clear to others, I start out as Matic a Blood Mage, I go through Dragon Age(im just using this as an example, it could be ANY RPG ... oblivion, fallout 3, mass effect ... whatever) do what i want and when i finish the game i see the ending and all that good stuff. However once i see that this NPC messanger comes up to me and gives me the whole rift speech.
if i accept I am taken to a server select screen and Matic (if the name isn't taken) is created, with all his gear and skill that i acquired from the singleplayer game.
now i am free to quest/raid for even better gear. PVP for renown points which would unlock another progression for my character, craft and generally explore and help shape this new world with thousands of others. who came from this singleplayer game.
as for cheating there are alot of methods to curb hacking of stats, and if someone does get by when they get to the MMO portion of the game, like all MMOs GMs are watching and players are reporting. so if someone hacks their warrior to have 100000 strenght and the top most you can have is 1200 well then they know its hacked and the toon will be deleted.
the Evil Raider that outgears you and makes you cry for welfare epics on the forums.
Ok, it's very simple.
the original post says, we play to max level, the port over. So we will have MAX character and presumably MAX gear that offline provides, then we port.
You said, but wait a minute, people will HACK! the stats and gear!
I'm telling you a simple solution, that would make this no problem.
So, maX level is 100. At level 100 (Ofline) your Strength is 10. the best sword for a fighter at level 100 is the Killem Sword, that does 1,000 points of damage.
you name your guy KillerDood! He is MAX level (like the original post describes). He has MAX gear (of course he would, he's MAX level).
Now, he's ready to port into the ONLINE game, so he can PvP or Raid. As the original post said. he is no longer collecting gear, or making levels. Or if there is new gear, it doesn't exist in this "offline" game, otherwise, he would have it already, becuase he is MAX.
The problem you stated is KillerDood! has hacked his character. He doesn't have a Killem Sword that does 1,000 points, he hacked it to do 10,000 points.
He diesn't have a strength of 10, he has a strength of 100.
I was saying, no problem.
Why? Because we do NOT port over his HACKED stats.
Thosre are replaced with MAX stats.
Because that's the premise right? That he enters the game with a MAX character?
So we name a chracter KillerDood. We give him max level, 100, ONLINE. We give him max Strength, 10, ONLINE. Because that is a MAX character right?
We see he has a Killem sword. So we don't importe his hacked sword, instead ONLINE we give him a Killme sword, that does 1,000 points. a MAX weapon from the offline game.
But now, everything is online, no cheating. See what I mean? He enters the game with a MAX character, so we give him a MAX character.
You're stuck on the "importing" thing, but it's not necessry.
If max level is 100, and we give him a 100 level character, it is "imported".
We don't have to import his hacked level of 1,000 for the charcter to be "imported" into the online game.
Easiest Solution:
You play single player, but through a connection with the same server. You can keep stats, gear, name, everything. Same security that goes into making the online multiplayer version goes into the online single player.
I see a flaw with the porting idea: everyone would be forced to use a stock character.
There would be no way for the server to differentiate between a legit and false character thus all characters, as previously concluded, would simply be given max stats and gear.
- Burying Threads Since 1979 -
There are too many solo players in MMOs now. This would only increase the percentage.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2