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Why is there no Martial Arts MMO?
mCalvert
Member CommonPosts: 1,283
I was just watching the movie Fighter, and got to wondering why there isnt a decent martial arts MMO. Google shows several "free" ones, but I would like to see a quality kung fu MMO based in fuedal japan or with ninjas. Basically a MMO based around hand to hand combat, possibly throw in some katanas, shurkiens, etc. NO f'ing magic, but all the rest could apply. The heart of the game would be the combat system which made players have to work, not just mash hot the hotbar.
You could still have crafting, quests, territory control. The character progression could be a form of skill system where you could focus on different martial arts styles to learn new moves and combos. I know Conan has some of this coming next week, so maybe that will satisfy me.
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ever played toribash? not an mmo but its fun an addictive.
Because magic is cool and because wielding a 2 meter two hand sword is much more manly than kicking, wrestling and shit.
Yeah I am being silly but I dont think the truth is far of. Why limit a game to only martial arts?
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Cause theMatrix failed miserably. Still do not understand why an IP based around avatars in a computer generated world cannot inspire a decent game to be made from it.
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There are some - 9 Dragons and World of Kung Fu being examples. I haven't played them so I can't say if they are any fun.
A lot of mmos have some version of a monk class. It's always been one of my favorites in games that have it.
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WORLD OF KUNG FU
"magic" is part of kung fu...
I've played 9 dragons it's decent and its free to play so why not give it a try for yourself if you want kung-fu, no risk if it's not your style. Will say however it has magic and weapons, not sure if every race uses weapons (didn't play it that long).
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Fuedal Japan doesn't even know of Kung Fu, it's purely of Chinese origin. They practiced hand-to-hand combat, but only in the sense of it being an addition to swordplay. It's simply not the correct setting for such a thing.
On the other hand, I would kill for a Nobunaga's Ambition MMO, or one based on Inindo: Way of the Ninja. I know there are NA and Rot3K MMOs out there already, but they fail to achieve any semblance to the original games.
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Toribash is a great game. Only thing that ruins it is the community is god aweful. People intentionally make multiple alts and run them during the game to either lag it out or overwhelm the player slots so no one else can join.
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I think it is because such quality MMOs you seek cost millions of dollars to create, and therefore few developers dare to think out-side-the-box, and more importantly dare to venture into niche genres, so they go with the safe and tried options; Fantasy and Sci-fi.
Furthermore, being that they would be martial art combateers, means they have little to no armor, and in generel the game would be more about combos and skills than anything else, which would lessen the interest of users for a longer period of time.
Hunt for loot could be replaced by combo drops, but essentially it could mean that the user is restricted in his performance, even if he is skilled. And that might not be the ultimate way of approaching a game where the aim of personal skill outweighs obtained skill. That would be a paradox.
Furthermore crafting would be somewhat limited.
To put it short, there would be too little to work with for the user in search of growth and obtainability.
When the enemy is driven back, we have failed, and when he is cut off,
encircled and dispersed, we have succeeded.
Hmm, you are deffo on the right track here. CoH did drops through upgrades that attach to your skill-base, but I am sure there could be a way to collect things building up an actual combo basis. Things that come to mind are;
1. They drop 'pieces' of a combo in the form of anything really. Could be anything tangible or otherwise, but the collection of them, as well as the spending of them to unlock combos (or the extended levels of them) could be very interesting. Like, to unlock the "serpent's pimp slap" combo you need a wide range of drops from "left hand bite" to "face to foot move" in order to fill the slots required. These drops could be based on the mob type, or just what moves were used to kill them (which form the basis of combos anyway).
2. They are learned as they are used on you, though you would need numerous examples that require an XP bar of it's own kind to raise. As you are struck by something you get closer to learning it, but depending on the % already learned, you can attempt the combo on your own if you know the moves. It will work by chance until you fully learn it. I could only imagine how easy it would be to spar with friends and give it all away quickly though.
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9dragons is fun til you hit the grind with very few quests,its nice tho because you use your skills to advance them but I dont care much for the point and click
if your looking for a p2p one check out Blade and Soul it has hand to hand classes but it has force/magic users too
f2p there is 9dragons,martial empires,heroes of the three kingdoms(CB doesnt start til august 10th tho)
You offer some good ideas to the combo approach. I find no. 2 to be a version of the most realistic one. As in Mentor/student approach, which would go hand in hand with Martial art theme. And therefore I have no quarrels with other players teaching you combos - at least from a realistic PoV. Whether or not it would be a good approach I am not certain.
The problem I would(and most probably a dev would) have with this type of game, is that there is not enough meat on to make the player stay for years. Take Age of Conan for example. It's biggest asset was the combat system with different combos, but to me it was also its Achilles heel, because it fatigued you going through mobs upon mobs. Not to mention if the server lags behind(but I guess that is a different question altogether).
All dependent on the system, there would be a big chance that a poor player would beat a skilled player simply because he has learned the ultimate combo. Of cause this could be worked around if there was no such thing, but just different combos offensively and defensively, and any which one could be the most efficient in a given situation. The problem however would be that you would sit around with a multitude of combos, just like if you had 20+ different armors and weapons at your disposal, instead of casting "obsolete" ones aside.
I haven't played CoH, other than a trial long ago, so you know better how such a combo system would/could work though. The main problem of the Martial art theme is that there seems to be too little to work at to make it a lasting experience, simply because it's a "naked" form of combat. It would have to introduce a whole lot of other aspects than just combat I believe.
Good suggestions nonetheless.
When the enemy is driven back, we have failed, and when he is cut off,
encircled and dispersed, we have succeeded.
Well, a lot of MMOs are overly simplified because many are released before they are truly ready. That is one guess that I have the pleasure to venture. Then again, I think that there most certainly are in some MMO that I have just yet to stumble upon. I know that if you do sword and dagger on Ryzom your avatar does some pretty cool hacking and slashing (with one move that even requires a jump and a flip) but I think that martial arts would require a little too much hand to hand and many people prefer to wield weapons that give them some range.
www.ryzom.com
Blade&Soul looks pretty terrible, but I heard it's martial arts.
City of Heroes has a Martial Arts powerset.
Star Wars Galaxies still has some hand to hand specs.
Age of Conan is releasing some martial arts skills with it's soon releasing expansion. The whole expansion is based around ancient China inspired side of Conan lore.
tlbb.eu.changyou.com/
luls
The *free* ones are actually very well done you should give them a try. Far to much hate for free MMO's IMO.
Going to agree with this and say one major reason is: latency.
Some good comments. I agree latency is a major issue for the type of fast combat Im thinking of ala assasins creed or batman arkham.
well as far as I know there is, Kung Fu online, and the other one is the Ninja online and the Kingdom destiny
The free ones look pretty bad, not at all what im looking for. I want innovation.
Try Martial Heroes then
I think it is because there is no good western game company that know martial arts well. The only "good" martial arts games are from China. They got the martial arts aspect right but often they can't do a very good game.
There needs to be a fusion.
The ONLY good attempt at a martial arts RPG is from bioware (Jade Empire) and i would argue they only inject a bit of the oriental flavor into the game but got the kung fu aspects totally wrong.
There are many established legends of kung fu schools, heroes and adventures in Chinese culture. A lot is leveraged by Chinese RPG companies but they are all turned into xp/level grinders.