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An Uncommon/Indie/Unpopular/Ect MMO...
I know, it's a bit weird right? Asking for an MMO and be perfectly ok if it's really small player-base? I'm looking for a game that isn't mega popular. I don't care if it's an indie game (someone is developing it themselves), an unpopular game (entire world has 20 people for example), ect...
Maybe I'm just looking for a Retro-Fix... Any suggestions at all? And for the record I've gone through entire lists of free MMO's and see the same ones everytime. I want something retro/old-school/uncommon! That one emerald in a sea full of diamonds and coal!
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Neocron is able to accept NA players again. Its small, retro, and in a less common genre (cyberpunk), so it should interest you for a bit. A pal and I went back to it recently. I got bored pretty quickly but it was enjoyable for a spell. The learning curve is kind of steep and the UI is as unintuitive as any I've encountered, but patience will reward you with a pretty interesting experience.
Istaria has a really good community but its a bit bland for my tastes. Its mostly just crafting with mediocre combat and exceptionally nice folk to speak with.
Those are really all I can recommend without feeling like I'm steering you wrong. Both require subscriptions, so if that is an issue than I apologize.
If you settle on anything, please leave a post. My pals and I are going through our list of older MMOs for a nostalgia kick and it'd be interesting to see what you end up at.
You pretty much described Wizards and Champions to a tee. Indie, low population, retro graphics and design. Unfortunately OB won't start until end of the month.
Right now all that's happening is tech tests, which are boring considering the world is still being assembled. Video, a few weeks old
One suggestion would be Crowns of Power. Free to play, retro designed, sort of a quest-grinder but very free-form in design. It has levels, but if I remember right it's semi-classless with skills.
You know - you'd be amazed at how much pulsing excitement you can add to an indie title when you add competition over scarce resources. I'm not talking some free for all griefer pvp model either - I mean you could literally have 3 starting points in the world - and these races could develop their own cultures (you would have to lead them a bit because people tend to need that)...last thing you want is another Alganon - where there is really zero reason to play. Granted, that title has improved, but then they tossed in a questionable cash shop and that's all she wrote. Can't blame corporate types for not understanding the genre.
But I've seen your vid on youtube - it doesn't have to be some thinly layered 1 race pve fest. You could really do something great with this instead - just a suggestion, since I know you are solo developing this.
What I'm looking into as an adaptation is NPC operated factions that are joined during gameplay. The issue I have with 3 factions chosen at character creation is that it divides population up and works against grouping (hard to group when there's only 3 on in your faction and levels are not even close). My rough plan at the moment is grouping and guilds are multi-racial and multi-faction, but faction based gameplay can come in at higher levels as competition for resources, zerg battlegrounds, etc.
This fits with design objectives, doesn't comprimise gameplay and adds more depth. I see that as a win-win.
Hmm, I'll look into them shortly. I was more-so looking for retro as in bit-graphics. Not necessarily have to be Minecraft crappy or anything.. Grr, maybe i'm being too specific, too confusing, or possibly I don't know what I want. =/
Oh, and I'm actually going to be keeping an eye out on your game.
I'm sorry that I don't know how to code or I'd help. =(
I've checked out Crowns of Power before, looks awesome but sadly the forums suggest the game is not supported and just about dead.
I downloaded it and played it a bit. I've give it a 5/10 at best, unplayable in 2011. And this is coming from someone who likes old school graphics and mechanics.
Final Fantasy XIV gives me my retro fix. Only MMO I know of where I can easily find a group to level with and don't have to wade through crap quest grind by myself or "dynamic/public" events which I find to be a complete joke as they are currently implemented in MMO's.
It's being reworked currently by a new director, still has a full team working on it, and it is free until they complete the revamps/release the PS3 version. It may not be your cup of tea, but I just saw the word old-school and thought I'd chime in since I too am an old school player disenchanted with modern MMO offerings. It may not be as old school as the old school MMO's were, or as FFXI once was, but it has some unique aspects in a post-WoW world:
Crafting requiring more than a single button push to craft a stack of items.
Party based leveling.
Prohibitevly difficult encounters.
Deep/extensive character progression (not talking about gear grind/progression)
Horizontal progression
A real in-game interdependent community
MP/Hate management (can't remember having to watch either in a non endgame min/max setting in other modern MMO's)
Cooperative battle mechanics (Battle Regimens which players use to string abilities together for a greater effect)
Gathering mini-games
A quest that requires you to run through a dangerous zone at a level in which you are likely to die many times.
http://xivpads.com/?1595680
http://guildwork.com/users/murugan
Hello, I recommend trying out Argo online. The game is steampunk style and currently has small english community. Lots of quests to complete and 8 different classes to pick from the two opposing nations. Only problem is the lack of crafting because only one crafting skill can be obtained at a time.
Of the sub million dollar budget games, that's one of the best that I've seen in terms of polish. It was quite busy a few years back with its PVP following. There are probably many I haven't seen because Indie games tend to hide from view.
Sorry I wasn't more help.
I was going to say - ask ActionMMORPG. And here you are.
The MMO I would actually recommend, if you haven't already tried it yet, is Saga of Ryzom.
It recently introduced an unlimited free-play option up to level 120 or so, so it costs you nothing to try it out.
The reason I recommend this one is because of it's uniqueness. It does things no other MMO I've seen has done.
- It was made in France so it has a very beautiful, uniquely artistic style to it.
- It has totally original races if you're tired of the elf/dwarf/gnome thing.
- There are no classes, it all skill-based, so you can eventually learn all the skills in the game.
- The creatures in the game have migratory patterns, so if you run into a herd of something you can actually watch the herd slowly wander off which really makes the world feel more alive.
- It's definitely an Indie, lesser known game, which never really got the attention it deserves (I think it came out at the same time as WoW and fell into the background of the MMO scene because of that).
How about Vanguard .That is old school and a very lovely game. Crafting is very interesting and the classes very varied and the world is beautiful.
I'll second the suggestion of Ryzom. Never played it, but hope to someday. From what I understand, this is one of those games that gets supported because of the innovation (daring to be different). Another thing I've heard is that the code is solid so it's not a buggy lagfest.
I also like the Vanguard suggestion. However, I have issues with SOE so it's not one I've tried either. Rumor is that it's making a comeback.
vanguard
ryzom
istaria
wurm online
haven & hearth
dawntide
xsyon
first: Vanguard. it is making a comeback my guild regularly has close to 50+ people on the weekends on at one time. which for VG is huge
its got a great crafting system, interesting diplomacy system, some devs from SWG have been moved over to VG and they released their first, albeit, small patch fixer around a month ago.
VG has great PvE and some of the most interesting overworld encounters and dungeons ive ever seen in a game (all non-instanced btw.)
VG is built old school, but has incredible graphics as well. just make sure to /setfog 999999, when you get ingame for the first time.
second: Istaria, level up all areas of adventuring and crafting as much and as far as you'd like. has a limited f2p option. very old school.
third: Argo Online is a solid f2p mmo, with an interesting twist in concepts and skins.
and honestly, you might go back and check the Guild Wars trilogy + Eye of the North expansion out. run Nightfall first for the tutorials and the lvl 10 quest that unlocks Eye of the North expac. run the first coupla quests in EotN to get some nice Hero henchmen to bring back with you to finish up the trilogy with. once your done with EotN after that you'll find you have already laid up several items to pick up in Guild Wars 2 when it comes out.
i would also reccomend Ryzom. it has a fascinating spell creation system where you take spell elements you have learned and piece them together, puzzle like, in order to create your own version of various spells. its completely skill based, no levels, and you can skill up all skills if you so wish. quite a few of us old SWGpreNGE gamers ended up there after SWG fell apart for us. its old school has solid harvesting and crafting, and is a seriously dangerous world to travel out too far solo.
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
Terraria online..
Costs 5 euro on steam play with friends.
kinda minecraft 2d only better
You also have the War in Kryta and Winds of Change quest lines to run with after you complete Guild Wars, I'm guessing there will be some sort of Night Fall campaign to bridge the gap for Guild Wars 2, which may actually lead to some much needed balancing and fixes for the Night Fall classes. Mainly their inability to get all 50 points in the Hall of Monuments at the moment, and hopefully a revamp to Paragons.
I would actually reccomend you Aeria games's Shin Megami Tensei Online or "Megaten" for short. Although it comes from a fairly large f2p publisher, the playerbase is fairly small - in fact, it was almost non-existant before they did a server merge a few months back. With the server merge however, I would describe the amount of players you see around as healthy.
The game is based off of a great japanese IP (if anyone has played the digital devil series, or persona they'll probabky agree with me here) set in a sci-fi world, where you take on the role of a demon buster, in a japan that has been turned upside down with the invasion of the demons. You have the ability to contract any demon you see out in the wastelands and they will fight along side of you as you faithul (or not so faithul) partner - in this aspect, I guess you could call it a much more violent pokemon.
It's a very PvE focussed game, and although there is PvP, it is very lacking compared to the games great story & PvE combat scenarios. The great thing about this game is also the fact that despite being f2p and operating via cash shop, the economy is still very balanced, and players are quite happy to trade their cash-shop items for in game currency without it being unnafordable to the average player. The game certainly isn't pay2win either, with the majority of their revenue coming from vanity items - most armours all give very similar amounts of defence too.
I honestly would call this a gem of the f2p genre, and although there are drawbacks as with any game (such as some considerable grind at later levels) it is still a good experience, which I think never got the appreciation of publicity it deserved.
As you can tell by my almost fan-boish like post, I think it's a great game, but of course the final judgement is left to you. You can download it if if you're interested -
http://megaten.aeriagames.com/
A Tale in the Desert, anyone? Kinda difficult to explain so I won't really bother to because the official site does a much better job.
http://www.atitd.com/
You might also try Gods and Heroes.
They also offer a free week trial - unrestricted. So you should find out if its what your looking for without paying.
ive played this game a little bit. not much, but enough to leave it on my harddrive.
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
Thank you all very much! I'm certainly looking into all of your suggestions!
Guild Wars Trilogy (along with some extra maps/missions/whatever they are called) I actually have. I beat Factions but haven't beat the others... Being an Assassin is hard. =/
I have also tried the Shin Megami Tensei universe and remember liking it. I think I stopped playing only because my gf didn't like it and we usually always play MMO's together but very recently we'll be having to game seperatly anyways. (Skyrim, Zelda Skyward, White Knight Chronicles II, ect... Why do all the good games come out at once? >.<). I'll look back into that!
A Tale in the desert definately looks unique but to me it comes off of as a Myst meets MMO. Not bad, but not exactly what I'm looking for. =/
FF XIV is on my waiting list, just as Guild Wars 2 is. Only because I know my computer probably can't handle it at the moment and needs an upgrade horribly.
I'll also try Ryzom as that interests me. It has pretty good looking graphics, which suprised me. o.0
Thank you everyone!