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What would it take to get you interested in playing a Isometric MMO?
MMOExposed
Member RarePosts: 7,400
What would it take to get you interested in playing a Isometric MMO?
What sort of features would be needed to appeal to you?
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Comments
To play an Isometric MMO?
Good gameplay and content.
Character creation with no gender locks, as gender locks seem to plague that particular genre.
AN OPTION FOR WASD CONTROLS
To view isometric view as not inferior?
Nothing could do that. Nothing.
I would like to see what people would like out of a isometric MMO. I seen some ideas, and hard to see whats going wrong the concept alone. Some of those games kind of had bad ideas which I could understand, not appeal, but I am interested in making one myself. good starter project and less hardware consuming.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
An act of God.
Nothing would induce me to play an isometric game. I want a game to make full use of my 6-core processor, 64 bit Windows and twin SLI graphic cards, not give me a game that looks like I could have played it on a PC 15 years ago.
You're missing out on some good games then. Shadowrun Returns, Wasteland 2 and the upcoming Pillars of Eternity all use the isometric view and they're all excellent games (well, PoE isn't out yet but its looking good so far).
Is a man not entitled to the herp of his derp?
Remember, I live in a world where juggalos and yugioh players are real things.
just posted same thing in the other thread- Point and click movement just sucks for me.
If they could take gw2's combat and make an isometric game off of that i would be on board.
The Deep Web is sca-ry.
I love isomeric MMORPGs. However, the vast majority of isometric games out there are shallow, diablo-esque cash grab attempts. My first and, in terms of hours played, longest MMO-affair to this date was with an isometric game that launched in 1997 (no, not ultima online, but with a sprite system similar to ultima 6-7).
The benefits of isometric games:
-small download size
-low system requirements
-simple to navigate and patch for developers, meaning they can spend time focusing more on end-user gameplay stuff (the game that I referred to earlier has received ~4 patches a year since 1997 and the dl size is still below ~40mb)
That being said, with things being so much simpler (relatively speaking ofc, I couldn't make this shit) for the developer, expectations can be higher for the quality of the gameplay and systems in place. For me as a player to stick around, I would need/want:
-a contiguous world with no phasing. With the lower tech req's, we can afford to have a large single world with multiple places to hunt. No megaserver phasing or private dungeons
-related to a contiguous world, have in-world player housing, and have it be finite. An interesting thing that you can do in isometric games, and which is much harder to implement satisfactorily in 3d games, is the ability to show off in player housing. First of all is the aspect of location. Better location = more expensive. More importantly though is that it is easier in low-tech isometric games to give players the ability to throw items on the floor. Players who get good item drops from mobs/bosses were able to show off their phat lootz in their houses and have random passer-by's see and be jelly.
-PVE and PVP that are skill-based and have meaning. Implement it how you will. Vertical progression is desireable, but should not be an absolute answer to who will win in PVP. Having skill in PVP and PVE should be skills that players should want to strive to achieve independently of any numerical based progress.
Edit: forgot to mention, wasd movement
These wants have nothing to do with having an isometric client, but are just good features IMO that I look for when game-surfing:
-good, (ideally) original lore and logical/interesting intrigues by various npc or enemy mob factions/races. In the game I played, there were notes and books around the world that would explain lore or a historical event, if the player was interested. You could learn the fundamentals of the centaur language or try to decipher the mathematically-based algorithm language of the beholders. This doesn't forward the players progression at all, but makes the world more coherent and adds depth which is crucial for my enjoyment of the game
-focus on community. Guilds should be their own metagames, with guildhalls and open world guild wars w/ winners purses put up. For it to be a world, people's reputations need to proceed them. MMO 101 stuff
Good art style (not the same as good graphics). Look at Legend of Mir (Chinese version, we don't have one anymore and ours was always heavily outdated - But even that was awesome).
Action combat - Locking on to mobs to make grinding easier fine, but against players no targeting.
Open PK, and penalties for death. Definitely drops.
Open housing system - Think like UO but with some kind of system that gets rid of inactive houses or atleast they become unlocked for someone else to steal. Keys to get in to houses, which can be dropped and looted so if someone knows where you live and gets your key, shit.
If someone released an isometric MMO that goes back to the old ways with action combat that feels good and a good art style I'd definitely be playing.
_________
Currently playing: Black Desert Korea (Waiting for EU)
Always hating on instances in MMOs! Open worlds, open PvP, territory control and housing please. More persistence, more fun.
Dofus is the isometric MMO I've seen done the closest to 'right', so far. Not that it's wonderful; it has neither sandbox/sim play nor questing/lore past the beginner content. And the PvP has lag issues, though the PvE is quite good, not bland and samey like MMO combat often is. Also, I fully agree with the others in this thread that lack of wasd controls is the kiss of death for MMOs in general.
I personally like grid-based games, but if I was designing one I'd probably go with an underlying 3D system like the Disgaea games or Harvest Moon: Magical Melody have. One where the main view of the grid is side-on, not diagonal, and the player can rotate the screen by either 90 degree or 45 degree increments if they can't see something from the current perspective - plus a top-down mode would be handy for building houses and that sort of thing. 2D avatars could be used in a system like this, that's mostly a style choice, though choosing 2D art limits the customizability of avatar bodies, because you can't make one piece of gear and have it adapt itself to different avatar proportions. 2D MMOs often find gear to be the most burdensome part of expansions, and some declare it to be impossible to add a new body type because it would mean all existing articles of gear would have to be remade for the new type.
NOTHING
Isometric is the camera angle of FPS's and ARPG's. 3rd person is the camera angle for MMO's. Change it and you change the heart of what an MMO is to me.
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
Top-down isometric view is the camera angle of First-person shooters? /headexplode
cute art.
If what you mean by "isometric" is how I am thinking about it, nothing. Isometric view is the most frustrating view for me. Objects block what is on the other side and there is no way to "swing the camera around" to view the other side. I am blind, and that bugs the snot out of me.
If that is not the "isometric view" you are talking about, nevermind
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
You'd think that would be the case but, no, not really.
Now this guy gets it.