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[Column] General: State of the Game: Building the Mad Max MMO
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
An MMO set in the universe of Mad Max is something I've been clamoring for for years, but as with any popular IP-turned-online game, it's a touchy subject for die-hard fans. With the Fury Road movie and the single player game both on the horizon for this year, I thought it'd be a good time to revisit my favorite topic of all time: building a Mad Max MMO.
Read more of Shawn Schuster's State of the Game: Building the Mad Max MMO.
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Comments
a mad max mmo?
im not sure why im getting the feeling we might see another Fallen Earth.
Fallout Online
a copy pasted version of ESO set in a nucular wasteland.
Fetch 10 wolf pelts gets replaced by fetch 10 mutated rat tails.
ka-ching!
Nope, I'd pass either.
On the other hand, a relaunched AA would take its well-earned place in my playtime right away... it was a cool game (also human side was pretty much Mad Max-ish)
"Taking a good chunk from Auto Assault would also be a good idea, although severely updated and... working properly. People didn't really get Auto Assault because it was just cars and no people to look at and dress up" - except you were on foot in every settlement, maybe 30% of your total gametime... you could dress up yourself too, and also "dressing up" your rides, AA had lots of cosmetic options.
"Could you imagine recreating that final battle in The Road Warrior with the tanker truck in an MMO setting?" - why imagine it, AA had a few similar quests, from both sides (attacking or defending it)
"If I offended you, you needed it" -Corey Taylor
TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development
Love FE! I think I'll have to go back one more time before it shuts down this year.
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
FE had so much potential but just fell short. Two many themepark elements and the combat and character movement where terrible. If it was FE done right I would definitely give it a go.
I agree about the potential FE had. It has probably the best crafting I have ever seen in any MMO and I love the fact that your mount is persistent in the world and just doesn't poof into thin air when you jump off it or magically re-appear in the middle of nowhere when you need it. But yeh, the PVE combat was just horrid.
"If I offended you, you needed it" -Corey Taylor
The highlights would be car combat, open world pvp, and a high amount of customization for both your car and your main character.
MMO3PS?
As an RPG it won't work.
I'm a big fan of the post apocalypse RPG. I've played them all from Aftermath, to RIFT (the P&P version) to GURPS.
I'll wait patiently in the wings to see what they do with this one, but it will most likely be a level/class based game filled with dozens of fetch quests and some group based loot pinatas for the "end game".
If it ends up being a crafting focused game with attributes and skills with some kind of equipment loss variation in order to keep the crafting cycle properly fed, then I'll be pleasantly surprised. The jaded half of me doubts it.
"If I offended you, you needed it" -Corey Taylor
In your outline, I can't believe you didn't mention fuel! Being scarce, this would be an ideal resource to fight over. You could even have oil wells and refineries claimed by clans (or npcs). Oil wells would dry up, new deposits might be found, thus preventing one clan from dominating forever.
Also, I wouldn't say Fallen Earth is a great example of unforgiving. Fallen Earth is fairly tame from my experience, and it could be grittier...more like Fallout but without some of the cartoonish elements. Day Z is pretty unforgiving, having essentially permadeath.
As for the tanker scene in Road Warrior, I have had similar experiences years ago in WWII Online. Escorting your teammates as they resupply anti-tank, anti-aircraft, or infantry from base to base is quite thrilling. Change the skins, and these teammates might as well be hauling fuel or another resource.
The current MMO paradigms that would have to be strangled are numerous.
GRIND DOES NOT EQUAL MAKING A GAME CHALLENGING!! YES I AM YELLING LOL
Boy: Why can't I talk to Him?
Mom: We don't talk to Priests.
As if it could exist, without being payed for.
F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing.
Even telemarketers wouldn't think that.
It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
i have to agree that FE was pretty much this.
however, i found FE too busy for an apocalyptic mmo. too many people crowding the spawns, too many people at the quest hubs. just too many people to actually make me feel like i am a survivor. i was just one other pipe wielding hobo running around a large junkyard.
Dayz did it right as far as the feeling of being alone against the world. then again Dayz had a huge map and a cap of 50 players per server.
that for me would be the biggest challenge for such an mmo: making actually feel like one of the few remaining people on earth....a lawless, unforgiving and lonely earth like Mad Max.
You think themepark elements is the problem? in fact that is what helped FE survive this long. if it was FFA sandbox MMO it would have eaten itself up by now like these MMOS always do. And 'FE done right' is such a vague statement. What does that even mean?
What they are describing is Minecraft (sole survivor, crafting, and mobs come out at night). That is not the world of Mad Max as seen in Movies 1, 2, or 3. I would estimate that the “Zones” portrayed in the Movies had a population of 1.000 and not 5 like they seem to feel it should. I estimate that the over crowding they were experiencing was anywhere from 30 to 100 players all on the same starting zone map. At any one time only 1/3 of those players are probably next to them and in their line of sight. So they felt over crowded by 10 to 30 people being near them in a game world the size of Arizona. /mike_drop
The world today has 7 Billion people in it. If we took away 99% of that population we would still have 70 million people in it. If we scale that down for a video game, and said Half of 1% of that, we would still have 350.000 on one server. Would they feel like “one of the few 350.000 remaining people on earth.” Most game servers have an average population of 1.000 to 3.000, but that seems to over crowded for them. /mike_drop_2ndBoy: Why can't I talk to Him?
Mom: We don't talk to Priests.
As if it could exist, without being payed for.
F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing.
Even telemarketers wouldn't think that.
It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
Amen, I see this all the time. I suspect once again, and have never been proven wrong before, that by 'FE done right' they mean A’la console FPS play style as seen in games like Gears of War. Combat on rails, with auto healing, where all they do is aim at the latest target. Clearly the definition of no skill gaming. This is why console gamers hate MMORPG and came up with the oxymoron “FaceRoll” for the complex gaming system they couldn’t master.
Boy: Why can't I talk to Him?
Mom: We don't talk to Priests.
As if it could exist, without being payed for.
F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing.
Even telemarketers wouldn't think that.
It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
ok so yeah I'd play it, I'm a fan but there's 1 thing that stands out "like dogs balls" about the terms "MMO" and "desolate wasteland".
few movies ever provide the feeling of agoraphobia that mad max has. promise me that coming across other players is a rarer experience than waiting around for re spawns
while being subjected to barrens chat, sapping the atmos right out of it and I'm in.
ironically the less ppl playing, the more realistic it would be :P
a world on the brink of extinction, populated by scantily clad female characters and as many blue heeler vanity pets!
I'd rather have a Mad Max single player game. But since we already have Fallout 3 AND New Vegas I don't really care
By the way, the new trailer sucks, way to much over the top action. One of the good things about Mad Max (2) was the simple and realistic action.