The Perfect Blend

UknownAspect

I am a gamer at heart.  I've been in love with MMOs for a long time for the reason that they are communities, not necessarily for each individual game.

I actually really like most, if not all MMOs that I play, and just about every single player game I play, I think of how it could be transformed into an MMO universe.

That aside, I find that each different MMO that I play always borrows heavily from one type of game or another and it seems that there is no game that has really tried to break the mold and provide a game that blends together all the different kinds of games.  From RTS, FPS, RPG (guided and unguided), and Sims; Why is there no game that has successfully tried to make the "ultimate" game.  

Is my dream to individual? is there no one else who wants to play an action RPG that can have story elements as well as sandbox elements that allow a guild to become an empire.  Create cities and strategic structures to wage a war that is both driven by players and by an exterior "Environment"?

What I want in a living breathing world is not just control over the course of events, but multi-tiered control in the real world, where countrymen are the gears that work the machine and guild leaders and councilmen actually run the empires from a more involved point than just the meta-game of forums and voice chat.  Their decisions to move forces from one front to another, reinforce one town, or shift food and material supply production has an actual affect on the players they lead.

To me, this sounds so epicly awesome, and the systems exist as individual parts in other games, why can't it be possible?

But I guess my real question is, "Does anyone else share this vision? Or at least find it to be an entertaining idea?"

Tyrrhon

Because, at the core, MMOs are mechanically even simpler than single player games and they have to be much more restrictive than single player games.

Merging things together just makes for expensive game and added features just give people reasons to complain about something that should not concern them in first place but it does because it was so expensive to make developers shove it down their throats.

It is sad state of affairs, the whole paradigm is flawed and contradicts itself.

Amaranthar

OP, generally speaking I want that too. But specifics can make a huge difference. You mentioned FPS, and I can't stand a FP view restriction.

But I think it could be done. I see it as a Sandbox game with:

• 
  a deep warfare system
• 
  player construction, housing, and city building
• 
  NPC hirelings for your cities and player owned houses that act as guards, laborers, etc.
• 
  Terraforming terrain (this might be the hardest thing to do "right")
• 
  Wondering MOBs and a detailed AI system for them, far less fixed content.

channel84

Yes i share ur enthusiasm except for the action rpg part. U may wanna check out arche age by ncsoft. It may not have all ur requirement (no game i know of out there or currently in dev or announced does) but it's the next big thing for sandbox lover.

anemo

Originally posted by Amaranthar

OP, generally speaking I want that too. But specifics can make a huge difference. You mentioned FPS, and I can't stand a FP view restriction.

But I think it could be done. I see it as a Sandbox game with:

• 
  a deep warfare system
• 
  player construction, housing, and city building
• 
  NPC hirelings for your cities and player owned houses that act as guards, laborers, etc.
• 
  Terraforming terrain (this might be the hardest thing to do "right")
• 
  Wondering MOBs and a detailed AI system for them, far less fixed content.

Wurm:  construction at an individual level,  True Terraforming at guild and individual levels.

EvE:  Construction at a guild/corp level, deep warfare system(battle system more lacking),  Functionaly what act as NPC hirelings for most aspects(defense with towers and bases, at least to an extent that I would call the buildings something other than tools).

DarkFall:  Construction at an RvR level(not truely RvR but what it essentially is with fixed construction points),  A better Battle sytem(but somewhat lacking at complete warfare).

Guildwars:  while completely not sandbox is the best example of NPC hirelings in my opinion.    Though it doesn't really have the costs associated.

Ryzom:  Best example of wandering MOB AI and how it unfixes some content. 

______________

Everything does exist already,  it's just a matter of developers choosing what they want in their game.

UknownAspect

Originally posted by anemo

Originally posted by Amaranthar

OP, generally speaking I want that too. But specifics can make a huge difference. You mentioned FPS, and I can't stand a FP view restriction.

But I think it could be done. I see it as a Sandbox game with:

• 
  a deep warfare system
• 
  player construction, housing, and city building
• 
  NPC hirelings for your cities and player owned houses that act as guards, laborers, etc.
• 
  Terraforming terrain (this might be the hardest thing to do "right")
• 
  Wondering MOBs and a detailed AI system for them, far less fixed content.

Wurm:  construction at an individual level,  True Terraforming at guild and individual levels.

EvE:  Construction at a guild/corp level, deep warfare system(battle system more lacking),  Functionaly what act as NPC hirelings for most aspects(defense with towers and bases, at least to an extent that I would call the buildings something other than tools).

DarkFall:  Construction at an RvR level(not truely RvR but what it essentially is with fixed construction points),  A better Battle sytem(but somewhat lacking at complete warfare).

Guildwars:  while completely not sandbox is the best example of NPC hirelings in my opinion.    Though it doesn't really have the costs associated.

Ryzom:  Best example of wandering MOB AI and how it unfixes some content. 

______________

Everything does exist already,  it's just a matter of developers choosing what they want in their game.

Amaranthar - I've got a vision, and you almost nailed it.

Anemo - I've tried EvE, Guildwars, and Ryzom.  All are really fun games that have features that I think are awesome.  But each one seems to be missing the next thing that would make it awesome. 

For example, I think EvE would be a lot more fun if I had further control of my ship.  Also, as cool as I think the setting of the game is, It'd be more meaningful to me if it was smaller scale without so much warping around constantly.  Everything has to do with a scanner, I think it could be a lot more fun if I was driving a truck/stagecoach/carrier through a forest/abandoned town/ruins and pirates/looters could jump out at me from behind objects, or set traps or chokepoints at popular trade routes.

Also, the nature of FFA pvp is harsh.  I certainly don't particularly mind if it is something that can be reacquired rather quickly.  But experience hits are the worst, in whatever form.  Item loss is easy enough to handle, but for me, character progress in terms of skills and/or experience always made me feel like I was being stymied.  This may not be a real issue for EvE these days, but more a general comment on MMOs.

 

The only other thing I could ask for in a game is a world that reacts to player movements.  For example, gathering data on player movements and seeing where popular trade routes are.  The more players drive or walk over them, dirt roads could be created, and then maybe eventually replaced with player made alternatives, paved roads, to hasten trade.  Or perhaps the AI could pick up on it, and NPC attacks could be directed at large player settlements or to intercept trade routes. Not everything needs to be player driven.