And old game got me thinking

Kajidourden

I WAS going to post this in the LF game section....but it kind of became two-fold....one being that I am kind of looking around for another game, and two because there are some interesting things I think a lot of people will have things to say about..

Something along the lines of Tibia.....for those who have played it.  For those who have not...http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/85/Tibia.html

 

I'm basically looking for something a little more open and not so boxed in.  I've been playing ffxiv and don't get me wrong, I love it.  But there's just something about a game like tibia (or ultima, is actually a decent comparison) in the gameplay that just makes it so much more compelling than most AAA mmos.

There are several factors to this, and i'll try to break down what I love about it, and the kinds of elements im looking for in a secondary game.

1) Combat where you have choices:  Tibia is all top-down isometric style gameplay (and fyi, diablo =/= isometric...don't know why people think that) .  This means that you move along a grid system essentially.  It seems archaic and lacking in depth at first....until you get to the combat.  Rather than simply memorizing and repeating a rotation to fell and enemy while they run up to you and start whacking away...you have a lot of options (except as a knight, but even they have spells/skills that can mix it up a bit) because you have that grid to work with, and because most vocation's abilities are built around you taking advantage of it.  For example sorcerers have a spell called fire field.  This is a very low-level, low-damage DoT spell...but you can cast it on a square near you and after engaging your mob, lead it back into the flames repeatedly.  There are also spells to create impassible walls, you maximize the amount of space available to you in any given situation.  Bottom line:  There is WAY more room for creativity and creation of new strategies versus your enemies...something that I feel is SORELY lacking from the modern mmo.

2) Skills that you progress along with a class:  Tibia has a system where you chose a vocation (see: class) which determined which spells you can learn...so in this regard it was restrictive.  The thing that made it different/interesting was that on top of your player level, you had skill levels associated with your main means of combat.  For instance...Paladins are the ranged class with holy magic....so along with the level of the character and the attack of your equipped weapons, you also had a skill called distance fighting that determined min/max/hit chances.  This meant that not every level 20 paladin was the same.  Some would have higher distance fighting skills because they trained them, others better magic levels because they chose to train that up instead.  Rather than having cookie-cutter builds where everyone is exactly the same, this set people apart from one another while still maintaining the integrity of the vocation's role.  If you were intent on being better than the next person....you could be...and not just in the sense that you know a rotation better either...I mean objectively better.

3) Leveling up takes time/Reaching the cap is not the end:  Tibia has no max level (that im aware of)....and although that's not what im looking for specifically....it is an interesting and compelling idea.  What if instead of just hitting a level cap and then repeating the same content ad nausem until a new patch came along....there was no way to be "done", or at least...it would take ages.  For me, a lot of the thrill of an mmo is in leveling up my character, in getting more and more powerful as i progress.  When it takes > 3 weeks and when I get there my reward is rinse and repeat content....well, suffice to say I would rather never get there if that is going to be the case.