Variety of gameplay experience within a single game.
There is no reason why a virtual world should have a limited number of gameplay modes. If you already have all this immense amount of graphics and underlying game systems in place there is no reason to limit the gameplay to questing, raiding, arena PvP.
I.E.
PvP - different PvP modes - from small arenas to world RvR, I don't understand the rationale for limiting you to only one of those modes... Why no bgs/arenas in Aion for example?
PvE - minigames - why should everything be "kill mob"? I just loved the minigames in GW.. Tired of killin stuff? Lets go racing!
In addition If I have an instanced house, I'd like to be able to have a garden attached that I can grow funny fluffy plants in, for example.
Town/non-combat clothes. I can see some folks playing the game just to get the most swanky outfit to show-off while dropping down to the AH.
Put in some board games in there. I'd love to find a checkers table in some mmo city that I can play with passers-by, maybe even for in game gold.
IMO this is one of the main differences between "game" and "world" approachs to MMOs.. So far traditionally mmos were sen by devs as "game with a world attached" however imo this is wrong and ultimately wasteful. MMOs should be seen as "worlds with gameS attached". If you see the MMO as a world, basically an engine that you can put stuff in, then really there is no limit to what you can add to it.
- a skill-based system (where you improve individual skills as oposed to choosing a class and levelling up)
- the possibility to play roles other than fighting roles (cf. the original Star Wars Galaxies where you could be a dancer, or musician, or a miner, or a forager, or a politician, or specialise in a dozen different crafting professions
- a player-run economy, with player crafting, player housing, player cities
The best stories and experiences I've ever had in any MMO came from interaction with fellow players, not pasted on voice overs or being sternly guided through some unmemorable rehashed linear story.
That's the developers/ writers stories, and though they're probably quite talented and put a lot of effort into it, it's only my personal stories that stand out over the years. Some of the situations friends and I have managed to get into and out of over the years have become legendary among us and though some took place a decade ago, are yet to be forgotten. As a matter of note, NONE of these experiences took place during a collection,kill 10 boars or delivery quests.
(Of course the opportunity for these dynamic situations are almost non-existant in many mainstream MMOs these days due to tightly controlled content and group dynamics...)
To sum it up, I'd like an MMO with 0 'Quests' of the collect 10 sea shells variety, an MMO where these mindless tasks that pass as content are non existant.
Instead I'd like to see the focus on building an in depth world that's fun to explore and packed with plenty of challenging dungeons that take longer than 5 minutes to complete, and ideally challenging enough that their completion might require that you actually communicate instead of 'click join, spam AEs, get loot, disband'. A world in which word of mouth might actually mean something again would be nice, instead of a world which is easily roadmapped by countless websites dictating the most beneficial quest hub.
Less develeopment time spent on absurd mindless tasks, more time creatively fleshing out the world and environments players will get to explore.
A while back i was asked by a friend : "What if you could make a MMO and had the funds ? ".
I repeat here what i said then is it aswered both the questions.
I would make a MMO that would be based around Mercenary's and the merc company's.
There is your aswer .
But what do i mean when i say that, well here goes( in a not so little nutshell ).
This game could play in any time period and any setting but for my world id make it future.
So SciFi not to far but space flight has to be a option.
Then id make a game that is 2 games in 1 first its skillbased yes you need to get skills to use stuff and no there are no lvls.
The char would have 2 skill tree's 1 for combat that can be split in as many parts as you want to place the skills in there that are needed to fight in this game.
The second tree would have all the noncombat skills anything for a pilot licence to a degree in advanced robotics.
This is to allow the player to advance in both or only one direction he want crafting is part of the second tree and would have anything from basic weapons, armor and ammo to cars, planes and in the end space ships.
Now i know what you think O heck that is going to be a huge game but there is the funny part it can grow you see you start of building a char for a ground based game then The devs get to add sea, air en lastly space to the mix.
The quest givers are also easy, you are a merc, so you go to the hangouts or offer your services at one of the megacorps.
Here also the second skill tree can be used to add skills of a more nonviolant interactive nature.
The quest can be done solo but you could also get some people together and form a unit now you get to hire out as a group and the reward goes up also the type of missions go up as you get access to missions you dont have solo as its hard to do 5 jobs at ones
Then after a little while you get to know each other you can make a merc company and be a freelance group or start working for one of the big megacorps.
Again the game becomes bigger now you have a group that is so big they need a base of operation so there you go off to build a base at one of the country's that allows you buy a small island or a spot in the desert in the middel of nowhere.
Now the second tree becomes even bigger as now you get nps that can do work for you repair weapons refit combat vehicles heck you can even make it so you can craft stuff your self or be a forman telling them what to do and wait for it
But this place to hang your guns has a disadvantage remember those megacorps you attacked to get all the cash and loot to affort this place ? Well they can hire a merc company to attack you and take there stuff back !
Or remember that merc group you had agains you in that job a while back ? They realy like your base and want to take it.
So there is your pvp and for those that dont like pvp you can always build in the nice savezones that you start in but then you will miss out on tons of fun and not to forget LOOT .
This is the beginning of the game you can add sea battles, air battles and even space battles to it but it all builds in this basic beginning.
And remember the 2 games in one, in the end it will be not only 2 games thanks to the skill tree's 1 combat 1 noncombat but also a land sea air space game!
As long as there will be corps willng to pay you there will be options for you to fight for them no matter the weapons, no matter the location.
P.S. Forgive the spelling english is not my main language
"Believe nothing. No matter where you read it, Or who said it, Even if I have said it, Unless it agrees with your own reason And your own common sense" - The Buddha, from Dhammapada
A complete overhaul of how controls are used in MMOs. throw out of WASD and give us more options...
There are other keys! Can't we have mouse movements instead of WASD for traditional melee fighting? There has to be more interaction as far as fighting goes as well as fewer and harder monsters...
Not every knight slays 100 goblins a day so why should we? Bring epic monster fights to the forefront coupled with a well worked mouse combat system. MMOs should ATLEAST be based on 50% skill, nothing less will sufice.
That lvl 50 is ganking your lvl 10? No matter, you managed to flick your mouse just perfectly to hit him in the ribs making him suffer a fatal bleed wound.
Now that would be a game I would play...
Based on gear? No. Based on reaction and "skill"? Yes
Well at first, give us a huge world. And if i say huge i mean HUUGE. And because the world is so huge, we dont need a lot different servers, which are all mirrors from the same world. Instead of mirrors of one and the same thing, let the servers be different kingdoms. If my friend is playing in an other kingdom(server) i can make a journey to him, which needs time. One day if its a near kingdamom. Maybe a week or 2 if its far away.
Implement guilds and factions like in other games, but also implement nations. Every kingdom (server)is a own nation which can make war to other nations. After war has been declared, people has to move to the borderzones within a week and at weekend will be fougth 2 days.
Because the world is so huge, housing do not need to be instanced. Set areas for settling here and there, so the players can build citys. Divide the area into parcels, which can be bought by players, to build houses. If a player buys 4 adjacent parcels, he can became farmer. Or maybe raise horses or cattles on his land. So he can produce leather or meat, warhorses or mules for miners. Set city areas near ozeans, for players who likes to be fisherman. Areas near mounains for miners.
Imagine a huuuge world, with one million players divided into 50 countrys. If u dont like it anymore to play in your country, u can sell your house, pick up all your stuff, and relocate to a northern nation, which is a bit like the vikings. Or how about an island nation at southsea?
For sure there ara a lot of dungeons also, an many monsters, and great adventures. I dont wanna design a copy of second life!
1) The ability to PvP from the moment I enter game world. Also the ability to viably advance my char through PvP only if I so desire. The same goes for PvE. I hate it when a game forces you to do one or the other if you wish to advance.
2) Lateral advancement instead of vertical one. IMO vertically (in terms of raw power) a char should max out in a week or two of play. The majority of advancement should take the form of increasing the number of options available to player.
3) No level-restricted zones. I simply hate this EQ tradition. IMO the majority of game world should be open to players at the get go. Some places should be more appropriate for more experienced chars and some should be noob friendly, however there is no reason to have such a huuge difference in power levels between new and old chars. This is a dumb D&D tradition. IMO systems designers should look for inspiration in much more advanced RPG systems such as GURPS, WHFRPG and World of Darkness just to name a few. And besides its ultimately unrealistic to be able to chop somebody with an axe for half an hour without making him flinch. This discussion on relative character powers is at least two decades old and frankly I'm as tired of the D&D "a 20 level fighter has more HP than four elephants" as I was twenty years ago. It is simply amazing that PC RPG systems didn't evolve beyond this ancient pile of design poo.
4) A multitude of gameplay modes within a shared world. Sorry but "If you don't like to raid learn to like it." is dead, thank god. I want various games WITHIN the gameworld, be it mini-games, various PvP modes, garden-growing in my personal instances or a checkers table I can use to play with my guildmates in-game.
5) "Family" system for my alts. I want the capability to designate my alts as belonging to the same player. Conversely I want to be able to turn this off for "incognito" characters. Having to introduce myself again to gaming mates all over again whenever I make a new char is a chore. In addition I'd like to share at least some of my achievements between characters.
6) Something meaningful to do in game besides combat. Most mmos so far are all about kicking the crap out of mobs or other players. If you played nothing but MMOs you'd think PC games are about nothing but bloody murder. There are other PC genres to look to for inspiration in mmo design except the beat-em-ups and single player RPGs. What about god games and rts for example?
7) Multi-level world design. There is no reason to keep the game experience only at the level of a "hero" guy who beats up stuff and people for loot. EVE is on a good track with this - tho the higher levels are run by players themselves. A true living world should have AI systems in place which would progress the game forward and make it dynamic. To make it simple - imagine a game of Civilization, run by AIs and with players being individuals living in that world. These distinct AIs would directly control the NPCs and would entice players to do their biddings through a system of rewards. Consequently players might occasionally take over the roles of these AIs - like player-run civilizations in Civ. The mind just boggles at possibilities inherent in this model.
8) Casual PvP. Yes I love casual PvP. I turned many players who hated PvP before into PvP freaks through WAR becaue it is CASUAL. Sorry but for me FFA full loot is a mirage - simply bad design because of very very simple mathematics. Each time you meet someone in a fight you stand to loose much more than gain - If you loose you loose all your stuff, if you win you might, just MIGHT find something useful. EVE skirts around this problem with insurance system, but games which do not acknowledge this inherent flaw in the concept suffer greatly, especially in terms of PvP itself. Basically you'l find the least enjoyable and constant PvP in games with FFA PvP. Sorry if I stand to loose everything I got if I loose, I will turn to cowardly ganking just like everybody elese. Only the crazy would go fair fighting in such as system... like in real world in fact. If you do a real life simulation of life and death then be prepared you'll see the same behavioural patterns as in RL warfare. There are old soldiers and there are brave soldiers. But there are no brave old soldiers.
The least penalties for dying the better. Positive motivation is the key in everything in life and so in games. Just imagine how popular PvE would be like if you stood to loose all of your gear each time you died? Sheesh... It is teh hardcore SM PvP fringe who is keeping PvP from becoming as popular as PvE through their frankly disturbing constant demands for "punishing" other players (and themselves). Damn, anyone who likes to be "punished" by a game or enjoys to see other players get "punished" is not someone who I want to share the game with.
9) Fluff makes the world go around. More fluff. Moar fluff please. Town clothes, vanity pets, a garden where i can grow pipe-weed and a yo-yo to show off in town. Moar fluff, pretty please.
Better mob AI. I am tired of hunting monsters that are respawning on the same spots and walking alone same paths.
Better collision detection (terrain and PC/NPC). This is a video game, why should I always see my avatar fighting in a middle of a dragon?! Melee mobs should stop hitting me when I am standing on a tower far above them.
Servers designated for different age groups of players without restrictions (your son can play with you but now he has to leave behind his LOLs and ROFLs, he is in a serious company of adults now). Adults are lost in a party of teenagers, they even do not understand their slang; teenagers are bored with “slow” playing style of adults, etc.
Enough with the chaos of PvP battles/group raids: more organization, time for training/instructing “noobs” and strategic/tactic planning, formations, leaders/generals elections/self-declarations, training camps for guilds.
PK-free severs for “peaceful” gamers. I am talking about uncontrolled PK, primitive ganking and griefing, not about PvP, SvS, RvR, GvG activity.
Modability. Guilds could be allowed to create their own game content, levels, quests, castles, weapons, armor, etc. User-friendly level designer/sandbox/construction kit with simple scripting language. Official exporter plugins for Blender/Max/Maya/XSI. Examples of main game asserts (weapons, armor, animations, statics, etc.) in FBX/Collada formats. BTW, I checked Ryzom Core – not impressed with graphic/3D modeling quality, sorry.
Advanced slider based customization of avatar faces/wigs/bodies geometry, better pallets for tints and textures. There are too many clones running in MMOs now.
Consistent artistic concept. I find that not honorable/disgusting to fight with Popori race (TERA), kindergarten children are not for bloody battles. We all hate child pornography (these guys should be executed on the spot without any trial) but we can easily kill a cute baby-girl in a game. I have serious problems with such artistic discrepancies. That’s unacceptable.
Mounts, pets, squires, fishing, mining, crafting, swimming, jumping, flying, levitating, combat combos should be must-have components.
The kind that makes players group together and use planning and strategy to assure victory.
One where flanking would matter & collision detection had a great affect on things in the game.
Player housing, that's a part of player cohabitating the same area, therefore building player-made cities and areas where optional player-created content could garner.
Something different for crafting. All the systems suck. I got a great idea, but I'm not about to spout it out freely over the interwebs. Not like a developer would use it anyway because crafting is only added to keep the crafters quiet.
I kill other players because they're smarter than AI, sometimes.
1. 24/7 character advancment - all characters, whether the player is online or off, including offline game-money earning capacity such as setting your character to "work" while you are offline.
2. Completely open skill/talent trees - no class restrictions whatsoever
3. Total character appearance control, even over gear, with the ability to edit appearance at any time.
4. 100% Soloability - no unique, highest-quality rewards that are only available via group or guild.
5. Player & Guild housing that is fully customizable.
6. An in-game, instrument-based music system like Acheron's Call 2
What I see in this thread just reinforces my own experiences.
1) We're tired of running around and clicking
2) We're tired of playing "Whack-a-Mole" with skills and cooldowns.
After trying to think of a game where you did more than run around and click I remembered an old classic: Descent. This was no MMO, but the concept could transfer over. Your ship was more or less a hovercraft and you flew around in a 3d world, mainly tunnels and caverns. It took far more effort to control your movement because it was no longer just left or right. You have to control up and down as well as thrusters at the same time. The concept is known as 6DoF (6 Degrees of Freedom). On top of all that you had to aim and dodge, and control lasers, torpedos, etc. In a MMO this would control the effectiveness of your attacks instead of what skill buttons you mash. People have been asking for a FPS style MMO but everything presented so far has failed since you can't have a FPS with MMO style movement. The 3D space takes the restrictions of gravity out of the equation.
Descent supported 8 player death-matches back in 1995, I see no reason why the concept couldn't be applied to an MMO today. You would have huge amounts of customization with respect to your ship and weaponry. You could customize things like acceleration, top speed, handling, armor. All would be tradeoffs, and you could alter these aspects to fit your desires instead of choosing a class at level 1 and being stuck with it.
I'm tired of having to grind through 50-60 odd levels just so that I can reach an endgame where, apparently, things start to get good. The whole concept of an 'endgame' is an insult. The player should be able to do anything within the game that they can set their mind to, from day one, provided of course that they are willing to work for it. Skill based systems are the best way of doing this, imo.
2. No hard-coded player factions:
This ties in with story lines. Setting is more important than story. Players will make their own stories as they go along, and if you leave them to do their own thing, the result will be better than any artificially designed system. Let them band together in their own factions, and fight everyone, including the NPC factions. It's better this way, because the PVP isn't forced, and has real intensity behind it.
3. More class flexibility:
I don't want to be the same warrior as everyone else. I advocate something along the lines of a profession system, where players learn a basic skillset, but can differentiate their abilities by talking to different NPCs and picking up other skills. Players can learn skills from them, but they have a limited set of skill slots. They can build their own class within reason (i.e. limitation on not having all of the most fuckoff skills in the game) to play the game how they like. E.g. a warrior could learn a particular fighting style off a traveling monk, and learns a basic trapping skill off a hunter in the woods.
4. Overhaul healing professions:
Playing a straight healing class sucks, and if you don't heal, people hate you. My solution? Warrior priests, army medics, etc. The player is primarily a combatant, but they also have the ability to heal other players. They cannot heal themselves. Also, I'd play around with death mechanics a bit. Healing classes have limited resurrection capabilities, but they cannot just rez a 40 man raid wipe.
5. A game that isn't about the phat l00t:
Armour and abilities are a means to an end. They allow you certain advantages when interacting with the game world, so that you can have fun. They aren't an end in and of themselves, and a player's ability to have fun shouldn't be contingent on the items they are wearing. Anything that a player can build and acquire, another player should be able to destroy and steal. This creates insecurity, and is the foundation for a good gaming experience.
In essence, I'm advocating a game where everything a player can use can be crafted, and everything can be stolen, looted, or otherwise pillaged. PVE players probably won't like this, but it would certainly encourage them to team up with PVPers to survive. Personally, I see this as a good thing. PVPers would need PVE players for the resources they can acquire, and PVE players will need PVPers to protect them when the crap hits the fan. They are complementary playstyles, not separate.
6. Have a bit of fun with mounts:
Why are mounts a big deal in MMOs? Why can't you punch a dude off his mount and ride away with it, only to have him chase you down on someone else's mount? Personally, I would have mounts be cheap and ubiquitous. Furthermore, just about ever animal in the game should be rideable. Have a taming profession that goes out and tames wildlife so they can can be sold into hauling player arses around the map. If you happen to find yourself a really special mount that you're worried about getting stolen, have a contract system for expensive mounts that allows you to summon them back from right underneath the thief's anus. Make it expensive so that it's only really worth it for that rare giraffe mount that you happened to score on the auction house.
7. Overhaul combat:
Though this is #7 on the list, it should probably be somewhere around #3 or #4. Personally, I think the WoW model is the best system for casters, though it's woefully inadequate for any other class or style of combat. First off, include a parry and cover mechanic so those with good reflexes and timing can smack spells, arrows and swords aside. Make mages more mobile through teleports with shorter cooldowns, given that they have to stand in place to cast.
Give warriors/assassins/rogues a targeting system that divides the body into quadrants, and the player clicks those quadrants a la the old hack and slash games to swing at that area. Hitting certain areas in combination opens up special moves and the like. Cast abilities, or crowd control abilities, should be done the same way as in WoW, making this a hybrid of third-person shooter hack n slash, and RPG gameplay.
Hunters, shooters and the like should primarily have a third-person shooter interface, with the ability to cast spells and abilities like the warrior and mage, using a wow toolbar interface at the bottom.
Where players combine these abilities, the interface should change. E.g. I'm a mage running around, throwing my frostbolt and chilling with a cigar, when a warrior starts wrecking my shit. I teleport away, whip out my long bow and the interface changes so that I now have a targeting reticule, and all of my second-weapon abilities are up. Unfortunately, the warrior has put his sword away and is now charging up a monstrous fireball, so I put my bow away and try to get a silence off before he melts my sphincter shut.
I'm too late, and he gets the fireball off, but luckily I'm a pretty good player and I manage to parry the first fireball away and silence the second, so he pulls out his sword again and charges at me. I get off a quick spell and teleport, before getting my bow out and taking a few shots. I'm a crap shot and miss. See? Dynamic, skill-based combat. It's not all about how much +dmg the dragon's penis you've equipped in your main hand gives you. Rather, it's about how well you use the abilities at your disposal.
8. Other ideas:
Feel free to borrow and abuse the following ideas:
1) modifiable body parts that cannot be stolen, to get around people crying over stolen weapons. E.g. killed a demon and stolen its tongue? Have it transplanted to give you a means of breaking silence, or a passive casting speed increase, or the ability to cast 2 spells at once. Or something. Or eyes that cast illusions, or make it easier to parry. Hell, you could go all the way here and have a mouth on your stomach that allows you to eat the dead and regenerate health. There's so much potential there.
2) skillsets that can be unlocked by collecting and completing sacred weapons or runes. You find a few fragments of a legendary sword, and you know there's another guild that has the last piece, so you storm in there, smash open their guild bank, and take it home. When you put it together, a strange NPC shows up and wants to teach you necromancy, or turn you into an astrotelepath or something. Make it so these relics can only be stored in player banks, so they can't be squirelled away for eternity, and can actually be stolen.
3) worried about player housing fucking up the world? Have basic player housing in cities, through instanced apartments. Players can keep all of their non-essential crap there. Provides a place for PVE players to store gear that they don't want stolen. For those who want to go out and carve empires, give them a range of buildings they can construct, so they can go out and leave their mark. These buildings should be fully destructible and lootable, but also provide better functionality and gameplay than instanced apartments.
4) random events. You're riding along minding your own business when OMFG A DRAGON drops out of the sky and kills a cow, eats it, flies away. You cause too much trouble in a dragon's territory and you risk pissing it off and having it march out to wreck your shit.
5) contracts system for player created jobs, quests, bounties etc. Oh noes, people might scam you? So what? Scam them back. Players should have to exercise some responsibility in how they deal with hardship: it shouldn't be coded into the game that no one ever gets hurt, and no one has any responsibility. You should exercise responisiblity in game, because it's your leisure time, and you should never give someone else control over what it is that you do for fun.
Originally posted by Brakedancer Oh god, where to begin.
1. No levels: I'm tired of having to grind through 50-60 odd levels just so that I can reach an endgame where, apparently, things start to get good. The whole concept of an 'endgame' is an insult. The player should be able to do anything within the game that they can set their mind to, from day one, provided of course that they are willing to work for it. Skill based systems are the best way of doing this, imo. 2. No hard-coded player factions: This ties in with story lines. Setting is more important than story. Players will make their own stories as they go along, and if you leave them to do their own thing, the result will be better than any artificially designed system. Let them band together in their own factions, and fight everyone, including the NPC factions. It's better this way, because the PVP isn't forced, and has real intensity behind it. 3. More class flexibility: I don't want to be the same warrior as everyone else. I advocate something along the lines of a profession system, where players learn a basic skillset, but can differentiate their abilities by talking to different NPCs and picking up other skills. Players can learn skills from them, but they have a limited set of skill slots. They can build their own class within reason (i.e. limitation on not having all of the most fuckoff skills in the game) to play the game how they like. E.g. a warrior could learn a particular fighting style off a traveling monk, and learns a basic trapping skill off a hunter in the woods. 4. Overhaul healing professions: Playing a straight healing class sucks, and if you don't heal, people hate you. My solution? Warrior priests, army medics, etc. The player is primarily a combatant, but they also have the ability to heal other players. They cannot heal themselves. Also, I'd play around with death mechanics a bit. Healing classes have limited resurrection capabilities, but they cannot just rez a 40 man raid wipe. 5. A game that isn't about the phat l00t: Armour and abilities are a means to an end. They allow you certain advantages when interacting with the game world, so that you can have fun. They aren't an end in and of themselves, and a player's ability to have fun shouldn't be contingent on the items they are wearing. Anything that a player can build and acquire, another player should be able to destroy and steal. This creates insecurity, and is the foundation for a good gaming experience. In essence, I'm advocating a game where everything a player can use can be crafted, and everything can be stolen, looted, or otherwise pillaged. PVE players probably won't like this, but it would certainly encourage them to team up with PVPers to survive. Personally, I see this as a good thing. PVPers would need PVE players for the resources they can acquire, and PVE players will need PVPers to protect them when the crap hits the fan. They are complementary playstyles, not separate. 6. Have a bit of fun with mounts: Why are mounts a big deal in MMOs? Why can't you punch a dude off his mount and ride away with it, only to have him chase you down on someone else's mount? Personally, I would have mounts be cheap and ubiquitous. Furthermore, just about ever animal in the game should be rideable. Have a taming profession that goes out and tames wildlife so they can can be sold into hauling player arses around the map. If you happen to find yourself a really special mount that you're worried about getting stolen, have a contract system for expensive mounts that allows you to summon them back from right underneath the thief's anus. Make it expensive so that it's only really worth it for that rare giraffe mount that you happened to score on the auction house. 7. Overhaul combat: Though this is #7 on the list, it should probably be somewhere around #3 or #4. Personally, I think the WoW model is the best system for casters, though it's woefully inadequate for any other class or style of combat. First off, include a parry and cover mechanic so those with good reflexes and timing can smack spells, arrows and swords aside. Make mages more mobile through teleports with shorter cooldowns, given that they have to stand in place to cast. Give warriors/assassins/rogues a targeting system that divides the body into quadrants, and the player clicks those quadrants a la the old hack and slash games to swing at that area. Hitting certain areas in combination opens up special moves and the like. Cast abilities, or crowd control abilities, should be done the same way as in WoW, making this a hybrid of third-person shooter hack n slash, and RPG gameplay. Hunters, shooters and the like should primarily have a third-person shooter interface, with the ability to cast spells and abilities like the warrior and mage, using a wow toolbar interface at the bottom. Where players combine these abilities, the interface should change. E.g. I'm a mage running around, throwing my frostbolt and chilling with a cigar, when a warrior starts wrecking my shit. I teleport away, whip out my long bow and the interface changes so that I now have a targeting reticule, and all of my second-weapon abilities are up. Unfortunately, the warrior has put his sword away and is now charging up a monstrous fireball, so I put my bow away and try to get a silence off before he melts my sphincter shut. I'm too late, and he gets the fireball off, but luckily I'm a pretty good player and I manage to parry the first fireball away and silence the second, so he pulls out his sword again and charges at me. I get off a quick spell and teleport, before getting my bow out and taking a few shots. I'm a crap shot and miss. See? Dynamic, skill-based combat. It's not all about how much +dmg the dragon's penis you've equipped in your main hand gives you. Rather, it's about how well you use the abilities at your disposal. 8. Other ideas: Feel free to borrow and abuse the following ideas: 1) modifiable body parts that cannot be stolen, to get around people crying over stolen weapons. E.g. killed a demon and stolen its tongue? Have it transplanted to give you a means of breaking silence, or a passive casting speed increase, or the ability to cast 2 spells at once. Or something. Or eyes that cast illusions, or make it easier to parry. Hell, you could go all the way here and have a mouth on your stomach that allows you to eat the dead and regenerate health. There's so much potential there. 2) skillsets that can be unlocked by collecting and completing sacred weapons or runes. You find a few fragments of a legendary sword, and you know there's another guild that has the last piece, so you storm in there, smash open their guild bank, and take it home. When you put it together, a strange NPC shows up and wants to teach you necromancy, or turn you into an astrotelepath or something. Make it so these relics can only be stored in player banks, so they can't be squirelled away for eternity, and can actually be stolen. 3) worried about player housing fucking up the world? Have basic player housing in cities, through instanced apartments. Players can keep all of their non-essential crap there. Provides a place for PVE players to store gear that they don't want stolen. For those who want to go out and carve empires, give them a range of buildings they can construct, so they can go out and leave their mark. These buildings should be fully destructible and lootable, but also provide better functionality and gameplay than instanced apartments. 4) random events. You're riding along minding your own business when OMFG A DRAGON drops out of the sky and kills a cow, eats it, flies away. You cause too much trouble in a dragon's territory and you risk pissing it off and having it march out to wreck your shit. 5) contracts system for player created jobs, quests, bounties etc. Oh noes, people might scam you? So what? Scam them back. Players should have to exercise some responsibility in how they deal with hardship: it shouldn't be coded into the game that no one ever gets hurt, and no one has any responsibility. You should exercise responisiblity in game, because it's your leisure time, and you should never give someone else control over what it is that you do for fun.
You sir, have cover pretty much all of my main points. I would say instead of random events, I rather have events that chain from other events, due to NPC actions or players actions. Like the example dragon, instead of attack people and town randomly, let have it if player keep killing mobs that usually dragon main food supply and such mobs are low on number or gone from the area, dragon start to move it food chain to human colonies.
More game should have more ways for players to express their creativity as well. Like make in-game painting that player can actually paint and that they can sell it in auction house. Design the costume textures and things. LOTRO music system was great.
No specific class or profession, only skills that available for player to learn. The more player use the skill should increase their expertise on that skill, while it will decrease some other skills that not been uses.
Get rid of a minimal quest that player have to pick up. Just have one big fat main goal that a whole faction want to achieve, and left player to decide what are the steps that would require to achieve such goal.
all i wish for is a modern (non-fantasy if possible) MMO with high quality graphics featuring a complex skill system like anarchy online had.
this.
1. Class/faction-based real time jobs
Examples:
If you're a combat class, an infiltration defense job that only pops up if one of the player member of the opposing faction accepted a job to infiltrate an X base of your faction.
If you're a tradeskill class, crafted items or materials to supply a PvP sector base or delivery job to supply towns.
2. TCoS-like reticule targeting for damage, and TCoS-like tanking
Tank and spank strategy is so last century.
3. Tradeskill item Qualitylike Earth & Beyond
My 200% IWINButton is better than his 130% IWINButton! Buy mine!
4. Stat-less equipment
Promote creativity! I thought I was unique until I saw my twin brother and sister!!!
Like the others I will be starting with a wall of text for all of you to read so have fun:
What I feel an MMO should have is something new. I mean just throw out all the grinding and give us something we want or need. I mean like someone else has said above me, the normal knight or mage didn't kill 50 Goblins a day coupled with 200 raptors and don't forget to throw in an army or 2 of Centaurs. I mean really MMO's are trying to capture more grinding then over. Make it real is what I'm saying. Why not make it just 1 big world. Take a look at one of my favorite manga's 1/2 Prince. The story is based of a giant MMO where they have PvP Tourneys, Nations, Player Owned land, Player Owned cities, and just endless possibilities. I would love for a game like that to come out where really if you wanted to do something you could. If an MMO is trying to capture us into playing it should be by letting us have our freedom. I mean Dungeons are great and all but I can't tell you how many countless hours I've spent parked on my War Mammoth in Dalaran playing Texas Hold'Em from one of my AddOns in WoW. I mean why not create a game where in town you could play games and outside kill mobs. Freedom is what my first thing would be.
Next would be the leveling system. Take it out. Do you know how many people would come into a game with no leveling system at all? I mean sure the tutorial would be amazing but why not have a game where instead of leveling you just have a straightfoward game. Why should we have to play for 2 months while paying just to get to "endgame". If we are all treated as equals from the beginning it would be nice. Gear will always outshine new players to the point where a new player can't just gank random veterans just because he has skill. Why not make PvP areas for designated players where you move up based on how well you did/do and can join the ranks of pros faster if you belong there or get accustomed with the starters until you move up the tiers. I think giving all people a chance at "endgame" at the beginning would greatly improve population and in turn profits, which I feel is what the leveling system is for (Getting people to play longer and pay more), but I digress.
Next would be housing. I would totally love guild halls and players houses. I mean it would be nice to hang out with your guildies in your own area that could be free from Global/City chat and just relax, rather then trying to read through all the Gold Spams and several other messages while being in a city. Plus owning a house gives the player a feel of homliness one that makes you say "I'm a part of this city/nation/kingdom".
I feel combat shouldn't just be who can press the right buttons at the right time or get the most amount of crits. Sure some classes (I'm looking at you Rogues) are based around crit, but why? I'm not saying remove buttons and go back to aiming (These aren't TPS or FPS) but rather why should it be that you "have to hit your trinket ON the kidney shot and then blink otherwise your dead" and not end up being something more meaningful. How much fun would it be if no class really beat another and it was an all out free for all. For instance, maybe mages have low health so classes can wack them around a bit but it shouldn't be that a rogue or class can almost one shot them, why not make battles a little longer and enjoyable. I feel a PvP system where a class does a lot of damage, but not enough to OHKO another would be very benficial and could give some classes real suriviability instead of the clothie that kites or spams fear/polymorph because it can't deal with being hit.
Lastly I feel a game should have no real class system. Why not make a rogue just a playstyle. For instance, you select rogue as your preferred playstyle character. You get access to some sneaky type skills but maybe you also like hitting things with a big axe after they dorp their guard, rather then poking them with sharp toothpicks. Make a game where your character creates his own direction and where you spec into maybe a preferred weapon type, armor type, magic element. But maybe mix your class styles up, I mean why not have a decent fighter able to cast spells. D&D had a Spelltheif class so why can't we? I mean why not have the rogue who can freeze you and then stab you. Maybe nerf some melee and spell damage so that you aren't hitting at full force but the direction is nice. Maybe make a healer who likes a pet to help it out and what not. Why should we, as the gamers, be restricted to the classes the devs choose to give us. I mean it would be cool to experiment with all different types and have them work, rather then going online to find the most updated spec and DPS rotation so that you can be the best <insert class here>. That being said their will be rotations involved but with so many trees and possibilities I feel that one could truly understand their class a lot more then just being the guy who uses nature to heal.
As you can tell there are a lot of WoW allusions/references as I haven't made my way over to other games but this is all I could do.
My first post here, nice site, just found it earlier today mentioned by a guildmate.
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A little background, where I am coming from, so I don't get totally ignored because it's post #1 (my theory) hopefully.
I have played MMOs off and on, mostly on since DAOC launch in 2001.
I made all of 1 char to max 50 playing DOAC off and on until 2004, it took me roughly 4.5 months best guess.
I played 1 character to max 60 in WoW from launch, I had paid 6 months, used 3.5, never to return, took me 2 months to get to max.
I played 1 character to 27 in the first month of Everquest 2 for me, and left, I came back discovering that I was rather silly trying only that one class, and per recommendation of a RL friend, I came back and wound up taking another class to 70, this was after Kingdom of Sky expansion had come out. Before that 70, I started another class, and that character is my mainstay as of today, maxed out @90 studmuffin character (for me anyhow) and I am reasonably happy with him, although it was the class that clicked, and if it didn't exist in EQ2, I probably would have quit it totally about 3 years ago.
I took breaks from EQ2, but always wound back there.
I played 1 character to max 80 in Age of Conan from launch, same class as in EQ2, overall the game was lacking, had some nice elements, can't remember much, but I can't say I hated it, but it looks like I was in the majority who found the novelty of the controls and end game lacking, enough so that just like WoW, no expansion return for me.
I got into the late beta stage of WHO and LOTRO but those two also were lacking, and I didn't buy into either of them, even with the lifetime play one time fee offer on LOTRO.
I did go back to Vanguard twice, but the world was so void of other players and same old issues I had with it, just didn't fit so it was typically 3 days of play and bye bye, Vanguard has lots of issues, another time perhaps.
I tried DDO when it went freeplay, at least one other that I can't even remember the name of and Runes of Magic, which I thought for 'free play' model was the best of that lot and I jump into it once in a long while, still.
I like solo player RPGs also, I finished Oblivion, Fabled and Dragon Age and played tons of others over the years.
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Here's what I would like to see in MMOs and some of which I am shaking my head wondering WHY haven't I seen this already?
#1 Randomized instance dungeons, solo, group, raid force, everyone for themselves, whatever, tis all good, pause 20 secs if you have to, to generate it and spread it to everyone, that's fine.
If I live to never experience CHUNKING ever again, I will be pleased, for those unaware, that's something really crappy associated with Vanguard.
#2 Crafted items that are very very good, make ingredients or the recipe the difficult part, no grinding at all here, would be a nice change, have a vendor that makes the stuff for you instead.
Yes, I am aware that recipes with raid only drops exist already, but that is not what I am talking about, this is for solo'n fun factor up'd a notch mainly, I didn't mention it before, but I mainly solo'd most of my chars to near max levels and I know that is not that uncommon and I have yet to find raising crafting much FUN in any game, so be gone with it already.
Maybe instead, make whatever passes for money in game rarer in the first place and purchase items directly with it?
#3 NO LEVEL CAP, you read that right, NONE NADA ZILCH, try it one time....
This shouldn't mean the 120 hour a week hardcore raiding fanatic will be level 2500 to my 50, not at all, but these bogus caps need to go!?!?!
#4 Higher difficulty levels should not mean just MORE HIT POINTS for the mobs or insane scripts, so obscure that you have to look the stuff up online, to have any chance in hell of ever completing it.
#5 Mobs should NOT have thousands of times more hit points than the players, it's ridiculous IMO, grow the AI some, geeeeeeeeeez!
#6 I hit with a sword, there should be a chance of removing a mobs head and it dying instantly, not just this silly HP gauge that does the same thing fight after fight.
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I never said these things would be easy to implement, but some of them should be.
All for now, I'm tired.
I know grinders will always be, but let's not let it be the norm?
I know something that really needs improvement within most Mmorpgs is movement, only a very few have seemed to get this part of the game correct, i know WoW have done it and its great and easy to move arround. But other games even most P2P ones just dont understand this, no matter how amazing and fantastic the graphics are, the feeling is bad if it feels awkward to move arround.
Stop it with the damn IPs. We know that it's a cynical cash grab, and all you're doing is applying the same damn leveling system and grind to a cherished pre-existing intellectual property, and bastardising it. I mean, did we really need a star trek mmo? DC Universe online? Really? does anyone give enough of a toss about stargate for a stargate mmo to be commercially successful? hell, is Warhammer 40k even a viable choice for an MMO? Sure, maybe if companies actually tried something new and took risks, and made, say, a 40k tactical MMO, that would be interesting. But I swear to God and all that is holy, playing a fricken Space Marine and leveling up to craptastic, chilling out in my Nurgle raid, collecting Purpz so my Eldar mate and I can go kill some destruction players, sounds like the largest group wank I've ever heard of. You'll have to pardon my language here, because this is a subject I'm kind of passionate about, but honestly, how do you fuck up a setting like 40k's?
The one exception that I can see to this may be CCP's world of darkness MMO, because CCP employees have testicles the size of grapefruits, and their CEO is the most fertile man alive. They have balls, so to speak. They still take risks, and even though they don't all pay off, their game is polished, focused, and actually a lot of fun to play. Oh yeah, and they actually listen to the players, which is refreshing. Hopefully they do something different and interesting with the IP, because the state of MMO gaming right now is depressing. It's up to the indies now, and for my money, there's only one indie MMO that I'm waiting for, and it's probably a long way off.
My sincere last hope is that Blizzard redeems itself for these last 6 years of limbo, and shows us all how a skill-based, PVP sandbox MMO is truly done, with a completely new IP to boot. There are so many of us who know that such games are commercially viable, as long as they are fun and executed well. I'm tired of being told by smug nerfherders that people want to raid and don't want their shit stolen, when the only MMO on the market right now that is still growing is a free-for-all Hobbesian nightmare played out on a glorified spreadsheet. Jesus, if EVE implemented joystick flight controls so that you could have dogfights, the player base would triple overnight. And for the record, no, Darkfall, Mortal Online etc are not the answer. Hell, if that's the standard, I might as well take a shot at programming a damn MMO myself.
Personally, I think that Blizzard might do it. Hell, I hope they do, because it'll actually kickstart the damn industry, and things will finally start evolving again. Even if they don't there's still the aforementioned indie MMO I mentioned, and -- though it's still flying under the radar -- I'm pretty sure it's going to blow us all away when it's finally released. One day.
I'm tired of having to grind through 50-60 odd levels just so that I can reach an endgame where, apparently, things start to get good. The whole concept of an 'endgame' is an insult. The player should be able to do anything within the game that they can set their mind to, from day one, provided of course that they are willing to work for it. Skill based systems are the best way of doing this, imo.
2. No hard-coded player factions:
This ties in with story lines. Setting is more important than story. Players will make their own stories as they go along, and if you leave them to do their own thing, the result will be better than any artificially designed system. Let them band together in their own factions, and fight everyone, including the NPC factions. It's better this way, because the PVP isn't forced, and has real intensity behind it.
3. More class flexibility:
I don't want to be the same warrior as everyone else. I advocate something along the lines of a profession system, where players learn a basic skillset, but can differentiate their abilities by talking to different NPCs and picking up other skills. Players can learn skills from them, but they have a limited set of skill slots. They can build their own class within reason (i.e. limitation on not having all of the most fuckoff skills in the game) to play the game how they like. E.g. a warrior could learn a particular fighting style off a traveling monk, and learns a basic trapping skill off a hunter in the woods.
4. Overhaul healing professions:
Playing a straight healing class sucks, and if you don't heal, people hate you. My solution? Warrior priests, army medics, etc. The player is primarily a combatant, but they also have the ability to heal other players. They cannot heal themselves. Also, I'd play around with death mechanics a bit. Healing classes have limited resurrection capabilities, but they cannot just rez a 40 man raid wipe.
5. A game that isn't about the phat l00t:
Armour and abilities are a means to an end. They allow you certain advantages when interacting with the game world, so that you can have fun. They aren't an end in and of themselves, and a player's ability to have fun shouldn't be contingent on the items they are wearing. Anything that a player can build and acquire, another player should be able to destroy and steal. This creates insecurity, and is the foundation for a good gaming experience.
In essence, I'm advocating a game where everything a player can use can be crafted, and everything can be stolen, looted, or otherwise pillaged. PVE players probably won't like this, but it would certainly encourage them to team up with PVPers to survive. Personally, I see this as a good thing. PVPers would need PVE players for the resources they can acquire, and PVE players will need PVPers to protect them when the crap hits the fan. They are complementary playstyles, not separate.
6. Have a bit of fun with mounts:
Why are mounts a big deal in MMOs? Why can't you punch a dude off his mount and ride away with it, only to have him chase you down on someone else's mount? Personally, I would have mounts be cheap and ubiquitous. Furthermore, just about ever animal in the game should be rideable. Have a taming profession that goes out and tames wildlife so they can can be sold into hauling player arses around the map. If you happen to find yourself a really special mount that you're worried about getting stolen, have a contract system for expensive mounts that allows you to summon them back from right underneath the thief's anus. Make it expensive so that it's only really worth it for that rare giraffe mount that you happened to score on the auction house.
7. Overhaul combat:
Though this is #7 on the list, it should probably be somewhere around #3 or #4. Personally, I think the WoW model is the best system for casters, though it's woefully inadequate for any other class or style of combat. First off, include a parry and cover mechanic so those with good reflexes and timing can smack spells, arrows and swords aside. Make mages more mobile through teleports with shorter cooldowns, given that they have to stand in place to cast.
Give warriors/assassins/rogues a targeting system that divides the body into quadrants, and the player clicks those quadrants a la the old hack and slash games to swing at that area. Hitting certain areas in combination opens up special moves and the like. Cast abilities, or crowd control abilities, should be done the same way as in WoW, making this a hybrid of third-person shooter hack n slash, and RPG gameplay.
Hunters, shooters and the like should primarily have a third-person shooter interface, with the ability to cast spells and abilities like the warrior and mage, using a wow toolbar interface at the bottom.
Where players combine these abilities, the interface should change. E.g. I'm a mage running around, throwing my frostbolt and chilling with a cigar, when a warrior starts wrecking my shit. I teleport away, whip out my long bow and the interface changes so that I now have a targeting reticule, and all of my second-weapon abilities are up. Unfortunately, the warrior has put his sword away and is now charging up a monstrous fireball, so I put my bow away and try to get a silence off before he melts my sphincter shut.
I'm too late, and he gets the fireball off, but luckily I'm a pretty good player and I manage to parry the first fireball away and silence the second, so he pulls out his sword again and charges at me. I get off a quick spell and teleport, before getting my bow out and taking a few shots. I'm a crap shot and miss. See? Dynamic, skill-based combat. It's not all about how much +dmg the dragon's penis you've equipped in your main hand gives you. Rather, it's about how well you use the abilities at your disposal.
8. Other ideas:
Feel free to borrow and abuse the following ideas:
1) modifiable body parts that cannot be stolen, to get around people crying over stolen weapons. E.g. killed a demon and stolen its tongue? Have it transplanted to give you a means of breaking silence, or a passive casting speed increase, or the ability to cast 2 spells at once. Or something. Or eyes that cast illusions, or make it easier to parry. Hell, you could go all the way here and have a mouth on your stomach that allows you to eat the dead and regenerate health. There's so much potential there.
2) skillsets that can be unlocked by collecting and completing sacred weapons or runes. You find a few fragments of a legendary sword, and you know there's another guild that has the last piece, so you storm in there, smash open their guild bank, and take it home. When you put it together, a strange NPC shows up and wants to teach you necromancy, or turn you into an astrotelepath or something. Make it so these relics can only be stored in player banks, so they can't be squirelled away for eternity, and can actually be stolen.
3) worried about player housing fucking up the world? Have basic player housing in cities, through instanced apartments. Players can keep all of their non-essential crap there. Provides a place for PVE players to store gear that they don't want stolen. For those who want to go out and carve empires, give them a range of buildings they can construct, so they can go out and leave their mark. These buildings should be fully destructible and lootable, but also provide better functionality and gameplay than instanced apartments.
4) random events. You're riding along minding your own business when OMFG A DRAGON drops out of the sky and kills a cow, eats it, flies away. You cause too much trouble in a dragon's territory and you risk pissing it off and having it march out to wreck your shit.
5) contracts system for player created jobs, quests, bounties etc. Oh noes, people might scam you? So what? Scam them back. Players should have to exercise some responsibility in how they deal with hardship: it shouldn't be coded into the game that no one ever gets hurt, and no one has any responsibility. You should exercise responisiblity in game, because it's your leisure time, and you should never give someone else control over what it is that you do for fun.
Pretty much nailed it here.
Only thing I would add is no more quest chains that alternate between solo and group. Group chains are fine, solo chains are fine, but it is all too common to do several quests and then have to group to do the final stage. At release, where there is an abundance of people at the same stage as you this isn't that big of a deal, but later on, or if you are a casual player, it can be tough to put a group together in a lower or mid level zone. Some games have implemented a solo option for these quests, where you get to the stage and can choose. If you have a group, you do group, if you don't you solo it with npc allies.
Comments
Something challenging. PvP is weak in every game and lacks any sort of difficulty.
Most of all I hate the fact that there is a guide for how to do everything. Make the game always changing so this cant happen.
Websites with all the armor and weapons are nice but a game without that somehow would be nice. Having a list of every weapon = cookie cutter setups.
Variety of gameplay experience within a single game.
There is no reason why a virtual world should have a limited number of gameplay modes. If you already have all this immense amount of graphics and underlying game systems in place there is no reason to limit the gameplay to questing, raiding, arena PvP.
I.E.
PvP - different PvP modes - from small arenas to world RvR, I don't understand the rationale for limiting you to only one of those modes... Why no bgs/arenas in Aion for example?
PvE - minigames - why should everything be "kill mob"? I just loved the minigames in GW.. Tired of killin stuff? Lets go racing!
In addition If I have an instanced house, I'd like to be able to have a garden attached that I can grow funny fluffy plants in, for example.
Town/non-combat clothes. I can see some folks playing the game just to get the most swanky outfit to show-off while dropping down to the AH.
Put in some board games in there. I'd love to find a checkers table in some mmo city that I can play with passers-by, maybe even for in game gold.
IMO this is one of the main differences between "game" and "world" approachs to MMOs.. So far traditionally mmos were sen by devs as "game with a world attached" however imo this is wrong and ultimately wasteful. MMOs should be seen as "worlds with gameS attached". If you see the MMO as a world, basically an engine that you can put stuff in, then really there is no limit to what you can add to it.
I'd like an mmorpg which offers:
- a sandbox world
- a skill-based system (where you improve individual skills as oposed to choosing a class and levelling up)
- the possibility to play roles other than fighting roles (cf. the original Star Wars Galaxies where you could be a dancer, or musician, or a miner, or a forager, or a politician, or specialise in a dozen different crafting professions
- a player-run economy, with player crafting, player housing, player cities
The best stories and experiences I've ever had in any MMO came from interaction with fellow players, not pasted on voice overs or being sternly guided through some unmemorable rehashed linear story.
That's the developers/ writers stories, and though they're probably quite talented and put a lot of effort into it, it's only my personal stories that stand out over the years. Some of the situations friends and I have managed to get into and out of over the years have become legendary among us and though some took place a decade ago, are yet to be forgotten. As a matter of note, NONE of these experiences took place during a collection,kill 10 boars or delivery quests.
(Of course the opportunity for these dynamic situations are almost non-existant in many mainstream MMOs these days due to tightly controlled content and group dynamics...)
To sum it up, I'd like an MMO with 0 'Quests' of the collect 10 sea shells variety, an MMO where these mindless tasks that pass as content are non existant.
Instead I'd like to see the focus on building an in depth world that's fun to explore and packed with plenty of challenging dungeons that take longer than 5 minutes to complete, and ideally challenging enough that their completion might require that you actually communicate instead of 'click join, spam AEs, get loot, disband'. A world in which word of mouth might actually mean something again would be nice, instead of a world which is easily roadmapped by countless websites dictating the most beneficial quest hub.
Less develeopment time spent on absurd mindless tasks, more time creatively fleshing out the world and environments players will get to explore.
A while back i was asked by a friend : "What if you could make a MMO and had the funds ? ".
I repeat here what i said then is it aswered both the questions.
I would make a MMO that would be based around Mercenary's and the merc company's.
There is your aswer
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But what do i mean when i say that, well here goes( in a not so little nutshell ).
This game could play in any time period and any setting but for my world id make it future.
So SciFi not to far but space flight has to be a option.
Then id make a game that is 2 games in 1 first its skillbased yes you need to get skills to use stuff and no there are no lvls.
The char would have 2 skill tree's 1 for combat that can be split in as many parts as you want to place the skills in there that are needed to fight in this game.
The second tree would have all the noncombat skills anything for a pilot licence to a degree in advanced robotics.
This is to allow the player to advance in both or only one direction he want crafting is part of the second tree and would have anything from basic weapons, armor and ammo to cars, planes and in the end space ships.
Now i know what you think O heck that is going to be a huge game but there is the funny part it can grow you see you start of building a char for a ground based game then The devs get to add sea, air en lastly space to the mix.
The quest givers are also easy, you are a merc, so you go to the hangouts or offer your services at one of the megacorps.
Here also the second skill tree can be used to add skills of a more nonviolant interactive nature.
The quest can be done solo but you could also get some people together and form a unit now you get to hire out as a group and the reward goes up also the type of missions go up as you get access to missions you dont have solo as its hard to do 5 jobs at ones
Then after a little while you get to know each other you can make a merc company and be a freelance group or start working for one of the big megacorps.
Again the game becomes bigger now you have a group that is so big they need a base of operation so there you go off to build a base at one of the country's that allows you buy a small island or a spot in the desert in the middel of nowhere.
Now the second tree becomes even bigger as now you get nps that can do work for you repair weapons refit combat vehicles heck you can even make it so you can craft stuff your self or be a forman telling them what to do and wait for it
But this place to hang your guns has a disadvantage remember those megacorps you attacked to get all the cash and loot to affort this place ? Well they can hire a merc company to attack you and take there stuff back !
Or remember that merc group you had agains you in that job a while back ? They realy like your base and want to take it.
So there is your pvp and for those that dont like pvp you can always build in the nice savezones that you start in but then you will miss out on tons of fun and not to forget LOOT
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This is the beginning of the game you can add sea battles, air battles and even space battles to it but it all builds in this basic beginning.
And remember the 2 games in one, in the end it will be not only 2 games thanks to the skill tree's 1 combat 1 noncombat but also a land sea air space game!
As long as there will be corps willng to pay you there will be options for you to fight for them no matter the weapons, no matter the location.
P.S. Forgive the spelling english is not my main language
"Believe nothing.
No matter where you read it,
Or who said it,
Even if I have said it,
Unless it agrees with your own reason
And your own common sense"
- The Buddha, from Dhammapada
yeah, all of this
A complete overhaul of how controls are used in MMOs. throw out of WASD and give us more options...
There are other keys! Can't we have mouse movements instead of WASD for traditional melee fighting? There has to be more interaction as far as fighting goes as well as fewer and harder monsters...
Not every knight slays 100 goblins a day so why should we? Bring epic monster fights to the forefront coupled with a well worked mouse combat system. MMOs should ATLEAST be based on 50% skill, nothing less will sufice.
That lvl 50 is ganking your lvl 10? No matter, you managed to flick your mouse just perfectly to hit him in the ribs making him suffer a fatal bleed wound.
Now that would be a game I would play...
Based on gear? No. Based on reaction and "skill"? Yes
Well at first, give us a huge world. And if i say huge i mean HUUGE. And because the world is so huge, we dont need a lot different servers, which are all mirrors from the same world. Instead of mirrors of one and the same thing, let the servers be different kingdoms. If my friend is playing in an other kingdom(server) i can make a journey to him, which needs time. One day if its a near kingdamom. Maybe a week or 2 if its far away.
Implement guilds and factions like in other games, but also implement nations. Every kingdom (server)is a own nation which can make war to other nations. After war has been declared, people has to move to the borderzones within a week and at weekend will be fougth 2 days.
Because the world is so huge, housing do not need to be instanced. Set areas for settling here and there, so the players can build citys. Divide the area into parcels, which can be bought by players, to build houses. If a player buys 4 adjacent parcels, he can became farmer. Or maybe raise horses or cattles on his land. So he can produce leather or meat, warhorses or mules for miners. Set city areas near ozeans, for players who likes to be fisherman. Areas near mounains for miners.
Imagine a huuuge world, with one million players divided into 50 countrys. If u dont like it anymore to play in your country, u can sell your house, pick up all your stuff, and relocate to a northern nation, which is a bit like the vikings. Or how about an island nation at southsea?
For sure there ara a lot of dungeons also, an many monsters, and great adventures. I dont wanna design a copy of second life!
Only a few thougts out of my dreams...;)
Oh dear.. this could turn out to be a long list:
1) The ability to PvP from the moment I enter game world. Also the ability to viably advance my char through PvP only if I so desire. The same goes for PvE. I hate it when a game forces you to do one or the other if you wish to advance.
2) Lateral advancement instead of vertical one. IMO vertically (in terms of raw power) a char should max out in a week or two of play. The majority of advancement should take the form of increasing the number of options available to player.
3) No level-restricted zones. I simply hate this EQ tradition. IMO the majority of game world should be open to players at the get go. Some places should be more appropriate for more experienced chars and some should be noob friendly, however there is no reason to have such a huuge difference in power levels between new and old chars. This is a dumb D&D tradition. IMO systems designers should look for inspiration in much more advanced RPG systems such as GURPS, WHFRPG and World of Darkness just to name a few. And besides its ultimately unrealistic to be able to chop somebody with an axe for half an hour without making him flinch. This discussion on relative character powers is at least two decades old and frankly I'm as tired of the D&D "a 20 level fighter has more HP than four elephants" as I was twenty years ago. It is simply amazing that PC RPG systems didn't evolve beyond this ancient pile of design poo.
4) A multitude of gameplay modes within a shared world. Sorry but "If you don't like to raid learn to like it." is dead, thank god. I want various games WITHIN the gameworld, be it mini-games, various PvP modes, garden-growing in my personal instances or a checkers table I can use to play with my guildmates in-game.
5) "Family" system for my alts. I want the capability to designate my alts as belonging to the same player. Conversely I want to be able to turn this off for "incognito" characters. Having to introduce myself again to gaming mates all over again whenever I make a new char is a chore. In addition I'd like to share at least some of my achievements between characters.
6) Something meaningful to do in game besides combat. Most mmos so far are all about kicking the crap out of mobs or other players. If you played nothing but MMOs you'd think PC games are about nothing but bloody murder. There are other PC genres to look to for inspiration in mmo design except the beat-em-ups and single player RPGs. What about god games and rts for example?
7) Multi-level world design. There is no reason to keep the game experience only at the level of a "hero" guy who beats up stuff and people for loot. EVE is on a good track with this - tho the higher levels are run by players themselves. A true living world should have AI systems in place which would progress the game forward and make it dynamic. To make it simple - imagine a game of Civilization, run by AIs and with players being individuals living in that world. These distinct AIs would directly control the NPCs and would entice players to do their biddings through a system of rewards. Consequently players might occasionally take over the roles of these AIs - like player-run civilizations in Civ. The mind just boggles at possibilities inherent in this model.
8) Casual PvP. Yes I love casual PvP. I turned many players who hated PvP before into PvP freaks through WAR becaue it is CASUAL. Sorry but for me FFA full loot is a mirage - simply bad design because of very very simple mathematics. Each time you meet someone in a fight you stand to loose much more than gain - If you loose you loose all your stuff, if you win you might, just MIGHT find something useful. EVE skirts around this problem with insurance system, but games which do not acknowledge this inherent flaw in the concept suffer greatly, especially in terms of PvP itself. Basically you'l find the least enjoyable and constant PvP in games with FFA PvP. Sorry if I stand to loose everything I got if I loose, I will turn to cowardly ganking just like everybody elese. Only the crazy would go fair fighting in such as system... like in real world in fact. If you do a real life simulation of life and death then be prepared you'll see the same behavioural patterns as in RL warfare. There are old soldiers and there are brave soldiers. But there are no brave old soldiers.
The least penalties for dying the better. Positive motivation is the key in everything in life and so in games. Just imagine how popular PvE would be like if you stood to loose all of your gear each time you died? Sheesh... It is teh hardcore SM PvP fringe who is keeping PvP from becoming as popular as PvE through their frankly disturbing constant demands for "punishing" other players (and themselves). Damn, anyone who likes to be "punished" by a game or enjoys to see other players get "punished" is not someone who I want to share the game with.
9) Fluff makes the world go around. More fluff. Moar fluff please. Town clothes, vanity pets, a garden where i can grow pipe-weed and a yo-yo to show off in town. Moar fluff, pretty please.
I wanted to be short.
Better mob AI. I am tired of hunting monsters that are respawning on the same spots and walking alone same paths.
Better collision detection (terrain and PC/NPC). This is a video game, why should I always see my avatar fighting in a middle of a dragon?! Melee mobs should stop hitting me when I am standing on a tower far above them.
Servers designated for different age groups of players without restrictions (your son can play with you but now he has to leave behind his LOLs and ROFLs, he is in a serious company of adults now). Adults are lost in a party of teenagers, they even do not understand their slang; teenagers are bored with “slow” playing style of adults, etc.
Enough with the chaos of PvP battles/group raids: more organization, time for training/instructing “noobs” and strategic/tactic planning, formations, leaders/generals elections/self-declarations, training camps for guilds.
PK-free severs for “peaceful” gamers. I am talking about uncontrolled PK, primitive ganking and griefing, not about PvP, SvS, RvR, GvG activity.
Modability. Guilds could be allowed to create their own game content, levels, quests, castles, weapons, armor, etc. User-friendly level designer/sandbox/construction kit with simple scripting language. Official exporter plugins for Blender/Max/Maya/XSI. Examples of main game asserts (weapons, armor, animations, statics, etc.) in FBX/Collada formats. BTW, I checked Ryzom Core – not impressed with graphic/3D modeling quality, sorry.
Advanced slider based customization of avatar faces/wigs/bodies geometry, better pallets for tints and textures. There are too many clones running in MMOs now.
Consistent artistic concept. I find that not honorable/disgusting to fight with Popori race (TERA), kindergarten children are not for bloody battles. We all hate child pornography (these guys should be executed on the spot without any trial) but we can easily kill a cute baby-girl in a game. I have serious problems with such artistic discrepancies. That’s unacceptable.
Mounts, pets, squires, fishing, mining, crafting, swimming, jumping, flying, levitating, combat combos should be must-have components.
Open world pvp.
The kind that makes players group together and use planning and strategy to assure victory.
One where flanking would matter & collision detection had a great affect on things in the game.
Player housing, that's a part of player cohabitating the same area, therefore building player-made cities and areas where optional player-created content could garner.
Something different for crafting. All the systems suck. I got a great idea, but I'm not about to spout it out freely over the interwebs. Not like a developer would use it anyway because crafting is only added to keep the crafters quiet.
I kill other players because they're smarter than AI, sometimes.
Loving the ideas so far.
1. 24/7 character advancment - all characters, whether the player is online or off, including offline game-money earning capacity such as setting your character to "work" while you are offline.
2. Completely open skill/talent trees - no class restrictions whatsoever
3. Total character appearance control, even over gear, with the ability to edit appearance at any time.
4. 100% Soloability - no unique, highest-quality rewards that are only available via group or guild.
5. Player & Guild housing that is fully customizable.
6. An in-game, instrument-based music system like Acheron's Call 2
7. A new tour bus full of old guitars
8. My star on Hollywood Boulevard
What I see in this thread just reinforces my own experiences.
1) We're tired of running around and clicking
2) We're tired of playing "Whack-a-Mole" with skills and cooldowns.
After trying to think of a game where you did more than run around and click I remembered an old classic: Descent. This was no MMO, but the concept could transfer over. Your ship was more or less a hovercraft and you flew around in a 3d world, mainly tunnels and caverns. It took far more effort to control your movement because it was no longer just left or right. You have to control up and down as well as thrusters at the same time. The concept is known as 6DoF (6 Degrees of Freedom). On top of all that you had to aim and dodge, and control lasers, torpedos, etc. In a MMO this would control the effectiveness of your attacks instead of what skill buttons you mash. People have been asking for a FPS style MMO but everything presented so far has failed since you can't have a FPS with MMO style movement. The 3D space takes the restrictions of gravity out of the equation.
Descent supported 8 player death-matches back in 1995, I see no reason why the concept couldn't be applied to an MMO today. You would have huge amounts of customization with respect to your ship and weaponry. You could customize things like acceleration, top speed, handling, armor. All would be tradeoffs, and you could alter these aspects to fit your desires instead of choosing a class at level 1 and being stuck with it.
Oh god, where to begin.
1. No levels:
I'm tired of having to grind through 50-60 odd levels just so that I can reach an endgame where, apparently, things start to get good. The whole concept of an 'endgame' is an insult. The player should be able to do anything within the game that they can set their mind to, from day one, provided of course that they are willing to work for it. Skill based systems are the best way of doing this, imo.
2. No hard-coded player factions:
This ties in with story lines. Setting is more important than story. Players will make their own stories as they go along, and if you leave them to do their own thing, the result will be better than any artificially designed system. Let them band together in their own factions, and fight everyone, including the NPC factions. It's better this way, because the PVP isn't forced, and has real intensity behind it.
3. More class flexibility:
I don't want to be the same warrior as everyone else. I advocate something along the lines of a profession system, where players learn a basic skillset, but can differentiate their abilities by talking to different NPCs and picking up other skills. Players can learn skills from them, but they have a limited set of skill slots. They can build their own class within reason (i.e. limitation on not having all of the most fuckoff skills in the game) to play the game how they like. E.g. a warrior could learn a particular fighting style off a traveling monk, and learns a basic trapping skill off a hunter in the woods.
4. Overhaul healing professions:
Playing a straight healing class sucks, and if you don't heal, people hate you. My solution? Warrior priests, army medics, etc. The player is primarily a combatant, but they also have the ability to heal other players. They cannot heal themselves. Also, I'd play around with death mechanics a bit. Healing classes have limited resurrection capabilities, but they cannot just rez a 40 man raid wipe.
5. A game that isn't about the phat l00t:
Armour and abilities are a means to an end. They allow you certain advantages when interacting with the game world, so that you can have fun. They aren't an end in and of themselves, and a player's ability to have fun shouldn't be contingent on the items they are wearing. Anything that a player can build and acquire, another player should be able to destroy and steal. This creates insecurity, and is the foundation for a good gaming experience.
In essence, I'm advocating a game where everything a player can use can be crafted, and everything can be stolen, looted, or otherwise pillaged. PVE players probably won't like this, but it would certainly encourage them to team up with PVPers to survive. Personally, I see this as a good thing. PVPers would need PVE players for the resources they can acquire, and PVE players will need PVPers to protect them when the crap hits the fan. They are complementary playstyles, not separate.
6. Have a bit of fun with mounts:
Why are mounts a big deal in MMOs? Why can't you punch a dude off his mount and ride away with it, only to have him chase you down on someone else's mount? Personally, I would have mounts be cheap and ubiquitous. Furthermore, just about ever animal in the game should be rideable. Have a taming profession that goes out and tames wildlife so they can can be sold into hauling player arses around the map. If you happen to find yourself a really special mount that you're worried about getting stolen, have a contract system for expensive mounts that allows you to summon them back from right underneath the thief's anus. Make it expensive so that it's only really worth it for that rare giraffe mount that you happened to score on the auction house.
7. Overhaul combat:
Though this is #7 on the list, it should probably be somewhere around #3 or #4. Personally, I think the WoW model is the best system for casters, though it's woefully inadequate for any other class or style of combat. First off, include a parry and cover mechanic so those with good reflexes and timing can smack spells, arrows and swords aside. Make mages more mobile through teleports with shorter cooldowns, given that they have to stand in place to cast.
Give warriors/assassins/rogues a targeting system that divides the body into quadrants, and the player clicks those quadrants a la the old hack and slash games to swing at that area. Hitting certain areas in combination opens up special moves and the like. Cast abilities, or crowd control abilities, should be done the same way as in WoW, making this a hybrid of third-person shooter hack n slash, and RPG gameplay.
Hunters, shooters and the like should primarily have a third-person shooter interface, with the ability to cast spells and abilities like the warrior and mage, using a wow toolbar interface at the bottom.
Where players combine these abilities, the interface should change. E.g. I'm a mage running around, throwing my frostbolt and chilling with a cigar, when a warrior starts wrecking my shit. I teleport away, whip out my long bow and the interface changes so that I now have a targeting reticule, and all of my second-weapon abilities are up. Unfortunately, the warrior has put his sword away and is now charging up a monstrous fireball, so I put my bow away and try to get a silence off before he melts my sphincter shut.
I'm too late, and he gets the fireball off, but luckily I'm a pretty good player and I manage to parry the first fireball away and silence the second, so he pulls out his sword again and charges at me. I get off a quick spell and teleport, before getting my bow out and taking a few shots. I'm a crap shot and miss. See? Dynamic, skill-based combat. It's not all about how much +dmg the dragon's penis you've equipped in your main hand gives you. Rather, it's about how well you use the abilities at your disposal.
8. Other ideas:
Feel free to borrow and abuse the following ideas:
1) modifiable body parts that cannot be stolen, to get around people crying over stolen weapons. E.g. killed a demon and stolen its tongue? Have it transplanted to give you a means of breaking silence, or a passive casting speed increase, or the ability to cast 2 spells at once. Or something. Or eyes that cast illusions, or make it easier to parry. Hell, you could go all the way here and have a mouth on your stomach that allows you to eat the dead and regenerate health. There's so much potential there.
2) skillsets that can be unlocked by collecting and completing sacred weapons or runes. You find a few fragments of a legendary sword, and you know there's another guild that has the last piece, so you storm in there, smash open their guild bank, and take it home. When you put it together, a strange NPC shows up and wants to teach you necromancy, or turn you into an astrotelepath or something. Make it so these relics can only be stored in player banks, so they can't be squirelled away for eternity, and can actually be stolen.
3) worried about player housing fucking up the world? Have basic player housing in cities, through instanced apartments. Players can keep all of their non-essential crap there. Provides a place for PVE players to store gear that they don't want stolen. For those who want to go out and carve empires, give them a range of buildings they can construct, so they can go out and leave their mark. These buildings should be fully destructible and lootable, but also provide better functionality and gameplay than instanced apartments.
4) random events. You're riding along minding your own business when OMFG A DRAGON drops out of the sky and kills a cow, eats it, flies away. You cause too much trouble in a dragon's territory and you risk pissing it off and having it march out to wreck your shit.
5) contracts system for player created jobs, quests, bounties etc. Oh noes, people might scam you? So what? Scam them back. Players should have to exercise some responsibility in how they deal with hardship: it shouldn't be coded into the game that no one ever gets hurt, and no one has any responsibility. You should exercise responisiblity in game, because it's your leisure time, and you should never give someone else control over what it is that you do for fun.
I hate WoW and what it has done to the MMO genre.
You sir, have cover pretty much all of my main points. I would say instead of random events, I rather have events that chain from other events, due to NPC actions or players actions. Like the example dragon, instead of attack people and town randomly, let have it if player keep killing mobs that usually dragon main food supply and such mobs are low on number or gone from the area, dragon start to move it food chain to human colonies.
More game should have more ways for players to express their creativity as well. Like make in-game painting that player can actually paint and that they can sell it in auction house. Design the costume textures and things. LOTRO music system was great.
No specific class or profession, only skills that available for player to learn. The more player use the skill should increase their expertise on that skill, while it will decrease some other skills that not been uses.
Get rid of a minimal quest that player have to pick up. Just have one big fat main goal that a whole faction want to achieve, and left player to decide what are the steps that would require to achieve such goal.
this.
1. Class/faction-based real time jobs
Examples:
If you're a combat class, an infiltration defense job that only pops up if one of the player member of the opposing faction accepted a job to infiltrate an X base of your faction.
If you're a tradeskill class, crafted items or materials to supply a PvP sector base or delivery job to supply towns.
2. TCoS-like reticule targeting for damage, and TCoS-like tanking
Tank and spank strategy is so last century.
3. Tradeskill item Quality like Earth & Beyond
My 200% IWINButton is better than his 130% IWINButton! Buy mine!
4. Stat-less equipment
Promote creativity! I thought I was unique until I saw my twin brother and sister!!!
God what a broad question for you to ask
Like the others I will be starting with a wall of text for all of you to read so have fun:
What I feel an MMO should have is something new. I mean just throw out all the grinding and give us something we want or need. I mean like someone else has said above me, the normal knight or mage didn't kill 50 Goblins a day coupled with 200 raptors and don't forget to throw in an army or 2 of Centaurs. I mean really MMO's are trying to capture more grinding then over. Make it real is what I'm saying. Why not make it just 1 big world. Take a look at one of my favorite manga's 1/2 Prince. The story is based of a giant MMO where they have PvP Tourneys, Nations, Player Owned land, Player Owned cities, and just endless possibilities. I would love for a game like that to come out where really if you wanted to do something you could. If an MMO is trying to capture us into playing it should be by letting us have our freedom. I mean Dungeons are great and all but I can't tell you how many countless hours I've spent parked on my War Mammoth in Dalaran playing Texas Hold'Em from one of my AddOns in WoW. I mean why not create a game where in town you could play games and outside kill mobs. Freedom is what my first thing would be.
Next would be the leveling system. Take it out. Do you know how many people would come into a game with no leveling system at all? I mean sure the tutorial would be amazing but why not have a game where instead of leveling you just have a straightfoward game. Why should we have to play for 2 months while paying just to get to "endgame". If we are all treated as equals from the beginning it would be nice. Gear will always outshine new players to the point where a new player can't just gank random veterans just because he has skill. Why not make PvP areas for designated players where you move up based on how well you did/do and can join the ranks of pros faster if you belong there or get accustomed with the starters until you move up the tiers. I think giving all people a chance at "endgame" at the beginning would greatly improve population and in turn profits, which I feel is what the leveling system is for (Getting people to play longer and pay more), but I digress.
Next would be housing. I would totally love guild halls and players houses. I mean it would be nice to hang out with your guildies in your own area that could be free from Global/City chat and just relax, rather then trying to read through all the Gold Spams and several other messages while being in a city. Plus owning a house gives the player a feel of homliness one that makes you say "I'm a part of this city/nation/kingdom".
I feel combat shouldn't just be who can press the right buttons at the right time or get the most amount of crits. Sure some classes (I'm looking at you Rogues) are based around crit, but why? I'm not saying remove buttons and go back to aiming (These aren't TPS or FPS) but rather why should it be that you "have to hit your trinket ON the kidney shot and then blink otherwise your dead" and not end up being something more meaningful. How much fun would it be if no class really beat another and it was an all out free for all. For instance, maybe mages have low health so classes can wack them around a bit but it shouldn't be that a rogue or class can almost one shot them, why not make battles a little longer and enjoyable. I feel a PvP system where a class does a lot of damage, but not enough to OHKO another would be very benficial and could give some classes real suriviability instead of the clothie that kites or spams fear/polymorph because it can't deal with being hit.
Lastly I feel a game should have no real class system. Why not make a rogue just a playstyle. For instance, you select rogue as your preferred playstyle character. You get access to some sneaky type skills but maybe you also like hitting things with a big axe after they dorp their guard, rather then poking them with sharp toothpicks. Make a game where your character creates his own direction and where you spec into maybe a preferred weapon type, armor type, magic element. But maybe mix your class styles up, I mean why not have a decent fighter able to cast spells. D&D had a Spelltheif class so why can't we? I mean why not have the rogue who can freeze you and then stab you. Maybe nerf some melee and spell damage so that you aren't hitting at full force but the direction is nice. Maybe make a healer who likes a pet to help it out and what not. Why should we, as the gamers, be restricted to the classes the devs choose to give us. I mean it would be cool to experiment with all different types and have them work, rather then going online to find the most updated spec and DPS rotation so that you can be the best <insert class here>. That being said their will be rotations involved but with so many trees and possibilities I feel that one could truly understand their class a lot more then just being the guy who uses nature to heal.
As you can tell there are a lot of WoW allusions/references as I haven't made my way over to other games but this is all I could do.
My first post here, nice site, just found it earlier today mentioned by a guildmate.
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A little background, where I am coming from, so I don't get totally ignored because it's post #1 (my theory) hopefully.
I have played MMOs off and on, mostly on since DAOC launch in 2001.
I made all of 1 char to max 50 playing DOAC off and on until 2004, it took me roughly 4.5 months best guess.
I played 1 character to max 60 in WoW from launch, I had paid 6 months, used 3.5, never to return, took me 2 months to get to max.
I played 1 character to 27 in the first month of Everquest 2 for me, and left, I came back discovering that I was rather silly trying only that one class, and per recommendation of a RL friend, I came back and wound up taking another class to 70, this was after Kingdom of Sky expansion had come out. Before that 70, I started another class, and that character is my mainstay as of today, maxed out @90 studmuffin character (for me anyhow) and I am reasonably happy with him, although it was the class that clicked, and if it didn't exist in EQ2, I probably would have quit it totally about 3 years ago.
I took breaks from EQ2, but always wound back there.
I played 1 character to max 80 in Age of Conan from launch, same class as in EQ2, overall the game was lacking, had some nice elements, can't remember much, but I can't say I hated it, but it looks like I was in the majority who found the novelty of the controls and end game lacking, enough so that just like WoW, no expansion return for me.
I got into the late beta stage of WHO and LOTRO but those two also were lacking, and I didn't buy into either of them, even with the lifetime play one time fee offer on LOTRO.
I did go back to Vanguard twice, but the world was so void of other players and same old issues I had with it, just didn't fit so it was typically 3 days of play and bye bye, Vanguard has lots of issues, another time perhaps.
I tried DDO when it went freeplay, at least one other that I can't even remember the name of and Runes of Magic, which I thought for 'free play' model was the best of that lot and I jump into it once in a long while, still.
I like solo player RPGs also, I finished Oblivion, Fabled and Dragon Age and played tons of others over the years.
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Here's what I would like to see in MMOs and some of which I am shaking my head wondering WHY haven't I seen this already?
#1 Randomized instance dungeons, solo, group, raid force, everyone for themselves, whatever, tis all good, pause 20 secs if you have to, to generate it and spread it to everyone, that's fine.
If I live to never experience CHUNKING ever again, I will be pleased, for those unaware, that's something really crappy associated with Vanguard.
#2 Crafted items that are very very good, make ingredients or the recipe the difficult part, no grinding at all here, would be a nice change, have a vendor that makes the stuff for you instead.
Yes, I am aware that recipes with raid only drops exist already, but that is not what I am talking about, this is for solo'n fun factor up'd a notch mainly, I didn't mention it before, but I mainly solo'd most of my chars to near max levels and I know that is not that uncommon and I have yet to find raising crafting much FUN in any game, so be gone with it already.
Maybe instead, make whatever passes for money in game rarer in the first place and purchase items directly with it?
#3 NO LEVEL CAP, you read that right, NONE NADA ZILCH, try it one time....
This shouldn't mean the 120 hour a week hardcore raiding fanatic will be level 2500 to my 50, not at all, but these bogus caps need to go!?!?!
#4 Higher difficulty levels should not mean just MORE HIT POINTS for the mobs or insane scripts, so obscure that you have to look the stuff up online, to have any chance in hell of ever completing it.
#5 Mobs should NOT have thousands of times more hit points than the players, it's ridiculous IMO, grow the AI some, geeeeeeeeeez!
#6 I hit with a sword, there should be a chance of removing a mobs head and it dying instantly, not just this silly HP gauge that does the same thing fight after fight.
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I never said these things would be easy to implement, but some of them should be.
All for now, I'm tired.
I know grinders will always be, but let's not let it be the norm?
-Badfinger
I know something that really needs improvement within most Mmorpgs is movement, only a very few have seemed to get this part of the game correct, i know WoW have done it and its great and easy to move arround. But other games even most P2P ones just dont understand this, no matter how amazing and fantastic the graphics are, the feeling is bad if it feels awkward to move arround.
Oh yeah, I forgot to add one last thing:
Stop it with the damn IPs. We know that it's a cynical cash grab, and all you're doing is applying the same damn leveling system and grind to a cherished pre-existing intellectual property, and bastardising it. I mean, did we really need a star trek mmo? DC Universe online? Really? does anyone give enough of a toss about stargate for a stargate mmo to be commercially successful? hell, is Warhammer 40k even a viable choice for an MMO? Sure, maybe if companies actually tried something new and took risks, and made, say, a 40k tactical MMO, that would be interesting. But I swear to God and all that is holy, playing a fricken Space Marine and leveling up to craptastic, chilling out in my Nurgle raid, collecting Purpz so my Eldar mate and I can go kill some destruction players, sounds like the largest group wank I've ever heard of. You'll have to pardon my language here, because this is a subject I'm kind of passionate about, but honestly, how do you fuck up a setting like 40k's?
The one exception that I can see to this may be CCP's world of darkness MMO, because CCP employees have testicles the size of grapefruits, and their CEO is the most fertile man alive. They have balls, so to speak. They still take risks, and even though they don't all pay off, their game is polished, focused, and actually a lot of fun to play. Oh yeah, and they actually listen to the players, which is refreshing. Hopefully they do something different and interesting with the IP, because the state of MMO gaming right now is depressing. It's up to the indies now, and for my money, there's only one indie MMO that I'm waiting for, and it's probably a long way off.
My sincere last hope is that Blizzard redeems itself for these last 6 years of limbo, and shows us all how a skill-based, PVP sandbox MMO is truly done, with a completely new IP to boot. There are so many of us who know that such games are commercially viable, as long as they are fun and executed well. I'm tired of being told by smug nerfherders that people want to raid and don't want their shit stolen, when the only MMO on the market right now that is still growing is a free-for-all Hobbesian nightmare played out on a glorified spreadsheet. Jesus, if EVE implemented joystick flight controls so that you could have dogfights, the player base would triple overnight. And for the record, no, Darkfall, Mortal Online etc are not the answer. Hell, if that's the standard, I might as well take a shot at programming a damn MMO myself.
Personally, I think that Blizzard might do it. Hell, I hope they do, because it'll actually kickstart the damn industry, and things will finally start evolving again. Even if they don't there's still the aforementioned indie MMO I mentioned, and -- though it's still flying under the radar -- I'm pretty sure it's going to blow us all away when it's finally released. One day.
Pretty much nailed it here.
Only thing I would add is no more quest chains that alternate between solo and group. Group chains are fine, solo chains are fine, but it is all too common to do several quests and then have to group to do the final stage. At release, where there is an abundance of people at the same stage as you this isn't that big of a deal, but later on, or if you are a casual player, it can be tough to put a group together in a lower or mid level zone. Some games have implemented a solo option for these quests, where you get to the stage and can choose. If you have a group, you do group, if you don't you solo it with npc allies.
1. Housing (not instanced)
2. Complex crafting, I want crafted items to be equal with everything else.
3. Meaningful pvp.
4. World that is open, no zoning, no mountains to separate zones.
5. Lots of fluff.
6. Skill based leveling, levels are something that I think destroyed this genre.