If you could be the deciding factor on what sort of features your "ideal" MMORPG would be (one that YOU would want to play.)
What would they be?
Here's mine:
Medieval setting, think Game of Thrones/Skyrim
Open World, no zoning outside of instances
Skill based leveling. No levels. You want to level a skill, you do said thing in the game. If you want to play a class, you don't choose the class, you choose the thing that class does and you do it. Some skills would be learnable no matter what, and others you'd need to fulfill some certain set of requirements whether that be race, quest, etc. IE... If you play X race and they are known for their skill in taming of some specific beast.. then you can't tame or learn that skill if you are a different race.
Gear is mostly cosmetic, but provides bonuses to certain skills to make things easier, but the gear isn't what wins.
Player housing. You're free to put your house anywhere on the map (where land is available) but the interior of your house is instanced, so that you can go on a design and building frenzy.. this could be a whole game on it's own. Think EQ2's housing, but more advanced. Other players could break in under certain circumstances, or destroy/take your house/castle.. etc.
The Questing would not be for leveling, but for unlocking features/gear/items. All of which would be optional. There would be a story tied to the quests, but the game itself would feel like a Sandbox, that way if you LIKE the story stuff, you can do it.. but if you don't you can skip it and still enjoy the game for what it is.
There would be no fast travel initially. You must WALK/RUN everywhere you go until you've done quests/missions to unlock those features. Fast travel would be in the form of mounts, ships, flying creatures. Think FFXI's airships where you had to do a long set of quests to get access to them.
The game would focus on exploration and there would be real danger/risk in travelling. The mobs would be too difficult for a solo player in some spots, and it would actually be dangerous to travel. Other players can kill you as well, and take your crap. It would be full/semi full loot. The mob AI would mimic FFXI where the monsters aggro in different ways, sight, sound, magic, smell?
Many mounts. Horses and things of that nature. Mounts would have bag space, and you would be able to fight from your mount.
No map, initially. You have to buy them/find them.
PVP would be open world, and you are free to kill anyone/anywhere, but there would be a penalty for doing so in places where it is against the law. There would be a criminal system, where PK's would have sort sort of status that attracts other players to kill them. You can place bounties on their heads, and other players will receive a reward/accolades for killing them OR bringing them to justice by capturing them. They would go to jail/court and would receive sentencing.. in which if found guilty they'd be be-headed (permadeath) and would have to re-roll. I don't know how I could avoid griefing in this way, but it sounded like a fun idea in my head. Archeage has something similar and I always liked that idea. If you choose to PK (which can be fun! You have to understand the consequences that come with that.)
RP centric, with places to hold different types of events.. weddings, ceremonies, an arena for dueling, guild houses.
Combat would be skill based, similar to Mount and Blade.
Some dungeons can be instanced, but NO LFG FINDER!!! If you want to do the dungeon you must find other people to do it with out in the world or in your guild. No teleporting there, or just sitting in a town waiting for a queue to pop.
Day and Night, Rain and weather. Different mobs and events for different conditions.
Crafting would be simple, and would be designed so that it keeps the economy thriving as players can make/sell things that other players actually need. Vendors would only sell limited things so that players are forced to shop from each other. If you need wood, cut down a tree, if you need fur, kill an animal and skin it.. the obvious stuff.
Mini games/Side games that people can do to earn money. Like, gambling in a casino, entering a jousting tournament at the arena or betting on who will win.
It should be 18+ in content, with a Game of Thrones sort of feel. Think GTA if it were set in the Medieval Era. You can go to a brothel, etc. (this might be a bit much, but it sounds interesting in concept.)
That's all I can think of right now, but I'd play this game based on this list alone.
What's yours?
www.facebook.com/themarksmovierules
Currently playing:
FFXIV on Behemoth, FFXI on Eden, and Gloria Victis on NA.
Comments
IMO if you want to 'dev your own MMO', get started!
Okay, here's my ideal 'dev my own MMO'
Dungeons & Dragons rule based. Sadly, can't use D&D as name, neither d20 due to copyright restrictions so it'll be the Service Reference Documentation 3.5 (which is basically the 2 previous mentioned).
Set in a medium magic fantasy world. Somewhere between Grayhawk (very low magic setting) and Dragonlance (medium magic setting, but without the magic usage shunning).
Governmental system will be mainly CIty states - no large kingdoms and everything in between is unruled/uncontrolled land. Some of the main trading/traveling routes will be guarded (a bit) though.
Fully open world! No instances at all!!!
I'll make it a mixture of themepark and sandbox with a pinch of survival elements in it.
In doubt about permanent death and a lineage/inheritance system (perhaps optional for those who want to).
No world map! You can buy some small ones here and there and general routes from city to city are known (this might be the only thing as actual world map that you'll get )
DEEP, DEEP crafting. You should be able to craft anything you want/need, but you really should put effort in it. That being said, there need to be quite some changes into the standard D&D3.5 crafting rules.
Inventory will be somewhat DIablo alike - (semi) fixed size of bags along with a weight and size encumbrance.
Challenging PvE with lots of it party based. After all, you're playing something D&D based and that's party focused in it's core. There will be some single player based stuff out there, but don't expect to be able to slay dragons (or even hobgoblins) all by yourself
There's more, but I'll keep that to myself.
Oh wait, did I say I'd LOL about those 'if you could dev your own MMO' threads. This is not a 'if I could dev my own MMO' concept, but something I'm actually working on!
The SDR3.5 rules have already been coded to 75%
Logon server is fully functional and as player you can register/logon already
Character creation is done for 90% already.
World server is in the making and done ~25%
Client world streaming system is working 100%
The world is ~1sq Km and will be growing when all the above is working
No quests implemented yet because that'll be one of the last things to be added
You can see my sci-fi/WW2 book recommendations.
AAA Studio Budget:
Retrofuturistic sci-fi game where computer technology and fashion sense has stalled at a 1940s-50s level but man has nonetheless invented cryosleep and warp drive. Think pre-war Fallout in space. You'd control a single character and could explore lots of content-filled worlds, or spend your time flying a space ship between systems, which would consist of (for moderately large ships) a Star Trek style bridge where you control one crew member in first person perspective. Most of the game would revolve around trying to establish and run human colonies on new worlds or in orbit around new worlds, while managing politics with your neighbours, colonist and native alike, to avoid wars. There would also be occasional mass invasions from NPC enemies originating outside of known space, such as rogue AI, ravenous space beasts, interstellar crusaders, etc requiring players to work together to prevent humanity from being extinguished (server resets if all human colonies are destroyed and/or captured).
Star Citizen Budget:
Semi-historical, semi-steampunk MMO set during the colonization of Africa in the late 1880s. Until then, much of the Congo Basin was still blank on European maps, and theories abounded of what existed inland - this game would be based on those theories. You'd have bolt-action rifles and airships alongside ancient magical temples and living dinosaurs, for example. The gameplay would be based around faction warfare, with several factions (Britain, France, Belgium, Portugal, and Germany, along with multiple native Congolese factions) fighting for control of colonial towns in wars that are generated by an AI GM acting as the various monarchs declaring war without input from players.
Typical Kickstarter Budget:
Total sandbox, no developer content, medieval building game, using the family system I outlined in my last thread on here. The game would revolve around building player-controlled kingdoms that can declare war on and conquer other players' kingdoms at will. So basically Life is Feudal, but with its major issues (grindiness and emptiness) being solved by the family system.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent.
"At one point technology meant making tech that could get to the moon, now it means making tech that could get you a taxi."
Having played Eve online for years (three years) I can appreciate sticking with a game, and although there is a risk of the game taking up much time of your life, that decision is one for adults at least, so, one just have to learn to pace oneself and not play for hours on end.
A big challenge for my game, would be the techincial aspect. The game would have to both be functional, but also be secure in all kinds of ways (servers, code, networking, operational security inside the company). Hopefully, there would be a solution to scaling issues, when involving lots of players.
A main thing about my MMO would be immersion into the game world. No gimmicky crap, that doesn't make good sense.
As for the type of game, it could be more than one thing. Presumably somethign sci-fi, or fantasy, or medieval, or possibly something modern.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
Ark's graphics and open world, sandbox design, size, difficulty, and building.