If you could design a MMORPG...

[Herrisa]

If you could design a MMORPG, what types of features would you put in?

*By features I mean fight-systems, crafting, transport, etc.

[Darlachan]

Re: If you could design a MMORPG...

free movement battle system.

It would actually take skill to deal damage. Not just hitting the attack button.

btw- love the sig Herrisa

[Vaigrant]

Re: If you could design a MMORPG...

Id say an MMO where you can really customize your characters abilities. Im sure it would be alot of work, but have a large array of spells and abilities, also with an active story line like FFXI rather than the usual passive in most MMO's.

Im not a fan of the active fighting in MMO's, lag spikes could kill you during the fight so Id rather have the more automated system that is generally used.

Fishing. .. I love MMO fishing, and FF's is probably the best so far since Im not sitting wiating for hte Hit/Miss scenario lol. I could come up more ideas but dont really feel like it lol.

[supersimian]

Re: If you could design a MMORPG...

I would design a MMORPG to have

- A huge variety of customizable mounts.

- Many servers dedicated to the housing function so you can see your own house in the game. Also I would like for the housing option to have a shared housing option, like a guild mansion option that would probably end up costing a fortune to make thus making it more affordable if it is made with combined efforts/spending.

- shared information through links. Sort of like the ability to show people items that you have. So If you have a new weapon that you want to brag about you can insert a link from it wherever you are chatting so people can take a peek if they want without needing to examine your gear or whatever.

- I personally think it would be cool if you could use more than one character at a time. Like being able to AI your characters to act mostly automatic, so then you can run your own teams if you are the loner type, thus making battles at a much larger scale. I would like for this type of feature to include zones where pulling huge army sized aggro is unaviodable so insanely sized forces are needed, armies. Insanely large scale battles.

- Actuall PvP army sized battles. Not just team vs team. Also Team vs Team PvP for experience and easy to access, maybe though a menu link. A callout system would go good with this too. "I challenge you to a duel"!!

- If a sword is called something like "Flame baselard" then I would like it to have a look that correlates with the name. So the characters baselard would actually look as if it is flaming. Holy items would glow white...etc.

- I would like to see more classes with pets.

- flowing capes

- glowing eyes for some classes

- I would make a very large variety of races to pick from, the only reason that any of these races would have only one selectable gender would depend on the race, like of goblin woman are not allowed outside the burrows than there would be no selectable goblin woman as that would not make sence if goblin men don't allow that. But ofcourse most options would have a gender chioce and large variety of looks.

- Purchasable tatoos for characters.

- My MMORPG would probably take place in the distant future of a world that is screwed over because of magic. Where human, elvish and dwarven kin, combined have created machines so technology is available along with magical options as magic will never die, or is being fought for to be maintained. So then you could be a machinest and mount machines, A dragon rider and mount dragons, and orc riding a warg like creature, humans on horses. Mounts available dependand on race, class, job. Then your options are very open all around.

Im going to stop here, taking too long. Thanks for the topic Herrisa.

[Icemage]

Re: If you could design a MMORPG...

I've been doing hobbyist game programming for about 5 years now (I'm a professional programmer by day) and I have found that the vast majority of the playerbase has no idea what would make for an engaging game design that remains technologically feasible.

Usually questions like this attract responses from people who just don't have any idea of the trade-offs involved with the features they'd like to implement, be it excessive art assets, too much pressure on a rendering engine, too much pressure on limited bandwidth, or just horribly unbalanced gameplay.

---

That said, my "perfect" concept of MMORPGs would involve no economy whatsoever - items bind to you immediately, and cannot be traded. This absolves the need for lots of tedious things; farming, crafting for income, and (hah!) RMTs.


Icemage

[neighbortaru]

Re: If you could design a MMORPG...

That said, my "perfect" concept of MMORPGs would involve no economy whatsoever - items bind to you immediately, and cannot be traded. This absolves the need for lots of tedious things; farming, crafting for income, and (hah!) RMTs.
Icemage

while that will remove quite a few tedious things, you'll still be left with (tediously) camping for drops.

[Herrisa]

Re: If you could design a MMORPG...

Off-topic:

I've been doing hobbyist game programming for about 5 years now (I'm a professional programmer by day) and I have found that the vast majority of the playerbase has no idea what would make for an engaging game design that remains technologically feasible.

I'm not disagreeing with you Icemage, but I feel that the relationship between players and game technology is an evolutionary cycle. Game technology can only do this, players want more from their games, developers "push the envelope" and game technology advances to meet player wants. Thirty years ago we had Pong... twenty years ago we had Tetris... ten years ago we had Legend of Zelda... today we have games like Shadow of the Colossus. Who knows what tomorrow will bring to advance game technology. So while some wants aren't capable of being met today, that doesn't mean that they can't be met tomorrow.

Just look what happened to the concept of MUDs and MOOs. Put some pretty graphics to it and it sells to millions of people.

Ok... back to on-topic.

P.S. As for liking my sig... you've obviously never had to tank for me. It's not a question of if you're going to die. It's a question of when and how brutally.

[supersimian]

Re: If you could design a MMORPG...

Sorry Icemage, all of the things that I have said would be nice in my MMORPG if I could design one are actually pulled off already in many of the MMORPGs that exist so I know it is all mostly possible. Of course I added in some fresh ideas of my own that may still have already been done or could be impossible, but who cares about if its possible when your answering a what if question. Everyone’s responses, no matter how far they stray from what you know about coding are absolutely valid as an idea of what would be cool in a MMORPG. For instance my list of stuff I would like to implement in a MMORPG of my design if I could make one, an incomplete list, is mostly of compilation of my favorite aspect of the several MMORPG, and MUDs that I know a lot of the ins and outs of. I don't like be disclaimed, by some person whom thinks that they are the Jesus Christ of gaming. I am here for fun.

[Icemage]

Re: If you could design a MMORPG...

while that will remove quite a few tedious things, you'll still be left with (tediously) camping for drops.

Game design isn't a perfect art form. There are always trade-offs. You can in fact sidestep the camping problem by instancing, for example. Drop rate isn't an issue in that sense since, with no tradeable commodities, there's no reason not to provide 100% drops other than to frustrate and/or slow down player progression.

EDIT: I'm not against making lists of features people would like to see. What I am saying is that what we, as players, might want is often not possible with current generation game technology without sacrificing some other gameplay element.


Icemage

[Herrisa]

Re: If you could design a MMORPG...

while that will remove quite a few tedious things, you'll still be left with (tediously) camping for drops.

Depends on game design. It could be that developers make it fun and interesting to camp.

[Hantz]

Re: If you could design a MMORPG...

If I could design an MMORPG....your heads would explode.

Probably not, but I would try to introduce a setting, classes, races, etc. that had never been used in MMOs before. It would be hard to design a world that didn't bare some resemblance to at least one game throughout history.

Off the top of my head, I would probably set it in a world that was kind of like perpetual 1920's London. Graphics would be very artsy-fartsy; not realistic at all, but not necessarily "cartoony." Maybe like a sketch-book come to life, with different art styles for different things. Cool looking, but not tough on the system.

I would only include a handful of races and a handful of classes, but make it so that each race played each class completely different from another race or class. Your skills would be unique for every combo you could make. And no changing classes.

Other than that, there would be no "magic" or "potions" or dragons. But no comic book stuff either. I would have to come up with original lore and lingo.

I'm not sure.

[Zamphire]

Re: If you could design a MMORPG...

My perfect MMO, this is mainly a colabaration of many other MMOs.

-Linkable items (Everquest)
-Changeable Jobs (FFXI)
-Extensive houseing (DaoC)
-Auction House System world wide connected. (FFXI Sorta)
-A zone maybe called The Bazaar where players could put stuff up for sale on their bazaar tax free with a in zone search option to search the available bazaars (Everquest)
-A Battle system like FFXI in that we have skill chains and magic bursts
-Instanced EXP Dungeons (Everquest). Imagine a tarutaru Knight standing outside a cave, you walk up to him and he asks you to rescue his partner lost inside the cave. You get together a group and zone into the cave. When you zone in the zone is created for you and your group only is in there. The dungeon is filled with mobs that will con low IT to you and you have to fight your way to the end to rescue so and so. If all members hp remains at 0 for 3min your booted
-Instanced Endgame function. I really like dynmais, just wish it was instanced.
-Customizable characters to the extend of EQ2, you can customize the shape of their eyebrow for god sakes!
-Auto Translator Funtion
-Capability to play cross platform and release a version for every current gen platform available.
-A fucking windower for PC version
-Visable GM patrols. Maybe 5 per server? Walk around the more popular areas etc.
-Expensive but very useful mounts. I.E. Hard to obtain, but very worth it, a status symbol.
-Very little teleporting spells. One of the things I liked about the original EQ (before all the expansions) was that travel seemed so real. You had to wait almost an hour for the damn ship to travel between continents and you could fall off the boat and be eaten by sharks. While this was an inconvience it added to the realism of the game. I say put 1-2 teleport locations per continent.
-An escape spell useable ANYWHERE, not just dungeons >.>
-Agro system like FF. I always like the unuiqeness of the way things agro instead of like most games where if you get close to them they are on you.
-I like having some things attuned to your character so that you can never trade it, maybe some of the rare hard to get items.
-More quested armor. A specific end-game weapon for each class that remained the best weapon you could use for that class. Not impossable to obtain like the current Relic weapons in FF, but which would take alot of time on your part. Maybe not require alot of people to get, but just camping monsters and getting items, a LONG quest that could require 50+ hours to complete.
-NMs... don't know what to do about them, I like them, but agree the competition for them sucks, but I dont want to instance them because that makes it too easy. Maybe make low respawn times on them but keep the drop rate simi low.

[ValisOfValefor]

Re: If you could design a MMORPG...

My MMORPG would be like PSO - the hacking which screwed up the game.

And I'd probably try for a more interresting gameplay. (cause after awhile things started to get boring )

[Neomage]

Re: If you could design a MMORPG...

My MMO...

The fighting system would not be as simplified as FFXI, but not as advanced as standard fighter type games. Probably something similar to Tales of Symphonia, but a little more first-person and advances. and like ToS, there would be no Skillchains or Magic Bursts but instead ability and spell fusions.

Choice-based storyline. Perhaps not as in depth as FFXI(sacrifices have to be made!) but it would be similar to that star wars game where you can do whatever you want.

Following the above would be an active PvP system, but with a continuous rating system. Therefor some random guy who likes beating up kindergarteners would be able to do it, but not without consequences such as a bad reputation amoung NPCs and NPCs gossiping to other players.

An Item Status system. The major spectrums of these would be New, Blessed, Broken, and Cursed, with general statuses in between such as Worn, Refurbished and Enhanced, as well as off-spectrum attributes such as Arcane and Magical.

There will also be a clan and possibly allience system. This would allow a group of friends to create a group like a linkshell that fights monsters together for fun an profit, as well as allowing richer and larger groups to create a ranked Mercinary system. These individuals would also be able to rent Headquarters that could be acessed by all members and others with an invitation.

A larger involvement of NPCs would also be in order. Clans could recruit NPC Mercinaries or join a clan owned by NPCs. NPCs would also play a big role in PvP, especially the ranking system, as well random quests and walking around. When a shop is closed the NPCs will also go into a back room, though if you have a right reputation with particular NPCs you could go back and talk whith them and possibly even buy regular or special items.

Lastly there would be gladitorial arenas where players could go one-on-one or fight monsters viewed by a crowd and you would earn awards based on efficency, style, and preformance.

[Murphie]

Re: If you could design a MMORPG...

-Linkable items (Everquest)
-Extensive houseing (DaoC)

Both of these (especially the first) are things I'm a big fan of in other games. WoW and EQ2 have linkable items as well. It's very handy. Instead of telling people to look something up, you can say "Hey, I got [Item]", and all people have to do is click on the name or hover their mouse over it to see the stats of the item. So handy.

And I loved the housing system in DAoC.

Another thing I love is having a fully customizable User Interface. WoW does that really well, as do other games. I'm not talking about all of the various tools that you can get for your WoW interface (although some are very handy), I'm just talking about being able to change it's appearance and layout into something that really works well for you. One of my biggest frustrations with FFXI is the single chat window. It's so useless, but we make do.