This is what I am looking for in an MMO system. It may not be for you, but its what I want...
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Leveling with Free Form Ability Choices.
Im tired of the standard, you level!!!, you get (this ability that we chose to place here), go level again and use the ability we forced on you. How about we have a system where as you level, you pick what ability suits your play style from a pool of class specific abilities. This allows for a more free form system where when 2 tanks or 2 casters face off on the battlefield, who knows what abilities they will pull out their collective asses...
This system would also cater to those who solo or prefer team play tactics. Say I prefer to solo, so I would probably go for more solocentric abilities. Lets say you prefer to group, you might pick groupcentric abilities right off.
Personally, I prefer as much variation as possible from one character to another even of the same class/archetype. I believe this type of system would allow for a wide variety of character options even at low levels.
Limited Number of Hotkeys.
Obviously the total number of hotkeys available is up for debate. The idea centers around you having a variety of ability options and are limited to a select few. I like the idea of taking a character and designing what its function will be, then playing it. This also gives you the ability to design your characters theme. Say that you want to be an ice mage, you then take ice spells. Most games force you to use every spell/ability that you attain or otherwise gimp yourself.
I believe games should give players more choices. The idea of an rpg is to evolve your character and be creative. Most games allows you to evolve your character in very limited fashion.
In the end, having only 12 slots open for abilities will make each choice important.
With your first suggestion people would need to keep rerolling the same class to get the best build possible as the game changes with patches.
Mon Oct 27 2008 3:58PMpileopoop -- Dangit you stole my thunder....lol
First thing I thought of when I read this was flavor of the month build mechanics... This was tried with SWG and look what they did to that game over it!
The problem seems to be in making every possible build combination viable and I am sure once looked at closely devs realize they have 10 builds that all do the same thing so they dump and run back to the same old system we see all the time.
Mon Oct 27 2008 4:04PMDude you are almost describing Guild Wars EXACTLY. You have a main class and a secondary class, which you can change whenever you want. You are limited to 8 skills at a time, and you can use any abilities from either of your classes. The power of your abilities is based on where you put your attirbute points in the attributes your two classes give you.
Guild Wars is a very unique and fun system for character customization imo.
Mon Oct 27 2008 4:07PMFor the first point, a system like darkfall, oblivion etc would mean you dont have to reroll, just change game play.
Sort of on the second point, I'd like a game that suits my Nostromo, including key shift detection. Mapping to keys that arent already used is too much setting up, plus that would mean the gui could show your mapping properly.
Mon Oct 27 2008 4:41PM@ Pileopoop
If all abilities are viable, then people will only reroll the same class to have a diferent play style. Also, who says all choices must be static? Respec could be available allowing you to re-pick abilities.
@Balkin31
SWG is never a good choice when trying to make a point. Since one shit game exists that tried a concept, it doesnt mean the concept is poor, it means that game is shit.
@Abrahmmm
Guild wars is pretty close to this concept except that it doesnt feel like an mmorpg to me. I want an open world to PvP in and not simply an arena. If you could combine war with guildwars, that would be more what im asking for.
Mon Oct 27 2008 5:01PMYes, the instancing in Guild Wars is one of its major downfalls. Perhaps Guild Wars 2 will be what you are looking for. I don't know a lot of details about it, but I would assume it will be a lot like the current Guild Wars, except I know they want to make it more open world.
Mon Oct 27 2008 5:03PMThey call this game Ryzom. Everyone gets everything, its a matter if when during your leveling that you choose what skills. Some choices are worse than others and require a little more effort to reach your end goal. Knowing the game and the skill sets is the key to this one. In addition you can change the stanza for each action you get to drain more life or sap or focus depending on the situation in which yourself IE grouped or solo etc etc... They can be changed at anytime and are instantly implemented.
Mon Oct 27 2008 5:19PM@tOnyd
Sad you missed the point, and sorry I mentioned SWG, fact is flavor of the month builds exist in EVERY game that has done this. It would indeed be a great system if this one flaw could be axed....
Tue Oct 28 2008 2:19AMFlavor of the month builds exist in EVERY game and system. Look at WoW, resto druids were the flavor of the month. SL/SL locks were before that. So are rogues. Flavor of the month isn't caused by skill systems.
Tue Oct 28 2008 12:07PMMMORPG.com writes:
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