Developers Corner

chaos is good in a mmorpg, and really.. players never really die in a mmorpg. They keep coming back for more.

and you know reaching the highest hieghts, unlocking that magically trapped chest and opening that door are all part of the game..

you still need to collect the spells in order to do these things.

the challenge is not to kill monsters and level up, its to collect spells ( what else do wizards do, really?), and thus the spirit of the game is for all these up and coming mages to explore the world where 100% of the content will always apply, since there arent any classes or levels.

the point of being a wizard in the first place is to be able to acccomplish seemingly impossible things.. like flying. Thats not to say that it doesnt have limitations. who is to say that you can hold the flight spell active and still be able to attack... on top of that, the fireball spell you get will always be just that. theres no level 2 fireball to get. theres no crazy stat grinder that prevents you from being hurt by a simple fireball either.

spells are just tools a wizard uses to play the game. the toolset might be packing a potential of 500 different spells to collect, but you cant launch all 500 at the same time. Nor do any of the 500 spells overwrite themselves. There is no fireball 2, but there might be a modified version of the fireball you prefer, same overall power, where you like it best.

the gameplay then is collecting spells and equipment, and modifying those spells and equipment to your liking given that each is limited in some fashion. No more are you stuck in a class or spec that you cant excape... you can spend as much time as you want customizing your player to exactly how you want them to play.

100% content for every player(everyone can collect all the spells, and more can be added all the time), content never gets old ( unlike level based games, anything can happen anywhere), pvp is always balanced, and literally with magic, the sky is the limit..

even a wish spell to get an item is possible.. but what would the cost of casting such a spell be?

i dont really want to discuss spells because that forces classes again, so i would keep it open ended on spells, but i would limit the number of spells that can be memorized to 10 at any time, and you can only change your spells with your grimoire which is in your tower.. which isnt a big deal if you have teleport.. of course then you only have 9 spells to choose from dont you.

Originally posted by rungard

heres how death will be handled:

the basis of wizard online is that in order to become a wizard, you first have to be an immortal. Sort of like highlander without the head chop part. You can still die, but youll always come back. This is an advantage all wizards have over the "average joe's".

how you come back of course depends on your spells. There is no death penalty other than time to get yourself back in action which can be carried out a number of ways.

1) you can control one of your minions to bring the body back to your tower, where you will be regenerated. This is the default method. Theres no bind points or naked corpse recoveries. You simply control your minion to go out and retrieve your corpse. There are many types of minions in the game, the default minion being a stealthy type.

2) if you have the spells, you can have your corpse automatically transported to the tower on death. This doesnt work for every location of course.

3) if you have the spells you can pop back up where you lay, invisible for a short time.

4) other players, if they have the spells, can ressurect you or transport you to your tower.

5) if you wait long enough ( 1 real day) you will automatically come back to life, thats not to say thought that you wont just die again where you just died. Its all part of being an immortal.

rather than use penalties, i believe it would be preferable to use gameplay as pert of the death mechanic. Perform your own recoveries, or search out the spells so you dont have to.

 

 

 

I agree with the article DrShiZay posted. I think that magic is nessacary in a fantasy MMO, but it shouldn't be overdone. It should be presented as a means of using a directed-energy weapon, except without the weapon. Basically just archery with energy instead of arrows.

I think the main issue some of you guys have is that you base everything on combat. This is typical of any mmorpg.

Magic in this game means fluff. Fluff creates depth of gameplay.

you can collect as many or as few of the spells available as you wish. So can everyone else. 

whats the point of being a wizard if all i can do is blow things up? That seems like an extremely boring game i wouldnt want to play.   

I disagree, as I said previously it's only a design choice and I respect yours. The thing to understand here, is that it will not be easy at all to to create a world full of magic. Without solid rules and a really deep understanding of game mechanisms, you will end up with a broken game. As long as balance is important to you, my advice is to set these precise rules beforehand.

I find it easy to write these rules for physical combat because I have a lot more experience in this field, and to be honest, this is natural because we do not live in a magical world. It will easier for me or others to get into the game, because I will respect these subconscious rules. Take a look at Magic the gathering for example, you know how difficult it is to keep the game balanced, but not stale, keeping it fresh with new cards (same goes for Guild Wars, with its ever changing metagame).

At first they created cards which combined, means that you could never lose unless your opponent played the same cards. It is even possible to win the game at turn 0, on your first turn without your opponent being able to react. Those cards got restricted or banned. While it is unlikely that this will happen in an mmo, this illustrates the fact that without a solid basis of gameplay and rules, you will easily add broken things into the game for its own doom. Magic tends to allow you to do anything you wish, and certainly with a cost, but sometimes it is not possible to adjust the costs because the effects are simply too crazy in certain combinations.

That's why I prefer to see magic as a way to add some fantasy to a game. I have to say that it goes far beyond the realm of combat alone, but also economy (fast travel, unlimited transport capacity, easy farming - what other class than mage is a farming machine in all games ?). Worst, it can allow characters to be completely autonome. That may not be a good thing for a mmo to have people not playing with each other, because they don't need to rely on eachother to begin with. This is a delicate subject, and I will not go further in this direction but this can happen. In the end, I just hope that you realise why we think that magic should stay limited (I mean carefully balanced) in any shape or form in a game.

I believe the trick to using magic in a mmo is to make sure everyone has access to it. Once youve achieved that ( which is why its based on players being immortal wizards, who are naturally powerful), then you have a level play field.

in a game based on an unlocking mode for advancement, you will always advance radially, and not linearly.

earning the 'magic shovel" spell will certainly help you dig a hole if necessary.. but will it make you more powerful in combat? probabally not. The same goes for the magic key, night vision, and probabally 400 of the 500 spells available.

Power should be what you can do, not what you can kill. That paradigm needs to change in mmos. 

people are far to consumed at things like levelling and exp points and how fast they can level compared to their "competitors", that they forget that the fun parts of a mmo really have nothing to do with any of these things. 

if you look at any mmo, you will notice that the fun aspects have always been the aquiring of new things for your character. This model just takes that to the next levels, and leaves out all the parts that have been designed to "keep you playing longer by slowing you down". I say developers shoot their feet off by doing this because mmo's arent linear by their very nature.

Really good answer, magic isn't what you can kill but what you can do. However this is exactly what my last point was about. If you can do it all by yourself, you should as well play a standard rpg not an mmorpg. If I can magically conjure a shovel, it means that the poor guy working at making shovels will not be of much use, since everyone has access to magic. Inderdependance of characters is one of the things making mmorpgs what they are, that's why most games use classes. Don't get me wrong, I don't like classes much but they have their advantages.

About the fact that people play to get loot, or to reach the max level faster than others, I think that this is true for a minority only. Each player plays the game like he wants, that's not the designers' fault if people play like they do. I can understand that getting away from this behavior is more than desirable, but still, it is really hard to reward players for all things they do that enhance the gaming experience of others. The paradigme is here playing for oneself or acknowledge that other players matter as well. This is the very basis that needs to be worked on, in order to change mentalities : collaborative gameplay.

it is , however the designers fault if they make the games rewards the result of poor behavior. Fast levelling is rewarded in all mmorpgs.

it is also a designers fault if they show players a linear start and finish, and then wonder why players race to get there.  Linear design might be great for rpgs, but for a persistant world, linear infers the game has an end. Radial design is the only way to ensure players never feel like there is an end.

it is also a designers fault if they use level based gameplay and 95% of their game is obsolete after 1 month of play. After all once youve done level 1, theres no point in doing it again, neither can the content be changed in that area because its tailored to a level 1. Content in my game would be based on the server average of power. i.e the average number of spells a player has to work with, not a predefined level based formula. This game would be for veterans of mmos, not new players. I am certain there are >500,000 wizard wannabees out there.

now i fully agree on the teamwork aspect. That is why while any player can have all the spells, they cannot use them all at the same time. You only have 10 slots, and you can only change spells in your tower at your grimoire (book of spells).  you can do it all, but you cant do it all right now.

secondly there are other ways to promote teamwork rather than grouping and class mechanisms.

after all 2 shovel spells are better than 1. It would be my plan to ensure that most spells have an interactive nature such that multiple wizards could combine effects to produce greater effects and even new spells.

i would have it so up to 3 players ( more than 3 players is inhibiting overall imo) can add spell effects together to create superadditive effects.

no need to "group up". just learn to play together. Or not. your choice.

Originally posted by rungard

it is , however the designers fault if they make the games rewards the result of poor behavior. Fast levelling is rewarded in all mmorpgs.

I have to disagree again. There is no DM in mmos, so how can you reward someone who roleplays ? Tell me please...

it is also a designers fault if they show players a linear start and finish, and then wonder why players race to get there.  Linear design might be great for rpgs, but for a persistant world, linear infers the game has an end. Radial design is the only way to ensure players never feel like there is an end.

I think that most games are linear because it makes them that much simple to get into. Guess why WoW is where it is now ? While I agree that non-linear progression is more enjoyable for some of us, it is still a fact that it doesn't appeal to all players, even more so for newcomers. Anyway the fact that it ends at some point sucks, you're right.

it is also a designers fault if they use level based gameplay and 95% of their game is obsolete after 1 month of play. After all once youve done level 1, theres no point in doing it again, neither can the content be changed in that area because its tailored to a level 1. Content in my game would be based on the server average of power. i.e the average number of spells a player has to work with, not a predefined level based formula. This game would be for veterans of mmos, not new players. I am certain there are >500,000 wizard wannabees out there.

I disagree here too. A game based on content ends when there is no more conte