Developers Corner

How many of you would like to see a MMO where each player has the opportunity to build up a city, similar to a Sim City game or a tycoon game?

I have a rough idea for a space setting MMO where the player can city build, develop a corporation/business, fight as a soldier in an army, and fight in a intergalactic armada. Each player would be able to do all these things and each player can have at least one city.

Do you think people would want to play such a game?

I know I am not giving many details, I am just trying to judge interest.

Not a whole lot to go on, but it sounds like an interesting idea.  I can say that I don't think anything in that description would stop me from playing

Well some more details to the idea I have in mind.

When I say city building, I literally mean a game where the player sits down and plays a game like Sim City. They have a set area of land to develop, broken into squares. The city will then grow in time, and as the player makes various decisions it will grow in various ways. Everything from what the city produces, or is likely to produce, to what the city looks like will be based on decisions of the player.

Of course in a MMO environment the time it takes to develop a city may need to be longer than a traditional Sim City like game. So the player would need multiple cities to develop and/or other things to do than the traditional Sim City like gameplay.

There can be combat, both land and space based. There can be businesses to run. There can be nations to form between players. Aliens to meet and trade with or conquer.

But it is really this city building part that I am curious about.

I gave some more details here

http://vnboards.ign.com/mmorpg_concepts_and_design_discussion_forum/b22584/104528983/p1/?5

Those sound like good ideas to me.  Can't really say anything more until I've seen the game in action.

So basically some mix of rts and a sim like sim city?

How to put the mmo in that? What benefit would you get from a MMO that could probably be done with something like an oldschool singleplayer/multiplayer-game?

How would MMO-Economy happen? Maybe all Cities affecting each other with trade? (like interconnecting cities in sim city?)

How to make the game appealing to people? If i want to build up a city ill start up sim city 4 tbh. What benefit will i get from paying you and your game?

Pvp? If yes: How? A rts-like invasion while the other player is offline would not be nice, but how to assault someone having only few time? If no: What goals for players? How to keep them in game?

Immersion? (is that written right anyways?) People in WoW see their Character, people in Eve see their Spaceships and can shoot at other players. Its quite hard to immerse with a cold spaceship, but it is probably impossible to do with a TOWN!

If you include many different aspects that may not be directly interfering with each other it will practically split the few players you will get, making it even harder to get enough players for a community.

Its basically the question how to put the mmo in a sim. It might be doable, but i see many, many problems.

You only got one thing in favour: The niche. Some people may be waiting for what you have in mind.

Some really good comments balo.

Did you check out the link?

Anyway. To address some of your issues. The player would have avatars that they develop along with a town. For example a governor character would have skills to develop that in turn help the player develop their town the way they want to. The actual avatar would be developed over time in addition to their governor's palace(or whatever).

The governor won't be alone either. They will need a network of aids to help them.

This includes diplomats which help facilitate interaction between the players. The governor's palace ends up being a kind of meeting room for diplomats and governors. Overall I think there is plenty of opportunity for RPG elements to help establish a player's connection to the game.

What the person gains from playing this sim city type of game would be a sci fi setting, a more interactive and persistant setting, and a game with options outside of just city building. In addition to just the city building choices there is a relationship to neighbors and other real people that could be developed to everyone's benefit.

PVP is a tough thing to consider. The solution I have thought of that I like the best atm is to have different rules for different planets. Essentially having a safe zone for people who do not want their city to be taken away from them as well as planets where a player's city can be taken away from them. The safe zone does not have to be PVP free. It could simply be a situation where a player's city can change hands from one military power to another while the player keeps control of the city.

The military powers at be simply get some tax revenue from the city, or maybe some access to resources. The hope is that players who do not want to PVP can avoid it or at the very least not be negatively impacted too much.

Kinda like dreamlords but in sci-fi. Check out www.dreamlords.com and se what you think about their game. It's always a good thing to check out games in the same genre before making a game. Helps you find out what to do and not to do.

would be cool also if the players dependet at eachother whith economy as in real life. and the aspect of making a city would be either hard or time consuming so ppl wont be able to make bot alike programs to build hundreds of cities and send all the cash to one place and make it overpowered.

or a game that is first person game like second life but not overdone like flying and such. and u can build buildings and open places like restaurants. which players go to so they can eat. and the idea is to ahve to go to places like that for the economic growth of the shop owner can earn from it and player can gain from the daily duties of eating and going to restrom and such.

also war could be finansed from country to country so players can go in the military and gain by it. the war would be either like battlefield or cs alike.

the countries whould have to be huge ofcourse. and there would be political parties who can gain power in the society.

the start you would have to work at a shop or a store or something in a society where u get some money and after u gain work whre u get income which is good enough to borrow from the bank etc etc.

sorry is i typed something wrong ;)