General Discussion

Originally posted by sonicsix

The OP said he didn't like to be ganked... NO ONE likes to be ganked.  Getting ganked just one time is enough to cause a great number of people to cancel accounts.  PvP is nto fun unless it is controlled and restricted by a ruleset.  If you want to allow a FFA PvP area, then set aside an area just for that reason and make it so it has no impact on the game.  Don't penalize players who do not like PvP is my point.

Using those, it might almost be acceptable to play on a PvP game.

My perfect MMO:

• Death needs to mean something again.  It really adds to the experience... makes it feel more real and less like a silly Wii game.  Back in EQ1 people were actually careful about going to new zones, and it brought a sense of excitement because you really had to explore carefully.  Also gaining (and keeping) a level felt like more of an achievement.  Also once you earned your way to higher levels, you found a greater percentage of people actually knew what they were doing.
• There should be a distinct benefit to grouping.  Not to say you can't do almost everything solo, but grouping (provided you work well together) should ALWAYS be a better and faster.
• RvR.  Maybe not in the exact sense of what RvR is today, but some form of controlled PvP that makes some real life sense (not just arbitrary game rules).  Basically take the random murder/ganking out, but still a meaningful PvP - human opponents are so much more interesting than any AI (especially a MMO AI).
• More storyline/multi-step quests.  Ideally quests that are a little open-ended... you can take many paths to accomplish the goal (some paths that of course don't work of course, otherwise those paths would have little meaning).  And although the quests should be cryptic, they should not hold your hand completely... giving me a waypoint and highlighting the thing I need to attack, then giving me another map point to where I need to return to... that's not a quest, that's a mail delivery service... make me think.
• Dynamic game.  Everyone says 'dynamic' but what I mean by dynamic is that your actions have an actual impact on the world (at the minimum from your avatar's perspective).  Once I complete a mission to clear out a cave of a goblin group and their king, they should be gone from the cave for a very, very long time.  I shouldn't be killing the same boss 6 times so everyone in my group can get that special drop.
• Make combat strategic and interesting.  I'm not saying twich combat, but something more than click auto attack and occasionally click certain skills.  Once you get the basics down, every single fight is the same... boring.
• And lastly, don't make the 'End-Game' the GAME.  Like WoW... it's a race to level 70 so you can begin the game.  Or Eve (don't want to pick on WoW all the time... and I actually like Eve, it was a good effort), where you need to dedicate a solid 3 months of time just to be vaguely competitive.  The game should start immediately after the how-to-play tutorial.  Back to EQ1, each level (we'll say past level 5) was part of the game. 

I´m a really picky when it comes to choosing an mmorpg if it doesn´t have what i´m looking for I stop playing it pretty quick...

My ideal mmo would be:

TOTAL AND COMPLETE CUSTOMIZATION...yea i´m talking about 100% customization...for me looks is a big deal in mmos, for example..I get a really cool looking armor set then look to my left and see another guy with the same armor...most mmos have tryed to avoid this with dyes......yah like that would make a difference...I want an mmo where you decide exactly and precicly where you want an armor piece to go like on the leg or the hand etc. and none of that leg, head, chest piece crap I want it so that no plkayer looks alike and also add more type of armor like shoulder pad or something I dont care as long as no player looks alike.(I´m just gonna stop right there cuase I can go on and on typing about this)

another thing is the story line...I agree with most people on this post but my ideal story line is the one where depending on the exact choice your character takes will depend on the outcome of his/her adventure...

there was another poster around here that talked about rare items...I totally agree I mean its like with the armor thing....for example

"hey look I got a black blade of darkness which is super rare!!!"

"me too!!!"

"........."

and thats pretty annoying, an idea of mine for this situation would be that there should be unique and super rare items in the game that are almost impposible to get and that there should be only one in the entire game....Well I know what your thinking that would be pretty stupid and gay and other players would get jealous...I know but thats why there should be thousands of unique items, also there almost impposible to get so they wont go quickly...also Its anothyer way to distinguish really good players like "hey look there goes that guy with the oblivion sword" or something like that, well you get the idea.

umm...I was gonna type more but I got carried away and forgot....whatever ill write later

to be cont.

- Lifelike mob AI. Carnivores hunting herbivores. Mobs should move around dynamically and not respawn at the some spot.
- Skillbased.
- A setting that's not just another Tolkienesque world. It can be Sci-fi, but there are still fantasy themes out there that aren't as overused as the dwarf/elf/dragon thing (maybe something like Princess Mononoke, Nausicaä, ICO/Shadow of the Colossus, etc)
- Non-combat gameplay: deep crafting/diplomacy.
- Volountary PVP, castle sieges, clan wars.
- A pretty world you want to hang out in, built for normal or even low end computers.

Originally posted by Cephus404

 

Originally posted by sonicsix

The OP said he didn't like to be ganked... NO ONE likes to be ganked.  Getting ganked just one time is enough to cause a great number of people to cancel accounts.  PvP is nto fun unless it is controlled and restricted by a ruleset.  If you want to allow a FFA PvP area, then set aside an area just for that reason and make it so it has no impact on the game.  Don't penalize players who do not like PvP is my point.

I agree entirely.  I think all games really need two rules regarding PvP.  First, you should be able to set yourself un-PVP-able.  That means you cannot attack another player and no one can attack you.  It should be difficult to reset this setting so that it cannot be done on the fly in the field.  Secondly, in a system where there are levels, it should not be possible to attack or be attacked by another player which is not within 3 levels of your own.  It stops the PvPers from going out and picking on lower-level characters for shits and giggles.

 

Using those, it might almost be acceptable to play on a PvP game.

The problem with systems like this is they get abused by players. I think PvP should either be FFA or instanced (but not like CTF and Territory capturing) I do think players should be seperated by levels, maybe 5 instead of 3 or 10.

Character appearance customization of CoH.  This also means my gear does not dictate my appearance, you get several costume slots, and that additional costume pieces can be earned through gameplay. 

Combat of CoH -- no auto attack.  Every attack should be deliberate, meaningful and have a cost.

RvR of DAoC, only more meaningful in terms of individual rewards and also overall world gameplay.  (This also means PvP is restricted to certain areas.)

Hybrid class/skill system with skill trees.  Not linear trees -- broad trees with many branches and options, but still a progression so that you have to specialize to get to certain powerful abilities.

I don't care about housing.  Not at launch, anyway.

I don't care about crafting, but if the game has it, I like it simple.  Collect and combine.  No tedious, repetitive clickfest.  No mining, gathering, harvesting, farming, or flower-picking.  Rare ingredients can be mob drops.

Grouping is more effective, more efficient, and more rewarding than solo play.  Solo play is always available, but always inferior to grouping.

No such thing as raiding.  (Surprise attacks from Giant Monsters, yes ... see below.)

No endgame.  If you max out, you can reroll.  Along with this feature comes the stipulation that there must be enough content at ALL levels to go through the game multiple times without repeating anything.

A big, big world (required for the previous point), but also the ability to travel quickly when needed, available at a fairly low level.

Instances for some big important quests, but the instance mechanic should not be overused.

Giant Monster code from CoH, where characters of all levels can gang up against a common threat.

Some death penalty, but not  level loss.  Debt is fine with me, or even loss of a "survival buff."

The sidekick/exemplar mechanism of CoH.  Others have copied this, but none have been as good at it.

Lots of emotes and animations, and special effects that actually indicate what is happening, rather than having to look at a stupid buff/debuff window.

Originally posted by Hexxeity

No endgame.  If you max out, you can reroll.  Along with this feature comes the stipulation that there must be enough content at ALL levels to go through the game multiple times without repeating anything.

I personally think this is a bad idea. People will get tired of it much too quickly. There should absolutely be endgame. It doesn't have to be anything like the endgame in current MMOs though.

Originally posted by Master_Razor

Originally posted by Hexxeity

No endgame.  If you max out, you can reroll.  Along with this feature comes the stipulation that there must be enough content at ALL levels to go through the game multiple times without repeating anything.

I personally think this is a bad idea. People will get tired of it much too quickly. There should absolutely be endgame. It doesn't have to be anything like the endgame in current MMOs though.

In my opinion, if you can do everything in the game with one character and have nothing left to do and no way to advance before the next content update or expansion comes out and your only option to keep playing is to reroll, that MMORPG is a failure. It really is nothing more than an online single player game, not a virtual world, like MMORPG's are supposed to be.