Does anyone agree with me when I think of the mechanics of this game and look at all the other hot mmos out there, and find there is a big difference between them? Most people are trying to find the perfect game but find just small fractures of what they look for. When people played shadowbane back in the day, people were amazed by it, and loved it, but it got outdated.  I think shadowbane's mechanics were genius and revolutionary, yet no one seems to implement them into their games.  Every big corporation seems to take the safe route and make the game just another cliche fantasy mmorpg.  Lets push the outdated graphics engine aside and look at what brilliant ideas aren't being used today.

Things to keep in this game for future developers:

Player buildings.  This game capitolized this category, and I've never seen any other game do this so well.  Sure, of course there are ways to modernize it and make it much better, like improve the vast list of things and styles you can create.  Some people may say, but Oben, what about the city cap!  With a mainstream and a well funded game, this can easily be achieved with just creating a bigger landscape and adding more servers.  With great marketing strategies, like blizzard does so well, you can easily get the hype, and the player base to fill this landscape and make a great game.  Some people may say "But what about the lag?  Shadowbane had tons of lag due to the concurrent sieging and cities in this giant server."  Easy, split the server into multiple quadrants of servers, sort of like how World of warcraft's two continents are.

More intelligent, more use of skill, more customizable class.

This is one of the most dissapointing aspects of the mainstream games today.  None is even comparable to how customizable a character class was in shadowbane.  When I say customizable, I don't mean how many hair styles there are to choose from or how tall the character is (Although it's a nice addition, but it is an unnecessary bonus, cause no one really cares).  Shadowbane's characters can almost do anything you wanted to, even though it might be the most gimp character, you CAN do it (dwarf barb dual throwing daggers, this shout out is to you guys).  Different starting runes you can select to add bonuses, you add your stat points unlike most games today where stat points are automatically distributed according to your class and race,  You choose what spells to level, and what spells to not.  There's just so many options a character can choose to achieve his own template of what an awesome character can be.  Now why aren't there any games with this option?  My guess is that it is not user friendly and will stray people away.  Ok, reasonable, but a very lazy excuse.  Here's an easy way to counteract this problem: Add more hints onto what a beginning player do.  Give the player an option to follow a predesigned starting template for his class.  Then, give the option to have the player try to design his own template, whether it was creating a new character, or wiping his traits for a fee or a quest.  But please developers, this is my shout out to you guys, please revert back to shadowbane's old ways of customizable traits, stats, spells, etc.

Less leveling, player killing, and less of a safe game...

What I positively absolutely can't stand are these games trying to appeal to EVERYONE.  It's not possible, so please, stop.  Concentraite on what makes the game fun, not what can other people find fun in it.  An awesome thing I felt was how short leveling took to get a character able to help in city defense, or just pvp.  On top of that, anyone can be killed, cities can be attacked, it was just a very large cooperation of people, on top of this, there are no factions.  All the factions were player controlled and created by nation alliances.  Everyone was on their own from the start and choose to do whatever they want, whenever they want.  If they wanted to go good and then suddenly change to the bad side, they can.  It created an AMAZING story, and excellent role play.  I have not seen one game that can challenge shadowbane's roleplaying. A person had to realize that his actions can come with consequences, including his speech, if a person insults someone, then that player has a right to kick some ass!  No matter what team they are on.

I'm sure I'm leaving out plenty of great information, but this isn't a review, it's just a challenge, for future developers.

I have to agree, newer developers should look at older successful games like shadowbane and try to use the information to create a newer more solid and satisfying mmorpg.

I still aply shadowbane though, can't beat the pvp in this game.

100% agree.

Shadowbane is the most revolutionary MMO out there, and it's 5 years old.

Everyone complains about modern WoW clones. I'd love to see a Shadowbane clone.

Sadly, the lack of success that Shadowbane has had scares away developers.

I miss how adventurous this game was... I remember getting a Seed of Life for a city and trying to escape a marauding group of players, seed in hand. Ultimately thrilling.. I eventually got away.

One of my favorite small details of this game... not being able to shout because you sprinted and wasted all your energy, so incredible. "General Chat" is something that bugs the shit out of me in most games.. I usually don't mind it, but it takes away from the game too much when someone is talking about beer and you are trying to assassinate a player.

AGREE AGREE AGREE

Developers can learn so much from this game, lets hope some games in develpment now look at the concepts and mechanics that made Shadowbane successful.

www.straybulletgames.com

They are working on another game, just be patient.

Originally posted by Tvveaker

www.straybulletgames.com

 

They are working on another game, just be patient.

They aren't making very good progress on this game. its been 2 years and still no screenshots.

Originally posted by ghoul31

Originally posted by Tvveaker

www.straybulletgames.com

 

They are working on another game, just be patient.

 

They aren't making very good progress on this game. its been 2 years and still no screenshots.

 

It won't be Shadowbane 2 either. They've learned from their mistakes. One of which was releasing too much information too early and not being able to deliver.

Originally posted by zymurgeist

 

It won't be Shadowbane 2 either. They've learned from their mistakes. One of which was releasing too much information too early and not being able to deliver.

At this pace its shaping up to be Darkfall 2

I like this thread. Its positive, inspiring and stands against all the unimaginative mmos that are getting churned out. I never actually played Shadowbane but I wish I had. I would love to see a game get made that allows you to properly interact with the other players in a meaningful way rather than just allowing you to play what is effectively just a single player co-operative game with them.

So far everyone agrees with the OP. I wonder when the nay saying troll will turn up?

Originally posted by neonwire

I never actually played Shadowbane but I wish I had.

You can still play it. its free to play

Originally posted by ghoul31

Originally posted by Tvveaker

www.straybulletgames.com

 

They are working on another game, just be patient.

 

They aren't making very good progress on this game. its been 2 years and still no screenshots.

 

is that your "expert" opinion, there? Blizzard had been working on WoW for over 4 years before there was even any mention of their game.
 

Originally posted by Puuk

Originally posted by ghoul31

 

They aren't making very good progress on this game. its been 2 years and still no screenshots.

 

is that your "expert" opinion, there? Blizzard had been working on WoW for over 4 years before there was even any mention of their game.
 

Where did you get that info? WOW only took 4 years to make. And they had screenshots within a year.

All you need is love. Errr, I mean money.

Originally posted by neonwire

" I would love to see a game get made that allows you to properly interact with the other players in a meaningful way rather than just allowing you to play what is effectively just a single player co-operative game with them. "

I agree. I mean no one likes losing. In order for there to be a winner there is always has to be some losers. Personally i think losing just makes the game more intresting. Because it gives you something to strive for. We need enemys. A real one is so much better than a lvl 123 Badthing.

Maybe Shadowbane and its spawn should market to people who are not yet MMO gamers. Seeing as how the majority of MMO gamers play to win in a carebear fashion. I mean RPG players play to win, with no real possiblitiy of losing. The role play bit is how you go about winning.

In order for this game to succeed they need to go beyond simple Hit point, armor, %, statistic accounting type of a game. They need to be more dynamic in the way avatars can effect one another. The numbers need to be there, but we shouldn't need to analyse raw data and from it figure out what to do. Push all that numerical data way into the background, until it is barely noticeable.

I support this thread. Shadowbane city building, and character customization is one of the best i've ever seen.

I disagree on the PvP aspect though.

I think shadowbanes world, its city building, with Warhammers collision detection, and spells/abilities that take advantage of the collision detection, with the skill building of UO and no levels would be the perfect PvP game.

Ooh, and tone down the SB gear, make lots of sets look different, but not so impacting on the peoples ability to compete. Even a farmer with a spade should have a chance at crushing some skulls.

Ya, maybe throw in some resource building like cities. For farms, and live stock. And add specific skills that have to be built and maintained inorder to take advantage of those resources, and make them required to maintain the city so even those who choose not to fight as a career can help support the warriors who do.

Nevermind, i guess there isn't much left of shadowbane with my idea....

Developers get confused by this game. Their thoughts get fuzzy when there are no quests or !  and ?  above any of the NPC heads.

Monkeys built Shadowbanes engine (yea, very harsh statement).  The good thing was, the monkeys never caved in to the carebears.

Imagine if a real development company built Shadowbane and stayed with the concept, like the monkeys did.  It would be a WoW killer!

or not. 

If you like Shadowbane you should take a look at Darkfall it will have beta in not too long.