Okay, so everyone has their own idea of what the perfect MMO would be like. I thought I’d take a stab at describing the various features of the MMO I’ve always dreamed someone would make. I’m curious to discover what people think about some of these points.

1. Skill Based – I’ve never been a fan of the Class System. Personally I like to mix and match my skills and abilities to try and create something new and different. These types of games are harder to balance, of course, but more interesting to play because if they’re done correctly you encounter so many different types of character.

2. Rapid Progression – This may sound odd to some people, but the part I hate about nearly every MMO is how much time I have to spend working, grinding, or doing silly quests before my stats are good enough to participate in the parts of the game I like. I envision a system where you reach your highest “level” of power very quickly but as you continue to play the game you can unlock more options which you can use by surrendering some of your older skills.

3. Game Control – Personally I like the third person perspective for an RPG, but I prefer the FPS game play style. A control style similar to Mass Effect but with a better system for selecting and using “special powers” would be great.

4. Crafting – I want a crafting system that allows me to mix and match various pieces, parts, and colors to create a wide variety of appearances in clothes, armor, weapons, structures, furniture, ships, and siege equipment. I’d also like to keep all the various types of equipment viable throughout the duration of the game. Light armor should be as good or better for some character builds as heavy armor, meaning that there is always a market even for the earlier items in the construction tree.

Speaking of which, I’d prefer to see a situation where the lower levels of one crafting skill tree exclusively produce components needed in the higher end recipes of a different crafting skill tree. This way the low level crafter has a market for at least some of the items he is able to produce.

5. Gathering – I never really liked gathering. I do, however, like exploring and finding new gathering nodes. I’d like to reserve individual player gathering strictly for rare, high end resources and use an automatic gathering system for more generic crafting materials. Personally I loved the gathering system they had in SWG. Being able to track a resource across the map and then plop down a machine that would do the gathering for me was great. While I don’t want to replicate this system entirely, I think that getting wood would be more interesting if it involved building a lumber mill and finding NPC’s to staff it rather than having to go from tree to tree with an axe myself.

6. Buying/Selling – I like localized markets and want to see more of them in a game. Auction houses and vendors that sell player goods are great, but being able to turn a profit from buying low in one region, transporting goods across a dangerous map, then selling high in another region should be a viable play style. This type of trade play only works, however if you have a local banking and selling system. The closest thing I can point to that uses a system like this would be EVE.

7. City Building – Scattered throughout my game world would be four types of zones where buildings could be placed.

The largest would be the “city” zone, which could host impressive defensive structures, many crafting structures, banking and trade structures, ports and stables where mounts and ships could be activated, and many types of houses.

The next zone would be the “village” zone, which would allow for the placement of some houses, gathering structures, and a few small defensive structures. Although any guild could control a village zone, every zone would also be associated with a “city” zone. For more information about this, see my siege system below.

The third building zone is the “Border Fortress” zone which would support defensive structures and the largest binding/respawn points.

The final zone type is the “hermitage” zone, which would allow for the building of small cabins, isolated wizard towers, and other little get-aways that add flavor to the play experience.

8. PvP – This game would be a full-loot, slightly limited PvP game. While there would be unrestricted PvP over most of the map, there would be a few NPC cities (particularly starter cities) where no PvP would be allowed. In the majority of the world PvP would be governed by an alignment system that would flag individuals as either “ally” “neutral” “aggressive” or “enemy”.

Allies would include anyone in your party or guild as well as anyone in allied guilds or their parties. This flag would be represented by a green name and would supersede all other flags in the game. There is no alignment gain or loss for attacking an ally, looting his corpse, or stealing his property/kills.

Enemies would be any player of an unfriendly race, anyone in a guild you were at war with, anyone in a guild that has members of an enemy race, anyone who has a right to attack you on sight, or anyone with a negative alignment. The enemy flag supersedes all other flags except ally. Killing someone with an enemy flag would give a slight boost to a person’s alignment, but such a gain can only happen once over a set period of time. There is no alignment penalty for stealing from or looting an enemy. NPC’s who are neutral or allied to you will either kill or flee from those flagged as enemies to you, depending on their function.

Aggressive flagged players are players who have positive alignment but have recently committed some action that might reduce their alignment, such as attacking, looting, or stealing from a character neutral to them. The aggressive flag functions exactly like the enemy flag except that it is only temporary. Initially the flag only lasts ten seconds, but if the player continues to commit acts that reduce alignment, the flag will last exponentially longer. If the aggressive player commits enough acts to reduce his alignment into the negatives, then he will become flagged as an enemy.

Neutral characters are characters with positive alignment that are not in an enemy guild/race.

9. The Siege System – During the twelve hours that represent a region’s peak play time, there would be four standard cycles where property could change hands. Each cycle would consist of a two hour battle period where the property can change hands, and a one hour consolidation period where structures could no longer be damaged and control could no longer be changed. During the battle periods, any “border fortress” or “village” could be attacked by any guild.

If a city controlling guild and its allies lost control of all of the city’s associated villages and couldn’t re-establish control of at least one of them in the next battle phase, then the city would be attackable as well. The city would remain attackable in each battle phase until a guild managed to win and hold the city and at least one of its villages through the end of the next battle phase.

Controlling cities and villages, it should be noted, does not change the ownership of houses within. If a guild is booted from a piece of property, then it looses access to all the resource gathering structures, communal bind/respawn points, tax revenue, and group structures, but if members of that guild also own homes in the city, then the houses technically remains in their possession until they choose to surrender the properties.

10. Quests – Most of the quests in the game would send the players into new places where they could find valuable resources or unlock new skills. Other quests would function as tutorials for advanced game mechanics such as crafting. These quests would be designed so that it makes sense to continually send people on them (think of the rite of passage hunter quests from WoW). Finally, guilds that control cities and villages would be able to post their own quests and rewards at message boards or inns (think wanted posters or personal ads).

TLDR – I just described the features of my dream MMO. What features would you include in your dream MMO?
 

Nobody?  Really?  :(

Hey Gundam,

People won't read something that is very long. I've done that mistake myself, I read yours out of respect for the time you took to write it. I've done this myself and people just won't read it. I like a lot of your features.

1) I agree, i'd also add prestige classes that take time to reach but then lock your character in that skill set but open up specialized skills. This way you can customize or be general but prestige classes are great.

2) Rapid progression - the problem with this is that it sort of makes the early game useless, games like WoW have, in essence, mini-raids, as you level up. THe group quests fucntion as that. I actually like games that take awhile in a sense. Not like Lineage 2 long but more like 4 months to make level if you play 30-40 hours a week. I like EVE's setup but if yu start new you always can't wait to the skill to finish, they should make the skill progression 5-10% faster in my opinion but that's just me.

3) I have only exp with 3rd point of view but i've never really tried 1st pov.

4) I love your crafting system especially the lower levels lead to higher level components.

5) Agreed with your point here. No one has really explored the "exploration" aspect

6) 100% agree, i played EVE for 2 years and it soured me on any game . . .

7) I've never played a gmae with houses, i just tried SWG galaxy and i've yet to purchase a house but i have a feeling that it is going to be just a novelty and it gets hold quickly. But let me purchase a house and see i guess.

8) Full loot is a problem unless items don't mean much. I uesd to play diablo 2 hardcore and pk/duel legitimately adn i would not be amicable to a full-loot system. At least in diablo 2 hc it wouldnt' take so long to get your stuff back but in an MMO it may take days/weeks/months based on how item-grindy it is.

10) You know my most favorite quest of all time was the level 40 character spec class in Lineage 2 = I think it took me like 8 hours to complete but my god was there a feeling of accomplishment. Not that all quests should be like that, but the importnat ones yes, i just had go x kill Y mob and collect Z crap and come back. It's a nice way to grind, but other quests may also be nice. PvP quests would be bloody fantastic.

11) Sieging is tough, i played lineage 2 and i just felt the siege system was important but it's hard to feel the benefits of a castle in lineage 2 as someone who isn't involved in the leadership aspect. I could see sieging being important strategically but it's also i found it annoying to always feel the need to stop what you are doing and waste massive amounts of time in a siege. Some people like it, but i can see how it could be annoying.

You summed up everything I like:
- I'd like to add SWG style mounts and customization but I have a few new ideas.

1) Make quest building a feature in teh game and a profession
2) Make a spell builder module as a character profession
3) Make random skills be a findable item and super rare.
4) Make exploration mean something

Cryomatrix

I still say 3 to 4 months is too long to reach a competative end-game level.  Especially if most of that time is being spent grinding or performing get x from y and take to z quests.  The character progression should be designed to teach players how to use the skills they have, and once they know the use of those skills, to add the next set in quickly.

In a game that's primairly about raiding for high end gear, I share your thoughts on full loot, but I'd rather have a game in which the "highest level" gear only gave a slight bonus over the basic equipment.  Full loot allows players to attempt to actually influence the flow of resources for political or strategic reasons, and putting that kind fo tool in the player's hand is far more important to me than putting an "epic" weapon in the game.

Houses are a novelty, but they've always been one I enjoyed.  In the old SWG, they served an important function as shops as well, but they certainly weren't necessary for that.  Cities, however, I think should be far more important than they have been in other RPG's.  Controlling cities and villages should be the primary avenue for gaining select bulk resources and income for large guilds.  They should be prizes that are worth the effort and cost of fighting over.  What would be even better is if the various cities didn't all have access to the exact same resources, meaning that guilds would have even more incentive to conduct raids, engage in trade and diplomacy, and go to war.

I agree that the old SWG had a great crafting system.  I don't know what it looks like now, but back when I first started playing, it was nearly perfect.  I also like your comments about adding a quest builder and a spell builder.  I think those are great ideas and should be included.

I'd still say, a very simple recipe for making my ultimate mmorpg is:

1. Add FREEDOM (of choice)

1. Add CREDIBILITY to that freedom (so it makes sense). This will of course be restricting, but that in itself adds challenge and a way to improve.

That means you could do anything, within it making sense.

And yea unfortunately your OP is too long, I didn't read it myself. I made a similar one some time ago, but didn't get much response and I realised it was to long.

Originally posted by Cryomatrix

Hey Gundam,

People won't read something that is very long. I've done that mistake myself, I read yours out of respect for the time you took to write it. I've done this myself and people just won't read it. I like a lot of your features.

1) I agree, i'd also add prestige classes that take time to reach but then lock your character in that skill set but open up specialized skills. This way you can customize or be general but prestige classes are great.

2) Rapid progression - the problem with this is that it sort of makes the early game useless, games like WoW have, in essence, mini-raids, as you level up. THe group quests fucntion as that. I actually like games that take awhile in a sense. Not like Lineage 2 long but more like 4 months to make level if you play 30-40 hours a week. I like EVE's setup but if yu start new you always can't wait to the skill to finish, they should make the skill progression 5-10% faster in my opinion but that's just me.

3) I have only exp with 3rd point of view but i've never really tried 1st pov.

4) I love your crafting system especially the lower levels lead to higher level components.

5) Agreed with your point here. No one has really explored the "exploration" aspect

6) 100% agree, i played EVE for 2 years and it soured me on any game . . .

7) I've never played a gmae with houses, i just tried SWG galaxy and i've yet to purchase a house but i have a feeling that it is going to be just a novelty and it gets hold quickly. But let me purchase a house and see i guess.

8) Full loot is a problem unless items don't mean much. I uesd to play diablo 2 hardcore and pk/duel legitimately adn i would not be amicable to a full-loot system. At least in diablo 2 hc it wouldnt' take so long to get your stuff back but in an MMO it may take days/weeks/months based on how item-grindy it is.

10) You know my most favorite quest of all time was the level 40 character spec class in Lineage 2 = I think it took me like 8 hours to complete but my god was there a feeling of accomplishment. Not that all quests should be like that, but the importnat ones yes, i just had go x kill Y mob and collect Z crap and come back. It's a nice way to grind, but other quests may also be nice. PvP quests would be bloody fantastic.

11) Sieging is tough, i played lineage 2 and i just felt the siege system was important but it's hard to feel the benefits of a castle in lineage 2 as someone who isn't involved in the leadership aspect. I could see sieging being important strategically but it's also i found it annoying to always feel the need to stop what you are doing and waste massive amounts of time in a siege. Some people like it, but i can see how it could be annoying.

You summed up everything I like:
- I'd like to add SWG style mounts and customization but I have a few new ideas.

1) Make quest building a feature in teh game and a profession
2) Make a spell builder module as a character profession
3) Make random skills be a findable item and super rare.
4) Make exploration mean something

Cryomatrix

I have to say after reading the op's post and yours Cryo- that I forgot how well the original SWG was done. Granted there were imblanaces and bugs, by breaking it down I see that they really did have a wonderful system- of which I think the game you wish for could be modeled after.

There is one thing I personally liked that I first encountered in GW and that was the ability to learn abilities from mobs... I would love to see that expanded on... say there are no classes, everyone starts with a basic skill set- and every encounter with a mob you "recognize" an ability or move they use and can select it to learn... not all abilities would be used every fight by said mob and you would have to see the ability used by x different mobs x amount of times or something to that effect... But make tons of them... not just 50 set skills all mobs rotate but a ton of them with an engine that creates mobs with random abilities out of different pools... And after you learn them you can use them freely- but if you use them on a mob (depending on say the inteligence of the mob) he has a chance of countering said ability or using it himself after you have... and then you could learn said counter or defensive move triggered by your learned ability... God how cool would that be... anyways

An interesting idea Cryo has is the profession of a quest maker... I remember in EQ I would go to starter zones and shout the first to bring me X amount of whatever different items at this location would get whatever I had spare at the time. So in essence I had them collecting crafting materials for me for items I found in the world I didn't need...

To expound on that idea- say this quest maker is also a potion maker- he creates a quest that can be claimed at say a board that you basically just post things to... like an smb in game which can be found in every town/starting area etc... or hell he can even make smaller limited charge quest boards and place them in different spots... say maybe around the mobs he needs a specific item from- Like "Orcs blood" for his new healing potion, so he goes out and posts on a board (it would have it's own preformulated gui) and puts in like Collect 10 orcs blood and 2 vials from Orcs and return it to this board for (He could post his own reward...) And it would work like an advanced auction house- you put in x items and recieve x money or x items...

I think you both would make good suggestions at an mmo design team meeting. I wish I could help develope a game...

Originally posted by Inzra

I'd still say, a very simple recipe for making my ultimate mmorpg is:

1. Add FREEDOM (of choice)

1. Add CREDIBILITY to that freedom (so it makes sense). This will of course be restricting, but that in itself adds challenge and a way to improve.

 

That means you could do anything, within it making sense.

 

And yea unfortunately your OP is too long, I didn't read it myself. I made a similar one some time ago, but didn't get much response and I realised it was to long.

 

 

I agree that freedom and credibility are the two most important themes that need to be incorporated into an MMO.  From a story standpoint I'd love to see an MMO where the players are all extra-dimensional beings who can't die.  Their bodies can be destroyed, but their energies would simply reform elsewhere in the world.  Such a back story would explain why characters keep coming back to life.  It would also give story credibility to abilities like bindstone recall or help to explain why they can carry a ton of stuff without the need of any visible packs.  It would even give a story related reason why a player can't be found in the game world 24/7 or didn't need to eat or go to the bathroom.

Originally posted by Inzra

I'd still say, a very simple recipe for making my ultimate mmorpg is:

1. Add FREEDOM (of choice)

1. Add CREDIBILITY to that freedom (so it makes sense). This will of course be restricting, but that in itself adds challenge and a way to improve.

 

That means you could do anything, within it making sense.

 

And yea unfortunately your OP is too long, I didn't read it myself. I made a similar one some time ago, but didn't get much response and I realised it was to long.

 

 

What this guy said.

freedom of choice is huge

variety is a big one, i dont want to do the same thing over and over again

character building: i want to control every aspect of my character, just make it so i can redo it, at a price.  i want to figure out what works best for what i want to do, not just "full str build" but complex stats and skills.

-this is a personal preferance, seeing as the trend is having the game do it all for you when you level.

For me it is about adding things in parallel.

For example, in L2 they had these cosmetic items and they were stupid but it was something to do. In SWG you have all sorts of customizations which is nice but i realize now that it isn't everything. But the more you add to a game in parallel to make the flair the better it is. Of course you have to make sure the game play is up to par. A game with nice effects but no game play equals a cake with no flour but great frosting art work.

For me, the more things they can add in parallel the better. I would have liked L2 just a bit more if you could color your armor, not that it would have made a lick of difference but it still would have been nice. Add a bunch of those things and you have a "nicer" game. The game can't be broken though. That's why WoW wins, not much substance but it's not broken.

Cryomtrix

Originally posted by Cryomatrix

For me it is about adding things in parallel.

For example, in L2 they had these cosmetic items and they were stupid but it was something to do. In SWG you have all sorts of customizations which is nice but i realize now that it isn't everything. But the more you add to a game in parallel to make the flair the better it is. Of course you have to make sure the game play is up to par. A game with nice effects but no game play equals a cake with no flour but great frosting art work.

For me, the more things they can add in parallel the better. I would have liked L2 just a bit more if you could color your armor, not that it would have made a lick of difference but it still would have been nice. Add a bunch of those things and you have a "nicer" game. The game can't be broken though. That's why WoW wins, not much substance but it's not broken.

Cryomtrix

The little details do make a good game into a great game.  Probably the best example I've ever seen of that is UO.  There's a lot of fluff in that game that makes it wonderfully entertaining, even if you aren't in combat.  The old SWG was a good example of great fluff too.  I used to spend hours on end shopping and questing just to get decorations for my ship.

Some fluff I'd like to add to my Ultimate MMORPG...

1.  Color control for wearables - I miss the old dye tubs from UO.  Fable 2 also had a great system for customizing your color scheme.

2.  Writable books - This is another old UO treat.  I've seen people take those little books and make their own story archs based off of them.  I remember there was one in a player controlled pub that I liked to hang out at...  It was written in a strange code that everyone had tried to crack.  I'm not sure who wrote it or what it said, but in my mind I was convinced it was the first clue on an epic scavenger hunt that would take some clever player across the whole of the server.  At the very least I've read some great journals, poems, short stories, and other creative works in those books.

3.  House Decor - If you've ever owned a home in SWG, then you probably know how fun it can be to decorate your home.  I've seen some people put together some amazing works of virtual art through crative use of placed items.

4.  Mini Games - It doesn't matter if it's cards, dice, chess, or something completely unique, having a few mini-games to play while you're waiting for your party to gather is a must.  I've met some great adventuring buddies over the UO chess board in years past.

5.  Variable Stat Crafting - Most games have this, but again I think SWG innovated a virtually flawless crafting system.  Each item would require certain basic components or materials, and by using different varients of those materials you could change the final stats of the items.  This could be a really amazing system when applied to vehicles and mounts, allowing an amazing array of builds.

6.  Game equipment - Road markers that mark race routes, flags for actual games of capture the flag, and maybe even a ball that can be kicked around using the game's physics engine.  Give players enough of the right tools and you'll soon have your very own fantasy version of the olympic games.  Of course, some joker will run through the middle of the game and kill the star player, but the riot that follows is sure to be fun too.

You can develop a game! If you want to volunteer to do a job for my MMO, just contact me. You dont have to learn a scripting language (even though it might help), all you have to do is make items (swords, rings, ect), NPCs, spells, or/ and make/ create the map! I would really love your support! The game will be available for developers within a week or two, so contact us at sawquartproductions@gmail.com

...kind of you to say, but I'd have liked to hear a little more about your project

 Hey GundamAce,

That is a great post.

Fortunately we have an MMO like that coming out soon called Mortal Online which I'm sure you've heard of.

I agree with you on every point. MMO's need to do things differently now. The most important having a skill based system that caps quickly, but allows for a wide variety/combination of skills to make yourself unique. I think EVE has gotten this right the closest so far.

You are not alone in your thoughts of what makes a great MMO and I'm sure those under dev or that are in the design phase now will be reading more and more forum posts like yours to see what it is that people really want.

Greg

www.magesofthegoldendawn.co.za

Originally posted by gregquinn

 Hey GundamAce,

 

That is a great post.

Fortunately we have an MMO like that coming out soon called Mortal Online which I'm sure you've heard of.

I agree with you on every point. MMO's need to do things differently now. The most important having a skill based system that caps quickly, but allows for a wide variety/combination of skills to make yourself unique. I think EVE has gotten this right the closest so far.

You are not alone in your thoughts of what makes a great MMO and I'm sure those under dev or that are in the design phase now will be reading more and more forum posts like yours to see what it is that people really want.

Greg

www.magesofthegoldendawn.co.za

 

Oh, believe me, I'm keeping a very close eye on Mortal Online