For all you with ideas of a game that's good to explore in, I have a question.

What do you find?

See, I've always wanted a game where there's interesting, curious, and even mysterious things to find. I don't see very much of that. Mostly it's just backdrop. Nothing of any real interest.

Probably Darkfall as its completely open, and the world is huge and very pretty, designed by hand.

You will probably be killed and looted in the first 15 min of play tho, so if u like a challenge....

Originally posted by Amaranthar

For all you with ideas of a game that's good to explore in, I have a question.

What do you find?

See, I've always wanted a game where there's interesting, curious, and even mysterious things to find. I don't see very much of that. Mostly it's just backdrop. Nothing of any real interest.

For me it's usually some infamous mob which I either look at from afar, or go right up and close to look at if level allows.  Nagafan the dragon in EQ2 was a classic example here

As far as exploration goes Ryzom and Eve are both really fun to just look around in. Eve's probe scanner system makes exploration really cool and Ryzom is just massive with so much to see.

I know you're suprised I didn't say WoW but for me WoW was about exploration in vanilla wow not so much now, well until archeology proff is out anyway lol.

Originally posted by Amaranthar

For all you with ideas of a game that's good to explore in, I have a question.

What do you find?

See, I've always wanted a game where there's interesting, curious, and even mysterious things to find. I don't see very much of that. Mostly it's just backdrop. Nothing of any real interest.

This is a good question that I wish devs would ask more often.  I love games that reward exploring in interesting ways, but I find most MMOs just feel like, no matter where I look, it's all just more of the same.

vanguard soh

The problem with rewarding certain types of exploration is it all ends up on the web.

Anything that gives anything of value would become standard knowledge and therefore not really explorable.

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Vanguard had stuff that to this day I don't quite grasp. Exploring, that makes you think outside the game mechanics, gives more depth to the game.

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Nowadays "exploring" is turned into a mini-game which I find detracts from it. Warhammer and Champions Online come to mind. Find X amount of Y to get a title or item (npcs, plaques, etc)

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Originally posted by neoterrar

The problem with rewarding certain types of exploration is it all ends up on the web.

Anything that gives anything of value would become standard knowledge and therefore not really explorable.

---

Vanguard had stuff that to this day I don't quite grasp. Exploring, that makes you think outside the game mechanics, gives more depth to the game.

---

Nowadays "exploring" is turned into a mini-game which I find detracts from it. Warhammer and Champions Online come to mind. Find X amount of Y to get a title or item (npcs, plaques, etc)

---

 

Neoterrar, I had found several exploration "secrets" in UO that only a few hundred at most knew about. Today's UO players, excluding any of those old timers still around, mostly don't have a clue.It doesn't matter that they are "one of a kind", and no, people who knew about these things didn't spread it around because it was not the kind of thing that everyone was going to find anyways.

It's just too bad that the game didn't have a lot more of these things to find. More possibilities means more players doing the finding. I think there's a place for this in any game, and it's an underdeveloped aspect, almost ignored. Yet, it's cool to find something special.

Originally posted by neoterrar

The problem with rewarding certain types of exploration is it all ends up on the web.

Anything that gives anything of value would become standard knowledge and therefore not really explorable.

It can be randomized.  Devs are all control freaks these days, obsessed with the idea of 'handcrafted' content, even when it's so bland it might as well be randomized.

One person mentioned Voyage Century - That game randomly spawns wreckage debris all over the map, which could be pretty rewarding sometimes.  The less travelled the area you were in, the more likely you'd be to find some.  It wasn't all that interesting or innovative, but it was a nice little bit of encouragement to explore.  Totally random.

Playing a game like EVE, I always thought it'd be great if smaller ships could fly down into planetary atmosphere - not to land or get out of the ship, but just to fly above the surface, if there were a chance of finding anything worthwhile there.  Anything from valuable gas deposits near the surface of a gas giant, to wreckage or even archaeological finds on desolate moons, and things like that. Nothing terribly ambitious, if planet surfaces were randomly generated.

Another vote for AC1(Asheron's Call).

If you can get past the dated graphics, it has everything you are looking for and more.

I sooooo wish they would make a true sequel to AC1.

Originally posted by Amaranthar

For all you with ideas of a game that's good to explore in, I have a question.

What do you find?

See, I've always wanted a game where there's interesting, curious, and even mysterious things to find. I don't see very much of that. Mostly it's just backdrop. Nothing of any real interest.

All the stuff you find on spoiler sites and in guides - except you find it yourself.

Originally posted by tupodawg999

Originally posted by Amaranthar

For all you with ideas of a game that's good to explore in, I have a question.

What do you find?

See, I've always wanted a game where there's interesting, curious, and even mysterious things to find. I don't see very much of that. Mostly it's just backdrop. Nothing of any real interest.

 

All the stuff you find on spoiler sites and in guides - except you find it yourself.

I've said something about this earlier, tupodawg, but in UO there were a great many things that were not put on web sites until much later after the secrets were found out by masses, and a few things that still to this day are not widely known nor on any web sites.

I think most mmos are actually nice to explore. A was always fascinated by virtual worlds. From Earth and Beyond to Darkfall, for the most part, they all have something unique.

A few worth to mention.

Vanguard
Extremely huge world to visit with lots of things to see. Deserts, forests, mountains, jungles and the list goes on. I never had the chance to visit the entire world but riding from one part to another can take up to 3 hours at times. It's a pretty big world... You can't really explore much until you're high level.

Darkfall
Most worlds are generated and then tweaked. Darkfall is not, it was built step by step with a lot of details in mind. It's a great world to explore if you don't mind dying by the hands of other players. You can explore the entire world at a very early stage in your character's developpement.

EVE-Online
Cosmo and Wormholes are one of the coolest thing to explore in EVE. If you were to explore a new piece of content each day, you wouldn't have enough days in a year to do them all.Sadly, Exploration and surviving the trip is a different story... You'll need a good 3 to 6 months worth of skills.

World of Warcraft
If there is one thing I never hated about WOW, it's the art direction. I think it's brilliant and with the nice music combined to it's pretty enviroments, WOW is truly a fantastic to explore. Sadly, each zones is made for a specific level... this mean, if you don't level, you won't get to see much of the world.

Ryzom
Very cool world as well.
 

Someone asked about what people get out of exploring.  If the area designers really did a great job, there is beautiful scenery to be explored.  In WoW, I've found interesting areas with islands, buildings, people, that seem unused, but are nonetheless fascinating to encounter.  I've watched sunsets from atop mesas and explored caverns and behind waterfalls. Underwater exploration can be fantastic.  With WoW, they combined music, sound effects, and scenery to give an exotic flavor to many areas that are not well-traveled. 

I have always hoped that occasional world drops or lost books could be found randomly at out-of-the-way places, although exploring just to see if you can find a path over a certain mountain range or to see into a meadow beyond a thicket is good enough for me.  With gathering professions, earning extra game income or finding rare commodities is a plus.

As to RL world tour, that sounds great, but a bit more priced and difficult to break into reasonable amounts of time for most working class people.

Darkfall or Vanguard, easily. Those are real sandbox gameworlds, not zoned instanced linear worlds like WoW where you can't even enter a dungeon without the proper quest. 

You may want to wait and see FFXIV,they are going to be delivering real nice graphics with nice cinematic.

The Final Fantasy world is always a little different from your normal looking theme.

Games right now Vanguard is real big,but you will ruin into aggro problems in many areas,as the game uses faction hate.The graphics are at the top of the heap,so things look nicer and more realistic.

Everquest 2 is a giant world with tons of starting areas,i would say it is unrivaled by any game.It really is near impossible to just explore in any game,they all have high level areas,that make it near impossible.

Some say  LOTR is a nice looking world to explore but i hear it is sort of smallish,i don't really know ,i have not played it.

MY opinion wait for FFXIV,because i don't think the wait will be that long maybe 3 months.

Vanguard is the most eplorable mmorpg out ther at the moment,it wins hands down.

Originally posted by Wizardry

You may want to wait and see FFXIV,they are going to be delivering real nice graphics with nice cinematic.

The Final Fantasy world is always a little different from your normal looking theme.

Games right now Vanguard is real big,but you will ruin into aggro problems in many areas,as the game uses faction hate.The graphics are at the top of the heap,so things look nicer and more realistic.

Everquest 2 is a giant world with tons of starting areas,i would say it is unrivaled by any game.It really is near impossible to just explore in any game,they all have high level areas,that make it near impossible.

Some say  LOTR is a nice looking world to explore but i hear it is sort of smallish,i don't really know ,i have not played it.

MY opinion wait for FFXIV,because i don't think the wait will be that long maybe 3 months.

EQ2 is a zoners wet dream,it's a freaking box,lot's of content but no real space to explore.You can explore in Vanguard all you want,from the day you are born,you can go anywhere in that world.

Rent a flying mount and fly round the world at level one,you will die ,but what a trip.

I am goin to say EQ 1 tons and tons of places to see its old and dated yes, But there is a lot to explore in the game and what could make it even more fun a little more risk if you die really can just summon your body but you could do a cr to.

Originally posted by maji

 

• EVE. Didn't play it for too long. The game is huge, but the space looks probably about the same no matter where you go, so I wouldn't know what there would actually be to explore

Depends what you mean by exploring.  If you are looking to sightsee at scenery then go with Vanguard.

But exploration is actually a career field in EVE, and people who practice it are always out in space looking for hidden sites where there's everything from rare mining ores, hidden treasures that need to be salvaged or hacked out with codebreaking modules to complexes which are full of enterainment in their own right.

There's always wormhole space as well, where you have to scan out various gas and ore mining sites as well as combat sites with a variety of activities to profit from.

Some folks explore in cloaked pvp ships, looking for hapless miners and ratters that they can attack and destroy. Or they spy in enemy territory looking for weaknesses in defenses before a major battle.

And not one of these things comes with a big exclamation point over the top of it.  If you don't find it, it remains hidden from sight and a financial opportunity will be lost.

Overall, I'd say EVE has more "exploring" than most other games.

But not if you are looking for landscapes and npc critters.

Well if you're not really a graphics person, I would suggest Ultima Online. There's plenty of starting areas, and your source of travel can vary. But the one very cool aspect of travelling is that you can "mark" a spot that you've explored, and can always come back to that very spot. IMO the world is still quite big, and there are so many unique special places you can find.