Sandbox style, eh?

I'd consider removing the whole concept of BoE Armor and Weapons, and keep weapons and armor somewhat simple. Just weight and encumbrance that would affect spell casting, movement speed, attack speed, ect. Like an Iron Sword would be heavier and has less chance of glancing blows compared to say a Mythril Sword which would be faster, and lighter. This has a bonus in that it can be melded together with crafting and gathering to create an entirely player run economy, which is one major aspect of sandbox type themes.

Perhaps, since a great many people play to advance their character, the acquisition of power could instead be in the finding/learning of new skills from tomes or enemies or dungeons. Kind of encourage exploration, which I think was a major aspect of Asheron's Call. I spent the majority of my time in AC just running around, taking in the sights, trying to find hidden and out of the way places.
 

Also. Player Created Books. Do Not have a quest journal, instead, allow us to make our own. I used to enjoy reading player works in AC, and the ability to write your own books is a huge boon to immersion. Maps. I do not necessarily like Satellite images for maps. Hand drawn, kind of realistic (based on setting in which satellite could work), or the ability to create your own could be neat.

Quests. Avoid tons of meaningless tasks that pass as quests in modern day MMOs. I'd rather they be quite rare and epic and vague.

In AC I really loved the spell casting system where you had to find how to cast your own spells. I think they may have had too many variables so that it became more of a pain than a boon, but I think the idea has potential if implemented correctly. That is, assuming you have mages.

Just kind of a minor personal thing I've always wanted in an MMO, a Chemist/Alchemist playstyle that was more than just creation of healing pots. I'd like to be able to make Molotovs, explosives, acids, caltrops, ect that have a more offensive orientation, perhaps also require a throwing skill to use effectively. Mabye in more modern/sci-fi incarnations, bio chemistry, and genetic engineering, creation of combat clones, ect.

I'd also like to see an MMO that does away with in combat healing and tanking. But, its more work tbh. If you're interested there is a discussion I linked below about the Holy Trinity. 

And Finally. Genre. Fantasy has been done to death, resurrected, done to death, resurrected, done to death. Sci Fi is getting used more, so you may try something else entirely. I believe there was a Poll on the Mainpage here on MMORPG.com that asked players what kind of genre/setting/theme they'd like to see in a new MMO.

Some threads for reference on what players have been arguing on and wishing for:

Holy Trinity (combat organization): http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/257561/Do-you-enjoy-playing-the-Holy-Trinity-game-mechanic-If-so-how-much.html

Downtime: http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/257681/page/1

Geographical Obstacles: http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/256590/page/1

At your own risk, you can read through debates on Solo vs. Group content here: http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/255852/page/1

What is more Important in an MMO: http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/258002/page/1

They may be some good reads, or some insights you may not have yet gleaned, or possible ideas for your game.  Good Luck. I hope you succeed.

I loved skimming this thread, some great ideas. I am just going to stick to what has worked in MMO’s before, so I know these ideas can be implemented.

Buddy system like CoH.
Realm versus Realm like DAOC.
Combat like AoC.
Power trees like AoC.
The keep system of AoC, but easier to build the borderlands version.
Quests as varied as LotRo.
Classes which feel as natural and complimentary as Lotro before they added two classes.
A tome of deeds and knowledge like in WAR.
Scenarios like WAR’s but with minimum benefits, otherwise people just play the scenarios.
The ability to write on objects like scrolls in game like in AC.
Different languages for different races and a common tongue like in Everquest.
The ability to set up a shop or school like in UO.
Crafting at a complexity level of Vanguard’s.
The diplomacy system of Vanguard.
End game being a mixture of DAOC rvr with AoC style guild keeps and Lotro raids.

 My first thought is an open player-driven economy where 99% of the items in-game are player crafted (the last 1% would be ultra-rares that obviously only a few people in the  game could possibly get

First and foremost I would like to thank everyone who has thus far posted helpful insight.  I will present these ideas at the end of the week to everyone.  They are very interested in what you have to say, in fact we were discussing them last night until the wee hours of the morning.  

On a more personal note:

I absolutly love the energy in this thread.  Keep them coming.  It really energizes the staff to know people have not given up on the genre.

Cheers,

Sal Parvini

One thing I always like in an MMO is an 'epic battle' type of thing, now immediately people think PvP, but PvE can also be combined with this, for example:

PVE:

Every hour or so a group of people can sign up to do one of these 'epic battles' (Maybe 15~20 people ?) then when its full or the recruitment time runs out the players are transported to another map where they have to work together to defeat a common enemy that if they fought alone they would lose. By this I dont mean spawn them, then fight the boss. I mean spawn them in the map and have them work towards a vertain point on the map, killing monsters along the way, then a boss at the end.

This idea has alot of potential as you can get creative, creating things like defensive quests or quests where you have to retrieve an item without killing the boss.

PVP:

Aika is a good example of this from what I've seen, epic battles with many people just having an all out war ! but be creative, team deathmatch gets boring after a while, so objective matches would be fun too.

Originally posted by salardc

First and foremost I would like to thank everyone who has thus far posted helpful insight.  I will present these ideas at the end of the week to everyone.  They are very interested in what you have to say, in fact we were discussing them last night until the wee hours of the morning.  

On a more personal note:

I absolutly love the energy in this thread.  Keep them coming.  It really energizes the staff to know people have not given up on the genre.

 

Cheers,

 

Sal Parvini

Is it just me or does this guy sound exactly like a Nigerian scammer?

Originally posted by Crallzon

Originally posted by salardc

First and foremost I would like to thank everyone who has thus far posted helpful insight.  I will present these ideas at the end of the week to everyone.  They are very interested in what you have to say, in fact we were discussing them last night until the wee hours of the morning.  

On a more personal note:

I absolutly love the energy in this thread.  Keep them coming.  It really energizes the staff to know people have not given up on the genre.

 

Cheers,

 

Sal Parvini

 

Is it just me or does this guy sound exactly like a Nigerian scammer?

 

It is my pleasure to contact you for a business venture which I intend to establish in your country.Though I have not met with you before but I believe, one has to risk confiding in someone to succeed sometimes in life.

We are simply trying to make a great game for you to consume in pleasurable bliss for you personal gain. If you help us now you will be part of a great new experience that will make you rich and famous among all MMORPG enthusiasts. We simply require you to send us a certified check with the sum of $500 attached so we can buy cookies for our hamsters in the server farm. You will get return instantly a certificate of beta test and donation and you can access the beta server hastily. If released the game in the world you will get your $500 investment back and with projected sales of $200 million you also get $1 million profit share.

Please remember to make the check payable to the honorable Master Looter Sir Leeroy Jenkins of Stormwind.

With pleasurable delight and god bless you,

Sir Leeroy Jenkins of Stormwind
Master Looter and King
1467 ND-K Buabodabi

Nigeria

Sidekicking.  Introduced in City of Heroes, I view this as almost required for any new level-based game that gets released.  The #1 complaint of my RL friends who play MMOs is being prevented from playing with one another due to game mechanics (like one player being level 20 and the other 50.)

Sidekicking temporarily raises the effective level of the lower player to the higher one's level, letting both characters fight and advance together.  The sidekick gets the health, damage, and to-hit of a higher level character, but not the abilities.  In a gear-based game, I would imagine the sidekick's gear being amplified as well (so the level 20 strength/constitution helm now gives him the stats it would if it was a comparable level 50 str/con helm.)

Game Performance.  I'll echo this.  Basically one of the reasons behind Blizzard's success long before WOW was to make sure their game ran great on low-end systems.

If players have to upgrade their system just to play your game, your game's cost to them just went from $50 to $450.  That's a big difference.

So the trick is getting artists who are capable of making things look amazing on the tightest of texture/polygon budgets. ;)

Fun Combat.  If combat is the #1 activity players engage in in this game world, it has to be fun.  Choices need to matter and things need to not be repetitive.

If you have talent and programmers on your side, and the budget to work out the kinks, consider a non-standard combat system.  Consider hiring someone with non-RPG combat systems design experience (last company I was with contracted out the combat designer from God of War 2 to help with our combat; it helped alot.)  Make sure you make a combat system consistent with the game you're trying to sell though.  While I tend to enjoy hybridizing RPGs with more playerskill-based genres like FPSes, a big reason RPGs are popular is precisely because much of victory isn't playerskill-based.

Otherwise the safe bet is to build off the existing MMORPG combat model.  There are still plenty of ways to be unique within existing targeting systems; Champions Online convinced a good chunk of players it was "more actiony" simply by making mobs die a little faster, having colorful comic-inspired power bars, and adding a simple realtime block mechanic.

Reactionary abilities are awesome.  Spell interrupts and realtime blocking are both reactive abilities which reward the player for reacting to very obvious enemy states (spellcasting, and power attacks from Champions).  These make players feel clever.

Periodic abilities are also important.  By periodic I mean abilities that are sometimes awesome, and sometimes not.  This may be the 3-minute cooldown that turns you into a raging maniac for 15 secs, or the ability which is only available after certain triggers (after you dodge or crit).  These are the ways combat remains interesting and less repetitive, as the "optimal" ability rotation changes from mob to mob.

Don't implement duplicate abilities.  If two abilities perform the same function, ditch one.  "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." -Antoine De Saint-Exupery  This quote basically describes the act of distilling the game down to the core of what makes things fun, and not having redundant or unnecessary things mucking up the gameplay.

Originally posted by salardc

 As for the guild system, we have a special "proprietary" allegiance system in mind.  Their will be certain bonuses for fighting with you guildmates.  Playing with your monarch will amplify these bonuses.  Your monarch, in return, gains bonuses for the amount guild members near him/her in battle.  There will be more on this later as things develope.  We are still working on balance issues with steamrolling through areas and pleliminary calculations show me that too much experience can be "passed up" too quickly.  We however, do not want to penelize players for playing with guild members, so efforts are being put into balancing this aspect of game play.

The monarchy system will be a major portion of the game, in regards to NPC city building, PC city/fortification building, crafting abilities and vendors.  More on this later.  Needless to say, it will behoov any guild to protect their king and castle.

   

Oh, now see this is starting to put me off a bit already.  I'm not sure what you have in mind so I'll reserve judgement but I detest any game design which makes me highly dependant on a guild and especially if it's the usuall sort of thing where one guy gets to be dictator for life and if I don't kiss his ass I'm shit outa luck.

I won't create and lead my own guild because I have no desire to do that but at the same time I refuse to be somebodies' flunky / bitch.

You might think this contradicts what I said about wanting grouping to be important again but no, I do want grouping to be important again.  I just don't want it to be in the context of a system which forces me to subordinate myself to the "authority" of another player.

Just to add what Axehilt left out out about sidekicking (what I call buddy system) is that you could level down to a friends level too. This meant that you could play a quest at his lower level. In other words everyone could team with everyone else to do any quest. With the caveat that you need a few levels under your belt for travel powers and to be useful to a high level team.

Mentoring was actually as i remember a mechanic EQ2 introduced.This allowed you to mentor down to anyone in your group,the player you choose becomes your level.Something else SOE did was very unique,when a high level player joined it sort of made everyone an average level of the combined levels,hate was according to this average level.So a 50+30+10=all had level 30 aggro.It meant easier times for the low level but brought the high level down a notch,so that he may not easily waltz through perhaps.

FFXI was the next game to use the mentor mechanic,but where that game failed is,they gave  mentor penalties like no skill ups on weapons.The two games actually had a slight twist to each other,FFXI allowed the use of all your same spells but they were scaled down,EQ2 you had to use the appropriate level spells,no scaling down ,only on gear.

I have said it many times,because i feel not many have yet played EQ2 or FFXI,FFXI is pre WOW and EQ2 was released a few weeks earlier than Wow.Just about every idea thought of to this date has been done in those two games.

Something that isn't 100% Fantasy/LOTR/WoW like would be absolutely lovely.  Sci-Fi/Post Apocalyptic would be good.

Something that works like Pokemon would be my ideal MMO, and it would work so incredibly well.

I think its cool that you're working on a new MMORPG...BUT, one question, F2P or P2P? (free to play or pay to play?) Honestly and I'm sure anyone on here would agree with me on this,If you want your game to be sucessful and have a wide active community you should deffinently start it out as a F2P. Now, I know who ever is on the DEV team for this game is reading this probably going "GET THE F*#% OUT OF HERE!" but, seriously, listen to this and think open-mindly and logically.

There's this new great game that looks like a  VERY well upgraded version of oh,I don't know maybe a game like, "Asheron's call" It's got a huge world to discover,many different types of monsters,weapons,quests and,you can even make your own guild.The game looks very promising.It also costs $19.99 a month to play.While some will be able to afford this cost others,will not. If you release it as a F2P so that EVEYONE is able to play it and slowly for the next few monthes incorporate things that cost money like, varied types of weapons and armor that you can buy, special quests that give you rare items and possibly even sooner or later,start charging to play the game.Now,I know people are probably thinking, "Well, if you're gonna charge for the game at one point or another why not start right away?" And the simple answer to that question would be,If you start a game for free and you have a wide user base and they all love the game.If you start throwing things little by little into the game that cost money true fans of the game would most likely be more inclined to say, "Ya know what? I've always liked this game, I'd like to see it progress further plus, I'll get a weapon with 3000 + hit points on it. Let me get the diamond sword for $10,00" And, after about a good amount of time let's say, 6 monthes to a year. You start charging for the game then, once again the "I've always liked this game.I'd like to see it progress further." Motto comes into play.I honestly think thats where A LOT of MMORPGS make the biggest mistake and end up just killing their own game. "LET ME CHARGE $30.00 A MONTH FOR A GAME THAT SUCKS AND RUNS SLOW AND HAS HORRIBLE GRAPHICS!!" Well,if you had started it out as a F2P even if the graphics were bad but, you had a good storyline you'd have a bigger community saying this should happen to the game or this quest should be added here or this feature should be included so that your community stays happy and active.I mean I used to play a text/browser based MMORPG called ruletheseas.com the game is free to play (obviously) and it has a community of close to 500,000 players but,they sell in game weapons and ships and points and all for anywhere from 5-500 bucks a purchase and the thing is that, PEOPLE ARE ACTUALLY BUYING THEM!!! So,that just goes to show you that if a FREE TEXT BASED/BROWSER BASED game is makin good money if, you made a game like "Asheron's call" with better graphics and pretty much let the community do what they want by that i mean, add good features(EX:Create your own guild) and even if you just started it out as a F2P and then later on made it a P2P just imagine what kind of game you could create.

But,that's just my good ole' dreamers opinion....

Originally posted by KingScar

I think its cool that you're working on a new MMORPG...BUT, one question, F2P or P2P? (free to play or pay to play?) Honestly and I'm sure anyone on here would agree with me on this,If you want your game to be sucessful and have a wide active community you should deffinently start it out as a F2P. Now, I know who ever is on the DEV team for this game is reading this probably going "GET THE F*#% OUT OF HERE!" but, seriously, listen to this and think open-mindly and logically.

There's this new great game that looks like a  VERY well upgraded version of oh,I don't know maybe a game like, "Asheron's call" It's got a huge world to discover,many different types of monsters,weapons,quests and,you can even make your own guild.The game looks very promising.It also costs $19.99 a month to play.While some will be able to afford this cost others,will not. If you release it as a F2P so that EVEYONE is able to play it and slowly for the next few monthes incorporate things that cost money like, varied types of weapons and armor that you can buy, special quests that give you rare items and possibly even sooner or later,start charging to play the game.Now,I know people are probably thinking, "Well, if you're gonna charge for the game at one point or another why not start right away?" And the simple answer to that question would be,If you start a game for free and you have a wide user base and they all love the game.If you start throwing things little by little into the game that cost money true fans of the game would most likely be more inclined to say, "Ya know what? I've always liked this game, I'd like to see it progress further plus, I'll get a weapon with 3000 + hit points on it. Let me get the diamond sword for $10,00" And, after about a good amount of time let's say, 6 monthes to a year. You start charging for the game then, once again the "I've always liked this game.I'd like to see it progress further." Motto comes into play.I honestly think thats where A LOT of MMORPGS make the biggest mistake and end up just killing their own game. "LET ME CHARGE $30.00 A MONTH FOR A GAME THAT SUCKS AND RUNS SLOW AND HAS HORRIBLE GRAPHICS!!" Well,if you had started it out as a F2P even if the graphics were bad but, you had a good storyline you'd have a bigger community saying this should happen to the game or this quest should be added here or this feature should be included so that your community stays happy and active.I mean I used to play a text/browser based MMORPG called ruletheseas.com the game is free to play (obviously) and it has a community of close to 500,000 players but,they sell in game weapons and ships and points and all for anywhere from 5-500 bucks a purchase and the thing is that, PEOPLE ARE ACTUALLY BUYING THEM!!! So,that just goes to show you that if a FREE TEXT BASED/BROWSER BASED game is makin good money if, you made a game like "Asheron's call" with better graphics and pretty much let the community do what they want by that i mean, add good features(EX:Create your own guild) and even if you just started it out as a F2P and then later on made it a P2P just imagine what kind of game you could create.

But,that's just my good ole' dreamers opinion....

God no, just no. No dumb "item mall" systems with irl transactions, finance it with ads for the sake of game economy!

Yea,that would work to but do you HONESTLY think they'll get anywhere near as much money from ads as they would from selling items? NO exactly I'm not saying i like it but if people want a GOOD F2P game then this is probably that best way so the developers aren't getting screwed over as neither is the community either

Originally posted by KingScar

Yea,that would work to but do you HONESTLY think they'll get anywhere near as much money from ads as they would from selling items? NO exactly I'm not saying i like it but if people want a GOOD F2P game then this is probably that best way so the developers aren't getting screwed over as neither is the community either

Runescape survived solely on advertisement funding before they decided to open up a P2P system, it worked fine

 Here is a few things I can think of:

Player Housing and Townships - This will work no matter what setting you decide the game will be in. It helps to stimulate the community by making them feel apart of something. 

Crafting - You have to have crafting! I know many a people that only play games for the crafting.

Solo AND Group content - You want to be able to cater to the Solo players and Group players alike. Find the right balance of XP gain for solo vs grouping. DO NOT require players to raid or run group instances to get the "best" gear. This has turned myself and many others off of games (which is why I quit LoTRO). The majority of people don't have time to plan and commit to a full raid or dungeon run. Work, family, and life in general HAS to be taken into account.

Death Penalty - This goes along with the risk that previous posters has mentioned. In the majority of current games if you die, you return to your bound location/temple/whatever then run back to your body to get your stuff back (if it doesn't auto give it back when you res). This takes ALL the risk out of dying. Sure you may get hit with a limited time xp or stat/skill penalty and/or equipment damage, but is this really all that big of a penalty? The easiest solution would be this: Once you die your body will remain behind and you will have to come get your gear back but the kicker is this, if someone gets to your body before you do they have a chance to loot an item (randomly chosen from your body) plus x% of money you are carrying.

Classes - For the love of god don't have them! In order to help players feel like they are somewhere familiar you could have a skill based system, where using your skills improves them, but allow new players to select a 'Template' which will emulate a class by starting out those skills higher than the rest. Think back to Ultima Online and how they did this.

Travel - I have played games where I loved not having "ports" to other towns/dungeons. I have also played games where it was nothing but a headache. I would propose a system similar to the original Asherons Call portal system. There were Portals in the towns but you had to activate it before you could travel to it. This helps ensure that players will see some of your world (well, the road to the next town at least). This will allow you to design quests and/or encounters along the way to help build interest in exploring the wilderness and is a great time to turn up the immersion of the world. 

PvP - This is a tricky one! I really can't think of any way to effectively offer PvP and non-PvP on the same server. One option is to have a PvP server and a PvE server, but this creates a rift within your community. You could try open PvP, but then you are alienating and asking to loose many potential players. An alternative would be to possibly have guild contested area's. This isn't quite true PvP but it does offer that element of fun. This would also help introduce new players or even old players that have never been in a guild to them. This would also require you to have a VERY solid guild system in place.

Economy - Allow there to be vendors to sell your junk loot to. Vendors can sell basic items but not crafting materials unless a player has sold them to the vendor. Items will stay persistent on the Vendor. If player A sells 20 wood to Vendor then player B comes along and buys 8 of those wood, player C could come along and buy the remaining 12. To help with the strain of this system you could set flags to the basic items which are in low demand (crap armor/weapons/whatever from mobs) to be removed from the vendor during a garbage collection phase. 

Originally posted by salardc

 

 

If you like, please list below, with a reasonable amount of detail, what you would like to see in a new game.
 

Ahh yes I had forgot to mention the importance of massive boobs and general babe worthiness of the girl toons. :)

But don’t’ make it F2P, that just makes players think you are going to release a MMO with no content and no thought to background and lore.

Originally posted by Scot

...

But don’t’ make it F2P, that just makes players think you are going to release a MMO with no content and no thought to background and lore.

As opposed to all the P2P titles with no content and no thought to background and lore you mean?  ;-)