Been playing quite a bit of dark souls lately and it has me in the mood to play a good MMO again. I'm aware there isn't many MMO's like dark souls but hear me out

[The two features it must have]

1. Open world PVP, whether it be a strucutred continent that PVP occurs on or just the ability to PVP in a PVE enviorment.
2. Minimal amounts of hacking and botting. While its unrealistic to say no hacking or botting, I'd like the tally count to be low on this. Played too many games where the experience has been ruined because everyone has a bot farming for them 24/7

[Features that I'd like, but are optional]

1. A plus'ing system for gear. Just feels nice to have a system like that, even if its chance based ( actually i prefer chance based :P )
2. PVP that actually has penalties. I like games that discourage death in PVP, it makes the experience more realistic
3. PVE that has penalties on death. Same reason as above
4. Combat that is based on your skills as a player. I'm not asking about a game where level 1 can whoop a level 40, but if a battle comes down between say a level 34 vs a level 40, and the level 34 player is more skilled as a player he should win.
5. Controller support. Like the rest of this list this is an optional (E.G. not needed) feature but I've grown to enjoy playing with a remote, but I will forgoe it just as easily.

Hi thetawolf, welcome to mmorpg.com...

My suggestion is to try Vendetta Online.

1. Open World PvP - check.  You can be killed anytime, anywhere except for the training area, which is defended by uber death beams that zap anyone who tries to get back in.  Otherwise, the universe is basically wide open for PvP with factional consequences for killing players in monitored / guarded space.

2. Minimal amounts of hacking and botting - The devs have taken great pains to ensure that this does not happen right from day 1, disabling any features that could potentially be exploited.  I would know as I've been playing since alpha (June 2003... game has been open since April 2002, launch was in November 2004).

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Optional features #4 and #5 are the other reasons I thought VO might work really well for you; while there are experience points and license levels, combat is far more about player skill than what equipment you use.  There is also controller support: I like to use a logitech gamepad.

Check out the free trial; after your 8 hours are up it's only 10 USD for a month of play if you decide to continue.  They also save your character info so it's not a big deal if you play for a month, leave for a while, then come back later.

If you'd like to see some gameplay videos check out this thread here.

Thanks for the quick reply ! I'll look into it when I get home from work. I have mostly avoided space style MMO's since trying EVE ( Honestly, way too much going on in that game for a quick introduction, felt way too unfamiliar in that enviorment  ). I'll look into a few gameplay videos of it and see what the combat is like since all I am able to really look at from here is screenshots :P

would still like to see any other suggestions if people have anything that comes to mind. Would like to see all my options before trying to settle on a new MMO for abit

Originally posted by thetawolf

I have mostly avoided space style MMO's since trying EVE ( Honestly, way too much going on in that game for a quick introduction, felt way too unfamiliar in that enviorment  ). I'll look into a few gameplay videos of it and see what the combat is like since all I am able to really look at from here is screenshots :P

Cool, hope you enjoy :-).  The common pearl of wisdom is that Vendetta and Eve are nothing alike other than that they both take place in space.  For me, it's more about the game mechanics than the setting.  If you'll forgive the analogy, I've often heard Eve compared to Chess in space.  If that's the case, Vendetta is Go in space.

Basically anything above a user base of 5,000 users and atleast an active attempt at ban waving bots would be nice, and honestly it can be done. Sure there is no effective way to stop botting 100% especially if the bot developers are active, but theres a difference between the game actively trying to stop bots and a game where the developers blatantly give up on fending off bots.

Reminds me of the good ole times of playing Ragnarok, all those bots, 70% of the player base was bots lmao. Mostly this is what I'm trying to avoid.

So basically as long as the developers are still trying to fight off the bots and haven't given up, it fills my requirement for minimal botting because the developers are atleast trying.

Edit: Hacking (I.E. Infinite Health, etc.)  is still b.s. though and there is no reason a developer hasn't stopped it from going on. I am absolutely unwilling to compromise on that point. Like stated though botting is acceptable if the developer is actively trying to stop it though.