Ok, I have this concept for an mmorpg, it's not nearly ready yet, but I've never seen or heard anything like it.

The story is pretty basic, you are on a HUGE island (apart from some smaller islands, it's everything men knows) which is devided is several smaller nations. Many races live on the island, but the humans are clearly the superior race. There has been a war going on between the nations for many centuries. But sometimes the have to unite when there's a massive attack of the barbaric races.

One of the new things in this game should be that, allthough the original nations are ruled by the server or maybe some GM's, guilds can take over castles and cities. And once they have one city or castle, the guild can start its own nation. Nations can form alliances with other nations or declare war.

Every nation has its army: the members from their guild and some bots. To conquer cities or 'win' wars, a nation has to fight an official battle. A date and time is chosen and at that time, every member of the guilds involved in the battle gets a message asking wether he/she wants to join the battle or not. Members who aren't online or don't want to join, are replaced by bots. If a soldier dies (bot or player) he leaves the battlefield. The guildmaster does not participate in the battle, but he has a RTS-like overview of the battle and gives his commanders direct orders like in for example the total war series. The commanders and his troops see this on their screen as some sort of quest. The commanders and the General have to be real people.

To make sure one guild doesn't get TOO strong, the GM's would have to watch closely how the game developes and 'arrange' some enemies for the stronger nations fromtime to time. At a certain point, a new nation should rise, ruled by another race then men but equally strong. This nations would know no friends an kill everything on its path to domination. If such a nation comes, the guilds have to combine their forces to put a stop it. The GMs make sure that nation isn't too weak nor to strong. The war between the other nations goes on ofcourse.

A new player can choose his appearance, there's no proffession needed, because everyone can wield every weapon. But your skill points force you to choose what weapon(s) you wield best. You start in a neutral city, where people live in harmony, only threathened by some weaker barbaric races. in this city, you can get quests, sell and buy items like in most mmorpg's. You can make your own guilmd or join an existing one from the moment you reach level 20.

The max level (about 100) should be pretty high, but reachable within a few months. So that leveling goes fast but you still have some fun trying to reach it. People getting bored once the have reached the max level won't be a problem because the game goes WAY beyond leveling.

I probably forgot half the game, but I'll add that when I remember something.

Many good ideas.

Add either a PvE server or a PvE race.

The server speaks for itself.

The race, if you don't want different server, is a race which can group every faction.  It cannot engage in any form of PvP (except maybe if they perform a ritual to help 1 side, and it is temporary for 24 hours or something, at devs discretion).  They live in some place that can't be attacked for any reason, and they all have an ability which make them immune to PvP attacks yet, totally unefficient against NPCs (it is only good vs awakened peoples or something).

For example, you have this cool race...they are awesome in PvE.  Differents PvE groups in different factions might try to win their favor.  These players wouldn't care for any PvP concerns (but the group offering them might gain or not an advantage in PvP from having them doing PvE in their area, I wouldn't care either way), but for what is best for them from a PvE perspective.  They should be unable to enter some PvP zones althogether (unless you have this ritual thingy if available), disease or raditations or whatever.

Peoples often forget that 50% of the players are PvE-driven.  Losing them is bad.  Your PvP might be the best your game has, it doesn't matter for these players.  Telling them to PvP or get lost is bad marketing.

I think i didn't really make this clear, but PvE should be a pretty big part of the game. the PvP is just a (HUGE) feature. killing people when you're not in a battle should not be possible for example. and besides the war between the nations, the war against the barbaric race is pretty prominent as well.

And whenever you're sick of the PvP part, you can travel to the neutral part of the map and slaughter some MOB's, do some quests or learn new skills.

This neutral part will probably be a nation ruled by the emperor or something like that wich is every other nation's ally and is BY FAR the biggest nation.

So if you like, ou can even COMPLETELY stay out of the PvP part.

thx for the input btw, your idea is probably even better then mine to solve this...

I see someone voted impossible to make, would you like to say why? so i can see where I need to think things over...

The main problem I would see is what happens when the guild is offline.  I mean when they have few people online or their territory is unguarded.  It may cause people to play the game by hunkering down and not going anywhere because the main game play is to take others lands. 

Also if there are too many NPCs left behind to guard then the came will feel less like an MMO.  I think the idea might work but there are definitely many pit falls that could arise if the game is not constructed carefully.  

A battle is faught on a date and time agreed by both guildmasters. You can't just walk to a castle and start fighting. That way, you don't need to be online with the entire guild all the time.

And something I forgot: after every fight, the general gets stats from the battle for every member, so he can base his promotions on that.

Some good ideas here. Very interesting concept.

Im a PvP guy, but this concept could easily incorporate PvE like you said. PvE and crafting can be under the guise of helping equip the army prepare and equip. The "bots"  can level based on the PvE accomplishments of ther army as well as the siege equipment and other rations provided to the general army itself.

Its certainly an idea someone is ripping off right now on a conceptual level. I give it a 2011 release date and likely some affiliation to sony or possibly funcom. Im sure they wont pay you royalties either. but nice idea none the less.

I'd be glad if they don't screw it up...

Maybe they even give me some credit (like my name in tiny letters somewhere lost on the official site )

I'm glad someone sees the potential of this concept...

(btw, has it ever happened to anyone on here that an idea was stolen from him?)

It's an interesting game concept.  Here are some ideas that I came up with while reading it, I hope you don't mind.

While in a nation vs. nation battle, the bots that are fighting for absent players should each represent the player it's standing in for.  The bot should have all the abilities of the player, but be controlled by the server/guildmaster/commander.  What happens to that bot should also happen to that player, such as any penalties and possibly stat increases/level ups.  You would need to be careful while designing that though, since it could make "auto-leveling" easier.

It would be cool if the guildmaster/command can directly control the bots like in an RTS game.  But since the bots are representing another player, they should have some chance of disobeying orders.  Perhaps the guildmaster/commander and all the players and bots have a loyalty score.  Having a high loyalty score as a guildmaster/commander would show players that your commands are trustworthy, and give a number to roll against for bots.  In the case of players, their loyalty score is used if a bot needs to stand in for them.  If the player has a low loyalty score, the bot that represents him will be less likely to follow an order, even if the guildmaster/commander has a high loyalty score.

Loyalty for the guildmaster/command could increase by winning a battle.  It could also increase by issuing an order that, if followed, doesn't get the players/bots involved killed.  A player/bot's loyalty score could increase by following an order, and increase even further if that player/bot succeeds at whatever the order was.  The opposite would decrease the loyalty score.  Losing a battle or getting their soldiers killed while following an order would decrease the guildmaster/commander's loyalty score.  Not following an order or not succeeding in a mission (order from a guildmaster/commander) would decrease a player/bot's loyalty score.

was (almost :p) exactly how i saw it!!

thx for teh input!!!

god bless ya

wait a minute, i don't believe in god... ah well

"It's a crazy idea, but it just might work!"

I like the idea. I think you could have small PvE islands, but the main island should be pure RvR.  These days it seems that the reverse is true -- PvP or RvR areas are small and the big areas are PvE.  You could have resources that are contested too: mines, forests, crop fields, etc. Alliances, trade, and co-opetition^TM would be required.  Have buildings exert a zone of control that gives a bonus to the defenders.  You can build new buildings/towers/castles, but they could also be damaged/destroyed.  (The Settlers MMO?)

The game would require some critical mass I think to really take off.  I'm not crazy about the idea of scheduled battles since there are always those who can't be there.  If you had critical mass, a nation would have enough people online to defend its core areas reasonably well at any hour of the day, but the outposts would always be contested.  A large enough guild could cede from its nation and establish its own, but they'd have to deal with the issues of their own defense.  Crafting, especially construction and seige engineering, would be very useful in an evironment where things are destructible.

yeah, i think it would really need ALOT players to work

i came up with the idea of schedueled battles because that way, you at least can make sure SOME members can make it

Lineage 2 had scheduled battles. Aside from the scheduling conflict, it also had horrible lag problems. Realistically pushing that many PCs in one area becomes a network nightmare.

to overcome that, this game will probably recquir a MASSIVE pc for seeing there should be HUGE battles...

Any chance anyone in here want's to make this game?

That'd be SUPER cool!!!

I'm evil bumping this =O 

Not to burst your bubble, but nothing under the sun is original.

If you were trying to sell me this game idea, I would have stopped listening at "huge island". What game doesn't take place on a huge island with large amounts of conflict?

Anyways, you need to cut away the fat from your idea and isolate the lean meaty goodness that is:

• Your goals in creating this game.
• The experiences you wish to convey.
• The goals your players will have and why.

Setting is irrelevant. Pretend everything in your game is an unembellished, brown cardboard cut-out and describe your ideas at an absolute basic level.