Developers Corner

Ive played around a dozen MMOs over the last few years  and  it doesnt seem to matter what game im playing the same  flawed formula  always  rears its ugly head

stupid AI  percieve,advance,attack till dead i understand that some are needed but all??

mass  generic spawn generators  some so obvious they pop right in front of you

infinite kill/level with no pourpose other than the next bigger rat and the next bigger weapon

players not making a difference on a local and tangable way in the world

bairly any weather and no climate    no summer or winters ,  3 oclock rain

fortifications that actually work and dont have missing gates that the enemy "conviently swarm through"

game play that is never satisfying   and is allways the same even at higher levels  never any better this forces people to skyrocket to ever higher levels thats why every expansion is allways for the top levels  or worse to add even more levels  people are leveling because they are starving for good content more than just killing the 10k creatures for its exp.

watery races and cultures why cant a druid get a quest from a rabbit?

the key: unpredictability things need to happen that is NOT the static world  this could mean  forest fire  earthquake   a suprise invasion 

unbalanced PVP  that  seperates  template players forever from casual players   if you try a little PVP  you get killed in seconds  or are so outclassed by a template its pointless to bother with trying.  EVE is really bad about  traping its casual players by the template PVPers that own most of the universe (travel 16 sectors only to get killed in 1-2 shots from ships  5x farther away than you can even shoot)   eve is prety (prety generic)

fantacy games have no spice, drama,  unpredictability  you dont feel like your in a living breathing universe  you feel like your on a stage or arena  used to launch infinite mobs at you like a revolving door 

vending machine merchants      homoginized  minerals and resources (= no trade) think  ice burg lettus from the arctic  for pineapples from the south lands

(as a side note  id like to see a game company that also had excelent support products like  highly detailed maps  that could be purchassed or even book modules for quest dungons

in COH and COV ive started several heros and villans and guess what  they do the  same missions for every charactor   the quests are for the most part noninteractive  and you definatly dont get left with feeling like a hero   id like to see some  suprises  diasters or invasions  that arnt just  spawn pops   how about destroying a building or two   how about  an astroid that  threatens the city that takes massive damage to destroy  you could do this in a special space zone   perhapse the astroids are part of some alien attack.     COH/COV  also could use a handicap class   wheelchair comes to mind   (id like to see some charactor additions  like players who have flying skill  be able to put on  wings or jetpacks,  my mage would love some nice dresses  and a staff or wand in her hand)

star wars galaxy is the biggest failure currently,  the world might look like starwars  but it definatly doesnt play like starwars (lots of generic boring spawns here) and this space ship fiasco  people thought they would  have squadrons of ships parked on the ground  and there would be an attack by imperial destroyers from space  and they would go running off to their ships and launch from the ground to counter attack the destroyer

they also seemed to totally forget the casual player that might just want to go mine ore, or do some goods transporting   last i heard you also couldnt do the standard tricks like  hiding in an astroid belt or powering down to loose pursuers 

as for fantacy games  ive yet to see a MMO with a good castle siege that takes days or weeks to  do  complete with balistai, cantapults,  oil,  battering rams     how about ship to ship battles?  

the worlds are too arcade  leaving out alot of  facts of life that can add alot of adventure to a game, an example is crossing a desert,, in most MMOs  you can cross it almost as if it wasnt there  why?  you generally dont require water or food that would have any effect on a desert crossing  you might as well be crossing your living room

im looking for a game that makes me feel like i steped into an alternate universe  example  my dwarf  heads home after a day of adventuring or mining  he stops by the local merchant and picks up some smoked veneson and some bread,  then he heads home and feeds his chickens and cow  and  checks his crop of corn adding some water on this hot summer day,, he then goes into his smithy and works on several pieces of armor before heading to the inn for an ale  he eyes the sky  looks like a storm might be blowing soon he thinks to himself as he walks long   i think of an idealized reality    food is important  but its not crippling

same for wounds  im tired of a charactor almost dead to look fresh as a daisy just before they keal over  how about a little blood  and some wounds  nothing over the top   also if i hit a mob on the foot, it would be very nice if it was localized   a 4 foot gnome isnt gonna fight an ogre the same way as a 6 foot human (a gnome might play hide the gnome dodging between the mobs feet) 

the bigest thing for me is that in a game that i feel important  that when i look back at a game  that i somehow made a small difference  in the game not that all my hard work  ment nothing and was pointless

this might be  invading a neighboring kingrom,  or a crack down on thieves  raiding the caravans

if you cant make a difference  its not worth doing

how about this for a starter game idea:

you are forced to leave your home world  either it is doomed and your being evacuated  or  you are a somehow a prisoner and this is a penal colony,  what ever the reason  you get a pack of starter goods and are teleported/gated to your new home  you begin by knowing nothing about the world  but that your are  deposited in a relativly safe area not too far from  others,  other than that  everything is a mystery

your goal is to  learn about the world you are now in  its weather, plant life, animal life,  climate, if there is other inteligent life

players are deposited in several settlements accross this world that ultimatly might meet and either be friends or enemies

there probably would be  job givers in town  to gather roots or firewood or ore  

players would even have to discover the astronomy   how many suns?  moons?  other planets?  even which way is north (id love to see a way for players to build simple inventions like a compass)  the players goal is to grow and prosper and explore and discover both as a player and as a group.

there should be lots to discover  as the world and its contents are prety alien   is that daisy  sentient?  or is it good to eat?  or does it make a good poison cure?

id like to see the world be discovered by the inginuity of its players   id love to see players figure out the language of an alien life form  what different sounds or gestures or signals mean

try wurmonline

as for seasons and day and night.  of course its not there it limits the player and there for the fun factor for a vast majority of people.<< this does not go for all concepts in MMO's SEE: classes

true it would take some added consideration for it to play smoothlly  but too many games have ignored  these concepts  and  you endup with all of the MMOs haveing nearly the same  kill/level  mass mob  theme

its mortal combat   supersized   im talking about a game that is more adult and takes a bit of brains to  do well

weather and climate  can have alot of chalange and imersion  your group actually has to plan how to cross a desert or their quest can go horribly bad

my objective is to add in some of these facts of life  concepts  yet make them less negative that raw realism

hunger should have some effect on your  ability to fight or move  and lowers your morale

cold  should also  inhibit  players from running nakid through the snow

now for the chalange of being in a cave when a torch goes out?  i think i would have to have some visual display  for heard sounds  roughly like a sonar  or hyrdophone  this would give you sporatic  pulces of your location    generally a prepared player would rarely ever have this problem  they would have a light spell or at least some glow fungus lol

dealing with these facts of life chalanges can be very immersive and add alot to the game expirence  such as gathering  stores for the winter  by  farming, gathering hunting or fishing   this does not mean that you spend everywaking moment of the summer  preparing for winter  (im not that cruel)  but it  will mean alot more to you  if goblins are raiding your potato crop   and i leave room for warmongers too   they can drop a little seed and some water  and its off adventuring they go,  they would just get a base yeald  and the end of the season  where a "tender type player" would get a higher yeald.

this type of game would be closer to the middle ground between the arcade kill/level  and a world simulator using "idealized reality" like you see in nearly all fantacy movies or novels

remember in lord of the rings  weather, rain, snow, food, water  played  important roles  in the quest  it made the victory that much more rewarding  and the nazghoul  where much more frightening at night   and what would be the point of even going to the inn to have a quart sized ale  or sleep in a bed? if it doesnt have any effect on your charactor (drinking ale in a inn improves your morale,, sleeping in a nice bed as opposed to the floor or out on the ground  also effects morale, healing,recuperation)

i would probably even consider  having limited wounding  so if you were stabed in the leg  you would at least limp for a few days

not sure about death  probably the two main ways would be  either the  popular  you were rescued  just before you died and brought to the healers

or  possibly the more contraversial  perma death    but for perma death to work  charactors would need to be exceptionally resiliant  and lost fights dont necessarily mean  death  you would have to almost work at it to get yourself killed and even then  most likely  your heir  would ultimatly be able to access your estate

I would also like to see families  two charactors could agree to mate and  produce a child which could be an alt or even another player depending on the options selected  these types of charactor slots would have some special benefits making them highly valued.

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Originally posted by paulscott

as for seasons and day and night.  of course its not there it limits the player and there for the fun factor for a vast majority of people.

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Hm, the reason why you dont see seasons in MMORPG is that it is not that easy to implement in a way which might look great. Sure, you can alter some textures here and there, but that does not make a winter to a good looking winter. Winter is simply not just a whiteish texture put over the terrain and it is definately not flat (and 3D textures are too memory consuming), it needs more to really look amazing - guess that is why developers avoid dealing with seasons. - I think I will try hard to implement it in a decent way, just because it makes a landscape complete to be able to look at it in different seasons.

Ragosch

Well, sounds like you need a little conflict omega :P

For weather, well although our engine supports it, it is undecided at this point, although it is something we are shooting for but overal depends how well it works with a full server, well see when we begin testing, but our team feels exactly how you do. 

CO - will have food and water, and are valued resources.  Water resources I am sure will be fought over and over again for control...

CO - is a post apocalyptic cyber punch mmorpg in development.  (not a nuke holocaust but mans wastefulness and carelessness on nature who brought down the eco system bringing mother nature to her knees along with a few events that through her over the edge)

This game is focused on PVP, with a deep and extremely complex social and political system.  We are working on a very in-depth story arc, for each of the pre-made factions to give the players a start, but in the long run its the players that will decide the fate of the game world.  Even though the starting factions will be powerful - but they are not defeat able - most pre-made cities will always be there, but who runs them can change - not to mention every building is destroyable...  Cities that see lots of battles will begin to look and feel like a war torn city.

Players who's guild leaves the pre-made factions have the option to build their own towns, merge with other guilds as an alliance and form their own faction.  They can be set up and ran and need to be supported just like the pre-made faction cities.

Sieges, can be highly expensive take days, or weeks (real-time) to plan and prepair for, building up resources buying or building all the needed equipment, weapons and so forth, sending in recon to paint the pitcure of the battle field.  Once ready, well you have to delpoy all your equipment to the battlefield you designated or staging ground.  The drive alone can can take a very long time, and not with out risks, there’s always the danger the enemy will get wind and set up ambush, or people trying to raid your convoy... or who knows what could happen...   We are using real time strategy techniques for leaders to build a battle plan and tactics and missions to provide direct objectives to be made by battle groups.   Ranks will also play special parts in sieges... what if your staging point is attacked after the battle has already commenced and the link from base camp to leaders is lost, and all communications with base camp is gone... then what do you do? Continue on with the mission, with out knowing what is going on in the battle field? its up to the ranking leader in the battle group.

What happens when you’re injured in the battlefield?  Well depends on how bad your injured... say your shot in the leg, well you aint going to be walking to fast, hopefully you have someone with medical skills in your battle group to give you some good drugs so you can get back to fighting.... we are steering away from hit points -- instead if you loose too much blood you loose consciousness - if you continue to bleed you will die...  stamina low? You will lose breath maybe get pains in your side, start feeling lightheaded (vision might blue some? and you slow down?)  Perhaps you keep pushing your self and your body overheats and you are overcome by exhaustion and faint?

Oh did I mention the pvp is full open PVP?  so be careful were you point that RPG son, you dont want any friendly casualties now do we?

well battle is over and you successfully taken the town (who knows how long the battle will last, depends on how well each side is equipped and defended or planed.  Well now with control over a new town, their is new responsibilities, building repair? Rebuild infrastructure and fight lawlessness -- well unless you like anarchy up to the victors.  Or they can rape the city of all its resources and leave the city to fend for its self.

well aside from the sieges, there will be plenty of other skirmishes with the random encounters of the hostile guilds and factions - warlords raiding trading convoys for resources (merchant players will need to transport goods, trade routes are vulnerable for attacks by warlord style guilds..  Afghanistan comes to mined :P

Got any skills and looking for a project, please do not hesitate to let us know.