Hero's Journey

What are some things that you would like to see in Hero's Journey to make the game world more immersive?

The following is taken from one of our threads over at Hero's Hall. I thought I would share some of what I and others came up with. Perhaps this will spark some interest or ideas in Simu Staff who only frequent these forums.

-----------------------------------------

Naming areas in the game world. Out in our world everything that is at all distinctive has a name. Every river, sometimes even bends in a river, every street, some corners, sections of towns have names and so forth. In most game worlds I end up giving directions by go down three streets and take a right. I would really love to say across from the theater in Old Town or go to the banks of Lake Kaposin. Most games provide a zone or city name and that is it. Not nearly enough distinction. Because of [DragonRealm's]/Gemstone’s text based nature it did have names for just about everything. I would like to see that continue. - Steele Phoenix

Remove my class from my profile. There is nothing more annoying than playing an assassin everyone knows about. - Trillian

Let's do away with the /yell feature altogether. It's irritating and serves no purpose. I have yet to hear anything /yelled in a game that was worth taking the time to type it, not even notifications about attacks, as all that spawned was yet more people yelling "Where?" "I can't find it!" "Inv plz" and so on. - Trillian

Music is important in an MMO to me, I like really well done, suiting music. And barbershops so that you can adjust certain physical features.....or somthing like that anyway. - Kylie

More ambient sounds when you are in a city. I wanna hear the sound of people talking, laughing, and yelling, dogs barking, a blacksmith working... you know, general city sounds. And I would like more npc's walking around so that cities would seem more alive. - Sa_Semax

I want a fork...or an empty mug. Perhaps a small rock or a loaf of bread. Basically, what I'm saying is, I want to be able to hold items and for those items to be seen in the gameworld. If we can put it in our backpack we should be able to hold it in our hand. And likewise, if said item is in my hand, I should be able to attack with it. I never want to see a "you cannot attack with that in your hand" message. Who are they to tell me I can't punch a Suwari in the eyeball with an empty mug, or stab an Ukar in the arse with a fork? That's a little thing. - Rics

Also, I don't want everything to look the same. Why do all suits of leather and short swords have to look the same? Seriously, they can have more than one model for items and still keep the atributes the same. Why can't a short sword have an iron hilt, leather hilt, bone hilt, silver hilt, copper hilt, wrapped hilt, or wood hilt? Why do all short sword blades have to be the same width, length, shape, or coloration? It's simple. As it stands in most RPGs now, unless the item is "uber", they all look the same. I just want basic eqipment to vary. It's as if they assign a model to attributes instead of to an item. - Rics

CLOTHING! Great wet dogs in a bucket, give me options of clothing! Not armor, just clothing. If I want to put on a bloody kilt, by God, I should be able to. I want a friggin floppy straw fishing hat! - Rics

I believe mmo worlds to be just that, another world. So i expect so much depth in diversity that it should just overwhelm the common player. I totally agree with armor having differnet looks, i hate that mmos today put one armor look per level teir. Get to level 10, and now you can wear leather, but leather all looks the same, no matter if it is rare or it is common. Warcraft does this and i hate it. We need to get to the point where hundreads of clothing options isnt something devolopers actually have the nerve to brag about, we should be up in to the tens of thousands of clothing variations and armor looks. - deserttfoxx

The same goes for weapons as well, we use medevil weapons form earth most of the time, just using that as an example there are hundreads of varaitons of swords and axes and other common weapons, why is it in games you can count the weapon looks on one hand for each weapon type? New look doesnt mean change of stats either, a saber can look like falchion as well as a long sword as long as theirs the choice of using one of three of them. Im not a fan of the linear progression.. "you are now level 1 you can use long swords, your now levle 5 you can use saber, your now level 12 you can use a falchion." Games need to do away with that stupid system, and i still cant belive games today still use it. - deserttfoxx

i like that in everquest you could learn the languages of everyrace if you so choose, and not only speak that lanaguage understand quests from others who spoke only their native language, i like that idea. I noticed in warrcraft that you can often find humans and orcs fighting together against you in dungeons or whatever, but you could never socialize with an orc even if you wanted too, there was no option what so ever to learn the opposing faction tongue, there waas plenty of situations where horde and allaince would be working together. - deserttfoxx

Another little thing that means alot, are idle animations. I absolutly hate when my character looks like he is ready to fight 100% of the time. I really enjoyed when everquest and warcraft introduced the sheathed weapons option... if only they actually included sheaths, but i guess baby steps. I like to be able to sit, but not only sit the same way everytime i choose to sit, there should be multiple variations of sit, after all who the hell sits the same way everytime. I like the wall lean in city of heros, wall sit, kneeel, crouch, all the emotes. I like that when you typed in warcraft your character made little animations to relay chatter, rvery MMO inthe future should have that feature. - deserttfoxx

I like being able to name things. I hated that in warcraft when you got noncombat pets they were unnamable, who wants to run around with a silber tabby cat named "a silver tabby cat" I want the ability to name everything, from my pets, my mount, my weapon even my armor if i so choose. I watch a lot of anime, im so used to that lead warrior having that awesome sword, and use sword has a cool meaningful name, i would like the abilty to name my weapon if i so choose. - deserttfoxx

Animation variation. This is a must, i like that in lineage 2 differnt classes, gender swung their weapons differently, i think more games should do this, but not based on class , race or gender. They should introduce attack styles, say if you learn from a certain trainer that trainer will show you his way of fighting and you will eventually know who trained where because every trainer has their own method of swining a weapon so the animations ultimatly reflect that. Not only that, but maybe certain masters specialize in certain training styles. Such as.. master A,B, and C all train firebolt, if you train at master A he will teach you an all round fire bolt, equally powerful and effective, while master B will teach you a weaker firebolt, but because of the power loss it can be casted 2 times faster, and its recast time is 2 times quicker, while master C trains in power, his attacks are 3times slower, but instead of the usual 3 second cast time it has a 5 second cast time. The animation played while casting that same skill would change to reflect where you learned from, so master A would have a differnt cast animation from master b and C. - deserttfoxx

Another small addition that would make a difference to me is random micro-world events such as shooting stars, a grasshopper crossing a road, a npc occasionally burping in a bar. Just things that make the world more alive, less a sterile virtual 3D space. - Presto

I would love to see proximity emotes. Imagine, if you will, that your avatar automatically changes his facial expression and posture based when someone on his friends and ignore list is within about 6 feet away from him and in line of sight. - z80

-----------------------------------------

My own thoughts:

All of the ambient things mentioned and more...
Birds. Squirels. Shifting wind patterns. Leaves falling. Dust. Fog. Morning Mist.

NPCs going about daily duties with their own changing motivations (like oblivion or sims).

I don't want anyone to look the same. (I swear, if I see my twin in HJ, I will strike that evil doppleganger down without hesitation! "Hey.. we kind of look alik*STAB!STAB!STAB!*earrglglglgghghguuuhhh...")

No floating names. No names at all for people who haven't given their name to you. No professions listed. No levels listed. (If you click on a person you have met previously, then, and only then, should you see their name and any notes you have made about that character. I digress.)

Music is wonderful if done well. It should be in the background most of the time and should not play all the time. It should only ocassionally play in the foreground. During large battles and what not.

Animations and Emotes. Not your run-of-the-mill dozen emotes like some of the horrible things we have seen (ie: Head banging, air guitar playing /dance verb in Guild Wars.. *sigh*). There should be hundreds of common animations/emotes to start with... but also Animations that only accompany certain items... Like blowing smoke rings with a pipe... but only if you own a pipe. Animations that change as your skills change, like Juggling. A beginner frequently drops 3 balls. An expert can easily juggle 7 balls behind his back and in front, in alternating patterns, switching items and ball count.. etc.
Backflips for those with high agility. Once again: Just port DR directly to the graphical world and I shall be elated.

Perhaps there could be auto-reflexive animations as well. Your character might automatically take an offensive or defensive stance when enemies are near. Anything from putting your hand on your blade and standing poised for combat, to actually drawing your weapon and assuming a battle stance, depending on the situation. They might also flinch or duck if something nearby causes them to be surprised. Maybe these animations diminish with repetition. The first Bang causes a flinch. Second+ only causes your character to blink.

Character collision detection so we can't walk through other players/npcs/etc.

Destructable environments - with repercussions for your actions so you can't go around knocking down buildings or forests willy nilly.

Changing landscapes - Seasonal changes. Leaves falling, flowers blooming or dying. Snow cover in winter. Lakes freezing and thawing. Watching a crop be plowed, planted, grow, and be harvested over time. Buildings being built or deteriorating over time - weeds, spiderwebs, dust, etc accumulating in an abandoned building.

Smart Auto Follow system /af.

Instead of 200 people running all jumbled together in a long, somewhat single file line, like raid parties in Dark Age of Camelot, I would like to see people (mounted or on foot) spread out and staggered like they would be were they actually traveling together. Exceptions apply, of course - for treaturous terrain and such.

Mounts that don't appear/disappear magically. Horses should have to be tied up or put in a stable when not being ridden. They should also have to be fed and cared for. You should be able to equip your hose with tack, harness, armour and such.

Non combat cantrips for magic wielders.. Little tricks and such. A small flame or glow from a finger (ET phone home) or coloured lights or a puff of smoke. Cantrips that affect others: Sneeze, scratch, belch, yawn. Telekenesis for small items.. having an apple levitate from a table to your hand.

Originally posted by HJ-Navarre

What are some things that you would like to see in Hero's Journey to make the game world more immersive?

The following is taken from one of our threads over at Hero's Hall. I thought I would share some of what I and others came up with. Perhaps this will spark some interest or ideas in Simu Staff who only frequent these forums.

-----------------------------------------

Naming areas in the game world. Out in our world everything that is at all distinctive has a name. Every river, sometimes even bends in a river, every street, some corners, sections of towns have names and so forth. In most game worlds I end up giving directions by go down three streets and take a right. I would really love to say across from the theater in Old Town or go to the banks of Lake Kaposin. Most games provide a zone or city name and that is it. Not nearly enough distinction. Because of [DragonRealm's]/Gemstone’s text based nature it did have names for just about everything. I would like to see that continue. - Steele Phoenix

Remove my class from my profile. There is nothing more annoying than playing an assassin everyone knows about. - Trillian

Let's do away with the /yell feature altogether. It's irritating and serves no purpose. I have yet to hear anything /yelled in a game that was worth taking the time to type it, not even notifications about attacks, as all that spawned was yet more people yelling "Where?" "I can't find it!" "Inv plz" and so on. - Trillian

Music is important in an MMO to me, I like really well done, suiting music. And barbershops so that you can adjust certain physical features.....or somthing like that anyway. - Kylie

More ambient sounds when you are in a city. I wanna hear the sound of people talking, laughing, and yelling, dogs barking, a blacksmith working... you know, general city sounds. And I would like more npc's walking around so that cities would seem more alive. - Sa_Semax

I want a fork...or an empty mug. Perhaps a small rock or a loaf of bread. Basically, what I'm saying is, I want to be able to hold items and for those items to be seen in the gameworld. If we can put it in our backpack we should be able to hold it in our hand. And likewise, if said item is in my hand, I should be able to attack with it. I never want to see a "you cannot attack with that in your hand" message. Who are they to tell me I can't punch a Suwari in the eyeball with an empty mug, or stab an Ukar in the arse with a fork? That's a little thing. - Rics

Also, I don't want everything to look the same. Why do all suits of leather and short swords have to look the same? Seriously, they can have more than one model for items and still keep the atributes the same. Why can't a short sword have an iron hilt, leather hilt, bone hilt, silver hilt, copper hilt, wrapped hilt, or wood hilt? Why do all short sword blades have to be the same width, length, shape, or coloration? It's simple. As it stands in most RPGs now, unless the item is "uber", they all look the same. I just want basic eqipment to vary. It's as if they assign a model to attributes instead of to an item. - Rics

CLOTHING! Great wet dogs in a bucket, give me options of clothing! Not armor, just clothing. If I want to put on a bloody kilt, by God, I should be able to. I want a friggin floppy straw fishing hat! - Rics

I believe mmo worlds to be just that, another world. So i expect so much depth in diversity that it should just overwhelm the common player. I totally agree with armor having differnet looks, i hate that mmos today put one armor look per level teir. Get to level 10, and now you can wear leather, but leather all looks the same, no matter if it is rare or it is common. Warcraft does this and i hate it. We need to get to the point where hundreads of clothing options isnt something devolopers actually have the nerve to brag about, we should be up in to the tens of thousands of clothing variations and armor looks. - deserttfoxx

The same goes for weapons as well, we use medevil weapons form earth most of the time, just using that as an example there are hundreads of varaitons of swords and axes and other common weapons, why is it in games you can count the weapon looks on one hand for each weapon type? New look doesnt mean change of stats either, a saber can look like falchion as well as a long sword as long as theirs the choice of using one of three of them. Im not a fan of the linear progression.. "you are now level 1 you can use long swords, your now levle 5 you can use saber, your now level 12 you can use a falchion." Games need to do away with that stupid system, and i still cant belive games today still use it. - deserttfoxx

i like that in everquest you could learn the languages of everyrace if you so choose, and not only speak that lanaguage understand quests from others who spoke only their native language, i like that idea. I noticed in warrcraft that you can often find humans and orcs fighting together against you in dungeons or whatever, but you could never socialize with an orc even if you wanted too, there was no option what so ever to learn the opposing faction tongue, there waas plenty of situations where horde and allaince would be working together. - deserttfoxx

Another little thing that means alot, are idle animations. I absolutly hate when my character looks like he is ready to fight 100% of the time. I really enjoyed when everquest and warcraft introduced the sheathed weapons option... if only they actually included sheaths, but i guess baby steps. I like to be able to sit, but not only sit the same way everytime i choose to sit, there should be multiple variations of sit, after all who the hell sits the same way everytime. I like the wall lean in city of heros, wall sit, kneeel, crouch, all the emotes. I like that when you typed in warcraft your character made little animations to relay chatter, rvery MMO inthe future should have that feature. - deserttfoxx

I like being able to name things. I hated that in warcraft when you got noncombat pets they were unnamable, who wants to run around with a silber tabby cat named "a silver tabby cat" I want the ability to name everything, from my pets, my mount, my weapon even my armor if i so choose. I watch a lot of anime, im so used to that lead warrior having that awesome sword, and use sword has a cool meaningful name, i would like the abilty to name my weapon if i so choose. - deserttfoxx

Animation variation. This is a must, i like that in lineage 2 differnt classes, gender swung their weapons differently, i think more games should do this, but not based on class , race or gender. They should introduce attack styles, say if you learn from a certain trainer that trainer will show you his way of fighting and you will eventually know who trained where because every trainer has their own method of swining a weapon so the animations ultimatly reflect that. Not only that, but maybe certain masters specialize in certain training styles. Such as.. master A,B, and C all train firebolt, if you train at master A he will teach you an all round fire bolt, equally powerful and effective, while master B will teach you a weaker firebolt, but because of the power loss it can be casted 2 times faster, and its recast time is 2 times quicker, while master C trains in power, his attacks are 3times slower, but instead of the usual 3 second cast time it has a 5 second cast time. The animation played while casting that same skill would change to reflect where you learned from, so master A would have a differnt cast animation from master b and C. - deserttfoxx

Another small addition that would make a difference to me is random micro-world events such as shooting stars, a grasshopper crossing a road, a npc occasionally burping in a bar. Just things that make the world more alive, less a sterile virtual 3D space. - Presto

I would love to see proximity emotes. Imagine, if you will, that your avatar automatically changes his facial expression and posture based when someone on his friends and ignore list is within about 6 feet away from him and in line of sight. - z80

-----------------------------------------

My own thoughts:

All of the ambient things mentioned and more...
Birds. Squirels. Shifting wind patterns. Leaves falling. Dust. Fog. Morning Mist.

NPCs going about daily duties with their own changing motivations (like oblivion or sims).

I don't want anyone to look the same. (I swear, if I see my twin in HJ, I will strike that evil doppleganger down without hesitation! "Hey.. we kind of look alik*STAB!STAB!STAB!*earrglglglgghghguuuhhh...")

No floating names. No names at all for people who haven't given their name to you. No professions listed. No levels listed. (If you click on a person you have met previously, then, and only then, should you see their name and any notes you have made about that character. I digress.)

Music is wonderful if done well. It should be in the background most of the time and should not play all the time. It should only ocassionally play in the foreground. During large battles and what not.

Animations and Emotes. Not your run-of-the-mill dozen emotes like some of the horrible things we have seen (ie: Head banging, air guitar playing /dance verb in Guild Wars.. *sigh*). There should be hundreds of common animations/emotes to start with... but also Animations that only accompany certain items... Like blowing smoke rings with a pipe... but only if you own a pipe. Animations that change as your skills change, like Juggling. A beginner frequently drops 3 balls. An expert can easily juggle 7 balls behind his back and in front, in alternating patterns, switching items and ball count.. etc.
Backflips for those with high agility. Once again: Just port DR directly to the graphical world and I shall be elated.

Perhaps there could be auto-reflexive animations as well. Your character might automatically take an offensive or defensive stance when enemies are near. Anything from putting your hand on your blade and standing poised for combat, to actually drawing your weapon and assuming a battle stance, depending on the situation. They might also flinch or duck if something nearby causes them to be surprised. Maybe these animations diminish with repetition. The first Bang causes a flinch. Second+ only causes your character to blink.

Character collision detection so we can't walk through other players/npcs/etc.

Destructable environments - with repercussions for your actions so you can't go around knocking down buildings or forests willy nilly.

Changing landscapes - Seasonal changes. Leaves falling, flowers blooming or dying. Snow cover in winter. Lakes freezing and thawing. Watching a crop be plowed, planted, grow, and be harvested over time. Buildings being built or deteriorating over time - weeds, spiderwebs, dust, etc accumulating in an abandoned building.

Smart Auto Follow system /af.

Instead of 200 people running all jumbled together in a long, somewhat single file line, like raid parties in Dark Age of Camelot, I would like to see people (mounted or on foot) spread out and staggered like they would be were they actually traveling together. Exceptions apply, of course - for treaturous terrain and such.

Mounts that don't appear/disappear magically. Horses should have to be tied up or put in a stable when not being ridden. They should also have to be fed and cared for. You should be able to equip your hose with tack, harness, armour and such.

Non combat cantrips for magic wielders.. Little tricks and such. A small flame or glow from a finger (ET phone home) or coloured lights or a puff of smoke. Cantrips that affect others: Sneeze, scratch, belch, yawn. Telekenesis for small items.. having an apple levitate from a table to your hand.

Just a complex skill system of equal and opposite tendencies, the mage against the warrior evil against good. As long as you remove defined classes and build skills/abilities that are difficult to use in combination so you have the concept of the traditional classes but don't have the stigma above your head. you're a Mage... you're a Warrior no I have some minor mage skills but can still wield a longsword type idea.

Base abilities enhanced as a sum of the total of alll player skills used level concept but not levels...

Roll on HJ I hope you are working hard and if you ever need a hand just ask...

How about a game that ISN'T a World of Warcraft knockoff? I don't want to be pidgeon-holed into questing to level. For the last 15 months, it seems like every game that comes out starts with WoW. They rename it, redress it, and charge us to play it. How about leaving the form of levelling up to us? After all, we're the ones paying to play the game. If I want to quest, I should be able to. If I want to go kill stuff and level that way, I should be able to. And if I want to quest part of the time and grind the rest of the time, then I should be able to do that as well. Also, how about not having an arbitrary level up. Show us an experience bar. Let us know how close we are to levelling. Give us experience points for everything we do (that's worth experience, of course). Just my opinion.