Part 1

Overview

   Glimpse will be a fantasy MMORPG with a sandbox feel.  The setting takes place on one of many fringe moons orbiting a large gas giant.  You, the player, are thrown into a time of growing turmoil where new evil rises to power.  Fighting for your own survival and the fate of the world, you are forced to draw both line and sword.  For the most part, the world and story are built upon magic.  Technology, as a whole, will have a limited feel.

   This title will have an emphasis on grouping, guild warfare, PvP, and player-driven content.  No longer shall factions be forced to fight in static environments.  The decisions and choices that guilds and their members make not only have the ability to change the environment, but will influence global story lines... decisions that are felt by players and NPCs across the world.

Key Features

• High immersive properties - NPCs will not be seen standing in the same spot 24/7 and at very least will have limited routines.  Most NPCs will seek employment and can usually be found performing such duties.  NPCs can and routinely interact with mobs to perform jobs, survive, etc..
• Open Class System - players pick and choose combinations of abilities from any of the primary classes to allow unique flexibility
• Sub Class - selection of subclass further defines how players select primary abilities and approach battle
• Magic - the use of magical spells are not limited to classes and can be wielded by all.  One of the game's major crafting features, armor and weapons can be "glyphed" to contain both elemental and divine types of magic.
• Weapon Class Skills - the learning and training of weapons allows players to replace regular strikes with others based on weapon types and add an extra learning curve to combat (as they are not automatically engaged through a single keystroke)
• Weight - impacts a player's mobility and is uniquely put to wide use in combat through selected primary class abilities
• Seamless zone transitions
• Player-built cities - guilds can claim their stake in the land and build impermenant settlements.  Guilds will be able to attack other settlements as well as grow theirs into bustling cities for both power and fortune.
• Guild Professions - oriented to the advancement of the guild and its members, professions range from the wrangling up of NPCs and mobs to sell to your kingdom to the making of raid devices designed to facilitate the attacking of other cities
• Caravans/Convoys - goods being trafficked by NPCs throughout factions are fully raidable by any
• Sever Progression System - The overall story line doesn't end with the backstory... players on each server have the opportunity to shape the future of the server
• Anti-griefing systems designed to highly deter needless griefing strategies.  These will come in multiple forms designed to be attractive to players and NPCs alike.
• Anti-RMT design.  A rich and diverse economy and trading system that will make it frustrating for those people playing the game for the sole purpose of real life profit.  Basically, the game will be naturally rewarding to players who come across any such abuse.

Are you insinuating that the majority of the MMO community are nothing more than whiny, bratty children who criticize things MMOs offer before completely understanding what it is they react to?

*O and Calvin and Hobbes rox sox.

i stopped reading at 9.5 aesthetics... what a lie.

I can't imagine nothing but open dungeons... highly populated starting zones in WoW were pretty actually pretty annoying and there were lines of people waiting to down named mobs..

while I think it would be ok to employ open dungeons tastefully (read: small amounts), end game stuff would be grief fests, waiting games, cause people to be forced to login during odd hours... would be hard to do.

Originally posted by avalon1000

Yep have fun ganking in a game I will never play (never play Korean games again).

What would make you even want to try one? lol.

The most hardcore thing I've done in a game is find the ideal zone of choice to take a screenshot of the avatar looking off into a sunset... super hardcore.  No1 else in the history of that game even bothered reaching that peak as the yeti cave entrances ended a hundred yards below.

Originally posted by Fly666monkey

I hope I'm not the only one who is a little confused by the attitude of people who jump into F2P games and expect everything to be free.

Anytime a f2p game cuts co0ntent off from free players, I see countless people complaining that they have to pay for it. Even in a game that used to be P2P and required you to buy both the game AND pay a sub to access the game AT ALL.

F2P is not Freeware.

It's a buisiness model. So long as F2P games provide quality content, and don't fall into gambling/P2W traps, I see no reason to complain. Guess what? These games have to make money, too.

This whole "F2P games should give me everything for free, GIMMMEGIMMEGIMME." attitude makes no sense. If you're willing to pay a sub to access an MMO, then I see no reason to whine when they decide to let you have SOME of that content without paying.

I'm glad I got that off my chest.

It's because new players are drawn to low/no cost like a smart consumer should be.  Their problem is they are too believing and should know without any experience that F2P is code for Pay2Win.

It is a business model alright.. one that bases itself on deceit in order to lure players in.

Originally posted by sullivanj69

Games are better if they are policed by players rather than by some artificial criminal flag.  If you are going to have some sort of criminal system like this you need to have full or at least partial looting.  Otherwise there won't be any pvp at all since you get punished for winning, which doesn't sit well with hardcore pvpers.

Griefing is not PvP.. mechanics set to contend griefing  that also devalue PvP as a whole are simply badly implemented mechanics.  Worthwhile systems won't deter PvPers who aren't griefers because these systems won't be hampering their performance/experience.

Originally posted by Hluill

 

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Originally posted by Hluill
 

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Originally posted by MacroHard

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Originally posted by Hluill

One of the problems with PvP is game design itself: Levels, Hitpoints, Gear.
The lowbie doesn't stand a chance against the even a mediocre PK.
Until, games enable anybody to kill anybody, no matter the level or gear disparity, PvP will always be an immature joke.
 

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that's why we are talking about different solutions to deter griefing.  As long as you're here, read a post or two.  Might learn something.

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~laughs~ Do you dismiss my point so easily? One of the ways to address the issue is to lessen the disparity created by levels, skills and gear. If lowbies were able to defend themselves against griefers, then griefers wouldn't be able to function..

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I just got back from taking the dog for a run , so I've given my reply even further thought.

We can talk about punish griefers, just like we talk about punishing rapists and robbers, but that only arguably lessens the crime rate. I want to empower the would-be victims. Give them choices that work, like being able to run away, to defend themselves or to avoid it altogether. Many of us play these games to be heroes, not victims.

Players always have the option of fight or flight... that's not going anywhere.  The whole point of open PvP is to make the game feel less restrictive and give players more options.  Not everyone wants to have to queue into a PvP instance just for the sake of fighting players over trivial nonsense that arguably has little to no significant impact on the game itself.  PvP takes a backseat to many games that center the majority of their content to PvE.  There is nothing wrong with ensuring there is give and take in all things players have access to.. that's the epitomy of balance.

I don't think it's a good idea or makes any real sense to allow a level 1 player to hold his own against a level 58..  Where players don't have the opportunity to adequately defend themselves against griefing.. that's where a punishment system comes in.

Originally posted by Loke666

It wont really work, a ganker will gank no matter what the punishment.

What do work pretty fine is a lot less gap between noobs and leveled up players, and less impact on gear. That turns of the cowardly noob killer at least (or makes him work in groups) since those usually suck so bad that they only attack people they can´t loose against.

The good PvPers on the other hand is impossible to avoid unless you play on a PvE server.

Lineage had the idea that you could PvP flag enemy guilds by declaring war if their prince accepted on PvE servers, that worked fine there but it is really only an option to add a little open PvP on a PvE server.

Let´s face it, if someone can gank you someone will, so you either needs plenty of actual restrictions to stop it (like must flag for PvP or PvP in seperate areas of the game like GW2s the mists).

ganking and griefing are 2 different things

$0.00

pay to win is for chumps.

edit: my bad, the clown with 666 in his name that I had to block alerted me I didn't fully understand the basic question of: how much money have I p*ssed away on MMO stuff knowing full well I was merely renting time?

Answer: couple hundred max.

Originally posted by A_Mighty_Wyn

As someone who has friends who level much faster than I do, I would love a system like this.  To the above poster(Macrohard) I would say, if I don't ever get to endgame content because I loose the drive to play after my friends outlevel me, how does adding more endgame content help me?  Even if I do eventually hit max-level, with most games I still can't play with my friends because they are doing gated content.  And, if I ever do happen to catch them, that's usually when a new expansion gets released, which starts the the whole process over again.  It's a never ending battle to catch up, and it's a real de-motivator to keep playing the game.

i'm speaking of player-driven content in which everyone can participate once hitting cap.  You are confusing what I said with the needless end-game dribble that is the "sorry state of MMOs" I was referring to.  What I'm talking about is meaningful content in which friends can play together meaningfully once again.. even when once being split apart by variance in leveling rates.

Originally posted by karmath

Dont like PvP? Dont play on a PvP server or play a PvP centric game. There is MORE PvE focused games than you can poke a stick at and only a handfull of PvP focused games.

Also, stop keyboard turning.

servers based on combat preference is an immersion breaker and the industry needs to get past such garbage so players of all types and preferences can enjoy a single game atmosphere.. one that doesn't have to be artificially split up.  That's my goal, anyways.

Originally posted by Volkon

I like how GW2 is going to handle it... all the open world PvP will take place in the Mists, essentially a zone dedicated to 2 week long server vs server vs server battles where anything goes. In the PvE world of your server there will be no ability to attack anyone... you're all on the same side against the Elder Dragons and their minions after all. Hell, they're making it damn near impossible to grief at all in the PvE world.

 

So you want to enjoy PvE, stick to your server and have at it. You  want to PK others? Go to the Mists and best of luck to you. Everyone else there (from the other servers) will be looking for you too.

This system of zoned combat preference is nothing new.  Although it arguably works, it of course greatly limits location where free-range PvP can take place.  On the upside though, you explaining the justification as to how it works makes a lot of sense and I would say the "implementation" aspect sounds like it's being done correctly (immersionally speaking).

Originally posted by Hluill

One of the problems with PvP is game design itself: Levels, Hitpoints, Gear.

The lowbie doesn't stand a chance against the even a mediocre PK.

Until, games enable anybody to kill anybody, no matter the level or gear disparity, PvP will always be an immature joke.

 

that's why we are talking about different solutions to deter griefing.  As long as you're here, read a post or two.  Might learn something.

Originally posted by Quirhid

What is there to stop clans from declaring war against everyone? And is there a way to prevent clan-hopping? And are all these restrictions really worth it? The more complicated the system gets, the more chance there is for exploits.

Same can be said on the other side: more opportunity for a more effective system through complexity.  As for exploits.. that's the whole point of testing a game before relase..

Originally posted by Quirhid

Originally posted by MacroHard

here's a scenario for ya:

1. griefer spends an hour in a lower level zone wrecklessly killing everyone he sees.  No one even near his level seems to be notified.  Life is very entertaining!
2. a couple hours pass and griefer gets a guild notification that the guild's town is under attack by military units from NPC towns that share factions with all those low levels.
3. Town has been faced with multiple waves of military units for the past few hours (IRL).  The guild mates who were logged on had to spend time defending the town instead of doing what they originally logged on to do.
4. griefer is flamed and kicked from guild
5. griefer laughs and continues killing low levels.
6. NPCs find griefer and hunt him down for his bounty. 
7. NPCs loot some gold off of griefer's corpse
8. NPCs are seen talking and laughing over their catch as they head back to the town they came from to claim their rewards.
9. Griefer finds he can't res for an unusually long period of time and coincides with how much griefing he did.

This list could keep going but I think this would be sufficient to get the point across that the world frowns upon the behavior and in the end just ended up costing the griefer lots of needlessly wasted time, a bit of money, and a guild.  Worth it?

You attract NPCs you have permission to kill? Grind, grind, grind away those NPCs!

lol... no.  No experience or benefit is gained by being under siege from military NPCs attacking your guild.  If you ignore them, no more guild town.

I've been guestimating since last month that SW:ToR won't be a long-lasting flavor.  Not like Rainbow Sherbet, no sir.

With the sorry state of MMO endgame as it currently is, a filler system such as this doesn't seem like a bad idea but redundancy is nothing awesome.  Player driven endgame content so the journey can keep going is where it's at.  Even if friends among other friends pull ahead or get left behind, everyone hitting level cap will put those differences to rest and they will be reunited never having to worry about pace of leveling further with those characters.

Originally posted by st4t1ck

If "mindless" pvp doesnt work, Pve'ers quiting. what do you think will happen when you start penalizing pvp.  Pvp'ers quit.  I dont get why its that hard,  have pvp and pve servers as they do now,  but make pvp servers actually pvp not pvp lite.  Open world pvp, which is what pvpers want will not draw the mass crowd of pve'ers

Griefing is a class of PvP, one that should be deterred naturally using ingame mechanics.