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Zweihander	Most Despised Mechanics of MMORPGs The Pub at MMORPG.COM « General Discussion 9/30/07 5:24:17 PM Originally posted by darkaster This might work in the short-term, but you have to keep in mind the fact that Monster Hunter was also only, what... 5 of 6 people in a contained area? Think about whether or not this would work in a grander scheme, a non-instanced one at that. I could see this working for a Guild Wars type game, but anything more persistant than that would run into problems. I know in my experience, I would run into groups of people who all picked up the biggest weapon and whacked away. You guys were probably unique in creating these roles, and sounds like a great experience, just not to probable to expect everyone to follow suite. Perhaps I did not clarify the system properly. Items had a rarity level. Nearly all the items necessary to construct weapons or armor were over Rank 3, which was not tradable. This meant those players had to go out and kill those monsters (with or without help) to get the parts necessary to build those weapons. Therefore the system is self-balancing.
Zweihander	Most Despised Mechanics of MMORPGs The Pub at MMORPG.COM « General Discussion 9/27/07 7:09:17 PM Monster Hunter, a PS2 online game, used a unique equipment-based development system where the characters themselves did not statistically improve. Rather, their strengths and abilities were based on the equipment they had or the items they used (a form of alchemy, if you will). As such, very few characters had the same equipment and item loadout. I personally specialized in using group-heals (there were three methods of doing this in the game), and took the role of group healer. A friend of mine took the role of "de-buffer" by using poison or paralyze weapons along with pit traps and flash bombs. Another focused on bombs, and would set up elaborate bomb traps near any pit traps that were placed. Though you could argue that we reinvented the class system using what was available within the game, we did so on our terms and thus found it more enjoyable. Just because I could heal didn't mean I was limited to only that action, for example. I had a fairly menacing sword and some good armor to boot, and also used Flash Bombs on occasion. In essense, we formed our own "classes" based on specialization, but as it was on our own terms it was unconstrained. I would love to see an MMORPG use a similar system focus on items and equipment rather than rely on character levels and classes. This Equipment-Based Development System could work as well, if not better, than any game relying on character-locked statistics and powers without forcing them to make tough choices that will affect their characters forever (or until the next respec).

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Zweihander

Most Despised Mechanics of MMORPGs
The Pub at MMORPG.COM « General Discussion

9/30/07 5:24:17 PM

Originally posted by darkaster

This might work in the short-term, but you have to keep in mind the fact that Monster Hunter was also only, what... 5 of 6 people in a contained area? Think about whether or not this would work in a grander scheme, a non-instanced one at that. I could see this working for a Guild Wars type game, but anything more persistant than that would run into problems. I know in my experience, I would run into groups of people who all picked up the biggest weapon and whacked away. You guys were probably unique in creating these roles, and sounds like a great experience, just not to probable to expect everyone to follow suite.

Perhaps I did not clarify the system properly.

Items had a rarity level. Nearly all the items necessary to construct weapons or armor were over Rank 3, which was not tradable. This meant those players had to go out and kill those monsters (with or without help) to get the parts necessary to build those weapons. Therefore the system is self-balancing.

Zweihander

Most Despised Mechanics of MMORPGs
The Pub at MMORPG.COM « General Discussion

9/27/07 7:09:17 PM

Monster Hunter, a PS2 online game, used a unique equipment-based development system where the characters themselves did not statistically improve. Rather, their strengths and abilities were based on the equipment they had or the items they used (a form of alchemy, if you will). As such, very few characters had the same equipment and item loadout. I personally specialized in using group-heals (there were three methods of doing this in the game), and took the role of group healer. A friend of mine took the role of "de-buffer" by using poison or paralyze weapons along with pit traps and flash bombs. Another focused on bombs, and would set up elaborate bomb traps near any pit traps that were placed. Though you could argue that we reinvented the class system using what was available within the game, we did so on our terms and thus found it more enjoyable. Just because I could heal didn't mean I was limited to only that action, for example. I had a fairly menacing sword and some good armor to boot, and also used Flash Bombs on occasion. In essense, we formed our own "classes" based on specialization, but as it was on our own terms it was unconstrained.

I would love to see an MMORPG use a similar system focus on items and equipment rather than rely on character levels and classes. This Equipment-Based Development System could work as well, if not better, than any game relying on character-locked statistics and powers without forcing them to make tough choices that will affect their characters forever (or until the next respec).

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