Originally posted by Martie

Originally posted by Wharg0ul

Just to illuminate those who may be confused:

Darkfall is NOT a "Sandbox". It is instead, a "Clanbox".

The "content" of Darkfall is clans....the politics, the drama, the sieging, the alliances, and the way the battle lines are drawn day by day.

Other than a few select, pure "red" players who only log in to kill n00bs at goblin camps, most solo players are going to have a hard time of it, and most "themepark" players simply won't understand. They think of "content" as quest chains, battlegrounds / arenas, and raid encounters. And you won't find any of that shit in Darkfall.

 

 

 

 

Id argue wow had guild politics, drama and allaince pre TBC and TBC on pvp servers, so dont start ur cap about guild politics and drama, yes they may be more exagerated in Darkfall, but wow had and still has some of this to this day on the pvp servers.   Even for a so callled carebear noob shit game.   

I don't know if anyone's picked up on this, but sorry sweetie, if you think that trying to be the first to unlock a new instance is 'guild politics' you are mistaken. I have a fair bit of experience in one of the most drama heavy games out there, EQ2, and even that doesn't have guild politics. 

As far as I can tell, Darkfall and EVE are currently the only places to see real interplayer politics, including emergent gameplay techniques typical of so called 'sandbox' environments. And let's be clear, EVE is always gonna do it better.

Originally posted by Swiftblade13

Originally posted by methulah

Originally posted by Saerain

Telon or not, I agree that McQuaid ought to get back out there. There's not enough pushing against the WarCraft-born trends that permeate fantasy MMOs as they are now, and there is a phenomenal hole remaining where Sigil was.

Yeah, because Vanguard really pushed against Blizzard's trends.

 

Actually it did early on... before they started to stray from the vision...

It was supposed to be the "Spiritual successor to EQ1"  with corpse runs, xp loss on death, massive open world etc.

 

 

 I know mate. I was there, in the forums, with all the other EQ1 classic trilogy fanboys, hoping we'd found our new home. And I was there when every update and new piece of info after a while pointed towards the game becoming easier and more forgiving. And I preordered it, played it on launch, and was as disappointed as I've ever been.

It might be a bit awkward for the first few days.

Whenever I scan the title, I always read: "power up your arse." Ooops.

You're right. Player housing can have immense function, as SWG and UO attest to. But think of it this way: there's no point in having a shop in your house if there's a central auction house; there's no point in houses being a safe haven if there are safe havens all over the place.

Figure out the function of player housing, and direct it from there.

Gameplay congruence.

Also worth noting, in many parts of the world, and depending on context, the term "oriental" can be consindered offensive or insensitive.

Originally posted by Mitara

Its a curious thing... if you random generate the terrain based on a fractal calculation, you wont get any serious and good artist to work on your title, since they want to control everything (which happened to SWG)

On the other hand.... if an artist gets to control every single hill and tree... you will get an awful world, becuase no artist understands the nature of creatuing a world, so no players will find exploration fun.

I'm sorry, but neither of those statements are true. Procedural generation of content has been used for a LONG time. Do you think there were no artists working on Spore. Or Elder Scrolls II? Do you think Infinity has no artists? Of course not, artists work with good art direction, whether they're "controlling everything" or not.

Similarly, artists are perfectly able to replicate a great gameworld. The exploration in GTAIII was fun. Shit, I loved exploring in Everquest. Plenty of games with carefully and deliberately crafted universes are plenty fun to explore. Artists understand asthetics. Therefore, they can create a convincingly asthetic world, and because the player doesn't understand every single detail of creating a world, or is willing to suspend disbelief over the tiny details (read: every player ever), then we're in business.

PS: Procedural quests is something I've long worried about. Sure, it's fine for "Kill X of Y," but can it handle something a bit more complex convincly. PM me when you're writing your procedural quest generator, I'd like to see how you go about it. I'd encourage you to make it complex. I remember in Freelancer writing down some pseudocode for how I imagined they generated the quests. I was later proven to be right on the money. No convincing system can be that transparent.

My preference is not random, but generated procedurally based on naturally occuring phenomena, and using algerithms that reflect their functioning, then touched up by artists to make sure every single frame is as amazing as looking out your window.

Originally posted by Saerain

Telon or not, I agree that McQuaid ought to get back out there. There's not enough pushing against the WarCraft-born trends that permeate fantasy MMOs as they are now, and there is a phenomenal hole remaining where Sigil was.

Yeah, because Vanguard really pushed against Blizzard's trends.

There was player housing from the very beginning with tons of customization in Everquest II, and it was, at best, a bullshit feature. If the only reason to go into someone's house is to look at how well they've arranged their furniture and take a look at their "special trophies" then no-one's going to do it.

For player housing to be a useful feature, it needs to have a significiant impact on the gameplay. Very few MMOG players get off on moving furniture about, as proven by EQII. Some people got into it, but at the end of the day, the majority of people got a house that could give them the most  broker slots (gameplay impact), and did little to customize (beyond the primary impact).

In SWG, because player housing was important for crafting and economy, people were more concerened with it. The same will apply for Runes of Magic, no matter how many customization options there are.

Originally posted by DuraheLL

Take a look at This Footage

Look at character movement and graphics. Really looks like Darkfall doesn't it?

Is it possible the developers are using Realmcrafter (EDIT: It's Torque and not Realmcrafter) to make this game? :o

Info about MMORPG creation packages HERE

Holy shit.. I started that wiki article.

Originally posted by iv00w

Fine, you can create a text-based game by modifying an engine.

 

But that's not what we're on about here, is it?

 

To make a proper MMORPG like he wants to, you need much more then just the engine.

I hope you can understand that.

You're both wrong and right, mate. He'll definitely need some great coders, and also he'll need to at least have the knowledge of how it all works, which means knowing a bit of programming theory at the very least. However, several engine packages can make the experience much, much easier.

I currently don't spend on MMOGs beyond subscription, but mainly because I've never had to. If I was really, really involved in a game that had an element of risk and it was important for my faction/guild/team/whatever that if I died/lost cash/lost items/whatever that I was up and running again quickly, and the only feasible way to do this was though real currency use, then hell yeah, I'd do it, and I'd probably spend quite a lot. Time is money, and if I worked the amount of time I spent playing when I'm deeply involved in an MMOG, then I'd be a lot richer, so clearly I'm willing to forfeit a decent amount of potential cash for an MMOG.

I would ask though, where would this money come from?

Originally posted by iv00w

The concept is good, but already done or tried, I'm sure.

 

I don't want to dampen your spirit, but think of this:

You say you can do pretty much anything you want to?

Think how much work it will take to make the game so that you can do pretty much anything you want.

 

To be honest, I don't think it's possible to make it as open as you hope. You can really figure out what you can do if you look at your budget and time limit.

You claim it's been done already, then claim it's impossible no a design level. Strange. It hasn't really been done before, a truly complex online fantasy sandbox doesn't exist, with Wurm being a slight exception, though it does have alot wrong with it besides graphics.

That said, you'd need a big budget to even  have a chance to pull this off. Unless you've got about $10,000,000 kicking about and a very skilled producer, you don't really stand a chance. And this is from someone who is hugely in favour of indie MMO development.

Originally posted by igamer

Introduction
Mighty Knight Online is a soon to become mmorpg. With skills,classes and much more to keep the users happy whilst playing.

So whats so good about Mighty-Knight thats people would want to play

Full features list;

Classes (Warlock,Mage,Palidin,Warriors,Archer)
Skills (Hunting,Woodcutting,Cooking,First Aid,Blacksmith,Miner,Herblorist )
Minigames (Non listed)
Account types (Player,Donator,Premium) - Check forums for full understanding of these
Graphics - Good graphics make people want to play
Pets & Mounts
Diifferent worlds/realms for each account type
Each class has a unique starting area,weapon set ect.
 

-This game has not been created yet-

For more information please visit our forums: Link coming soon forums underconstruction

 

Positions available

Im going to write the game storyboard, quests ect.
Needed: Coders, model designers, web-page designers
I can code a bit but im not putting one of my professions into a game when i know theres people better than me.

Im also looking for a few more storyboard writers.
 

What a coder must do
Code the game it self, the define what is a weapon and what is a shield into the game system so that when it is equipted it works, bonuses ect.

What a model & designer must do
Design the game frame,the characters the landscapes, design the monsters ect.

What a web-page designer must do
Design the webpage, HTML or JAVASCRIPT - CSS ect.

I know this is supposed to be encouraging, but at this stage, I'm not sure if you're a seriously naive request for help, or a troll parodying such a request, and that's potentially going to be a problem when it comes to recruiting people.

Okay, let's get this clear. It sounds like you're an MMORPG fan who wants to make your own MMOG. That's fine. But there are a LOT of you. A LOT of you. And 100% of you fail and end up with no MMOG. Yep, as far as I know, it's 100% of people who go from being a fan of the genre to trying to lead a team making one have failed. You say you're different? 100% of people do. And the guys you're trying to recruit are some of the most cynical people alive, because they've seen all these bright eyes team leaders come and go, and they've wasted time on different projects at different times before, and have nothing to show for it.

You have to prove to them that you're different, and that means being able to answer ANY question convincingly, and really prove that you know exactly what you're talking about, and have the knowledge and drive to follow this shit all the way through.

So, questions... How much money does this project have? What technology are you using? Why don't you have a website yet? Why are YOU only doing "storyboarding" and quest dialogue? How is this game going to be different from other MMOs out there? Do you know everything that goes into developing an MMORPG? How are you planning on publishing this, online, retail, free? What do you know about server architecture and how are you planning on paying for servers?

I don't ignore your posts because I think you're trolling. I ignore them to watch the dejected tears slide silently down your face.

If it was tacked on top of what I'd currently expect to play, hell no. But if it had a well tailored game surrounding it, with it making sense in terms of gameplay and setting why this was happening, sure, why  not?

Basically, what Paulscott said.

Nice idea. What developers don't realise is that if a game came out to cater to Camp B, then it'd get most of Camp B playing it (see EVE) and become ridiculously profitable, probably more profitiable than the WoW clones which flop because Blizzard do it better(tm) (see Vanguard and LotRO).

Smedley is unfairly singled out. World of Warcraft changed the genre. It will never be the same again, as the market grew far beyond anyone's expectations. Now there's some real money to be made, you bet Smed doesn't have a choice but try to cash in on it.

EQ2 became more and more like WoW as time progressed until Ruins of Kunark, where they're virtually indistinguishable. This might be Smed's choice, but you can bet your bottom dollar that even if Smed wanted to make a sandbox niche title, or EQ: Hardcore Once Again it still would never go anywhere.

Well, I'm currently working on a design document, which, if my plan works (fingers crossed), will see the light of day, and it doesn't have any NPCs at all, let alone hostile ones the players are meant to kill.