All Posts by CactusmanX

Originally posted by sanders01

Originally posted by CactusmanX

 

4 - I dislike corpse runs, so I got beat up and woke up naked at a shrine, creepy.

Meh doesnt bother me

It doesn't bother you to wake up naked after losing a fight?  Seems weird to me.

5 - I dislike missing with melee weapons, seriously if the target didn't move then how did you miss a sword swing?  What are you drunk?

Based of DnD, what do you expect? Nearly all MMOs have a dice roll type system for attacks.

DnD can suck it, dice rolls were the worst part of DND anyway.

7 - I dislike too many dice rolls, there should be a certain degree of common sense, I don't care if you rolled a 6 I ran behind the tree before you could shoot me.

DEAL WITH IT!

Not going to and you can't make me, not until RPGs get better combat.

8 - I dislike caveman fighting, don't you think you should block more often or are all those blows to the head messing with your hand-eye cordination?

Again, Dice rolls.

Hey you could still do dice rolls, just change the 5% block to 95% block then lower character health, yay fixed!

9 - I dislike magic resistance, I have plate armor and a freaking shield, I think I can handle a fireball.

The fire would heat the armor so hot, it would burn your skin, or set your underclothes on fire.

Nu-uh, it would hurt a little bit but the armor would help a lot, or you could just dodge it it :P

10 - I dislike random chests and boxes, why is there a chest filled with money and pair of gloves in this ogre cave, I didn't realize ogres were intelligent enough or had the craftsmenship to make chests, I figured they would have a loot mound, silly me.

Ogres could of stole the chest full of loot and just set it down in their cave?

Doubt it, ogres like to smash everything, including chests, they would take the shiney things and eat the rest, cause that is what ogres do.

In short no,

Even assuming that you could get groups really quickly so time wasn't an issue I would still say no.  The thing is I like to solo, not just for convience but because I like to know that my character can do ample things by himself.  If my character has to rely too much on a group then I start to feel he is mostly useless, and I start to lose interest.  That and it is fun to take on things by yourself, achievements mean more to me if I can do them all by my lonesome, and I don't want to be penalized for doing it.

1 & 3 don't bother me but I agree with the rest, and I can't think of a MMOG that has done 9 well.

I don't despise, I dislike

1 - I dislike missions/quests that tell you to go some place or see someone but do not tell you where it/they are.

2 - I dislike drop rates on items that should practically drop everytime, like boar livers or the magic sword the boss was just fighting us with.

3 - I dislike nonsensical drops, why did that wolf have a knife and money?

4 - I dislike corpse runs, so I got beat up and woke up naked at a shrine, creepy.

5 - I dislike missing with melee weapons, seriously if the target didn't move then how did you miss a sword swing?  What are you drunk?

6 - I dislike elves, I like to kill them anyway.

7 - I dislike too many dice rolls, there should be a certain degree of common sense, I don't care if you rolled a 6 I ran behind the tree before you could shoot me.

8 - I dislike caveman fighting, don't you think you should block more often or are all those blows to the head messing with your hand-eye cordination?

9 - I dislike magic resistance, I have plate armor and a freaking shield, I think I can handle a fireball.

10 - I dislike random chests and boxes, why is there a chest filled with money and pair of gloves in this ogre cave, I didn't realize ogres were intelligent enough or had the craftsmenship to make chests, I figured they would have a loot mound, silly me.

I don't believe in aliens,

It is possible but being possible does not mean it has to exist, I will only believe in aliens when we have physical evidence of a life form that we are sure is extraterrestrial.

And on a side note being technologically advanced does not have to mean advanced in everyway, assuming there were intelligent aliens visiting earth, they could be a peaceful or noncombative species that doesn't fight for some reason so their weapons tech would be practically nonexistant.  Not saying they couldn't make weapons it is just not readily availible, like how stone-age man had better spear throwing tech then we do, since we do not focus on it nor need it, though we could make it and make it better.

I don't know about feudal Japan but I really like the Edo period in Japan, I think that would make a really interesting setting.  Don't make in magical though there is enough magic in games anyway.

Koei's MMOG was Called Nobunaga's Ambition Online, the thing is Koei only makes MMOGs for asia so there is no chance of it coming stateside or to Europe.

What I consider important, well...

1.  Little or no statistical/power difference between max and min, being skill level, character level or gear.  Whatever means of progression in the game, I do not like it when there is too much power difference between the top and the bottom, meaning someone with max combat skill/level/gear is many times more powerful then a lower level.  This creates barriers between friends and community and makes PvP imbalanced, so power difference should be minimal.

2.  Creativity is important to me, I like to be able to customize everything, character appearence, gear and items, skills and abilities, UI and housing, whatever there is in the game players should be able to make it and customize it.  This also translates into players being able to craft and trade all items in the game.

3.  Speed is also a big factor, this is in reference to combat and other actions and progression speed.  For one, animations and actions should be done in a quick and fluid manner there is nothing more frustrating than a slow and clunky character, also I prefer faster combat, speed isn't the opposit of tactics though, it can be both.  And lastly making progression slow does not make it epic nor meaningful it makes it mind numbing and a pain, some things should take a while to get or do, but otherwise players should be able to accomplish things in a hour of playtime, if they can't there is something wrong.

4.  Non-static purposeful actions, meaning the quests/missions and PvP actually serve a purpose and are not static for every player to do over and over again.  For example, you could make it so that NPCs and other players try to capture points on a map that serve different purposes and the points can be recaptured, or buildable structures that serve different purposes that players can build, destroy and repaired.

5.  More player focus, this goes along with 1.  I do not really like dice rolls and over reliance on character stats so I think they should be minimized in favour of more player focused gameplay, player focused does not have to mean really twitchy or FPS.  Along with this idea comes no uber gear, players should never win because of what they wear.

6.  Art direction, something not a lot of developers think of but it is very important, this is everything from the terrain to the clothing and item design and the colors and lighting used in the world.  Music is also important and helps set the mood.  History and culture make the world more interesting and believable, so put lots of thought into all these things and try to create a original world.

Originally posted by wjrasmussen

What ever happened to using your imagination?

What do you mean like imagining the blood there?

Some people take things too literal.

I think you could make a MMOG based on Frank Miller's artistic vision of ancient greece, which is a slightly fantastical version of history.  It does not have to be exactly about the battle of Thermopylae or just about about the Spartans and Persians, there is Athens and other polises.  And there is more than just fighting, things have to be gathered and made, business has to be done, polises need to be governed.  Of course you could drop the 300 IP, which would be cheaper, and just make a historical game set durring the Persian Wars but then again you would be missing out on the art direction and the 300 feel.

I would like more blood in MMOGs.

The thing is though when developers try to make a more "mature game" it usually means it is very infantile, they add decapitations and dismemberment and make the blood flow like water, maybe even random nudity.  When I hit or shoot someone I would expect to see some bloodstains or some splatter but too many games make blood gush out as if a bloodfilled firehydrant suddenly opened up.  Again rarely would someone ever be dismembered or beheaded, but "mature games" usually make this commonplace, where it both loses its effect and becomes just silly.

So yeah I would like more blood and gore but within a resonible ammount, don't turn the game gore into laughable cartoon gore.  And while we are at it how about making the rest of the game more mature, as in dealing with mature issues in a realistic manner.

None of the above,

I'm voting for COBRA COMMANDER!

Yes, We Shall

Is this all for one movie?  because I am pretty sure some of those are from Running Scared.

I always used the terms sandbox and character driven differently, not suprising since it seems that I define things differently than other people.

To me a sandbox is merely a game were the main story and or objectives can be ignored and the player still able to play the game and have the ability to roam freely.

Character driven, or I think I used the word centric, to me means that the character is a large factor in the outcome of various actions in the game.  The opposite of this would be player centric.

But I would say that there would definatly have to be some form of character customization, pertaining to abilities of the character, in the game for me to consider it a RPG.

The big difference is while I require character customization I do not require statistical character advancement in the game.  Statistical advancement being your character growing numerically as in more damage, HP etc.  this is usually done by levels, skill levels or gear.  Nor do I require the game to opperate around the character, as in rolling to determine success or failure. This to me is a more sim style of game play, where the character and the adventures are simulated by the system, which is not neccesary in a RPG. It seems that most developers take these as givens in MMORPGs though, which I find to be a pitty because I think that they are A) missing the point of RPGs and B) trying to make RPGs too formulaic.

One of the best Roleplays I have done was on Garry's Mod, a Half-Life 2 mod, there we use to set up senarios, make and edit our characters and then act out the senario, making decisions all the way.

The area all MMORPGs usually drop the ball is giving the player the ability to choose how their character behaves and lives.   In most RPGs you are the hero and you will do this, seldom can you ever decide to become a murderer or actually join the villain.

Single player RPGs seem to be more eager than MMORPGs to disrupt the RPG formula and get down to what I think a RPG is about

I am not too crazy about being a space ship or about space in general, nor lasers aliens and teleporters but hopefully if people gain more interest in sci-fi MMOs it will lead to to more diverse sci-fi games, like something in the vein of Blade Runner or maybe something steampunk.  So for the sake of diversity I hope at least one sci-fi MMO becomes big enough to gain the interest of other developers so that they start rethinking the setting for possible new MMOs.

Fallen Earth looks pretty good, I like the setting, but also has that indy feeling that makes me a bit concerned.

WELL looks pretty good too, like SWG, but hopefully it will not be as slow as SWG was, that was a very off putting feature for me.

I would much prefer it if you chose your faction, meaning side A or side B not dark or light side, from the begining with the option to change it later on or not have one.

As for the force, Bioware always does good and bad type things in their games, it would make more sense to start neutral then go dark or light side from there, of course with the ability to change your alignment at anytime based on actions.  Also for alignment I would like it if you could actually play a neutral by taking neutral actions, not merely by being equally good and equally bad.

Think about that for a second,

Now to me a RPG always meant a game in which players can create their own role within the game.

Pretty vague so I will explain, this pretty much means options, you have to have options, from what you look like, to what you can do, to how you act.  So you have to be able to create your character, or at least heavily edit a preexisting one.  You have to be able to choose what you want to do, meaning you are not given an unchangable character with no options, at least have options between different character types, like classes.  And if there is a story you have to be able to significantly change the outcome of it.  The character after all is an extention of you.

If a game had a few elements of what I described but not all of them then I always considered it having RPG elements.

Now here is where I come into conflict with other people's definitions, games like Final Fantasy by my description are not RPGs, yet they are commonly excepted as RPGs.  I would say FF has RPG elements, since you can usually pick different abilities for your characters, but even that is rather small.

So what does industry labeled RPGs ,both MMO and single player have in common, statistical character advancement and character centric gameplay.  The ability to make your character statistics stronger, either levels or skills, gear, whatever, as long as your character has the ability to become stronger and having the game driven by character statistics is a mainstay in RPGs.  MMORPGs consistantly add statictical advancement and character centered gamplay as the backbone of the game.

But here is the thing free-form RPGs which have no statistical advancement and reliance on the players ability to imagine senarios, obviously called RPGs for a reason, technically wouldn't fit in the definition, neither would LARPing.

Really I find statistical advancement and character centric gameplay to add nothing of value to a game, in fact I find it a burden and counter productive to playing a role, as my character does most the playing for me. 

Not saying that most MMORPGs are not really RPGs, I would say they are, some are a little on the light side though.  I just think a RPG need not have statistical advancement or character centric gameplay to be an RPG, and the assumption that those features are what make a RPG a RPG actually holds back the genre as a whole from becoming more diverse.  And really if that is what RPGs are all about then I can honestly say, I do not like RPGs.

But hell maybe I am just "out of touch" with roleplayers.  Anyway rant over, so...  What to you makes a RPG?

I don't mind a global chat type of system, it is often very useful for finding groups trade etc.

I like it even more if the game can justify why players can all talk to each other.  For example the concept I am cooking up, players can have radios, where they dial in different frequencies to open different channels.  There isn't technically a global chat but one could be made.  Then again com chatter can alert NPCs to your location so it is a trade off leaving your radio on.

If the global chat can make sense in the game world then deffinatly yes, if not then it is still good, I would just prefer that there was some way to make it make sense.

I am not a big fan of raiding, but I have done it before, I prefer PvP, we use voice communication in both situations and really I hardley ever say anything.  With a large group of people there isn't much chatter and usually only the raid leader and a few other people say anything, except for occasionally calling out adds or incoming.  Most the raid members still use text, as you can't really misunderstand text or need it repeated, and most do not have mics anyway, plus you cannot understand people when there are too many of them.

So there are ways to use voice chat and not actually talk, the ammount of things I have said in raids or PvP is in the single digits.  What helps more than voice chat is having a group that knows what they are doing in the first place and does not have to discuss or argue things too much.

Good points ^^^

Also I think it would be interesting to let guilds hire NPCs to do various services in the guild hall.  Maybe even guild NPC companions that high ranking members can use to help fight, make stuff etc.

And I would add guild created "quests".  Not really quests but simple tasks needed for crating and such like "collect 50 tough hides" that any guild mate can do and get paid by the hide.  The hides would then be used to make something for the guild.

I agree with Paul, we need more info.

For example the class balance, what are the classes?

Or player kills giving much more XP than NPC, how long are you planning the grind to take, and more importantly is it quest grind or kill grind?

What kind of factions are there?

etc.

Well if we are going for fun PvP, technical limitations aside, then...

First drop the typical MMO combat and replace it with more action combat, shooter type for ranged, action type for melee.

Balanced characters, meaning statistically, characters do not grow in power, all of them have the same ammount  of stat points from the beginning, distributed differently of course.  All characters have the same ammount of health and energy/mana/etc., stats do effect damage resistance and energy/mana useage though.

Same with gear and items, statistically balanced,  gear is about finding the right balance for your playing style not finding "better" items.  No stat increasing gear.  All items are craftable by players.  Items only drop off logical targets, meaning no swords drop off bears, but theives are ok.

Skill based, but not hierarchal, skills are effected by stats but you never get a better version of fireball or stab or whatever, so there is no skilling up or XP of any kind.  Skills/abilities gained by learning the individual skill/ability via some sort of challenge.  Characters start with a really narrow set of abilities and then collect more.  Characters have a skill/ability threshold where to to learn new skills/abilities you have to drop one.

PvP objectives, set by NPCs or players to give players unified goals and maybe rewards, like money.

No real distinction between PvP and PvE, sometimes players will fight players and NPCs at the same time, as well as fight along side players and NPCs.

Open FFA PvP, some areas like cities are safer but can still be attacked, since the design works around balance this isn't an issue so much.  Of course killing people can get you killed, arrested or a bounty on your head.

No looting

Players are not forced into a faction and can be independant.