All Posts by thorwood

Originally posted by SgtFrog

Originally posted by thorwood

Civilization and occasionally Might and Magic 6, 7, 8.

what there is 6-7-8....i thought 5 only came outntwo years ago

I think you are thinking of Heroes of Might and Magic, a different game that came out after the Might and Magic series.

Civilization and occasionally Might and Magic 6, 7, 8.

Choice of how to pay is good. No choice is is not good.

Do you work for a bank?

For Visa I can:

• get the credit version, pay interest and bank fees
• get the debit version and pay no fees and no interest

I  would also argue that the youngsters are more likely to be in debt (mortgage, car payments) and have credit cards.

The mature players,  such as retirees, are more likely to have paid off their debts and no longer need credit.

Originally posted by MarL

Originally posted by Leraza2

The idea of a Mount and Blade style combat in an MMO is essecialy as unlikely as a MMO with say Soul Calibur , God of War or  CoD4 style combat system .. it simply cannot be done reliably given current net technology. Split second Blocking and parrying , Detailed Collision , Accurate representation of positions simply is not going to be possible for quite a few years 

However that does not mean tha MMOs should not try to incorporate clever combat ideas from singleplayer games if they CAN be implememtned. 

 

I hate when people say the technology isnt here, its always been here.

10six mmofpsrts started in 1999, real time fps combat, controling rts units in fps, building bases on land you own, 1,000,000 people on one server.

planetside 2001, real time fps combat, vehicles, hundreds of players fighting at the same spot.

wwiionline  2001, real time fps action with very detailed damage modeling.

NONE of them were big budget games.......None of them had "accurate representation of position" problems.

I have found the MMO controls are sluggish compared to games that run on a stand alone machine, particularly in MMO's that try to emulate FPS games.
 

We have all heard of the low ping advantage in pvp, and those of us who are not close to servers are painfully aware of it.

Ultimately,  latency has a theoretical speed  limit due to the speed of light which is finite.  If the technology is available, what company Who has the has communications that are faster than the speed of light?

I have been playing LoTRO for nearly 3 weeks now and am loving it.

While the population is not huge, it seems more crowded than WoW to me.  I played Horde on WoW and the world was very empty. With the exception of the Barrens,  the total number of horde players in a hunting area usually ranged from 1 to 5.  Because the LoTRO population is not split into 2 factions, LoTRO seems more crowded.

I also get the impression that over half of the online toons are level 50. This means that the lower level  toons are more thinly spread over the areas appropriate to their level.  This is common for any game that is not a new release. Most high level players also have lower level toons that they play.

Solo experience is good and I can usually find others who want to do the group quests.

3) Simplicity

Challenge me with the world content, not the user interface.  The user interface should be simple and user friendly. 

Challenging (or complex) game content is good, but a different issue from the actual client interface. I do prefer games where you have to take a tactical approach when fighting; where just wading in and trying to kill everything will get you killed.

Why pay someone to troll and make negative comments when their are lots of people who do this for free in the forums for every game on the market? 

There is also the risk of negative press if they were caught.

It would make more sense to pay trolls to praise their game rather than pay them to make negative comments about another company's games. 

I enjoy developing my toon and the journey.

Once I reach end game, if there is no further development besides grinding for loot, I try another game.

Also, killing feral rabbits and rats is good for the environment.

I recently started playing Lord of the Rings Online and am loving it.

If I take this at face value, sounds like they made an administrative error and banned the petitioner instead of the spammer.

1) Levels.

I disagree.  I like to improve my toon.  The best implementations I  have seen were a combination of levels and skills.

2) Loot based economies

Whether or not you have an economy that is craft based, loot based or a combination of the two depends on the game world.  I like to do some crafting to add variety to the game and for their to be a market for the crafted goods.   The market can be other players and/or  NPC's. 

3) Simplicity

4) XP penalties for grouping

There should be no XP penalties for grouping or soloing.  Both styles of play should be able to progress at a similar rate, with perhaps a group bonus for having a full or nearly full group.  Penalising solo players seems to be more common than penalising groups.

5) Boring linear gameplay

I love questing.  A game that gives fair rewards for quests as well as fighting mobs gives players choice and will appeal to a wider range of people. 

There is room for improvement with quests.  Inclusion of more meaningful quests besides the kill 20 mobs type of quests gives players more choice.  These more meaningful quests may include a storyline and/or video clips.  Also, quests can be non-linear in that you can do the different parts in a different order or the quest may branch in a different direction depending on your choices.  If I discover a quest monster or object in my travels, why can't I then get credit for that if I find the quest giver at a later time?  Some quests need to be done in a strict chronological order for the storyline but I would prefer that these type were kept to a minimum.  For linear quests, how many times have you helped someone with step 5 of a quest chain when you cannot find anyone to help you do an earlier step  in the quest chain? 

6) FANTASY!

I think you mean that you would like something different from the standard elven and dwarven worlds.  Most science fiction these days is really what I would call science fiction fantasy.

7) Official forums

The quality of forums, both official and unofficial,  is dependent on the community.

8) Instancing(from bloodytv and I agree)

I disagree.  I meet more people when grouping for instances.

9) Small Scale PvP

I disagree.  Open PvP is not something that everyone will play.  A game that caters for both PVP players and PvE players will include a wider range of players.  A  good open world PvP game may still be a profitable niche market.

I have been playing LoTRO for a week now and am having a ball.

I like the crafting and the quest system.  This game is full of quests, so if you hate questing,  it may not be the game for you.  Some of the quests (mostly the epic quests) include a video sequence for the storyline.  More work has gone into the quest system than other games I have tried.  The quests in the shire have a different feel to the quests in Erud Luin.  My noob experience with a new toon was different in The Shire than in Erud Luin. 

My highest toon is level 25, I have mastered the 2nd tier of some craft professions.   I have not tried pvp.

My first impressions are that I am going to love this game for some time.

I could argue that a traditional MMO is less linear than Eve.

For example, in a traditional MMO I can create a warrior, archer and wizard.  I can level all three.  In Eve, you make your choice up front as to which  set of skills you will train.  You can only train one toon on an account, so you are forced to level your skills on a single toon in the skill set  (class) of your choice.  Of course, in Eve if you pay your subscription for several years, your toon can become mutl-skilled (multi-classed).  In a traditional MMO I could do this in 6 months by training 2 or 3 different toons.

It was just that when I got to the Battleship tier of missions, I was looking at paying months and months of subscriptions just to level my skills (Battleship with a drone focus), before I could efficiently solo that tier of missions.  The missions at the tier below were trivial to complete.  Paying a subscription while I waited for my  skills to catch up with my progression through the mission seemed pointless as I was no longer actually playing.

For the lower tier missions, training skills in real time did keep up with my progression through the different level missions (frigate, cruiser, battle cruiser).  It was only when I moved to battleship that training in real time lagged and was to slow too allow me to progress to more challenging content.

I enjoyed Eve.   The approach to skills is an interesting and refreshing variation from the implementation in other games.

Originally posted by Majinash

Originally posted by thorwood

On PvE side, Eve is very linear.  You do Tier 1 missions until you have leveled (trained the skills) to be able to do Tier 2 missions and the same again for Tier 3 and 4.  The zones do look very similar.  For PvE, Eve is not an example that is different from other MMO's.

 

 

 

except its a little different.  you don't need to do any tier 1 or 2 missions if you join a corp with a good standing with NPC corps, you can skip right to tier 3 and 4.

 

You cannot solo Tier 3 and Tier 4 missions in a noob Frigate.  You have to level (train the skills) to be able to do these missions.

On PvE side, Eve is very linear.  You do Tier 1 missions until you have leveled (trained the skills) to be able to do Tier 2 missions and the same again for Tier 3 and 4.  The zones do look very similar.  For PvE, Eve is not an example that is different from other MMO's.

Its been nearly a year since I quit Eve, so my Eve jargon is a little rusty.

1.  All training of skills is in real time.  You can speed up training by training learning type skills first and wearing implants that speed up training.  The implants can be lost if you are killed in pvp after your ship is destroyed.  How much you play has no effect on the rate of training.I would say that this would suit the casual player more unless they mostly pvp.

2. 

• When you lose in pvp, you lose your ship and all its components.  This is not a real problem as long as you fly a cheap ship you can afford to lose.  You can insure your ship, but this does not really cover the modules you put in it.  You are fairly safe in the high security areas.   Attacking someone in  high security zones and killing them can happen, but it is a suicide mission as the NPC's will quickly kill the attacker.  You can also be suckered into battle in high security, so that someone can kill you without retaliation from the NPC's.  Some players make a career of suckering new players.
• You can PvE by running missions in high security areas.  The missions have different tiers of dificulty.  Each tier is designed for a particular size ship (frigate, then cruiser, then battle cruiser then battle ship).  I am not a casual player.  I found that the training in real time was too slow when I got to tier 4 missions.  At that stage I was only logging in to update my training.   For me paying a subscription only so I could continue to train a skill in real time was not worth it.
• For PvE, you can train crafting skills or become a miner.  However, for miners, the best resources are only in low security (pvp) areas.

3.  Because a ship and almost all its components are destroyed in battle, there is constant demand for replacement of ship hulls and ship components.    That is, there is a good market for crafters.

On one account you can only train one toon at a time.  You can chose to train in any of skills for combat, ship handling, resource gathering or crafting.  You can only train one skill at a time, but can change to a different skill without losing progress in a skill. So you really need to prioritise what skills you train first. This will vary depending on whether you want to be a miner, combat pilot, crafter, trader, mission runner.

For PvE, Eve is more suited to casual players because your progress through the PvE content will not put you against content that  exceeds your trained skills.

Originally posted by GrayPixie

UO and EVE are the only mmo's that I know that don't have classes. Neither one has been a market faliure.

What do you mean Eve does not have classes?  For example, you want to be  a tackler, you train the skills to be a tackler.  Alternatively, you could say training to fly a particular ship is the same as chosing a class.  How is this really different from chosing a class in a traditional MMO?

Istaria (Horizons)  has classes for bipeds, but you can switch to a different class at any time by talking to a trainer and then switch back without any penalty.  So the assumption that classes must lock you into a single class is as false as the assumption that a skill based game will or will not do something similar.

City of Heroes as mentioned above is a good combination of skills and classes.  For most missions, almost any combination of classes will work in a team of heroes.

I would like to see an improvement in the description of skills in games. Most skill descriptions give insufficient information to quantify the actual improvement.  Skill descriptions are often qualitative rather than quantitative,  ambiguous or use in game jargon that may have a completely different meaning in another game.  For example an "  increase in attack" in different games may or may not affect things like damage per hit and chance to hit or miss.  With such vague descriptions how do you actually calculate your increase in damage per second or damage per hit?

The actual mathematics can be quite complex.  What skill based games need is a skill planner that allows you to make some hypothetical builds to see what effect this has on your overall statistics (maximum damage per hit, damage per second, maximum hitpoints, resists, regeneration, etc).  Mids Hero Designer, made by a fan of City of Heroes, is an example of a module that allows hypothetical builds.  Another option might be to display some basic character information so that you can make comparisons before you confirm and lock in your changes.

One of the most addictive things about Everquest for me was that maximum level toons could continue to improve by earning and spending alternate experience points on skills.

The MMO's I have played have actually been a combination of classes and skills.

For old EQ add:

• to regenerate mana you had to sit while meditating.  The scenery and action was blocked out during meditation.
• mana and health regeneration was slow.  Lots of downtime between fights

Originally posted by vajuras

 

You forget, items have level restrictions on them. Twinking is a problem in WoW because the game is such a loot fest. City of Heroes didn't suffer from that and many other MMORPGs

 

Besides in most linear titles you often have no economy to begin with. This is really their advantage, it makes them much simplier games to play for casuals. They dont have to worry about grinding out gold or anything

And low level content is already worthless in most linear titles. You have no reason to ever go back there. Compare that to a sandbox like eVE where vets go to high sec all the time never leaving trade hubs. Even a newbie can produce an item a veteran can use. Isn't that something?

Linear titles are seriously not trying to have a complex economy to begin with. Bop items by far had most value in WoW when I played. You had to raid or do pvp for best equips

I like the way that City of Heroes handles these issues.  Enhancements, once applied to a skill, are really the same as soulbound, since you cannot then resell them on the player market.

Placing level restrictions on equipping or using stuff is quite effective in some games. 

Eve uses level restrictions as to what equipment you can use on your ship.  Its just that in Eve, it is called minimum skill requirements.

Also, having high level items being only partially effective on low level toons is very effective in some games.   With this type of item, it improves as you level, so you do not have to keep upgrading.  A high level item that is partially effective on a low level character  can still be a very good item without being massively overpowered,  Its just a matter of getting formula right when used by low level toons.  A level 1 toon using a godly maximum level  item  would be way too powerful for the content if it got full benefit, but if the benifits were scaled down correctly, it can still be powerful without being overpowered.

Whether or not "bind on equip", "bind on pick up" and soulbound is good depends on the game.

A game needs to have some sort of sink to remove items from the economy.  Eve Online does this by destroying the ship and most of its components in battle. This approach is not suitable for all games.  Imagine losing your epic armor that took you days, maybe even weeks, to obtain.

Many games use bind on equip so that items do not stay in the game forever after a player has obtained an upgrade to that item.  If an item stays in the game forever and can be resold indefinitely, you will eventually have an oversupply and no market for that item.  This is a disaster for crafters because their items become worthless.  Similarly there will be an oversupply of dropped items if they stay in the game forever and can be resold indefinitely.

Gold farmers hog spawns where good items drop.  This often means that adventurers are forced to purchase an item rather than having the fun and adventure of winning the item themselves.  Bind on pick up may prevent this in this type of game.

Real time wear and tear is one way of removing items from the game.  However, routinely repairing and replacing worn armor can be a tedious detail that you may prefer to be left out of the game.  Also, if the game world has epic armor and weapons, should these also wear out?

Is is consistent with the story for a player to purchase an item that is a reward for completing a particular quest or encounter?

Most good games are usually a combination of "bind on pick up", "bind on equip" and "free to trade as many times as you like". 

The trick is to get the right balance in a player market so that an item is not worthless due oversupply.