Game Producer:                                        $80,000.00/year for 5 years ==                  $400,000.00

Lead Programmer:                                   $75,000.00/year for 5 years ==                  $375,000.00
Programmer:                                             $50,000.00/year for 5 years ==                  $250,000.00
Programmer:                                             $50,000.00/year for 5 years ==                  $250,000.00
Programmer:                                             $50,000.00/year for 5 years ==                  $250,000.00
Programmer:                                             $50,000.00/year for 5 years ==                  $250,000.00
Programmer:                                             $50,000.00/year for 5 years ==                  $250,000.00

Lead Designer:                                          $60,000.00/year for 5 years ==                  $300,000.00
Designer:                                                    $40,000.00/year for 5 years ==                  $200,000.00
Designer:                                                    $40,000.00/year for 5 years ==                  $200,000.00

Lead Artist:                                                $50,000.00/year for 5 years ==                  $250,000.00
Artist:                                                          $40,000.00/year for 5 years ==                  $200,000.00
Outsourced Artist:                                   $5,000.00/year for 3 years ==                    $15,000.00
Outsourced Artist:                                   $5,000.00/year for 3 years ==                    $15,000.00
Outsourced Artist:                                   $5,000.00/year for 3 years ==                    $15,000.00
Outsourced Artist:                                   $5,000.00/year for 3 years ==                    $15,000.00

Lead QA:                                                     $75,000.00/year for 3 years ==                 $225,000.00
QA:                                                               $40,000.00/year for 3 years ==                 $120,000.00

Web Developer:                                        $45,000.00/year for 3 years ==                 $135,000.00

Sound Effects:                                          $50,000.00/year for 3 years ==                 $150,000.00
Totals:                                                         $865,000.00/year                                        $3,865,000.00

Game Engine(Based on Unreal )         $350,000.00
Rendering Workstations                       $10,000.00 each, 2 total,                           $20,000.00 total.
Gaming Computer                                   $5,000.00 each, 20 total,                           $100,000.00 total.
Gaming Monitors                                     $500.00 each, 20 total,                              $10,000.00 total.
Programming Software                         $2,000.00 per license, 5 licences,          $10,000.00 total.
Artist Software                                         $2,000.00 each, 5 licenses,                     $10,000.00 total.
Sound Studio Equipment                       $15,000.00 total.
Internet Connection                                $12,000.00/year for 5 years ==                 $60,000.00
Office Rental Cost                                   $100,000.00/year for 5 years ==               $500,000.00

Total of everything: $4,940,000.00
 

I am sure that I have completely forgotten about several needed things, but this is a rough estimate.

I have been digging around, and can't really find any concrete info on what other MMOs have cost to develope. I am talking from Conception to Launch. I read that it was 2.5million for DAoC, and someone said like, 250million for Age of Conan, which sounds rediculous.

Anyway, does anyone actually know what some of the big names have cost to create? I did a quick rundown, based on a 5 year developement plan, and found that it would cost about 5-6million to build a mid-level MMO, but even that is speculation.

See post 2 for my reasoning.

Would it make you feel better if you could then loot his dead corpse, and take the other weapon, at a hit to orc reputation? :P

Lets use this as a quick example. This would be a basic skeleton of the questline, just for reference and such.
 

---

 Melee DPS: (Orc NPC)

1) You are first ordered to run to the enemy encampment, and steal him a Two Handed Axe and Sword from their supplies.

2) Upon completion, you are asked to fetch him some medium armor from the armory.

3) The armory claims that they have no spare armor, so that you and your Orc friend will have to do without.

4) The <Melee DPS> is pissed, and says they have plenty of armor, but only for the dark elves. He rants a bit, and says that they will need to ask at scout camp 2, where he has a close friend.

5) Upon arriving at scout camp 2, most of the Orcs are dead or injured. You find the <melee DPS>'s friend, but he is badly injured. He offers his own armor, as he will no longer be needing it.

6) You tell the <melee DPS> about what has happened, and give him the armor. He is enraged, and vows revenge. He then starts an escort quest to the Enemy Encampment.

7) You follow him to the Enemy Encampment, and are ambushed two times by small bands of enemy. Upon arrival at the Enemy Encampment, the <melee DPS> stops, and says that he was actually badly injured in one of the ambushes, and is bleeding out. He asks that you kill the leader inside, and then report his death, and your victory, to the guard captain. He offers you your pick of his weapons, and dies when you accept the quest.

8) Upon killing the leader of the Encampment, you travel back to the War Settlement, and hand it in to the guard captain. He is not impressed, and scolds you for using unauthorized resources to fight a personal vendetta.

9) Now that he knows of the dying and wounded at scout camp 2, he orders you to retrieve a box of their supplies, since they don’t need it anymore. You may choose to either do that, for +rep with the dark elves, or you can come back, and say that nothing was left, for +rep with the Orcs.

---

The problem with just descriptions upon character creation is that most people twist them to their own idea, and often end up with something they did not expect. Also, you either end up very wordy, which most people wont read anyway, or you keep it short, and people still don't really know what they are getting into. The escorts would just be one step in each learning chain, where you would just get to see them in action. I would hope that each class would be uniqe enough to set them apart enough for at least a good show. :P

Also, the quests would not be "linear" per say. You could do any of the chains at any time, and have all 12 in the quest book if you wanted to, but they are each only one step in individual chains. So, for example, you would go to the "tank" NPC, and he would have a chain of about 10 quests, of which the last, or next to last step would be the escort. But, the "healer" would also have a 10 quest chain, and so on and so on.

None would be required to progress, but they would be very important to your leveling curve by supplying you with equipment and experience, as well as the knowledge of each class.

I had also thought about the instance idea, but I don't think it would be a huge issue. Each escort would be a scripted event, in which there is no real "danger" of failing. Think of when you start an RTS like Command and Conquer, or something to that effect. You get the starting missions, which kind of teach you by watching a bit, and then you get to work on your own, but there is VERY little chance of failure, because the odds are stacked in your favor. Same idea here. The escort would be interactive, but still easy enough that you would need to REALLY suck to fail it.

The idea is that when you would start the game, you would not pick your class at character creation. Instead, you would have a starting area based on your race, and would do quest lines for each class type to level up, and during each line, you would end up doing a single escort. In the course of each line, you would become familiar with the weapons and armor they use, and during the escort, you could see them in action a bit. Kind of like a quick demo of what you can expect.

I just thought it would be a kind of cool twist, and allow you to see what you will be getting your self into, while at the same time gaining the first levels. So, if you were questing for a tank, you would be doing an escort where he tanks, and you assist him. Healer escort involves you fighting waves of mobs, while the NPC keeps you up. And so on and so on. So, it is not like you would keep doing escort after escort. The starting zone would have, lets say, 150 quests, of which 12 would be escorts, one for each class.

Hello. I have just been tossing around the idea of writing some of my thoughts down, in an attempt to get an outline of what my own personal MMO would be like. It is basically a time sink for me, which will more than likely not go anywhere, but hey, you never know. Anyway, on to the point.

I was coming up with some of the basic outlines of the starting area quests for my MMO, and came up with several escort quests. (12 per starting zone to be exact) Now, I know that on launch day of a popular MMO, the starting zones are just completely packed. Lets say the average escort quest takes 3 minutes to complete. Do you think this would just anger people? Assume that all 12 escort quests in the zone could be done at any time, and not in a linear fasion, so if one was being done, you could do a different one.

My wife said that the population would get pissed, and would just say screw it, which is very bad for their first impression. I , however, think that people would not mind sitting a few minutes here and there, and would just go do other escorts/quests while they waited.

So, what do you guys think? Would this be an instant nail in the coffin, or just something people would not care about?

Thanks for any input you can give!