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Why developers should look at shadowbane.
Oben
Member Posts: 40
Does anyone agree with me when I think of the mechanics of this game and look at all the other hot mmos out there, and find there is a big difference between them? Most people are trying to find the perfect game but find just small fractures of what they look for. When people played shadowbane back in the day, people were amazed by it, and loved it, but it got outdated. I think shadowbane's mechanics were genius and revolutionary, yet no one seems to implement them into their games. Every big corporation seems to take the safe route and make the game just another cliche fantasy mmorpg. Lets push the outdated graphics engine aside and look at what brilliant ideas aren't being used today.
Things to keep in this game for future developers:
Player buildings. This game capitolized this category, and I've never seen any other game do this so well. Sure, of course there are ways to modernize it and make it much better, like improve the vast list of things and styles you can create. Some people may say, but Oben, what about the city cap! With a mainstream and a well funded game, this can easily be achieved with just creating a bigger landscape and adding more servers. With great marketing strategies, like blizzard does so well, you can easily get the hype, and the player base to fill this landscape and make a great game. Some people may say "But what about the lag? Shadowbane had tons of lag due to the concurrent sieging and cities in this giant server." Easy, split the server into multiple quadrants of servers, sort of like how World of warcraft's two continents are.
More intelligent, more use of skill, more customizable class.
This is one of the most dissapointing aspects of the mainstream games today. None is even comparable to how customizable a character class was in shadowbane. When I say customizable, I don't mean how many hair styles there are to choose from or how tall the character is (Although it's a nice addition, but it is an unnecessary bonus, cause no one really cares). Shadowbane's characters can almost do anything you wanted to, even though it might be the most gimp character, you CAN do it (dwarf barb dual throwing daggers, this shout out is to you guys). Different starting runes you can select to add bonuses, you add your stat points unlike most games today where stat points are automatically distributed according to your class and race, You choose what spells to level, and what spells to not. There's just so many options a character can choose to achieve his own template of what an awesome character can be. Now why aren't there any games with this option? My guess is that it is not user friendly and will stray people away. Ok, reasonable, but a very lazy excuse. Here's an easy way to counteract this problem: Add more hints onto what a beginning player do. Give the player an option to follow a predesigned starting template for his class. Then, give the option to have the player try to design his own template, whether it was creating a new character, or wiping his traits for a fee or a quest. But please developers, this is my shout out to you guys, please revert back to shadowbane's old ways of customizable traits, stats, spells, etc.
Less leveling, player killing, and less of a safe game...
What I positively absolutely can't stand are these games trying to appeal to EVERYONE. It's not possible, so please, stop. Concentraite on what makes the game fun, not what can other people find fun in it. An awesome thing I felt was how short leveling took to get a character able to help in city defense, or just pvp. On top of that, anyone can be killed, cities can be attacked, it was just a very large cooperation of people, on top of this, there are no factions. All the factions were player controlled and created by nation alliances. Everyone was on their own from the start and choose to do whatever they want, whenever they want. If they wanted to go good and then suddenly change to the bad side, they can. It created an AMAZING story, and excellent role play. I have not seen one game that can challenge shadowbane's roleplaying. A person had to realize that his actions can come with consequences, including his speech, if a person insults someone, then that player has a right to kick some ass! No matter what team they are on.
I'm sure I'm leaving out plenty of great information, but this isn't a review, it's just a challenge, for future developers.
Comments
I have to agree, newer developers should look at older successful games like shadowbane and try to use the information to create a newer more solid and satisfying mmorpg.
I still aply shadowbane though, can't beat the pvp in this game.
100% agree.
Shadowbane is the most revolutionary MMO out there, and it's 5 years old.
Everyone complains about modern WoW clones. I'd love to see a Shadowbane clone.
Sadly, the lack of success that Shadowbane has had scares away developers.
I miss how adventurous this game was... I remember getting a Seed of Life for a city and trying to escape a marauding group of players, seed in hand. Ultimately thrilling.. I eventually got away.
One of my favorite small details of this game... not being able to shout because you sprinted and wasted all your energy, so incredible. "General Chat" is something that bugs the shit out of me in most games.. I usually don't mind it, but it takes away from the game too much when someone is talking about beer and you are trying to assassinate a player.
AGREE AGREE AGREE
Developers can learn so much from this game, lets hope some games in develpment now look at the concepts and mechanics that made Shadowbane successful.
www.straybulletgames.com
They are working on another game, just be patient.
They aren't making very good progress on this game. its been 2 years and still no screenshots.
At this pace its shaping up to be Darkfall 2
I like this thread. Its positive, inspiring and stands against all the unimaginative mmos that are getting churned out. I never actually played Shadowbane but I wish I had. I would love to see a game get made that allows you to properly interact with the other players in a meaningful way rather than just allowing you to play what is effectively just a single player co-operative game with them.
So far everyone agrees with the OP. I wonder when the nay saying troll will turn up?
You can still play it. its free to play
They aren't making very good progress on this game. its been 2 years and still no screenshots.
is that your "expert" opinion, there? Blizzard had been working on WoW for over 4 years before there was even any mention of their game.
I make spreadsheets at work - I don't want to make them for the games I play.
is that your "expert" opinion, there? Blizzard had been working on WoW for over 4 years before there was even any mention of their game.
Where did you get that info? WOW only took 4 years to make. And they had screenshots within a year.
All you need is love. Errr, I mean money.
I agree. I mean no one likes losing. In order for there to be a winner there is always has to be some losers. Personally i think losing just makes the game more intresting. Because it gives you something to strive for. We need enemys. A real one is so much better than a lvl 123 Badthing.
Maybe Shadowbane and its spawn should market to people who are not yet MMO gamers. Seeing as how the majority of MMO gamers play to win in a carebear fashion. I mean RPG players play to win, with no real possiblitiy of losing. The role play bit is how you go about winning.
In order for this game to succeed they need to go beyond simple Hit point, armor, %, statistic accounting type of a game. They need to be more dynamic in the way avatars can effect one another. The numbers need to be there, but we shouldn't need to analyse raw data and from it figure out what to do. Push all that numerical data way into the background, until it is barely noticeable.
I support this thread. Shadowbane city building, and character customization is one of the best i've ever seen.
I disagree on the PvP aspect though.
I think shadowbanes world, its city building, with Warhammers collision detection, and spells/abilities that take advantage of the collision detection, with the skill building of UO and no levels would be the perfect PvP game.
Ooh, and tone down the SB gear, make lots of sets look different, but not so impacting on the peoples ability to compete. Even a farmer with a spade should have a chance at crushing some skulls.
Ya, maybe throw in some resource building like cities. For farms, and live stock. And add specific skills that have to be built and maintained inorder to take advantage of those resources, and make them required to maintain the city so even those who choose not to fight as a career can help support the warriors who do.
Nevermind, i guess there isn't much left of shadowbane with my idea....
"The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius."
-Oscar Wilde
Developers get confused by this game. Their thoughts get fuzzy when there are no quests or ! and ? above any of the NPC heads.
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
Monkeys built Shadowbanes engine (yea, very harsh statement). The good thing was, the monkeys never caved in to the carebears.
Imagine if a real development company built Shadowbane and stayed with the concept, like the monkeys did. It would be a WoW killer!
or not.
The definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.
If you like Shadowbane you should take a look at Darkfall it will have beta in not too long.
I have to say, Character Creation in Shadowbane is the vastest, most complicated, and best out of any game. It even manages to make WoWs character creation look bad. The system of Talents and traits really lets you create an intricate back story and life of your character. Also, i gotta say the class system is just as amazing, you start with about as many class choices as WoW, adn then at level 10 its branchs off to make well over thirty possible classes. This is the best class system Ive seen, allowing you to really create the character you want. if you were to take shadowbane, renovate the graphics, add a gathering and crafting skill along the lines of WoW or runescape, then potentially make non-pvp servers for casual player (I personally love the city-building, guild war style pvp) and then if you sold the game for like 50 to 60 dollars but made it free to paly, i guarantee that you would make a huge amount of money on it. The potential is here, it just needs a little touching up.
Shadowbane... *sigh*
I loved this game...
I loved the insanely detailied backstory given to the universe...
I loved the well thought-out *NOT D&Dcloned* character races...
I loved that the politics were 100% player driven
I loved the ability to create player cities and nations...
I loved my half giant dual-pickax-wielding ranger...
I loved charging around with my minotaur who got taller as his strength went up and roleplaying his snorting, grunting, half speech as I thwacked my two-handed axe at elfs and humans 1/4 my size...
This game lost me when the end game politics go too hot to handle... But I stil think fondly about the hours... days... weeeks....months..etc... that I spent playing this game...
*sniffle*
I want to play shadowbane again...
What a great game.
I loved the accountability aspect.
Once I got ganked while leveling an alt. So I burned thier city down.
Those were the days. . . .
I'll play again if I get tired of AoC before Darkfall comes out.
I was always impressed with SB's character classes, first game I ever played a flying character (among others) and I still can remember the thrill.
I loved building cities, hated the mechanic they had for defending them (my guilds city was burnt to the ground at 3:30 am EDT with no one to defend it)
I loved the looting system. You could protect the gear you were wearing, but anything in your backpack (including gold) was fair game. Was a great system.
If only they had more time and money to work out the defects prior to release, it could have been a contender.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Great concepts, lackluster execution.
Shadowbane will never get looked at... Once stray bullet games launches there up & coming title. Shadowbane is going to be layed to rest.
Ashen Temper was the only glue holding SB in the MMO world... once Stray Bullet Games Sci Fi MMO hits the markets their debt to ubi and SB will be paid off and it's good bye Shadowbane.
Ashen Temper left Stray Bullet Games. He is with BioWare now.
The definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.