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Your thoughts?
Goatgod76
Member Posts: 1,214
So I have been folowing this Indie company's progress on an MMO for several months now. They periodically come onto the website and ask opinions of screenshots, ask forum goers what they'd like to see in an MMORPG that had more of an old school feel to it, etc, etc. They are close to Alpha testing stage now.
Anyways, one of the lead developer's posted this list trying to describe how they intended the game to be. Thought I'd post it here out of curiousity and see what other players thought of what they planned and get some opionions, etc. Although I know it's futile in most cases, please try and keep it civil.
From the developer:
Imagine "Skyrim: Online" or "Baldur's Gate: Online"...
Imagine a world where NPC's aren't marked as "quest givers", just as we aren't in reality.
Imagine NPCs that relocate without prior notice, requiring you to have to find them to proceed forward with their given quests.
Imagine an open world where you aren't limited by zones or levels.
Imagine not having to grind for weeks to reach your next skill level.
Imagine a realistic night and day cycle that not only affects the visual appearance of the world, but the world itself.
Imagine a social networking solution, that allows you to track the status of your friend and share in-game content across the internet.
Imagine party-based gameplay that rewards the players for team-work by granting experience bonuses when players systematically combine skills.
Imagine working small jobs that earn you player prestige points and experience with no obligation.
Imagine starting your adventure and never having to combat enemies to gain levels.
Imagine becoming the head diplomat of a given region.
Imagine working with other diplomats to set regional prices, and vote on bills proposed by players.
Imagine discovering a vast stretch of land to populate.
Imagine joining with other players to build a town worth of mass inhabitants.
Imagine all the money you would make if you were the towns founder.
Imagine being the leader of a faction and issuing orders and quests.
Imagine your opposition bringing war to your very doorstep.
Imagine assembling your faction for a full scale 100-300 player "warfront".
Imagine contributing and creating your own armor, hero, or villain.
Imagine professions that are as valuable as their weight in gold.
Imagine an elaborate system of economics that allowed merchants fair trade.
Imagine fully voiced dialogue from every NPC in Antavia.
Imagine that the developers have compressed the audio using complex .ogg format compression to insure a reasonable download size.
Imagine something coming along to change the way you feel about every online role-playing game you've ever played.
I am a bit skeptical of everything they plan honestly. But if they can pull it off...it WILL be different from the hamster wheels we currently have. Gotta say though...I LOVE their enthusiasm and passion....something that seems to be missing from every other developer.
Comments
Are you talking about Citadel of Sorcery?
Nope. Legends of Etherell.
From the things developers suggest they ll include in the game it sounds like a medieval simulation world with focus on role playing,which is something we haven't witnessed so far in the mmorpg scene so far in that depth of detail. Some of the elements described are in existing mmorpg's but never are together along in one mmo. I wish them good luck in order to deliver something that rich in gameplay terms, and if i have one advise to them on what to be carefull with, that is the design of an addictive combat system. If combat works fine players will hug it.
To put it bluntly, sounds like vaporware.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
Agreed.
An indie developer asking for money on the front page of a website made using a free CMS is not a good sign at all imo.
The fact that they started off the list by name dropping Skyrim is a bad sign. It's even worse that they think their mmo will be "Skyrim Online." I'll check it out, but this is almost enough to make me lose interest entirely...not because of anything bad about Skyrim. I'm sure Skyrim is a fantastic game. But because name dropping it like that just makes it seem like this developer is trying to cash in on Skyrim's success. That usually means that this game will be shit.
Sounds like it was written by one of our regulars.
But yes, that's a lot of feature bloat for a little indy begging for cash.
And these two together:
Imagine professions that are as valuable as their weight in gold.
Imagine an elaborate system of economics that allowed merchants fair trade.
(translation: massive inflation)
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
The list in the OP sounds pretty good, even if it is somewhat idealistic. I'd love a fantasy sandbox game that actually works for me for a change. It just seems like every week there is a new indie developer promoting his/her pre alpha sandbox mmo. I'm skeptical that even one of them will ever be released.
He says : Imagine Skyrim Online or Baldurs Gate online
Now if that is not name dropping , i dont know what is. Two completely different games with nothing at all in common but the fact that they are computer games and RPGs
I wish this new crew all the best, and I hope they deliver a game that will rock our socks off !
The "feature lists" and "gameplay mechanics" for Darkfall, Mortal Online and Xsyon were all amazing, and all promised to deliver the ultimate sandbox game... and they all had "committed and enthusiastic" developers who constantly "interacted with the community". At least prior to launch, anyways.
We all know how well those games turned out... 0.o
I will, however, not give them a single penny in advance.
No pre-orders and no "lifetime subsciptions offers" before I've had a chance to preview-play the WHOLE promised package. I give the indie developers the benefit of the doubt, in that they probably WANT to build an amazing game. But I'm just not prepared to fund their development efforts for years in the hope that they MIGHT be able to pull it off at some unspecified date in the future.
Launching a game with 25% of the promised features just doesn't cut it for me anymore. Unless that 25% is all I care about in the game, of course
I wonder how many of the people making Mod packs for Freelancer thought they were making an MMO?
I had an earlier NWN game where yu could build your own dungeons, macro in content and create a pretty unique scenario that could be uploaded and shared. I suppose that made me a Dev.. sort of.
I don't want to discourage any of those things but I think perspective is the key here.
I've seen these 'Feature Lists' hundreds of times from Indy Developers and have yet to see a single one deliver what they propose. Sorry if I'm a bit sceptical but I'll believe it when I see the game release with all of those features. My opinion right now is it's a vaporware pipedream.
Bren
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Instead of begging for money they should go the Minecraft route. Build a base that has some idea. Something people are willing to pay for. Use the money to expand the game, get more purchases, and the loop goes on.
If they have the skills to produce anything, they should show it to us first. Then we'll talk about money.
Which is exactly what Xsyon, Mortal Online and Darkfall tried to do. And it fails every time.
Dawntide MIGHT get lucky, because they don't seem to mind taking an indefinite amount of time to start charging for access. Their development is glacially slow, but so far there's been no "zomg, we running outta funds, plz give us money !!" moments.
All 3 of these games attempted to "build a feature-rich game comparable to UO", but in 3-D. They all have (or had) "drool-worthy" game designs and feature lists at the outset, but reality bites. They were attempting to deliver what no well-funded AAA team has managed to deliver to this day. So they ran out of time and money and launched with... Full loot, FFA-PVP only !
Well, except for Xsyon, which managed to fudge the PVP and launch with "Terraforming" instead. Adds a new meaning to "building the game from the ground up"
But even though Mortal Online (and Xsyon) still promise to deliver the "entire feature list as advertised", they cannot predict when that day will come. Perhaps in 2 years, or 3, or 5 ? MO is bogged-down in trying to retain their small FFA-PVP playerbase, so non-PVP content is not going to be added anytime soon.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
Isnt the term Roleplaying game enough? Dude i dont know about u but there loads of ppl out there that would love to see an mmorpg at last with a role play atmosphere present that both those rpg series provided. And that is the part they mean plan to achieve by saying Imagine Skyrim and BG online.