Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
I hope EQNEXT is a hybrid
cybertrucker
Member UncommonPosts: 1,117
Listening to the hardcore arguments that people say the game has to be like to be a full sandbox, makes me say I want it to be a hybrid. Sure I want player made cities, contested resources, in depth crafting where players can make some of the better items in the game, huge open worlds with player driven conflicts or guild driven. Those are all nice things.
However I also want to see an in depth NPC/mob faction system that will either influence players into action or can Be influenced by player actions. I want PVE as much asPVP. I want a level based/skill based hybrid that starts off open and players all start off as adventurers with a core of adventuring skills that are available and at later tiers they branch off into more specialized roles and at the latest tiers they can become the iconic classes we know in EQ. I want a huge open world with dynamic events, dynamic weather, dyanamic lighting a true visual impeding darkness and fogs. Yes I want raids I want raids that drop the best gear in th game that the crafters can customize for people, or even improve.
All of these people who are clamoring for sandbox only are leaving out so much of what can be put into a world. So yes I want EQNEXT to be a hybrid that has elements of both and blends them .
One last thing. I don't want a quest driven game however I do want quests in the game. Real quests that actually take time effort a d many times teamwork to ccomplete. Also quests that are not on a map for everyone to see. More like EQ1 had in the early days.
Comments
Those people do not want a sandbox game then. Simple as that, no need to make up nonsense stuff like "hybrid"...
It will be.
EQ1 and SWG and PS2 are going to hatch a baby.
If in 1982 we played with the current mentality, we would have burned down all the pac man games since the red ghost was clearly OP. Instead we just got better at the game.
It will be an open world themepark with a heavy emphasis on hardcore pve, just like eq1. They will probably add some sandbox elements around crafting, terraforming & housing. They might also add some modern themepark elements like instanced dungeons, raids and tupperware pvp.
i agree. Hopefully it only takes the best of the three. EQ's theme and intangibles, not levels and raids, SWG's open systems, and planetsides territory control and tech.
I dont care too much for the terminology, they just need to make a kickass world and not fall into the traps their previous games have fallen in.
eq's move toward raiding progression. The original bait and switch. Hint: raiding needs to be a community type effort not a personal loot treadmill. Get your act together.
swg and the CU/NGE which abandoned its playerbase by trying to mainstream. Wow envy. Hint: stick to your principles.
there is something to learn in both those cases.
I just want ANY info. Give me a list of playable races, anything, lol
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
fluff was a true strength of eq. I know many people thought it was inefficient (which is why you dont see it anymore) but i thought it added depth to the game. Even having to eat to survive, to brewing, to sense heading and languages.
combat should only ever be a part of the game, not the whole thing. Lets hope they get the message over there at SOE.
Really? In a game with the power gaps of a Themepark, and you want player's actions to affect other players?
Once upon a time....
I agree with what I think a couple of posters in this thread are basically saying. I don't believe Smed and the Sony bean counters really have the guts to create a true sandbox. They'll build another WoW clone (still hoping to "cash in on the widest possible audience"), throw in a few features that some might consider sandbox, and then think they have the whole thing figured out.
So you might get some of the things you want OP. And which I really wouldn't. A class based skill system, short time to "level cap", and instanced content. All features which IMO are part of the problem with MMORPGs these days.
Sounds like you missed the post by John Smedly
It will be the largest sandbox style MMO ever designed with the same exciting content delivered in a new way. Something you’ve never seen before and the MMO world has never seen before.
I read it. And I think they may believe it themselves. But in the end I think they will cave to the desire to go with "what works". And that means WoW.
These guys are greedy businessmen above all else - not gamers. And I think they are still most likely fixated. But I hope I will be proven wrong. We'll see.
You're awesome...My new favorite term...sandpark.
I SO agree with this. What about trade and notrade items? How do you all feel about this aspect of games?
Fluff, by definition, does not add depth to the game.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
When the hell did i ever say anything about power gaps? I didn't meantion anything about the progression system.
MMOExposed- Who said anything about FFA PVP. We have no idea what the game's going to be like.
Well, the OP was about wanting a "hybrid", and you said that's what you want. And a hybrid has Themepark in it, so levelling through content for level based rewards.
But I take it that's NOT what you want? (That's why I asked.)
Once upon a time....
There is no way every instance of the this game will have free for all pvp or ever have it. SOE is rethinking how they want to make EQ but not ignoring the core audience for it. It is certain imo they will have all the pve and pvp options across the board for all players. EQ is too large of an IP to specialize for one audience. It is not a niche product.
Also, I have to mention again that a sandbox game is not defined by every single system within it. They have core fundamental systems that make it a sandbox. Others are optional and continue the definition into hardcore concepts but do not take away from the core concept of the sandbox. This is why we keep seeing the terms hardcore and hybrid thrown about. Frankly few here have any clue what so ever on how to discribe what a sandbox is. I would venture that most posting here haven't really ever played a true sandbox or are calling upon their 1-2 weeks of sampling older games like Eve or SWG all the way back to UO or pretending they even played them to begin with.
Many are arguing that if the game has classes and not purely skill based it isn't a pure sandbox. That is complete and total bullshit. The character system is only a sandbox system if it affects the rest of the game. That can be done to either skills or classes. The choice you make for the character alone is not sandbox. How your character then affects the game through interactions with other systems is where it slowly becomes sandbox. Your dynamic within a group and combat is not sandbox as this occurs in every game. How combat affects the game is sandbox and independent on how the character was built. A sandbox is not a collection of mini-systems or mini-games (which is what characters have pretty much become in themepark games), it is how the entire collection of systems interact with each other.
Likely the main cause for sandbox failures is the same issue themepark games have had: they become templated and assumptions are made based on the premise you cannot deviate from the template. EQNext will cater to all the playstyles supported in their original game so not to alientate their core audience but in order to make it a sandbox they have to combine each old and new system into a synergistic final product. That is the essence of a sandbox. It could be done in many different ways and NOT defined by "It's a fantasy game therefore must be a large seemeless world, skill system, ffa pvp, full loot, etc, etc. Those type of narrow minded players are as detrimental to the genre as developers are for following industry templates.
You stay sassy!
Considering WoW is an EQ clone, I don't think it's possible for Sony to make a "WoW clone."
Anyway, I really hope EQ Next isn't player created content. I could live without trips to "XXDomino's Incredible Dungeon Supreme 250tokens/30mins." I want to be immersed in the game world, as I once was with EQ; when players have the power to alter or add to the game world, that becomes impossible, as people are incredibly stupid and generally uncreative.
Imagine you're walking out into Qeynos Residential District, and in the middle of these medieval themed homes, there's a Starship Enterprise... Sure it's funny and shows clever manipulation of the tools available in game, but it ruins the game world...
How about poorly written, incredibly easy, exploitable player made quests? Walk 10 steps to your right and get 100 quest tokens... No thanks. If this kind of stuff is what mmorpg.com people consider a sandbox, count me out.
My biggest concerns are limited character progression and "forced solo" gameplay. It should be far more lucrative to group than to solo, but, short of the maxed level play, that does not seem to be the case in any game anymore.
Any arguments for that? I believe FFA PvP is a necessary tool of any "sandbox". As FFA PvP translates to freedom, it doesn't mean everyone will attack anyone, at everytime. Assuming actions lead to consequences. Nowadays when I see people hating any forms of PvP, I automatically think they are too attached to their characters, which is usually the case when asked to elaborate, they all report hating walking few minutes back to a corpse and possibly losing something.