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Features you wish MMORPGs had - old and new
xDrac
Member UncommonPosts: 201
So I was just downstairs, making dinner when I had an idea about making a thread where everyone could post about features that they would like to have in mmorpgs - whether they have already been implemented in one before or not. Maybe, who knows, one day some developer will stumble upon this thread and perhaps they'll stop making and implementing all the same features in every MMO again and again and actually think of something unique and slightly different that is actually fun.
So I thought, why don't more MMORPGs have a weather system, or a day and night cycle? Or even better, addtionally to all that, a season cycle. Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. And it should be dynamic and not static ie. some snow maps and some normal maps.
And I was thinking, cause I'm watching SAO too, wouldn't it be cool if there were MMO's that would grant unique skills depending on your performance within the game? Like, if you are the player with the most attack speed in the game, you will gain a unique passive skill that will allow you to dual wield weapons. (SAO reference).
Or how Lineage II and RF Online do it, if you are one of the best (of your race [RFO] or your class [L2], you will gain a special rank and aura to show off your status to everyone. That too, will enhace competition and give people something to work for and look forward to.
What about you?
Web & Graphic Design - www.xdrac.com
Comments
Actually, what happens all the time is that game developers do think of ideas that are unique and different and fun. And then discover that they can't implement them and get them to work the way they had in mind.
For seasons, needing a bunch of extra artwork is one big barrier. Another is, how do you switch from one map to the next as seasons change? It would probably have to be an abrupt shift during server maintenance.
And no, giving bonuses to whoever has done the most grinding is a bad idea. Unless you want your game to be all about obscene amounts of grinding.
I'll refer once again to Saga of Ryzom in regards to a system they had that few other pulled off.
Seasons! It's more a barrier of assets than anything else. There's multiple ways one can implement the concept that doesn't involve a server takedown. Most notably though it's having the assets in the game and being able to spawn them into the environment alongside the reloading of decals. Same as one would change the weather in the game, they transitioned between assets groups that were designeated for each season and the environment would start spawning those assets and reload some static meshes with decal layers aodn transitional textures that way you could shift seasons.
It's not just a concept. Saga of Ryzom had animal AI that included migration patterns that reacted to it's weather and seasonal system. All three of those things are interesting conceots to add depth to a game that hav been proven to be doable, because Ryzom already did it.
Too bad Ryzom is older and wobbling on it's Nth crutch for a playerbase now.
"The knowledge of the theory of logic has no tendency whatever to make men good reasoners." - Thomas B. Macaulay
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel J. Boorstin
Freedom.
The same old things:
*
* Unique and diverse High-Fantasy setting centered around non-humanoid protagonists (no traditional, medieval-fantasy imagery or references).
* "Smarter NPCs".
* Complete, direct control over the character with a skill-based, "Free-Form Fighting System".
* Fluid, photo-realistic graphics, physics and animations with an immersion-focused gameplay design and an extremely minimalistic UI (in other words, without a cartoonish or flamboyant artistic design).
* Ridiculously huge, seamless and persistent explorable world that is not divided by personal storylines / instanced content.
* No predeterminated "classes", no "levels" as a form of progression, no "quests" as a content model.
* Oh and it needs to be twisted and edgy (If possible M or A-O rated).
*
*sigh.........*
I like to imagine it sometimes, thank you for the chance.
Sir,
You just nailed it.
May I just add ot this "promoting social interaction", via guild tools, deep and meaninful crafting and economy and open world group content?
Haha, I just remember when I answered a similar thread with exactly the same answer. I was accused of beeing too vague, but, to be honest, I think it's a straight to the point answer.
While I could write a whole list of things I would love to see. I would settle for:
"In the immediate future, we have this one, and then weve got another one that is actually going to be so were going to have, what we want to do, is in January, what were targeting to do, this may or may not happen, so you cant hold me to it. But what were targeting to do, is have a fun anniversary to the Ilum shenanigans that happened. An alien race might invade, and they might crash into Ilum and there might be some new activities that happen on the planet." ~Gabe Amatangelo
Eh I'm fine for the most part when it comes to classes existing, since regardless there will always be certain builds that "The Grand Council of Leet" have deemed the only allowed builds and all others will be forever labled a nooblet.
Joking aside from that what I would like is more fluid factions. A little more accessable, maybe less grindy, like EverQuest. Where if I wanted a Dark Elf that could enter Qeynos, there was a way to do that. You could have you're PvP areas either be servers where its free for all or corderned off areas.
I would also want elements from Theme park and I suppose sandbox mmos. I still want there to be lore, to be a story. Not in the way of quest hubs where you go to quest hub A, then B, etc. Just that there are quests here and there, and have some chains. No need of making each player the savior of the world though, since frankly I am kind of sick of those and think they should be restricted to GM events for people to gain all their glory.
Speaking of which, more GM events. I want that to be a way they progress the story. Try to keep them interesting but not vitial that you see them. I wouldn't want there to be too many complaining about missing a key story event. I also wouldn't want all of them to be based on the ability to kill something, which might lead to hardcore guilds gaining a monopoly on those events. You could have minor ones with a wide range of levels/skill level/whatever means of advancement said mmo uses that could be answering riddles, scavanger hunts, or if its combat scale the levels of everyone in the area.
I would also like for the world to have more of a.....well feeling of an actual world to it. You don't have the <A black wolf> restricted to the <A black wolf> spawning ground, but have the beasties roams. Sure at the beginning of the mmo the swarm will move accross the land like biblical locasts destroying all in their path, but if the same actually retains a population, people going through with alts might notice the zones feeling more alive.
One that I know will never happen since people have busy lives, but I would like grouping to be much more encouraged. By that I mean, sure maybe you can solo, but the time it takes to level 20 solo and the time it takes to get to level 20 grouped should be very different. These things are about interacting with people. If you can slow down leveling, though try and find a way for it to not feel grindy, people might have a lot more stake in their character and their reputation. That way people who bail on their first death after insulting everyone, kill stealers, ninja looters, etc could beome pariahs.
I would like to say limit dungeon instancing and make it more public, but again, people do have lives and camping in EverQuest wasn't exactly fun lol. Sure you got to know people, but that was before vent where they would be too busy talking to guildies and such.
Those are just my desired features, feel free to disagree.
thats how you know things arent good. when you have to explain freedom to someone.
Interaction between staff and players.
Roleplaying.
Customization.
Unique items.
You know, all of that unpopular stuff that was cut out for "massive" profits.
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.
Something that big and scary would probably draw people to form groups, you know to feel safer and watch eachother's backs lol.
Meaningful crafting? maybe those groups could pull their resources together to craft a Giant biomechanoid body guard that they could send to explore the darker places and to lift the obstacles in their way (smarter npcs). Then other groups would see the advantages of having one of those around and soon every guild would want something similar and they would create their own instruments and be known for them, and maybe they would start distributing their superior / perfected products to those who can afford them....
Edit: I forgot to mention that you should be able to create a small army of bots to defend your guild hall and to make it safer from enemies and curious players... you know after you claim a secluded and more permanent place in the middle of nowhere for you and your comrades...
Edit2: maybe in their free time your bots could farm for you and you would be in charge of protecting them from all the dangers that would surround them, among them less fortunate players that want to ascend faster than you did (by stealing from you).
I thought those things were kind of implicit, my error.
Meaningful crafting/economy with item degradation.
Meaningful Guild PVP.
Difficult/challenging small group content.
Relevent exploring.
Things that I wish would make combacks from other games:
The love system from battle of the immortals (Special abilities to unlock when working with a partner that help you travel to and from your partner easier healing for your partner, extra unlocks based on EXP gained while with partner)
Allegiance System from AC. Relationships with other people matter.
Basically I wish there was more focus on other people in MMOs rahter then making MMOS feel more like single player RPGS or FPSes.
Web & Graphic Design - www.xdrac.com
- Every NPC is killable depending on what npc ou kill you repulation with said factions get decreased or increased with oither factions (Everquest style)
- Quests that are acualy quests (everquest epic quest, or hand in quests like the gnollfang quest, basicly you dont need to pick up the quest to acualy do the said quest you find items that is needed and you find the person who wants them and give it to them) not go kill 5 thing and come back to me quests we have now (WoW style).
These dot point + the ones in quotes is my list.