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MMORPG Concepts: Over or Under Used Classes/Weapons. Suggestions?(Please Read)
Celestria_Sol
Member Posts: 7
On my down time, I have slowly over the years been developing a game that I would like to to take to a game convention and see if it can make it in this crazy world of gaming. I won't go into specific details, as I would like to keep most of it to myself to prevent my ideas being stolen, but the information I will give is purely to help further the education I would like to recieve from this post.
I have been fervently been working on the class system of my game- which to me can make or break a game. Too many classes and you have players feeling overwelmed with so many options that they can't decided which path to take. Too few and the players will feel like there aren't enough options, feeling limited in someway, creating boredom amongst them. I hope to solve both problems.
I have developed a 3 tier system (Might only be 2, still debating on that), that redefines how classes work with in a game. This system allows for double primary classes, instead of how some games do it, with a primary and a secondary, or allowing you to change your primary at will. I believe that creating the right amount of classes and the system I'm working on, will help support players by giving them a plethera of options with out making them feel overwelmed- A task that is difficult to complete.
So now I will get to my many point: The over and under use of various classes and weapons. I would like input to see what other players think as I am having trouble with it all by myself. To better equip you with the knowledge you need, I will tell you that the world im creating is strongly magic based (their whole way of thinking and doing things) and that the era it is placed in is a fantasy-industral age with a relativly weak weapon based technology. The reason being is at the start of the game, they were a Utopian Society, not needing weapons of any kind, which explains why they have swords, bows, etc. and guns, drones, etc.
If you have input on classes or weapons that are under used, please use the following template:
Class/Weapon Name: Easy enough
Type: Is it offense, defense or support? What role would it play on the battle field?
Brief Description: Tell me something about this class. Give it a story or some flavor.
The Why: Why would this class be something to add to a game? What makes it unique or special?
The Why Not: Why is it that it isn't being used? Think about it- is it to like other classes? Hard to make skill trees? I ask this one because too many people say the why, and never think about the why not.
Skills: Why kind of skills would it use?
Over used: Just the name and why is fine.
Finally if you are contriubting to this I thank you profusly. It will be a great help in creating my final outcome of classes. Also, please try and not repost classes or weapons that have already been said- but you are welcome to add on to them.
Comments
If you talk to a game developer saying that you want to get into the industry, and say that you've got ideas, but don't want to explain them for fear that they'll be stolen, you can expect to be immediately dismissed as a clueless idiot.
Game developers aren't going to steal your ideas. Every single person in the entire world who is capable of developing a game has game ideas that he likes better than your ideas. That's why his ideas are his ideas and your ideas are not his ideas. That doesn't automatically mean that your ideas are bad; rather, everyone likes his own ideas the best.
Everyone and his neighbor's dog has game ideas. A lot of people even have good ideas. But having some high level ideas is basically worthless. What's hard is filling in all of the details in sufficiently excruciating detail that computers can understand your ideas, and then debugging it and optimizing performance to actually make the game work.
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A class or weapon will become overused or underused depending on how strong it is. It's pretty trivial to make any class overused or underused simply by changing some numbers to make the class stronger or weaker. Thus, you can't sensibly talk about such things in the abstract without referring to a particular game.
You really haven't set out much of a discussion here, there's no point in telling us your objective and such if your just going to hide it, you could just bring up a subject about that kind of game type in general without telling us your not gonna tell us what it pertains too.
Also there is a developer corner for people who want to work on game designs and get help or give advice, this is more a place just to chat about MMOs in general, if your specifically looking for advice on your project that's a better place for it.
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/category/155
I'll just offer one little theme related effect to the realism of your classes, if it's gonna be science fantasy with guns and swords, aim toward phantasy star online type classes which use some form of both, that way you can avoid the whole how unrealistic it is to use a sword when there are guns, if everyone has some sort of variation of both, it's just a matter of which their using under the best circumstance.
Good luck.
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes.
That way, if they get angry, they'll be a mile away... and barefoot.
Class/Weapon Name: ploughshares
Type: tool
Brief Description: Farmer. Grows food, tends animals, lives in peace
The Why: I'm a little tired of playing a mass murderer in every wondrous world I visit.
The Why Not: I may be a very tiny minority in that opinion
Skills: agriculture, soil improvement, agricultural engineering
Class/Weapon Name: Beast Lord, Axes and/or Staves
Type: Adaptable. Generally it's Offensive or Defensive based on the beasts deployed
Brief Description: They tend to stray away from cities and communities, finding the wildlife more friendly. Able to communicate with wild beings, they can use animals to aid them in battle.
The Why: Very few games actually use a multi-pet system, and even fewer use a beast type with physical damage, it's almost always a necromancer or summoner mage type.
The Why Not: The are really only two problems I've seen from other classes that are similar. One is balance, changing a small detail on a single pet can have a big effect on the class when you can summon more than one of them. The other is resources. Unlike other classes, where you basically just make a bunch of moves for a single character, you have to make moves for all the pets also.
Skills: Unlike every multiple pet class I've ever played, I would also have several abilities that get bonuses based on which pets they have active. Like a bear would increase damage, wolf would increase critical strike, hawk would increase speed, etc.
I wouldn't give more detail's instead, I would simply not bring up that this is for your project and ask players how they would make content for the theme your pusueing just because your insterested in that theme.
Even people like Quizical will change their tone and start pitching in if you simply ask them how they would make your interest work, what they think is the best way. Players wanna express their interests, baiting them with your endevour and not sharing much is just going to drive disention, just don't mention it...
Despite the miriad of advice you will get on design, I suggest that the most important thing you can get good at is human relations and communication. Cooperating with people and winning their support are the most powerful tools you can wield.
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes.
That way, if they get angry, they'll be a mile away... and barefoot.