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Features you like in other MMORPGs that you want to see in just one!
BartDaCat
Member UncommonPosts: 813
For me, I'd have to say the things I really liked in other MMORPGs were:
1) The gathering of reagents for spells in Ultima Online. (Ultima was the RPG master long before online games existed, and I still love the Ultima spellcrafting system.)
2) The hairdye and armor dye features of Ultima Online. (Crazy colored hair! That was an extra unique way to customize your character. I guess that ties in with number 5 on this list... CoH.)
3) The ability to tame your own "personal mounts" in Ultima Online. (I made a fortune by taming and selling Ostards at decent prices.)
4) The different "Planes" of Everquest. (The idea of having fantastic new realms to explore, based on a specific deity seemed really cool to me.)
5) The character customization of City of Heroes. (All the colors, all the details, all the choices... oh, my!)
6) The level of detail of some zones in Final Fantasy XI. (The Sanctuary of Xi'Tah had to be one of the most beautiful forest settings of any game ever.)
7) The "claimed target" system of Final Fantasy XI. (Made KS'ing a thing of the past. If a target was already claimed, no one outside of your group could attack it.)
8) The level of armor detail in Final Fantasy XI. (Although I was very disappointed with the limited selection of armor, and the lack of any sort of color customization, it still looked great.)
9) Ultima Online's crafting system. (some small portions of Everquest's too, but deity-specific jewelry was almost useless, depending on which deity you worshipped it was completely unfair, and what about Agnostic?)
10) The customizable UI of Everquest. ( I saw some fan websites that offered some really great looking interfaces. I'd like to see a game come out with a nice selection to start with.)
*****The following are going to sound biased, because they're all from one game*****
11) EVE Online's economy system. (It doesn't matter what level your skills are, you can start making a small fortune right away since there is mining available in every solar system, of every security level.)
12) EVE Online's "Gang" or party system. (There are no character levels in this game, only skill levels, and those are entirely customizable depending on what kind of character you want to create, and how much you're willing to spend, as well as how much time you want to invest training up skills.)
13) EVE Online's overall level of detail. (This game may not be your run-of-the-mill fantasy MMOG, but it's one of the most beautifully detailed games I've seen in a while.)
14) EVE Online's successfully low-latentcy, gigantic "Galactic" server. (Every player is located inside one gigantic galactic map, comprised of hundreds of solar systems, and they're all massive. This game is HUGE! I wish CCP would do a fantasy based game on this same scale.)
***** Ok, no more EVE Online stuff *****
15) Dark Age of Camelot's realm-war, zone-based PvP system. (This system saved people from having to deal with "Griefers" on a grand scale. You knew which zones were PvP, and which weren't.)
16) Dark Age of Camelot's PvP dungeon, Darkness Falls. (There was something about Darkness Falls that was sort of amazing, because it was designed to be incredibly rewarding to whomever held control of it. Better loot, better experience, and yet it could all be taken away in a moment if another realm decided to wage war upon you. And it was never quite safe, because there were always wandering assassins ready to gank an unwary traveler.)
17) EVE Online's in-game web browser. (Although it's still not fully compatible, but they will be addressing those issues with the Shiva patch.)
18) Final Fantasy XI's "Delivery" system. (You can send any item in your inventory to anyone else's Mog House on the server via specific NPCs near Auction Houses, including your own alts.)
19) The "Skill Tree" system of games like Dark Age of Camelot, Ragnarok Online, and to an extent, Ultima Online. (Being able to specialize in skills as opposed to a pre-determined skill set has always been a big favorite of mine. EVE Online might be in this list too, since you can pretty much pick and choose any skill in the game and train in it as long as you meet it's prerequisites.)
20) The Aurora Tool Set of Neverwinter Nights.
21) The Character Development system of Anarchy Online. (Being able to fine tune your character's stats and abilities through AO's massive skill/stat system interface has to be one of my recent favorites.)
That's just some of the things I can come up with. It's tough to think of general things that aren't centered around the universe of the game itself. Things like the epic zones of Dark Age of Camelot, where "Named" monsters roamed freely, and if you killed them, they almost always dropped a rare and valuable item. I spent lots of time roaming through the epic zones killing named mobs for weapon drops with particle effects. It was one of those Zen moments in the game when you felt like winding down and getting away from the PvP, but still wanted to do something interesting. Usually, you would need a group or even a raid party to farm the really tough "mobs", but it was fun, and usually time well spent with guilds or alliances. In Everquest, it was always interesting to go to new Planes, where the entire zone was developed into a theme based on the deity that ruled there, and the deity usually represented some value or attribute like Justice, or Fear, or Hatred, even Disease, and the monsters that reside in those "planes" tend to fit the overall themes. Myself, I'm a huge fan of the fantasy genre, although I've lately become infatuated with EVE Online, which my friends dragged me to, and I didn't think I would like it at all. It's a whole different pace from your normal Hack-n-Slash Level Grinder, but I'm not only embracing it because of it's differences, but because of some of the well thought out features the game has to offer. It's set in a semi-realistic outer space setting, so you aren't just thrown into the fray of battle, you have to seek it out.
I hope more people respond to this thread, I'd like to see what other ideas in MMORPGs have captured the interest of the other people that play them. Someone made an excellent point about "The Story" of MMOs, and how each player can affect the MMO's overall storyline. I haven't seen any game that can do that yet, but I'd love to see it. I've seen ideas come close, so it seems like we're almost there.
FFXI: Tarutaru WHM/BLM/Elvaan Dragoon (closed)
DAoC: Inconnu Necromancer/Avalonian Theurgist (closed)
EQ: Froglok Paladin/Vah Shir Shaman (closed)
CoH: Technology Defender (closed)
EVE Online: Amarr (open)
Lineage II: Dark Elf Mage (open)
Ragnarok Online: Crusader (closed)
Comments
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Games Played - Lineage, Lineage 2, Helbreath, RuneScape, Priston Tale, Tibia, RYL, Dark Eden, Savage Eden, Astonia III, Ashen Empires, El Kardian, Fung Wan Online, Project Entropia, Ultima Online, Ragnarok Online, Redmoon, Thesa, Conquer Online, Deloria, Fairyland, MU Online, Legends...
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My first mmorpg was Asheron's call, played it for about 3 years. Tried other ones afterwards.
The thing I miss the most is the extreme attribute customization during character creation. (strength, quickess, etc)
I hate all this plug and play crap with the new games. Part of the fun was trying to design you character for your spectific type of play.
Plug and play became popular for the "casual gamer" that's nice but I'd like to have a choice of doing either.
To me there is one thing that is not exactly missing from MMO's nowadays, but in a way it's as if it doesn't even exist, and that is... A Story. Seems pretty simple, but it truely isn't. What I mean by this is that when you play you are not unfolding a storyline or even moveing along in what you would consider a destiny for the avatar. Now I understand that a destiny is almost ridiculous to consider, but in all MMO's there is lore behind most quests that you attempt to complete within the game, but you have to seek out that Lore. That is were I wish there was something different, in that they should develop the Lore into the gameplay, not along side it. Essentially there really is a lack of the RPG element when you just grind all the time and there really seems to be no reason to move your character along other than to quite simply just max his level to make him more powerful. It becomes tedious and makes the game boring when you have no incentive to complete a goal other than to get a better weapon, which alot of times is usually enough but not always.
Some might argue that MMO's are an expansive universe that is designed to give you almost limitless freedom so that you can create your own story, and I agree that all of that should be true, but that doesn't neget the fact that if there is no story then the events seem hollow and the game becomes empty. I would prefer that there be at least some detailed Lore behind a quest that is intregrated into your gameplay.
I understand that you want an example, but truely there hasn't been much close to it, but forgive me for saying this but Guild Wars at least had some of the idea like this incorporated at Alpha. Like when you would have to protect the Prince while he ran to different spots to help defend the wall or other events as such. Not really too near what I am thinking of, but at least it is starting to get there.
Your scathing wit and daring insight into the turbulent political crags of the internet are shining beacons of truth and purity for the slight remaining masses of visionless hypocriticial sheep who bleat at the thought of your glory
Your scathing wit and daring insight into the turbulent political crags of the internet are shining beacons of truth and purity for the slight remaining masses of visionless hypocriticial sheep who bleat at the thought of your glory
The lvl grind speed of Shadowbane.
The crafting system storyline and map of AC2.
The character creation and combat of CoH.
The depth and quest system of FFXI.
The class/race combos of Rubies of Eventide.
priceless...
EQ: Quantis Eru 60pal-Bristlebane
DAoC: Vrix Kobold 50skald-Percival
L2: Jorrad DE 25P Knight-Kain
CoH: Funeral 23drk/drk Def-Infinity
Joined - July 2004
1. Realm War Combat like in DaoC
2. Character Creation Like in CoH
3. Crafting/Gathering system like in UO
4. Underwater areas like in DaoC
5. Grouping system like in CoH
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Final Fantasy | Free iPod
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| Final Fantasy | Free iPod |
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Hehe, you're right, it's such a simple concept, "The Story" is easy to overlook. That's probably got to be the most challenging aspect of creating a truly satisfying MMO. There have been attempts, like the various Lore based quests in 'Dark Age of Camelot', and 'Final Fantasy XI'.
It's probably not quite the same idea, but EVE Online has a faction system that is universally affected when you act upon certain NPCs or other players. You gain a certain "Standing" with various races and corporations in the game. If you hunt pirates, you lose faction with the pirates and any allied corporations they belong to, but you gain positive factions with the corporate police and any other races that those pirates might have high negative standings with. I think this would be a great basis to form some type of "personal lore" off of in other games in the future, and it's nice to see that some MMO's are heading in the right direction.
It does seem like quite a daunting challenge to think of a way that one person's actions could affect the overall storyline of a MMO though, but I would love to see it someday.
FFXI: Tarutaru WHM/BLM/Elvaan Dragoon (closed)
DAoC: Inconnu Necromancer/Avalonian Theurgist (closed)
EQ: Froglok Paladin/Vah Shir Shaman (closed)
CoH: Technology Defender (closed)
EVE Online: Amarr (open)
Lineage II: Dark Elf Mage (open)
Ragnarok Online: Crusader (closed)