I'm trying to find a skill based game where characters become unique based on how you build your character. I prefer something in which you gain skill points based on your actions. I am currently fooling around with the Saga of Ryzom trial but it still leaves something to be desired. I am sick of the pick a class and gain experience and gear until everyone that picked the same class is max level and has the same gear and the same skills. I don't want to be the same as ANYONE else, that is the whole point in an MMORPG for me. If I wanted to be the same as everyone else I would go play a linear offline RPG. Another thing I am looking for is a game in which I can do whatever I feel like doing. By this, I mean if I have an hour to fool around between my two jobs I can log into the game and swing a sword, cast a spell, or whatever else and actually gain some skill(or a skill point that can be assigned if it has to be that way). I am not looking for the perfect game because that has not existed since they nerfed UO, just something that I can use to take my mind off of things until Darkfall at least enters into beta. Any suggestions are appreciated but please do not suggest anything that is not skill based. P.S. PvP is a plus
Hey Vampton,
I've read most the replies to this thread and to be honest, I'm quite astounded at the simple responses. I think I catch what you're trying to get at, so I'll try to shoot over some responses I feel fit the question! Here we go..
Skill based game where characters become unique based on how you build your character.
Ok so first and foremost I have to ask if you've ever played Anarchy Online? This is the game I will be describing and I`ll reason as to why I feel you`ll like it.
The way the game works is as follows: there are classes, which I noticed you were sorta aiming to avoid, but CHECK IT. Don't give up on me yet. Classes work as follows: they are based on skills. Every player has access to over 50 skills which are divided into categories such as Abilities, Ranged, Melee, Nano Technology, Vehicular Control, Engineering, Nano + First Aid, Heavy Weapons etc etc. Each section contains the specific skills. Example: Your Abilities section contains your primary skills: Stamina, Strength, Agility, Sense, Intelligence, Body Development, Nano Pool, etc. I forget a few of them. These skills define what kind of armor you are generally aiming to wear. All armor in the game is based on your skill amount, NOT on level. So some armor will require Strength + Stamina where as other might require Strength + Agility.
Every level you gain something called IP points. You spend these IP point on the skills you choose. Example: When you level you'll get 5000 IP points which you can spend on ANY skills you want, doesn't matter which ones. OK- so now that you get the idea of skills and IP points... BACK TO CLASSES:
The classes in the game are as follows:
Adventurer
Agent
Bureaucrat
Doctor
Enforcer
Engineer
Fixer
Keeper
Martial Artist
Meta Physicist
Nano Technician
Shade
Soldier
Trader
These classes really only define a few things. They define which Nanos (Spells) you can purchase, in the long run, and thats about it. Other then that, what they do is make it so that certain skills cost LESS IP points then other ones. And this is all based on colour. For instance, if you choose the class Fixer (my favourite) then your base abilities will look as follows:
Agility (Light Green)
Sense (Green)
Stamina (Dark Blue)
Stength (Dark Blue)
Body Development (Blue)
Nano Pool (Blue)
The lighter green a skill is, the less IP points it costs to upgrade, whereas the darker blue it is, the more it costs. So as a Fixer, they make it easier for you to put points into Agility and Sense, which is typically the armor you are going to want to wear right? However, choosing a class also makes your other skills coloured. Like Fixers typically use Sub Machine Guns (SMG's). So their SMG skill is coloured light green, wheras their Heavy Weapons might be coloured Dark Blue, because typically a Fixer wouldn't use a Grenade Launcher. BUT -- other skills will be light green as well, or maybe just solid green. Like Pistols, or Dual Pistols, are coloured Light Green and Green I believe. Meaning you can put IP into them instead of your SMG skill. Now, you're a Fixer who uses Dual Pistols instead of Sub Machine Guns. Or just use Single Pistols, and put the rest of your IP into say Body Development. So you're now a Fixer who uses single Pistols but has more health then the average Fixer.
So as you can see, choosing your class does put you down some sort of structured road, however you still have freedom.
Each of the races also decides what skills will be coloured. So if you are an Opifex Fixer, then you're Agility and Sense abilties will be Light Green. But lets say you go Atrox Fixer, then your Strength and Stamina will be light green. Now you're in a whole different ball league. Two types of fixers, who wear completely different armor, and if they so choose, can utilise completely different weapons. If you choose a Nano as a Race, then you're spell abilties are easier, and I believe you'll have Sense and Intelligence as your Light Greens. It also means your Nano Spell Abilities will generally be light green, but your Sub Machine Gun and Pistol skills will be closer to a mild blue. Meaning its harder for you as a Nano Fixer to use good weapons for your level, however you'll be able to cast higher level spells much earlier.
You kinda following me? I'm no guide book -- but I have played it for a while and love the game dearly.
The game is really cool man. There is PvP as well, and three factions to make it all beautiful.
Neutral
Clan
Omni
You choose a faction in the beginning, or you can stay Neutral for a while until you find what fits you best. Organizations (AO's term for Clans) are always faction based. You'll have Neutral Orgs, or Clan Orgs, or Omni Orgs. Everyone has their own cities too. Everyone can go into Neutral cities, but you can't PvP in cities. PvPing only occurs in Bars or outside 20m of city walls in Supression Zones. Clan can never go into Omni cities, and vice-versa. Neutrals can typically go anywhere, but there are some areas which are High-Priority for Omni or Clan, and no Neutrals are allowed. (Guards kill you on site).
In organizations, you can own fields, which are physical places in the game. These fields will state "You Are Now Entering Farseen's Organization Field". And within these fields you can place Turrets and Bases and stuff! Eventually you can place stuff that buffs your entire organization all the time. So certain orgs become very powerful.
Anyway ---- I think I'm just blabbering about how cool the game is now.
One last important thing, there is no main quest line really. What you can do is get a mission from a mission terminal. The Mission Terminal will give you a map, and you have to travel to that location, and enter the instance (which is locked and only opened to the person who has the mission). The mission will have it's own objective and has its rewards upon completion. You get to see the reward too, so you don't have to choose a mission with a shitty reward. You can also do group missions, which have huge bosses at the end that drop sick stuff. At certain levels, you'll wnat to start trying larger instances, which aren't missions at all. Like the Temple of Three Winds. Thats the first instance everyone enjoys doing. Its a huge temple, and to find out how to even get to the temple ..... well, thats a fun thing to find out, so I'll let you try that! haha. But yeah, there are usually like 50 people just chilling outside the Temple, all Clan Omni and Neutral. You see they can all group together as they please, and all professions/ classes and races exist on all factions. Its only in PvP zones where things get nasty. Anyway, so yeah, you'll form a group outside the temple, and then go in and find the items you want! There are tons of items for all different specs inside the temple. The main one being a Dark Black Cloak dropped by one of the bosses. Everyone can wear the cloak (Except Shades who can't wear armor, only Tattoos), and it gives damn good benefits.
SO -- ask me questions, or add me to msn if you wish. I love this game, and haven't played it in years, but I highly reccommend it to you for it's the most unique game i've ever played.
There is also IMHO the greatest skill based mmo ever.. Asheron's Call 1.. which I believe is still up an running. I grant you the last time I played it was nothing but buffbots and alligence chains, but it is still an option.
There is also IMHO the greatest skill based mmo ever.. Asheron's Call 1.. which I believe is still up an running. I grant you the last time I played it was nothing but buffbots and alligence chains, but it is still an option.
Do you really consider a game populated by buffbots a valid option? I don't.
once again ill say that he asked for a game with a Skillsystem not a class based game with Atribute skill levels like Everquest for example.
He's looking for originality in a game. Uniqueness, and Anarchy Online offers the most unique character builds / looks you can get. Other then CoH in terms of looks, but everyone knows CoH is a bad game.
Go look at screenshots....you'll see, everyone looks rediculously unique.
There is also IMHO the greatest skill based mmo ever.. Asheron's Call 1.. which I believe is still up an running. I grant you the last time I played it was nothing but buffbots and alligence chains, but it is still an option.
Do you really consider a game populated by buffbots a valid option? I don't.
I never commented towards it's validity. Just saying it existed. Personally I wouldn't play it anymore, but if the original poster doesn't mind buffbots, then at least he now knows of an option he didn't previously have.
Saga of Ryzom is the first game in a long time that has kept my interest for more than one or two sittings but the performances is a little bit choppy sometimes... maybe my pc?
Ryzom needs at least a 256 Mb Video card, at lease 1 gig of RAM better if you have 2. If you can get beyond that it is a really good game! It's a pure sandbox and all skill based!
They nerfed UO when they turned it into two worlds instead of one. I quit then game shortly after the first time I got "bountied" and lost hard earned skill points.
Guild Wars kept me busy for 1.5 years which is pretty decent in my opinion, but in the end one can only take that much. I popped back to WoW for a period of 6 months approximately, but my account has been frozen for quite some time, so I guess I'm done for now. Looking forward to Warhammer Online, but in the meantime socializing (IRL) isn't that bad, actually. And as I mentioned in another post on the forum: Guitar Hero (+ beer) is a temporary solution that seems to be working just fine.
Guild Wars if you like PvP, it's quite simply the best balanced combat system in any RPG. You can start at max level and have access to all the same skills everyone else does. You have the same chances everyone else does. The game rewards personal skill over commitment to the player world.
Eve is the opposite of this. You earn skills in realtime. So if you only have a very short amount of freetime, you can become as successful in PvP as anyone else. Success in the game is dependant on length of time subscribed, not practise, reflexes or time spent acquiring items in game. The skill tree is immense, they add new skills faster than you can learn them. The skill tree progression is never going to end, you will never be able to max out your character. The options for development just go on and on and on. The game rewards financial commitment over personal skill.
Guild Wars is a fast game that requires concentration, Eve is a slow game that doesn't. Both are really good examples of innovative skill based systems.
True, there are no levels, and there are "skills" that have different levels that you advance...
but don't be fooled that you (the player) actually does anything to advance them.
It's a timed based advancement system. Advancing a skill from Level 3 to 4 might take 3-4 days, but you don't have to be playing for the skill to advance.
So you pick a skill, and some period of time later, it levels up. You have no "control" over when or how this happens, only what skill you choose to advance (you can only have one skill leveling at once.)
So I really wouldn't consider this a skill based game, I'd consider it a time investment based advancement system.
Not mocking EVE, some people love it, but it's hardly a skill based advancement system. SWG was a skill based system. You actually improved your skills by using them.
Despite what people say about EVE, I wouldn't consider it a "skill based" game. True, there are no levels, and there are "skills" that have different levels that you advance... but don't be fooled that you (the player) actually does anything to advance them. It's a timed based advancement system. Advancing a skill from Level 3 to 4 might take 3-4 days, but you don't have to be playing for the skill to advance. So you pick a skill, and some period of time later, it levels up. You have no "control" over when or how this happens, only what skill you choose to advance (you can only have one skill leveling at once.) So I really wouldn't consider this a skill based game, I'd consider it a time investment based advancement system. Not mocking EVE, some people love it, but it's hardly a skill based advancement system. SWG was a skill based system. You actually improved your skills by using them.
I guarantee you that any new player who has played for a month would fail miserably if he was given a 40 million SP character. He would have absolutely no idea of his role in any given ship, no idea how to outfit it, and would die over and over and over because he thought that having those skills meant everything. Yes, it is a time advancement. Yes, it -is- a skill-based game, but you simply have a skewed definition of the term. Put a noob in a high-end battleship and I guarantee a veteran in a low-end ship could kill the noob. This post is also directed at the post above yours, who said that it was based on time subscribed and how many skills you had.
EVE is about more than just gaining skills to get the new biggest thing. It's about mastering what you've got the skills to fly before taking the jump up to the next thing.
I would point you back to EVE, especially if you haven't played in a while. It constantly changes as the devs integrate more content and ways to play EVE. Yes the combat system can be slow, but it at times can be blisteringly fast, as most PvP combat takes place in the span of seconds.
I have been searching for a game like the one you are searching for, the elusive "best game ever". For me, the closest I can find is EVE. Open-ended, player based economy, item crafting, territory control, PvE, PvP, Exploration, invention, the list goes on. And what's better, IMO, is that all 200k plus subscribers play on the same server. Meaning, 27k-40k people on, on average. Not sharded, all playing on mirror worlds. The constant community is what drives EVE.
In the end, if you don't like politics, teamwork, and a game that requires you to think more that button mash, don't play EVE. If you do, join my corp.
I don't know why people say that guild wars is a skill based game, but guild wars is more like a class based game. In guild wars the only thing you can change is your appearance (hair, hair color, face, etc) and almost everyone uses the same build. So i don't think you can call it a skill based game, unless you mean that you can only use skills used in battle.
LOL - There are hundreds and hundreds of skills to choose from. The majority of people I come across have unique builds...Even if they use the same skills, who says their attributes are the same?
Apart from the actual skills themselves, it takes skill to play the game. You need quick reflexes if you want to play an interrupt Mesmer/Ranger, the knowledge of when it is best to use a specific skills, and how skills work together.
Comments
I've read most the replies to this thread and to be honest, I'm quite astounded at the simple responses. I think I catch what you're trying to get at, so I'll try to shoot over some responses I feel fit the question! Here we go..
Skill based game where characters become unique based on how you build your character.
Ok so first and foremost I have to ask if you've ever played Anarchy Online? This is the game I will be describing and I`ll reason as to why I feel you`ll like it.
The way the game works is as follows: there are classes, which I noticed you were sorta aiming to avoid, but CHECK IT. Don't give up on me yet. Classes work as follows: they are based on skills. Every player has access to over 50 skills which are divided into categories such as Abilities, Ranged, Melee, Nano Technology, Vehicular Control, Engineering, Nano + First Aid, Heavy Weapons etc etc. Each section contains the specific skills. Example: Your Abilities section contains your primary skills: Stamina, Strength, Agility, Sense, Intelligence, Body Development, Nano Pool, etc. I forget a few of them. These skills define what kind of armor you are generally aiming to wear. All armor in the game is based on your skill amount, NOT on level. So some armor will require Strength + Stamina where as other might require Strength + Agility.
Every level you gain something called IP points. You spend these IP point on the skills you choose. Example: When you level you'll get 5000 IP points which you can spend on ANY skills you want, doesn't matter which ones. OK- so now that you get the idea of skills and IP points... BACK TO CLASSES:
The classes in the game are as follows:
Adventurer
Agent
Bureaucrat
Doctor
Enforcer
Engineer
Fixer
Keeper
Martial Artist
Meta Physicist
Nano Technician
Shade
Soldier
Trader
These classes really only define a few things. They define which Nanos (Spells) you can purchase, in the long run, and thats about it. Other then that, what they do is make it so that certain skills cost LESS IP points then other ones. And this is all based on colour. For instance, if you choose the class Fixer (my favourite) then your base abilities will look as follows:
Agility (Light Green)
Sense (Green)
Stamina (Dark Blue)
Stength (Dark Blue)
Body Development (Blue)
Nano Pool (Blue)
The lighter green a skill is, the less IP points it costs to upgrade, whereas the darker blue it is, the more it costs. So as a Fixer, they make it easier for you to put points into Agility and Sense, which is typically the armor you are going to want to wear right? However, choosing a class also makes your other skills coloured. Like Fixers typically use Sub Machine Guns (SMG's). So their SMG skill is coloured light green, wheras their Heavy Weapons might be coloured Dark Blue, because typically a Fixer wouldn't use a Grenade Launcher. BUT -- other skills will be light green as well, or maybe just solid green. Like Pistols, or Dual Pistols, are coloured Light Green and Green I believe. Meaning you can put IP into them instead of your SMG skill. Now, you're a Fixer who uses Dual Pistols instead of Sub Machine Guns. Or just use Single Pistols, and put the rest of your IP into say Body Development. So you're now a Fixer who uses single Pistols but has more health then the average Fixer.
So as you can see, choosing your class does put you down some sort of structured road, however you still have freedom.
NOW CHECK IT AGAIN:
There are four races in AO.
Solitus (Humans). Opifex (Skinny alien/humans). Atrox (Genderless Stronglooking Men). Nano (Aliens/Humans).
Each of the races also decides what skills will be coloured. So if you are an Opifex Fixer, then you're Agility and Sense abilties will be Light Green. But lets say you go Atrox Fixer, then your Strength and Stamina will be light green. Now you're in a whole different ball league. Two types of fixers, who wear completely different armor, and if they so choose, can utilise completely different weapons. If you choose a Nano as a Race, then you're spell abilties are easier, and I believe you'll have Sense and Intelligence as your Light Greens. It also means your Nano Spell Abilities will generally be light green, but your Sub Machine Gun and Pistol skills will be closer to a mild blue. Meaning its harder for you as a Nano Fixer to use good weapons for your level, however you'll be able to cast higher level spells much earlier.
You kinda following me? I'm no guide book -- but I have played it for a while and love the game dearly.
The game is really cool man. There is PvP as well, and three factions to make it all beautiful.
Neutral
Clan
Omni
You choose a faction in the beginning, or you can stay Neutral for a while until you find what fits you best. Organizations (AO's term for Clans) are always faction based. You'll have Neutral Orgs, or Clan Orgs, or Omni Orgs. Everyone has their own cities too. Everyone can go into Neutral cities, but you can't PvP in cities. PvPing only occurs in Bars or outside 20m of city walls in Supression Zones. Clan can never go into Omni cities, and vice-versa. Neutrals can typically go anywhere, but there are some areas which are High-Priority for Omni or Clan, and no Neutrals are allowed. (Guards kill you on site).
In organizations, you can own fields, which are physical places in the game. These fields will state "You Are Now Entering Farseen's Organization Field". And within these fields you can place Turrets and Bases and stuff! Eventually you can place stuff that buffs your entire organization all the time. So certain orgs become very powerful.
Anyway ---- I think I'm just blabbering about how cool the game is now.
One last important thing, there is no main quest line really. What you can do is get a mission from a mission terminal. The Mission Terminal will give you a map, and you have to travel to that location, and enter the instance (which is locked and only opened to the person who has the mission). The mission will have it's own objective and has its rewards upon completion. You get to see the reward too, so you don't have to choose a mission with a shitty reward. You can also do group missions, which have huge bosses at the end that drop sick stuff. At certain levels, you'll wnat to start trying larger instances, which aren't missions at all. Like the Temple of Three Winds. Thats the first instance everyone enjoys doing. Its a huge temple, and to find out how to even get to the temple ..... well, thats a fun thing to find out, so I'll let you try that! haha. But yeah, there are usually like 50 people just chilling outside the Temple, all Clan Omni and Neutral. You see they can all group together as they please, and all professions/ classes and races exist on all factions. Its only in PvP zones where things get nasty. Anyway, so yeah, you'll form a group outside the temple, and then go in and find the items you want! There are tons of items for all different specs inside the temple. The main one being a Dark Black Cloak dropped by one of the bosses. Everyone can wear the cloak (Except Shades who can't wear armor, only Tattoos), and it gives damn good benefits.
SO -- ask me questions, or add me to msn if you wish. I love this game, and haven't played it in years, but I highly reccommend it to you for it's the most unique game i've ever played.
Take care and I hope this helps, ha ha.
- Farseen
Current Game: Panzar
once again ill say that he asked for a game with a Skillsystem not a class based game with Atribute skill levels like Everquest for example.
"Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god."
-- Jean Rostand
There is also IMHO the greatest skill based mmo ever.. Asheron's Call 1.. which I believe is still up an running. I grant you the last time I played it was nothing but buffbots and alligence chains, but it is still an option.
Do you really consider a game populated by buffbots a valid option? I don't.
once again ill say that he asked for a game with a Skillsystem not a class based game with Atribute skill levels like Everquest for example.
He's looking for originality in a game. Uniqueness, and Anarchy Online offers the most unique character builds / looks you can get. Other then CoH in terms of looks, but everyone knows CoH is a bad game.
Go look at screenshots....you'll see, everyone looks rediculously unique.
- Farseen
Current Game: Panzar
Do you really consider a game populated by buffbots a valid option? I don't.
I never commented towards it's validity. Just saying it existed. Personally I wouldn't play it anymore, but if the original poster doesn't mind buffbots, then at least he now knows of an option he didn't previously have.
Ryzom needs at least a 256 Mb Video card, at lease 1 gig of RAM better if you have 2. If you can get beyond that it is a really good game! It's a pure sandbox and all skill based!
They nerfed UO when they turned it into two worlds instead of one. I quit then game shortly after the first time I got "bountied" and lost hard earned skill points.
They nerfed UO, how and when?
Forgot to include quote!^^^
We're talking about character skills, not player skills. I'm sorry if I somehow mislead you.
I don't know why people say that guild wars is a skill based game, but guild wars is more like a class based game.
In guild wars the only thing you can change is your appearance (hair, hair color, face, etc) and almost everyone uses the same build.
So i don't think you can call it a skill based game, unless you mean that you can only use skills used in battle.
Raven
@OP: Guild Wars. Casual, fast-paced, laid-back.
this comming from a WoW bot.
"Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god."
-- Jean Rostand
this comming from a WoW bot.
Guild Wars kept me busy for 1.5 years which is pretty decent in my opinion, but in the end one can only take that much. I popped back to WoW for a period of 6 months approximately, but my account has been frozen for quite some time, so I guess I'm done for now. Looking forward to Warhammer Online, but in the meantime socializing (IRL) isn't that bad, actually. And as I mentioned in another post on the forum: Guitar Hero (+ beer) is a temporary solution that seems to be working just fine.
Bot? Troll!
Guild Wars and Eve.
Guild Wars if you like PvP, it's quite simply the best balanced combat system in any RPG. You can start at max level and have access to all the same skills everyone else does. You have the same chances everyone else does. The game rewards personal skill over commitment to the player world.
Eve is the opposite of this. You earn skills in realtime. So if you only have a very short amount of freetime, you can become as successful in PvP as anyone else. Success in the game is dependant on length of time subscribed, not practise, reflexes or time spent acquiring items in game. The skill tree is immense, they add new skills faster than you can learn them. The skill tree progression is never going to end, you will never be able to max out your character. The options for development just go on and on and on. The game rewards financial commitment over personal skill.
Guild Wars is a fast game that requires concentration, Eve is a slow game that doesn't. Both are really good examples of innovative skill based systems.
Despite what people say about EVE,
I wouldn't consider it a "skill based" game.
True, there are no levels, and there are "skills" that have different levels that you advance...
but don't be fooled that you (the player) actually does anything to advance them.
It's a timed based advancement system. Advancing a skill from Level 3 to 4 might take 3-4 days, but you don't have to be playing for the skill to advance.
So you pick a skill, and some period of time later, it levels up. You have no "control" over when or how this happens, only what skill you choose to advance (you can only have one skill leveling at once.)
So I really wouldn't consider this a skill based game, I'd consider it a time investment based advancement system.
Not mocking EVE, some people love it, but it's hardly a skill based advancement system. SWG was a skill based system. You actually improved your skills by using them.
I guarantee you that any new player who has played for a month would fail miserably if he was given a 40 million SP character. He would have absolutely no idea of his role in any given ship, no idea how to outfit it, and would die over and over and over because he thought that having those skills meant everything. Yes, it is a time advancement. Yes, it -is- a skill-based game, but you simply have a skewed definition of the term. Put a noob in a high-end battleship and I guarantee a veteran in a low-end ship could kill the noob. This post is also directed at the post above yours, who said that it was based on time subscribed and how many skills you had.
EVE is about more than just gaining skills to get the new biggest thing. It's about mastering what you've got the skills to fly before taking the jump up to the next thing.
While old, Asheron's call is a very good skill based game. UO used to be quite good also until they got fancy with all the additional skill adds.
I would point you back to EVE, especially if you haven't played in a while. It constantly changes as the devs integrate more content and ways to play EVE. Yes the combat system can be slow, but it at times can be blisteringly fast, as most PvP combat takes place in the span of seconds.
I have been searching for a game like the one you are searching for, the elusive "best game ever". For me, the closest I can find is EVE. Open-ended, player based economy, item crafting, territory control, PvE, PvP, Exploration, invention, the list goes on. And what's better, IMO, is that all 200k plus subscribers play on the same server. Meaning, 27k-40k people on, on average. Not sharded, all playing on mirror worlds. The constant community is what drives EVE.
In the end, if you don't like politics, teamwork, and a game that requires you to think more that button mash, don't play EVE. If you do, join my corp.
Ultima Online was a good skill based game.
Apart from the actual skills themselves, it takes skill to play the game. You need quick reflexes if you want to play an interrupt Mesmer/Ranger, the knowledge of when it is best to use a specific skills, and how skills work together.
the games you want to play are nice, i am currently playing some of them
Lol what a great solution
A skill based game is the MMORPG Earthrise but it's still in development.