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so a mmo where your actiosn decides what faction you are on.
SgtFrog
Member Posts: 5,001
rather than having race specific factions/ or deciding on your faction at the beginning in the game how about starting out neutral then by your actions in game you will be put into a faction. kinda like fable....i think that would be pretty awesome
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
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things i have learned today - take English lessons...
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
Faction was one of my favorite things about orginal Everquest. Generally you didn't start out neutral though unless you were human and the right class. Everything about your character had an impact on your faction, but could be changed through faction grinding. This was great for roleplaying an evil race that did a lot of good deeds to prove they were not evil.
I agree, it gives the feeling that you truely choose your destiny no matter what race or fammily you were born into. You can only be judged by your actions and not who you were born as.
Dragon1613 says:asdfasdfafsdfw111111123123123213
-server-Dragon1613 has died
I wouldn't mind seeing that, perhaps something along the lines of KOTOR, give multiple ways of finishing quests, ect. and NPC dialog to determine factions. Of course 1 week after it comes out there will be a web site detailing how to get into this faction, that faction, ect...
Faction sizes after a few months:
Evil - 500 (the hardcore ganker group)
Neutral - 5000 (Those that stop playing after a week or so)
Good - 50000 (carebear land)
You see the problem here? ^^
I'd rather do it this way: You need shades of gray. Make like 100 factions or so (Imagine corporations and lobbies like in Eve online). Each faction has unique abilities but also specific requirements. The requirements would be linked to your char. These corps ally themselves with each other but ultimatly pursue their own goals. For example:
Corporation: T.E.A. corporation
Requirements: Create a rare tea with rare herbs and use it as your entry fee. Your tea collecting skill must always be over 100. Your alignment has to be neutral or good.
Gained Feats: Tea brewing +10, free low level tea leaves, free tea brewing equipment, the effect of tea is doubled for you.
Goal: Make tea the number one used consumable and destroy 'K.O.F.F.E corporation'.
Or:
Corporation: E.V.I.L Masterminds with limited liability
Requirements: Evil alignment, 100 kills of different people of the same level
Gained Feats: Incognito skill - every day for 30 minutes guards will not attack you. You gain the emote: Maniac laughter
Goal: Kill all people with good alignment and destroy the 'G.O.O.D - Lets make love not war' corporation.
Every player can join a corporation and try to further their goals. The more succesfull they are the bigger the reward and the position in the corporation. Having 100 of these factions will ensure a dynamic and interesting world especially when players start to identify themselves with a corp and the ideal of the corp. Corps that manage to pursue their goal well will also be rewarded: better feats and more money.
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Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
... or you could simply choose a side and support them ?
Without any "good" or "evil" pattern.
Just use "blue" and "red" instead. Or even more colors, all fighting each other.
The idea of having to commit evil acts just to join the "evil" team is IMHO utterly stupid.
when did i say good v evil....
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
Or the mmo can have a betrayer quest which allows you to change side?
RIP Orc Choppa
Imagine this: Some players like to gank. Alot. Sooner or later they will automatically have an evil alignment. They will only be able to join these specific corps. You should always be held responsible for your actions in the game. So far the trend goes in the exact opposite direction: Do what you want, have no risk, but also no reward and no meaning. I do not like that. Current MMOs are losing the possibility for players to band together for a common goal (other than the obvious). Joining one of my suggested corps would give you a goal and a reason. Your actions suddenly make sense (other than pure char progression). You create a world where people suddenly do things for a specific reason. Players who would otherwise never join a guild might join a corp because he is sure to find like minded players.
My idea isnt about just creating random factions. Its about giving you a reason to play other than char leveling to the max. Diversity is good! Modern games have become lacking in this department (just look at AoC).
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Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
I'd like to see a game bold enough to implement something like this and be able to make it work.
One of the best ideas I have seen yet and I agree.
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A work in progress: (Update: 08/09/10)Easily find your favorite type of MMO
What about "balance" though? It haunts every MMO ever created.
See that's where the real talent shines through in game design, isn't it?
It's easy enough to have splendid and magnificent ideas, but to implement them correctly and have them work smoothly, now that's where the real challenge lies!
Yeah I admit that will be a problem. But when is it ever not a problem? I read a survey a few days ago that in red vs blue FPS games the blue side is favoured because red models are more easily recognizable than blue ones for our brain (Or the other way around, not sure). The survey showed statistics where the chance to win in a blue team was higher than 50%. In the end true balance is not achievable. So we should rather make the game more interesting and fun then trying to make all the chars 100% the same.
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Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
I'm not opposed to give a penalty to people who gank other people. I'm opposed to force people to a certain behavior, just to join a team X. A game that supports PvP between playergroups should simply offer to players to join the team they want (usually because they have their friends in that team). I dont want to gank people just so I can join the right team, or choose a race just to join the right team, etc. I simply want to say ok, I want to join team X, end of story.
Altho many might still like the old Good vs Evil distinction, I've personally grown bored of it. It seems to restrictive, to bland and hints to much at the PK vs anti-PK shanannigans of UO. What I prefer is a more deep and complex faction vs faction relationship where distinctions between all go far beyond 'you're evil; I'm a goodie two-shoes' or 'black vs white'. I want different ideaologies, deep-rooted own motivations, details in conviction and interesting flawed or debased logics that make factions come 'alive' and give them a true face. Recognisable human flaws make the best conflict and soil for RP. (But I know all to well the majority of players will most likely not give a damn and revert any attempt at deep factions to that ol' Black vs White again; it's easier to 'understand' afterall)
A game where the OP's query was (will be again 'soon') possible, is Ryzom. 4 player races inhabit the planet in an uneasy peace, their past riddled with conflict, strife, slavery, backstabbing and there's a big sense of mistrust even amongst the current alliances. In addition there is 2 major religious Cults spreading it's influences over the cultures and a third on the rise, pulling strings from behind the curtains, slowly gathering support and gnawing at the trust put in the 2 major powers by the civilizations, preparing itself to come out of the shadows when the right time comes.
The 2 major Cults have their own ideaology which can be quite contradicting but does not necessarily oppose the other at all times. As we speak both have spread their influence deeply into the traditions of each race. Some have adopted them as state religions, whereas others revere them but do not follow the teachings dogmatically, which immediatly causes a schism within the 'faiths'.
Every player starts out as a neutral citizen and a non-cultist. But their choice of race affects their standing with each faction or race. A natural leanancy towards ideals and culture, but it does in no way dictate the player what path he can choose, which Cult to devote himself to or for which race to apply for Citizenship. Errands need to be run to climb up on the social ladder, to show themselves worthy of admittance and a final ceremony is required for full acceptance. Breaking your allegiance, which you can do at any time, incurs heavy penalties to your favor with such said Cults and Civilizations. Followers of a Cult or Citizens will acquire bonuses dependant on their allegiance and standing within that faction.
This framework gives an interesting look on deeper factions, as you'll not only have to be weary of your Cult's ideaology, but also your Civilization's traditions. Even tho a Matis and a Tryker may both be part of the Karavan Cult, their believes may differ; the Matis following all teachings and rules to the letter, dogmatically, seeing themselves as Chosen by Jena to rule all others by example; the Tryker might have a different outlook on things and find the Matis obnoxiously zealous, never forgetting the atrocities and slavery his race suffered at the hands of the Matis. And should there come a time Jena's eddicts or teachings contradict the Tryker's believes or harm his beloved freedom he has had to fight so hard for, he'll not think twice to raise arms against his 'fellow' Matis believer.
Ofcourse, with all this said, I've only scratched the surface.
EVE
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Talking about SWG much?
red vs blue, criminal vs non criminal. hopefully aoc will be like this.
My blog:
... like what ?
I simply choose two colors. No meaning assigned. In fact, it was inspired by Team Blue, Red, Green and Yellow from the Ctrl+Alt+Del Webcomic.
And you can already play AoC, so why are you talking in future tense.
I don't believe it's stupid. You have to prove to one side or the other that you are good or evil for them to trust you. For instance if you are a dark elf your race commits may evil acts and no one trusts you. Perhaps if the good guys see you killing of the evil gnolls near town then they may start to trust you and eventually perhaps even talk to you and allow you to do quests to help them out.
Ah, its the old MMOG vs MMORPG fight now. Lets stop here before it goes out of hand.
MMOG: These players just want to kill their opponents in PvP without reason. They do not care about good vs evil or their role in the simulated world but only about fighting off that other pesky team.
MMORPG: These players want to live in an alternative world. You have your character and you want your actions to have meaning. The world, its rules and the behaviour should be 'real'. Fights should happen because of in-game reasons.
Players of both groups are PvPers. The problem is that it is hard to accomodate for both playstyles in one game. Everyone should rather think about how to make this possible than bashing each other ;-)
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Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
WoW has something similar to what the OP is talking about. At lvl 70, you choose scryer or aldor then you do quests within that faction in different zones to increase reputation. But I know the OP is asking about starting out in neutral at the very beginning of the game rather than choosing a faction.
What do you mean by "faction". I mean I understand what you mean for say Fable or whatever, but what the consequences?
Is this purely PvE. Does it just determine whether guards and shopkeepers give you a price break.
Or does this involve PvP as well.
It would be funny if repeated ganking, somehow eventually placed people into a ganker faction where if you were in that faction you could only attack people in the ganker faction.
I believe a game with a bounty system would be a great idea(I'm sure some games have something like this). Like the more people you gank the higher your bounty and if you have a bounty then you can be killed in guarded towns. However there could be outlaw towns. These towns have no guard and are accessable to people with bounties. You could have groups of bounty hunters who go hunting people with large bounties and the bounty can be split between them. Just an idea. Its kinda like EVE i guess with their 0.0 sectors. It would just be nice to see it implied in a fantasy mmo.
I think people confuse evil and good for insane polar opposites. Just because you're good doesn't mean you don't do bad things. I'm a "good guy" but I still speed and still lie to my wife when she asks if her butt looks fat in those jeans she likes.
With that same thought, you don't have to kill babies in cribs to be a bad guy. When I played SWG I'd PvP all day long. I'd get in groups of 10 and go jump some poor Imperial guy who just happened to be red because he ran a faction mission. To those who are unaware, if you run faction missioned it made you killable by an enemy player of the opposite faction. Yet, I was still the good guy.
My long and drawn out point is that your choices can still determine you good/evil (if those are the 2 choices) without them involving ganking some innocent player minding his own business.