I would love to see a in depth crafting system, able to make items just as good or better than drops and without the requirement of getting mats from raids and what not. I would rather not deal with inter-dependancy with other crafters though, that always ends up retarded. I like to be fairly self sufficient.
I always liked the skill system in EQ 1. If I use it, it goes up, otherwise I suck at it.
Environment Construction (Trees/walls/bodies of water/bridges etc)
Very good Character Creator
Extensive dyeing system
Player run economy (no global AH)
Player run stores that can be manned by NPCs
Hireable NPC's (guards/mercs/store owners etc)
Very extensive guild tools and structure tools
Guild Vs Guild
One Time Boss Spawns that drop one time loot that drops upon death from another player
No Zoneing (Seamless World)
Dynamic Weather System that effects gameplay (Rain causes more dmg on Lightning attacks, puts out fires, heavy wind makes it harder to sail etc)
Player created Factions
Bounty System
Jailing System
Guild/Faction Alliance System
Territory Control
Uploadable Guild Logos for territory control (Flags/Cloaks/Unifroms etc)
My list could go on and on, but that is the basics for my style of Sandbox
"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
I hope this thread can be kept positive. I'd like it to be more about what you want than rebutting what someone else posted. There's going to be people that say PvP or PvE, please just let it go and post your own elements.
I want: 1. NPC's thick throughout towns, and for them to be quest triggers like in EQ where you'd have to talk to an NPC and use the correct trigger word or phrase. This is why I'm happy that storybricks is now a part of the dev team.
2. I'd like lots of cosmetic touches that you can create in game. Such as cloaks and even armor. I'd like for unique items to be won in combat, but I'd like to be able to modify them to look the way I want.
3. I'd like player built castles and buildings like in Minecraft, even if it's in restricted or even instanced zones.
4. I'd like player made quests, though I know the obstacles and abuse this has.
5. I'd like player made dungeons
6. I never was an SWG musician, but I liked that there were people that did that. I'd like similar things in this game. I'd like Player made taverns with musicians and the like. I've never seen this work, but I like the idea.
I have a lot of hopes for the game, but this is a list of some of the sandbox things I want.
If they could keep it sandbox, but really add lore to the races. You see, my Woodland Elf should not be killing other Woodland elves who group with orcs and goblins. This breaks the lore, making the epic feel of fantasy that we have in some really neat books, seem moot and unattainable.
Sony has never really understood the value of taking a great product like EQ and really focusing on factions and heavy lore. If you say this is dum and orcs should group with halflings then fine. But it will never make a good movie or book because unlike a story, where such things would seldomly occur (hence being interesting)...the game would just have random assortments of races and classes and lore would be a wash.
Every item and building in game to be able to be made by players.
NPCs with needs that have to be furfilled so that they can be taxed without revolting.
I'd like to see production buildings like sawmills and so on but more importantly I'd like cities to need to have buildings and jobs in order to maintain itself. So things like firefighters, guards, builders, farmers (who are needed), tax collectors and so on. I'd like such jobs to be able to be furfilled by NPCs and PCs.
As you can probably tell I'm a bit fixated on NPCs and the player cities but if you are going to go to the effort to have player cities and good AI for NPCs why not go the extra mile?
Anyway I'd like to see proper functioning and dynamic cities that can be built by players from the ground up in the game world and that serve a purpose other than just somewhere cool to put my stuff. I'd like them to be a source of wealth, questlines and power that can be built and burned by players. I want them to have supply and demand determined by all inhabitants, NPCs and PCs. I want them to have needs that will create jobs for players and NPCs.
In regards to sandbox elements that is my biggest desire but those things alone will not make the game fun. The combat and crafting has to be fun. I am a big fan of mini games for crafting and I hope we see some of them and I can go several ways in regards to combat.
I want: 1. NPC's thick throughout towns, and for them to be quest triggers like in EQ where you'd have to talk to an NPC and use the correct trigger word or phrase. This is why I'm happy that storybricks is now a part of the dev team.
One of my favorite parts back then, EQ challenged the player in ALL aspects of gameplay, this triggering mechanic being one of them!
Modern MMO's are made for the mobile-phone generation that never had imagination or troubleshooting skills to begin with. Thus we have sparkling paths to follow, massive gleaming pointers above npc heads and pretty much everything is spoonfed to you like an imbecile infant that only knows how to shit its pants and say GOO GOO GAA GAA.
My "wants" would be, first and foremost, non-intanced housing (but in sort of like villages/areas as to not ruin the landscapes, like it was in SWG)
Skill based system, where you swing a sword, you get better at it, where you cast spells, you get better at it (UOish skill systems, but not quite as 'free form', some class based restrictions to incite variety).
Viability to be a full-time crafter/trader/gatherer without having to rely on top-tier combat skills.
Limitations to tradeskill professions to garner towards player trade/co-op to get the end product.
Open World - this is a must, no instances at all.. tho i guess this in itself is not a sandbox feature
No classes or levels - Players skill up by donig actions
Player run econamy - Everything is player made
Player construction - Builing from singles houes to castles everything really.. if they have to be limited to certain areas then thats ok.
PVP - PVP especially open world PVP is a must for me its brings somthing extra to the game, add full loot and its even better. (The last bit probally wont happen tho)
I am sure there are others but im out of time haha..
Any PvP better be opt-in, including SWG-style TEFs when doing missions for a faction that you don't actually belong to, or it's no-go for me and a LOT of others. Every time I've tried (forced, not opt-in) PvP servers in various games, the twinks and bullies and general cannibals have soured me on the place in a hurry.
The job of the developers of "the biggest sandbox mmo ever" is to make open-world PVP a seamless part of an amazing game.
why does sandbox mean open world PVP to everyone, i agree with the person you quoted, SWG opt-in PVP is the best. if EQN is full on PVP its dead in the water already.
but i doubt SOE will be that stupid. they know the majority do not like Open world FFA always on PVP.
Open World - this is a must, no instances at all.. tho i guess this in itself is not a sandbox feature
No classes or levels - Players skill up by donig actions
Player run econamy - Everything is player made
Player construction - Builing from singles houes to castles everything really.. if they have to be limited to certain areas then thats ok.
PVP - PVP especially open world PVP is a must for me its brings somthing extra to the game, add full loot and its even better. (The last bit probally wont happen tho)
I am sure there are others but im out of time haha..
Any PvP better be opt-in, including SWG-style TEFs when doing missions for a faction that you don't actually belong to, or it's no-go for me and a LOT of others. Every time I've tried (forced, not opt-in) PvP servers in various games, the twinks and bullies and general cannibals have soured me on the place in a hurry.
The job of the developers of "the biggest sandbox mmo ever" is to make open-world PVP a seamless part of an amazing game.
why does sandbox mean open world PVP to everyone, i agree with the person you quoted, SWG opt-in PVP is the best. if EQN is full on PVP its dead in the water already.
but i doubt SOE will be that stupid. they know the majority do not like Open world FFA always on PVP.
I agree with this. Honestly I would like to see SOE do what UO did. They Made fel and they made Tram. Why was Malas and the rest of the worlds based off of Tram rules? Because the majority of players do not like open world FFA PVP.
I also would like to see UO type Treasure hunting
I would like to see treasure hunting, or taking on a balron or an 8 man raid all drop the same type of loot. Though I would like to see monsters like a Balron, or a Shadow Wyrm to require at least you and a friend to kill and no Shadow Wyrm room where 1 person can dominate it.
I would also like to see UO/SWG level of crafting back in the game, would like to see SWG like tools that collect resources for you.
I want worlds the size of SWG worlds so players can have houses and vendors this way housing is not mashed all over the land like it was in UO. I Will be honest I did like the housing vendor system in UO I just dont like how it took up so much space.
I would like to see Instances in EQNEXT as well because honestly having restrictly open world stuff to do will get boring. Having a mix of open world and instances will be fun
I would also like to see Neverwinter like foundry so players can create their own instances and submit it for permanent place in the game.
I would like to see different stats on different items like UO did with so players will have multiple sets of gear and would pull out the gear they need based off of what they are fighting. I would like to see slayer weapons, so if I fight a earth elemental I want to bring out an earth elemental slayer weapon or an elemental slayer weapon.
I want to see UO type of bards with provocation
I want to see UO type of Taming
I want to see UO Type of Champion Spawns
Power Scrolls
I want to be able to level my skills past max level and continue to level them as I get power scrolls in game.
I want to see 8 man raids but the gear that you can get in the raid can also be picked up in a treasure hunt (High level treasure maps only)
I want to see a game that players want to get to know each other because of the need to. I don’t want a Mule being able to Mine up some of the best ore in game without some risk. He should hire me as protection so I can kill the monsters that spawn around his best mining veins that he likes to go to.
the character system in AO was great, i loved the agent. overequipping was a science and you had to know every buff from every class and every item which boosted attributes to get that piece on. i was about lv 120 when i selfequipped my lv 200 rifle. sneaking mission as a sice reduced mini leet was also cool.
a lot of grouping and fun was going on.
SWG the best crafting/gathering system ever. very cool armor and weapon system with attacks targeting blue green or red. putting up a tent. roleplaying. i had fun with bountyhunting too.
AoC graphics and animations. dynamic melee combat with targeting and positioning.
I want: 1. NPC's thick throughout towns, and for them to be quest triggers like in EQ where you'd have to talk to an NPC and use the correct trigger word or phrase. This is why I'm happy that storybricks is now a part of the dev team.
One of my favorite parts back then, EQ challenged the player in ALL aspects of gameplay, this triggering mechanic being one of them!
Modern MMO's are made for the mobile-phone generation that never had imagination or troubleshooting skills to begin with. Thus we have sparkling paths to follow, massive gleaming pointers above npc heads and pretty much everything is spoonfed to you like an imbecile infant that only knows how to shit its pants and say GOO GOO GAA GAA.
My "wants" would be, first and foremost, non-intanced housing (but in sort of like villages/areas as to not ruin the landscapes, like it was in SWG)
Skill based system, where you swing a sword, you get better at it, where you cast spells, you get better at it (UOish skill systems, but not quite as 'free form', some class based restrictions to incite variety).
Viability to be a full-time crafter/trader/gatherer without having to rely on top-tier combat skills.
Limitations to tradeskill professions to garner towards player trade/co-op to get the end product.
These are some things I like to see in a sandbox MMO, not necessarily EQ:
-100% player driven crafting and economy (no phat lewt, no NPC gear vendors).
-Large open world without a single instanced zone that you can shape as you please (mainly with housing, city building or maybe even teraforming.)
-Free for all PvP with partial or full loot but also some sort of system to tone down PK griefing. (ie: Vanilla Lineage 2).
-Lastly many different progression paths that give you years and years of grinding material (ie: crafting, combat, entertaining, agriculture, harvesting, architecture, interior decoration, cooking, pet taming, begging, piracy etc etc etc).
I would love to see an actual (literal) sandbox in the game that is like 10miles by 10 miles and the rest of the game is a standard themepark.
That way SOE can say we meant it when are said largest "sandbox" ever.
That right there would be the most epic move ever.
On a serious note, I'd like to see something a system that no game has done yet, something so revolutionary that none of us here can even guess it.
heh Smed trolling again ; )
I think we already have seen the revolutionary part of EQN, that they have promised there would be in the game....so now am more excited to see to what extent their terraforming will be...and what consequenses that will have.
Id love to see a Tunare be less than pleased when people burn down forrests...which will happen, when it is possible
player housing, player cities, player run governments
MASSIVE crafting system which makes most items in the game
huge explorable open dungeons (no instancing)
Player Vehicles (mounts, boats) ... both of which can be player "made" mounts bred or caught by beastmasters and trained to be mounts, and boats obviously player crafted.
heavily factioned, aligning with factions will make you KOS to other factions even players of that faction (PVP)
all NPCs attackable and killable
NO tasks (what games call quests) i am a great barbarian shadowknight, NO i will not kill wombats for you so you can make wombat pie.
Player looting No everyone gets the "+10 sword of fire" if they grind long enough, only 1 exists, if you want it that bad you need to kill or steal from the owner.
Environment survival mechanics like Oregon trail on steroids lol...you have died of dystentery. Ok not that rough, but I want a reason for the cooking profession and hunting or reasons to get to towns instead of simple exp boosts or to sell stuff. Exposure to the elements should drain our characters :P
More realistic weather, and dark nights...so dark if you dont have a torch on a non full moon night you will be very likely to plummet to your death.
No Minimaps, glitter trails, heavenly auras for quests...not like wikis wont pop up anyways but I would like the ingame hand holding to go away.
Areas with security designations, much like Eve or better/unique, for a few 99.9% safe PVE areas and lawless areas of FFA mayhem...not just server ruleset since I know some players like to mix both PVE and PVP. I think its a win-win for both carebears and gankers.
Multiple component crafting based around appearance blueprints. Where the level of craftmanship (Stats or effectiveness) is from skill based minigame (Hammering and cooling metal game example) while the quality of item (Durability) is based around the quality of materials being used.
Guild Barracks/Housing, Guilds empowered to shape the landscape both physically and lorewise through conquest or deeds, and Guilds with a smaller population cap to make more selective handpicked groups...also Guild Alliance systems to have those big 500 man organizations.
Unrestricted Classes, weapon, and armor selection...would take an amazing system to balance lest there only be fireball slinging paladin fotm builds or something of the sort. lol
So much more I know I can think of...its just so late for me lol
Comments
Essentially EQ1 Pre-SoL improved with the likes of StoryBricks and other things I can't imagine atm.
That would be nice.
I would love to see a in depth crafting system, able to make items just as good or better than drops and without the requirement of getting mats from raids and what not. I would rather not deal with inter-dependancy with other crafters though, that always ends up retarded. I like to be fairly self sufficient.
I always liked the skill system in EQ 1. If I use it, it goes up, otherwise I suck at it.
No zones. Open World, no instances at all.
No fast travel. use of running, mounts, boats ONLY. No portals or limited travel at high cost. Takes lots of time to travel the world and explore.
Sense of danger in the world... from NPC's, animals, pvp.
Lower levels have to start in certain areas... can't get to OTHER lower level areas easily.
Open world housing, NOT instanced.
Other things to do instead of combat, crafting... diplomacy? farming? having a vendor shop?
Proud MMORPG.com member since March 2004! Make PvE GREAT Again!
"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
If they could keep it sandbox, but really add lore to the races. You see, my Woodland Elf should not be killing other Woodland elves who group with orcs and goblins. This breaks the lore, making the epic feel of fantasy that we have in some really neat books, seem moot and unattainable.
Sony has never really understood the value of taking a great product like EQ and really focusing on factions and heavy lore. If you say this is dum and orcs should group with halflings then fine. But it will never make a good movie or book because unlike a story, where such things would seldomly occur (hence being interesting)...the game would just have random assortments of races and classes and lore would be a wash.
Just my 2 cents.
Non instanced player cities and housing.
Every item and building in game to be able to be made by players.
NPCs with needs that have to be furfilled so that they can be taxed without revolting.
I'd like to see production buildings like sawmills and so on but more importantly I'd like cities to need to have buildings and jobs in order to maintain itself. So things like firefighters, guards, builders, farmers (who are needed), tax collectors and so on. I'd like such jobs to be able to be furfilled by NPCs and PCs.
As you can probably tell I'm a bit fixated on NPCs and the player cities but if you are going to go to the effort to have player cities and good AI for NPCs why not go the extra mile?
Anyway I'd like to see proper functioning and dynamic cities that can be built by players from the ground up in the game world and that serve a purpose other than just somewhere cool to put my stuff. I'd like them to be a source of wealth, questlines and power that can be built and burned by players. I want them to have supply and demand determined by all inhabitants, NPCs and PCs. I want them to have needs that will create jobs for players and NPCs.
In regards to sandbox elements that is my biggest desire but those things alone will not make the game fun. The combat and crafting has to be fun. I am a big fan of mini games for crafting and I hope we see some of them and I can go several ways in regards to combat.One of my favorite parts back then, EQ challenged the player in ALL aspects of gameplay, this triggering mechanic being one of them!
Modern MMO's are made for the mobile-phone generation that never had imagination or troubleshooting skills to begin with. Thus we have sparkling paths to follow, massive gleaming pointers above npc heads and pretty much everything is spoonfed to you like an imbecile infant that only knows how to shit its pants and say GOO GOO GAA GAA.
My "wants" would be, first and foremost, non-intanced housing (but in sort of like villages/areas as to not ruin the landscapes, like it was in SWG)
Skill based system, where you swing a sword, you get better at it, where you cast spells, you get better at it (UOish skill systems, but not quite as 'free form', some class based restrictions to incite variety).
Viability to be a full-time crafter/trader/gatherer without having to rely on top-tier combat skills.
Limitations to tradeskill professions to garner towards player trade/co-op to get the end product.
why does sandbox mean open world PVP to everyone, i agree with the person you quoted, SWG opt-in PVP is the best. if EQN is full on PVP its dead in the water already.
but i doubt SOE will be that stupid. they know the majority do not like Open world FFA always on PVP.
I agree with this. Honestly I would like to see SOE do what UO did. They Made fel and they made Tram. Why was Malas and the rest of the worlds based off of Tram rules? Because the majority of players do not like open world FFA PVP.
I also would like to see UO type Treasure hunting
I would like to see treasure hunting, or taking on a balron or an 8 man raid all drop the same type of loot. Though I would like to see monsters like a Balron, or a Shadow Wyrm to require at least you and a friend to kill and no Shadow Wyrm room where 1 person can dominate it.
I would also like to see UO/SWG level of crafting back in the game, would like to see SWG like tools that collect resources for you.
I want worlds the size of SWG worlds so players can have houses and vendors this way housing is not mashed all over the land like it was in UO. I Will be honest I did like the housing vendor system in UO I just dont like how it took up so much space.
I would like to see Instances in EQNEXT as well because honestly having restrictly open world stuff to do will get boring. Having a mix of open world and instances will be fun
I would also like to see Neverwinter like foundry so players can create their own instances and submit it for permanent place in the game.
I would like to see different stats on different items like UO did with so players will have multiple sets of gear and would pull out the gear they need based off of what they are fighting. I would like to see slayer weapons, so if I fight a earth elemental I want to bring out an earth elemental slayer weapon or an elemental slayer weapon.
I want to see UO type of bards with provocation
I want to see UO type of Taming
I want to see UO Type of Champion Spawns
Power Scrolls
I want to be able to level my skills past max level and continue to level them as I get power scrolls in game.
I want to see 8 man raids but the gear that you can get in the raid can also be picked up in a treasure hunt (High level treasure maps only)
I want to see a game that players want to get to know each other because of the need to. I don’t want a Mule being able to Mine up some of the best ore in game without some risk. He should hire me as protection so I can kill the monsters that spawn around his best mining veins that he likes to go to.
i want a mix of AO, SWG and AoC
the character system in AO was great, i loved the agent. overequipping was a science and you had to know every buff from every class and every item which boosted attributes to get that piece on. i was about lv 120 when i selfequipped my lv 200 rifle. sneaking mission as a sice reduced mini leet was also cool.
a lot of grouping and fun was going on.
SWG the best crafting/gathering system ever. very cool armor and weapon system with attacks targeting blue green or red. putting up a tent. roleplaying. i had fun with bountyhunting too.
AoC graphics and animations. dynamic melee combat with targeting and positioning.
mix that and put in other features too...
funny. they said go go go 10y ago too :-)
These are some things I like to see in a sandbox MMO, not necessarily EQ:
-100% player driven crafting and economy (no phat lewt, no NPC gear vendors).
-Large open world without a single instanced zone that you can shape as you please (mainly with housing, city building or maybe even teraforming.)
-Free for all PvP with partial or full loot but also some sort of system to tone down PK griefing. (ie: Vanilla Lineage 2).
-Lastly many different progression paths that give you years and years of grinding material (ie: crafting, combat, entertaining, agriculture, harvesting, architecture, interior decoration, cooking, pet taming, begging, piracy etc etc etc).
Well you're in luck since that has been one of the few things onfirmed by Smed for EQNext already
heh Smed trolling again ; )
I think we already have seen the revolutionary part of EQN, that they have promised there would be in the game....so now am more excited to see to what extent their terraforming will be...and what consequenses that will have.
Id love to see a Tunare be less than pleased when people burn down forrests...which will happen, when it is possible
open ended class system
player housing, player cities, player run governments
MASSIVE crafting system which makes most items in the game
huge explorable open dungeons (no instancing)
Player Vehicles (mounts, boats) ... both of which can be player "made" mounts bred or caught by beastmasters and trained to be mounts, and boats obviously player crafted.
heavily factioned, aligning with factions will make you KOS to other factions even players of that faction (PVP)
all NPCs attackable and killable
NO tasks (what games call quests) i am a great barbarian shadowknight, NO i will not kill wombats for you so you can make wombat pie.
No everyone gets the "+10 sword of fire" if they grind long enough, only 1 exists, if you want it that bad you need to kill or steal from the owner.
Environment survival mechanics like Oregon trail on steroids lol...you have died of dystentery. Ok not that rough, but I want a reason for the cooking profession and hunting or reasons to get to towns instead of simple exp boosts or to sell stuff. Exposure to the elements should drain our characters :P
More realistic weather, and dark nights...so dark if you dont have a torch on a non full moon night you will be very likely to plummet to your death.
No Minimaps, glitter trails, heavenly auras for quests...not like wikis wont pop up anyways but I would like the ingame hand holding to go away.
Areas with security designations, much like Eve or better/unique, for a few 99.9% safe PVE areas and lawless areas of FFA mayhem...not just server ruleset since I know some players like to mix both PVE and PVP. I think its a win-win for both carebears and gankers.
Multiple component crafting based around appearance blueprints. Where the level of craftmanship (Stats or effectiveness) is from skill based minigame (Hammering and cooling metal game example) while the quality of item (Durability) is based around the quality of materials being used.
Guild Barracks/Housing, Guilds empowered to shape the landscape both physically and lorewise through conquest or deeds, and Guilds with a smaller population cap to make more selective handpicked groups...also Guild Alliance systems to have those big 500 man organizations.
Unrestricted Classes, weapon, and armor selection...would take an amazing system to balance lest there only be fireball slinging paladin fotm builds or something of the sort. lol
So much more I know I can think of...its just so late for me lol
I want a more hardcore sandbox