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MMO Design: A Blueprint for Something Different
merieke82
Member Posts: 165
I've been theorizing an MMO design that I would find fun to play. It may not be what you're looking for but I thought I'd jot down my notes in the case that it sparks interest from others. It's clearly not a polished design document, but I've attempted to outline some gameplay mechanics and provide context around the goal of certain systems. The design attempts to bring forth something fresh, if not at the individual system level, than at least in its entirety. I look forward to hearing your feedback and ways in which you would improve further upon the design.
Summary- The MMO is a low fantasy, single server, open world with meaningful, fun encounters and adventure where there are no right decisions or standard paths.
The absence of classes and levels will be replaced with player driven goals and progression. Gameplay will include an overland map, instanced zones from the overland map, non instanced large city zones, tactical view of the overland map for conducting warfare, as well as customized interfaces that facilitate actions a player may take (ie. hunting for deer in an instanced zone using real physics, thievery that requires timing, positioning, and escape strategies, magic that requires finding lore and correctly compiling it to make use of spells). Player skill will be relevant in that your progression path will not be easy to Google. A skill system will exist that contributes to your level of success conducting actions but will not be the primary driving factor.
World Architecture - Single server design with an overland map where players can travel in a similar vein to Mount and Blade / Fallout 1. Your traveling speed will vary depending on your party size, equipment, and navigation skill. While in transit you will face both player-based and environment-based encounters, the likelihood of which depends on the skills of you or your party. During an encounter the player/party is brought into an instanced map representative of the area in which the encounter occurs. While sandbox users often despise the concept of instances the design being proposed here is intended to be built in a way that allows for fast loading (preloaded textures, low system requirements). Fast loading means minimizing the break of immersion and allow for interesting mechanics to occur in the zone (ie. physics, ability to conduct negotiations without random player interference, ability to design escape options that would allow you to the exit the map and possibly avoid a hostile encounter ... though they could track you back down with good use of their tracking skill)
Additionally, the single server, instanced design also means that it's easier to manage and control population spikes. This is part of the long term strategy of being able to accommodate and be financially successful with millions of players or only a few hundred thousand. While player retention is controlled solely by the success of the gameplay this design encourages returning players to come back knowing that their server is "not dead." (Non instanced design is great too and if the technology existed that would allow the gameplay mechanics to work I'd be all for it)
"Living Story" - There will be a handful of employees who will be paid to play the game. They will have the ability to put custom encounters on the overland map, take over control of NPCs, and generally help drive an overarching living story created by the content team. Specific guidelines will be needed in terms of how much power they have, but the goal is that they will have the power to allow stories to unfold without having predefined conditions and mechanics behind them. There will be no appeal process if your encounter did not turn out the way you hoped. This will be a "live with it world" where no single encounter is going to make or break your overall enjoyment.
The premise is that players will have fun experiencing the world. There will be no aimlessly wandering npcs (if you encounter hostile npcs expect a fast paced engagement that you would get in a multiplayer FPS). There will be no farming mobs (you won't be carrying around 30 swords ... you'll be happy if you survived your encounter and are able to grab a few coins). You won't be going to wikis to learn how to defeat a boss or where to farm materials. The UI will be minimalistic (no need for a minimap, no need for an onscreen quest tracker). There will not be NPC voice-overs. Your action/skill bar will be minimal and won't center around your combat actions, buffs, debuffs, etc. but around things you would do in support of combat, crafting, or general city loitering (combat stance, resting, focus, examine for weaknesses, guard your coin purse at the cost of slower movement speed, slink into the shadows and become harder to see). I'm leaning toward first person view you only with the option for a pan camera if you really want to see yourself.
Progression - While the game will not impose a leveling ladder to climb, players will find themselves wanting to progress by setting personal goals. Here are some example paths that someone might take:
1) I want a sword
2) I want to train with a sword
3) I want to group with a caravaning merchant and get paid for protecting the caravan from encounters (note that not all encounters will require combat, ie. a persuasive character might be able to buy off bandits, a thief may be able to avoid an ambush)
4) I want to perfect my swordsmanship and compete against others in the arena
5) I want to enlist in a military campaign
6) I want to purchase a home
7) I want to contribute to my kingdom's advancement
8) I want to explore the world, building wealth and reputation
1) I want a wagon
2) I want to purchase goods and transport them to another city for resale
3) I want to accumulate wealth so that I can hire protection and other traveling companions to reduce encounter risk or maximize gain from positive encounters
4) I want to build my own shop (with an NPC staff that can be controlled to buy/sell goods)
5) I want to purchase a home
6) I want to contribute to my kingdom's advancement
7) I want to explore the world, building wealth and reputation
Other progression paths might include: becoming a hunter, becoming a bandit (setting up ambushes on the player map), becoming enforcement (to counter bandits), becoming a mage, becoming a tactician for kingdom warfare, becoming a thief, becoming a spy (who can easily traverse the world map and collect information, becoming a treasure hunter, becoming any number of crafting disciplines, etc.
Offline progression - Depending on your skill sets and reputation you will be able to select occupations for yourself while you are offline. Offline advancement will help provide marginal increases to your wealth and reputation. If you become a sellsword for a bandit company other players could actually see you during an encounter being controlled as an NPC and may place a bounty or react to you personally based on that encounter later.
Communication - Global, local, area chats do not exist. You can communicate with players only in your local area with a slightly extended radius for those you've chosen to party with. A friend system will exist that will allow you to see if your friends are online and their approximate location. Powerful mages will be allowed to bond characters which will allow them to communicate with each other over long distances. While this may seem off putting at first it has several advantages in promoting an immersive world:
1) Eliminates gold chat spam, "Barrens" chat
2) Opens up avenues for mages to faciliate communication
3) Promotes working with those around you and building a positive reputation (or negative if you prefer)
Encounters - The overland map encounter system has been covered in prior sections. Here are some examples of what encounters might include:
1) Bandit Ambush - A computer or player controlled ambush point on the map. The bandit leader can spot approaching parties based on his spotting / ambush skills and decide whether to initiate an ambush. The traveling party may also have someone with a scouting skill that helps them see nearby ambush points on the map and help navigate to avoid them.
2) Sickness / Weather - The fortitude of a player could come into question depending on how long he/she has been traveling. Foraging and medicine skills would be useful. In rare cases severe weather may force an encounter that requires camping / survival skills to avoid health or speed traveling penalties.
3) Roaming monsters - I had envisioned a low fantasy world, but I suspect that most people would appreciate monster encounters. I expect these to be brutal encounters with fast moving, high damage dealing creatures.
4) Exploration mode - While in exploration mode you increase your ability to locate areas on the map where you may find points of interest that contain treasure, lore (for magic), npcs to rescue, or uncover static
5) Scouting mode - Gain more visibility of other players who are moving near you on the map
6) Hunting mode - Search for wild game and when encountered hunt it using stealth and physics
Economy - Equipment won't have significant bonuses. A stab or two from any sword will kill just about anyone. The quality of the sword will marginally improve it's speed and grant higher reputation to the wielder. Equipment will decay over time which can be offset by repairs and maintenance. Hidden bonuses will exist on some equipment that has existed for long periods of time (which can be seen and revealed by a mage). This will promote the existence of "legendary" weapons over time. Nothing will be bound to characters. Unused items will decay over time and require repairs. Characters themselves will not be able to carry large quantities of items at any given time. Some free storage will be given to those who own their own house. Other storage can be rented and charged monthly in game gold based on the quality and quantity of items being stored. The thievery skill can be used to infiltrate and burglarize houses. Paid storage facilities will be burglar proof.I'm still considering mechanics surrounding inflation and potentially pre-seeding the world with a finite number of gold pieces.
Crafting / Gathering - I don't have much to share here. A refined/polished version of the Mortal Online crafting system would be awesome though. I know some will argue this design, but I think if the MO system was more polished it would shine.
Magic - Magic will exist but in a low-fantasy format. Magic as used in combat will be look more like low level, old school D&D design where you have a limited number of spells to use for your encounter but which could drastically impact the outcome. Magic will also play a significant role in identifying and revealing equipment bonuses, and facilitating communication and transportation. Players that focus solely on magic may become extremely frail during combat encounters but hold immense power on the overland map, with the ability to control weather, turn a party invisible, or influence tactical kingdom warfare.
Combat - Since combat occurs in instances it will be brutal and fast paced once engaged. Mount and Blade and other online multiplayer fantasy games come to mind here. However, I fully intend for the need to size up your opponents and ensure that you enter an appropriate stance before engaging. Parrying and blocking will be relevant and important since it will only take a few cuts to take a player down. Being defeated typically means becoming unconscious for the remainder of the fight and depending on who else you partied with they may be able to bring you back for the remainder of the journey.
Warfare - I'm hesitant to call this the end game but since the wealthiest and most influential will impact kingdom warfare many players will call this the end game. An undetermined number of factions will exist on the overland map and at any time may be at peace or war with another faction. Being in a state of peace could be anything from nothing to increased trade revenue from traveling merchants. Being at war means armies moving across the overland map and attempting to gain control of territory for their kingdom. Some players may choose to enlist in the moving army, others may take up the tactician skill and attempt to influence the decisions that the NPC King is making regarding movements and locations of the army. Successful military campaigns will be long affairs that result in wealth and reputation for you and your kingdom. Potential exists for politically or militarily involved players to rise to status of King and replace the default NPC King. Succession will be an important factor as kingdom unrest will increase the longer any given player remains the King, exposing vulnerabilities and decreasing army effectiveness.
Closing thoughts - As I mentioned this is a far cry from a finalized design document and it only highlights some proposed game mechanics and how they might tie together. The mechanics are intended to promote a variety of gameplay for both solo and group based play and allow players to build reputation across the world. Players should become less focused on gearing up and more about enjoying the types of gameplay that are available (and excelling at them).
Comments
I have seen ideas very similar to this several times on here. This one is more detailed then most but shares some of the core flaws. I'll just talk about the biggest one...Massive single server over worlds (and especially if you want any level of truly dynamic content). With which there are a few major issues:
1) Latency.
With the popularity of online gaming and MMORPG's in specific being a world wide phenomenon. If a game is any good it cannot practically depend on a single server to handle all possible users. it's not just about location of the server vs. location of the users (this actually doesn't matter too much compared to other factors). It is more about boxes (even the most capable ones) having a hard limit on how many people they can effectively talk to at once.
2) Capacity.
On top of not being able to handle keeping communication with users up on the scale that a single massive over world would demand. Servers have a limit to the information that they can hold period. And, some forms of data (game coding in specific) essentially weigh a lot more then others (as in they take more lines of language to express simple actions, given that they must account for so many else scenario's) So, you need a machine that can house the current and future game indefinitely and at the very same time talk to many people at once about that information.
3) Cost .
To get the hardware setup that is capable of accomplishing and keeping up all the tasks that are needed. It can cost more then the development of the game to obtain, set up and maintain. Not to mention quarterly operating costs and unforeseen expenses. The cost to the end user would be astronomical. More then it would have been to be an MMO'er through old compuserve and AOL versions of internet service, respective to today's monetary values.
The reason you don't see much of this, is not for being impossible...It's simply because it is wildly impractical....Now, if it were client side via hardware made to interface with the computer and written in an assembly language standardized for that hardware, with an HLL designed to translate between the device and the users computer. And, the end interface was merely server side...then you might get somewhere practical with it. But that alone is just a spit ball, on the spot suggestion that would take years of development and likely fall flat on it's face when put in front of real experts on day 1.
As for the rest of it do you have an idea of how much of what you want will rely on this first initial thing (that is dead in the water)? You simply can't start out with the hardware side of things as your premiss for how a game should be. concern yourself with game play alone. And, not implementation. There are reasons just about every MMORPG Board for new suggestions out there has a pinned topic telling people to concern themselves with the raw concept alone and not the details.
It is because, on average a player knows little to nothing about the details side of things to be able to come up with anything viable detail wise.
I think he means single server more in the sense if "you don't get asked at character creation which server you want to play on", and not "there's only one physical box that must house all server components for the entire game". A lot of instancing will especially help to spread a single game world among many physical servers.
A lot of the sandboxish stuff strikes me as too vague to be particularly meaningful. You could make a great game consistent with the stated design, but you could also make an awful one--and awful for reasons of game design, not just buggy.
Correct. I'm referring to single server design that is backed by a cluster of servers. Some games have called it sharding and others channels. It's not a new concept but the approach of having a lot of gameplay executed from within a world map (where you don't actively see a lot of players running around) that quickly integrates into an instance per encounter shouldn't be drastically different in terms of server CPU time and bandwidth than other MMO implementations.
Clearly I'm not a network engineer and can't speak to server architecture but I specifically proposed a massively instanced world because I believe it scales the most dynamically and the world map design helps facilitate a less jarring, immersion breaking experience.
You're also correct in that many of the gameplay mechanics are vague. Certainly you could make a good or bad game from any concept document (the proof is in the implementation). I wasn't really going for a "sandbox" in the loosely traditional sense of the word because a massively instanced world wouldn't deliver what many people expect when they hear the word sandbox. The core design is focused on unpredictable adventure and territory control.
I appreciate the feedback though and am also curious in what ways you could see some of the basic gameplay elements expanded.
Thanks for the input. I clarified in the prior post regarding the server architecture but wanted to respond to this comment as well. I didn't mean to give an impression of "dynamic content" in the sense that the entire world can change and needs to be constantly transmitted to all users. Content within each unique instance would be dynamic for the users participating there. The paid gamemasters would also have the flexibility to insert larger scale world-wide content that could insert another level of dynamism.
Hope that helps clarify and limit the scope of what I'm talking about.
The problem is that game design is fundamentally about filling in details, not just painting things in broad strokes.
For example, lately I've been working on procedurally generated animations and wanted every foot to go down on the ground even on sloped terrain, rather than standing in the air or poking through the ground as will happen in most games. But that, as stated, is really just a vague goal. Until I have explicit formulas to say exactly where every foot of every possible character ought to go in every possible circumstance, as well as where every component of every leg ought to go, I don't really have much on this "idea".
And there are a lot of circumstances, too: what if a character is standing still versus running, or accelerating or slowing down, or starting to move from a dead stop, or turning or strafing? And that is to say nothing of all possible terrain that a character could stand on, which must have an enormous effect if the character is to stand on the ground and be able to run up and down slopes or along the sides of them. And I need not just positions, but also orientations of everything.
And that's when trying to fill in details on "characters' legs should move when they run", which is already much lower level than most of what you're talking about.
That makes perfect sense. It would be nonsensical to hand my list of ideas to a programmer and say now start programming. I'm a programmer by trade and know exactly what that feels like
That's also why I tried to clarify that these are simply thoughts about some game mechanics, which if implemented in a sensible fashion could result in a fresh take on an MMO that I would personally find interesting.
I'm also an implementation project manager so if I was actually in the business of trying to implement a game based on my ideas it would involve something along the lines of:
In your example of solving for a complex, dynamic model animation you're the visionary and coder rolled into one. You're already in the process of implementation and suspect you already have a broader sense of what your application's purpose is and how this particular mechanic is meant to enhance it. You had an idea and because you believe it's important you're pursuing a solution for it. It's not very different from where I'm coming from ... you just happen to be at a different stage in the development cycle.
The opening post is somewhere around less than a fraction of a percent of just the first heading under bullet 1 above. I'm just sharing for fun in the hope that someday an MMO might be created with some portion of the ideas presented