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LF non quest driven PvE MMO
I'm looking for, as the title suggests, a PvE focused game that is not quest driven. Basically, I don't like it when a game holds my hand all the way through, just following the arrows to the level cap. I also don't like open PvP, as it tends to end up as a gankfest. I don't like ganking others and I don't like worrying about it when doing the stuff I do like, so I'm looking for something PvE focused.
My other criteria are as far as combat goes, I cannot stand hotkey rotation. It just puts me to sleep. Instant deal breaker. Graphically I don't like western cartoony or post apocalyptic, but about anything else is fine. I also tend not to like dungeon crawlers, but mainly because they end up being just a race to the boss and nothing else and it ends up feeling similar to quest arrows. I'd consider one that does things differently, but if you do suggest one please tell me why it's different.
Comments
Quests aren't hold your hand....they just are there to give you a sense of achievement....most often they try to tell a story.....who the fuck came up with the idea quests are bad for MMOs?!
If grinding is your thing, then don't do quests........
Admittedly some writers of the quests can kill themselves, but having quests aren't the problem in today's or yesteryear's MMOs.
I am sorry but the " dynamic events " of GW2 are nothing more than a quest hub that you circle around and around as they pop. In fact IMO that is worse than the normal type of quest hub.
Everquest 2 has massive content. There are quests, but you advance faster just killing stuff, particularly if someone higher level is grouped with you, mentored. Generally if you do quests, they're ones you've chosen because you want the rewards. The problem is the levels below 85 are ghost towns, so you need to get in with people pretty quickly or leveling becomes a lonely slog.
You can play free and see if you like it. Animation is a little wooden and the economy is inflated because the game's 10 years old, but it has a devoted following, decent crafting and harvesting, player houses and guild halls, many very different classes and races, and significant spell and abilities lists.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
As I said....it is NOT THE CONVENTIONAL questing hub system you see in most MMO's. It does a good job at disguising it. Like it or not it is probably the closest thing to what he is looking for out right now. If you have a better recommendation cough it up...unless all you did was come in here to spat off your hate for a game.
Wurm online. It's a PvE sandbox and one of the most addictive and immersive MMOs I've played. It's a very complex game and you can pretty much do anything you could think of - breed animals, farm, terraform, build a city in open world, make furniture, make weapons, become a priest, become a miner, sail ships, ride horses, tame animals, ride a tamed crocodile.
This game has one major negative though. Sometimes you come across huge spiders and they tend to sneak up to you. I've jumped off my chair in fear multiple times, so if you don't like spiders, make sure your city is completely walled off or you can kill them.
Example:
http://imgur.com/sYd8Xb5
Combat is similar to runescape pre 2012 combat. You basically walk up to a monster, and then you and the mob have dice rolls at eachother which are influenced by your levels and gear. There is almost no movement in combat but you can do things like parry/bash or attack a specific part of a mob. You can also fight from a horse or a carriage and this allows you to retreat from a fight (an injured person on foot is about 5 times slower than an injured person on a healthy horse).
Building is the bread and butter of wurm though. I'll just pop another screenshot in here to prove my point. http://imgur.com/bKmYZm0 This hole in between the mountains used to be a small lake crater. To make it into a village, I first dug up a bunch of dirt from a nearby mountain and filled the entire lake except the area around the guard tower. Then I had to make a road that leads out from the hole, otherwise you can't get horses and carriages down there. That required some mining of the rockface to change its shape, and some additional dirt to make a smooth ramp. After that I made a mine entrance in the rockface and mined a bunch of rock shards which I made into stone bricks. I also needed mortar to start building houses, so I had to make a 40 minute travel to the coast where I could dig some clay. Then I also had to haul some sand from a nearby desert, and then I could mix the clay and sand to make some mortar. Then I made a rough plan of the building layout in the village and made all the roads in between the buildings. Since the deed is a mining guild, I wanted to have all the required buildings to go with it - a general store, a guesthouse, a refinery, a warehouse, my personal house etc. Trees can also be planted anywhere you like. For the 4 trees on my deed, I went into a forest with a sickle to pick some sprouts, and then I planted the sprouts on my deed and in about 2 IRL weeks they grew into big trees.
saw alot run for the Hearts, and in their mind it is the same as quest hubs - so they would miss 80% or so of the story/content.
could only shake head at people saying there werent quests enough in an area to level up without having to grind the hearts.
There is none, but ofcourse you already knew that. It is that real mmorpg that eq players especially has been wanting for over a decade. And the sad part is the quest driven themepark model is now so settled that some posters here can't imagine that there are other ways, that a game can actually pass control to the players and make them create their own stories.
And yet, there are "sandbox" which are currently very either pvp/conflict driven or very builder focused. Best hope is that a sandbox game will lean towards that non quest driven pve game we are looking for. EqNext is what I am holding my breath for, to see if SoE actually get it and can escape the themepark thinking. Camelot unchained may have something to offer in the pve department, but we shall see. The problem seem to be that escaping themepark often just turn into some sort of pvp setting, from hardcore gankfest mmo to moba or lobby games.
So afaik the closest you get right now is probably lotro, unless you want to go oldschool eq and similar games of that period.
"I am my connectome" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HA7GwKXfJB0
This is probably one of the best suggestions for the OP.
All the propaganda BS aside (for w/e reason there are STILL people who want to bash this game, some 2+ years after it's launch). It's one of the few games that has a healthy population still and meets the criteria the OP has written, as they are written.
There are 'hearts' and 'dynamic events' which are basically quests. However there aren't 'HUBs' like other games have. All manner of questing in this game is 100% purely optional. In fact you can lvl entirely from ~10-80 doing zero quests (I say lvl 10+ because of the tutorial and some of the new-player changes that were made to ease people into the game).
There are dungeons, but not really dungeon crawling (unless you count fractals of the mists, which is also 100% optional). Basically, unless you fool yourself into thinking you have to do something, you can actually play the game however you want (within reason, ofc). Also the combat is very skill-oriented (meaning you have to customize your builds, and use your skills intelligently, rather than memorizing a skill rotation).
The problem with this, is that many people lack that 'hook' that you get from the standard MMO. There is also a fair amount of grinding for the more obscure things if that is your goal. To this day I'd say that GW2 is one of the best values for your money when it comes to MMOs. It's definitely worth checking out, and if you can catch it on sale, all the better.