As title says. What if one of the next expansions focuses on many MMORTS elements? Similar to Warcraft 3, but on a large continent and persistent.
It would be horde vs alliance vs a third enemy that is controlled by the AI, and control very much like Warcraft 3...build houses for population, build military units, towers to defend, walls, research for better units. Except it would have to be on a more "epic" scale since it is an MMO. But every player would contribute to the faction as a whole, minus the AI faction. There'd be rewards, achievements etc...and guilds would of course be important.
WoW IS based off a RTS after all, so it would be fitting if it put RTS back into Warcraft. And there has never been an AAA persistent MMORTS out there.
In some ways it also would be similar to DAOC with the three factions, but it would instead be more of an RTS than an RPG expansion.
I think the idea is really good, and Warcraft was first an RTS. Again, it would be really fitting to put the RTS back into Warcraft.
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The idea in itself is great, but not to NGE a current MMO into it. It would be better to make Warcraft 4 a MMORTS then, that could actually become rather popular.
Most "mmorts" (not really) games are mobile pay to win, or browser games. Nor are they really persistent, where you can send units across a huge map (azeroth size) in real time. They all have instanced towns and stuff, and battles are also instanced.
No ones ever done a true persistent, open world style MMORTS game. And Warcraft would be perfect fit for that, with all the lore, units etc. Warcraft does have instancing, but the world itself is open with no loading screens (except between continents). And its a world everyone knows. Plus while Blizzard may have to get slightly creative, they can probably copy a lot of WoW, but make it MMORTS instead of MMORPG. Plus, Blizzard, while maybe not always creative, at least makes very polished games and gives them a lot of support. And there is definitely no polished or vaguely good MMORTS game out there. Heck, none at all by an AAA company. I think Blizzard could do it best.
Then there'd be a wave of MMORTS clones :P Which is a genre very lacking.
But with my idea of two factions to choose from (then the AI one without players), that also completely solves the problem people say about MMORTS "but if I log off, I'll get destroyed". Instead, the whole faction keeps fighting 24/7 as long as people play (which if it was by Blizzard, would be played by hundreds of thousands or millions).
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I've never understood why people want all the features into same game, or why Blizzard has the obsession to fill the game with dozens of mini-games. MMORTS sounds great, but keep it away from RPGs and particularly from WoW.
If you want a MMORTS based on Warcraft then make a new game.
I'm not an IT Specialist, Game Developer, or Clairvoyant in real life, but like others on here, I play one on the internet.
As far as I am concerned, this is exactly or very close to what CU and AoC will do with their games.
And why not in WoW. WoW already have the huge scale world, why not make it worth while to serve as the battlefield it is designed to be.
People rarely go to old areas at max lvl anyway, for other reasons than Archaeology and travelers that seeks back to old favorite areas, when they consider quitting for good. (On standard servers at least), RP servers are a little different, even though the phasing have destroyed a lot of that.
So why not make use of all those amazing areas, cause a lot of them really are beautiful and well made, they should be able to serve a purpose in the late game also.
Guilds could become meaningful building their guild keeps, and the commoners should be able to build houses and farms and why not make these things matter?
On PvP servers these things could maybe be battled for, conquered or contested and destroyed.
On PvE servers there could be a mix, areas with destroyable buildings, and areas that are safe to build in. And the economy and traders would gain an entire new market to explore in regards of researching and harvesting materials?
Could the creativity in building things become the new peek moment for WoW?
Id say yes it can.
It is so painfully obvious that something like this could make WoW blossom again.
And creating content like this would benefit everybody, because it would give more content to do, than just repeated raiding, though I dont see why raiding could not at the same time support the new content.
And guilds have complained they have had little purpose for years, design a system like this that benefits not only guilds, but also allow the soloer to feel like a valued part of the community.
A system like this would give the game a fresh breathe of purpose and community if designed well.
If on the other hand, which is the Blizzard way, that guilds can get a little premade plot somewhere with no real interesting longterm benefits, that nobody will bother travelling to and defend, cause its not worth the effort anyway, then no.
And this is where it lands.
Blizzard is not the company to embrace something like this.
While at the same time CU and AoC will not cover a PvE mindset, which Blizzard would have.
So great idea, but Blizzard cant do it.
Sorry.
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
however, i wouldn't mind to see some rts elements in WoW....
imagine one players on one side playing a rts game... while the opponents are a full 25 man raid...
this would deliver truely unique gameplay....
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)