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What Character options do you think are missing from most MMORPGs?

2

Answers

  • esc-joconnoresc-joconnor Member RarePosts: 1,097
    Albatroes said:
    Role-wise I'd like to see support more common/make a comeback and either have pure CC or more classes getting cc again. I'm honestly tired of this one-man-army mentality. Hearkening back to one DMKano said about AA in another thread, say what you will about the p2w in that game, it does have a lot of systems that most games dont anymore, like post cap features that alter how you play and free form class development (to a large degree). PvE in the game is eh unfortunately, but it does have a solid foundation. Unfortunately, greed is a heavy factor. Trion just 1 sub only server, Jesus...
    I'd like to see the return of required teamwork for group activities. At least the option for it! I'm a CoH fan, so I loved the Control and Defender classes. They could make them a little better solo though. I prefer to team but sometimes it's a hassle to find one, or you don't have the time to commit.
    AlBQuirky
  • AllerleirauhAllerleirauh Member UncommonPosts: 496
    edited April 2018
    In Mabinogi you can play as your animals.  The argument that making four legged characters is to hard to box collide is silly.  It's already been done.  Underwater dynamics have been done as well in GW2.  Merfolk could transform to have fish tails underwater and back to feet on land.

    @Vorthanion This is what they planned for Pantheon; they were planning on merfolk being able to transform from having fishtails in the water and legs on land. I still haven't seen the Dark Myr Pantheon, however, just the conceptional art.

    As other people are mentioning, I would love to see unusual races, mermaids, centaurs, etc., are never seen in games. All you see, particularly in fantasy games, are humans, elves, and sometimes dwarfs.
    Post edited by Allerleirauh on
    AlBQuirkyesc-joconnor
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  • MrMelGibsonMrMelGibson Member EpicPosts: 3,033
    I'm sick of avatars that are human bodies with animal heads who all stand upright.  The only character I can remember that didn't have human hands and feet to go with their dog or cat face was the Worgen in WoW.  Yeah, I'm pointing fingers at you Pantheon.....if you're going to give us mermaids in the form of Dark Myr, they damn well better have fish tails and if they want to move around on land, they would need bathtubs on wagons at the very least.  It's bad enough that every damn character is humanoid, but they're far too human over-all.
    Worgan are great.  But I think GW2 Charr are better imo.  Outside of combat they always run on all fours.  One of my favorite races ever.
    Tsiya
  • dougha1dougha1 Member UncommonPosts: 152
    In threads like this in other forums over the years I've seen Two recurring requests: fat people, older (gray hair) people.  In the case of the latter, it was unsaid (but assumed) that their stats would be the same as everyone else: the analogy is of the fit (goes to the gym, can bench press YOU without breaking a sweat) dude with gray hair. We all know someone like that.

    With the recurrance of those requests you'd think would make the game companies put these options in.

    My own request, coming up, is going to seem subtle or minor compared to most of the posts on this thread, but here goes:

    I would like more options for a female character that has andro/butch style.  Short hair, no obvious makeup in her features, a jawline you can cut diamonds on ... that sort of thing. Hardly any games have good sexy short hairs for women (Fallout 3 being one exception).

    MrMelGibsonesc-joconnor
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  • KyarraKyarra Member UncommonPosts: 789
    The ability in pvp games to turn on and off the pvp option (like SWG TEF system). I would stay playing games like BDO, Darkfall etc. if I had the ability to turn off pvp when I just want to sit and craft or do some questing instead of getting ganked.
    AlBQuirkyTsiya
  • SovrathSovrath Member LegendaryPosts: 32,001
    edited April 2018
    Kyarra said:
    The ability in pvp games to turn on and off the pvp option (like SWG TEF system). I would stay playing games like BDO, Darkfall etc. if I had the ability to turn off pvp when I just want to sit and craft or do some questing instead of getting ganked.
    I think the idea of pvp games is that they are "pvp games".

    What you are asking for is the ability to turn a pvp game into a pve game.
    MrMelGibsondougha1
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  • Octagon7711Octagon7711 Member LegendaryPosts: 9,000
    When I was much younger I used to love to play a game called Archon.  And my favorite character in that game was the shape shifter(idk what they were really called).  But it was just like a plain bloblish character that when engaged another character he completely copied the his enemy.  I know there are classes in games that have steal spell etc...but what about a class that had nothing but basic abilities of their own but their kit was entirely built on abilities stolen from enemies, friendlies and even mobs. Like lvl 1 you steal the boars rush attack and lvl 5 the rats poison etc...maybe the stolen abilities expire after a while or a certain number of uses.  Im sure that would be a nightmare to balance for devs but Id like it.
    I like playing shape shifters also.  Love playing Druids in WoW and the generic alien race in STO which is free form and can be shaped to look like any race you want, I was a Klingon in the Federation before they had them and a Jem'Hadar. 
    esc-joconnor

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  • KyarraKyarra Member UncommonPosts: 789
    Sovrath said:
    Kyarra said:
    The ability in pvp games to turn on and off the pvp option (like SWG TEF system). I would stay playing games like BDO, Darkfall etc. if I had the ability to turn off pvp when I just want to sit and craft or do some questing instead of getting ganked.
    I think the idea of pvp games is that they are "pvp games".

    What you are asking for is the ability to turn a pvp game into a pve game.
    Well I hate when a game is mostly pve up until the endgame where pvp is forced upon you (BDO, Aion). I miss SWG, if I wasn't in the mood for pvp I could just turn my flag off. Some of the pvp games out there would probably attract a lot more people if they did this.
    AlBQuirkyberenim
  • MendelMendel Member LegendaryPosts: 5,609
    Eldurian said:
    Nyctelios said:
    Eldurian said:
    I'd like to see abilities based on alternate win conditions. Allow me to explain. In Magic The Gathering the primary win condition is lowering the opponent's health from 20 to 0 at which point you win the game.

    You also win the game if the enemy has no more cards to draw:



    You also win the game if you put 10 poison counters on an enemy player:



    There are also cards that straight up create new win conditions:



    I would like to see more of that as opposed to just more builds focused around various aspects of HP. (HP DPS, HP Healing, and HP Damage Mitigation.) Could really bring some interesting new builds into the MMO space.

    Also it's not something lacking from most MMOs. But I consider any MMO without decent facial hair options to have bad character customization.
    Those, in a mmorpg, would be "modes" rather than anything else.

    King of the hill, last man standing, faction pvp, world versus world, arena points... Those things already exists. Modes which the winning condition varies from one another - So builds are shaped to said modes. 

    Gw2's pvp arena builds are largely different from WvW pvp builds.

    And in dungeons WoW already did that several times where bosses don't die from dps but from puzzle mechanics and jump mechanics.
    Mmmmmm. I was thinking much more in terms of doing something to completely negates your opponent as a threat other than just straight killing them. For instance building up a condition that ends in your opponent being teleported to a random location on the map or pacifying them to the point that have a condition that doesn't allow them to attack you anymore for a decent period of time (obviously this would be removed if you dealt damage to them.)

    Magic exists in many, many MMOs so it would be fun to see some cooler ways of eliminating threats than just killing them every time. Something better than "you are a sheep for a few seconds while I run away."

    Obviously powerful effects like that should be nearly as hard or even harder to pull off than just killing your opponent depending on whether what you did to them gives lesser or greater penalties than death itself. But I for one would love to play a monk or druid who wanders around pacifying everyone who messes with him. XD
    There is room to improve at the 'simplistic' end of the difficulty scale, too.  What about 'knock him down and let the fat kid sit on him'?  Americanized football is practically built on that notion.  Professional wrestling, too.  Both of those are far more popular than MMORPGs.

    Every fight ends with one side or the other dead.  A thousand times a day.  Exactly how much endurance are these characters supposed to have?  No one gets tired.  What about running away?  (cue the Monty Python memes).  That's a pretty good strategy, especially if the goal is to stay alive.  Even the lowliest Rat_7_of_10 knows enough to scuttle back into its burrow when someone manically brandishes a machette in its direction.

    I love your sheep idea.  But, let's see some improvement in other areas, too.




    Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.

  • esc-joconnoresc-joconnor Member RarePosts: 1,097
    I'm sick of avatars that are human bodies with animal heads who all stand upright.  The only character I can remember that didn't have human hands and feet to go with their dog or cat face was the Worgen in WoW.  Yeah, I'm pointing fingers at you Pantheon.....if you're going to give us mermaids in the form of Dark Myr, they damn well better have fish tails and if they want to move around on land, they would need bathtubs on wagons at the very least.  It's bad enough that every damn character is humanoid, but they're far too human over-all.
    Worgan are great.  But I think GW2 Charr are better imo.  Outside of combat they always run on all fours.  One of my favorite races ever.
    They are both great! Worgen at 30% beast while Char are more like 60.
  • esc-joconnoresc-joconnor Member RarePosts: 1,097
    DMKano said:
    Epeen slider
    Ha! I'm guessing you are talking about what Conan Exiles has, but I think that should be aPeen maybe? A for Avatar. Game companies have no control over their players Epeen XD
  • esc-joconnoresc-joconnor Member RarePosts: 1,097
    Nyctelios said:
    Eldurian said:
    Nyctelios said:
    Eldurian said:
    I'd like to see abilities based on alternate win conditions. Allow me to explain. In Magic The Gathering the primary win condition is lowering the opponent's health from 20 to 0 at which point you win the game.

    You also win the game if the enemy has no more cards to draw:



    You also win the game if you put 10 poison counters on an enemy player:



    There are also cards that straight up create new win conditions:



    I would like to see more of that as opposed to just more builds focused around various aspects of HP. (HP DPS, HP Healing, and HP Damage Mitigation.) Could really bring some interesting new builds into the MMO space.

    Also it's not something lacking from most MMOs. But I consider any MMO without decent facial hair options to have bad character customization.
    Those, in a mmorpg, would be "modes" rather than anything else.

    King of the hill, last man standing, faction pvp, world versus world, arena points... Those things already exists. Modes which the winning condition varies from one another - So builds are shaped to said modes. 

    Gw2's pvp arena builds are largely different from WvW pvp builds.

    And in dungeons WoW already did that several times where bosses don't die from dps but from puzzle mechanics and jump mechanics.
    Mmmmmm. I was thinking much more in terms of doing something to completely negates your opponent as a threat other than just straight killing them. For instance building up a condition that ends in your opponent being teleported to a random location on the map or pacifying them to the point that have a condition that doesn't allow them to attack you anymore for a decent period of time (obviously this would be removed if you dealt damage to them.)

    Magic exists in many, many MMOs so it would be fun to see some cooler ways of eliminating threats than just killing them every time. Something better than "you are a sheep for a few seconds while I run away."

    Obviously powerful effects like that should be nearly as hard or even harder to pull off than just killing your opponent depending on whether what you did to them gives lesser or greater penalties than death itself. But I for one would love to play a monk or druid who wanders around pacifying everyone who messes with him. XD
    I play EDH with a custom Mogis Discard/Control BR deck. I make opponents discard, deck, sacrifice and lose health doing anything (mana barbs, spellshock, polluted bonds, painful quandary, lillyana's caress, Zuzu, you get the deal).

    Let me tell you something: NOBODY likes a game in which they can't play it.

    We play almost daily in a store here in my city. My deck is not the most powerful, we have tons of control blue decks, yet my deck is the most hated.

    So ask yourself this: Would someone enjoy playing a game that they spend most of the time disable and can't play it?
    Seeing as ganking is pretty common in PvP games I can't imagine a no-lose combat ending power would be too bad. It not like they are frozen for an hour, the fight with that player is just over. And of course, there would have to be counters.
  • esc-joconnoresc-joconnor Member RarePosts: 1,097
    edited April 2018
    Kyarra said:
    Sovrath said:
    Kyarra said:
    The ability in pvp games to turn on and off the pvp option (like SWG TEF system). I would stay playing games like BDO, Darkfall etc. if I had the ability to turn off pvp when I just want to sit and craft or do some questing instead of getting ganked.
    I think the idea of pvp games is that they are "pvp games".

    What you are asking for is the ability to turn a pvp game into a pve game.
    Well I hate when a game is mostly pve up until the endgame where pvp is forced upon you (BDO, Aion). I miss SWG, if I wasn't in the mood for pvp I could just turn my flag off. Some of the pvp games out there would probably attract a lot more people if they did this.
    I think there has to be a way to make PvP games better without having toggles. It should be more intuitive. Have zones that are safe not because of game mechanics but because they are far behind enemy lines, or well defended.  And make it so PvP is never safe for anyone. Even a marauding band of high-level players on a rampage should fear the slim chance that one of their victims gets off a lucky shot and takes one of them out.
  • WizardryWizardry Member LegendaryPosts: 19,332
    Everything is missing except sliders and tattoos and George Jetson hairdos.Tattoos is like the least likely thing i care about and yet seems in every game.Matter of fact i care very little of the visual customization,that only gets covered by gear anyhow,i want real customization that sets players apart other than visually.
    AlBQuirky

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  • esc-joconnoresc-joconnor Member RarePosts: 1,097
    Mendel said:
    Eldurian said:
    Nyctelios said:
    Eldurian said:
    I'd like to see abilities based on alternate win conditions. Allow me to explain. In Magic The Gathering the primary win condition is lowering the opponent's health from 20 to 0 at which point you win the game.

    You also win the game if the enemy has no more cards to draw:



    You also win the game if you put 10 poison counters on an enemy player:



    There are also cards that straight up create new win conditions:



    I would like to see more of that as opposed to just more builds focused around various aspects of HP. (HP DPS, HP Healing, and HP Damage Mitigation.) Could really bring some interesting new builds into the MMO space.

    Also it's not something lacking from most MMOs. But I consider any MMO without decent facial hair options to have bad character customization.
    Those, in a mmorpg, would be "modes" rather than anything else.

    King of the hill, last man standing, faction pvp, world versus world, arena points... Those things already exists. Modes which the winning condition varies from one another - So builds are shaped to said modes. 

    Gw2's pvp arena builds are largely different from WvW pvp builds.

    And in dungeons WoW already did that several times where bosses don't die from dps but from puzzle mechanics and jump mechanics.
    Mmmmmm. I was thinking much more in terms of doing something to completely negates your opponent as a threat other than just straight killing them. For instance building up a condition that ends in your opponent being teleported to a random location on the map or pacifying them to the point that have a condition that doesn't allow them to attack you anymore for a decent period of time (obviously this would be removed if you dealt damage to them.)

    Magic exists in many, many MMOs so it would be fun to see some cooler ways of eliminating threats than just killing them every time. Something better than "you are a sheep for a few seconds while I run away."

    Obviously powerful effects like that should be nearly as hard or even harder to pull off than just killing your opponent depending on whether what you did to them gives lesser or greater penalties than death itself. But I for one would love to play a monk or druid who wanders around pacifying everyone who messes with him. XD
    There is room to improve at the 'simplistic' end of the difficulty scale, too.  What about 'knock him down and let the fat kid sit on him'?  Americanized football is practically built on that notion.  Professional wrestling, too.  Both of those are far more popular than MMORPGs.

    Every fight ends with one side or the other dead.  A thousand times a day.  Exactly how much endurance are these characters supposed to have?  No one gets tired.  What about running away?  (cue the Monty Python memes).  That's a pretty good strategy, especially if the goal is to stay alive.  Even the lowliest Rat_7_of_10 knows enough to scuttle back into its burrow when someone manically brandishes a machette in its direction.

    I love your sheep idea.  But, let's see some improvement in other areas, too.




    Yes! Not a character idea, but you'd think after they saw 50 of their buddies lying dead on the ground the survival instinct might kick in. CoH had that, Champions has a feature where if a group of NPC was attacked by a large group of players one of the group will run over to a nearby group for help. Have a really large group of players and 2 runners will go. It would cascade as well. I believe in CoH the story was you'de only the beat the enemies into submission (with fire or swords even) at which point they would be teleported to the hospital then processed for incarceration :)
  • esc-joconnoresc-joconnor Member RarePosts: 1,097
    Wizardry said:
    Everything is missing except sliders and tattoos and George Jetson hairdos.Tattoos is like the least likely thing i care about and yet seems in every game.Matter of fact i care very little of the visual customization,that only gets covered by gear anyhow,i want real customization that sets players apart other than visually.
    It sounds like you are talking about a specific game. Some games have pretty decent customization. Look at The Division, that game has like 50 different neck tattoos! XD
    What more could you ask for?!?!
  • Loke666Loke666 Member EpicPosts: 21,441
    In Mabinogi you can play as your animals.  The argument that making four legged characters is to hard to box collide is silly.  It's already been done.  Underwater dynamics have been done as well in GW2.  Merfolk could trasform to have fish tails underwater and back to feet on land. 



    Oh, centaurs would be a rather nice race to play indeed (no mounts needed there).

    Personally, I would put a bit more focused on none combat skill. Anything from detecting traps, picking locks or haggle for the best price in a store. Combat is an important part of MMORPGs but when it becomes the only part we are losing the RPG part.

    In most MMOs you just have a few crafting skills as the only none combat skills today, the earlier games had far more (includingg some that could lead to combat like tracking).
  • ScotScot Member LegendaryPosts: 22,955
    Anything vaguely roleplaying, from a detailed bio to a language only others of your own race can understand in chat.
  • Po_ggPo_gg Member EpicPosts: 5,749
    Loke666 said:
    Personally, I would put a bit more focused on none combat skill. Anything from detecting traps, picking locks or haggle for the best price in a store. Combat is an important part of MMORPGs but when it becomes the only part we are losing the RPG part.
    Not even an important part, at least that's what I used to babble about (to the extent of sounding like a broken record). Combat never was a core part of roleplay (good roleplay, I must add. You could notice a weak GM from the over-usage of combat encounters), and its larger focus was simply a necessity in early crpg.

    Combat is only dominant because of the vast gamers of today are not roleplayers, and they don't want anything besides cheap action. Even if some games try to add the non-combat elements it gets usually shunned down - except if the community is of a higher "quality" roleplay-wise, like LoTRO's music system for example.

    Neverwinter tried trap detection and lock picking, it was pretty fun at start, but now you can ignore/negate it even through gear... if your playerbase doesn't care about a feature, as a dev you will ignore it after a while too.

    Scot said:
    Anything vaguely roleplaying, from a detailed bio to a language only others of your own race can understand in chat.
    The same as above. It was already done 20 years ago in MUDs and MUSHes, and worked great. Different languages, and if someone (player or NPC) said something on language X and you haven't learned that language yet, you just saw some scrambled gibberish. There was a MUSH where the language skills weren't even a "toggle" but had several stages, so in the example above, with beginner level of X you understood parts of his speech (the more basic words) and only the rest was scrambled.

    Sure, it is much easier to implement it in a text-based environment, currently with most things voiced it would require much more resources and work.

    But let's be honest, besides a couple niche playerbases (like LotRO, where players still used to have conversations in one of Tolkien's languages) the majority of today's gamers would see it as a boring annoyance. Combat doesn't need languages anyways...
  • techblogger911techblogger911 Member CommonPosts: 18
    I would put a bit more focused on none combat skill. Anything from detecting traps, picking locks or haggle for the best price in a store. Read more at https://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/472621/what-character-options-do-you-think-are-missing-from-most-mmorpgs/p2#WWJdkH3wi8dc7Uh1.99
  • SteelhelmSteelhelm Member UncommonPosts: 332
    I would also like to see more options in terms of what characters can do in the world. If I invest points in dexterity, I can pick pockets, locks, balance on a ledge, sneak, take less damage from falling etc. If I invest points in strength, I can rock climb, run fast, jump longer, carry more stuff etc. If I invest points in wisdom, I can detect hidden objects more easily, tame wild animals, know true-south, follow tracks etc.
    Basic D&D stuff :)
    Talking about games where thousands of players exist simultaneously in a single instance and mechanics related to such games.
  • ScotScot Member LegendaryPosts: 22,955
    Po_gg said:
    Loke666 said:
    Personally, I would put a bit more focused on none combat skill. Anything from detecting traps, picking locks or haggle for the best price in a store. Combat is an important part of MMORPGs but when it becomes the only part we are losing the RPG part.
    Not even an important part, at least that's what I used to babble about (to the extent of sounding like a broken record). Combat never was a core part of roleplay (good roleplay, I must add. You could notice a weak GM from the over-usage of combat encounters), and its larger focus was simply a necessity in early crpg.

    Combat is only dominant because of the vast gamers of today are not roleplayers, and they don't want anything besides cheap action. Even if some games try to add the non-combat elements it gets usually shunned down - except if the community is of a higher "quality" roleplay-wise, like LoTRO's music system for example.

    Neverwinter tried trap detection and lock picking, it was pretty fun at start, but now you can ignore/negate it even through gear... if your playerbase doesn't care about a feature, as a dev you will ignore it after a while too.

    Scot said:
    Anything vaguely roleplaying, from a detailed bio to a language only others of your own race can understand in chat.
    The same as above. It was already done 20 years ago in MUDs and MUSHes, and worked great. Different languages, and if someone (player or NPC) said something on language X and you haven't learned that language yet, you just saw some scrambled gibberish. There was a MUSH where the language skills weren't even a "toggle" but had several stages, so in the example above, with beginner level of X you understood parts of his speech (the more basic words) and only the rest was scrambled.

    Sure, it is much easier to implement it in a text-based environment, currently with most things voiced it would require much more resources and work.

    But let's be honest, besides a couple niche playerbases (like LotRO, where players still used to have conversations in one of Tolkien's languages) the majority of today's gamers would see it as a boring annoyance. Combat doesn't need languages anyways...

    Yes I do know that's been done before, that's why I brought those up. :)

    You are right about why we rarely see anything like that anymore, the priorities for MMOs are:

    Graphics
    Graphics
    Graphics
    Cash shop
    Cash Shop
    Cash Shop
    Combat
    Gameplay
    (Community) - Not always even bothered with
    (Roleplaying) - Even less likely to be considered
    Steelhelm
  • DAOWAceDAOWAce Member UncommonPosts: 432
    Does being an NPC count?

    Because there's practically no games where you can live your life as an NPC, crafting and selling stuff in town.  Ragnarok Online is like the only game I can even remember to have a merchant class.
  • sunandshadowsunandshadow Member RarePosts: 1,985
    DAOWAce said:
    Does being an NPC count?

    Because there's practically no games where you can live your life as an NPC, crafting and selling stuff in town.  Ragnarok Online is like the only game I can even remember to have a merchant class.
    NPC isn't the right term to use for that.  Try non-combatant.  But in general if you want to encourage and recognize non-combat gameplay, having non-combat classes would be one of the worst possible ways to do that.
    I want to help design and develop a PvE-focused, solo-friendly, sandpark MMO which combines crafting, monster hunting, and story.  So PM me if you are starting one.
  • AmatheAmathe Member LegendaryPosts: 7,630
    Witches are too often overlooked, imo. 
    Steelhelm

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