Well if people don't want any real;ism or immersion why are they playing rpg's?
When you first learned to craft something in school did they start you off crafting a 440 wedge?No you ere likely crafting a round piece of wood on a lathe.Any and every trade in life is learned through trial and error and
For the record, all I ever did in Woodshop was make bongs for my buddies. I took welding and auto seriously, but woodshop was too easy.
I’ve never seen a wooden bong in my life, lol. And I had friends who made bongs out of nearly anything.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
Well if people don't want any real;ism or immersion why are they playing rpg's?
When you first learned to craft something in school did they start you off crafting a 440 wedge?No you ere likely crafting a round piece of wood on a lathe.Any and every trade in life is learned through trial and error and become better at it through repetition. The arguments by gamer's just often sounds like whining to get to end game faster.RPG"s should be an adventure,a long lasting one at that,somewhere around the time of Wow gamer's turned rpg's into end game loot grinds.
What i want to see is more developers making SENSE of ideas.Primitive type beings should be wielding primitive weapons and dropping the weapons they use and NOT dropping from some fake loot table. The exquisite crafts should be done by the master craftsmen,the intelligent beings who know how to forge the best metal.If Lore has it that Dwarves are the master race of forging metal,then so be it but a Dragon should not be dropping a l33t sword of one shot kills.
So let's put some sense and adventuring into our rpg's and quit scoffing at games trying to improve on the nonsense i see in most.
I totally agree with you in regards to loot tables. Never made any sense to me that all my gear came killing things that were supposedly dumber, cruder, and came from less developed societies, but they can have a sword of Kill-Everything, and best I can get from a vendor in a major city is a Sword of Semi-kinda-good.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
That's what I liked at Mortal at the beginning. Mobs where dropping fur and bones and leather.
You had to mine and refine to get iron or steel.
The problem there was the same we have in every MMO nowadays as soon as it is competitive. In RL we all have 24h a day. In games some people have 10h while others only have 2h. This leads to some people having everything steel while others run around in leather rags with copper swords.
The problem gets bigger if the casual wants to sell some of his materials to get gold and buy a steel sword. No one wants to buy his low lvl mats as the hardcore players have enough of it or can farm it easily within a much shorter time frame. And the other casuals need to save the money themselves and farm the same mats.
Outcome: The power gap is even higher than in a game where the casual might have some loot luck and get a good weapon out of a mob.
I don't like this but it's that way it is and one of the hurdles of creating a fair and good system
Having a good system is really hard in the days we are now as even secrets are never kept for a long time. Even Repopulation (which tried to copy SWGs crafting AFAIK) had a tool where you could plan every Item and how it was crafted. Just imagine a successful MMO. Now recipe will be secret for long. Pair this with no grind (crafting&harvesting) and the outcome is every player having a maxed out crafter leading to crafting&selling becoming useless.
That's what I liked at Mortal at the beginning. Mobs where dropping fur and bones and leather.
You had to mine and refine to get iron or steel.
The problem there was the same we have in every MMO nowadays as soon as it is competitive. In RL we all have 24h a day. In games some people have 10h while others only have 2h. This leads to some people having everything steel while others run around in leather rags with copper swords.
The problem gets bigger if the casual wants to sell some of his materials to get gold and buy a steel sword. No one wants to buy his low lvl mats as the hardcore players have enough of it or can farm it easily within a much shorter time frame. And the other casuals need to save the money themselves and farm the same mats.
Outcome: The power gap is even higher than in a game where the casual might have some loot luck and get a good weapon out of a mob.
I don't like this but it's that way it is and one of the hurdles of creating a fair and good system
Having a good system is really hard in the days we are now as even secrets are never kept for a long time. Even Repopulation (which tried to copy SWGs crafting AFAIK) had a tool where you could plan every Item and how it was crafted. Just imagine a successful MMO. Now recipe will be secret for long. Pair this with no grind (crafting&harvesting) and the outcome is every player having a maxed out crafter leading to crafting&selling becoming useless.
Power Ceep in MMO games is a real thing, both in the game itself just giving raw power with upgrades and expansions, and in the fact that some players will simply move ahead, due to play time, and just being around longer.
But, even in random loot drop games, the casual was often SOL as the best loot drops were hidden behind higher tier content, like raids, that they often would never see the inside of, or the items were farmed to death by the hardcore, so by the time the casual got one, it was yesterday's trash.
Crafting at least means that a casual could collect up money, and buy the best item in the game from the best crafter in the game, also, with power creep, the down tier becomes cheaper, IE: as the best crafters move up from Say Steel to Mithril, steel becomes far cheaper, meaning the casual or late comer, could get it faster for less, than the Hardcore players paid to get it.
Each system has their ups and down, and a lot of that is contingent upon how the rest of the system is set up to start with.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
That's what I liked at Mortal at the beginning. Mobs where dropping fur and bones and leather.
You had to mine and refine to get iron or steel.
The problem there was the same we have in every MMO nowadays as soon as it is competitive. In RL we all have 24h a day. In games some people have 10h while others only have 2h. This leads to some people having everything steel while others run around in leather rags with copper swords.
The problem gets bigger if the casual wants to sell some of his materials to get gold and buy a steel sword. No one wants to buy his low lvl mats as the hardcore players have enough of it or can farm it easily within a much shorter time frame. And the other casuals need to save the money themselves and farm the same mats.
Outcome: The power gap is even higher than in a game where the casual might have some loot luck and get a good weapon out of a mob.
I don't like this but it's that way it is and one of the hurdles of creating a fair and good system
Having a good system is really hard in the days we are now as even secrets are never kept for a long time. Even Repopulation (which tried to copy SWGs crafting AFAIK) had a tool where you could plan every Item and how it was crafted. Just imagine a successful MMO. Now recipe will be secret for long. Pair this with no grind (crafting&harvesting) and the outcome is every player having a maxed out crafter leading to crafting&selling becoming useless.
Horizontal progression please. It makes more sense for PvP games to not have huge power gaps.
That's what I liked at Mortal at the beginning. Mobs where dropping fur and bones and leather.
You had to mine and refine to get iron or steel.
The problem there was the same we have in every MMO nowadays as soon as it is competitive. In RL we all have 24h a day. In games some people have 10h while others only have 2h. This leads to some people having everything steel while others run around in leather rags with copper swords.
The problem gets bigger if the casual wants to sell some of his materials to get gold and buy a steel sword. No one wants to buy his low lvl mats as the hardcore players have enough of it or can farm it easily within a much shorter time frame. And the other casuals need to save the money themselves and farm the same mats.
Outcome: The power gap is even higher than in a game where the casual might have some loot luck and get a good weapon out of a mob.
I don't like this but it's that way it is and one of the hurdles of creating a fair and good system
Turning that around from a PvE perspective, it's also REALLY BAD if an online game's design allows higher level players to skip lower level characters over content. The money gap between higher and lower level content can be a big issue; not only are low level characters unable to sell anything to the community as you mention, but low level content as a whole becomes seen as a waste of everyone's time, so no one wants to replay it even if it was fun the first time, and many players want to do only the most rewarding gameplay at all times.
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.
That's what I liked at Mortal at the beginning. Mobs where dropping fur and bones and leather.
You had to mine and refine to get iron or steel.
The problem there was the same we have in every MMO nowadays as soon as it is competitive. In RL we all have 24h a day. In games some people have 10h while others only have 2h. This leads to some people having everything steel while others run around in leather rags with copper swords.
The problem gets bigger if the casual wants to sell some of his materials to get gold and buy a steel sword. No one wants to buy his low lvl mats as the hardcore players have enough of it or can farm it easily within a much shorter time frame. And the other casuals need to save the money themselves and farm the same mats.
Outcome: The power gap is even higher than in a game where the casual might have some loot luck and get a good weapon out of a mob.
I don't like this but it's that way it is and one of the hurdles of creating a fair and good system
Having a good system is really hard in the days we are now as even secrets are never kept for a long time. Even Repopulation (which tried to copy SWGs crafting AFAIK) had a tool where you could plan every Item and how it was crafted. Just imagine a successful MMO. Now recipe will be secret for long. Pair this with no grind (crafting&harvesting) and the outcome is every player having a maxed out crafter leading to crafting&selling becoming useless.
Horizontal progression please. It makes more sense for PvP games to not have huge power gaps.
While I agree that Horizontal progression of good for a PvP game, to be honest, I am not sure how crafting fits into that picture.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
One of he old MUD's I used to play had a very interactive crafting system.
You would take raw mats (Often weapons, armor, and the like) from mobs, other mobs you could skin and salvage from. Then you deconstruct the armor, get various mats, like plates, rivets, straps, padding. You could than Smelt the Plates, or Weapons down for Ingots, which could than be mixed to make alloy plugs, and plugs could crafted into Various Armor components and weapon parts. IE: Armor: Plates, Scales, Rings, and weapons, Hilts, Blades, etc. All of which than could be crafted into a single piece of equipment, with various stats.
Since this game did not use Magic in everything the stats were realistic, like Some allows would be lighter, offering less hindrance, and greater dodge and evasion bonus, some would provide better resistance to weapon types, like Blunt, Slash, Pricing, which would also be determined by the armor itself. IE: a Chainmalle shit, which has "good" resistance against pricing and slash, but "poor" blunt, could be outfitted with Additional Padding to offer "decent" blunt protection, or made into Double-Linked, to offer "Great" Protection against Slash, and made with an Adamantium allow to be given "Amazing" resistance against Slash, but would now weight twice as much as a normal Chainmalle armor.
So it was complex, also, you would get quality levels on what you made. IE: Poor Quality Ingots, are trash, and would have a higher chance to fail in the allow making process.
And it was not a Crafting Skill, either. Your chance to make something good was built off several skills. Like Smithing, only affected how well you could smelt an Ingot, but, your ability salvage things like leather straps off armor, was based on your skinning skill, and your ability to assemble a good suit of chainmalle was based on your own Armor Skill and Appraisal skill, so.. you needed to be a more rounded character to make good armor, not simply max one skill and call yourself king.
This resulted in people writing entire programs to go though the steps to craft things, as it was that involved, literally, they would spend hours upon hours building various scripts just to make one kind of armor, or one weapon, and then build another script to make another weapon, IE: One script makes a Long sword. with a fixed ratio of traits, that they know works and have a better than good chance to make, another one for a Scimitar, with different traits for that weapon, that they can make.
Even things like Arrows were complex, and involved many steps, so much so, that again, scripts were used to make them.
It was very complex and involved, and some people loved it, some hated it, but it made the best quality player made items in the game rare as hell and expensive as hell.. because no many had the patience to do all the work to make it happen. It was far easier to just be a warrior swinging an axe and getting loot, than build the diverse portfolio of skills to make a good axe.. which also required (among many other skills) you be good at swinging an Axe as well.
Just saying.. the best Weapon Makers.. where also very, very, good weapon users, same with armor, same with anything in that game. Want a leather bag, that comes from someone really good at skinning, wanna guess how they got good? Killed Tons of things they could skin.
And the way it worked, skinning was linked to combat, IE: harder mobs gave more skill, and required more skill to get a hide from, so if you wanted to keep the skinning going up, you needed to keep facing harder and harder mobs, which meant all your combat skills would also be going up at the same time.
So yah.. that light weight, max holding, masterwork bag, made from balrog hide, that is for sale at the market, in the trader booth, the player that made it has a crap ton of combat ranks, and not someone that anyone would say "You're just a crafter" given that tanners were commonly rangers, they would put a dozen arrows into you, before you drew your sword.
So that was really.. really.. complex crafting... and very involved as well, and not for beginners.
what mud is this and why is there no 3d version of it?
Talking about games where thousands of players exist simultaneously in a single instance and mechanics related to such games.
That's what I liked at Mortal at the beginning. Mobs where dropping fur and bones and leather.
You had to mine and refine to get iron or steel.
The problem there was the same we have in every MMO nowadays as soon as it is competitive. In RL we all have 24h a day. In games some people have 10h while others only have 2h. This leads to some people having everything steel while others run around in leather rags with copper swords.
The problem gets bigger if the casual wants to sell some of his materials to get gold and buy a steel sword. No one wants to buy his low lvl mats as the hardcore players have enough of it or can farm it easily within a much shorter time frame. And the other casuals need to save the money themselves and farm the same mats.
Outcome: The power gap is even higher than in a game where the casual might have some loot luck and get a good weapon out of a mob.
I don't like this but it's that way it is and one of the hurdles of creating a fair and good system
Having a good system is really hard in the days we are now as even secrets are never kept for a long time. Even Repopulation (which tried to copy SWGs crafting AFAIK) had a tool where you could plan every Item and how it was crafted. Just imagine a successful MMO. Now recipe will be secret for long. Pair this with no grind (crafting&harvesting) and the outcome is every player having a maxed out crafter leading to crafting&selling becoming useless.
Horizontal progression please. It makes more sense for PvP games to not have huge power gaps.
While I agree that Horizontal progression of good for a PvP game, to be honest, I am not sure how crafting fits into that picture.
They need to be removed. Likely with durability and breaking like Eve Online. Player looting doesn’t count because the item doesn’t leave the world, so it has to be something to keep people wanting to replace their gear.
One of he old MUD's I used to play had a very interactive crafting system.
.. snip..
So that was really.. really.. complex crafting... and very involved as well, and not for beginners.
what mud is this and why is there no 3d version of it?
It was called Dragon Realms, started way back in the Era of AOL games, and, what I put out was only the tip of the iceberg. Now keep in mind, it's been well over a decade since I played, so what I am gonna say, could be very dated and a lot of it changed.
This game had endless stuff going on, everything from Political Conflicts, Aging, Dying, Divine Worship, Crafting, very specific class roles, levels based on skill progression, (IE: After you earned enough ranks in all required skills, only then could you level up).
To give you an example, for a Ranger to level up, they needed to gain ranks in primary weapon, (IE: They needed to increase their highest weapon ranks), and something like 150 overall ranks in Survival Skills, with a direct demand of 10 ranks needed to be in skinning, etc, etc.. there are charts and all kinds of lists regarding this. (my numbers are off I know this)
Several kinds of magic, each very unique, like "Life" magic was contingent upon where you were, if you were in a desert, or the middle of a city, the life magic you could tap was low, if you were in a lush forest it was high, and how much you could channel and use was based on several skills, like Power Perception, Harnessing, Targeting, and some other skills, like various schools of magic, (it's been a few years since I played) also the more you casted a specific spell, the better you were at that spell, as opposed to just a blanket you can cast all spells this good.
All kinds of gear you could wear. Let me give you an example. In most games you have, Feet, Legs, Body, Arms, Head (maybe Neck and Back) and some kind of rings, often just Stat items. In this game you had Boots, Socks, Pants, Belt, Weapon Belt, Hip Pouches, Leg Bags, ankle Bags, Toe Rings, Sash, Armor for your Legs, Shirt, Body Armor, Necklaces (as in you could have more than one).. I joke not, when if you looked at someone you could get several pages of what they were wearing.. and this did not include what they had in each of their pouches and bags.
Going back to bags, yes, Belt Pouches held things, so did Thigh Bags, Wrist Pouch, back pack, Satchel, Scappberd, Weapon Harness, Back Sheath, all of these held things, all with their own limits on inventory. It was they programed out how big items were, and what size bag you could put them into. IE: You could put a dagger in a Wrist Sheath but you could not put a Short Sword into your Wrist Sheath.
The level of that kind of detail does not exist in modern games.
Combat was complex, where you could attack many ways, from fast, slow, hard, feint, and then block, parry, and you had defensive skills and combat skills. Like You had Heavy and Light Plate Armor, so two kinds of Plate armor skills alone, and then you have Heavy Chain and Light Chain.. just to give you feel for defensive stuff here, as well as Dodge, Parry, Heavy, Light and Medium Shield, and you could wear a mix of armor, like a Heavy Plate Helm and a Medium Chain Armor on your Chest, and work both skills, but.. be warned.. where your opponent hits you, is what Armor SKill and Stat you use to defend.
Not to mention.. getting delimbed (Which this game had, yes, you could cut off people's arms, legs, heads, etc) also sent your weapon or shield flying off, or made it so you could not move.. so.. might want to protect those limbs as well and don't skimp on the neck armor, those gorget were life savers. literally.. and those tassets.. yah.. nut shots existed in this game.
Not to mention this game had all kinds of emotes, like being able to dance with people, hug them, kiss them, smile, blush, etc... even had marriage with special emotes linked to that.. like being able to club your husband with a rolling pin. (didn't so any real damage)
Also had truly Open World PvP with Full Loot and a risk of Perma-Death, so it was not a game for wimps or weak of heat.
I finally left when EQ came out, because, even tho it had a solid community of people thanks to it's AOL days, it was obvious that more and more people wanted to "Role Play Evil" .. and the last friend I talked to that still played it, expressed that the Assholes and Gankers overran the place. Now sure how it is now tho.. you can check it out.. has a steep learning curve as when I played, the only guides were off site, nothing in game was gonna tell you want to do.
As for why this does not exist in modern games, I wager the complexity of it all, but, Chronicles of Elyra has proposed to try and build an MMO coming close to this kind of complexity... which might be why so many people are so invested into that Crowdfunded project and want it to happen.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
That's what I liked at Mortal at the beginning. Mobs where dropping fur and bones and leather.
You had to mine and refine to get iron or steel.
The problem there was the same we have in every MMO nowadays as soon as it is competitive. In RL we all have 24h a day. In games some people have 10h while others only have 2h. This leads to some people having everything steel while others run around in leather rags with copper swords.
The problem gets bigger if the casual wants to sell some of his materials to get gold and buy a steel sword. No one wants to buy his low lvl mats as the hardcore players have enough of it or can farm it easily within a much shorter time frame. And the other casuals need to save the money themselves and farm the same mats.
Outcome: The power gap is even higher than in a game where the casual might have some loot luck and get a good weapon out of a mob.
I don't like this but it's that way it is and one of the hurdles of creating a fair and good system
Having a good system is really hard in the days we are now as even secrets are never kept for a long time. Even Repopulation (which tried to copy SWGs crafting AFAIK) had a tool where you could plan every Item and how it was crafted. Just imagine a successful MMO. Now recipe will be secret for long. Pair this with no grind (crafting&harvesting) and the outcome is every player having a maxed out crafter leading to crafting&selling becoming useless.
Horizontal progression please. It makes more sense for PvP games to not have huge power gaps.
While I agree that Horizontal progression of good for a PvP game, to be honest, I am not sure how crafting fits into that picture.
Because massive gaps in gear come from vertical progression in crafting. Couple item decay and repairs with weapons parity... you wouldn't have the need to be pumping out massive amounts of useless items.
SWG is still my gold standard for crafting. Eve comes pretty close though. It's less "crafting" and more a logistics management mini-game.
I have to agree with SWG being epic when it came to crafting. Even if I didn't craft, I learned who and where the best crafters were, and had zero problems flying to their home planets to buy their quality stuff. Crafters actually had reputations.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
That's what I liked at Mortal at the beginning. Mobs where dropping fur and bones and leather.
You had to mine and refine to get iron or steel.
The problem there was the same we have in every MMO nowadays as soon as it is competitive. In RL we all have 24h a day. In games some people have 10h while others only have 2h. This leads to some people having everything steel while others run around in leather rags with copper swords.
The problem gets bigger if the casual wants to sell some of his materials to get gold and buy a steel sword. No one wants to buy his low lvl mats as the hardcore players have enough of it or can farm it easily within a much shorter time frame. And the other casuals need to save the money themselves and farm the same mats.
Outcome: The power gap is even higher than in a game where the casual might have some loot luck and get a good weapon out of a mob.
I think this brings up an interesting, often under-discussed point. We are always thinking of the negatives of vertical progression in regards to power gaps between players and equippable gear, but we rarely talk about the power gaps between the source materials themselves, even though they exist in almost every game.
If your system starts off going from tier to tier -- copper > iron > steel, etc., in a one-directional progressive route, then it's already broken.
Completely ignoring harvesting systems and mob drops and looking at the source materials themselves, one shouldn't be leaps and bounds above the others. Iron shouldn't just completely invalidate copper, etc.
I mean, a copper sword is still a sword that can cut.
One type of wood might be better for a longbow, but not as good for a smaller recurve, etc.
But, games tend to completely just upscale from one material to the next.
Comments
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
Mobs where dropping fur and bones and leather.
You had to mine and refine to get iron or steel.
The problem there was the same we have in every MMO nowadays as soon as it is competitive.
In RL we all have 24h a day. In games some people have 10h while others only have 2h.
This leads to some people having everything steel while others run around in leather rags with copper swords.
The problem gets bigger if the casual wants to sell some of his materials to get gold and buy a steel sword.
No one wants to buy his low lvl mats as the hardcore players have enough of it or can farm it easily within a much shorter time frame. And the other casuals need to save the money themselves and farm the same mats.
Outcome: The power gap is even higher than in a game where the casual might have some loot luck and get a good weapon out of a mob.
I don't like this but it's that way it is and one of the hurdles of creating a fair and good system
Having a good system is really hard in the days we are now as even secrets are never kept for a long time.
Even Repopulation (which tried to copy SWGs crafting AFAIK) had a tool where you could plan every Item and how it was crafted.
Just imagine a successful MMO. Now recipe will be secret for long.
Pair this with no grind (crafting&harvesting) and the outcome is every player having a maxed out crafter leading to crafting&selling becoming useless.
1997 Meridian 59 'til 2019 ESO
Waiting for Camelot Unchained & Pantheon
But, even in random loot drop games, the casual was often SOL as the best loot drops were hidden behind higher tier content, like raids, that they often would never see the inside of, or the items were farmed to death by the hardcore, so by the time the casual got one, it was yesterday's trash.
Crafting at least means that a casual could collect up money, and buy the best item in the game from the best crafter in the game, also, with power creep, the down tier becomes cheaper, IE: as the best crafters move up from Say Steel to Mithril, steel becomes far cheaper, meaning the casual or late comer, could get it faster for less, than the Hardcore players paid to get it.
Each system has their ups and down, and a lot of that is contingent upon how the rest of the system is set up to start with.
what mud is this and why is there no 3d version of it?
This game had endless stuff going on, everything from Political Conflicts, Aging, Dying, Divine Worship, Crafting, very specific class roles, levels based on skill progression, (IE: After you earned enough ranks in all required skills, only then could you level up).
To give you an example, for a Ranger to level up, they needed to gain ranks in primary weapon, (IE: They needed to increase their highest weapon ranks), and something like 150 overall ranks in Survival Skills, with a direct demand of 10 ranks needed to be in skinning, etc, etc.. there are charts and all kinds of lists regarding this. (my numbers are off I know this)
Several kinds of magic, each very unique, like "Life" magic was contingent upon where you were, if you were in a desert, or the middle of a city, the life magic you could tap was low, if you were in a lush forest it was high, and how much you could channel and use was based on several skills, like Power Perception, Harnessing, Targeting, and some other skills, like various schools of magic, (it's been a few years since I played) also the more you casted a specific spell, the better you were at that spell, as opposed to just a blanket you can cast all spells this good.
All kinds of gear you could wear. Let me give you an example. In most games you have, Feet, Legs, Body, Arms, Head (maybe Neck and Back) and some kind of rings, often just Stat items. In this game you had Boots, Socks, Pants, Belt, Weapon Belt, Hip Pouches, Leg Bags, ankle Bags, Toe Rings, Sash, Armor for your Legs, Shirt, Body Armor, Necklaces (as in you could have more than one).. I joke not, when if you looked at someone you could get several pages of what they were wearing.. and this did not include what they had in each of their pouches and bags.
Going back to bags, yes, Belt Pouches held things, so did Thigh Bags, Wrist Pouch, back pack, Satchel, Scappberd, Weapon Harness, Back Sheath, all of these held things, all with their own limits on inventory. It was they programed out how big items were, and what size bag you could put them into. IE: You could put a dagger in a Wrist Sheath but you could not put a Short Sword into your Wrist Sheath.
The level of that kind of detail does not exist in modern games.
Combat was complex, where you could attack many ways, from fast, slow, hard, feint, and then block, parry, and you had defensive skills and combat skills. Like You had Heavy and Light Plate Armor, so two kinds of Plate armor skills alone, and then you have Heavy Chain and Light Chain.. just to give you feel for defensive stuff here, as well as Dodge, Parry, Heavy, Light and Medium Shield, and you could wear a mix of armor, like a Heavy Plate Helm and a Medium Chain Armor on your Chest, and work both skills, but.. be warned.. where your opponent hits you, is what Armor SKill and Stat you use to defend.
Not to mention.. getting delimbed (Which this game had, yes, you could cut off people's arms, legs, heads, etc) also sent your weapon or shield flying off, or made it so you could not move.. so.. might want to protect those limbs as well and don't skimp on the neck armor, those gorget were life savers. literally.. and those tassets.. yah.. nut shots existed in this game.
Not to mention this game had all kinds of emotes, like being able to dance with people, hug them, kiss them, smile, blush, etc... even had marriage with special emotes linked to that.. like being able to club your husband with a rolling pin. (didn't so any real damage)
Also had truly Open World PvP with Full Loot and a risk of Perma-Death, so it was not a game for wimps or weak of heat.
I finally left when EQ came out, because, even tho it had a solid community of people thanks to it's AOL days, it was obvious that more and more people wanted to "Role Play Evil" .. and the last friend I talked to that still played it, expressed that the Assholes and Gankers overran the place. Now sure how it is now tho.. you can check it out.. has a steep learning curve as when I played, the only guides were off site, nothing in game was gonna tell you want to do.
As for why this does not exist in modern games, I wager the complexity of it all, but, Chronicles of Elyra has proposed to try and build an MMO coming close to this kind of complexity... which might be why so many people are so invested into that Crowdfunded project and want it to happen.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey