Sci-FI MMO Discussion

[Krynn72]

There are a bunch of Sci-fi mmorpgs coming out in the next few years. What do you guys think would make for a good game that would stand out from the others?

 

[Gunner]

skill based, no classes, pick and choose your skills from a wide range available, minimal pve, all weapons and armor must be crafted, indepth crafting system, player built cities, player driven content, basically SWG pre-cu more or less.

 

[Reginald]

Planetside 2?

 

[Tarkus]

I remember seing a screenie for a MMO in development, but I can't remember it's name. The screenie was what I imagined being the player in a motorbike (a pretty cool one too) watching the sun rise. The motorbike immediately caught my attention and gave me the idea it would have some kind of mad max like setting (and I've always wanted to have a bike in a MMO, WoW doesn't count)

 

[TwwIX]

Pre NGE SWG!

 

[Kadayi]

all weapons and armor must be crafted, indepth crafting system,.

Do you make your own cars or do you buy them? Crafting makes sense in a fantasy/medieval RPG, but in all honesty the closest you'd get in a futuristic setting is customisation of pre existing manufactured goods.

 

[Steven]

Even if one stands out, it will still be an mmo.

 

[Lobster]

I think I would like a game like EvE, only you could leave your ship, have realtime combat in ships and on foot, and lose the time based skill system and overblown travel system... yeh that would be my fantasy. It could be called David Brabens World of Frontier : Elite II.

 

[Darkside55]

Even if one stands out, it will still be an mmo.

 

[Raziaar]

Without a doubt, the greatest faces ever.

You made that comic right Darkside? It looks like your style, and it's fantastic!

 

[Warbie]

There's a preview of the Bioware Star Wars game in this months Edge - it looks stunning. I'm not a huge fan of mmos, but am looking forward to this.

In a perfect world i'd like an mmo that was all about customisation and skill. No levelling, simply creating a character that's unique - you decide how they look, sound, which animations they use (from walking, sitting, to how they run, smile, dance, jump, hit and sing), and what skills they have. Everything has to be earnt - you start off as a blank, generic slate - default in everyway - and have to expose your charatcer to the people/quests/locations/diciplines that will allow him/she/it to become what you want. Defeat a boss and you'll get the option of stealing a weapon, or an item of clothing, or an animation they use. Maybe you want to steal his evil laugh (you can always come back later for the spiked club/silly dance/sweet trainers/mohawk). Perhaps the charming smile you want can only be gained by having x amount of friends in game, or the way to get a limp is to have your leg badly broken in combat, thus granting you the option. Quest rewards, associations, training, professions will all allow some form of customisation - and they can all be blended. Perhaps regularly meeting the same foe will grant you access to some of their moves over time - the options are pretty much endless.

It'll be real time and skill based - blocks, counters, charged hits/shots/grappls/throws - and you'll have to train in various arts/disciplines (each giving access to further weapons/moves/items/clothes/animations). Nobody will be considerably more powerful than the next - winning will be about mastering the combat and surprise. You won't know that your foe has been training with robot ninjas for the last few months untill he unleashes a certain move - or perhaps the way he walks will clue you in early (he's got the master robot ninja walk that you can only get after yada yada ....). Your uber weapon may do more damage than someone elses, but not hugely so (you'll never get the silly level/item gap that games like WoW suffer from), and one foe, even if they're new to the game, will be a threat. Their weakness will be that you'll know everything they can do.

Everyone loves 'pirates vs ninjas' - that's why Street Fighter 2 was so great. Sumo vs Karate, Kickboxing vs Wrestling - who will win?. This game will celebrate everything about that, but more so.

*creates a bitter, old man that fights by spitting and scratching, smells like he's been marinaded in pee and laughs like a death rattle. His cane is also a sword, but you won't know that*

I'm going off on one, but this is what I want.

 

[Gunner]

Do you make your own cars or do you buy them? Crafting makes sense in a fantasy/medieval RPG, but in all honesty the closest you'd get in a futuristic setting is customisation of pre existing manufactured goods.

We're talking about video games so it could be whatever you make it out to be, SWG's crafted gear was the best stuff you could get and to actually craft the best stuff it took real effort unlike every other MMO I played with which tells you which mats you need to craft recipe X or Y.

 

[Darkside55]

You made that comic right Darkside? It looks like your style, and it's fantastic!

I did not make this one, but it is fantastic.

 

[mchammer75040]

Great comic. Anyways I wish someone would make a successor to planetside, but maybe have an actual goal to the game. There was so much potential in that game, but sony ****ed it all up. Anyways I hate online rpgs, they always suck.

 

[Darkside55]

Great comic. Anyways I wish someone would make a successor to planetside, but maybe have an actual goal to the game. There was so much potential in that game, but sony ****ed it all up. Anyways I hate online rpgs, they always suck.

I can tell you exactly who ****ed PlanetSide up: Smokejumper. It was Smokejumper's fault. The problems began when Smokejumper joined the team as producer.

I used to talk to the PlanetSide dev team daily, before he joined the team. The team even joked that I was Terrence Yee's lovechild. We'd discuss all the cool shit that was going to be in the game, and ideas, and weapons, and all kinds of shit and then WHAM Smokejumper becomes producer and shit goes to hell.

Thinking of PlanetSide now just makes me sad and angry.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Infinity: The Quest for Earth, looks like pretty much everything that I would be asking for in a game

 

[Kyorisu]

The tech behind Infinity is enough to make me drool.

 

[Raziaar]

I can tell you exactly who ****ed PlanetSide up: Smokejumper. It was Smokejumper's fault. The problems began when Smokejumper joined the team as producer.

I used to talk to the PlanetSide dev team daily, before he joined the team. The team even joked that I was Terrence Yee's lovechild. We'd discuss all the cool shit that was going to be in the game, and ideas, and weapons, and all kinds of shit and then WHAM Smokejumper becomes producer and shit goes to hell.

Thinking of PlanetSide now just makes me sad and angry.

You said it buddy. I was so pumped for planetside. It was going to change the world. Then it really let me down because of lots of the stuff you mentioned.

 

[JFry]

I suppose something like a cross between firefly and Oregon trail. And it'd have to be free.

 

[Krynn72]

So basically everyone would like to have a skill based game rather than levels then? What about story. If it werent a pre-existing setting like Star Wars, or Star Trek, what kind of story elements would you all find to be intriguing?

I suppose something like a cross between firefly and Oregon trail. And it'd have to be free.

Firefly is indeed awesome. What was Oregon Trail?

 

[Eejit]

A setting that hasn't been done to death with cliches AND isn't completely over the top retarded would be nice - i.e. no Starcraft, Warhammer 40k or Gears of War thanks.

EVE Online with the as much content outside one's ship as inside (and better combat) would be jism-worthy.

 

[Krynn72]

What about those genres, specifically, do you not like about those games you mentioned? What parts are too cliche, and what aspects would you like to see expanded upon in terms of overall story.

 

[Eejit]

Black and white good vs Evil stories have been done to death. The whole "allies teaming up to fight a bigger threat" has been done to death. Space Elves is just corny as hell. High Fantasy In Space is usually cringeworthy.


Settings with few or no moral absolutes would make for the most interesting gameplay scenarios imo.
EVE does this pretty well. The settings I listed don't.
Shades of gray and making the player have choices with their character other than "choose the good side or choose the evil side or choose a slightly different evil side" is boring.

Incidentally these reasons are why I'm not letting myself get my hopes up about the KotoR MMO - Bioware = Good, Star Wars Setting = Often Atrocious. And of course, I feel the same way about fantasy MMO settings, that's one reason I looked forward to AoC more than WAR.

 

[Kadayi]

We're talking about video games so it could be whatever you make it out to be, SWG's crafted gear was the best stuff you could get and to actually craft the best stuff it took real effort unlike every other MMO I played with which tells you which mats you need to craft recipe X or Y.

Sorry I like a little reasoning in the games I play in terms of the setting, rather than the look merely being a dress over a generic MMO engine full of the usual generic MMO tropes.

So basically everyone would like to have a skill based game rather than levels then? What about story. If it werent a pre-existing setting like Star Wars, or Star Trek, what kind of story elements would you all find to be intriguing?

Levels are for queers. I utterly loathe them as a game mechanic, and specialist classes come a close second. Skills going up because you use them makes sense. I'd also say that siding with a TV or Film Franchise is way too restrictive in terms of generating genuinely unique content, and forces the designers to conform to design decisions that are often more about the visual impact on screen than they are about sense. When it take about 10 minutes in game to walk across what on the big screen is a palace courtyard, you know you're being ****ed over by grandiose 2 second vision Vs sensible game design.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

I would like an extra siding of grit in my sci-fi MMO

Borderlands would fit the bill, only if they managed to make an MMO out of that

 

[Gunner]

Sorry I like a little reasoning in the games I play in terms of the setting, rather than the look merely being a dress over a generic MMO engine full of the usual generic MMO tropes.

Then stick to singleplayer RPGs.

 

[Krynn72]

What do you guys think of customization? Obviously everyone loves customization, but do you guys think it is absolutely imperative to have it visually represented on your avatar? Is that the kind of distinction you want, where someone can tell your character apart from others by look, or is it more in the idea of having different stats for your weapons and armors that you can pick and choose to customize your character the way you want in that fashion? If you were to put one over the other, which would you choose?

 

[Warbie]

What do you guys think of customization? Obviously everyone loves customization, but do you guys think it is absolutely imperative to have it visually represented on your avatar? Is that the kind of distinction you want, where someone can tell your character apart from others by look, or is it more in the idea of having different stats for your weapons and armors that you can pick and choose to customize your character the way you want in that fashion? If you were to put one over the other, which would you choose?

Did you read any of my post? - customisation is the key! Both would be better.

 

[Eejit]

Visual customisation is nice, but if it wasn't there, or very limited, and the rest of the game was omgaweshens it wouldn't be gamebreaking to miss it.

 

[Jintor]

Planetside + Overarching Goal = Win.

Personally I don't think a Sci-Fi MMORPG would really work that well what with the sheer goddamn size of everything, you know?

 

[Eejit]

Not necessarily. You could have a sci-fi mmo restricted to a single solar system.

Also EVE manages fine with a huge game universe.

 

[Jintor]

Where each planet is represented by a single space station orbiting it with the same damn look as every other station ever.

 

[Eejit]

The gameplay is generally centred around deep(er) space, so that's not really an issue.