- What if there were no hard classes, but your "class" was determined by the gear your character wore?
- What if your character wore plate armor with tanking stats, you were a tank - and the more you wore, the better a tank you were?
- What if if you could wear cloth armor with caster stats, you were a caster.
- What if a rogue could enchant his dagger with a spell to heal someone or the whole raid by sacrificing some dps?
- What if you could tailor your own class by the gear you wore and the skills you trained?
- What if there was no levels and your characters abilities in regard to accessing content was defined by gear?
Yeah, I know what you're thinking. UO oldschool clone. Well, yes, sort of, actually. Or really more like an UO/WoW/diablo inspired hybrid.
You could tie certain skills to certain types of gear. For instance, if you wore a sword, you would get a skill set such as "parry / slash / stab", if you wore a shield you would get a skillset such as "block, bash, knock back". A staff could enable certain type of magic attacks, a wand another set, daggers a third, maces, etc etc. Nonweapon gear can increase stats or skill and thus define a characters role.
Weapons may be enchanted to provide certain functions. A tanks weapon can be enchanted to heal self or others, deal more damage, provide more healthbuffer etc. A healers weapon can be enchanted to deal damage while healing, a damage dealers weapon can be enchanted to heal (sacrificing DPS).
In other words, enchants / alterations and gear selection enables either specialization or hybrid ability by sacrificing some specialization. You can chose to tank, heal or dps or a combination of 2 or all 3.
That covers gears - so what about skills? Your basic skillset stems from your weapon choice. Sword and board will be tank-type skills, staffs / wands will be caster-type skills etc. Additional skills could be trained and/or obtained either through quests.
I like the idea of certain skill being available only after passing sort of a test, which in essence would be a kind of tutorial in that it's a quest, but in order to pass it, you have to have an idea of how to use the skill (by obtaining a minor or modified version of the skill for the duration of the test).
What would make this game fun? First of all it should be competative and it should be balanced.
For the PvE part - If sufficient balance is obtained, you can compete across characters. This requires, in addtion, measurable facts. Imagine a Recount-type of module which you summarize or in some way calculate either (or a combination of) damage dealt or healing done. How high you would be able to reach on this type of score would depend on gear and ability to do your "rotations".
PvP would have different modes - primarily aimed at battleground type scenarios.
The ingame feel would have a lot of movement-type scenarios. Pushes and knock-backs (think thunderstorm), pulls (think deathgrip), slows (think frost trap), hastes (think sprint / nitro boost), which would result in a very dynamic and paced environment in both PvP and PvE. In order to maintain a balance between PvE and PvP there would be a distinct skillset aimed at PvP to make balancing towards both aspects more reliable.
Friday, February 5, 2010
I want to be an MMO developer!
... but since I'm actually aiming to become a project manager, less will have to do. However, I think the mechanics surrounding MMO's are very interesting.
First of all there's a lot of things in the MMO world which makes you wonder:
1) When there's obviously a significant market, why has only one MMO so far been as successful as WoW?
2) When MMO's fail, the fail miserably - there are few mediocre MMO's (they exist, but are fewer than you'd think)
Scott Jennings wrote an interesting article on scoping - which I think to some degree hits the nail on the head. Regardless, I think it would be interesting to create a small-scale MMO. You don't really need thousands of people online server to get a sense of community - the challenge is providing a good gameplay experience while maintaining the social aspect which is the "soul" of MMO's.
I think the new games have too much focus on advanced features and too little focus on polish and thoroughness. After playing WoW for while, you discover that the gap between different classes is actually not that great. For the most part it comes down to tank, dps or healer with a bit of flavor distinguishing the different types of tank/healer/dps.
Come to think of it, the flaws that WoW suffers from (which are fairly few - WoW is, IMO, a really polished MMO), is trying to paint a picture that there's actually a big difference between classes, while in reality there is not. Also, the attempt at differentiation affects class balance in a negative way - especially in PvP. There are a lot of things about WoW that I love. The lore, the cartoony graphics, the embedded humor and not taking things too seriously, but the class imbalance in PvP is a real killer and to some extent the visual customization options makes the game suffer also (again IMO).
To some extent, I believe that the concept of a class is something which is taken for granted, but not really needed. MMO's thrive on a sense of accomplisment, which partly comes from working on improving your character, which is in part a function of time and effort spent, but really, the concept of a "class" is constraining.
Anyway, I'm rambling here, but I think coming up with a concept for an MMO could potentially be really fun, so I might do that just for kicks.
First of all there's a lot of things in the MMO world which makes you wonder:
1) When there's obviously a significant market, why has only one MMO so far been as successful as WoW?
2) When MMO's fail, the fail miserably - there are few mediocre MMO's (they exist, but are fewer than you'd think)
Scott Jennings wrote an interesting article on scoping - which I think to some degree hits the nail on the head. Regardless, I think it would be interesting to create a small-scale MMO. You don't really need thousands of people online server to get a sense of community - the challenge is providing a good gameplay experience while maintaining the social aspect which is the "soul" of MMO's.
I think the new games have too much focus on advanced features and too little focus on polish and thoroughness. After playing WoW for while, you discover that the gap between different classes is actually not that great. For the most part it comes down to tank, dps or healer with a bit of flavor distinguishing the different types of tank/healer/dps.
Come to think of it, the flaws that WoW suffers from (which are fairly few - WoW is, IMO, a really polished MMO), is trying to paint a picture that there's actually a big difference between classes, while in reality there is not. Also, the attempt at differentiation affects class balance in a negative way - especially in PvP. There are a lot of things about WoW that I love. The lore, the cartoony graphics, the embedded humor and not taking things too seriously, but the class imbalance in PvP is a real killer and to some extent the visual customization options makes the game suffer also (again IMO).
To some extent, I believe that the concept of a class is something which is taken for granted, but not really needed. MMO's thrive on a sense of accomplisment, which partly comes from working on improving your character, which is in part a function of time and effort spent, but really, the concept of a "class" is constraining.
Anyway, I'm rambling here, but I think coming up with a concept for an MMO could potentially be really fun, so I might do that just for kicks.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Rant about achievement requirements
I must take a moment of my precious time to rant about the strange breed of people who don't understand why gearscore and achievements are required to do a pick-up raid.
These are the conventional arguments:
1) lolol achievements don't mean anything, just because a player doesn't have achievement, doesn't mean they're not a good raider or don't know tactics
2) lolol gearscore doesn't mean anything - I have seen lots of people with high gearscore who don't know how to play
First of all, I'm not actually disputing the claims in those statements, but simply their relevance. The thing is - pick-up raids are about clearing content fast that is considered to be farmable. This means to some extent outgearing the instance and/or already being trained in the tactics applied. Secondly, pick-up raids are about getting the job done - thus minimizing the likelyhood of wipes and spending time explaining tactics.
We can also assume the following:
1) While an achievement doesn't prove that you're a capable raider in the instance in question, there's a greater chance that you are, if you have the achievement, than if you don't
2) While gearscore doesn't prove that you know how to play your class, there's a greater chance that you are able to play your class, if you have decent gear.
3) No mechanics exist in game to measure skill and knowledge - gearscore and achievements are as close as it gets without individually evaluating each player, which would take too long.
So the reason behind the gearscore and achievement inspects (a good PU raid leader will inspect gear/gems/talents as well as achievements) is to minimize the chance of failure. Even though you may think it's unfair that you, the greaters raider since sliced bread (despite you not having done any raids and your 3500 GS) , get passed up for someone who has done the raids before and has way better gear, but is a poorly skilled raider, it's really not. The reason? The PUG-leader has no way of knowing about your awesome skills and you have no way to prove them.
Finally, I'd like to comment on the "lolol how am I supposed to get the achievement, if I can't join the raid because of achievement requirement"-argument: Pick-up raids are not intended to help you learn the encounter - join a guild and help them progress!
/nerdrageoff
Do you think I'm wrong? Then I have a challenge for you. Go to a major city and pick up your own raid. Do so with players who don't have the achievement and with low gearscores. While you may be lucky and end up with the entire crew of [Ungeared], chances are that you won't and you will fail, but be wiser :-)
These are the conventional arguments:
1) lolol achievements don't mean anything, just because a player doesn't have achievement, doesn't mean they're not a good raider or don't know tactics
2) lolol gearscore doesn't mean anything - I have seen lots of people with high gearscore who don't know how to play
First of all, I'm not actually disputing the claims in those statements, but simply their relevance. The thing is - pick-up raids are about clearing content fast that is considered to be farmable. This means to some extent outgearing the instance and/or already being trained in the tactics applied. Secondly, pick-up raids are about getting the job done - thus minimizing the likelyhood of wipes and spending time explaining tactics.
We can also assume the following:
1) While an achievement doesn't prove that you're a capable raider in the instance in question, there's a greater chance that you are, if you have the achievement, than if you don't
2) While gearscore doesn't prove that you know how to play your class, there's a greater chance that you are able to play your class, if you have decent gear.
3) No mechanics exist in game to measure skill and knowledge - gearscore and achievements are as close as it gets without individually evaluating each player, which would take too long.
So the reason behind the gearscore and achievement inspects (a good PU raid leader will inspect gear/gems/talents as well as achievements) is to minimize the chance of failure. Even though you may think it's unfair that you, the greaters raider since sliced bread (despite you not having done any raids and your 3500 GS) , get passed up for someone who has done the raids before and has way better gear, but is a poorly skilled raider, it's really not. The reason? The PUG-leader has no way of knowing about your awesome skills and you have no way to prove them.
Finally, I'd like to comment on the "lolol how am I supposed to get the achievement, if I can't join the raid because of achievement requirement"-argument: Pick-up raids are not intended to help you learn the encounter - join a guild and help them progress!
/nerdrageoff
Do you think I'm wrong? Then I have a challenge for you. Go to a major city and pick up your own raid. Do so with players who don't have the achievement and with low gearscores. While you may be lucky and end up with the entire crew of [Ungeared], chances are that you won't and you will fail, but be wiser :-)
The pain and the yearning
Ok, this post isn't really related to the subject. I just got tired of writing "yet another update", so from now on, I'll just think up random sentences.
The LFG tool has profoundly changed my view on multiboxing. I'm still doing it, but now it's just for utility and not as a playstyle. The current use I have for boxing:
1) Getting my daily frosts (mmm, primordial saronite gold) - 4 x primordial = 8k per 14 days @ 15 min per day
2) Running ICC 5-mans (mmm, battered hilt gold) - so far two drops in three weeks = 18k per 21 days
3) Tradeskills - alchemy x 8 (mmm, epic transmute gold) - 1200g per day (if you do JC-cuts yourself)
At the moment I have more than plenty of gold, around 50k, so I'm likely to stop doing ICC instances as soon as I have the last drops I need for my mage (arcane loops from FoS - more than 10 runs and no drop, grr).
At that point I'll just be doing the tradeskills and from time to other for quests when I need a bit of manpower.
So what are my current plans for WoW? Well, surprisingly, I re-located the fun of single-boxing. I've joined a 10-man raiding guild (Avatar) with my mage. While still on trial basis, they seem like a great bunch and I'm having a blast so far. So I'm working on perfecting my mage game, which at the moment mostly involved reading/researching and raiding. Also, I think I might start working on some achievements/rep/skills in order to "polish off" the character. In addition, I'm going to explore PvP by joining a 3- og 5-man team and seeing how I fare. I might take a look at 1v1 also, mostly to get a better understanding on pvp strengths and weaknesses.
Last, but not least, I'm also going to give 2-boxing a shot in 2v2 and pair up my mage with my priest (frost/disc for pvp). Obviously we won't be competative, but it should be fun for kicks and seeing how far I can get. In addition, having a pocket healer will be nice in rated BGs, come Cata.
The LFG tool has profoundly changed my view on multiboxing. I'm still doing it, but now it's just for utility and not as a playstyle. The current use I have for boxing:
1) Getting my daily frosts (mmm, primordial saronite gold) - 4 x primordial = 8k per 14 days @ 15 min per day
2) Running ICC 5-mans (mmm, battered hilt gold) - so far two drops in three weeks = 18k per 21 days
3) Tradeskills - alchemy x 8 (mmm, epic transmute gold) - 1200g per day (if you do JC-cuts yourself)
At the moment I have more than plenty of gold, around 50k, so I'm likely to stop doing ICC instances as soon as I have the last drops I need for my mage (arcane loops from FoS - more than 10 runs and no drop, grr).
At that point I'll just be doing the tradeskills and from time to other for quests when I need a bit of manpower.
So what are my current plans for WoW? Well, surprisingly, I re-located the fun of single-boxing. I've joined a 10-man raiding guild (Avatar) with my mage. While still on trial basis, they seem like a great bunch and I'm having a blast so far. So I'm working on perfecting my mage game, which at the moment mostly involved reading/researching and raiding. Also, I think I might start working on some achievements/rep/skills in order to "polish off" the character. In addition, I'm going to explore PvP by joining a 3- og 5-man team and seeing how I fare. I might take a look at 1v1 also, mostly to get a better understanding on pvp strengths and weaknesses.
Last, but not least, I'm also going to give 2-boxing a shot in 2v2 and pair up my mage with my priest (frost/disc for pvp). Obviously we won't be competative, but it should be fun for kicks and seeing how far I can get. In addition, having a pocket healer will be nice in rated BGs, come Cata.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Create your own game... :-)
I've often pondered, what I would like to change about WoW if I could. I'm an alt-o-holic for sure, especially when it comes to multiboxing and trying out different teams. I like the aspect of multiboxing, so I guess if I was to create an MMO:
1) There would be no levelling - there's only one level, however there could be character progression in terms of (a) crafts (which like in WoW could provide PvE and PvP benefits) (b) gear, obviously (c) achievements (which would have associated rewards and/or bonuses) and perhaps some alternate XP to provide utility bonuses (the mass buff feature in EQ is a good example - also many of the current minor glyphs).
2) Multiboxing would be "built in" in the way that you could hire henchmen who you could macro/program more extensively than you can with multibox slaves. They would work pretty much like player characters, except for the fact that you cannot bring them to raids.
3) There would be 3 sizes of "raids" - 5 man, 10 man and 20 man. They would provide the same items/experience, but bigger raids would provide more items pr. participant. For instance, there might be one item reward for a 5-man raids, but 3 for a 10-man etc. 5-man "raids" would be significantly harder than current 5-man instances in WoW requiring a lot of coordination.
So there would be the easier 5-man instances, which you can solo with your henchmen gearing you up for the harder 5-man, which you need to do with others to progress.
4) Factions would work differently. There are different races/origins, but you start at a neutral/dubious standing and improve the factions of your choice.
5) Lore and storytelling would be a significant part of the game. Immersion would be via sequences (skippable) and instances in the like of Caverns of Time.
6) PvP would be present as a part of the faction system.
1) There would be no levelling - there's only one level, however there could be character progression in terms of (a) crafts (which like in WoW could provide PvE and PvP benefits) (b) gear, obviously (c) achievements (which would have associated rewards and/or bonuses) and perhaps some alternate XP to provide utility bonuses (the mass buff feature in EQ is a good example - also many of the current minor glyphs).
2) Multiboxing would be "built in" in the way that you could hire henchmen who you could macro/program more extensively than you can with multibox slaves. They would work pretty much like player characters, except for the fact that you cannot bring them to raids.
3) There would be 3 sizes of "raids" - 5 man, 10 man and 20 man. They would provide the same items/experience, but bigger raids would provide more items pr. participant. For instance, there might be one item reward for a 5-man raids, but 3 for a 10-man etc. 5-man "raids" would be significantly harder than current 5-man instances in WoW requiring a lot of coordination.
So there would be the easier 5-man instances, which you can solo with your henchmen gearing you up for the harder 5-man, which you need to do with others to progress.
4) Factions would work differently. There are different races/origins, but you start at a neutral/dubious standing and improve the factions of your choice.
5) Lore and storytelling would be a significant part of the game. Immersion would be via sequences (skippable) and instances in the like of Caverns of Time.
6) PvP would be present as a part of the faction system.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Moar updates (hardware reconfigure + rogue info)
Due to reconfiguring my PC (and studying for my exams), I haven't been online for the last few days. My current setup is a water cooled i7 920 @ 4.1 GHz with 12GB RAM and a 160GB Intel gen. 2 SSD. Works great for boxing, but after a change of water cooling block, suddenly my computer only registers 8 GB of RAM.
So I go troubleshooting and it turns out I've accidently bent a pin on the motherboards CPU socket. Blasted. So I've ordered a new motherboard (GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD7) which is, of course, DOA, so I send it back for RMA and now I'm stuck with my old mobo and only 8 GB RAM for the next couple of weeks.
Anyway, I've redone my water cooling setup also. My pumps (I'm running a dual loop setup - one circuit for gfx and one for CPU/NB/mosfets) are now in rubber suspension as are my 2 triple rads. I've done the mod in a bookcase, which looks ridiculously ugly (I'll post pics when I'm done), but it's positively silent and very effective when it comes to changing parts etc. All I'm missing now are some mounting rings for the hoses on the second loop and to get my mobo back from RMA.
As for my ingame direction, I'm not all sure what I'm going to do yet. I like playing my rogues so far and looking forward to running more PvP with them once I'm done gearing up (still need off-hand daggers for them to do a mutilate envenom spec). On the other hand I've considered doing some more single-boxing. Raiding and PvP. Not sure if I want to do that on my rogue or if I'll revive my mage (and in the same turn revive my mixed PvE team). Both mages and rogues are fun to play in PvP, although the mage playing style for PvP is pretty much impossible to box.
On the other hand, PvE raids are mostly social IMO. If you're in a good (and mature) guild, the most important aspect is the social one, and what role I play isn't really that important.
Decisions decisions...!
So I go troubleshooting and it turns out I've accidently bent a pin on the motherboards CPU socket. Blasted. So I've ordered a new motherboard (GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD7) which is, of course, DOA, so I send it back for RMA and now I'm stuck with my old mobo and only 8 GB RAM for the next couple of weeks.
Anyway, I've redone my water cooling setup also. My pumps (I'm running a dual loop setup - one circuit for gfx and one for CPU/NB/mosfets) are now in rubber suspension as are my 2 triple rads. I've done the mod in a bookcase, which looks ridiculously ugly (I'll post pics when I'm done), but it's positively silent and very effective when it comes to changing parts etc. All I'm missing now are some mounting rings for the hoses on the second loop and to get my mobo back from RMA.
As for my ingame direction, I'm not all sure what I'm going to do yet. I like playing my rogues so far and looking forward to running more PvP with them once I'm done gearing up (still need off-hand daggers for them to do a mutilate envenom spec). On the other hand I've considered doing some more single-boxing. Raiding and PvP. Not sure if I want to do that on my rogue or if I'll revive my mage (and in the same turn revive my mixed PvE team). Both mages and rogues are fun to play in PvP, although the mage playing style for PvP is pretty much impossible to box.
On the other hand, PvE raids are mostly social IMO. If you're in a good (and mature) guild, the most important aspect is the social one, and what role I play isn't really that important.
Decisions decisions...!
Monday, December 28, 2009
Recent events - big changes :-)
I've settled down on Grim Batol with other multiboxers, which is a very nice change of pace. Simply being in a guild with other people who knows about boxing and not having to explain myself is somewhat of a relief.
Lots of stuff has happened since last update. I found out about rogue multiboxing and I'm currently gearing up a rogue-trio. They're almost done with the PvE gear now and next step is getting some PvP gear. I'm getting them 4 pieces of furious for the set-bonus, which equals 300 emblems, so that will probably be step 1.
At the same time I'll be running WG for the weekly quests, which should honor-cap them for season 8, and the 10 arena losses for some arena points. Once season 8 hits I'll start the honor farm to get the relentless off-pieces.
I've also considered arena, but I think for now I may actually try single-boxing (*gasp*) with one rogue and a disc priest. I'll need to find someone who's ok with me not having too much pvp experience, so the aim is low, at least a first. 1800 (in 2v2) seems like a good goal to aim for after a month or two.
I'll also need to farm some good daggers, which I also plan to do single-boxing. Mostly due to lock-outs, so single-boxing will give me 3 shots of a dagger per day (1 per rogue), which multiboxing is only 1 shot.
At the moment my shamans are mostly just doing alchemy transmutes and I've paused them for now, although I'll probably take another look at them after Cata hits.
Lots of stuff has happened since last update. I found out about rogue multiboxing and I'm currently gearing up a rogue-trio. They're almost done with the PvE gear now and next step is getting some PvP gear. I'm getting them 4 pieces of furious for the set-bonus, which equals 300 emblems, so that will probably be step 1.
At the same time I'll be running WG for the weekly quests, which should honor-cap them for season 8, and the 10 arena losses for some arena points. Once season 8 hits I'll start the honor farm to get the relentless off-pieces.
I've also considered arena, but I think for now I may actually try single-boxing (*gasp*) with one rogue and a disc priest. I'll need to find someone who's ok with me not having too much pvp experience, so the aim is low, at least a first. 1800 (in 2v2) seems like a good goal to aim for after a month or two.
I'll also need to farm some good daggers, which I also plan to do single-boxing. Mostly due to lock-outs, so single-boxing will give me 3 shots of a dagger per day (1 per rogue), which multiboxing is only 1 shot.
At the moment my shamans are mostly just doing alchemy transmutes and I've paused them for now, although I'll probably take another look at them after Cata hits.
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