Aetheria is an action morpg, it has the basic mmorpg kill monsters get exp grind down... but I don't want the game to be solely based on that repetitive cycle; like many others are. i have a quest system implemented, but very few quests so far. the lore and essential plot/story ideas are mapped out but all the ideas i have outside of that i'm pretty unsure about.
so here's my question - since this is a BYOND game and you guys are going to be the people who play Aetheria, what features do you want to see added?
ideas i'm most interested in:
- how do you want to train specific stats other than repeatedly killing monsters, casting spells, an crafting new gear. (DBZ-ers, don't even bother answering this - there will be no punching bags.)
- what kind of PVP do you want? an arena with different setups like team-deathmatch, free-for-all, etc? Full pvp with no real rules outside of safe-zones?
- aside from the usual kill x amount of this monster or bring me x amount of this item quests - what kind of missions would you like to go on?
- what kind of magic & skills would you like to learn? (there is no class system, so you can specialize in more than one area at a time.)
if there's anything else you'd like to see in the game feel free to request it here. don't limit your thoughts to the ideas i mentioned above.
i drew a lot of influence from Zelda when i was thinking this project up, but i didn't want it to be too similar. i like the leveling up and constant grind aspect of rpgs like final fantasy and dragon quest, but not the restrictions that come with the class system and being stuck with only certain skills that you eventually get tired of.
ID:2114241
 Jul 10 2016, 8:35 pm (Edited on Jul 11 2016, 1:42 pm)
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- aside from the usual kill x amount of this monster or bring me x amount of this item quests - what kind of missions would you like to go on? Additionally, I'm also interested in what others have to say about this. I've never been a fan of this type of monotony. | |
FKI wrote:
- aside from the usual kill x amount of this monster or bring me x amount of this item quests - what kind of missions would you like to go on? I'm glad you axed dat. First off, I would like to see games without quests, but before I get to that, I want to explain something I think I've already said in the past. It's LAUGHABLE to have a game where a quest is "collect 5 flowers and then bring them back to me". Not just because it's tedious or whatever, but because by definition, that's not a freaking quest. This is the definition of quest: a long or arduous search for something. In Neverwinter I remember going on what I think was a player-created quest where I had to travel to a building, go to the lower level, follow some ratmen to an underground hideout they had, kill the ratmen and their rat leader and then the rat boss dropped an item which once interacted with sent my character into some sort of dream state. In the dream I had to defeat some ghost monsters, and then I can't remember how but I ended up fighting some bearded fire giants before finally concluding the quest. It took like 20-25 minutes to do this one quest. THAT'S a quest. I ended up exploring 4 different areas, fighting several different types of mobs and reading some awesome dialog ( the ratmen in particular were pretty funny ). After completing the quest, I actually felt like I had gone on a quest instead of doing meaningless busy work for some retarded NPC. TL;DR Can we start making quests actual quests please and not just 2 minute-long errands? BUT, HOLD UP. LEMME FINISH. I recently started playing WoW again on a F2P account. There's a community based around F2P players and one of things we like to do is deck out our level 19 or 20 characters with the sexiest transmogs possible. This is incredibly time consuming, especially since some of the items have less than 1% drop rates, meaning we have to kill mobs hundreds upon hundreds of times if we're unlucky. Last week I spent 4 hours trying to get THIS ONE MASK RIGHT HERE this random Draenei girl is wearing to complete my Pally's transmog:  Bear in mind, I'm a Blood Elf Paladin, level 20. This item is located in Alliance territory. Getting there was a complete struggle, but it was some of the most fun I've ever had in WoW. I actually never even got the damn mask because I gave up after not being able to find the NPC. But all the monsters and zones I had never seen before, the Draenei mage who PKed me as I tried to sneak into Westfall, the jerkoff Stormwind Guard who one shot me as soon as I peaked my head out of the water in a futile attempt to board the boat at the harbor. It was all worth it. I had gone on my own journey. I found an item I wanted, had to fight my way through players and monsters to get to it, explored a ton, etc. Basically, I gave myself a quest and it was more fulfilling than the boring ass quests the game provides you with at that level. Going back to my statement above about wishing there was a game without quests ( which I guess we can call that Minecraft for now until a proper MMORPG is created ), I think as long as you create a world with stuff to do, players don't need NPCs standing around telling them to gather rat tails. That's boring and players would rather be doing something fulfilling anyway. As a player, if I'm walking around and I see what appears to be a dragon's nest, I don't need an NPC to tell me "hey, go slay that dragon!" I'm going to want to kill the dragon regardless. Or maybe I don't want to kill the dragon for roleplay reasons, but because it's Skyrim, you can't avoid it because you're the "Dragonborn" and drinking dragon souls is what you have to do, so the only way around it is to mod the shit out of the game. I want an MMORPG where I'm not given a class, I'm not told I have to be the savior of the world, I'm not told who I have to kill and in what order I need to do it in. Just put weapons, monsters, abilities etc. in the game and let me stumble across everything myself. Maybe I don't want to be a Wizard who can only equip Cloth shirts. Maybe I want to go full retard and wield a 2H greatsword on my Mage. Maybe I don't want to save the world, just let me go full Gul'dan mode and not give a shit about anyone except myself and my lust for unlimited power. Or maybe I just wanna run around like an idiot for four hours just for one mask so I can look cool. Skyrim and Minecraft give you a decent amount of freedom to do whatever you want, but it's still not quite what I'm looking for. Skyrim needs to be modded like heck to fit the description of what I'm thinking and Minecraft just doesn't have the capacity to immerse me like a well-designed RPG would. But yes, TL;DR Players don't need to constantly be told "go here and do that" to figure out they should explore and kill monsters, so just give them a world with no quests or destiny ( i.e. you're the dragonborn ) and let them do whatever they want to do, in whichever order they want to do it in. | |
I like what you're getting at.
I plan on going with that free-form style of gameplay, but I'm thinking of including the quests to help make aware the more oblivious players. For example, you might come across this NPC who is looking for a specific artifact or treasure and is offering a special reward if you manage to retrieve it. You would then have the option to take up the adventure. Or even better, instead of quests, these NPCs may mention what they are looking for in a nonchalant and unimportant manner, as to spark the player's interest. At the same time, they would mention how much they desire whatever it is -- but you wouldn't have any obligation to pay them any mind. However, it may be very rewarding to do just that, but you won't know unless you do it. You might discover you want to keep the item for yourself after getting your hands on it. | |
I mean, whichever system you go for, the quests should be quests. The first few minutes of Skyrim are more fulfilling than the first few hours of most if not all MMORPGs, and that's quite sad. This is because Skyrim has you running through a town under attack by a fire-breathing dragon and then having you hack and slash your way through an underground passage until you reach the exit.
Contrast this to the "Excuse me, young man. I'd like you to kill 5 bears and collect their asses for me. Once you have all 5 bear asses, bring them back to me and I will give you this flimsy-looking short sword that you will discard for another flimsy-looking short sword that another forgettable NPC will give you after you perform a chore for them which may or may not be as meaningless as the task I'm giving you right now" MMORPG gameplay. This was acceptable back when online RPGs were still fairly new. It's 2016 now. People keep asking why the MMORPG genre is suffering, I mean come on. It shouldn't be this difficult to figure out. | |
Well said, lmao.
Still interested in others' opinions regarding the OP's questions. Not understanding why topics such as this one go seemingly overlooked. These type of discussions are the sparks that create the flames that are new, well-designed and fun projects -- of which we have so few of now in this community. But the next person is so quick to point that fact out when given the chance. | |
The topics are overlooked because probably only 2 people on this site have ever picked up and read a book on game design.
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- how do you want to train specific stats other than repeatedly killing monsters, casting spells, an crafting new gear. (DBZ-ers, don't even bother answering this - there will be no punching bags.) Classes/trainers could be used here to supplement activity-based gains. The best example I've seen comes from a MUD, Materia Magica. http://www.materiamagica.com/game-guide/adventurers-guide/ proficiencies-and-spells.html - what kind of PVP do you want? an arena with different setups like team-deathmatch, free-for-all, etc? Full pvp with no real rules outside of safe-zones? Full PVP, territories, some type of NPC guardians that are stronger than your average players - killing someone in broad daylight in the middle of a city is pretty much guaranteed death or exile for yourself, considering there should be many of those guardians. Your average multiplayer RPG doesn't have enough 'chance' when it comes to player actions. You want there to be a bit of a gamble. A risk of losing something important, or something that you care about. For instance, losing experience in your skills or losing equipment upon being damaged too much in combat. Should keep most from galavanting about in some other kingdom's territory without caution. The perception of mitigatable risk is the source of fun in most repetitive activities. Look into the logic of risk taking(a subset of studies on rationality). - aside from the usual kill x amount of this monster or bring me x amount of this item quests - what kind of missions would you like to go on? This was covered fairly well, in the previous comments. - what kind of magic & skills would you like to learn? (there is no class system, so you can specialize in more than one area at a time.) Depending on your setting and how powerful you want your players to perceive themseleves, pick and choose from here: http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Powers | |
For PvP, I have to ask this question: why? Will implementing PvP actually give more structure to the game, or is it just a tacked on feature?
I ask this because people are far too hasty to include it in their projects nowadays -- hell, it's practically ubiquitous in BYOND games. Will the addition of PvP mesh well with the story/universe? Balance between classes also becomes much more difficult when you're dealing with both PvP and PvE facets at the same time; how do you intend to address this? You'll also have to deal with partitioning your work equally between the two or you'll risk alienating one of them in favor of the other. Just something to think about. | |
- how do you want to train specific stats other than repeatedly killing monsters, casting spells, an crafting new gear. Kitty had a post about character progression and stuff http://www.byond.com/forum/?post=2127407 - what kind of PVP do you want? an arena with different setups like team-deathmatch, free-for-all, etc? Full pvp with no real rules outside of safe-zones? Why not both? Special areas on the map that has pvp enabled. And your little pvp stuff. - aside from the usual kill x amount of this monster or bring me x amount of this item quests - what kind of missions would you like to go on? Go from point a to point b with a few tacked on objectives that need to be completed to continue on your path to point b. - what kind of magic & skills would you like to learn? (there is no class system, so you can specialize in more than one area at a time.) The kinds that kill enemies effectively.     Red = hit boxes Blue = caster I use these to create my skills. if there's anything else you'd like to see in the game feel free to request it here. don't limit your thoughts to the ideas i mentioned above. Base building and base raiding. | |
But what about log training?
Nah, but in all seriousness. This is something I've been pondering for my own project for a while now. I only just recently came to a conclusion that I am content with.
Let me start by saying that one of my project's greatest inspirations was classic Naruto GOA -- and even now, it still is, but not as much. So with this, the game's training system was initially set to be more or less the same as the aforementioned, give or take some tweaks to minimize the system's flaws. If you are not familiar with that game, let me explain training in a nutshell: Your character's strength was determined by the levels you gained. You gained levels by acquiring experience points. The main (and pretty much only) methods of doing this was fighting (regenerating health granted XP) and doing missions.
Simple enough, right? Though it may sound a bit bland, it was very enjoyable to the point that you barely focused on training. This was because combat was so enjoyable. But with this system came its flaws, such as simulating fighting to AFK train.
Besides the system's flaws though, I found that it was a little too simple and linear. The cycle of training was simply this: level up, add stat points to one of four stats, and occasionally spend some skill points to learn something on a skill tree. That was it.
So while keeping the main focus of the game intact, I started brainstorming ways of diversifying training and character development in general so that it would be more interesting. I started asking myself questions like "Why do so many games use simple, singular level/experience point systems?". I did a lot of researching via Google, as I knew I'm not the first to run into this challenge. It was only recently that I came up with my answer.
Without laying out my project's system in full, I will explain my newfound approach to some of these dimensions.
In a nutshell, I did away with levels (in the traditional sense at least). Instead I decided to go with a passive-focused approach. Basically, your "levels" and "experience" are dispersed to different areas of your character's expertise based on what you do and how you do it (effectiveness). For example, you want players to fight monsters to gain XP, right? Well why does every monster have to award you in the same way (i.e. experience points towards a general level)? Why can't enemy A who uses a sword fighting style train your sword-related stats/skills during combat? Essentially, I have multiple types of XP metrics that represent different dimensions of your character's prowess. Training still has an overall progressive effect on your character, however the gains are based on what you are doing (i.e. focusing on stat A will yield larger gains than that awarded to stat B which is unrelated to what you are training). I refer to it as "cascading gains". A type of skill points still exists, but it is much lesser used for anything other than rewarding the player for simply playing the game. They are not required for anything though (except certain Talent abilities), but useful when you do get them since you can apply them to just about anything.
Hope this gives you some ideas.