Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Comments
- Character Customization: I'm not mainly talking in terms of appearance here (although that helps), but more in terms of your build (stats, skills etc) and playstyle, Not many games do this properly, but a few examples could be Ragnarok Online or Tree of Savior, Not really seeing this happening, but would be nice.
-Economy: A player-driven economy where just about everything being traded is provided by players, and as little as possible is seeded other ways. Crafting, gathering and looting being the means to create everything, A good example would be EVE Online.
-Social aspects and co-operation: Allowing open PVP is great, provided that there's also incentives not to just immediately go gank mode as soon as you see another player, encouraging group play is important, And not just for things like dungeons/raids and the like, but preferably in all major aspects of the game, Solo play should be possible, but group play should in almost all aspects be preferable.
- A world that is dynamic and has events that pull the players together.
- Gameplay that can somehow get away from the predictable and boring trinity of Healer---Tank---DPS
- Game design that doesn't involve grinding
- A rational aesthetic where players and NPC look part of of a world as opposed to everyone running around on undead mounts , with their skull heads on fire whilst wearing over the top armour.
I haven't played a MMO yet delivers these for me.Great question by the way.
Magic Spell for everything :
In a magical world could you imagine the magic only applying to combat ? of course not.
levitation, race illusion (EQ used it a lot, and it was great, with faction modification... as long as nobody see through it).
cleaning spell, light spell, minor enchantement, like creating a permanent light. reducing weight, minor repair, check value, identify, ... ans so many more.
Also, duration : A spell shouldnt last 5 sec. EQ has it right, long duration is good for boost spell (it just cost more). (the mesmerize spell still was short duration, no contradiction).
Combat and group :
Combat must be tactic and not epileptic, so no spam, running everywhere.
Group should not be mandatory, but a boost. rogue should be able to act solo most of the time. Mage should be able to deal with unaware mob (preparation is everything).
But for attacking several mob at once, yes, group is logical.
Skills to personnalize :
to be able to customize a caracter, even with 8x8 class, you will have many identical caractere on the outside at least.
Skill should be able to alter the way you play, extend the duration of some spell, make you better at dealing with multiple opponent, or more efficient on one vs one, being able to heal more, or the same for less mana, etc...
The same must be apply for crafting, by improving one aspect or another of your craft.
Skill must be time dependent, yes, the casual player will be able to developpe less skill than a full time player, but it would allow more playstil to appear.
Of course some skill must be exclusive (either you choose to specialise in group of opponent or one vs one, you cant have both).
a Real Economy :
The gathered item should have a value and be usefull.
The value of the craft item is mostly due to the crafter and not just the ressource.
And no, you dont need 1000 linen rag to make a dress... please. or 2000 stick of wood to make a bow.... or other nonsens.
the ressource should get a grade, because quality can be alter greatly from basic material, but a good crafter can do more with few.
Should the sold item to a vendor be seen by other and be available to buy ? yes, partially. IE in start zone, finding hundred of identical objet to sell would be annoying, but some, yes, definitly.
You could sold real product to NPC in bulk and the sell it to retail. You could use an "iceberg method" : only the 20 first "player" items are displayed to the potential buyer, but if all those are sold, you display the next 20.
Relationship with NPC aka faction :
its not idle if you sell often to the same vendor good item, he should appreciate you.
Be polite and helpfull to a node, they will have a better relationship to you.
This could mean, show you more often their best item, offer some quest, or price reduction.
EQ was nice for that : you had to work on your faction. If you want to be appreciate by everyone, its hard job.
Some other tought :
- various language : it was fun to learn new language in EQ, you had to hear them and it was like a filter for bad world : but after some time you beggin to understand some word, until you became fluent. Each race should know at least 2 languages, a "common" and a racial one, add ancient version to those (for the ancien book).
Try to deal with a vendor in his native language and its reaction will be more favorable (except if you butcher his language because you just learn it).
-travel : fast travel = bad.
Some mean to move from some node toa llied node, ok
But magical travel via player spell, why not (with player, creating a spell to move to a specific area (not allowed IN the town).
- respawn : make it more like renforcement (comming from outside), not respawn on the player.
I want a mix of solo and group quests. Bosses should require large groups, it should be an achievement to kill one.
I want separate servers!!! Each server should be its own community. There should be server-specific achievements (1st to do this or that, etc)
World Bosses!!!
Random events that affect gameplay (per Rift)
NO FLYING MOUNTS, walk/ride there biotches! Engage in your world, not just fly over/click on "enter dungeon" and be magically teleported to the instance (that was a really stupid idea)
Customizable characters (pick your talents, etc), maybe even choose your starting stats out of a pool, or get stat points at each level that you can assign. They should develop the game in such a way that you can build your character any way you want without being forced to spec out a certain way (WoW) or be punished for it.
I like mechanics such as: needing amm0/arrows/etc (which take up space in inventory), having to travel to a trainer to learn a new skill (maybe even having quest requirements to learn skills), I like class/profession specific quests. I like the weapons-skills system, where if you aquire a new weapon you start off with no skill until you use it more (this is not a huge priority, but nice).
You shouldn't be able to shoot someone with a bow/crossbow if their right in front of you. How can you string a bow and shoot someone attacking you from a foot away with a sword? Shoot at them from afar, then switch to a melee weapon.
I want class specialization to a good extent: a warrior should be able to do something that a mage cannot, and vice-versa.
I want item creation to be more customizable: you should be able to create an item that looks unique. There could be profession quests to obtain certain materials/skins/etc.
I want item creation to mean something. You should be able to craft powerful items that you can actually use, rather than just sell.
I don't want much, just the perfect game. Chop, chop, devs!
Don't make speed a univeral thing. One size fits all. If you're wearing 40 pounds (18 kilos) of metal armor you shouldn't be running side by side with someone wearing form fitting leather.
Random terrain changes too. Yo are running to a group of wolves that you like to farm. While running there you ran into two random ogres fighting over a rock, they saw you and chased you down. Fortunately you made it to a road but uh oh....there is an unexpected tree blocking the road and you get hung up and have to fight the ogres after all . Fortunately some other peeps are on the road and help you out. That would be a funny and surprising story to tel on guild chat instead of "what did you do today" "oh I farmed the same pack of wolves that I farm every single day". DYNAMIC. If the world is boring and static then the game as a whole is boring and static......might as well chuck the game in the "could of been cool but went with the same ole game play as every other mmo out there" bin. People are sick of those game.
We wait, and wait and wait for an MMO to be the one that really changes things, to be the game that sets the bar for the next decade and that is what we want from AOC. Wildstar, ESO, GW2, BDO, Archage, Everquest, WOW....Jesus the list is even longer than that and through it all what did they all have in common. STATIC and BORING. I wanna run out of town, go 100 yards down the path and think "something is different, what is different" and then get jumped by a bunch of wood nymphs who are pissed that a cart bumped into their tree. I wanna walk around a mountain and think "shit that orc camp wasn't there yesterday...guess I need to go around them....wait is that two treasure chests....I need to call in some guildies". But if the game is just another clone of all the others save us all some time and money and just quit now.
it,s sometimes the little things that counts the most. a happy noobie ...priceless for anything else there is VISA ; )
Using 3rd party VoIP and chat software removes that downside. Of course, it's only down side if you are concerned about it.
I understand that everyone will have their own personal ideas that determine what they perceive as fun such as,crafting, building, playing with friends etc. I just personally think that combat will be what most people will tend to do a majority of the time they spend playing. As long as combat is unique and engaging, in respect to how PvP, group content, and questing is developed, I'll be more likely to continue subbing and logging in to progress through the node system.
I tried to play the mmos like Archage and Blade & Soul but I never got very far because it was hard for me to use the UI. SWTOR has a UI that allows the player to move the tool bars where they like and place the abilities within them for easy access. I hope we get that here too.
AHHHH!!! So many possibilities!
i my opinion if you say no to the holy trinity, you are screwed. lots of modern mmo tried that and they all fall into the action game category for me, it feels like we are all some random damage dealer.(lvling and stat/equipement doesn't do an RPG, with that kind of statement you can say that every Devil May Cry game is a RPG, its the role you play WITHIN a group that make a ROLE playing game)
i think what made the golden age of mmo was the need of other players to progress in any aspect of the game, despite what the majority says. for me the plague of modern mmo is modern mechanics (like no trinity or no tab targeting,map and quest marker everywere etc). most of the people reclaiming those features dont realise that this will maybe be more fun for a bit, but less in the long run . just take a look at what mmo were successfull these past 10 years, i mean not successfull at lanch but still are now, i cant think of any without trinity and tab targeting(the only real deal are Wow and FF14 if you exclude Eve). feel free to correct me if you feel this is wrong, i'm curious.
one of the best mechanic i encountered in a mmo was the conjonction system in Lord of The Ring Online. it was a group move, every player has to put in one attack (4 different color for 4 different effect like a DD, a Dot or a little heal) and if you did one of the multiple color combination( starting from 3 to 6 and simple like 3 green, to complicated like red blue yellow green red blue etc..) it made an effect based on the color combination. it added dephts to the combat system and the synergy of players.
to resume i think the content is "secondary", you can have the best contentof the market if your game mechanics are bad people wont stay. create an intricate system of "paper/rock/scissor class,strong Sinergy between them DO NOT make another A-RPG were everyone got a stun, an escape, a burst, a personal heal...., do a real RPG
- Strong reasons to fear death. Corpse run, durability damage, or trivial experience loss do not provide this. Losing your ship forever, losing large amounts of experience, or losing money all do.
- Reason to kill others. Be it control over an area, gaining part of what the victim loses, or secondary benefits like, say, protecting your farming area.
Strong death penalties allow bad behavior to be punished by the rest of the community. Is someone a known griefer? Stealing your mobs? Ninja looting? Scamming? Kill them. Are they too strong? Gather others of like values and kill them. If there's a strong death penalty this will eventually force them into line and allows the community to enforce its values. Where conflicts of values arise, you get a good driver for player conflict which helps with the second point, and that second point is the driver for most interesting player stories at both the micro (player) and macro (guild/alliance) scale.-The story telling, immersion and genuinely difficult nature of the questing and world exploration of something like TSW
-The large scale PvP like BDO (before axes made sieges a lot shorter)
-Boss design and mechanics of FFXIV (So tasty)
Nearly every MMO released in the last fifteen years has one thing in common: There is ZERO risk for stupidity. If you want to charge face-first into a dungeon filled with Mobs higher than yourself - you should have to pay the penalty for this type of suicidal grievance. The greatest game-play mechanic ever created for something like this was hated by all openly but was a constant reminded to look before you stepped: Corpse Recovery.
When you were grouping into an unknown location of nasty you couldn't just run in like an idiot. You really had to pay attention to your surroundings, you really had to know how to play your class. You had to plan. work with your own group and often times a nearby group as well in order to achieve a common goal.
Corpse Recovery (or CR) is something that advanced players aren't afraid of - but there's the rub. Most players are not advance. Most are average and average people don't want to have to "work" for any of their rewards and i for one am sick to death of llama mmo's coming out that more or less give the player anything they want, for a price.
PLEASE PLEASE be true to the age-old-adage: "Risk vs Reward" the novice players and trolls won't agree but at the end of the day, you'll have a superior game.
It's honestly the biggest turn off for me. The bits of combat I've seen so far looks..horrible. Clunky static and repetitive.
Every other part of the game looks great but if combat feels really bad (especially in end game, if its boring early on thats w/e) I dont think I can see myself playing it.
Edit: I suppose theres a bit of this that ties into how movement feels. Again, videos of this looks like you're just kind of static animation sliding around the world.
This is probably the most fun the combat/movement has looked in any video, but its about 3 different skills being used. Smooth and fluid aura/levitate skill which seems REALLY good, and solid movement/dps skill animations.
I hope more of it leans towards this.