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Possible ideas to integrate into the game.
First of all my name is Ryan Brown, I'm a freelance 3D Artist from England and I love gaming, especially MMOs. I'd like to start by saying I couldn't agree more with Steven Sharif in that gaming and MMORPGs have been heading in the wrong direction for some time.
That being said, I began to plan my ideal MMORPG; about 4/5 years ago. Though I was in no position to create an MMORPG, it did not stop me from planning one. Wishful thinking I guess.
I didn't see myself as the guy who was going to "save MMORPGs" but rather "I didn't want to think about the future of gaming and be sad". I have found many parallels with Ashes of Creation and my own game so I thought it might be an idea to share my ideas in hopes that Intrepid Studios may find this post and perhaps like some of the ideas I set forward. Seeing as AoC is a fresh new start for MMOs, I thought now would be a good time to share my thoughts.
Yes, this will be long…however, I will try to post as little as possible as I have written 400+ pages. I will also try and post the most relevant things too.
(These ideas are literally took straight from my own work so if they don't make complete sense, that's why)
EDIT* Initially I posted this on the "idea forum" but ran into issues. I've had to re-write and organize this for a second time so if things don't make sense or are not in the correct order, please excuse it.
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In-game chat system
Audio, Text, Volume, Banning, Reporting, Ranking and Tickets.
My experiences with MMOs have been vastly different. However one thing for me has stayed the same and that’s meeting new people. I have met many friends and many strangers, however not many games have in-game voice chat. The ones that do (when they work) have not been supported or used to their full potential. I understand that they’re 3rd party software out there like Discord, Team Speak and Skype but I think we’re missing out on some very beneficial in game uses.
I want to use voice chat in a new way, for example:
World Chat – The louder you talk, the further your sound waves travel. This would be based off real world properties. What I would like to achieve with this is real world environmental reactions. An example being a stone corridor or a large empty echoing building. I think this would help bring you further into the world. This would also extend into PVE, PVP and RP.
Group Chat – When you group with players in game, you could have the option to join their group voice channel. You could receive, or give help to others. You could also just have a friendly chat with a player.
Clan Chat – When making a Clan, you will have the option to make a “clan chat”. This will allow you to hear and only be heard by your clan.
Temporary Guild Chat – When making temporary guilds to take down a high level bosses you may want to communicate through the “guild chat”. The idea behind this is you can warn one another during the fight of potential dangers. High level bosses will be quite difficult but also very rewarding; if they can be defeated. So having an in game chat will allow you to work better and faster as a team.
Within the voice chat you have many, many settings. All will be explain but here are some of the basic options I would like to offer.
Volume control – This alone would give you the option to control all chat systems within the game. This includes World Chat, Group Chat, Clan Chat, Temporary Guild Chat and Individual “Hot Spots”. Hot spots would be locations like a bank and an auction exchange.
Individual player volume controls – If your friend’s microphone is too loud or too quiet we will add a volume control of -100% and +200%. If you find a random player within the game and you’re talking within world chat and they’re too loud, you can click on them and adjust the volume control via there portrait. However we will try our best to automatically adjust microphones for you.
Mute – If players are giving grief or if you find them annoying you can simply mute them. If players are abusive, aggressive or upsetting you could mute and report them and they will be dealt with accordingly.
Ban Report – If characters are reported multiple times from multiple players they will eventually get a “Black Star. They could be banned from the voice chat, text chat and possibly the game. ”. However each case will be dealt with independently.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Pets
Domestic, Practical
At the beginning of the game you get to choose a single pet. This pet will deliver letters to you from NPC’s, Auction Exchange and Players. You will be able to purchase new pets throughout the game. You could also find rare pets as drops throughout the game. Pets would include but limited to: crows, owls, eagles, pigeons, bats, phoenix, parrots and sparrow hawks.Domestic pets can stay in your player owned homes or follow by your side.
They have no practical features as they are cosmetics only. However you can level them by spending them with them. This would then lead to them learning tricks and obeying commands. They will start off young and begin to grow with you. The pets would include but not limited to: Dogs, Cats, Snakes and Birds.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Traveling in the world
First of all there will be no fast travel. However, we will have many other ways to travel in game.
NPC Travel System
Carriage System – Pay a driver to take you there in real time. They will charge you money for the trip, however they can provide stories, lore and hints about areas as you pass them. You can also pay double for twice the speed. (Risk free but costs a fee)
Ferry System – You can travel via ferries through rivers and lakes. (Risk free but costs a fee)
Ship System – Ships are used to travel larger distances when at sea. (Risk free but costs a fee)
Player Travel System
Mount – You will be able capture, train and travel via player mounts. Traveling in this world via player mounts can be dangerous at times. However it is free (if you capture it) with no up keep. You can also sell mounts you capture or breed.
Running - You can run on foot and level your strength to increase your carrying weight. Your starting weight will be 150 pounds and go up all the way to 350.
Nexus Crystal – Your nexus crystal will teleport you to your preferred city. It will have a cool down of 30 minutes and a cast time of 3 seconds. However, you will have to unlock the “nexus pillar” in the city you wish to travel. All cities will be connect through the nexus. Once active you with have to sync your Nexus crystal to the Nexus Pillar by simply clicking on it. The crystal cannot be used in pvp.
Row Boat, Ferry & Ship – As sailing is a large part of this game you will have multiple choices on aquatic vehicles. All with their own risk and rewards.
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Sailing
Sailing would involve roistering a crew to sail with (NPC) this would be its own kind of mini game and would play similar to assassins creed black flag. This would also be linked with many skills such as treasure hunting, farming, fishing, hunting etc. I have a lot of information written
about this skill and others but trying to keep it short.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Weather System
This MMO will have an active weather system for example
Sunny – Extremely Common
Rainy – Common
Stormy/Thunder – Slightly Uncommon
Cloudy – Slightly Uncommon
Windy – Scarce
Sand-storms – Very Scarce – Depending on Area could be Slightly Uncommon
Snow-storms – Very Scarce – Depending on Area could be Slightly Uncommon
Foggy – Uncommon
Snow/Hail – Rare
Tornado – Very Rare
Hurricane – Extremely, Extremely Rare
Dust Devil – Rare
Maelstrom - Extremely Rare
The weather system would seriously affect the game-play. I have written many pages on this alone. If you'd like to know more, Let me know.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Day and Night Cycles
We will have day and night cycles within the game and they will run on realm time. In the EU the server time would be on Amsterdam time. So it would have six cycles, of 4 hour long days in game.
4 hour days
6 cycles a day
20:00pm - Sun Down - 20:00pm
21:00pm – Night Begins - 21:00pm
5:00am - Sun Rise - 5:00am
6:00am – Day Begins - 6:00am
12:00 Noon 3:00pm Brightest time of the day
200 minutes of Day and 40 minutes of Night = 24
hours of game time.
1200 minutes of day and 240 minutes of Night =
24 hour of real time.
Within the Day and Night Cycles, comes a whole new part of the game. During the 40 minutes of night every 200 minutes. New events emerge, new creatures in the night, the forest, seas and world become a whole different place.
Some fish can only be caught at night, new nocturnal creatures come out for food, the streets will be lit by lamps and windows, luminous frosts come to life, the world becomes a little scarier but with that the rewards become greater.
There are a number of ways to see during dark, some being
candles, lanterns, wisps, fire flies, camp fire, torch fire, street lamps,
moonlight, conjuring, potions, luminous environments, luminous creatures like
jellyfish, etc.
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PVE, PVP, RP Servers.
To help everyone enjoy this game and feel comfortable, we are separating the servers into:
Players Verse Environment also known as “PVE, Players versus monsters and PVM”. In these servers you will fight against computer controlled enemies. You will also have the option to fight other players if you challenge them; or if you’re challenged to a duel.
Player Verse Player also known as “PVP”. In these servers you will fight against computer controlled enemies and real players. There are safe zones within the game where you cannot be attacked however the entire world is open “PVP”.
Role Play also known as “RP”. ”. Roleplaying servers are similar to “PVE” servers in the sense that you will fight against computer controlled enemies. You will also have the option to fight other players if you challenge them; or if you’re challenged to a duel. However, in “RP” servers you take on the role of your character and act it out in-game. You can do this with text chat, voice chat and with emotes built into the game. Players may also participate in roleplay outside of the game by posting on blogs, wikis and forums.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Job System & Stores
Job systems in this game are based on our skills. For example if you have taken up archelogy you can bring the artifacts back to museum and find out how much they are worth and make money like that. You can also go to the museum and ask the curators for hints, tips and leads on where to find other artifacts. Many of which could lead to quests.
You can also gain familiarity and friendships by talking to
work professionals like, curators, chefs, smiths, jewellers. Gaining
friendships or “Reputations” with
these NPC’s can benefit you it many ways. They can give you recipes for food,
armour, clothing, etc. They can also give you quests, experience, knowledge,
hints, tips, leads and gold.
You can also supply the cities and towns with stock. If you talk to specific
NPCs they will let you know if they are on short supply of weapons, food,
leather and other crafting goods. If you choose to supply them, you can gain
many types of rewards like experience, knowledge, gold, reputation, recipes,
cosmetics, etc.
Stores are also used to purchase items that you may not otherwise have including recipes for all skills, cosmetics, food, potions, etc.
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Names and tags, so you can have any name
Can’t get the character name you’d like? No problem. With our new system you can get any character name you wish (within reason).When making your account you will be assigned a special code. This will allow you create whatever name you’d like; even if other players have it. However, you will still be warned that other characters have the name. You are also able to choose a family name if you’d wish. This can be turned on or off in the settings.People could argue this removes the uniqueness to your character and character’s name, however your real name probably isn’t all that unique either.This should not cause problems when reporting characters as you will have to physically click on the character’s name to report them. If by chance there are two characters with the same name, one offending one not; and you accidentally report them, you will be able to read all of their recent chat to double check it’s the correct person.If the character who is offending is on voice chat, you can select the character, right click on their portrait and report them like that or go on the local voice chat settings in-game find the offender and report/mute them like that.
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Leveling system
The leveling system in this game will be a new but will feel familiar. For me MMORPGs are mainly about adventure and exploration. However, when playing them I always felt limited to where I could actually adventure too. Some areas had creatures far higher levels than you, some areas were locked behind content and so on. I understand the reasons behind it however I feel as though it was quite limiting.
I eventually found other games where the monsters around the world would scale to your level and this felt a lot better to me, more natural and you were free to explore. However, after playing those games for some time it became a little annoying when trying to gather resources as the monsters were max level. I don’t think this is any fault of the game however, I was used to grouping monster together and being able to collect my resources. It also felt like what was the point in leveling if all the creatures level with me? Surely I could stay the same level and be just as effective. After a while I began to feel like I was working towards nothing.
With these two styles of game play in mind I began to etch my own leveling system.
My leveling system consists of a few features which I will now list.
Creatures around the world will level with you. However, I have added a new feature to this. The more you fight a specific creature, the more knowledge you gain; on that specific creature. This knowledge system will be key within the game for all skills and creatures.
An example being copper ore. If you mine copper ore your “mining level” and your “copper ore specific” level will go up. If you mine copper ore until you reach 100% with that skill you will become way more efficient at it. You will earn more ore, find more gems, gather faster, etc.
The main reason I like this idea is you can truly feel free to adventure and explore, but also when fighting creatures, you gain experience, loot and educate yourself on how to kill monsters more efficiently thus enabling you to get the slight upper hand when trying to gain resources.
The other reason I like the scaling idea is you can always take part in whatever content you come across for example, bossing, raids, dungeons, mini games and PVP. It also makes all content relevant at all times.
It also allows you to play with low level friends without having to play the catch up game.
I also like the idea of still having a level for your
character. This will help you unlock and gain spells, abilities and meet
requirements for armor and weapons. This still gives you the sense of
achievement but also levels you wanting to gain more.
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This is not but one percent of what I’ve written or had planned. However, the most relevant right now. I will write a short list of other subjects I have covered if you are at all interested. I could also share them at some point if you’re interested.
In-game chat system
Mini Games
Pets
Mounts
traveling in the world
Quests/ Quest System
None combat skills
Combat Skills
Combat System
Dungeons & Raids
Weather
Day and Night Cycles
PVE, PVP, RP Servers
Job System & Stores
No Micro Transactions or In Game Store
Housing System/Clan Lodging
No Classes*, No Holy Trinity*, One Playable Race, Ultimate Potential, Heavily Customisable
in Cosmetics & Abilities.
Economy system
Armour, Weapons and Cosmetics
Names and tags, so you can have any name
Clans & Temporary Alliances
Environments
Graphical Style
Original Scores/SFX
All NPCs speak
Story
Enemies
Bank
Bags, Inventory & Gold
Auction Exchange
Character creation
Naval Battles
Website Forums/Suggestions/Fan Art
Base, temporary bases, camping, roughing it
Levelling system
Thanks for reading this, please let me know your thoughts. Like I said I have written quite a bit on these subjects so if you have questions, please let me know.
*Also just found out you hired Bear McCreary for the music in AoC. You literally made the best decision. I love his music especially his black sails theme. More Hurdy Gurdy!
- Ryan
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