My experiences and ideas from other mmo’s

Daoine

Hi

First of all, I’m really excited about this game, it has everything what an mmo fan can ask. I’m new in this community, but I’m following the development for a while. Sorry about my english, it’s not my first language.

A littlebit of my background, as you said multiple times I’m also part of that older generation who loves the genre. I think everybody has a game in their past which was the ultimate game experience with all it’s faults and beauty.

I started with Asheron’s Call 2, than jumped on a game called Horizon. When that one came out there was no ingame map, there were no quests Just grind and crafting and community efforts. There were no loots from the mobs only materials, rare and commons, recipes and techniques. I would love to share some of the things from that game what i loved:

1, weapon crafting: when a crafting made a weapon he could choose different style of blades, hilts, handle and knobs, with higher tiers there were more option to choose. When the weaponsmith made the weapon he was able to give a name to the weapon. You could still see the tier and type but was unique, people loved my weapons with special names.

2. Small but clever idea was when you were walking, running on a road you got a small buff so you would run faster, that was a really good way to courage players to use the roads.

3. House builder professions. Mason, carpenter. So a player had a plot somewhere, he designed his house, fences, gates all the bits a pieces and he was able to put money into the design. As me as a mason i was walking around in player cities looking for some job, clicked on a design on a plot and if the price was right a put my slate bricks in to the building. I got money, xp, and the owner eventually got his house. That was something really great.
4. Community efforts: future contents (new race, player cities on islands) we (the server community) had to work together build a tunnel to open the dryad race, meanwhile the crafters were building the tunnel there were constant attacks at the building site) it took weeks to finish the tunnel. It was soo cool.
5. I don’t know this is something what already exists but would be great if sometimes players would have to fight with GM’s (real person) not with a scripted UI. Some special events when dragon spawns which is controlled by real person that would make those experience special.

Best

Daoine

Wandering Mist

1. I wouldn't mind being able to name weapons yourself but I would say only for weapons above a certain quality threshhold.
2. Why do you want to encourage players to use the roads more? It seems kind of random to me.
3. Carpentry is already confirmed as a profession in Ashes, although right now it seems limited to making furniture. Maybe they will expand it in the future.
4. I can definitely see this happening in the future, possibly from an expansion.
5. GMs are there to help solve problems and deal with rule breaking, NOT be a source of entertainment to the players. Regardless the monster coin system is very much like you describe except controlled by a normal player not a GM.

Daoine

2. Realism always gives games a more immersive experience. People made roads so they can reach faster their destination. For me it feels more realistic to use roads than everybody just go straight to their destination. I like the idea of lack of fast travel. If more player meet on the roads there will be more intetactions, ambushes, robbery, all kind of interaction. Its faster, safer than the wild because no monsters but you can meet other type of mobs. If you are in the wrong and there is a bounty on your head you will try to avoid roads and othe players, if you you going to battle you can be fast on the roads or sneaky in the wild. I think it gives a lot of interesting opportunities.

Daoine

5. Gm you right i meant someone like GM’s not necessary them. I have to dig in to this monster coin system, i’m not familiar with that.

Wandering Mist

Daoine wrote: »

2. Realism always gives games a more immersive experience. People made roads so they can reach faster their destination. For me it feels more realistic to use roads than everybody just go straight to their destination. I like the idea of lack of fast travel. If more player meet on the roads there will be more intetactions, ambushes, robbery, all kind of interaction. Its faster, safer than the wild because no monsters but you can meet other type of mobs. If you are in the wrong and there is a bounty on your head you will try to avoid roads and othe players, if you you going to battle you can be fast on the roads or sneaky in the wild. I think it gives a lot of interesting opportunities.

I really hate it when people pull out the realism card when it comes to games. Yes it is more realistic to move faster along a road than through the forest itself. Does it improve the game in any way? I would argue it doesn't. Unless you are escorting a caravan, you should WANT to go off the beaten track, to explore the world. Giving players a further incentive to stay on the roads reduces the exploration that is key to any open world game.

Daoine

When you explore, grind, gather stuff of course. You not going to be able improve on the roads, those for traveling. I want to explore the wilderness, for me realism is not a card, to pull out to win an argument, i prefer gameplay over realism. But for me this small thing was a good idea. Just an idea...