Suggestions and things I want in the mmo
So i didnt find a suggestions subforum so im adding this here. This is a post full of what i believe it would be good for the mmo to have. If you have any additions, agree or disagree with my points add it.
1. Weapons.
Please have a large number of weapons for us. Swords, maces, hammers, axes, daggers and bows have long plagued the mmo genre as the only available weapons.
Edit: We got told already that Ashes will have a large variety of weapons. Since "large" is subjective my point stands
As Ashes is going to be a sandbox we need a larger variety of weapons. Spears, Halberds, Rapiers, Chain and ball to add a few. Anything more than standard mmo weapons. Bows and any long range weapon should have an x,y,z indicator.
2. Range of weapons, Hit distances.
Spears and halberds should have approximately double the distance of swords. they are longer weapons. they should also be able to hit behind a friendly unit. swords and daggers are short range.
But the greatest thing that could be done is regarding bows, especially longbows. Excluding skills, a primary longbow attack should be able to snipe across a very large distance (modern longbows have an effective range of 200m) and make arrows follow gravity. Castle sieges are going to be prevalent in the game, why not have players that want to, to train as longbowmen (no game assistance other than an x,y,z indicator) that can hit over a wall and rain arrows across the map, if they can of course.
Edit: Changed the large amount of different types of damage as it would make balancing a lot harder for mostly minimum return. Lower edits that refer to here is about the large number of primary and elemental types of damage (crush, slash, pierce, penetration, and magic types etc)
3. Weapon Animations.
Every weapon should have their own animation. Forget using the sword animation for a spear. or the same animation for a greatsword and a double hammer. Thats just sloppy.
4. Generals, Commanders (platoon leaders) and phalanxes.
In a big fight you are going to have a general directing the whole group for a cause, either that cause is killing a raid boss, or sieging a castle. And in every group that makes the whole lot you are gong to have a commander that gets direct orders from a general. And of course the rest of the players that make the advancing force.
Generals and Commanders can have group buffs (trained after a long time but small so that its not totally broken) Generals buffs are bigger than the Commanders but the General needs to either be on line of sight to the fight or have scouts (players or disposable NPCs) on certain positions for the buffs to be "transferred" over to the troops on site. if the line is broken or the General dies the whole of the troops can lose all their buffs including the Commander buffs and maybe give them a debuff. It will make smaller strike groups more prevalent and have more footprint in a big war.
Continuing on the theme of large battles and strategy a General can issue a Military Manoeuvre.
This move highlights positions of where each troop needs to be at any given time for the Manoeuvre to succeed . Each player will only see their own position and not the whole. And each Manoeuvre will have their own buffs and debuffs. A defensive Manoeure can have a -25% all attack but a +50% on all defenses making it excellent if the players keep positions and are defending a castle ramp. An advancing Manoeure the opposite. a Hold the line command can give extra HP, defense and engage but only if x amount of people can do it at a time. A turtle move can give immunity to bows and range magic but only if 50% of the people making the move are shieldholders scattered into the total position and they cant act while holding said position other than walk (mines can knockback and remove them from position)
Generals and Commanders should only get experience by how many people in their platoon/army are damaging/killing/dying and you have to be a Commander of a certain level before choosing to become a General or increasing the effectiveness of the Commander subskill.
5. UI
Give us a fully custom UI. I want to move everything, everywhere. Resize all or individual components of my UI. Its 2019, Let me snap on grid (on that matter, give us a grid when we choose to edit UI) or free move. Let us save UIs with custom names and make UIs and skill bar keyboards transferable to other characters on my account (or other players as well, that would be good).
We need a fully customisable interface. If i want to change the colour of my HP to blue and mana to green i should be able to do it. Colours and intensity of colours as well for telegraph abilities. Area of effect abilities should be a skillful use of the enemy member, not me not noticing if there is an AOE on the ground because the team making the game thought it would be best that AOE should be as discreet as possible so its a dull purple at night time in a forest thus missing the AOE area.
Adding to the UI, give us as many shortcut boxes as possible and let us use them for everything possible. not just items. If i want the Marking options on a shortcut box i should be able to put it and just press and use it, not just have a convoluted shortcut somewhere.
And also give us quality of life stuff, an ingame notepad and a calculator come in mind. The map should be able to accept every note under the sun and save it as is forever unless i delete it. Let me write a note on the map.
6. Chat
Disable explicit filter is a must. We need control over the background of the chat as well as the colour of the letters and the size of them. Let the chat be as big as we want it, dont limit it.
I also suggest a customisable music tone for whatever we need. Eg. Party member says something, 1 second bongo tune plays. Guild member says something, 1second flute tune plays, that guy that i hate so much but hasnt done anything wrong and i dont want to block him because he is in my guild, 1second toilet flush. Give us a large number of tunes to choose from.
7. Keyboard and mouse shortcuts.
As said before, this is 2019. Mouses especially come with more buttons than 2 extra on the side. be up to date and let me keybind everything.
8. Macros
Yes, macros. give us some limited macros to use. If i jump using a skill into the face of a dragon i want my character to shout "OPEN WIDE"
Edit: We got told that macros will not exist due to being similar to scripts. I advocate for one skill one chat macro. Just something to say while i skill jump onto an enemy. Should be simpler.
9. Power creep.
Apparently Ashes is against power creep. Good to know.
I dont know how they are going to go about it but as a suggestion making more weapons with differing type of damage should help in the long run against power creep. Raid bosses with high defense on one element but weaker on another, adding to the fact that weapons break over use should help immensely on the power creep issues.
Edit: See edit at point 2. Without different player generated types of damage it also means that different types of resistances might be moot. Elemental defenses might be different. Still gonna leave all the point here.
10. Bosses and other strong monsters.
Hard and varied mechanics. We as players have come to expect boss mechanics in the game. I personally enjoy the dance of the raid boss in FFXIV. Nothing wrong suggesting as hard mechanics as possible on the raid bosses.
11. Lore and written text ingame.
This is a continuation of point 10. Dont give information on the bosses outside of the game. But in game library-like buildings should hold some kind of record of different bosses in the world. Scattered, most of the times incomplete records and sometimes completely wrong. "Oh, the sacred text said that the Fenrir is weak against poison. But poison heals it"
Shenanigans galore when all the raid is equipped with poison gear.
Edit: See edit at point 2. Different types of damage might not do the trick. Doesnt mean the whole point is moot and that the general idea is scrapped. Information regarding a boss should only be given through ingame means only and those times mostly incomplete and sometimes wrong.
12. Crystal Weapons
Damokles wanted them. Who am I to argue on suggestions?
13. Tulnar Railway System
perseus01 Suggestion. Since Tulnar have been living in underground isolation for as long as they have, it would make sense if they have an established underground system of such capacity.
I think thats enough for now. If i remember anything ill add it either here or a post under it.
Edited to remove Different Types of Damage, added other suggestions of other forum members