MMO World PvP Idea

A lot of new MMOs have struggled to create fluid world PvP that is worth doing. My solution is simple. Create a 3 faction war that is NOT connected to any factions already established by the player (horde & alliance etc). These 3 factions are fighting in a zone and players can choose to align themselves with one of these factions. Players will be tasked to guard caravans, kill players, kill npcs, destroy caravans and control points, etc. Makes sense to me.

MMO Brain Storm Addendum

I’ve been thinking about character creation, which is obviously the most important part of any MMO. There are basically two options MMOs have with character creation: “You’re good at what you do most” or “pick a class”. The first option is the most interesting, because it gives players a LOT of room for creating their character as they see fit, but the second option is a lot more clean and functional, as well as easier to work with. Ideally, one would use the first system, but that requries a lot of balancing, etc.

I think I would probably choose the second option, though, for it’s cleanliness and functionality, as well as ease of use. When it comes to PvP, having predefined classes and unique silhouettes is good, so that players know what to expect from other players.

Obviously, I would want to cover the basics first. Don’t confuse players at the get-go… just ask simple questions, like: “do you want to hit things in the face or shoot fire balls?”

One would choose one of a few simplified classes that cover the basic archetypes, such as:

Warrior, Mage, Cleric and Ranger

These could even be simplified into: Warrior and Mage, because Cleric and Ranger are simply sub-types of Warrior, but to make it easier, Cleric and Ranger can have their own class.

From there a player would learn the basics of their class and what it implies. After they have learned that, they would then be able to choose two sub-classes for their character, which define them even further.

Warriors would be able to choose 2 of the following:

- Paladin for shield tps/hps [Tank/Healer]

- Berserker for spike tanking/dps [Melee DPS]

- Paragon for shield tps/support/dps [Tank/Support]

- Champion for 2h spike damage/dps [Best Melee DPS]

- Mageknight for ranged dps/support/dots [Best Ranged DPS/Support/Melee DPS]

Mages would be able to choose 2 of the following:

- Pyromancer [Best Ranged AoE DPS]

- Nightblade [Best Melee DPS]

- Hydromancer [Healer/CC]

- Warlock [Tank/DoTS]

- Astronomer [Support]

Clerics would be able to choose 2 of the following:

- Chaplain [Melee DPS/Group Healer]

- Librarian [Ranged DPS/Single Heals+Shields]

- Monk [Melee DPS/Tank]

- Psychopomp [Tank Healer/Ranged DPS]

- Witch Hunter [Ranged DPS/Support]

Ranger would be able to choose 2 of the following:

- Assassin [Melee Spike Damage/CC]

- Warden [Tank/Support]

- Marksman [Ranged DPS]

- Minstrel [Healer/Support]

- Engineer [Ranged DPS/Melee DPS/Support]

As discussed before, no skill or item or player would ever be better than another. We’re aiming for the game to be 95% skill, 5% RNG.

Weapons will be balanced to be funtionally the same, with different values, such as: swords deal medium damage with medium speed, daggers do less damage with more speed and deal bonus damage if you are behind your target, axes deal medium damage with low speed but cleave to nearby enemies, hammers deal heavy damage with low speed, bows have longer range but less damage than crossbows and guns have the least range but the highest damage. Heavy armor lowers your movement speed but has the most physical negation, chain is medium, leather is light but has less negation and cloth gives bonuses to using magic, while giving very little negation. No class would have restrictions on what they can wear, except that your Strength would determine how much you can carry and plate armor weighs a lot.

That brings us to stats. You don’t want to have too many, but you also want enough so that players need to make interesting choices about gear rather than just pour everything into ONE stat.

With that in mind, we’d use these stats:

Strength: Determines chance to block, damage dealt and hit rating with axes, hammers and swords. Also determines your chance to successfully intimidate someone.

Dexterity: Determines chance to evade, damage dealt and hit rating with daggers, bows, guns and crossbows. Also determines your chance to successfully trick someone.

Endurance: Determines health regeneration, maximum health and chance to parry.

Intelligence: Determines maximum mana, damage dealt and hit rating with elemental and arcane magic. Also determines your chance to successfully outsmart someone.

Wisdom: Determines mana regeneration, healing dealt and damage dealt with holy and nature magic. Also determines your chance to successfully convince someone.

This game would also focus a LOT on utility. Each class would have their own unique utility abilities that would help outside of combat. These skills give players a feeling of usefulness as well as immersion within the world.

Some examples would be: Rangers would be able to pick pocket enemies and pick locks.

Warriors would be able to construct campfires to give rested buffs to allies and give bonus regen

Clerics would be able to create Ankh’s which allow players to resurrect themselves

Mages would be able to create portals to major land marks and conjure healing and replenishing stones.

Also, on the topic of races and racial abilities: I like racial abilities that really make each race feel different. Yes, min-maxers WILL choose a certain race to make themselves better at a certain thing, but most people will just choose whichever race they like most. Racials should present interesting choices for players.

Humans would be an obvious choice and would probably have something to do with leadership, etc…

 

Also, when it comes to questing, instead of gaining experience, you either gain gold, reputation or badges of heroism. Badges of heroism can be used at class trainers to learn new spells to add to your arsenal. When you start your character, you gain enough spells to make a decent skill build.

Each player has somewhere between 8 – 12 skill slots as well as an elite slot and an ultimate slot. An elite spell is a special ability that is generally just better than your other skills, while your ultimate is usually a long cd big ass boom boom.

The Evolution of MMO’s

The World of Warcraft MMO formula is dying. In it’s place are story-driven MMOs, like SWtoR, dynamic content MMOs like Rift and Guild Wars and free to play MMOs.

First of all, the subscription model is HORRIBLE for a video game. It encourages players to ration their play time, which is bad and it encourages developers to be lazy with releasing content, since the customer has to pay to play, not to receive content.

If I were going to make an MMO, it would be a PAY to play game, without a subscription fee, but with a MICRO transaction shop. I had to capitalize the word MICRO because it seems that modern day video game developers have forgotten what that implies.

If a customer cannot by your internet currency in $1-5 increments, then you aren’t making a micro transaction. If a costume in a video game costs $10, then you are JIPPING your customers. Fuck that. A GOOD indy game is $10… a dress in a game is NOT worth that.

My game would cost $40. You would purchase your game and get a multiplayer adventure from beginning to end. You may also pay from $1-5 for cosmetic things, like costumes, quality-of-life items et cetera from the Micro Transaction Shop.

Obviously the appeal of MMOs is the vast amount of things you can do. A solid MMO should include single-player content, 2-3 player content, 5-8 player content, 10-20 player content and even 20-60 player content.

There would totally be PvP content, including organized, instanced PvP objectives, as well as open world PvP and PvP zones. There would also be instanced and non-instanced PvP Arenas.

If I made a game, there would be no level system. A player would start with 60 stats and be able to distribute them equally among their attributes. Each player would also be able to fill out a trait web, to gain interesting modifiers for their skills and play-styles. Each skill would have at least one attribute modifying value, but no skill would be necessarily better than another. As the player completes objectives, they would gain some source of resource to get access to more skills, as well as items.

Itemization would involve getting the item that is right for you, not items that are just BETTER than another. If your build was around using Mauls and dealing lots of single target spike damage, you’d probably use a Maul with some lightning properties.

Light armor would give some protection, but allow for more mobility… et cetera. Heavy armor would do the opposite. Magic armor would provide bonuses to your magic blah blah blah

Character progression would be more based around unlocking things, rather than upgrading things. Players would unlock titles, cosmetic gear, mini-pets, in-game housing stuff, utility items, vanity items, mounts and lineage points.

Lineage points would be the resource used in a special system for user created content. As a player progresses, they can buy a house, a guild hall and shops. Once they’ve gained a certain reputation and have gathered enough Lineage points, a player may be able to create their own dungeon. Each room, mob, boss, boss mechanic, trap, item, quest, et cetera in their dungeon costs lineage points to implement. There will be a series of rooms with a series of atmospheres and themes which can be combined to create a dungeon.

 

Also, questing would involve several different storylines, such as Main quests, side quests, class quests, race quests, faction quests and lineage quests. Main quests would further progress the story line of the zone and the game overall. Side quests would be like main quests but on a smaller scale. Class quests would be story quests about your character that involve over coming obstacles that challenge your skills with your class (e.i. stealth classes stealth around… steal things… sneak by things… assassinate targets, while tanky classes take on tons of mobs and have to survive… ). Race quests further the story of your race and test your use of your racial abilities. Faction quests are quasi-PvP quests that involve interaction with the other factions. Lineage quests further the story of your bloodline, which reward you with Lineage points as well as other perks.

 

 

Blacksmith or Alchemist

http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/resource_images/2/skins_1433_screenshot.jpg

 

Innate: Heat

 This Hero doesn’t use mana. Instead, each of his spell casts give him heat. He gains +1 damage for each Heat heat he has. He loses 1 heat per 2 seconds. If he reaches 100 Heat, he is stunned for 3 sconds and takes 200 magic damage.

Skill 1: Overflow

 While active, all nearby enemies take magic damage per second and have their armor lowered by 2/4/6 for the next 6 seconds. This spell costs 5 Heat per second.

Skill 2: Flamethrower

 Jets of flame irrupt from your golem’s chest, dealing magic damage in a cone every 0.25 seconds for the next 4 seconds. This spell costs 50 Heat to cast.

Skill 3: Baptism by Fire

 Throws a cocktail at the area, which douses it in flame, which deals magic damage and knocks back nearby enemies while also healing allies. This spell costs 25 Heat to cast.

Ultimate:  Unleash

 The blacksmith’s golem goes ape shit, removing the stun and magic damage effect from his passive for the next 18 seconds. In this form, he gains bonus movement and attack speed. During this form, Flamethrower is no longer channeled and Baptism stuns for 2 seconds.

 

If the custom skins is not used, I will just change the hero to an Alchemist, using the original skin. Heat will become Instability, Overflow will stay the same (but with gas instead of fire), Flamethrower will stay the same  (ish), Baptism will become Unstable Concoction and Unleash will become Chemical Rage.

Crag, the Golem

Innate: Boulder

Crag gains bonus attack damage. He may choose to throw a boulder, which damages and stuns the first enemy it hits. Crag looses his attack damage bonus for 15 seconds after casting this spell.

Skill 1: Stalagmite

 Punches the ground, causing a stalagmite to punch through the ground at the target point. If there is an enemy unit there, they are knocked into the air towards Crag and take magic damage. Once the target reaches Crag, all nearby enemies take magic damage and are stunned for 1 second.

Skill 2:  Meld

Crag dissembles and reassembles in a new location.

Skill 3: Landslide

Throws a barrage of rocks at the target location, dealing damage and slowing enemies in the area.

Ultimate: Rocksteady

 Crag gains incredible armor and bonus strength for a short duration.

Ninja

Innate: Shadow Strike

 Your next attack critical strikes. When this happens, this innate goes on cooldown for the next 15 seconds. Every attack will lower the cooldown by 1 second.

Skill 1: Preparation

Increases your attack damage and causes your attacks to slow your enemy’s movement speed by 25%.

Skill 2: Marked For Death

 Silences the target and lowers their armor by 4/6/8 for the next 6/8/10 seconds.

Skill 3: Dash

 Dashes to the target point and increases your attack speed by 15/30/45% for the next 6 seconds.

Ultimate: Blade Dance

 For the next 2/4/6 seconds, you attack a random enemy unit within 400 range every 0.25 seconds. This is channeled.

PvP MMO in a nutshell

Why has no one made a multi-class, third person arena based PvP fantasy game… without all that MMO bullshit that comes attached. That needs to happen. Like, Guild Wars, but more refined.

For example:

A player chooses a class…

like Warrior, Mage, Assassin and Cleric.

 KEEP IT SIMPLE.

Each class would have like… 25-40 abilities and each player would choose 8 skills before a fight.

SIMPLE.

Then people fight.

 FUCK that sounds fantastic. Why doesn’t this exist (minus Guild Wars 1)

Gargantuan

 

Innate: Cleave

This hero’s attacks cleave onto adjacent enemies.

Skill 1: Ripper

This hero’s next attack deals bonus magic damage and heals this hero for 50% of the damage dealt.

Skill 2: Crusade

Channel up to 4 seconds. After channeling, you gain +15% movement speed for every .5 seconds channeled, which lasts for twice the duration you channeled. After this buff dissipates, all nearby enemies take magic damage and stunned.

Skill 3: Boreal Aura

All nearby enemies are slowed by 10/20/30%.

Ultimate: World Ender

Slams the ground, dealing physical damage to all enemies within 400 range. If any enemies within the area have less than 4/5/6% of their maximum health, they instantly die.

Project Grapevine v.5 Closed Beta

Okay guys, Project Grapevine is almost ready for open beta.

The hero roster is only 12 heroes for now, but I have plenty of heroes on the drawing board.

 

Fighting Game Design Addendum

Fighting games, like everything Japanese, seem to be getting more and more complex and convoluted with each iteration on the formula. Fuck that. The whole reason that fighting games are so easy to pick up and play is because it is about two guys punching each other. Stop putting stupid game mechanics in the way of that. Now, with that said, I wouldn’t design a game like Karate Champ and call it a tournament fighter, but I’m tired of games with more than 2 resource gauges, multiple movement modifiers for characters (Chaos Code, Melty Blood) and grooves (CvS1 + 2).

What makes tournament fighting games so amazing to watch and play? Hype. The key to making a hype game is allowing the players to play around with a deep combo system and discover crazy combos and counters and counters to counters. Add a little random-ness to the mix and you get hype.

My first act in designing a fighting game would be to lay down the mechanical ground work. As I said in an earlier post, my fighting game would be a 1 versus 1 fighting game. Each player would start off with a set amount of health, somewhere between 100 and 200 to make the numbers easy. Each player would also have a basic gauge, called the Blood meter, which increases from 0 – 100 as a player hits another (through clean hits or blocked hits). This blood gauge will be separated into quarters, at 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% full. A player can use 25 Blood points to enhance a special move (EX). The player may also pay 50 Blood points to cancel a special move into another. The player may pay 75 Blood points to use their Ultimate move and the player may choose to pay 100 Blood points to buff their character, which increases their damage output by 25% and allows them to EX or cancel their specials at no cost for the next 10 seconds. When activating Bloodlust, your character breaks out of any hitstun or blockstun that they are currently in.

The game would run with a 4 button setup, two kicks and two punches, with light and heavy versions of each. A grab can be done by pressing both the light punch and light kick buttons at once with either forward or backward, depending on which direction you want the throw them. The other player has 20 frames (1/3 a second) to also press the grab command to tech the enemy throw. When a throw is teched, both players are stunned for a short time and pushed backwards, out of grab range. The second gauge will be the block gauge, which is similar to health, except it only has 50 health, which replenishes quickly after 2 seconds of not being in blockstun. When a player blocks an attack, they take the damage in their block gauge instead of their health. Certain moves may chip, which means that they deal half damage to block and half to health, but those are rare. If a player’s block gauge reaches zero, they will be stunned for 2 second. Some moves may specifically reduce a player’s block gauge instead of dealing damage, but those are rare as well.

 

I guess I’ll start with some ideas for characters.

 

My first character is a fat pirate captain with a peg leg, a hook hand, a beard that holds two pistols with a cannon hidden underneath it and a sword.

His normals involve him attacking with his hook, his sword, kicking and swinging his peg leg around. His Light Punch move makes his beard shoot it’s pistols, which can be done twice in rapid succession, with a 1 second cool down for him to reload.