bestmmoever

 

• 3 ways to pay & play :
  1. free – any race / class with gear / AA / spell upgrade limitations, mercenary limitations, helps with general population / try game for free.
  2. Option 1 ) monthly subscription ~ $10-$15 / month, no limitations
  3. Option 2) time based subscription : no limitations except when your time runs out : eg. 50 hours log in time = $10.  Real Life gets busy sometimes, or you can only play weekends, or you work 2 weeks at a time out of town : no problem. that $10 could last you 2-3 months and you can still get full benefits of a monthly subscription.
• Directx 11 only – Shader model 5.0, Tessellation (way higher polygon count for very little performance decrease). 64 bit only.  Dual core minimum. 4+ GB RAM required.  Windows 7+ only.  1366×768 (16:9) or 1280×1024 (4:3) minimum resolution.  (many polls, eg. click on tanks under races/classes)

• You can’t even buy a video card or CPU (new) that isn’t DX 11 compatible
• A very very fast DX11 GDDR5 1 GB tessellation card is $100-$150, and windows 7 or 8 is under $125 as of 2013
• DX 11 video cards were released with 4xx Nvidia and 5xxx ATI/AMD cards in 2010.
• 8 GB of DDR3 RAM in 2014 and 2015 = $80 or less.
• any half-assed $800 laptop as of 2012 is capable of 1366×768 if 15.6″ or larger with DirectX 11 and Windows 7 or 8.
• the last 32 bit processor or single core processor was made in 2006.

• Option to make it use 2 screens : 1 screen can have things like main chat window, and hotbars and action screen. 1 screen can have things like compass, other chat windows, inventory screen, etc on it.

• Progression should not be a privilege based on time invested.

  Progression will be a reward based on skill.

• What makes bad games : pandering to the lowest common denominator.  Not here. Raise the fun by raising the lowest common denominator, not lowering it so anyone anywhere anytime can reach max level in a few months.  On a 7 year old $100 computer=no.  If my 4 year old can do it, I cannot take pride in what I have accomplished.

• Ideal group size = 6, max group size = 8, Raid size = 32-64    (5 % exp group penalty for each person added over 6.  Difficult areas will make having 8 vs 6 more worth it, risk vs reward – less risk = 8, less reward.)  (raid designed areas will not suffer this penalty, group sizes in raids will ideally be 8)
  • You can adjust your group window to shuffle players and display (and thus target hotkey) to anywhere (ie. All tanks in top 2 slots if you wish) via click and drag.
• copy of what EQplayers.com used to do – online data base search of player names, levels, guild, previous guilds (if you want those listed), stats, gear
• 4 levels of NIGHT VISION based on race, items, buffs: very poor (Human/Barbarian), low, medium, and perfect (Dark Elf only).  Like EQ1 in 1999, but more variety and realism – Aside form dark elf, other races will have limited distance of how far they can see in the dark properly.  Fighting at night should be dangerous and scary – every other game is boring and not even risky fighting at dusk / dawn / night. omg please stop the boringness of the other dozen crappy MMO’s.
• almost exclusively PVE not PVP game.  (might be dedicated server for PVP)
• This will be a mature game for mature players , with risk and reward and sense of pride.
• Any player can solo at any time – just fight enemies lower level than you and spend lots of money on potions and mercenaries.  There. Problem solved.  Aren’t you glad you’re playing a massively multiplayer game with other players now ?
• Fights and encounters in a good group will last 1-3 minutes per enemy : this makes debuffs and dots meaningful.
  • WoW / Rift encounters that last 5-20 seconds mean any long casting nuke, or dot , magic resist debuff or slowing attack speeds
    have little effect on the actual fight outcome or ensuing downtime.
  • In short encounters equal level to you, your abilities are somewhat meaningless, as is your skill.  You suck and we won’t know it in short fights.
• An enemy 1 level higher than you will probably kill you if you are solo.  Two enemies 1-2 levels lower than you will also probably kill you.  Find friends, communicate and play smart.  This is a massively multiplayer game with group sizes designed to be 6-8 people.
• Every class will be wanted in a group due to every class having a good role to fill and enough spaces that 7 non-healers can join 1 group with just 1 healer.  Non-clerics will be a very viable healing option for a group.
• Mentoring / leveling down to group with friends – poor exp for the higher level, but it allows you to play with friends of any level
  • Hotkey set up to swap gear / spells / abilities for that level restriction, if you = half level of what you were, you get half the stats to put everything on a level and challenging playing field to prevent way too easy of power leveling with little risk.  Risk = reward.
• Item linkage will be available like in EQ1 – where you can link an item anywhere anytime even if you don’t own it.
• Items will have recommended and required level, and scale appropriately  (eg level 20 recommended item will have half stats at level 10, but same delay if a weapon)
• One Character can pick multiple classes (not multi-class at same time) at your home city, and can change your class in the field, if your race can pick that class.
  • Picking a new class you haven’t played with that character will set you at level 1 with that class.
  • Picking a new class with the same character will keep all faction and locked content you unlocked not needed to be repeated
  • doing a long series of quests to unlock certain areas will likely unlock the account and all characters on that account
  • Your level = your class level and will not be lost unless you choose the risky path of losing experience at the risk of more experience gain
• Items will have sockets for augments, and remove-able augments
• some Armor will have reactive procs when hit as well (temp buffs, stuns, heals, direct damage blowback, etc)  (some enemies will be wearing armor with the some of these effects !)
• Ability to inspect other players (much like Rift)
• Faction will matter and can be adjusted, but from max kill on sight to ally max faction will not take months like EQ1.  2-3 weeks max.
• Items will be sellable and buyable via a broker if not sold in auction / general chat channel.  (much like Auction house / buyout option in other games)
• Colour blindness will be taken into account and crazily customizable – including color intensity : Difficulty consider colours of others will be 100 % customizable (blue does not have to mean lower level).  Almost anything with colour (including health bars) will be 100 % costumizable – including (as example only) option to turn a full red health bar yellow’ish gradually when under 25 %.
• Instancing – Minimal – interacting with others, good or bad, is what makes for a massively multiplayer game.  Instancing encourages finding friends who help you take out trains, do rezzes, corpse retrievals, buff swapping, merging groups.  Instancing makes the world feel less connected and real.  A lot of Raids will be instanced with lockout timers on a win.
• Instancing=mostly no. (except a lot of raids) It makes it very difficult for someone to join you for 30-60 minutes if that’s all they have, and you’re working in an instanced quest which requires a dedicated amount of time, or share loot.  That is the reason instancing will be limited.
• Level based.  Skills based is no different than level based, other than you could group with someone with no skills to keep you or themselves alive.
• Level 1-5 = 5-10 hours.  30 level cap + a lot of Alternate advancement starting at level 5.  Each level after level 5 = ~ 5 – 7 hours / level if in a good group
• Levelling will grant a +1 attributeable to any stat of your choice, and +1 to any resistance you choose.  Possibly consumeable rare raid items or very long hard quests may drop allowing you the same choices.
• Each race will have unique positives and negatives associated with that race.  No race exp penalties.
• Each deity you worship will have positives and negatives associated with that deity stat wise.  There will be at least 6-8 deities to choose from.  Unsure if you will be able to change that.
• Raiding and guild raids starting at level 10.  Max raid size = 8 groups of 8 = 64 man raid size.  Level 10-25 = normally 32 man raids.
• Food and drink will affect mana and stamina regeneration, possibly max hit points, mana, stamina.  It will be almost necessary to carry food / water on you at all times to be fully effective.  Cold environments will make you consume more food, hot environments will make you consume more drink.
• Complete UI customization, with some basic defaults to choose.  External UI builds (like RIFT), easy customization of buff and spell icons
  • Upon game startup, about 20 commonly used keys (like movement, inventory, character stats, etc) quick option to set up
  • FDSE = smart movement keys (typing home row keys) .  WASD is just…silly, you lose an entire vertical row of keys for easy access (6,r,f,v)
  • Non-broken voice chat.   EQ, and yes even Starcraft 2 = broken, no where works 100 % .  bad programming.  Not here.
  • Too many things to mention here
• Audio / text triggers for various texts coming in, just like EQ1.  Option for audio warning when running low on self life or low mana, or a warning from another player (handy for healers wanting to keep an eye on a tank or crowd controller)
• You play online mostly to play and group with friends or random people.  Almost any other game you can play by yourself, not here.  Community builds fun.
• Spell slots (like EQ1) require pre-planning, having 20-40 spells available all the time as a caster is…both overpowering and gives you carpel tunnel syndrome
  • Spell casters start with 4 slots at level 1.  (this is a lot – level 50 wizard in diablo 3 gets 4 spells slots)
  • Hybrid classes (Warmage, Ranger, Bard, Death Knight, Paladin) start with 2 spell slots at level 1.
  • Spell slots increase with level so that at level 30 casters get 8 spell slots, hybrid classes get 6 without Alternate advancement points.
  • Spells memorized can be unmemorized / re-memorized with a click of a button (but require you to sit down & gain aggro)
  • Alternate advancement clickable options can be hotbarred to effectively add to spell slots.
• Spell level strength – level 1 = vendor, level 2 = group mob drop, level 3 = researched, level 4 = raid or LONG hard quest drop.
  • Each higher level costs the same mana, but could be lowered resistance, increased duration, increased buff strength or duration, or increased healing, faster cast time, etc
    • Level 1 = 100 %, level 2 = 125 %, level 3 = 150 %, level 4 = 200 %
• Spells can be researched with found components
• beneficial spell buffs will generally not be concentration buffs – this encourages buff swapping between people and groups and builds community, and allows money or item trade for buffs
• In general – the faster the spell cast timer, the more stamina it will drain.
• Sprinting = yes, drains stamina fast.
• In general, the closer to your encumberance limit you are (strength vs weight) the faster your stamina will drain when jumping, swimming, sprinting, swinging weapons, even running
• Spells will be done via spell book (very much like EQ1)
• You need to have something productive and hopefully fun to do when you have 5-60 minutes you cannot dedicate to a group.
  • this could include crafting, rezzing, summoning corpses, teleportation, power leveling
• 3 bars : Health, Mana, Stamina.  A full charge sitting down meditating from empty at level 20 = 5 minutes without regen buffs.
  • Stamina will be used for spells (short fast casting spells = more stamina usage, rezzes = huge stamina usage)
  • Stamina will be used for melee tactics (grapple, backstab, general swinging of weapons, taunts, etc)
  • Heavier weapons will use more stamina per swing, below 50 % stamina = slower swing speed, slower cast speed, less avoidance and dexterity
• Death can make you lose experience, possibly levels and depending on the risk you wish to take –  This highest risk of losing items on your corpse (that you need to retreive later) will also yield the most experience gain on kills.  Experience resurrections will exist starting at level 1.
• Corpse dragging = yes with permission (default ON when starting the game with group, guild and raid.)
• Bandoliering (hotkey swapping) of weapons / shields = yes
• You can choose to not lose experience or money or gear upon death, but you will gain experience slower than someone risking huge downtime getting back gear, corpses, experience.
  • This will be toggle-able with re-set timers to prevent abuse, and will aid casual gamers with limited friends or guild exposure for corpse retrievals.
  • Corpse retrievals can be done from your home town, at a cost of money and time to run there and run back to your group.
  • Corpse retrievals can be done with option for experience rez for at least 12 hours online time after you die, and up to 2 weeks offline.
• Mercenary choices – Wizard, Rogue, Warrior, Cleric, one per character, upgradeable via long quests.  Swappable, one mercenary active at any time per person.  (see more detail under “fights, experience and loot)
• Group merging = yes.
• Raid window = just like EQ1 with improvements.  customizable colours for classes or even players, raid leader able to quickly and easily change group leaders within the raid. Guild Raid loot on points with history clickable also an option.
• In game DKP spending tracking list of who won what, when, customizable costs from officers and guild leader, points awarding, attendance lists, etc.
• Wizard and druids can teleport others.  Caster classes can self gate to bind point.  Everyone else will have to use either expensive potions or will find friends.  EQ1 allowed wizards and druids to advertise “taxi rides” for a fee – it encouraged finding friends, and the casual wizard / druid with only 30 minutes to spend to make some money and help out the online community at the same time.
• Travel time from a City to the most remote adventure area will be planned to take average of 10 minutes to maximum 15 minutes without a run speed enhancement or teleport.
• Potions will be varied, mostly player made, stackable, and expensive to make and buy.
• Almost all items will be tradeable and NOT SOUL BOUND, (except epic gear and some high end raid gear).  This makes the item degredation less of an issue.  Think of WoW and RIFT where almost everything is always soul bound, and you cannot sell it – having degradation could be a bad thing there – as most items are soul character bound.  Stupid idea, and we won’t have that here.
• Slow Item degradation with use of components to repair.  There will be a durability number, often from 0-100, but some over 200 .  There will also be a condition 0-100 %.  Durabilty and condition will only decrease with use, not time equipped.  (thus banked items can last forever).  The condition will be multiplied on all stats on item (including damage, armor, or other stats). Dark age of Camelot did this, and Diablo had item degredation. All your items being soul bound unsellable like WoW and Rift is 1000x worse than item repair.
  • This prevents saturating the market forever.  (although players quitting also does this)
  • A non-magical non-rare item will need to be repaired about every 6 hours of non-stop constant fighting and getting hit for 10 % degredation of condition.
  • A non-magical non-rare item will have on average, about 1 % durability loss per repair per 10 % condition repaired.
    • This will have a common non-magical item last about 100 x 6 = 600 hours of non-stop fighting before it’s no longer useable.
      • At 4 hours per day, that will mean an item will last 600/4 = 150 days if you played 4 hours per day every day. (or 6 months)
  • Magical items from group mobs or raids will last longer.
  • NPC’s will repair with double durability loss vs a player doing it – this encourages economy, tradeskilling, and ability to make money if you can only play 30-60 minutes in a session.
• Money sinks will be bountiful – potions, corpse retrievals, item repair, spells, abilities for melee, etc.
• NPC interaction will be via mouse click, including chat options for quests and such
• Free to play level 1-10, no restrictions on any class, there will be money and inventory limit, vendor (weak) spells only scribe-able, and able to speak in general / auction chat  (as a simple right click on your name on chat prevents spam to others for at least 1 week)
• Ability to right click on any 1 person name in chat and choose “ignore in general chat” OR “ignore in all chat” (and a toggle to turn on / off if you misclick)
• Ability to write your own bard songs…somehow, maybe
• In game Tutorial  (with updates of what keys / buttons to press of what you customized to engage in combat, to heal, do spells, etc)
• Bags and custom made bags with various farmable materials, not one inventory bag like Dark age of Camelot.
• Quivers = yes, bow haste
• Crafting : Research (spells etc), tailoring (bags, leather, cloth), smithing (metal, weapons, armor), jewelcrafting, cooking,
• Fire enemies will degrade wooden and cloth items more quickly, as will fire damage shields, Acid spewing enemies will degrade metal weapons and armor more quickly – thus leather armor can be useful !
• Weapons and some armor will have proc(ess) effects – self heal, group heal, direct damage, damage over time, magic debuffer, root, snare, stun, agro increaser, etc
• Shields will have proc(ess) effects upon bashing, similar to weapons.  The will also have great defense, at the cost of lower melee dps
• All classes will be able to bash except Casters, Druid, Shaman
• jump = yes, some classes / races better than others
• Encumberance = yes – lower agility, run slower, walk slower, swim much worse.  weight and strength matter.
• 100 copper = 1 silver, 100 silver = 1 gold, 100 gold = 1 platinum – GOOD items in the game will be worth 2-3 months of savings from battles
• banks / shared banks = yes, upkeep fee for shared banking / banking anywhere (moneysink), but nominal fee.
• Levitation will be an important buff requirement for some zones and encounters
• Flying upwards= no  (not without a knockback spell from another entity, at least)
• Falling damage will be punishing (more damage taken if you weigh more), and mitigated with agility somewhat
• underwater fighting will be rewarding with experience and loot
• Rangers will be powerful with bows (not like EQ1 from 1999-2007), and can viably use weapons and emergency tank for a bit if need be.
• fight encounters are not locked, enemies walking back to their spawn points will aggro anyone in their way.  Whichever group did the most damage to the enemy gets 100 % of the experience (to prevent zero risk power levelling)
• you will be able to yell for help with an enemy (both via audio and text within a range).
• Slash, blunt, and piercing weapons will do varying amounts of damage to varying types of enemies and armor types
• Guild banks – various ranks = various access, slots for guild boxes cost $$ initially and over time (money sinks=good)
• Things like finding hidden doors, traps, disarming traps, strength to push open things, etc, will have the ability for the group to help out with diminishing returns due to space constraints (eg player #2 adds 50%, player #3 adds 25 %, etc)
• Risk vs. reward is a good thing.
• Risk vs. reward is a good thing.

More Ideas you’d like to see ?  feel free to e-mail me, Ryan Perich, at rperich@telus.net or post comments !

(please do not post comments about “make this game so I can kick ass by myself without any help or any thing having to do with multiplayer” – we have 20 games like it out there)