What I want in a MMO

[stragen]

Developers, Players, All,

After playing layo for more then two years now I'm pretty sure I will be playing the next version when it's released.

These are some of the idea/things that I would like to see:

If portraits are used, players are able to self manage their characters portraits. Also that their is a semi-automated process for downloading other characters portraits. And finally that their is some quality control for the portraits that are uploaded. That is, any portrait that you download is guaranteed to work in the game.

Players can select to turn on/off the floaty text above their own characters head. This will help other player realise the character 'is in disguise'. What may be even better is perhaps some automated contest of skills to determine if your character recognises the other character. At success means the floaty text appears over their head (this would be hard to do).


If descriptions are used, Players can edit and self-manage their characters descriptions.

That a character-sheet system is created to support the new game similar to the existing LORE system.

Cheers,

Stragen

[Krell Himmler]

Sounds like a good idea, personally I think what disapears most in MMO's is the tight knit community and the RP aspect.....when you pay a monthly fee it becomes hard to force people to act in a positive manner, but if they manage that; that is preserving the community and RP side of things I'm quite certain it would be a huge success, I know many people who quit MMO's because one or both were lacking.....

[Pseudonym]

Stragen's post seemed as good a place as any to pop one of my desires for the new MMO.

Much, MUCH longer between levels (or their equivalent) at the lower end of the scale. One of the things I always liked in PnP D&D was the nervous thrill at 1st level when your fighter was battling a skeleton and so much was riding on a single spinning d20. Where combat lasted 10+ rounds because both you and the monster needed an 18 or over to hit each other. In NwN how long does a character remain at level 1? (Assuming s/he is a proactive adventuring type) A half hour? An hour? I'd like it to be a week or two!




PS. And poison to last longer on weapons

[stragen]

Mate... from what I have read the Layo system may be 'levelless'. If you haven't tried a skills based system before have a look at GURPS. Still it is possible to create a Skill-Based system with levels.

What I want:

Disadvantages. Its what your character can't do that better defines who you character is. For example, the Iron Code of a Paladin, this is a disadvantage (or limitation). Being short sighted (lower spot?), or blind (much much lower spot!), crippled (reduced movement speed), these are all disadvantages.

Templates. Having a skills based system is good. But what would be nice is having some predetermined templates that would automatically suggest/assign some your characters skills as experience is gained. Also allowing one character to have multiple templates would be nice too. Eg you want to make a character who is a 'priest of Lucinda' the template would suggest/assign (some) of the skills automatically as experience is gained. As not all priest of Lucinda are the same the player would manually assign the rest of the skills, or use another template to assign the skills.

[Acacea]

I think skill presets are very important and are things that will have been considered if not already implemented, and if not, definitely needing to be. Not just for the casual player who wants to pick a stock role and doesn't like legos as much as some of us, but really for the whole NWN group and users like the NWN group that will carry over and be feeling out the waters. Even lego-users will be looking for ways to recreate the familiar classes and will use presets as starting points to make their rogues, monks, paladins, rangers, etc. Customization is a wonderful, wonderful thing, but it's not everyone's bag. Some people still hit the 'recommended' button even in Neverwinter Nights, forget a skill-based game.

So agreed there, especially for priests. It would be nice to have subsets for those as well, for simulating their different 'domains.' In the Lucindite priest example, you could have a preset for each ward of the church. (Yes, I know they will be obsolete, but we work with current information when giving examples...) So you would have, with updated equivalents, Priestess of Lucinda (Ardhon Gis); Priestess of Lucinda (Akh'faern Gis); Priestess of Lucinda (Uvaer Gis); Priestess of Lucinda (Cerlyn Wethrina) etc... just with the new divisions of the churches from the new writeups instead. You get the point. Similarly things like Mage - Evoker, Mage - Illusionist, etc, that collected same-type skills/spells together. Even though the schools of magic will not be D&D style, having even an unofficial set of presets (sharing them!) to replicate the past stuff would be nice.

Regardless of levels vs no-levels though, 'progression speed' is still a valid concept, I think.

Originally Posted by Pseudonym

PS. And poison to last longer on weapons

While I don't know how their poison system is going to work (or if it will be available right out of the gate, since you know the first version is going to be trim), I feel that we can be safe in assuming that it will be nothing like the current one. Yes, there are people working on the new stuff that have been listening to people whine about it for years and that have poison crafting characters, but more than that the simple reason that everything takes time to make and they don't have stacks of cash and a time machine. If it they bother to put in a poison system, it has an automatic priority of, you know, functioning. Making your own stuff means it either works or it's out, usually. There's not a lot of time to be wasted by spending it on something that's just as broken as the previous version... :P

So! I am reasonably confident that if there is a poison system, it will be thought out and serving a well-defined purpose, whether it is my favorite or not - if only because of the simple need for prioritizing and getting the most from their valuable time. While RP skills are nice and all that, I think it is important that all skills in a commercial game have a useful purpose - especially if it is a skill based game. Besides, can you imagine the reaction if they put in one just like our current one, only for pay this time? Customers are even uglier than players about that kind of thing, hehe.

[stragen]

Much, MUCH longer between levels (or their equivalent) at the lower end of the scale.

I'm not sure this is a good idea. If the game is too hard combat-wise, or too tedious (grinding) at low levels new players may not stick around to get hooked.

Getting through the equivalent of 'level 1' should be like doing the tutorial in NWN 2.

A tutorial level at the start of the game, where you got to learn the system and get a bit of practice at using the skill-based system might be a good idea. With the option to 'skip' the tutorial, the next time you make a character.

[lonnarin]

Crossing my fingers for a mailing system which supports item shipment and mailbox storage so that crafters can fill orders and deliver them hassle-free, perhaps even with C.O.D. options. The postal system could also charge the sender and have scaling rates per the value of the shipment to reflect insurance and extra security to deliver, which would help curb muling since it would be a heavy investment to the higher level characters handing off an item to a lower level one. Of course messages and notes would be a much lesser charge, but still not by any means free.

I'd also like to see political, tribal and moral factions and a reputation system in effect wherein one recieves discounts in some towns after completing so many missions, or ilk from temples who the adventurer does missions against. A good example of this kind of system was in Gothic 3, where the hero would go town to town completing quests for access to restricted areas in town, for training under skill masters and for plot progression towards higher quests. NWN quests are usually scattered all around the place and independant from eachother, while the ones in Gothic 3 build the player some reknown, personal progression and alliances, and can shift opposing factions against him. Town guards can also become hostile on sight if you have a bad enough reputation with them.

A crime and punishment system akin to Oblivion's would be fun, with opportunities for thieves to slink around and rob NPCs in town, incur the wrath of the guards, damage your local reputation and have your character imprisoned, fined, beaten, tortured or even put to death. It would also be fun for lesser crimes to force the criminal into the STOCKS! where other players can chip in cheering and throwing rotten fruit at them, and for executions to be public displays like hangings in the town square with criers calling out to the masses to watch routinely. It'd certainly be fun to a a persistant drow-hunting system! Everybody loves a good drow execution.

With a crime and punishment and opposing factions element tot he game, we could also introduce disguises like hoods and masks which reduce heat, so the players can sneak in and do some espionage or thieving.

Oh yeah, and there should be bread carts, so that thieves can actually get flogged and executed in some cases for stealing a loaf of bread! And a vender by the stocks who sells throwable rotten fruit. Charisma and social skills could play a roll in how badly a thief or thug gets punished, if at all. A slick thief gets a warning while a dumb and ugly one of a hated race gets flogged for minor infractions, with their reputation factoring in on the court's leniancy.

[Faldred]

Well, personally one of the things I would like (from a selfish standpoint, to be sure), is more options for being able to play without having to group all the time. Yes, the focus is on RP and group play, but having a reasonable number of interesting things that can be done by a single player would be very helpful to those of us who can only be on at unpredictable times and/or for short periods.

Honestly, I'd still be playing Zug if there were some way to have essentially turned him into a crafter/merchant, retired from adventuring, without having to schedule each transaction via the forums -- the shipping concept listed above would be a good start. Reducing the cost and resource entry barriers to personal houses/shops/etc. would also be nice (especially if they included a "drop box" that people could leave items in when the doors are closed).