So what's next?

So Project Overlord is on the back burner. I had the design doc just about complete, and then decided to just skip the whole web platform for now, and start working on a real game.

I have some ideas in my head, but I need to play around for a bit with the toolset I just purchased (Torque 3D for anyone wondering). Not sure what my first foray will be - I want to jump right in and start working on a MMO, but my gut tells me I need to do something small first to get acclimated to the toolset and to brush up on my C++.

Just a quick update for now, will post more once I have spent some time with my new toytoolset.

Project Overlord (working title)

So I was talking with my boss today, who is the original developer of Chivalry. It's a small web-based game that is somewhat like RISK. Development on it has pretty much tapered off, but we talked about maybe bringing it back from the dead (again).

It got my mind working, and I started tonight putting a design document together for my own web-based game. Right now, the working title is "Project Overlord". I am planning on it being a 2D, web-based game using XHTML and Javascript for presentation. Nothing overly fancy. But I want it to be engaging and damn fun to play. Something people can waste some time at work keeping up on, but not requiring them to sit in front of the computer like zombies in order to make meaningful progress.

It will be quite a while before actual development begins. I have the basic document completed but I need to go back through and flesh out several areas. I am planning to make this a free-to-play game, with a subscription component that doesn't really affect gameplay. It will probably be ad-driven for revenue, with the subs removing the ads.

The general idea is somewhat akin to an old BBS door game called 'Exitilus'. I'm sure not many of you remember this game as it is a bit over a decade old. Anyhow, the general premise is to become the "top ruler" in the game. You will do this by working your way up from a commoner to eventually a king. There will be politics, combat and city management all rolled into one. In addition, your "player" will level up outside of each game instance to give you certain bonuses and abilities to be used inside the game.

It's going to be fun trying to balance this game - but I have high hopes for it. It's a concept I have been wanting to tackle for years. I don't have the time to develop a client/server game, so the browser and a database will have to do :)

I will keep the blog updated as I make my through this adventure.

Bad design in MMOs - part two - content vs advancement disparity

Introduction
Yeah, it's been not one, but two years since I posted part one of this series. You see, right after I posted that first piece, I met the love of my life - and we just got married this past weekend. Now aside from the cleanup from the wedding, I should have some time to sit back and relax and game - and write! So here we go

This post will cover what I call the "Content vs Advancement" disparity that I find prevalent in most level-based MMOs. I should state that this really doesn't apply to skill-based MMOs due to their nature of progression, though I am sure this can apply at some level to them as well.

What I mean by Content vs Advancement is that, in level based MMOs, any given piece of content is typically created for characters of a set level range. Each content area, whether that be an overland "zone", a dungeon or a raid instance, is usually only relevant to a small subset of the playing population. Once you out-level the content, there is no real reason to go back and visit that content, save for power leveling a friend, leveling an alt or helping a guildie or friend with a quest.

Sure, there may be some high level quests, or that one named mob who you always ran from that might bring you back - but this is more the exception than the rule. So what we have is content that is created that will only be experienced for a very small time, if at all. Some games have so *much* mid-level content, that players cannot possibly experience it all in the normal process of leveling.

The current trend
In most level-based MMOs, you have a few zones for level 1-10, a few zones for 11-20, a few more for 21-30, etc. Toss in a few dungeons here and there to spice it up and that's about it. Many of these games have enough content in each zone that a character can level through the content and into the next "tier" without ever experiencing the other 4-5 zones the developers created for this level range.

What ends up happening a lot, at least from my experience, is that you level a character and see maybe 30-40% of the leveling content. What a waste this is!

Now, as MMOs are ongoing, evolving (in a sense) worlds you have new players that pick up the game and start from the beginning, or you have experienced players starting alts. The problem is, most of the lower level zones tend to be empty - or at the very least sparsely populated.

What is my vision?
Ideally I want to see characters of all levels, working together through content. I want there to be a reason for uber_raider_92347 to go back to the starting zones - and actually be able to obtain something from doing so. Everything is so level focused in these games (remember, level based progression games) that there isn't much room for other options in this specific subset of the genre. Imagine if you logged in to a five year old game for the first time and there were dozens or scores of people in the "old world" zones. Remember at release time for your favorite level-based MMO? Remember all the groups forming? All the dungeons being explored? What if that experience could be maintained throughout the life of an MMO?

So how can we get there?

What can be done?
Well, there are several options in my mind as to how to combat this, and some games have tried to address this in a indirect way. EQ2 for example allows a high level character to "mentor" down to a lower level character and group with them. So you have a level 80 character becoming a level 23 character. Stats and abilities are scaled down, and abilities that they shouldn't have at this level become unusable. It's a nice idea, but has some flaws. The biggest one for me is losing abilities - some of which players come to rely on or are used to using while adventuring. It's kind of silly to ask players to keep two sets of hotbars - one for normal adventuring and one for mentoring.

In my mind, I would want players to have a reason to come back to zone or area because there is something for them at their current state of progression. So what can new games do?

Dynamic quest and mob scaling is one way to achieve this. What this would entail is quests automatically increase their "level" for each character. NewPlayer_0001 who is level 15 can get the quest just as VetPlayer_8762 can get the quest. The quest will be of appropriate level for both characters. In order to make it challenging and the rewards applicable to both, the mobs that need to be killed, or avoided, or whatever scale to the level of the character. The problem comes in when both players are in the same zone at the same time with the same quest. In order to break this apart so the quest is still applicable to both players and the mobs are the correct level, would be to instance each zone based on level. This is not something we should ever see in an MMO, imo. This leads to further breaking apart the "community" feel I personally believe an MMO should have.

Alright, so what else can we do? Well, another method combines an idea with other gameplay mechanics that would need to be in place - some of which I am not fond of. If you have locked encounters and limited grouping based on level - meaning you can only group with someone +/- 5 levels, for example - and quest/mob scaling, combined with an intelligent proximity aggro mechanism, you can have players of all different levels on the same quests, killing the same mobs, running the same dungeons. It's a solution, but not one I really like.

Another option is one I touched on concerning EQ2 - and that is the "mentor" system. I believe City of Heroes has a similar system that works in reverse - you can bring a lower level friend and their stats and abilities "scale up" - a sidekick system. Unfortunately, I think this is the closest you can get in a level-based game. I like EQ2's system a bit better out of the two, because it encourages higher level players to visit lower level content. So let's build on that a bit and see what we come up with:

-characters can scale their level, stats and abilities down to that of a lower level. No "student" required to mentor to. When you enter a zone, you optionally scale down to that level range. Probably on the top end of the range.

-Abilities you should not have at this level do not become unavailable. they are simply scaled back. This opens a small can of worms as far as exploits go - but it should be a non-issue if this idea is worked into the game from the start

-You receive experience at the same rate/scale as if you were your "normal" level. In other words, a level 80 character scaled to level 50 would receive experience amounts as if they were level 80 killing a mob that was around their level, or completing a quest about their level. Otherwise, why would a level 80 go to a level 50 zone and get level 50 experience?

-Gear is scaled back as well. Special effects on items remain but are also scaled back in power.

-Gear obtained is scaled up with level - so going back and getting that uber sword off a level 20 mob might actually be worth it to a top-level character.

This allows players to play with each other a lot more instead of isolating each section of the population into different zones.

I could probably find a few more things to add in here, but my brain is tired.

In Closing
There really needs to be a way for players to experience all the content, on whatever characters they choose, even after they have "out leveled" it. My opinion is that the mentor system from EQ2, with some modifications, would be a great way for a future level-based game to address this issue. This is one thing I like about skill-based MMOs, is that this is really a non-issue for the most part.

How about you? What are your thoughts?

Button mashing madness

After a(nother) brief hiatus from gaming, which I took to prepare for my wedding - which is this Saturday, I resubbed my SOE station account. I am tinkering with EQ2 again, trying to get the "feel" back for my Paladin. I usually go through this stage when I come back to a game I have not played in a while.

For EQ, it's fairly easy. You have a ton of spells and abilities, but you can only have a handful "ready" at a time. In most other MMOs, you are only limited by the the amount of hotbars you can have open at a time.

Coming back to WoW was always a pain for me, because while there aren't a tremendous amount of spells and abilities, there are enough. I spend a few moments reviewing what the character has and then plot out what direction I want to take him - my main is a Shaman, so I have to decide on Melee, Caster or Healer.

Coming back to EQ2 however usually results in my popping open 3-5 hotbars and staring blankly at them for a few moments. This is exactly what happened this weekend when I logged into Din. One bar is mainly my offensive combat arts. Another is Healing/support buffs. Another is AoE and taunts. Yet another has some other buffs and some misc stuff. So I finally figure out where I had things last time I played and I set out for adventure.

I start fighting and then I remember one of my biggest issues with EQ2 - the massive number of abilities you use in a fight. On Din, I think I use, in every fight, 6-7 single target damage abilities. 2-3 AoE damage abilites, 2-3 different taunts - which I have to use to complete my Heroic Opportunities. Then I have my Ward and my Heals. It really makes WoW's 2-3 button fights seem like child's play. That being said, EQ2 is more like a faceroll.

I noticed the same pattern on my alts that I played with this weekend. By level 10, I had the equivalent of one full hotbar, with spells and abilities I use in almost every fight.

What possessed EQ2's developers to create a combat system with spells and abilities tuned this way is beyond me. Quality over quantity my friends. I would much rather have 2-3 direct damage abilities, 2 AoE and 2 taunts.

Right now, I have ~4500hp. By this measure, I assume the mobs I am fighting have around the same amount, +/- 1000 or so. I have 3-4 abilities that, when executed, deal all of about 200 damage - along with this I have one "big" attack that hits for 800-1000 and has a reasonably long refresh - I can use it maybe once per fight. My freaking auto-attack hits for about that much. Why not give me my 2-3 abilities that do ~500 each?

It seems like all classes are like this, with some having even MORE buttons to mash in a fight. In my opinion this is just overkill, and the only reason for this seems to be that SOE was attempting to show that EQ2 offered "depth" with the amount of spells and abilities. All they have accomplished with this is a very annoying click/buttonmash fest

What are your experiences in EQ2 with this facet of the game? Does you class require massive amounts of buttons and hotkeys for each fight?

Bad design in MMOs - Part One - BoE

Introduction
BoE, or Bind on Equip, is terminology used to describe a game mechanic where an item, once equipped by a player character, can no longer be traded or sold to another player in the game. There is another similar term BoP, or Bind on Pickup also known as Bind on Acquire, which provides the same mechanic, but it is applied when the player acquires the item instead of when they equip it. The umbrella term typically applied to the mechanic of tying a specific item to a player is "soulbinding". The argument for these mechanics is that they provide a way to restrict the flow of items in the game world and to help keep the value of desirable items high. The argument against, is usually that it restricts players' freedom and that it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense from a in-game (or possibly RP - Role Play) perspective.

Most players can accept a Bind on Pickup system for items that require a raid to obtain or a long quest chain to be completed, though there are some who believe that no items, under any circumstance, should ever be soulbound to a player. In Everquest, for example, most items were freely trade-able except for the high end raid-obtainable armor and weapons and epic weapons. Popular items, such as SSoY (Short Sword of the Ykesha) or Fungi Tunic were often seen for sale in the trade areas of the game. I even obtained a Fungi on my low/mid level warrior, as I spent a lot of time soloing. Items like these were also very popular on the external item selling websites, such as Player Auctions.

The Pros
Inflation is one thing in most MMOs that is very hard to avoid. As players become richer, they are more willing to pay more and more to twink out their alts. Eventually, that item that sold for 5 gold the first two months the game was available, is now selling for 75 gold a year and a half later. There is also reverse inflation, which typically happens when BoE is not implemented, wherein items that were once the elite must-haves, are now a dime a dozen. Many times, players spend days trying to sell these - when there was a time they sold almost as soon as they were put up for sale.

Twinking is a term that is used to describe the act of a player with a high level character, using money from that character to buy high-end items for one of their lower level charcters, commonly know as "alts" - short for "Alternatives" or "Alternative Characters". A BoE system helps curb this act in some regards, as there is not a high availability of high end items, as most of them are being or have been used already. However, Twinking is more effectively curbed using a level-restriction system - which requires a character to be a certain level before an item may be equipped.

The Cons
With a BoE system, players are no longer able to sell their old gear. Nor can they pass it along to a friend. In Everquest, it was quite common for a high level player to "donate" gear they had outgrown to a lower level friend or guildmate. It was also possible for higher level players to "farm" gear for lower level players. I know I was the recipient of a few high level items on my level 14 mage, thanks to a high level druid friend of mine. Many developers and some players think that this act will make the low level player overpowered; a "god among mortals". I would like to suggest that this is not the case. Sure, it makes them somewhat stronger - but I can guarantee you that my mage, and my warrior (who had a fungi tunic) was far from overpowered. When soloing, my mage still died. My warrior still had to sit forever after killing something to "heal up" - even with the regen bonus from the fungi tunic. However, I was not decked out with high level items. If my warrior, at level 30, had a full set of level 50 armor - then yes most likely he wouldn't be taking a lot of damage at all.

The freedom of helping out a lower level character, of twinking out your alts is something some of us cry foul over. Combine that with a RP (role play) aspect, and it really doesn't make much sense. How come, after I equip uber_sword_01, I can't give it to the guy standing next to me, but I can run across town and sell it to a NPC vendor?

I think the main gripe is though, that once you are done with an item, you are not able to sell it to another player for a decent amount of coin. In WoW for example, there are several BoE epic-quality items that are found and sold to players for hundreds, if not thousands, of gold. This is a prime market for so called "Gold Farmers". They spend hours and hours and hours doing nothing but killing mobs over and over again. They don't quest, they don't contribute the game world, except to steal spawns from legit players - and then sell the gold they acquire for real life money. They also acquire several items that can be sold to other players. With the BoE system in place, the gold farmers, at least in WoW, are the primary source for BoE epic-quality items. If BoE was not implemented, you could buy that new shiny hammer for 800 gold, then use it for a while, and then turn around and re-sell it. This alone would help curb gold farming. Since they would not be the near-sole supplier of these items, they would have a harder time selling them and hence, have a harder time meeting their quotas, possibly eventually forcing them out of their "job".

In Closing
BoE is a lazy system, by lazy developers. Most developers claim twinking is one of the big motivational factors along with preventing gold farming. Their reasoning that this prevents gold farming is that, gold farmers can run a dungeon/instance over and over again and then flood the market with obtained items. As stated, a level-restriction system helps stop massive twinking. To stop the farming of instances, there are other methods that can be implemented - instance lockout timers, modifications to the loot dropping system, etc. BoE has no place in today's MMOs and should never have been implemented in the first place. Come on guys - you are the ones getting paid to develop these games - give us back our freedom and curb the unwanted elements of the game with less restrictive mechanics.

Bad design in MMOs - Introduction

Curt Schilling posed a question to the posters of the FoH forums the other day, asking what was the one thing each poster hated about MMOs. The answers varied from quick replies, to long drawn out responses (mine was one of the later) which were accused of not even answering his question! For me, I picked two topics that really held weight with me, even though there are several I could have listed and expanded upon. Instead of polluting up Curt's thread, I am going to make a series of articles here which delves into some of the topics that are hot-button items with many MMO gamers, including myself. I will rehash the two topics I commented on in Curt's thread, but will attempt to touch on each topic in a structured way which presents the good and bad of each, instead of just off-the-cuff ramblings. Some of the topics will be borrowed from postings on Curt's thread, but I will comment on them in my own words and using my own viewpoint on them. The first article in the series should be hitting this blog later today.

MMO Development!

As a lurker and sometimes-poster over on the FoH boards I happened upon a MMO development project they have going on. I am a bit excited, even though I am not really an official contributer right now. Why am I excited? Well because even if I don't end up contributing (I would like to), it kind of pointed me in the right direction to start working towards developing an MMO.

I hadn't done a whole lot of browsing on MMO development lately, unfortunately - so I wasn't aware there is basically a ready-to-go kit out there. You just add content (worlds/terrain/cities/etc, spells and skills, models and textures and so forth) and off you go. I need to do some more research, but picking up a paid license for the kit. It's apparently the Torque game engine, combined with some extra stuff and tools. I dabbled around in the default game world for a little bit - following the first in a series of tutorials. I got stuck a few times, as the tools seem to be a bit buggy - but I am looking forward to playing around more with the development kit.

Hopefully I can start contributing something to the FoH project soon - but I think it might have to wait until they finish this first test game. We shall see :)

An idea takes shape

The last week and a half has seen me almost entirely stop playing Vanguard. Not because it's a bad game (some would argue that it is, though) - but because my friends aren't really playing much anymore.

Instead, I have started tinkering with WoW again - playing a Belfadin. Not too far along, but level 13 in 4.5 hours isn't too bad I suppose.

Anyhow, I have not had a lot of time to do much in the way of game development - but every night when I lay my head on my pillow I start playing with ideas for a game world. And now, I think I have one. It's not very novel or unique - but it's not something that has been overdone. I am still in the very early preliminary stages and need to get some basic lore drafted up.

With this new world in mind, I definitely think I will be working on some kind of a 3/4 (isometric) single player RPG. It's the type of setting that reveals itself as you progress through a story. I am getting a bit excited, as it's a concept that I have had in mind but not for a game. I can't give many details right now, but once I have a game done, I can relate how it's been a concept I (and some others) have had for a while :p