Profile: CactusmanX
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• • Could an MMO with no NPCs work?

  • No I don't think so, unless the world was considerably different than your average MMO world.

    NPCs do things that most people consider boring.  Inn Keepers for example, to make inns useful you would need somebody manning the Inn at all times.  Players would not really want to do that.  Does anybody want to be a dedicated shop keeper and never leave the shop, or a dedicated drunk and stumble around town for atmosphere.

    You could add more player involvement like player owned shops and inns, but NPCs would be needed to run it.  NPCs also add more believability by adding people in the world that do not run around in a suit of armor industriously making and killing things all day, and then sometimes dissapear.  They are needed to have cities that feel like cities because NPCs can be permanent residents and do the less glorious jobs and not make cities just hubs where people occasionally meet up.

    I don't think it is an issue of giving players goals but more an issue of making a believable and interesting world.

  • Posted: 12/03/08 6:42 PM
    General Discussion
• • Alternate Forms of Achievement

  • But I have to wonder if people not focusing so much on looks of gear has to do with the fact that in many games gear stats play such a large part in the game that players can't afford to try and make a nice looking suit of armor.

    But I know what you mean about lack of statistical variety, which I would want to add but still maintain the balance.  And I already have plans for the visual variety.

    As of now armor has many possible stats like armor rating, weight, various resistances, social modifiers like intimidation or charm, camoflague etc. so when you make or find armor, it can have stats in any of those catergories but not nessacerily all, to try and add more variety to the armor but avoid uber gear, which limites gear choice and throws PvP off balance.

    Then there is durability and accessory slots (max of 4), which unlike the other stats, which must be balanced, can improve hierarchically, so that is some more incentive to chase down and make gear.

    Player created gear can actually be created with more flexibility towards apprearence and stats, so if you like the look of a chest piece but do not like the stats, a crafter could make you another chest piece with the same look but differenct stats.  Of course if the piece looks like heavy armor then it always will be.

    And of course gear can be destroyed for good, it isn't that likely to happen and with care can be prevented but it is still a possiblity, and more importantly it gives crafters reason to keep crafting replacement parts for gear to fix it and keep it from permanately breaking.

    My goal with gear is to give players ample choice in how they look but also retain some common sense about gear, ie heavy armor looking gear behaves like heavy armor, and retain a reason to craft and gear to discover.

  • Posted: 12/03/08 11:42 AM
    Developers Corner
• • Should friends be a deciding factor in which MMO you play?

  • I don't have any friends that play MMOs, so it does not matter to me.

    But if you find a game to be dull I don't think the addition of friends playing it with you is going to make that much a difference.

  • Posted: 12/03/08 11:06 AM
    General Discussion
• • Why doesn't someone make a....

  • Because your average MMO player doesn't want to have to aim at things and use player skill to win, they like the dice rolls and more passive combat of current MMOs because they consider it more tactical.

    TR, dispite its numerous other flaws and the fact that the combat was really just psuedo FPS combat, I do think that its combat is more fun than your average MMOG.

    And be prepared for someone to say "if I wanted FPS combat I would play a FPS game,"

  • Posted: 12/03/08 10:48 AM
    General Discussion
• • Why the Quest Grind is becoming so popular.

  • It is simple quests give something to do other than grind for the sake of leveling.  Even with a group it does not detract from the feeling of boredom and pointlessness of mob grinding.

    Quests often times feel like menial tasks but at least my character is actually doing something other than killing spiders for no particular reason.  Sure you could imagine you are killing spiders for some grander cause without actually having quests, but it does not effect the game so it does not matter, where as for a quest I can kill the spider queen and at least get a dagger or something for it.  So even if it is just minor quests do add more of a point to the game.

    I do really like the concept of public quests though and think they have a lot of promise, it allows you to play solo or in a group and both contribute to the goal.  PvP objectives are nice too to add both a point and the unpredictability of other players.

  • Posted: 12/03/08 12:27 AM
    General Discussion