Sandbox Style MMORPG

[133794m3r]

What do you as in the others think about this style of game. Basically i'm going to let players create their own class if they so wish. Or they can use one of the predefined class templates. I personally believe that this style of game would be pretty well suited for a browser based setting. Since your skills and such aren't set in stone. And there's not an extremely strict way that your class has to be. So thus you could make your character more survivable etc. Also it's got less of a click click grind to it. Or at least i think it would. I think it'd work pretty well. Also all the mobs/quests will be scaled with the player. So this would mean all the areas would be suitable for all the levels within the limits. For example, starter areas would be less level difference. And each area would have minimum level for mobs and such other things.

I just would like to know what you guys think about doing it like that. As in would it be a better way to approach a skill based game for the browser. Do you think it's a good approach? I was asking since i was sitting here perplexed about how to set up the game's mechanics. If i was going to go skill based or be heavily class based.

[JGadrow]

The only games that I know of that offer this sort of RPG experience are the Elder Scroll Series (except Arena): Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion.

You might want to look to those games for some inspiration on how to accomplish the class system.

[133794m3r]

that's odd to say the least. As that exact series +D&D was where i got the inspiration for the idea from XD.

Well the idea originally came from something like how RuneScape was, then i got more into the depth of it by looking into D&D. Then i was like. HOLY CRAP TES they have a ton of sandbox and also quests. Let's see how they did theirs for ideas. That's one thing i always liked about tes series. That along with a very active modding community so teh game never dies. Just wish bethesda would've patched oblivion after vista's launch. Since it seems to hate my windows 7 pc. Oh well i got some great play from back when i used to play it on xp.

[raestlyn]

I'm actually making a sandbox game that happens in a space. Only thing that is preset is the Races. They will give you a certain skill set and starting equipment but the player can learn and get almost everything other races will get. Only things players can't use are other races Enviroment Suits, they are class specific.
And to take this even further, there are no levels or experience in traditional rpg sense or no stats the player need to raise to be able to use some items (but the player might need some skills to do so.) and so on. There are however lots of skills that you can learn and get better when you use it, others are gained just gained. I guess thats where the game progress is measured from as every rpg needs a way to do so.

[133794m3r]

I'm actually making a sandbox game that happens in a space. Only thing that is preset is the Races. They will give you a certain skill set and starting equipment but the player can learn and get almost everything other races will get. Only things players can't use are other races Enviroment Suits, they are class specific.
And to take this even further, there are no levels or experience in traditional rpg sense or no stats the player need to raise to be able to use some items (but the player might need some skills to do so.) and so on. There are however lots of skills that you can learn and get better when you use it, others are gained just gained. I guess thats where the game progress is measured from as every rpg needs a way to do so.

Wait you just said using something allows you to get better at it. That sounds like exp to me. Sure you probably won't show it, but it's still exp to me

Basically in the one i'm making you have two preset races. Then from there players will choose what they want to specialize in as their "favored" stats and skills. But they can still learn them all. And there'll be "premade" classes that a new player can choose if they have no idea what they're doing.

[jannesiera]

Basically in the one i'm making you have two preset races. Then from there players will choose what they want to specialize in as their "favored" stats and skills. But they can still learn them all. And there'll be "premade" classes that a new player can choose if they have no idea what they're doing.

And what is so exciting about that? The player can choose all his stats at the beginning of the game? What does he do then when is in the game? I don't seem to get the concept...

[133794m3r]

Ah, i guess you've never played TES. YOu choose your favored stats. And you get bonus points to them, you still have access to all of the stats. It's just those are a higher level than all the rest. Same with the skill sets. The ones you choose level up faster than the rest. Also each level the player will get x amount of stat points to put into their stats. Any of them really.  Well i guess not any, i'll figure out something that choose x amount of them to choose from each level or something similar. Also leveling up those stats will then increase the skill sets which are directly related to them. Like for example let's say intellect which will go into like well alchemy. I'm using the TES model right now since mine's not completely figured out. You'd gain 4 points into alcehmy. So if you had an alchemy level of 10 before you put 1 point into intellect you'd then have a level of 14 in it. This would then let you have a higher chance of suceeding when you made potions and also might unlock new skills for you or would let you learn new ones. And how's it not exciting to know you're limited in what stats you can favor which'll give you an edge before you start?

It's like if you played a standard mmo and you knew that you could put x amount of points in your stats before you started and those would determine how well everything that's based off of them go. Since there's no "official" classes just ones that are templates which people can edit. People make their own unless they're completely confused and just want to make one that's sorta like this one. Let's say you look at your class and you're like i don't like this skill. In a standard mmo setting you can't officially say oh i want to have this skill or this other skill when i start. For example an archer can't really start off with healing in the standard setting. But here you could. It's all about mixing and matching the classes together so that you can make your own. I don't know how it's not exciting.

[jannesiera]

Ah, I get it. As long as it's balanced then you should have no problems with that. Mind balancing is not to be underestimated though.

[133794m3r]

I already know balancing this game will take a severe amount of time. The idea of doing it "sort of limited with some advantages" will help the game to be more balanced throughout. The hardest part to balance will be the PvP. that's why i'm going to try to limit PvP so people can't "gank" others. And also put restrictions on what level you can be before you can attack others. Sort of like how RuneScape did theirs but not as extreme.there's was 1-2 lvls difference. I was thinking of doing mine ~5-10 levels +/-. Then with the skills that's the players level and somehow also adding in their "combat" skills onto it like how RuneScape did their own. So that way you'd not have someone who has all skills maxed and is your level but yet is in the same grouping in PvP as you. That'd be the best way to tackle it to me atleast.

Balancing all the various skills will probably be heavily done during hopefully the first 6months-1year of the game. Then after that, it's sort of a "maintenance" where i might still have to slightly adjust things but it'd never be something extreme. I'm hoping to make it so that all of the combat related skills are all going to be equal and so are all of the mercantile ones. And by equal on the latter i'm speaking of time it takes to level it up compared to how much you're getting from the items you can make using the schematics/recipes you learn.