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f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  The Gaming Graveyard  |  Game Design/Development  |  Topic: Game Design Challenge: MMO-OFF 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
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Author Topic: Game Design Challenge: MMO-OFF  (Read 37762 times)
MrHat
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Posts: 7432

Out of the frying pan, into the fire.


Reply #35 on: October 28, 2010, 10:19:30 AM

EVE's approach never seemed to me like your character was progressing, rather it seemed like the game was cock-blocking the player into remaining sub'd for a set period of time before they were allowed to put on the big boy pants.  I know they are functionally identically, it just feels like a cock-block the way EVE did it.

Diablo 1/2 (for me) was the ultimate, "play an hour or two then do something else".  Add some group-focused dungeons, add some character abilities that have group focus, do not add the holy trinity, allow for reduced damage to PCs via positioning and cc.  Leave everything else the same about the game.

The first hour played gives an increased chance for good loot.
The second hour played gives a "normal" chance for good loot.
After that the loot chances fall off pretty rapidly.
Not playing a character restores their chance for loot pretty quickly.  Let's say 12 hours during the week, 4 hours during the weekend.

Implement player housing to give the players something else to focus on.  Implement crafting to build the items that decorate/adorn the player houses and make that the primary means of doing so.
Implement dual character paper dolls, one drives appearance, one drives combat.  Give players an option to only see the combat gear while in combat (rather not see someone fighting in their rainbow garb?  click this check-box)

Still want to play after two hours?  Work on your house, outfit or roll an alt.

Assuming one character per account? This doesn't prevent catass, this only makes the catass roll up 5 toons to maximize the 1hour loot curve.

Typhon
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Posts: 2493


Reply #36 on: October 28, 2010, 11:44:46 AM

True.  But if you are someone that really doesn't want to catass, but you feel you have to put in lots of hours to keep up with the catasses in your guild a method that worked per-character would be effective for that group of people.

I think the truth is that people that want to catass will unless you lock them out of the game.
Draegan
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Posts: 10043


Reply #37 on: November 02, 2010, 11:22:44 AM

In a traditional DIKU MMOG, all you would have to do is for every 5 to 7 consecutive hours logged off you gain a free level.  So if you're 25% of the way through level 25, when you log back in after sleeping, you are 99.9999% to level 26.

Every time this mechanic goes off you need to have 5 hours of time played before you can get a free level again.  

For every hour of played time in between this mechanic going off, after 5 hours, adds 30 minutes to the time you need to be logged off for to gain that free level.

Either have 1000 levels, or for end game players, allow players to gain badges or something similar to WOW offline in this sort of fashion.  Or maybe crafting materials or something could be gained.  Or you might have an option of selected stuff to collect offline.

Edit to add:
You can still catass if you really want to.  But now you really don't have to.  The game is always the same when you're logged in.

Edit2:
Looks I'm late to the party in this thread.

« Last Edit: November 02, 2010, 11:25:37 AM by Draegan »
Furiously
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WWW
Reply #38 on: November 03, 2010, 08:43:12 PM

What it misses is what Nebu said (in his now-missing post):  some folks LIKE that their characters advance based upon their in-game actions.  I'm one of those folks.  It IS a mindset problem, but isn't one that you can just wave away with a, "get over it" attitude because neither you nor I just will play a game because it doesn't appeal to me.

I deleted my post because it didn't seem to add to the content of the thread.  Apparently I was mistaken. 

The short version was that many, including myself, would prefer an active progression scheme rather than a passive one (a la EvE).  Along those lines I'd also like to see a progression scheme that rewards both risk and efficiency.  The greater the risks I take as a player, the better my rewards and advancement ought to be.  Of course, this is a difficult scheme to balance and implement.

I'd be worried about min/maxxing then, but.... if you did it how UO did originally with the more popular specs being harder/giving less reward then it might be interesting.

Arnold
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Posts: 813


Reply #39 on: November 21, 2011, 02:53:46 AM

UO house refresh.  Done =P
Viin
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Posts: 6159


Reply #40 on: November 21, 2011, 12:15:18 PM

Turn-based games are the best at this. Spend 30 minutes prepping for the next round, show up the next day to see what happened.

Alternatively, a background crafting and training program will do this as well. EVE is a good example of this, but you can also find this in SWG, etc. As long as the player preps for a run, they can log off for a couple of days while automated background processes occur.

Of course, the challenge will be the same one that crafters and EVE players always encounter: well if I haven't logged in for a week, do I really care anymore?

(And yes I know this is an old thread, but I missed it the first time around! Thanks for bumping it Arnold!)

- Viin
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