So. What's BioWare's MMO?

[Signe]

He stamped his little foot a bit, disappeared for a while and then returned in fine form.  I reckon next time he takes a rage break he'll come back wearing a pope hat.

Also, ss long asI'm talking about him as if he doesn't exist, he needs to do that moive round up thingy again.  That was nice.

[Lietgardis]

Good Grief!  He scared the bubbles out of me!

I think "He" actually is a "She"!

Sara Jensen?  Formally of Shadowbane fame?

Yes.  Hi!

[Surlyboi]

WindupPopehat?

And I'm here for the veal.

[ahoythematey]

Why not just call him evilfryingnut then?

[WindupAtheist]

He stamped his little foot a bit, disappeared for a while and then returned in fine form.  I reckon next time he takes a rage break he'll come back wearing a pope hat.

Also, as long as I'm talking about him as if he doesn't exist, he needs to do that moive round up thingy again.  That was nice.

I might do one tonight, since she mentioned it, and since Mojo should have the weekend estimates up later tonight.  I fell out of the habit during a period where I was working lots of weird hours and was too tired and/or just didn't feel like burning my limited intarweb time to do them.  There used to be a guy on my other forum who would do them on weeks where I didn't, but I think he's fallen out of it as well.

Also, two can play this 'talking as if they're not here' game.  That's what I would tell Signe, if she existed.  Which she does not.

[Morfiend]

Syndicate
Planescape (seriously, the IP sounds made for an MMO)
Fallout
WH40k

Those are the 4 IPs I'd care to have MMOed that are not already being done. Alternatively they could create an IP around a game concept instead of squishing a game inside an IP but I dunno, sounds crazy.

I agree Cal, I ahve always said Planescape is perfict for a MMOG. Just cause of all the gates you could have so much vaired gameplay. There is no limit to the amount of cool stuff you could have. The only problem is, that baised on D&D, the combat rules dont really lend themselves well to full realtime.
Fallout would also be awesome, thats all that needs to be said about that.
WH40k would be done any time soon. What with DAoHammer comming out soon, it would be kind of a conflict of intrests. Not that we wouldnt all love it.

I personally am just so worn on fantasy MMOGs. And all the big ones comming out are just more fantasy. Blah. I could really go for Starcraft Universe right about now. Hell, just give me WoW reskinned for Starcraft and I would be happy.

[schild]

The problem with Planescape is Wizards shelved the license.

That's the only problem that can't be solved without piles of money. Oh, and a Planescape MMOG (with a proper budget) wouldn't be profitable.

Edit: By the way, I'd love a Planescape MMOG.

[Slyfeind]

Good Grief!  He scared the bubbles out of me!

I think "He" actually is a "She"!

Sara Jensen?  Formally of Shadowbane fame?

Yes.  Hi!

lol HI!

...whatcha making? lol

[Strazos]

Cookies?

[schild]

From their press release, sounds like they're aiming at CCP's throat.

[Calantus]

The only problem is, that baised on D&D, the combat rules dont really lend themselves well to full realtime.

Definately. I've always felt that D&D licences are a bit of a double-edged sword due to being locked into D&D mechanics. I wonder if it would be possible to negotiate a licence for one of their IPs without having the mechanics come along for the ride.

[schild]

Planescape's fun does not hinge on the D&D system.

It hinges on the environment. Any sort of gameplay could be shoehorned in, even minigames. Especially minigames!

[stray]

The "other" Baldur's Gate titles were D&D in environment only. Not that much different from what Bioware themselves tried with Jade Empire actually.

If there are going to be swords and spells and whatnot (preferably not, but whatever), then I wish someone would try that kind of combat in an MMO. Just once. See if it works, y'know?

/sigh

Stop reinventing the same old tired shit. That's all I ask at this point. Start trying to attract someone besides ex-EQ players (and whatever you do, DO NOT hire ex-EQ players). Create something new. Give the game features that'll make those people cry. And when they come to your boards to complain, tell them to fuck off and die. Put that in all your press releases as well. 

Make it fantasy if you have to. Include elves if you must. Just make it a game, please. Or make it a world with little games in it. I don't care. Just something to do with games is all I ask.

[edit]

Bah. Everything has to be a rant from me lately. I meant to just comment on D&D combat, but got carried away.

I want to stop ranting about MMO's. I really do. It's old, it sucks, and I don't enjoy it.

Somehow though, those aren't good enough excuses to stop.

[5150]

Maybe they've decided to resurrect the Battletech MMO?

/batshitcrazyidea

[Trippy]

Maybe they've decided to resurrect the Battletech MMO?

/batshitcrazyidea

Microsoft owns that too -- they bought FASA Interactive which is how they acquired the video game rights to Shadowrun and BattleTech -- so, no.

[Calantus]

The "other" Baldur's Gate titles were D&D in environment only. Not that much different from what Bioware themselves tried with Jade Empire actually.

If there are going to be swords and spells and whatnot (preferably not, but whatever), then I wish someone would try that kind of combat in an MMO. Just once. See if it works, y'know?

I don't know if I'm the only one but I really don't like D&D rules in CRPGs. I can tolerate them of course, but I'd rather not have to. I hate the whole getting a +X weapon before you can hit the monster (OH, my +4 weapon with 10% deathtouch isn't GOOD enough to hit the demon huh? So I'm fucked now? Good to know). I hate the whole 90% resistant to magic BS the higher enemies get and how you have to penetrate the resistances before you can even touch them. I hate that 90% of the magic is just useless shit once you get high enough and you're left with a handful of spells that do decent damage once you've removed their barriers and their immunities and lowered their resistances, in addition to a few spells that OWN but only the easy stuff or if you manage to score a 1/20 chance to beat their uber fucking saves. Magic is strip->strip->strip->spell->samespell->samespell->samespell->samespell->rest. I hate just randomly dying because oops the 5% chance you had to die to the death-touch-y spell just came up. Gratz on that. It's way too luck based on the whole. WAY too easy to exploit. Mindflayer targetted your low INT fighter? Better have a resurrect ready. Fucking sigh.

[CadetUmfer]

Incoming from left field....Firefly license.

Ok, no.  Really I'm just hoping Walton will be willing to try something new again...what after SWG and all.

[stray]

The "other" Baldur's Gate titles were D&D in environment only. Not that much different from what Bioware themselves tried with Jade Empire actually.

If there are going to be swords and spells and whatnot (preferably not, but whatever), then I wish someone would try that kind of combat in an MMO. Just once. See if it works, y'know?

I don't know if I'm the only one but I really don't like D&D rules in CRPGs. I can tolerate them of course, but I'd rather not have to. I hate the whole getting a +X weapon before you can hit the monster (OH, my +4 weapon with 10% deathtouch isn't GOOD enough to hit the demon huh? So I'm fucked now? Good to know). I hate the whole 90% resistant to magic BS the higher enemies get and how you have to penetrate the resistances before you can even touch them. I hate that 90% of the magic is just useless shit once you get high enough and you're left with a handful of spells that do decent damage once you've removed their barriers and their immunities and lowered their resistances, in addition to a few spells that OWN but only the easy stuff or if you manage to score a 1/20 chance to beat their uber fucking saves. Magic is strip->strip->strip->spell->samespell->samespell->samespell->samespell->rest. I hate just randomly dying because oops the 5% chance you had to die to the death-touch-y spell just came up. Gratz on that. It's way too luck based on the whole. WAY too easy to exploit. Mindflayer targetted your low INT fighter? Better have a resurrect ready. Fucking sigh.

Oh, I'm not disagreeing with that. If I wasn't clear, the "other" BG games I mentioned above were button mashing, action rpg console titles (in the spirit of Diablo but even more stripped down and geared for controllers) that had nothing to do with the PC Baldur's Gate. I was just using it as an example to show that the D&D setting can be applied quite easily to things that have nothing to do with D&D combat.

[Strazos]

I don't know if I'm the only one but I really don't like D&D rules in CRPGs. I can tolerate them of course, but I'd rather not have to. I hate the whole getting a +X weapon before you can hit the monster (OH, my +4 weapon with 10% deathtouch isn't GOOD enough to hit the demon huh? So I'm fucked now? Good to know). I hate the whole 90% resistant to magic BS the higher enemies get and how you have to penetrate the resistances before you can even touch them. I hate that 90% of the magic is just useless shit once you get high enough and you're left with a handful of spells that do decent damage once you've removed their barriers and their immunities and lowered their resistances, in addition to a few spells that OWN but only the easy stuff or if you manage to score a 1/20 chance to beat their uber fucking saves. Magic is strip->strip->strip->spell->samespell->samespell->samespell->samespell->rest. I hate just randomly dying because oops the 5% chance you had to die to the death-touch-y spell just came up. Gratz on that. It's way too luck based on the whole. WAY too easy to exploit. Mindflayer targetted your low INT fighter? Better have a resurrect ready. Fucking sigh.

What game pitted you against a "demon" before you could realistically fight it?

Magic rant? Isn't that what melee is for? And even if you have to still penetrate magical defenses...So what? Do you expect a high-level caster to be Easy?

Percentage to die? Better than the Diku nonsense of being totally immune to anything and everyone a few "levels" below you.

Mindflayer on low INT fighter? Durr, keep him away from the mindflayer then.

I'd rather have D&D rules (done well) over the stupid DIKU crap we get shoved at us.

[Trippy]

Ok, no.  Really I'm just hoping Walton will be willing to try something new again...what after SWG and all.

After SWG was The Sims Online.

[Ironwood]

The only thing I will say is that D&D rules as they stand now are totally, totally, totally innappropriate to Real Time Games.  Especially the magic system.

Turn based and tile based for teh win.

[Soln]

Smurfs Online.  it's got legs.  

[Yegolev]

Smurfs Online.  it's got legs. 

I don't know how serious you were, but a cap of one hundred players per shard sounds like a great idea.

[Furiously]

Smurfs Online.  it's got legs. 

I don't know how serious you were, but a cap of one hundred players per shard sounds like a great idea.

Only 1 girl per server! ack!

[Calantus]

What game pitted you against a "demon" before you could realistically fight it?

The demon one I think I came across in the BG2 or its expansion. I killed it with spells from memory while my fighters stood around useless. But there have been many times when I've come across something I couldn't hit or some in my party couldn't hit. Morrowind is also guilty of this, requiring magic weapons or silver and higher weapons to kill certain mobs, but at least those are easy to get.

Magic rant? Isn't that what melee is for? And even if you have to still penetrate magical defenses...So what? Do you expect a high-level caster to be Easy?

My problem with magic isn't so much that you have to penetrate all the magical defences to get magic off (as well as dispell haste and mirror image and stoneskins and whatnot so your melee can fight it). I actually kinda like the mechanic somewhat as it gives you more to do than just blow shit up and breaks the fight into stages. What I don't like is that it's in a system where you have a limited set of spells you can have in memory and you have to sacrifice most of the more situational or fun spells with spells to break defences and spells that do direct damage. Then of course you have to rest. Ran into a few casters and used all your breach and pierce magic spells? Time to rest! Nevermind that you're all full health and otherwise fine, you can't go on without your breach and penetrate spells or you'll just get fucked if you come across the wrong thing.

Percentage to die? Better than the Diku nonsense of being totally immune to anything and everyone a few "levels" below you.

No. 5% chance to die is retarded. You wanna death touch someone? Then go ahead and kill them and balance around the fact. The final fantasy games for one had balls enough to just flatout deathtouch a guy and force you to deal. A fight shouldn't rely solely on the roll of a dice (or reloading to equip "immunity from death" items).

Mindflayer on low INT fighter? Durr, keep him away from the mindflayer then.

That one was out of left field and was more about my frustrating experience with mindflayers in BG2. I hadn't played D&D before then (I have since) so I had no idea what a mindflayer did and it wasn't pretty as you can imagine. That's a big problem with D&D right there, previous knowledge is pretty huge, and you can be very frustrated unless you've played D&D before. Then a lot of the rules are rather convulted when used in a CRPG. Etc.

I'd rather have D&D rules (done well) over the stupid DIKU crap we get shoved at us.

Diku isn't a ruleset, it's a game style. You could have a Diku game set to D&D rules if you wanted to. And nowhere did I say that what we have now kicks so much ass, just that D&D rules are generally retarded in CRPGs.


And in defence of the derail this thread has prettymuch ran its course already. Smurfs? Seriously. :P

[Soln]

Smurfs Online.  it's got legs. 

I don't know how serious you were, but a cap of one hundred players per shard sounds like a great idea.

it works doesn't it?  I was semi-serious.  There's a license to get.  PvP with the wild/dark smurfs?  or just  Toontown clone would work.

[Yegolev]

Smurfs Online.  it's got legs. 

I don't know how serious you were, but a cap of one hundred players per shard sounds like a great idea.

it works doesn't it?  I was semi-serious.  There's a license to get.  PvP with the wild/dark smurfs?  or just  Toontown clone would work.

I'd be more inclined for purism and have it be PvE.  Once Gargamel or some other peril had killed the final Smurf, game reset.  Last Smurf standing wins.  Only one hundred Smurfs, no Smurfette; she was an artificial construct anyway, which is how there were 101.

[Strazos]

The demon one I think I came across in the BG2 or its expansion. I killed it with spells from memory while my fighters stood around useless. But there have been many times when I've come across something I couldn't hit or some in my party couldn't hit. Morrowind is also guilty of this, requiring magic weapons or silver and higher weapons to kill certain mobs, but at least those are easy to get.

The itemization was fairly high-powered in that game, so I don't know how you could possibly run into such a problem. And even if your Entire party cannot hit, so what? Thems the shakes. Unless you had a very odd party makeup, that shouldn't have been able to stop your party. Though, I will concede that I had a +5 Carsomyr-wielding Cavalier to squash all the evil in my path, so I'm sure you mileage varied somewhat.

My problem with magic isn't so much that you have to penetrate all the magical defences to get magic off (as well as dispell haste and mirror image and stoneskins and whatnot so your melee can fight it). I actually kinda like the mechanic somewhat as it gives you more to do than just blow shit up and breaks the fight into stages. What I don't like is that it's in a system where you have a limited set of spells you can have in memory and you have to sacrifice most of the more situational or fun spells with spells to break defences and spells that do direct damage. Then of course you have to rest. Ran into a few casters and used all your breach and pierce magic spells? Time to rest! Nevermind that you're all full health and otherwise fine, you can't go on without your breach and penetrate spells or you'll just get fucked if you come across the wrong thing.

 Whether it was my intent or not, I solved this problem by having 3 people in my party capable of casting high-level wizard spells.

No. 5% chance to die is retarded. You wanna death touch someone? Then go ahead and kill them and balance around the fact. The final fantasy games for one had balls enough to just flatout deathtouch a guy and force you to deal. A fight shouldn't rely solely on the roll of a dice (or reloading to equip "immunity from death" items).

So a low percentage to instantly die is somehow Worse than 100% to die? Um....Anyway, even if you do get deathtouched, you DO have fairly easy access to ressurection spells, and even spells that could rez your entire party.

And on the rules...I thought the D&D rules worked very well in CRPGs, when Done Well. I think I just like the series a Lot mroe than you.

[Stormwaltz]

Incoming from left field....Firefly license.

I could make that sing. I have a "for own amusement" Serenity MMG design built around the series catchphrase, "Find a ship, find a crew, keep flying."

But Firefly isn't the best property in the world to make an MMG out of. It has cult recognition, not household recognition. Shelling out big bucks for a licence whose name only gets you a few thousand players is a bad decision. Frankly, I'm surprised Stargate was optioned. I bet on BSG being the most likely SF to get adapted (despite the unsuitability of the premise).

[SnakeCharmer]

Incoming from left field....Firefly license.

I could make that sing. I have a "for own amusement" Serenity MMG design built around the series catchphrase, "Find a ship, find a crew, keep flying."

Drool.  Everywhere.

But Firefly isn't the best property in the world to make an MMG out of. It has cult recognition, not household recognition.

Counterpoint:  If done well, does it matter if the IP has household recognition? Seems to me, and my naive view, that if it's a quality product and word of mouth follows, the IP is almost secondary.  That is of course, provided it's a world that people would want to play in to begin with (a Smurf MMO, no matter if it was PERFECT, wouldn't garner much attention from me, if at all...).
I fully realize that the selling point of getting the funding to begin with is the initial "sellability" of the IP, but meh...Just seems if you're going to do a sci-fi based MMO, Firefly would be as good a place to start as any, rather than coming up with your "own" world.

Shelling out big bucks for a licence whose name only gets you a few thousand players is a bad decision. Frankly, I'm surprised Stargate was optioned. I bet on BSG being the most likely SF to get adapted (despite the unsuitability of the premise).

And it's only getting worse every minute that Firefly/Serenity is out of the collective conscious (i.e. - off the air).  Ah well, one can dream, yes?

[Signe]

I want to play whatever Bioware is making. 

Now, please.

[Strazos]

I want to play whatever Bioware is making. 

Now, please.

ZOMG, Agree++ * ∞

[Soln]

I am so bored right now.  I may go reinstall KOTOR2 and play that to get my Bioware fix.

[Engels]

Smurfs Online.  it's got legs. 

I don't know how serious you were, but a cap of one hundred players per shard sounds like a great idea.

Only 1 girl per server! ack!

This is different from the standard ratio? ;P

[Bunk]

But Firefly isn't the best property in the world to make an MMG out of. It has cult recognition, not household recognition.

Counterpoint:  If done well, does it matter if the IP has household recognition? Seems to me, and my naive view, that if it's a quality product and word of mouth follows, the IP is almost secondary. 

While that would seem to make sense, don't forget that being an absolutely amazing show didn't actually get Firefly what it needed - an audience.