Wargame vs "Living world"

[Diggles]

bah zone camping was 1/2 the fun.

if a game wants to promote brigands camping chokepoints, make it a trail thru deep woods or a gorge, something actually cool and not shitty server mechanics.

[Noshadowking]

I really think devs first and fore most need to start games off with 3 factions like they did in daoc. This covers up so many balancing issues honestly. Basically if one side is or becomes to powerful the other 2 group up untill the power shift changes. Another idea I had a while back when I was learning computer animation and jotting down game ideas etc. Was for an mmo to span time periods. That way one group may be more powerful in one era of time but they would have to pick and choose battles. One group couldnt own ever era of time at once. It would take to much work so other groups get have a chance in one era of time and avoid fights vs a super powerful group

[OrsunVZ]

bah zone camping was 1/2 the fun.

if a game wants to promote brigands camping chokepoints, make it a trail thru deep woods or a gorge, something actually cool and not shitty server mechanics.

That was a joke.

There are obviously drawbacks with having zones. But if your objectives are laid out properly, then zone camping should largely be a non issue.

All I'm saying is there is a trade off of sorts. Having zones does allow for some additional horsepower being used elsewhere (typically graphics). Provided that these zones are laid out well, or that transport to and from these places is done well, I wouldn't mind the zoning aspect if it brought a greater sense of "reality" to the area I am in.

I have a huge appreciation for the art and architecture in these games. Part of the appeal of an MMO is largely the exploration of a new world.

[Slamz]

I really hate zoning.

My #1 problem with Half-Life 2 was the zoning. I don't think I ever even finished the base game because it seemed like I was facing a loading screen every 5 minutes. Skyrim kind of annoys me too. Maybe I'd be happier if I bought a solid state hard drive...

I would have to hope that whatever the technical hurdles are, they can eventually be overcome. I don't know that there's any game-mechanics reason to have zoning. I think it's purely an issue of graphics memory (texture sets).

[Sebrent]

I think a living world is largely superior.

I think a living world where the NPC factions are too large for players to truly wipe them out is ideal. Instead of players creating their own nations, you have them create "underground" organizations of sort that operate on the periphery of the larger conflicts occurring between "super power" NPC factions. The players can alter the outcomes of these larger conflicts in their favor, pick off survivors from conflicts, raid, steal, etc. But they won't just obliterate everything on a part of the map and control it without any threat other than somehow a larger number of human players appearing in opposition to them.

This prevents player populations from being able to too largely alter the game world, preventing it from being skewed to the point of breaking. They can alter it plenty, but can't just freely zerg.

This prevents a player guild from being able to monopolize an area of the map ... they can still maintain decent control over an area, but that control is always threatened by the closet NPC "super power" factions. Kill a patrol, 30 minutes later a larger patrol might come along. Kill that, an even larger. Eventually, you're going to need to move or get steamrolled by a small army of NPCs.

This isn't to say players can't hurt those "super power" factions, but it'd take a combined effort of all the players on all sides of PvP to stop killing each other and focus on one "super power" in order to threaten that "super power's" home base of operations. The farther from that home base area the less players required to disrupt that "super power" location (like a remote fort).

[Diggles]

Supposedly EQN is going to have a much more dynamic world using what they call 'emergent AI'. The director of development gave an example of orcs (11 min mark)

Orcs like: low traffic roads, gold from robbing people
Orcs dont like: cities, guards, getting their butts kicked.

He went on to stay that the game will constantly be polling information about locations and whats going on. That the orcs will be able to find another area suitable to their needs if they get ejected from a location.

[strife]

Darkfall said they would have something similar... mobs that would build camps and all that... ultimately it was a bunch of failed promises...

[Zirak]

Various games have been promising this for a very long time. Heck one of the things I read way back when UO was in development said they were going to do this.

[Slamz]

EQNext is going to be another PvE game anyway.

Might be a really cool PvE game and if they can deliver a real "living world", I would probably have to check it out for that reason alone but still....PvE.

(Well, I'm sure they will have some sort of PvP but from what I've seen/read, it's not their focus.)

[Arnon]

In the part 2 of the Dev post about the 27 min mark they talk about EQ Next Landmark. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=sDq2a3zy_6M">http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... Dq2a3zy_6M</a><!-- m -->

They refer to a Minecraft style building system that you are able to tweak and manipulate to smooth out. They don't reference Minecraft directly in the dev post, but they did post up that Minecraft was a big influence on the development of their destructible building

[Diggles]

They use voxels instead of cubes though, that are infinitely more flexible and dynamic. I know people have been waiting for a AAA title voxel based game for a LONG time.