05-29-2009, 02:33 PM
Feel free to post in here if you want but I just started it for now as a list to pull items out of other threads to keep track of good features from past games.
A. SWG Player Built Stuctures
B. WoW UI
C. Guild Vaults and Customizable Guild Controls
D. Planetside Griefing System
E. AoE Handling
F. Public Quests
G. Play Control
H. Z axis EQish
I. Gear with unique properties
J. Strategy
K. Skill and gear based abilities rather then set classes (don't let the game fall apart since you can't find a healer)
L. Cross Realm/Team Comms
M. Community
N. Item Loot and heart pounding
O. Battle Length (this could be contentious)
P. Being scared/horror, EQ zones where you waited until day break to run through
A. SWG Player Built Stuctures
B. WoW UI
C. Guild Vaults and Customizable Guild Controls
D. Planetside Griefing System
Slamz Wrote:Yeah, the Planetside system for allowing friendly fire but limiting "griefing" was very well done. If you were careful, you could afford to off the occasional jerk. If you were sloppy or were just trying to grief, it would shut you down before you could ruin the game. You can mow 1 guy down, but if you mow down 5 guys in a row you're going to get real close to a lockdown.
E. AoE Handling
Vllad Wrote:I think we all agree that the Planetside method of AoE plus friendly fire is the best option.
Vllad
F. Public Quests
Kakarat Wrote:Warhammer : The public quests implemented in PvP.
So PvEvP. There is an objective besides killing the players.
You can implement it so that to advance in the PvE part of the quest, so many PvP kills have to be accomplished (other side can't see your progression).
G. Play Control
Breand Wrote:To throw it out there, I've also felt like City of Heros had the best play control of any MMO. The movement rate, jumping, and implementation of your action/power/ability buttons. It felt the most immersive of any MMO, and more like an action/shooter. Combat actually felt exciting for the most part.
H. Z axis EQish
Hoofhurr Wrote:I'm going to also go with EQ. The z axis element in EQ is really undeniable. I'd gladly go back to zoning if it meant I could climb up shit again or swim to the bottom of a lake. I'd also venture that the dungeons in EQ were just sick. I've never seen any game pull off the level of suspense that all EQ dungeons seemed to have. Why is that?
I. Gear with unique properties
Hoofhurr Wrote:Lastly, I'm going to go with Rainbow6 Ravenshield. All the guns in this game had unique properties and they really felt good when you pulled the trigger. The sounds and the timing and reload etc were just spot on. I have no idea, of course, how accurate they were to real life weaponry I just know that they felt powerful and awesome.
J. Strategy
Hoofhurr Wrote:The combination of strategy from netbattletech and simulation from Mechwarrior 4. Most of the pilots didn't participate in the strategy aspect but you felt like you were part of a larger strategy nonetheless. I'd be interested in seeing something of this in a MMO. Planetside kind of had that but there wasn't much of a strategy element that endured more than one night. The map could look completely different the next day which has its appeal I suppose but doesn't satisfy those looking to make their mark.
K. Skill and gear based abilities rather then set classes (don't let the game fall apart since you can't find a healer)
Dustie Wrote:Hoofhurr Wrote:Someone with a sticky trigger finger. :lol:
I'm going to add TF2 to my list. The ability to choose from 8 different classes at a drop of the hat really breathes new life into a game. I'm never going to be the guy who plays an alt in an MMO because of the fact that I have to level them up to be competitive. The fact that so many groups fall apart in MMOs because you are missing a class really sucks too. There has got to be a way to make MMOs more flexible like TF2 in this regard and it would really make the games more accessible don't you think? "Alright who's turn is it to bring the healer?"
Can we combine this with the Planetside idea whereby anyone can be any role -- you just can't switch in 2 seconds? It may take a day to unlearn "tank" and then learn "medic" but anyone can drive a tank or be a medic. To further the idea, you could augment abilities with gear, i.e. a medic kit etc.
??? --> yes
L. Cross Realm/Team Comms
Hoofhurr Wrote:EQ-Cross-realm communication. I understand the downsides and embrace them along with the ability to communicate across factions. This has to be married with the ability to exact punishment on players on your own team in a meaningful way. You also have to be able to regulate intra-faction communication effectively. While I think trash-talking is a necessary part of being emotionally invested in a game you have to have tools available to you to quickly and easily set up secure lines of communication with deliberate parties.
Chat capabilities really need to be expanded upon.
Vanraw Wrote:- Cross team communications. I thought WOW had a great idea by preventing this because they prevented some of the xteaming issues. But it removed a social aspect of the game. Like Hoof said, some version of this needs to be allowed. Even the aspects of settling disputes was positive in EQ,
M. Community
grizzle Wrote:One of the best features I encountered in EQ was purely an accident: the make-shift auction house in the East Commons tunnels.
"WTS Lammy 10k 2nd torch!"
I just remember the community that built up; it was awesome. Not only were there auctions, but since it was in a newb zone, you'd have high level toons helping out the lower levels with snakes and zombies, and handing out crap gear, though great for the newb, especially when the newb is down to 3s in cash. People would always meet up there LFG, or after a long night grouping, they'd head back to the tunnels to sell their loot and unwind. The zone's chat channel was always funny as hell. Lots of good times and people to be had and meet there.
But when Sony created the official Auction House in EQ, that entire community aspect was destroyed and neer recovered.
I've always believed since then that games should be more open ended in the sense that we should give the players utilities or tools to, for example, help with auctions, but only to an extent, and do not designate an official location. Let the community decide for themselves where to create their Home Base for these sorts of things. And don't make the tools too helpful - if they can check their auctions, buy, and sell, all from a pop-up window from anywhere in the world, then there is no need for people to gather together into a community.
Make them work a little, and make them walk a little, to form a community. They may bitch about it a bit, but unknown to them, because they are working a little to form the community, it will mean that much more to them.
N. Item Loot and heart pounding
Vanraw Wrote:A couple notes about the original EQ.
- Item loot PVP, - before it was turned to coin only. I recall being in some pvp fights, where when it was done, my hands were shaking and my heart was pounding. The risk of loss, was pretty cool. While there were people who would "bag" everything, I always thought with a couple of tweaks this could have worked well.
O. Battle Length (this could be contentious)
Vanraw Wrote:- Long PVP battles. This might be old memories, so Ill just say, make PVP battles last longer. WOW's 30sec battles were always a disappointment. Also there was very little personal fame in WOW and other MMO's that came after. In EQ, I can still recall several names that infamous.
P. Being scared/horror, EQ zones where you waited until day break to run through
grizzle Wrote:In EQ, for example, while all the zones were "neat" for one reason or another, there were only two zones that scared me - actually scared me. One was Kith Forest - holy crap, for the first year I played that game, and was low level, I would literally sit at the zone line until daylight, then run my ass off and hope that I didn't get lost (this was back when there were no in-game maps, and EQ Atlas didn't yet exist, so if you didn't know where you were going, you got lost).