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MMO Ideas
Neil Black
Member #7,867
October 2006
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Quote:

Once you get to a certain point, you take what you got and scale it down to only 10%, give it a name like "OverWorld". Then, make "OverWorld II" and then III and so on and so forth. Perhaps by the time you get to "Overworld X", it'll have everything you originally wrote in the wiki with a decent following of fans.

I'm not sure why, but on some subconscious level this statement makes me angry. Maybe it's having to play through ten games to get the whole storyline. Maybe it's because I'm against cheap marketing plots.

Onewing
Member #6,152
August 2005
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Trying to be realistic. ;) Plus, storyline can change and be unique between each sequel.

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Kibiz0r
Member #6,203
September 2005
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Episodic gaming is coming into its own. See Sam & Max.

It's nice for consumers because they can buy a taste of the game at a lower price, and it will (hopefully) not result in one of those plateau learning curves where halfway through the game there's no challenge anymore.

It's nice for developers because they get feedback from users between episodes, they stand to make more money in the long run if people become fans of the series, and there's room to introduce and take away story components, game mechanics, etc without worrying about how it all ties together in the end.

The bad is that you have to create much more content if you want to create entirely new stages for each episode. Luckily, the Sam & Max devs had a nice solution to this: They reuse some things as sort of running gags, which means additional content for episodes without having to recreate it, and a little something extra for fans to watch for.

Neil Black
Member #7,867
October 2006
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Quote:

Episodic gaming is coming into its own.

Well if Onewing was talking about episodic games that's fine. I thought he meant make the game, then re-release it with "improvements" and a storyline just different enough to call it a "sequel".

Kibiz0r
Member #6,203
September 2005
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That, I hate. ;)

Onewing
Member #6,152
August 2005
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Quote:

Well if Onewing was talking about episodic games that's fine.

Then I'm fine. :) Although episodic sounds wrong. I'm thinking more like Final Fantasy or maybe Metal Gear Solid, which each new addition feels more like a stand-alone game. Yes, MGS vs FF is quite a bit different, but the main point is that you can play any given game in the series without having to play the others and be fine (although playing other games in the series adds to the overall value). This ultimately pays off in the long run, developing the fan base to keep the series going strong. However it takes a lot of patience and may never get the fan base you would want, so it's risky. I, personally, am all for it. If only I could get finish the first game in a series...

:)

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Solo-Games.org | My Tech Blog: The Digital Helm

Kibiz0r
Member #6,203
September 2005
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I've always been interested in episodic games, but I've never thought of an IP I thought would fit an episodic style.

Whoa. Yaknow how everyone always wanted to make a community game, but it seems impossible because it would be hard to get everyone to agree? We could do it episodically. Just have a few basic concepts that extend to all the games, and the allegroids can just go nuts with it. That keeps it more cohesive than the mini-game projects that have been done, and still lets the individuals make their own decisions!

Trezker
Member #1,739
December 2001
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I think an MMO would profit from growing over time.
It's possible to make a basic interface and a world that can be extended, then you're ready to launch your first server.

Only the first few testers will be playing at first. As you add more resources, land and possibilities to the world it will grow more interesting and more people play the game.

Cantr continuously adds more things for people to do and change the mechanics of the game. For instance there are old vehicles around that keep features that can no longer be accomplished because the gamemakers felt things needed to change. It's really fun to discover such things and adds to the fun for the players. Also, these vehicles have advantages that make them very valuable.

Neil Black
Member #7,867
October 2006
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Quote:

'm thinking more like Final Fantasy or maybe Metal Gear Solid

That's good too. As long as you aren't forcing players to buy one game to understand another game when the second one doesn't deserve the name sequel. Don't get me wrong, sequels are ok, even if you do have to play the earlier games first, as long as the sequel actually adds something more than a new enemy and a few new locations. The Halo games are a good example. The story is way too long to fit into one game, but each game adds new story as well as other things that make them true sequels, unlike insert crappy "sequel" of choice here

Quote:

Whoa. Yaknow how everyone always wanted to make a community game, but it seems impossible because it would be hard to get everyone to agree? We could do it episodically. Just have a few basic concepts that extend to all the games, and the allegroids can just go nuts with it. That keeps it more cohesive than the mini-game projects that have been done, and still lets the individuals make their own decisions!

This sounds awesome! Let's start another thread on this. I'll let you do it if you want, because I wouldn't want anyone to get the impression that it was my idea.

Onewing
Member #6,152
August 2005
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Quote:

This sounds awesome!

To me, the only way a community project would work is to have leaders and followers and each know his position. If it's a free for all, nothing will ever get done.

[edit]
Aaaand, I think this is the last post I can put in this thread... :'(

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Solo-Games.org | My Tech Blog: The Digital Helm

Kikaru
Member #7,616
August 2006
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If you make this game, I'd pay for it. :)

Neil Black
Member #7,867
October 2006
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Quote:

If you make this game, I'd pay for it.

If I were making this game, you'd have to pay out your ass for it.

Ricky Piller
Member #1,232
April 2001
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Quote:

After quite a short period of time, everyone will know everything. Maybe some other tribe member, can't learn how to do this, so that they would trade?

Not true at all. With modern engine design maps can be huge. If you have ever played any of the Delta Force games you will know what I'm talking about. You can run in 1 direction for well over an hour. And that's with no limits holding you back like, food/water requirements. Things to do along the way etc. I'm willing to bet you could make it take 2+ years to be able to navigate the entire land. The best part is the game really revolves around that, so most of the dev time is on the land instead of 80 different other features. If you wanted to you could add more areas also, but in my mind this would be a game that would just be. No expansions, just this world, always there. Then create a totally different world for a new game. Wouldn't be an expansion or a sequel really, just a new world with the same idea.

Neil Black
Member #7,867
October 2006
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Ricky Piller said:

A bunch of stuff...

That's a much better solution than anything I thought of. All of my ideas were so obviously crappy that I didn't even post them.

Ricky Piller
Member #1,232
April 2001
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Hmm, I can't find where I said a bunch of stuff. Am I missing something?

Neil Black
Member #7,867
October 2006
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I just didn't think quoting that entire paragraph would look good in my post. Be happy, I usually don't put a name to the quote. Imagine if I had just said:

Quote:

A bunch of stuff...

Jonatan Hedborg
Member #4,886
July 2004
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Quote:

I'm willing to bet you could make it take 2+ years to be able to navigate the entire land.

I seem to remember that delta force simply wraps the map. So you could run for a very long time. But you'll be bored long before that.

Armed assault or operation flashpoint, on the other hand - they have huge maps.

Simon Parzer
Member #3,330
March 2003
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Quote:

I'm willing to bet you could make it take 2+ years to be able to navigate the entire land.

That means you would spend 10 years making the map.

Audric
Member #907
January 2001

Quote:

you could make it take 2+ years to be able to navigate the entire land

Remember the M's in MMO. 12 players who cooperate will visit the place 12 times faster : after 2 months, everything is mapped.

Slartibartfast
Member #8,789
June 2007
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Quote:

That means you would spend 10 years making the map.

Or spend some (much less) time on programming a good random map generator, and let it work for a long while.

Ricky Piller
Member #1,232
April 2001
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Quote:

Remember the M's in MMO. 12 players who cooperate will visit the place 12 times faster : after 2 months, everything is mapped.

This is determined by how the game mechanics are made.

And it for sure wouldn't take 10 years to make the map. That's not how that works. I can make a huge boring land in mins that would take days to get across. It's not like every little spot is unique and requires personal touch by the map makers.

Ron Ofir
Member #2,357
May 2002
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Have any of you read Gerald Durrell's "The Mockery Bird"? There's this story about how they get to the valley where the mockery bird is. The valley is surrounded by a high mountain that is barely passable, so in order to get to the valley you need to have a huge expedition (~100 people) and build camps every 1000 meters let's say. Every day, 10 people go from a camp to the camp below (or the to the city if they're from the first camp) to get supplies, and evntually you have a group of 5 people that make it all the way to the valley, with 100 more just making sure there are supplies in every camp. If you make most of the world like that, it would take years untill everything would be mapped, as you need to find 100 people that are interested on going on an expedition.

Just my 2 Allegro Rupees.

Ricky Piller
Member #1,232
April 2001
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I like this idea. Maybe not years to do, but if you put a couple of these types of obstacles in the game, and maybe make it so materials have to be gathered and people have to build to make some sort of bridge to continue across a river, valley, whatever.

Neil Black
Member #7,867
October 2006
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Quote:

If you make most of the world like that

If you make most of the world like that no one will want to play. Can you imagine how boring it would be to have to mount a 1000 person expedition to get to the next village over? On second thought, this would work. It did for console RPGs. ;D

Ron Ofir
Member #2,357
May 2002
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Quote:

Can you imagine how boring it would be to have to mount a 1000 person expedition to get to the next village over?

Well, naturally, poeple won't settle where they can go, so all of the villages will be in the 20% that is easily passable. Allow me to illustrate:

x - low passability
  - high passability
. - village

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