First of all, I''d just like to say, Fallout RULES! (Except for Tactics...so bad...) And Please, PLEASE don''t make a cookie cutter hack''n''slasher, Diablo is NOT an RPG, it is a clickfest.

Ok, now, if you''re looking to make a MMORPG, then there are a few things you must do to avoid making another Everquest. In the beginning...no towns, no swords, no nothing, just a bunch of people with different skills (think) stone age, that must start civilization. This is important, because then people will actually DO something other than run around and kill things to get the best stuff. Have an interactive world, where people actually have to HELP each other, such as, hunter skins four deer, takes the hides back to a village and asks a tanner to make some deerskin armour for him, the tanner does so and if the world has not yet adopted a form of coinage, barters with the hunter to bring him 1 skin a week for 2 weeks, or 2 skins, or something to that effect. If the hunter does not deliver, the tanner does not have to give the hunter his armour. Now, that''d probably be tough to code, but what do I know? I''m just suggesting things. Eventually the players will discover new things, such as smithing, magic, and other aspects of the world.

Why?!?

"PLEASE don''t make a cookie cutter hack''n''slasher, Diablo is NOT an RPG"

No worries there, I enjoy strategy games, so combat will be round-based decison making. I switch between "exploration mode" and "battle mode" which are really two different engines, for very good reasons - different rules should I apply to both activities.

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Original post by kingy
"PLEASE don''t make a cookie cutter hack''n''slasher, Diablo is NOT an RPG"

No worries there, I enjoy strategy games, so combat will be round-based decison making. I switch between "exploration mode" and "battle mode" which are really two different engines, for very good reasons - different rules should I apply to both activities.

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Diablo could have been the hack-n-slash that it is and still maintain its status as an RPG. Tactical combat has nothing to do with role-playing. Diablo isn''t role-playing for the simple fact that the players are the heroes in a story line and they are allowed nothing else. You can''t backstab other party members or join Diablo and help destroy the world. In other words, there is no alignment. Diablo seems to follow a lot of rules of D&D except for the alignment statistic to define a characters moral tendancies.

Not to harp on Diablo... it''s a good game. But Kingy was asking about what we would like in an RPG. My answer is role-playing. As for turn-based playing, I think you''d appeal to more people by making it a hack-n-slash BUT I prefer turn-based combat myself ;-)

Personally, I''d like to see a game that has an open-ended story with two (or more?) sides. The player could choose to fight for the people and become a hero, fight against the people and have them all fear you OR choose no side whatsoever and become a wealthy merchant, assassin or other profession. This wouldn''t be easy to accomplish. The design alone would take 6 months to a year of defining rules and writing up a decent storyboard. Hehe, at least for me anyway =b Good luck!

- Jay

"I have head-explody!!!" - NNY

Get Tranced!

"Personally, I''d like to see a game that has an open-ended story with two (or more?) sides. The player could choose to fight for the people and become a hero, fight against the people and have them all fear you OR choose no side whatsoever and become a wealthy merchant, assassin or other profession. This wouldn''t be easy to accomplish. The design alone would take 6 months to a year of defining rules and writing up a decent storyboard. Hehe, at least for me anyway =b Good luck! "

This is a great idea, but I think its really making 2 games, or some kind of open ended system like Elite used. I wont be going this way, its just too much work, but definitely something to think about for a future project.

The original Jedi Knight was like that. You could follow the light or dark side of the force. I''m not sure how the final outcome was affected though. I''ve been meaning to finish that game for years and never did it. Someday ...

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