MMO Idea: Earthbound Note: I understand fully that MMO idea posts are discouraged, but I’ve been jotting down notes and ideas for this game concept for quite some time and I wanted to hear some general feedback from other people. Thank you in advance for reading and commenting. The Premise As MMORPGS continue to exhibit massive success and growth as a game genre, with new graphics/patches/encounters that keep any excitable gamer hooked, in my mind there remains one concerning factor with the new MMO genre. In a single player game, your actions as a player had an identifiable impact on the game world. However, in current MMOs, the town you just ransacked is still standing. The magistrate you just killed will respawn in thirty seconds so another player can kill him. Of course there is a perfectly understandable reason behind this: you’re not the only person playing the game. However, the idea of quickly respawning NPCs and a world that is never physically impacted by a player’s actions simply alienates players and significantly decreases the amount of possible immersion for the game. The following MMORPG idea is based on the principle of a player driven world, where there will never be the same mission twice and the plot and environment are shaped by the players not by a preconstructed series of quests. The short description is a science fiction MMO based on a war between three factions. Missions are generated based on the territory held by the faction and the events at the time (e.g. if a faction’s moon is under attack, missions will generate to defend specific strategic locations). Here’s the long description: Story Background Whether it was done because the world was dying, or from overpopulation, or simply to expand the control of humanity in the universe, a fleet of hundreds of ships was prepared to be launched through a gateway to a recently discovered habitable system. The plan was to send the fleet through a temporarily stable worm hole, and then stabilize it with a massive Transit Gate between Earth’s system and the newly colonized one. However, disaster struck. The wormhole’s integrity had disintegrated and during their passage the three hundred ships were scattered throughout a vast chunk of the galaxy. Each ship was self sufficient for colonization in its own right, so those ships fortunate enough to be near a habitable planet were able to land and settle. Many ships and their colonists were lost in the void of space, searching until their death for a suitable place to live. Approximately a third of the ships had found suitable living conditions and began colonizing various planets, unaware and unable to communicate with the other ships. Over the course of many millennia these various colonies developed and evolved in their own separate ways. Many maintained humble agrarian societies that mixed what technology was on their ship with more primitive life styles. Others still encountered native diseases, famines, or other disasters and perished. There were a small handful of colonies; however, that managed to preserve a high technology society and thrive. One of which, the Kontake Protectorate as they were later called, was driven to develop what technology it needed to return to Earth. As their quest began, the Protectorate began to fan out for signs of other ships in hopes of finding information on the triangulated location of Earth so that they could further develop their plans for establishing contact with the homeworld. Their drive saw them conquer various other human colonies, each time drawing closer and closer to finding that prized location. In another part of the galactic region, a colony with emerging technology (similar to mid 20th century) witnessed the crash landing of a massive vessel onto their planet. The crew were human – from yet another colony – and explained that natural disasters had wiped out the remainder of their colony. The visitors began to explain their purpose, but realized that the people of this world had forgotten the voyage through the wormhole and the scattering of the ships. Superstition and folklore had replaced fact, and the visitors had to act on this. They claimed they were given a divine mission to return to the homeworld (the planet’s myths still held the homeworld in their stories), and they knew how to return there. The declaration by these visitors incited a fanaticism throughout the population. The visitors accelerated their level of technology by several generations, and told them what they must do. In reality, the colony ship the visitors’ ancestors arrived on had somehow maintained the triangulated coordinates of where the fleet was supposed to arrive on the other side of the wormhole. They believed that if a transit gate were constructed on that end to stabilize the wormhole, then they could surely gain passage back to Earth (under the assumption that Earth’s transit gate was complete and waiting their return). The visitors taught these people what knowledge they had of constructing transit gates, and aided them as they built fleets and prepared their advance. They declared a Crusade, and their mission was led by a quasi-religious order. As they hoped from one system to another, they would occasionally encounter other human colonies. Some wanted to help them, but others wished to either be left alone or construct the gate for themselves. The once peaceful crusade turned violent in the face of opposition, and the Crusade began to plow through any that stood in their way. The Protectorate was the one group that could stand in the way of the Crusade. Scouts from both factions encountered each other and realized both were far more mobilized and deadly than any other human faction they had encountered. As they held brief skirmishes, the Protectorate had a breakthrough: they were able to interpret the old earth star chart and finally get a triangulated set of coordinates. To their shock, Earth was on the other side of the Galaxy. Conventional means of travel would not be an option, and the Protectorate then sought out the same goals as the Crusade: to find the wormhole exit point and construct a Transit Gate. So both factions barreled down to the same system …. …. The system known as Sol by the human colonists, in honor of the solar system they feel will never be seen again. The humans initially colonized a moon of the giant gas planet Sol III, but then moved to the world of Sol II after they spent a millennia terraforming it. These people never had a technological regression, but also had no incentive to expand beyond their solar system. Thousands of years ago they had attempted to create the Transit Gate necessary, but could not successfully complete it. All information and materials pertaining to the gate were locked away forever in a secret location, including the specific coordinates for the wormhole, to prevent any crazed citizen or government of Sol that would want to try and restart the project. But the peaceful system of Sol was quickly erased when a massive fleet entered their system and barreled for Sol III. The forces of the Kontake Protectorate had captured a small moon and began building a base. Sol contacted them immediately, and after a friendly first contact discovered the Protectorate’s motives and quickly warned them against completing their mission. Tensions escalated and hostilities broke out. Sol had contained the Protectorate to their captured moon, but a Kontakte scout made a large discovery: while Sol had abandoned long distance Transit Gate construction, they had utilized that technology to create short distance gates – specifically between Sol II and Sol III to bypass the massive asteroid belt in between the two planets. The Protectorate began testing their knowledge base and worked to construct a Transit Gate from their captured moon – now called Plymouth – and the closest system with a sizeable Protectorate holding. Sol forces new about this too late, and their militia defenses were no match for the full Protectorate fleet that would be coming through. To buy themselves time, Sol shut down their transit gate and began a guerilla war in the asteroid field while they began to construct a fleet of their own. In the meantime, the Crusade had shown up. They gained knowledge of the Protectorate’s short distance Transit Gates and had begun work on theirs in secret – they found what was known as Sol IV, a planet so small and barren it barely deserves its status as a world. Their gate was constructed in orbit there, and to the shock of the Protectorate they found themselves at war with two factions. This bought Sol the time it needed to build up its fleet and attempt to repel not one but two invading forces. While Sol defends its system, the other two factions prepare for a slow war of attrition to win over the system. Sol II is now a fortress home world, and the fighting is taking place on the 9 moons of Sol III. Unbeknownst to everyone, each faction holds different pieces necessary for the completion of the long distance Transit Gate. Sol did not have all the information necessary in their attempts thousands of years ago, but now they may in fact have enough information to complete the gate – if one of the factions was to gain the information of the other two. The primary problem for Sol (and the other factions) is that thousands of years have led to the location being lost from their people. So while they fight the war, they are frantically trying to find the location of their gate construction and information to keep it from the invading forces. That’s the summary for the story background. I have much more written up but its in bits and pieces and not yet completely organized. Basic Gameplay Concept You choose to fight for one of the three factions: Sol, Kontakte Protectorate, or the Crusade. The game is broken down into seven stages of gameplay, with the possibility to branch into three general paths (of which you can change with a little bit of work): clan fleets (end game raiding), military service (PvP), or freelance work (solo content). Seven Stages of Gameplay: 1: Character Creation: The player chooses the faction they wish to play, adjust appearance/gender of their character, etc. They have the option of going to stage 2 or going straight to stage 3. 2: Basic Training: In an enclosed setting (e.g. not in the main area of the game), the player is introduced to the traits and abilities of the three archetypes of the game: engineer, marine, pilot. This is to help familiarize new players with the archetypes and what it means to select each one. After this training they return to the creation screen and pick and archetype. 3: Newbie Zone: Once their character is created and their archetype selected, they are then brought into the game world on the respective homeworld of their faction. (Sol = Sol II, the other factions have homeworlds out of the system). There they conduct missions on the ground such as maintaining local peace for marines, flying aircraft for pilots, and ship repair/operations for engineers. Once they have completed their basic training they will obtain Rank E1 status. Leveling in the game: The game has a tertiary level system: Rank, Skills, and Feats. Skills are similar to any other MMO in that they are broken down by category (weapon proficiency, pilot proficiency, etc.) and increase based on using that item or skill. Feats are class specific, but involve doing “extraordinary” things or events that would unlock special abilities based on each class. Instead of traditional levels (1-60, 1-100, etc.) there are ranks that combine normal leveling with reputation in other MMOs. As you fight for your faction, you gain rank in the armed forces – giving you access to better equipment, ships, and missions. So once you complete basic training in the newbie zone you proceed to a transition stage. 4: First mission in space: This is the transitory step that gets the player from the home world that is away from the war to the war area itself. Something simple like “fly this cargo ship to the front lines,” “there is a ship drifting, fix it,” “pirates have raided a transport, board and regain control of it.” 5: Enlisted Ranks: This is the process where the player advances through the early/mid ranks of the game. The player can choose through a variety of missions ranging from full pvp to full npc to account for player preference. During this stage players will begin to focus on subclasses within the three archetypes. For example, a marine can focus on ground assault, zero-g combat, or ground-walkers (mechs). An engineer, can specialize in combat engineering (ground combat, bridges, bombs, etc.), space engineering (turrets, weapons, ship repair), or design (design and build spaceships for moolah), a pilot can specialize in space fights, atmosphere flight, or large ship control (these are not set in stone). This is a long process but begins now in developing skills/feats. 6: Officer Rank: The transition to the “end game” portion of the game comes when you begin your officer quest. It is again class specific, but has generally similar concepts: a marine must lead a squad of npcs or fellow players into battle and win, a pilot must perform a tough mission in his specialization such as successfully deploy troops in a hot zone, escort a transport, etc. An engineer must sabotage fortress gates, get a ship’s turrets operational in time to defend against incoming enemies, etc. Once the quest is completed they will obtain a warrant officer rank (w/ name appropriate to faction). This is the end of the player’s “necessary” service to their faction’s military, and they are encourage to continue progressing through ranks or to obtain a pass from their faction and pursue their own interests. 7: “End Game”: The player really has four principle options at this point 1. Continue gaining rank in the military. You’ll get access to military only weapons/ships/technology as well as new missions where you lead units, etc. 2. Start up your own clan to work on completing your faction’s mission. While you won’t have access to military only weapons, you’ll be able to acquire other tech (including salvaged other faction), etc. 3. Set up Shop: For the enterprising among the player base, you can choose to sell wares or abilities as a mercenary, shop keep, etc. Example: engineers can purchase berth space at docks and can repair other players ships for them to earn income 4. Go Rogue: PIRATE? Maybe! Additionally, each class/subclass has an ultimate goal. For example, a design-based engineer’s ultimate goal is to acquire his license to design and build capital ships. Finally, you are not locked into the initial path you chose. For example, you were doing work within a clan and want to start progressing your rank in the faction’s military again. There will be a brief mission, you get your warrant officer rank back, and you advance again. The longer you’ve been away from service the more (or lengthier) missions you’ll have to complete to get your rank back. Missions and Mission Generation: Missions within the proper game world (aka not the starting zone) are generated based on the state of the three factions. Dialogue with NPCs will change following major events (e.g. major defeats or victories) as well as if their faction is doing well or if they are losing. The game world itself is broken down into regions surrounding worlds and moons. These regions contain a particular moon as well as any nearby space stations, asteroids, etc. A region can be in one of three stages: under control, contested, or under enemy control. Missions will be available for that region based on what condition its in, and if it has recently moved from another stage (e.g. if it just goes from contested to under control, missions such as fortifying local garrisons, searching for remaining enemy forces, etc. will become available). The moon proper is broken down into zones on a map and each zone has a specific state. “Under Control” is broken down into 6 phases ranging from Peaceful to Collapsing. Once it passes collapsing it falls into contested, and the same is true for under enemy control – it will range from In Enemy Hands to Collapsing. Again, missions for each region will become available based on changing zone status and from what status they previously were at (there will be different missions if a region went from under attack to stable rather than peaceful to stable). This is the core function of mission generation, since it reacts to player activity and advancement for their specific faction. Players will be able to sift through potential zones to work on and complete small group or individual tasks. Additionally, if a large event has occurred (enemy held moon has been weakened), an invasion event or an event of a similarly large scale will be launched and players are invited to partake in the mission. The game will form groups, assign pilots to transports, etc. to provide a large scale battle feel without the necessity of having a large raid similar to end game MMOs such as EQ or WoW. So What’s the Point Each faction is gunning for total control of the system so they can scour it for clues to constructing the transit gate, finding the location of the wormhole, and using the triangulated coordinates to return home to Earth. This process should not be completed for a long time, but there will be seeded clues in various locations in the game world for these overarching missions. An example of a seeded clue would be the Kontakte Protectorate capturing a moon and discovering an old abandoned installation with information pertaining to the construction of long distance transit gates. This is where the role of clans come in. While the military is busy trying to take over, the clans provide mobile forces to track down the information and complete the construction of the transit gate. If a clan were to construct a gate, it would lead to a massive battle where that clan’s faction’s military would defend the gate site while it is completed –whereas the other two factions will vehemently try to destroy it. Well that's my basic synopsis, let me know what you think! Tim

I think you need a new name. [smile] Earthbound is a NES game(featuring 'Ness' from the super smash brother games).

Just giving you a heads up. Othere than that, it sounds like a pretty good story.

This is an excellent concept pitch - those planning MMO's should take heed.

Well, written, details your concept well (perhaps a little flowery in the description, but I'm a coder at heart) and shows an understanding of the genre, and how such a game plays through. Bravo.

Quote:

Original post by Phytrion Of course there is a perfectly understandable reason behind this: you’re not the only person playing the game. However, the idea of quickly respawning NPCs and a world that is never physically impacted by a player’s actions simply alienates players and significantly decreases the amount of possible immersion for the game. The following MMORPG idea is based on the principle of a player driven world, where there will never be the same mission twice and the plot and environment are shaped by the players not by a preconstructed series of quests.

I've been thinking along the same lines of a player driven world as you have, and I think the basic design philosophy here has tremendous potential to radically transform the current humdrum of MMO's.

I won't comment on the specific sci-fi MMO you are envisioning, but I believe that in general, the concept of a player driven world without senseless immediate mob respawns, needs to be counterbalanced by something else, namely permadeath.
The reason for this is simple. The dynamics of conquest, strategic relocation (of tribes and armies), gains and losses needs to follow the same conditions whether player or NPC controlled. Otherwise the player driven "side(s)" will gain the upperhand very quickly, since, simply put, they cannot be killed.

What happenswhen the player reaches his class' goal? This is where most MMO's fail.

Your game sounds a lot like EvE Online. It's also a sci fi based MMO about a bunch of people who got stranded on the other side of a wormhole, and has many of the same ideas about open-endedness and a player-controlled universe. I suggest checking it out.

Also, a lot of the MMO posts around here start with "The problem with all MMO's....." yet appear to be written by people who have only ever played World of Warcraft. If you're legitimately going to try and make an MMO, you need to at least try all the major ones, and not assume that WoW is all there is to the genre.

Lastly, some of your ideas are really good, but the main problem in the whole thing lies in the part where you say "This should take a really long time", concerning one side "winning". Sure, in your mind, it "should" take a long time, but what if it doesn't? Every time WoW has an event that "should" take a long time, some enterprising group of hardcore players finishes it in less than 48 hours. If you're going to use the mission system to consistently make sure no one faction can ever actually succeed at anything, then players will catch on pretty quickly, and realize that there is no point in trying besides grinding to get more reputation points, exactly like WoW battlegrounds, which I assume is what you were trying avoid.

The flipside of this, is what do you do if you actually do let one side win, and it's not just a scam? Then you have 2/3rds of the server complaining that they "lost the game", which is definitely not something that the type of people who play MMO's and invest hundreds of hours and dollars into their character ever want to hear. There will additionally be a snowball effect; once people read that one side is winning and the other sides are hopelessly outnumbered and just getting ganked left and right in the game, most people will reroll to play on the winning team.

[Edited by - makeshiftwings on June 24, 2006 7:25:24 PM]

For commercial games (ones where a subscription is charged) Permadeath is best left as an option on certain servers. It's simply not possible to deploy a system at present that can deal with the problems of an internet based game fairly enough. A router drop or major lag can both be potentially lethal and are not the fault of the player. Distinguishing these from on-purpose drops (yanking the network lead etc) is pretty much impossible from the server's point of view.

From a roleplay point of view, if you're looking for immersion, you could use any number of social mechanisms to deploy character (as opposed to player) permadeath - a system of 'heirs', a forced rename etc. It's really not a great idea to take everything from a player (hey, they've paid you a lot of money to get where they are) for dying. Especially if you make dying easy.

But as has been mentioned, this means that eventually players will hit an end-game situation (capping their level, or approaching the point of equilibrium in a degrading or capped skill system). There has to be sufficient content *at this level* for gameplay to continue (for as long as you want to retain a subscription).

I like this concept because there's a scenario in place for expanding the gameworld (the construction of an exit gate), without resorting to anything particularly contrived. Nobody's said things have to go according to plan and the gate will actually go to Earth. There's a lot of ground to cover in the additional design (although being space-based it can be limited to stations and other relatively small environments initially), and enough social structures (governments) in place to allow a system to manipulate the player base to keep them fighting both economically and by means of faction-level events. It's relatively easy to prevent a faction-level end game by means of disruption and plot device in combination.

Rating++ for writing so many words... wow.