S’s Immersive MMO Idea (WIP)

Hello MMOers!

This is S and I’d like to introduce you to my MMORPG idea. Feel free to pick at it in whatever way you’d like. There are usually teams of people that make up these ideas. If there are changes that have been decided upon, I’ll update portions of the writing with a (note) from who helped make those changes. This post is a Work In Progress (WIP)!! Please add (FINISHED) to the end if the idea is completed. Which means, I'll be proof reading this more some other time.

1. TL/DR:

In this MMO Idea, I create a new immersive, easy to understand, and innovative combat system and crafting system. The combat system includes mouse actions that have yet to be present in any mmo and possibly any TPS game.

• Programming Difficulty: Hard
  
• Server Equipment Capability: High

2. TOPICS:

• LORE (TBD)
  
• COMBAT (CRC/LRC/MCC)
  
• CHARACTER PROGRESSION
  
• CRAFTING
  
• PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER
  
• PLAYER VERSUS ENVIRONMENT
  
• COMMUNITY
  
  

3. LORE (This is just a quick filler…):

There is turmoil amongst the gods. They have decided to use the inhabitants of the world for “sport”. The gods placed tests to guard certain treasures that can test the worthiness of the warrior. The more incredible the treasure, the harder the test, but not every god is as difficult to appease as others. Players choose a god to follow at the start, which becomes their starting area. These starting areas are safer via the protection of the gods and have more than enough available for the players to progress with and test themselves.


4. COMBAT (CRC/LRC/MCC):

Close-Range Combat (CRC):
ATTACKING
During CRC, the player will left click to select a target or use the TAB key to target the closest hostile character in front of you. The player will then press the hotkey that activates their skill of choice. We will say this skill is their basic attack. Once the skill is activated, a slightly transparent area of interest will appear on the target (like an overlay). This will be obvious enough to see during the day time, but slightly harder to see at night. The player will need to drag the mouse (or click and rag) within that area of interest. If the player is not within the correct range, this attack will “miss”. If the player is close enough, the effectiveness of the attack is determined by 1) The accuracy of the mouse movement within the area of influence, 2) The speed of the mouse movement through the area of influence, and 3) the direction of the mouse movement through that area of influence (AOI). This means that to maximize the effectiveness of the attack, the player has to move the cursor through the AOI as quick as humanly possible and as close as the centerline of that AOI as possible. The difficulty of the skill determines the size and quantity of AOIs as well as increases the penalty for failing.

NOTE: If you perform a stabbing attack, you may have numerous AOIs to CLICK upon (a stab will show up as a circle instead of a sharp rectangular area where one should navigate the mouse as in a slash), but may only choose a certain amount.

DEFENDING
The player receiving the attack will see a similar slightly transparent AOI around his own character. This doesn’t have to resemble the same AOI that the attacking player witnessed because your defensive stats play an effect. A highly defensive character will have a very easy AOI to complete vs a weak attacker. If the defending player completes the AOI in better form than the attacker, the effectiveness of the attack will be reduced to AT MOST a block (or a dodge/parry if you have the skill…a block is standard). The amount of damage mitigation from this block is determined by the character’s stats, which are affected by the equipment.

NOTE: If the player performs a stabbing attack, you’ll have to click an AOI instead of move the mouse (the point of contact) and hope that this AOI is the correct one.

You can see why you’ll want to turn with Q and E in many situations.

Long-Range Combat (LRC):

Attacking and defending in LRC is similar to CRC in that you’ll choose your attack and have to complete the AOI. Most of the LRC will have some sort of circular AOI that might require multiple clicks inside it or the player will cock the bow and hold the LMB, letting go while upon the AOI (that doesn’t stay in the same place every attack).

NOTE: Range affects the effectiveness of the shot


Magic Casting Combat:

Casting is going to be a challenge in this game. Spells will take time to cast. Expect not to see ANY instant spells that can do significant damage…that doesn’t make sense. However, expect to see numerous spells that can instantly kill the target or the caster if done flawlessly or incorrectly (you’ll see why later).

The FIRST AOI for Casting will include mouse paths that simulate an incantation. This AOI will appear either IN FRONT or ON your character’s DEFENSE AOI. Hold the LMB and perform the incantation. Each circle of spell will require an additional AOI to complete. So if you have a spell that is stage 4, you’ll need to complete 4 AOIs correctly. Each AOI can range from very easy to very hard in terms of acceptable speed, accuracy, and direction .

The SECOND AOI for Casting will include final flourishes of your wand/staff/hand (magic gloves). This will be less difficult than the incantations and will usually only associate with 1 AOI. Keep in mind that characters can still defend from this. Shields can block some magic. Some magic can be dodged if one has that ability.

Healing works the same way. It’s colored differently so that a player know whether he’s being healed or attacked because he could defend against the heal as well.


NOTE: If your spell is beyond your statistical ability, it’ll be harder than it should be, and you risk hurting yourself…



5. CHARACTER PROGRESSION:

Stat System:
The player chooses stats from a limited maximum pool of points at the start of the game. Stats increase depending on what abilities are used, books are read, or other consumables that may give limited boosts. There will be a max total stat pool, so no one will be able to maximize any more than one stat. This is so people can specialize. Your stats also determine your ability to use certain equipment.

Some stats will decrease while using certain skills as well, so a hybrid character will really be a hybrid character.

Skill System:
The skill system is quite robust.

At the character creation screen, players will choose a limited number of abilities that are all available if the necessary stats levels are met. The classic “more int more skills” still applies.

Skills can be “stumbled upon”. In fact, you will stumble upon many skills once you first begin playing. For example, if you used “basic attack”, but see that your AOI has a different option that wasn’t there before; you may choose that option and end up learning a new ability. You can also stumble upon a skill if it was done to you repeatedly and you have the necessary statistics. A magic focused player will probably not stumble upon a shield attack after being hit by one, but one could stumble upon a magic attack that is a bit weaker than the attack that damaged him. If you’re killed by it, your chances of learning it are better, but death is not a good thing... You can also learn from mobs that attack you. There might be a scroll that allows a character to “apply poison” to their attack, or the character could battle creatures that deal poison damage or harvest their natural venoms.

Skills can be taught. Any player can create a scroll of their skill and sell this scroll to NPC skill masters (who will hold it for players who want to buy it) or trade it to other players directly. Remember that NPCs run out of things… even paper for scrolls. The npc will purchase and sell at a price that can’t be bargained with. If you don’t like that price, speak with other players.

Skills can be crafted. Any player can edit their skills and even combine skills in some ways.

Example: A CRC character learns the weakest Fire Ball. This character opens up “Skill Crafting” and places Fire Ball and Basic Slash into the edit slots and presses edit. The predetermined name would be “Orious’ Fire Slash” and the window would show areas that can be tweaked. These areas would be physical damage, fire damage, cooldown, casting time, stamina cost, mana cost, etc. Now, all of these things are dependent upon each other, so raising the casting time would probably lower costs, but raising damages would raise the costs. Also, the required statistics for using the ability correctly may change (and this will not be shown (: ).

After you create you skill, it will show up in your ability window. Now a hybrid skill like this one would require both an incantation and a CRC range. You’d first perform an incantation to imbue your weapon with fire; you’ll then have to perform the AOI at the correct CRC range to attack.

You can’t learn every skill at once and learning some skills will prevent you from learning others. Some skills can also not be combined with others.

You can have your memory erased, which allows you to lose a specific skill (and possibly a small number of stats).

Does this make sense?
It’s semi-complicated, but makes skills change constantly and regularly. Players will end up balancing the skills and flavors of the week themselves.


6. CRAFTING:

Crafting will be robust.

Players will mine, hunt, cut for resources etc. They’ll take these raw resources and smelt or grind them into usable resources. The player will have slots to place tools and resources of interest within the crafting window and then they’ll be able to “draw” a shape on the grid. They’ll click craft, and you’ll get something. If you’ve drawn something that’s nearly the correct shape and has nearly the correct tools, you’ll get something usable. If you get something that’s half correct, you’ll still get something fairly usable. If it’s far from correct you’ll get some raw resources back that’ll be less than what you started with.

Example:You chopped one piece of wood. You place the log into the crafting window with a carving knife. You draw a rectangle of short size. Out pops a short wooden hilt and a smaller amount of wood (or no wood).

Then you take some ore you mined and smelt it into a metal blade (the smelter asks you to draw what you want). You place the metal blade, the hilt, and thread into the crafting window and don’t draw anything, but click craft. You’ll get a crude dagger. If you draw something you can either get a return of raw materials for a poor drawing, or you’ll get a higher quality dagger. So very good crafters will know how to draw what and better things will require more intuition to draw (not necessarily HARD...but thinking is needed).

After it’s drawn once, you can select the drawing. Up to three of each craft can be saved. If you were going cold, you’ll have found recipes yourself. If not, you can purchase the recipe from someone else. The recipe can explain the shape, but you will have to make the shape as well. Anything can be written on paper/parchment. A craft can write how to make his items and sell it on the MISC NPC. There’s no telling if this would work though, so beware.


7. PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER:

The start of the game will be in the respective god territories. Players can travel to the chaotic lands and build their castles if they’d like to. The chaotic lands are controlled by the most powerful god…the god of death. Enemies are difficult here, but the rewards are boundless.


8. PLAYER VERSUS ENVIRONMENT:
Creature Ecology:
Taming will be similar to something I played in the past. You see a creature… you beat it up until it’s weak… you feed it food until it stops attacking you. If it stops attacking you, you’ve tamed it. You have a taming level and stats to consider though. It’s harder to tame than it is to control an already obedient pet.


9. COMMUNITY:

Towns will sell things, but they’ll also run out. They’ll then give quests so that people can fill the town stockpiles with whatever is needed… from consumables to armor. Players provide the main town npcs with the goods in the shop. These shops are not connected, you have to go to the town where the players sell what they sold. A “get me 10 hog thighs” quest will put 10 COOKED hog thighs in the cheff’s selling inventory. While these towns are safe, the area outside of them are NOT safe, however, the gods grant their followers home field advantage while occupying the island. There are seven islands and one large mainland. Some Islands are friends, some are neutral, some are hostile towards your own. There will be ships to go from one to another if they are friend or neutral, but some neutral will be friends with your enemy, so you’ll be able to visit all places if you don’t have your own sea travel built.



Thanks for reading!

~S~