Once again, with a (probably unoriginal) MMO thought: I've enjoyed MMOs like EVE Online and World of Warcraft immensely, despite the huge difference in game mechanics. Now, these two games are pretty much the extent of my MMO experience, so tell me if this has already been done: The Integration of Hand-to-Hand combat, and Air Warfare In order to reduce some grinding, there will be only 18 levels. Getting to 18 should only take about 15 hours of solid play. This way, 90% of the game's content is essentially end-game content. Levels 1-18 Revolves around character. Much like WoW, where all your skills will improve the character's ability to fight better monsters (and other players, of course). Level 18 The player can begin flight training. A ship can be obtained in one of two ways: A. (with the proper skills) by purchasing or creating schematics and then fabricating the ship in an instanced City Docking Bay. There might even be an instanced NPC that gives missions to find or buy all the necessary parts to complete the ship. It's cheaper, but takes a lot of time, effort, and skill. B. purchasing a completed ship from the NPC or PC shipyards in the City. Costs a fortune. (Much like WoW's expensive mounts, only some are player-made). After you obtain flight training and a ship, you still continue to improve your character via skills, but also begin to learn flight skills and ship-ship combat. Before level 18, players may want to take public transportation airships for long-distance travel, and to get to big cities. They have a small fee, but are much, much faster than walking. After a player obtains a ship, they can use the airways themselves! This is just a start of an idea. It's imperfect, so: How can this idea be improved to make it a feasible MMO mechanic?

Quote:Original post by Talroth If most of the game isn't going to be about levels, then why even bother with them?

And yes, I might just do away with levels entirely. The point of having a few beginning levels is a kind of tutorial/newbie training. Veteran players will rip through them, and newbies will get to learn the ropes.

Quote:Original post by moosedude I found that after reaching max. level I've lost some interest in the game as there isn't enough "new challenges" to keep me in

The major idea is shifting the grind away from pointless levels, and into skills/rep. I know it doesn't actually solve much, but at least the grind would have a point. The plan is to make enemies more difficult not by adding levels or HP, but making them more intelligent. That way, you still have zones that are harder than others, but not because of level.

Secondly, this MMO is based on player created (and procedural) consumable content. Basically, the world keeps changing. I've laid out the groundwork for consumable content before. If all the problems could be worked out, I believe it would be a superior mechanic of creating content than Instances/Quests/Zones.

*anyways*, this post is about the fusion of player-player and ship-ship combat. It sounds like it would work just fine.

Sounds to me like you're talking about making two different games, and then strapping them together. Risky business. For a player who really likes one (loves to fly an airship) but hates the other (can't stand 3rd person running around), it'll be like paying to have a really great massage, but every few minutes a bell rings, the room fills with smoke and they have to solve a riddle while getting kicked in the scrotum. When the riddle's solved, the massage is back, but is it really worth it?

If you force them to do both, you get the intersection of the audiences. If you allow them to do either, you get the union of the two audiences.

I think it would be neat to actually do it in two totally different games, even on two different servers. The pilot "docks" and gets a landscape view of the city he's in, while on the "groundwalker" world the players see the ship descend and land at the port. Passage is billed via a simple chat/commerce interface, goods for trade and consumption are purchased, and the ship embarks.

For the passengers, it's just a room they're in, maybe there's a Pac-Man machine in one corner, or a bar, or it's a fancy luxury flight with a Pac-Man machine and a bar. They play their mini-games and they chat. For the pilot, it's the game. He's plotting his course, and he's managing his trade orders in other cities remotely, and he's addressing navigational hazards and opportunities. Maybe he's set upon by critters and has to redirect power from Pac-Man to the shields, which would upset some passengers, I guess, but the bar's wireless, so who cares? When he gets where he's going, he docks again, and on and on and on, etc.

I was just thinking that players could do either. It's a lot more on the WoW side than the EVE side. Ships would be more like mounts, but player-crafted mounts that could fight.

Having two worlds is a great idea though. Even cooler, would be if it was the same world, but in separate sections.

As in: The people playing a 3rd person WoW style game could see the fights in the sky if they looked up, and the EVE pilots could see the people on the ground, but they don't have to do both.

Quote:Original post by Iron Chef Carnage
it'll be like paying to have a really great massage, but every few minutes a bell rings, the room fills with smoke and they have to solve a riddle while getting kicked in the scrotum.

Great analogy. It sounds like a Japanese game show.

Quote:Original post by Iron Chef Carnage
For the passengers, it's just a room they're in, maybe there's a Pac-Man machine in one corner, or a bar, or it's a fancy luxury flight with a Pac-Man machine and a bar.

I definitely want to expand on the things you can do while flying. I always hated not being able to do anything in WoW flight paths. There is a network of paths in my game world that allow 0 fuel consumption and super speed if you ride them, and it's basically an autopilot. So, I imagine you could train skills, relax, and chat in flight. Have newbies pay you for rides to cities... there are plenty of possibilities.