nicked on 3/11/2010 at 06:45

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Never played Planetside, but knowing my own tastes, it seems like the sort of game I would have really loved for two weeks and then got bored of.

I'd like to see a game like Far Cry 2 as a persistent coop world with a compelling story. That'd be really fun and interesting imo.

nicked on 3/11/2010 at 08:52

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Thing is, I would have thought that an MMOFPS would be considerably cheaper to knock out than an MMORPG. Licence a really user-friendly engine like the Cryengine and you could make some good sprawling areas to play in pretty quickly for a start.

Kuuso on 3/11/2010 at 10:47

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The biggest hurdle in an MMOFPS i'd see is how to make it replayable. Online FPS games tend to lose their charm quite easily, if you don't get into clan stuff. MMORPG's are all about the clans, so they kind of bypass the problem, but they do offer loads of stuff to do for people playing alone or just with one friend. It is not enough to give people stuff to grind for, they have to have instances and true interaction with other players. Great instances that feel like achieving something. Not just "rounds" that start off exactly the same every time (like traditional deathmatch).

I think Borderlands (which wasn't that good of a game imo) did something right. The leveling and the stuff you got from it were spot on. The guns were fun (albeit a tad boring). You got a pet, skills etc. Not just 30+ agi and crit. They just need to up the scale from that and make a world that actually has meaningful stuff in it to succeed.

nicked on 3/11/2010 at 13:48

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If I were in charge of my hypothetical MMOFPS, I'd use Left 4 Dead-style dynamic enemy spawning in the instances, but I'd also have dynamic objectives as well. Picture this:

You and your friends are exploring the open world "overworld" area on the fictional wartorn future planet where the game is set; you've turned PvP off so you can focus on PVE content. You come across a quest/mission giver and he gives you a mission to complete - for example "Retrieve a briefcase of documents from the abandoned military base". Once you've got this mission, that mission is unique to you. If anyone else talks to the guy, he might want them to rescue someone, or assassinate a target. Once you've got that mission, however, you can share it with your friends (or go it alone if you prefer).

You and your friends head over to the military base and hit the loading portal at the entrance. You then load into a much more cinematic, closed-off area - the "instance". Enemies spawn and attack you, with more spawning based on how many are in your group. You fight them off and look for the briefcase. Different routes are randomly blocked off/open, and some areas are randomly accessible/inaccessible. Maybe there's a locked door and the keycard is in a random location out of 8 or so possible places. Because you're fighting off the enemies quite easily, a heavily-armoured boss enemy with a rocket launcher spawns and causes you some difficulty. You finally defeat him, and then locate the briefcase. You fight your way to the exit and return to the overworld.

Because you've done that instance and angered the enemy, some enemy squads now spawn in the overworld. You, your friends and any passersby can help you defeat these enemies. You return to the quest giver and he thanks you for the briefcase and disperses the rewards between the group (you get more reward depending on how many enemies you killed and objectives you completed. This could get more complex with Medic classes getting rewards for healing etc.)

You take your reward money to the weapon shop, and use it to buy a better gun. Now whenever you go to a "safe zone" in the overworld, there'll be a weapon storage building where you can access all the weapons you've bought. This way you can swap out different weapons for different missions.

Next time you go and see the quest giver, he'll be happy to give you another mission to do. But, this mission will be in another random location, the objective will be random, and the level will be largely randomised when you get there. The only certainty is that the mission he gives you will be a little bit more difficult.

By using a lot of dynamic content and randomisation, you could squeeze a lot more gameplay out of the locations. Keep making new locations and soon you've got a massive game with loads of content that stays fresh and is playable by new and old players alike.

If you build PVP into that as well, either by allowing players to skirmish in the main world, or having WOW-style giant deathmatch battlegrounds accessible throughout the world that utilise changing, dynamic team objectives, you've probably got a really fantastic game.

Pyrian on 4/11/2010 at 19:20

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How many MMO's are being made without some sort of instancing going on these days? :confused: I mean, I'm hardly an MMO conneisseur, but old guard purism isn't something I've heard much about lately.