Hi all,
I might get a bit ahead of myself (and all the rest) but i had did some thinking how one could evolve the Racer (after its more or less finished and working of course) to gradually send it into a MMO direction.
As its all just raw ideas, i'll just write them down, and see if anyone resonates with them, or gets another good idea from it.
Also, as the point when this will be necessary is potentially quite some time away, take it as just possibilities that hopefully spark some inspiration for other, better ideas in someone. Also add a grain of salt.
What i thought of was, how could you make a racing game from a pure racing game into something more, add elements of different genres, add other design patterns and game-theoretical bits and pieces, to make it more complex, but keep the transition gradual, and logical. No player should experience a new feature and say "woah, where did that come from?" but be more like "oh, how come i didn't notice that you can do this" like it's been there all along, because its a natural extension of what already was there.
Of course the latter case is a bit extreme, and pretty much impossible to realize, but thats the archetype of what im aiming at.
As we already discussed some "character" customization in form of ship upgrades and weapons, RPG elements are what comes to mind at first (also because RPGs are probably my favorite genre, but well..).
How about instead of just having a shop where you buy your stuff, limited by money, you actually have to search for the cool gear. You fly a race, get your ass kicked by someone, and think "man, i really need a new weapon, but theres nothing better in the shop", so you go to your local tavern (bar, city square, whatever) and ask around, and some NPC tells you that he heard of some guy on planet X who is a total maniac when it comes to weaponry, so maybe you should ask him. So you fly there, and find him, and he tells you that of course he has his connections, and he can get you what you want, but it won't be cheap. And after some thousand credits he tells you a story of a legendary ancient ship, that supposedly contains some pretty serious firepower, if you can adapt it to your systems, which would require the skills of a high-class mechanic, whom he incidentally knows and would be willing to introduce you to. The parts you have to find for yourself of course, he only can give you a rough location, and the name of the (legendary) ship. So you head there, ask around, and step by step narrow the location down, until you kind of know where it is but also know that the area is not pretty, only pretty dangerous. You set out to find some companions for this monolithic task ...
What this boils down to is of course some sort of quest, to get new gear, but i think it shouldn't be handled like in most MMORPGs, with it being all predictable, and exclamation marks over the heads of the important people, and everyone doing the same stuff, the same way, but more dynamic. The information you get should be partly random, and maybe partly wrong, and the kind of "quests" you get, in form of some gossip or information, should be dependent on what you have, and who you are (yes that part may sound a bit too far ahead alright), and most important: you should have to do some thinking and searching for yourself, without being told "go to coordinate x,y,z, there you find person a who will tell you where person b is, who in turn will give you the item you want". This way it would feel less of a chore of just walking from checkpoint to checkpoint until you collect your loot, but more of an adventure and a real quest, which would also feel MUCH more rewarding. There are enough players out there who want to explore a game, just to find whats out there (which sadly in most MMOs is pretty much nothing apart from the same stuff everywhere else) and to have been there (which in most MMOs sadly isn't very rewarding as it looks like anywhere else anyway) and to be able to return from there saying "I have been to the borders of the X Nebula, flown across the asteroid fields of Y, crossed the magnetic storms of Z, and all i got was this lousy tshirt ... and this Ancient Photon Blaster that reduces even a fleet of battleships to ashes within seconds ... and this weird alien voice message that speaks of some forgotten space station which im off to search for next ... and this interesting device, i don't actually know what it does but its quite nice to look at ... and this alien lifeform, im not sure i should keep it ... and ......". Of course this would be a lot of work for the content creators, and not entirely feasible, but i think it would be worth it.
A similar way to achieve this, would be to scatter lots of stuff and pieces of information about upgrades and parts in the galaxy, so that you may actually stumble accidentally over the location of some awesome part, but as it sounds useless to you, or to much of a bother to go get it, you sell the information to someone who cares. That way there could be plenty of player interaction over this. The cornerstone of this of course, would be that this pieces are unique, so once its taken, its taken. This would have to be countered by somehow generating new hints and stuff to collect all the time (which would fit nicely into the "procedural" part of geist). I think that even if these quest starting points are somewhat similar in phrasing and design, it wouldn't matter that much because the necessity of actual action from the players, not just a passive behaviour of click-everyone-that-has-a-quest-marker, and therefore the increased involvement of the player, would actually make it feel less repetitive.
to finish thought 1, and sum it up:Scatter information about upgrades in galaxy
wait for players to find them on their own, instead of shoving the quests in their faces with a wooden hammer
let them create their own story this way, instead of forcing them down some predetermined path
give the lazy ones an alternative in form of "normal" static shops, but make the stuff there slightly less awesome
use this as one way among others to enable, and reward, active exploration of the galaxy (as a big galaxy SHOULD be fun to explore)
make the universe worth exploring, and feel less static and more alive
make players actually pay attention to what NPCs say, by making it relevant, if not always obvious or trustworthy
dont provide an easy way to get cool stuff, while it shouldn't take hours on end, it should at least involve you using your brain and your skills to some extent
remove pure playing time as a primary factor in how good you are in-game (of course playing skill gain should still be possible, and necessary, but it shouldn't be a matter of just logging 10 hours of play a day and spending weeks grinding this and that, a task a monkey could do)
One thought is enough for one post, so have your say
~awakened~
all for implementing some elements of the monomyth in any mmo, regardless of genrePS: as i have my intermediate diploma in the bag since tuesday, i now have a bit more time to think of delusional stuff like this, so expect more on that front
