PvE Sandbox MMO: The beginning

Posted on April 6, 2011 by SynCaine

A few days ago I posted about a PvE Sandbox MMO, and while the post got my overall point across, I think it might be fun to fully expand upon the idea over a series of posts. One of the biggest challenges I have as a writer here is that in my mind I know the game I want to play, but as that game does not 100% exist right now, I can’t refer to it and have people know what I’m talking about. Bringing up one feature without the context of the whole generally leads to confusion over anything else. Perhaps after this series that will be a little clearer for regular readers.

One goal will be to address seemingly unrelated issues (like crafting, housing, progression) by going the sandbox route, all while keeping the main goal, PvE instead of PvP, in place. Today though I want to lay out some high-level goals for the sandbox MMO.

First is that in a sandbox, a player is never ‘done’ with an area. You travel to different places, but you never fully move on from any one place because you have out-leveled it or you have every item you might want from there. New and veteran players should travel to the same areas, but perhaps for different reasons. Getting this aspect right is, IMO, one of the biggest keys to a good MMO.

Second, character progression should be lengthy (ideally infinite) but not outright grindy or heavily required beyond a certain point, and while characters should always be progressing, the difference between veterans and newbies should never reach peasant to god levels.

Third, itemization is key. All gamers love shines, just like we all love character progression. Like the above however, items should remain viable while not turning anyone into a god, and having more wealth should always be a good thing. You should never reach the point of being ‘rich enough’.

Fourth, social structure has to matter to all players, not just those who throw themselves into the deep end of guild politics. Leaders must be able to shape the world, while those who are not yet leaders must have a path to attain such status with the proper amount of work/effort. Those who are not leaders must also have a role and purpose beyond just showing up. Finally the option to play a ‘lone wolf’ must exist, but be a more difficult road for the select few.

Freedom is important, but the game’s structure must be such that it does assist with goals and leads you down the path you have selected. Random and non-interconnected systems all tossed into a world does not qualify as a solid MMO. That said, any character should have the ability to change paths, and at no point should a full re-roll ever be more optimal than going a different direction with your current character. The notion that you are your character, rather than you owning an account with different options, is very important.

Tomorrow I’ll lay out the basics for the game I have in mind, and beyond I’ll dive into different areas and add on to that base.

Posted in MMO design, Random | 13 Comments

Shades of blue

Posted on April 5, 2011 by SynCaine

Back then I was on the ‘red’ side, now I’m firmly on the ‘blue’ side. Guess the player along with the game evolves.

Wise words from a wise man, minus the grammar fail on the original. The first part of that comment is wrong, I’m happy to report, but I would like to talk a bit about the part that I quoted. It was true in 2007, and it’s still true today. Sorta. My ‘blue’ is just not nearly as blue as others, as both Darkfall and Rift have shown.

Back in 1997 the ratio of the hardcore to the casual player was (random number) 1 to 20. A small minority even back then, but at least a countable percentage of the player base. If I had to guess, the ratio today would be something like 1 to 1000, if not smaller.

Even in a game like Darkfall, tuned to meet the needs of the hardcore faithful, not everyone is as ‘red’ as the original PKs of UO. There are a lot of casual (by DF standards) players, and the elite are in a few known clans. I’m very much in that casual crowd by DF standards.

In Rift, while we are not on the bleeding-edge of PvE progression or running a 24/7 Warfront guild (think original WoW High Warlord days), I’d easily say we are in the top whatever % of the playerbase, and I know time is the only limiting factor from server-first levels.

Part of that is the content itself; I’ve yet to see anything on par with original WoW raiding, or even v1.0 Scholo/Strath, but the major factor is, simply put, the average MMO player is far, far more casual today then those who played back in 97. So even though my MMO time has decreased over the years thanks to RL, my time drop has not been nearly as steep as the overall average for an MMO gamer today.

In 97 the genre was super-niche compared to what it is today, and what is popular and why clearly reflects that. What is interesting to watch, between games like DF maintaining player levels, EVE still growing, and now Rift doing well, is just which direction things are headed. Back in 2007-8 the direction was clear; more ‘accessible’ = more players, and it seemed that every major MMO at the time was scrambling to figure out how to best hand out shiny loot with minimal effort to players.

Farmville and Mafia Wars epitomize this style of ‘game’ design, where the only path is up and minimal effort leads to constant pats on the head. WotLK at release was also hailed as the savior for the casual player, finally opening up all that content that BC kept for the elite few. Raiding for all! Cata continued the trend with (by TAGN official reports) super easy instances and a semi-revamp of the already faceroll-easy leveling game.

We are seeing the signs of the Farmville fad fading, and more than a few players have remarked about how little Cata held their attention. At the same time, Rift is far closer to 2004 WoW in terms of content challenge than it is to the current game, and as mentioned more difficult (spare me the definition, you know what I mean) games like EVE and DF continue to expand and improve, without caving in and going down the Trammel/NGE path.

Perhaps, as the MMO fad itself fades from pop culture status (sorry Mr. T), we will continue to see games designed more towards the core user base rather than trying to convert Farmville players or attract the roving bands of tourists. Certainly we won’t see 97-levels, but hell, I’ll gladly return to 2004, where I can once again be a happy little bluebie.

Posted in Darkfall Online, EVE Online, Inquisition Clan, MMO design, Rift, Ultima Online, World of Warcraft | 13 Comments

Rift: Expert Dungeons, round one

Posted on April 4, 2011 by SynCaine

Inquisition has started running Expert dungeons in Rift, and so far the experience has been pretty damn enjoyable. The advancement pace is certainly much faster than 2004 WoW raiding, where I believe we spent about a week semi-pug-raid wiping on the first pull (admittedly, that first pull was brutal), but we are still wiping at least a few times per boss, and the two instances we have completed (Iron Tomb and Lantern Hook) have taken us about three hours each. Given that there are achievements to complete IT in 25 min and LH in 45 (or vice versa maybe?), clearly we are going slow, but slow means we are pushing the gear limit pretty damn close to the break point (we spent basically zero time ‘gearing up’ for Expert dungeons after we hit 50), and that’s a very rewarding challenge.

For both runs we have had four guild members and one pug, and all of the randoms we picked up (2 in IT, one in LH) were better geared and had run the instances already, yet they were all consistently far below us in terms of performance. I don’t write that to brag (regular readers already know I’m gods gift to tanking), but more to separate our experience (first time in, full clear) with the ‘average’ group result. I highly doubt most groups go in and finish an expert dungeon first shot, or get the results we get with fresh 50s. Point being, the content is indeed pretty tough for what it is (5 man instanced dungeons), and I’m fully expecting things to continue to ramp up when we move to 10 man raid rifts and the 20 man raid content.

The tuning is sharp as well. For instance, the second-to-last boss in Lantern Hook, among other abilities, spawns a pulsing shard at the feet of one group member at random. This creates a permanent ‘don’t stand in the fire’ spot, and he continues to spawn more shards as the fight goes on. If you have overwhelming dps, the location of the spawns does not really matter as you will burn the boss down long before space becomes an issue. At our gear level (and with a pug rogue who could not faceroll his way out of shard 9/10 times (dps players…)), space was indeed a major issue, and so it become very important not only where we originally pulled the boss, but how we move him with each shard spawn. Our ranged characters also had to make sure not to stand in spots that would eventually be needed to drag the boss along. It took us a few wipes to really nail the path down, and the randomness of the shard target made each attempt a little different. When he finally went down it was a good accomplishment all around.

Posted in Combat Systems, Inquisition Clan, Rift | 3 Comments

Patching like its 1999

Posted on April 1, 2011 by SynCaine

I appreciate the rapid pace of patching. It’s impressive, even by “first month of a new MMO” standards. And as we saw with 1.1, the updates are not all just bug fixes but actual content additions. Major bonus points for keeping downtimes very short, and actually bringing the servers back up in 30 minutes when you say 30 minutes. The service standards might be pretty low in MMO land, but even still it’s nice that someone is raising the bar. One month in, zero complaints.

But it not only should continue, it more or less has to if Trion really is going to accomplish what many AAA titles before it failed to do (retain more than 1m subs past 6 months).

It has to because while Rift does what it does at a best-in-class level, it’s still doing stuff similar (but not the same) to other big-name games, and the current crop of ADD gamers not only needs new shinies, they need them delivered at a furious pace. Or, at something called furious when your current expectations are a rehash every 6 months plus a cash shop not-so-micro my-little-pony update.

If Rift is at version 1.5 after six months, and we have events similar to what 1.1 introduced each month, is anyone going to be talking about Rift being just another clone? And while on the surface that might seem like an impossible task, I don’t believe it really is. Asheron’s Call had monthly updates that actually altered the game world in permanent ways, and CCP puts out two free expansions a year for EVE. EQ1 had an expansion released weekly (more or less). This “it takes two years to update a few zones” stuff is pathetic, and MMO fans tolerating it for so long is even worse.

Trion has shown that they know exactly how a themepark works, and I doubt that understanding only went up to launching flawlessly. Players consume themepark content fast, and most will no longer entertain themselves by bashing their head into a wall for a few months (Rag 1.0-style raiding). Some emjoy that, and it should be provided, but it’s not the be-all-end-all of providing content. Trion has already hinted (and shown with 1.1?) that the tools they have created for Rift allow for easier content additions, and that the type of content produced is more than just adding another Kill X daily.

Seven years later we look back at WoW and credit Blizzard with bringing polish to the AAA MMO space. In another seven, hopefully we will look back at Rift and credit Trion with bringing (back) a high rate of content delivery.

For now, we can track progress on a monthly basis. One down, 83 to go.

Posted in Asheron's Call, EQ2, EVE Online, MMO design, Patch Notes, Rift, World of Warcraft | 7 Comments

I should get hacked more often

Posted on March 31, 2011 by SynCaine

Remember this little encounter?

It seems Trion thinks that ‘delayed’ response is worth 30 days of game time AND all of the weapon boost tokens you could receive from various pre-order deals.

Just another day in a clone themepark. Basically.

Copy/Paste of the email text below:

Greetings Ascended,

Our goal here at Trion is to deliver the highest quality games and a superior customer experience.

Recently, you had to wait through an exceptional delay during the processing of your request for support — a delay that did not and will not meet our high bar for responsiveness. For that, you have our sincere apologies.

This is not the experience that you should expect from Trion Worlds. To help make up for the delay, we have:

  • Credited your account 30 days of play time.
  • Bestowed via in-game mail, to all your current and future characters, a full set of the special RIFT pre-order bonus weapon enchant runes that you may not have had previously.

No action is required on your end. These items and days of play time have already been added to your Trion Worlds account.

We know this does not entirely make up for the frustration you have encountered, but this is our way of thanking you for your patience.

Please know that Trion Customer Service will continue working tirelessly through our support requests. Between recently expanded Customer Support staffing and improvements in our own tools, we are on track to resolve matters more quickly in the future.

I want to personally thank you for your continued support of Trion Worlds, and I hope you continue to enjoy RIFT.

Best regards,

Craig P.
Director of Customer Service & QA
Trion Worlds

Posted in Rift, Site update | 24 Comments

Rift: World event quick hit

Posted on March 31, 2011 by SynCaine

The first Rift live event kicked off yesterday (along with the 1.1 patch), and for day-one of a major patch things were very smooth. Patching was quick, the servers stayed up, and no major bugs were introduced.

The event itself, as of right now, consists of a few new quests in the capital city and random death rifts opening up across all zones. I also saw one new invasion in Stillmoor, and I’m guessing other zones also have new event-based invasions. The death rifts themselves are also new in terms of content, and feature what I’m assuming are guest appearances by the soon-to-be-added bosses from the new 20 man raid zone. The mobs look very impressive.

As with most things in Rift, it’s not one thing that stands out and screams “I’m awesome, look at me”, but rather all the little things that come together to make this addition just that much better than what came before.

First off is the integration of the event into the UI; all players now see a new listing in their quest tracker, and if you click on it, you get a nice-looking event overview window with some flavor text and the schedule for the event. That this is already built-in shows some good planning by Trion, and hints at what else they might already have planned. Is it too much to ask for Asheron’s Call-style monthly storyline updates?

As mentioned, the death rifts are slightly different from pre-event death rifts, and toss in a new mechanic or two along with a more story-driven presentation. It’s a good change of pace, especially this early in the games life, and again points to what could be done later on. I’m fairly confident that Trion is saving up the more complex rift mechanics for later (or for raid rifts, I’ve yet to see one of those), allowing the majority to get comfortable with what is there now, similar to how the first zone’s invasions are simplified versions of the system. One-off rifts for quests already have more complex mechanics, so the tech is there.

On a personal note my warrior is at 49.5 right now, and some of our members have already hit 50, meaning we will be running tier one dungeons shortly, which I’m really looking forward to. We have also picked up a few new members, and assuming everyone makes it to 50, we should have the numbers to do 10-man raid rifts. We will have to add some people if/when we aim for 20 man raiding, but that’s something we can address when we get closer to that possibility.

Posted in Inquisition Clan, Rift | 1 Comment

The apples taste like oranges

Posted on March 30, 2011 by SynCaine

I was in Stillmoor finishing up some quests when a raid-level quest opened up. About 30 minutes or so later, someone was advertising in zone-chat that they are putting together a raid for the quest. I sign up, and in about 5 minutes we have a nearly full raid.

We gather up at the hub, and all progress towards the location of the raid mob. Along the way we kill any mobs that agro, as not everyone in the raid was 50 yet (I’m still 48) and the lower levels have a wider agro range. When we reach the raid mob, one member of the raid quickly goes over the mob (kill adds, don’t stand in the fire, standard stuff really), a ready check (built into the UI) goes out, everyone hits ready, and the fight starts.

We have some issue with tank agro, along with not enough people picking up adds, and at about 70% we wipe. A few people soul walk, rez the rest of the raid, and we have a quick talk about what to do better. We buff up, engage the boss again, and after a good fight with some nice tank swaps and in-combat rezzing, we down the raid boss.

The raid then proceeds to make its way back out towards town (the area is full of elite mobs), once again killing anything that is in our way. As we reach the end of the elite mobs, a few people in the raid ask if anyone still needs to complete some of the quests in this area (I did), and separate groups form to knock those out.

Now, on the surface this is nothing ground-breaking or “zomg I’ve never seen that happen!” stuff, yet lets just list out the possible issues that could have arisen if we were in some other MMO.

For starters, the raid was gather in that zone rather than through some cross-server anonymous insta-group tool. This then allowed everyone to gather up quickly without being instantly zipped directly to the boss. As everyone was from the same server, any black-listed names could have been excluded easily.

Next, everyone did actually gather in a timely manner, and stuck together as the group moved forward. We did not have people running left and right to chase a shiny or collect far-off resource nodes. We did not leave behind those who drew agro. No one was racing to get the first tag on a mob, or raging over a world drop (we had two).

Everyone clicked the ready check (which as a former raid leader, actually does blow my mind), and when we wiped no one immediately left or started raging that the tanks/healers suck. Everyone was rezzed quickly, no one accidently agroed the boss early, or agroed other mobs in the area, and the second attempt got under way in minimal time (which, again, as a former raid leader is impressive, especially for a PUG raid).

When the boss fell no one left the raid immediately. No one started porting home. People did not scatter and run as quickly as they could to turn the quest in and collect their shiny (a pretty sweet epic might I add). The raid stuck together and got everyone out, and additional groups were formed directly after (something that’s impossible if everyone insta-ported over using an auto-matching tool).

But hey, open groups and an insta-match cross-server ‘stand in town and queue’ thing are basically the same thing that produce basically the same type of server environment and in-game culture.

Basically.

Posted in MMO design, Rant, Rift, World of Warcraft | 24 Comments

The PvE Sandbox

Posted on March 29, 2011 by SynCaine

Whenever a Darkfall update is features on Massively, odds are good someone is going to comment on how they would love to play in such a world, just without the FFA PvP. Now it should be pretty obvious to anyone that if you removed FFA PvP from Darkfall, the game would be pretty boring and more or less not work, but that does not mean the concept of a PvE sandbox is impossible, or relegated to something like A Tale in the Desert (no combat).

One key to any good sandbox is motivators, because unlike a themepark, everyone’s path is not pre-set and often you are tasked with setting your own goals. While freedom is very important, total freedom leads to many not having ‘stuff to do’ and leaving. PvP solves this problem because even if you are not doing something, someone might come along and ‘create’ something for you to do. This act-react cycle can continue indefinitely if pre-set correctly.

The idea for a PvE sandbox would be to replace the actions of aggressive PvPers with mobs, but ‘fixing’ the errors with human behavior. Mobs would not drop server-up sieges, they would not camp your corpse, and would not complain about an uneven fight or seek to grossly zerg you because they can. They would still bring action to your doorstep, and would still have a real impact. If you fail to defend your city, it becomes a mob city until you or someone else takes it back. Mobs would no longer have set spawn points, but rather shifting base camps that send out parties in various directions with no ‘leash’ limit. The mob warband would attack who they spot, die or kill others, and continue on. If players over-hunt mobs in a certain area, they leave, and that part of the world becomes more/less ideal depending on what you want to do (good for farmers, bad for monster hunters). Again, the idea is to mimic common player behavior while taking advantage of the fact that mobs can’t ragequit or use creative gameplay to get ahead.

The biggest hurdle or challenge with such a design, aside from the usual stuff like a good combat system and an interesting world (clone DF…) would be the AI for the mobs; they would need to do a little more than charge at you when you get into agro range and exchange until someone drops. Or at least, some of them would, as it would be both realistic and entertaining to see lots of lesser mobs charge mindlessly, mimicking newbie/bad players perfectly. But beyond having the actual confrontations with the mobs be interesting, the ‘why’ behind the mobs would have to be deeper and more dynamic than just “the script said so”.

You would need to say, day one: “Our mobs have a set number of needs and wants, and will seek to accomplish them. This may or may not lead to your entire city being burned. It’s also possible that after burning one city, the mobs continue and burn ten more. We make no promises that every fight is winnable, or that mobs won’t overrun large sections of the world. Actually, we don’t really know WHAT the mobs will do exactly, as a large part of their actions will be reactions to what the players do. Good luck, we can always restart if we need to”.

And because the world has no direct PvP (stuff like market competition and other indirect forms of PvP always exist), the setup is a case of us vs them for all players, which would hopefully lead to a more unified community. Some players would still attempt to grief as best as they can, but if the world truly relies on player cooperation (decent gear being only craftable in established player cities that, in turn, lead to more and stronger mob attacks/attention), the outcasts would soon be black-listed and find life even more challenging. Villains should exist, but their existence should be more difficult than those who ‘play along’.

The somewhat recent launch of the EQ1 progression server, along with things like SWGemu, UO shards, and interest in PvE-DF, has shown that, at least among a subset of the market, there is a group of players who still enjoy playing as part of a community, of being a member of a world rather than a copy of an ‘epic’ tale, and of working with others rather than always against them. What was impossible tech wise in 97/99 (mainly complex AI and the world to contain it) is now very much a possibility in 2011. We just need the right dev team to go out and do it.

Posted in Darkfall Online, MMO design, Random | 9 Comments

Guild Wars 2 just cured cancer, world peace is next

Posted on March 29, 2011 by SynCaine

Dear world,

Guild Wars 2 won’t solve your every issue with MMOs. It just won’t. It will, at the end of the day, be a PvE-based MMO with some PvP end-game, that’s overall pretty damn similar to what you see today in the themepark realm, with (perhaps) more short-term dynamic content instead of just normal quests or single-player phasing. You will be mashing 1-2-2-3, mobs will die, you will hit the cap and raid/PvP/alt/ragequit.

Hype is bad enough on its own, but the amount of wishful thinking swirling around GW2 is crazy. Hope for a better version of WoW and enjoy it when/if it arrives. If you currently hate all things themepark MMO, prepare to give AreneNet $50 for a one month trial.

Posted in Guild Wars, Mass Media, MMO design, Rant | 32 Comments

Rift: On the doorstep to 50

Posted on March 28, 2011 by SynCaine

Things are progressing nicely in Rift. I’m currently halfway through level 47, while others are just a few bars away from 50. We also have a nice ‘second core’ of people around the 20s and 30s. A few more members would not hurt however, as with our current roster filling out a 20 man raid would still be dicey most nights, so if you are playing and looking for a guild, let me know. Guardians, Sunrest server is where we are playing.

Last night a few of us ran Abyssal Precipice, one of the two level 48-50 instances. While we were ultimately successful, we did wipe a good number of times on various bosses, which made for a solid, challenging run. The setting, a series of ice caves and snow-covered mountains, is interesting and looks great, and the boss design was a good mix of mechanics. Nothing mind-blowing or super-gimmicky, but solid.

Due to our current guild quest (20 wins in the Codex and Black Garden warfronts) we have been grouping and running warfronts more often as well. While they are not a complete game themselves, as a break from PvE they do their job well IMO. They are short enough that if your team is terrible, you don’t suffer long, and if you are steamrolling people you can chain a few wins together in rapid succession. On the other hand, a close match does extend a bit longer, and those are always the most fun and encourage the best tactics. In that regard they balance very well.

One thing we have noticed is that it’s difficult to pick out enemies by their class/role, making focusing healers tougher than normal. Priests were chain and often looks similar to Warriors (especially when they run in to melee, which some souls do), and you have no way of knowing if a mage/rogue is more focused on healing or DPS. I’m sure some of the confusion will drop once we get more familiar with the game and how various classes look, but I doubt the issue will completely disappear. Currently the best method is to have someone call out a healer by name and having the rest of the group focus them (target of target is a huge help here).

On the PvE questing front, I’m currently in Stillmoor, which is an excellent zone in both pacing and story. The zone itself is the current-day version of the tutorial/starting zone, which gives you a nice “back in the day” feel and shows you just what happened after your actions. The various quests also reference those actions, which is pretty cool. The overall setting reminds me a little of a traditional Warhammer fantasy town/area, with some of the older towns overrun or under siege, and with your faction setting up small outposts to try and fight back.

One nice use of existing tech is a story arch that ends in you closing a major death rift in the middle of the zone. The rift plays itself out like a normal rift, but the setup around it includes special storyline aspects. This is done in other zones as well, but in Stillmoor it’s especially pivotal.

I’m looking forward to hitting level 48 in order to continue the story in Stillmoor (the quests stopped at a certain point when I was 47 due to being under-leveled), especially because the live event that starts March 30th and stretches across various zones also opens up a new raid area in Stillmore itself.

One final note: I’ve enjoyed questing in all of the zones I’ve been reading the text in (Silverwood, Gloamwood, Scarlet Gorge, Scarwood Reach, Stillmoor), while when I was just questing to level in Droughtlands or Shimmersand, the “quest grind” was setting in. Part of this is of course just approach; I’m in there just to get XP asap, ‘grinding’ is the best way to do it. The other part however is that even simply kill/collect X quests have a bit more meaning behind them if you know the why of the task, especially because after one of those simple quests, more often than not the next one in the chain is something with more story or meat to it. When you follow the storyline, the pacing is (not surprisingly) much better and the quest mix becomes more entertaining. I’m looking forward to taking my alt through the zones I have not really explored or quested in, and even without a single addition, there is enough content to allow for a second unique pass after Scarlet Gorge.

Posted in Combat Systems, Inquisition Clan, PvP, Rift | 9 Comments