Building an RPG. (what makes you want to scream at the dev team?)

[Moirae]

Lack of housing (or really crappy housing) drives me crazy. I have said it many times... I want to live IN the world, not ON it. I want to feel invested in the world I'm playing in.

I also want good and involved crafting that means something. I don't want to hit one button and it's done. I want to be involved in the creation of the items from start to finish. I want to actually grow the farming items I need, or ranch the animals for example.

There hasn't been good housing since EQ2 and SWG. SWG came the closest to good crafting that I've ever seen but I don't think it went far enough.

Yes, I want to play the story, but I want an open world game where I can or be anything. A wide sandbox where the stories are endless.

Also, I highly suggest you look at some of the other games currently in development. Most are crowd funded and have been in development for many many years. My current favorite is Citadel of Sorcery. There are others but none of them fit what I'm looking for. And the crafting I find a bit disappointing since everything has to be found out in the world instead of actually allowing you to grow and harvest things. They also don't have housing. Citadel of Sorcery has a living world that has been growing and changing for years. No two plays will ever be alike and you write your own story as you play.

[AccountingDrone]

There hasn't been good housing since EQ2 and SWG. SWG came the closest to good crafting that I've ever seen but I don't think it went far enough.

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Have you seen the housing in LOTRO? I liked the housing and crafting in Glitch.

[RootedPhoenix]

I should have said this, but this time around this one isn't going to be an MMORPG.

I did, however intend the next game in this..series?...to be an MMORPG. It originally was more of one, and still wouldn't have to be changed drastically to be one...but I'm only one human, and a somewhat linear RPG is going to be difficult enough.

I have worked a bit on the story, and there's certainly room to add more so that you feel like this is a large world with multiple concurrent stories.

The story is...pretty simple right now...and it sounds like I need to make multiple endings...which aren't there yet. But it's early enough, so that should be easy enough.

Thanks, you guys, for the suggestions.

[Geek King]

While you're at it, have a look at these guys: http://www.youtube.com/user/ExtraCreditz

Some of it is pretty basic, but there's a lot of good stuff to consider in making any game. I watch them to get a better appreciation of what it takes to make a good game.

You might also look at stuff like Zero Punctuation or other fan-critics. If you pay attention to what drives them crazy, you'll have a handle on what most gamers feel.

[Seshat]

CtlAltDel is another gamer-comic that gives a good handle on what's bad (and good) about games.

http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/

[Moirae]

Have you seen the housing in LOTRO? I liked the housing and crafting in Glitch.

Yeah, I tried it but the "hooks" are the dumbest idea I've ever seen. I hate the housing in LOTRO. It's lazy development by the devs.

In EQ2 you could raise items in to the ceiling or into the floor or move them into walls so only part of them are showing. You can all spin them left or right and turn them on the x,y,z axis. You could also change their size from almost minuscule to giant. Part of the fun was combining different items to see what you could create. I wish I had pictures of the beautiful Hallas house I managed to create complete with an incredible garden with a heated bathtub, a gorgeous kitchen with cupboards, and a living room with a warm glowing fire place and a comfortable couch, among other things. I even had two pet dragons, one that swayed on the spot like he was dancing and one that breathed as it slept on my couch. I lost those long ago when I quit playing the game due to the nastiness of sony.

You should google EQ2 housing and see some of the pictures that come up. You'd be amazed.

I have an account in EQ Landmark and I have to say, so far EQ2 housing is better, of course, it's still alpha sooooo...

And then there's crafting....

I want to be able to plant and raise the radishes. I want to have to deal with things like bug infestations. I was to be able to raise and feed the animals on my farm. I want to be able to actually craft the boards I'm going to use to build that chair.

I think that so much more can be done with crafting and these games are barely scratching the surface.

Running quests, pvp, etc shouldn't be required. There should be OTHER ways of playing the game and still feeling fulfilled. Let's make it more expansive and involved. Most games aren't willing and say that it takes enough time and money to just put together the questing and pvp but they have completely abandoned what made people love the MMO genre in the first place.... the open and involved world.

[TheSHAD0W]

This just came up, thought you might find it interesting...

https://twitter.com/gamasutra/status/446425441512226816

[Ceir]

NOBODY OUT THERE LIKES JUMPING PUZZLES!

Thank you.

In a similar vein, please don't make sequences that require both pixel-perfect positioning and split-second timing at once. I find either on its own alright, but for the love of Eris, give me time to line up a perfect position or enough 'physical' leeway on stuff that requires perfect timing...

[wolfie]

Make sure that the engine burns fast enough that it's completely burned out before the tail leaves the launch tube, otherwise the operator will get burned. Oops - sorry, wrong type of RPG.

[Tyg3rW01f]

when the game is built for a console, with all the idiocies thereof (pause, plan, resume, pause, plan, resume ad nauseum... for each second of a fight *cough* DRAGONAGE2!) and is then BADLY ported to PC.
If I want a console RPG, I'll BUY ONE.

Oh, and when the game mechanics worked BRILLIANTLY for the first game, DON'T change them up "because we wanted different" *Cough* Mass Effect 2! *cough*

Also, if you're going to make a continuation of a story, but really want to go into the future, here's a clue: DON'T. ESPECIALLY if the whole premise of your game is being a soldier the military officially doesn't have *cough*Black Ops!*cough*
((I REALLY have got to get rid of this cold...))
Games like that have SOOOOOO much fodder from the 90s and 00's it isn't even funny.

[EricKei]

I couldn't stick with LOTRO long enough to get to the point of having housing

In EQ2 you could raise items in to the ceiling or into the floor or move them into walls so only part of them are showing. You can all spin them left or right and turn them on the x,y,z axis.

I played EQ2X for a few months -- I discovered that, on houses that had balconies, the outer edge of said balconies served as an invisible "wall" -- specifically, one that you could hang weapons on ^_^ Made some purdy displays messing around with that.