Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeakus
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Haha, Brad McQuaid ...Quick someone give him 30 million dollars to create a buggy game that no one will play!
I wish the game luck but he doesn't have the any cred after the debacle of Vanguard. What a disaster that was, although it did have a few players that enjoyed it after they fixed the game years after launch. Although he was apart of the original EQ team, so who knows maybe he can strike it big on this one.
Like many other old school MMO gamers, every MMO launch typically garners a great deal of skepticism after 15 years of shitty MMO launches so don't take it as bashing the game. I'm just glad someone is trying to do something different than copy / paste the WoW gameplay.
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I won't deny that Vanguard was a huge letdown.
However, I think the core of the issue for that game, and many other MMOs on release today, is that they are trying to put way too much content in at release to "compete" with seasoned MMOs that have been on the market for years.
It leads to a sub-par, buggy product that launches with 1/2 the expected features and those features that do make it are lackluster because so much development time was spent on features that never made it into the game.
An MMO in the spirit of EQ really only needs the following at release, but done VERY WELL.
-Tank, Healer, CC, melee DPS, ranged DPS (1 or 2)
-3 to 4 races
-Two well-designed major cities, and a few smaller cities to meet various needs
-A meaningful level cap with xp paced out to make sure content stays meaningful for days of playtime, not hours (in terms of leveling)
-Outdoor Zones: just 2 for each leveling bracket, but designed well with clear areas for various levels and group sizes in their respective bracket.
-Dungeons Same as outdoor zones, 2 for each leveling bracket but designed well with clear areas for various levels and group sizes in their respective bracket.
Honestly, have that ready out the door. Raiding at first could easily be strategically spawning mobs among all the zones created for the leveling experience. We don't need amazing, complex raid zones right out of the door, just throw raiding into the world to keep every zone meaningful. Heck, how bad ass would it be for certain raid mobs to spawn in the major cities or out lying cities even, with real consequences occurring when they aren't killed.
Then every year patch in a race and class until you feel content that all bases are covered. Instead of working directly on raid content, every year add in a new leveling zone for each bracket that's well designed, with new raid mobs designed to live among it (expanding where people can level and raid).
Then I feel when all bases are eventually covered, as you started the game with a great core and just added onto that core, then it's time to focus on zones for level cap. Maybe at that point expand levels by 10, then really focus on raids and high level content.
Just my 2 cents.
I feel like too many new MMOs come out trying to have massive leveling experiences, massive numbers of classes, massive numbers of races to choose from, beautiful cities that take a lot of time to design but are deserted because there are 14,000 other cities, etc. etc. Just design a core and add to it people, dang it.