2012-07-25, 04:45 PM
I want randomness.
No seriously, PSO 2 intrigues me with the idea and i realized that Roguelikes are the most addictive games ever. Make dungeons have a myriad of possible mob setups and change the order that we'll face challenges in rooms. Maybe even add enough so that we might not encounter some room types. Bosses with multiple AI setups /stat builds that it could randomly use every time you challenge it. We always fault MMOs when it feels like the same thing over and over... so test player ability to adapt to situations, make it different everytime. You can't 'grind mindlessly' if something could change at any moment.
I don't find a RNG giving me a drop exciting... make random 'encounters' drop. Say you're killing random mobs with your party, suddenly you kill one and a ! mark appears above your head... you warily click it and your party is warped to a randomly generated 'instance field'. You stand in a small field map, and a treasure chest sits alone in the middle of nowhere... you move towards it and open the chest. There's only a paper inside with two simple words on it...
"Got you."
Suddenly a huge mob of thieves ambush the map and your party has to fight it off several waves of them. Eventually it stops and 'Encounter Cleared' flashes on the screen, and your party gets a sizable amount of exp for the trouble. A stolen crystal is awarded randomly to one of the party members. Visiting a town to return it unlocks a quest chain leading to a miniboss with speed gear drops.
On another day, that same ! mark would have actually had a real treasure in the field, or a NPC in need of protection, or a traveling salesman with suprisingly good gear for sale.
Some 'search quests' will trigger a Green ! mark in the map after being there a while... instead of finding drops, you actually do find a lost family member and a cutscene depicting their reuniting is your reward.
That sounds much more fun that just finding a Sword with colored text.
I'm tired of the RNG deciding everything, I want to BEAT the RNG. Upgrading a item? it won't be decided by a filling bar: Remember Item world from Disgaea? Enter the soul of a item with characters close to the level of a item. Each floor is randomly generated, random clear requirements as well. Time limits, protect the crystal, defeat the boss. Everytime you clear a floor, you're asked to continue or stop... if you stop, you keep the stats gained already. If you continue... the levels of the monsters are increased randomly and so is the challenge of the next floor.
If you fail the next floor.... boom... there goes your item... but you took the risk. Sucks that you weren't really ready for that massive level increase AND it just happened to give you a boss floor. but that's the magic of my idea for a MMO... sure, the RNG determines a lot in my ideal MMO... but you CAN overcome it with skill and smart thinking.
Variety is the spice of life, MMOs could take a tip from that and flesh out the randomness beyond 'drops'.
No seriously, PSO 2 intrigues me with the idea and i realized that Roguelikes are the most addictive games ever. Make dungeons have a myriad of possible mob setups and change the order that we'll face challenges in rooms. Maybe even add enough so that we might not encounter some room types. Bosses with multiple AI setups /stat builds that it could randomly use every time you challenge it. We always fault MMOs when it feels like the same thing over and over... so test player ability to adapt to situations, make it different everytime. You can't 'grind mindlessly' if something could change at any moment.
I don't find a RNG giving me a drop exciting... make random 'encounters' drop. Say you're killing random mobs with your party, suddenly you kill one and a ! mark appears above your head... you warily click it and your party is warped to a randomly generated 'instance field'. You stand in a small field map, and a treasure chest sits alone in the middle of nowhere... you move towards it and open the chest. There's only a paper inside with two simple words on it...
"Got you."
Suddenly a huge mob of thieves ambush the map and your party has to fight it off several waves of them. Eventually it stops and 'Encounter Cleared' flashes on the screen, and your party gets a sizable amount of exp for the trouble. A stolen crystal is awarded randomly to one of the party members. Visiting a town to return it unlocks a quest chain leading to a miniboss with speed gear drops.
On another day, that same ! mark would have actually had a real treasure in the field, or a NPC in need of protection, or a traveling salesman with suprisingly good gear for sale.
Some 'search quests' will trigger a Green ! mark in the map after being there a while... instead of finding drops, you actually do find a lost family member and a cutscene depicting their reuniting is your reward.
That sounds much more fun that just finding a Sword with colored text.
I'm tired of the RNG deciding everything, I want to BEAT the RNG. Upgrading a item? it won't be decided by a filling bar: Remember Item world from Disgaea? Enter the soul of a item with characters close to the level of a item. Each floor is randomly generated, random clear requirements as well. Time limits, protect the crystal, defeat the boss. Everytime you clear a floor, you're asked to continue or stop... if you stop, you keep the stats gained already. If you continue... the levels of the monsters are increased randomly and so is the challenge of the next floor.
If you fail the next floor.... boom... there goes your item... but you took the risk. Sucks that you weren't really ready for that massive level increase AND it just happened to give you a boss floor. but that's the magic of my idea for a MMO... sure, the RNG determines a lot in my ideal MMO... but you CAN overcome it with skill and smart thinking.
Variety is the spice of life, MMOs could take a tip from that and flesh out the randomness beyond 'drops'.