So keep it medieval with the only ranged attack being bows and magic?
Not necessarily medieval (although medieval would be my personal favorite). I don't like games that are made from a movie, like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. Have seen too much of it already.
Skill points instead of levels such as WoW?
Exactly. The UO skill system is quite perfect, it gives people the freedom to learn ANY skill, mix their skills, change their skills, play around, without having to dump the whole character. This leads to very individual and diverse skill combinations and templates.
Something like creating your own city/state and perhaps minting your own currency?
Yes, player housing, player-run towns are important! (I didn't think about an own currency yet... but some interesting ideas just spring into my mind.) But I also was thinking about player actions that influence the environment. Like slaying certain animals or gathering certain ressources could lead to a shortage in a certain area. This again would affect the behavior, the spawn locations and the movement of animals and monsters. Which could lead to new threats. The wilderness should react dynamically on player actions. I know this sounds risky for a game designer, cause you never know the outcome. But these kinds of experiments are what makes a game special.
Maybe have a game where when you make a character,and from the beginning you are exactly where you want to be skill wise. Like starting off as a master level smith or tailor and then the challenge is to keep your people suited in good armor to defend your plot of land.
Hmmm... no, I think gaining skill should be a difficult challenge. However, it should not be tedious, but fun. It shouldn't be so easy to just do the same thing over and over again. It should require doing different things in a non-predictable order, like quests, finding a certain ressource, etc.
Economicly as well as militarily(conquest). Or people could play the merchant/trader and make a good profit with that.
Yes, players should be able to influence economy (to a certain extent), creature behavior, ressource spawning, availability of items in game, INDIRECTLY through their actions.
And the adventures would change over time as the virtual world changed. A quest to kill a specific beast now would not be needed later beause the beast has already been slain many many times over.
Exactly. For example, if you killed all Dragons in Destard several times, Dragons might find Destard a too dangerous place and move elsewhere. They also might change their behavior and "organize" themselves, like going for the weakest enemy first, teaming up etc. They might emerge from Destard and spread out. Building a house near a dungeon would be risky, because the emerging monsters might damage it (not destroy the house or its contents, but maybe damage the walls so you have to rebuild them). They even might invade a random town to take revenge. This means, not just spawning in a town, but wandering there. Imagine a horde of Greater Dragons heading for Trinsic, killing everything on their way. If an adventurer discovers the Dragon invasion in time, he could warn people so the defense of the city could be prepared. If not, then the city might be in the hands of Greater Dragons until they are slain and driven back to Destard. (Of course, town guards would flee at a monster invasion. It would be up to the players to win back a city.)
Imagine that every dungeon would have the potential of such monster behavior. Britannia would be an exciting world!
The list of exciting ideas is endless...
Also maybe some old ruins buried by "years and years of time" that could be dug up and "discovered" with some excavation skill or something.
Yes! A game that contains history that yet has to be discovered. Riddles and secrets that change over time. Discovering artifacts by excavating them, in a non-reproducable way. The list of ideas is endless...
I agree. Something more that "kill this and gather X number of that and return to me"
If I want to make a chubby,bald-headed potato farmer that drinks a tad too much then I should have that.The physiques of characters in game are to slim and 'god-like'
Yes, I'm referring to the looks of a player, as well as to the things he can do and have fun with. I think UO is doing well with the latter. You can spend months just growing plants or designing a house, and still have fun without using a weapon.
So maybe have a game that the skill of the player should matter much more than the "skill of the character" that the player uses. A game where you actually have to think your way through a puzzle or problem the game presents to you.
Yes. Character skill should always matter, but not ONLY character skill. Like in combat, you could figure out what combination of moves is efficient (UO has something like that: weapon special moves, additional fighting skills like Bushido, Ninjitsu, etc.) This means, having the highest skill might help, but it is even more important to find out which attacks are efficient against a certain enemy.
Concerning other skills (like crafting), individual riddles and tasks should enable you to create special items (skill should still matter, though). Like, you have to find certain plants in the depths of Hythloth (having Stealth skill on a crafter might be useful), and experiment as an alchemist to create a potion you need to enhance weapons with. This recipe would not be reproducable, but usable by you alone. Each player can find random and personalized recipes which only work for this player. That way your secret remains your secret, and everybody has to do some research (in game, and not on a website) to find out things and be able to craft special items.
Should the equipment matter much at all?
It should matter! But it shouldn't matter so much that the equipment only decides who wins a fight. I think UO is quite good concerning that issue, although the importance of equipment could be
slightly reduced.
Maybe have a game where the economy is based solely on the player. No gold is ever dropped as loot and coins are minted by the players themselves as part of their being lord over a city/state.
Well, Gold as loot is ok to me. But, it should be
limited! If people start "farming" gold like crazy, monsters should drop less. The total amount of gold in game should always be related to the number of players. This way, economy would regulate itself and selling gold for real money wouldn't be an issue. If gold would get rare (for instance because it is hoarded by few), prices would automatically drop and thus make gold less valuable.
I think there is a fine line between "cultivating" and "forcing" of a community.If a quest requires 5 or more people to accomplish a task,it is a good chance that the quest will gather dust in a quest log.
There should be quests requiring a team. There should be things in game which you can only do in a group. But there always should be a ton of alternatives for players who like to play solo.
With "cultivating" a community, I was also thinking about player-run towns. These should require some activity by a certain number of players, and they would yield some advantages to the villagers (like, at a certain size you would get a vendor with a special discount, or you would get a special building, for example).
How about music? Do you leave the music and sound effects turned on in the games you play? If not then why? Maybe you listen to your ipod/mp3?
I like sound effects very much, especially good environmental sound effects (too bad they don't work in UO). Those add a lot to the mood in game. I usually turn off music, as I get tired of hearing the same tune over and over again.
)
