Setting
The game is set in a kind of fantasy world, but that's not to say that there are Elves and Dwarves running around; I plan to have a single playable race, humans. At first, I am considering a top-down view for the game because I think it will simplify the world-building process and allow the players more flexibility in customization. I may be completely wrong, but that's what I came up with.
Movement
As far as controlling your character, there are two options that have to be seriously considered. One option is to control the game like Diablo. This allows multiplayer to be accomplished with far less packets, because you need only to send a few nodes for each client to figure out where your character is and will be in the near future. It allows better motion prediction, and people are very used to it. The other option is movement like the Ultima games, from Ultima VII to Ultima Online, where you can move in all directions by right-clicking around your character. There is an arrow that points away from your character and you will move in that direction. The scheme allows the player to move freely around the world, and will let them jump also. Mainly, the downsides are more packets for movement updates, and picking up items seems a little weird at times, but this can be resolved. Personally, I'm not a fan of the point-and-click model of Diablo because I always mis-clicked and my character starting pathfinding all over. So I'm leaning towards the Ultima style controls, similar to my first real Unity game, A Feeble Saga.
Progression
Unlike most RPGs, I have decided against the Experience/Level system. I have never liked it, and it doesn't make sense to my brain. A system I really enjoyed was UO's skill-based system, where you gain experience in individual skills as you perform them. Another part of the system is that you are not stuck with your skills from character creation, you can change them at any time by performing the new skills. But what are the downsides? Well, let's take them on one at a time.
First: how does the player know how good they are? Well, in UO, you could look at your paperdoll and it would tell you a basic title, based on your highest skill. For example, if your Swordsmanship skill was your highest skill it may say "Journeyman Swordsman" or "Master Swordsman" depending on your skill. And I think that is a pretty good solution, especially if you can see other people's. UO used only one skill, but I think I would like to use three, so you basically create classes for yourself. Sometimes it wouldn't be able to give you a good title, but I think most the time it would be good.
Second: do you limit the skills a player can choose, and should you? UO imposed an artificial skill cap that essentially allowed you to choose from seven skills to master. But almost all other games of this genre that I've seen, do not have skill caps, like EVE Online. What they do instead, is give you tons of skills that build on top of other skills, but the farther you get into the skill "tree", the more and more expensive those skills get to purchase. Not only that, but you can only train one skill at a time, and those skills can take days to train. Personally, I don't like the time issue. Maybe if the game didn't have a monthly cost it would be different, but I doubt it. Most of the time I don't want to wait for things to happen (I'm also not a fan of cooldowns). There are several options I have toyed around with in my head, but I don't like any of them 100% just yet. In a later post I will elaborate on my solution, which I just about have figured out.
Third: How do you prevent AFK macroing? First, let me say, I am not against macroing in UO because I feel it is a huge flaw in UO's design that shouldn't have been there in the first place. So the question is, how do I plan to avoid a design that would make macroing useful? As said before, EVE just gives you a timer, then the skill is done training. Another method, which UO employed on the Siege Perilous shard, is that your character can only learn a certain amount in each skill per day. My solution to this goes hand-in-hand with my solution for the second issue above, and I'd like to save that discussion for a different day.
Player Vs Player
This is always a hugely heated debate between carebears and hardcore players. But more importantly, there are far more carebears than there are hardcore players. However, not only do the hardcore players usually spend more money on average, but they are also very loyal, and more forgiving toward bug related incidents. Now, with that being said, I need to say that I always play on PvE only WoW servers, but I also find it to be extremely boring. Just a few weeks ago, I started playing on a free UO shard called UO Secondage and I was hunting some animals, mongbats, and headless ones, when I realized that what I was doing was purely grinding, but I wasn't bored. Even still, it's not clear to me just why, but I have two theories: One, nostalgia, simply put, I'm reconnecting with my emotions bound to my experiences as an adolescent playing the game; and Two, risk, I knew it was risky to be out there hunting because I could get PKed at any moment. While there's little I can do about the first, I can certainly work with the second one. At any rate, I am aiming for a balance between casual and hardcore, but it's likely I will chose a method similar to EVE. Many players live their entire gaming lives in NPC controlled territories, but many more spend a lot of time in disputed territories, where they can be attacked by pirates or the sovereign corporation of the area.
Goals
In most modern MMOs, which are considered WoW clones, your goal is to hear the ding. Of course, there are side goals, but those are mainly there to get you to the dings faster. So how do you make goals for a skill-based game? Is it simply to raise your skills to the top? I don't think so.
Conclusion
I have to go now, but I want to finish the goals section, and talk more about skills in the next post
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