Design Peeve #1
Asterax differentiates itself as much by what it doesn't do as what it does. This is part of a series of posts explaining Design Peeves we don't agree with and are trying to avoid.
#1. Forcing players to make uninformed, irreversible decisions
If you've played an online RPG with more than a casual interest, you know they're not something that can just be jumped into. Games like EVE require background research before even the first character creation steps can be taken. Let a player get stuck with a gimped race/class combo, and good luck getting them back once they finish banging their head against the wall.
We've got a whole immersive world at our disposal--can't we do better than an FMV intro and some lore text? In Asterax, everyone starts off the same. Through fighting alongside other players and friendly NPCs, you'll get a firsthand idea of the different roles you can take on in combat, and choose from there. If you're going to force your players to make a permanent choice, it needs to be informed (or inconsequential).
June 15th, 2009 - 13:38
I’m loving the concept of everyone starting off the same, but I guess my question is how do you plan on handling everyone becoming a cookie cutter in potential late game? The biggest problem I believe most MMO’s face from a developmental stand point is character balancing. On the concept of innovation, has Asterax considered how it will allow enough versatility to players in progression / skill development / gear that would allow for late game to not fall into the ever-so generic class types of Tank, Healer, DPS, Hybrid? That’s not to say that this should be avoided, because it tends to be a core feature of successful (and unsuccessful) MMO’s, but as a permanent choice, will players be reasonably capable of changing their ‘class’ type? And if so, how easily can this be achieved? It would in my opinion be faulty to allow it to be some cumbersome that people switch on the fly, and an unfortunately permanent choice to disallow players to change play styles. One of my biggest pet peeves in games like WoW was that once I maxed out my personal play style (DPS), the only way to play another class was to start all the way from the beginning. More often than not, I found myself with ton’s of half-assed alt characters that got no where due to my boredom of rehashing the same game over again.
June 16th, 2009 - 14:11
Unfortunately I can’t go into enough detail to really answer this question until I get an epic post out explaining just what this game is.
Soon though! I can’t wait to get into how advancement will work.
Because it sure as hell isn’t quest->quest->level->quest->quest->xp->xp->level->xp…