MMO idea Thread

To begin, I was sitting there with a friend, angry at a few of the decisions being made about some of the newer MMOs to come out. Eventually, we got to talking about where most MMOs fall short and discussed what, to us, would make the perfect MMO. We started brainstorming and throwing ideas out there, and while he said making one was a pipedream (we both had no experience in any of the concepts used in making games), I got hooked on the idea. I gave myself a crash-course in 3d modeling, coding, and making myself knowledgeable on different engines and their uses and hit a wall: It is really difficult to create an MMO from scratch with a team of 1. So... This is my idea:

Heilia Online (Working title, subject to change):

On a HUGE archipelago on the world of Heilia, 5 very different races live in a balanced, peaceful time. Each of these races will be playable and can interact (normally) without fear of being attacked by the others. Humans, having been nearly annihilated by a famine, are few and far between in the land of Heilia. They were taken in by the hulking Grougen, who helped feed them and gave them shelter in their cities. The Grougen are a huge, muscular race. Their social structure is based on a genetic caste system: Their ranking in society is determined by that size and number of their horns. The Serafen, who live on a series of sky-mountains (held up by a magnetic crystal), watch over the skies with their fairy-like wings. The crystal keeps their cities afloat in the middle of the air above a great forest which houses the Sprites. The sprites live on the tops of the trees, using a form of advanced photosynthesis, gaining power from the sun. This gives them increased mana and regeneration during the day. On the coasts live the amphibious Eltians. They are an elven-like race that spends most of their lives underwater. They have both lungs and gills and can swim faster than all the other races.

Each player is given a special ability based on what race they pick:
Humans-They have the ability of ground-mounted combat
Eltians- underwater breathing and swim speed
Sprites-Advanced photosynthesis, giving them immense magical abilities and health/mana regeneration
Grougen- Colossal strength. They can get out of their fists what another race can get out of a warhammer. Super burst damage.
Serafen- The ability to fly from the start, and fight while in flight. (All races can obtain flying mounts at a later point, but only the serafen can fight in the air)

Unique ideas to the game that I want to implement:
-A classless system. Much like what Mabinogi did with it's talents, allowing you to pick a "progression", but it would not bind you completely to a certain path.
-A very difficult to obtain "endgame". I don't want people sitting around trying to grind for armor to do the next raid. I want people to enjoy the journey AND the destination. It will take time to progress. There will be lots to EXPLORE.
-Levels wont exist like in other games. Instead you would be tracked by 3 different skill-levels: Magic, combat, and production. Your skill will not be visible to others, only you. You will obviously be able to track your skill progression via your character sheet
-Bringing back guilds. After WoW made guilds an achievement/perk grab, guilds have had a downward spiral into the abyss of nothingness. I want to bring back the days where guilds were famous, they had bases of operations, uniforms, and were worth a damn.
-Crime and punishment. Bits of this can be seen in the recently released "Wizardy Online", but I want more than a punishment for playerkilling. Each town will have different laws. Some will ban certain items, or carrying a weapon entirely.
-With that; a PK system like no other! Outside of cities, you will be able to kill other players, however, the closer to a city you are, the more likely you are to be caught and killed by npc guards. The farther out you get, the easier it will be to get away with it. There is full loot opportunities for a PKer, however, once you kill too many people, you may be placed with a curse from the gods: Permadeath (this is a WIP idea, and may not be even the slightest bit "real". It was just an idea I played around with
-Marriage and mating. Hold on! Back out yet! Players will be allowed to purchase in-game houses, and once married, a "couple" can share a house. If they share this house, they have the option of starting a family. While away from this house, your child can do gathering work at a slow pace, but working even while logged out. After all, this is a fantasy game, no child labor laws! (another WIP)
-Music. I'm tired of hearing the same trumpet-and-wardrum music that every mmo to date seems to have. I want more strings! More flute! More cowbell!

I have many more ideas, and I've even started making some models, but by all means, rip this to shreds

I also apologize for my wall of words

Hello, random idea guy who registered to IndieDB/ModDB 5 hours ago just to post this!

Remember that you can't do MMOs as indie project.

Have a nice fall!
- ShadowFlar3

Edited by: shadowflar3

I want to state that you are not alone on the idea of creating the ultimate game in the MMO genre and I am sorry, but you did say "rip this to shreds", since you lable it as [Working Title] get a reality check - this is just too big. If you are really, really entangled in this world and want to make it come alive, create a Pen & Paper RPG game out of it instead, I know it's not the same thing but hey, then someone else may traverse through Helia too?

First off use that crash course in modeling, programming and making yourself knowledgeable in engines to conjure forth at least a hundered million dollars of laundered money that no party will ever attempt to seize from you. Hire a team of at least 30 people and make your breakaway bottom bomb for the fields.

I actually had an older account that I used to lurk on but I forgot the login information D:

Forgive my ignorance, but why can an MMO not be indie?

Sjonsson, I actually thought about doing that as well, but I have no experience in playing pen & paper RPGs, let alone making one

My advice is to start simpler. Sjonsson's idea of making a p-n-p rpg has merit (a table-top game is also a possibility). Alternatively, make smaller, simpler video games and prototypes. Use those to both explore the concepts you want to implement in this MMO idea and to gain the experience and money (and possibly following) you would need to make it. Heck, you could even make single-player rpgs based on this concept.

An indie MMO is possible, but it's a monumental task. The amount of time and money (even if making everything yourself without contracting out) required are massive. Assuming you finish and launch it, you then need to have customer support, technical support, regular patches and updates, etc., etc.. The smallest team I've seen do it is 4 people with Vendetta Online, and they rarely have the time and resources to implement the things they really want or need to in the game.

The problem here is that you haven't proven that you're up to it, which is why we're skeptical. If you have previous projects that you can point to, links that people can click and games they can play, and say "Look, here's what I've made up to now. I know what I'm doing and I'm not just another ideas guy.", people are going to be more likely to at least not write you off.

Thanks for the input. Some of it, I do know what I'm doing. But a lot, I don't. Like I said before, I really just scratched the surface on this stuff and I'm fascinated. For the time being, I will just hold on to the idea. Or work on a single player RPG. That seems like a good way to make a name for myself. Thank you, again.

Basically the path I went is to go with a single player RPG with a planned MMORPG sequel. Currently we are still working on the single player one and ways to market it.

The first, and hardest, step I encountered to making a game at all when you don't have the skills to do everything yourself, or close friends to work with you, is getting a team together in the first place.

Good luck and DON'T GIVE UP.

Edited by: Cadh20000

There are some decent ideas but it will be too difficult to make without a large competent team.

Yeah, and like I said, getting the team when you aren't well known is a PAIN IN THE BUTT!
I ended up recruiting through here, DeviantArt, and FaceBook to get mine.

So I will put the mmo on a back burner and shoot for a singleplayer RPG. Thanks for all the input, guys.

Oh, and one more piece of advice, don't ever forget to have fun! If you aren't enjoying making the game, it won't be worth playing.

I'll work more on it and see where it takes me.

Keep us updated!

ubergoron wrote: I actually had an older account that I used to lurk on but I forgot the login information D:

Forgive my ignorance, but why can an MMO not be indie?

Sjonsson, I actually thought about doing that as well, but I have no experience in playing pen & paper RPGs, let alone making one

Firstly, when you say MMO are we talking more than tens, hundreds or even thousands of players? Because that is very relevant when it comes to defining the scope of the project. Are you supposing players can meet up with eachother directly or are they all in "separate worlds" that can have a global market for example?

Secondly, you don't need experience of designing RPG games, you can look at some rule systems and adapt whatever you think is neccessary and let the playtesting take the lead in development. A tip would be the rule system GURPS which is a (partially) free to use rule system that is applicable to any universe you might want to play in. Check it out here: Sjgames.com

I see some good idea in this thread.