LOM2 as an RPG

[thandu]

My idea isn't an 81 subclass thing. 81 classes is way too much for any MMO.

I'm taking my inspiration from MMOs like Everquest, WoW, even a few lesser knowns like Maple Story and Shaiya. In other words, you are not one of the minority YET. You have to earn your place as an individual by starting where everyone else in your shoes starts.

The idea is that you start the same as any other of your race/class combo, but can potentially branch off in any which way.

On the other hand, faith and race do play a part in your development in ways which will be noticable, but not gamebreaking.

I guess I should make a different thread for my idea as well...

Point is, too much freedom is a balancing nightmare for programmers. Gamers will constantly argue over balance and eventually leave.

[Venture Industries]

Those would be some interesting characters for sure! I see the advantages of interesting and dynamic characters for RPGs. We do have red dwarves. Perhaps that would replace the need to add fire dwarves? Maybe they are the same?

Whatever iteration of this game I'd appreciate the faiths imparting a balanced number of races/creatures.

I definitely worry that the game would look too cartoony and play like WoW or Everquest.

There is an extensive list of MMORPGs to choose from. Most of which are fantasy based. The market is somewhat saturated, but that doesn't stop entrepreneurial interests from breaking in and gaining a large market share. The basis of any RPG is the characters. It's part of what makes one successful. The other part is knowing your target market.

I don't expect ActivisionBlizzard to remake LOM into an MMO or RPG or anything. I would expect them to cater to a general audience not LOM fanboys. I'm not guessing anything ATM. I'm just an imaginative creator who's caught the LOM inspiration.

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MMOs and RPGs are very different. In an MMO, you have to make fair gameplay if it's highly PvP.

Fixed! ;D

Thandu, the rest of your ideas seem pretty standard as far as MMORPGs go. I'd definitely be for ships and islands (even player owned ships).

[thandu]

I like to think of Red and Earth Drawves as somewhat different, sort of like how Dark Elves tend to be seen as a different race than other elves, even if they are same subspecies. Suffice to say, as a Subspecie, Red Dwarves break away from MANY dwarf cliches in that they're somewhat subtle, thuggish, cruel, and most importantly, they don't seem to have much facial hair... that one's important!

[Venture Industries]

I agree, they are different. If implemented I would say Dwarves would have some base attributes they share, while resistances and maybe other attributes would differ. I'd expect them to look and act much like you wrote.

As for the faiths imparting balanced races: subraces specifically since a Dryad and Sea Nymph are both nymphs, and various human races are different too. I'm not expecting a default "human".

[Boaster]

I think faith should determine the secondary aspect of a character's race.

Lizard worshiper of Fire is a Fire Lizard.
Human worshiper of Chaos is a Barbarian.

I guess it could work that way, idk.

[Venture Industries]

Faith-Class sorta does that to some extent.

Lizard who is Fire Warrior would be a Fire Lizard Warrior possibly.

An Archon who is a Chaos Warrior could be a "Gladiator" instead of a "Conqueror" like Barbarians. Archon "Water Thieves" could have various character titles too. Even Sea Nymphs and Viantha could have different class titles within their own "Water Thief" hierarchy.

I don't want to hinder player creativity when it comes to Class-Race combinations. That is one reason I like this board: they may have the crucial ideas to make Class-Race combos realistic.

[Boaster]

Apr 7, 2009 14:50:34 GMT -6 Venture Industries said:

Faith-Class sorta does that to some extent.

Lizard who is Fire Warrior would be a Fire Lizard Warrior possibly.

An Archon who is a Chaos Warrior could be a "Gladiator" instead of a "Conqueror" like Barbarians. Archon "Water Thieves" could have various character titles too. Even Sea Nymphs and Viantha could have different class titles within their own "Water Thief" hierarchy.

I don't want to hinder player creativity when it comes to Class-Race combinations. That is one reason I like this board: they may have the crucial ideas to make Class-Race combos realistic.

Death worshiping Amazon Thief = Ninja ;D

[Venture Industries]

Very creative! Never would have thought that.

[balkoth103]

I definately like the Ideas that Universe has for the overall game, and i like the idea that you start out pretty generic, and move on to become more specified like you can become a human that follows earth magic, but i like thandu's idea of 81 sub classes too.

I definately dont want it to be strictly about fighting if it is a MMO, that would just get ridiculous, i think there should be craftsmen, and tailors and miners, and I REALLY like the idea of there being houses for players. the map would have to be HUGE, but i think that that would be a cool idea. Like players have jobs other than just go out and kill the enemies, like building houses for the few who can afford it (since they would be expensive)

I also think that the majority of the power and choices should be up to the player's and the game should be run by the players....IDK how practical that is, I mean I'm kinda mixing LOM with 2nd life arent I?I'm sure that there is something wrong with that, but I can dream cant i? ;D

[balkoth103]

I want someone to start making this game now, like deadass make it. It was such a good game. With today's graphics, and more freedom to do and be what you want, it would be amazing.

OH and i think that it would be cool if there was something like a Dark Brotherhood from Elderscrolls IV (Oblivion) somewhere in the game, I always loved being a sneaky evil character who was all about stealthy attacks.
Which brings me to another point, i think that the theives need to have a bigger role than they did in the orignals, for the most part they were useless. Except for air theives I had very little use for them, maybe it was just that i didnt know how to use them correctly, but i found them useless.

Another thing is i agree that there should be more water oriented activities too, because water was another useless faith. In the original LOM their best character was unable to leave the water, and that is fine, but the opposing teams rarely use the water so it doesnt really benefit to even put out that sort of money to get the serpant (or the kraken)

[Venture Industries]

Thank you very much Balkoth103 for your encouragement and like mindedness. The practicability of your ideas, which I share, are feasible and realistic. This would have been a challenge a decade ago, but not so anymore.

Second-life isn't a bad concept. Now, I have my qualms with Second-life, but some ideas from it have given me inspiration. I've been inspired by the likes of more than just Oblivion, EVE, Second-life, and FF11. I still know very little about those games, but I have seen some gameplay and read quite a bit on them.

Thandu has some good ideas that are uniquely his own. But I'm not so sure he has 81 subclasses.

The basis of any RPG is the character and the roles people play. Fantasy players will always like to fantasize, so why not give THEM that world to do it. I think your going to like more of my concept as I role it out--so stay tuned.

[balkoth103]

I'm definately interested, but sadly you wouldnt have the means of making it, would you?

[Venture Industries]

Sorry, I don't.

I've outlined the ideas in a new thread Race-Class Combinations. With some help we can make an interesting Urak!

[balkoth103]

Ugh, i wish it was easy (and cheap) to do.… I really love this game

[Venture Industries]

The biggest problem is the rights to the game. Vivendi still owns LOM. If they didn't some venture capitalist can get producers and designers right on it.

[thandu]

My idea isn't the 81 classes. 81 is way too excessive. Really, any amount of classes beyond 20 gets a bit hectic.

I take most of my inspirations from the likes of Everquest, WoW, even lesser knowns like Maple Story or Shaiya.


Many seem to follow a simple concept that works very well and prevents early powerplay: you start out simple and with a basic place in the world, but growth through special skill points/talents/gear stats can determine how you're different from your comrades.


I'm thinking at this rate that making ones own thread may be the best plan as it seems nobody can understand where I'm coming from here.

[Venture Industries]

81 isn't excessive. Excessive would be making them all very unique. Most of my classes are just a title, giving the player personality.

There are really 4 Fighters there are: Support Warriors, Balanced Warrior, Tanks, DPSers, Unarmed. Mages have 4 flavors Support, DPS, Balanced, Healing. The Rogues are a bit diverse, Espionage types, Thief types, Musical types, and Ranged DPSers, Melee DPSers, and Balanced.

[balkoth103]

sorry yeah, i forgot, i liked the classes that thandu had, but the overall game plan that universe had. but i do like the idea of starting out simple and becoming great.

One thing I was thinking about is there would have to be a way to get people to agree to be carpenters and stuff like that, so that characters can have their own houses. like have people willing to sacrafice the fame and glory of fighting to become an essential part of society. (not just carpenters, but any occupation)

[Venture Industries]

I'm sorry to hear that. I put so much thought into my characters. They don't differ that much from your run of the mill character types. You could still call some of them by title but they are still: "Defenders", "Thiefs", "Warriors", "Water Mages". In reality there are just 3 classes with 81 specializations. Not too crazy now?

Much of my ideas deal with the economics of the game. Players who wish to go into build casts can make them very rewarding. If much of the economy is based on player built items then there are more roles to play. Resource constraints will require competition over those resources, causing wars needing players to protect miners. I'm thinking most building is done via magic. The higher the cast of builder the greater resources he has (higher level = more workers = quicker job). A builder could have animated creatures doing much of the details for the most part it's magic.

If players see their role as a sacrifice for the benefit of others, there would be little incentive to play those roles. The incentive you create is an ability to do a much needed task. The higher the demand for their services the greater the price. Builders are diverse. They can learn resource collection, as well as blueprint making, and much more. A builder for example can reach the pinnacle of knowledge in castle building. But his study is never over. There are various aspect to castles and different upgrades. The bottle neck is time. A builder cannot reasonably learn everything. There are too many topics too little time.

I'm still in a dilemma whether to separate Battle classes from Building classes. I'm for separate classes. The ones who can afford building a castle would be the Builder or a guild.

In theory, a guild of Builders could spec out their tower or castle so much that players would have to have a massive army to break in.

[balkoth103]

Apr 10, 2009 0:23:27 GMT -6 Venture Industries said:

I'm still in a dilemma whether to separate Battle classes from Building classes. I'm for separate classes. The ones who can afford building a castle would be the Builder or a guild.

In theory, a guild of Builders could spec out their tower or castle so much that players would have to have a massive army to break in.

I'm not too sure what you mean by this, do you mean that if you are a builder, you cant fight also? If so, i dont like the sound of that, and neither will most people, but if you meant that you can be whatever battle class, and whatever building class, the two are not related.… i think that would be better, this way a mage can be a builder and a warrior can too. this can also be like warriors can do heavy labor because they are strong, but mages can do a lot of work easier because they have their magic, and maybe theives can do stuff that requires agility like working on the sides of the buildings.…. just some thoughts. I really love the idea of being able to do stuff other than fight, it makes the game more interesting, (in my opinion) all this talk about this has me anxious, and wishing it was actually happening.