What Do I Want in a MMO? (Part 8)

This is part 8, right? I think I mentioned it briefly before, but I wanted to have a blurb about it later when several other things were established.

TRAVEL

I want travel to matter and I want it to exist. I also don't want it to be painful in the sense that it takes a long time of simple or boring interaction. Additionally, I don't want mounts to be status symbols - at least not the mundane ones.

So here are some of my thoughts on travel.

Travel from one place to another should happen and each area should be somewhat distinguished from the other. Every area of a given culture might have similarities, such as architecture or emblems displayed, but they should have different feels to them.

By 'feel' I mean one area might be bountiful and rich so they may be more upbeat, happy and have more available for PCs. Another place might have less success in their trades due to various reasons - this should be obvious. Perhaps it isn't as clean, there are a number of people that are begging, lying in an alley or gutter or perhaps even threatening the players coming through. Other places might have locals who are repressed by a power hungry lord. I'd imagine this place would feel a lot like you did when you played through the first parts of Half-Life 2 - very depressing atmosphere.

There simply isn't enough feel to areas in MMOs (EQ2 had good feel of goodness and cheeriness for Qeynos and used to have an oppressive and evil feeling Freeport) or not enough various areas (EQ2's current failing).

You can't just scatter buildings down in a lump, plop some merchants and quest givers down and expect people to be happy - at least, I won't be happy. You also can't expect every civilized area to look the same as the others.

Aside from the immediate feel, every area will likely have it's own set of problems which should vary somewhat realistically. A town next to the King's Castle, and therefore a huge army, should not be running into the same issues a hamlet miles away from other civilizes areas on the edge of a dark swamp might have.

These problems should feel solvable. Players going through these areas who actually do something about the issues will be rewarded in that the locals may smile or greet them cheerfully as opposed to eying them suspiciously and ushering their children indoors. Players not doing anything about these problems should be treated the same way... unless their reputation is positive and fame is strong enough that the people know who they are. In that case the NPCs might plead with them or make offerings to get the players to help them.

Travel separates these areas and allows them to have different feels to them.

As I mentioned, mounts shouldn't be too hard to come by. In fact, other means of travel might be available as well. Perhaps a horse drawn cart or wagon or caravan. What's to say the player doesn't come across a caravan or farmer taking his (or her) wares to the local town and convince them to give him a ride? Maybe if they look reputable enough or are famous enough they get offered a ride?

One thing that annoys me about travel isn't so much that it is there, it is that you're stuck focused on travelling and steering your character around. It is tough to chat or sort through inventory or step away with autorun on without finding yourself stuck on a tree, drowning in water or running off in the wrong direction.

I'd implement an auto-travel. Not in the sense of instantly transporting you to XP, but actually attaching your character to a set path that will get you where you want. This would be limited to travelling by road.

Imagine how nice it would be to just hook your character up to a route, set him on walk or run and wander away to do something? Or chat with friends/guildies? Look around and admire the scenary?

All that said, I would want encounters to occur with some of them being dynamic. Perhaps there are areas where local wildlife cross, including predators. Maybe there is a destroyed caravan or carcas on the side of the road that has drawn carrion creatures that could be a threat. Maybe you'll stumble upon someone attacking a caravan or wagon? Maybe you'll get ambushed by bandits (assuming you look like a worthwhile target) or maybe you'll run in to a wandering merchant trying to peddle his wares.

I don't think "meaningful travel" is defined by a random scattering of mobs or even a random scattering of mob camps every few feet. If something is there, it should be there for a reason that is either easily discernable by the player or there are hints as to why it is there, possibly leading to a side quest or further exploration.

Economies should have some merit or matter to it. Perhaps there are limits on the number of items available per day or maybe prices can vary in areas based on rarity. This adds some value should a player want to act as a merchant of sorts; buying low in one place and selling high in another. Perhaps even bringing cheap goods from one place to where they are valued and then buying up common goods in that place to bring back to the other place.

Maybe this sort of action gets you a name or reputation for that sort of thing which might even open up other possibilities. Maybe people start trusting you to make deliveries or pick up things for them. Maybe certain groups might try to abuse your services somehow...


The more and more I type about this, the more and more I realize I really don't want a MMO. I simply want a long lasting, deep, improved upon (expansions), single player game world that I can play with my friends.

Don't mention Guild Wars, DDO or even NWN. Guild Wars didn't meet my need or keep my interest, DDO pains me for it's horrid implementation of both 3.5e D&D (and Eberron for that matter) and NWN is too small/short though I do admit it does make a good platform for what I like. Now I just need someone to make it so...