Game Design & Development

Discuss gameplay and daily development updates on Antilia Currently: 200 Topics, 2445 Posts

"Expansions" after release

	Aureus Vulpes I know it's a bit early to start discussing future content post-release, but there's something that I must say about many MMOs that irks me as a player, and looking from the standpoint of a programmer(which I am not, but if I WERE), would bother me equally as much, and that is a level cap expansion based content. Many games have done it, and it breaks my heart every time, especially if there is raid-level content. What I am referring to is, of course, the lack of player desire to play "old content, because it's old." For example, "MMOSCAPE" has an initial level cap of 50. Developers create high end basic party dungeons for players to run around level 48-50 (top 2% of levels), which gives them entry-level dungeoning gear. This leads to the player having the capability to run a harder difficulty dungeon, recommended for level 50, which drops ONLY level 50 gear. This leads to simply harder content with more powerful level 50 gear. Then, the level expansion. The developers of MMOSCAPE decide to boost the level cap by 10, and adding new areas. To make the level-expanded content enticing to all users, the new zones include level 51 gear with stats on-par to almost end-game level 50 items, as well as creatures killable by level 48 players who have never seen end-game pre-expansion. We've seen this countless times. This hurts future gamers who wish to see the level 50 endgame content, because now most people don't care about it, and you can get better gear just by playing the new areas. Now you have content painstakingly developed that just sits and rots, hardly ever seen or used again, or, in an effort to "save development time", recycled for "new" endgame. Additionally, should players decide to revisit this content at future level caps, the difficulty will have been destroyed, effectively killing the entertainment/challenge value of the content. Were I a developer, this would hurt me, too, because here I've created something wonderful for the player base, just to be discarded by that same player base at the next level expansion. My point here is that may I recommend something for the developer's consideration. Instead of level cap boosts, have the equipment scaling for end-game content be the level boost. Additionally, require players to have equipment no more than 2 dungeon levels ahead equipped to enter a dungeon. This will preserve difficulty, usefulness of content, and provide a longer, more enjoyable game experience for new players, extending the life of the game. For example, Dungeon 1 (D1) drops D1 gear. D2 drops D2 gear, so on and so forth. The game engine would not allow you to enter D1 wearing D4 gear of any kind, because you're too powerful to attain any real benefit from that dungeon. Now, if you want to keep your D3 gear so you can go back and play that content again, by all means do so. I'm interested to hear developer and player feedback on this. Wednesday, January 4, 2012 10:42am Was Aureus Vulpes in Earth Eternal. Is Aureus da'Chalei in-game. Lv20 L-Blade/Lv12 Hilt Lv45 Chop Wood/Lv41 S-Pole/Lv41 S-Blade Jeff Leigh Lead Developer Hi Aureus Vulpes (and welcome to the Antilia site, btw) - It's pretty difficult to apply what you're concerned about to Antilia, as Antilia doesn't have an overall level, level caps, level-specific gear, level-specific areas, etc.. Gear will be primarily produced by player crafting rather than drops, and the stats/quality of those will depend on the crafter's skill and the components they put into it. Antilia uses some gameplay designs that are less common among mmorpgs. I consider Antilia a sort of blend between mmorpg, sandbox game, and world simulation. That's not to say its impossible for mistakes to be made or for things to get out of balance - it just means it is a bit difficult to pull direct lessons from this game or that for some things. Wednesday, January 4, 2012 1:41pm Jeff Leigh - Lead Developer - Right Brain Games In-Game: Tait da'Ariiel, Ziliia da'Lynnar blueslyster Quote by Jeff Leigh: Hi Aureus Vulpes (and welcome to the Antilia site, btw) - It's pretty difficult to apply what you're concerned about to Antilia, as Antilia doesn't have an overall level, level caps, level-specific gear, level-specific areas, etc.. Gear will be primarily produced by player crafting rather than drops, and the stats/quality of those will depend on the crafter's skill and the components they put into it. Antilia uses some gameplay designs that are less common among mmorpgs. I consider Antilia a sort of blend between mmorpg, sandbox game, and world simulation. That's not to say its impossible for mistakes to be made or for things to get out of balance - it just means it is a bit difficult to pull direct lessons from this game or that for some things. Sandbox and world simulation? o.o I understand the MMORPG one but... there's plans for this to be a mix of the three? Wednesday, January 4, 2012 2:02pm OMNOMNOM and MINEMINEMINE! If I don't respond in-game, I probably dozed off because of the music. Contact me again in about an hour or two. Sly da'Talikus Jeff Leigh Lead Developer Does an indy - especially one who has spent over a decade in love with storytelling and games - ever aim for just "more of the same"? Wednesday, January 4, 2012 6:36pm Jeff Leigh - Lead Developer - Right Brain Games In-Game: Tait da'Ariiel, Ziliia da'Lynnar leaguejonin lol jeff Wednesday, January 4, 2012 7:16pm The only thing to be scared of in life is the unknown. Aureus Vulpes Very interesting concept, there. I look forward to seeing how this turns out then. Wednesday, January 4, 2012 7:48pm Was Aureus Vulpes in Earth Eternal. Is Aureus da'Chalei in-game. Lv20 L-Blade/Lv12 Hilt Lv45 Chop Wood/Lv41 S-Pole/Lv41 S-Blade blueslyster Quote by Jeff Leigh: Does an indy - especially one who has spent over a decade in love with storytelling and games - ever aim for just "more of the same"? -is confused and is about to swing his mallet- Wednesday, January 4, 2012 8:05pm OMNOMNOM and MINEMINEMINE! If I don't respond in-game, I probably dozed off because of the music. Contact me again in about an hour or two. Sly da'Talikus

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