I was thinking starting development on a mmo simulation game.
The focus would be the community aspect.
Let's say you'd have a Harvest Moon type game. (Which I'm only using as an example, since Stardew Valley is way too good and only came out recently, which doesn't seem appropriate to copy-paste)
So, instead of focussing on grinding/loot/instances, you focus on development of your own character and farm. Your harvests would be used in the community market. There would be events, some hubs/vistas were people get to meet up and chat. You could visit each other and help out.
Kinda like farmville, I guess, only not crap and on mobile devices.
Also, I'm thinking more like an Animal Crossing kind of game. Where your main purpose is to collect stuff through special actions. (Befriend people, partake in real time events, take care of your town, etc.)
Would you play it?
I'm looking for idea's to really spice up the game and make it something unique and special.
>>336114249
So like, Harvest Moon online?I've wanted something like that forever
>>336114249
I'm not sure it would work as an mmo as part of the charm of those games is the peace and quiet, having 100 other people run around ruins that. But by all means go for a single player, I'd love an animal crossing like game for pc.
>>336116068
Me too, anon. Me too.
>>336116242
Good point. That's why I was thinking it's mostely singleplayer, with the option to visit people and meet at hub area's whenever you feel like it. You could also invite people to come to your place/town/farm.
The multiplayer aspect would be in the community market, special events, or just a passive way to help each other out.
>>336116454
Make it so you can kind of co-own a farm with someone else for couples and whatnot. I know a lot of people would like something like that.
i.e: You can take care of the animals while your girlfriend(lol) is sleeping.
>>336114249
Can't wait to see this never happen.
>>336114249
Okay, several problems I notice right from the beginning.
First of all, what is going to be the drive for players to continue playing? Most good MMOs have a lot of lore and a lot of stuff to explore to keep players hooked and interested. The main time sink might be grinding, but it's the interest in the setting which keeps them around. How would that apply to a farming community? There aren't new places to visit and new things to find out in a typical Harvest Moon-type situation, and if you are constantly moving around, then it kills most of the idea behind running a farm. (Not to mention, why would you bother?)
How would the game be focused? Would players be assigned to a specific town that other random (possibly invited?) characters also are a part of? Does each player have their "own" town and their town grows depending on what players are on their friendslist? Does a player have a small set of "town friends" from their friendlist, which affect the town? Is it something like the 3DS Streetpass, when a player's game just takes a snapshot of a friend's status and reflect that in the town?
You'd probably want to answer that before working too far on the idea.
And finally: real time or game time? Data on server or game on host (player) machine that updates to an online server? Different decisions are going to change how the game plays out.
>>336116648
Love the idea.
>>336116713
It's like most early game concepts. It's hard to promise it'll actually happen in this stage.
>>336116958
>First of all, what is going to be the drive for players to continue playing?
Pretty much the same reason why you could play Animal Crossing for a year. Slowly unlocking more features for your town/farm that either make the whole process easier or just nicer. Also, just keeping in touch with your ingame friends and npc's can mean a lot.
I've played MMO's for years, and it's easy to understand what drives the player into playing for so long, and since the main focus of this game would be completly different (Think; Farmville) it's harder to give a coherent anwnser. I'll think about it, and write some stuff down for myself.
>How would the game be focused?
I'd first have to decide how the game would play out. Giving everyone a town for themselfs seems like the most ideal route, but is also incredibly hard to manage. But it should be somewhere down that line.
>real time or game time?
Almost 100% certain everything should be in realtime. No way to skip the day by sleeping, and the player should have enough activities to actually do while waiting for their crops to grow.
Thanks anon, you gave me a lot to think about.
>>336114249
put in a naked chick
A MMO farming simulator needs to play itself most of the time. Your character does farm things on his own while you're away. This keeps the world reasonably alive and the sense of persistence is great to have.
Bonus points if you can hire PC/NPC helpers to do various tasks for you. Other players commissioning simple tasks could work as a tutorial phase, letting a new player do one thing at a time as a hireling.
>>336114249
Making an MMO closer to Rune Factory would probably be easyer but then again, I know a ton of MMO's that have/had a farming type system. It would have to really stick out from the rest. I think Mabinogi is probably the closes to ever being like this. You can focus on so much other recreational shit besides killing monsters in that game.
>>336117802
A persistant world is a must-have, I agree. I'll write the 'hire players/npc' part down, 'cause at the time I have no idea how I would actually implement that.
>>336117913
I really don't want the game to be about killing monsters, but I'm really intrested if you could show me some more titles who've done something like this before? I hardly know any, and you seem to know a lot.
>>336118297
Perhaps make the farming a separate situation from the markets in towns? Or have "local" player towns which are affected by how well the player's farm and trading is doing, and is also affected by friends who visit, but also have large "server" towns where players can engage in some marketing and competition with others in order to sell their produce there, which can get more money and/or influence how their local town develops.
If you start selling produce in a "server" town, for example, then your local town can start receiving some of the other players' produce that that server town is selling.
>>336114249
It's going to take you and several other people years to make, unless you're using something like RPG maker. I hope you realize that.
>>336118569
This should work! Thanks, anon.
>>336118642
Even in RPGmaker something like this would require years. I have a small team (5) of dedicated people who, if the idea is good enough, are willing to spend most of their time working on this.
So pretty much a singleplayer harvest moon but with (as example) cockfights every friday night beating up other players chickens.
Would love something like that.
>>336114249
If it's going to be an MMO, how will you implement a day/night system? MMOs tend to operate in real time. For example, if a crop grows in X days in-game, do I have to wait for X days in real time for it to happen?
