[browserice]

Well all those ideas I threw in the posts were not brewing for weeks in my heads. I just happened to think them up on my lunch. So probably 75% of all those ideas will be worked at, re-worked and re-re-worked before it takes a descent shape to be worthy of Ryzom.

I haven't played many MMORPG so there are alot of concepts that I am not aware on other games but I have strong feelings about how they are actually using them. Harvesting is one of them. I get the feeling that in the majority of MMORPG out there, it is more like a farmer thing (plant-let_it_grow-pick_it, pick_eatable_items_of_trees_or_found_any_where). I think the ryzom way of havesting is unique. It doesn't restrict you to a specific area. In theory you could just go anywhere an pop it up through the ground. I like the Ryzom harvesting way. It doesn't follow the was_here-will_be_here-will_always_be_here type of item. Also, like Kalindra pointed out, you could harvest in group to help gain XP.

The helping thrive is in my opinion, missing from just about all those MMORPG out there. So trying to find a way to encourage helping out is crucial, if not, the ultimate goal. This should be found in professions and quests. But it is a hard thing to do. How can you encourage people to help each others. My list of professions was my first try at this concept. It is a very basic idea. Ideas evolve and in their conception path, they sometimes change form. Could it be that the main attraction of Ryzom to all players was the 'helping out' factor ?

Ryzom was my first MMO that I have played so far. I am currently trying out LOTRO and so far, I have seen that professions do need a bit of helping out but the most used solution is to create an Alt character with the required profession to supply you with the missing items. That isn't helping out at all ! Its just me-myself-and-I. I rarely saw any helping-out times in LOTRO but in Ryzom, there were alot.

The second thing I found in Ryzom was the feeling of total freedom. This also has to be reflected in professions and quests. That is the second hardest thing to do.

So the main 2 concepts to achieve in creating an MMORPG a-la-Ryzom, in my opinion, is to achieve the Helping-Out factor and to give the sense of total freedom of choice. Succeeding this will attract back Ryzom players. WOW grinders or the likes will probably not be interested into this.

Another concept that I was thinking of is to introduce a bit of purpose into the MOBs, NPCs to make it a bit more real-life-like. This could be perhaps in the form of behaviors to achieve certain purposes, quests-like concepts and teaming up thinking. I hate hitting a dumb MOB/NPC who is just standing there doing nothing until I hit it AND seeing another one standing 2 feet away doing nothing, but standing.

One last thing, I agree that the choice of the engine is not really important at this time. But at least, it has to allow huge amounts of players. I have something in mind that I have recently discovered but I am afraid about its actual performance. I'll have to prototype to see how it goes.

Do you guys understand the concepts I am trying to isolate and trying to give them form through the functionalities of an ideal MMORPG game ?

My main problem in all this related to the feasibility of me actually doing it is the little time I have outside work. I have sooooo many things/projets I want to do but have soooo little time.