[Garvan]

First forum post. Hello to you all, Garvan's the name, videogames is the game ^.^v

the point with this thread is just to go crazy with your wildest MMORPG fantasies and how they'd fit with Aion. I guess I better go first.

One of the first thing I'd change about Aion would be the races. If I ruled the world, I'd ditch both and keep just one. From there I'd adobt the approach seen in Knights of the old republic 1 & 2 and Fable. That is, your character has potential to become sinner as well as saint, hero or villian. This is decided by actions taken and words spoken as you play the game. Then these two «factions» could duke it out.

Secondly I'd make the characters change appearance to reflect their standing, much as seen in Knights of the old republic 1 & 2, Fable and Black & White 1 & 2. I suppose that during character creation, you should be able to «forsee» how your character will look like with full evil / good look as you can only define neautral look (e.g. starter look).

You'd start without your wings, quest around, get your wings and they'd be like... oh I dunno, greyish. If you play the good guy, your wings will gradually get brighter and you'll end up with a smashing Archangel look (yeah, they already have that one nailed pretty good as far as screenshots go..). Ms queen-*****-of-the-universe however, her wings will fade to black, her feathers begin to wither and fall off until they are barren and naked, like the bat wings seen in the game.

So the end look will not deviate much from what we'll get, but a gradient look would have been darn sweet. Of course you're not doomed to be evil / good for all time. You can turn the ship around and rise (or fall) to salvation / damnation whenever you feel like it (unlike in Fable, were the story eventually comes to an end).

Next on my list would be tough to answer quests. Seen a few of these in Knights of the old republic. A lot of MMORPG's out there have the same old deal; take these boxes and go to the town south of here, deliver and get a pair of leather boots for your trouble. While these are fine, I wouldn't mind adding quest where you are pushed in a corner and forces to make a moral stand.

Example:
Daddy James, little boy Kane, older sister Jane and their cow Doris. Kane is sick and won't live through the night without medecine. James can't afford the medecine since they're so poor. Jane points out that they can afford it, IF they butcher Doris and sell the meat. James objects, saying that the milk they get from Doris is the only way they have to make money.
Sell Doris to the butcher to save Kane or keep Doris to keep the family with at least some income? Which is the right choice? Which is the best choice?

Not wasting any time, next thing I'd cut away would be classes. In its place I'd replace it with what I suppose one could call the default character approach. What this means is that you start off with your average starting gear and a smile on your face. From this starting point you have the POTENTIAL to become the biggest mage in town, or an axe wielding warriror or even the nastiest assasin to ever crawl through the shadows. For people that have played Fable or Deus Ex, this should ring a bell.

Don't get me wrong; class system has its advantages. You're assigned a class which has a spesific role, a very clearly defined role in a party / raid. You are indeed a fragment of a greater whole, so it's easy to get in and do your thing and still contribute to the greater goal of the group. If you're a warrior, get up front and do some tanking. Healer? Stay back and keep those blessings coming. Mage? Throw those fireballs around like nobody's business. Summoner? Get your water thingy up and have it do... uhm... its thingy...

While their roles might shift a little from PvE to PvP, they still have pretty clearly defined roles. You all have your roles, carry them out together in harmony and we'll see this sucker (e.g. Big nasty NPC boss) through.

The thing I find so appealing about default character approach is that your character is not cut out in stone by the game designers, but molded in clay by your game style over time (though, still within the frames defined by the game designers, obviosly). I can't say for certain, but in my own thought experiments PvP would also profit from it, even more than PvE. Think about it:

you're flying around in the Abyss with your cool sword & shield, plus a seriously sweet armour. You spot a mage of the opposing side and charge head on. The mage of course responds by throwing some serious magic around. Fine you think, I'll suck up the damage, duck and dodge. That mana can't last forever. True, the mage runs out of mana (cause he's a n00b I guess).

Sucker, you think and dive onwards for the slaughter. Cloth armour vs Sword = sword win. Then out of nowhere the mage flicks up a crossbow. @£&%%¤#!!!!! The mage had also invested several EXP in ranger abilities, as a plan B should mana run out. You, who have invested all EXP in close combat skills don't have much to put up with against ranged combat.

PvP gets more interesting because you can never really tell how people have invested their EXP. Yes, there are variables in the class system (various skill trees), but IMHO these variables pale in comparisson to a default character approach. Not to mention that it relflects real life more as well. You have the potential to do anything, high school teacher, president, farmer, wall street buyer/seller or admiral... you can do it, assuming you bother to invest time and effort into it. It is wrong to believe that you're born into a role / class / cast and is stuck with it from here and until eternity ends.

Then there is the story. This is probably the thing I find most annoying with MMORPG. The story, or rather lack thereof. Yes, there is lore. WoW, EVE online and GW (MMORPG's I'm familiar with) all have some impressive libraries loaded with lore, good one at that. Problem is, at least for me, is that you never get to see much of it in the game. Yeah, it's mentioned in the quest text, but when I look at the quest text I look for what, where and what is it in for me. Can't really say that I care about these here woods, just tell me where to find these cursed thingies and how to kill them cause I need that 5 gold reward there is for getting the job done.

GW did the best job here, as they had in-game cut scenes that drove the story forward at given points in the game. THAT caught my attention and I followed the story, not just the objectives. Which is a thing that has got me exsited about Aion. These cut-scenes make a return, though as I understand it they're not just for the EPIC stuff like in GW, but also about your character, his / her story (which I fear will be identical to everyone else, but whatever...).

I don't know too much what they put in that players will have a impact on the story, but if I ruled the world it would have been as follows:
Once every quater in a year, there would be a champain. It would start at the beginning of the quater and end at, duh, the end of the same quater. Each champain would have multiple outcomes, depending on how players preformed.

Lets just say some crazy old fool found a super evil scroll and decided to use it to take over the world with an army of undead (all hail my skillz of originality! XD). Players rise to the challenges. Of course due to the duality about players being able to choose being good / evil, some might oppose the old foold and his evil scroll, while others might decided to JOIN his ranks (for a fee of course...). This invites both questing PvE and PvP collinding together as players try to decide which side is the better.

The good guys have come through and are at the final boss fight. If they kill him, great, they've won the day, the EXP and that sweet magical staff. If they get wiped, the world gets swarmed with undead, placing the old fool as king of the world (and don't go crying to Aion for help, I hate Deus Ex Machina solutions).

One might take it even further. Instead of leaving it in the hands of a raid party, leave it just to a single party or even a single player. Imagine that... the fate of a kingdom, nay – the world at the tip of your fingers. Screw up your mana management and the world will pay (not to mention you'll NEVER hear the end of it in the general chat :P).

I see for me interactive cinematics, kinda like seen in Resident Evil 4 and the later Tomb Raider games. That during a cinematic cut-scene you have to press spesific buttons at the right time to come through.

Assuming they win, the next champain might be about a new enemy. Assuming they fail, the next champain would undoubtebly be about reclaiming the world from the clutches of the old fool. Only now you have to cut through an army of undead to get to him (plus whatever player characters have sided with him).

So in a sense, the game staff writes scenarios with multiple endings and it is the gamers that decided which door they will walk through. Might wanna make it more than just a clean you won / lost ending. Add gradients. Yeah you killed the guy, but you caused damaged to the land, help us rebuild it. Or the guy is weakened and withdrawing, though a portion of the undead army was raised, so go forth and kill them all. Dunno if this will be a reality, but it's nice to day dream.

From the changes in the story, you'll get new quests. Although still the same old kill 5 of these, bring me 16 of those from there and talk to this person about that as we've seen many times before, the reason for them differ. Kill me 5 wolves that hunt my sheeps changes to kill me 15 undead cause those guys screwed up and allowed the army to get summoned.

Last but not least, I'd go away from the server approach and gone for the GW solution or the best way would be EVE online. That is, every one can play together. I hate that «you play WoW? Me too, wanna play together? What server are you on? Awh... that means I have to pay Blizzard to move my character cuz I don't wanna start all over again»

alright, enough videogame wet-dreams from my side. Feel free to list your own fantasies, alternatively pick mine appart and point out flaws in it. As long as it is done in a civilized manner, I don't mind at all.