What's YOUR vision for the ultimate RPG?

Never really RP, so I am just happy to learn how and to RPG with anyone. (Ariella looks around, Did I just say "happy", bah)

 

I personally liked baldours gate, neverwinter nights, knights of the old republic, diablo back in the day, fallout and besides rpg i mostly play strategy games like the civilization and the total war series.

Freedom is essential, in fact in most of those games you can choose how you are acting. Obviously its within certain boundaries, since you are playing with a computer mostly, but still you were not obliged to be good all the time or bad all the times. In fact when I played knoghts of the old republic I always ended up missing most jedi abilities and most sith abilities as well since I was usually grey most of the time.

About strategy games, they are really addictive but may become somewhat repetitive. The Civilization series is working on a new game and I firmly believe that science/skill specialization would kick ass, as you could do in galactic civilizations, instead of everyone just researching the same skills/techs in a sort of rat race, like civ. The same could be applied here.

In UO it was all about being GM, yet if skills/abilities could be more flexible it could be great too.

Roleplay is what we do all the time, even when we try to be ourselves. A bad ass pk can be as much of a roleplay as could a hipster of a medievalist. They are all roles we assume. We are bound to it

 

Originally, I was Lord Rizza from Great Lakes Shard. I beta tested and played on and off for three years. Wish i could pull up my build. Before that I played every Ultima all the way back to U IV on Apple ][e. Played many mmorpg's since but UO was my favorite type for years. Even got my Pop playin at the time. He was Furmanator but goes by Beli these days. I'm sure some will recognize the name.
After all the games i've been through, I'd like a mixture of UO and SWG before Sony RUINED it. The common link between these two was the amount of custimazion. The shear open ended world(s). I got to choose my own class essentially in UO , I could choose between 32 professions on SWG. Lets not forget the ability to layout, build, & even elect politicians to create/run a player city in old SWG. Beli/Furm's player-generated city even began attracting tourists. It became slightly famous b/c SWG provided an incentive (long buffs) to come to our town for the sole reason of hanging out in our cantina to listen to Dad play music for awesome buffs. The point here is freedom and trying to re-create the most realistic world possible. In the real world i like to go to a bar everynow and then. Those buffs from musicions was ingenius. Name any other mmorpg that succeded in giving a valid reason to come sociallize in a tavern or bar.'Thats just one of many examples. Botttom line... freedom. Freedom to foregoe the norm builds and be a cattle driver or a travelling bard/storyteller and stage performer of sleight of hand and juggling, or a master stable master/vet every lord calls upon to care for his stable.
Freedom on this lvl is a daunting task and I think you guys are doing a marvelous job. The previous paragraph is just aspects of my dream game. And that about covers my two coppers worth.
Thanks for reading,

 

My ultimate RPG wishlist would have the following:

• A sickening plot twist like Ultima 6 that turns the story on it's head halfway through
• Companions with their own agendas like Baldur's Gate 2, each of whom you could help, or not, with their personal goals... with consequences
• The world interactivity and NPC scheduling of Ultima 7 - being able to mill grain into flour, mix flour into dough and bake that into bread in a world that felt alive, only being able to find shopkeepers at their shops during business hours
• Weird quirky things hidden the world. Eg. the naked couple near the giant turtle in Serpent Isle, lots of stuff in Torment, the unsolvable quests in U8... that was a feature, right?
• Ridiculously long quests like the hot air balloon in Ultima 6, filling up your spellbook in any of the Ultima games
• Unexpected aid from odd sources: Smith the horse, Sherri the mouse, Mort the talking skull... I don't think Chuckles was ever much help was he?

 

For me it's a story game with sandbox elements where you can immerse yourself enough to feel your character actually lives there and is a part of the world, such as SotA seems it will be. Ultimate rpg for me has to be first and foremost, NO forced pvp, and pvp that has no effect on me whatsoever. Zero, zip, zilch, nada. And not so pvp-centric that the pve/pvm elements of the game are constantly being nerfed into oblivion or denied us altogether because they have to "balance" pvp yet again, or because having certain nice things would "unbalance pvp". I hate that with a bloody passion. Usually makes me toss a game aside in disgust when they do that. Also, no bottlenecks or roadblocks to pve content to push you into pvp, whether it be resources or anything else, that gimps your game if you don't do it.

SWG was perfect imo. The crafting system was incredible (I loved the genetic engineering), the housing, player cities, immersion factor in the back-story, community, etc. The pvp was factions and they could go at it to their hearts content just about anywhere, but you could declare yourself neutral in the conflict and be left alone by both sides. I cried when Sony shut it down and would still be playing it today if they hadn't. I could go on all day about SWG so I won't.

UO, after Trammel was near perfect. No real story to follow but enough sandbox to make up for that. Loved the housing and the community and the general feel of living in the world.

The Matrix Online was to me a great rpg game even though it lacked most elements I look for in rpgs. What it did have was story and community so the immersion factor was there. You could really feel like you were "jacking in" to the Matrix and you aligned yourself with Zion, the Merovingians, or the Machines. Not to mention it had one of the most unique melee combat inter-lock systems I've seen. A very few additions to the game would have made it more popular, I think. If Sony would have just given that game a little love after the bought it out, instead of ignoring it, they could have made it a success. I sometimes think they only bought it to eliminate some competition with every intention of shutting it down. This is another one I would probably still be playing, and cried when it shut down. Damn Sony!!

SotA is shaping up to be what I would consider ultimate rpg. There are a few things still up in the air that we don't have clarification on yet, which is why I say "shaping up." For me the one glaring thing, the only thing still enough "up in the air" that could possibly affect my playing is the pvp issue. Some are pushing (very hard) for the devs to change their current thinking; for a system that would preclude me playing. So far from all I've seen from the devs, I don't think it's going to be a problem, but as they keep saying, "don't lawyer me bro." So there's still that tiny little "what if" in the back of my mind.

 

Balance.
I'd like to see balance between all aspects of the game from roleplay and dungeon crawling to PVP. In the later early years of Ultime Online right before Trammel came in, we started to see some of that balance. I like that SotA allows players who want to have that more open experience to opt into it and players that want a more calm gameplay to opt out. I think it's the beginning of a big idea. I just wish that the game relied less of questing and more on the open world, "do what you want" aspect that UO had.

 

My issue with this question is that the answer changes quite a bit depending on whether it's single player, multi player co-op (as in, get a group and schedule a gameplay session), or a MMO. And also depending on whether a character (or playthrough) is supposed to last a few dozen hours or a few hundred hours.

For single player I care a lot about story and about adding bits of realism that don't detract from the fun, even if they hinder convenience. I want to control multiple characters (either directly or through a good companion system), to have as many options to solve conflicts and progress as possible, and don't care much about character or class imbalance or about how progression works.

For multi player co-op it's similar to single player, but then I start to want convenience when assembling groups and getting players together; in games like this that are not played on a central server I will blatantly cheat, including creating a character and items out of thin air, in order to get the group to the content we want to play faster.

For MMOs (and MMO-lite games like SotA) I prefer when characters are either very well balanced or are allowed to do everything (with some respeccing or a similar mechanism, if needed). I also care a lot about fast travel, because if I have to waste 5 minutes traveling to play with a friend, I'm likely to instead nag him to log out and launch some other game where we can be playing together in seconds; in short, without fast travel I play MMOs as if I was playing a single player game.

The expected duration of a character or a play through controls how much I accept consequences for my actions; if the game is supposed to end in a few dozen hours I don't mind (and actually prefer) heavy, undoable consequences for my actions, but if the game is supposed to reach into a hundred hours or more, I will prefer as much of the consequences for my character's actions to be undoable as possible. This typically goes for MMOs too.

 

Basically Ultima 7 in gorgeous 3D and with a much better combat system

 

Something like: a rich rpg with deep character development and huge world and also straddles a warfare style game with elements that let you character join a army and battle in a ongoing military style campaign.

Players joining a army start out as recruits and can advance to higher ranks eventually to become generals to other recruits.

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The Ultimate RPG... That's simple...

 

The ultimate RPG (Role Playing Game) for me was Ultima Online. I liked a lot of the single player RPGs but they always seem to be missing something and for me that was human interaction. Ultima Online gave us a world that was not linear, it was open to us to explore as we saw fit. It did not force us into predefined roles. It was interactive with it's surroundings, we could move that cup, plate, fork, spoon and/or knife etc. Best of all, talking to the other characters, except the NPCs, meant talking to real people. My best experience role playing was when a few staff members organized a storyline and we prepared special characters just for RPing. We started with nothing and worked our way up together, we completed special quests that were run live by real people and with real people so that even though a 'script' was in place, unexpected events could occur and could be handled. Friendships were made and the members of the group learned to depend on one another. Everyone in the group had their own personality and I think this above all else is what made the role-playing on UO special. I couldn't find this 'personailty' in a single player game or from an NPC.

Ultima Online was for me the best RPG ever made... but I think Shroud of the Avatar has the potential to be even better.

 

It wasn't easy to finish the game.

 

I just read this, it is an article entitled "Ultimate RPG Defined", written by Lord British a.k.a. Dr. Richard Garriott de Cayeux

 

The ideal game for me has the depth, complexity and customisation of Ultima Online in a 3D world; with a mix of Dark Age of Camelot's combat systems and Asherons Call difficulty. Not much to ask!

What I don't want is a dolls house simulator; sure housing is a nice feature but it doesn't interest me that much.

 

1. Programmable UI - allows for easy Macro making.
2. Access to game APIs - allows for some dev work of my own, better Macroing, all around better winning by not needing an UI.
3. Full loot - just like IRL.
4. Seamless open world - just like IRL.
5. Microtransactions - pay to win, exactly like IRL.
6. No anti-bot measures - freedom.
7. Economy based on items - easy to game that and win.
8. Paid professional staff both in and out of game - haters gonna hate otherwise.

 

I would want a single player RPG (offline mode) that equals Ultima VII with a large explorable world (Skyrim not instanced scenes) preferably in 3d isometric view, companions, No player lots just fully created NPC towns & Cities, A House ( Skyrim style would be ok) and a great story/quest line.
Also the same for the MMO mode, UO housing decoration is the best and neither this or any other game have ever equalled it, so housing in the game should be on instanced islands with player created towns so adventuring in the world is never compromised by urban sprawl. A house in each town could become an instanced residence for anyone who does not want all the fluff that comes with player housing.

 

1. Deep branching story where choice matters and the world isn't black/white
2. Well written characters
3. Challenging tactical combat
4. Avoiding cliches

That game can be online or offline for all I care.

 

Freedom of action
Actions that matter


Freedom of Action
I can play a piano, a lute, a flute, I can bake bread, I can buy a house, I can do, be ANYTHING I want.

Actions that matter
If I'm a great musician the NPCs notice, if I'm a hero the NPCs move out of my way, if I'm important guards don't mouth of to me (Skyrim I'm looking at you.) If I'm the head of a guild, it MATTERS.

 

Well it seems the game is well on the way for the 3rd era of gaming, a social & mobile gaming experience ( welcome to medieval Farmville/Ultimate Collector).