So we know what UO features you all want.. But...

What features that are NOT in UO, Ultima or any other of Richard Garriott's games would you like to see?
I personally would like to some sort of vendor search or auction house, which has been talked about by Richard Garriott in his interview with Markee Dragon. I would also like to see the art of being a merchant recognised in some title or skill similar to Greed Monger's idea of allowing more vendors the higher your merchant skill is..

 

Auction houses, in my opinion, detract more from a game then they give, especially if they are global.

I personally do not see them being in SotA given that player housing/shops are a central feature of the game. An auction house would technically erradicate the purpose of a blacksmith opening up his own shop when he could simply sell his goods cheaply and quickly at an AH.

A world populate with player run and maintained stores, blacksmith shops, tailors, alchemy shops is a world come to life.

I understand the need to find the goods you need quickly, but this problem was overcome by the players in UO. Shops gained reputations, payed for advertising, had to grow and adapt to provide a wide range of items etc. Player made solutions to problems (where possible and effective) almost always have a greater pay off than a programmed/automated solution.

 

The ability for my character to dance. Star Wars had a really good dancing skill, but I'm sure it would be too comprehensive for this game. WOW's character dances were fun. Yes, I'd like to see character emotes. Instead of *smirk*

 

The merchant skill which allowed you to have more merchants based on your level was originally implemented in Star Wars Galaxies as well.

 

Second that there should NOT be an auction house in the traditional sense. Auction houses focus a game on equipment and stats. SOTA should have a character and choice focus

 

Hmm regarding Auction houses maybe you are all right! But what about being a Merchant being recognised as a skill?

 

A merchant or trade skill (obviously not related to crafting skills specifically) could skill up/level up in a sense of achievements:

You establish your own player vendor
You establish your own player shop
You sell x amount of items
You've sold to x amount of unique customers
You've gained x amount of recommendations from customers

Such achievements would allow you to train higher as a tradesman, allowing you in turn to expand your operation/business. Such a mechanic would reward actual trading and commerce, not to mention giving the ability to run a large store some exclusivity for those who want to do that as their primary activity. Running a store and being a trader is in fact a skill and shouldn't be available to just anyone with the money to buy a house.

 

I would love to see Player run towns, like actual towns with possibly even guards, but to have that town owned and operated by a particular guild, and then also the ability to overthrow that town, or having opposing guilds destroy the city via Siege Weapons.

It would also be nice to see very large scale boats and ships. Like, a ship that needs an entire crew to operate, people manning the cannons, someone stearing, other people way up top as a look out, people controlling the sails, I think it would be pretty cool that way, to literally have Pirate Ships with the ability to do open sea warfare where the same siege principles apply.

There would also be a very large sense of risk and loss there. To have the ship that you and your guild spent lots of time and resources building, only to have a rival guild literally blow it out of the water. Demolish it, blow it to smithereens. Likewise it would be pretty cool to give the rival guild the option to not destroy your ship but to commandeer it and basically steal your ship right out from under you.

Also maybe not having one specific owner on certain ships either... Maybe only guild or Pirate ships? This way it would leave room internal struggles and conflicts paving the way for a full scale Mutiny The crew making the captain walk the plank would be pretty cool!

 

Airships! It's a long shot, but I love flying boats.

Trains! Even MORE of a long shot!


One of the main games I've got my eye on these days is <a href="http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/#page1">Wildstar.</a> It's a really exciting "Sandpark" MMO. They're giving you the option of a "Class" and a "Path" where the Class is how you fight, and the Path is what you do for fun. Each of the four paths are based on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartle_Test">Bartle types</a>. There are quests that anyone can get, but something like half of the quests you do are related directly to your path, the type of 'playing' you like the most. You can be a warrior who kills lots of monsters in different and interesting ways, you can be an explorer who finds secret passages and gets some 'platformer' style gameplay, you can be a scientist (achiever) and collect all the things, or you can play as a settler build towns and other things.

I'd love to see SOTA be conscious of the Bartle gamer types and help players find the gameplay they prefer.

 

Thank you. Its very difficult for most to not compare to whats out there, especially UO. This isn't "UO 2.0" nor should it be. I understand why people pick out what they love or loved about UO, but its also great to try new things

Player built and ran towns/areas would be cool. However, the building part would be difficult. It would need to be geared towards users, not necessarily designers/developers. Perhaps this could be a good experiment to run in alpha or beta to see how it shakes out (assuming development time permits). The other difficulty would be deciding who / what group gets this ability...

Mining/crafting - Lots that could be said here. Lots of materials should be allowed, however they should be as common as possible. Its fine to have "quest items" to build a particular thing, but I don't think odd-ball items are an awesome thing for every day mining/crafting. Different types of wood, ore, other precious materials, using every natural material/resource possible, etc. Brain storming: fruits, vegetables, flowers, wood, gems, ore, cotton, wool, milk, eggs, nuts, oil, soil/soil quality, horns/tusks, leather/hides, fur, etc
(Not necessarily all good ideas.... everyone please add more)

Story and story elements are key. I think this has been pretty well covered overall. I don't want to go on meaningless quests, if possible. This shouldn't be farmville, cafe world, etc etc where I'm just screwing around with resource-only quests. Though, that sort of thing is acceptable at times, just not every single time.

Play immediately, and also play with people immediately. I don't want to have to spend months to build my character's level or skills so I can finally feel like I can begin to play. Grinding is stupid. Its hard to find a balance of course. Again, this is one of those discussed, but worth mentioning again. Also would be nice to be able to play with others immediately, no matter where their standing is in the game. Again, balance is tough, as you don't want to make a care bear land, but you also don't want someone to have to spend so many hours for such a small reward. The key is, it should be at least an option to have fun in the game and actually have a life outside of it.

Content releases, with REAL content. New graphics and new objects are only a part of the content. Deep/rich stories and quests should be the focus. Again, covered, but this is one of the many things I'm looking forward to. Not really a feature, but 'eh.

Possibly more to come later...

 

Agreed no auction houses. An exception to that would be if sales of characters/housing/currency/accounts to other players for real money is allowed.

If such will be allowed, an auction tool on the web site that links to the game and is showing what is being sold would be good. The company could get a small perctenage of such transactions. It offers a secure and safe way for the sales to happen (which less face it, will happen wether its "allowed" or not), and it helps to establish fair market values based on supply and demand. A win-win.

Pub games. You already have the engines from your gambling games. Use em for players to be able to gamble their in game currency away. Although im personally not that interested, would probably be popular in general.

shared vault and/or wallet type storage between your charecters.

Ability to have as many charecters as you want even if it means purchasing more slots.

Housing and cosmetic trophies for completing things, achieving things, or as drops.

No bound items. If it needs to be rare, make it rare. But im against the entire bound item system.

I do think airships is a neat idea.. But save it for an expansion.

Flying mounts also.

Ability to swim.

Do something i dont think has been done... Under water cities. Maybe your shop and home is under a magical dome 20,000 leauges under... Adds a whole new layer to the game.

Underground towns/cities. In mountains, etc.

Might toss out more later.

 

Please.. An in game clock that shows you game time and your time. The inability for some people to convert time zones or google it, amazes me.

 

A group finder built into the game. Sometimes a guild and personal friends list just isnt enough.

 

Multiple monitor support, such as being able to drag maps, journals, inventories onto your other monitor.

customizable figure heads for ships (if we have ships)

ability to cut and paste into and out of game (from your word documents, email, or net, into your in game journal, and vice versa).

Simple spreadsheet ability in the in game journal.

in game calculator tool. (tabbing out of game can be painful)

courier/mail system to send messages and such, but not items. keep commerce to trade windows, bazar, shops, and vendors.

mentioned elsewhere but OPTION (let players decide) to beef up security on their account with code generators, or key fobs they can buy and other common tools.

Weekly lotteries! Maybe free ones for simple things but that are nice to get for free, all the way to playing the equivalent of Powerball *chuckles*.

Craft: Gem enchanting. could be anything from stuff you can socket into equipment, to gems that activate certain type of abilities.

instead of a "health bar", have a heads up health, mana, buffs display (take a look at the plugin called palantir for Lord of the rings online).

Please, don't make stuff "bound" (I know, I said this earlier )

Guild alliances.. Yes UOO had the highlight/warring system, but expand on that. Formal "alliances" of friendship, formal warring guilds. Ability to participate and join into the guild chat channels of other kins without being a member if they make you an honorary member, etc, etc (more powerful guild system)

Intelligent weapons! (D&amp;D players will understand). Obviously they couldn't be very complex, but some simple/fun things could be done with this.

 

Shared vaults for Guilds.

Make it easy to help your fellow guild members by having a guild based vault everyone can toss things into easily and everyone can access easily.

Give it multiple levels of access based on how long you have been in the guild. That way you don't get people hopping around, cleaning out guild vaults and moving on.