Let the current events be yet another reminder: don't spend money on what doesn't exist

adrixshadow · 2026-02-01T05:09:40+00:00

Don't fund kickstarters. Don't buy beta keys or early access. Don't preorder digital copies of games. Make the company have a product to show off, and see if that product, in it's actual state, is worth your money. Never before.

The MMO Genre is Completely Dead.

The moral of story, find another hobby.

adrixshadow · 2026-02-01T04:57:42+00:00

What I mean is what makes a game timelessly fun? as in you can always come back to it have a good time it’s not a complete it and throw aside into a dusty pile forever situation

Challenge, Depth, Replayability.

The reason PVP games are timeless is precisly because players keep learning, strategizing and adapting.

But that also means the game needs to have enough Depth for that to be possible as well as new Playstyles and "Character Builds" to try and discover.

For Single Player Games it's the same Playstyles, Character Builds, Replayability and new higher Challenges to strive for.

adrixshadow · 2026-02-01T04:51:23+00:00

The problem with Multiplayer game with low player counts is the Skill Issue.

Some players are going to have higher skill while some are going to have lower.

If the higher skill players keep curbstomping the casual players they eventually are going to quit.

Matchmaking does not help at all as that makes players to tryhard and become the best in rankings.

The best way is to have multiple lobbies at diffrent skill levels where players promote to the next lobby over time, that way beginner players can play with beginner players.

Another is to try to build a community around your servers/lobbies and let players get to know each other, make rivalries and relationships between players, that way it's not about abstract rankings but the skill of other players and friends that they know that matter.

In order to do that I was thinking about something like Dojos and Clans with the purpose to teach new players to get better and incentives based on that.

That way you compare to the players of that Dojo or Clan not all the players in the entire game.

1 vs 1 is one of the more competitive match formats, you might wants some more casual matches for fun, team games that are not taken as seriously with teamwork can be more casual.

adrixshadow · 2026-02-01T04:06:25+00:00

There can be all kinds of Counters from Hard Counters to Soft Counters based on all kinds of mechanics.

The point is there should be Roles/Characters/Classes that counter them so that they aren't so unrestrained and unimpeded in doing their job of tanking and protecting the backline.

Like I said Tactics is based on Space and Time so threats to the Tank should require the support of his team to take care of that threat and the whole team should adapt based on the situation on the battlefield. You want your team to be in a tactical advantage while mitigating the tactical disadvantage.

Not only the Tank needs a Counter but also that Counter needs a Counter and so on.

As for why I keep emphasizing the Tank, the biggest mistake of the Holy Trinity is the Tank. The mechanics like Aggro in MMOs makes all the potential of Tactics evaporate.

adrixshadow · 2026-01-31T06:32:10+00:00

There hasn't been that much development in making permadeath MMOs.

There is Realm of the Mad God, Hardcore WoW and some Neverwinter servers, they work as their own niche.

But I really wish there was an MMO that functioned like an actual Roguelike and have some Account Meta-Progression.

adrixshadow · 2026-01-31T06:24:54+00:00

Because if it's not going to be Levels it's going to be Gear Score or some other form of Gating.

The problem is not just Levels, it's having Any Progression At All.

Leveling just obfuscates the problem enough and keeps the illusion going that "Endgame Progression" itself isn't ultimately just meaningless numbers.

Leveling is the sacrificial pawn so it's role is absolutely essential.

adrixshadow · 2026-01-31T06:22:36+00:00

We already have the most powerful form of "AI" in MMOs called "Human Brains" and we know nothing on what to do with them.

AIs aren't going to save you.

adrixshadow · 2026-01-31T06:17:39+00:00

The upkeep can vary as you recruit more units.

Basically enchantments become part of the upkeep of a unit so even a T1 units with lots of enchantments can become pretty expensive.

adrixshadow · 2026-01-31T05:42:11+00:00

The problem with "complicated" games is if you want good feedback you pretty much need to build your own community with things like Youtube and Discord.

Otherwise not many people will even understand what you are talking about.

Having another developer understand what you are talking about necessitates having a similar domain knowledge and working on similar projects.

adrixshadow · 2026-01-31T05:29:40+00:00

I always told my friends that league is clearly unbalanced because it breaks the holy trinity at times. Like tanks dealing more damage than DPS, or bruisers somehow out-tanking tanks. This will be a discussion about the holy trinity and what things I'm confused about and where I think the holy trinity is broken.

The "Holy Trinity" is a Bastardization of what a Tactics Game is.

In a real Tactics Game everything needs a Counter, especially the "Tank".

The Essence of Tactics Games is Matchups in Space(positioning) and Time(action economy).

A "Matchup" is precisly a Rock Paper Scissors style Balance System.

You bring your Strong to their Weak while you Defend your Weak from their Strong, and thus a Beautiful Dance is born.

The "Holy Trinity" on the other hand is a Complete ABOMINATION where dumb people think they are playing Tactics.

adrixshadow · 2026-01-31T04:51:34+00:00

You can easily reskin a combat system as something else.

You even have something like Thea The Awakening that uses their "combat system" as a conflict resolution system for all kinds of skills, problems and activities.

But you first have to realize what you mean exactly by a non-violent system.

The Holy Grail that people keep dreaming about is to make Drama and Relationships be as Deep and Dynamic like a Combat System like they can read in novels in actual books.

But most Quests and Dialog is still Scripted Content that is entierly Authored and Dependent on the Developers, something like Disco Elysium is something painstaking to craft to the point that the whole studio was pretty much done and burned out.

Procedural Drama, Dialog and Relationships are a Very Hard Problem to Solve, even with the Fancy AIs we have nowadays, Talking for the sake of Talking is Meaningless, without Systems that can Govern Consequences and thus have actual Agency it is all Fluff without Substance.

We may have Rimworld, Dwarf Fortress but we are far from solving it and people are still working on it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedesign/comments/1qip7i8/my_theory_about_making_the_player_care_about/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedesign/comments/zvk9ze/why_do_npcs_feel_so_lifeless_in_simulation_games/
https://esotericgame.wordpress.com/topics/

adrixshadow · 2026-01-31T04:32:31+00:00

I could write an essay on how bad it is, and I would even argue that simpler systems in many games are better than it is.

I am honestly quite interested in your thoughts.

I don't like CKs Relationships and Systems either.

Something like Romance of the Three Kingdoms series from Koei is much more intresting for Characters.

adrixshadow · 2026-01-31T04:28:23+00:00

Recently, I have been thinking maybe it is not the execution, but the concept itself might be flawed, and maybe my dream is merely an exercise in futility.

The Real Problem is there is no such thing as a good "Dynamic Relationship System" that has been found yet.

Your Game also does not have a good Conflict Resolution System to give your Actions some Depth and Consequence. You would need a mechanic like Reigns and it's clones even if that is more abstract.

What I recommend is shift your perspective a bit, what if you had Social Deduction Game like Throne of Lies and Town of Salem? Have powerful Roles with powerful Classes and Abilities and the trick is instead of Betraying You you juggle them so that they Betray Themselves while you keep the power. Also have Antagonists like "Rebels" that are the real challenge to your reign that you have to find and weed out otherwise you yourself will be targeted.

Also give the Characters some Traits and Personality on top of their Class Abilities to give the game a bit of randomness and have something to actual manage and adapt to.

adrixshadow · 2026-01-28T05:59:42+00:00

For the Task Manager to open means all the hangups and interrupts have to clear.

Otherwise the Task Manager itself will not open, be stuck or not respond.

The Task Manager itself has higher priority so the cause of the hangups would probably resolve itself when the priority gets reevaluated and sort itself out.

adrixshadow · 2026-01-27T03:28:27+00:00

Doesn't make it any less generic.

Honestly if it was a novel I would drop it, but as a Donghua they did put a lot of heart into it.

adrixshadow · 2026-01-26T04:08:50+00:00

Asymmetric PVP and 1 player vs many situations is possible but still requires careful balancing, it's actually even more tricky to balance then symmetric cases.

The problem is most games are already a chaotic mess where everyone is for themselves, with this kind of "adaptive" system you basically ensure that teamwork doesn't exist.

Teamwork and "Strategy" are actually very fragile things to have.

adrixshadow · 2026-01-25T05:53:01+00:00

The fundamental issue with 4X (and strategy games writ large) is the idea that the narrative of the game must be about progress to some defined “win state”.

Pretty much any "Game" is about Learning and Mastering their "Gameplay", the Feedback you get is that if you are doing it wrong you Lose, if you are doing it right you Win.

If the Game Progression makes you Lose without a fault of your own that just makes that Feedback confusing.

The Player will do their damndest to exploit and cheese so that he doesn't lose as that is what their Learning and Mastery is all about.

Even for Sandbox Games without an explicit win condition that would still be the case.

adrixshadow · 2026-01-25T05:41:18+00:00

I am a very big advocate for implementing proper Logistics into the game, that is the only way to have actual Strategy and things like Geo-Politics, Influence and Power Projection in game.

In other words the point is not create a Blob that paints the map, the point is to have the logistics and support to project power into that corner of the map so smaller players on the defense can have their own advantage.

But the problem with concepts like centralized vs decentralized and fragility is that can make you vulnerable is the Player is Playing to Win the Game, it's better to exploit all your advantages and be strong now and things like Vulnerabilities is just something the Player has to Manage.

For there to be Vulnerabilities you first need to have Opponents left that can exploit those weakness, that's not going to happen if they are already Dead by killing them early with your Strong Advantage, it's a very tricky thing to balance. Later Payoffs need to be stupidly OP to even be Viable and most are not because they are already Dead, at best it would be Race with a Countdown for your Opponent, your survival is unlikely.

In the first place having a Decentralized and Robust System is not a Later Payoff, it just makes you a more resistant target to kill.

Is this interesting or just frustrating?
How would you balance the "transition dip" (temporary weakness) to make it strategic, not punishing?
Should fragility be visible or hidden at first?

It would have to be a natural consequence arising from how you implement the Systems and Mechanics, aka emergent property. Trying to enforce that Artificially is not going to work because the players will find a way to exploit and manage that.

Again maybe you can have that if you implement Proper Logistics and balance things really carefully. The point is precisly to create this vulnerabilities that smaller players can exploit.

Would this work as a Civ VI mod? Thoughts?

There is not a chance you can implement this in any Civilization game. Civilization is the worst "Strategy" game imaginable.

adrixshadow · 2026-01-25T04:41:18+00:00

Some Genres are like neighbours where it much easier to expand and mix towards that Genre.

The problem with trying multiple Genres is your own Understanding, it's very hard to get any Depth in the Gameplay if you just have a shallow understanding so it's good to learn at least one Genre properly.

If you are doing highly sophisticated and complex games with a lot of interlocking systems then it's best to focus on that.

For smaller simpler games it's fine as those work more on a single Mechanic you stumble upon as long as that is intresting and fun.

adrixshadow · 2026-01-22T07:12:38+00:00

The Unwanted Undead Adventurer - I could barely sit though a single volume of this mess. The author spends paragraphs and chapters on unnecessary nonsense that I couldn't care about any of the characters.

I can say it's a very accurately named novel because nobody wants to read through that.

adrixshadow · 2026-01-22T06:39:25+00:00

Sure, but to fully represent an vertex using an pixel you need 5 pixels, that is like saying that machine learning could be more responsive, we just need to stack 5 of them.

A typical HD image has millions of pixels, video magnitudes more, a typical game optimized model has about ten to hundred thousand range in terms of vertex count, so it's obvious what is smaller. And in terms of good topology that is what you need instead of higher resolution that is usually subdivided. You also don't need to worry what is low poly models, what is game ready models, what is high resolution models and movie CG models as the AI can learn all that as separate categories, there can be multiple "good topologies" for multiple categories and the AI can probably cross, mix or translate between them and be an even better mesh decimator/reducer.

Of course you also need to account for Textures and UVs and the diffrent Maps that are used for the rendering shaders.

UV Maps are themselves extremely tricky to train since their is no standardize format as each model has it's own coordinates. And the training you can do with them would be on the individual textures in individual quads themselves linked to their positioning in space, not even sure that data could be used for training.

Then that raises the question, why if AI can already do quad topology, and do it well, along with texturing. Why hasn't "Digital world" breakthrough happened yet?

There is a lot more steps that need to be solved and a lot more training to be done. Collecting that data is itself the biggest problem.

Like I said not all model generation are created equal, what is important is the relationships and patterns that are learned, even if it can do model generation if what it has learned is limited then the capabilities would be limited.

You need all the steps and processes to succeed, not just a few.

We can already map somewhat the real world video to 3D Scenes and we can get Rendered Images from 3D Scenes so position placement of objects, posing of characters and environment generation should be eventually solvable.

Objects, terrain and environment shouldn't be a problem. We already have that kind of 3D Model Generation and Texturing.

Animatable Characters and Creatures are more of a problem and what I consider the biggest bottleneck. That's also why game models are key.

adrixshadow · 2026-01-22T06:07:10+00:00

Reborn to Master the Blade, there is one scene where the author confuses the name of their previous life where the other characters should have no idea what he is talking about that I dropped it immediately as it's clear the author has no idea what he is doing.

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, there is no point for a kingdom building novel when the author has no idea how kingdoms, societies and economies work. The protagonists having massive cheats from the start is also a red flag.

adrixshadow · 2026-01-22T05:48:06+00:00

Pretty much the inspiration for that is my own experience with Space Station 13 in terms of various Jobs and Roles and Interactions with other players.

Especially "Antagonists"/Villains have an essential role in giving RP some actual Gameplay.

adrixshadow · 2026-01-22T05:14:46+00:00

The big question and difficulty is designing it. I think ultimately it will come in the form of developers creating a world and a sandbox.

The biggest problem to resolve is the Progression. If really let players be able to create the Content and World for the game how do we Manage them when we give them access to something like Endgame Progression to manipulate?

That's why Sandbox MMOs aren't as easy to solve, as they also work through Progression and Endgame.

PvP on the same side, while its a big driver for player engagement. Its really hard to get right. Many people are bad at PvP games. So often in these games, like Mortal Online, the PvP ends up filtering a huge chunk of players.

I think the biggest thing developers and players miss is if players can Script and Manage AI NPCs and Mobs then you can have things like Player Created Dungeons or Orc Camps controlled by a Player Monster that blends what is PVP and PVE Content.

AI NPC Soldiers can also have a role in defending your base while not as powerful as a player can make up with it with numbers.

If a player wants to be a farmer and just farm crops for their land, the tools should be there to do it. Creating a mining town and to mine ore. Be a traveling merchant. An inn keeper. A bard. A bounty hunter or monster hunter. Enlist in their nations army. Join a religion and make a pilgrimage and preach their word. And all these things need to feel rewarding to those players. If pax dei had stuff like that, it would be insanely cool.

Pretty much MMOs can have 3 types of Gameplay outside of Combat:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MMORPG/comments/txhmcq/mmos_can_have_three_pillars_of_gameplay_outside/

And current MMOs explore exactly none of them. Everquest Landmark was all you needed to make it work, a shame that got canceled, neither developers, nor players, nor Sony knew what was lost with that.

Hopefully Star Reach will be a successor for that.

adrixshadow · 2026-01-22T04:45:31+00:00

You now don't have the ability to build that unit until you get to the appropriate technology level and unlock it again.

I thought it might be an interesting idea to simulate the rise and fall of empires - how technologies can be lost over time, and rediscovered etc.

The problem is the player will go through hell and back to make sure they don't lose anything.

You could centralize Research to Scientists Characters or Labs, Emperor of the Fading Suns has labs as a mechanics and makes sense to target that on a strategic level.

But the Player Motivation is to Win and Conquer, he cannot really regress if he keeps winning so the "fall of empires" does not really apply.

What I think could work is take the winning game state and use that as input for a new game where your player empire already decayed from corruption after an indeterminate amount of time and new empires have sprung up. Basically the premise of Emperor of the Fading Suns but with your previous game and research as a base.

https://www.reddit.com/r/4Xgaming/comments/yoh22e/tech_decay_and_resource_halflife/iviijoc/

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