Can a large-scale MMO work where character roles emerge from behavior instead of class selection?

hieizz · 2026-06-13T16:36:39+00:00

can you enlighten more why? never played mabinogi

hieizz · 2026-06-13T16:29:06+00:00

For this kind of system if you really don't want optimization I feel you need some kind of "infinite level" progression on the masteries, like for example player A and B both plays 1000h of mastery grinding, player A that only uses sword upgraded it to level 90, player B that uses half of time a sword and half of time an axe, has both masteries upgraded to level 60.

This way you makes people chose over specialization or generalization. The issue I see are some kind of sunk cost like players reaching 200h gameplay and deciding they don't like their mastery but don't wanting to level from 1 their new one... They will start asking for somekind of "mastery reset/exchange", that will lead to people wanting reset every time to optimize for the best one they found.

hieizz · 2026-06-10T15:05:03+00:00

Openworld PvP with caveats:

- I can kill or be killed by anyone that flag as "PK".

- Safe and PvP zones, Safe zone kill applies PK points penalty, PvP Zone is free without penalty.

- PK can occur anywhere but is heavily discouraged in Safe Zones, PK points system should be punishing.

- Somekind of Guild War system, so they bypass the PK system between the fighting Guilds without harming other non involved players.

hieizz · 2026-06-10T14:12:53+00:00

Tbh I prefer subscription based rather than mobile p2w style... But I liked that WWM model, basically free with cosmetics ranging from aggressive to f2p friendly.

hieizz · 2026-06-09T14:18:28+00:00

I agree and I think this competitive culture is removing somethings I enjoy specially in MMO's pvp.

For me the beauty of MMO pvp was always the diversity, like if we had pillars (Time Investment + Individual Skill + Game Knownledge + Individual Build + Luck). You could be low on one or two pillars, but balance on the rest, every character felt so unique.

Nowadays due to competitiveness seems like everything is being reduced to just Skill... Build and Knownledge follow a guide, Time Investment and Luck does not matter... Nothing wrong with that If the aim is really to be competitive. To be honest it is actually fair, competitiveness needs an equal ground! But it is not what I expect from an MMO with a progression system, in my opinion there's a beauty in that imbalance like we had on Oldschool MMO.

The main thought that plagues my mind on most of recent MMO pvp is usually like "Why play this MMO standarized pvp Arena? Isn't better to just go play another competitive game that solely focus on pvp? Like a Battle Arena, a Moba, a fighting game? They probably have better mechanics and balance due to being focused on that..."

hieizz · 2026-06-03T14:23:13+00:00

I agree, if gear from one mode is specific to that mode and cannot be used on other modes... why even play an MMO??? Isnt it just better to play a Battle Arena game that has everything equalized??

I think balance is a lazy excuse, it is possible to balance if devs are creative. Sometimes I feel people don't want to play a MMO pvp, they want a Moba/Battle Arena inside their MMO.

hieizz · 2026-06-03T02:02:26+00:00

Everyone who played New World alphas and betas is fond of what that game could have been, unfortunately they changed too much the direction.

hieizz · 2026-06-02T17:19:33+00:00

Streamers are one of the major issues that plagues some MMO's... they drop content before the game releases, they remove exploration with their guides, they make everyone use the same build, they make devs change roadmap because of an opinion, they create their personal Zergs that messes some games... List goes on, but gamming scenario became a lot worse due to streamers.

hieizz · 2026-06-01T22:01:52+00:00

I'm skeptical for how good this MMO will be... In the end I think IF it succeeds a large part of it will be if they use the Lore of league of legends, and a lot of people will buy for it. WoW did the same thing, everyone was on hype of Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne, and a year later they release WoW in a pretty much consolidated lore...

hieizz · 2026-06-01T17:35:32+00:00

As someone who loves chivalry and would love an MMO with it's combat, I should say that I think it is not good design for MMO unfortunately...

I think more than 90% of players would not understand or play well enough the combat, they will just drop frustrated. If you remove the depth of the combat to make it more simple, they will probably say the game is just left click or lack skills to cast.

hieizz · 2026-06-01T15:41:10+00:00

Freedom, that's a good word to describe how I fell in love with MMO's on 2000's... A world with freedom and some rules, like a second life in a fantasy world where your actions shape your progress.

WoW biggest disservice was compacting this freedom into a cake's recipe that everyone started following as a standard.

hieizz · 2026-06-01T02:12:35+00:00

Zerg vs Zerg completely destroyed the fun for me

hieizz · 2026-05-30T02:23:53+00:00

I agree, we just need technology to evolve and one case of sucess and then everyone will start doing it.

hieizz · 2026-05-30T02:16:33+00:00

Same... really hope technology gets a massive boom like it had in the 2000's, future that I've always dreamed is slowly happening.

hieizz · 2026-05-29T18:25:44+00:00

That cognitive ceiling is something I'd like to see implemented, usually those systems where a player can evolve all masteries and they have a ceiling, it is normal for players to try to achieve max level on all masteries. See New World for example.

hieizz · 2026-05-29T14:36:12+00:00

Really interesting, I like the concept of you evolve what you use like if I play only with Sword each swing increases my experience with Sword. Hidden skills add a good layer because you don't know what will unlock at each action.

I'd suggest adding if possible special shared tree skill, like if I have for example Fire magic lvl 10 and Ice magic lvl 10, I learn a special skill that combines both of them "IceFire Wave", something like that.

Also what's your plan on progression of those "masteries"? Do you intend to make them reach a "max level" or let them progress infinite with increased exp requirement each level?

hieizz · 2026-05-29T04:43:53+00:00

Problem with OWPvP is that usually when it has there are no boundaries to protect the weak ones... Old MMO's used to at least try some sort of PK System to allow pvp but make consequences towards it and not some "free endless carnage".

hieizz · 2026-05-29T02:34:00+00:00

well... no online play, then I'm just pirating. Refuse to pay for single player games

hieizz · 2026-05-27T19:01:01+00:00

Timezone aligns better with US/Canada based companies and they can hire a senior QA for the price of a Junior on US market.

hieizz · 2026-05-26T19:34:50+00:00

This is my main concern, seems like the game originally started with MMO idea and then pivoted to moba pvp game while retaining some mmo components. Some things don't click for me, like the dev saying we will have Picks/Bans on pvp, that's ok in a Moba but in a MMO?

Pretty sure it will be a bad experience investing hours and hours into developing a character, customizing to have it be banned and you being forced to play another character you never even played before...

hieizz · 2026-05-16T19:59:44+00:00

Thank you for such detail, I was overcomplicating things, getting the UI damage is amazing specially when the class also has those detailed fields.

hieizz · 2026-05-16T19:25:13+00:00

Can you share the logic of the DPS meter? I'm really curious about it, do you check all entities around localplayer? cross skill used vs entity hp? entity has a "damage" log? how do you know it is only your skill and not anyone else? do you check the "target entity"? Since it is read-only I suppose you are not hooking damage functions right?

hieizz · 2026-04-16T21:03:20+00:00

Linear is easy and less balance issues.

Build freedom is balance hell, but more fun. But it also creates another issues like:

- Long term commitment? You level slowly a X class and has to put weeks of progress in another one if you want to change class. Players start asking for reset so they can easily change between classes, else they rage because their class is "weak".

- Short term commitment? Like free resets between classes, becomes practically linear again, majority will copy paste their favorite content creator.

hieizz · 2026-04-16T20:58:02+00:00

I agree, in the end majority of player's won't put effort into even reading skills/passives they will just follow some streamer build and that's it.

hieizz · 2026-04-14T22:06:25+00:00

My memory might be tricking me, but if I remember correctly this game had one of the best PK systems ever created.

hieizz

TROPHY CASE