FAQ - General MMOG Phillosophy
Questions Regarding General MMOG Phillosophy
- 18.1.1 Are all your ideas internal or have you taken bits and pieces from your message boards? I'm not expecting Secret Sauce(tm) material just curious if the fans have helped out.
- 18.1.10 In EverQuest Complete Heal (CH) became a very powerful spell, maybe too powerful. Does Sigil plan to address spell balance issues like CH?
- 18.1.11 Can PvP work in a PvE world when you will always have griefers?
- 18.1.12 What do you mean by "dynamic" content?
- 18.1.13 Is there a way to combine the challenge of EverQuest with the fast start of Star Wars: Galaxies?
- 18.1.14 If the punishment factor is low enough, is a rule that rewards players for doing things the designers want (e.g. not spending all their time in 1 dungeon) worth it?
- 18.1.15 Should power players and casual players yield the same rewards?
- 18.1.16 Should companies provide game expansions for free?
- 18.1.17 What are your thoughts on the successes and failures of today's newer MMOGS?
- 18.1.18 I was so excited about Ultima Online 2 when it was under development because if they can put out a good game the first time around, they definitely will be able to improve on a lot of things. Do you share this philosophy?
- 18.1.19 Many MMOG's today have been made easier, with less down time, lower risks, easy travel, etc. Do you think you will be able to recapture the sense of adventure and challenge that many of us are missing in our games today?
- 18.1.2 What rating are you going for?
- 18.1.20 There seem to be different chat commands in every new MMOG. Do you think that these commands in MMOG's can and/or should be standardized?
- 18.1.21 How much influence will Microsoft have over your project development both now and in the future?
- 18.1.22 Should you start a beta with tons of stuff not working or not implemented yet, then introduce what is missing and fix as beta progress which is the usual path or go for a more finish product with almost everything in, and most of it in a working form?
- 18.1.23 Will your game include massive scripted events?
- 18.1.24 Shouldn't a player's choice of Deity have an impact on the playing experience, in addition to selection of class and race?
- 18.1.25 Will you keep text to the text boxes or put it in head bubbles?
- 18.1.3 What is Sigil's stance on guaranteed content?
- 18.1.4 What are your thoughts on graphical superiority vs. system requirements?
- 18.1.5 Will you go back to the complex gameworlds of MUDs and add today's standard graphics like EverQuest originally did?
- 18.1.6 Why all the secrecy? Is it to stop a competitor stealing ideas? Is it to give the players a surprise when they start playing? Is it to prevent the spoiler sites publishing their extensive databases prior to launch?
- 18.1.7 Why is it that sometimes the immense backstory of a game is treated as a trade secret from the players and the lore is doled out in such miniscule amounts that people are often unaware of the storylines?
- 18.1.8 How is Sigil going to protect the backstory as the people who originally wrote it may move around after the game is released?
- 18.1.9 Why do developers try to keep solo play to a minimum, stressing the virtues of grouping?
- 18.2.1 What actually happened to Aradune? I've read lore and webpages telling about all sorts of stuff, but I've not found anything conclusive about Aradune himself.
- 18.2.2 Will Aradune be part of Sigil's game?
- 18.2.3 What are your thoughts on the changes in EverQuest that have made the game easier? While some argue that they have made the game more player-friendly, others seem to feel they have "dumbed down" the gameplay.
- 18.2.4 There were a lot of flaws in the original concept of EverQuest. In developing your new game, are you trying to "fix" these flaws?
- 18.2.5 Will you have a short movie for players to watch the first time they boot up the game with an option of bypassing it with the touch of a key?
- 18.3.1 Will Keith Parkinson be doing the box art for Vanguard: Saga of Heroes?
- 18.4.1 What do you think of the relatively new lower level cleric resses and do you think that they impacted the game in a positive or negative way? And if you could, please elaborate your feelings on the 96% exp res, too.
- 18.4.10 What about a system where instead of receiving all your spells every 4 or 5 levels that you get 1 or 2 each level?
- 18.4.11 Should there be some compensation that would benefit players that are not able to invest as many hours in a game?
- 18.4.12 Did the game designers or the players create camping?
- 18.4.13 Would you consider a chat system that was more realistic and allowed one to communicate only with those who are near you (in other words, no chat global chat such as /tells)?
- 18.4.14 Will your spells have unique and individual names? Or will you follow the trend to simply number them (Healing I, Healing II, etc.)?
- 18.4.15 Will your game include lots of features that will make the world interesting (such as weather changes, lighting effects, animals and characters that behave in a way that enhance our game-play experience)?
- 18.4.2 What do you think of regional currencies?
- 18.4.3 How do you feel about hard level caps (50, 100, 200, etc.)?
- 18.4.4 Should level progression be fast or slow?
- 18.4.5 What are your thoughts on limited run/production items off special mobs (semi-artifacts)?
- 18.4.6 Do you intend to encourage more activity in cities to make the world feel more alive?
- 18.4.7 Will Sigil's game be providing players with more unique encounters?
- 18.4.8 Is it possible to have compelling rewards other than Loot?
- 18.4.9 Do I always have to kill the "Uber Mob" to advance?
- 18.5.1 Why not make languages work like a skill?
- 18.5.2 Will the design of your game focus more on crafting or adventuring?
- 18.6.1 Will Sigil's engine take advantage of dx9 and pixel-vertex shaders?
- 18.6.10 How often do you upgrade your test systems?
- 18.6.11 When you're programming your quest tools, could there be a master "on" switch for the quest somewhere? You should be able to see every portion of the quest in your Quest Tool (TM) so that you can audit the quest for problems or updating if necessary.
- 18.6.12 Have any released MMOG's solved Z-axis pathing and aggro issues? Has Sigil?
- 18.6.13 Will your game engine utilize DirectX 9 or the newly announced DirectX 10?
- 18.6.14 How can you guarantee me your game will be playable given that the high-end video cards of today on a high end machine (which will be mid-level by the time you release) cannot run a single player fully DX9 game at 1600x1200 without significant FPS issues?
- 18.6.15 Will there be multiple monitor support with possible 3d support as well?
- 18.6.16 Have you discussed the fact that there could be multiple default UIs implemented, instead of just one? Perhaps one default for each class, customized specifically for their gameplay?
- 18.6.2 Will the engine be more or less cpu dependant than EverQuest?
- 18.6.3 Will Sigil's engine take advantage of the newest video cards?
- 18.6.4 The AI in games isn't all that great. Isn't there better AI available?
- 18.6.5 Is there a difference in designing zones vs. a seamless world?
- 18.6.6 What do you think about auto-setting many of the display options based on user specs? Who should be in charge of these options?
- 18.6.7 Will Sigil use real time server patching?
- 18.6.8 Will you aim for lower end systems though so the game still looks great and runs smooth for the majority of the players?
- 18.6.9 Why do you think that in many MMOG's today, bad patches (patches that break several things further instead of fixing them) continue to get pushed and what can companies do about it?
- 18.7.1 What advice would you give an avid MUD-administrator who wishes to pursue a career in the MMORPG business?
- 18.7.2 Will Microsoft Beta testers get a head start?
- 18.7.3 What about using professional music in the game?
- 18.7.3.1 Tell me more about the music Nino is doing for the game.
- 18.7.4 Richard Bartle, author of 'Designing Virtual Worlds,' says that most players are not good designers. If designers can't be players in the same way the "rest of us" are, what does that say about game design?
- 18.7.5 Who will be doing the customer service on your online games?
- 18.7.6 What do you think is the trend of offering in-game rewards for pre-ordering?
- 18.7.7 Is your game going to be for console? And if so, will it be compatible with the PC platform?
- 18.7.8 Why not sell a picture book with Keith Parkinson art and concept art for the game?
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