Revamps, Overhauls, etc.

[Aeoshattr]

I'll try to keep it to the point. This is half me thinking out loud, half me wanting to find out if anyone else has opinions on this.

Do you think any specific mechanical aspect of MD needs to be "revamped"?

One thing I notice frequently about other games is that developers keep game features "rolling", they adapt them to the player base and the way the player base works - they keep moving, forcing players to adapt. It brings novelty from the devs, but also forces novelty from the player base. MD feels very stagnant in this sense, and at least to me, it appears that a good chunk of features is out of tune with the current playerbase, and a lot of new features appear eclectic and disjointed from the old ones. Off the top of my head:

• Principles - of minimal use, in conjunction with tokens. With the current environment, there is nothing to make dynamic use of principles. You max them and that's it, never touch them again.
• Combat - honor, balance, etc feel clunky and cumbersome in the current environment.
• Armor sets - Some are incomplete (I think?), it's a "set and forget" kind of system that I personally haven't clicked in probably 1 year.

There are probably more.

Caveats:

• MD is a very conservative game in terms of mechanics, so I'm aware "revamps" might just not be a thing here.
• Revamps are very likely far too much work for a single person (Chew) who already has to also do everything else.

So... Does MD have any feelings about this?

[MaGoHi]

MD is almost constantly worked on, its just that fixing existing stuff and the huge amount of things to do after that are so much work that chew cant do it all alone and be fast doing so, i am surprised he is holding up somehow but also worried he might burn out, that would cause actual stop to it.

Considering the workforce MD has and the amount of work the development is actually pretty fast.

MD is very weird in terms of gameplay, i can see that newer generations of people wont get attached to it easy since they are spoiled by other games.

Also people like me complain about changes and thats discouraging, guess its within the human psyche to dislike change, since its walking from the known to the unknown xD

All in all i would wish it went faster too, and that more people would stick to it but i can also see that it is going as fast as it can considering the circumstances

[Ungod]

Though i'm faring poorly in combat, every time i discover something new on fighting, it adds to my amazement. Honestly, the combat system is not perfect, and lacking in some parts, but it's pretty solid, imo. What lacks is a purpose for it - that's how i feel, anyway. Gimme a reason to farm stats or fight in general.

(Mostly talking about creature abilities and their interqctions here, because (tokens and) freezes take some of the magic out - again, just a feeling)

 

...and the general feel i get is that stuff simply needs to be developed, not revamped (that, as Mag says, already happens, it's just slow)

 

[Fang Archbane]

Personally, id like to see MD become a VR game. i realize that what i ask is insane coding-wise and a nightmare to even consider tech-wise but an MD world in VR to give that fully submersive feeling that MD already does a damn good job of as is, is a world i dream of every day and can only hope it will one day become.

[Chewett]

On 8/6/2018 at 9:43 PM, Fang Archbane said:

Personally, id like to see MD become a VR game. i realize that what i ask is insane coding-wise and a nightmare to even consider tech-wise but an MD world in VR to give that fully submersive feeling that MD already does a damn good job of as is, is a world i dream of every day and can only hope it will one day become.

MD is not about the visuals, its about the feelings, the story, the roleplaying. VR would remove much of MD, from MD.

[Fang Archbane]

Personally I disagree Chew. The feelings, the story, and the roleplaying could all still (and would all still) be done in a world that were visually enhanced to VR.

I realize that what I dream of is a coders waking nightmare, I also realize it wont happen in my lifetime, but again I was just expressing my personal dream since I was asked what I would like to see MD become.

[Pipstickz]

If it's your dream, you can work on creating (or hiring someone to create) a pseudo-MD in VR on your own if you like, though obviously there may be some copyright issues involved and I'm no expert in that. MD is the way it is for a reason, many reasons infact. A VR environment would indeed take away from certain very important elements of the game as it is. This is not a matter of opinion to be argued, it's a fact.

[Fang Archbane]

I'm sure you're right Pip. Just as I'm sure Chews right and it's my skewed perspective that drives my dream. And I've considered hiring someone to do exactly what you stated, and considered the copyright issues as well. The only thing holding me back is the funding tbh.

When I say MD in VR I might not be expressing myself properly. I imagine it being as MD is now. Scenes we have now, but with a full 360 degree visual scope for each scene. Clickies that worked by actually touching them. Places youd adventure to by actually walking (on a rotating circular treadmill of sorts. Basically the design for Ready Player One).

MD as we know it to be now, but in a fuller more submersive field of view and interaction. Voice to audio per scene. Viscosity working with actual weight activation in the boots. Teleportation actually jolting you up. spellcasting requiring actual heat (per spell cast the body suit would cool your temperature down). Again, I realize I'm mad, but I was asked so an answer I gave.

Edited August 8, 2018 by Fang Archbane

[Pipstickz]

Principles: Can be used for Inner Magic as well as the tokens you mentioned, though spell docs are in short supply, but anything's possible

Combat: It was one of the most rewarding experiences in gaming for me to go from ready to sac all my creatures and quit combat to what is essentially, at least nowadays, a grinder (though a poor one who can easily be beaten). Granted a big help for that was tokens and I would likely have a more difficult time trying to do the same from where I was in the current environment with a slower economy and less people to train on, but it's hard to say whether or not it'd be impossible, I'd tend to think not given enough time. I enjoy the honour system for how simple it is

Armour/Equipment: You've got a point in that case, there are four slots that aren't even used, though I think the sets missing a piece or two are intentionally so (maybe not though).It'd be nice if there was some more interesting stuff that could be done with equips but how long would the novelty of that last before becoming another "disjointed feature" that's part of the general landscape we all (mostly) know?

In general you have to make your own fun, or progress, around here most of the time. Don't forget MD is "perpetual beta".

[Chewett]

14 hours ago, Fang Archbane said:

I'm sure you're right Pip. Just as I'm sure Chews right and it's my skewed perspective that drives my dream. And I've considered hiring someone to do exactly what you stated, and considered the copyright issues as well. The only thing holding me back is the funding tbh.

When I say MD in VR I might not be expressing myself properly. I imagine it being as MD is now. Scenes we have now, but with a full 360 degree visual scope for each scene. Clickies that worked by actually touching them. Places youd adventure to by actually walking (on a rotating circular treadmill of sorts. Basically the design for Ready Player One).

MD as we know it to be now, but in a fuller more submersive field of view and interaction. Voice to audio per scene. Viscosity working with actual weight activation in the boots. Teleportation actually jolting you up. spellcasting requiring actual heat (per spell cast the body suit would cool your temperature down). Again, I realize I'm mad, but I was asked so an answer I gave.

It sounds like you haven't used the current VR tech. As you probably don't know I work in a big graphics company and have a number of friends who dev VR, its really really primitive. What you describe is a way off even for commercial units, let alone home units.

[MaGoHi]

Fang go play Skyrim VR xD

[Syrian]

theres another huge problem with MD being in a vr setting. the scenes are from one perspective, things "behind" the player, or camera, arnt shown, you can infer whats there for the most part, but there are certain scenes where things just arnt shown, and often this for a good reason, secrets are hidden beyond the scope of vision and running a VR setting would mean revealing those and drawing up angles of the game that just arnt visually there. not to mention the amount of work that would be involved in building MD into a 3d environment, the modelling work would be astounding in itself. 

you also have to consider distance, distance in MD is a very odd thing, and even distances between scenes arnt uniform, especially in the east, and they would need to be calculated and everything in between would need to be filled in to create a full world, its just not practical or feasible 

[Aeoshattr]

I'm actually surprised by a lot of the answers.
I'm leaving VR aside, since I asked for specific features, and I don't think that entirely changing the platform of the game is specific enough. 

Thanks for your contributions on the topic. Feel free to add more if you want, though I've had my question answered.

[Chewett]

Also very interested in the answers, thanks for raiding the topic!

[Aethon]

Artwork to be finished for all clickable resource combiners - the current artworks are quite randomly placed just due to ease at the time and often don't suit the combiner/area.

Item combining system made fully operational and feasible to so as to create items/(x)tier resources.