LOOKMOM NOHANDS wrote:Maken Tosch wrote:LOOKMOM NOHANDS wrote:Mobius Wyvern wrote:I think we can safely guarantee that the new game will be match-based in some way when it releases. Deeper integration and "open-world" stuff will probably be later.
I hope you are wrong.
A lobby shooter and an open world MMO type game are just too far apart. We already saw what a disaster blending the two was with Planetary Conquest. MMO mechanics have no place in a lobby shooter and lobby shooter mechanics have no place in a MMO.
Actually, they do have a place to merge well with each other if done well.
Here is an example of how I interpret to be a very good blend between lobby shooting and open world gameplay. You will notice the similarity it has with Eve Online's PvEvP mission setup where you can run an NPE mission but can get disrupted by a third party who has no business being there because somehow they scanned down your mission site.
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1RS-BGbH0RXPVPBx034j4GAInnoW8a8cBfjL5XnO2eiU/edit?usp=sharingI made some modification to the layout recently so as to include an uninvited & disruptive 3rd party whose only focus is to steal as much loot from the contracted mercs as possible. Contracted mercs can defend themselves and the loot they salvaged should any of it get stolen which can cause the 3rd party to be flagged as criminals.
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1U6hArz8JY-QD3ZEGYxqXepq2v43ymPmP_-7eaZ9C0ic/edit?usp=sharingOr something to that effect. It will have a sense of lobby shooting but it's still MMO in nature. Arenas where two sides compete for glory can be something that is offered as an additional option if the player is not in the mood for an MMO setting. Eve Online has a duel system in place where two players can send a duel request to each other and safely fight in high-sec without anyone interfering and without the need for any complicated war decs. Eve Online does have its own annual tournament hosted by CCP as well. In fact, one will be underway at Fanfest later this year if I remember correctly to see which qualified set of players will come out on top to determine the next emperor or empress of the Amarr Empire. The Amarr Championship.
Mission running in Eve is purely open world. There is nothing match based about it, you get a mission you go out in the world to run it, and whatever happens happens.
Your second document goes along the same line of being purely open world with missions that take the place of just a regular match.
Maybe we have a difference of opinion of what lobby shooter mechanics are.
In a way, I do see Eve Online's mission running system as a lobby of sorts. If look at how they are offered to players who contact NPC agents of various levels (each with their own prerequisites to access them) and since the sites are only available to two groups of players, those who accept the NPC contracts and those who have the experience to scan down the mission sites without the contracts, along with each mission sometimes structured with acceleration gates to access pockets of deadspace, it's pretty obvious to me that these are similar to lobby settings. They just happen to have open-world elements added to them.
And for those who don't know anything about acceleration gates and deadspace in Eve Online:
Acceleration gates are NPC-controlled structures that function kind of like stargates but instead of jumping to another system you are flung to an area of space that can't be directly warped to (even when scanned down) without it and you can't warp to a distant point within the grid unlike the rest of the system you're in. Those areas of space are called deadspace.
EDIT: In the New Eden FPS for PC, deadspace-like areas could be simulated via the use of those nifty portals that CCP Rattati and his team were experimenting with earlier.