Re: what's popular?
Well I don't think I'd rule some sort of online capability out entirely, but it'd have to be secondary to the game rather than it's primary focus. For example look at entombed. You can trade items with other players in the bazaar, and you can see their scores, but that is it, no pvp, no cooperative play, just you vs the world, which is really the sort of thing we need.
While I agree on combat system, at the same time I would suggest a detailed exploration system also be considdered as part of the mechanics. Entombed again began with this idea in the planning phase with the random maps and rooms, and other suggestions like traps, chests, need for food were also considdered but the author got so into the combat that aspect of the game got somewhat left which is a shame since that can really contribute to the world (try fallthru for a wonderful take on this, albeit one with a very clunky parza).
With regards to races and classes I'd say it depends A, on whether you will be playing as one character or more, and B, how reactive the combat is.
There are a lot of online mmorpgs where races and classes basically just act as glorified stat modifyers to an over all online process, eg, dwarf gets plus strength, fighter gets melee damage, and can equip most stuff, find best combination and hit attack.
if races were considdered in this way I don't really see the point, because intrinsically different races and classes don't change the gameplay of the actual game, just what combination of items etc you want to minimax with.
i'd love to see something with actual racial abilities, for instance dwarves having the ability to see underground and thus not need torches or being able to disarm traps, elves doing better at activtated magic devices etc, which again makes a difference when you factor in the world, ---- for instance maybe elves recover energy while in grasslands or maybe humans get better reactions from other people.
Another factor of races and classes is whether your playing a single character or party, since one of the interesting things is changing your stratogy according to what characters you haveand what race/class combinations were in the game.
Again, entombed started with this, but unfortunately lack of defensive abilities really crippled the system, since there's not a lot of point balancing your big tough figher with a mage, since both have equal chances of bieng targeted by your enemies.
If the game had only one character, again, race and class should change how you play. A fighter for instance obviously goes and melee fights things, but might have to avoid traps, magical devices and forgo collecting unexpected treasure. A rogue on the other hand might avoid combat, or run away a lot but get great at loot and stealth, while a wizard would likely engage in com bat up to a point, but also look for options to use their magic in the environment.
This indeed brings up another point, since there should be multiple ways to progress rather than just slaughter everything in sight, and if the game s a solo one, izards and other characters should be able to compensate for weaknesses with good tactical play, rather than just have fewer hitpoints and thus be more likely to be ko'd.
Btw, I also personally would like to see a departure from the traditional D&D style classes. Gandalf in lotr was not a complete weed who went down with none poke, indeed the wizards as glass cannons thing always strikes me as whacky, as does the hole rangers two weapons thing, ---- why would your super hard military soldier be less able to fight with two weapons than some guy who just hunted in the forest?
Of course as a habitual paladin player, I do tend to like alrounders, (and being on the side of right), though then again if you are having a party based game you could include some less than balanced classes provided the player would be able to choose other companions in the future.
As regards complexity, the more the better, but particularly more in the way of the actual nitty gritty of combat and exploration, not just a complex items and stats and system and then an automatic game, ---- indeed myself I always find that sort of thing a little off putting, since I'd rather be out there tactically working out how to defeat enemies, exploring large dungeons and regions of the world and undertaking quests than sitting and looking at item statsts, which if you think about it is a little unrealistic.
for starting players, you could always include some sort of default party or race/class setup totry. Silver sword actually dos this, and that is a ridiculously complex game (one reason I'm looking forward to seeing access changes).
Lastly, I would heavily recommend you considder making the thing editable, perhaps even with some tools.
People may remember the talk of the entombed dungeon creator, but that sadly didn't happen. One of the strengths of the eamon system was the ability to write more adventure modules for it, and it would be great to see a game that would let people do this, adding their own stories, quests, maps to explore, monsters, items etc. there are after all lots of p people with plot, world and exporation ideas who don't necessarily have the coding skills to bring them about in an original game but would love the tools to do so, such as myself :d.
URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=144762#p144762
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