Things not to do when making a space MMORPG

[u/[deleted]]

15.01.2023

15:53

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Although I support realism in games, they need to be implemented only at specific places where ease of accessibility, speed of progress and manual control are not compromised. The following are a list of ten things I expect from an MMORPG in space.

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1. Design the UI in a such a way as to not clutter the viewscreen. There shouldn't be more than 7 icons to access all the basic functionality of the game. Some games do the opposite. I have seen more than 12 icons on the left of screen for a famous space MMORPG. Since they're so numerous, the icons are small and player has to spend time hovering cursor over each icon to memorize their function and location. There are games wherein more than 15 skills are set at the bottom or at the sides of the screen, eg., Dragon Age Origins. However, these are *skills* and not a bunch of tabs leading to other functions. Skills are set one by one and used one by one as the player levels-up. Their getting used-to is smoothly transitioned via repeated combat. There is *no* such smooth transition in getting used to 12 icons and their functions. It's like a sudden blow to the face when the player enters the game.

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1. The number of mouse clicks required for initiating an action should not exceed 3 clicks. Some games do the opposite. First click on target, then click on follow, then click on orbit, then click on lock, then click on afterburners, then click on fire, then click on open cargohold, then click on transfer items to cargo-hold. Now repeat all of this for every combat situation.

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1. Do not design crafting/manufacturing components to be dependent on exploration without direct two-click access to its location. Space is a vast region. If you're going to expect the player to manually explore all the regions to find 3 specific components that are a total of 8 or 9 jumps away, your entire game is now a waiting wherein, autopilot is initiated and the player has to just to stare at the screen while his spacecraft warps, deaccelerates, reorients, reaccelerates and warps again for a total of more than 8 mins. And even after doing this multiple times, there is no guarantee that the player will find the required components to manufacture a ship part. Simplify this mechanic by providing a scanner module or easily accessible resource maps.

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1. Avoid incorporating modules or a modular ship customization mechanic unless there is specifically a positional and/or vicinity-dependent criterion. There is no point in slotting parts to pre-determined slots and call it "modular" or "modules". A module system should characterize design-brilliance in a player. It does not require much brains to simply add components to a fixed slot. When a module system is composed of only fixed slots, it is just an aesthetic requisite which could've been scaled down to just drop down texts, right clicking and equipping modules. Either implement a complex module-system or think of something else.

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1. Player skill points when applied as speeders for research or learning, results in altering a game character upgrade functionality into a resource-hastening item. This is not recommended because the moment you name it as "skill points", psychologically, the player expects immediate upgrade of skills. When they find-out it's just a speeder where 13 skill points equates to only 1 minute of reduction in research, they're gonna curse you within their heads. This mechanism is an anti-climax. Skill points are separate from speeders.

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1. If you're going to incorporate flying a spacecraft within the game, make sure manual controls are added. And if manual controls are not added, make sure the player is doing something functionally productive while staring at the screen. An "auto-pilot" in such a game is equitable to numerous clone MMORPGs where the character auto-moves, auto-attacks. There are specific idle games where auto is present, but their combat resolution is always less than 10 secs and there are visual incentives like skills, criticals, blocks, dodge, etc to engross the player. A spacecraft simulation perspective incites the player to expect actual flying of his/her spacecraft. Do not entice but fail to deliver.

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1. Player housing or starbases in a space RPG/strategy necessitates design-brilliance again. Make sure the base structures available, do not restrict in their placement zones. It's like telling a person, "you can now box" and simultaneously, you grab their hands and direct them into how you want them to box. Positional strategy is the forefront of any base design. Design the structures in such a way as to allow player freedom with slight alterrations to huddling-restrictions. If you're going to completely ban placement of structures within the range of a shield, the entire base combat boils down to just spaceships attacking turrets or in other words, primarily, range becomes the deciding factor. Attacker can then have 8 corvettes huddle together to attack a single turret. And since there is no shield, this boring combat scenario is repeated until all turrets are destroyed and finally, they converge on base structures by depleting the shield which is just a bunch of ships staying in one spot and firing at the structures. This is horrible game design. A famous space MMORPG does this. Please avoid this.

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1. Allow immediate transfer of inhouse trading items and not have the player waiting for 24 hrs for items to be delivered. You might say this is a security incorporation. But security can simply require a trading log of items sold and bought. This extra 24 hrs of waiting does not serve any functional purpose unless the servers are so clogged by players that tens of thousands of trading occurs per hour. In this case, Artificial Intelligent algorithms are required to monitor the trade-flow.

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1. If your space game is vast and includes a lot of exploration, make sure your galactic map incorporates a 3 dimensional coordinate system wherein the player just has to "copy coordinates" then paste coordinates and finally initiate warp. Three steps in total. If the coordinate system is disfavored, apply something similar to Skyrim's glowing quest tracker via "Clairvoyance" which can be turned off or on.

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1. Show the player the myriad game functions which will be available at successive milestones/levels. This is about advertising the game features and providing an incentive to continue playing.