MMO Development Lesson #34
Finish your game before launch. If the launch date can’t be pushed back, remove the unfinished portion of the game and get it done right. For example, if the last 20-30 level chunk of your game has (basically) no quests, and quests were previously the method to gain levels, change the level cap to end when the quests end. If the content can’t fill out as many levels as the mechanics, you pretty much have to go with the weakest link and temporarily lower the level cap.
Guessing this has somethig to do with Age of Conan?
I’m thinking though if thats true, then that sucks.
Level 1 – 20 were a hamster wheel of quests on Tortague. So that means there is only about 30 levels of content???
I hope you’re wrong Nybling
The concept of having a “Finished Product” is one that has been lost on the MMO development community for some time. While an MMO is never truly “finished,” there needs to be a completeness about what is there so that anyone who plays doesn’t butt up against artificial barriers or jarring changes to play style to continue.
I would much rather have a complete game 9 months from now than a piecemeal chunk o’ junk in 3. Any time. No contest. I want to play an MMO for a long time, so the delay at the beginning is worth it to me, as long as the product is professionally finished when it finally does release.
@ Genda
I hope its Age of Conan and not 38 Studios
oops Nybling, not Genda
Sad thing is. Cap could have been lowered to 50 and the quests could have been flushed out for another 10 levels between 40 – 50. Raiding and PvP with city sieges could have kept people busy for a while.
/looks over at his dusty copy of Tabula Rasa
@ Grish
I take it I shouldn’t bother to use the free key they gave me for TR when the shut down Auto Assault?
(I miss you AA…)
Poody
So far Age of Conan has had lots of quests for me to do up to level 38. Then again I did some leveling in the Stygian starting area then moved over to the Wildlands. The quests are better spread out after Tortage and you actually have to explore areas to find all the quest hubs.
Yep I’m still okay for quests right now at 43. I believe the breakdown in AoC is at 50 from what I hear. This wasn’t specifically directed at Age of Conan, it’s just an observation born of my recent experiences with it and from remembering other games that were often even worse about it.
I really don’t get trying to push in 80 levels at launch. 50 is a strong, solid number for launch. Expand from there in expansions or content updates, because formulating content up to 50 is enough of a chore, much less an additional 30 levels.
The problem with 50 in AoC would have been that even casual players would have hit it within a month or 2 at most if they kept the same leveling pace that part of the game has now.
What would have made more sense in AoC is shipping the game with all the content they wanted to launch with, but sometimes publishers just plain don’t care. Plus, it really seems that shipping when they did helped them more than hurt them.
If they can fill the gaps before the summer’s end, they should be fine.
If not… then a lot of the 500,000+ players who bought the game will likely not look back.
WW2 online battleground europe is massively multiplayer 100% pvp
10,000 players per server