Shinu44
22-01-10, 08:12 PM
World of Warcraft: Legends (working title)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
What would you do if you had the power to recreate a world? The common trend on private servers seems to be: modify slightly then call it a day. Perhaps others are not quiet as tired with WoW as much as I am. No matter how you swing a stick at it, WoW on pvp/pve p.servers, and live wow all contain a variable flavor of the same thing. Like the difference between french vanilla, vanilla bean, and plain vanilla ice cream. Considering how much of an undertaking it is to do anything greater than simple changes, I cant blame the average user.
Such has never been my style.
Anyone who's played other mmo's, primarily older ones such as Everquest, knows that Blizzard spoon feeds it players. Leveling is easy, instancing is nearly as easy, and raids are more of a challenge of the right gear and group makeup than reliant upon skills and cooperation (with few exceptions). Original WoW had a good balance of difficulty to stats, anyone who played through aq40 back in the day knows that statement to be true, do you remember the joy of success after downing a boss in one of those raids back then? Now compare that feeling to what you get from downing someone in say Naxx. Each expansion has slowly been making the game easier and easier, and most private servers mimic that and provide instant glorification. I wish to pull away from that trend.
So, the breakdown:
*the 10 traditional classes are being replaced by 10 custom ones, each offering varied attack styles, a new race and class combination will also be created for these new classes to provide a more realistic story. the 10 new classes, although somewhat familiar, will offer a harder to master play style but with greater benefits. some of these classes are advanced versions of well known or wished for specs, while others are of completely unique construction.
*new player unit frames, to handle the varied types of powers being used, all in one streamlined unit interface
*new races will have an ever advancing individual storyline, built through quest lines completely unique to each class, with tasks and challenges based solely on the skills of that class. While designed so that a player may quest alone from levels 1 to 100 on each class, there will be cross over type quests related around instances and certain higher difficulty areas, these group quests will have additional benefits to promote group participation, but no longer will different classes be fighting over the same quest items.
*higher level characters will once again be something to be admired, reducing leveling speed to below that of live wow, but offering a much higher growth rate for stats. max level will be level 100, all players and classes will start at level 1.
*less gear dependent system, gear will make up a max of 1/6th (working number) the characters stats, the rest will be built around level up and potentially permanent stat growth from certain quests.
*in addition to the increased stat growth at levelup, a variable will be selected at random to be either added or subtracted to your stat increases to provide a bit more uniqueless between players of the same class, and increase a classes replay value. at this time our intention is to keep this randomized variable to a low percentage, but based on feedback this could change.
*the player will be in control of an avatar that will effectively become a 'legend' in their own right, no longer will players take a back seat to heroes of the npc nature, stats will remain on par with current heroes at their individual levels
*new gear for level 81-100, offering new models and stat combination, as well as a new direction for gear benefits.
*although it makes less practical sense, classes will be required to wear specific types of armor instead of having their reign of all. for example, a rogue can wear leather armor, but no longer can they don cloth, this is to help player associate what gear works best for them and to avoid the: 'all gear is paladin/hunter gear' effect, and the constantly pissing off the casters approach.
*in addition to the stat growth increases, player will receive an increased rate of talent points. talents will be streamlined to provide better effects for the new combination's, and glyphs will have their class requirements removed to allow for more creative combination of skills.
*new glyphs will be added to provide more generalized benefits, offering even more customization for each player.
*while the separation of the horde and alliance races still exist, the class selected, through quests and interaction with npc's, will determine if the player is good or evil in the terms of how the world see's/perceives them. ie: there is a specific class that is serving an ancient evil, that class will remain at odds with guards of both horde and alliance cities, regardless of their selection. so true is the opposite for another class whos service can honor both factions. this will not effect a player teaming or battling with other players.
*while the class story-lines are unique and original, much effort is being placed into connecting them to lore throughout the Warcraft universe.
*boss difficulty will be upped again, allowing for troubling fights even for much higher leveled players, status effects and certain reserved spells will be placed in the scripting of bosses again, our goal is to completely remove basic tank'n'spank boss fights (we figure you'll get enough of that from standard mob fights)
*new enemies and allies will be added, as well as new areas opened to create specific starting and questing areas for the new classes, the vast majority of quests will be removed and replaced with new versions of themselves, at this time, it is our intent for the world to only contain class specific quests.
*one of our developers is currently working on creating a completely unique race, we will add this race to the game as playable when it becomes finished, it will be completely rigged for both player movement and gear/weapon visuals. Due to its unique nature, upon its release it is likely we will combine its release with a secondary race to offer the opposite faction, most likely pulled from the current world.
*certain events of the world will eventually be manipulated by the 'high ruler of the world' (working title). this will be a ruler type role given to one player at a time for a yet to be determined length of time. this role will be able to effect universal outcomes for the players of the server and might be given control over various other events.
*classes will offer class based benefits similar to the effects of racial's, these increases will be familiar and based upon the class itself. an example is this class that's outdoorsy and a loner type, it will have many benefits to survival type professions such as cooking, first aid, fishing, herbalism and skinning. other classes will offer more exotic benefits.
*players will be able to level through pvp interactions, such as world pvp and battlegrounds, this method of leveling will be a viable method to level, on par with other pve methods.
*a new pvp area similar to the combo between a battleground and an instance will be added, enemies within will provide honor and xp based on what wave you're on. think of it as a black morass type instance with pvp benefits, the instance itself will be a series of never ending waves offering increased difficulty each wave as well as increased benefits for each kill. bosses will also appear every so many waves to add additional challenge and additional benefits.
*a simple change, but one we well like, is allowing for interfaction communication and teaming, we believe it to be an important part of the game to play the race that you want, regardless of what your friends are playing.
That's the majority of the changes we have planned thus far, as you can see this is going to be a very large project, so I'm not looking for any one specific team. If you're interested or know someone that might be interested in the project, send [email protected] an email with your skills and preferences of type of work you like to do, all those that send will be added to the list of potential developers, you may or may not be called on to assist, but all those on the list at the end of the project will receive the completed project, I will not be releasing this publicly, but I require very little to be apart of the team (see below).
The following skills are preferred, if you know them, or have the will and desire to learn them, please send [email protected] your info:
*server end programming, (c++ or lua, could be anything from core programming to quest writing)
*good SQL skills (by good i refer to the type that know how to write queries to do mass changes to a database, this is the minimum in skill that i require in this field)
*client end programming (mpq, ui, etc)
*visual editing, be it 3d, film or map editing (if you are going this route i will need to see an example of your work so i know what you're capable of)
*a strong familiarity with core coding/design or client-end file structures and locations (as we will be editing both)
*a strong background in storywriting and decent knowledge of or ability to lookup important connections that can be made with wow lore.
*a strong interest in the changes we're talking about is greatly helpful and highly recommended.
What we are NOT looking for are testers or GM's. Anyone with the above skills are expected to be able to do the basics so please do not respond if 'testing' is the limit of your abilities.
I appreciate your time, we look forward to talking with you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
What would you do if you had the power to recreate a world? The common trend on private servers seems to be: modify slightly then call it a day. Perhaps others are not quiet as tired with WoW as much as I am. No matter how you swing a stick at it, WoW on pvp/pve p.servers, and live wow all contain a variable flavor of the same thing. Like the difference between french vanilla, vanilla bean, and plain vanilla ice cream. Considering how much of an undertaking it is to do anything greater than simple changes, I cant blame the average user.
Such has never been my style.
Anyone who's played other mmo's, primarily older ones such as Everquest, knows that Blizzard spoon feeds it players. Leveling is easy, instancing is nearly as easy, and raids are more of a challenge of the right gear and group makeup than reliant upon skills and cooperation (with few exceptions). Original WoW had a good balance of difficulty to stats, anyone who played through aq40 back in the day knows that statement to be true, do you remember the joy of success after downing a boss in one of those raids back then? Now compare that feeling to what you get from downing someone in say Naxx. Each expansion has slowly been making the game easier and easier, and most private servers mimic that and provide instant glorification. I wish to pull away from that trend.
So, the breakdown:
*the 10 traditional classes are being replaced by 10 custom ones, each offering varied attack styles, a new race and class combination will also be created for these new classes to provide a more realistic story. the 10 new classes, although somewhat familiar, will offer a harder to master play style but with greater benefits. some of these classes are advanced versions of well known or wished for specs, while others are of completely unique construction.
*new player unit frames, to handle the varied types of powers being used, all in one streamlined unit interface
*new races will have an ever advancing individual storyline, built through quest lines completely unique to each class, with tasks and challenges based solely on the skills of that class. While designed so that a player may quest alone from levels 1 to 100 on each class, there will be cross over type quests related around instances and certain higher difficulty areas, these group quests will have additional benefits to promote group participation, but no longer will different classes be fighting over the same quest items.
*higher level characters will once again be something to be admired, reducing leveling speed to below that of live wow, but offering a much higher growth rate for stats. max level will be level 100, all players and classes will start at level 1.
*less gear dependent system, gear will make up a max of 1/6th (working number) the characters stats, the rest will be built around level up and potentially permanent stat growth from certain quests.
*in addition to the increased stat growth at levelup, a variable will be selected at random to be either added or subtracted to your stat increases to provide a bit more uniqueless between players of the same class, and increase a classes replay value. at this time our intention is to keep this randomized variable to a low percentage, but based on feedback this could change.
*the player will be in control of an avatar that will effectively become a 'legend' in their own right, no longer will players take a back seat to heroes of the npc nature, stats will remain on par with current heroes at their individual levels
*new gear for level 81-100, offering new models and stat combination, as well as a new direction for gear benefits.
*although it makes less practical sense, classes will be required to wear specific types of armor instead of having their reign of all. for example, a rogue can wear leather armor, but no longer can they don cloth, this is to help player associate what gear works best for them and to avoid the: 'all gear is paladin/hunter gear' effect, and the constantly pissing off the casters approach.
*in addition to the stat growth increases, player will receive an increased rate of talent points. talents will be streamlined to provide better effects for the new combination's, and glyphs will have their class requirements removed to allow for more creative combination of skills.
*new glyphs will be added to provide more generalized benefits, offering even more customization for each player.
*while the separation of the horde and alliance races still exist, the class selected, through quests and interaction with npc's, will determine if the player is good or evil in the terms of how the world see's/perceives them. ie: there is a specific class that is serving an ancient evil, that class will remain at odds with guards of both horde and alliance cities, regardless of their selection. so true is the opposite for another class whos service can honor both factions. this will not effect a player teaming or battling with other players.
*while the class story-lines are unique and original, much effort is being placed into connecting them to lore throughout the Warcraft universe.
*boss difficulty will be upped again, allowing for troubling fights even for much higher leveled players, status effects and certain reserved spells will be placed in the scripting of bosses again, our goal is to completely remove basic tank'n'spank boss fights (we figure you'll get enough of that from standard mob fights)
*new enemies and allies will be added, as well as new areas opened to create specific starting and questing areas for the new classes, the vast majority of quests will be removed and replaced with new versions of themselves, at this time, it is our intent for the world to only contain class specific quests.
*one of our developers is currently working on creating a completely unique race, we will add this race to the game as playable when it becomes finished, it will be completely rigged for both player movement and gear/weapon visuals. Due to its unique nature, upon its release it is likely we will combine its release with a secondary race to offer the opposite faction, most likely pulled from the current world.
*certain events of the world will eventually be manipulated by the 'high ruler of the world' (working title). this will be a ruler type role given to one player at a time for a yet to be determined length of time. this role will be able to effect universal outcomes for the players of the server and might be given control over various other events.
*classes will offer class based benefits similar to the effects of racial's, these increases will be familiar and based upon the class itself. an example is this class that's outdoorsy and a loner type, it will have many benefits to survival type professions such as cooking, first aid, fishing, herbalism and skinning. other classes will offer more exotic benefits.
*players will be able to level through pvp interactions, such as world pvp and battlegrounds, this method of leveling will be a viable method to level, on par with other pve methods.
*a new pvp area similar to the combo between a battleground and an instance will be added, enemies within will provide honor and xp based on what wave you're on. think of it as a black morass type instance with pvp benefits, the instance itself will be a series of never ending waves offering increased difficulty each wave as well as increased benefits for each kill. bosses will also appear every so many waves to add additional challenge and additional benefits.
*a simple change, but one we well like, is allowing for interfaction communication and teaming, we believe it to be an important part of the game to play the race that you want, regardless of what your friends are playing.
That's the majority of the changes we have planned thus far, as you can see this is going to be a very large project, so I'm not looking for any one specific team. If you're interested or know someone that might be interested in the project, send [email protected] an email with your skills and preferences of type of work you like to do, all those that send will be added to the list of potential developers, you may or may not be called on to assist, but all those on the list at the end of the project will receive the completed project, I will not be releasing this publicly, but I require very little to be apart of the team (see below).
The following skills are preferred, if you know them, or have the will and desire to learn them, please send [email protected] your info:
*server end programming, (c++ or lua, could be anything from core programming to quest writing)
*good SQL skills (by good i refer to the type that know how to write queries to do mass changes to a database, this is the minimum in skill that i require in this field)
*client end programming (mpq, ui, etc)
*visual editing, be it 3d, film or map editing (if you are going this route i will need to see an example of your work so i know what you're capable of)
*a strong familiarity with core coding/design or client-end file structures and locations (as we will be editing both)
*a strong background in storywriting and decent knowledge of or ability to lookup important connections that can be made with wow lore.
*a strong interest in the changes we're talking about is greatly helpful and highly recommended.
What we are NOT looking for are testers or GM's. Anyone with the above skills are expected to be able to do the basics so please do not respond if 'testing' is the limit of your abilities.
I appreciate your time, we look forward to talking with you.