PDA

View Full Version : Full open world or RPG-on-rails like FF13?



Jenni Porshakin
Dec 25, 2010, 03:43 PM
For those of you who have played FF13 or seen a decent amount of story (YouTube) what do you think of these choices?

CHOICE #1: Make PSO2 a fully open world ORPG, so anyone can go just about anywhere including to an area where they will die in 5 seconds? Full exploration of just about any part of the first episode of the next PSO2.

CHOICE #2: Or, an RPG-on-rails experience like FF13? The first dozen or so hours are lots of hand-holding & nothing serious. After a very critical point, the game opens up. Although it's not totally open world like choice #1


I pick choice #1 because I think PSU was too hand-holding'ish.

BIG OLAF
Dec 25, 2010, 04:03 PM
I' rather not have a full open-world. I've heard a lot of horror stories from some friends that play(ed) FFXI. Saying that they would travel for hours, just to realize that they forgot something back in the city.

Chaobo99
Dec 25, 2010, 05:22 PM
^

Which is not the case anymore. Transportation has been made easy and works out very well with various methods of teleportation(which would fit the PSO story). I wouldn't mind the huge open world, but I've always liked the Phantasy STar dungeon-style play. That way, I can spam as many runs as I desire or do any fight I wish vs. having to wait for the Omnagouge, for example, to spawn..and be out-claimed by a bigger "guild".

lostinseganet
Dec 25, 2010, 05:30 PM
I think pso and psu has a good formula already. They can maximize the game play in controlled environments clunked. I just want bigger chunks and more players. Look at serious sam 2 for a game that has alots of players "16" lots of enemies "hundreds" and bigg areas. The enemies are just as smart as pso and so are the bosses. I do hate the locked doors. They need enmies are will go after you if you try to zip pass them. These enemies need to be able to run faster then you too,

Dongra
Dec 25, 2010, 05:47 PM
I'd say something in between. PSU was too large in comparison to the population. I felt bad for new players because it was hard to figure out where everyone was unless someone took you there. Limiting it to having no freedom would be just as boring as FF13 was.

Darki
Dec 25, 2010, 06:46 PM
I like how it was on PSO and PSU. In any case, I'd say the best option would be something between the "open world" and the "mission counter and lobby" that we have now.

What I mean is, that for example you pick a planet (I'll use PSU planets because I know them), and then you have Parum, where there could be Holtes, Rozenom and Tarcus (not explored ingame). There, in each city there will be shops, "Guardian branches", mission counters, etc, BUT you can also go out of the city and have some kind of "sub-mission" that connects all cities.

This sub-mission would be "open world-like", as you don't go on party, you just go to the "door" of the city , go in and accept (in this case, for example, you can pick an aero-bus from the place you are to the "outer field" of the city, lol), and then you'll be out in the country. there you'll have something like a mission but with a real crapload of huge "blocks" that change according to the environment of the area you're going by, and as it doesn't require party, you can find anybody there without restrictions, but you will have weapons and there will be some monsters spamming there over time.

Finally, this "sub-mission" will connect many blocks in non-linear ways, so you can pick a route from Holtes to Rozenom, then maybe pick a detour at the middle and end in Tarcus. there can be things in between other than monsters, like parks, places to sit and shops, roads... This would allow room for transport features like airboard and other things that we didn't really explore too well in PSU.

I'd like something like that.

Jinketsu
Dec 26, 2010, 07:31 AM
I don't know if an open world would work for the type of game PSO and PSU have proven to be.

Though it could be interesting. I'd have to agree with the majority of us here now that a hybrid would probably be the most satisfying.

Like maybe we can see environmental effects like trees waving in the wind, birds flying around, animals of a docile nature, etc. all doing their own thing on pieces of land in the background we can't traverse, while we still romp around the chaos enveloping around us.

NoiseHERO
Dec 26, 2010, 09:18 AM
I think PSU was perfect...as long as they stay creative with the visual lobbies that made it seem worth finishing the mission...

And don't re-use them for "backwards" reskin missions...e_e *hated those.*

Darki
Dec 26, 2010, 12:15 PM
Well, I like how PSU goes but I wouldn't mind if they made more cities instead of some visual lobbies. In three planets there should be more cities, lol.

Shark11
Dec 26, 2010, 02:00 PM
Personally, I do not think PSO should strive to be ANYTHING like the linear, boring FF13 or the complete and utter trash that is FF14... FF is crap, Square is dead... Long like Phantasy Star etc etc.

Actually I would like to see a PSO where you start in a city, like PSO/U and can walk 10 steps to a counter, take a mission and go into the dungeon style levels of PSO with a team etc.
But if you could also walk out of the front gate of the city and explore a moderately sized chunk of the world freely and openly with everyone I would enjoy that too...

I don't care for huge over worlds that end up being barren, boring and ultimately a pointless pain in the arse to traverse. A couple of miles of open land that give you a taste of what the planet is like would be a much better 'open world' concept for PSO games. However this open world area should also be completely optional because most PSO players LIKE how it plays right now.

As for the 'dungeon/party' set up we already have with PSO games... I suggest randomly generated maps, randomly generated enemy spawns, day/night, weather and seasonal changes to keep each area always fresh. Imagine re-running PSO Forest a hundred times and experiencing it slightly different each time. YES PLEASE.

Kevin PSO
Dec 26, 2010, 04:00 PM
I choose neither. Phantasy Star Online was never fully open world or completely linear. It was a cross between the two. I'd like to see PSO2 follow the same formula as the first game in terms of how you progress through different areas. You can complete various quests in one area, and later once you're high level enough to defeat a boss you can progress to the next area. Considering this is a sequel it would make sense to want more than the first game so I think multiple beginner areas at the start would be an improvement so you're not confined to one space (i.e. the forest). This would also lead to multiple advanced areas unlocked at once instead of one at a time. This would give a sense of being open world without being completely open world, because that's not what PSO is about.

xmoonprismpowerx
Dec 26, 2010, 04:02 PM
I don't know. Linear gamplay is boring in a multiplayer game. I only like linear things in a single story game like Dead Space, Portal, Final Fantasy games, etc. But I don't see how PSU was linear (if you're talking about online play). The story itself, yea. And not to mention annoying cause you couldn't skip all their talking. But the multiplayer isn't linear cause you can go anywhere, do anything. I probably just don't understand what you mean.

Kent
Dec 26, 2010, 06:17 PM
Neither one of the choices actually belongs, because neither of them are actually conducive to the PSO's style (which, a sequel should be at least somewhat-similar in style to the original - especially here).

Checkmate
Dec 27, 2010, 05:58 AM
CHOICE #1: Make PSO2 a fully open world ORPG, so anyone can go just about anywhere including to an area where they will die in 5 seconds? Full exploration of just about any part of the first episode of the next PSO2.

That's a fun idea, but that could be a huge downfall because how the typical MMO works is they throw in World Bosses and World Drop Items and instanced dungeons with long cooldowns and level caps. Imagine if Dark Falz or Mother Brain were World Bosses with a 12-24hr respawn timer. :confused: It could work tho, but the level of content needed to please players would tack on extra months for an even further release date.


CHOICE #2: Or, an RPG-on-rails experience like FF13? The first dozen or so hours are lots of hand-holding & nothing serious. After a very critical point, the game opens up. Although it's not totally open world like choice #1

I think SEGA will stick to it's "instanced world" of doing things as it has always been doing with PSO and PSU. You'll have your general/common/event areas and then go to the counter to set up the Instance and difficulty of your choice. I, for one, like the exploration aspect of MMOs. Being able to go to an area and grind on mobs for a drop or decent EXP is fun... or finding a nice cliff/mountain area with the sunrise/sunset backdrop is awesome.

Also, I love a good 6-12 player boss fight. Nothing like it. Something about the coordination and teamwork makes the monthly fee seem worth every penny.

Unit_24
Dec 27, 2010, 09:30 AM
It should be a open world. I would like it if there was "free play" where I didn't have to enroll in a mission to visit the area to get items or just screw around with new gear and the such. But if I was hunting for something specific or something similar, I would like to be able to enter instances with others.

Think Diablo 2 or Monster Hunter Tri. It has a open world that you can explorer, but it isn't overly large nor is it difficult to traverse. You have the dungeon options or the chance to explore the over-world (not so true in Diablo, but it has a good feel and design.)

Akaimizu
Dec 27, 2010, 10:39 AM
It's always better to keep the world more open in these kind of games. Even Gauntlet, with it's traditionally linear kind of pathing, always had some branching and room to manuever. The worst Gauntlet was the one which limited player exploration the most. (Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows). It also took all the vertical stuff, and 70% of the abilities that the previous Gauntlet Legends games had.

Diablo had some randomness, but it did often give the players the option to choose different paths through the thing. Some ended up dead-ends, others took you to similar places with different areas and enemies lying in wait.

This goes up for games that follow it. Games like Titan's Quest and Sacred 2 really opened up the world, allowing players to kind of travel over a large land mass. Sacred 2 being quite massive and could take someone twice the amount of time of a typical JRPG just to uncover 80% of the landmass.

So if there was a choice between the two, I'd go for the more open world though something between the two (which we have had) is nice as well. Dungeon Hackers don't need filtered direction any more than they need an involved story to kick in during multi-player. We don't care what the NPCs say in our precious time investment in a multi-player session. We want to get to the looting right then and now. Though Diablo III is starting to take some cues from Bioware, and some First Person shooters (like Halo) and First Person Adventures, where dialogue and story-telling are being presented while you keep playing the game. Fighting, exploring, treasure-hunting.

Yeah, people may shun the games mentioned here, but before the fanboy glasses came on, remember Half Life did this stuff before then, and nobody complained then (even though the story was presented more stilted, and in Disney-ride fashion, with people that acted like Wax dummies that activated when player stepped (here)). It was always neat to see characters start to deliver lines building the story while the AI continued to react and act upon currently changing conditions. Something I'll actually give Halo credit for, even though others don't want to.

Sacred 2 never actually put any kind of reigns on the player characters, but fortunately that never was a problem. For one, you always had the ability to zip back to your party leader. The other aspect is the game itself. When fighting foes levelled well to your party (that is, sticking to areas that allowed you continual upward challenges) players tend to stick together to bolster their ranks. I think a good litmus test was already achieved, so I think just keeping the incentive that way (like Sacred 2) is enough.

Wayu
Dec 27, 2010, 11:24 AM
What, full open world as in Fallout/FFXIII style? Only if they do it right. And manage to do so without massive time constraints.

Perfect World International could be taken as something similar, but with the combat systems in PSP/PSU/PSO it's going to be ridiculously hard to pull off.

Thus, I vote the third option - these choices seem more like options for FFXIII Versus.

-Wayu

Ryudo
Dec 28, 2010, 12:06 AM
Neither, I'd like actual planned level design

Checkmate
Dec 28, 2010, 12:47 AM
Think Diablo 2 or Monster Hunter Tri. It has a open world that you can explorer, but it isn't overly large nor is it difficult to traverse. You have the dungeon options or the chance to explore the over-world (not so true in Diablo, but it has a good feel and design.)

MH Tri is an "instanced world" like PSO was. Online Mode was setup for common areas to buy/sell items and upgrade; but you still go to the counter to select which rank quests you wanted to go and which mobs you wanted to fight. Even tho you only had 8-10 "areas" in a combat zone.. it just felt big because you had to jog everywhere :P

Diablo 2 is a great example tho. Only 4 areas but it was truly massive with many mini-dungeons and side areas.

KodiaX987
Dec 28, 2010, 09:36 AM
PSO had the perfect formula. A minimalist town, a teleporter to the different areas, that's it that's all. I'm not looking for an open world to explore or navigate. I see PSO as a string of instances without any buffer area in-between. With this formula, you can give access to every part of the world rather easily seeing as if you die, well, you lost only the minute you took to load that area, which isn't too bad.

Zelendria_Ru
Dec 28, 2010, 04:25 PM
I'm an ex-FFXI addict and would love to see a more open-world experience, but it would have to be balanced with instanced fields such as Guild-Wars when "zoning" brings you to a field where you and your party have exclusive rights...

No one likes to get KS'ed on rare monsters, and with PSO that's a pretty important part. Map waypoints for instant travel would be nice, and would solve the annoyance of the lobbies that in my opinion plagued PSU's game flow.

Benzu
Dec 28, 2010, 06:59 PM
I think it would be for the best if Phantasy Star Online 2 took the FinalFantasyXII approach:

You are able to form a "party" and you still start from a center city. You don't have to speak to some woman on the counter, rather, you just run to a teleporter and do it yourself. Counterladies should be for missions only, not free-roam. When you go to the teleporter, you pick what area you'd like to access (Swamp, Desert, Grasslands, etc.). You would be transported to that area, but the catch is this: IT IS HUGE. But from you'd start there would be many options.. Take for instance you are in the Desert. You could wander aimlessly until you found a path or an underground cave. From that point you would follow the path and to its end: A boss. In essence, imagine a bigger playing field than the original PSO, and just expand it to fit for limitless possibilities of route, leading to one of a handful of bosses to finale the thing.

I also think that up to 16 people could occupy a zone, but only 4 to a party. When you are in a party, you cannot venture too far from the party leader, who determines the route, if you stray too far away, you teleport by his side. Multiple parties could all come and join to make the hunting easier, or to take on one of the much more powerful areas in the form of a raid, which would mean an uber tough spot that would require at least 8 players to ravage through and take on the boss.

This form of online play would allow a tight-knit group of friends to enjoy playing together, but interaction for more players to further show off your rare items, power, MAG, etc. and to take on bigger and badder areas and missions. It could still follow the typical PSO formula, just, with more options than alternate spawns. Who's with me??

Jinketsu
Dec 30, 2010, 07:03 AM
That sounds almost exactly like FFXIV, which has done terribly.

Perfect Troll
Dec 30, 2010, 11:26 AM
I think I'd like an open world with various places to go. There would be monsters here and there, but there there would be Instance-based dungeons (Forest, Caves, Mines, Ruins.) that you can travel to to do various missions available there like a mission counter. The one thing about PSO and PSU I didn't like was that you just teleported to where you needed to go. Click Ruins, there you were. I think actually traveling across different areas and surviving to get to dungeons would seem more fun then just loading up a mission from a menu and going. It adds more adventure and depth to the setting.

TheBlackMage
Dec 30, 2010, 02:38 PM
Open world.

Instanced dungeons with no cooldown.

Final Destination.

Kent
Dec 30, 2010, 03:40 PM
That sounds almost exactly like FFXIV, which has done terribly.
What's funny is that it sounds nothing at all like Final Fantasy XIV. More like Guild Wars, except you're leashed to your party leader and people outside of your party can inhabit the same zone.

Skye-Fox713
Dec 31, 2010, 01:08 AM
Choice #1 for me, maybe for the first 30 min. to an hour you would have your hand held to learn the basics of the game, but from there its open world and up to you.

Akaimizu
Dec 31, 2010, 10:31 AM
I would agree. FFXII, while people compared it to FFXI, felt a lot more like Guild Wars as a single player game. Quite a bit of it was because the instanced rolling landmass was filled with monsters for which you did not have to be in contention for with other parties. You had all those monsters to yourselves without having to wait for awful long respawns.

However the lobbies will be filled with a number of folks. Except these would look a bit more like towns. I could imagine some of these to almost look like 3D representations of actual cities seen in games like Phantasy Star 1-3. They could keep it simple by pulling city ideas from Phantasy Star 1 and 2. (I think there's some software for which I could make an easy mockup of such an approach)

Tetsaru
Jan 9, 2011, 10:48 AM
The lobby system in PSU was quite pointless, imo. It tried to emulate being able to "explore" different areas, but only served as a mission counter and NPC shop where you could run around and say, "ooh, that looks cool/pretty" the first 5 minutes. There was hardly any point in using it to invite party members, seeing how you could already do that with Partner Cards, and people could join you mid-mission. Other than that, they basically just served as chat rooms where people could just spam random nonsense during events... :rolleyes:

I would personally love to see a large overworld system in PSO2 with instanced dungeons, cities, and other areas, seeing how there would possibly be multiple planets that you could actually EXPLORE, and not consist of one fucking town, but any good game that implements this MUST have a teleportation system that is easy to use and can be accessed at any time. Something like in Fallout 3, where after you discover a certain area, you can simply warp to it at any time when you're outside, instead of having to retrace your steps halfway across the globe every time. Vehicles and mounts could also be implemented for quick "exploration" travel. You could have a huge map to roam around freely in, but upon finding a dungeon or similar area of some sort, it would act just like an area from PSO, like "Ruins 1," and any party members with you at the time would help you out. Quests would NOT be taken up at a counter (unless its an area like the Hunters' Guild or something specifically designed for that), but would have to be accepted from NPC's that you would have to meet through exploration. And at any time, if you wanted, you could use something like a Telepipe to warp out of the area you're in, and go back to your own living quarters area like in PSU, or possibly to another major area. And if you didn't want to go dungeon-crawling, you could roam around the overworld area and fight random monsters, complete other quests, level up, find items, etc.

GCoffee
Jan 9, 2011, 02:46 PM
Pioneer 2 should be the spawning point of everyone once logging on. So instead of a lobby, you got a huge city to explore, with all the players being in it.
(There could be multiple 'city universes'.)
In this city all community-based actions take place, like a casino to name one.
Of course there are also mere shops.

Once you met up with your friends and formed a party, the team leader selects the mission at one of the numerous guild counters (that are all the same) and then can choose to get warped into an area exclusive to the formed team, unlike the city they were in before. This so called 'rest and shop area' also reflects the area of the mission itself, and offers shops and everything that would make a hunter happy.
Once every team member warped into this area, the main mission can begin via a warp that now is activated, PSO style.
Using a telepipe in the mission area will warp yourself to the 'rest and shop area', instead of the main city.
After the mission ended you get warped to the 'rest and shop area' and the team is free to warp back to the main city again, while the team leader can already select a whole other mission, and so a whole other area to be in if he wants to and of course he can also warp back to the main city.

Darki
Jan 9, 2011, 04:05 PM
The lobby system in PSU was quite pointless, imo. It tried to emulate being able to "explore" different areas, but only served as a mission counter and NPC shop where you could run around and say, "ooh, that looks cool/pretty" the first 5 minutes. There was hardly any point in using it to invite party members, seeing how you could already do that with Partner Cards, and people could join you mid-mission. Other than that, they basically just served as chat rooms where people could just spam random nonsense during events... :rolleyes:

I would personally love to see a large overworld system in PSO2 with instanced dungeons, cities, and other areas, seeing how there would possibly be multiple planets that you could actually EXPLORE, and not consist of one fucking town, but any good game that implements this MUST have a teleportation system that is easy to use and can be accessed at any time. Something like in Fallout 3, where after you discover a certain area, you can simply warp to it at any time when you're outside, instead of having to retrace your steps halfway across the globe every time. Vehicles and mounts could also be implemented for quick "exploration" travel. You could have a huge map to roam around freely in, but upon finding a dungeon or similar area of some sort, it would act just like an area from PSO, like "Ruins 1," and any party members with you at the time would help you out. Quests would NOT be taken up at a counter (unless its an area like the Hunters' Guild or something specifically designed for that), but would have to be accepted from NPC's that you would have to meet through exploration. And at any time, if you wanted, you could use something like a Telepipe to warp out of the area you're in, and go back to your own living quarters area like in PSU, or possibly to another major area. And if you didn't want to go dungeon-crawling, you could roam around the overworld area and fight random monsters, complete other quests, level up, find items, etc.

They could actually bring back Ryuker and let us use it to warp to explored areas. :D

Kurono
Jan 14, 2011, 07:26 PM
Personally I wouldn't want a full open world in this game, it'd mean too much traveling and not enough killing.
Basically il'd prefer semi large areas with branching pathways and multiple routes to the end goal. I don't want the generic follow path A to reach path B to reach the boss.

However, some areas only reachable by transport would be kinda neat. If they modeled the inside of the transport in question, i.e so you can see yours/your team mates characters if you choose to chat inside.

Ithildin
Jan 15, 2011, 05:02 AM
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the unmentionable White Beast (maybe that's why... ah hem). Players flock to WB because of the rewards right? True, but there's another reason. Because we know for sure players are going to be there. PSO has a single mission counter. Result? Everyone is there, but, we can choose different missions from that same counter. Think about it, it makes sense.

Darki
Jan 15, 2011, 05:48 AM
Yes, but having a unique lobby when the game is going to feature... probably 6 planets? (according to the title art, of course. Maybe there's only one, but just guessing).

In PSO there was a unique counter because all Hunters were supposed to live in the same place, the Pioneer 2, but in PSU there are 3 planets plus the colony, it's only natural that missions start in more than one place. If you ask me, it'd be a bit boring if all missions started in the same place having loads of areas in the game...

If is what you say, to encourage players to go to other areas and not to stick in one, they should just do a better work balancing missions, plain and simple. Even if there was only one counter for all the missions (and in JP server that's pretty much the case, as you can access all missions from the Guardians branches and you can warp between them directly), people would still overrun the "best" missions. From my point of view the main problem in PSU missions is the lack of challenge and diversion in most of them. If they made missions get more specific as they grow in "interest", like for example making missions where your type REALLY matters, and pop some missions like those around, people would try to find parties to run the missions they can't solo, and they would go to other areas if needed.

For example, if WB was a mission where 70% of the monsters were melee resistant (and I mean REALLY melee resistant, not the half assed resistances we have in PSU where a FF can pwn a melee resistant thing faster than any other class), I'm sure any person wanting to run the mission as a hunter would have to a) switch to a better suited char, b) go to a mission better suited for his/her class, c) find a party with a couple techers and help in other things than monster overkills, like being the meatshield of the party at the cost of high exp. Of course, there would be a mission where most of the monsters would be TECH resistant, so the opposite would occur too. Missions with less restrictions would be much less rewarding, and missions that anybody could solo very easily, those wouldn't be too rewarding, maybe with average exp to easy spam when not feeling like working hard.

Padium
Jan 15, 2011, 01:00 PM
I personally would like to see larger levels that feel like you are exploring a section of the world, and aren't so boxy feeling. No more of this series of rooms, but things that flow nicely into each other. Keep doors and stuff, but find different ways to connect areas. At the same time, have smaller grinding versions for when people want to get shit done.

Reksanden
Jan 15, 2011, 01:06 PM
I'm anxious just waiting to see ANYTHING they put in the game. Who knows how it will turn out until they release videos and such?

keizeh
Jan 25, 2011, 08:43 PM
There could be a mix of the two.
There could be "open" fields in which it's a huge area with monsters that constantly spawn and you can see everyone, not just people who are in your party.
Then you could also choose to enter a "dungeon" type field in which it's instanced and limited to only your party with a boss at the end, much like how it currently is.

Zeek123
Feb 8, 2011, 12:20 AM
Open world like Aion, no thanks. Lobbies and counters for me.

(but fewer lobbies)

BIG OLAF
Feb 8, 2011, 12:32 AM
I was thinking that there should be one "central lobby" for each planet, where you could access shops, the mission counter, and have a medium-sized environment for you to explore, perhaps with mini-games that have to do with that particular planet's theme. Like:

Fishing on a water planet. Ice skating on an ice planet. Lava surfing on a fire planet. I don't know, things like that.

Think of it like PSO's lobby, but a little bit bigger, and set up for each planet's respective "theme" (if the planets will even have themes).

Corey Blue
Feb 8, 2011, 12:38 AM
I was thinking that there should be one "central lobby" for each planet, where you could access shops, the mission counter, and have a medium-sized environment for you to explore, perhaps with mini-games that have to do with that particular planet's theme. Like:

Fishing on a water planet. Ice skating on an ice planet. Lava surfing on a fire planet. I don't know, things like that.

Think of it like PSO's lobby, but a little bit bigger, and set up for each planet's respective "theme" (if the planets will even have themes).

Now that sounds fun.

Dongra
Feb 8, 2011, 12:55 AM
I like that idea as well.

Darki
Feb 8, 2011, 01:47 AM
I was thinking that there should be one "central lobby" for each planet, where you could access shops, the mission counter, and have a medium-sized environment for you to explore, perhaps with mini-games that have to do with that particular planet's theme. Like:

Fishing on a water planet. Ice skating on an ice planet. Lava surfing on a fire planet. I don't know, things like that.

Think of it like PSO's lobby, but a little bit bigger, and set up for each planet's respective "theme" (if the planets will even have themes).

Even if there's one "central lobby" in each planet, there should be more active lobbies around too. I don't like that in PSU the only cities you visit are 4 when you're exploring 3 planets where there should be a crapload of urban zones.

I would say, make the "capital city" as you said, then make a couple secondary urban lobbies with more options than the normal "field lobbies" (for example, urban lobbies could have some weapon shops, other could have clothes shop, etc).

Something that tickled me from PSU, Kubara city is in Moatoob. I would have loved to go there and buy hax weps from the illegal market, lol.

NoiseHERO
Feb 8, 2011, 03:18 AM
Am I the only one that liked visual/goal lobbies? ]:

It kind of gave the game a more free roam feel, like you're NOT just in a box where you can only select your next stage megaman style...Or buy from the same shop over and over hoping something different is for sale.

Then the guardians colony being like a giant mall where all the annoying teenagers and emo kids hung out and wasted time, and spammed and chat'd and stared at the ps2 graphic stars... while trolling each other when nobodies in the mood for running missions.

The goal lobbies themselves being these rare-like spots with great scenery that were kind of like "GOOD JOB ON THE MISSION Now enjoy your nise sunsets, hotsprings, and your futuristic beach with clear blue skies and grungy dystopian cities where some random chick setup a shop counter.

Darki
Feb 8, 2011, 03:31 AM
don't take me wrong, I like visual lobbies in PSU. I prefer that to PSO setup where there was just one main area, the Pioneer II, and I'd really love to see something similar for PSO2.

but my problem is that, realistically talking, the game takes place in 3 planets. I don't like the fact that all the visual lobbies are just a little area cut from a field map with a Guardians/AMF sign, two cubes and a shop. Actually, I don't see the three planets to be very populated. Parum, I'd describe it more like a "Coruscant"-type planet: huge megalopolis that cover most of the planet's surface, with maybe 3 or 4 "supercities" and then a couple towns like Rozenom, surrounded by artificial forests. Neudaiz as it's a waterball with a couple islands shouldn't be too populated either, but that could lead to very beautiful sub-aquatic areas, in that planet there would be many "little villages" around the islands... And in Moatoob, the desert would make it dificult to have cities, but underground ones, there could be quite a few.

Of course, the new game takes place somewhere else, and in many planets, so it would be difficult to assemple many cities per planet, but maling some visual lobbies a bit more "active" wouldn't hurt anybody.

NoiseHERO
Feb 8, 2011, 03:46 AM
If we do get another "water ball" I hope they do take more advantage of water themes...the closest we had in psu were just a bunch of "sealab" basements...no aquatic visuals or anything.

I did always like neudaiz's mountain areas though, at least before you got used to it and it was just another half hour long mission till they nerfed it shorter.

If we go by the elements, and common sense relating to geology...

If theres 7 planets we'll probably get the
Desert planet,
Earth-like/perfect future planet,
Snow planet,
Watery planet,
Near death/ancient ruin/Dark falz breeding ground planet,
Space station,
and either something unique or a jungle planet.

Unless they really go all out on some original ideas, then it'll probably look like sonic colors or the entire planets having only a one or a few biomes. and knowing sega........................... Ehn I'm not complaining.

Aerilas
Feb 8, 2011, 04:41 AM
I hope they give us something with as beautiful background as they did with Seabed higher.
Damn you could see the bottom of the sea for quite a view. That they put so much effort into that despite maybe a pretty blank seabed area itself is still amazing to me

Dongra
Feb 8, 2011, 04:59 AM
Am I the only one that liked visual/goal lobbies? ]:
I liked some of them, they could be pretty nice at times. The problem I have with them is that they were always too empty. It felt like all that work put into making them was so under appreciated since players rarely ventured outside of the normal spam missions.

Zer078
Feb 8, 2011, 01:38 PM
A full MMORPG, not a online RPG with lobby and such a fully feature MMORPG with PVP raids, etc

Aerilas
Feb 8, 2011, 01:54 PM
PSO isn't an MMORPG, and never should be one.

Omega-z
Feb 8, 2011, 04:22 PM
An Underwater mission would be cool, Which could include Vehicle's and under water caverns with half air/water area's like Seabed and fight a giant Sea monster A very big one hehe. They could even make the Capital City Atlantis with or without a dome O.O.:):rappy:

RemiusTA
Feb 8, 2011, 04:45 PM
3) Neither.

PSO isn't WoW, and it isn't Final Fantasy XIII. (Hell, even FFXIII shouldn't have been like FFXIII.)

PSO is PSO. It does it's own thing.


Open World is highly overrated and doesn't really work well unless the game is specifically catered to it, which involves tons of environmental interaction and sandbox like qualities, less the gameplay gets extremely boring extremely quick. Doing it just becuase you can plaster "ENDLESS CONTENT TONS OF WORLD TO EXPLORE" on the back of your game case is just recipe for disaster.

On-Rails....was not ment for RPGs. FFXIII has proven this to us all. On my second playthrough, i noticed that the only reason the game was fun for the story suspense. Since i knew what was going to happen, the game was no longer fun, which is something VERY serious for me since im a FF geek. PSU essentally did this with it's Offline Storymode. It wasn't fun.

FFXIII's design was the reason the story fell flat for me towards the end. The whole game was built upon the characters and battle engine, but didn't allow you to interact with the planet in any way at all. When it comes to saving it...well, i didn't care very much. I'd enjoy it if PS strayed FAAARRRR away from that.

landman
Feb 8, 2011, 05:59 PM
The problem is not the amount of lobbies, or the size of them, the problem is the mission counter: if PSU had an unique mission counter where you could see all the available party missions in the server, people wouldn't care about the amount of deserted lobbies, of course, the loading time of the counter would be greater.

Open "sandbox" world, I don't see why its not possible, think of it like Forest/Caves/Mines, you create a party and you explore them, they are there, until the party is disbanded. Now just change those stages and areas to different "sandbox" open worlds. You want more action? then go to the hunters guild and start a challenging mission.

SELENNA
Feb 9, 2011, 03:17 AM
I'm thinking PSO-like environments, where the players enter randomized rooms with variations, only WAY bigger than before. Think Forest but expanded, as if it merged with Jungle from EPII. Of course, I'd like it to be more original than that, but I lay my standards low so the game can WOW me ;)

Wayu
Feb 9, 2011, 04:24 AM
This kinda just came to me, and sorry if anyone already mentioned this.

What about an open-world environment that's limited in the beginning but slowly opens up? Once the 'main story' or whatever is accomplished, the player gains full access to the game, sort of how like in PSP2 new missions are only playable after this-and-this is done after a certain point in the game.

Kinda like Fallout/Red Dead/FFXIV/Perfect World.

-Wayu

RenzokukenZ
Feb 9, 2011, 05:35 AM
Or like FFXIII with the introduction to Gran Pulse.

Or like PSO when you unlocked Caves/Mines/Ruins.

Or like every known RPG.

It's pretty much a requirement nowadays lol. So yes, I get your point, and that would be tricky to make in an Online game, since that would mean that you won't be able to run certain missions with your buddies if you or they are behind in progression. It also depends on how PSO2 will run the missions (whether they will be player hosted or not)

Wayu
Feb 9, 2011, 06:50 AM
Actually, NOT like FFXIII or PSO, especially the former.

In FFXIII, you can't jaunt Lightning and friends back to previous areas. It's not fully an 'open world'. When I say 'open world' I mean something like World of Warcraft and Perfect World. The full map's already there. You can go to some places safely and as the game progresses you'll gain easier access to more places. Plus, you can revisit the old places if you wish - THAT'S an open world.

-Wayu

RenzokukenZ
Feb 9, 2011, 07:05 AM
Ah.

Well, in that case, the one problem I see would be the enemies. If it were open world, then the enemies would walking about their business while players run into them and kill them. Not a bad concept at first, but then when taken Online you run the risk of abusive farming of rare enemies, locations of large groups of enemies, etc. This of course disrupts the gameplay of some, perhaps you want to hunt down a rare/quest enemy and its being camped by players all the time for loot, XP, whatever. This problem won't occur if the game were mission based or a more 'concealed' open world.

ChronoTrigga
Feb 9, 2011, 07:13 AM
Ah.

Well, in that case, the one problem I see would be the enemies. If it were open world, then the enemies would walking about their business while players run into them and kill them. Not a bad concept at first, but then when taken Online you run the risk of abusive farming of rare enemies, locations of large groups of enemies, etc. This of course disrupts the gameplay of some, perhaps you want to hunt down a rare/quest enemy and its being camped by players all the time for loot, XP, whatever. This problem won't occur if the game were mission based or a more 'concealed' open world.

They could always take the Guild Wars approach. The world map being Solo or Teamplay, where towns act as hubs.

NoiseHERO
Feb 9, 2011, 07:40 AM
I like the idea of having more freedom but I think the lobbies in PSU were fine, and the actual stages in PSO were fine as well.

Just that they could use both and expand on it in general, Then our world design would be no different from a zelda game.