Alright, so I'm not sure if this is the proper forum for this, but it said DBZ related stuff, so here it goes!
(Im extremely sorry for the length of this post, but it really has some great stuff. If your a big fan of DBZ this is worth the read.)
So I was playing some ESF recently and I had an epiphany! What an amazing MMO DBZ would be!
Well out of curiosity I went and did a google search on it and well sure enough there is a japanese MMO being made, DBZ Online. The art direction they're taking is really cool and is true to the show but I think they totally took a wrong direction gameplay wise. From what I could tell it uses the standard target and click hotkey combat. Meanwhile I had a design idea of my own, greatly inspired by ESF.
Here is my idea:
So imagine you start out picking a race. For example: Earthling, Namek, or Saiyen. (There are no classes) Then you start out on your appropriate planet. Starting out your a youngin, weak, frail, you can't run very fast or jump very high. You have a low power level. You don't know any energy attacks. Using the combat system of ESF all you'd be able to do is run up and kick or engage in melee and use only basic punches and kicks (no combos).
Now, as you fight creatures or other players you gain experience which increases your power level and allows you to progressively gain more strength, more speed, and your attacks begin to do more damage.
Also, as seen in the show much strength is gained from traveling, climbing, weight training, swimming.etc So I thought what if there were a grid system across the terrain which was categorizes as (for example) easy, medium, hard. If you travel along the flat straight rode which would be a faster means of travel you will gain strength for X distance traveled. But since its easy terrain you won't gain much. If you decided to swim up a water fall and over a mountain you'd probably be in the hard category, and while it may take much longer you will gain strength at a significantly faster rate than taking that straight long rode.
Training by traveling and fighting would eventual mean you can jump super high and run super fast and punch/kick super hard. Basically you're always gaining strength no matter what, but what you do specifically, effects just how quickly you gain that strength. But anyway, thats all the strength related stuff. You still have to learn fighting techniques other than the basic punch and kick, and perhaps also throw. I have a couple ideas for this.
There can be an intelligent system that recognizes a fight style that you use. For example, if when engaged in melee you use a lot of right punches and kicks, over time the system will recognize this and you'll naturally learn a basic right side orientated combo (given your powerlevel is sufficient). So, many basic combinations could be learned this way. The way a combination would work is very much like a spell in other MMOs, only you don't cast it by clicking on a hotkey, you simply gain the ability to do it, and perhaps a hotkey icon simply to use as a reference. For example, if you hover over the hot key it will say "right, right, up, down". But to do it you have to engage in melee and actually do it yourself, and then it would only work if the enemy doesn't defend it.
On the topic of defending combos... If your powerlevel is near exactly equal to the person your fighting, you will be able to see every arrow that is thrown at you, so if you good you can defend every attack. If you power level is slightly lower then there is a small chance of random arrows in which case your more likely to be caught off guard. If your power level is signifcantly lower, then almost every arrow will be random, making it very difficult to counter. (At this point you best chance is to avoid melee all together and hope what you lack in power level you can make up for in skill).
Back to learning combos. The next way of learning combos would be to go out in the world and fight special characters. For example if you fight some boss and win you might learn a special combo that he used on you. Or if you happen to run into some small tourny taking place somewhere and you win it, you might learn a special combo from one of the challengers there. Another way would be to seek out training from "masters". For example, Master Roshi, or Korin. And you can do quests for them which would reward you with special combos. And once you get powerful enough you will even begin to start learning energy based attacks. And with the mastering of energy comes the ability to fly
As far as how these energy components work, it'd be just like ESF. Fly by pressing f (you'd need to be even more powerful before learning to swoop). And charge beams by switching to that beam and holding the mouse. However, the ability to direct the beams would require more power. AT first you'd only be able to do straight shots. Once your fast enough you'd also learn to teleport. And gain turbo.
Basically the "end game" would mean you've achieved a high enough power level to swoop, turbo, have a large variety of combos and energy attacks.
The great thing about this system is that it is FUN. From start to end. And there is ESF as proof that this system really is fun and intense and simulates the show better than any other dragoball game out there. And even at the beginning when you only have basic functionality, it would still be fun, maybe not as intense or interesting as when your more powerful. But still fun.
There would also be transformations, but gaining them will be no easy task. Lets say the powerlevel required to have full functionality (that means swooping, teleporting, powerful energy beams with the ability to direct them, and powerful combos) is 500 thousand. And it takes you 5-10 day /played time to reach that PL. Then getting Super Saiyen would be 1 million and would then require twice the length of time it took to get fully functional before gaining that amazing -Epic- power. So basically it would require 10-20 days /played time to become a super saiyen (depending on whether your a casual or hardcore gamer). Super Saiyen would basicaly be the equivalent of having epic gear in othr MMOs. But heres something important to note.
Powerlevel does not determine the outcome of a battle. As seen in ESF someone who just joined the server, with enough actual skill, can kick a super saiyen's arse. Powerlevel, combinations, beams.etc all aid you in your battle, and make things more interesting and varied, but when it all comes down to it, player skill is the major determiner. Now, lets be realistic. If the gap is large enough... say you just made a character and your PL is 2. YOur not going to be taking on a SSJ. No matter how good you are. But if the gap is large but not huge, you still have a fighting chance.
Things to do: Well basically anything you see in the show you could do. Go to martial arts tournaments and battle other players. (For the sake of gameplay, there would be a lot more of these than we see in the show, and more often, with a large variety of arenas, perhaps categorized by PL ranges. There could also be one huge event every month or so which would be the world martial arts tournament. WHere the strongest players on the server could fight for number 1.
There would be lots of jobs/quests to do. For example, think of when Goku had to go get the ultra devine water, or climb korin's tower, or take down the Red Ribbon army, or go back into time to train (that could be an example of doing a quest for Kami to gain a special ability). Also there would be LIVE events that occur fairly often where the world is attacked by some evil force and the players must defeat it. In some cases it would be soley up the strongest players, in other cases it'd be large invasion in which case weaker players would be able to lend a hand by taking out the weaker invaders. Anyway, theres a ton of room for ideas as far as things to do goes. We all get plenty of enjoyment out of ESF just beating the crap out of eachother on some small map as it is.
Oh yea, something else to note: As you play for X ammount of time (this can also be done by X ammount of PL) you grow older. There can be three stages to age. Child (starting out). Teenager, and Adult. As you reach teenager for example. You get to recustomize your character within a parameter that makes you still look similar to how you did as a child. And same goes for adult. I think this would be a cool way in addition to gaining strength, to make you feel as if you've progressed, and grown up, also just a way to further customize yourself and stand out from others.
On the subject of customization. You could also gain money and buy gear. Such as some armor which might add a slight damage mitigation, or just a uniform which you could customize. Some basic street clothes could be an option, and also weighted clothes could be bought which would slow you down and youd jump lower but youd gain strength at an increased rate. You could even buy weopons would could be used in special combinations, that could even make for different styles.
Again, gear would only -aid- in battle but it all comes down to skill. But in most cases gear would simply make for visual variety.
Summary:
-Pick Race
-Only Basic Ability, Speed, Strength to start
-Gain PL by traveling, fighting, training with masters
-Learn basic combos naturally with intelligent system
-Gain advanced combos by fighting special characters and training with masters
-Learn beams and other energy control by training with masters
-Your character will be unique based on what you specifically have done in the world. You will have your own style, and your own unique abilities. (Perhaps creating your own beam could be an option).
-Go on epic quests, and adventures to gain abilities, and strength
-Meet actual masters and important characters in the show
-Fight in LIVE events against evil forces
-Become recognized as the strongest player in the world by competeting in the World Martial Arts Tournament.
-Be Good or Evil, its up to you.
-Travel to other planets in search of new challenges
-Become a master yourself, and train others (perhaps a mentor system which will allow you to share abilities to your student after they've trained under your name for X ammount of time, and given they have enough PL to learn it. There would be a limit to the number of pupils a player could have. Maybe 2)
Conclusion: This Idea I have, I feel, is just amazing, and its completely doable too. And I have a lot more great ideas as to what can be done in this game, but this is just a general overlook of how it'd work. I feel that its too great to just keep bottled up inside me and so I felt that due to ESF's inspiration this would be the best place to share it. Im sadly disapointed DBZ online is taking the route they are, but I hope someone will hear my idea and spread it and hopefully it will reach the right ears and maybe, just maybe somehow a true DBZ MMO will actually be made. I can only hope, but at the least I can get it off my chest.
(Im extremely sorry for the length of this post, but it really has some great stuff. If your a big fan of DBZ this is worth the read.)
So I was playing some ESF recently and I had an epiphany! What an amazing MMO DBZ would be!
Well out of curiosity I went and did a google search on it and well sure enough there is a japanese MMO being made, DBZ Online. The art direction they're taking is really cool and is true to the show but I think they totally took a wrong direction gameplay wise. From what I could tell it uses the standard target and click hotkey combat. Meanwhile I had a design idea of my own, greatly inspired by ESF.
Here is my idea:
So imagine you start out picking a race. For example: Earthling, Namek, or Saiyen. (There are no classes) Then you start out on your appropriate planet. Starting out your a youngin, weak, frail, you can't run very fast or jump very high. You have a low power level. You don't know any energy attacks. Using the combat system of ESF all you'd be able to do is run up and kick or engage in melee and use only basic punches and kicks (no combos).
Now, as you fight creatures or other players you gain experience which increases your power level and allows you to progressively gain more strength, more speed, and your attacks begin to do more damage.
Also, as seen in the show much strength is gained from traveling, climbing, weight training, swimming.etc So I thought what if there were a grid system across the terrain which was categorizes as (for example) easy, medium, hard. If you travel along the flat straight rode which would be a faster means of travel you will gain strength for X distance traveled. But since its easy terrain you won't gain much. If you decided to swim up a water fall and over a mountain you'd probably be in the hard category, and while it may take much longer you will gain strength at a significantly faster rate than taking that straight long rode.
Training by traveling and fighting would eventual mean you can jump super high and run super fast and punch/kick super hard. Basically you're always gaining strength no matter what, but what you do specifically, effects just how quickly you gain that strength. But anyway, thats all the strength related stuff. You still have to learn fighting techniques other than the basic punch and kick, and perhaps also throw. I have a couple ideas for this.
There can be an intelligent system that recognizes a fight style that you use. For example, if when engaged in melee you use a lot of right punches and kicks, over time the system will recognize this and you'll naturally learn a basic right side orientated combo (given your powerlevel is sufficient). So, many basic combinations could be learned this way. The way a combination would work is very much like a spell in other MMOs, only you don't cast it by clicking on a hotkey, you simply gain the ability to do it, and perhaps a hotkey icon simply to use as a reference. For example, if you hover over the hot key it will say "right, right, up, down". But to do it you have to engage in melee and actually do it yourself, and then it would only work if the enemy doesn't defend it.
On the topic of defending combos... If your powerlevel is near exactly equal to the person your fighting, you will be able to see every arrow that is thrown at you, so if you good you can defend every attack. If you power level is slightly lower then there is a small chance of random arrows in which case your more likely to be caught off guard. If your power level is signifcantly lower, then almost every arrow will be random, making it very difficult to counter. (At this point you best chance is to avoid melee all together and hope what you lack in power level you can make up for in skill).
Back to learning combos. The next way of learning combos would be to go out in the world and fight special characters. For example if you fight some boss and win you might learn a special combo that he used on you. Or if you happen to run into some small tourny taking place somewhere and you win it, you might learn a special combo from one of the challengers there. Another way would be to seek out training from "masters". For example, Master Roshi, or Korin. And you can do quests for them which would reward you with special combos. And once you get powerful enough you will even begin to start learning energy based attacks. And with the mastering of energy comes the ability to fly
As far as how these energy components work, it'd be just like ESF. Fly by pressing f (you'd need to be even more powerful before learning to swoop). And charge beams by switching to that beam and holding the mouse. However, the ability to direct the beams would require more power. AT first you'd only be able to do straight shots. Once your fast enough you'd also learn to teleport. And gain turbo.
Basically the "end game" would mean you've achieved a high enough power level to swoop, turbo, have a large variety of combos and energy attacks.
The great thing about this system is that it is FUN. From start to end. And there is ESF as proof that this system really is fun and intense and simulates the show better than any other dragoball game out there. And even at the beginning when you only have basic functionality, it would still be fun, maybe not as intense or interesting as when your more powerful. But still fun.
There would also be transformations, but gaining them will be no easy task. Lets say the powerlevel required to have full functionality (that means swooping, teleporting, powerful energy beams with the ability to direct them, and powerful combos) is 500 thousand. And it takes you 5-10 day /played time to reach that PL. Then getting Super Saiyen would be 1 million and would then require twice the length of time it took to get fully functional before gaining that amazing -Epic- power. So basically it would require 10-20 days /played time to become a super saiyen (depending on whether your a casual or hardcore gamer). Super Saiyen would basicaly be the equivalent of having epic gear in othr MMOs. But heres something important to note.
Powerlevel does not determine the outcome of a battle. As seen in ESF someone who just joined the server, with enough actual skill, can kick a super saiyen's arse. Powerlevel, combinations, beams.etc all aid you in your battle, and make things more interesting and varied, but when it all comes down to it, player skill is the major determiner. Now, lets be realistic. If the gap is large enough... say you just made a character and your PL is 2. YOur not going to be taking on a SSJ. No matter how good you are. But if the gap is large but not huge, you still have a fighting chance.
Things to do: Well basically anything you see in the show you could do. Go to martial arts tournaments and battle other players. (For the sake of gameplay, there would be a lot more of these than we see in the show, and more often, with a large variety of arenas, perhaps categorized by PL ranges. There could also be one huge event every month or so which would be the world martial arts tournament. WHere the strongest players on the server could fight for number 1.
There would be lots of jobs/quests to do. For example, think of when Goku had to go get the ultra devine water, or climb korin's tower, or take down the Red Ribbon army, or go back into time to train (that could be an example of doing a quest for Kami to gain a special ability). Also there would be LIVE events that occur fairly often where the world is attacked by some evil force and the players must defeat it. In some cases it would be soley up the strongest players, in other cases it'd be large invasion in which case weaker players would be able to lend a hand by taking out the weaker invaders. Anyway, theres a ton of room for ideas as far as things to do goes. We all get plenty of enjoyment out of ESF just beating the crap out of eachother on some small map as it is.
Oh yea, something else to note: As you play for X ammount of time (this can also be done by X ammount of PL) you grow older. There can be three stages to age. Child (starting out). Teenager, and Adult. As you reach teenager for example. You get to recustomize your character within a parameter that makes you still look similar to how you did as a child. And same goes for adult. I think this would be a cool way in addition to gaining strength, to make you feel as if you've progressed, and grown up, also just a way to further customize yourself and stand out from others.
On the subject of customization. You could also gain money and buy gear. Such as some armor which might add a slight damage mitigation, or just a uniform which you could customize. Some basic street clothes could be an option, and also weighted clothes could be bought which would slow you down and youd jump lower but youd gain strength at an increased rate. You could even buy weopons would could be used in special combinations, that could even make for different styles.
Again, gear would only -aid- in battle but it all comes down to skill. But in most cases gear would simply make for visual variety.
Summary:
-Pick Race
-Only Basic Ability, Speed, Strength to start
-Gain PL by traveling, fighting, training with masters
-Learn basic combos naturally with intelligent system
-Gain advanced combos by fighting special characters and training with masters
-Learn beams and other energy control by training with masters
-Your character will be unique based on what you specifically have done in the world. You will have your own style, and your own unique abilities. (Perhaps creating your own beam could be an option).
-Go on epic quests, and adventures to gain abilities, and strength
-Meet actual masters and important characters in the show
-Fight in LIVE events against evil forces
-Become recognized as the strongest player in the world by competeting in the World Martial Arts Tournament.
-Be Good or Evil, its up to you.
-Travel to other planets in search of new challenges
-Become a master yourself, and train others (perhaps a mentor system which will allow you to share abilities to your student after they've trained under your name for X ammount of time, and given they have enough PL to learn it. There would be a limit to the number of pupils a player could have. Maybe 2)
Conclusion: This Idea I have, I feel, is just amazing, and its completely doable too. And I have a lot more great ideas as to what can be done in this game, but this is just a general overlook of how it'd work. I feel that its too great to just keep bottled up inside me and so I felt that due to ESF's inspiration this would be the best place to share it. Im sadly disapointed DBZ online is taking the route they are, but I hope someone will hear my idea and spread it and hopefully it will reach the right ears and maybe, just maybe somehow a true DBZ MMO will actually be made. I can only hope, but at the least I can get it off my chest.
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