I\'ve discovered this game here that looks pretty decent, and is supposedly free too. Has anyone tried it? Opinions?

http://www.fairyland.com.my

I liked Ragnarok Online despite it being boring sometimes (which is good since the more addictive a game is, the more harmful it becomes).

Edit.... hmmmm, not sure if it\'s free though....

When I look at a MMORPG that has someone whacking a dumb snake 20 times, I wonder what the hell the devs/designers were thinking.

My definition of monster challenge is certainly not \"add more hp and damage.\"

My interpretation of fun challenging monsters means that the monster can use tactics such as healing, buffs, invisibility, damaging spells, confusion spells that warps your perception of who is human/monster, and so.

Here\'s something that I would enjoy having:
When I create a new character, I can buy some weapon and start killing groups of organized gnoll-type monsters. These guy mainly attack in groups or retreat if their pack leader dies or if they too little hp.

When my character becomes more proficient in weapons and other offensive skills, he can choose to move to harder areas.

These monsters are harder in the sense that they can be extremely fast like the alien movies. The can use tactics such as swarming in great numbers, temporarily blinding you by spitting poison, turning into stone to heal, and so on. Giant-types should be able to grab you and hurl you.

Now that\'s fun challenge as opposed to cut and paste monsters that just have hp and damage increased!

I was looking at Blizzard\'s world of warcraft. One thing that captured my attention was the fact the battles are more fast-paced than the current ones. Rather than looking at a monster being whacked for the 20th time, the faster paced world of warcraft has a more diablo-esque feel to it although not too fast paced (or there will be no monsters to fight for everyone).

I think this approach should be used for most monsters depending to a varying degree.

For example, the undead monsters will naturally last longer than a bunch of human bandits. Boss monsters should also be much more difficult to kill (or no one would need healers or tanks) and should not die quickly (camping bosses has a fun social aspect). In general however, monsters should be challenging to kill without possessing too much hp. It seems pretty redundant when you\'re whacking a goblin forever.

Reputation is something that would likely improve the virtual social environment of Planeshift. It is similar to what Morrowind and Freelancer have done so it can be improved upon and whatnot.

The idea is that depending on what you do in Planeshift (quests, who you kill, race you are, skills you pick,...), this affects your reputation with a guild, town, or even specific npc race. This reputation ranges from a scale of say -50 to 0 to +50.

A reputation of -50 with town would get the npc inhabiting it to automatically become hostile with you. Exceptions are important npcs like shop keeper. They will just simply not talk to you. However, a town guard will automatically attack you on sight, and not even consider prison. When a town guard dies, more will be generated so eventually, you will get worn down if you stay there.

A reputation of -40 to -20 will get guards to come to you and ask you to submit to them so they will drag you to prison. From here, you must pay the bail, or you can break out of prison if you\'re good at lockpicking.

A reputation of -10 to 0 allows you to buy basic items from shops, but other services are denied (you can\'t join a Thieves Guild for example).

A reputation from 0 and up will allow you access to better stuff. Certain weapons or equipment can only be obtained by having 50.

Here\'s the thing, you cannot have 50 in all reputations. If you join say the thieves guild and do their quests, your reputation will improve with them, but it will decrease your reputation with say the Royal Guards of Whatever.

Here\'s an example: (I took some of Morrowind\'s names since I\'m so unoriginal)
Guild reputation:
Thieves Guild:
--> Allies: no one.
--> Enemies: Assassin\'s Guild, Royal Imperial Guards

Royal Imperial guards:
--> Allies: Farmer\'s Alliance, Assasin\'s Guild, Royal Military
--> Enemies: Thieves\' Guild, Samurais, Wizard\'s Guild

Mining Guild: (neutral with everyone)
--> Allies: none
--> Enemies: none

.... and so on.......

If I start killing or stealing from npcs from the Assasin\'s Guild, I would also get the Royal Imperial Guards to hate me, but my reputation will improve with the Thieves Guild.

The thing about this proposal is that thieves will tend to stick with thieves rather than stroll about in town looking for their Imperial friends.... but this might be a good thing.

The human players can simply meet in a neutral place if they want to play together. Anyway, the idea is not straightforward as you can see, but I guess the best way to see an example is to play Morrowind and Freelancer.

Rather than give the generic type1, type2 elemental damage where the only difference lies in its \"type,\" perhaps different elemental damage should each have its own special effect.

For example:
Cold damage: in addition to its damage, it can slow down monsters a bit.

Poison damage: The poison can be designed so that people would take advantage of its ability to do damage over a long duration. This permits someone who cannot tank well to hit and run instead.

Fire damage: no effects.

Lightning: has a small chance of stunning monster.

Here\'s a fun suggestion with little gameplay value.

The more you eat, the wider your character\'s model becomes.

If you make food somewhat expensive (in real life, I certainly can\'t afford to eat at restaurants everyday), fatness can become a rough estimate of a person\'s wealth.

I can just see myself binge eating next to some eateries.

Of course, there should be some measures to prevent everyone from getting fat for fun.

I\'ve always wanted to play a character whose specialty is possessing others! Ever played Messiah? It was too short, but it was fun as heck.

Although the character woud have a weakly true form, his/her specialty is the ability to possess other creatures and inherit whatever abilities the creature has. Through greater training, this character can learn to enhance inherited abilities, defence, hp, and so forth.

Restrictions would be that the character cannot possess the more powerful monsters, and that the character cannot re-possess a monster too soon (a minute delay for example). Another optional restriction is that by specializing into this skill, you actually render yourself weaker while not possessing anyone (like Voldemort of Harry Potter).

The character can equally possess small critters such as rats, which would allow them to travel while more hidden, as well as crawl into small passageways that others cannot pass.

Critisize away!