I think I have the recollection of playing this at some time in the past?(I think at a con in San Francisco?but I could be wrong)
LoreWeaver the game and amount of material you have (not to mentions it?s quality) is truly impressive.
What I hope to give as a general outline is some of the many things you need to consider as you go forward in this rout. And hopefully assist you in managing your time so as to have the best possible outcome.
First I will say that MMORPGs take time and a lot of effort, as I assume you already imagine. Using it to the best possible outcome is important.
Art; (3d and textures) will probably be the hardest part to get done. There are many things to do. In a way you are lucky as you will be able to concentrate on these facets more so then Rules and engine coding.
Data; in a paper and pencil game the GM can make many assumptions or generalizations that speed up game play. In a MMOG that is not a possibility, every building, wall, cliff?. Must have a stated (difficulty to climb number) this can change in various effects?but it has to be inputted.
Your Level system does not appear to conflict too much with our ?non-level system? but you will have to figure how to account for luck in a game like this, specially given it?s real time aspect.
One idea I have out of the blue (as I am writing this) is for luck to add benefits for a short amount of time each game day based on level/amount of luck. This refreshes at a certain amount per day, but does so in real time (not at a given moment) so when a player feels he needs all the bonuses he/she can get, they would press the luck button and it would take off ?luck time? as they it goes. And if they use half, then in half a day (game time) they would regain their lost luck time.
I am not saying that you should use the above example only that you may have to change the way things are done to retain aspects of your game.
Another thing you may need to consider is the amount of true combat time. In most MMOGs characters are in combat a lot, and since combat is played out a lot faster then in paper and pencil games (huge raids taking 8 hours that would take months to play out in a paper and pencil game) you exp and general progression system would need to be examined and somehow elongated.
The bonuses for a new level in skill may have to be increased, so players feel they have improved from level/skill 5 to skill 6.
One way to do this and maintain the system as you have it is to simply increase the number of levels or skills. Say from 15 to 150 or 1500. but at the same time you must maintain some sense of progression, specially at the lower end.
Filling up the world.
In paper and pencil games we have a huge city filled with all kinds of things, but we only annotate the VIP?s for the story, in MMOGs it is general that everyone has some function. And filling that in is a huge chore.
You might want to start with small steps. One starting rural town and the outlying adventuring area. One or two races, all the classes for them and levels 1-15.
That would give you a very starting point to get feedback and learn what changes to the initial concept have to change.
Amount of players; in a game like these 100-100,000 players in one location makes things very different then a paper and pencil game where adventurers/ hero?s are uncommon. In MMORPGs hero?s are a dime a dozen and ?dungeons? don?t get raided by groups of 5-20, they get pillaged by hoards of hundreds. How that is dealt with would need to be decided.
Death?is a major transitioning issue in these games, and how it should be dealt with.
Player Vs player interaction. While it is noble to say that all players can interact with other players as they would in real life, the majority of instances it would be the equivalent of having players in D&D that are level 1 doing combat with people that are lv 20 threats.
Role playing aspect. How is role playing enforced or simulated. (think about this one, and I would love to hear if you get a good short answer to this, but in reality any answer I would like to hear.)
Making all the character choices ?cool? is important. It is as important as making it fun. Since people wish to be ?cool? in they alternate life.
In your game you use a D30 for rolls, or about a 3.5% change of any set result. With computers you can make this a d1000000000000 or in our case a roll of 0.000000000000001 ? 2
(don?t count the zeros I didn?t get it exact, but it is about 1^-15). This in our case ?PS? is applied to a large number of predefined variables and with the roll, be it opposed or static comes to a yes or no answer. Actually it is a no or yes/by how much answer.
So as you can see, you have things to think about.
Once you have made choices?test out your concepts and try to prove it out or not using some code or excel or some other chance analysis tool. And figure if your things are in the right scope for your hopes.
Magic is also hard, things will have to be added and taken out of your spells, because of subtleties and or lack of technologies, or likelihood of abuse. For example a mass charm spell, would be greatly annoying to players if the entire war band is finally organized and put together ( a week of planning and 3 hours behind schedule) and the dark wizard in the tower blows them all off in 30 seconds with one spell.
There are about 1000 other things to think about, but I hope this little list is of help to you, and if you need anything (minor) that I might be able to help in, I?d be happy to.
Oh, one other note, starting to seriously plan now, but not start for a year from now (just to say) is not a terrible thing if you have a good and defined concept that would reduce a lot of trial and error.
I trust that you have played EQ, DAOC, SWG, UO, and any other of the slew of MMORPGs if not?dedicate about 2-3 months of your life to ?research?.
It is important to learn not only to know what you dislike about them, but why some work, why others don?t, and how things should work out?UI, what info the players should have, (most games give all info of the ?magic? weapons) yet most planned not to do so, that often gets tossed in alpha or beta testing. As such it makes a ?detect magical function? spell useless.
Ok?I am done for now?.hope it helps a bit.
