koobas.hobune.stream
How should you make an MMORPG world?
I know questions like these have been posted before, but they didn't cover all I wantet to know. So i'm making my own, thanks in advance;)!
Hey! I was planing on making an Rpg/mmo And was wondering how I should go with making the terrain, should I make one big map? Or smaller maps? And if smaller maps? How would I make it work? I pretty much want something similar to World Of Warcraft, Where it loads while running around, or at least something like that, where the player wont have to have loading screens every second, just to get to the other side of the current map.
Basically I just want to know the best way for creating a world for an MMOrpg/rpg game.
My plan until now, and I really think this will work is making a main map, A really big one, which will lead to smaller maps, other areas and so one. wouldn't that work? I think that's one of the ways they're doing it, in other famous Mmorpg's.
This doesn't answer your question, so I'm not posting it as an answer, but- is this proposed $$anonymous$$$$anonymous$$ORPG going to be your first game? $$anonymous$$ade all by yourself, in your spare time, while you $$anonymous$$ch yourself Unity and Blender and Javascript ?
If so, give it up, come up with a less ambitious game idea, then immediately throw that one out too and come up with a game idea that is less ambitious still; and you will have saved yourself a lot of wasted time and energy.
$$anonymous$$y first ever game was going to be a 2-4 player tactical RTS. Ins$$anonymous$$d, after getting a clue, it's an advanced version of Snake that's still taken me almost a year and is almost ready to beta test on the actual devices.
I'm not new to unity, or blender.. And i'm not alone, im just asking a simple question, about what would be the best way to create the world, nothing else.
@$$anonymous$$iloblargh 1. You are a dumbass to think like that, noone should ever give up their hopes just because you think they cant do it. 2. I have been on unity for almost a month, blender for 1.5 months and java for 3 months, and i am making my own mmorpg without any problems or help. 3. You fail fucking hard, to be making a game that should only take 1-3 days to make. Enless you started unity without any coding experience, and/or your I.Q is less then 30. 4. I think i talk for everyone here, that we think you should give up just because you squander other peoples hopes and work, when ever you can do no better.
I think you're alone on this one, $$anonymous$$age. His advice was fully understandable with how little information he had in the original post, but capzx cleared that up in a reply to him.
I doubt anyone's feelings were hurt by a stranger's criticism on a program$$anonymous$$g board.
edit: his other replies in this thread lead me to further believe he should follow $$anonymous$$ilo's advice.
I think kiloblargh was being an ass. I started unity to make an mmorpg, now this will take more then I was thinking so I set it aside, HOWEVER I did not give up on it I keep adding to my concept art storyline and work on details whenever I can, but you should make a few smaller games on unity first before bursting into mmorpg but NEVER give up on it and every little thing you do for any game helps for your mmorpg. But I do need to agree that as a first or even 5th game it’s not the best thing to work with. But like you say you’re not alone and you know what you’re doing I post this mainly for people who don’t have your exp with unity and such
Unity is capable of very large terrains, yes. And you can load different levels at any time. Unity's networking, however, is not suited to that type of MMO development. You'll want to look into SmartFox or Photon, both of which integrate easily into Unity.
As for which way you should do it, that just depends on your design. Larger worlds require more art, more resources, etc.
I highly recommend looking through Gamasutra's articles on MMO design and development. You'll want to write out at least a basic outline of what you plan to do before you even begin making terrains or content.
So, you're saying, that I can create a main map, the big one, which leads out to smaller areas, but i'll have to use Smartfox, or Photon for networking then? - And yes, i'll be checking out Gamasutra's articles!
Well you dont want to make just one big area, better to break it into parts and load what is needed at runtime (through scripting). SmartFox, Photon, uLink, ElectroServer, etc can be used for the networking, all depends on your requirements.
If you're having to ask these questions, then you shouldn't be making an $$anonymous$$$$anonymous$$O.
I think some people have seen similar questions hundreds of times and just get tired of it. Don't take it personally.
I suggest Smartfox. Their indie liscense is generous (100 concurrent users) and will allow you to learn on a stable platform. The Smartfox website even has a sample Unity project for you to look at to see how it's implemented.
There's also several tutorials on there as well, if I remember right.
Your main coding will be in Unity with C# or Javascript.
Oh, as for areas/maps: They don't have to be of a certain size, but stick to what you can manage; huge levels are hard to make. I'd suggest starting small first, just make two very small areas for testing; don't fill them with content, just plop a terrain down and make the player spawn and be able to move between the two areas. That should give you a good basis to start on.
Try not to start any project with art; you'll always want to change it later. Start out making the most basic fundamentals work. For example, the first thing my $$anonymous$$m did on $$anonymous$$arble Dash (selfless plug: http://www.kongregate.com/games/RefraxionStudios/marble-dash) wasn't model track pieces or make powerups, it was rolling a sphere on a box.
It can be tempting to try and jump headfirst in and make the art in order to see what it might look like, but you'll learn more about proper game design by making the most basic functions operate first. This is especially important in a $$anonymous$$m of developers and designers.
Linesey. This question was last commented on over a year ago. Also, it's called being blunt. No person will be able to make a good mamorpaguh as their first project. It's impossible due to the number of things you have to grok before you even start it, and you can't grok programmy stuff without practice.
The way I handle this is to make smaller terrains in a 3x3 grid with the center being high resolution and the surroundings being lower resolution with just basic terrain stuff, meaning I turn off all architecture, particle effects, sounds, and other such stuff. Then I make 4 separate boxes around the center equal to the height of the heightmap, and equal to center terrains width or length depending on if its top or bottom. I also have a large box with a collide at the hightmap,
When a player Character runs into a box then it gets the x or y position depending on which box it hits x for east and west and y for north and south and facing direction data and always the z position and loads the high resolution of the new area and switches the previous one to a low res and makes a new 3x3 grid centered around the high res terrain, this is how I do open world things
A better way, In my opinion is to use a chokepoint geography and when making the 3x3 grids first just start with nothing more than the terrain editor and make it so that there are paths between the terrains,
Use a finite state machine with current level state, hidden, low res, and high res to trigger each as you progress you can add new things, in my current game I have something called generations which reflect time traveling added to the level state. Always assign sky boxes to your player character camera so that different players can get things done simultaneously but will allow them to seem like their in different time zones
Oh and if you are looking into making instances like in wow, you should make an on trigger thing to your entrance and make a separate mape just for that with higher detail, Im not a big fan of things like that but sometimes its fun.
Also keep all maps and models to the minimum detail necessary to accomplish your goal unless thier important, This means checking polygon count and keeping only that which is critical.
I hope this helps and get back to me if you need any other advice. Even though they say its to ambitious, there is training available for making a mmo at 3dbuzz.com for member sponsors and if you need any more help on how to do things let me know. Best of luck.
I am not posting this as an answer, because it is not. I am posting it more as a rebuttal to those who would encourage you to give up on pursuing your dreams.
I wonder how many people told Edison he wouldnt be able to create the lightbulb simply because it had not been done before and they could not fathom his abilities or determination. It seems that there are many naysayers here who would call their discouragement of someone following their dreams bluntness or good advice. Discouragement disguised as advice is never helpful, and no one knows what you are capable of except you. Should you continue to work on your MMO......i say absolutely! Will it be difficult.......Certainly. Will you regret not continuing if you stop.....Most likely if it is truly what you want to do. Will the rewards be worth it if you succeed.......I would venture to say yes, and probably in ways you havent even imagined yet. Never let others determine your ceiling for you with their disuading remarks, you mayfind that you hit your head prematurely if you do.
Edison didn't actually create the lightbulb. He just improved it. So probably no one told him he couldn't do what had been done by people before him.
I don't think the negativity is necessary. We get it, you're a smart ass. Come on guys, come here to be helpful, not mean. The point of the post is bigger than the anecdote used to deliver it. Unilateral Games, thanks for being cool!
