(To interrupt the prostate ads!) No, but... 'A Tiny Voice' says, "They're not going to do it, are they?"
I got one more longpost.
I want everyone to immerse themselves into MOworld! I want you to think of the two most immersive things you can do in MO. The first would be pulling a bow with arrow-tip aim and letting it fly. Get that Robin Hood (or even MOtrailer?) arrow cam. Or just watch it plunk into something. The other very immersive thing (ironically) is to get your face really close to the screen and jump off a really high cliff. As you are falling, you might ALMOST feel your stomach rise.
Now, let's talk about sandbox theory! I was not interested in it before I knew about MO1. I've played the 'other sandboxes,' "YOU TALKIN' BOUT...TERRAFORMING?" I put thousands of hours in MO1, considerably less in 2. There was a time when I would just think about sandboxes based on what I had seen, what people had tried, what failed, etc.
I could go into many different aspects of the game (and have...,) but in this case, I want to look at it from SPACE CAM. Macro of macro. I apologize to non-native speakers and people who generally dislike reading, as
THE INTRO ENDS HERE!
I can respect SV's decision to soften MO2, as it was seen as a 'murder sim,' by many, and I believe that more pop is better, pvp, pve, rper, whatever. The thing I disagree with is not mechanical as much as it is ESSENTIAL THEORY. Imagine those things where you put a marble at the top and let it fall and it goes thru all of the loops, you can flip a switch and it shifts, and the marble goes a different path. THE MARBLE ARE U. Or, 'the player.'
SV wanted a softer game and they did this by adding in a double-check system for PKing (rep + MC) as well as MASSIVE GUARDS. They also added haven, which destroys the early game in so many ways (esp for vets, nubs coming out of haven are probably just as likely to quit as they would be getting dropped in Tin, when I started.) Time passed, and they added even more guards, further from town, in some cases. Their initial idea, I believe, was town is safe, but you have to go outside of the GZ to do anything worthwhile. THIS IS AN EXTREMELY FLAWED IDEA! Now, nubs have to travel further and getting killed is a much larger set back. I remember mining MK or mining Tox, I remember all of the resources in Tin gardens, or chopping spw in MK (tho you can still chop fullgain in town, but I don't think spw is anywhere?) I also remember how all of these places were vulnerable. That is, you could kill people in MK on the little path with the trees on either side, ALMOST IN THE MIDDLE OF TOWN? Back bank, very soft security, etc.
THESIS STATEMENT: I have concluded ( yeh, through 'thinking,' gratz if you have a brain you can turn off) that a more proper way to soften the game would be to 'fertilize' towns and the area around towns and heavily reduce guards.
I would like towns to be luscious w/ pickables and rocks (like that tiny part of Haven/Fab where strangely random resources spawn: carrots, cavolo((sp?)) and peaches,) except in a way that adds ambiance. Trees, bushes, herbs. Some gardens. Some urns, some barrels. I believe guards are necessary, and from chillin in Hyl, I see there are TOWERS. I believe, in general, guards should be meant to deter not derp. I would love to see towers with a view radius, somewhat low dmg/low accuracy (depending on distance) arrows, and the idea that sight got you 'tagged,' and would cause some of the pathing guards to rush in. Most guards should be patrolling. I don't believe cities could finance the massive guardspam that is NOW. It would be NICE to have true line of sight, where you could duck behind a building and maybe juke some guards, but if you simply made it so that outside of the radius, guards would not pursue, unless they pathed into aggro range THAT WOULD BE GOOD.
If there are reservations to introducing HQ rock nodes and pickables in town, that it might destroy the economy or ruin the game, to that I say looool, given THAT SHIP HAS SAILED. Was sailing Post-Q/alt. The sacrifice in immersion to have barren, stagnant towns/areas around town is much too high. If someone can play the guard paths better than you, they are succeeding. In some cities, the pop would farm out the people trying to do town things. In others, they would be allowed to gather and gain for the good of the whole economy.
People say TC, but WHEN IS TC? Also, how stupid is it going to look when people start spamming meta-gain farms or whatever in the most 'efficient' way, and towns continue to be barren and boring?
Mechanically MO2 is a mess, too, but the most basic theory of it is flawed. This is not purely my imagination: IT WAS LIKE THIS IN MO1. I've seen it in action. MO1 was an ugly, buggy, dog shit game to anyone who didn't take the time to find its 'beauty.' That heavily limited its growth (+ being a sub/gimped or grief/mining f2ps,) MO2 does not have that problem. Someone could ostensibly SEE MO ON STEAM and be like WOW I WANNA PLAY THIS GAME. That people enjoy Haven is another supporting point, IMO, and I see no reason why they can't do a much more proper fleshing of towns. I mean, they added dungeons and PoIs. Shouldn't be hard.
To end, none of this shit matters, no one cares, it's not going to change. MO2 is broken and is going in the file of "SEE WHY FULL LOOT DOESN'T WORK" games (which tbh irritates me the most, it's damaging the genre ha.)
The argument is, the game can withstand scandal, things even out eventually. So, why can't it withstand rebuilding? Just remember, you rebuild from the foundation, not by SPRINKLEZ N GLITTER on the roof.
I got one more longpost.
I want everyone to immerse themselves into MOworld! I want you to think of the two most immersive things you can do in MO. The first would be pulling a bow with arrow-tip aim and letting it fly. Get that Robin Hood (or even MOtrailer?) arrow cam. Or just watch it plunk into something. The other very immersive thing (ironically) is to get your face really close to the screen and jump off a really high cliff. As you are falling, you might ALMOST feel your stomach rise.
Now, let's talk about sandbox theory! I was not interested in it before I knew about MO1. I've played the 'other sandboxes,' "YOU TALKIN' BOUT...TERRAFORMING?" I put thousands of hours in MO1, considerably less in 2. There was a time when I would just think about sandboxes based on what I had seen, what people had tried, what failed, etc.
I could go into many different aspects of the game (and have...,) but in this case, I want to look at it from SPACE CAM. Macro of macro. I apologize to non-native speakers and people who generally dislike reading, as
THE INTRO ENDS HERE!
I can respect SV's decision to soften MO2, as it was seen as a 'murder sim,' by many, and I believe that more pop is better, pvp, pve, rper, whatever. The thing I disagree with is not mechanical as much as it is ESSENTIAL THEORY. Imagine those things where you put a marble at the top and let it fall and it goes thru all of the loops, you can flip a switch and it shifts, and the marble goes a different path. THE MARBLE ARE U. Or, 'the player.'
SV wanted a softer game and they did this by adding in a double-check system for PKing (rep + MC) as well as MASSIVE GUARDS. They also added haven, which destroys the early game in so many ways (esp for vets, nubs coming out of haven are probably just as likely to quit as they would be getting dropped in Tin, when I started.) Time passed, and they added even more guards, further from town, in some cases. Their initial idea, I believe, was town is safe, but you have to go outside of the GZ to do anything worthwhile. THIS IS AN EXTREMELY FLAWED IDEA! Now, nubs have to travel further and getting killed is a much larger set back. I remember mining MK or mining Tox, I remember all of the resources in Tin gardens, or chopping spw in MK (tho you can still chop fullgain in town, but I don't think spw is anywhere?) I also remember how all of these places were vulnerable. That is, you could kill people in MK on the little path with the trees on either side, ALMOST IN THE MIDDLE OF TOWN? Back bank, very soft security, etc.
THESIS STATEMENT: I have concluded ( yeh, through 'thinking,' gratz if you have a brain you can turn off) that a more proper way to soften the game would be to 'fertilize' towns and the area around towns and heavily reduce guards.
I would like towns to be luscious w/ pickables and rocks (like that tiny part of Haven/Fab where strangely random resources spawn: carrots, cavolo((sp?)) and peaches,) except in a way that adds ambiance. Trees, bushes, herbs. Some gardens. Some urns, some barrels. I believe guards are necessary, and from chillin in Hyl, I see there are TOWERS. I believe, in general, guards should be meant to deter not derp. I would love to see towers with a view radius, somewhat low dmg/low accuracy (depending on distance) arrows, and the idea that sight got you 'tagged,' and would cause some of the pathing guards to rush in. Most guards should be patrolling. I don't believe cities could finance the massive guardspam that is NOW. It would be NICE to have true line of sight, where you could duck behind a building and maybe juke some guards, but if you simply made it so that outside of the radius, guards would not pursue, unless they pathed into aggro range THAT WOULD BE GOOD.
If there are reservations to introducing HQ rock nodes and pickables in town, that it might destroy the economy or ruin the game, to that I say looool, given THAT SHIP HAS SAILED. Was sailing Post-Q/alt. The sacrifice in immersion to have barren, stagnant towns/areas around town is much too high. If someone can play the guard paths better than you, they are succeeding. In some cities, the pop would farm out the people trying to do town things. In others, they would be allowed to gather and gain for the good of the whole economy.
People say TC, but WHEN IS TC? Also, how stupid is it going to look when people start spamming meta-gain farms or whatever in the most 'efficient' way, and towns continue to be barren and boring?
Mechanically MO2 is a mess, too, but the most basic theory of it is flawed. This is not purely my imagination: IT WAS LIKE THIS IN MO1. I've seen it in action. MO1 was an ugly, buggy, dog shit game to anyone who didn't take the time to find its 'beauty.' That heavily limited its growth (+ being a sub/gimped or grief/mining f2ps,) MO2 does not have that problem. Someone could ostensibly SEE MO ON STEAM and be like WOW I WANNA PLAY THIS GAME. That people enjoy Haven is another supporting point, IMO, and I see no reason why they can't do a much more proper fleshing of towns. I mean, they added dungeons and PoIs. Shouldn't be hard.
To end, none of this shit matters, no one cares, it's not going to change. MO2 is broken and is going in the file of "SEE WHY FULL LOOT DOESN'T WORK" games (which tbh irritates me the most, it's damaging the genre ha.)
The argument is, the game can withstand scandal, things even out eventually. So, why can't it withstand rebuilding? Just remember, you rebuild from the foundation, not by SPRINKLEZ N GLITTER on the roof.