SR MMO, what edition would you want? Options

[eralston]

If you were making an SR MMO, what edition would you want to start with? Ignore any points on realism, just go with your gut.

Would it be different in another genre such as action FPS, squad-based shooter, or Real-time strategy? Or something else completely...

[hyzmarca]

Realism is my gut. I'd start of scratch using elements from all 4 systems that just happen to work well in the game. The basic stat and skill systems would be overhauled to match the requirements of such a game. And it would be a first/third person massivly multiplayer online roleplaying shooter with a squad option in there somewhere and an option for basebuilding and accompanying stratagy elements.

[Squinky]

Are these polls somehow related to the Shadowrun Online project?

[Wounded Ronin]

SR2 is what I'd want for one reason: grounding. I was really hurt that they took that out of SR3.

SR2: Lol tee hee I am teh powerful mage with lots of foci, lol lol lol. OH NO, WHERE DID THAT HELLBLAST COME FROM?!?!?!? Blarg, I am slain.

SR3: Lol tee hee I am teh powerful mage with lots of foci, lol lol lol.



By the way, I find it disheartening that so far more people voted for SR4 than for anything else. I really do, especially after all the wonderful hostility and skepticism that we used to have here towards SR4. I mean, SR4 missed the things that really count: firearms realism and the 80s.

[Kagetenshi]

Truth lives.

~J

[eralston]

Well, I will say that SR Online's current design docs on mechanics seem unrelated to any edition of shadowrun. So I was wondering what edition might be best.

On further reflection, I think this poll is somewhat invalid due to the fact that a person could want SR4 rules, but SR3 fiction, or SR1 in 2070, or other things.

[James McMurray]

SR4 all the way. If for no other reason then that it could make selling the PnP game easier.

[eidolon]

MMO? Blech.

[Mr. Man]

[James McMurray]

Ah, the ever popular expression of disdain rather than doing anything constructive. :)

[KarmaInferno]

The disdain is because many folks here are justifiably of the opinion that any MMO could not possibly maintain the serious, grim 'n gritty atmosphere essential to the Shadowrun genre.

Despite any efforts by the developers, good intentions can never survive the assault of the mass of epic stupidity that makes up a huge chunk of any MMO playerbase.

Click here for an example from another game.


-karma

[eralston]

LOL

One problem in adapting The Matrix to a game is that the movies deal almost exclusively with the univers as it pertains to the most important person in it. In an MMO, you are not important.

Conversely, in Shadowrun, your character lives in a world where they are pretty much by definition unimportant. I think comparing SR to The MAtrix in this respect forms a false analogy

[Konsaki]

Ah to add in random code to have Mr Johnsons doublecross you at random times.

"OK guys, we talk to this NPC and head back out of the corp building to the entrance. This will be easy Karma, I did it with my Rigger last week." 8)
They get near the entrance and 40 lonestar with LMG spawn and mow them down. :rotfl:

[James McMurray]

[ShadowDragon8685]

[toturi]

[Valentinew]

Personally, I'd want SR4....'cause I enjoy the wireless & I love technomancers. Storyline-wise, it might be more fun to live through the peak of Dunklezahn's popularity.

This has actually been discussed on the SRO forums. Greypawn, the main architect of this project, has stated that this world will be set in the 2050's, iirc. As for mechanics, he is thinking more of trying to emulate the feel of SR & keep the main storyline, as working out a turn-based MMO is too hard at this point to even contemplate.

He's got some pretty good ideas...now if he could only get Microsoft to run with it...if you want to look at his initial proposal that he took to MS for last year's E3, you can look here, it's a download. If you want to look at some of the design docs, check here.

[eidolon]

[hyzmarca]

I'd prefer an alternate history in which Dunkie didn't off himself. If you're going to have a MMO RPG an alternate metaplot would be quite useful so that the online games metaplot can advance seperatly from the primary metaplot.

[James McMurray]

[eidolon]

Sod off.

;)

[Brontal]

Hi people !

I would use SR 4 rules for 2 reasons .

1. The update of the rules weas needed to keep Shadowrun a believable world .
Now, in the year 2006, even my mom is using w-lan to acces the internet. An outdated science fiction world , like SR 3 , is simply not believable .

2. The possible players of a SR mmo game.
There are 2 possible playerbases of a SR mmo game :
- the normal mmorpg player, playing it just because it is another new mmorpg
- Sr pen and paper players, playing it because it is Shodowrun

For the first group, the normal mmorpg players, the rules are absolutly unimportant , they will adapt whatever rules are used without spending a second thought about them .
The second group, SR pen and paper players, allready know the game, the rules and the setting . Writing Shodowrun on the box and then delivering something different would be a slap in the face of the possible customer base.
Turning away 1 of the 2 possible consumer groups would be a very bad idea i think, just look at D&D online.

Just my opinion to SR online :

[Thanee]

Shadowrun MMORPG. :)

That's something I have thought about a long, long time ago already (and plenty others, too). Never bothered writing down a concept documentation, though, since it is so damn unlikely to ever happen to be of any use. :D

IMHO Shadowrun is almost the perfect background for an MMORPG style game, and I have numerous ideas how to make one (though the technical realization could be problematic in some areas... on the other hand, there is plenty experience in this field these days, so things become easier obviously), but alas, with Microsoft holding the license, it's rather unlikely, that I would ever get into the position to help making one. :)

Of course, one could always make one similar enough, but not quite as equal, so there is no copyright problem, but it's still cyberpunk with fantasy elements, but that would not be the same thing.

Even got some nifty ideas how to make the game full PvP (which it most likely had to be, as much as I despise PvP myself), without making it totally suck, thanks to the uber-immature players out there (key factors are a functional police, camera and drone surveillance so gunning someone down in random places becomes a really bad idea, and harsh sentences for getting caught (harsh, as in account lock for days or even weeks - guess that would be hard to realize with paying customers :rotfl: )). In fact, I would prefer it to be full PvP with real death (but death wouldn't come so easy and runners that are down would have to be illegal targets, even though that's a bit unrealistic there, but you must draw the line somewhere). That would also make Doc Wagon contracts useful! :D

What I also find very important is a highly sophisticated random mission generator, which should create really cool missions, which do not always appear too similar.

Such a game should not have the usual rare item hunting as a key element, in fact, there should be no such rare items at all (maybe hard to get items, but not this stupid random drop stuff). That's also something, that would be somewhat difficult to do... find decent rewards for major missions, i.e. special contacts, that are not supercool pieces of the latest ultrarare item set.

Anyways, I would definitely base it on the SR4 ruleset (and the background, too, although there are some elements, which would be nice to be different, but those are no biggies... AR alone is too good a thing to pass up).

Bye
Thanee

[stevebugge]

If I were doing I would use SR4 because using any other edition would undoubtedly create marketing problems. You need to keep all of the products, no matter if they are developed by different design teams and license holders, consistent to reinforce the brand as a whole.

[Valentinew]