Suikoden MMORPG

[pesmerga786]

wow, i just read over this thread and there are so many good ideas to make the mmorpg. overall this, in my opinion could be a good game if it was made.

[ninjaluc79]

It depends on the war council of your faction, too, not only that of you country. If your faction's war council have decided to defect to the enemy, then you will end up fighting against your mother country during nation wars...

For example, if you have chosen to be a Harmonian and your faction is the Howling Voice Guild, and your war council(if it has one, or whoever decides on war and stuff) decides to defect to, say, Zexen Knights, then you fight with Zexen, but against the clerics and mages of Harmonia, plus of course the soldiers in the front line.

For clans like Kobolds and Wingers, I have noticed strengths of some of their stats. Kobolds like Gengen and Gabocha may have lower than average HP and MP and they suck in MDEF, but have above average TECH or SKL, Wingers have 100 MGC at Level 55, and have higher MDEF than Kobolds, and Nekobolds are good examples of bare fist(claw?) fighters... I don't know about ducks and lizards... what stat they are strong anyway? Does anyone know?

[SpecialNewb]

I think TRs should only be wielded by gamemasters or employees of the corporation that runs the MMORPG. In other words, ringers, people they hire with the express purpose of stirring things up in the world. This would do several things:

1) It would keep people from being jealous of True Rune Bearers.
2) It would allow much greater opportunity to tell solid stories (as much as you can in a MMORPG) because the NPCs and designers and such can co-operate.
3) It would provide a rationale and rotating schedule for regular events (maybe 2-3 times a year).

I also kind of like the Rhapsodia system of fighters only being able to equip sword orbs or stat-boosting runes instead of pure magic runes. Strong mages who are decent/good fighters are rarer than strong fighters who are decent/good mages (think Geddoe). So everyone would just be a fighter-type with some magery. It might help make it more balanced and foster cooperation.

[ninjaluc79]

Nice idea, dude. Wow, I haven't thought that game mods(GMs) should be the TR bearers, but the point is, how can players experience the power of the TRs if in most MMORPGs GMs don't show up too often? In fact, GMs in those games show up only when there is an event, but rarely shows up or not at all when there is none.

[SpecialNewb]

Well these people would be employed specifically to take part in the game world to create stories for the players. So they'd be more involved than regular GMs but they'd also probably paid more.

Also if players want to experience the power of the True Runes for themselves, they can play the offline Suikoden games. It will be a way for Konami to seel a few more copies

[Gungnir]

just thinking about this mmorpg thing concerning weapons/job classes. instead choosing a "class" for your character why not at the beggining of the game choose your weapon and that entail would give your your stats and how effective your at melee damage spell casting etc. also instead of only swords spears bows etc what every other mmo uses why not have every single weapon ever used in the suiko game to pick from? anchors, book straps.....also picking your beginning country would rule that could to possibilities like becoming a queens knight in falena being a dragon knight in toran stuff like that. anyway if they made a suiko mmo they would definently need to up the ante on how mmos work/feel with so much history and diversity the suiko games offer if they did it right it could easily be the bestt mmo ever made.

[Wraith]

I would like to make a tabletop Suikoden. With a class system and a rune proficiency system. That means that you need a certain class and/Or lvl to use certain runes. It wouldn't be too far from a MMORPG system.

[Falenan_descent]

First, it would have to take place as the last official suikoden as to not mess up the storyline. You could select your hometown of any nation that is currently in existance today.

You would then create your character depending on where they came from.

Male Human. Duck female. Etcetera.

Then you'd choose your specialty.

Fighter - Can wield anything light such as hooks, claws... Can equip specialty related runes.

Warrior - Can wield the heavy weaponry. Can equip specialty related runes.

Mage - Staves and magic usable. Can wield elemental runes.

Archer - Bows, arrows, guns...runes relating to these.

Support - Healer, Cook, Potch Finder. Etcetera.

The support character would be for those that don't necessarily like to engage in battle and aren't people who play games for levelling but instead prefer to go on adventures and have support-type duties.

Like, the cook, during rest-time could prepare meals that could regenerate magic properties for mages and what not.

Or, if you're party is going hunting for a rare item...they could bring someone with the Treasure Hunter skill.

After you're done with your nation and character...you'd be introduced to the character's nation by a little cutscene and possibly a tiny event to get you used to the action of the game.

Then you just work your way up. A GM controlled Main character could meet up with you and decide to make you one of the 108 SoD of the time period. Or, you could offer services if you were a support character. Study runecraft, Forging, windowmaking, sounds, appraising.

And then its just straight MMORPG from there. You create your own adventure. Participate in events that are GM controlled.

You could go hunting for items and runes. Runes would probobly be considered a rarity, as Im sure they'd be very powerful. Mages could act as support until a rune was received. That would make your mages more useful in and outside of battle. They'd have a specialty lined up. Plus, your mages would be able to equip a specific rune. If you needed a Water/support mage you'd get one with a water rune. Fire rune. Like in Diablo II, you could hire specific mages. Though, it tended to lean towards Ice mages. But Im sure that could be fixed up. Like, in experience battles...it just depends on what you're fighting. But, for specific "BCNMs" if you will, you'd require a certain mage.

You could even go hunting for necessary parts to customize a rune. Kind of like the "Red Rose Rune". Which would give your character a bit of flair.

You could participate in PvP events. "Let's go take down some harmonians on our border!" "Okay! wtfbbq!!!1"

Duels could happen. You just ask someone if they wish to duel and then you're brought into the battle scene.

War battles are a possability. Probobly very complex and controlled though. But in order to participate in one you'd have to be a member of the current SoD in your nation and have proper war training ability. Possibly by studying tactics under a tacticion!

Imagine being able to meet up with one of the great tactitions like Shu and study under them with chess type mini-games =P

The more you participate in the better your fame increases. More fame = More luxuries. You could move into a better home. Swich alliances. Or even get a mount. Like...if you're from Le Buque...you could ride a giant bug

Or, actually, in retrospect to certain places...if you started out as a Dragon Knight's Apprentice the storyline/plot of that place to start would be you acquiring your dragon and thus having a mount to start. But, you'd have to level your mount along with you. NPC, anyone?

What do you guys think?

[SirKremer]

You guys posted really great ideas, but I still think a MMORPG in the Suikoden universe would be pretty hard to come out good, because the storyline is the main part of the series and seeing how MMORPG's have no storyline at all it would just suck.

Unless... it was a real LIVE world like it should be, where player actions could really change the world. MMORPG producers always say that, but in the end it never happen, MMORPG's are all about leveling and becoming the strongest and meeting people, there's no real role play.

But if the game had a timeline, when it is launched, lets say, it's year 400 and then each month or more, or less, dunno, ends a year and the biggest events, like wars, possession of true runes and others, become history of the world that are added in books, npc talks, etc, added through monthly updates, then we would have some kind of storyline.

The offline games could be connected to the MMORPG storyline too, like... Suikoden 7 takes place in Harmonia, then someone using a true rune in the storyline of the game, create a barrier around harmonia and its no longer accessible in the mmorpg, then its when the offline game happens there. Then after sometime, when the "offline game is over", they break the "barrier" and the nation of Harmonia changed, cities were destroyed, new npcs, ruins were discovered, etc. But I hardly believe it could be really done, would be nice at least imo.

[Atreides]

agree with sirkremer, i must say the world, runes, story (which concern) war and etc really to create mmorpg.
But then, there still lot of issues which hv to be concern.

the suikoden universe is too big, and of course will badly influence the whole story of suikoden, in fact a storyline for whole world is quite impossible to come out. unless they set the place just on certain nation or continent.

108 stars, u can't simply put anyone in tenkai star, since different titles suit different characters, and who else will chosen as 108 stars?
for gm, it hardly for 108 gms... for npc, it's not really fun at all... for players, chose 108 among few thousands... it's unfair for who play so hard but at final didn't get any title. so what the rule of players...? mercenary? at least they make it like Suikoden Tactics where no star concern, mean the mmorpg not title as any series like S7, S8... etc.

timeline, yes, mmorpg hv no timeline, because FF11 is independant from any FF series, they hv no worry timeline. But in suikoden all series are chained together... so timeline is a must, set a timing for the game, let say 5 years like IS 461-465, after 5 years the game will no longer developed and the result will contribute to suikoden world during tha.
lexample, players in nation/clan A completely conquer land of nation B by defeat players of nation/clan B in war, so konami will announce the land is under establish of nation A in the map, which players' efforts can be write in history of suikoden world, this is definately cool.

anyway, to be honest, those issues can be bottleneck of create the game, but also if manage well could be superweapons of the game.

to create suikoden mmorpg, they must try minimize the relation with its other series as well.

[Ancient Cheesecake]

Personally, I think MMORPGs are bad for gaming in general. They make more money than single player games with less effort. All modern MMORPGs follow the same basic steps of beat up bad guys to get stronger to beat up stronger bad guys to get stronger etc. and any that don't don't seem to appeal to the majority. Turning Suikoden into an MMORPG may end up being very good for Konami's bank account but it can only be bad for the single player games.

[SpecialNewb]

Personally, I think MMORPGs are bad for gaming in general. They make more money than single player games with less effort. All modern MMORPGs follow the same basic steps of beat up bad guys to get stronger to beat up stronger bad guys to get stronger etc. and any that don't don't seem to appeal to the majority. Turning Suikoden into an MMORPG may end up being very good for Konami's bank account but it can only be bad for the single player games.

MMORPGs aren't about the gaming experience, they're about social interaction with other players through the medium of the game. The power leveling is more to give people something to do.

[World Chancellor]

A Suikoden MMO is something I’ve considered for a long time, finding it the basis of what we really want in a massively multi-player game: a rich world and social interactions. Note that not everything is a direct port (Stars of destiny just won’t work) but you can translate the feel of the game. As Final Fantasy is very character based, Suikoden relies more on situations, politics, and the world; it’s that world that we want to explore. While on watch yesterday, I formulated my ideas into this list. . .

Character Creation – One of the weaknesses right now is the very low amount of character customization in MMO’s right now as far as appearances. Ours will allow you to be of different ages, builds, colors, hair styles (of course), faces, and eye color. Plus there should be a 2D representation of my 3D character’s face, because if there is something that makes Suikoden nifty, it’s the character portraits whenever you talk. It means this person is different from every other person you meet. Also, customization will extend into other arenas which we will talk about later.

Nationality – In the Suikoden world, nationality is what replaces race in most games. People live and die by their allegiances and so it should be here. When creating your character, you should pick your town of origin (which never changes) along with the corresponding nationality. In a game where wars can break out between different states, this determines who you can fight, who you ally with, where you can go, and how people react to you. You can shift allegiances . . . it takes time though, but you can be recognized as a citizen in other nations by dropping your original nationality. Some might still distrust you. Or you can be like many characters in Suikoden, a foreign national that just winds up across the world (i.e. Flik and Viktor).

Race – Of course, although most characters will be humans, there will be a limited quota of non-humans allowed. You can be one of the demi-human Grasslanders, an elf, a dwarf, or a kolbold (Someone mentioned mermaid before. . . what were you thinking?), though this limits you on where you are allowed to start, and some governments and people are prejudicial to non-humans (Godwin’s Falena) though if you’re a giant lizard warrior, why should you care? As we’re talk about how large the world is, it will be rare to see many lizard warriors outside the Grasslands.

Expansive World – This is why people want to play, to explore Toran castle, poke around Toto village, or make a pilgrimage to Mt. Sinai. Instead of having 50 servers, the game will have few servers, but the world will be massive, each country having the area devoted to continents in World of Warcraft. Dozens of villages, dungeons, forests, farms. Much of their content is pre-generated, and many of the town’s styles are already known. Sans Viki, it takes awhile to get around. Why do you think people take boats, horses, and things like that? On the plus side, the game tends to keep you local, though world trotters will have things that only they can appreciate. The bottom line is. . . the world is huge. (We would probably start off with only a few countries you can go: Toran, Grasslands, Dunan area, Zexen, Camaro, etc. Expansions might come later that widen where you can go/start from. Harmonia can’t be included until they include content! Plus, it’ll probably be the series finale.)

Politics and Society – Also core to the Suikoden genre is the shifting political and social balances. Wars start, peace treaties get signed, alliances forged, and civil strife flares up. This should be reflected in an organic world, where perhaps player actions can influence what happens, for example a country’s soldiers violating a border, or trying to influence a government for peace. However, there always should be a strong sense of competition between nations.

Battles – You can’t translate everything, but you can make a battle system that is more choice-based even if it’s still bound by the realities of MMO’s. Mounted combat is must, but something that takes some training (and a mount). A duel system should also be implemented, more than just WoW’s duel system of random fighting, but something that focuses on intuition and anticipation as well. Not just sheeping people. Permadeath will occur, but very rarely, as most times you fall in battle, you just go unconscious (death is usually irrevocable in the Suikoden world), though there are ways to permanently die. Battles aren’t just grinding; they’re fun.

United Attacks – C’mon, it’s Suikoden! This can be done actually. Every time you level or whatever, you give unite points, which you can spend on learning a unite attack with someone or strengthening an already present one. When you wish to do either, a confirmation will pop up on the other player’s screen for them to spend a point too. If you both do, you can actuate a custom unite together (same process of click confirmation when executing). This makes adventuring with your favorite online buds all the more fun and interesting, versus just getting together randomly.

Interactive Physicality – This is just something MMO’s normally don’t do but they could. Allow characters to shake hands, NPCs to do things other than just talk, allow people to sit down and feast, or in many ways just interact with their environment. This is a game of social interactions; give them top priority.

Skill System – In the absence of a class system, there should be an aptitude skill system, much like the one in Suikoden III, of course modified as needed. Don’t worry about being a fighter or a mage. As you level, you can pour skill points into different things, progressing your character beyond the simple fantasy stereotypes. The console games don’t use them; why should we? On that, we should have non-combatant skills like blacksmithing and rune sage-ness. That allows not a pure combat purpose with characters, like the entourage characters. You should be allowed to be a merchant, running around from place to place, making a killing on the trading posts and providing players with stuff for the right price. That should be viable. Ultima Online showed that it could be done, it would only be right to allow this world the same amount of viability. Combat isn’t everything in war, ya know! Anyway, everyone needs a cook or a treasure hunter sometimes.

Hiring – However, you should be able to pay to have NPCs hang around to do things (like in faction HQ’s like we’ll talk about later) such as blacksmithing or accompanying you on a mission. The price will be steep since players are encourages to get together, but it helps when you have lots of money and you need warm bodies (or you need to stock a castle with vendors).

Factions – As mentioned above, these are a mix between player guilds and the idea of 108 stars of destiny groups. You should be able to form factions that can buy/settle a HQ and make it your own. A player can even chose to make a Faction democratic, allowing for elections in different ways to determine Faction control. But it’s kinda up to the faction’s leader at first.

Orders – Of course, in addition to being in a faction, you might sign up for an order like the Maximillian Knights too. These are server provided, and have a mix of players, NPCs, and server-controlled players in them that might have a rank structure. They each have membership requirements (and you can get thrown out if you violate these), but they provide you with a place to stay, a support structure, times, unique skills, and special things only accessible to members of different ranks. Rising in the ranks and taking a degree of tactical control of an Order can be great fun. You can belong to more than one . . . provided they don’t conflict. A member of the Zexen Knights that is also part of the Grassland’s Tribal Council is going to be asked to resign from one of the other as tensions flare between the two nations. Of course, you don’t lose your unique skills/equipment when you resign (Georg has belonged to how many Orders in his day?) In addition, an Order might allow you to do things you normally can’t do, like ‘keeping the peace’ if you’re part of a nation’s militia or police force.

Runes – A mainstay, everyone will probably have at least one rune, though the power and type vary widely. Sinking skill points into magic runes is what makes a ‘wizard’, though most can grab a fire rune and use it (badly). Killer runes, shrike runes, and all that will make an appearance. Maybe the four spell system can be expanded, although still using the unique ‘you have so-many first level spells’ system (MP is so boring because everyone uses it). True Runes? Yeah, right. We’re talking about runes that have the ability to annihilate entire armies, dude. Although . . . perhaps the Rune of Punishment is out and about in the world, allowing the player wielding it to do such game altering things, but at the dangerous price of their life (one of the occasions permadeath might occur). Finding such a rune would be very rare though.

Ships and Armies – As time goes by, faction and order leaders should be able to act like generals to their troops (though its up to the members if they want to comply) deploying them, giving them bonuses and guiding them into battle. Skills/Traits like Leadership influence how such fights ago in addition to the blood, sweat, and power of the individual soldiers. Ships could be commanded in the same way, though we might have to wait for an expansion.

A Player’s World – The world should be organic. Towns should be able to be captured, player’s can push a nation to war or peace, houses can be build, projects financed with a enough potch, and art objects collected for your room or the Faction’s bathhouse. The server is naturally an RP server, as players aren’t worried so much about being ‘ganking n00bs’ but about earning clout, interacting with PC’s and the sever staff’s characters, and exploring the world in all its glory.

That’s basically it. I hope someone from Konami listens or dreams come true, but here it goes. Respond if you have any ideas.

[Mystil]

Should one be made I will hop off the FFXI ship faster than you can say "Evening Dusk". It could be thier next step after a possible VI. One can only hope. I already forsee the Fire and Lightning Rune being super popular LOL. Also if they allow the obtainments of True Runes..I'm going right after True Water.

[Falenan_descent]

Haha

Should one be made I will hop off the FFXI ship faster than you can say "Evening Dusk". It could be thier next step after a possible VI. One can only hope. I already forsee the Fire and Lightning Rune being super popular LOL.

Me too! Final Fantasy XI is great, but a Suikoden MMORPG would be 10x better