Why no MMO?

[XanderF]

Just thinking out loud, but, from the 'Sh5' thread and discussion from merging Sh3+Sh4, I started musing...

Heck, I'd pay monthly for an MMO of that title.

Could you imagine that? Playing Sh3, with Wolfpacks, but all the other U-Boats and US subs (ALL of them), are actually live people playing at that very moment?

That'd be freaking SWEET. Renown would have another whole meaning altogether. Yes, you'd still need it to buy upgrades, but it would be used as 'historically' - instead of any given upgrade costing "x" amount of renown every time, the U-Boat yard has "y" number of those upgrades available, and the sub skippers engage in a 'blind auction' with their renown to get them first. Ditto new subs, the best crew, etc.

An MMO of this genre would be AWESOME.

EDIT: See my post at the bottom of this page. I am NOT talking about "WoW with submarines". There is no reason for that. All I'm suggesting is expanding the multiplayer component already in the game. No 'grinding', no levelling at all. Same ships, same campaigns, etc. Just more people in at once.

[U-Bones]

Just thinking out loud, but, from the 'Sh5' thread and discussion from merging Sh3+Sh4, I started musing...

Heck, I'd pay monthly for an MMO of that title.

Could you imagine that? Playing Sh3, with Wolfpacks, but all the other U-Boats and US subs (ALL of them), are actually live people playing at that very moment?

That'd be freaking SWEET. Renown would have another whole meaning altogether. Yes, you'd still need it to buy upgrades, but it would be used as 'historically' - instead of any given upgrade costing "x" amount of renown every time, the U-Boat yard has "y" number of those upgrades available, and the sub skippers engage in a 'blind auction' with their renown to get them first. Ditto new subs, the best crew, etc.

An MMO of this genre would be AWESOME.

The immediate problem for that idea is the boredom introduced by the lack of time compression.

[Ducimus]

No more MMO's for me. Kthxbye.

[elanaiba]

The main issue that one has with online play - campaign style - is time compression.

[XanderF]

The immediate problem for that idea is the boredom introduced by the lack of time compression.

Hmmm...yeah, I suppose that's true. FORCED 1x careers could be...tedious.

The solution, of course, would be to do something many MMOs are leaning towards - 'Instancing'. Each war patrol acts as an 'instanced dungeon' (for lack of a better word).

IE., when in or around the port area, everyone forced to be "at 1x compression" isn't a problem - you will be, anyway. Ditto when bidding on upgrades or whatever - whoever is in port participates in that interactively.

When the career starts, though, the sub skippers are free to engage in time compression at their discretion. Whoever is in a certain area of a convoy at a certain time get collectively dropped into an 'instanced' attack on that convoy, at 1x compression again (everyone on the same page).

As an alternative, you could force wolfpack activity, and make each entire patrol out from port as an 'instance' for the wolfpack. IE., a group of 6 or 12 submarines are all in communication with each other, and set time compression collectively. When they hit a convoy, they all work together to beat it. This is much more the traditional "all instanced" type of MMO, like "Guild Wars" (which has no monthly fee). The towns and such in that game are open to all players, but once each group leaves the common area, they are all in their own instanced version of the world.

Anyway, in either case, to keep the upgrade cycle even across multitudes of different time compressions, you'd have to assume a base 'average' TC as a clock that cycle each week. Say, 30 day patrols in 1 week IRL. So, every Friday or Saturday, all subs would have to have their 30 day patrol done (done at whichever TC they used, engagements they chose, etc - they decide during the week how they want to spend that time - although the key of this "clock cycle" idea is that you cannot do MORE than 30 days in a single week), and return to port to bid on crews, upgrades, new boats, etc with the renown they earned.

[GreyOctober]

No more MMO's for me. Kthxbye.

:rotfl: :rotfl: U SUNK MY 8a77le$hip LOLOL!!!oneoneelevel1

[Ducimus]

The main issue that one has with online play - campaign style - is time compression.

LOL, thats just one. But ask yourself, do you really want to deal with a demanding, unforgiving audience in the context of an MMO? I won't go into the details, but .. man.... its brutal. I woudlnt touch that with a 200 ft pole. Spend any time on a major MMO messageboard (WoW for example), and you'll see how ugly it gets.

On top of that, while im no guru, i personally beleive the MMO market is saturated. Every tom, dick, and harry wants the game that keeps giving (15 bucks a month subscriber fee). Sub sims are too nich and audience, you'd have to dumb everything down for mass appeal, and then your into balancing the game to please everones sense of fair play and all other sorts of BS- and even then a Submarine MMO woudlnt make it. Too small an audience, too nich of a game, too big the competition. Ugly, ugly ugly.

[XanderF]

LOL, thats just one. But ask yourself, do you really want to deal with a demanding, unforgiving audience in the context of an MMO? I won't go into the details, but .. man.... its brutal. I woudlnt touch that with a 200 ft pole. Spend any time on a major MMO messageboard (WoW for example), and you'll see how ugly it gets.

On top of that, while im no guru, i personally beleive the MMO market is saturated. Every tom, dick, and harry wants the game that keeps giving (15 bucks a month subscriber fee). Sub sims are too nich and audience, you'd have to dumb everything down for mass appeal, and then your into balancing the game to please everones sense of fair play and all other sorts of BS- and even then a Submarine MMO woudlnt make it. Too small an audience, too nich of a game, too big the competition. Ugly, ugly ugly.

Wait, what? Those arguments make no sense. The subscriber base for WoW is 6 MILLION. That's useless to us - they didn't make 6 million submarines combined among ALL countries in BOTH world wars. We do not need or want anything NEAR 'mass market'.

As to pricing - I dunno, the games are doing fine as it is. I mean, what's a greater number, $50 per copy for 100,000 copies of Sh4 bought once and played for free over the next 3 years...or $50 per copy, and then $15.00 a month for 3 years with only, say, 10,000 copies sold?

The MMO is already more profitable, even with those numbers. And that's presuming a title such as this only sells 1/10 as well as traditional Sh3/Sh4. Personally, I think the sale numbers would well be HIGHER than Sh3 or Sh4 on their own.

As to the argument about "ZOMG, FORUM FLAEMS!!1!ONE" I mean, really. Compare the WoW forums to the Sh3/Sh4 forums bug posts. They aren't THAT much worse, and that IS mass market...which we wouldn't expect or want.

[Ducimus]

I had a flaming reubttle, but it just occured to me this topic isnt worth the time to write it, let alone the long flame war that would ensue after hitting the post button. In short, Your in love with your idea, but i feel I've played enough of those damn things (MMO's) to have an idea about what im talking about. Ive probably been playing them longer then you have. If your gonna dream, dream big i guess. Have fun daydreaming. Reality harkens in another direction however.

[Harmor]

Doesn't World War 2 Online have naval warfare too? I used to play infantry in that game (was a blast while it lasted) and could see a naval sim work as MMO if you'd let the players choose between, say, surface ships or submarines, perhaps even extending it to carriers and the planes based on them. Then again .. the market is probably not big enough to warrant a Naval sim MMO.

[SteamWake]

I can see it now.

You can create your charecter and start out at level 1 with a canoe for a boat and a box full of rocks as weapons.

Go off and kill 20 seagulls to reach level 2 increase your "seamanship" attributes and you can paddle the canoe faster.

Now go off and kill 200 seagulls to reach level 3... at around level 10 you get your first "real" submarine type VII but can only carry one torpedo till you go out and sink 100 tugboatts and reach level 11.

[Ducimus]

Then again .. the market is probably not big enough to warrant a Naval sim MMO.

Ask yourself this:
How many FPS's do you see on gamestore shelves?
How many RPG's?
How many landbattle, WW2ish games in any form?
How many flight sims do you see?
And lastly,compared to all of the above,
How many naval and/or sub games do you see?

edit:
I can see it now.

You can create your charecter and start out at level 1 with a canoe for a boat and a box full of rocks as weapons.

Go off and kill 20 seagulls to reach level 2 increase your "seamanship" attributes and you can paddle the canoe faster.

Now go off and kill 200 seagulls to reach level 3... at around level 10 you get your first "real" submarine type VII but can only carry one torpedo till you go out and sink 100 tugboatts and reach level 11.

Halarious. Honestly, though it would be closer to planetside, but even then you had levels which dictated how many things you could do, could use, or could carry.

[melin71]

Doesn't World War 2 Online have naval warfare too? I used to play infantry in that game (was a blast while it lasted) and could see a naval sim work as MMO if you'd let the players choose between, say, surface ships or submarines, perhaps even extending it to carriers and the planes based on them. Then again .. the market is probably not big enough to warrant a Naval sim MMO.


so true. that wwiionline have that. i have prepaid 1 year in that game. but as some have point out. with out TC...the naval game are REALY boring. why....becourse i have spent many many many hours with just a empty horizoen and looking for aircraft. stear the boat to a point that you want..and prepere for many boring hours. i have spend half a day to get over the dam english channel when we did a attack on england. the only action that happens was some air. so..silent hunter III or 4...in those water.......not for me... good idee...but impossibly.

[ParaB]

Wolves of the Pacific Online

A typical afternoon in the massively multiplayer submarine sim by UbiSoft:



General chat:< [DeAtHKill0R] how do u dive?

General chat:< [CaptainBoobie] LOLZ U N00b!!

General chat:< [DorkVader] press Ctrl-alt-del

General chat:< [JackBuar] ^^ lol!!!

General chat:< [Xfazycxasd] BYU CHEAP RENOWN AT WWW.RENOWNFARMERS.COM (http://WWW.RENOWNFARMERS.COM)

General chat:< [SUB_PIRATE]: LFG Yamato, need one more Gato!!!!!!!

General chat:< [SUBCIPTAIN]: wrong channel dude

General chat:< [SUB_PIRATE]: yeah whateva...

Looking for Group:< [SUB_PIRATE] LFG Yamato, one more Gato needed!!!!!

Looking for Group: < [Capt. Smith] can I join? I got a Gato.

Looking for Group:< [SUB_PIRATE] are you SJ-radio specked?

Looking for Group:< [Capt. Smith] no, i bought a better deck gun

Looking for Group:< [SUB_PIRATE] dude, for teh hi-level raid content u GOT to put points into improved radar!!! nub.

General chat:< [Xfazycxasd] BYU CHEAP RENOWN AT WWW.RENOWNFARMERS.COM (http://WWW.RENOWNFARMERS.COM)

[-=BiGWanG=-] send you a message:< NEED HELP!!!11

[ParaB] sends a message to [BigWangG]:< where are you, friend? I can't see you

[-=BiGWanG=-] sends you a message:< BAY OF TOKYO HELP ME NOW!!!1!

[ParaB] sends a message to [BigWangG]:< err...sorry. I'd really like to help you but I'm currently 50sm off Brisbane harbour.

[-=BiGWanG=-] sends you a message:< YOU SUCK!!!111

[-=BiGWanG=-] ignores you now

[TheSatyr]

I think the main reason you'll never see it is because not enough people wouild play it to make it viable financially.

Unless you run it like Freelancer...in which case you'd be limited to around 12-24 people a server.

[wetwarev7]

I think MMOs are a good way to ruin great games.

Just my two cents ;)

[Ducimus]

ParaB has improved in "telling it like it is (100)!" :lol:

[Solonor]

WW2 Online (Battleground Europe now) does have some unique stuff with it, but naval part is not very well done. Everything else is though, would encourage everyone to try it. I will reactivate it again when I have more time.

Anyway, the game "Navy Field" with SH4/5 graphics is what I am looking for.
A massively multiplayer online tactics simulation game based upon WW2 of course, with all 4 major factions involved. Start out with your Frigate and work your way to the big Battleships and Carriers. And of course special job's that a Destroyer has, torpedo boats maybe and submarines, light/heavy cruisers etc.

The game system that Navy Field has now doesn't really give you the "feel" of such a game though, and would have to see some changes.

But this type of game (which I tried to my best effort to describe here, maybe not easy to tell but :p), is what I am essentially looking for. I would subscribe even before it launched!

[wetwarev7]

Wolves of the Pacific Online

A typical afternoon in the massively multiplayer submarine sim by UbiSoft:

General chat:< [Xfazycxasd] BYU CHEAP RENOWN AT WWW.RENOWNFARMERS.COM (http://WWW.RENOWNFARMERS.COM)

[-=BiGWanG=-] send you a message:< NEED HELP!!!11

[ParaB] sends a message to [BigWangG]:< where are you, friend? I can't see you

[-=BiGWanG=-] send you a message:< BAY OF TOKYO HELP ME NOW!!!1!

[ParaB] sends a message to [BigWangG]:< err...sorry. I'd really like to help you but I'm currently 50sm off Brisbane harbour.

[-=BiGWanG=-] send you a message:< YOU SUCK!!!111

[-=BiGWanG=-] ignores you now


:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

[XanderF]

I'm not sure why everyone seems to think I'm suggesting "WoW with submarines".

It seems to be where this thread is getting derailed, and I never implied (or want) any such thing - I said so specifically in an earlier post.

All I'm looking for is Sh3/Sh4 with a more expansive multiplayer component - expansive enough to be considered 'massive'. No 'grinding', indeed no levelling at ALL (who said levelling was a requirement of an MMO? How did that even come UP in this conversation?)

Again, we are not talking about changing the foundation of the game to try and target a 6 million+ install base. Nobody wants that. The idea is to just take what is already IN Sh3/Sh4, and just add onto the multiplayer. Ideally, we'd hit 50% of the target audience that ALREADY BOUGHT Sh3/Sh4. No more than that is needed, as each individual copy of any MMO title sold represents many times greater profitability to a company that individual copies of single-player/offline games.

IE., in a cost-benefit analysis of MMOs vs 'offline' games, you don't need to sell MORE copies to make the MMO more profitable, as each copy has much higher value over time. You only need to sell a significant fraction of the number that you would have sold anyway. An MMO is a license to print money for most companies (monthly fees, from every subscriber, for EVERY MONTH they play). What WE get out of it is a much more massive game, interaction with thousands of people playing at the same time, and more active, continued development than the half dozen patches we can at most optimistically expect of SP games.

[SteamWake]

Wolves of the Pacific Online

General chat:< [Xfazycxasd] BYU CHEAP RENOWN AT WWW.RENOWNFARMERS.COM (http://WWW.RENOWNFARMERS.COM)



Beautiful ! Complete with stupid typos ! Hilarious....

Now let me get a mop and clean up the soda all over the place.

[MikeJW]

No MMO because you'd lose more than half your sales. This is a series that appeals to SP people with a little MP thrown in for those who like it now and then. If MP was the main focus of SH4 I wouldnt have bought it because I hate MP.

[macky]

Wolves of the Pacific Online

General chat:< [Xfazycxasd] BYU CHEAP RENOWN AT WWW.RENOWNFARMERS.COM (http://WWW.RENOWNFARMERS.COM)


Beautiful ! Complete with stupid typos ! Hilarious....

Now let me get a mop and clean up the soda all over the place.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I do play wow, thats my curse in life. But I can imagine the reknown sellers now:yep:

No, I am not sure an SH3+4 mmo would work, in fact I am sure it wouldn't. Then again, I cant see how WW2 online would work, and it obviously does...I would be tempted I guess but I would need a free trial first:p

[Platapus]

Wolves of the Pacific Online

A typical afternoon in the massively multiplayer submarine sim by UbiSoft:

General chat:< [DeAtHKill0R] how do u dive?

General chat:< [CaptainBoobie] LOLZ U N00b!

I smell a fellow WoWer.

Your post brought back memories.... bad ones

I can just imagine Pearl chat being like barrens chat (shudder)

I am taking a much deserved break from not only wow but the wow forums.

The company here is much better :)

[Platapus]

how about a multiplayer game where you play the officers and Petty officers in the same sub? A sub where EVERYTHING is done manually. Make it a true submarine simulator.

Everything manual torp loading, nav, trim, weapon, radar, sonar all simulated as realistically as possible.

Just a whacky idea

[BlackSpot]

how about a multiplayer game where you play the officers and Petty officers in the same sub? A sub where EVERYTHING is done manually. Make it a true submarine simulator.

Everything manual torp loading, nav, trim, weapon, radar, sonar all simulated as realistically as possible.

Just a whacky idea

Yep I can just see it. A line appearing at the foot of the screen every 3 mins as in BF2142 "13 more votes needed to kick commander Parker"

[XanderF]

No MMO because you'd lose more than half your sales. This is a series that appeals to SP people with a little MP thrown in for those who like it now and then. If MP was the main focus of SH4 I wouldnt have bought it because I hate MP.

Maybe, but, surely, you realize that even with half the players lost, the game would still be a WINDFALL for the publisher. Each of the ones they keep, after all, nets them 4 times the profit of the gamer they lost...each year

[Ducimus]

I dunno about others, but one reason i play SubSims (apart from an unhealthy fixation with diesal boats and the history about them) is because its's NOT an MMO.

I can pause the game, i can quit when i want, go afk when i want, do what i want, be what i want, and nothing i do has to be decided upon by committee about whats best for the group or guild.

[XanderF]

I dunno about others, but one reason i play SubSims (apart from an unhealthy fixation with diesal boats and the history about them) is because its's NOT an MMO.

I can pause the game, i can quit when i want, go afk when i want, do what i want, be what i want, and nothing i do has to be decided upon by committee about whats best for the group or guild.

And how is that different in an MMO? Or, more specifically, this hypothetical MMO (and I would agree, as proposed, it's closer to Planetside that most others...but not really very close at all).

If you don't feel like joining with a wolfpack, and just want to patrol solo...you can do that. A wolfpack gets you better odds late-war against larger and better defended convoys, but if you want to try to solo it...nothing is stopping you. On the other hand, when you DO want to do a patrol with a wolfpack, you've got a group of people you are friends with from the board (or whatever) to go hunting with. Or can simply ad-hoc it with a group of people in port. I mean, I hate to point out the lame MMO connection, but a few "LFS, convoy hunting in Arctic Ocean" can get you a group to game with impromptu, and you can still solo or game with your regular flotilla when the situation suits.

[MikeJW]

each year[/I]


No, because not every series is as sucessful as WoW. Frankly I see an MMO sub sim with subscription starting of with a small base that barely covers the servers and only gets smaller. An MMO would limit the modders too. No, I know its hard for MMO fanatics to believe but MMOs are not the end-all-be-all of games.

[Ducimus]

And how is that different in an MMO?

Because MMO's tend to be groupcentric. Grouping, unfortunatly is one of the best "tools" of social engineering to encourage players to interact. The whole thing about Massive Mulitplayer Online is player interaction. Everything you do, your whole reason for being, is ultimatly about player interaction.

The problem comes that, with that interaction often comes a social obligation. LFG? Nobody wants you around if your just going to be in for 15 minute and bail. Theres sort of an unwritten rule to stick it out for some undertmined lenght of time - otherwise you wont get invited again. Particuarlly in any sort of large or *cough* "epic" encounter. Then, heavan forbid if your of a class or skill subset crucial to the groups survival. And if the group is working something, you can't just go AFK in the middle of the fight - or rather you shouldn't. In group centric games, people who go afk alot, leave early, and are otherwise not focused, do not get invited back very often, and participating in said groups, is crucial to your own advancement. Kind of a bummer huh?

[XanderF]

Maybe, but, surely, you realize that even with half the players lost, the game would still be a WINDFALL for the publisher. Each of the ones they keep, after all, nets them 4 times the profit of the gamer they lost...each year

No, because not every series is as sucessful as WoW. Frankly I see an MMO sub sim with subscription starting of with a small base that barely covers the servers and only gets smaller. An MMO would limit the modders too. No, I know its hard for MMO fanatics to believe but MMOs are not the end-all-be-all of games.

FWIW, for perspective, I don't currently subscribe to ANY MMO. I played 'Planetside' (MMOFPS) for about a year a while back, and beta'd 'Guild Wars' and 'Lord of the Rings Online', but even that is a generous term (I got into the beta, tried a day or two, decided it wasn't what I wanted and dropped them). Hardly a 'fanatic'.

That said, I really think SubSims COULD benefit from this arrangement.

As to "the servers" - honestly, that's more optimistic than I would put it. 'Planetside' is a pretty good example of a 'failed' MMO - 3 servers, current max simultaneous population is about 6,000 - 9,000 on each on a good night.

Personally, I think *one* (or two, for our European friends) servers with HALF those numbers each would be the perfect target for an MMO-SubSim.

Your comment about mods is, unfortunately, the only real caveat I see with this. Obviously, no mods would be possible. On the one hand, that CAN be a major killer. On the other, the very format of MMO means that the developers themselves are adding content on nearly a monthly basis.
And how is that different in an MMO?

Because MMO's tend to be groupcentric. Grouping, unfortunatly is one of the best "tools" of social engineering to encourage players to interact. The whole thing about Massive Mulitplayer Online is player interaction. Everything you do, your whole reason for being, is ultimatly about player interaction.

Agreed - the basic reason for the game's being WOULD be interaction. This "Silent Hunter: Wolf Packs" idea (for lack of a better title) would very much have that as the focus.

That said, that's not the ONLY thing there is. Even in the most group-centric MMO (and there are definitely some that are more of this than others), there is single-player content.

The problem comes that, with that interaction often comes a social obligation. LFG? Nobody wants you around if your just going to be in for 15 minute and bail. Theres sort of an unwritten rule to stick it out for some undertmined lenght of time - otherwise you wont get invited again. Particuarlly in any sort of large or *cough* "epic" encounter. Then, heavan forbid if your of a class or skill subset crucial to the groups survival. And if the group is working something, you can't just go AFK in the middle of the fight - or rather you shouldn't. In group centric games, people who go afk alot, leave early, and are otherwise not focused, do not get invited back very often, and participating in said groups, is crucial to your own advancement. Kind of a bummer huh?

While GENERALLY true - again, this is different between games. I'll go back to 'Planetside', as that's the only MMO-like game I have any real amount of experience in. In that game, yes, you could belong to an "outfit" (but you didn't have to), and most combat you fought in was with your outfit. However, even with a hundred people in it, they weren't all always on. And I found pretty regularly that you could squad up with others for a continent cap or two with "no obligations" - just fight as best as you can while you are on - and drop out half an hour or so later. You probably wouldn't see those people again, just due to the size of the community, but if you did run into them, they would usually be perfectly willing to invite you to an 'ad-hoc' squad, or to fill out an otherwise outfit-only squad - as long as you fought well last time.

For something like 'WoW' - which relies heavily on grinding, camping MOBs, queueing up for unique item drops, etc - yeah, I can see the "casual gamer" not being very welcome.

I can't fathom why SH:WP would be ANYTHING like that, though. There are no unique items, you aren't levelling. Worst thing that would happen if someone dropped out of your wolfpack halfway through a patrol would be...you are down 1 sub. That's it. Not exactly the end of the world.

[MikeJW]

Then you have to ask yourself what what would an MMO Sh4 bring to the table? Nothing I can see. Do you think theres enough people who want to be individual crewmen on a sub? Great, I'm a helmsman for 2 hours. Doesnt sound like fun. Or wolf packs you say? How big? What would an MMO add to current wolf packs? Since theres no real character improvement and no questing for the Uber Sword of Noob Pwning wheres the incentive to pay out $x amount a month.

[Ducimus]

When i played PS, pre bogus expansion, I was blessed with being in an outfit that happened to be online when i got home form work. So i only ran with the outfit on teamspeak. Point being, if someone was a noob, retard, or otherwise a dumbass, everyone knew it and everyone just shined him on. If your not a focused player, people will remember.

Hmm, looks like my old outfit has disowned me since i no longer play. LoL
http://myplanetside.station.sony.com/character.jsp?charId=398339&worldId=3

I was primarly CE, or scout/sniper for awhile. So i didnt get alot of kills. later on i switched to "skill-less assault" for the plasma spamming fun down into towers and spawn areas :P Man i have so many awesome memories of that game. Ever see the movie, "Terran Conquest" (100 MB WMV file), that movie was made in part by my old outfit. (42nd fire ant brigade)

[stinger503]

An MMO would limit the modders too.

I have to disagree with this. If Ubi did it right then you could still update your own submarine skins for example what better advertisement would there be for the Redfin Submarine Mod than to show it off around pearl harbour. You could still update the look of your own sub from the inside to aswell as the HUD. As for enviromental changes maybe you could send them to UBI and be acknowledged in a patch.

As for the problem with people leaving their wolfpacks why not just have two systems. 1 for clans and the other for recreational use. So if you use the recreational one there is no reason to expect you or someone else to stay. (Maybe as an incentive you have to be in base to "save" the game or else you take a hit on renown) and clans (flotillas,wolfpacks) would be more "professonal subsimmers" (which would be cool because you could have a clan specific skin or something for your subs).

[XanderF]

When i played PS, pre bogus expansion, I was blessed with being in an outfit that happened to be online when i got home form work. So i only ran with the outfit on teamspeak. Point being, if someone was a noob, retard, or otherwise a dumbass, everyone knew it and everyone just shined him on. If your not a focused player, people will remember.
...
I was primarly CE, or scout/sniper for awhile. So i didnt get alot of kills. later on i switched to "skill-less assault" for the plasma spamming fun down into towers and spawn areas :P Man i have so many awesome memories of that game. Ever see the movie, "Terran Conquest" (100 MB WMV file), that movie was made in part by my old outfit. (42nd fire ant brigade)

Same way with my PS outfit, but as I started the game on the east coast, I had joined Konrad (before it was absorbed into Emerald). Although I did create an Emerald account before the merge, so my main one would have the "-K" to indicate I was a pre-merge vet. :smug:

Anyway, moved to the West coast, and the hours of play shifted quite a bit. Bummer, too. Always played Terran, though, and - yeah, that game DEFINITELY had some of the best memories of any game I've ever played. We were mostly an AirCav outfit, and we Gal dropped into some INTENSE firefights. My favorite were the gen blowing missions, when several of us would guard the entrance in bolted down MAXes and have medics and repair dudes running around behind us, keeping us patched up while we POURED lead into the doorway.

Good times, man, good times.

EDIT: Huh, still in my outfit. Looks like I outrank you in CR, but you beat me in BR. :-)

http://myplanetside.station.sony.com/character.jsp?charId=673037&worldId=15

[Ducimus]

Twice the kills too. Mah e-pein's bigger! :88)
( We had dedicated squad leaders, so command rank for me wasnt a concern, frankly i didnt want it)

[difool2]

Reading the "nay" opinions here does not fill me with confidence WRT future MMO games
(of whatever sorts). I guess we will all be forever in the thrall of the lowest common
denominator, getting the same basic kinds of content over and over just dressed up
in different clothing. Now perhaps because I've never really felt the urge to sign up
for one of these games* I have little to contribute to this idea (or against it), but it
certainly on the surface seems like it would be cool. In practice yeah maybe not so
much, and probably not profitable, but in any event I'd sure like to see a MMO game
come out which just shatters the genre conventions. Would that be a naval/air MMO?
Maybe not but I'd sure like to see some developer try.

I guess the game to look at for any sort of model (obviously) would be Dangerous
Waters. What do they do right which would translate to the WWII environment?
What wouldn't translate? I think the map would have to be much smaller and scaled
down from what we see in SH3/4, with significant enemy traffic about an hour's sail
away or so. But being in an environment where the Japanese are assaulting this
island over here, the Yamato shelling the beaches while the American fleet sneaks
up on them, suddenly unleashing a horde of Dauntlesses, while a few American subs
inch towards the troop transports, that would rock IMHO. But I don't want Battle-
field like arcade gayness, that is for sure, but the public probably would.

*[In the case of MMORPGs, the relative lack of true role-playing lies near the top of
reasons why I never wanted to get involved in those, as does the static unchanging
nature of the world, along with the "everyone is a hero so nobody is" syndrome. I
could go on.]

[Cakewalk]

Anyone heard of Enigma: Rising Tide?

I'm sure most of you have. It was scheduled to become an MMO. Never happened, even though the game enjoyed some commercial success.

It would have been interesting, to say the least, how it would have played out. I could certaintly have found it enjoyable.

But, its not everyone's cup of tea.

[Meco]

Perhaps this thread could be made into some sort of Poll to see how the SH3-4 community at large would vote on such a concept.

:ahoy:

[SteamWake]

I dont need a poll.

I can most assuredly tell you that it would be in the neighborhood of 20 to 1 against.

[jesterofsanity]

my 2 cents:

XanderF says repeatedly that subscription plans are a windfall for publishers--this is wholeheartedly not true if you are at all familiar with the upkeep of IT infrastructure. It is expensive, to put it mildly, to maintain a server farm. A niche market, as sub games generally are, with a small number of players, would be nothing more than a horrid money sink. It would float for two, maybe three months before the publisher tanked--and that's assuming everyone who played it LIKED it.

I don't think this one is in the cards soon, unfortunately. :down: