5th September 2005, 8:45 PM
Chat filters. You can easily spend a week just making a group of like minded friends and joining some guild in the game, then set up filters to block any and all incoming chat from people who aren't in the guild, your party, or on your friends list. From what I've played of WOW, that really does the trick.
Anyway, here's what I've got so far. The species you could select would likely be based on the most popular species in the Zelda series. For example, hylians, zora, gorons, inch tall gorons, koroks (kokiri die if they leave the forest, plus koroks would be able to fly anyway, it's win-win (win for both story and gameplay), and maybe some new species. Each race would have like 2 or 3 class selections that would determine their abilities and what sort of Zelda items they could equip. Expect odd limitations, like hylians suddenly being unable to use the boomerang.
One thing, it will be IMPOSSIBLE to get your characters to look like main characters from the series. That would be intentional, because if it was possible to get a hylian to look even remotely like Link, no one would look like anyone else. These games already have too many "I look like that guy" things going on. At least City of Heroes can stand it, because there are just so very many super heroes to rip off that the streets don't get too flooded (oh and guess what? Yeah that's right, those friends who got FFXI and WOW, they are now all into COH, honestly I don't see anything all that unique except you can fly around).
So anyway, the main problems I see is that, for unknown reasons, WOW decided that Taurens should not have plainstride any more and gave them mounts (this was early in the beta). I'm afraid that while the idea of giving zora the ability to cross oceans and gorons the ability to dig (and koroks the ability to fly) is certainly one I'm in love with, I wonder if in testing it out it may prove so unfeasible and capable of producing so many problems that I too will be forced to scrap such a thing. If something as basic as double speed proved too much for Blizzard to work out in a balanced setting, I wonder how it will work in a real time action game... As far as dungeons that can only be reached by certain races with their innate abilities, I'm thinking those dungeons will require parties entirely of that race, forcing people to seek out at least a few friends. I'm just not sure that such segregation would actually work out well in the end, as it is often hard enough to find allies in these games. However, I will add that since it will be Zelda style combat, at least there's the fact that most mosters will be defeatable by one person, even if the monster is VERY hard with just one, that'll help in the design...
These are just the gameplay issues mind you. The issue of handling network latency is something I don't even want to think about right now...
Oh and, I will add that I really have no idea how this would fit into Zelda's storyline, nor do I even have a basic idea of what the story would be. I'm saving that for last, as I've heard before that's the best way to go about it. I just work out a few small details like the korok thing as I go along so far, but I have bigger concerns.
In the end, if I actually get this worked out, there's still the issue of me not even working for Nintendo. I may see what channels I can open to get Nintendo interested in the idea, or, as the case may be, I may end up just eliminating all references to Hyrule and just coming up with my own stuff. Of course, that won't rake in the cash as well, so...
Anyway, point is I really am seriously thinking this stuff out.
Anyway, here's what I've got so far. The species you could select would likely be based on the most popular species in the Zelda series. For example, hylians, zora, gorons, inch tall gorons, koroks (kokiri die if they leave the forest, plus koroks would be able to fly anyway, it's win-win (win for both story and gameplay), and maybe some new species. Each race would have like 2 or 3 class selections that would determine their abilities and what sort of Zelda items they could equip. Expect odd limitations, like hylians suddenly being unable to use the boomerang.
One thing, it will be IMPOSSIBLE to get your characters to look like main characters from the series. That would be intentional, because if it was possible to get a hylian to look even remotely like Link, no one would look like anyone else. These games already have too many "I look like that guy" things going on. At least City of Heroes can stand it, because there are just so very many super heroes to rip off that the streets don't get too flooded (oh and guess what? Yeah that's right, those friends who got FFXI and WOW, they are now all into COH, honestly I don't see anything all that unique except you can fly around).
So anyway, the main problems I see is that, for unknown reasons, WOW decided that Taurens should not have plainstride any more and gave them mounts (this was early in the beta). I'm afraid that while the idea of giving zora the ability to cross oceans and gorons the ability to dig (and koroks the ability to fly) is certainly one I'm in love with, I wonder if in testing it out it may prove so unfeasible and capable of producing so many problems that I too will be forced to scrap such a thing. If something as basic as double speed proved too much for Blizzard to work out in a balanced setting, I wonder how it will work in a real time action game... As far as dungeons that can only be reached by certain races with their innate abilities, I'm thinking those dungeons will require parties entirely of that race, forcing people to seek out at least a few friends. I'm just not sure that such segregation would actually work out well in the end, as it is often hard enough to find allies in these games. However, I will add that since it will be Zelda style combat, at least there's the fact that most mosters will be defeatable by one person, even if the monster is VERY hard with just one, that'll help in the design...
These are just the gameplay issues mind you. The issue of handling network latency is something I don't even want to think about right now...
Oh and, I will add that I really have no idea how this would fit into Zelda's storyline, nor do I even have a basic idea of what the story would be. I'm saving that for last, as I've heard before that's the best way to go about it. I just work out a few small details like the korok thing as I go along so far, but I have bigger concerns.
In the end, if I actually get this worked out, there's still the issue of me not even working for Nintendo. I may see what channels I can open to get Nintendo interested in the idea, or, as the case may be, I may end up just eliminating all references to Hyrule and just coming up with my own stuff. Of course, that won't rake in the cash as well, so...
Anyway, point is I really am seriously thinking this stuff out.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)