Stick to the basics

[toray]

I keep seeing all these suggestions for what people think are cool little add-ons to the game...

To the devs, I say: ignore cool add-ons... get the basics down pat and you'll have a game people will flock to:

1) Good solid combat system
2) Skill balance... it is absolutely vital that there's no skill whose advantages outweigh both its disadvantages and the advantages of all other skills. Read that sentence very carefully.
3) An internally consistent and detailed world. Give us politics, give us factions to support and oppose, give us an over-riding enemy.

Everything else is just fluff. And while a certain degree of fluff adds lustre to the game, too much fluff, and the game gets buried by it.

Horizons has too much fluff. UO2 looks spot-on thus far. Camelot has no fluff, and I'm very much looking forward to playing it.

[Slitherrr]

I agree with what the man has to say. Fluff is in general unneeded. If a lack of fluff becomes an issue, it can always be added later, but only if the solid base of the game is just that, solid. As an addendum, I also see evidence that this is the path the devs are taking, although reinforcement of the idea is almost never a bad thing.

[Cynycal]

i have faith in the developers, faith that they'll make a very solid game, and i agree with the whole lack of fluff thing...however i wouldn't be half as interested in playing the game without some of the things that might be considered fluff by some...these i consider basics as well..

[Kymeri mac An Iolar]

I agree that alot for fluff is not needed. A good and well thought out game does not need it. I have played UO and EQ and did Beta on AC. One thing that I saw that is fun for the players is world events. IE: Season changes, Holiday events, or a well planned event by a guild such as mentioned in another thread sieaging a castle. AC has such going on right now for hollowen with the ability to carve pumpkins and use them as weapons, taking a mosters head as a helm/mask and a small white rabbit that is kicking everybodies but.

[Saint Faucet]

That rabbit isn't kicking my butt. I'm stay as far away from it as possible until one of the devs codes in the Holy Handgrenade of Antioch. Then and only then, will that bunny get what's coming to it.

Seriously though, I think a lot of the 'world events' will probably fall to the Brick House team's Campaign Managers (CM - Arcanity's version of the Dungeon Master). Since they'll be running a lot of the in-game events and quests, it'll probably be up to them to keep the game entertaining (with a lot of help from the rest of the staff of course).

[Wrentia]

If some tools for running events are available to guild leaders. Or perhaps a possible avenue for things guild leaders request for an event to be handled by Brickhouse. Player run events in past games have been either pure role play, find the item I hid on a mob, dueling tournaments, drunken races, etc....Here's something I'd like to be able to do.

Lets say I run a Monk guild and we have a monestary somewhere. I could either use tools provided or get together with a Brickhouse member to help me run an event. Now, here's the event: While giving a sermon in the courtyard one day, a Wyvern flys down out of the sky and grasps the sacred Book of Macorma out of my hands, then flys away to the mountians to the east. The guild bands together to search out this foul beast and retrive the sacred book. Once we find the hidden grotto of the beast and enter we find that the beast is being controlled by an evil monk. We battle the monk and the wyvern, finnally prevailing and retriving the sacred book. We could even make this the start of something bigger...the monk escapes, leaving our book behind in his haste....The monk returns a few weeks later with more of his order to try some more evilness....

Now, this would be cool, and if done right could also provide a money sink (the guild leader "purchases" the quest with guild money)

-Wrentia

[Kymeri mac An Iolar]

Yes that is what I was talking about, If you have a player who shows good story line abiliy and he has a idea for a event, it would be great to have it developed. Either by having Brick House do it or by having them help the player with the event, so its just not lets use our imagination time again.

[BelDragos]

I agree. It would help personalize the world for the players. Audience participation!