MMORPG Development
I am currently in the process of developing an MMORPG, at the moment I'm writing documents organising features that will be implemented into the game and while that process was running, I wanted answers and discussion on the questions I have to be going on that I can refer to when production takes place.
Note: I am using the Unity Game Engine with (most likely) C++ (unless you could suggest another language)
Landscaping and Level Design:
What would be the best way to create the level design?
The process I had in mind was to create the shape of the island within a program like Photoshop in which I then place into Unity (or perhaps another suggested program) and mould it into place of the shape I created then brush in all the hills, slopes etc. and then finally using Vertex Painting and Vertex Shading.
After that I import un-textured objects like buildings, fences and general stuff like that and texture with the same process.
I'm not sure if this is the best way and what programs I should use.
What is the best way to create the buildings?
Again, I was thinking of creating them in something like Maya and then texturing in Unity, or perhaps importing it into ZBrush and texturing in there and then using sculpting brushes inside of ZBrush to create things like cracks and broken parts.
Would I have to do retopology on objects without animation?
I have asked several times about character creation and that it requires retopology if I use ZBrush, is this something to do with animating and rigging and if I don't do retopology it will get messed up
Character Creation:
How would I make clothing match the body shape of what character the player creates but still remain with the same design?
This is something I have had on my mind for a very long time and I am just unsure of how it should be done, in the Character Creation part I want to have a physique section and I want the armour that you can get to match the body shape that is developed depending on Physique, Gender and Race.
Would I just reapply the skeleton onto the clothing so it moves directly as the body does?
If someone puts on clothing, would I just reapply the skeleton to the clothing piece and it will be exactly as the body does?
How would I make cloth and hair move as if it was cloth or hair and not act as if it was a hard object?
Would I just have to animate it moving like so or would I be able to implement a feature so it does it itself?
Programming
What is the process of creating a character creation scene?
How exactly would I create a character creation scene? So simply, how would I program the buttons to change the features of the character.
How would I program the spells & abilities?
How would I program the buttons so when they're clicked they perform an action that plays in the direction of the target as well as rotating the correct to face the target, and having that power effect the target.
Also how would I make it so I can get the icons to move to slots in the HUD (which is designed within Photoshop)?
How would I create the servers?
I have had no experience creating servers or networking within games and I would really want to know how to do it.
Other
How do I create the effects for the spells and abilities?
Is there any tutorials you could link? or what is the process that I would need to go by.
How can I get the player to balance on surfaces?
How would I make the player change their posture if they're on a slant so the body is positioned as if it would on a slant in real-life?
How would I create the character clothing section?
So for anyone who has played an MMORPG, you should know about the clothing section and I was wondering how I could create this.
How could I make levelling systems?
So how could I make a levelling system where there is a maximum level, an experience bar that needs to be reach maximum to level up and the max. increases each time you level up, a part of screen that shows you levelled up as well as some golden shine or something that plays below your character and also things that can be done when certain levels are reached like being able to access certain aspects of the game, new spells and abilities or increase in stats.
How would I be able to make a world system?
So whenever you access a new place within the world it changes on the HUD below the map as well as shows up on your screen for a short period of time, also when you discover new places you get a reward.
Also how would I create the map in the GUI?
How would I be able to make the skybox seamlessly change?
When walking into different areas how could I get the skybox to seamlessly change when walking into the area, for an example if you were in a dark forest the sky might be a dark, saturated colour but when you walk into a desert, baron type area it may fade to an orangey sky or something.
Would would you like to see in this game?
Any game suggestions are happily considered, also if you see anyone suggest anything can you help me out by telling me how it could be done?
Note: There are heaps of topics that I haven't listed that I may need help with so please just tell me anything you know that could help within an MMORPG.
No negative comments, I just want people to be straight up and help me with the issues/.
Note: I am using the Unity Game Engine with (most likely) C++ (unless you could suggest another language)
Landscaping and Level Design:
What would be the best way to create the level design?
The process I had in mind was to create the shape of the island within a program like Photoshop in which I then place into Unity (or perhaps another suggested program) and mould it into place of the shape I created then brush in all the hills, slopes etc. and then finally using Vertex Painting and Vertex Shading.
After that I import un-textured objects like buildings, fences and general stuff like that and texture with the same process.
I'm not sure if this is the best way and what programs I should use.
What is the best way to create the buildings?
Again, I was thinking of creating them in something like Maya and then texturing in Unity, or perhaps importing it into ZBrush and texturing in there and then using sculpting brushes inside of ZBrush to create things like cracks and broken parts.
Would I have to do retopology on objects without animation?
I have asked several times about character creation and that it requires retopology if I use ZBrush, is this something to do with animating and rigging and if I don't do retopology it will get messed up
Character Creation:
How would I make clothing match the body shape of what character the player creates but still remain with the same design?
This is something I have had on my mind for a very long time and I am just unsure of how it should be done, in the Character Creation part I want to have a physique section and I want the armour that you can get to match the body shape that is developed depending on Physique, Gender and Race.
Would I just reapply the skeleton onto the clothing so it moves directly as the body does?
If someone puts on clothing, would I just reapply the skeleton to the clothing piece and it will be exactly as the body does?
How would I make cloth and hair move as if it was cloth or hair and not act as if it was a hard object?
Would I just have to animate it moving like so or would I be able to implement a feature so it does it itself?
Programming
What is the process of creating a character creation scene?
How exactly would I create a character creation scene? So simply, how would I program the buttons to change the features of the character.
How would I program the spells & abilities?
How would I program the buttons so when they're clicked they perform an action that plays in the direction of the target as well as rotating the correct to face the target, and having that power effect the target.
Also how would I make it so I can get the icons to move to slots in the HUD (which is designed within Photoshop)?
How would I create the servers?
I have had no experience creating servers or networking within games and I would really want to know how to do it.
Other
How do I create the effects for the spells and abilities?
Is there any tutorials you could link? or what is the process that I would need to go by.
How can I get the player to balance on surfaces?
How would I make the player change their posture if they're on a slant so the body is positioned as if it would on a slant in real-life?
How would I create the character clothing section?
So for anyone who has played an MMORPG, you should know about the clothing section and I was wondering how I could create this.
How could I make levelling systems?
So how could I make a levelling system where there is a maximum level, an experience bar that needs to be reach maximum to level up and the max. increases each time you level up, a part of screen that shows you levelled up as well as some golden shine or something that plays below your character and also things that can be done when certain levels are reached like being able to access certain aspects of the game, new spells and abilities or increase in stats.
How would I be able to make a world system?
So whenever you access a new place within the world it changes on the HUD below the map as well as shows up on your screen for a short period of time, also when you discover new places you get a reward.
Also how would I create the map in the GUI?
How would I be able to make the skybox seamlessly change?
When walking into different areas how could I get the skybox to seamlessly change when walking into the area, for an example if you were in a dark forest the sky might be a dark, saturated colour but when you walk into a desert, baron type area it may fade to an orangey sky or something.
Would would you like to see in this game?
Any game suggestions are happily considered, also if you see anyone suggest anything can you help me out by telling me how it could be done?
Note: There are heaps of topics that I haven't listed that I may need help with so please just tell me anything you know that could help within an MMORPG.
No negative comments, I just want people to be straight up and help me with the issues/.
Replies
START SIMPLE
OVERWHELMING PROJECTS ARE NO BUENO
You don't sound like you know the first thing about ...well..anything. I don't want to be harsh, but start simple. If you want to make a game, sure fine. But don't overwhelm yourself before you even know the basics.
"Would would you like to see in this game?"
Idk man your game, This is like..The most hated question I see on polycount
ETA: You've made a list of all the things you don't know, Google is a great way to start and polycount has an awesome wiki on a lot of this information.
Figure out if you want to be more focused on the development side or the visuals. Gameplay over graphics or vice versa. One man team for an mmorpg is madness, but hey. Focus on getting one thing before the next.
We are people, not tools for your disposal. If you want us to help you, then connect with us. Be polite. And show us you are serious and dedicated, Research being one good way of doing that.
Also, What Mr.Moose said.
I wasn't asking for you to research, I'm asking for people that know the answer to my questions to answer them.
Also, can someone just answer the questions that I asked who knows the answer instead of people arguing about my lack of abilities in creating such a project.
You sound like you don't know what you are doing, many of these questions even if answered with specific probably wouldn't be something you could fully understand.
That and there are hundreds of ways to go about doing the same thing, many of your questions simply can't be answered with 1 definite answer.
If you do lots of small projects while juggling a behemoth like an mmorpg I feel like you will probably have your taste in games change in that long process, which will lead to lots of work being redone over and over and over on the mmo project. Especially if you are starting from 0 because in my experience if you do set your mind to it, starting at the beginning of learning how to do all this and even just a little practice will already show an incredibly large change in the quality of work.
And you say that you know that an MMORPG is out of reach but you don't care, well you should care because there are hundreds of other things you could do with your time that could be more productive to your MMORPG cause first, not alongside the MMORPG project.
Try making a small game first and see how long and how much work that takes. Then try to do a small project with basic multiplayer, maybe even learn some network code to do some online multiplayer so that 2 people can play a game together, that will give you a much better idea at the very least what the project will take.
Landscaping and Level Design:
What would be the best way to create the level design?
Most of the titles I worked on used a terrain system, world builders would sculpt the terrain inside our editor. Unity has a terrain editor so that should cover it.
Every studio I've worked at started from scratch but I was told Lord of the Rings Online had plenty of its terrain generated in World Machine
Typically you don't have a single terrain for a whole zone - it's split up into seperate chunks that stream into memory. I'm a bit hazy on it but I think Warhammer Online split up each zone into a 32 by 32 chunk grid.
On the flip side, Wizard 101 & Pirate 101 had small zones that were completely modeled inside of 3DSMax, we had a triangle & texture budget for the whole area. This worked because both games are set in a world of shattered, floating islands.
What is the best way to create the buildings?
Model & Texture them in the app of your choice and import them into the engine. Look at the Polycount Wiki for info on this. Check out this post as well. It's all about balancing tiling textures & minimal amount of draw calls.
Would I have to do retopology on objects without animation?
I'm not sure I understand this; if the question is "can I import high resolution models straight out of zbrush?" then the answer is no.
Character Creation:
How would I make clothing match the body shape of what character the player creates but still remain with the same design?
You make armor/clothing that is weighted to the same skeleton as the character. Character customization is very complex, if you're a beginner this is way too much to tackle. All the MMOs I've worked on didn't have a system to adjust height, weight, etc... we would swap out faces & skin tones. We also laid out the uvs on the characters & clothing so the engine would bake them all down to one texture, keeping your draw calls low is very important in an MMO.
Here's what I think - I believe it's a combination of blend shapes & bone scaling. Every piece of clothing you make will have to match the blend shapes of the character models. So say you have your default character and then create a fat version and a muscular version for your blend shapes, when you create your clothing you will model it to fit on the default character and then adjust it's verts to fit the muscular & fat versions.
Programming questions:
I can't answer those questions, I was on the art team which usually ran around 10-30 people depending on the studio.
Learn the basics of whatever discipline best suits you. Many of these questions are easier to answer yourself once you have competence in programming, producing art, game design, etc. Are you playing the role of a producer or lead designer and plan on hiring a production team to work from your design document? If so, focus more on what these things actually do for your game and how they connect with each other rather than the technical side of how they're accomplished. For example, Health>Armor>Damage, and the different forms those can take, worry about how to display a map later.
Edit: For "best" practices, one size does not fit all. Environment for example, without knowing what you have in mind for design makes this difficult to answer, but modularity is usually the best way to go. It would be easy to have a model that contains a wood shack, some stairs to the door, a little addon for chopping wood and so on, and just drop this single entity where you need it but it will look very same-y across the world. Better to have each major element separate, it takes more time to assemble each shack as you need them, but you can personalize each of them. As to the exacts of how you accomplish this, you ask if Zbrush is a good way to add in details like cracks. Have you completed a full model before or touched it up in Zbrush? It can be a good workflow but this goes back to learning the fundementals if you're experienced; seeing a tutorial and saying "OK that's how it's done, I'm golden from here on out" doesn't cut it for producing whole assets, dig?
https://www.youtube.com/user/ExtraCreditz/featured
...and look at their videos in either the order of the ones that look most appealing or relevant, or in proper order starting from Season One. The videos are very entertaining yet serious and sensible, but there is a huge amount of them so dont burn yourself out too quickly by watching them all. When you see enough of them, you'll figure out how much you need to learn - about just the game design!
Which brings me to the point where I am compelled to tell you that you likely wont make this thing alone. You need models, textures, music, programming, design, AND serious knowledge in networking. And like I said, watch Extra Credits and you'll se how much thought and effort must be placed into even a single one of these areas.
If you are set on doing this anyway, instead of a world, make several debug rooms and slowly make up the basics of your game however you can, with plans to later add more world and more models once the thing is satisfyingly operational. And ask some of your friends to occasionally log into the server that you will setup, and try playing for a bit.
You want people to set you on the right path... but you dont want to know whats wrong with your current one? Is this a puzzle?