Today I will write about creating a MMORPG, basic concepts and variables only.
First, what is a MMORPG?
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) blend the genres of role-playing video games and massively multiplayer online games, potentially in the form of web browser-based games, in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a world.
As in all RPGs, the player assume the role of a character (often in a fantasy world or science-fiction world) and takes control over many of that character’s actions. MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player online RPGs by the number of players able to interact together, and by the game’s persistent world (usually hosted by the game’s publisher), which continues to exist and evolve while the player is offline and away from the game.
Main concepts
The idea is:
1. You, player have to fight monsters and/or other players to improve your skills.
2. Over time the strong players/monsters are going to beat you because they have more skills and power…
3. It’s time to improve your skill to take your revenge… again and again…
We have 2 protagonist: the player and the monster, this is the ultra basic concept, but it is not simple as it looks.
Click over the flow chart below:
Classes
In a classic MMORPG there are 4 classes, every class has different skills and features.
This step is really important to understand because if you fail the character setup the game will be trash.
The right setup is important to improve team play, strategies and general game play.
See the table below:
I try to explain briefly:
1. DPS with short-range weapon, he deals great damage in a very short time. He has light leather armor, good endurance and good speed.
2. TANK. He wears heavy metal armor, he is slow while in combat but has great endurance. His main task is take aggro from monster and resist to frontal attacks to protect other party members.
3. DPS with long-range weapon, he deals good damage in a very short time. He has light leather armor, less endurance than DPS with melee weapon but he moves faster.
4. (Cute!) HEALER. She wears a cloth tunic, she has low endurance but can heal herself and, very important, others party members. Healer usually has buff and debuff ability.
Ok, these are main classes, after that you can imagine intermediate classes as Bersek, Assasin, Mistic, Gunner, Thief with unique abilities; the only limit is your fantasy! Remember that players like fine tuning and choose between a lot of characters and features!
Cast Time and Cool Down
MMORPG is not a Shoot’em Up, inside the game the player can’t spell 100 fire balls per second! He is not a heavy machine gun :/
We need setup inside our code a Cast Time, a Cool Down and a Skill Energy.
– Every magic/moves use an amount of Skill Energy per second.
– Cast Time is the time you need to spell a magic, or the time you need to lift your heavy sword to blow your foe. Light damage move needs low cast time, hight damage move needs long cast time.
– Cool Down is the wait time you need to repeat a move.
Press the key -> Cast Time counter -> Play Animation / Skill energy consumption -> Cool Down counter -> Press the key … and so on …
When player make a combo of moves he has to discover the better combination considering Damage/Cast Time/Cool Down/Skill Energy needed, it is very funny.
This gameplay rewads at the same time good reflex and tactics, it is like a chess game, but with more action 
Combat Tactics
Understand the combact tactics is essential to create the AI for monsters in a MMORPG, you can see a simple example below:
1. TANK takes Aggro to protect other party members and deals damage.
2. DPS with short-range weapon deals damage rear of the monster, to avoid frontal attacks.
3. DPS with long-range weapon deals damage far away of the monster, and support HEALER.
4. HEALER run a lot near and far away the monster to support all party members, also in her spare time, deals damage.
It is clear that our monster will need:
– long range attacks
– short range attacks
– global attacks to damage every party member at the same time.
– attacks to damage
– attacks to stun
– attacks to throwdown
– attacks to debuff
– special features
Next Time I will talk about AI for monsters.
Have a nice day
Andrea
Thanks to:
Roberto ‘Drago’ for the useful informations about general mmorpg gameplay
Chicca ‘Coccinella’, my favorite Priest/Healer 😛
