"I've had this idea for 25 years": Solo dev behind single-player MMO with fake simulated players insists "I do not plan to add multiplayer" as it soars on Steam
https://www.gamesradar.com/games/mmo/ive-had-this-idea-for-25-years-solo-dev-behind-single-player-mmo-with-fake-simulated-players-insists-i-do-not-plan-to-add-multiplayer-as-it-soars-on-steam/Open linkView original on lemmy.world435
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One review I just read on steam said "great if you have dad game hours"
OMG, fuckin sold! LMAO
Right?
I am a dad to one year old twins and I feel this comment in my bones.
God help you and your family.
Is it just me or is it impossible to just find a link to the steam page on any gamesradar article ever.
Here you go, suh!
Game is Erenshor.
Thank you. Should be a damn rule you have to link the game in the post
I think there's actually a rule against it... seen as pandering/advertising? I may be mistaken though.
The entire point of the community is to discuss games. Not labeling the game in the original post is just inevitably going to result in a quarter to half the comments are people just asking the name of the game.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2382520/Erenshor/
If you're interested in this sort of thing and like action/adventure rpgs, give Crosscode a shot. it's excellent
Hi!
Lea!
The people downvoting you have never experienced perfectly regular trees (and don't understand CrossCode inside jokes).
Respect for the GOG link (gotta reduce Steam's monopoly-like grip on digital games), but... CrossCode, despite its fantastic presentation, wore me down to the point of not finishing it. I feel like the devs ran out of ideas halfway through because all of the dungeons involve multiple ricochet-angling puzzles, even all the way to the last one. They just got so tedious and boring that I eventually ended up "finishing" by watching someone else's play-through.
It has an interesting plot, but... yeah. Anyway, that was my personal experience.
I struggled with it as well. My main problem seemed to be that no matter how many side quests I did, I was still underleveled for most enemy encounters. I did read that upgrading gear is worth more than levels, but it was such a grind to go and find all the materials that I eventually got bored. Shame though, because it's really well made.
I found the opposite, it had very little grinding required. It does assume that you'll do most of the side quests, but i found that by doing all quests available at my level or under that i was always overleveled for the bosses. It does warn you that its intended to be difficult though, with an option to turn down the difficulty. I also found the side quests to be genuinely interesting and diverse, and not repetitive or grindy at all. Its a long game for sure, but i never spent any time just grinding. I ran past most monsters once i had cleared each area for the first time and they respawned.
Interesting quests ? Not a real MMO
Well, it's not that well-made if it lost players like us...
Exact same with me. The open-world-ish parts were great, but then I'd have to slog though multi-hour dungeons filled with boring puzzles without even AI companions. That's not like any MMO I've ever played.
I had the exact same thought when I read the premise. One of my favorite indie games of all time.
I picked this up the other day and it’s great! The SimPlayers go on their own little adventures, party together, and fill the chat with nonsense. I had this one guy accuse another of being a bot.
It’s really worth trying if you’re into the traditional mmo gameplay (grinding). But without the fuss of dealing with real people and their own schedules that fight against your own. For anybody who wants to try it out, there’s a demo which covers the first area.
No one talks in real mmos anymore so this would be welcome
Unless you go on an ERP server
I don't think Runescape has those
Bro, let me Rimmington your Falador while you Edgeville, and then I'll Karamja my Wizard's Tower in your Waterfall Dungeon.
If my boyfriend talked to me like that, he'd already be pregnant.
Hell yeah, Slayer!
When did .Hack//Sign come out, again? 🤔
.Hack//Infection did a great job simulating an MMO for its time
I've been playing through the first one. It's definitely a good time.
It's so fucking weird that this game/anime is all I've been thinking about for the last week and now to see it mentioned in the wild, unprompted.
Guys, quit mind reading/algorithming me. This and the ghibli shit. No one should have to vibe this much with the internet.
@cm0002 This puts me in the mind of the old .hack// series of single-player JRPGs, but from a Western perspective.
If they take some creative liberties with it to give it its own distinct feel and narrative, as the .hack// games did in their day, it could be a pretty charming game once it's out of Early Access.
Goat simulator had an mmo simulator.
There was also an achievement for licking a friend, if you played at the same time as one of your friends, they may pop up as one of the ingame NPCs.
But will they play like idiots and then offend my mom when I complain? Otherwise I'm not buying.
Ill offend your mom right now.
Maybe they'll call you trash and kick you from the group, lmao
It's actually pretty fun especially if you're watching something on another screen and just like to grind for items/levels. They have a free demo as well so I'd suggest anyone that finds this concept interesting to try it out!
They even have simulated global chat where people are assholes to each other lol very true to life.
It's a great idea, sadly the EQ gameplay does not interest me at all, but I'm all in for the idea of fake players in a single player/small coop only "FMMORPG". I'd love it if people tried to do this with every multiplayer game before sunsetting them.
I feel like it could be a really clever way of making a horror game
Creds:
Erenshor by Burgee Media
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2382520/Erenshor/
I wish I could play single player old school RuneScape on my SteamDeck so bad. Sitting mining rocks while I watch TV in bed would go so hard
I don't go for early access games but hot damn am I tempted. But if I lose a roll for a good bit of loot to a bot I'm gonna be pissed.
Just part of the mmo experience lol. Other player is a warrior and selected "need" on a wizard staff
I'd love to play WoW with this.
You can do basic 5 man content with AI players nowadays.
Yeah, they ripped that concept straight out of Final Fantasy XIV’s playbook… FFXIV implemented a system where you can solo dungeons by taking a group of NPCs with you. The NPCs level up from raids, so players who prefer soloing will be able to grind an entire party.
…And FFXIV had ripped it straight out of even older games like EverQuest (where it is common practice to multi-box and have control of an entire party at once.)
That seems to be the lifecycle of feature implementations for MMOs. It’s sort of a given that MMO players tend to be familiar with other MMOs, so word naturally spreads when one MMO creates a cool new system. And other MMO devs are able to basically see that other game implementing it as a feature test, to gauge how popular it may be in their own game. So when one MMO adds a cool new system, the other MMOs typically do the same relatively quickly. They’re all just copying each others’ homework.
TBF, Blizzard is at their best when they're stealing shit from others.
There's Solocraft private server for vanilla - lets you run a team of bots so you can do dungeons, on your own.
Yeah I'll be buying this. This is the game I've had in my head for the last 5 years
I have not played either of these, but the premise of a dead post-MMO world, PAGAN: Autogeny, seems personally more interesting to me.
That looks like it's probably a great game for someone like 5 years older than me tbh. I think I just missed the nostalgia train necessary for that kind of game
Didn't Shroud of the Avatar do this first?
kingdom of amular or something technically too, it was like an mmo that got turned into a single player game part of the way through development, could be another game from the ps3 im thinking of
Nah you're right. KoA was exactly that. More recently we have Wayfinder having a similar story.
And it was great!
Oh wow thats a name i never expected to see again. I knew a guy who blew a ton of money on that game years ago.
It certainly sounds interesting
This was something that I always dreamed of as a kid growing up playing WoW with shitty internet back in the day, will have to take a look at it
Sword Art Offline
MMOs have a lot of game design quirks and gameplay loops that either don't exist in singleplayer RPGs or exist in a different way that doesn't scratch the same itch. But some of us hate the constant money begging MMOs do or the toxic playerbases and would like to avoid that. Or we just don't have the time to sink into a real MMO.
This is exactly what I meant when I said "shitty interface", I just couldn't find the right words. Can't stand those design quirks and gameplay loops. They remind me of spreadsheet simulators. The kind of people who like those mechanics remind me of the kind of people who buy scratcher tickets. I prefer games where I can get lost in the world and forget that I'm playing a game.
Thanks for expanding on what I was trying to express. I can understand how the addiction factor could make a lot of people enjoy these kind of games, but it's not for me. Cannabis and Kratom are my vices of choice.
I have 300+ hours in oldschool RuneScape ironman where I can't trade/pick up item from other players. It's fun.
Me when I can't see what's in front of me
I've played a few singleplayer MMOs over the years, but none of them are like World of Warcraft. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning came closest, but that's probably because it was going to BE an MMO, originally. No tab-targeting like WoW though. No jumping either.
Eh, ESO is a great RPG IMHO, terrible mmo though
I saw this the other day and added it to my wishlist...curious to see what it's like when it breaks early access.
I hate it when articles have links that look like they might take you to a relevant page about the linked text, like the game's steam page, but instead take you to another older article about the same thing on the same site.
Meanwhile, I loathe in-article links to the store page which are disguised as links to other, earlier coverage on the subject the article is discussing. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
Dragon Age: Inquisition feels rather like a single-player MMO.
I wonder how it compares to Kenshi ... Probably less brutal. Otherwise it seems like similar game mechanics
a 3d thirdperson game with rimworld like emchanics would be fun, waiting on amazing cultivation im 2
Best time I ever had playing WoW was the single player project. The bots are fairly convincing most of the time. Even though they may trash talk, you never need to worry about being full on harassed.