Is there going to be a major storyline in this game ever?

[Babyfark McGeez]

Originally Posted by ringring

To be honest I'm struggling to understand why you need a storyline.

Truth be told i don't really care that much for a story.
But i'm a sucker for virtual worlds. Living, breathing, immersive virtual worlds that make you feel like you are a part of it.
PS1 allready was fairly thin in those regards aside from the player stuff (conveying emotions via macros and animations for example).

PS2 on the other hand barely even has a virtual world (out of bounds bullshit), let alone a living and breathing one (I noticed they now have one moving prop though, a fan. Hooray!).

Imo creating a (somewhat) believable (breathing living, immersive - hehe) world is one of the most important things when making a MMO. Immersion is the key word here. That's why i liked WoW, even though i'm not a MMORPG player. Those guys created a fantastic virtual world.
SOE didn't create a shitty virtual world, they didn't create a virtual world period. They made some maps.

[Figment]

Originally Posted by ringring

And of course the annoyance of repeatedly bumping into X outfit from the other side who would try and often succeed in thwarting your plans.

:3

[Figment]

Originally Posted by Babyfark McGeez

Truth be told i don't really care that much for a story.
But i'm a sucker for virtual worlds. Living, breathing, immersive virtual worlds that make you feel like you are a part of it.
PS1 allready was fairly thin in those regards aside from the player stuff (conveying emotions via macros and animations for example).

PS2 on the other hand barely even has a virtual world (out of bounds bullshit), let alone a living and breathing one (I noticed they now have one moving prop though, a fan. Hooray!).

Imo creating a (somewhat) believable (breathing living, immersive - hehe) world is one of the most important things when making a MMO. Immersion is the key word here. That's why i liked WoW, even though i'm not a MMORPG player. Those guys created a fantastic virtual world.
SOE didn't create a shitty virtual world, they didn't create a virtual world period. They made some maps.

The original PS1 concept intended to have some NPCs that would either just graze or prey on other AI, but also to hunt players away from battle. The intention was that there'd be herds that for instance would flee for combat. But also birds large enough to interfere in the skies. They scrapped most of that.

Personally, what I like about the world like you have in say a single player game like FarCry 2 is that the world itself breaths life. That there's something other than war going on too. The story itself is bullshit and uninteresting and the things like finding diamonds complete and utter meh.

But PS1 only had the Monoliths. And I liked that sort of history to a random spot. Simple little things like markers in PS2 that explain why this territory is called the way it is called would already give a place some history.

But beyond that, yes, things like kitchens, toilets, labs, etc, they make the buildings feel built for people to live and work in. Especially in large bases, you'd expect such things. If you need NPCs there... Not really. But alien animals roaming the countryside would be good IMO. Though I'd refrain from having them attack players.

[Babyfark McGeez]

Yeah, there is this one page full of nice pics and infos from one of the former PS1 devs (i assume you know that one), loved skimming through it.

And i like your idea about having some info about the territories, that's exactly the "spirit" i would expect from true (MMO) world-building. As i said, in PS2 we don't have a world, we have maps. And the bases look like your run-of-the-mill prop clutter without much thought put into it.

BUT, credit where credit is due, maybe they are getting a bit better in that regard. I noticed a base on hossin that felt like a real place simply by using exisiting assets in a clever manner; "Genudine Holographics". Check it out, that place felt convincing and not like prop clutter. The "treehouse" bases and the "dam" are also not bad.
Aside from those exceptions though they might aswell just put "construction sites" everywhere, why handcraft 42398478392 bases when they just look like random assets glued together?

[Gimpylung]

SOE were never good at lore, 'The Bending' anyone? It's pointless anyways, as someone else stated above, it's just an attempt to explain gameplay.

Higby and T-Ray decals, novelty car horns; explain that with lore.

Some kind of urban cityscape battle island in the works. Components of which are in the PTS client, it includes sections that look like highway overpasses. Such a city would imply a corresponding civilian population on Auraxis at some point and would have significant impact on the existing lore.

http://imgur.com/a/MhQim

I'm not in any way against such a landscape from a gameplay perspective but is there any point making up some paper thin lore to explain it.

My 'lore' is all the community drama that goes on, Dramaside essentially, it just keeps on giving.

'LOL Drama' to quote Ocelli from a long time ago.