Firecaster

So, I am going to try to give an insight to what Firecaster actually is and how it came about. First will be the history. If that bores you, you can go skip down the the about section.

History

The game first started after some of my friends convinced me to play Maple Story. Maple story is an mmorpg where you run around killing various monsters and doing quests. I was sick and out from school for one day, and decided to give the game a try. I played for roughly three hours. I wasn't having much fun, but was assured when you reached level 10 that you got to pick a class and the game became much better. So I grinded my way through the game, killing monsters in 3 -4 hits and slowly leveling up. There were other people in the game, but they were all pretty much doing the same mindless tasks. Eventually I got to level 10, and picked a class. I thought the game was about to get better. Here is what actually happened:

• I started fighting a new monseter, which was a purple version of the one I was fighting before
• My damage was upgraded from 30 per attack to 60 per attack
• The monsters HP was upgraded from 100 to 80

I am not so sure about those numbers, as it was awhile ago, but they seem right and I remember that they were something of that nature. Nothing actually changed, and the gameplay still sucked, and I was still not having fun. I turned off the game and thought for a minute. How could a game that pretty much completely defied the game design aspects that made games fun be so immensely popular. It rarely ever rewarded the player, did not keep player focus, and was almost 100% work. And then I realized what it was. It was online. The social aspect was the only thing carrying the game. The MMORPG industry had taken a crappy game and made it online, and sucked millions of players in. What if the base game was actually fun?

Attempt 1

The first attempt at making this fun online game was with gamemaker. I simply took Maple Story and tried to make it fun. I made a platform game and made it online. I added PVP and made the battle system work by players shooting dodgable fireballs. For those that remember, this game was IMMENSELY fun. 5 hour duels were not uncommon. But it had some equally immense flaws. I was a noob at networking at the time, and Firecaster was my first real online game. I put everything clientside, and so the game was completely hackable. If you were lagging, you were unkillable. I later tried to move things serverside, but delay made it unplayable.

Attempt 2: Rising Flames

A friend and I wanted to make an mmorpg in VB6 using Mirage Source. Because of my adversity to generic mmorpgs, I decided to add a simple  firecaster-esc fireball system to the game. Even though the movement was tile based and top-down, the game was still fun. Unfortunatly the game was never released due to loss of interest after having to completely redo the graphics system (it was running DX7!).

Attempt 3

The third attempt to make Firecaster was again in gamemaker. The problem of lagless but fun mmorpg play was showing itself to be harder than previous thought. This version was top down, and featured a system of movement similar to that of an RTS, where you click where you want to go and then you move there. This system is extremely low bandwidth, as very little has to be communicated to the server for a lot to get done. Unfortunatly other players had trouble moving thier mouse from where they were shooting to where they wanted to move. The system was changed to a tile-based one as seen in Rising Flames. Actually the system was better, as it featured diagonal movement that removed some of the feeling of locked in place like in a normal tile based system. But I soon realized that Gamemaker was a bad match for the game I wanted to make. Things started to lag, and I didn't want to have to optimize every line of code to make the game runnable on everyday computers.

Current

The current version of firecaster, written in java, came rather fluidly out of the gamemaker version. I  kept the tile-based movement, which was proven to work and be fun, and the Java Client/Server has really fixed the lag problem. More about what is in the current version of firecaster can be seen in the about section.

About

The current model for Firecaster is very different from other mmorpgs. The first difference would be the spells. Firecaster allows you to have 3 spells, though over 20 are planned to be put in the final game. Spells are the only method of doing damage to an enemy, as there is no "normal" attack. All spells are created under the guidelines that they should be equal but different to all other spells. They should also take some sort of skill or strategic planning to use. The spell system doesn't use mana either, but to prevent burnout during fights instead uses a cooldown method. After every spell cast, a cooldown is placed on you and you cannot cast ANY spell until it finishes. Here are some examples of spells in the game/planned to be in the game.

• Fireball: This spells shoots a fireball wherever you aim it. Other players can dodge it, and is the primary mean of doing damage.
• Tri-Fireball: This spell shoots a fireball wherever you aim it, but also in 2 other directions offset about 30 degrees from the first one. Has a longer cooldown than Fireball
• Frost: This shoots a fireball that, while not doing any damage, stuns any player that it hits. Has a high cooldown.
• Lightning: This marks a spot for a lightning bolt. After a second or so, a lightning bolt will hit that spot and that spot only, though it will do enormous amounts of damage. Has a high cooldown.
• Heal: Heals you a few hitpoints. This has a very high cooldown, so it is not suggested to be used in a battle.
• Shield: Sets up a shield around you that blocks any spells. Shield will wear off before cooldown though.
• Shieldball: Sends a large, fast moving fireball out that destroys any enemy spells it hits.
• Darkball: Sends a very slowmoving fireball out that does an immense amount of damage.

So you may ask why I limit each player to only 3 spells. That is because of the next system in Firecaster, the team system. Each player can team up with up to two other players. Teams share experiance, and allow for variety in players. In a solo game, eventually a few builds would become best and the game would become fairly boring. But teams allow  for  much more complex strategies, and a more interesting atmosphere overall. Because of the cooldown system, combination of spells can only be preformed via a team. This alone creates variety among players. For example, you get the Frost spell, and your teammate gets the Lightning spell. Alone each spell is pretty useless, but if used together they can be deadly. Your opponent freezes the enemy, and you step up and cast a lighting bolt on them while they sit there helpless.

The next most different thing you will probably notice in Firecaster to that of other MMORPGS is the levels. One of the things I really dislike about MMORPGS is that they reward time, not skill (I'm talking to you, World of Warcraft!"). Firecaster follows this philosophy: A skilled level 1 can beat an unskilled level 100. Levels really play no role in the gameplay of firecaster, but instead serve as sort of a ranking system. You lose experience for every death on your team, and gain experience for every kill your team gets.

Because of the lack of traditional leveling, Firecaster will not have random mobs of monsters running around, as there would be no incentive to kill them. Instead monsters in Firecaster function as boss fights. Bosses will work like Legend of Zelda bosses, with unique abilities and weaknesses. There may/may not be dungeons leading up to bosses, as I am still pondering this. Eitherway, killing a boss will unlock for you a new spell. While you only can equip 3 spells at a time, you will be able to switch out those three from any you have unlocked at a "switching station", which will most likely be located in towns.

Items are the last thing I haven't mentioned. Items will behave like spells, but wont be usable. They will provide passive bonuses, like +10 hit points, or increased speed. They will also take up spell slots. There will be no gold.

I am continuing to work on Firecaster, and should have an update shortly. Also expect a new post on general game design up later.