3d MMO Sandbox Features

[tboxx]

What features do you feel define a Sandbox MMO?

I will start:

1) City/town building- World build (roads, tolls, bridges) - Terrain manipulation

2) Character customization i.e. abilities - skills customization- not necessarily meaning no set classes depending how you do it.

3) Multiply compelling game play options, not just PvE grind to x level and at max level PvE raid or PvP. (players can become traders being masters of logistics of moving goods safetly and timely, Bandits, Mercs, Empire builders, etc.

4) More control to players that impact game play, (NPC's merchants don't have unlimited number of items that players craft which sets a price floor. )

5)

6)

[Reliique]

I'll drop some thoughts too

- Obviously crafting
- Sandbox AI for creatures and monsters, they should have their own food chain pyramid
- I would love major world characters played by GM or players advanced enough to have political position in the world
- Mapmaking profession (Inventory slot for map item, shows you specific things on the map, you can leave notes on it about locations you discovered. Maybe expanding fog of war on your global map or special items made by player/gm can lead to treasure location)

Maybe those do not define Sandbox, but they are important for a realistic sandbox world. Sandbox is like having a second life, you must feel you are part of of the world and your actions are making impact on things around you. I see it like taking earth without a single human and dropping first wave of players on the coast.. Only land, animals and major locations are present on day 1, player will start the colonization. Kinda like civilization games, starting from nothing and becoming something bigger.. Its not about running from lvl1 to lvl80

[Viper]

a player bounty system.

a better combat system then what is the current norm (not sandbox specific but relevant if you are making a kit).

definitely an advanced crafting system

make supply and demand on items more advanced and player controllable.

an advanced guild system

this is exactly sand box but if i had a game i would want it to have some sort of advanced and ranked arena as well.

[Jackolantern]

You would want to be careful about some of this stuff, as it is really very specific and something that would likely be better to be scripted on an as-needed basis (such as mob food chains).

To me, sandbox games are often defined by skill-based characters with a system to increase stats through usage instead of leveling up. They are also hallmarked by horizontal advancement rather than vertical. This means that your character advances by gaining more skills and abilities in the game world, rather than by increasing the power of what they already have. This is what gives sandbox games their name, since it allows players to go anywhere at any time, unlike themepark games where you are restricted to small areas until you hit hard enough to go to the next area.

If you lay down the foundation for such an advancement system, I think you largely have the definition of a sandbox system covered. Then the other systems are filling in standard MMORPG fare.

[Cayle]

I'll drop some thoughts too

- Obviously crafting
- Sandbox AI for creatures and monsters, they should have their own food chain pyramid
- I would love major world characters played by GM or players advanced enough to have political position in the world
- Mapmaking profession (Inventory slot for map item, shows you specific things on the map, you can leave notes on it about locations you discovered. Maybe expanding fog of war on your global map or special items made by player/gm can lead to treasure location)

Maybe those do not define Sandbox, but they are important for a realistic sandbox world. Sandbox is like having a second life, you must feel you are part of of the world and your actions are making impact on things around you. I see it like taking earth without a single human and dropping first wave of players on the coast.. Only land, animals and major locations are present on day 1, player will start the colonization. Kinda like civilization games, starting from nothing and becoming something bigger.. Its not about running from lvl1 to lvl80

What you are describing is a simulationist oriented game; which is a subset of sandbox, as Jack alluded to.

[Reliique]

I'll drop some thoughts too

- Obviously crafting
- Sandbox AI for creatures and monsters, they should have their own food chain pyramid
- I would love major world characters played by GM or players advanced enough to have political position in the world
- Mapmaking profession (Inventory slot for map item, shows you specific things on the map, you can leave notes on it about locations you discovered. Maybe expanding fog of war on your global map or special items made by player/gm can lead to treasure location)

Maybe those do not define Sandbox, but they are important for a realistic sandbox world. Sandbox is like having a second life, you must feel you are part of of the world and your actions are making impact on things around you. I see it like taking earth without a single human and dropping first wave of players on the coast.. Only land, animals and major locations are present on day 1, player will start the colonization. Kinda like civilization games, starting from nothing and becoming something bigger.. Its not about running from lvl1 to lvl80

What you are describing is a simulationist oriented game; which is a subset of sandbox, as Jack alluded to.

Thats why I mentioned - "Maybe those do not define Sandbox"

[tboxx]

Sandbox as a term is relatively vague and ambiguous. I don't think anyone of these suggestions alone define a sandbox nor would they fall outside a sandbox. Like you could have rocks paper sisser classes with levels but other elements which make the game sandbox.


Me personally I am a huge fan of player world building and simulation/rts like npcs (player directed npcs that harvest resources, enemy npcs that build larger camps and increase spawning under certain conditions.

[tboxx]

You would want to be careful about some of this stuff, as it is really very specific and something that would likely be better to be scripted on an as-needed basis (such as mob food chains).

To me, sandbox games are often defined by skill-based characters with a system to increase stats through usage instead of leveling up. They are also hallmarked by horizontal advancement rather than vertical. This means that your character advances by gaining more skills and abilities in the game world, rather than by increasing the power of what they already have. This is what gives sandbox games their name, since it allows players to go anywhere at any time, unlike themepark games where you are restricted to small areas until you hit hard enough to go to the next area.

If you lay down the foundation for such an advancement system, I think you largely have the definition of a sandbox system covered. Then the other systems are filling in standard MMORPG fare.

Sandboxes do not get their name because you can go anywhere at any time although it definitely a mainstay element non the less. I believe they get their name from the fact the world is more influenced/driven by players. For example the player is like a person playing in a sandbox. Player freedom obviously would be a important element of that but they need ways to influence the world as well. Shadowbane had city construction and destruction as well as Darkfall, Age of Wushu has territory control and city building. Minecraft 150 man servers (I would consider an mmo) has word building and pvp, territory control etc.

[Jackolantern]

Actually they do get their name from being able to go anywhere and do almost anything at any time It is far from an MMO term, as other games like Grand Theft Auto, some Bethesda games like Fallout 3, and several of the Activision Spider Man games are also called "sandbox games" (even though the Spider Man games can hardly say the player influences the world). The one thing they all have in common: there are no game levels. You are simply dropped into an open world with the ability to go anywhere at any time. The term comes from the idea that "the world is your sandbox, to go where you want and do what you want". World building is somewhat common in sandbox MMOs, but very rare in other sandbox games, so I would not think that is the defining thread of the term. The granddaddy of all sandbox MMOs is Ultima Online, which was pretty much a basic MMO except it was skill-based, not level-based and allowed players to freely roam the world. After EQ1 came out is when the two terms "Themepark" and "Sandbox" were created to differentiate the styles (with "Themepark" meaning that players are led from one attraction to the next, like in EQ1, WoW and most other MMOs today). There was almost no world building in UO except for the player housing, which really did not play a central role in the game.

[tboxx]

Actually they do get their name from being able to go anywhere and do almost anything at any time It is far from an MMO term, as other games like Grand Theft Auto, some Bethesda games like Fallout 3, and several of the Activision Spider Man games are also called "sandbox games" (even though the Spider Man games can hardly say the player influences the world). The one thing they all have in common: there are no game levels. You are simply dropped into an open world with the ability to go anywhere at any time. The term comes from the idea that "the world is your sandbox, to go where you want and do what you want". World building is somewhat common in sandbox MMOs, but very rare in other sandbox games, so I would not think that is the defining thread of the term. The granddaddy of all sandbox MMOs is Ultima Online, which was pretty much a basic MMO except it was skill-based, not level-based and allowed players to freely roam the world. After EQ1 came out is when the two terms "Themepark" and "Sandbox" were created to differentiate the styles (with "Themepark" meaning that players are led from one attraction to the next, like in EQ1, WoW and most other MMOs today). There was almost no world building in UO except for the player housing, which really did not play a central role in the game.

Interesting, I didn't know that sandbox was used as a term for non MMO games and that it came into effect so early with MMOs. I just assumed those games had less restricted game play. I think the term sandbox is being more widely applied and it appears to be used more as a buzz word. I think as players grow tired of the standard format MMO's "themepark style" aka "WoW Clones" which I think is a good term for them because older games like EQ 1 although simliar were different in a sense EQ 1 was a vastly harsher game with corpse runs, non instanced dungeons and camping bosses, no auction house (they have one now but not back then) etc.