Bless Source Forums

I have a laundry list of what I'd like to see! Wall of text incoming!

I'm showing unbelievable restraint and narrowing my list down to 10. My top two issues are my first two issues. I honestly believe that if they're mismanaged, the game cannot become a success in the West. They have proven to be a significant challenge in every recent MMO.

1. Server management. VERY IMPORTANT.

Nothing KILLS an MMO faster than population imbalance in a faction game. AION progression in the Abyss was 100% gated by faction imbalance. It even prevented quest lines from progressing because specific fortresses never changed hands. Warhammer Online suffered tremendously in many cases during the first year because of massive faction imbalances on servers. Morale on a server is completely wiped out if you feel like you made a bad faction choice and the only thing you can do is lose. This is especially important when it comes to RVR or larger-scale PVP battles where control of an area provides major bonuses or other goodies. There need to be strict rules about how you acquire ownership of castles, how long you can keep it without it being sieged, how difficult it is for a smaller group to stand any chance at all against a zerg, etc.

Once folks figure out their server's faction has zero chance of success, folks start bailing off that server. Transfers kill communities and lead to server mergers. From there, it's a quick spiral to hemorrhaging your player base. This is possibly THE most important issue of all.

Another part of server management is anti-botting and anti-hacking policies. AION's US launch was riddled with thousands of bot reports and yet nothing was done. Nothing screams "Asian grinder" more than seien bot trains on day one.

2. Lots of stuff to do at level cap. VERY IMPORTANT.

BLESS does appear to have a LOT to do at level cap: PVP, RVR, Castle Sieges, Royal Quests/being knighted, raiding/dungeons, helping lower level players. PVP should include battlegrounds and Open World PVP as well as PVE and PVP servers. I assume they'll also have daily quests as well. But then what? Dailies in general are often highly boring and are done only for crafting mats or reputation. Ugh.

RIFT does have endgame currencies that allow you to gear up while participating in nearly every type of activity. I really like that because everything you may enjoy doing gradually progresses you. RIFT also provided thousands of artifacts to collect, reputations for every single zone to collect recipes and minipets and mounts and gear, as well as several hundred achievements. All of the dungeons you got to run while leveling up then had expert difficulty. I enjoy revisiting content and having it be a challenge. And if that wasn't enough, you spent a long time doing crafting dailies so you could learn the epic crafting recipes.

This also encompasses the speed with which you level. All Western MMOs launched in the past few years (RIFT, TSW, GW2, even AION in its current form) had reaching level cap inside the first week something EASILY accomplished by the hardcore community. You cannot expect to have folks sticking around when the folks most often vocal about the game are whining that there's nothing to do by the end of the first week.

Unfortunately, Eastern games that force PVP or have PVP as the "real" endgame cannot have wide success in the West unless they have PVP servers. Despite all our "hardcore PVPers" in the West, at least 90% of casual gamers prefer PVE.

3. Class customization/usefulness

Sounds like BLESS will offer a lot of endgame talent/skill customization, some due in part to race. I want to be able to roll what I want and still find usefulness in a party. GW2 did a great job of that because there was no trinity. Fortunately for me, I tend to roll tanks and healers, so finding groups is less of a burden. However, leveling up as tank/heals tends to be brutal, slow, and not exactly fun. That said, there needs to be a reason to have ANY of the DPS classes in a party. No one enjoys leveling a class that can't ever find a party because they're not a "real tank" or "real healer" or because there are far too many DPS classes vying for that last spot.

4. Racial bonuses

I really hate it when this happens: "Oh, if you want to tank, you need to be X race and Y class and use Z talents". I like hybrids and I like freedom of choice. Racial bonuses NEED to be balanced and for flavor, not something that would be "best of" and force you to choose a race just to play the class you want.

5. Faction freedom per server

I like races from both factions. It would suck to have to roll opposite-faction-alts on a different server just to enjoy that gameplay, especially since EVERY race has a unique starting area and story. I draw a lot of comparisons to RIFT, but their new expansion did away with a lot of the faction hiccups. The devs said they want faction to create tension and unique opportunities, however I want to be able to play both sides.

A big area where forced factions becomes a thorn in my side is for guilds. Cross-faction guilds won't happen. I know, I know. It *shouldn't* happen this way (ala WOW, WAR, AION, etc.) and the two sides are opposing. However, it's a PIMA to force guildies to play a faction they don't want to just to get to stay together as a group. I have a core group that's been gaming together for years and it's been frustrating with forced faction splits because it pushes us apart. Having one unified set of races, like in TERA, was wonderful for cooperation.

6. 10 character slots per server

There are 10 races and eight classes. I hope we have at LEAST eight slots per server so I can try all the classes, but would appreciate getting one of each race, too.

7. Fluff and possibly a cash shop

If there's one thing RIFT, TSW, TERA, etc. have proved: folks love fluff! Mounts, holiday/fun costumes, mini pets, dyes, weapon skins, etc. Players gobble that up and fork over tons of extra money to get the exact look and experience they want in game. I am against XP potions, +skill/ability potions, etc. I just want fluff! I love collecting mounts and weapon skins. As long as the cash shop doesn't offer anything that you can't get in-game and refrains from providing items that give an advantage over players in game, I'm happy. GW2 had a generally great cash shop in that you could use in-game gold to buy the cash shop gems, so you didn't even require cash to acquire the cash shop items.

8. Dungeon finder

I know this is controversial. Those for say it makes it easier to enjoy the game, especially if you play at odd hours, are in a small guild, or don't have a lot of time to wait around spamming /LFG chat. Opponents say it destroys the community as folks don't get to know each other. For me, it's been my experience that I've made a lot of friends running dungeons for an afternoon in a server-wide LFG/LFD type of device. I don't believe that spamming a channel causes more community than pressing a button and waiting.

9. Auction House

MANY server communities, especially those that turn out to have lower populations, tend to be decimated when it comes to borked AHs. In TERA, our server had an extremely horrible economy. The high end guilds had all the epic gear to dump into the AH and guilds trying to progress had nothing. Prices were 4x-10x higher than the high pop servers. People were even making use of "free server transfers" to buy items on a high pop server, wait a week, then transfer back and sell those cheap items for extreme profits. Lower population servers always lag behind high pop servers in all areas of progression.

The Secret World and GW2 managed this by only having ONE AH for the entire game. That made it so any item you could think of was available 24/7 (very helpful while you gear alts). They had massive issues at first, but did resolve them and the systems work very well now.

10. Crafting and Material Gathering

I'd like USEFUL crafting like in RIFT. Everything you craft is useful and you don't have to craft dozens of useless items that flood the Auction House. Disenchanting items gives you mats to craft even more items (augments that give bonuses to what you craft).

GW2's crafting gave you XP. You could actually level all the way to level cap by ONLY crafting. I did appreciate that. TERA and GW2 both gave XP for gathering. TERA also gave buffs that could stack and lasted for several minutes. It's nice to see every aspect of the game benefiting your progression.

Quoted from "adalbercht"

Hi admin, would like to include as below;
1: Perfect World style Chatting System with .gif icon that can express more emotion.
2: Perfect World style Male & Female character couple hugging, kissing, riding pet together or flying together, with marriage system.
3: Perfect World style Open World system.
4: Perfect World style PVP system, PK system.
5: Eve Online style Infinite World system, update speed very fast.
6: Pandora Saga long distance journey to run from town A to town B, teleport is located far away from destination.
7: Conan Style enemy being slash to diffrent pieces.
8: Dragon Nest style Fame system, Tittle system, Combat system.
9: Dragon Prophet style dragon pet system, capture and ride on the dragon. ( Just tested the Alpha Beta Taiwan server )
10: Weather System.

Thank You and sorry for the bad english. haha. Have fun and hope to see Bless Online Success. Thank you!

Hello, Adalbercht and welcome!

I haven't really played Perfect World games. Could you elaborate about why you like those systems so much for #3 and #4?

We do know there is weather. We've seen sun, rain, clouds, etc. and there is a night/day cycle that also affects NPCs.

I liked the GW 2 questing system but that is not needed just an enjoyable leveling experience something that makes me want to keep playing.
I mostly just want a good player base that is nice and enjoyable to quest with. Since I'm mostly a solo player maybe they can give some incentive to quest together.
And I would really like a weather system just because I love the rain.

I agree with the Perfect World style interactions. My boyfriend and I had some good laughs about me carrying him everywhere.

In any case, I agree with a lot of what was already posted here. A big thing for me will be all races being able to be all classes. I know there are reasons for restrictions--lore and such, but for sheer gameplay enjoyment, I want to be a Paladin of any race! (Don't get me wrong--I am a raging lore junkie, so I can respect restrictions because of it.)

I would also like specializations! I would love to be a Paladin that focuses on DPS. I'm not gonna hold my breath for it, but man would that make me so happy. If it does go into play, a dual spec system would be amazing!

I might think of more later. :p

Some of the things I would love too see in BLESS:

adal kinda hit the first one though sometimes people could consider it a spam and often a trait of free to play games. Is the emote icons. Having played a few PWE games myself it was always fun to use the fun monkey emotes to taunt or play around with other players to further press the emotion button on some players For good or for bad either way it was fun and entertaining.

The World chatting system yes I do like however please by all means do not charge people to chat in world chat like most f2p games. And I understand BLESS will be free to play (?) Or correct me if I am wrong. Read several articles regarding that. Maybe a form of a limit so that we can keep the spammers at bay. But lets not pull a TERA US where they put a timer that was really long at one point where it annoyed people so much they ended up using another pre set channel to do the spam/talk instead. I do however liked what TERA and other games did is giving the players the ability to create their own special channel to share with people that they gave passwords too. May it be for temp things or alliances.

-- Alliance chat would be lovely where you can set at least up to three guilds that may be in an alliance with a perma chat that as long as you are in one of the three guilds you have access too it so no one would have to keep creating it if someone forgets too keep it up.

Classes -- just as long as they stay balanced enough and DO NOT EVER introduce other classes that are sad attempts at supposed to be "you can be taken in the place of ___ class". Because if you do that , at least give them enough buff and balance to match. IE the whole Priest vs Mystic issue in TERA.

Someone already pointed it out but a lot of activities at endgame. It does not matter how many dungeons you tack onto the end of the game, people will still not see that as "End content" or not enough. Though from reading what BLESS is doing it seems the are sorta getting the right idea. With missions/quests that require you to be at end game. But they need to be careful with that because players now days associate that with "more grind".
------- large scale/end game world bosses. Ones that actually MEAN something to go hunt. Not these badass BAMS/mini bosses in games that are great to fight but have no good loot to make it worth the pvp or end game battle between people or maybe guilds. Some of the best game-play/fun was in games that made end game bosses out on the Fields where it brought guilds out to fight/defend to win some great loot. And it kept people playing instead of being bored. FW did do that right when the cap was 75 our guilds spent hours in great PVP sessions over a few end game bosses that got everyone out having fun.

-- It seemed like they hinted at siege. All I can say is if they do it and put it out right away I'll be happy. I loved WoE/Siege in RO and L2 so much. It was so much fun.
-- And maybe other activities not just battlegrounds or 3v3/3v5s which people will complain as grind depending on how you set up the rewards for that as well. And making to where its PVP not pvpve. Players don't want to kill monsters for buffs in a pvp match. Or at least I have seen the complaints on that when battlegrounds have come out in games as of late.

If they do large scale events make it worth for everyone but also not make it a huge grind. (Hinting at the "Grind" part ) People want to have fun but also not want to have to come to something daily just too obtain it. While that may not be a big issue to those that are hardcore players that can do the hour or do the tricks people that cannot will find it displeasing. --- Maybe something what GW2 did with their world bosses/quests/events those where pretty good.
--- Also ..dealing with the lag..good servers/etc to handle the players or the distance that so many people are seen on screen.
--- Guild vs Guild battlegrounds/capture the flag/ect (Some games did this really well..how well you could battle/logic to win instead of pure PVP force.)

- One thing I would like to see which comes from ESO. (And no I'm not a Pokemon addict serious) Was their Pet system. In so many online games I have seen the playbase love Pets or having a companion that could fight alongside of them. ESO did a really good job with this, allowing you too build your pet anyway you want by taking existing pets that where allowed to be caught throughout the areas. Too feed and build into one too make it a battle pet / fuse or healing (although this one was rare due to the pet skills) . Or at least allow some decent pet system too let players enjoy that element :p

And as also pointed out. The Cash Shop. If You make it pure FLUFF (like a select games have done), that's a wonderful cash shop. No elements that could gain anyone the edge just by having a bigger wallet . PWE games are the biggest example same with NEXON. Where if you had enough money laying about you didn't have to play the game you cashed your way too the top with everything you needed. I saw players in PWE pour at least 1000USD a month just because they could. Not to say no one is not allowed to do what they want with the games they play but that should not be something I want to see in a good game, which I hope BLESS will be. Keep it too mounts, costumes, cosmetic only and things will be great. And as long as they are trad-able in game or players have means too also get them in game that's also great.
and the big one



RNG - If its going to be in the game do NOT NOT NOT make it the biggest part of the game. Korean games are notorious for this. From Upgrading to treasure/lotto boxs. Or any element within the game that gives you a "Chance" and where the failure is a higher % on the chart then a postive. In RO you broke your gears, if you failed , which led too Cash Shop evil such as items to increase the chance of upgrading. in TERA..at least in the NA ver you didn't break your gears if you failed..but lets talk about how bad RNG and luck people had.... in Korea for TERA you had to use dusts to prevent dropping a upgrade or breaking at one point.... lets not... think of the player-base..please..

So I want to be able to see a fair enchanting/upgrading system that will not have most of its player base ripping out their hair and then later filling the forums with hate letters :p


Thats all I can think of right now

1. hack and slash combat with combo system
2. community board where you can post if you want to recruit for a guild member and people just click a button to apply for the guild so that it's easier to recruit guild members even if you're offline or you can post something that you want to buy or sell
3. auction system similar to prius online where people actually bid for the items they want to buy
4. maybe a job system similar to ragnarok
5. crafted weapons and armors appearance customization with sliders so that people can change the length of the suits, pants etc. change colors and add some things to make them look unique
6. mini games like fishing, animal hunting, racing and shooting games with some twist to it and players will get items as a prize, players sometimes get bored or tired of grinding, questing, raiding boss and killing each other, i thought it's better if players have something else to do other than the usual things you can do in an mmo
7. i would like to see NPCs moving around too unlike in ither mmos NPCs are just like statues standing in one place, so i would to walk around town or places to look for NPCs that i need to talk to for my quest and also NPC stores and houses closing during a certain time at night, very realistic, i like to see some NPCs traveling too like you can see them walking the road with you or riding something

1: Waiting Place for Airship traveling. I still remember the time I play Maple Story, when traveling to special place, we need to stay at the terminal for 3 or 5 minute for the airship arive, every player keep chatting jumping around etc. when airship arrive, we jump on it, sometime in the airship got special event killing boss at the air. It's interesting and fun. Btw, 2: advance job or 2nd job upgrade such like ragnarok also interesting; novice - swordman - crusader - paladin. Very attractive system!
3: oh ya, effect of blur, stun on the screen such like need for speed, speed effect, or low blood effect that the screen appear blood mark that similar like assassin creed and or gears of war etc. thank you!

Here are the things i would like to see
1. Creating your own house

2. Marriage and Soul mate system

3. Something most bosses in games don't have i want to see bosses and regular monsters with Unpredictability when fighting them.

i also would like to see more than just fighting like lots of crafting and cooking abilities like you could do in runescape and Wow.

Quoted from "jacobmcc4"

Here are the things i would like to see
1. Creating your own house

2. Marriage and Soul mate system

3. Something most bosses in games don't have i want to see bosses and regular monsters with Unpredictability when fighting them.

That's all i could think of that i would like to see.

Creating your own house from scratch and a marriage system were both added to RIFT and I think they add a lot to the overall experience of that game. They even tied in crafting as (IIRC) all crafts can make *something* for your house. Very innovative and gives players yet another reason to keep playing.

I think TERA did a good job overall in the action combat with BAMs and bosses in that there were lots of boss skills that could be used, but not necessarily in a particular order so you were always having to stay alert during fights. I liked that a lot.

1. LFG "dungeon/duty finder" system

2. no quest hub where u kill x amount/fetch of something .. primary quest are dungeon quest (prefer instanced, cool looking dungeons)

3. voip (esp in dungeons)

4. massive rvr world like what TESO is doing with cyrodiil (with quest inside of this land)

5. chat bubbles

6. Lots of Platforming! jumping puzzles, this adds so much fun to mmos.. creates depth instead of static 2d "walk in line" world. GW2 did a great job with jumping puzzles.. they are fun..

7. some kind of time/active blocking system?