WoW

[azaethral]

I'm curious, is anyone working on, or has thought about a World of Wesnoth sort of thing (a basic 3D MMO following Wesnoth philosophy and setting)?

I'm not suggesting the idea, or offering to work on it, I just wanted to see if there already was any activity of the sort.

[ancestral]

Sorry to dash your hopes, but such an undertaking would be unpractical and virtually impossible, being Wesnoth is entirely turn-based and MMORPG's are real-time.

Imagine if even 9 players (currently the limit) were all logged in they would have to wait quite a while to choose their moves.

[azaethral]

Why wouldn't the idea make sense? World of Warcraft started out as a (real-time) strategy game called Warcraft 3. I'm only talking about sharing the same setting and philosophy as a basis.

[thespaceinvader]

http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16779

It's certainly been considered in the past. But it's really not the sort of enterprise that could easily be done as FLOSS - and since anything Wesnoth-based would, I think, have to be GPL'd, it's unlikely to be something that will ever come to fruition...

[ancestral]

Why wouldn't the idea make sense? World of Warcraft started out as a (real-time) strategy game called Warcraft 3. I'm only talking about sharing the same setting and philosophy as a basis.

What? Warcraft III is also real-time; Wesnoth is turn-based. There would be simply too much waiting.

If you're suggesting that people start a completely new project, I'd say that's even more impractical. There would certainly be large, large costs. Forgetting for now about how many people would be needed for such a project, the servers and maintenance alone would be extremely pricely.

I think there maybe be a few open source MMORPG's out there (though probably not many, I certainly can't think of any off the top of my head) but see that's probably all they're doing. Wesnoth will continue to improve oh itself for years and years to come. I'd say the community (contributors and most definitely developers) would need to grow at a very, very fast rate before there'd be anyway to conquer a whole new project, with success, let alone this one.

There would be more success starting a separate project to create an MMORPG that's not necessarily based on Wesnoth (since that would more attract new developers) or work on creating custom content or modifications to existing MMORPG software, which might make more sense.

You might take a look at this, though, from the sounds of things, I think it's dying: http://www.silvertreerpg.org/

In any case, good luck.

[JW]

Why wouldn't the idea make sense? World of Warcraft started out as a (real-time) strategy game called Warcraft 3. I'm only talking about sharing the same setting and philosophy as a basis.

What? Warcraft III is also real-time; Wesnoth is turn-based. There would be simply too much waiting.

Really?

I think there maybe be a few open source MMORPG's out there (though probably not many, I certainly can't think of any off the top of my head)

Planeshift.

You might take a look at this, though, from the sounds of things, I think it's dying: http://www.silvertreerpg.org/

That's more RPG and less MMO, IIRC.

[silene]

I think there maybe be a few open source MMORPG's out there

The Mana World

[Cuyo Quiz]

FFT Wesnoth with a map to explore and tiers to match-up.

Turn-Based, Skill-Laden, My Grand Knight can pawn yours.

[Jetrel]

A wesnoth-themed MMO would be a workable idea. Of course, an -anything- themed MMO would work just fine.

[TheGreatRings]

You could do a Wesnoth MMO using the basic setting, characters, and unit types. The gameplay would have to change for real time, of course, but that doesn't mean its impossible. It just means it would be a bit different. Its like saying you can't make films based on books because some material has to be cut. Its called an adaptation for a reason, right?

[Sgt. Groovy]

If the regular, turn-based Wesnoth would be used as the combat engine, the amount of work wouldn't actually be on impossible level (or, at least you wouldn't be starting completely from scratch). Players would be controlling their troop of adventurers, fighting random AI or another player troops as Wesnoth matches. Some new features would need to be included, like having to sustain your troop (finding food and water) in the map mode, engaging in quests, building your own homeland base, etc. Also, it might be possible to "unrecall," or remove active units from the battle, in order to save some of your troop even if you lose the battle.

[Ken_Oh]

If the regular, turn-based Wesnoth would be used as the combat engine, the amount of work wouldn't actually be on impossible level (or, at least you wouldn't be starting completely from scratch). Players would be controlling their troop of adventurers, fighting random AI or another player troops as Wesnoth matches. Some new features would need to be included, like having to sustain your troop (finding food and water) in the map mode, engaging in quests, building your own homeland base, etc. Also, it might be possible to "unrecall," or remove active units from the battle, in order to save some of your troop even if you lose the battle.

As far as I can tell, all we would need to accomplish this is some sort of way to have continuity on the server side, preferably a dedicated server. That server would store outcomes of battles and whatever results are from commerce or any home functions (recruiting, building your home base, researching tech, farming, etc.).

If something like this could be implemented, I could see plenty of applications for something like Wesband.

[Sgt. Groovy]

The MMO server could be relatively lightweight if it simply redirected matches to take place on ordinary multiplayer servers (which would have to be modified to relay the match results back to the MMO server). Conceptually, it would basically be a multiplayer match switchboard that would also provide army persistence and larger narrative context for the matches. If the MMO world would also contain AI troops to fight and quests (campaigns), it would mix seamlessly the single and multiplayer gaming experiences.

[ancestral]

Although I have been a part of software projects before I'll admit I have never worked on an MMORPG, but I think the assumptions that it wouldn't be "that hard" are still oversimplifications. As evident by the Silvertree project (this may sound harsh but) it's going to have to figure out how not to fail. (MMORPG's can fail. Remember Shadowbane?) Take it a step forward and it's going to have to figure out how to succeed.

I would think it would be safe to say a few things:

• It would need loads of new graphics and sound. (Would people be content with flat 2D graphics for an MMORPG? Would people be content if their archer looked just like another archer? Would people be content if they could only be a male Dwarf and not a female one?)
• It would need a strong concept, defined goals, workable premise and a precise, detailed story line. Maybe for each playable race, character, or both. Maybe alternate story lines too. (What are people supposed to do? Who's at war with whom? How would characters from different backgrounds band together?)
• It would need thorough support by the Wesnoth players. Just because people who have responded in this thread or others doesn't necessarily represent the entire body. (Would people really be interested in a Wesnoth-themed MMORPG? Would people prefer a single-player RPG if it meant it got out faster? Or a complete action side-scroller as Jetryl has put work into?)
• It would need a constant team of developers to maintain and further develop the world. Depending how large it would get, you'd need active scenario developers to create content, quests, artwork, etc. This could get very, very high. (What new items, quests and places would need to be added currently? What new items, quests and places would need to be added over time? Who's going to moderate the realms, intervene when problems occur, and combat cheating?) And meanwhile, BFW would still be in development, so you wouldn't want to take away too many talented people from this project.
• It would be on a larger scale and likely take as much time if not considerably more time than with BFW before it's even functional, playable, and enjoyable. I don't think you can just take the Wesnoth engine and expect it'll hold up with hundreds of people connected real-time. It would also be way to presumptuous that people would flock to it and like it automatically. It would take a huge load of work and likely a long, long time.

The MMO server could be relatively lightweight if it simply redirected matches to take place on ordinary multiplayer servers (which would have to be modified to relay the match results back to the MMO server). Conceptually, it would basically be a multiplayer match switchboard that would also provide army persistence and larger narrative context for the matches. If the MMO world would also contain AI troops to fight and quests (campaigns), it would mix seamlessly the single and multiplayer gaming experiences.

But would people like that for an MMORPG? (Or maybe you'd call it a MMORTS then ) Would players rather want a persistent world?

If you combined the single-player experience, how would you combat cheating?

[Ken_Oh]

It would need loads of new graphics and sound. (Would people be content with flat 2D graphics for an MMORPG? Would people be content if their archer looked just like another archer? Would people be content if they could only be a male Dwarf and not a female one?)

Sure, if you wanted to compete with WoW. But, if you're just competing with WoW, then why not just play WoW? I think the idea to combine TBS with MMO elements is pretty novel, not to mention the most practical at this point.