Forums » Suggestions

Secret Area Proposal: "Legacies of Metamorphia"

Feb 18, 2005 DekuDekuplex link
After playing Vendetta® Online for about a month, I have reached the conclusion that one of the aspects most needed right now is lateral character development.

Currently, once characters reach approximately Combat Level 8, there is almost nothing interesting left to do but PvP (Player vs. Player), CtC (Catch the Cargo), and Trading. Having finally reached this level, I am increasingly left with the feeling that Vendetta® Online is really more of an FPS (First-Person Shooter) rather than an MMORPG.

It actually feels much more like Unreal® Tournament 2003 than like World of Warcraft®, which it seems to have extremely little, if any at all, resemblance to. I find this lack of any resemblance whatsoever disappointing, since I had started with the full expectation of a space version of something similar to World of Warcraft®, except with real-time spacecraft combat, but still with ample character development. It is precisely this lack of character development that I find seriously wanting. It seems that at this point, the online environment basically just revolves around just CtC and PvP. That's it.

In order to alleviate the boredom, I have a suggestion for lateral development that would not take away the current challenge of PvP secret areas.

One idea that I would really like to see implemented is some secret area, separate from the current main playing area, where the emphasis would be on cooperative teamwork and would allow for extremely powerful characters to overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges not possible in a setting where the main emphasis is on specifically PvP.

The problem with the entire scenario being almost exclusively focused on PvP is that, after a point, it becomes very difficult to establish true variety in gameplay without upsetting the balance of power. Any time an über-weapon or über-ship is created, this upsets the balance of power because the only real opponents are other players, who must also actively participate, so there is very little real sense of progress once players reach a certain point of development. All that is left for the players is just practice, practice, and more practice using the same kinds of weapons and ships over and over and over again until they gradually become just a little bit better to win just a little bit more often.

Now, if there were a secret area somewhere where the main focus were not on PvP, but instead on cooperative team-play against NPC über-opponents, then the players could truly be given über-weapons and über-ships, to be used only in the secret area against the über-opponents, without upsetting the power balance in the PvP area.

I would suggest something similar to the following:

Create a secret area, called, say, "Legacies of Metamorphia," populated by a race of androids, metamorphosed offshoots of the Serco cybernetic research on Terra II (later renamed "Serco Prime") prior to the Itani Exile of the Ark described in the Backstory.

Here is a possible scenario:

--

In A.D. 2660, during the days of stalemate of the Colony War of A.D. 2651 - 61 between the Serco and Itani factions on Terra II, a secret Serco project, called "Metamorphia," had been underway to develop a race of cyborgs. Several hapless Itani soldiers had been captured by the Serco, and were put in secret laboratories, where research was conducted on transplanting the brains of the soldiers into cyborgs, themselves capable of reproduction. The plan was to infiltrate Itani domes with these cyborgs, superficially indistinguishable from Itani citizens, and increase their number to the point where, once they reached a sufficient proportion of the Itani population, a secret message would be sent to all of them to metamorphose into super-soldiers to overthrow the Itani government and hand power over to the Serco.

The plan was scrapped, and the secret laboratories were destroyed, when the Serco won the war in A.D. 2661. However, the leading Serco scientist responsible for the project, Dr. Jean Luc Albatross, could not bear to see all his living prodigies killed. Secretly opposed to the war, unbeknownst to his superiors, he even had an Itani girlfriend who was soon to leave in the Ark. He managed to obtain her cooperation is setting up an escape pod, attached to the Ark, for two of his cyborg prodigies, one male and one female, undetected both to those on the Ark and those in his nation. It was set to release as soon as the Ark passed through the first wormhole. In order to make life more comfortable for his prodigies, Dr. Albatross even arranged for his cyborgs to terraform whatever planet the pod's computers decided was most likely to be habitable for a race of cyborgs anatomically similar to human beings.

On June 11, 2661, when the Ark launched, the escape pod, undetected, was attached to it, safely carrying the cyborg prodigies away from Terra II. The pod detached immediately after the Ark emerged from the first wormhole. Equipped with its own engines, sensors, and the ability to pilot through other wormholes, on November 9, 2675, it found a nearly hospitable planet in a different system from Itan, where the pod landed. The two cyborgs soon emerged, and began spawning a race of new cyborgs, who begain terraforming the planet.

In honor of the name of their original project, they named their planet "Metamorphia." These cyborgs became the Legacies of Metamorphia.

--

In order to prevent Metamorphia technology from being used by potential enemies in the event of theft or espionage, all artificial products produced on Metamorphia are created with a special substance contained in the material, called "Disintegratium," which causes it to disintegrate upon leaving Metamorphia space. Therefore, it is impossible to bring back any über-equipment from Metamorphia space to non-Metamorphia space without having it disintegrate immediately upon leaving its native space.

The citizens of Metamorphia, being cyborgs, have the same creativity and mental powers as those of human beings, except that they need no sleep. Therefore, by working around the clock every day, they have been able to achieve much greater technological advancement than their human counterparts.

Metamorphia was discovered by accident one day when a UIT drone Orion Centurion Rev C ship on an industrial espionage mission slipped into a previously undetected wormhole that led to Metamorphia. After the specialized long-range industrial espionage-grade scanners detected cyborg life on a previously undiscovered planet, the drone ship returned with its findings back through the wormhole to UIT space.

A detailed analysis of the scan results showed what appeared to be a highly advanced cyborg civilization with ships that were capable of rapid enough acceleration/deceleration and movement to kill any human pilot. Additionally, the cyborgs seemed to possess mining equipment capable of metamorphosing satellites and even entire planets into certain kinds of raw ore (and destroying any life on it in the process), apparently useful for Metamorphia industry.

The UIT corporate presidents, bent on profit-seeking, were not pleased with the prospect of either facing an adversary capable of wiping them out, or a trade competitor capable of wiping out their mining industry. Either way, they would lose their trading advantage.

After several top-level diplomatic meetings between board members of their major corporations (mainly TPG, Biocom, Valent, Orion, and Axia), UIT decided to contact key military leaders in both the Itani and Serco nations in a bid to wipe out the Metamorphia civilization before it became a possible business or military threat. The representatives from the UIT, Serco, and Itani nations/territories pledged to cooperate in Metamorphia space in trying to overthrow the Metamorphia civilization and neutralize it as a potential threat.

--

The sector containing the wormhole to Metamorphia space is guarded by three Behemoth Cannon, similar to the Itani Goliath Cannon. The Behemoth Cannon are each capable of wiping out a Frigate-class capital ship with one shot, but because the Cannon power up slowly and the shots travel more slowly than a turboing ship, they are useless against non-capital ships.

Therefore, any attacks against Metamorphia must be carried out in non-capital ships.

Metamorphia space stations, similar to their human counterparts, stock and sell Metamorphia weapons, devices, and ships. While significantly more powerful than their human-designed counterparts, they automatically disintegrate upon leaving Metamorphia space.

Metamorphia weapons and ships, unlike their human-designed counterparts, have their own levels of sophistication (similar to human levels of development), and are equipped with self-learning abilities, which enable them automatically to become faster and more powerful with increased use. Some weapons and ships even acquire additional abilities with heavy use.

Different regions of Metamorphia are guarded by Metamorphia cyberbots of different levels of difficulty. The easiest ones appear farthest from the Metamorphia capital, close to the wormhole; the most difficult ones appear just outside Planet Metamorphia itself. The more advanced the Metamorphia cyberbot, the more difficult it is to kill, the higher the level of Metamorphia weapon/ship required to kill it readily and the more Metamorphia experience it gives. Metamorphia experience is needed to raise the levels of Metamorphia equipment.

Only the most advanced Metamorphia equipment is effective against the cyberbots guarding Planet Metamorphia.

--

The above scenario is just a rough draft. It would require further refinement/polishing to be truly workable. Nevertheless, it could work as a headstart in creating a new secret area where character development is not limited by the constraints of a primarily PvP-focused combat system. Exciting super-weapons that would be truly über in a PvP environment would be merely commonplace in the teamwork-focused Metamorphia area, and since the opponents would not be other players and the Metamorphia equipment could not be brought back to non-Metamorphia areas, the super-weapons would not unbalance the non-Metamorphia PvP environment; it would merely supply an alternative, team-play-focused alternative.

Given the fact that another highly successful online RPG, "Final Fantasy® XI Online," also provides for separate PvP/non-PvP arenas, it would seem highly likely that the addition of such an additional teamwork-focused arena would make Vendetta® Online more successful as a true space-combat MMORPG.

-- DekuDekuplex Ornitier
Feb 18, 2005 johnhawl218 link
"After playing Vendetta® Online for about a month, I have reached the conclusion that one of the aspects most needed right now is lateral character development.

Currently, once characters reach approximately Combat Level 8, there is almost nothing interesting left to do but PvP (Player vs. Player), CtC (Catch the Cargo), and Trading. Having finally reached this level, I am increasingly left with the feeling that Vendetta® Online is really more of an FPS (First-Person Shooter) rather than an MMORPG.

It actually feels much more like Unreal® Tournament 2003 than like World of Warcraft®, which it seems to have extremely little, if any at all, resemblance to. I find this lack of any resemblance whatsoever disappointing, since I had started with the full expectation of a space version of something similar to World of Warcraft®, except with real-time spacecraft combat, but still with ample character development. It is precisely this lack of character development that I find seriously wanting. It seems that at this point, the online environment basically just revolves around just CtC and PvP. That's it.

In order to alleviate the boredom, I have a suggestion for lateral development that would not take away the current challenge of PvP: secret areas.

One idea that I would really like to see implemented is some secret area, separate from the current main playing area, where the emphasis would be on cooperative teamwork and would allow for extremely powerful characters to overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges not possible in a setting where the main emphasis is on specifically PvP.

The problem with the entire scenario being almost exclusively focused on PvP is that, after a point, it becomes very difficult to establish true variety in gameplay without upsetting the balance of power. Any time an über-weapon or über-ship is created, this upsets the balance of power because the only real opponents are other players, who must also actively participate, so there is very little real sense of progress once players reach a certain point of development. All that is left for the players is just practice, practice, and more practice using the same kinds of weapons and ships over and over and over again until they gradually become just a little bit better to win just a little bit more often.

Now, if there were a secret area somewhere where the main focus were not on PvP, but instead on cooperative team-play against NPC über-opponents, then the players could truly be given über-weapons and über-ships, to be used only in the secret area against the über-opponents, without upsetting the power balance in the PvP area."

---------

I have felt the same way, and I agree that there needs to be more pve content. I thought that your last suggestion about the pirates and the coop group dynamic were awesome, and this is yet another great idea. Do I see the devs doing something like this, probably not, or not any time soon =( unfortunately. But, it would be a pleasantly welcomed suprize if something of this nature did appear. Good work tieing the story into your idea. :Crosses fingers:
Feb 18, 2005 Forum Moderator link
Good ideas. With a dev team of 4 there isn't much of an opportunity for parallel development projects. For something as big as you are describing it would take the whole team away from all the other "aspects most needed right now". Wait for the wiki, you'll see what they're up to.
Feb 18, 2005 Blacklight link
nicely put

*misses the CTF* : (
Feb 18, 2005 wylfing link
I® can't grok™ how uberweapons© would be given to players® in these PvE areas® without having to take them© away as soon as they™ left those areas®. Otherwise you'd never™ be able to let PvE players® (whose weapons© are unbalanced and uber™) interact with PvP players (whose weapons© are balanced and normal©). There would™ have to be two separate games® with no mixing©.

Secret sectors are cool, though.
Feb 19, 2005 bluntman link
i like everything except the name. if the devs think of something signifigantly cooler im all for it.
Feb 19, 2005 DekuDekuplex link
Re: wylfing

> I® can't grok™ how uberweapons© would be given to players® in these PvE
> areas® without having to take them© away as soon as they™ left those areas®.
> Otherwise you'd never™ be able to let PvE players® (whose weapons© are
> unbalanced and uber™) interact with PvP players (whose weapons© are balanced
> and normal©). There would™ have to be two separate games® with no
> mixing©.

That's the reason that I had already stated the following as part of the original post:

> In order to prevent Metamorphia technology from being used by potential
> enemies in the event of theft or espionage, all artificial products produced on
> Metamorphia are created with a special substance contained in the material,
> called "Disintegratium," which causes it to disintegrate upon leaving Metamorphia
> space. Therefore, it is impossible to bring back any über-equipment from
> Metamorphia space to non-Metamorphia space without having it disintegrate
> immediately upon leaving its native space.

"Legacies of Metamorphia" is supposed to be a bonus area specifically for cooperative team-play, as opposed to PvP. In this area, because of the necessity for über-weapons and über-ships to counter extremely advanced cyborg enemies, it wouldn't make sense for non-consensual PvP, so any PvP would need to be completely consensual.

Because of the dynamics, any Metamorphia equipment found here should not be able to be brought back to regular PvP areas.

This idea was originally based on an inverse of the PvP event "Ballista" in "Final Fantasy® XI Online" ( see http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/conflict/main/ ). In that MMORPG, there was the opposite need to introduce PvP in an otherwise non-PvP world, so a PvP training event called "Ballista" was created.

In addition, that title featured periodic extensions to the main world, such as "Rise of the Zilart™" ( see http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/zilart/ ) and "Chains of Promathia™" ( see http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/promathia/ ).

I thought that Vendetta® Online needed the exact opposite of "Ballista," so I synthesized the two concepts and came up with the non-PvP extension event "Legacies of Metamorphia."

Another suggestion to enhance teamwork in "Legacies of Metamorphia" would be the addition of secret "energy chains" (loosely based on "Skillchains and Magic Burst," again from "Final Fantasy® XI Online" ( see http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/gameplay/04.html )), in which certain combinations of weapons used together against the same target by different players in the same team within a certain time frame would result in more powerful super-attacks. Some "energy chains" would be publicized, but other, more powerful ones would remain undisclosed. Perhaps some such attacks could even be used only by members of specific guilds. This kind of multi-player combination attack concept is extremely common among Japanese RPG's in general.

For example, it might be possible to combine, say, a Gauss Cannon attack from one player with a Charged Cannon attack (currently, hardly ever used) from another within a time frame of, say, two seconds, to generate a Super Charged Gauss Cannon attack that could know out, say, a Metamorphia Centaur-class ship with a single hit. Additionally, if both members belonged to a certain guild, the combination would generate an Ultra Charged Gauss Cannon attack that could even knock out a Metamorphia Serco SkyCommand Prometheus-class ship.

This is suggested as a proposal for the first secret area extension to Vendetta® Online, to be followed, perhaps, by other variation extensions in the future, each of which would modify the rules of the regular PvP universe in different ways to allow for varied gameplay.

Other possible suggestions could include, for example, the following:

* Black hole areas with different space-time physics

* Red giant areas with a time-limit on how long a ship can stay in the sector before melting

* Nova areas, where stars periodically go nova in regular intervals visible on the HUD only when in-sector, instantaneously obliterating all ships in the sector (useful in luring pursuing enemies to their destruction)

* Galactic core areas, where it is difficult to see anything directly because of the excessive light. Here, difficult-to-detect gravity wells, inhabited by the alien equivalent of lightning mines, suddenly slow ships without warning while draining their HP

These galactic core areas could also be frequently patrolled by ships of highly unusual design, such as invisible ships that only showed up on radar, difficult to hit with anything but missiles, and extremly small and fast reconnaissance Galactic Core Observer cybots that could only be destroyed by at least two lucky hits with energy weapons, but which gave immense Combat Experience (say, 10,000 points per cybot). (This would be the Vendetta® Online version of "Metal Slimes" ( see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slime ) from the Enix (currently Square-Enix, Inc.) series "Dragon Quest" ( see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Quest ).

There could also be a Super Galactic Core Observer version of this cybot, that appeared randomly only once in every twenty or so observer cybots. It would require especially powerful energy weapons, only available to players of Combat Level 9 or higher, to destroy, and would give 50,000 points per kill. (This would be the Vendetta® Online equivalent of the "Metal Babble" ["Hagure Metal" in Japanese] "Dragon Quest" series NPC [my favorite NPC from that series].)

There are just a few suggestions. I could probably post additional suggestions in the future if there is enough general interest.

-- DekuDekuplex Ornitier
Feb 21, 2005 exDragon link
There could be sub-space portals that player have to find. Then the player would have to find out what activates that particular point. It could be flying into it at a certain speed. Shooting energy weapons of a particular power( or at all) or shooting solid ammo of a particular power (or at all), being a certain level, etc... Once inside a player has to meet a challenge to go to the next sector in sub-space. At the end would be a leader. This would give you a metal and unlock a part, ship, or sub-space portal.
Feb 21, 2005 Fnugget link
YAY! Let's try to make a game like every other game combined! Why, that would take...thirty years!
I'm sure they're going to have new areas eventually. I'm sure they'll have higher points being given for certain tasks. But this seems way to weird for me.
There was once a rather lengthy hoax about secret wormholes that go to Sol which turned out to have super advanced bots. But I don't like the idea of creating a whole new concept of sub-spaces. Anyway, I find co-op of trade convoys, or mining parties, or stopping the Serco Frigate =D, more practical. However, VO is hosting this party, so I still think a few guides could be given a task to create some events for us. Maybe the devs can let them use some certain nifty items before patches, to sort of introduce them?
Feb 21, 2005 Starfisher link
Out of curiosity, what's with all the ®©™ stuff?
Feb 21, 2005 wylfing link
Ask DekuDekuplex. I was trolling to raise the same question, but it flew under the radar, I guess.
Feb 23, 2005 DekuDekuplex link
[off-topic]
Re: Starfisher

> Out of curiosity, what's with all the ®©™ stuff?

Occasionally, I write for online magazines, and may need to use typographical symbols for certain kinds of published material (such as advertising).

In such cases, it is important to use the correct typographical symbol. For example, it would be incorrect to use '®' for a non-registered trademark, or '™' for a service mark, in, say, an advertisement selling one product that mentioned compatibility with another product.

Using the correct typographical symbol in regular use saves lookup time on occasion. It takes too much time to go hunting everywhere on the Internet or to contact the manufacturer on the occasions when the correct typographical symbol is not listed on the manufacturer's Website, but is accidentally found in some obscure company literature elsewhere. But if use the correct symbols in my own posts everywhere, then I only need to refer to my own posts, thus saving time.

Besides, I think that the symbols make re-reading my own posts more interesting from a historical viewpoint. Occasionally, unregistered trademarks become registered, or previously un-trademarked words or phrases become trademarked. By seeing the presence or absence of the typographical symbols, I can tell whether the designated or undesignated words or phrases were registered or unregistered trademarks at the time of the post. If the symbols change or appear, then I know that the marketing for the labeled product has evolved.

I don't always use the typographical symbols, though, if they are so commonly used as to be almost unmistakable. For example, I usually don't use '®' after "Macintosh" or "Apple" on Macintosh-related Websites, even though they are registered trademarks, because I know that they are especially easy to look up (they are listed on the Apple Trademark List, referenced below).

There was once a heated argument between myself and another user on a Macintosh games discussion forum ( for the details, see http://www.metromac.org/forums2/index.php?showtopic=901 ). I wanted to make the point that thinking different was part of Macintosh culture. The key moment came when I discovered, and immediately used, an especially apt official registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.: "Think different®" ( see http://www.apple.com/legal/trademark/appletmlist.html )!
[/off-topic]

-- DekuDekuplex Ornitier
Feb 25, 2005 incarnate link
Hmm. The independent play area thing is an interesting idea. It does have the benefits of allowing different types of weapons and such.

Generally speaking, I would like to keep our gameplay all within a single contiguous universe (although I have always wanted an on-station "simulator" for those who wanted instant PvP action). I think this enhances the organic realism of a universe where a user of almost any type can "go" anywhere, but with increasing levels of danger. I'm not ruling out separate play areas, but any means.. but.. anyway, read on..

I agree that the game is vastly in need of PvE objectives for large cooperative groups. PvP is interesting and all, but we have no real worthwhile PvE (bots suck and are boring, at present).

I am currently working on a solution to this which uses the Hive as the PvE adversary, but organized differently than what we have seen in the game to date. In theory, the larger nests and objectives would require the resources of entire guilds. Epic mission and equipment acquisition would be rolled into this.

That's the very short.. "it's 5am and I want to go to bed" version. I hope to have something up in Wiki form sometime soon (Ugh, I hate saying soon(tm), but what else can I say..).
Feb 25, 2005 KixKizzle link
YAY! FINNALY RAIDS!
Feb 25, 2005 johnhawl218 link
let the true guild wars begin...