A Wheel of Time mmo. There is a huge world with a rich story just sitting there. They would just have to make the name filter reject any name similar to Randd, Maat, Perin, Lann, etc.
A problem arises in the channeling aspect: how do you balance magic in a world where a channeler can look at you and make your head explode? Answer: by sacrificing absolute realism for balance. In the stories, very few warrior types would stand a chance against a channeler. In the game, make the two classes even.
Make each class PLAY differently instead of just having a different skill set.
Fighter classes would learn different sword forms and EVERY form would be available to learn from the start. There would be no cooldown for each form beyond animation time, which is in turn affected by stamina. A fresh fighter would fight faster than a tired one. Stamina only alters SPEED, not availability. You will never have an "out of mana" fighter.
Archer types would probably play like a first or third person shooter. But what skill sets could you have for an archer? Rather than having actual skills, just have settings. Do you want to try and fire two arrows with each shot? Alright, but it will cost you accuracy. Do you want to take careful aim? Fine, but your shots will take longer to fire. The archery set would require more work.
Stealth/Dps characters would be able to fight with two weapons. Let's see, how can we manage fighting with two different weapons realistically? Dps characters play like a fighting game. Each weapon would use its own key set, say wasd for the left hand and ijkl for the right? Stealth wouldn't be a case of invisible or visible, but rather a sliding scale. The higher your skill with stealth is, the more faded your character looks. The more perceptive the enemy is, the less faded they see you. This group probably needs work too.
Channelers would use stamina instead of mana. However, instead of being unable to cast at low stamina, your weaves just fail more often. Magic skills would be dived into the five elements, so you could have Spirit 5, Fire 10, Earth 8, Water 3, and Air 12. Each weave would require a different skill level in each area, but instead of learning a billion varieties of Fireball every four levels (EQ/WoW style), your weaves naturally improve as each element used in the weave improves. Weaves would have no cooldown, but would each have a casting time (the time it takes for the channeler to form the weave) and can be interrupted. As the channeler uses a weave more often, cast time decreases. Men would get a small bonus in Earth and Fire, women in Air and Water. At creation, you choose the two elements you are strongest in and the one you are weakest in. Your skills level up each level based on your initial choices, but you also get a set number of points to put into your skills in addition to the normal level bonus.
Races would be based on nation of origin, but faction is based on guilds. You could have an Amadician Aes Sedai vs and Andor Whitecloak. PvP is also based on guilds. There would be in built guilds that fight eachother (Whitecloaks vs White Tower), but there would also be player formed guilds. These guilds would ally/fight other guilds based on the guild leader. There would have to be a reason to go to war though. Maybe the more territory a guild controls the stronger it becomes? Also, I think that it would be best if people could become the leader of built in guilds (BE the Amyrllin seat).
How to handle warders? Would an Aes Sedai's warder be a pet, or would it be another player? I am thinking pet, because what if your warder stops playing? Would Asha'man get warders? Despite the fact that they obviously can, I am thinking that they won't.
Now for the grind problem... right now I'm thinking that I will just do away with levels altogether, and just go with an Elder Scrolls style skill system. The more you use a skill, the better you are. Rather than quests being "kill 10 trollocs", there would be larger scale battles. Battles would be either solo or group instances, and would involve many people on either side. But why are there so many battles breaking out that several million people can always find a fight? It is set at the beginning of the Last Battle. That would probably be the best setting, as it would allow for guild rivalry to still exist (not everyone knows the Last Battle is being fought, so they aren't uniting), and allows for many battle to be fought. What about Aes Sedai, Warders, and Asha'man ranks? Would you start as a Novice or a full Sedai? I am thinking the later, as nobody wants to play through school.
So right now, the idea stands at having each type of class play differently, yet two classes of the same type are similar (a warder and a mercenary will have the same GENERAL style, but different skills). Races affect stats, but not faction. Guilds can go to war over territory. Levels are replaced with dynamic skills. Constant grind is replaced by a few epic battles. No abilities have cooldowns, but there are limits to what you can do. Hmm... some people enjoy grind, so lets put that in as an option. You CAN go out and kill boars, or you can fight in epic battles. You can do delivery quests, you can just train with a more experiences player, you can do whatever you want.
Now for death. Death is a big deal in WoT, as it is the only thing that cannot be Healed. So lets just stash accuracy in a corner and go with the standard respawn thing, since that is much friendlier.
World of Dreams. Give some players the option to play as Dreamers, which unlocks new content. Which players are dreamers? Hm, this would suggest a Point Buy system of character creation. Wolf Brother: 100 points. Channeler: 200 points. Hmm... maybe Channeler should be an unlockable option rather than a class? Or maybe it could be both. You could start as a channeler or choose to be a Wilder who slowly develops channeling power in addition to your normal skills. Sounds good.
Magic items are a problem. There are VERY few Power-Forged weapons/armor around, so they would be epic loot. Normal loot would be various levels of Masterwork. Your equipment would end up taking second place to your skills. That's fine. Ter'Angreal would be rare, but much more common than Power-Forged equipment. Angreals would also be epic items, with Sa'Angreal being GM Run Epic Quest Only.
So far, this idea sounds pretty good. What are your opinions on it?
