RMMV .Hack Style "Characters Play an MMO Together" Style Game

[Troublesome Knight]

This is not likely to be the first project I work on or anything because it's a bit complex, but I thought I'd toss this out there anyway.

Basically, I had an idea for a game where all the characters are modern day teens and young adults playing an mmo together. The main character is new to the game, he makes friends with a few other members of the party and they either form a guild together or join an already established guild and go on quests together and have fun together for a bit, but then weird things begin happening in the game that the player tries to investigate only to discover that, similar to .Hack, there's a lot more to the game and the people who made it than it seems. (This is all still very early planning stages, so I'm being kinda vague here)

I'm mostly looking for ideas what kinds of game mechanics and battle system I should use for a game like that. I'd been considering Moghunter's Chrono Engine for a more action rpg like experience that still allows a party to fight with you, but that'd be a lot of work (though of course that's part of why I'm not considering this for my first project). I'd also considered Frogboy's Race Core and probably Talent Core since most modern MMORPGs have multiple playable races and professions and probably Yanfly's class change core for branching classes (Like in Rangarok Online and several other Eastern MMOs). Is there anything else I should consider using? Or any alternate ideas for battle systems besides Chrono Engine?

 

[PrideOfTheForbidion]

I'm pretty new to all this but it would be pretty simple to set characters to "log off" at set times, using this would emulate the mmo feel as the character you wantnmay not be online,
You would have to set in-game clock using variables then depending on the time you have different sets of npc party members available,
Note though the in game clock would have to work faster say 1 hour every 6 min or so, that's pretty fast but you get the point, after that you just set each character with a switch for there time zone and have them turn off while "offline"

Btw loved .hack first manga I ever got was .hack//legion of the twilight fell in love lol

 

[NinjaKittyProductions]

You would have to set the in-game clock using variables then depending on the time you have different sets of NPC party members available,

Another option would be to have them accompany you on just one quest or dungeon and then they have to leave.

I would check out the game Cross Code. You could draw some inspiration from it as it is about people who log on to game avatars and explore an offshore world. Frogboy's plugins are very nice and work quite well they just take a bit of time for setup. Luckily, there are threads on here where they explain how to set them up ^_^.

 

[HumanNinjaToo]

To simulate mmorpg, I would just look at what kind of things you like from mmo's you've played for ideas. It seems crafting would be a must-have, because that's in most all mmorpg games. I think it would be funny if you could simulate those players that try to get a free ride from your static, that don't actually help at all, and you have to decide to kick them from the group mid-run. Maybe you could use a random generator effect to add random characters to your group when the main PC are 'logged off'. They of course would be similar class/job to main PCs, but their actions in battle would differ depending on how you choose their behavior to battle.

 

[BK-tdm]

Ah yes .Hack, the original "MMO anime" before the SAO nation attacked...

To be honest i have my own "Characters play an MMO which is so stupidly popular the world practically revolves around it" side project, yep, guilty, its an ARPG by the way, found the turn battle system not too engaging for a simulated MMO perspective.

One of the tricks for me of this kind of story is making the game something really hyped, popular and media centric in the universe, think about how Yu-Gi-Oh centers its world around a card game so popular that even cardgame schools/universities are a thing in the second season.
Think about how in .Hack itself ZA WA- i mean The World R2 is very popular even spurting its own spin off card game within a game that our mc in the game we play plays... yeah...

Making the "game our protagonist(s) play" very popular makes it easier to add a big cast or keep adding characters mid-game, from newbies besides our MC to "IRL friend who decided to join/already plays the game and invited the MC into it" all the way to "seasoned players we couldnt interact with because who would bother talking to a lv 1 nobody" and makes the "rival turned ally" excuse easier, as sometimes rivalry in games ends up forming competitive friends, or drama ensues, think how many MMO guilds die because of drama everyday... It can help with a big and populated setting and even "world tournament arcs" or you can add a "shady underground gaming mafia that rigs tournaments and hunt players for the rare gear", these types of things are around not just on MMO format, any game "taken too seriously" can apply, from card games (yugioh/duel masters), to beyblades to gunpla battles (build fighters) all the way to pokemon.

Mechanic-wise crafting is not needed, .Hack did pretty well without it and on top of that simulated "trading items with other players" too wich was a good addition, you could simulate an "auction house" with randomly popping items/materials/equipment and in reality with MMOs set prices no newbie could afford at the few hours of logging into the game creates a whoa factor too as you can slip mid to end game equipment with ridiculous prices as people actually do on MMOs but it tells players "here's what the endgame gear looks like"

SAO games only use crafting as means of "upgrading equipment from monster drops" while said monsters also drop useable equipment so thats an option.

You can add "Raids" as in timer-respawnable dungeons with set bosses and loot which randomly drops, this can add low, mid and high level sidequests, bonus bosses, endgame content and since this would be a simulated MMO it actually deals with "the other guy took the weapon i wanted, this raid sucks!" mentality as every character involved is yours by proxy so raiding The tower of doom a few times so you can properly gear some of your characters is not that bad of an idea...

Anyways you can apply game concepts used in real MMOs, concepts from the "game within a game" genre and even "this game is serious business" genre too! Dont overdoit though, have fun!