Building My Dream MMO Part 2 – Factions and Races
For now the name I have come up with for this MMO is "Dawn of Steam" or DoS. I don't think it's perfect but it will serve for now.
This is a section that I both like and dislike things done in Warhammer Online and World of Warcraft. On problem with both of these games is population balance. Every Warhammer realm as a huge imbalance with far more Destruction than Order. WoW on the other hand has far more Alliance than Horde, but its impact is far less significant in WoW. I think that the only true way to find balance is for three factions. In this way when one rises to power and begins to dominate, the other two can band together and fight them.
One thing though is that I am over the Good/Evil viewpoint of factions. I don't think any faction should be seen as the "good guys" or the "bad guys" and each faction should be a wide spectrum of views. This also helps to eliminate some of the roleplayer restrictions in my mind.
DoS's world is made up of three different factions. Each faction, while neither right or wrong, has very different viewpoints on how the world should be run. The names of the following factions are just things I came up with fairly quickly and would probably need changing.
The Julians (based off Jules Verne), would be the truly steampunk faction. Filled with engineers and scientists, these ones use technology and gadgets to revolutionize the world. They use guns, sci-fi style melee weapons, and gadgets to fight their fights.
The Organics is the magical faction. Attuned to nature, the Organics have forsaken the rising technology and bustling cities and have taken to living in nature. They use elemental magic and animals for their fighting.
The Synthetics are outcasts. They are the bi-product of the Julians. A mixture of people with implants, androids, and beings changed forever by technological disasters. They are the outcasts that aren't welcome with the Julians or the Organics. This race will be the somewhat sci-fi race in the way that they've been forever changed and mutated so they have abilities that wouldn't seem to fit in the world. In most cases, their weapons are body attachments and they can summon beings from beyond the void.
Now faction is the first and foremost decision you make in DoS. Before you even pick your race, you need to know with whom your loyalties lie. Race is almost insignificant. Each side contains all the races of the game. I think that's about all there is to the three factions. The next article in this series will be about the different classes.