Sandbox games.

[EpicPhail]

I'm looking to play a sandbox MMO as they're very immersive for me..

However, I've found that some focus WAY too much on PVP(Darkfall, for example) while lacking a BUILDING concept. Yes, the PVP allows for factions that are more meaningful, and actual fighting and you know meaningful interaction however It lacks the sincerity and trade that a building aspect could bring.

Not crafting, I literally mean building. Changing the landscape, digging forming houses ETC. such is found in Xyson. However lacking PVP really makes it feel as if once you acoomplish whatever its' pointless and theres a lack of meaningful building.

Is mortal online a good substitute for this ? Can players BUILD houses and towns that actually help tribes or whatever ? Is the fighting good ?

Whats a good Sandbox game that has a solid base ?

[Chunkylove]

Play MineCraft if you're looking for a building fix.

[EpicPhail]

Pretty sure I said I want something thats balanced and isn't one or the other.


I want a game PVP and tribe based that is survival based to some extent, however also includes a buidling stage and an actual city or town aspect to it.

[ArcDevil]

EvE online is the ultimate sandbox experience, if you are into sci fi games

[Cingal]

In Mortal, there are pre-set house types, and pre-set plots of lands where people can build. (Last I played, I hasten to note.) In terms of building, unless you're part of a guild, you'll take almost no part in it, as the plans for such require an insane amount of gold which is farmed through various means.

Building is pretty simple, you put rocks/wood/metal into a chest, press E on a foundation and slowly the house builds.

There's no real skills to gain by doing this, everyone gets the skill required to do this to max, generally by reading books before hand. So, there's little in the way of progression.

The addons to the house (Crafting stations, stables, etc) are paid for with more gold, basically, it's nothing about materials and everything about money.

Crafting on the game is very interesting however.

There's a great mix of materials, various types of horns, various types of stone and glass, various metals and precious metals, all with their own densities, sharpness's, durability and all that jazz, you able the material to the weapon part.

So, if you're making a sword, you'd say, designate the blade to be Steel, the outer handle to be Compact Horn and the core of the handle to be something like Sponge Wood.

And various weapons have different parts, so, you can have "Blade A" which would be a curved blade on "Handle 4" which might be a longsword hilt, and these have their own properties in combat as well, such as length, weight, and what-not.

Likewise for armour, you've got various types of armour, craftable from different materials, much like weapons.

More recently, with the "Dawn" expansion, you have to eat, sleep and stuff like that. Not too sure on all the details there.


The game is very PVP focused however. And if you're not attacked by/attacking at least 3 people a day, chances are you're not doing it right.

[Mikedot]

Eve Online is the only one I can think of, other than ArcheAge and that won't be out for awhile.

[EpicPhail]

^ The crafting element seems very interesting. I presume something like different handles have different properties positive and negative ?


If the building and construction of towns as a whole is gold based, I'd HAVE to presume the game is VERY trade related ? If so, how is the economy ? Is it simply 'farm X material' or has it started to turn a leaf for agriculture or something of that likes ?

I definitely wouldnt mind farming to craft to sell to build, to become strong and fight. With this said though, does the game itself support the larger scale battles that many people have told me its' incapable of ? I've seen and read about MO lacking the ability for the larger sieg types that DF has however I've really yet to play myself so I can't judge.

I'm actually going to give it a try now, and see how I enjoy it

[shingoukieh]

I know ur tryin to avoid minecraft but it is the only one that is the true sandbox game...if u have any friends or make a thread on here or the official forums for minecraft to get people to play with you.it is what u are after completely..

Eve online is a great game but if u are a noobie starting out then dont expect to get into the sandboxy elements till about 6 months out..well i mean u can but u cant fully do much of anything at the begining stages (i mean what u like to do in mmorpgs).

[Ezuka]

Half Life: Deathmatch.

There are lots of people who have flat land maps for building, and it's free too.

[BetaGods123]

Wakfu, I don't know what else to say?

[sutasafaia]

Terraria maybe? Separate the players into teams, give them X amount of time to build the best base they can, and then go to town having the opposite side rip them apart. There's all sorts of things you can do with it, especially with stuff like dynamite. May not be a perfect solution but it can be plenty of fun, especially if a goblin invasion decides it wants to start mid-match. Had that happen once, was kinda funny, players would keep getting blown up by the mages while they were trying to fight each other.

[Orpheus]

What you say is interesting, sandbox games do seem to either focus too much on PvP or too much on building. But it's sort of understandable, catering to both sides would be somewhat difficult to balance.
If you make a highly complex building/crafting system with a lot of freedom people who are looking for their quick PvP fix will probably complain about how the system is "boring" or "takes too much time". On the other hand, if you make an exciting open world PvP/PK system people will skip the building/crafting system altogether, and people who enjoy building stuff will probably complain that PvPing/PKing isn't allowing them to create stuff.

Seems the easier solution is to cater to one side while hardly developing the other.