I'm thinking if they built a TF MMO that played a little like City of Heroes, it would turn out pretty good. I've been coming up with different ideas that I think would work out pretty well. But I'm just wondering who would want to play one if it were made.

I probably would. I haven't played the City of Heroes / Villians games yet, but I like the idea of being able to make your own guy from scratch.

One foreseeable problem would be the ratio of original characters to clone characters (OptimusPrime, OptimussssPrime, OpteemoosPurima, etc) being something like 1:10000. It happens in a lot of MMOs. Final Fantasy Online's population consists mainly of Clouds, Sephiroths, and Squalls.

no but I dont like MMORPGs the idea of paying for a video game even after youve got it from the store isnt my cup of tea

I understand not wanting to pay for a game after you bought it, but that aside, would you want to? I'm talking based completely on the game itself and not the policies of the company showing it.

I know what you mean about naming, Frapp. When City of Heroes started, there were so many people getting banned for making Marvel and DC clones. I'm not sure how to get around that in the game, although if the character doesn't look like the namesake, it's not that bad.

I'd have zero interest in playing it. I'd much rather have a single player RPG or even better a FPS game.

I outlined one a few years ago. It could work but I don't know if there would be enough demand for one. It would need to have a large amount of playability in it, as well as satisfy those TF forum bastards that need continuity.

What ideas did you have for yours a few years ago? I would think that now after the movie has come out would be the best itme ot make one. Of course, the ideas I'm working on are just for my own amusement, since I'm never going to be able to sell the idea or make the game myself.

I am at a standstill now though. I'm messing around with the tech spec stats for player characters: strength, speed, etc. I know how each of them can be used except for two - rank and skill. Both of them can be treated as the character's level, based on exp and mission success, but I'm just not sure how to differentiate the two of them. I'm thinking rank would be determined by following specific missions and skill would just be your level based on xp, or maybe rank is based on xp and skill is determined by how well you do in your fucntion (think of it as a class, as only a few functions would be available to pick from). But as of this moment, I'm kinda stuck. I've got the rest of the character creation figured out though.

Skill could be, for example, a damage modifier. A character with a skill of 10 would do 10x normal damage while a character of a skill of 3 would do 3x normal damage. But if you are going by tech specs only you have to figure that this would only apply to characters of the Warrior class. Commanders and Communications guys would have their skill attribute reflect something else entirely.

I like the idea you have for Skill but it makes me wonder what would determine that point value.

Well here's the way I had the tech specs set up. I based them off of City of Heroes stats where Defense is agility (chance of dodging) while Resistance is is a damage modifier.

Strength = Melee Damage
Speed = Defense (and movement)
Endurance = Resistance
Intelligence = Determines your interaction with certain technology (like computer hacking)
Courage = Difficulty level
Firepower = Determines the strength of your weapon
Rank = Level
Skill = ?

When you created your character, you'd have a pool of points that you can put into Speed, Strength, Endurance, Intelligence and Firepower. Rank and Skill would go up as you play based on xp and Courage could be changed at any time in the game to adjust your difficulty. You'd originally take a pick from a dozen or so generic models (and customize paint jobs and head details) and based on which one you pick, you might have a predetermined stat in either Speed, Strength, or Endurance (a Transformers with an alt mode of a sports car would start out with 3 points in speed and 5 extra points, while one with an alt mode of a compact car would have no predetermined points but have 7 points to put anywhere).

As you level up, you'd gain points to raise your stats (although, the points required to raise a stat would increase as the stat increases). Rank would go up automatically, but since it's only a ten point scale, there would be four different teirs you'd go through, starting with scout and ending with commander (I don't knwo the two in between yet) and each teir would have ten levels for a total of fourty.

When my brother worked at Perpetual (Gods & Heros and Star Trek Online) he bounced the idea around a few people and they loved it. Too bad they were months behind schedule and had S.T. in the pipeline as well.

I think Trip is right - the TF fan base isn't really into MMORPG's enough to warrant the cost. Perhaps in the future there will be a generic online host for small role playing games or maybe a console version.

Well, I could see the pre-movie fanbase not being into MMORPG's enough to warrent it, but iwth the influx of fans of the series after the movie came out, things could be different. But you're probably right and a large scale game would be too much. However, there are a lot more smaller scale online games (that are free too). Their quality isn't that fantastic, but I think if Hasbro was willing to put some money into it, it might turn out a lot better than their previous TF entries.

But all in all, I'm just throwing these ideas out for myself. I would love to be able to make this game, but without any knowledge of how to make a game myself, it's a total pipedream.

Well there is that aspect of "a movie game" but its too late in that respect really. At this point its just a gamble whether or not TF2 or 3 will be popular enough to warrant the release of a game of that caliber. Like it or not, you might just have to get you TF goodness from TFQuake2 for the forseeable future.

To be honest, I'm not that much for MMORPGs. I haven't found the the one I'm willing to pay for an no doubt if Hasbro is in charge of one, it wouldn't turn out the way I'd like it and I'd quit a few weeks after I started. But with Marvel and DC getting into the MMOs market, I wouldn't doubt some of the other big universes would jump on the bandwagon. I think Tranformers is an excellent property for it and rife with potential, I just hope someone uses it soon.