Masters Of The Universe MMO?

Discussion in 'Joker’s Funhouse (Off Topic)' started by sirzap, Jul 7, 2015.

  1. sirzap Well-Known Player

    A DCUO player and I were posting on a Thread about DC Characters deserving their own Legends Character.
    It segueway-ed to a Masters Of The Universe (MOTU) subtopic. My mind came running into it and eventually decided to post it so I could get it off my head.

    checked the Internet first because someone should have prosposed it long time ago. true enough there were some of it.

    http://www.he-man.org/forums/boards/showthread.php?247531-MOTU-MMO-Something-that-needs-to-happen!
    http://www.hemanworld.com/forum/for...502-masters-of-the-universe-mmorpg-discussion

    I don't really know why an MMO for MOTU was never really made. Maybe its because Mattel is more focusing on selling toys and using cartoons as way to advertise. But if they do create one it would awesome to see that a DCUO-type of engine would be used. for all I know DCUO is still using Unreal Engine 3 but there is Unreal Engine 4 already.

    But here's the thing , If they do pattern it on DCUO they should make adjustments to some features like Movement Modes. DCUO can have Acrobatics, Flight, Superspeed, and recently Skimming. However in MOTU 99% of them are simply "Acrobatic" with their movement mode. Only a few would be flying. So I thought , and this is what's has been in my head in the past day or two, that instead of Movements Modes they should have Fighting Styles instead. So the best thing, that I think, that I've came up with are Brawler, Striker, and Kung-fu.

    1. Brawler - this fighting style looks like the brawling "weapon" that basic jabs. you may add in the animation for basic kicking, just a straight up kick at the front. in short this would have the DCUO- Brawling animation scheme. This could be based on the fighting style that could be used by Ram-Man, FistO (Battle Fist), and other Bulky bodied characters. Its like boxing with kicking.

    Special attacks, that means it could be added with the powerset like Lunge, the character would jump with a punch going down, and Thunderclap, they could be closed fisted or open-hand clapping to hit the head of the opponent.

    2. Striker - this would have an animation of more spinning plus force in the attack. It would have upper-cut, some elbows and round house kicks. This would look like teak-won-do. This would fit some of the Characters who are mid-sized like Man-At-Arms, Tri-Klops, etc.

    Special attacks, would be a flying kick, which inflicts more damage than the usual kick, and multiple-punch, that could temporarily stun the enemy.

    3. Kung-fu - if you can come up with a another name the better. I was thinking of "Jitsu" but there is a character that has the same name. This would have the DCUO - Martial Arts animations scheme. You got backflip kicks, karate chops and more agility that Striker. This would Fit Teela, Jistu, Ninjor etc.

    to add:

    while I was typing brawling and the lunge attack I was thinking of Beastman and how would be be attacking so I came up with this one.

    4. Primal - this animation would like the attack of Wolf form of DCUO-Nature. punches would be scratching and some grappling. Characters that would fit this style would be of course Beast-Man, Grizzlor, and possibly Cat-Ra.

    Special attacks, would be berserker, inflicting multiple scratch attack. I know this is a rip-off from wolverine's fighting game attack style.

    as for travel modes it would depend on the character like if they could turn into a large wild cat like Cat-Ra, or turn into a bird like Zoar. the typical mounts would be on Strydor-like robotic steed, a large cat or even an Attack Trac. Or you could fly by using jet pack, a skimming type of flight like a hoverboard like in the 80's movie, or ride that jetski-like flying vehicle that I forgot the name.

    there are so many other aspects of the game to discuss but but I hope you get the picture. it would like:

    1. Power sets - they can be divided as tech and magic; tech would even involve munitions, cybernetics and robotics, magic would be enchantment (protective spells), warlock (destructive spells) and sorcery (mixed).
    2. Iconic powers or features like MAN-E-FACES modes Beast and Robot, Tri-Klop's Eyes like optic blast and detection, Ram Man's headbutt rush, FistO's punch etc. Should it be available regardless of the powerset chosen. or should it be chosen during character creation.

    3. Body type - not just the size and shape of the body but also if they are human, bestial, snake-men, robotic, cybernetic etc. Cybernetic could include Trap-Jaw's anatomy so instead of mere holding a weapon it would be attached to the cyborg arm... something like that.

    4. Weapons - you can have weapons like that of DCUO's. of course brawling and martials arts are now removed. It should be replaced by Cestus and Katars. As for Hand blasts, instead of that palm blaster, it would look like that of Man-At-Arms braces blasters. as for Dual Pistols, I'm not sure about it and shields are just main weapon; is should be paired with One handed weapon.

    There you have it. There are more but I have not thought of them yet.

    Thanks a lot.
    • Like x 6
  2. sirzap Well-Known Player

    ok! nobody's interested.

    boo hoo. me cry.:oops:
    • Like x 3
  3. aurorabenz07 Loyal Player

    Well actually, a Masters of the Universe MMO was brought up by fans in 2011 and so far nothing.

    Here's an excerpt:
    [IMG][IMG][IMG][IMG]
    We have.....
    [IMG]
    • Like x 8
  4. Anothername Well-Known Player

    Never though about that myself, but as soon as I saw the thread title I was sold to the idea :D

    MOTU has everything naturally what feels in some aspects forced in other MMOs; it offers something new with its charming 80ies fantasy/scifi mixed setting. It just invites to create a unique character there to explore the world and fight alongside legendary Eternia characters.

    The only downside: To make it good & do the universe justice you'll need a big team of devs working for at least 5 years (and thats maybe only just 5 years because lots of concept planning is already done in an established IP) & need lots of millions of dollars from a publisher who either A) has higher-ups/decision makers who are not only fans of the franchise but also (mmo)gamers; so they know what they are doing & at which point it is better to shut up and let the devs do it or (highly unlikely) B) a Devhouse big & influential enough that it can do whatever it want and the publisher shuts up because he knows that whenever he opens the mouth its lost customers. (maybe Blizzard; but than the dev time gets increased to 10 years with a good chance that everything will be scrapped after 9.5 years).
    • Like x 3
  5. Miss Adora Loyal Player

    Actually out of the two seasons of He-Man, he never actually officially punch someone. He would grab them and throw them in a tree or mud. Only time he punched something if it was a stone monster or mud, or any other non human type!

    On the upside, I would like to see better customization for characters!
    • Like x 1
  6. Slade Wilson Devoted Player

    Wron. I just got work to do at some time. Something needs to pay for my MMO addiction :D Oh, and for beer....
    • Like x 2
  7. Zero303 Well-Known Player

    i have wanted this since way back then.
    • Like x 1
  8. Zero303 Well-Known Player

    now if i could only find marko djurdjevic's early concepts of heman and the universe. very dark stuff. and probably not suited for this forum.
    but still the best concepts i seen. very disturbing tho.
  9. Zero303 Well-Known Player

  10. Slade Wilson Devoted Player

    For a faithful - meaning basing on the action figures - some Unreal Engine 3 will do perfectly.
    Actually, MOTU has a lot of "special" movement, but on top - you point it out as an option later - MOTU does not work without mounted battle (Battle Cat, Panthor). Even the acrobatic mode of some MOTU toons would need to differ vastly from the standard acrobatics, and quite some on the lore is based on different speeds while using the same type of movement. And speaking of mounts: MOTU will also not work without vehicles. The only form of starting without mounts and vehicles would be a fanmade/crowdfunded MMO; a big company would basically kill the license from the start if going live without vehicles and mounts - see SWG, when SOE dared to start a Star Wars game without any starfighters ;) It took them a year to release that expansion and they added some speeders in between - that year did cost them the first large portion of subscribers already. If a big company wants to start with MOTU, vehicles and mounts are a must have, not an option.

    And you have no ranged focused styles by now ;) Also, especially Webstor and Ninjor would need game mechanics that make stealth some tactical option and not a buff mode for a devastating first strike only.
    That would be the front part of the Battle Ram (it was dividable, comics and the cartoon series made that "glider" a standard issue vehicle with nothing to attach). This is the key point - most of the vehicles in the MOTU license were combat ready or even designed for primarily combat and travel was just secondary.
    Thinking of Moss Man for example, there could be a nature powerset. Basically, alot of the powersets in DCUO work fine with MOTU characters - Skeletor works with mental, celestial and sorcery, basically the same for Zoar/the Sorceress and Evil-Lyn. There's more of the problem that MOTU will not work without super-strength: He-Man, Fisto (funfact: Mattel needed to rename this toon because they forgot in time and thus lost it to Star Wars/Disney when they invented the Jedi Kit Fisto), Jitsu, Clawful basically are all build on super-strength without any other feature besides some unusual form of one hand/arm to use that super-strength; while He-Man's source of the super-strength is magic, he is not casting spells etc. in combat. In DCUO, it's basically "1) pick a power that goes well with the color of the toon and 2) use the palette of attacks from acrobatics for combat" :D For MOTU, this needs to be done differently ;)
    I have a completely different approach for character customization on this one, which is in line with my idea of using the "based on action figures" approach :D
    Shields definitely need to be paired, but: Stinkor and Syklone came with "shield only", so the engine needs to be well put and allow both. Also, shields need to work with staff weapons (Teela). In total, for a good game a lot of time needs to be put into a balanced combat system, even more than in other games - MOTU is a combat focused license. But: do you have content by now? Do you have motivation for players to care for their characters? Once combat is laid out and the details etc are done, you don't automatically have a game; you need some story or dynamic, something the players could do, especially if you go MMO. With just combat, the game ends up like a large queue for arena figths. The license needs MOAAARRR! :D
    And you need a basic approach structure from the start:

    - who will be the target audience? (my choice: people aged from end-twenties to mid-forties who have their own money and want to spent it on reviving childhood memories; today's kids IMO will not work out - those people however have a limited frame of spare time, as they earn their own money; so you need mechanics build and suited for that group, making these people feel welcome in the game)

    - will you want to hold back some content for expansions? (my choice: I'd launch the Horde, the Snakemen and Etheria as packs/DLCs of their own later; if you say "MOTU" and "evil" people still think "Skeletor" anyway and not Hordak; but those make expansions fans would wait for without having the feeling of missing something in the game when it starts with the focus on the battle between the well known forces of He-Man and Skeletor)

    - what lore to focus on? (the series, the early action figures, the Dolph Lundgren movie, two other cartoon series, the old DC comics, the new DC comics and an upcoming movie - all have their own lore; worse: in order to achieve a form of balance which allows an MMO to be enjoyable, you will have to violate some of the lore anyway, even if it's just the world map/distances)

    - will you go account or character focused into the game? will you allow players to take control of the original MOTU characters in some legends-kind-of-way of will you limit them to their own characters?

    - and of course: what form of item shop/subscription/whatever-way will you use to refinance the game? Will that hurt balance? Is it risky to have some F2P access? If not, were to limit F2P?

    A lot of these questions have not been answered in a way that allows DCUO to focus on progression on the forums; instead people come here and try to shake the basics up again and again or just once in a while, depending on the topic. A good choice and a clear "this is written in stone, no corrections, no negotiations"-point will shut down those discussions, but will also cost some possible customers.

    I got some concepts (nearly complete) for a MOTU MMO, I basically just need the license and the money. Well, the license.... can be covered with money, so I just need the money. But a heck of a lot of it - basically there is some crowd-funding in the dimensions of Star Citizen needed, if the game should be a) good and b) long-lasting eternal :D A stunt a no name on the video games market cannot pull.
    • Like x 1
  11. Zero303 Well-Known Player

    yea we need to think outside the box. meaning dcuo, i like the engine but the mechanics are outdated,
  12. Slade Wilson Devoted Player

    Oh, and sorry - I had to cut your posts a lil to get everything into my post - 10k characters limit....
    • Like x 1
  13. DarkVisor 15000 Post Club

    "Star Wars Combine" had been going for over 13 years before they introduced real combat
  14. Anothername Well-Known Player

    Just googled it. Quite disturbing. Great craftsmanship & talented guy. But if a more mature he-man I think a heavy metal (i.e. "Den"/"Taarna") style would work better. Less gigerish stuff of nightmares :p
  15. aurorabenz07 Loyal Player

    Very awesome ideas. I figure mix some of the ideas everyone posted and make it similar to Age of Conan
    [IMG]
    [IMG]
    [IMG]
    [IMG]
    • Like x 2
  16. sirzap Well-Known Player

    please don't jinx it. just make it happen :D

    frankly my dear, for all the fighting they put up in the cartoons, its still a kid's cartoon.

    i'm tossing you a DCUO soda..... I mean... Virtual Beer

    I can't unsee Evi-Lyn :eek:

    Still can't unsee Evi-Lyn :eek:
  17. sirzap Well-Known Player

    So you mean using UE3 then port it UE4?

    well that's how I find MOTU characters has only 1% that flies, swim, tranform into another creature.... of course DC has Flash and his fellow speedster are even less 1% but in a MOTU Universe it still comparable to World of Warcraft cross Star Wars.

    there is still stealth, It would be in the Iconic Power of Ninjor. like A karate chop for Jitsu. An Iconic power like web swing for Webstor.

    What I wrote about is that when it comes to Iconic Power that it should be chosen during character creation and not available for all like that of DCUO.

    As for ranged, it would be for ranged weapons. MOTU fighting styles is to DCUO travel modes.


    ok lets play a little about flying modes. you've got Stratos and Buzz-off. that's it. you may also include dragons.

    now if you are going to create a snake-man with an iconic of, let' say, Lashor. you see some character that flies with a cracking whip-like tounge. I could still accept a snake-man on He-man side but a flying one is too much.

    ok! but that's me.

    if ever MOTU does create an MMO with movement mode like those of DCUO, you'll be taking out the fun out of using Mounts.

    but the idea of mounts is not my basis for eliminating DCUO movement modes.


    Again that super-strength can be solved by Iconic powers.

    MossMan/EvilSeed would a DLC, if you know what I mean. and yeah, DCUO Nature would work fine except that only a few transform and only tranform as one animal.
    Sorceress tranforms into Zoar (bird), Kat-Ra into sa Large Wild Cat, I could not think of other more.

    If there is transfromation and that would be Hordak and Imp. But the transform their body into machines. I would call that power set as Technomorph.

    My idea would be like this. If a person would choose trap-jaw, the would mean that the character would have a cybernetic arm that he can attach weapons to it.
    If he chooses Tri-Klops, then that character will have that Tri-Klops head. Then the Iconic powers get into play, it can switch to vision mode for detection and that optic blast mode. If they choose that Clawful body-type then the hand would be like claw-Ful.If its Fist-O you will have that Big Right Fist that cover the lower arms. and on and on and on....


    so there you have it you sadi MOTU is combat focused so it only proves that Fighting Style skill points system is preferable than DCUO movement mode.

    About the content, if you're asking me. answer is NO and YES.
    Its NO. but I can make one along the way. It would depend on the story... of course its the story, silly me. But Ill leave that to Profesionals the details like dialouges and everyday environmental interactions.
    Its YES. you can start by Zodac seeing a Comet that singnifies WAR. whatever the Comet does, well I'll leave it to the suspense or twist during the game.
    Since Zodac is basically a neutral Entity, so he would warn both factions, the Sorceress and Skeletor. Then both faction decides to gather their champions to fight for their side. Ok that Comet thinggy was inspired the first 80's He-man episode but the Comet in this MMO is not like it.
  18. sirzap Well-Known Player


    I like what you said mostly here. but let me touch some issues:

    1. Legends - I have been thinking long and hard for this one before I started the thread. So my Idea is this. There would be a playable story for each MOTU Legend characters, it would be like flash back episodes. Some are fillers on how they would get to another storyline. There would still be rewards for this like Marks for PvE Armor and some Iconic Styles of related to the Legend Character. example: FistO's big mechanical Arm Fist or Trap-Jaw's Jaw.

    2. Lore - a mix of 80's and 2002 carton series. but this would be another storyline of its own. Like said before it would start with Zodac seeing the War Comet warning both factions. Of course Man-At-ARms would lead the gathering on the good side and Evil-Lyn on the Bad side. your created charater would face a siege on their starting points e.g. Castle of Eternia and Snake Mountain. the end of the story would be the siege on Castle Gray Skull, hero side would protect it, villain side attacks it. In between you will visit different kingdoms like Avion, Buzz-off's Hive, Granymir and his Dragons... wait, maybe that Granymir could help He-Man fight the Snake-men, they should change that storyline.

    3. Money - never thought much about it.I think subscription will do. ;)
  19. Ankh_Legacy Devoted Player

    I am all for an MOTU MMO.

    I'm not sure about following the DCUO model though.

    The how, what and who our characters would be in connection to the MOTU I think would be the hardest part to figure out. Might be a big reason why this has never gone beyond just an idea (that we know of).
  20. Slade Wilson Devoted Player

    Actually this depends on your audience choice. If you go for the "old-timers" ;) like I described, you'll face a lot of people who actually not just get another console, so staying with the lower engine may provide additional customers - provided, of course, that the game can run smoothly on the old hardware without being hold back by it. You can have a lot of character customization in "MOTU" style if the bodies are build like the action figures (of course, with full organic looking movement later - and not action figure movement like in Toy Soldiers War Chest). The basic male/female character may have 2-3 torsos to select, combine with one of 3-4 different pairs of arms and 3-4 different pairs of legs. That approach is covering about 85% of MOTU characters minus the head, because Mattel was re-using the same forms repeatedly. If you go the same way in the video game, that saves a lot of performance and still provides a genuine MOTU feeling to fans. Just look at how many people of their fan community are into building custom action figures.

    About flight: if you take the places and people of Avion etc into the game, Stratos and Buzz-Off multiply and you suddenly have a much larger percentage of a flying population. Then there is the transforming sorceress who can fly while morphed into bird form. A real special type of movement though would be that Dragstor guy with the wheel in his chest ;) I agree however on not having a movement mode like DCUO which makes mounts and vehicles useless. That would kill the game before the start.

    About stealth: I wasn't questioning its availability in the game, but the way it could be used. Example from DCUO: the iconic solo mission with the Huntress grants a feat if you can get past the guards without them triggering the alert. How do you get that feat? By beating the crap out of them fast - not by passing them unseen. Other example from the leveling missions, Intergang story arc (save Batwoman): in one of the hideouts, you're supposed to go back and sabotage a camera before you pass it to not trigger an alert; if your toon has stealth and you use it, you will still be seen and trigger the alert if you pass the camera without sabotaging it - not an intelligent approach to stealth, and reducing stealth to "get a buffed first attack if moving fast enough" ;)

    Both would not do to display Ninjor or Webstor as both were marketed as experts for intrusion, as henchmen who can go in and out of places unseen - and not just leaving no witnesses that could identify them ;)

    Yes, that's why I want to have a not-that-free-but-in-lore type of character creation. Tung Lashor's movement is pretty much DCUO's acrobatics with grapple.

    We agrre on this, we just have different ways of solutions in mind ;)

    Like in DCUO, but it would not identify the characters as what they are; He-Man would still be "magical" in his powerset which he simply isn't; same for players, who'd love to build their own toon with He-Man in mind - they'd pretty much be unable to find a combination they'd say "100% fit."

    Again depends on which lore and how much of which lore you implement. Except for Zoar, none of them was in the first 3 waves of release, so DLC is definitely a way to solve it later.

    And there's special cases of Multi-Bot and Modulok. Again I'd prefer that with an in-lore-character-creation approach instead of free shake'n'mix available for the players - at least not at the start.


    Don't think that this is the best approach. If you come up with some sort of "total possibilities" at character creation, you may find a game with 2k Tri-Klops players on "hero" side because "there are more players and queues are faster and villain side is dead anyway" ;) Basically, if you have to think about a Snakeman joining the forces of good as exception, you open the gates for players to turn the exception into the normal case.

    No, it doesn't automatically mean that fighting style skill point is the better solution ;) But display of fighting is of course something that needs to be diverse, and to some extent of course more diverse than movement in a MOTU MMO.

    Zodac/Zodak/Zodac Zur/Kar-Tor is not neutral in every version of the lore. But the comet thingy is something the fans would recognize, so a point on the positive side :D
    • Like x 1