I want to create a NON-FPS MMORPG. Is Torque Capable?

#1 Download the demo and press TAB. I'm assuming by your questions that you're new to coding games. I'm just gonna throw it out there before someone else does and say 'start small'. A MMORPG is a bit much to tackle for a first game. There are however MMO starter-kits, resources and content paks that will help you get going.

AFX - particle effects and "Spell Bar" among other cool stuff. www.garagegames.com/products/102/
MMO Workshops Torque MMO kit. www.mmoworkshop.com/trac/mom/wiki/FAQ

Quote:Also, I would like to allow mouse driven movement (hold right & left mouse buttons down to move) in-lieu of the WASD or arrows to move.

I need the ability to have a pretty comprehensive Ability List where player can choose what "Skills" they want.

I also want a decent chargen so not everyone looks the same.

Of course these things can be done as long as you can code it.

#2 I've actually been developing for 20 years now... I'm just wondering if the engine has this functionality built into it, or if I'd have to code all of the ancillary cr@p.

#3 Those abilities are not built in, but will have to be added. The links mb gave above are a very easy way of adding the fuctionality you are looking for.

#4 To add to what mb and Mike have said, you can also search the Resources portion of the website to see if someone else has already done something simliar (or close to) what you've done and posted it as a resource. You'll find that at a minimum, many features have already been discussed, and the discussions themselves usually lend some good information about implementing what you need.

#5 Is there any engine that you can buy that has all the functionality you need, built in? If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and if everyone was doing it, it wouldn't be worth money. In this case, to make money, you would need to make a great product which in turn -- would not be easy.

#6 You want something like BigWorld.

www.bigworldtech.com/index/index.php

#7 Or Hero Engine. I've worked with the Hero Engine for almost a year now, and I can say that it's a great piece of software.

www.heroengine.com

#8 Is there a way to get this done via torque scripts? I ask because it would suck to have someone leave a community, extensive support, and engine behind because someone may have missed a post or didn't have time to add a resource for it.

#9 Torque is a very good engine to start with, has the best Network Library available and with the documentation to the engine handy ( or using Doxygen to regenerate it ) you can make your MMO a reality.

You will need to code it into the engine. Torque "out of the Box" is not designed to be all inclusive of every genre of game. There are engines that focus on RPG games but they don't have TNL.
Basically I am saying that although you see lots of resources and posts for FPS games, thats actually a very good sign because to implement a MMOFPS, the engine is already designed for fast response, least Lag, and even prioritizes data packets to facilitate the demands of an FPS.
What that means is you benefit all around, especially when you want to make any other game type like a MMORPG which is less demanding on the network then an FPS would be.
Yes the engine has a starter FPS to get your feet wet. It's only natural since FPS is highly demanding and it is also the easier form of game style to make. ( especially true with Torque because of the Network ).

Heavy coding will be necessary to make an RPG, just as heavy coding went into making the FPS version.
Making a game as an MMO is not the hardest part believe it or not.
The MMOWorkshop is a very nice template and works very well but is written with Python to encapsulate the Engine.
If you really want to make an MMORPG with Torque and make it your own, your going to need lots of engine coding in C++ directly which in turn you can script against for tweaks to the game.

No you cannot make a full blown RPG with Torque and use only TorqueScript because the Scripting is actually a means of communicating with the engine code, which is in C++. That means if you want new functionality for Script, you have to add functionality in C++ first.

I firmly believe that Torque is the best engine available for any game.. but thats justs my personal opinion.
I believe that If I cannot do it n Torque, then it is not worth doing at all. Also just my personal opinion.

Some people say "It can be done, but it's hard".. I Say: "Yes it's Hard but it can be Done!"


( edited typos )

#10 @James, Where did you get the money to license HE? Me and my team want to license it, but don't have the million or so just to get the engine, let alone pay other fees.

@Topic Starter, How can you say you have been developing for 20 years yet expect an engine to come with everything needed to make a game? Does everyone expect point and click game making now adays?

#11 @Neill: I said I've been a developer for 20 years, not in game development for 20. I've developed numersous Embedded Apps, websites, desktop Apps, Servlets, server apps, socket and multi-threaded apps and a few AIs and simulation engines in my day... I've also worked with a few other game engines, just trying to weed out what Torque is capable of "Out of the Box"

#12 Lampshade, these pages will most likely answer your questions.

TGE Features Page
TGEA Features Page

Torque is a very capable engine with a whole slew of mods to add to it's feature set.
If you really want to give torque a test run, I'd suggest downloading some of the game demos from this site. They should give you a really good idea how torque runs.

#13 You are looking for a RTS like kind of view?
Nothing impossible here. There are various RTS based game upon TGE on the market.

Darkwind: War on Wheels for example (some advertising here ;-)), even use a turn based system.
Check also some of the posted blogs.

I don't think there will be a problem with the mouse settings; but I would be careful, because I think TGE is very picky on that point.