Best Plugins for MMO

Hello! I am fairly new to Unity3D, but I have made some smaller games before, but now I actually want to create a full finished game. My goal is to make an MMO and there are tons of plugins for Unity and I'm wondering what are the best plugins for an MMO? I want this to be an indie game and I am pretty much good with everything except for coding. Now, it's not like I haven't coded before, I have done several things in JavaScript, but not much in C#. I was hoping some of you guys in the community could help me put a list together of the best plugins to help me accomplish my game. Here are the basics of my game...


1. Character creation. It is more of an animated game so the eyebrows, eyes, and mouth will be 2D textures (I don't know if that affects anything with character customization).


2. Like every MMO, I want it to have an inventory, chat system, action bar, health and armor bar, an energy bar (how much energy you have for building things), vendors, enemies, and NPCs


3. Quest system


4. Factions. There will be 4 different factions and depending on which one you choose after completing a quest for each faction, you can only buy the armor that chosen faction provides (not including pieces of armor that enemies can drop or buy from other vendors -- except the other faction vendors).


5. I want certain pieces of armor, weapons, and other equipable items / consumables to have different rarity.


6. I want there to be properties where you can build pretty much whatever you want from various bricks.


7. I am planning on there being multiple worlds, so I want there to be spaceship travel. So, for example, you would go to a launch pad to a dedicated world and when you press the button to use your spaceship it shows you taking off, then it would go to the loading screen, then show you landing at the new world.


8. Speaking of spaceships, I would like it to where you could create your own spaceship and cars. I want this to be a game where you can build lots of stuff.


9. I definitely need animation, but I don't know if I really need a plugin for that, but if there are some good plugins or programs to where it might auto rig my character and I pose it for animations that might be good.


Sorry for the long post, this is my first post and I really want my game idea to get completed. Thanks!

 

I'm gonna warn you, there is going to be people who are probably typing responses at the same time as me, that will crush your dream. An MMO is a massive undertaking. The huge triple A teams who make MMO's, for them they are incredibly difficult to complete - for those huge skilled teams.

So yeah, prepare yourself for imminent dream crushing.

I'll edit in some more useful info in a second, haha.

Edit: ok so, if your bound and determined your going to make an MMO, the first and most important thing to consider is scope. If you really need all those features, they need to be really basic, because it'll take years, if not decades, to complete all that.

Then you need a team. You need programmers, artists, sound guys, music guys, networking guys, and eventually marketing guys. Your gonna need funding. You can theoretically do all this alone - but it ain't gonna be done till your seventy.

Another option is go really low-fi, and by that I mean like solid colored everything, low tech sounds, low tech models, and doing that will buy you lots of time to code - and your gonna need plenty time.

As for plugins that will get you off to a headstart, I'm not too familiar with any, but the are MMO kits avaliable, which have some basic networking code, and other features that might save you time, but you still need to learn the guts of those to kind of bend them to do your bidding.

I hope I'm not being a dream crusher myself, haha, but the reality is that an MMO is daunting, difficult work. Think of it like this: blizzard spends something like ten years minimum on each MMO they make. Blizzard is a huge giant among game companies. They have severe amounts of talent, but getting a quality MMO just takes time and very much effort.

Good luck out there!

Edit 2: ok so also, to put some wind in your sails, it's been done before, a single person creating an MMO, but I've got no doubt it was hard. Now have a look at all the networking solutions to start with. Ideally the fastest, most performance designed ones will be best. To name a couple popular ones (not necessarily the fastest) there is "photon", which has free offerings, and one I found a while back on the forums that sent straight binary data across rpc's, but the best thing would be custom built, likely using sockets, specifically for your purposes. And for characters, and character customization, I recommend UMA (unity multipurpose avatar) which is free, and well supported (lots of people use it and can answer questions). And for what you were saying about "blocks to customize..." - let me just say there exist no plugin that's gonna do that for you - but there are voxel examples and assets that might give you a push in the right direction - but I strongly recommend you do not do that. And for space travel... well remember what I said about scope - scope means "how much stuff" is your game going to contain/be capable of. If you plan on making an MMO with both ground travel and space travel - it is pushing the difficulty of development up way higher. Stick to ground mechanics and if things take off, consider that later.

I'd love to come back to the forums one day in some time and find a work in progress thread with your game looking awesome like your idea, and have all those features and more, but keep things realistically achievable! If you haven't developed like twenty games already, and have some serious funds to pay a big team to help you bring it to life, it's never gonna happen. Focus on prototyping a very extremely basic version of an MMO. Make it possible to connect two clients on a server, who can walk around together. Once that's working, take baby steps closer to your end goal. Don't let all this scare you off! If you think you have the passion and dedication to spend countless sleepless nights coding, modelling, texturing, animating and everything else - you could do it. But time and effort by the boatload will be required.

 

Look at this one man MMO:

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/no...ayers-of-the-old-school-in-development.284327

Keep in mind that this guy probably had a background in game dev before taking this on, but yeah he's really doing it. It's coming along after years of work!

So if my last post sucks all your motivation away, let this one build you back up.

 

There's a space exploration kit available on the asset store that possibly does what you require, fairly expensive for an asset at above $200. Might be worth you taking a look.

 

@MD_Reptile @sicga123

I pretty much have all the assets I need. I have pretty much all the 3D models, textures, music, and characters done. I just have to animate the characters and such. Even though creating an MMO might not be easy, I think I will still try just for fun and experience. I know there are several MMO kits but have you had any experience with any of the kits? In the Unity Asset Store I have seen uMMO, Ultimate MMO RPG Kit, and the Atavism Online Creator. Im not sure which is best of the three and all the pros and cons. There is also an early access software on Steam called MyRPG Master and I'm not sure if that as online capabilities (I think it does) and I don't know how well that one compares to these Unity ones. I would think the ones for Unity are better. Also, let me clear up the rocket ship thing. My idea was not for it to be space travel but just a tradition between worlds. The player wouldn't control the ship, you would only go to the launch zone that takes you to a dedicated world and, for example, press shift to spawn your ship there and it would be like an in game cutscene (not a video, but the camera and character and ship are doing its thing on its own) showing your ship take off. Then once it takes off, it goes to a loading screen, and once it's done loading, it would be another cutscene sort of thing showing it arrive at the new world and dropping your character off and wala, you can now play in the new world. Hope that makes sense.

 

You may want to consider an engine designed for MMOs. Unity can definitely be used to create an MMO, but the vast majority of what makes an MMO difficult to build will have to be made from scratch. Both BigWorld and HeroEngine have affordable indie licenses.

http://bigworldtech.com
http://www.heroengine.com/

 

@Ryiah

What are the benefits of those? The Asset Store has kits for MMOs plus a lot of other plugins to help with other stuff. With those engines you suggested, is it easy to create a character creation and everything expected from an MMO without a ton of coding and extra fees? I would like to do as little coding as possible but I believe the big world tech engine website said they use Python and Ive read that's the easiest language to learn. If so where is a good place to start learning Python?

 

lol

 

Don't use BigWorld Indie. It has been dead since WarGaming acquired them.

 

They're engines specifically designed to handle MMOs. Unity is very much a general purpose game engine without any real specialities. Unity will work perfectly fine for building your client, but you still need to build a server backend.

HeroEngine not only provides the tools necessary to create your client but also the server backend. Additionally they host your game for you. They do take a 30% cut, but the cost of hosting your own servers wouldn't be too dissimilar.

 

Good to know. A quick check indicates development of BigWorld Indie stopped on January. At least it wasn't the cheaper option.

 

What if its a free to play game? How much would it cost?

 

You can see the pricing on their sign-up page. Its a yearly fee based on the number of developers (they use the term users).

https://account.heroengine.com/signup/

They handle the hosting and bandwidth usage of your game for the yearly fee and a 30% cut of the revenue. Compare this to the cost of a dedicated server and you'll see it isn't bad at all.

http://www.hostgator.com/dedicated

 

Re HeroEngine: You have to be cautious though if you are going F2P. I had a conversation on this some time ago with Cooper from HE. Here's the bottom line of the conversation:

"If you plan to release a game that doesn't generate revenue, then you would be paying the operational costs, so could release it whenever you'd like. You could expect costs to fall in line with industry standard collocation and hosting costs. "
​

Not sure if this still holds true. It has been a while since I was talking to Cooper.

 

I don't think that has anything to do with paying HE.. You'll have operational costs for hosting regardless of what engine you use and what model you build your game as (F2P, sub, etc)

 

In this case it has to do with HE, since the concept of HE is to provide the so-called "HeroCloud". HeroCloud is a service that includes the HeroEngine plus hosting plus billing (as soon as your game has been launched). You cannot license HeroEngine itself. You can only license HeroCloud (which then includes the HeroEngine plus hosting plus billing as soon as your game has been released).

 

OK, not entirely true. You CAN license HeroEngine alone. But only as "HeroEngine Source". The basic HeroEngine source code license is $75,000 with a 7% revenue share. I don't assume that this is the league that we are talking about here (-;

 

An asset store MMO kit will never cut it for making your idea of an MMO.

What you should do is read up on network programming and then make the game build on top of a solid solution like uLink, Photon Server or what ever your preference would be. Depending on scope then you could probably even do with with something like Bolt on the asset store.

 

Can people stop entertaining this thread.

"I can't hand code pong without following a tutorial but I want to build an mmo using drag and drop that includes multiple worlds and spaceships"

 

At some point I stopped trying to convince people to try easier projects. I feel they'll discover on their own whether or not that was a good idea. Now I simply try to direct people towards resources that make it easier to develop those projects.

 

Yeah Im just experimenting. Im still in the process of learning code, so until Im really good at it, I would like to use resources that make coding easier.

 

But then you don't learn it. Learn the hard way - no way around it!

 

Can you code a 3D game in Python? If you need the game to have Java or C# could you use a Python to Java/C# converter?

 

Python is merely the scripting language they choose. HeroEngine isn't actually coded in Python any more than Unity is coded in C#/UnityScript. Both engines are written in C++ and simply use their respective languages to control them.

 

learning code and making an MMO cannot be used in the same sentence.

edit: unless it also contains the word failed

 

No. No noob has ever listened to me when I say an MMO can't be done by an new developer learning to code. So I'm going to change tack and try and push them to do as much as possible. Fail at making an MMO fast, then come back and learn the basics.

Networking will easily be the most difficult part of getting an MMO right. So start with the networking reference here. Photon is another service that takes care of some of the back end for you, their starting documentation is here. Build a prototype with a bunch of cubes walking around on multiple clients, (forget content or art, that stuff comes later). If you can get this done, then you might just succeed in making an MMO.

Worst case scenario this type of noob baiting could become an entertaining new forum sport. I hear our Jester is finishing school soon and will have to work a real job, thus limiting his availability to entertain us. We'll need to do something else. Otherwise I might get back to coding and actually finish something. Can't have that.

 

Speaking as someone who has plans for a MMO, I'd say get yourself somewhat comfortable with Unity first, doing some dabbling that not necessarily is going to be released, then single player games, then single player games with one multiplayer component (such as implementing in-game chat system so player can ask other players if they get stuck with certain level), then multiplayer (but not MMO) games, like for example zombie survival (don't sell it though unless it gets traction, we've got too much of these already) or Counter Strike clone, then MMO.

This way you'll get needed experience (and money from selling games in made on your road to this goal, though you may need KS/IGG as well, depending where are you livng) to make an MMO of your dreams, this is what I'm doing (currently at the phase "single player game with one MP component"). And then you could use this kit: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/10589

//edit: Think about this in MMO terms: Each project you complete on the road to MMO is a dungeon boss which drops both gold (=money from selling game, if you decide to do it) and enough exp to allow you to go onto next level. Once you have big enough level, you are allowed to tackle the ultimate boss, which is making a MMO.

 

Am I going to have to be the horrible guy? Oh well....

You seem like a motivated person, who really wants to learn, but you are not going to making an MMO. Ok? No, never, nope, no chance. You can make another type of game, but an MMO .... Not happening.

You need guys with a lot of experience in networking, network security. You need guys who know how to optimize traffic on a network. You need to know how to sync clients so that everyone sees the same stuff. You need to pay to host a server. You need to code a server app. And you need much much more than I can list here. And then.... you need to know how to code a good game.

Now, I always tell people who want to try this without any experience is... why an MMO? Why not try a smaller multiplayer game? maybe 4-5 players at the same time. This is possible and still has alot of the stuff in MMO, chat, questing together, giving items etc. But on a scale where, even if your network code is awful it will still work. And you could code the server and client together (one player could host and play)

 

This is why I recommended HeroEngine. Their HeroCloud service covers the difficult aspects such as networking and hosting for you. If you build it from the ground up you'll need those. But not so much with HeroEngine.

 

This has my admiration.

Techtrix, do not listen to people that make fun of you or your goals. And definitely do not listen to people which sole answer to your dream is "lol".

Will you fail in your attempt to build an MMO? Yes, it's very likely. Unfortunately.
Does that fact matter? No, not at all.
Should you stick to your dream and embark on this journey even if it's unlikely that you will reach your goal? Definitely!
Why? Because it's the stuff that you will learn and see on your journey that really matters. Even if you fail in the attempt (and it is very likely that you will) you will still learn so many great things that will help you in future endeavors.

If the dream to build an MMO is the motivation that keeps you going and learning then don't let people discourage you. And don't be afraid of failure and hard work.

In other words: Stay hungry, stay foolish.

 

But does it work with Unity?

//edit: To elaborate: With Unity-based MMO engine, I can add any systems I want to a game, including things like ability to build your own house in the world or ability to affect terrain (last by replacing whatever comes with the kit with e.g. voxel-based solution), not so much with "mmo maker". I've tried MMO makers in the past (mostly 2D ones, like Eclipse Origins or XtremeWorlds) and never was able to make it exactly like I want. With solutions like that limits get to you quite fast. Not so much with Unity-based one.

 

Modifiable terrain is likely out as I believe its just a heightmap, but player housing is a common feature of MMOs now.

http://hewiki.heroengine.com/wiki/Player_Housing_Tutorial

 

Dont mind the haters, just spend 2-3 years working on your mmo before realizing its the hardest type of game to make and it will never be finished... its cool. Everyone can dream.

 

Player housing!=ability to construct your own house. Player housing usually uses pre-made assets and if you're lucky it's not instanced and you can move furniture around instead every furniture piece going into specific "slot". Ability to construct your own house is more like building in Rust (at least that how I think I'd make it like).

Anyway, I'd probably go with this one: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/10589 unless someone can propose better one.

And, @JamesLeeNZ - yes MMO is hard to make - that's why in my first post in this thread I've proposed that before tackling this task he should first make some simpler (but increasingly more complex) games, each of which would introduce mechanic, bit of code, that could be later used in his MMO. Such as netcode, battle system, authorative server and other things.

And yes, work on MMO never stops, but once you have main engine up and running, it's basically just making content. And even this can be avoided (partially, you'd never be able to fully avoid it), if you can engage players into content making (things like e.g. quest/dungeon maker in Neverwinter).

 

Constructing houses from scratch may or may not be out of the reach of HeroEngine. I haven't actually tried the engine to see how flexible it is. I am confident though that it is out of the reach of someone like the OP. I recommended HeroEngine because it is ideal for a beginner.

Those reviews are pretty bad and the entire kit hasn't been updated for over a year. Atavism is a better choice for those who want to work with Unity.

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/19339

 

Thanks. Will keep my eye on Atavism. As to why I don't support MMO makers is that it's usually just a toy. You can make in it most generic game, but it's just not the way it should be done (and by the way, no one will play your MMO unless it has some original concept and player-built houses are becoming less and less original).

That's why I've proposed making simple singleplayer games, then singleplayer with some non-mandatory MP component (like chat, so users could ask for help if they get stuck, because it's easiest thing to implement especially if you use some asset that adds support for IRC), then single player games with more complicated multiplayer component, then mostly multiplayer games (like Counter Strike-like game), etc. and then, finally, a MMO.

Basically, the point is that each game introduces some code, some mechanic that he could later reuse in his MMO project, not to mention that he can see if this is really job for him. And even if he'll use some kit, like Atavism in the end, he'll get necessary experience, not to mention funds (who said "intermediate" games have to be free?) to do this properly, though he may still need Kickstarter/IGG unless he'll hit indie motherlode along the way.

In Poland we'll have this saying: Kto drogę skraca, ten do domu nie wraca (One who takes shortcuts, doesn't get home). It means that if you'll cut corners, you'll most likely fail at your goal. The shortcut here are MMO makers like HeroEngine. I have nothing against "regular" game making programs as singleplayer games made with these are considerably easier to make and maintain, though. People who use RPG Maker, GDevelop and others, keep up good work and continue being awesome!

Also,

 

@Korno
Okay that's good advice. I like your idea of 4-5 players. How would I go about doing that? Don't you still have to make a server though?

@Parallaxe
Thanks, Parallaxe. There are always those kind of people lol. I figured creating an MMO would be very ambitious and unlikely to complete. I don't know if I ever will be able to create one but I figured I would start basic and build onto it more and more and if I ever someday could get it to work, then great, but if not, thats fine too. All I want to do is learn and know how to do various things and have fun doing it. So it doesn't really help people saying degrading things cause I know I will fail many times. Thanks for the encouraging words.

 

@darkhog
How would you implement multiplayer components like chat and all? It would obviously need a server somehow.

I have also kept an eye on Atavism Online. They can definitely help create simple MMOs and it helps with armor and weapon equipping and damage. Also has a chat and inventory system.

 

True, but you could make use of asset that adds support for IRC, such as this one, then make channel on one of existing IRC networks (EFNet, etc.) and block "dangerous" commands in the chat system such as /join, /disconnect, /quit, /whois, etc. Server still is there, but you're taking advantage of existing infrastructure and protocols.

 

You got the right approach as you just want to learn and know that you will probably fail while doing so.

But that is also why it is rather important that you don't end up just trying to add together a bunch of asset store kits. You won't learn much from that.

If you really want to work towards something like an MMO. Then first learn some simple basic programming. Get to understand variables, if statements, loops and classes.

When you got a basic grasp of these, then pick something in an MMO you find interesting, like an item system, player movement etc. Then take that one task and create an offline version of it. This way you build up components you can use later while learning.

Its a slow and at times frustrating way to go. But as with any other trade it takes time to learn. If i wanted to learn how to be a carpenter and create my own furniture i would not start by buying a kit from IKEA.

 

The key word here is "start". Once you know enough about tools you're using, you know what you're doing - then you may just as well buy IKEA kit since it'll give you a headstart, then customize it to your liking (e.g. from rectangular table make a curvy one). And that was the point of my post.

 

I agree with that.

My post was an overall answer to techtrix approach, not your post though

 

Does MCMMO support custom classes?? and itemsets, item stats and that sort of thing?

 

So should I go about creating a RPG and then slowly start integrating various online features?

 

Dude, you really gotta adjust your expectations way down.

If you want to actually produce anything that's actually a game people might actually like to play it will take so much time and effort that you'll look back on your posts here and laugh at yourself.

The "step one is just build an rpg then I'll move onto the hard stuff" is still insane. There is such a huge gulf between something technically functional and something fun and polished.

The RPG genre is probably one of the most labor intensive needing a mixture of detailed UI, models, content, areas, dialog, combat systems, special abilities, interactivity.

Not knowing how to code, I would say learning enough to make a half decent character creation process will probably take a month - and chances are it'll still suck.

If you want a first project - just try to figure out how you're going to handle changing equipment visually. Like how you're going to change character appearance based on equipment. I'm not even talking about the inventory screen, just putting weapons/shields in their hands and clothes on the body. If you can do this, well, then you can start talking about the rest of it.

Part of the other problem is that learning to code isn't just the process of learning how to tell a computer what to do. It's learning about problem solving and breaking down complex tasks into smaller chunks.

The posts here illustrate the fact that you haven't learned to do that. You can't itemize the tasks ahead at a reasonable scope. You're thinking in huge chunks of work from the perspective of a gamer, not from the perspective of someone who's ever encountered building something of the complexity of a real game.

You have so much learning ahead of you until you're capable of doing any of the stuff you want. It's not just code, it's not just 3d engine, it's like the most basic thought process required for taking on such a massive undertaking.

You can do it. But you're years of learning and work away from realizing your dreams.

 

Yeah, the quickest way to get back into reality in terms of expectations, is to try and do a single simple component. Like go and do a simple third person camera behavior, or a player controller that works fine on any type of terrain and which you actually like. Or an easy-to-use inventory system that has all the functionality that you actually need (you'll have to actually sort out first what you need, so you won't have to rewrite the entire system when you find out later that it misses a critical feature). Make these and see how much time it will take. Then you could probably multiple that time by 100, if not more.

I mean... there are so many things which you never actually though about, that you will have to deal with. It will be overwhelming.

 

Hey guys I hammered in a nail and hung a picture on it. Next I want to build a 3 story home.

I really want to paint it red. And it'd be cool if there was a giant gargoyle on the front door. And maybe a massive glass dome around the greenhouse.

I stopped by home depot, what kind of tools should I buy? I heard this screwdriver was cool, but I was thinking maybe a drill or a saw.

 

If you go down Aisle Four, we offer a complete line of self learning resources.

 

Well what is the best way going about learning and KNOWING how to code? I don't know if Java/unity script is better or C#. I was thinking Java because it works on both windows and Mac. I have tried to learn from some YouTube-ers but I found it doesn't help a ton.

 

C# and the best way to learn is do. Of course after you watch some tutorials.