Suggestion: Need for Speed - World Reborn (MMO Remake)

Need for Speed World had one of the best MMO ideas I have ever seen. An MMO game but with cars. On top of that, it was built on the engine of 2 of the most succesful Need for Speed games: Most Wanted and Carbon. Need for Speed World had the potential to be the next Counter-Strike, the first game you think about when you think about racing, the fan-favourite standard when it comes to racing games.

It didn't have hugely demanding graphics while still looking good, which meant that anyone could play it regardless of PC or console. It was simple, which meant that anyone could understand how it works, how to navigate the menu and how to play the game without much effort. And it was free so again anyone could try it and it was MMO which encouraged a huge community of players and friends staying connected. For all its great qualities, NFS World had one major flaw that made it not as popular as it should have been - lack of actual playing content.

For a game with such a great recipe and design, it's a shame how little content it had, which was in my opinion the main cause of its downfall. A game of high quality but low content. All you could do in Need for Speed World is: sprint races, circuit races, drag races, singleplayer pursuit and team escape. With only 5 racing modes, one of which is exclusively singleplayer, it's no wonder a player would join in, alone or with a group of friends, play for a while, then leave, as you're doing the same thing over and over again.

The developers tried to introduce the Green Diamonds to make the players stay longer in game, but I think this did more harm than good. Rather than actually enjoying the game, as you did in the other 5 gamemodes, you felt obligated to get those 15 Green Diamonds to get the rewards, it wasn't fun, it was just work. And it only helped to drain the players actually looking for a game, because they felt that they would be missing out if they didn't take those 15 Green Diamonds but at the same time didn't like freeroam to get those 15 Green Diamonds.

As such, I suggest a re-release of Need For Speed World as Need for Speed World Reborn, with the same grahpic engine, the same simplicity of gameplay and navigating the menu and still free, but with one major twist - a lot more content. Not presented in a complicated way where you don't know what to start doing next, but simply having a lot of things to do in the game. So that players won't have to do repetitive tasks to advance in the game and so that there will always be a new challenge.

Here is what kind of content I have in mind:

I. Something for level and class balance:

- Keep the driver levels from 1 to 60.
- There are 6 car classes in game: E, D, C, B, A and S.
- A player can only compete against cars in his own class. An D car will never have to face a C car, unless the players create a private match with friends.
- You can upgrade a car past its original class, but you need at least level 10 to buy a D class car, at least level 20 to buy a C class car, level 30 - B class, level 40 - A class, level 50 - S class.
* This ensures a good reason for progression, if you want to buy stronger cars, you will need higher level, it also ensures you won't find level 15 players with S class cars, it keeps balance.

II. Circuits Unlock Evolution:

- Available races don't rotate on the map everyday, they are fixed, and you can replay the same track or gamemode everytime you want.

- When you are level 1, you only have a few races to pick from, and you see greyed out the races you unlock when you reach level 2.

- Each race also has in bottom left a small cyrcle with a number next to the symbol of its racetype, indicating the minimum level required to participate in that race.

* For example: you are level 1, and only have 5 starting races to pick, from, when you make level 2, you unlock 3 other races, when you make level 3 you unlock 3 other races, when you make level 4 you again unlock 3 other races, when you make level 5 you again unlock 5 other races. Now you have a total of 5+3+3+3+5 = 19 races to pick from. You have a lot of options to pick from, and you are only level 5.
* You can always use the search option to search for any race, or any specific racetype regardless of type.

- The only way to play a circuit higher than your level, is if a friend of yours of higher level who has access to that circuit creates a private match and invites you, this should encurage socialization. And even friend private races should give some rewards, maybe halves than regular races. While abuse should be discuraged, playing with friends should be encuraged.
- The beauty of this system is that originally you start with basic racemodes, such as circuit and sprint, and gradually you get to unlock more exquisite gamemodes such as team escape, speedtrap, lap knockout or canyon duels.

- You don't need to create completely new circuits and type of races, you already have a lot from Most Wanted and Carbon.

III. New gamemodes:

- The 10 race events from Most Wanted and Carbon:
1. Circuit - Lap-based circuit races. (unlocked at level 1)
2. Sprint - Point-to-point races. (unlocked at level 1)
3. Team Escape - Co-operative escape from the polite (unlocked at level 3)
4. Drag - Short point-to-point races with manual gear. (unlocked at level 5)
5. Lap Knockout - Circuit races that eliminate the last racer of each lap. (unlocked at level 7)
6. Speedtrap - Speed-focused sprint races. (unlocked at level 10)
7. Canyon Duel - Distance-based two player mode. (unlocked at level 12) -> You can still use D class cars for canyon races, but need at least level 12 to enter one.
8. Drift - Drifting-focused circuit races. (unlocked at level 15)
9. Canyon Drift - Drifting-focused sprint races. (unlocked at level 17)
10. Checkpoint Race - Time-limited checkpoint races, everybody has ghost cars (unlocked at level 20)

And additionally.

11. Free Roam Challenge - The ability to challenge another player on freeroam to a sprint race with an ending of your choosing.

And unlock at level 5, police mode - you get to play as a cop as well, inspired from Carbon's multiplayer, with limited number of cars to pick from, but you still gain XP and money in events:

12. Intervention - Join a singleplayer police chase session of another player trying to catch him. (maximum 4 player cops in a chase)
13. Pursuit Challenge - The ability to challenge another player on freeroam to a 1vs1 cop vs racer duel where the cop has an indistructible car and he tries to escape you.

13. Pursuit Knockout - Multiplayer pursuits within a circuit. (unlocked at level 7)

14. Pursuit Tag - Multiplayer pursuits within a district (unlocked at level 10)

And unlock at level 10, fun mode - unlike race mode (blue) or police mode (red), fun mode (green) makes no sense, it's just for fun, you have the same cars as in race mode but the gamemodes are completely arcade: (you also gain XP and money from events here)

15. Tag -> Like Pursuit Tag in a whole district except only 1 player is the chaser and he only needs to touch another car so that that player becomes the new chaser. Everytime you're not a chaser, you gain points. If 2 or more players reach winning points at the same time, everyone else automatically becomes chaser and hunts them down until only 1 is left standing.
16. Capture the Flag -> Again district-based, there are 2 teams, the goal is to take the enemy team's flag and get it back to your base. The only way to lose the flag is if you reach speed 0, so make sure you don't crash and are not forced to stop by the enemy team. (unlocked at level 12)

17. Hold the Flag -> Again district-based, a flag is spawned randomly on the map, whoever holds the flag gains points, if someone touches you, get they the flag and it can't be automatically taken by someone else for 3 seconds. (unlocked at level 15)

18. Zombie Mode -> One player starts out as the zombie, his car is fully green but he has double nitro regeneraiton rate, when he touches someone else, that person becomes infected, the goal is to infect as many cars as possible if you're infected or to avoid being infected if you're not. You gain points when you're alive but non-infected or when you are infected but infect others. (unlocked at level 17)
19. Gatefinding -> Again district-based, much like checkpoint race, there are gates on the map, but they are not places in a line like in checkpoint race, but randomly scattered across the district, and the players are not in ghost mode, the first player to reach a gate gains a point, and then another random gate activates. The same thing repeats, whoever gets there first gets a point. It's a game of tactics but also luck. (unlocked at level 20)

With 19 gamemodes, I believe there's hardly room to get bored in such a game.

But wait, there's more content.

IV. No Powerups, just keep the old Nitro.

- In my experience, at of people liked the old classical nitro in Most Wanted and Carbon over the power-up cards in World. I understand they were important for microtransactions, but you can make microtransactions in something else: skins, buying already greatly upgraded cars, double money, double experience. Something that doesn't break the game's balance and still keeps it a compeititive experience even between free-to-play and pay-to-win players, it just allow the players who pay to get better rewards faster.

- If you focus on skins and faster rewards, faster level-up and already upgraded cars. You can have microtransactions while still keeping the game not pay to win. Which encourages having more players and a larger community. The larger the community, the more new players, the more potential people who use microtransactions.

- Make every type of car in the game available to buy with in-game money, don't make pay-to-win exclusive cars for that would make the game pay-to-win and discourage players from joining.

- But if you want a car already equipped with a lot of things, you can pay of it. The principle is that: you can use microtransactions to get a headstart in the game, but there's nothing you can achieve with microtransactions that you can't also achieve without microtransactions although a lot more grinding, it's not unfair, there are still fair races, it's just that paying money in the game makes you progress faster and have way cooler skins.

- Overly pay-to-win games discourage free players from joining and the servers become empty, which in turns discourages pay-to-win players from joining. Games like Counter-Strike Global Offensive make a lot of money from skins but the game balance is exactly the same for everyone. You don't get higher weapon damage or more bullets if you pay money in CS:GO.

V. Crew Races/Team Races.

- Some gamemodes have options of crew race (half the racers is one crew, half the racers is the other crew) or team races (multiple teams, only 2 players per team)

- The rewards are shared between team or crew members.

- You can also create a party and join a lobby/race together, but if you don't specifically select team race you will fight as separate individual players with separate rewards.

- Only crew leaders of lieutenants can start a crew race.

VI. Tournaments/Team Tournaments/Crew Tournaments.

- These are events and can change.
- Usually consists of not one race, but a series of 3 to 5 races with the points adding up.

VII. Storymode.

- Yes, that's right, storymode.

- An MMO can have a basic storymode where the character is a vauge newcomer looking to make a name for himself.

- You have just arrived into town and are looking to make a name for yourself, a mysterious figures gives you some money to get you started (first car) and tell you that if you want to be noticed you need to get racing. Then you may be offered more opportunities.

- When you reach level 3 that same mysterious figures tells you about a daring team escape between illegal races, the importance these daring team escapes have on reputation but it also increases your name in the eyes of the police, so be careful about this.

- When you reach level 8 the mysterious figure tells you about the Most Wanted, the best races the world has ever seen (the leaderbords), or the blacklist 10.000 how they call it, if you want to be one of the 10.000 you're going to have to reach the top of the top, become le creme de la creme (level 60), nobody is interested in the skill of a no-name, then you will be able to compete with these top racers for insane rewards.

- When you reach level 12 the mysterious figure tells you canyon duels, the most daring type of duels where one mistake can be fatal.

- When you reach level 20 the mysterious figure tells you that now that you got a name for yourself, you must have realised that you cannot do it alone, you need a crew to represent you and to represent, seek the market, there are plenty, find what crew resonates best with you and go for it.
- When you reach level 30 the mysterious figure tells you that he is impressed about the way you are advancing in the world, you are starting to make quite a name for yourself and get some serious heat.
- When you reach level 40 the mysterious figure tells you that you are close to steeping the line in the field of the big boys, and that he would be careful if he was you, things are getting much more tense from here.
- When you reach level 50 the mysterious figure tells you that you are a top racer now and have reached the ranks of the elite, racing with the best cars and the best drivers. From now on you are going to have an ELO, a system that keeps track of how good you are, you start with 1200 points and gain or lose points depending on your finish finishing and opponents. It's not so simple, you can only gain or lose ELO in tournaments. If you want to be the creme de la creme you're going to have to gain enough ELO to become one of the blacklist 10.000, who have access to special tournaments and rewards.
- When you reach level 60 the mysterious figure tells you congratulations, you have seen everything there is to see in this town, you have explored everything sideways, now the only way to move is up, on the ladder of the best racers the world have ever seen, and become number 1 on the blacklist.
* It's not something wow, but these nice cutscenes give context, and you can always replay them from the menu if you forgot something.

VIII. Add the Carbon Canyon, West Canyon and East Canyon as well as roads towards them on the map.

- So you can freeroam in those areas.
- Maps of the Carbon Canyons and World Full Map in the attach.

One extra: Keep the golf region from NFS Most Wanted always snowy and with those jumping platforms (usually it was only turned to snow during Christmas), it was amazing a great parkour and meeting place. And seeing the effects of the snow on car was equally amazing.

I would have even more ideas, but I think this is already quite enough, quite a lot to make the game interesting and full of content.