Sidian
Lord Nagafen Raider
- 1,279
- 7
I ocassionally read this thread but sometimes I have to skip through pages because of how fast it goes, so sorry if some of these have already been mentioned / discussed. Just throwing out some thoughts.
Dungeons:
So thinking about dungeons I think having a partly non-instanced and partly instanced would be best for MMOs now a day. What about having the major outline of the dungeon non-instanced, with many different camps that you can group up and just grind if you wanted. Also having say mini-bosses at certain camps that some might have a faster respawn but have a lower chance of getting good loot and maybe some having a longer respawn. Obviously having both have a random spawn factor of maybe one being +/- 30 minutes and some of the stronger mini-bosses being up to +/- 6 hours. Now, there could be random camps you could grind for xp and some "uncommon" loots but if you wanted to do a non-raid, group you could fight at these certain camps that have the random chance of spawning a mini-boss that would basically require you to have 5 or so people in a group to kill it off.
Also in these dungeon layouts, where the big bad ass boss is, you'd have it instanced so therefore if you are progressed far enough in the game you can work your way through the non-instanced dungeon (probably be fairly easy assuming there are tons of other people there clearing their camps) to get to an instanced portal or whatever for just the lone boss fight. (or even maybe just 1 corridor with a few really tough trash pulls followed by the boss)
You now have a cool looking outdoor dungeon area that you can look for groups to camp certain mini-bosses for the chance to get some neat loot, but you can also be in your raid with however many people and clear through the non-instanced area (if needed) to easily be able to get yourself instanced into the boss fight.
Even having a random mini-boss that could take up to 10-15 people that wanders the non-instanced part would be pretty awesome. If you're group of 5 is sitting around farming a camp, then all of a sudden the General of X comes walking towards you camp like he is making his rounds. Well shit, you better back up a bit, or ask for another group to come help you because he's for sure going to crush you.
I also think one of the things you could do is have a lot of these mini bosses drop loot that just makes your character aesthetically different. Maybe this mini bosses only rare loot is a cool looking hat that has no stats but you can equip it to look like a badass while you sit in the main city. I remember never setting foot in Lower Guk at all, until I found out about the Guise of the Deceiver. I then proceeded to figure out how the hell to get to lower guk, then spamming chat on my bard trying to get someone to help me get to the storeroom area, to sit around waiting for the group that was there, hoping the assassin (or whatever the hell it was called) to spawn just because I wanted the chance to be able to turn into a Dark Elf.
Although, I guess the problem at this point is the whole level / power grind because unless it's a max level dungeon area you'll have people being able to solo these camps eventually.
Questing:
One Idea I had, that I noticed was kind of mentioned was what about having some very long, class specific quests that start while you're a low level and maybe even go all the way til you're maxed. Maybe a quest where once you get level 10, it asks you to go to a certain low level dungeon and get a rare Orb from the end boss of it. With that orb it opens up another quest at level 15 which then you have to farm a mini-boss spawn in a random part of the world in attempts to get his Golden Locket, etc etc.
Eventually if you do this quest all the way to max level you'll get a final part which then unlocks a very good weapon/mount/item/whatever. It would make you want to explore all around and slowly do this quest because of the uber item it'll give you when you're finished. It would be kind of like a guide for the newer players because it could kind of show you where to go as you level, but it'll also reward you in the long run assuming you keep it up. Sure you could just wait til you're maxed level before going back and doing these quests, but at that point you're exploring through everything you already went through, especially if it's a long enough quest. It's be easier to do it the first time around, but if you really wanted to skip it, you were able to.
Travel:
A mix between portals, flight paths & mounts are good imo. I don't believe flying mounts should be allowed for players to own, it's a dumb idea imo especially when you have nothing to worry about while flying for the most part. Easily allows flying to the top of the world and afk auto flying to your destination. If there are 30 zones in the whole world, have say 10 of those zones have flight paths. The others you have to fly to your closests destination and run. Of those 20 zones left that don't have flight paths, put maybe 5-10 of them have druid/wizard rings. Now you can fly and run a little farther, or get a port.
Unlocking flight paths, at least the first time, should be a lot more then just finding the flight merchant, clicking on him and grats, flight point unlocked! Maybe some of them require certain keys from dungeons, or some of the won't open up their path until you do something for them, etc etc. I also think making it account wide would be awesome. You do it once, it's always unlocked, but the option is still there to do the "quest" to unlock it if you want, but you don't have to.
In WoW, I remember it turned into, okay run to org, get flight path, run to barrens, get flight path, run to thunder bluff, get flight path, then I'd slowly do some quests and shit because then I could fly where needed. But if the first time playing, you weren't able to unlock the flight path at xroads without doing something first means you actually have to explore the world / level up before being able to unlock it. Although, then when you decide to play an alt, you don't have to worry about doing all those again because it'll be unlocked.
Zones:
Call me crazy but I think it'd be a great idea to mix in high level and low level monsters in the same area sometimes. We just entered the Tundra Plains! The east side is levels 20-35, yet the Tundra Castle is a little on the west side that is level 50. It's boring for me to say, okay start at the noob zone, eventually you outlevel the noob zone and the next zone to the north is the one you go to, then the next one to the north, etc etc. Now, if you're a lower level maybe you take the risk of exploring the high level areas in the Tundra Plains! Or you just say screw it and come back in 15 levels when you'll be even with the monsters on the western half. Or maybe you're class quest has you trying to pick up an item on the ground that's dropped in the high level 1/2 of the zone.
Having higher level mini-bosses that wander roads or camps could be fun too. They drop an item you can hand into the main city to get xp/gold/loot. It's fun to find the random "named" guy and pick up a quest item and be like, fuck yeah.
---
Anyway, just sharing my thoughts. Also, sorry if these have already been mentioned hundreds of times earlier in the thread lol.
Dungeons:
So thinking about dungeons I think having a partly non-instanced and partly instanced would be best for MMOs now a day. What about having the major outline of the dungeon non-instanced, with many different camps that you can group up and just grind if you wanted. Also having say mini-bosses at certain camps that some might have a faster respawn but have a lower chance of getting good loot and maybe some having a longer respawn. Obviously having both have a random spawn factor of maybe one being +/- 30 minutes and some of the stronger mini-bosses being up to +/- 6 hours. Now, there could be random camps you could grind for xp and some "uncommon" loots but if you wanted to do a non-raid, group you could fight at these certain camps that have the random chance of spawning a mini-boss that would basically require you to have 5 or so people in a group to kill it off.
Also in these dungeon layouts, where the big bad ass boss is, you'd have it instanced so therefore if you are progressed far enough in the game you can work your way through the non-instanced dungeon (probably be fairly easy assuming there are tons of other people there clearing their camps) to get to an instanced portal or whatever for just the lone boss fight. (or even maybe just 1 corridor with a few really tough trash pulls followed by the boss)
You now have a cool looking outdoor dungeon area that you can look for groups to camp certain mini-bosses for the chance to get some neat loot, but you can also be in your raid with however many people and clear through the non-instanced area (if needed) to easily be able to get yourself instanced into the boss fight.
Even having a random mini-boss that could take up to 10-15 people that wanders the non-instanced part would be pretty awesome. If you're group of 5 is sitting around farming a camp, then all of a sudden the General of X comes walking towards you camp like he is making his rounds. Well shit, you better back up a bit, or ask for another group to come help you because he's for sure going to crush you.
I also think one of the things you could do is have a lot of these mini bosses drop loot that just makes your character aesthetically different. Maybe this mini bosses only rare loot is a cool looking hat that has no stats but you can equip it to look like a badass while you sit in the main city. I remember never setting foot in Lower Guk at all, until I found out about the Guise of the Deceiver. I then proceeded to figure out how the hell to get to lower guk, then spamming chat on my bard trying to get someone to help me get to the storeroom area, to sit around waiting for the group that was there, hoping the assassin (or whatever the hell it was called) to spawn just because I wanted the chance to be able to turn into a Dark Elf.
Although, I guess the problem at this point is the whole level / power grind because unless it's a max level dungeon area you'll have people being able to solo these camps eventually.
Questing:
One Idea I had, that I noticed was kind of mentioned was what about having some very long, class specific quests that start while you're a low level and maybe even go all the way til you're maxed. Maybe a quest where once you get level 10, it asks you to go to a certain low level dungeon and get a rare Orb from the end boss of it. With that orb it opens up another quest at level 15 which then you have to farm a mini-boss spawn in a random part of the world in attempts to get his Golden Locket, etc etc.
Eventually if you do this quest all the way to max level you'll get a final part which then unlocks a very good weapon/mount/item/whatever. It would make you want to explore all around and slowly do this quest because of the uber item it'll give you when you're finished. It would be kind of like a guide for the newer players because it could kind of show you where to go as you level, but it'll also reward you in the long run assuming you keep it up. Sure you could just wait til you're maxed level before going back and doing these quests, but at that point you're exploring through everything you already went through, especially if it's a long enough quest. It's be easier to do it the first time around, but if you really wanted to skip it, you were able to.
Travel:
A mix between portals, flight paths & mounts are good imo. I don't believe flying mounts should be allowed for players to own, it's a dumb idea imo especially when you have nothing to worry about while flying for the most part. Easily allows flying to the top of the world and afk auto flying to your destination. If there are 30 zones in the whole world, have say 10 of those zones have flight paths. The others you have to fly to your closests destination and run. Of those 20 zones left that don't have flight paths, put maybe 5-10 of them have druid/wizard rings. Now you can fly and run a little farther, or get a port.
Unlocking flight paths, at least the first time, should be a lot more then just finding the flight merchant, clicking on him and grats, flight point unlocked! Maybe some of them require certain keys from dungeons, or some of the won't open up their path until you do something for them, etc etc. I also think making it account wide would be awesome. You do it once, it's always unlocked, but the option is still there to do the "quest" to unlock it if you want, but you don't have to.
In WoW, I remember it turned into, okay run to org, get flight path, run to barrens, get flight path, run to thunder bluff, get flight path, then I'd slowly do some quests and shit because then I could fly where needed. But if the first time playing, you weren't able to unlock the flight path at xroads without doing something first means you actually have to explore the world / level up before being able to unlock it. Although, then when you decide to play an alt, you don't have to worry about doing all those again because it'll be unlocked.
Zones:
Call me crazy but I think it'd be a great idea to mix in high level and low level monsters in the same area sometimes. We just entered the Tundra Plains! The east side is levels 20-35, yet the Tundra Castle is a little on the west side that is level 50. It's boring for me to say, okay start at the noob zone, eventually you outlevel the noob zone and the next zone to the north is the one you go to, then the next one to the north, etc etc. Now, if you're a lower level maybe you take the risk of exploring the high level areas in the Tundra Plains! Or you just say screw it and come back in 15 levels when you'll be even with the monsters on the western half. Or maybe you're class quest has you trying to pick up an item on the ground that's dropped in the high level 1/2 of the zone.
Having higher level mini-bosses that wander roads or camps could be fun too. They drop an item you can hand into the main city to get xp/gold/loot. It's fun to find the random "named" guy and pick up a quest item and be like, fuck yeah.
---
Anyway, just sharing my thoughts. Also, sorry if these have already been mentioned hundreds of times earlier in the thread lol.
