Re: Okay so here is the issue..
Posted: 11 Aug 2012 23:37
Here's some ideas Bendis, something I've written down here before, and something I always wanted to code myself, but never have.
IDEA 1
An "assault / defend" repeating scenario. In short we have a city / fortress / something that constantly is attacked and defended by two NPC factions. Good and Evil. Players can join in on either side. Every battle lasts around 1 hour, if your side succeed in holding the city / taking the city depending on which side you are helping you get not only XP for the stuff you kill, but also a considerable XP bonus for accomplishing the mission. When done, it resets and can be attempted again after a little waiting time. Who holds the city and who attacks it changes depending on how the battles go. If you decide to help the evil side attack, and succeed, then their side will now hold the city until a goodie team assists the goodie NPCs and wins, and then they hold the city. This will be an endless repeat with one army inside the city where you can "sign up to defend" and another army preparing an assault outside the city where you can "sign up to assault". The battle starts within a few minutes after at least one player has signed up for one of the sides. Anyone can then sign up until the battle ends, and if succeding they get XP based on how much time they took part.
This could be interesting from a PVP standpoint too. We could decide that people can join both sides in the same battle at any time, so players will fight not only NPCs but also others players. If you get killed during the battle you dont die, but is instead rescued in the last minute by some NPC and carried off the battlefield. You lose only your EQ. That could be a fun PVP ground too, with little risk.
But the main idea is to make it fun grinding, and if we dont want PVP we can simply allow people to only sign up on one side at a time. So if a battle is underway you can only sign up for the side that already has players fighting for it. That is probably how we should start, since the main idea is to make grinding more interactive and fun, and if you manage to complete the mission the XP boost will be more rewarding than the usual grind. It also gives those who only play for an hour or two now and then a chance to make some decent XP, and having fun at the same time.
Obviously a team of players would increase the chance of completing the mission, so it also encourages interaction.
IDEA 2
Another idea to make grinding more fun is some type of mega-boss + minions, that also gives a considerable XP boost for the team that kill the boss. The boss would have random resistances and attributes each time it reboots, perhaps some type of changing demon. Sometimes maybe it is extremely magical resistant, sometimes it hurts ALOT, sometimes it has HUGE con and heals itself, sometimes it attacks random people in the team, sometimes it spews fire, sometimes all of this, etc, etc...
The demon probably have a few minions you need to fight your way though first as well, and these minions are similar but smaller than the boss so they give hints about what you need to fight the boss. So each time you fight him need to adjust your tactics, making it "new" every time, sometimes he might be easier and a small team could take him down, sometimes he's extremely hard to kill requiring a bigger team of people with different skills.
So in short, a randomized "Balrog" with a considerably XP reward for slaying him, a reward big enough to give more XP for the time invested than you would get by grinding for the same amount of time. Themewise I think some type of "neutral" demon would be cool, something from another realm that is neither good nor evil, but threatens the entire world of Genesis, that way both good, evil and neutral players could fight him, and it would make sense doing so. When defeated the demon retreats to its own realm for awhile and is then reborn in a new shape, and again crosses over to our realm. maybe its a donut eating demon. (joking:).
I think both of these suggestion would be really fun, the second probably easier to do. Both are something I for quite some time have wanted to do as a wizard, but well... stuff got in the way. Coding skills, motivation, time, the usual. If it's something that interests you Bendis I'd love to see it done, and I could help with background story, if you wish.
IDEA 1
An "assault / defend" repeating scenario. In short we have a city / fortress / something that constantly is attacked and defended by two NPC factions. Good and Evil. Players can join in on either side. Every battle lasts around 1 hour, if your side succeed in holding the city / taking the city depending on which side you are helping you get not only XP for the stuff you kill, but also a considerable XP bonus for accomplishing the mission. When done, it resets and can be attempted again after a little waiting time. Who holds the city and who attacks it changes depending on how the battles go. If you decide to help the evil side attack, and succeed, then their side will now hold the city until a goodie team assists the goodie NPCs and wins, and then they hold the city. This will be an endless repeat with one army inside the city where you can "sign up to defend" and another army preparing an assault outside the city where you can "sign up to assault". The battle starts within a few minutes after at least one player has signed up for one of the sides. Anyone can then sign up until the battle ends, and if succeding they get XP based on how much time they took part.
This could be interesting from a PVP standpoint too. We could decide that people can join both sides in the same battle at any time, so players will fight not only NPCs but also others players. If you get killed during the battle you dont die, but is instead rescued in the last minute by some NPC and carried off the battlefield. You lose only your EQ. That could be a fun PVP ground too, with little risk.
But the main idea is to make it fun grinding, and if we dont want PVP we can simply allow people to only sign up on one side at a time. So if a battle is underway you can only sign up for the side that already has players fighting for it. That is probably how we should start, since the main idea is to make grinding more interactive and fun, and if you manage to complete the mission the XP boost will be more rewarding than the usual grind. It also gives those who only play for an hour or two now and then a chance to make some decent XP, and having fun at the same time.
Obviously a team of players would increase the chance of completing the mission, so it also encourages interaction.
IDEA 2
Another idea to make grinding more fun is some type of mega-boss + minions, that also gives a considerable XP boost for the team that kill the boss. The boss would have random resistances and attributes each time it reboots, perhaps some type of changing demon. Sometimes maybe it is extremely magical resistant, sometimes it hurts ALOT, sometimes it has HUGE con and heals itself, sometimes it attacks random people in the team, sometimes it spews fire, sometimes all of this, etc, etc...
The demon probably have a few minions you need to fight your way though first as well, and these minions are similar but smaller than the boss so they give hints about what you need to fight the boss. So each time you fight him need to adjust your tactics, making it "new" every time, sometimes he might be easier and a small team could take him down, sometimes he's extremely hard to kill requiring a bigger team of people with different skills.
So in short, a randomized "Balrog" with a considerably XP reward for slaying him, a reward big enough to give more XP for the time invested than you would get by grinding for the same amount of time. Themewise I think some type of "neutral" demon would be cool, something from another realm that is neither good nor evil, but threatens the entire world of Genesis, that way both good, evil and neutral players could fight him, and it would make sense doing so. When defeated the demon retreats to its own realm for awhile and is then reborn in a new shape, and again crosses over to our realm. maybe its a donut eating demon. (joking:).
I think both of these suggestion would be really fun, the second probably easier to do. Both are something I for quite some time have wanted to do as a wizard, but well... stuff got in the way. Coding skills, motivation, time, the usual. If it's something that interests you Bendis I'd love to see it done, and I could help with background story, if you wish.