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Why Should Intrepid Rethink Their Choice Regarding Dragons
ArchivedUser
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Rejoice fellow gamers, Dragons exist in AoC, except they don't!
So, sometime in early January Steven confirmed that there will be dragons in AoC; however, they will be extremely rare. So rare that only a tiny fraction of the total population will ever get to soar the skies using dragons.
I personally respect this decision. Limiting Flight mechanics can be a good thing depending on what the developer is aiming to achieve.I see how passionate Steven is towards crafting an experience around the community rather than the game, and Flying all the majority of the time could lessen the time players spend interacting with each other, which might be a big no no for Steven. Flight can also remove the small finer things that make a journey memorable. The thrill you get when you aggro a mini boss trying to run back and turn over a quest, or discovering a new area and your first impressions being jaw dropping rather than "Oh! look, a new area, yay!". Still, i am here to argue why flight should be a more common thing than it already is. It is extremely rare, so less rare doesn't mean everyone should've them.
- The first thing to consider when making Flight a more common thing is how it impacts gameplay. More precisely, will Flight improve the experience or worsen it. In my opinion, Flight will definitely enhance the combat of the game. I mean, adding the possibility to take off at any moment during a fight adds a new dimension to the combat. Likewise, it can make sieges more strategic. For example, A siege can have an aerial and ground raids that are both working together to bring that node down. Similarly, a guild could end up winning a GvG battle by letting half of their raid(s) wait in the skies, luring the enemy with a false sense of security and then dropping down to cleanse them. The applications of how Flight can improve the combat is limitless if you ask me.
- The second argument is revenue, especially revenue generated from cosmetics. Lots of games in the market make insane amount of money only from selling cosmetics. League of Legends is a prime example. Their entire business runs on cosmetics. Moreover, we all know AoC is going to be a non pay to win game, which means the majority of AoC revenue is going to be generated from selling convenience cash shop items and cosmetics, so why not increase the cosmetic potential of AoC by adding Dragons. The number of eye catching skins that will have the community saying "Shut up and take my money" are limitless. We're all suckers for dragons, and i am sure people will buy skins for them. To not have dragons be a more common thing would be a wasted potential if you ask me. Note that i said "Be a more common thing". Not necessarily a super accessible thing, just more common than the way it is currently. Less rare such that any daily HC players could eventually obtain Dragons.
I can really go on forever, but the point is that Flight should be a more accessible mechanic. Not extremely easy to access. I am not advocating for a level 10 Dragon mount. Instead, make Flight accessible in the later stages of the game. Just don't make them so rare that only a handful of players will ever get to soar the skies.
So, sometime in early January Steven confirmed that there will be dragons in AoC; however, they will be extremely rare. So rare that only a tiny fraction of the total population will ever get to soar the skies using dragons.
I personally respect this decision. Limiting Flight mechanics can be a good thing depending on what the developer is aiming to achieve.I see how passionate Steven is towards crafting an experience around the community rather than the game, and Flying all the majority of the time could lessen the time players spend interacting with each other, which might be a big no no for Steven. Flight can also remove the small finer things that make a journey memorable. The thrill you get when you aggro a mini boss trying to run back and turn over a quest, or discovering a new area and your first impressions being jaw dropping rather than "Oh! look, a new area, yay!". Still, i am here to argue why flight should be a more common thing than it already is. It is extremely rare, so less rare doesn't mean everyone should've them.
- The first thing to consider when making Flight a more common thing is how it impacts gameplay. More precisely, will Flight improve the experience or worsen it. In my opinion, Flight will definitely enhance the combat of the game. I mean, adding the possibility to take off at any moment during a fight adds a new dimension to the combat. Likewise, it can make sieges more strategic. For example, A siege can have an aerial and ground raids that are both working together to bring that node down. Similarly, a guild could end up winning a GvG battle by letting half of their raid(s) wait in the skies, luring the enemy with a false sense of security and then dropping down to cleanse them. The applications of how Flight can improve the combat is limitless if you ask me.
- The second argument is revenue, especially revenue generated from cosmetics. Lots of games in the market make insane amount of money only from selling cosmetics. League of Legends is a prime example. Their entire business runs on cosmetics. Moreover, we all know AoC is going to be a non pay to win game, which means the majority of AoC revenue is going to be generated from selling convenience cash shop items and cosmetics, so why not increase the cosmetic potential of AoC by adding Dragons. The number of eye catching skins that will have the community saying "Shut up and take my money" are limitless. We're all suckers for dragons, and i am sure people will buy skins for them. To not have dragons be a more common thing would be a wasted potential if you ask me. Note that i said "Be a more common thing". Not necessarily a super accessible thing, just more common than the way it is currently. Less rare such that any daily HC players could eventually obtain Dragons.
I can really go on forever, but the point is that Flight should be a more accessible mechanic. Not extremely easy to access. I am not advocating for a level 10 Dragon mount. Instead, make Flight accessible in the later stages of the game. Just don't make them so rare that only a handful of players will ever get to soar the skies.
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Well, i am sure such a drop will be extremely rare and given that Steven used "An" rather than "Eggs" i would assume it is just a single egg per epic boss. So, even if every epic boss has a guaranteed chance to drop one egg, it would still be hard to obtain one because there will be another 100 to 500 (maybe more) people trying to get the same thing. It also does say they're timed. So, I will have to be very lucky to obtain something that will not last me until i get lucky again, which doesn't really make Flight anymore accessible if you ask me.
Also, segmenting caravans by several minutes seems to be a solution being offered. Meaning, several minutes are all that is required to stop zerging according to whoever wrote that. It is already hard to zerg a caravan now with Flight decided as a rare thing, but even if it's a common thing, people will still take time to cut the immense distances. I am assuming that Ashes will have a large world. After all, there will be multiple castles with nodes linked. that must require a huge space.
Same thing with dungeon/content fatigue. You may hear about this really cool water temple 8 nodes away through enemy controlled territory. Part of the adventure is going to form your group, and then make your way to content. No more of this "Let's do XYZ dungeon. Hey rogue, you go run over to the summoning stone while I go afk smoke and update my Facebook." Part of the whole dungeon crawl may involve actual crawling now.
You could argue whether that is good or not, but I don't think they will change the game to such a degree.
I want to highlight that we are talking about a subscription game tho. Going in with the attitude "cosmetics will make the most revenue" won't be good for us. It should be an additional thing not the lions share.
Starting your game on the idea "we have to put out the most awesome things through our shop to keep us afloat" will never be healthy for a game itself.
I dearly hope that this truly is a passion project and not just masked as one.
A moderately successful sub game in its first year could do 100,000 sustained subs easily. It may spike higher, but if the vision laid out so far is realized, totally doable. I am not counting the 4-5000 lifetime subs that have already contributed revenue. That is 1.5 mill in revenue monthly. Even as a passion project with a small base, he is looking at ROI in under two years, assuming 30 million beyond KS funds spent during development. We will see fairly quickly after live launch whether it is a cash grab, though why you would screw yourself like that with something that has so much more potential beyond a couple years would be idiotic at best.
NUFF SAID...
this guy thinks flying mounts should be available for everyone... just a ton of wrgrggiggrk hrrr ramble ramble ramble~
One of of the primary reasons is world size. I have high hopes, that with the nodes and stuff. The world in Ashes is going to be big, possibly even layered. I'm going to use WoW as an example yet again. I used to be Horde. Levelling my character up in the Barrens. It felt huge, absolutely huge. There were certain mountain passes that took me a while to find. (Stolen silver, damn you) And later on, when I became max level. Even though I was a Mage. The Onyxia quest chain had me travel all over the world. On my 40 percent mount speed, and some flight paths. It took a long time, to go from one end of the zone, to the other. Nevermind from one end of the world to another. Now, fast forward a few years. Cataclysm gets released, and with it, the ability to fly in the old world was unlocked. The world, felt a lot smaller, suddenly. Even though they added more content (Opened up zones) The world, as a whole, felt a whole lot smaller.
Flying combat. You touched upon this too. However, I find, that the games that allow flying, it usually adds very little to the game in terms of strategy. You can just avoid strategic chokepoints, and people will just drop down on whatever the objective is. However, strategic chokepoints. Think old school Alterac valley, fighting on the road trying to get into the Alliance base. There was not too much strategy involved, but it was fun. But the same was true for Eastern Plaguelands, the elites Tyr's hand I think it was. A lot of cool fights happened there, fights that would not happen again. The amount of times I went to Hellfire PvP zone and saw someone hoovering out of range. It didn't scream tactical. Whilst in stories, and what have you, flying mounts are amazing. As far as game mechanics go, they simply have too many downsides for me.
As far as cosmetics go, they could do that for normal mounts, or even class flavoured mounts. They can do it for all types of player housing. They could sell dyes for your own armour. There is more than enough potential for cosmetic revenue, without savagely cutting themselves in the fingers by making flying mounts a lot more common.
There is also the scientific node. One of it's main selling points and benefits is fast travel. So you don't have to hike through the forest, and potentially be attacked by goblins, orcs, bandits what have you. However, if flying is commonplace. Why would anyone go for fast travel when you can fly up, look in the proper direction, press num lock, and get something to drink? I know I wouldn't, and I want a scientific node.
This, I forgot to add this point, and I can't believe I missed you posting it. But this is a very good point.
Imagine Lord of the Rings. Where Frodo and gang sit in Rivendell, decide to go on the quest, and just get teleported to mount doom. Or, as Gandalf suggested, they fly there. It just wouldn't be as good.
Think how awesome and epic it would be to follow your troops single file through a mountain forest trying not to be spotted or heard by the enemy as you head to strike their towns.
Dragons: I WANT them to be rare, I want to be astounded when I see someone riding a Dragon above me. I want the feeling of when I saw Legendaries back in WoW when I was amazed that someone had Thunderfury.
But most of all I want Dragons to have meaning, they give you something to work for, something to strive for and you may never get it, but they have meaning, they are special, and not everyone will get them. They are a privilege to be earned.
Flying: Someone above mentioned the Barrens and how it felt huge and took so much time to get somewhere in it. I remember loving it. The world being massive and taking time is a huge appeal as you have to learn the land and really know the world (and you start to feel connected to it) but with flying you don't have to, it's just Aright go airborn fly to X do exactly what you need and return, you lose your sense of adventure with flying.
(Example:
What i am advocating for is to not have dragons i.e. Flight be something that rare. It is so rare to get a flying mount that even the most HC players may never get one. That is why i am advocating for Dragons to be less rare i.e. be more common than they already are. I think i said this in the OP. Just less rare than they
already are
Sister i didn't say that"To not have dragons be a more common thing would be a wasted potential if you ask me. Note i said "Be a more common thing". Not necessary super accessible, just a more common thing such that any daily players could eventually obtain it. "
Sounds to me like your saying just anyone eventually could/should be able to own one:
"more common thing such that any daily players could eventually obtain it. "
It is fast travel , it kills the game no one would even walk everyone would fly. It is too casual . It killed WoW , we dont need this in AoC . Only 2-4 people from all the server should have it. No more.
Once you start handing these things out, they lose their flare, and it's not a good thing at all.
Nothing should be particularly easy, look at games like SWG that flopped because of trying to please players, by giving them everything, making everything way to accessible.
I'm sure a year after release, dragons won't be as rare, because people will go out of their way to get them. It's a pull back to the game, and hopefully not the only one. Give players things that aren't easy to do, and they will strive that much harder to get it.
I didn't read what you said either, but I got the jest of you wanting it to be normal to see people flying on dragons. I can assure you, it's not normal.
Edit: Just read some more of your post, and no. That's how you ruin a game.
As you yourself said.
"To not have dragons be a more common thing would be a wasted potential if you ask me. Note i said "Be a more common thing". Not necessary super accessible, just a more common thing such that any daily players could eventually obtain it. "
So I do not believe I misread your meaning. I just, wholeheartedly disagree, and posted some of my thoughts as to why I disagree. As you yourself requested.
I don't think I am the only person looking forward to a hard slog over mountains, through swamps, across rivers, and deserts, to get to my destination.
In the words of the master poet...
"Lifes a journey, not a destinaaaaaation..."