The joys of open world vs instanced mmorpg

ArchivedUser

Here's what I have been doing for the past few years while playing mmorpgs as soon as I' reach max lv within 3-4 days.
Sitting in a city,  /guild "lfm DarkTower farm run"

Once the group was rdy, 1 tank, 1 healer, 6 dps, we'd all teleport in the Dungeon, clear trash, kill boss, clear trash, kill boss, clear trash, kill final boss. At first we would follow the mechanics but with power creep later on we'd faceroll everything. 20-40mins. "Ahh I got a bow.. I wanted a sword.."

/guild "lfm DarkTower farm run.
Another 20-40mins of the same.
A member wants to farm AngelTower. TELEPORT in AngelTower. 20-40mins.

Here is what I used to do when I first played mmorpgs years ago.
I am lv 52. It took me 1-2 months to get there. Max lv is 76. I need to spend a week to get gear that will carry me to 61. 

/guild "whoever wants to farm gear for Warrior lv52 join me. I also need the help of a healer and a bard. Tank optional.

We would get our inventories ready for the journey and we would set out for the Dragon Mountains.

"Ok ppl this is a nice spot here in the Dragon Mountains. Let's start killing"
10mins later...
"It feels easy here, wanna go deeper?"
We would make our way deeper in the Dragon Mountains. We could come across Raid Bosses(huge XP great loot)
/guild "Found a RB at Dragom Mountains. Need 1 tank and a few more dps"

We would continue killing monsters in the Dragon Mountains until all the warriors got crafting materials for Warrior 52 Armor. 
Some times we would PvP agressive players, sometimes we would come across enemy guilds. Sometimes we would win other times lose. 
Some times other group of players would be around, we'd have small talk maybe say something funny maybe make friends or enemies.
Some times somebody would become corrupt in the Dragon Mountains and we'd go looking to kill him to get some gear.
Sometimes people would talk about stuff on the /area channel in Dragon Mountains and we'd join in the conversation.

This could be a nice 2h of leveling up, becoming better with our classes (PvE PvP) gathering, and looting materials for our Warrior 52 armor. 
Sometimes we could loot a whole armor piece. 
Mke some good memories (I dare you to revisit a specific memory in Instanced mmorpgs).

After everybody got the material they needed for Warrior 52 armor, we would go to the Desert Caves on the other side of the map, to farm Power Elements, needed to craft Warrior 52 Armor.
Within a week or less this dedicated group would have been geared up with an armor that they would wear for another month or so, which would protect them from dmg in more difficult areas as the advance on their journey in this mmorpg.

AoC seems to be heading this way. I am not sure if you can understand why PvP cannot be isolated from PvE in such a game. It all comes together in an open world. 
PvE only servers would require resources. Maybe a year after the game is up and running.

Mmorpgs are social games and you cant advance like you do in single player games.
They shouldn't like Lava stage, Ice stage, Desert stage that you jump on with Co Op friends grinding again and again and again going through the motions to the point of boredom.
Players need to be part of a group, ask for help and offer help, and together advance.

ArchivedUser

Well then, get ready to have the best of both worlds. Ashes will have open world and instanced content. Your choices are mind-boggling.

ArchivedUser

Some people like instanced some like open-world good thing Ashes will have both

ArchivedUser

Well max level is projected to take 45 days.  I'm sure people are going to blow up that timeline, but that's the projection.

Everything else, being part of the group, that's the entire premise of the game.  

ArchivedUser

I'm hoping the instancing is rather limited. Arenas, in town apartment player housing and maybe some dungeons. But please oh please do not go overboard with it. Its nice to have a seamless open world that we can get immersed in. 

ArchivedUser

Dragnon said:

I'm hoping the instancing is rather limited. Arenas, in town apartment player housing and maybe some dungeons. But please oh please do not go overboard with it. Its nice to have a seamless open world that we can get immersed in. 

Yes. I am tired of instanced mmorpgs. It's just single player games with co op modes or versus modes.

ArchivedUser

Jahlon said:

Well max level is projected to take 45 days.  I'm sure people are going to blow up that timeline, but that's the projection.

Everything else, being part of the group, that's the entire premise of the game.  

45 days?! Like 1080 hours..? Where did IS say that?

ArchivedUser

Althor said:

Jahlon said:

Well max level is projected to take 45 days.  I'm sure people are going to blow up that timeline, but that's the projection.

Everything else, being part of the group, that's the entire premise of the game.  

45 days?! Like 1080 hours..? Where did IS say that?

I think its 45 days for a working person who does not spend all their time in font of a PC xD

ArchivedUser

Althor said:

Jahlon said:

Well max level is projected to take 45 days.  I'm sure people are going to blow up that timeline, but that's the projection.

Everything else, being part of the group, that's the entire premise of the game.  

45 days?! Like 1080 hours..? Where did IS say that?

Early livestream when asked what they envisioned for the amount of time it will take the average player to make it to the vertical level cap. There are simple measures that they can take that will draw out the process, mobs to low, no exp, mobs to high, no exp. Since spawn tables are dependent on node level, increasing the time it takes for a node to level then automatically slows the levelling process. Can't really grind mobs for exp, if they give you no exp once you outlevel them and then have to wait for a node to "pop." So many mmo rocket scientists talking mad shit about how they will cap in two days are going to be severely cheesed off.

ArchivedUser

I plan on thoroughly enjoying both the instanced and open world aspects of the game.

From what I've gathered, the open world content is where the bulk of character progression and wealth generation will take place. I suspect that no-one will make their riches by doing arena after arena, or by sticking solely to instanced dungeons/raids.

And yet, instanced arenas (with good rule-sets) are extremely fun for a lot of PvP players. They draw players to the game and give players something entertaining to do when they need a break from the more serious aspects of the game. Same could be said for instanced dungeons.

It seems that AoC is set to be a pretty robust and well-balanced game.

ArchivedUser

My question is, are all of the dungeons going to be open world? Remember in most MMORPG"s they have classes of dungeons. For example, some are just quest delves and others can be large public dungeons and while others can be 4 man instanced dungeons and lets not forget RAID dungeons. So is Ashes going to follow this template or is every class of dungeon going to be open world including RAIDS where your not safe anywhere even in high end game content?

ArchivedUser

Have you played an mmorpg with no instances?
If not I can understand why you appear to be so scared of confrontation

ArchivedUser

Valerian said:

My question is, are all of the dungeons going to be open world? Remember in most MMORPG"s they have classes of dungeons. For example, some are just quest delves and others can be large public dungeons and while others can be 4 man instanced dungeons and lets not forget RAID dungeons. So is Ashes going to follow this template or is every class of dungeon going to be open world including RAIDS where your not safe anywhere even in high end game content?

Ashes will have instanced and Open dungeons. Truly, if there are some that haven't experienced it in any other MMO, some of the most adrenaline heavy/exciting moments come from when you run into to another raid and fight them and the mobs/boss to get the prize. IS still has some details to announce regarding this also.   

ArchivedUser

UnknownSystemError said:

Althor said:

Jahlon said:

Well max level is projected to take 45 days.  I'm sure people are going to blow up that timeline, but that's the projection.

Everything else, being part of the group, that's the entire premise of the game.  

45 days?! Like 1080 hours..? Where did IS say that?

Early livestream when asked what they envisioned for the amount of time it will take the average player to make it to the vertical level cap. There are simple measures that they can take that will draw out the process, mobs to low, no exp, mobs to high, no exp. Since spawn tables are dependent on node level, increasing the time it takes for a node to level then automatically slows the levelling process. Can't really grind mobs for exp, if they give you no exp once you outlevel them and then have to wait for a node to "pop." So many mmo rocket scientists talking mad shit about how they will cap in two days are going to be severely cheesed off. 






Dang. Took me 6 days to get to 120 in WoW. I may never see cap in ashes.

ArchivedUser

gb1990gaming said:

Mmorpgs are social games and you cant advance like you do in single player games.
They shouldn't like Lava stage, Ice stage, Desert stage that you jump on with Co Op friends grinding again and again and again going through the motions to the point of boredom.
Players need to be part of a group, ask for help and offer help, and together advance.

Reminded me of some of my favorite gaming moments from when I played EQ and FFXI.  I hope AoC brings the social aspect back to MMOs instead of it feeling like a solo rpg.

ArchivedUser

Althor said:

Dang. Took me 6 days to get to 120 in WoW. I may never see cap in ashes.

That is absolutely ludicrous. How meaningless has the leveling process become that people can just zoom past it in less than a week?

I truly hope that AoC managed to create an enjoyable gaming experience throughout the leveling process... at least for those who enjoy it. I know that some people will do everything within their means to skip the leveling process no matter how well designed it is.

ArchivedUser

As Steven has said there will be many things to level, weapon skills, crafting skills, sailing skills, guild organisations, and possibly many others we don't know about yet. Leveling your character class is only going to be the very beginning of our collective journey.

Vanguard had very little instancing, though there was no pvp but it was fun to come across other groups while exploring some of the vast dungeon complexes in that game.

The less instancing the better IMO get people back to playing together, fire up that sense of community.

ArchivedUser

Kratz said:

Ashes will have instanced and Open dungeons. Truly, if there are some that haven't experienced it in any other MMO, some of the most adrenaline heavy/exciting moments come from when you run into to another raid and fight them and the mobs/boss to get the prize. IS still has some details to announce regarding this also.   

So which one's are going to be instanced? how will they decide to name the dungeon as being instanced or open-world. And will this have any implications on the possibility completing some of these dungeons solo? I just feel as though the game is orienting towards group play more than solo.

ArchivedUser

We don't have all the info yet but some dungeons will be able to be completed solo and others won't. Look here https://ashesofcreation.wiki/ for what we do know.

Valerian said:

Kratz said:

Ashes will have instanced and Open dungeons. Truly, if there are some that haven't experienced it in any other MMO, some of the most adrenaline heavy/exciting moments come from when you run into to another raid and fight them and the mobs/boss to get the prize. IS still has some details to announce regarding this also.   

I just feel as though the game is orienting towards group play more than solo.

I hope you're right.