Player / World Progression Question

Jackless

Hello everyone.

I am wondering what the plan is for Player and Enemy Progression in AoC. Will it be like in most other MMOs where the same enemy type will increase in power depending on the level of the zone or will they be of equal strength throughout the world?

I personally think the latter is almost always better since the progress you make as a player is a lot more noticable but of course this requires a more shallow leveling curve. It always felt a bit off for me in WoW when basically the same Murloc you absolutely murdered in the last zone, rips you a new butthole in the new zone you just walked into.

mcstackerson

Yes, i feel the same.

I don't think they have clarified if they will use different mobs/models to show strength or will use the same but with higher numbers.

We know that node level will effect the strength of the spawns around the node but there still should be lower level spawns. I could see them wanting to make sure there is some visual difference between mobs of different levels as they aren't going to be separated by zones like in other games.

Jahlon

Well there are no zones for levels. Each ZOI (Zone of Influence) will have a range of enemies by level. The closer to civilization the lower their level, the further out you go, the more powerful they will become.

Meowsed

I think that asset-reuse is inevitable in a giant game like this. They have to fill a huge amount of space (100+ nodes) and make content for 50 character levels. So we'll almost certainly be able to obliterate some low-level lizards, then move to a higher-level area, and get murdered by an eerily-similar lizard mob (same animations, but different textures, and maybe some extra horns or something). Even with all their veteran talent, Intrepid can't make 1000 unique enemies, including model/rigging/animation sets, in 4 years.

Although they will probably have different textures/materials (fuzzy, leathery, shiny, etc.) for different variations of the same monster.

Ventharien

I think that's just fine, especially with cosmetic differences like particle effects, maybe more armor, or just being a bigger size. Unique rigs and new animations can always come later after all.