Exploration & Puzzles

Skuld

I was wondering if AoC would be the actual first MMO ever where there's something to explore and dungeons are actually gonna be more fun than the repetitive "walk walk walk - kill mob group - repeat - boss".

The thing about exploration in MMORPGs is, you have a linear story questline that literally takes you everywhere so that, god forbid, you don't have to go out and actually discover stuff yourself.
It doesn't have to be anything massive either. Hidden chests, just epic looking stuff, lore based discoveries like the grave of some fallen hero, hidden caves you can only reach by swimming through a tunnel underwater etc...

Dungeons are one of the main 'features' in every MMORPG. But they're all the same. You go in, maybe get a boring cutscene, walk - kill mob group - walk - kill mob group until you reach the boss and that's it.
Intrepid made a good start on making dungeons more interesting by adding situations that need a rogue to climb somewhere or a mage to open a hidden door.
But what I'd like to see is what you see in many decent RPGs like Divinity, where you actually have to use your brain to get past a puzzle in a dungeon, or maybe you find yourself in a maze?

If we'd want to be extreme, you could even say you have to have lore knowledge or do some research (in a library maybe, if they exist) to know how to solve it (or by trial and error if you have the patience), or you have to meet some other requirement to progress, the only boundary here is mostly your creativity I would say.

Singleplayer RPGs can do it, so why can't MMOs? Maybe then I wouldn't just sit around and wait for a new story quest update like in FFXIV so that I'll finally have something to do again. It would also leave something to do for people who're not a fan of crafting and gathering because those are the people who loose interest in the game first.

Vhaeyne

Check out Dungeons and Dragons Online. It is exactly what you are talking about.

I don't expect AoC to have that type of dungeon. They said that each archetype will have a utility of some kind, but I don't expect it to be anything like DDO. I would love to be wrong about this though as DDOs dungeons, puzzles and traps have brought me countless hours of joy.

Skuld

DDO is one of those games I was interested in when I first heard about it but people kept telling me it's not a good game so I never played it. Maybe I'll check it out tho, it sounds interesting. At least until AoC comes out^^

I still hope we'll see at least some content that can let my explorer heart beat faster

Cold 0ne FTB

Skuld wrote: »

I was wondering if AoC would be the actual first MMO ever where there's something to explore and dungeons are actually gonna be more fun than the repetitive "walk walk walk - kill mob group - repeat - boss".

The thing about exploration in MMORPGs is, you have a linear story questline that literally takes you everywhere so that, god forbid, you don't have to go out and actually discover stuff yourself.
It doesn't have to be anything massive either. Hidden chests, just epic looking stuff, lore based discoveries like the grave of some fallen hero, hidden caves you can only reach by swimming through a tunnel underwater etc...

Dungeons are one of the main 'features' in every MMORPG. But they're all the same. You go in, maybe get a boring cutscene, walk - kill mob group - walk - kill mob group until you reach the boss and that's it.
Intrepid made a good start on making dungeons more interesting by adding situations that need a rogue to climb somewhere or a mage to open a hidden door.
But what I'd like to see is what you see in many decent RPGs like Divinity, where you actually have to use your brain to get past a puzzle in a dungeon, or maybe you find yourself in a maze?

If we'd want to be extreme, you could even say you have to have lore knowledge or do some research (in a library maybe, if they exist) to know how to solve it (or by trial and error if you have the patience), or you have to meet some other requirement to progress, the only boundary here is mostly your creativity I would say.

Singleplayer RPGs can do it, so why can't MMOs? Maybe then I wouldn't just sit around and wait for a new story quest update like in FFXIV so that I'll finally have something to do again. It would also leave something to do for people who're not a fan of crafting and gathering because those are the people who loose interest in the game first.

As much as this idea interests me, as somebody who wants to play this game competitively I do not like this idea. Part of this game will be speeding through progression as fast as possible so that you do not get left behind and you get to be able to actually compete. If it's after this point I would be fine with it otherwise it would be a pain in the ads.