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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Possible Solutions for PvE Difficulty
CaptnChuck
Member
Introduction
Its no secret that a lot of people, including me, are concerned about PvE content difficulty. Many people on this forum seem to think that the problem with players like us is that we don't want to face "risk" while clearing PvE content. This couldn't be further from the truth.
There are different types of risks. Different types of players enjoy different types of risks. Some people like the RNG risk associated with crafting. Some like the risk associated with being ganked. And some like the risk of being wiped on a raid or dungeon. Some are like me, they like all 3.
Right now, we know that the first two types of risk are going to exist in AoC. Steven has said that he wants an enchanting system similar to L2 in AoC (during his interview with Tim), which was a high risk-high reward sort of system where your weapons had a chance to break if you tried enchanting beyond a certain point. The second risk is going to exist in AoC as well, by nature of the game being Open World.
Its the third risk that most people are concerned about. In making the vast majority of PvE content Open World, will PvE content be made too easy? Will it end up just being PvPvE, where the difficulty arises from player contention, as opposed to PvE, where the difficulty arises from the content itself? This is the question that Intrepid needs to answer. We know that open world content can never truly be as challenging as instanced content, but the gap has to be small. How large of a gap will it be when the game comes out? That is what people like me are worried about.
Possible Solutions
Now, Let's talk about possible ways to bridge this gap.
Fix no.1 - Adding A LOT of entrances to each Dungeon/Raid
This is one of the simpler solutions, but is also the most time consuming to implement. Basically make dungeons/raids into a maze of sorts with multiple entrances. Each entrance leads into its own mini dungeon/raid within the original dungeon/raid. These entrances can lead to a set of 3 or so bosses, and can also intersect with another entrance's mini dungeon/raid to connect a few bosses.
The amount of these entrances can be controlled depending on how contested you want that particular dungeon/Raid to be.
At the end of the dungeon, all the entrances can lead upto a final boss room. This will be more of a PvPvE encounter. This also encourages guilds to perform well, as clearing the bosses quicker lets you get to the final boss faster. The final boss will drop similar tier loot as the previous bosses, but will drop more of it along with a few additional materials/items. These items can be mounts/recipes etc.
Also, the dungeon/raid map won't show you where you're at. They'll just give you a general understanding of the different areas in that particular dungeon/raid. (Suggested by @Merek )
Fix no.2 - Keys for Dungeons/Raids (Suggested by @Chaostastic and modified by me)
This is an interesting fix, but I'm not sure how effective it will be. I think its still a better solution than the first one, simply because its a lot easier to implement.
This idea works by controlling the ease of access for different dungeons/raids. By controlling the ease/difficulty of entry into a dungeon/raid, you can regulate the amount of player contention for that particular dungeon/raid. For example, a dungeon may require a special key, that takes a ton of time to grind for, and is consumed on entry. This way you are less likely to run into a contesting group, but its not entirely PvP free either.
Some dungeons might be easier to access simply because their keys are fairly easy to obtain. These dungeons will be more PvPvE than PvE. They could offer enchanting materials, materials that reduce the chance of your gear breaking when enchanting, augments, etc. Others will be more difficult to access simply because their keys are far more difficult to obtain. These dungeons will be more PvE than PvPvE and could drop high level gear. Of course all of these rewards can be interchanged, but this is the general gist of the idea.
Fix no.3 - Introducing different types of Dungeons/Raids
This is probably the most controversial one and that's fine. I still stand by it and I feel like its probably the best solution to solve the problem, even though a lot of people disagree with me. In terms of ease of implementation, its somewhere in between the first two solutions.
Basically how this works is that there will be two types of dungeons. Resource Dungeons/Raids and Gear Dungeons/Raids.
Resource Dungeons/Raids will be Open World content that give you enchanting material for your gear, materials that reduce the chance of your gear breaking when enchanting, augments, and repair tokens. Because enchanting gear is necessary to bring your gear upto the best level and because of the risk associated with it, players will be trying to run these dungeons/raids as often as possible. This will be more oriented towards PvPvE than PvE.
Gear Dungeons/Raids will be Instanced content that give you gear, and materials required to craft said gear. This will be purely PvE content. Additionally, apart from gear requiring its own crafting material to repair it, it will also require tokens. These tokens will only be obtained from Resource Dungeons.
This suggestion still retains the PvX aspect of the game as players will still need to do Resource based dungeons in order to gain progress/repair the high level gear that they obtain from Gear Dungeons/Raids.
Fix no. 4 - Specialized Instancing mechanics for certain Bosses
@wArchAngel has explained this in great detail with examples from L2. Check it out here:
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/comment/249865/#Comment_249865
Conclusion
So what do you guys think? Which of these solutions do you like the most and why? If you dislike all of them, then please do explain why and if you do have any alternate suggestions/ideas, then do list that as well.
There's also the whole thing with zerging a boss down. Steven has said that they are working on mechanics to prevent zerging, but I'm not sure how effective that will be. The reason for this is because there are so many possible ways that such type of mechanics can lead to griefing in an Open World MMO. If you make the boss too easy because you want player contention to be the main source of difficulty, then the content itself will be boring and easy when there is no such contention. This is what happened with the dragon and the kraken in ArcheAge. Also, if this does happen, then the content itself won't be PvE anymore. It will be PvPvE. On the other hand, If you make the content too difficult, then it will be impossible to fight off both players and the boss at the same time. So they will have to find the right balance.
P.S. I made a post discussing this before but I didn't explain myself well. So a lot of people didn't understand my position properly. I also managed to pick up a few possible solutions from that discussion, all of which I mentioned above. If you wish to read it, here you go: https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/46473/pve-difficulty
Also, to those of you asking why discuss this now, Shut up. By your logic nothing should ever be discussed on this forum as we don't have sufficient info on anything. Why discuss multiboxing? Why discuss corruption? Why discuss combat? We don't have complete info on these topics either. There's nothing wrong in discussing possible problems that may show up in game.
Its no secret that a lot of people, including me, are concerned about PvE content difficulty. Many people on this forum seem to think that the problem with players like us is that we don't want to face "risk" while clearing PvE content. This couldn't be further from the truth.
There are different types of risks. Different types of players enjoy different types of risks. Some people like the RNG risk associated with crafting. Some like the risk associated with being ganked. And some like the risk of being wiped on a raid or dungeon. Some are like me, they like all 3.
Right now, we know that the first two types of risk are going to exist in AoC. Steven has said that he wants an enchanting system similar to L2 in AoC (during his interview with Tim), which was a high risk-high reward sort of system where your weapons had a chance to break if you tried enchanting beyond a certain point. The second risk is going to exist in AoC as well, by nature of the game being Open World.
Its the third risk that most people are concerned about. In making the vast majority of PvE content Open World, will PvE content be made too easy? Will it end up just being PvPvE, where the difficulty arises from player contention, as opposed to PvE, where the difficulty arises from the content itself? This is the question that Intrepid needs to answer. We know that open world content can never truly be as challenging as instanced content, but the gap has to be small. How large of a gap will it be when the game comes out? That is what people like me are worried about.
Possible Solutions
Now, Let's talk about possible ways to bridge this gap.
Fix no.1 - Adding A LOT of entrances to each Dungeon/Raid
This is one of the simpler solutions, but is also the most time consuming to implement. Basically make dungeons/raids into a maze of sorts with multiple entrances. Each entrance leads into its own mini dungeon/raid within the original dungeon/raid. These entrances can lead to a set of 3 or so bosses, and can also intersect with another entrance's mini dungeon/raid to connect a few bosses.
The amount of these entrances can be controlled depending on how contested you want that particular dungeon/Raid to be.
At the end of the dungeon, all the entrances can lead upto a final boss room. This will be more of a PvPvE encounter. This also encourages guilds to perform well, as clearing the bosses quicker lets you get to the final boss faster. The final boss will drop similar tier loot as the previous bosses, but will drop more of it along with a few additional materials/items. These items can be mounts/recipes etc.
Also, the dungeon/raid map won't show you where you're at. They'll just give you a general understanding of the different areas in that particular dungeon/raid. (Suggested by @Merek )
Fix no.2 - Keys for Dungeons/Raids (Suggested by @Chaostastic and modified by me)
This is an interesting fix, but I'm not sure how effective it will be. I think its still a better solution than the first one, simply because its a lot easier to implement.
This idea works by controlling the ease of access for different dungeons/raids. By controlling the ease/difficulty of entry into a dungeon/raid, you can regulate the amount of player contention for that particular dungeon/raid. For example, a dungeon may require a special key, that takes a ton of time to grind for, and is consumed on entry. This way you are less likely to run into a contesting group, but its not entirely PvP free either.
Some dungeons might be easier to access simply because their keys are fairly easy to obtain. These dungeons will be more PvPvE than PvE. They could offer enchanting materials, materials that reduce the chance of your gear breaking when enchanting, augments, etc. Others will be more difficult to access simply because their keys are far more difficult to obtain. These dungeons will be more PvE than PvPvE and could drop high level gear. Of course all of these rewards can be interchanged, but this is the general gist of the idea.
Fix no.3 - Introducing different types of Dungeons/Raids
This is probably the most controversial one and that's fine. I still stand by it and I feel like its probably the best solution to solve the problem, even though a lot of people disagree with me. In terms of ease of implementation, its somewhere in between the first two solutions.
Basically how this works is that there will be two types of dungeons. Resource Dungeons/Raids and Gear Dungeons/Raids.
Resource Dungeons/Raids will be Open World content that give you enchanting material for your gear, materials that reduce the chance of your gear breaking when enchanting, augments, and repair tokens. Because enchanting gear is necessary to bring your gear upto the best level and because of the risk associated with it, players will be trying to run these dungeons/raids as often as possible. This will be more oriented towards PvPvE than PvE.
Gear Dungeons/Raids will be Instanced content that give you gear, and materials required to craft said gear. This will be purely PvE content. Additionally, apart from gear requiring its own crafting material to repair it, it will also require tokens. These tokens will only be obtained from Resource Dungeons.
This suggestion still retains the PvX aspect of the game as players will still need to do Resource based dungeons in order to gain progress/repair the high level gear that they obtain from Gear Dungeons/Raids.
Fix no. 4 - Specialized Instancing mechanics for certain Bosses
@wArchAngel has explained this in great detail with examples from L2. Check it out here:
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/comment/249865/#Comment_249865
Conclusion
So what do you guys think? Which of these solutions do you like the most and why? If you dislike all of them, then please do explain why and if you do have any alternate suggestions/ideas, then do list that as well.
There's also the whole thing with zerging a boss down. Steven has said that they are working on mechanics to prevent zerging, but I'm not sure how effective that will be. The reason for this is because there are so many possible ways that such type of mechanics can lead to griefing in an Open World MMO. If you make the boss too easy because you want player contention to be the main source of difficulty, then the content itself will be boring and easy when there is no such contention. This is what happened with the dragon and the kraken in ArcheAge. Also, if this does happen, then the content itself won't be PvE anymore. It will be PvPvE. On the other hand, If you make the content too difficult, then it will be impossible to fight off both players and the boss at the same time. So they will have to find the right balance.
P.S. I made a post discussing this before but I didn't explain myself well. So a lot of people didn't understand my position properly. I also managed to pick up a few possible solutions from that discussion, all of which I mentioned above. If you wish to read it, here you go: https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/46473/pve-difficulty
Also, to those of you asking why discuss this now, Shut up. By your logic nothing should ever be discussed on this forum as we don't have sufficient info on anything. Why discuss multiboxing? Why discuss corruption? Why discuss combat? We don't have complete info on these topics either. There's nothing wrong in discussing possible problems that may show up in game.
10
Comments
Great idea, but I think that every dungeon/raid should have a basic map. The map shouldn't show your position or anything, it should just give you a general idea of the different places in the dungeon/raid.
But from how i see it both of those solution don´t fix the issue of zerging bosses down definitely though (Unless Fix no. 2 locks others out, which defeats the porpuse of non instanced though)
What i like about them is that they add more depth on how to approach dungeons, which im a big advocate for. The more variety the better, some dungeons are supposed more linear where big guilds can guard boss rooms, others should be more of a maze with random spawns. Generally i would like to see most of the non-instanced dungeon having their own flavor and rule sets, some incentives more PvP with highly contested rooms, or even PvP objectives, some are huge PvE grinds and anything in between the spectrum of those two with big variety of properties.
The easiest and most effective way to prevent boss zerging is to restrict the amount of players or parties that can damage the boss to the appropriate number of either 40, 20, or 8 people. This won´t hurt the risk vs reward aspect, but prevents the 1000 man level 20 death ball zerg killing the end game bosses. This can also work for trash mobs.
I also think the PvE Players crying for more instanced content might inflate the issue, there will be plenty of non-instanced content with a competitive raiding component if intrepid wants it.
Also more instancing doesn´t work with a world full of consequences, please dont themepark this wonderful game
Fix No.1 - Entrances to Raids/Boss Rooms
Honestly, this is the most likely of the three I'd feel would come to fruition. Not only because of the multiple dungeon entrances being a facet of just creating a world environment, but it would tie into what the current development ideas look to be like (with a wild-esque world in some locations).
I feel where we may disagree over the notion of how this may be implemented into different boss routes or leading to different encounters. This would likely be time consuming in a development process and may cause issues to balance where some may just run the 'optimal' route and ignore content as one boss route is easier or more rewarding than another.
My take on this idea would be that the 'entrance' to the dungeon may have multiple initial entrances that would then funnel down to the "first" boss room or otherwise. We've seen with some mechanics that body-blocking will be a function in PVP, and we could see where this would be in effect with tight corridors leading onto a boss room.
As a slight non sequitur, most of the guild recruitment that I see active on/for recruitment appear to be notions of PVX, including delves into PvE/PvP. Would this aspect not promote a join aspect between PvP players and PvE players in a guild wherein the PvP'ers would defend their guild-mates from any rogue threats? It would be an interesting dynamic to see.
Fix No.2 - Dungeon Keys / Entrance Restrictions
Dungeon Keys would be a great way to 'limit' abusive griefing/PvPvE, especially if we're talking high-end content. Whether they'd a "physical door" or a barrier remains to be seen. If there would a high-end requirement to gain access, which is consumable, there might become an economy where PVP characters/guilds would/could enlist other guilds to act as 'lock picks" to stifle attempts on content and you'd see elements of PvP soaking into the PvE aspect by deliberately hijacking raids.
I'm not against this to any degree, but given the hard-core PvE community when it comes to progression/advancement, it wouldn't be a stretch to suggest that this could be an abusable mechanic that would/could be utilised to sabotage against hard-core raiding any end game content whilst some folks may be just extreme PvErs.
I'd argue that a consumable key would likely be inefficient, but a long quest-chain or item grind to allow someone to attune to a high-tier raid/dungeon that is per individual rather than consumable and allow the gates/entrances to these to be more like 'barriers' than doors would ultimately gate-keep a high-end PvE experience enough to prevent overly abusable keys from being utilised or 'sold' out via other means.
Fix No.3 - Raid "Types" / Instanced Raids
Given what we know so far for this game, this would be the least likely option (in my mind). Given that the development cycle and the current information that we have (subject to any changes in the development cycle) would err towards this being unlikely.
Not that the idea doesn't have merit. Different raids being for different areas of content, be it a raid solely for gear versus a raid for any advanced crafting materials or otherwise, is a great off-set that would promote the different content to be consistently ran again and again.
Personally, I feel that instancing some content may work from a story-line or mechanical advantage, but overall, I feel it wouldn't. Perhaps boss-rooms lock when they're engaged. meaning that it cannot be accessed which would be pseudo-instancing to a degree. It's all speculation, but I can't see with the open-world interest that there'd be an inclination to use instancing beyond sharding for population management, if that'll even be a case.
Just my 2p on the matter!
Thanks for the feedback.
The first option does have its consequences, but I think its fairly easy to deal with. Just make it so that you cannot attack a boss, unless you've cleared the boss before it. Also, make it so that players have to obtain an item from the final boss of the mini entrance of that dungeon/raid in order to gain access to the Dungeon Boss. The only main consequence to this idea, is the sheer amount of time and effort that it will take to implement it.
I don't think that being ambushed in the open world, while going to do raid content, is a bad thing. As long as it doesn't happen DURING the raid/dungeon, that's fine. It does sort of a give a nice feel to the overall risk of it being an Open World. It also promotes the whole idea of allies/enemies.
The final solution is definitely the least likely one to be implemented, as it does take away from the social aspect of the game. But maybe there might be a way to lessen that. I just don't know of it yet.
I would also recommend This excellent post by @wArchAngel for some great ideas on how you could structure open world boss encounters so that they are partially "instanced" or have lockout mechanics that allow for PvP at first, but the victor goes the spoils.
Thankyou for linking that comment. It does go into great detail and talks about the final fix that I didn't mention in my post; the idea of instancing bosses once your group engages it. I'll add that in if I happen to have the time.
One thing I cannot understand is, how exactly does the idea of "bosses getting stronger based on your raids performance on previous bosses" apply to this one?
Sorry, I'm not sure where you see that. However if I had to wager a guess based on the quote alone I would suggest that there will be instanced WoW styled raids in the 20% instancing number, and the devs would love to have the AI behave that way in those style of instances. Or perhaps that could apply to open world dungeons.
The 20% instanced content is only for lore related raids. At least thats what I inferred from what Steven said during his interview with Asmongold.
As for the bosses being instanced, yes that's essentially what @wArchAngel said. But they're not the vanilla type of instancing. They're specialized instancing mechanics.
I just wanna point out that all of WoWs raids tied into the lore/story. That could still mean it's the raid style you enjoy. We just don't have enough information.
Incorrect. I don't "enjoy" instanced content. I enjoy challenging content.
Also I don't think that lore dungeons/raids will offer the best gear. They'll probably only offer moderate/decent gear, alongside achievement/organization related rewards.
I am about 99% certain the absolute best gear in the game will come in the form of materials and recipes that you need to craft from world bosses, and that sounds perfect to me personally.
I think its both. From what I know, Raid/Dungeon bosses will also drop recipes/materials to craft gear. So you can expect a high level Raid/Dungeon to match a Legendary World Boss' Loot. But we don't know for sure yet.
@CaptnChuck might be interesting:
"bosses getting stronger based on your raids performance on previous bosses" is a very big misconception, people are spreading like wildfire.
What Steven said/explained:
Bossfights have multiple phases/bosses (you fight vs. the Lieutant, then the General, then the king) in the encounter.
With better performances against the Lieutant, the General will be stronger and your loot better...
Steven mentioned that the difficulty increases within a boss encounter, not across multiple bosses. Cross-Boss-Difficulty might also increase, but that hasn't been confirmed. That was the community not listening properly.
I agree with you on point 1. The key aspect of being able to get the dungeon key may factor into how you would access the main dungeon boss would be time consuming, but the individuals who would seek that content would likely endure the time-consumption to get there.
After reviewing the wArchAngel post on the other thread, it would appear that some ideas would stick towards not being jumped during the raid, but the possibility of others camping the spawn/entrance and getting in with you and then having to fight against those who are in with you during entry.
Seems like this'll be a hot topic when it comes to camping entrance ways.
Hmmm, so that's how it is. I feel like Steven's interview with Asmongold introduced more misconceptions than answers lol. I don't even know what's right anymore.
Remove your weapons and armor.
GL
Master Assassin
(Yes same Tyrantor from Shadowbane)
Book suggestions:
Galaxy Outlaws books 1-16.5, Metagamer Chronicles, The Land litrpg series, Ready Player One, Zen in the Martial Arts
It's a pretty common theme on here and on reddit. Multiboxing and DPS-meters are subjects that you can discuss, since it's not really something you have to experience to be able to have an educated opinion, but there are a ton of discussions about features and parts of the game that we have very limited knowledge about. Theorycrafting etc is fine ofc, but I don't see the reason to make up some problem with the game out of thin air.
Let's just wait until we at the very least know more, and preferably until we (as a community) has tried it out in Alpha. After we have more information and don't have to speculate, and you still aren't satisfied, then you continue this discussion at that point.
Just remember though, that not everyone has to agree with your views of the game. You're getting some backlash, and it has a lot to do with the way you have presented it. "Solutions", we don't even know how it will really work, so how can there be a "problem" yet?
I don't think people like you would even need to do that.
You might be right, but considering you failed to acknowledge my post in your other thread that's still present on the 1st page of these forums because you were too busy board warring that you needed to create a 2nd thread with the same topic, I really don't think this thread is deserving of my initial post.
Master Assassin
(Yes same Tyrantor from Shadowbane)
Book suggestions:
Galaxy Outlaws books 1-16.5, Metagamer Chronicles, The Land litrpg series, Ready Player One, Zen in the Martial Arts
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a strict no-addon rule. Especially those that help you in combat are absolute cancer. Not having them from the get-go sets a lot of different restriction and pre-requirements for PvE-encounters. I personally like that. The question remains though, what will Ashes PvE look like without them? Imagine N'zoth, the world first guilds in Complexity-Limit and Method killing them took ~260 Kills each. With DPS Meters, with a whole bunch of supportive Add-Ons and a considerably smaller Raid Size. Something like that wouldn't be killable in a year with the restrictions Ashes has put in place.
Now, what I am trying to say is... It might make sense to think about the way PvE content could/will look in Ashes, before thinking about how you can implement it Different solutions might become impossible, some might become mandatory. Maybe we even land at a place, where we have to reconsider the thought process altogether.
When was the last time we have a a PvE Game with hard PvE Content with restrictions like these? Never? Closest was probably Wildstar. They did have Add-Ons, they did have DPS Meters. They just had a 40 man raid, which they implemented like you'd implement a WoW Boss. What happened? The first 40-man boss (System Daemons) ripped through most of the guilds like a hot knife through butter. Literally one of the handful of bosses that kill more guilds than it was killed by. Not just random guilds, but guilds of dedicated WoW Raiders.
What's your thought on that @CaptnChuck ?
Without knowing what to implement, how could we ever come to a sensible decision on how to implement it?
In my humble opinion dps checks and oneshots should never even be measured, those are just cheap ways to "upscale" the encounter and make it seem "harder", which in return just makes you feel like you need an addon or a dps meter(which most of the times you dont, but people now days feel handicapped without them). If you put a mechanic that makes you deal "x damage in y time period" thats like saying "we didnt have anything in mind, so there you go, just hit it as fast as you can... and yay! you did it!".
There are a lot of ways you can make the encounter harder, without it going down the simple way of dps check and oneshots(failing a mechanic doesnt even have to lead to a oneshot, but it can be devastating).
From my personal experience, from Aion 5.1, a game where dungeons are usually laughable, we had an instance introduced that only 2-3 groups per faction per server managed to clear until it was nerfed, being one of them i can say that you dont need dps checks to be immediately punishing, but they can lead to some very bad situations.
You had 2 side-bosses to kill before you could dps the main-middle boss. There was a soft dps check, since the bosses were simply regening, and below certain level and certain stats breakpoints you couldnt outdps the regen. There was a medium dps check when the 2 side-bosses were downed, you had limited time to bring the middle-boss(stunned) to 25%, but that didnt punish you with a wipe, as the boss was a hydra-like being, if you failed that "dps check" the phase went 1 step back, and you had to dps the side-bosses again while the middle boss stays the same hp for the next attempt, which was a tedious proccess of constant pressure, timers and ads. But it didnt make you fail, it just forced you to retake the previous step, which usually led to bad concentration, frustration and wipes, but people that could "hold it steady" could do it in 2 cycles, slow and steady. Our first kill took us around 1 month of attempts - with learning all the mechanics, all the stat breakpoints, leveling and gearing properly, and it was a 1 hour encounter just for the last boss.
You could make a lot of mechanics that seem easy on the first sight, but might get tricky the more people you have. Shifting floors - for example land blocks in the lava with the dragon that will submerge from time to time, leaving unobserved and careless people in danger. Personal aoe trigger, the dragon could simply launch a meteor shower on everyone, which would proc an aoe explosion around every characters position in dragons proximity with like 2s windup - that would punish less coordinated blobs of people, if you spread unevenly, or not coordinate movement in the same direction might cause a lot of dead people.
Guildwars2 had "semi-dps-check" in form of cc breakbar, you can add that requirement for example that a dragon will attempt a "fly above burning everything" attack, and you need like 5 tank pulls, or 10 displacement abilities to stop it from doing so and stagger it. If you fail, he can do a flight above the arena, leaving 2 x-like trails of scorching earth that will heavily damage people on its way, and will block that ground area from walking on freely for a period of time.
I could sit for hours just bouncing ideas and throwing mechanics back and worth, that require you to actually be observant and play the game, and not rely on addons and dps-meters.
But i beg you, for the love of god, dont make it instanced, free entry content that any amount of people can farm simultaniously in multiple instances.
The people who care about node building/resources will naturally care about PvP. So open world dungeons which don't have complex boss mechanics and having Pvp 'happen' mid-fight, makes sense. There is no such thing as a 'safe node' in this game (as far as I know), so these guys will want to do this type of PvE content.
The people who are care about challenging pve content can have their own dungeon instantiated and be rewarded with power progression in PvE.
Drunk delete. All we need is instanced PVE so people can farm, for what I don't know yet considering it seems that crafting is going to be the primary source of gearing out characters.
Anyway you look at it instanced PVE would create an unfair advantage for those who do that since their "risk" would be less.
Master Assassin
(Yes same Tyrantor from Shadowbane)
Book suggestions:
Galaxy Outlaws books 1-16.5, Metagamer Chronicles, The Land litrpg series, Ready Player One, Zen in the Martial Arts
Wait, are you serious? I thought they were in the open world zones... That's unsettling. I think instanced dungeons are off, but I understand why they are. But instanced caravans? Yikes.
That doesn't seem accurate. Are you sure?
Master Assassin
(Yes same Tyrantor from Shadowbane)
Book suggestions:
Galaxy Outlaws books 1-16.5, Metagamer Chronicles, The Land litrpg series, Ready Player One, Zen in the Martial Arts
That's the prompt he was telling you about. When you go up to a caravan in the open world it will prompt you with "Do you want to attack, defend, or stay neutral?"
Which I personally am worried about, hopefully there is a long timer on that. How can I threaten the caravan owner to pay or they will be attacked if I have to make that choice immediately without even talking to the person?