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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.
Can we get legendary items through exploration?
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I've been thinking about it, and I'm suggesting a reward mechanic for exploration. Some games give you exp and fancy achievements, even a title for exploring, but I feel this isn't enough to do this. I know you are planning to drop legendary named items in game, one per server, by defeating a dragon or a legendary boss.
That's nice, but I could suggest through exploration you could find a legendary sword stuck on a stone. Or walking by a lake you hear the sweet voice and as you approach you see a sword. An abandoned forge still burning hot and inside there is a warhammer. A haunted library and you could find a book illuminated by a beam of light coming down from a hole on the ceiling even though there is a storm outside.
I think these would be great moments to have, that could encourage rewards like this. Maybe they are not legendary, maybe they are rare, epic items. Not everything should be acquired through killing, I think having some epic moments is also important for a game.
That's nice, but I could suggest through exploration you could find a legendary sword stuck on a stone. Or walking by a lake you hear the sweet voice and as you approach you see a sword. An abandoned forge still burning hot and inside there is a warhammer. A haunted library and you could find a book illuminated by a beam of light coming down from a hole on the ceiling even though there is a storm outside.
I think these would be great moments to have, that could encourage rewards like this. Maybe they are not legendary, maybe they are rare, epic items. Not everything should be acquired through killing, I think having some epic moments is also important for a game.
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That being said....i don't agree, like at all. The point of exploration is not to find loot. The point of exploration is to ,well, explore. Its like hiking. You don't do it for to finish the hike or to find nice rocks on the way, you do it for the hike.
Especially no to legendary items. They are items of legend. Not in a piece of stone (I really don't like that part of Arthurian legend, why didn't the people just destroy the stone around it?). Anyway, I say this as someone that really likes to explore and there is no need to add rewards of any kind above a well crafted world.
Something given has no value!
Killing is violent.
All things should be acquired through violence.
Violence is the supreme authority from which all other authority is derived.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
Geez Hakuna your Tatas, Carnage, your movie only comes out in September
I'll leave everything aside for later, but for now, let's talk about the sword in the stone.
The sword in the stone isn't what you think it is. The sword would belong to the true king of Logres (Britain). It's a sword Arthur obtained, broke during combat. Merlin directed the king to a lake, where they met the Lady of the Lake.
She was the one to give him the Sword, but it had a price. She told him he would give him the sword in return of a boon or a gift. Later in the story, the Lady of the Lake arrived to Camelot and came looking for heads, literally, she wanted the head of a knight, they refused and the same knight cut her head off.
The story has been sugar coated and there are a few different versions as well. This is why they didn't destroy the stone, for many nobles were competing against each other and the sword in the stone was heavily guarded.
For exploration to be rewarding you need interesting and rewarding experiences that organically occur in the world. The PvX nature of the game will provide that for example, the pathing of caravans, the random spawn of gatherable resources. Furthermore the leveling of nodes will change the landscape and provide things for people to discover in places on the map they've already been to. In terms of exploration, this game is set up to be one of the most rewarding ever for an MMORPG, we don't need legendary or epic items as reward for walking around.
I agree that the game design for AOC would already allow it to be top tier for map exploration, but you're really underselling the potential of hidden quests or events. Like @Schmuky said, the point of exploration isn't loot. However loot attracts other people to your discovery. Other people being aware of "A discovery being made" leads to the idea that "this game has discoveries to be made", which leads to the feeling that "this game is worth exploring".
How do I know this? Speedrunning. There's an entire genre of videos on Youtube covering the history of speedrunning specific games. A common trend is: World Record progression stagnates > community stagnates, game starts to die > speedrunner finds new glitch/skip > new World Records made > people realize "this game probably has more skips" and begin looking for skips > new skips are found > new world records > ...
You get the trend.
In an MMO, once something is discovered, will it become a static event that everybody knows about? Almost certainly. However, only one person will ever be the first to discover it. They get the excitement and prestige with being that guy who found the thing. Other players may want a taste of that prestige, or they may want to find new and better gear, or farming spots, or anything else. They'll go looking, and if another discovery is made, the cycle repeats and strengthens. Eventually, players have a sentiment that this game is worth exploring, and that'll only do good things for the game.
A point worth mentioning: in MMOs (and especially AOC), there are multiple types of exploring. People will explore different class combinations and builds. They'll explore different crafting combinations for their gear. They'll explore the map, and each node as it levels up. They'll explore for the best ways to deal damage, tank, and heal. They'll explore for the best ways to kill an enemy player before they get the chance to respond.
When people explore different class combinations and discover the new best way to deal damage, will that become the new meta build that everybody knows about? 100% it will, but that's not to say that we should do away with the process of exploring for new builds entirely. It should be the same for an MMO's world. Once something is discovered, it will become part of public knowledge, but having people explore for it initially is incredibly beneficial to the game.
Better to reward a cosmetic - if it doesn't provide Legendary function, far fewer players will be interested in grabbing it. "I explored the ENTIRE world and all I got was this lousy tunic!!"
"Rare" might be nice. I mean there are times when I'm swimming around continents to unveil the fog of war and I see a temple on some obscure temple. I go up to the temple, which is cool, but there's nothing to do there. It would be nice to get something.
Doesn't have to be an epic something. Could just be a "trophy" I could display somewhere in my Freehold.
And @Ragecon makes a great point, probably a quest or a puzzle when solved it unlocks secret rooms with rewards.
@Dygz also makes a good point, it could be unique, rare item as well, even a cosmetic to be the first person to discover it. I do enjoy exploration, but if it's only to get a lousy reward like a title that anyone can get, or a lousy tunic it will feel terrible, but maybe obtaining a named and unique (only exists in one server) even without being legendary, rare or unique would be a great addition.
I do feel there is potential to get something out of exploration than your classic congratulation for discovering the whole land. Or XP. Even relics/trophies would be great since we could use our freeholds to show them off, hell, now I want them to add a trophy/relic freehold slot to show off what I've done.
i like your style
The entire post that I made was concerning hidden quests and events. My entire point was that hiding things that everybody can access will make the game better. The point was that making the game feel like it isn't solved is good.
My point about the speedrunning community and exploring was not a point about reinvigorating the game. I was trying to say that a solved game is boring.
When people feel like the best tank will always be tank/tank, and the best healer will always be cleric/cleric, and the best dps will always be mage/mage, they will feel like there is never a reason to test anything else. people will feel like the puzzle is solved, and the game will get a lot more boring. This is what I meant by "exploring class combinations and builds".
If people feel like there's never a reason to visit Node X, that part of the map will feel a lot more boring. With a sufficient amount of hidden quests and events it is harder for people to feel like Node X is empty, because maybe they just never found the secret.
I'm pretty sure we agree on this, but I'm going out of my way to be extra straightforward because it seems like most of my last post was misunderstood.
As long as it isn't actual gear, as gear in an MMO should be looked at as the key to new content. You take on content and get the gear from it, which then enables you to take on the next piece of content to get the gear from, which then opens up the next piece of content, etc.
Gear that is obtained outside of this is essentially sidestepping content, at least in part.
The thing with the speed running community is that it is both small and fairly insular. To them, a game is dead when there are no speed runners playing it, and it is alive and active when there are a few dozen speed runners playing it.
Also, speed runners are looking for bugs and glitches in games more than designed features. These bugs and glitches are not designed as things that the developers want people to find, whereas any content at all that developers spend time (and thus money) on, they want people to find - even if not right away.
These two things combined (a much larger MMO population than the speed runner population, and this content being designed to be found) means that actual exploration in terms of finding new things in an MMO could only ever last a few weeks - and that few weeks will take place in beta.
Now you and he are walking down a road and he's all "hey what's that?"
And he runs off into the bushes and comes back with the Ashbringer.
I'd ask if he wanted to play two toke pass.
Lmaooo, yeah but maybe the ashbringer will turn the player into Patrick the Pure.
Watch till the end, pretty good hahaha.
One of the goals of endgame content in mmo's is the ability to take legendary items with hard work and cooperation and definitely a lot of competition and I'm pretty sure that they will stick to this path.
After all, if an item is given and that player quits the game, then the history of that event is gone. But not if it is a plaque that says "On the second day of the first month of The Return, mfckingjoker found this Oasis of Perpetual Sorrow."
Hidden quests and items. Not the +5 Flaming Sword of Jeffrey but maybe some materials that lead to it. I tend to look in corners and hard to reach places just to see what is there. I like coming around a corner in an out of the way place in the middle of nowhere to find a rare spawn creature. Then go hey see what happens and attack. Unless it is obvious.
Finding everything in the first couple weeks probably won't happen as content opens up as nodes open up. The dungeons are like that right now in pre-alpha. Go into a dungeon at node level 0 and it dead ends real fast. As the node levels more of it opens up. Good design imo.
This enables them to add small bits of flavor without taking up too much time, and would have players actively engaged with the world, vying for opportunities to show off your new, one-of-a-kind, fence post.
Exactly this! They have to make it known that super rare things are out there In The ever changing world, so many people would be out there looking and fighting for them.
Read the comic here!
I agree with this, probably no item would be in a level 1 node, I realize we could link this to node levels, so there is more variety as nodes progress and some could get locked behind node levels, which means more reasons to do siege attacks in order to find these items.
Overall I agree with the most suggestions so far, probably they are better than what I originally intended, however I've been informed there will be legendries in the open world through treasure hunting. All I can say is that I'm excited for AoC.
Well I don't know about the first week , Jeffrey is really good at hiding things and apparently there have been stuff hidden that hasn't been found by anyone on these playtest maps.