Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
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.
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.
Alternative, grand scale, rewards
Percimes
Member
I've often expressed how boring gear and loot were to me. How I've always perceived them as tools rather than rewards and so, poor motivators to draw me to the type of content to obtain them. I think I've found the reason why they've always felt “wrong” in my mind. I don't know if it's because I'm getting old or the sheer overexposure finally opened my eyes to it, but I've come to the realization that most loot centred games force your character into being a brigand or a thief when it's not into the role of a cold blooded killer.
In traditional pen and paper role playing games, the main reason heroes go beat the big bad evil guy is for the menace it represent. Yes, Xps, loot and fame come into play for your character's motivations too, maybe the dominating factors even, but, nonetheless, the lasting effect for the game world is that the menace is gone, the people are saved. In p&p rpgs, defeating an enemies isn't limited to killing them, even if it's often the simplest way to achieve victory. You can kill, yes, but you can also force them to simply leave the area, bribe them, negotiate for surrender or peace, even make them allies or friends. There are always options unless the moral dilemma is thrown out the window by facing nonredeemable foes.
I don't want to enter the real world aspect of this too much, so I'll simply say that we have a word for wars or conflicts in which the elimination of the enemies is the goal: genocide. Although we'll happily kill each others over economic and territorial reasons, genocides are still frown upon.
But in MMOs this is of no concern: everything respawn, so we can go about killing everything over and over without fears or any moral inconveniences. In a theme park virtual world nothing changes. Persistence oblige, quest mobs need to be at there posts ready to be slaughtered. And so killing them would be pointless if not for the loot and Xps. From peril to the land and its people to automatic loot distributors, what a downgrade!
So, the philosophical essay part being done, what could be interesting alternatives or options for a less theme park game such as Ashes of Creation? I'm not against the slaying of nonredeemable corruption demons, but is it possible (or desirable) to implement other outcomes? Grand scale, node-level, rewards if you will. Such as...
a) Driving a unintelligent type of aggressive creatures away from an area for a time, making it safe, or at least less bothersome, for gatherers to harvest some type of resource, or making a route safer for caravans for a time
b) Driving aggressive mobs away from an area unto another to hamper the people/mobs there
c) Negotiate with intelligent NPCs after beating the boss. Make them neutral for citizens of the node, having them pay tribute to the city, or have them attack a rival node nearby on your behest, that kind of thing
d) Manipulate NPCs to be more aggressive towards others (increased aggro and/or spawn rate), a spying, PvE, type of thing done before a castle siege or to reverse the efforts of others (bribing the brigands to go back to pester those who turn them against you in the first place)
These are only examples, if you have any other ideas or propositions add them to these. I don't know how feasible or to what level that kind of grand scheme rewards can be implemented. I'm sure some will feel like “Hey! Why do you want to turn off a dungeon?” and I get it. If all you want is to kill mobs for the phat loot, these alternatives are more obstacles to your character's progression than rewards. But for the game world, man would that help make it feels more dynamic. It's seems like a good way to intertwine PvE and PvP and make your actions have a real impact on the server.
In traditional pen and paper role playing games, the main reason heroes go beat the big bad evil guy is for the menace it represent. Yes, Xps, loot and fame come into play for your character's motivations too, maybe the dominating factors even, but, nonetheless, the lasting effect for the game world is that the menace is gone, the people are saved. In p&p rpgs, defeating an enemies isn't limited to killing them, even if it's often the simplest way to achieve victory. You can kill, yes, but you can also force them to simply leave the area, bribe them, negotiate for surrender or peace, even make them allies or friends. There are always options unless the moral dilemma is thrown out the window by facing nonredeemable foes.
I don't want to enter the real world aspect of this too much, so I'll simply say that we have a word for wars or conflicts in which the elimination of the enemies is the goal: genocide. Although we'll happily kill each others over economic and territorial reasons, genocides are still frown upon.
But in MMOs this is of no concern: everything respawn, so we can go about killing everything over and over without fears or any moral inconveniences. In a theme park virtual world nothing changes. Persistence oblige, quest mobs need to be at there posts ready to be slaughtered. And so killing them would be pointless if not for the loot and Xps. From peril to the land and its people to automatic loot distributors, what a downgrade!
So, the philosophical essay part being done, what could be interesting alternatives or options for a less theme park game such as Ashes of Creation? I'm not against the slaying of nonredeemable corruption demons, but is it possible (or desirable) to implement other outcomes? Grand scale, node-level, rewards if you will. Such as...
a) Driving a unintelligent type of aggressive creatures away from an area for a time, making it safe, or at least less bothersome, for gatherers to harvest some type of resource, or making a route safer for caravans for a time
b) Driving aggressive mobs away from an area unto another to hamper the people/mobs there
c) Negotiate with intelligent NPCs after beating the boss. Make them neutral for citizens of the node, having them pay tribute to the city, or have them attack a rival node nearby on your behest, that kind of thing
d) Manipulate NPCs to be more aggressive towards others (increased aggro and/or spawn rate), a spying, PvE, type of thing done before a castle siege or to reverse the efforts of others (bribing the brigands to go back to pester those who turn them against you in the first place)
These are only examples, if you have any other ideas or propositions add them to these. I don't know how feasible or to what level that kind of grand scheme rewards can be implemented. I'm sure some will feel like “Hey! Why do you want to turn off a dungeon?” and I get it. If all you want is to kill mobs for the phat loot, these alternatives are more obstacles to your character's progression than rewards. But for the game world, man would that help make it feels more dynamic. It's seems like a good way to intertwine PvE and PvP and make your actions have a real impact on the server.
Be bold. Be brave. Roll a Tulnar !
4
Comments
Now I am laughing imagining a pissed off server because a player managed to convince a world boss to leave for good.
I like your thoughts. It could almost be a form of node warfare to go to an enemy node and convince some of the mobs nearby to leave for a bit. Or help them and make them temporarily tougher without them giving more xp or loot upon death.
Yes, some of these rewards could easily be perks for guilds or organizations progression.
Guild perk that give the option to make friend with a npc factions. They don't aggro the members of the guilds anymore (unless attacked) and instead /wave when one of them pass in their normal aggro range. If another guild declare war or a siege for your castle, you can pay an additional bribe to them so they extend the favours to all those flagged as defenders, increase the spawn rate and double/triple the aggro range against those flagged as attackers. Sounds fun
Caravan defence perk giving access to items that can scare away one type of beasts.
The actual reward - when a game is made correctly - is the content that those tools open up for you.
This is kind of what it is you are asking for - you want the content itself to be it's own reward - you are just suggesting different ways for it to take place.