Immersion Ideas Pt. 2 - Unique Quests

TheDavide

As I did in my last post I would just like to reiterate that I have 0 coding experience and do not know or understand the complexity of adding new features. All these ideas are just things that I would enjoy seeing in an MMO. For context on my background in MMOs and my previous recommendations/ideas check out : https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/53879/immersion-ideas-node-appearances-hidden-player-levels-discovered-crafting#latest

Part 2 - unique quests

From what I've seen so far I think Ashes does a fantastic job of making an immersive experience where the story line doesn't make me feel like the "savior of the universe" only to see 3 million other people hand in the same quest. I enjoy this aspect because it makes it feel like you're part of a more genuine world.

But... what if you could be the savior of the universe?

I always thought that part of the ultimate MMO would be a story along with the content and what other way to do that than by introducing unique storylines. I imagine it like having questlines to conquer kingdoms or stop world ending events (pulled this from Log Horizon if anyone has seen that) where players can choose to participate on either side. Events that could shape the very landscape of multiple nodes... or the world. This would obviously require a ton of writing from quest makers if they were to make no 2 server the same but there could also be an incentive in the form of a commission based on the number of players attracted to each server.

Just a thought but these hidden + unique events could contribute to creating stories of an epic scale unique to each, or at the very least a few servers.

What kind of quests would you like to see from this? I imagine a lot of quests with unique legendary awards that can only go to 1 or a handful of players (obviously this would need some kind of balancing mechanic like drastically reducing the chance of drop for players that have a named item + priorities the right weapons/items to the right classes). But honestly could you imagine seeing a world event like Excalibur being in a stone and there was some hidden requirements to be able to pull it that only 1 person could get?

McShave

I think we can see these large kingdom-conquering quests, but in the terms of castle and node sieges started by guild leaders or node mayors. If you have one metropolis mayor declare a siege on another metropolis mayor, you could potentially see half the server's population involved in that.

In terms of PvE unique quests like that, I imagine some big "bad guy" boss that dynamically spawns in the world (unique to your server, in a sense of time, location, and boss type), that a large part of your server will have to participate to defeat.

None of these are unique in the sense that only one person will be able to do it, but unique in a sense that only your server has the ability to do that quest.

Murdach

They already plan on doing a version of this. For example, a server puts effort into a region with a volcano. That volcanic node gets big enough to spawn a fire-based dungeon and mobs, etc. However, it's not a particularly popular dungeon so the Big Boss grows in power (they're not getting killed enough) to the point where they begin to trigger an apocalyptic event. At this point, large-scale quests are spawned that will decide the fate of this Event. If players choose not to participate, the Even happens and leaves a massive scar on this server. Probably messes up a bunch of other nodes too. If players do the quests and stop the Event, but dont take care of the Boss it wouldnt leave a scar on the environment, but maybe the Boss is now a wandering World Boss that creates mini Events when the spawn. Or cats participate and kill the Boss, and life goes on as normal on the server.

The idea is that events like this will make every server unique after maybe a year or so. That and different servers having Metropolises in different areas and other Node related differences.

CROW3

Honestly, I’d find it more immersive if I weren’t a savior of the universe. I’m tired of messianic clichés.

You need me to chop wood for seven hours? Great.