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Things to keep us playing end game

I thought I’d create a thread for things to keep us playing at end game.

The first thing I thought of was a boss mob that re-spawns more difficult each time it dies continually.

We need something ground breaking in this game that everyone is excited about. I don’t know what that could be. When you have everything what would keep you playing?

Guild vendettas is something I played a game for a long time at end game because there was always this rivalry and we wanted to own the guild village. This gave us more motivation than anything we hated them but that’s what kept me playing.

What ideas do you have?
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    SongcallerSongcaller Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    Last I heard Ashes has no end game.
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    AzheraeAzherae Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    Lust69 wrote: »
    I thought I’d create a thread for things to keep us playing at end game.

    The first thing I thought of was a boss mob that re-spawns more difficult each time it dies continually.

    We need something ground breaking in this game that everyone is excited about. I don’t know what that could be. When you have everything what would keep you playing?

    Guild vendettas is something I played a game for a long time at end game because there was always this rivalry and we wanted to own the guild village. This gave us more motivation than anything we hated them but that’s what kept me playing.

    What ideas do you have?

    I think I'm content with what we are theoretically getting.

    I don't really think it's worth trying to sort through 'what Intrepid has confirmed' vs 'the stuff I am imagining based on my own interpretation of design'.

    So, basically, trade and change based on the Node system, Dynamic and randomized boss functions, group-balanced PvP, legendary items and item maintenance, and enough clear, soft roleplay options to keep the world feeling like an actual story instead of what sandbox competitives normally turn into.

    To me, Intrepid already seems to have this well set to achieve their concept of 'no real endgame', the question is how many players will be willing to play after they hit 'maintenance point' due to the rivalries/soft RP, until the next 'expansion'.
    Sorry, my native language is Erlang.
    
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    I want slow enough gear acquisition to prevent the majority of players from just getting full BiS in a month or so. That, coupled with all the pvp content in the game, and a deep enough support for RP should support the game for years to come. Obviously there's gonna be expansions, which will most likely support that slow gear grind upwards, but that's a discussion for a much later date.
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    SongcallerSongcaller Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    Players can just buy the gear. Only speed bumps would be lack of funds.
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    Neurath wrote: »
    Players can just buy the gear. Only speed bumps would be lack of funds.
    You can't buy gear if there's not enough gear to go around. And I want that to be the case :)
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    AzheraeAzherae Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    Neurath wrote: »
    Players can just buy the gear. Only speed bumps would be lack of funds.

    Acquisition rate of the materials is most likely what @NiKr is referring to.

    Certainly the strongest and wealthiest will have BiS quickly, but if BiS sword drops off a Weekly mob spawn, 'the Majority' isn't going to be geared in a month.
    Sorry, my native language is Erlang.
    
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    SongcallerSongcaller Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    Well, it would just put the prices up which means those with enough dollar can still buy the stuff. The other avenue is gatherers who can gather what they want whenever they can.
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    Neurath wrote: »
    Well, it would just put the prices up which means those with enough dollar can still buy the stuff. The other avenue is gatherers who can gather what they want whenever they can.
    Like Azherae said, you literally can't buy what isn't there. If there's only 5 pieces of any given BiS gear on the server - 100 people can't "just buy" more.

    And if the top people are greedy enough (usually are), then those 5 pieces will put a tax on any incoming mats, because they need repair.
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    AzheraeAzherae Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    Neurath wrote: »
    Well, it would just put the prices up which means those with enough dollar can still buy the stuff. The other avenue is gatherers who can gather what they want whenever they can.

    Yes, but again note 'the Majority'.

    Some games don't limit the number of spawns, they allow players to enter instances to earn their BiS gear materials, or 'Spawn a World Boss once a day and everyone who participates has at least some chance of getting it'.

    I'm talking about things like "This boss spawns once every 4 days and has a 10% chance of dropping a single one of the material needed to make this weapon'.

    No matter what you do in that case, even if only a hundredth of the players on a server needs that item, they will still be 'working on it for years'.
    Sorry, my native language is Erlang.
    
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    SongcallerSongcaller Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    There is no percentage chance for resources to drop - you need a top tier gatherer and then you get the resource from the corpse. I guess the particular resource might depend on randomisation but the prerequisite is only a high tier gatherer.
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    AzheraeAzherae Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    Neurath wrote: »
    There is no percentage chance for resources to drop - you need a top tier gatherer and then you get the resource from the corpse. I guess the particular resource might depend on randomisation but the prerequisite is only a high tier gatherer.

    I would like a concrete source on this.

    Nothing I have read indicates this is guaranteed at all.
    Sorry, my native language is Erlang.
    
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    Neurath wrote: »
    There is no percentage chance for resources to drop - you need a top tier gatherer and then you get the resource from the corpse. I guess the particular resource might depend on randomisation but the prerequisite is only a high tier gatherer.
    Yes, and a gear piece might need 15 of those items and the boss that has a 7-day respawn only gives one. There you have yourself a 15-week craft of a single piece of gear. Now even I'd say that this is a bit too long, but that's roughly along the lines of what I'm talking about.
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    SongcallerSongcaller Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    It's from a livestream years ago. Back when we still had Jeff. No one would be able to create a piece of armour if the drop chance was 10% every 4 days. All of the resources would be used for repairs.

    However, we just had the less is more or more is less thread so the old stance might change.
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    All very good replies there is certainly going to be much more going on at end game than most games we know of but we are just discussing content we already know about.

    What do we do when our guild has full control over the nodes and maxed them. Got all the gear from the dynamic and randomised boss mobs. Pvp against your rival is old and have all the legendary items and role-played for months.

    Does anyone have any new ideas for this game at what some would consider end game? I feel like there could be something new and exciting.
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    AzheraeAzherae Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    Lust69 wrote: »
    All very good replies there is certainly going to be much more going on at end game than most games we know of but we are just discussing content we already know about.

    What do we do when our guild has full control over the nodes and maxed them. Got all the gear from the dynamic and randomised boss mobs. Pvp against your rival is old and have all the legendary items and role-played for months.

    Does anyone have any new ideas for this game at what some would consider end game? I feel like there could be something new and exciting.

    I'm not sure what you're referring to.

    If my guild has control over Metropolis A, there's a chance that the guild controlling Metropolis B will want Metropolis A to be brought down for some reason. Maybe even just to weaken my guild.

    That would result in new rivals, new bosses, new RP.

    You basically defined it as 'what if every dynamic aspect of the game stopped being dynamic, what other new and exciting ideas do you have?'

    Is that right?
    Sorry, my native language is Erlang.
    
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    Neurath wrote: »
    It's from a livestream years ago. Back when we still had Jeff. No one would be able to create a piece of armour if the drop chance was 10% every 4 days. All of the resources would be used for repairs.

    However, we just had the less is more or more is less thread so the old stance might change.
    That was just an example. My point was to just keep the inflow of mats on the slower side rather than the classic instanced mmo speed of "whoever the fuck wants it gets it asap".
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    Lust69 wrote: »
    Does anyone have any new ideas for this game at what some would consider end game? I feel like there could be something new and exciting.
    I think all the bicycles of the genre have been reinvented already. Not much you can come up with outside of bosses/quests/pvp.
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    Azherae wrote: »
    Lust69 wrote: »
    All very good replies there is certainly going to be much more going on at end game than most games we know of but we are just discussing content we already know about.

    What do we do when our guild has full control over the nodes and maxed them. Got all the gear from the dynamic and randomised boss mobs. Pvp against your rival is old and have all the legendary items and role-played for months.

    Does anyone have any new ideas for this game at what some would consider end game? I feel like there could be something new and exciting.

    I'm not sure what you're referring to.

    If my guild has control over Metropolis A, there's a chance that the guild controlling Metropolis B will want Metropolis A to be brought down for some reason. Maybe even just to weaken my guild.

    That would result in new rivals, new bosses, new RP.

    You basically defined it as 'what if every dynamic aspect of the game stopped being dynamic, what other new and exciting ideas do you have?'

    Is that right?

    Everything stopping being dynamic could be used as a basis to come up with new content, yes but I think the content you refer to isn’t really dynamic enough as in a constant change, activity, or progress. New rivals, new bosses and new RP is going to stop being dynamic after a few months. How many bosses will it be before it’s just another boss. How many rivals will it be until it’s just another rival and I guess RP could last a long time but even that will get old. This content is still going to be very good. But why stop there? There could be something we are missing that could make this game even better that’s what I’m trying to find.
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    AzheraeAzherae Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    Lust69 wrote: »
    Azherae wrote: »
    Lust69 wrote: »
    All very good replies there is certainly going to be much more going on at end game than most games we know of but we are just discussing content we already know about.

    What do we do when our guild has full control over the nodes and maxed them. Got all the gear from the dynamic and randomised boss mobs. Pvp against your rival is old and have all the legendary items and role-played for months.

    Does anyone have any new ideas for this game at what some would consider end game? I feel like there could be something new and exciting.

    I'm not sure what you're referring to.

    If my guild has control over Metropolis A, there's a chance that the guild controlling Metropolis B will want Metropolis A to be brought down for some reason. Maybe even just to weaken my guild.

    That would result in new rivals, new bosses, new RP.

    You basically defined it as 'what if every dynamic aspect of the game stopped being dynamic, what other new and exciting ideas do you have?'

    Is that right?

    Everything stopping being dynamic could be used as a basis to come up with new content, yes but I think the content you refer to isn’t really dynamic enough as in a constant change, activity, or progress. New rivals, new bosses and new RP is going to stop being dynamic after a few months. How many bosses will it be before it’s just another boss. How many rivals will it be until it’s just another rival and I guess RP could last a long time but even that will get old. This content is still going to be very good. But why stop there? There could be something we are missing that could make this game even better that’s what I’m trying to find.

    I don't know if Ashes will live up to the standards of the games I play, sure.

    My favorite one has 2278 bosses/encounters, though (that I can find, obviously these have been added over years and years).

    My other one is 'a simulation of the entire milky way galaxy, the section humans are in is thousands of inhabited star systems'.

    I'm easy to keep happy, so I'm probably not the best person to answer this.

    If Ashes has even 300 unique and interesting encounters, even if only 30 of those are actually 'strong', I probably wouldn't get bored for YEARS.

    I guess I just can't see how with dozens of nodes, hundreds of bosses, and thousands of opponents/RP partners, 'boredom' is going to be a thing in less than 'years'. So... I guess I just disagree with you, actually.
    Sorry, my native language is Erlang.
    
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    George_BlackGeorge_Black Member, Intrepid Pack
    "Keep us playing" (after what?)

    "Boss mob respawns stronger" (repetition).

    Most mmos in the past 2 decades have become an ez, quick dash to end game. That is what people need reasons to keep playing once max leveling and exploration has been achieved (so quickly). They need a repetitive content.

    a) I would suggest we go back to basics. It's the journey that matters, not the destination. Steven said that with intense gaming it would take 45 days to reach max lv. One and a half months. I would like to see max lv being achieved, with intense gaming, at around 3-5 months.

    b) Also, the world should be challenging to traverse and mounts are counter productive to that. There need to be restrictions on mount summoning AND unsummoning.

    c) I also hope that IS will stick to its guns and protect the economy system as well as the social aspect of the game. Achieving gear should be hard. And the cries for solo friendly content are harmful to meaningful mmos.
    1) organize with group to get the mats for the crafts
    2) one character should profit from only one profession. Socialize to cover your needs.


    d) Progress should be hard. Then there are people that want to experience different playstles, but their journey will be slower since they will want to raise more than 1 chars. Personally I only like having one character. What I liked about Line][Age was that with the same character (and after a nearly endless journey) you could add a second class and switch to it and level it up, then add third class and level it up and experience even more playstyles AFTER you reached max lv, max gear, finished a TOUGH epic quest. You could always switch between the classes of your character and also the additional classes gave you some minor passive bonuses to your original class that gave you some edge in combat over other players that didn't reach that far.

    As you can see, good mmos are endless. They dont need reasons to keep you playing it, after you reached an end.

    But people want instant gratification and we can't have nice things.



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    Lust69 wrote: »
    Everything stopping being dynamic could be used as a basis to come up with new content, yes but I think the content you refer to isn’t really dynamic enough as in a constant change, activity, or progress. New rivals, new bosses and new RP is going to stop being dynamic after a few months. How many bosses will it be before it’s just another boss. How many rivals will it be until it’s just another rival and I guess RP could last a long time but even that will get old. This content is still going to be very good. But why stop there? There could be something we are missing that could make this game even better that’s what I’m trying to find.
    This is like trying heroin and then saying "but what if there's something even cooler"? Unless Intrepid are about to drop fucking SAO on us - there's not gonna be content that's somehow better than 20+ years of attempts at, well, better content.
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    Azherae wrote: »
    Lust69 wrote: »
    Azherae wrote: »
    Lust69 wrote: »
    All very good replies there is certainly going to be much more going on at end game than most games we know of but we are just discussing content we already know about.

    What do we do when our guild has full control over the nodes and maxed them. Got all the gear from the dynamic and randomised boss mobs. Pvp against your rival is old and have all the legendary items and role-played for months.

    Does anyone have any new ideas for this game at what some would consider end game? I feel like there could be something new and exciting.

    I'm not sure what you're referring to.

    If my guild has control over Metropolis A, there's a chance that the guild controlling Metropolis B will want Metropolis A to be brought down for some reason. Maybe even just to weaken my guild.

    That would result in new rivals, new bosses, new RP.

    You basically defined it as 'what if every dynamic aspect of the game stopped being dynamic, what other new and exciting ideas do you have?'

    Is that right?

    Everything stopping being dynamic could be used as a basis to come up with new content, yes but I think the content you refer to isn’t really dynamic enough as in a constant change, activity, or progress. New rivals, new bosses and new RP is going to stop being dynamic after a few months. How many bosses will it be before it’s just another boss. How many rivals will it be until it’s just another rival and I guess RP could last a long time but even that will get old. This content is still going to be very good. But why stop there? There could be something we are missing that could make this game even better that’s what I’m trying to find.

    I don't know if Ashes will live up to the standards of the games I play, sure.

    My favorite one has 2278 bosses/encounters, though (that I can find, obviously these have been added over years and years).

    My other one is 'a simulation of the entire milky way galaxy, the section humans are in is thousands of inhabited star systems'.

    I'm easy to keep happy, so I'm probably not the best person to answer this.

    If Ashes has even 300 unique and interesting encounters, even if only 30 of those are actually 'strong', I probably wouldn't get bored for YEARS.

    I guess I just can't see how with dozens of nodes, hundreds of bosses, and thousands of opponents/RP partners, 'boredom' is going to be a thing in less than 'years'. So... I guess I just disagree with you, actually.

    I assume these games you have been playing are a joke unless you’re referring to real life haha I agree with you to a certain extent this games systems are dynamic more than any other mmorpg we have played apart from the one with 2278 bosses and the one with thousands of inhabited star systems although that would be difficult because most planets aren’t in the goldilocks area of their solar system. I guess I’m saying it starts of dynamic then stops being so. My main object of this discussion is to discuss more exciting content there could be more. As it stands I’m also happy with the current content it would last longer than most mmorpg we know of but what else can we come up with.
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    Lust69 wrote: »
    My main object of this discussion is to discuss more exciting content there could be more.
    Could you come up with at least a single example of what this content would even be though?
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    AzheraeAzherae Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    Lust69 wrote: »
    Azherae wrote: »
    Lust69 wrote: »
    Azherae wrote: »
    Lust69 wrote: »
    All very good replies there is certainly going to be much more going on at end game than most games we know of but we are just discussing content we already know about.

    What do we do when our guild has full control over the nodes and maxed them. Got all the gear from the dynamic and randomised boss mobs. Pvp against your rival is old and have all the legendary items and role-played for months.

    Does anyone have any new ideas for this game at what some would consider end game? I feel like there could be something new and exciting.

    I'm not sure what you're referring to.

    If my guild has control over Metropolis A, there's a chance that the guild controlling Metropolis B will want Metropolis A to be brought down for some reason. Maybe even just to weaken my guild.

    That would result in new rivals, new bosses, new RP.

    You basically defined it as 'what if every dynamic aspect of the game stopped being dynamic, what other new and exciting ideas do you have?'

    Is that right?

    Everything stopping being dynamic could be used as a basis to come up with new content, yes but I think the content you refer to isn’t really dynamic enough as in a constant change, activity, or progress. New rivals, new bosses and new RP is going to stop being dynamic after a few months. How many bosses will it be before it’s just another boss. How many rivals will it be until it’s just another rival and I guess RP could last a long time but even that will get old. This content is still going to be very good. But why stop there? There could be something we are missing that could make this game even better that’s what I’m trying to find.

    I don't know if Ashes will live up to the standards of the games I play, sure.

    My favorite one has 2278 bosses/encounters, though (that I can find, obviously these have been added over years and years).

    My other one is 'a simulation of the entire milky way galaxy, the section humans are in is thousands of inhabited star systems'.

    I'm easy to keep happy, so I'm probably not the best person to answer this.

    If Ashes has even 300 unique and interesting encounters, even if only 30 of those are actually 'strong', I probably wouldn't get bored for YEARS.

    I guess I just can't see how with dozens of nodes, hundreds of bosses, and thousands of opponents/RP partners, 'boredom' is going to be a thing in less than 'years'. So... I guess I just disagree with you, actually.

    I assume these games you have been playing are a joke unless you’re referring to real life haha I agree with you to a certain extent this games systems are dynamic more than any other mmorpg we have played apart from the one with 2278 bosses and the one with thousands of inhabited star systems although that would be difficult because most planets aren’t in the goldilocks area of their solar system. I guess I’m saying it starts of dynamic then stops being so. My main object of this discussion is to discuss more exciting content there could be more. As it stands I’m also happy with the current content it would last longer than most mmorpg we know of but what else can we come up with.

    Well, if we're just brainstorming and we've already got 'dynamic characterization', 'dynamic bosses', 'dynamic locations and dungeons', and 'political intrigue'...

    Ashes already has the 'monster events' and 'monster sieges' and 'monster coins' and will also have Naval content...

    Infinite progression is impossible... I guess they could add more 'level restricted' content to expand the flow, and make a bigger deal out of the social organization stuff like letting players create them in specific curated ways.

    I just don't know what one adds when the game already has plans to have 'everything' that it can have within its own scope (Magic Fantasy MMO).

    Are you asking for something so exciting that it doesn't exist in ANY game yet?
    Sorry, my native language is Erlang.
    
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    NiKr wrote: »
    Lust69 wrote: »
    My main object of this discussion is to discuss more exciting content there could be more.
    Could you come up with at least a single example of what this content would even be though?

    you need wires touching your body :smile:
    September 12. 2022: Being naked can also be used to bring a skilled artisan to different freeholds... Don't summon family!
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    Strevi wrote: »
    you need wires touching your body :smile:
    That's that SAO shit. The good shit. I can't wait for that, but I doubt Intrepid's gonna be the ones to do it :D
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    AzheraeAzherae Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    NiKr wrote: »
    Strevi wrote: »
    you need wires touching your body :smile:
    That's that SAO shit. The good shit. I can't wait for that, but I doubt Intrepid's gonna be the ones to do it :D

    Would that even have any effect though? That's just an interface back to the same stuff.

    I know I'm an abstractor, but within the realm of what OP is 'talking about', I doubt that counts either. That's why I'm drawing a blank.

    If RP would get boring, literally no amount of NPCs or game story could possibly change that...

    If at least 64x combat opponent 'characters' would get boring, no amount of changing the game itself will alter that too much.

    If hundreds of bosses isn't enough, there's definitely no functional PvE that will ever scratch the itch of the person who wants more.

    I guess Ashes could add a Legend of Mana level Crafting System, just bump some stuff around from their already-planned SWG-style, so that we could craft gear 'forever', but even that would still have limits and only a subset of people would care.

    You're just too easy to make happy too, NiKr, I think.
    Sorry, my native language is Erlang.
    
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    tautautautau Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    I anticipate that the first nodes to level up well will be ones with easy access and lots of land around them, so their 'high' content will be the first we experience. During the next few years, some will become metros and then will be torn down and other NEARBY metros of different types will rise up and we will experience their 'high' content.

    However, nodes out on the fringes, near the mountains, on islands, in remote areas...they will remain small to middling in size. Rarely, however, some servers will end up with a metro in a remote area thus allowing us to experience their different 'high' content. Word will spread that on server Balderdash that the node at 'Land's End' leveled up and they saw previously unique bosses and new weapons and content! All these dozens of remote nodes that have never been levelled up...now people will try to level them up for their 'high' content!

    How many YEARS will it take for a single server to turn every single node into a metropolis to experience the 'high' level content available? It may never happen. Even if it does happen, how few (if any!) players on that server will experience all of the 'high' content of every single node and castle? Nobody might ever achieve that. Ever.

    No End Game.
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    Azherae wrote: »
    You're just too easy to make happy too, NiKr, I think.
    I mean, I love idlers :D I'm at the bottom of the foodchain when it comes to pleasing me with a game.

    But as I said, OP is a heroin addict who somehow thinks there's something better out there, when there's not. SAO would add the only missing "dynamism" to the equation - the full immersion. A monitor and a kbm/controller can only take you so far. I mean, I guess there's the literal infinity of thought but some people can't access that freely, so D&D-type stuff doesn't apply.

    For me a non-SAO peak mmo would be a game where you can create your own spells. I had an idea of an elemental particles-based system, where you start with pretty much a pixel of a single element and go as far as "combination of all elements into "a something" that draws upon the mana of everyone in a 500m radius around your character".

    And as you pointed out, this kind of freedom of choice could be applied to other kinds of content in the game, but I can't even begin to imagine how difficult this type of game would be to design/develop, let alone balance.
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    tautau wrote: »
    Rarely, however, some servers will end up with a metro in a remote area thus allowing us to experience their different 'high' content. Word will spread that on server Balderdash that the node at 'Land's End' leveled up and they saw previously unique bosses and new weapons and content! All these dozens of remote nodes that have never been levelled up...now people will try to level them up for their 'high' content!
    This type of stuff is why I hope Ashes will have something like a world-wide news agency or something like that. So that I could hear about some server that's about to have a coastal node siege and I'd go visit that server as a tourist. Though I dunno who'd be up for aggregating literal thousand of pieces of info from all across all the servers (potentially hundreds, if the game is popular enough) onto a single easily parsable site.
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