Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Comments
flat no.
They way Steven answered Solo play - he skirted around not to outright say there is no solo play. He said there will be some solo content - caravan, siege, BH.
As for solo players doing solo XP - I dont want to see that be a thing. MAYBE 2-3 classes being somewhat capable.
To be more specific - I do thing you should be able to single kill a target, but its gonna take you longer and the XP rate is NEEDS to be not worth compared to those who are in groups.
Sure, you can solo - lower level single mobs in the open world. In the dungeon - forget about, unless you're a level 40 in a lvl 20 dungeon - then once again - SURE.
Therefor I am against seeing individual players of equal level in equal lvl dungeons soloing. Can you single pull from someone, I guess - but dungeon mobs should look like this:
level 40 player fighting a "level 40 mob" is technically a lvl 42-43 mob.
In EQ a mob 2-3+ levels above you is pretty much impossible to solo.
So once again, you, the solo lvl 40 player will need to fight lvl 37 dungeon mob to be MAYBE viable/doable. But you are getting the XP rate of a 37 mob, that is lower level than you, which makes it even less xp.
I hope all of that made sense.
Dungeons have multiple entrances and exits. There are various interconnected paths to the boss, some are longer and less defended, others are shorter and more strongly defended. Different paths have different types of mobs AND the types of mobs change each time the boss spawns. Players could learn the different paths in, but they never can predict what mob strengths and types they will face on a given path.
Once a group kills the boss and gets the drops, they don't have to go back out the way they came in. If you leave by a different path, you will have to fight different mobs and Might run into another group trying to come in. With many entrances and exits, it will be difficult to try to catch the players leaving with the loot, but you might (particularly if you have a spy in the group).
Personnally I would like bosses can move on a big map inside the dungeon without specific spawn point.
I also imagine a boss that can teleport himself (not too often coz it can be super annoying and not all bosses shoudl teleport).
I imagine also different crossing points with no possible return except leaving the dungeon.
I imagine that players pop in random places after using crossing points to avoid large team PK camping at a spawn point.
Also im not a big fan of massive bosses that must be killed by 40 players at the same time. It's laggy, and as fast as the mob becomes red, everyone starts to kill each other to get the loot. So I would prefer bosses killable by a single groupes.
The thing which makes me worry the most, is the corruption system near boss... When you are with a group killing a boss and another group literally steals your boss, you still get corruption if you kill them ?
You have the rights? Loot is yours. You didn't have the rights (not enough dmg dealt by your group)? - the other group didn't really steal your boss.
Then vanish again.
As I understood there will be only some specific bosses for raids so it doesn't mean that all dungeons will offer a possibility to raid.
What are you saying here? You just want grouped mobs and no solid solo mobs? Won't that get boring? Perhaps inclusive was the wrong word to use but I stand by my initial statement.
I really enjoy "quality" single mobs.
Strict group mobs I've never seen work in an exciting manner, it's usually a "quality mob with adds" and not a true party thing going on. The question would be if "grouped mobs" were worked on properly with decent AI what would be deemed enough work for that to be a significant enough experience where the players enjoy making groups for it and are happy with the reward.
I'd just like to add though how amazing it could potentially be though for grouped mobs to have some similarities of fighting a PvP party, to form as a baseline/tutorial for players, especially less nerdy ones to be competent at PvP!
It's not like AoC is even ready for that area of tinkering at all yet, especially with that gameplay showcase that showed every single wolf spamming lunge at the player, no sign of alteration and with no concept of distance and direction in mind.
Good ideas and I am especially a fan of idea number 5! It also makes me think of two other mechanics which can be included in here:
- Shifting bridges. Kind of like shifting staircases in Harry Potter, some dungeons could have moving parts that might move every 30 minutes, forcing groups to chose a different path depending on when they are in the dungeon, and they still might run into another group, but less likely. It will also force an interesting Meta to "time" these shifts and contest certain positions at key times!
- Progression permissions. Very simply put, defeating a certain boss, or an internal OR external quest, could grant you an item or key or puzzle answer allowing you to open a certain secret door in a dungeon only for your party or even to everyone, in which case you could need to be very careful about when to open the door and not let a rogue sneak in.
anyone who is leaving will be considered having loot, in any exits.
In a weird way, you're helping the Loot Stealers groups to spread out more in different exits.
instead of having 1 group of thieves camping the exit and POTENTIALLY fighting other group of thieves - now you incentives the thieves to play nice and each pick an exit.
Raids can have "Bosses" and the obvious World Bosses.
precisely. I am against the concept of solo game play in an mmorpg. Unfortunately the term MMORPG has been bastardize and encompasses many games that arent in the same vein as EQ/WoW/Lineage. (FF14 Is NOT an mmorpg).
Basically what I think an MMORPG is a CO-OPERATIVE MMORPG that requires teamwork and everything is mostly tied to social gameplay and interaction.
If I wanted to play solo rpg, I'll play Zelda, FF, Elden Ring, Skyrim, etc. An MMO - I dont want to just share a universe - I want to be reliant by others and others be reliant of me. Team work, group effort, server effort.
If there's 10 rooms with lvl40 mobs - 6 of those rooms can have different types of mobs with, say, 0.1% chance to drop a crafting material for one of 3 pieces (or sets) of gear.
Then 3 rooms would have 24+-3h respawn bosses, each having a 50% chance to drop full mats for a single craft of a single piece of gear or several mats for different pieces within the set that relates to it. And maybe 1-3% chance to drop a full piece of gear.
And one room would have a 2d+-5h respawn boss that drops mats for all 3 sets and has a higher chance of dropping full pieces.
When the boss rooms don't have bosses in them, they're populated with mobs that have the same loot tables as the bosses, but the chances for that loot are lower than the ones in the "normal" rooms, so the overall daily chance is the same, but the ones farming the boss room would also be the first ones to see the boss respawn and would have the first dibs on it.
At the end of the dungeon there'd be a super cool and hardcore raid boss with a several-day respawn timer, great chances to drop mats and full gear, and some sort of unique piece of loot.
In other words, every room would be pretty much equal in its worth on the grand scale, but boss rooms would give you an edge over the others, so for several hours every day there'd be a higher concentration of players in those rooms fighting for the chance to be the first ones to kill the boss.
Chances would obviously have to be properly calculated and balanced and all that.
everything prior before boss room talks is a pure yes.
As for the concept of a boss room in your example.... i dont hate it... problems with set timers creates other issues. RNG timer would be better. If not, it's gonna feel like archeage dailies events. kinda indifferent to your version.
I'm so sad that you missed FFXI sometimes.
I'll just hope that all those times you suggest something that makes me think "Wait isn't this how it works in all games?" that it is because you got to have exactly that in L2.
I don't usually assume that for PvE though.
I'm more surprised that novercalis doesn't prefer this/isn't used to it. I thought EQ did this too.
Eq had no leashing btw u either zones out or run to guards to get it killed they were the only way to leash things in EQ which i quite liked tbh
Well everything dropped in dungeons would be considered material which is dropped on death in some way or form (we dont know the drop rate though yet) since raid/dungeon mobs dont drop equipment just mnaterials to crafts saiud equipment with which drops on death,
EQ dungeon designs were definetly one of the best designed dungeons, there many ways to traverse them many rooms to farm different routes to take and so on, these especialy better for games with pvp too since if it ur standard 1 way tunnel system say in WoW then ur pvp groups know just run straight till u hit people (or group ahead has 1 person behind scouting for other groups cming behind) EQ u have options to escape or ambush/sneak up on players not to mention there largeenough and spread out enough to hold muiltipul groups.
i pref the camp and pull to a spot system too over the walking a linear path.
Ability to get lost aswell was great along with opportunity for players to make dungeon maps to sell
Seriously - An MMO without a MAP makes a HUGE HUGE DIFFERENCE!
Man did it fucking sucked when you get lost in a dungeon while having a train lol. THEN you have to FIND YOUR FUCKING CORPSE. As horrible as this sounds and the amount of Rage / Grief this is - I fucking have fond memories of them.
I thought I had 3 hours to play, all spent on finding my fucking corpse and dragging it to safety. Sense of Danger and experience on the line, losing XP and potentially de-leveling.
People quickly learned - draw your map or remember landmarks.
I can run Upper Guk to Lower Guk with my eyes close.
Runneye on the other hand was a nightmare to traverse.
Sucks that maps became a staple in mmorpg
Though pretty quickly quite a lot of people just learned the optimal routes and only used those.
I love the idea of a time related choke point to get a specific path through the dungeon!
It might also be an option to have key items IN the dungeon, like a wagon of dynamite to open a specific path and have that contested because the passage will close again. If different groups in a dungeon would influence events in the dungeon that would also be a kind of reward to be there when others are.
(EXAMPLE) Lets say there is a mine themed dungeon and portion of the mine dug into an old underground structure only to be abandoned there after some parasitic lifeform had killed a bunch of miners there. The mine was completely abandoned after a bunch of Earth/Rock/Crystal Elementals raided the place.
Group 1 takes a mine cart full of dynamite from the old storage facility to the outer wall of the structure and blows it up. The passage is clear but not stable, it sends tremors through the dungeon, notifying other groups that the passage has been opened but the explosion also has woken up an Earth Elemental Boss, who now starts moving through the mine shafts. Even though Group 1 triggered this event, they won't be the ones to encounter this Boss in this "Run", they can only encounter the Elemental Boss by exiting the dungeon and going back in from above. The triggered Earth Elemental proceeds through the dungeon, destroys the remaining dynamite in the storage house and then goes on to seal up the wall to the underground structure Group 1 opened because the parasites are a danger to the Elementals.
Group 2 who is also in the dungeon, decides to fight the Elemental Boss, they can attack him at the dynamite storage and use that dynamite to get an easier kill, but there is only a limited amount of time for that opportunity. If they don't succeed before the dynamite is completely destroyed the Elemental moves on to the breach in the mine and seals it up. While he channels his powers to seal the hole, Group 2 catches up and faces him again, but Group 3 has also waited here for the Elemental. They fight, Group 3 takes out Group 2 and then takes on the Elemental. The breach has been sealed but the Elemental has been slain. While all that was going on in that part of the dungeon, Group 4 has gone and taken a closer look at the resting place of that Earth Elemental and found some valuable stuff there as well as another area of the dungeon. If the Earth Elemental had survived to return to his resting spot after he sealed the breach only to find that it was looted, he would would go into a frenzy and enrage the other Elemental creatures in the mine as well. Also: If Group 1 abandons their run or wipes in the passage they have opened, a parasitic type of mob swarms out into the mine and takes over the Elementals.
Events like this could change the "scenario" of the dungeon, change loot tables and enemy types it would result in player groups trying to compete over the dungeon scenario.
A second group might sneak into the passage of Group 1 before it was sealed, try to kill them and all players who want to stop the spread of the parasite so that the big Earth Elemental Boss is turned by the parasite to drop specific loot. Having different impactful interests for a dungeon would be a great way to encourage competition as well. (/EXAMPLE)
And I remembered that Rogues will have the unique ability to detect traps and maybe secret doors in a dungeon. A group without a Rogue (this could be a limitation set by a quest or just by no Rogue being available) might want to take another groups Rogue hostage for some time to open up a passage to a specific part of the dungeon or to clear a trap.
ive pretty much memorised every zone in everquest 15 years later i can still navigate 90% of the world from memory :P the other 10% pretty much places no one went to