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Office Hours: Event System - Thursday, October 12, 2023 at 4PM PT
Office Hours is an opportunity to join in on player discussions about topics Intrepid Studios is actively collecting feedback on. Join @Roshen and @Vaknar over in the Ashes of Creation Discord for a voice chat during our next Community Office Hours on Thursday, October 12, 2023 at 4PM PT (Convert to your local time). This discussion should last about one hour.
This is not a Q&A session. For this session, we will be using Discord Stage. Every 10 minutes, we’ll be bringing up small groups of players to participate in one of the discussion prompts on this topic.
DISCUSSION TOPIC
The main topic of discussion for this Office Hours will be the Event System. This is based on what we shared during the September 2023 Development Update Livestream.
In this session, we’ll break each of the 10 minute segments up to focus on one of these conversations:
- General Event System Discussion - How do you feel about the Event System so far? Are there things you’re excited or concerned about regarding what was shown with the Event System?
- Events and PvP - In Ashes of Creation there are both PvP Events, and PvP that can happen during PvE Events. What makes PvP fun for you in situations like these, and what concerns do you have?
- Events in Other Games - What do you like most and least about systems like our World Events in other games?
- Creative Use of Events - Since Events can have wide reaching negative effects, such as being a part of a Node atrophy Event, what thoughts and concerns do you have with players participating in Events in unique and creative ways?
Thanks again! We look forward to chatting with you all soon!
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NOTE: This thread is for conversations about the Office Hours program. If you have Event System feedback, please provide here.
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Comments
The design pillar of Ashes of Creation, Verra being a "Reactive World", carries a lot of weight with it. This event system has some big shoes to fill to make the pillar, and Ashes of Creation, stand out! Hearing there will be [local, regional, and global] events that produce changes to Verra positively or negatively, due to player's succeeding or failing supports the design pillar well. I believe the glimpse we saw and heard in the latest stream is VERY exciting. It felt like a smaller *re*active "pop up event", so to imagine larger, more impactful *pro*active events, and the various ways events could trigger - I can't wait to see what's in store for the development of Ashes of Creation's World Event system!
I am concerned, only slightly, by the group of players staying together after the event concludes (I will expand on why I like the group staying together below). A point was made recently, regarding players disbanding from the event group when they joined as a smaller party of players themselves. Would their previous party of players have to reform their group after disbanding from the event? What if its a full raid of 40 players playing together that trigger the event, they all join the event through the prompt on screen and afterwards, would they have to re-form the raid? Seems there's potential for a clunky transition when disbanding from an event group.
When thinking of PvP in AoC's World Event system, I can easily see (and enjoy) the expression of "Player Interaction" and "Risk vs Reward" as design pillars. However, because World Events can influence the Story Arcs of the server, I'd like to consider how "Engaging and Immersive Story" as a design pillar can be experienced when participating in PvP in World Events. For PvP specific events and PvE events with PvP, if players can still feel immersed in Verra when they engage in combat, because of the story they are experiencing, I have no concerns. If players are losing grasp of the potential for server-changing Story Arcs and how the PvP in World Events influences them, I think the experience of PvP in World Events could become repetitive and mundane.
"Player Interaction" as a design pillar excites me for AoC's World Event system. In other games' world events, it feels like the players are simply responding to a menial task with no lasting effects between the players that interacted with the event. Also, all world events I've experienced in other games follow a very similar design and experience: players run to the event, engage with it to some degree and leave. For this reason, I appreciate the concept that players are encouraged to stick together as a larger group after an event has run its course (keeping in mind my concern from above). The engagement with the events in other games didn't feel meaningful or impactful enough for me to continue participating in them, once I fully comprehended the "game loop" of their world events.
The example shown in the latest dev stream seemed very localized to that specific trade route. As there will be regional and global events as well, I am very excited to see how in depth those events can be for player engagement. For large global world events, could artisans and religiously faithful players be just as involved with resolving the event through their means as the warriors and adventurers of the node(s)? The larger the world event, the more options I hope players have to address the situation. I imagine it would give every player, no matter their playstyle, a sense of importance and responsibility to the success or failure of the World Event.
- Would like to see more environmental, aka visual and/or audio queues.
- Would like to see gradual difficulty scaling based on damage/healing dealt instead of proximity of players to prevent AFKer abuse.
- There is a concern about people cheesing the event by standing in fire to achieve tanking bonuses to an event or added healing.
- PvP is fun when you can disrupt the enemy so much that they completely forget/ignore their objective.
We need to have the freedom to PvP our own teammates that are sabotaging/griefing our own dynamic events.
- Dynamic event grouping needs to be opt-in for attack or defend.
- Essentially trolling must be an option.
- If you refuse grouping up will you be rewarded?
- Mortal Online had an event that required the whole server to contribute resources to rebuild a ruined bridge to a distant continent, to unlock it's new expansion.
- GW2 had poor scaling that made world events feel meaningless.
- Final Fantasy 11 offered EPIC world bosses, you felt the effects for a couple of weeks through possible plagues, or world burning if you failed.
- When the citizen of that Node atrophy event may be taking major losses, the event itself should feel fun, epic and memorable to take some of that sting away. "Yeah, I have to rebuild. But man, that was cool!"
- Would like a very detailed explanation of Monster Coins in a future update, as that can be perceived as a form of P2W, since they can be purchased on the cosmetic store and are a direct tool of use in node degradation.
- We want to remember the battles more than the results themselves. Fails are oftentimes better stories and memories than successes! Chaos reigns!