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Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest news on Alpha Two.
Check out general Announcements here to see the latest news on Ashes of Creation & Intrepid Studios.
To get the quickest updates regarding Alpha Two, connect your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
World Bosses (combat features suggestions/ideas)
Hi_OuO
Member, Alpha Two
Hey 
Just wanted to share some ideas regarding world boss combat-related features that could help balance situations that might lead to frustration, such as escalations, exploitation, monopolization, and more. Additionally, I’ve included a few ideas for progression goals oriented toward high-end rewards and flexing goodies, which are always popular in MMOs.
Let me know what you think, and if you have any other ideas in mind that could help regulate typically frustrating situations in games—such as monopolies over certain content or resources due to level differences or numbers, as well as issues like sabotage or backstabbing.
World Bosses:
0. First let's clarify a few aspects:
- Players with specific requirements (e.g. quest, tokken, etc) allowing them to fight the world boss in optimal condition = A
- Player without those specific requirement (can still fight world bosses, but against most of them receives an affliction, DoT from the environment, etc.) = B
- Bosses can fight up to a certain set number of players, variable from one to another (~30-60 sounds like a good number, but it could be more). When a player is engaged in a fight with the boss, he is recognized/tagged. (A > A" | B > B")
- Despite being limited to a certain number of eligible players, other players can still try to intervane or attack the engaged party = C = ( A + B ) not engaged in fight.
1. Boss Stats Scaling:
- The Boss's stats scale with the number of surrounding or fight-engaged players:
- Formula: `[Boss’s Base Stats] + N(A"+B"+C) x ([Player Lvl]^2 x 0.03) - N(A"+B") x ([Boss Lvl]^2 x 0.03)`
(Ik that it's not intended to have scaling world bosses so far, but I believe it would realy help in most cases especially when taken into consideration the other points and unbalance of gain vs reward when you know you have more to lose in most cases when attacking if not at a critical moment which would still be worse than without)
2. Boss AoE Scaling:
- The Boss's Area of Effect (AoE) abilities scale with the number of surrounding players (A"+B"+C). With only AoE attacks targeting 'C' players. (I recall hearing about something similar during the troll world boss livestream, but wasn't sure, so I still put it)
3. Priority System for 'Recognized' Status (A" and B"):
- The first X number of 'A' players (basically someone who got a quest related-item or unlocked some required conditions) and/or 'B' players to attack the Boss receive a ‘Recognized’ status for X minutes (basically, they get tagged).
- This status grants them a short immunity period within a disengnated area if they manage to slay the Boss before the status expires (with a duration of ~1-2min., giving them the time to also get through the loot pannel).
4. Damage Reduction Mechanic:
- Damage taken from 'Recognized' players (A" and B") during the Boss fight is reduced by 10-80%, depending on the Boss, number of Recognized/Tagged players (A"+B") and number of surrounding players (C) .
5. Boss Leash and Victor’s Benediction:
- If the Boss is pulled too far from its initial fight location or if the assault team disengages for 15-30 seconds, the Boss receives "Victor’s Benediction" (or any other name you’d find fitting). (except with AoE attacks, the boss won't ever focus a 'C' player.)
- This ability fully restores the Boss's health and allows it to be directly engaged again by surrounding players (C) and/or any first people wanting to fight it (includes A+B+C).
- Some Bosses might return to their initial location if instanced. Players who don’t meet certain requirements (B) (e.g. quest chain not completed, token not acquired, etc.) would be prioritized by the Boss and considered out of the fight after X time if not in a group of players who are alive (to balance the lack of prior preparation/requirement steps while considerably reduce the potential to exploit players who gave in more efforts to be able to properly fight the boss. It’s also important to note that although they are disadvantaged compared to ‘adequately prepared’ players, they still benefit from the damage reduction bonus when recognized/tagged (B > B"), but could still be affected by some bosses' effects or environmental afflictions like burning DoT in the boss’s area if they couldn’t get a tokken protecting them from it through a quest for example, and in general take more risks engaging in this kind of content unprepared.)
6. Anti-Exploit Abilities:
- Bosses have at least one ability designed to counter high-mobility or fleeing players trying to sabotage the raiding party (e.g., purge/silence, restriction, auto-target).
7. Loot Distribution:
- (subjective opinion) Bosses should rarely, if ever, drop complete item pieces. Instead, the primary rewards should be materials and resources, with gold and treasure maps as possible options.
- Suggested individual drop rates (estimated for 30-50 players): (only A"+B" recieve rewards)
- (~80%) Resources and materials + gold
- (~5%) Runes/gems
- (~3%) Treasure maps/quest scrolls/miscellaneous items
- (~7%) Heroic items
- (~3%) Epic items
- (~1%) Temporary mount
- (~0.5%) Legendary items
- (~0.5%) Vault keys (an implementable feature allowing players to open vaults containing some of the most precious loot in the game with a great deal of special/unique cosmetics, recipes, pets, auras, mount skins, etc. (the perfect gacha and, to my knowledge, the first purely F2P one, without even any purchasable versions available with real money), with potentially different kinds of vaults available for different kinds of content, separate from what you could get from quests, achievements, or any other content. Something like ‘Embers of Creation’ or ‘Hearts/Feathers of the Phoenix’ could also be acquired once through them and at very late stages of progression in all the different contents in the game like the main quest, exploration, PvP, reputation, etc., to unlock the most precious non-gear items/cosmetics in the game and would require a tremendous amount of time to gather. They wouldn’t be consumed but would accumulate like a collection, gradually unlocking peak-grade set rewards).
- (~0.5%) Crafting recipes
- (~0.03%) Pet
- (~0.03%) Aura/halo (visual effects around the player and/or their movement)
- (~0.01%) Unique mount/mount skin
(the variety of lootable items and their drop rates are simply to get an general idea, but given my lack of actual knowledge regarding the currently intended direction the devs team are envisaging, aspecially from an economy perspective, I won't try to delve too much into it, and kept a combined 'one unit drop rate' to keep it visually simpler.)
(0.01% may seem like an ridiculously low droprate, but those are ment to be extremely challenging things to get to limit their availability within a server, and depending on the kind of boss an number of players looting it, they could certainly be adjusted.)
I know it's kinda indigest and not very well presented, but I tried to re-emphasise a few points (but was too lazzy to do it more cleanly x3). Still hope it'll be understandable (maybe by the second reading).
Just wanted to share some ideas regarding world boss combat-related features that could help balance situations that might lead to frustration, such as escalations, exploitation, monopolization, and more. Additionally, I’ve included a few ideas for progression goals oriented toward high-end rewards and flexing goodies, which are always popular in MMOs.
Let me know what you think, and if you have any other ideas in mind that could help regulate typically frustrating situations in games—such as monopolies over certain content or resources due to level differences or numbers, as well as issues like sabotage or backstabbing.
World Bosses:
0. First let's clarify a few aspects:
- Players with specific requirements (e.g. quest, tokken, etc) allowing them to fight the world boss in optimal condition = A
- Player without those specific requirement (can still fight world bosses, but against most of them receives an affliction, DoT from the environment, etc.) = B
- Bosses can fight up to a certain set number of players, variable from one to another (~30-60 sounds like a good number, but it could be more). When a player is engaged in a fight with the boss, he is recognized/tagged. (A > A" | B > B")
- Despite being limited to a certain number of eligible players, other players can still try to intervane or attack the engaged party = C = ( A + B ) not engaged in fight.
1. Boss Stats Scaling:
- The Boss's stats scale with the number of surrounding or fight-engaged players:
- Formula: `[Boss’s Base Stats] + N(A"+B"+C) x ([Player Lvl]^2 x 0.03) - N(A"+B") x ([Boss Lvl]^2 x 0.03)`
(Ik that it's not intended to have scaling world bosses so far, but I believe it would realy help in most cases especially when taken into consideration the other points and unbalance of gain vs reward when you know you have more to lose in most cases when attacking if not at a critical moment which would still be worse than without)
2. Boss AoE Scaling:
- The Boss's Area of Effect (AoE) abilities scale with the number of surrounding players (A"+B"+C). With only AoE attacks targeting 'C' players. (I recall hearing about something similar during the troll world boss livestream, but wasn't sure, so I still put it)
3. Priority System for 'Recognized' Status (A" and B"):
- The first X number of 'A' players (basically someone who got a quest related-item or unlocked some required conditions) and/or 'B' players to attack the Boss receive a ‘Recognized’ status for X minutes (basically, they get tagged).
- This status grants them a short immunity period within a disengnated area if they manage to slay the Boss before the status expires (with a duration of ~1-2min., giving them the time to also get through the loot pannel).
4. Damage Reduction Mechanic:
- Damage taken from 'Recognized' players (A" and B") during the Boss fight is reduced by 10-80%, depending on the Boss, number of Recognized/Tagged players (A"+B") and number of surrounding players (C) .
5. Boss Leash and Victor’s Benediction:
- If the Boss is pulled too far from its initial fight location or if the assault team disengages for 15-30 seconds, the Boss receives "Victor’s Benediction" (or any other name you’d find fitting). (except with AoE attacks, the boss won't ever focus a 'C' player.)
- This ability fully restores the Boss's health and allows it to be directly engaged again by surrounding players (C) and/or any first people wanting to fight it (includes A+B+C).
- Some Bosses might return to their initial location if instanced. Players who don’t meet certain requirements (B) (e.g. quest chain not completed, token not acquired, etc.) would be prioritized by the Boss and considered out of the fight after X time if not in a group of players who are alive (to balance the lack of prior preparation/requirement steps while considerably reduce the potential to exploit players who gave in more efforts to be able to properly fight the boss. It’s also important to note that although they are disadvantaged compared to ‘adequately prepared’ players, they still benefit from the damage reduction bonus when recognized/tagged (B > B"), but could still be affected by some bosses' effects or environmental afflictions like burning DoT in the boss’s area if they couldn’t get a tokken protecting them from it through a quest for example, and in general take more risks engaging in this kind of content unprepared.)
6. Anti-Exploit Abilities:
- Bosses have at least one ability designed to counter high-mobility or fleeing players trying to sabotage the raiding party (e.g., purge/silence, restriction, auto-target).
7. Loot Distribution:
- (subjective opinion) Bosses should rarely, if ever, drop complete item pieces. Instead, the primary rewards should be materials and resources, with gold and treasure maps as possible options.
- Suggested individual drop rates (estimated for 30-50 players): (only A"+B" recieve rewards)
- (~80%) Resources and materials + gold
- (~5%) Runes/gems
- (~3%) Treasure maps/quest scrolls/miscellaneous items
- (~7%) Heroic items
- (~3%) Epic items
- (~1%) Temporary mount
- (~0.5%) Legendary items
- (~0.5%) Vault keys (an implementable feature allowing players to open vaults containing some of the most precious loot in the game with a great deal of special/unique cosmetics, recipes, pets, auras, mount skins, etc. (the perfect gacha and, to my knowledge, the first purely F2P one, without even any purchasable versions available with real money), with potentially different kinds of vaults available for different kinds of content, separate from what you could get from quests, achievements, or any other content. Something like ‘Embers of Creation’ or ‘Hearts/Feathers of the Phoenix’ could also be acquired once through them and at very late stages of progression in all the different contents in the game like the main quest, exploration, PvP, reputation, etc., to unlock the most precious non-gear items/cosmetics in the game and would require a tremendous amount of time to gather. They wouldn’t be consumed but would accumulate like a collection, gradually unlocking peak-grade set rewards).
- (~0.5%) Crafting recipes
- (~0.03%) Pet
- (~0.03%) Aura/halo (visual effects around the player and/or their movement)
- (~0.01%) Unique mount/mount skin
(the variety of lootable items and their drop rates are simply to get an general idea, but given my lack of actual knowledge regarding the currently intended direction the devs team are envisaging, aspecially from an economy perspective, I won't try to delve too much into it, and kept a combined 'one unit drop rate' to keep it visually simpler.)
(0.01% may seem like an ridiculously low droprate, but those are ment to be extremely challenging things to get to limit their availability within a server, and depending on the kind of boss an number of players looting it, they could certainly be adjusted.)
I know it's kinda indigest and not very well presented, but I tried to re-emphasise a few points (but was too lazzy to do it more cleanly x3). Still hope it'll be understandable (maybe by the second reading).
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