The role of unpredictability in preserving fun & activity-based progress

Mic

The current meta of the game is to log alts on timers who are standing over the best resources (harvestables and boss mobs). The most valuable things in the game are being received by characters and players who are not activity playing the game. This is a problem that has doomed the MMO genre for at least a decade. A large portion of this problem is generated by predictability. Websites like Ashes Codex scrape and collectively generate fully prescribed maps that feature literally everything.

This should be alleviated in two ways:
(1) Randomness. Nodes should spawn in more randomized places. Nodes should spawn at random times. Nodes should have random rarity rolls. Unless these things are generated, you have a system that rewards players only for playing smart, not for playing a lot. As a collective, players will always play smart but they will not always play a lot. You (MMOs) need players to play a lot.

(2) Activity based spawns. Bosses need to be earned by activity. Everyone knows where a boss will spawn, but they have to work to make it spawn. Reward your small guild or group for camping a room and killing mobs as they fill a meter that increases the likelihood of a boss spawn. Reward dedication and commitment, not login timers. This will eliminate the ability of a zerg raid world-boss running. It will eliminate the 30 person PUG raid running room to room in the entire dungeon on a timer, barring smaller groups who have camped a room from getting a boss spawn.

We have been in an era of game scrapes for a while now. Please don't do the same exact thing (predictability and timers) that every other failed MMO has done for 15 years. It is no longer feasible.

Brommas

Great post. This is a topic that is not discussed enough and should not be overlooked

MWH_Alestorm

I definitely agree regarding boss timers. It feels pretty simple to have their respawn timers either be a random window (e.g. 40min +/- X%) or, a more complex solution, have it be based on area activity as you suggested.

As it is now, in dungeons you have an entire groups who map all the timers and just run from one boss to another just farming predictable bosses (boring). Players can still contest these groups but only if you know the exact timers, and that predictability just makes it boring. A little RNG here is a relatively simple solution to test, and can go a long way to change the dynamic in a positive way that keeps people playing the game longer.

RE: Resource Nodes - yes. This has been discussed at length but obviously a small group of players camping/logging in to grab predictably HQ resource nodes has really messed things up and will continue to do so if not addressed. It's very bad.

Cyjax

Would love to see friction around the droppers as well. Attacking the dropper flags you and no first tag rule bonus applied to droppers, just raw dmg done for player or group.

Progressive spawner system would be great, especially for the really tough true boss level droppers.

SmileGurney

Mic wrote: »

Reward your small guild or group for camping a room and killing mobs as they fill a meter that increases the likelihood of a boss spawn

That's a great idea, but only if Intrepid is able to detect whatever it was a small group working for that spawn or a massive zerg cleaning up an area in a matter of minutes.

Volgaris

The gathering meta issue has been talked about at length on the forum for sure. I don't have the link to the thread but it's a big one. I assume they'll 'fix' it, it's just not on the top of the TODO. If they don't I'll wait for the 'Realm Reborn' moment to play lol. I like the activity based rewarding, like a boss spawn. I don't see this happening though, it's a PvP game, there'll be little focus on PvE aspects, these things are here just to support the PvP systems in the game.

SmileGurney

I genuinely like the Guild Wars 2 event design, where certain areas had event triggers, you had to progress through multiple stages of the event, not just kill mobs, but also interact with the environment etc, before a boss spawned. This approach could help with how shallow and brainless the current named mob camping "meta" is. Work in the a specific area, kill event related mobs, maybe find some hidden mechanics to open a door etc, before a boss spawns, which can drop that unique loot you are interested in. Not this "Oh I killed him, let me set my stopwatch for 1 hour, and log back in so I can farm him again"