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Questing in Open World

I wanted to mention that a lot of mmo's these days are really missing the boat on questing. Too many quest have you fighting mobs just laying around in an open field. Why not have monsters that jump out from behind rocks or trees when you enter their area. Maybe you do not know they are there and then surprise you are not alone. It is not so hard a thing to do and it is something that can really make the game more dynamic and alive. If a lot of players come into a area then yeah you are going to see all the killer bees flying around as they leave thickets.

Comments

  • Yes! I love this idea! One thing that I really liked about Guild Wars 2 was the dynamic quests. Sadly, they got really old and repetitive pretty quick. While I do feel like there needs to be traditional structured quests (otherwise plays could just be wandering aimlessly in hopes of finding a dynamic quest), I really think dynamic quests can add to a world's immersion.

    I think it would also be a lot of fun if there were events like in Rift, FFXIV, or AA. Grouping together with a bunch of players to fight a random world boss spawn or event was so much fun in those games!
  • Nice idea. I would love to see fewer mobs maybe not like in almost every MMO where you have like 20 wolves in 5 meters :D I would love to see that the player have to explore the woods to find wolves, to search for tracks that are leading to the cave or something like that. For every species different stuff, maybe for bats, you would have to go at night when you have better chance to find them outside. Durning the day you would have to explore the cave, which is very dangerous full of traps or very strong beasts and it would be a challenge to find the precious blood of the bat.
  • I'd love to see more complex question the most. All mmos I've played are just talk to some guy you don't care what he's saying, auto path to a location, kill a few monsters or grab an item auto path to end of quest turn in. great for leveling fast but terribly boring even the first time you do it unless there is a good story line to the game but even then the quests themselves are dull.
  • I like to see some really clever puzzles where one has to use their brain instead of just steamrolling a dungeon. I'm talking about situations where one would need to grab their calculator or do a bit searching online in order to go forward in a quest. Of course this wouldn't need to be repeated in every quest line since most of the player base don't like rational challenges but I'd appreciate if there would be even one quest requiring a bit brainwork.

    Another thing I'd like to see as a side quest in an open world is a randomly spawning rare mob reminiscent of a leprechaun that wouldn't be overly strong or have massive amounts of hp. Instead it would try to avoid players being quite mobile and as a reward for killing it could drop whatever the local rare drop is in it's current node or it's head could be traded at some NPC for valuable gear or upgrades. I got my inspiration from Diablo's treasure goblin. :)
  • I know a game can't have too many rare mobs spawns for me. As far as NPC's it is nice to have occasional quest that make you make a choice with different consequences. As far as GW2 I never actually played it. I spent a lot of time on WOW, Lord of the Rings, DnD, and Archeage. I like the ideas about Bats and Wolves in this thread.

    Have any of you played the Witcher 3? It was a beautiful game. What amazing combat when fighting. If I was making a MMO I would want to study many of the games encounters. A good example is the Griffin. You fight this huge griffin that is doing flybys on you. The fight feels real and not robotic. On top of that once you kill the griffin his head becomes a trophy you can sling over the side of your horse. Now what a cool idea that was. A friend and I was talking a while back that what we really wanted was a Taxidermy profession. If you kill a wolf you get a wolf skin that a taxidermist can make a stuffed wolf from. Makes for a cool fixture in a pub. Another thing you can do with it is have it drop a rare stat with it of its weight like with fish. You can do that with deer, bear, boar, and stuff. Makes for an interesting little side game where players could even have hunting contest if they wanted to.

    Also I have always wanted something like a Dragon that flies over head patrolling an area of land and just randomly flies down and attacks players now and then. Maybe if you get chosen and your alone you get killed. Maybe if your in a group you can survive. Maybe your alone but are able to flee quick enough into a cave for shelter.
  • [quote quote=6802]
    Also I have always wanted something like a Dragon that flies over head patrolling an area of land and just randomly flies down and attacks players now and then. Maybe if you get chosen and your alone you get killed. Maybe if your in a group you can survive. Maybe your alone but are able to flee quick enough into a cave for shelter.

    [/quote]

    Well if I'll ever become a king or a mayor I'll be sure to come charge at you with my drake :)

    Ok, back to open world questing: How would you people feel about hidden treasure chests to be found in the world? These could contain anything from the most common crafting materials to exp boosters. When opened the chest would first spit out a cursed spirit protecting it. This spirit could be the level of a small world boss so it would be recommended to get some friends to help in the battle. Of course everyone who fought the spirit would receive loot from the chest. This would also add more value into adventuring and exploring the open world.
  • I like hidden treasure idea. Rogue skills needed might be cool. Hidden spirits in some sounds cool. Hidden traps are cool in dungeons. Anything that leads to surprises is a good thing.
  • [quote quote=6763]I wanted to mention that a lot of mmo’s these days are really missing the boat on questing. Too many quest have you fighting mobs just laying around in an open field. Why not have monsters that jump out from behind rocks or trees when you enter their area. Maybe you do not know they are there and then surprise you are not alone. It is not so hard a thing to do and it is something that can really make the game more dynamic and alive. If a lot of players come into a area then yeah you are going to see all the killer bees flying around as they leave thickets.
    [/quote]

    You really hit the nail on the head with what I was going to make for my first post. I can see the struggle of implementing this because of the sheer number of people in the world and everyone needs to level up. However, I think a lower mob count with higher difficulty would be better though. It would also encourage PVP as people fight to take mobs. Plus, this "idle-mob" thing that all MMOs do really kills suspension of disbelief: it feels less like a living world.

    What I'd like to see though is having intelligent, cultured mobs dynamically grow through the node system as well. So there would be a mob node of goblins for example. Then the goblins can set up shop and grow their own little settlement as well that players would eventually have to team up to kill because there are too many.

    Something like — there's a finite amount of node xp in a given region and it can only be redistributed. Leave the goblins alone and they'll start hunting other monsters, raid the human caravans, and do other xp earning tasks to build up their own node. After a point they themselves can start making weapons and armor until they become like a danger zone entirely and a guild has to go through and kill them so the town can level up. Then maybe that node becomes an instance dungeon spawn; killing the goblins drove the survivors underground. And if the dungeon isn't raided regularly enough, a massive event will happen where all of the creatures in the dungeon will flood the town and try to tear it back down to a level 0 node.

    Of course with less humanoid monsters, maybe their node strength would result in boss level monsters spawning. Like a pack of wolves left alone will group-hunt goblins or a newbie human. Eventually lettings the wolves themselves level up, giving rise to a stronger pack and eventually introducing Dire Wolves or a mythical wolf that is crazy dangerous to deal with.

    Regardless, I would like to see more intelligent monsters, as @lordofthepit described. Maybe they don't have to be super complex AI, but just provide some more awareness. Like their line of sight is actually if they can see you, not just 5 feet away. They might also be sensitive to noise. Goblins could blow a horn to bring in new mobs or flee if they encounter too strong of a player. Wolves , upon seeing you, would crouch in the bushes and become untargetable so the player mouse can't reveal its location (and a successful ambush attack would do crazy damage). If a giant snake surprises you and starts constricting you, you need to mash buttons to break free or have someone save you or you die. I want to feel the danger because if the nature of the enemy, not because I can calculate my level against their level and commit genocide with the wave of my hand.

    If they can be made to "appear" smart on an individual level, and then build in cool mechanics to the spawn area like leveraging their own version of a node system, this game would win all of the Internet in my opinion.

    Regardless, I'll play the game. But I can dream @_@
  • ^
    Please happen! Holy ****, if we could get what Lord wrote that would be amazing. Add on to what others have said, maybe make the NPCs intelligent enough to try move out of some skill shots as well. If I'm an archer and I'm firing arrows at a group of goblins, they shouldn't mindlessly charge me with arrows flying at them. Hide behind trees or something and return fire, or try to flank and spread out, not auto path to highest threat using most direct path. There's times when you see a mage about to hurl a big ass fireball, and you just run. Like if I can tell a mage is casting a fireball, so should some of the NPCs.
  • Axidion your node idea with the mobs is interesting. It is nice that we can all share ideas here. Might be good to integrate with VelvetBacons idea below. Have all these quest/mob nodes all over the map and a certain amount spawn radon quest/mobs in different areas every day. The questing would be more dynamic.

    Greentang your examples are cool regarding combat and how mobs react.

    VelvetBacon I have always thought games should hide more special things like chest and maybe a hidden instance. Maybe the spawn in random locations? It would make it so they were not always in the same place, but still encourage you to explore all the corners of the world.

    This game I think is trying to do a lot of what we all want anyways. From reading about it they understand we want a changing environment. MMO's need to get away from it feeling the same every day. We want varied adventures not repeat dailies. I hope they are reading this thread.
  • [quote quote=7574]^
    Please happen! Holy ****, if we could get what Lord wrote that would be amazing. Add on to what others have said, maybe make the NPCs intelligent enough to try move out of some skill shots as well. If I’m an archer and I’m firing arrows at a group of goblins, they shouldn’t mindlessly charge me with arrows flying at them. Hide behind trees or something and return fire, or try to flank and spread out, not auto path to highest threat using most direct path. There’s times when you see a mage about to hurl a big ass fireball, and you just run. Like if I can tell a mage is casting a fireball, so should some of the NPCs.

    [/quote]

    That's totally what I'm hoping for. I'm guessing the only reason this kind of tech in an mmorpg hasn't been done is because of the overhead of calculating the vision of the player relative to cover in the area and then pathing the monsters to it. Would be resource heavy when considering fights between tens of thousands of players, which is why most games stick to the mindless mob spawn. If there's a way to implement it, it would probably be groundbreaking for an mmorpg because that makes each fight more personal and strategic.

    *wolf sees mage and stalks him*

    *mage turns around and sees wolf*

    "DIE!" --- *firebolt misses*

    *wolf runs behind rock crying*

    *mage chases around rock*

    *wolf 180's and pounces mage and pins him down* "AWOO!" [You got baited, scrub!]

    No spells with cast time can be used. Mashing "A" and "D" keys to become unpinned as wolf is eating your face or fire small sparks until you take enough of its health away. You either die or have to run away and recover.

    That's way more engaging, but the intelligence to make that happen is steep. Dev's would have to have pre-scripted attacks like this at the ready and then let the mob decide based on the area it's in.

    Fingers crossed this gets implemented!
  • Yeah definitely intensive. If you make a npc bait a player that would be epic, give a whole new level of intensity if a seemingly easy mob was stalking and able to counterattack you, yet no idea how they could code something in for each mob and environment. Thoughhhhhhhhhhh. If they could do it for just one npc, like in one of the zones just to test the idea out, probably after they release the game, they make one unique boss alpha wolf with that code. I can just imagine the faces of the players who try to take that wolf on, walking through the forest thinking it's just a new zone event while the entire time the wolf would be stalking them. Like, doesn't go to highest threat and instead immediately ambushes the healer, kills healer, and then when everyone tries to engage, runs off to set up more hit and run tactics. Oh man, I would be so confused. An npc using different tactics to take down a foolish group of adventurers, I think just the engage and then run away would be the most confusing. Just make the aggro range of the wolf like the entire forest, so even just stepping in would put you on it's attack list.
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