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Exploring
ArchivedUser
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Being an adventurer in an mmorpg is not just about killing monsters but also exploring and discovering the unknown. Thus there should be bonuses or rewards for those players that wish to explore. I've played a lot of mmo's and met people that enjoy pvp, some enjoy pve, some enjoy rp, but I've also met those that just want to walk around and look at the beautiful design of these worlds. These players are not rewarded in anyway in most of this mmo's. One thing I've thought about was maybe a cartography profession, players selling maps to others maybe, locations of bosses, etc. Treasures, archeology? Creation of trap zones, where players get trapped and hordes of monsters attack them. These explores could be able to identify them and warn other players of them.
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As far as the cartography profession, you won't find many buyers for your maps (even if they could put in a system that complex). Why spend my hard earned gold on a map when I can just look on a wiki and get the same info?
It would be nice to have a small XP bonus like the exploration XP you got in GW2 / jumping puzzle achievements and such... but I won't be heart broken if it's not a thing.
With the cartography profession, I agree with @Allusir, outside of the game there are wikis and community based website for those who record their findings in there.
Lower down in this blog they talk about there being no points of interest popping up on your map, you will have to explore to find such points and discover what is there. There will need to be some way of marking this on your map and if its not an instant marker generated by finding a place then perhaps it will need to be a point marked by the player with an appropriate description. With this sort of information you may very well be able to sell or trade it to other players.
The world is supposed to be an ever changing place that will evolve as nodes level and de-level, thus while you may have explored an area initially once a node levels things will change and a new range of exploration possibilities will open up.
I have played a number of MMO's where experience was given just for exploring new areas, others had points of interest you could go and find, though these usually had a big marker showing you where to go, but take away the marker and make such places a true experience to find. Though again this information would eventually become public knowledge and it would become just a matter of looking up the appropriate blog post and follow the arrow showing you just where to stand lol.
Steven has said that exploration will be rewarding. I haven't seen much details on this, but my impression is that Intrepid wants exploring to be a worthwile activity.
Sure hard challanges should be rewarded equal to the effort but explorers should not get a feeling of slow progression.
Anyway exploring gets just entertaining if the time spend gets rewarded and the things you can explore are interesting and dont repeat endless after 1 hour ingame time.
That's right, for me being an explorer is a reward itself.
Having a profession that creates and can copy their personal "explored map" might be of great worth. An economy would be created for those people with not only the most complete maps but also the most up to date (since resources will respawn and shift position).
While there are guides online that might collect and compile the map info via mod interface or community collection the idea of a explorer profession that has a utility spell that shows a second 'hidden' layer that only they can provide. That means that without either being an explorer yourself you would need a 'map' that was produced by an explorer that found the location so it triggers to be interactive for your character. That would prevent people who simply checked a online guide from being able to access the resource without going through the proper in-game channels. Perhaps they are able to create an item with charges that "Surveys" an area the character is in so that players can go to a location via word of mouth and find the resource rather than buying a map with ALL the world explored/marked. Maps might also be able to identify/display discovered trade routes. Which makes them both vulnerable and marketable.
As a side to the map idea there is also the concept of there being jumping or terrain puzzles. This might lead to an area that gives a buff for a number of hours or days. Perhaps there are fast travel gates in these locations that can be used and explorers can use them more frequently or with greater range.
So to summarize:
- Explorers can create maps that copy their person full map and holds POI markers that have timestamps (for denoting rare mobs, resource spawns, etc)
- Players need to have either the explorer profession (and thus their utility skill 'Survey?') or they need to have purchased a map created by an explorer that reveals those POI as long as they have the map in their possession.
- Per-use item that reveals local POI (perhaps limited to the Node or simply within 'x' distance).
- Perhaps displays trade routes which could be used by bandits to raid them or gives a idea for defenders on where or when to form up so they can do the caravan escort.
- Exploration puzzles using platforming or terrain negotiation that yield buffs that last for hours/days.
- Location POI that let players or Explorers fast travel. Explorers gain enhanced range or more frequent use of these fast travel gates.
I would love to expand on this idea and would encourage others to ask questions.