"Tower Challenge" Idea fleshed out hopefully

(maybe a good expansion idea)

Doesn't have to be an actual Tower, actually my idea is more of a "Planes Challenge".

Imagine entering in a NON-INSTANCED Portal that sends you to a new world (planar).
If treated as a "Dungeon", it can accommodate anywhere between 10-20 groups. Up to the dev.

In that Plane - there is a "BOSS" room that is locked and sealed.
The Seal disappears on the last week of the month, then and only then those who have the keys can enter the room. This room requires a Raid.

The Key: In this "Plane" (aka Floor if you view it as a tower challenge), any mob has the potential to drop a special "Key". This key is limited to 100 keys PER SERVER.

now Imagine - a tower challenge make it impossible a single entity group to monopolize. No guilds can get in, or friends.. only the lucky 100 player.

The Key - Everyone has 3 weeks of trying to farm in that plane and on the 4th week, those 100 players needs to figure out the 40 players out of 100 can agree on a raid night to enter the boss room. The key CAN NOT BE SOLD OR TRADED. Someone has to step up and form a raid group out of those 100 players, find the right comp and time to attempt the boss.

In the event - people can not form an organized raid by the end of the week - the Keys are removed from your character. The Keys are time gated & and the process is restarted again, giving another 100 players a chance to attempt a raid at the boss.

The Boss - Once the boss is defeated there will be some epic rewards at the GM DISCRECTION.
Beside actual loot on drop - the real stuff comes later.
Once a server drops the first boss - the GM can view vids/logs and reward certain players. Either DPS, Tank, Top healer, Top Mitigator, who took initiatve on forming the raid, whatever it is and hand out UNIQUE items or UNIQUE COSMETIC or hand it out to all 40... something can be done here.

Beside that, those 40 are also rewarded with achievements & titles to their names. Somewhere in Verra, maybe have their names carved in stone as Heroes of the land or whatever. Something obviously special.

What Happens Next?

A new Portal opens up - All players in the server can enter the next "floor". Rinse and Repeat. 100 more keys and a new boss room. It will only ever allow access on the last week of the month. If undefeated - the keys are removed and a next wave begins.

Players needs to co-operates with other strangers. Cause it will be impossible to get a full guilds to do it. Group Composition is going to be RNG. Cause maybe the handful of clerics who did get a key, cant make the raid on any of those times. Maybe you got a tank but not geared enough.

This event - this plane isnt meant to be easy to beat or quick. It will be a rare to see a room defeated. It should make noises on the forums, hearing tales of other server far in vs others still struggling with the first floor.

Boss Fights - should maybe have 3-4 variations - make it unpredictable and straining for the random 40 players forced to group together.

Once the "Floor" has been defeated - the boss will never spawn again and all mobs in the zone either no longer respawns or at a severe reduce rate. Maybe - this unlock "freehold" lands for a lucky few to claim. or a settlement is opened up - doesnt require node system, only reaching node 2 with basic npcs and stalls for players looking to venture into the next "floor".

Thoughts? I don't think we should see this on launch - but I think this will be a great idea for future content / expansion without opening the world map wider and adding nodes.

it can be a tower challenge, planes challenge, 9 (or whatever numbers you like) gates of hell challenge, A portal that takes you in different timeline of Verra (steampunk, modern, post apocalypse, utopia, industrial, etc etc), entering a "dream world" so each floor is psychedelic, horrific, cartoony, etc etc) get creative with the setting.

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Ludullu

If it's a non-instance - guilds will pvp/pk others to increase their chances of getting the keys. If the spawn location from the tp/death is always the same (or floor is the same) - people will get spawn-killed constantly.

If it's a group location, how are you distributing keys within the group? Is it a random drop to anyone in the group? A role-based one?

Does the server get an announcement when all the keys have dropped? Does the raid work on first come first server basis? If yes, then the biggest hardcorest guild will just overfarm that location until 40 people of proper roles get the keys and then will just be the first ones to get in, even if you remove pvp inside the "tower".

Also, if the location can only support a certain amount of groups, do you kick anyone who doesn't move for a bit? Do you put a 24/7 GM overseer who kicks out any group that's not as active as others? Cause otherwise any hardcore guild will just be at the TPer right at the start of the event and get autoclickers to get inside with all their people and just never let anyone else in until 40 of their players get the keys.

L2 had parts of this suggestion in different locations and while I (and many others) found it insanely fun, I'm not sure how many other people would. Especially considering occasional whining about flying mounts not being fair, or slow gearing and guild-locked bosses not being fair. This kind of feature would seem insanely unfair cause it's too abusable by the strong guilds on any given server.

Gui10

novercalis wrote: »

(maybe a good expansion idea)

Doesn't have to be an actual Tower, actually my idea is more of a "Planes Challenge".

Imagine entering in a NON-INSTANCED Portal that sends you to a new world (planar).
If treated as a "Dungeon", it can accommodate anywhere between 10-20 groups. Up to the dev.

...

The Key: In this "Plane" (aka Floor if you view it as a tower challenge), any mob has the potential to drop a special "Key". This key is limited to 100 keys PER SERVER.

now Imagine - a tower challenge make it impossible a single entity group to monopolize. No guilds can get in, or friends.. only the lucky 100 player.

The Key - Everyone has 3 weeks of trying to farm in that plane and on the 4th week, those 100 players needs to figure out the 40 players out of 100 can agree on a raid night to enter the boss room.
...

The Boss - Once the boss is defeated there will be some epic rewards at the GM DISCRECTION.
...

What Happens Next?

A new Portal opens up - All players in the server can enter the next "floor". Rinse and Repeat. 100 more keys and a new boss room. It will only ever allow access on the last week of the month. If undefeated - the keys are removed and a next wave begins.

...

Once the "Floor" has been defeated - the boss will never spawn again and all mobs in the zone either no longer respawns or at a severe reduce rate. Maybe - this unlock "freehold" lands for a lucky few to claim. or a settlement is opened up - doesnt require node system, only reaching node 2 with basic npcs and stalls for players looking to venture into the next "floor".

Thoughts? I don't think we should see this on launch - but I think this will be a great idea for future content / expansion without opening the world map wider and adding nodes.

it can be a tower challenge, planes challenge, 9 (or whatever numbers you like) gates of hell challenge, A portal that takes you in different timeline of Verra (steampunk, modern, post apocalypse, utopia, industrial, etc etc), entering a "dream world" so each floor is psychedelic, horrific, cartoony, etc etc) get creative with the setting.

Sooooo, I'm really liking the general concept, but a few things wouldnt work for me.

1. Ok, within the 3 farming weeks, every player has the opportunity to try it only once, or once a week.

2. The fourth week, actually, the event should have a specific time related to it. say friday 8PM all players with keys must enter the dungeon within one hour. During that time, its up to the players to organize, get on a discord and get their leadership in order. Once 9pm, new portal opens, all players in the plan are TPed to Boss room, and they have X amount of time (1-2 hours) to defeat it. DYING IS FOREVER.

3. Forget GM assigned loot. Just way too much work and uneceessary. Yes make it good loot, but make it random, either each class gets between 1 and 3 pieces of loot for their own class, or allow players to trade within the portal, or just random drops they can all trade or sell whenever.

4. And yes its a cool idea that when the boss is defeated, it unlocks a superior floor, so every server would be on different levels depending on how many times they had defeated the previous boss. However, previous bosses should also still be available, and if you have beat lv 1 floor, you cant try it again, you must go on level 2. , etc.

Pretty crazy idea generally speaking. We might see something of the sort 2-3-4-5 years after release haha.

novercalis

NiKr wrote: »

If it's a non-instance - guilds will pvp/pk others to increase their chances of getting the keys. If the spawn location from the tp/death is always the same (or floor is the same) - people will get spawn-killed constantly.

If it's a group location, how are you distributing keys within the group? Is it a random drop to anyone in the group? A role-based one?

Does the server get an announcement when all the keys have dropped? Does the raid work on first come first server basis? If yes, then the biggest hardcorest guild will just overfarm that location until 40 people of proper roles get the keys and then will just be the first ones to get in, even if you remove pvp inside the "tower".

Also, if the location can only support a certain amount of groups, do you kick anyone who doesn't move for a bit? Do you put a 24/7 GM overseer who kicks out any group that's not as active as others? Cause otherwise any hardcore guild will just be at the TPer right at the start of the event and get autoclickers to get inside with all their people and just never let anyone else in until 40 of their players get the keys.

L2 had parts of this suggestion in different locations and while I (and many others) found it insanely fun, I'm not sure how many other people would. Especially considering occasional whining about flying mounts not being fair, or slow gearing and guild-locked bosses not being fair. This kind of feature would seem insanely unfair cause it's too abusable by the strong guilds on any given server.

- people are gonna have to fight it out. DPS race mobs down. Corruption will continue to stack
- Key is random drop from any mob and auto-rolled. No Need. This is forced.
- There should be a server announcement and/or when entering the place - a notification letting you know how many keys are left.

Top guilds can attempt to lock it down, will they survive other top guilds making the assault? Random Players, friend groups can also Rat their way in while the guildies r fighting. Eventually - or the smart play - dont fight back vs top guilds - r they gonna want to get corrupted and gang up by the community?
(Hell, this area is open pvp lol, let's fucking go)

Remember NPC isnt a tag based - the group or player who did the most DPS wins - can you outdps the other group?

IDGAF about carebears. Those systems arent going to change for them, so neither will this as it will be in-line.

another option - key drop is server wide - until then, it's a nice little dungeon, content to fight - nothing of major significant with loot-table in this dungeon - but access to the boss room still remains for 100 key holder that could have dropped by any lvl 50 mobs in the world.

novercalis

Gui10 wrote: »

novercalis wrote: »

(maybe a good expansion idea)

Doesn't have to be an actual Tower, actually my idea is more of a "Planes Challenge".

Imagine entering in a NON-INSTANCED Portal that sends you to a new world (planar).
If treated as a "Dungeon", it can accommodate anywhere between 10-20 groups. Up to the dev.

...

The Key: In this "Plane" (aka Floor if you view it as a tower challenge), any mob has the potential to drop a special "Key". This key is limited to 100 keys PER SERVER.

now Imagine - a tower challenge make it impossible a single entity group to monopolize. No guilds can get in, or friends.. only the lucky 100 player.

The Key - Everyone has 3 weeks of trying to farm in that plane and on the 4th week, those 100 players needs to figure out the 40 players out of 100 can agree on a raid night to enter the boss room.
...

The Boss - Once the boss is defeated there will be some epic rewards at the GM DISCRECTION.
...

What Happens Next?

A new Portal opens up - All players in the server can enter the next "floor". Rinse and Repeat. 100 more keys and a new boss room. It will only ever allow access on the last week of the month. If undefeated - the keys are removed and a next wave begins.

...

Once the "Floor" has been defeated - the boss will never spawn again and all mobs in the zone either no longer respawns or at a severe reduce rate. Maybe - this unlock "freehold" lands for a lucky few to claim. or a settlement is opened up - doesnt require node system, only reaching node 2 with basic npcs and stalls for players looking to venture into the next "floor".

Thoughts? I don't think we should see this on launch - but I think this will be a great idea for future content / expansion without opening the world map wider and adding nodes.

it can be a tower challenge, planes challenge, 9 (or whatever numbers you like) gates of hell challenge, A portal that takes you in different timeline of Verra (steampunk, modern, post apocalypse, utopia, industrial, etc etc), entering a "dream world" so each floor is psychedelic, horrific, cartoony, etc etc) get creative with the setting.

Sooooo, I'm really liking the general concept, but a few things wouldnt work for me.

1. Ok, within the 3 farming weeks, every player has the opportunity to try it only once, or once a week.

2. The fourth week, actually, the event should have a specific time related to it. say friday 8PM all players with keys must enter the dungeon within one hour. During that time, its up to the players to organize, get on a discord and get their leadership in order. Once 9pm, new portal opens, all players in the plan are TPed to Boss room, and they have X amount of time (1-2 hours) to defeat it. DYING IS FOREVER.

3. Forget GM assigned loot. Just way too much work and uneceessary. Yes make it good loot, but make it random, either each class gets between 1 and 3 pieces of loot for their own class, or allow players to trade within the portal, or just random drops they can all trade or sell whenever.

4. And yes its a cool idea that when the boss is defeated, it unlocks a superior floor, so every server would be on different levels depending on how many times they had defeated the previous boss. However, previous bosses should also still be available, and if you have beat lv 1 floor, you cant try it again, you must go on level 2. , etc.

Pretty crazy idea generally speaking. We might see something of the sort 2-3-4-5 years after release haha.

#2 - i thought about that - but force timed entry may make things even harder to get a floor finished and ppl will be upset 80 out of 100 couldnt make the raid to unlock the next floor. I even thought having the window be just the weekend, but I think 1 week is a fair. Honestly it can be a trail and error. If this is a thing, test 1 week out, then slow it down on the next one if needed.

3 - I wanted to reward those 40 players - I do believe this is a unique boss with unique drop. GM will get notification when the boss is being attempted and nowadays everyone and their grandma is streaming. I think rewarding MVPs would be awesome with unique items, the others can be cosmetics tokens to buy from the shop or whatever. AND/OR everyone gets a special boss monster token that they can become during monster events.

4 - Because of the unique drops - I went with a 1 time thing. However we can do the boss again - but the only loot drops are monster token only. So players can experience the fights but no major rewards. That is claimed already.

Ludullu

novercalis wrote: »

another option - key drop is server wide - until then, it's a nice little dungeon, content to fight - nothing of major significant with loot-table in this dungeon - but access to the boss room still remains for 100 key holder that could have dropped by any lvl 50 mobs in the world.

Now this I can definitely get behind. A true lottery where anyone could win. Though I'd probably go with a class-based key selection and only 40 keys, so that there'd be a "perfect raid" on the server, but the people are completely random so the chances of them killing the boss are real low.

Would definitely be a nice event for the chosen few.

novercalis

40 men raid with 40 keys only - its gonna be impossible to get them all on the same hour. different time zone players - u know its gonna happen.

Ludullu

novercalis wrote: »

40 men raid with 40 keys only - its gonna be impossible to get them all on the same hour. different time zone players - u know its gonna happen.

The game will already be aimed at primetime events. And any max lvl player will most likely be in a guild that plays during primetime. Well, at least the majority will be.

The farm itself could be made into a bigger event with maybe some spectating in-game and/or maybe even a dev stream (or a dev-supported CC), so that there's a much higher chance of those players coming together.

Azherae

I disagree with and oppose this design and idea (from a feedback perspective of if I'd like to see it in the game or not).

Of my group of seven (one is no longer really interested in Ashes), 5 others agree with me and one (not the uninterested one) disagrees and thinks it could be okay.

Ace1234

@Azherae

I disagree with and oppose this design and idea (from a feedback perspective of if I'd like to see it in the game or not).

What is it specifically about the idea of a challenge tower that your group is opposed too, or is it just this specific implementation in this post that you don't like?

Of my group of seven (one is no longer really interested in Ashes), 5 others agree with me and one (not the uninterested one) disagrees and thinks it could be okay.

What made your other friend lose interest in the game?

Azherae

It's the implementation in this post moreso. Challenge Towers are fine, but don't seem to me personally to fit Ashes. This post seems to be creating a VERY specific concept of 'Tower Challenge' though, which we find to be a negative one.

I didn't ask in much greater detail for the others, of their opinion on 'Challenge Towers' as a concept, but I can if it would help the topic. I doubt they could hate them that much considering Nyzul Isle Investigation is among our favorite content, but I don't know if that fits the definition you're using.

As for interest waning, it's mostly a somewhat unfounded expectation based on the community we see being fostered right now, and expectations based around the Open Seas change and what it will cause.

Basically, though it's too early to say, they don't like the Ashes community anymore.

George_Black

Nobody is going to devote 3 weeks away from their groups and their goals for a chance to kill an instanced boss with 40 randoms.

novercalis

TBF - Azh and I don't really see eye to eye on what AoC is in many topics.

George_Black - you'd be surprised. cant speak for everyone. Might deter guilds - awesome but there's a playerbase regardless. Perhaps those dreaded solo players I dislike will enjoy - non guildie casuals.

If they key drop is server wide - your not really devoting anything, just playing normally and pray the RNG god is in your favor.

George_Black

novercalis wrote: »

TBF - Azh and I don't really see eye to eye on what AoC is in many topics.

George_Black - you'd be surprised. cant speak for everyone. Might deter guilds - awesome but there's a playerbase regardless. Perhaps those dreaded solo players I dislike will enjoy - non guildie casuals.

If they key drop is server wide - your not really devoting anything, just playing normally and pray the RNG god is in your favor.

Isn't the tower the location of the key farm?
Or is this just an instanced tower for people with keys?

novercalis

you should re-read the OP. not sure how you are getting it mixed up.

George_Black

Again, nobody is going to farm for keys for 3 weeks on your tower, ignoring their duties and goals with their groups, for a chance to kill an instanced boss with 40 randoms who are prolly noobs.

People would rather spend their time working on something guaranteed, with teammates that they can trust.

"Wanna go to the tower and farm for a key, with low chance of getting it, and even lower chance for a good group, for a chance to kill a boss, for a chance that these 40 people will share the loot, or do yoy wanna go farm the mats and parts and design to make the next good weapon for the dps and the next good armor for our tank?"

Now, instead of pretending that I messed up, see the issue raised and rework your idea. Because ideas cost money to implement, and if nobody is playing on that tower... well...

novercalis

u can view this like the AQ40 mount.. only 10 people can get it and guess what - u had ppl grind for weeks for the mats n then race to be the first 10 to turn in.

So I disagree with your assumption people wont do it. AQ Mount in WoW is proof of that.

Voxtrium

Azherae wrote: »

It's the implementation in this post moreso. Challenge Towers are fine, but don't seem to me personally to fit Ashes. This post seems to be creating a VERY specific concept of 'Tower Challenge' though, which we find to be a negative one.

I didn't ask in much greater detail for the others, of their opinion on 'Challenge Towers' as a concept, but I can if it would help the topic. I doubt they could hate them that much considering Nyzul Isle Investigation is among our favorite content, but I don't know if that fits the definition you're using.

As for interest waning, it's mostly a somewhat unfounded expectation based on the community we see being fostered right now, and expectations based around the Open Seas change and what it will cause.

Basically, though it's too early to say, they don't like the Ashes community anymore.

I feel like the community is vastly under formed over all? We have maybe 5% of the total players that will ever try AOC actually even aware of AOC as it stands right now. Of those 5% maybe 25% meaningfully interact on the forums twitter or reddit. To say one dislikes the community seems premature. Plus everyone knows the loudest players are almost always the minority. For example not a single one of my guild mates post regularly on any of AOC media.

Voxtrium

@novercalis I think it would be better to change it so the boss room is a part of the dungeon and always attackable but make him massively buffed without those keys present. Every key present nerfs the buff placed on him up to a max of 40 keys. This makes the boss killable by anyone regardless of keys and RNG and makes it so the players can group up 200+ (random number of people) strong and finish the floor or just go about their day until all 40 keys are in players inventories then set up a raid then. Each floor is repeatable but drops a 1 time legendary processed ware and all clears after only drop processed gear the tier below legendary.

For lore make the "Tower" a connection between the void and the material plane created by either the boss on the last floor or the boss on each floor.

Azherae

Voxtrium wrote: »

Azherae wrote: »

It's the implementation in this post moreso. Challenge Towers are fine, but don't seem to me personally to fit Ashes. This post seems to be creating a VERY specific concept of 'Tower Challenge' though, which we find to be a negative one.

I didn't ask in much greater detail for the others, of their opinion on 'Challenge Towers' as a concept, but I can if it would help the topic. I doubt they could hate them that much considering Nyzul Isle Investigation is among our favorite content, but I don't know if that fits the definition you're using.

As for interest waning, it's mostly a somewhat unfounded expectation based on the community we see being fostered right now, and expectations based around the Open Seas change and what it will cause.

Basically, though it's too early to say, they don't like the Ashes community anymore.

I feel like the community is vastly under formed over all? We have maybe 5% of the total players that will ever try AOC actually even aware of AOC as it stands right now. Of those 5% maybe 25% meaningfully interact on the forums twitter or reddit. To say one dislikes the community seems premature. Plus everyone knows the loudest players are almost always the minority. For example not a single one of my guild mates post regularly on any of AOC media.

I'll pass it on if you care, but she's likely to just ignore it.

MMO communities are generally shitty in our experience, as a whole, compared to many other genres, though, so it's not entirely baseless to expect, is it?

Either way, this is irrelevant and deraily, I was just answering Ace's questions which have nothing to do with the topic, and the original mention was precisely so that people doing any data collection can 'choose if to write off that player or not' for their pseudometrics.

If you believe that the voice of those who 'have lost interest in Ashes' is important to Intrepid, then you'd care what she thought, and if you felt that people who lose interest or judge prematurely are not as important to metrics, then you wouldn't.

Ludullu

Voxtrium wrote: »

I feel like the community is vastly under formed over all? We have maybe 5% of the total players that will ever try AOC actually even aware of AOC as it stands right now. Of those 5% maybe 25% meaningfully interact on the forums twitter or reddit. To say one dislikes the community seems premature. Plus everyone knows the loudest players are almost always the minority. For example not a single one of my guild mates post regularly on any of AOC media.

My comments "represent" probably a good 10-15 people that are interested in Ashes, but are in no way as deep as me. But even if each active forum member has a few dozen people behind them with the exact same thoughts as them - that's a drop in the ocean of the potential playerbase of the game.

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