Supporting PvE Raiders in Ashes

For starters, this isn't the main focus of AoC. This is a PvX game and I want the open world to stay relevant, becoming the main character. What I'm suggesting below is only something sprinkled in. Only a portion of the 20% instanced content. It will take development time, but is not the core of the game like some others.

I've seen quotes that suggest this may be on their mind. I've also seen some more recent counterarguments. This is just something I want to express that I'd like to see in the game. If this is old news, great. If not, please consider it.

Background:

I main ESO right now. The end-game raids in these games are a ton of fun to me. The harder difficulties, then achievement hunting, it feels very rewarding to complete them. 12 of my friends work together for months to optimize our group and perfect the mechanics. I hear WoW raids are legendary. Many others like Final Fantasy, etc.

The common thing here is an instanced PvE arena. For the instancing part, Steven has said himself that this instancing allows for more advanced mechanics. I believe that as well. The PvE part is more complicated though. I would like to see ideas to mix in PvP. I can think of some interesting ones but nothing concrete atm. The main concern I want to eliminate is mechanics being "dumbed down" because of the threat of PvP. I know in the raids we do, one goofball could run in the middle of everything and kill everyone. That's the nature of having those advanced mechanics.

Content Suggestion:

- Put the final boss at the end of an open-world dungeon in an instanced arena.
- Look at making 3+ of these boss arenas for release.
- Have the number available to the server based on node setup.
- Fight lengths will be long (10-15+ mins), have multiple stages/waves and possibly separate rooms to change up the arena.
- Content needs to take time to learn and complete. Nothing you can walk into and master in a couple of days.
- Look to current games that are focused on PvE Raiding.
- Only allow one party in the instance at a time. It's not required from a PvP aspect, see paragraph above, I do think it could help eliminate people zerging your fine-tuned mechanics.
- Consider allowing only one instance at a time. This has a lot of implications. Especially around watching the door for PvE and PvP. Just something to consider.
- Consider reduced death penalties in this "event". I'm not positive about this, but I tend to think tough content will require wiping and plenty of it.
- Include achievements like speed, no-death and other fun unique ones.

Reward Suggestion:

- Do not drop exclusive materials, but valuable ones.
- Small chance to drop a unique gear recipe (that can be sold).
- Small chance to drop a low-quality version of that gear.
- Very small chance to drop skins/cosmetic items.
- Miniscule chance to drop a flying mount.
- Performance metrics drive drop rates.
- Completing achievements awards small cosmetics or titles.

It is important to remember that your group will have to fight through an open-world dungeon to get there and to bring the loot home.

Thank you for reading.

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Comments

Otr

This is a PvP game. Not half PvP and half PvE, separated artificially. There will be no eve high sec areas.
PvE players are not the target audience.

Ludullu

Otr wrote: »

PvE players are not the target audience.

PvP players are also not the TA

Which is why Steven keeps calling it a PvX game and not a pvp one.

Otr

NiKr wrote: »

Otr wrote: »

PvE players are not the target audience.

PvP players are also not the TA Which is why Steven keeps calling it a PvX game and not a pvp one.

“Schopenhauer’s Law of PvP: If you put a spoonful of pve in a barrel full of pvp, you get pvp. If you put a spoonful of pvp in a barrel full of pve, you get pvp.”
But Steven is a good salesman.

Nerror

Otr wrote: »

NiKr wrote: »

Otr wrote: »

PvE players are not the target audience.

PvP players are also not the TA Which is why Steven keeps calling it a PvX game and not a pvp one.

“Schopenhauer’s Law of PvP: If you put a spoonful of pve in a barrel full of pvp, you get pvp. If you put a spoonful of pvp in a barrel full of pve, you get pvp.”
But Steven is a good salesman.

Lol, well, as miserable of a man as Schopenhauer was, and how little people should aspire to his way of thinking (IMO), there is a kernel of truth there when it comes to how some people view PvP in Ashes. And vice versa when it comes to PvE probably.

There are still very active people in this community who see AoC as a PvP-focused MMO, even though I bet the vast majority of their playing time will be doing purely PvE and other non-PvP content. We don't hear as much from the incarnate PvPers, who dislike PvE in their games, but perhaps they aren't even considering an MMORPG like Ashes in the first place, due to all the forced PvE it'll have.

Noaani

Nerror wrote: »

There are still very active people in this community who see AoC as a PvP-focused MMO, even though I bet the vast majority of their playing time will be doing purely PvE and other non-PvP content.

This doesn't really hold up as an argument.

If I am playing a game for 8 hours a week to get prepared to run a 2 hour raid, to me that is a raid focused game.

You always look at the top tier activity a player is doing to determine what kind of a game the game they are playing is to them.

Thus, even if an individual player is primarily spending their time in Ashes crafting, if they are crafting in order to get better gear to be able to be better at the games arena, then they are playing the game as an arena game. On the other hand, if someone is running dungeons in order to get items to sell to make money that they will then use to bankroll their crafting empire, the game to them is all about crafting.

How each of us play the game really isn't of any importance at all to any discussion.

What is important though, is if you look at what the top tier activity is in a given game. With that, you can determine what kind of game that game is to it's developers.

So far, in Ashes, the top tier activity in the game as a whole is sieges - node and castle. Everything else essentially builds towards that point. Even if one players activities don't directly build towards it, all actions essentially indirectly do.

Anyone looking at Ashes and not concluding that the game is primarily PvP is not looking properly.

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