Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Comments
You can solo in WoW though, and I soloed in EQ somewhat. There's a whole ironman group for WoW. I would rather have solo components in the game than forced Raid Finder, Group Finder, Guild Finder just because the game tag is MMORPG. If no one can't progress without a group the game will die. We don't all want to be stuck waiting for the people with jobs to log in.
Let me add some of the ideas.
Caravans in dungeons
-I think locking out the gameplay loop of caravans out of the dungeons would be kind of odd, especially because dungeons are connected with the world and not instanced.
-Caravans could be used for a extraction type of gameplay loop, similar to how the division or escape of tarkov did it. Groups crawling through dungeons can store wast amounts of heavy materials in the caravan, once you feel you got enough you are looking for an extraction point, where your loot is same from pvp.
-Secondly caravans could be used to build infrastructure in dungeons. Opposed to burning bridges you might build them
Guilds could bring in materials from both the open world and other dungeons or transport them from the dungeon itself to places where its needed.
Things like building bridges or digging tunntels could be huge tasks involving several guilds even competing against each other to build their stuff first or sabotaging the efforts of others. It sort of act as a content gate in order to get to the next area.
But there could also be infrastructure like small settlements in the deepest dungeon levels, that give players various services.
Such as respawn areas, so that people wont have to start from the beginning again.
Weapon armor related repair stations.
Build a safe area for people to rest, by building freeholds and taverns.
Markets for key materials.
Maybe some kind of housing to teleport to, once you are in the dungeon.
-Also coming from the open world should have an increased aggro zone for mobs, or trigger something, so that getting them through the dungeon could be raid itself.
Gameplay mechanics that allow for players to get into specialized roles.
As PvP will be a central part of many dungeons, i would like to see some gameplay mechanics that are mostly used in mobas.
You want to avoid pvp groups? Designate a guy that sets up wards/vision in the surrounding areas.
You want to counter the attacks of pvp groups? Set up traps that deal damage.
Battles with the boss would drop materials but would also enrage him causing a masive counter attack to the nearby node.
This means that
- each arriving caravan could actually be important to win against the boss
- the retrieved item might be needed in the other metropolis. So if two metropolises cooperate, the other nodes should get a high incentive to intercept and destroy that specific caravan
Agreed, it would also provide a great reason to have quests around the different parts of the dungeon and the supply routes in and out of it. And it would be awesome to maybe have this as part of the node system as well.
With the advancement of a node new artisan and caravan quests will be unlocked to advance to deeper levels of the dungeon unlocking them progressively.
I also would think it would be fun to have some out-of-the-dungeon impact. Let's say you defeat that corrupted mushroom monster in the cave and for some time, this increases the growth rate of herbs in the nearby forest. This would make PvE content relevant for PvP - an enemy Node may want to bleed dry the resources in the vicinity of an enemy Node, so they for once plunder the forest and then station troops in the Mushroom dungeon to protect it so the herbs and trees in the forest don't recover too quickly.
This won't happen. That would create a strong reward for corruption, which they've already said they won't do. Caravans are opt-in PvP zones...clearing PvE dungeons are not. Killing green players to lay claim to an open world dungeon IS the reward itself. If someone has already cleared the dungeon and is now transporting goods back to storage, you're too late.
The dungeons could have areas which favor different classes. For example in some places summoners might have an advantage. In other zones, more thieves with their trap detection and disarming abilities. Or classes which can root or control enemy NPC's.
Then in such dungeons, random teams will have different zones where they are 'the strongest'.
Maybe these zones would also not stay unchanged and after each area clean, the same team might not always feel ready to stay or would struggle.
Absolutely! It is a good way to reward flexibility and variation in the group you are having.
And what would get me really hyped would be rewarding having certain artisans in your group. Example: There is an altar in a ruins dungeon that was overrun by creatures and depending on the sacrifices you make on that altar, you can unlock different types of events or bosses or even debuffs on other groups in the dungeon. However you must have an master herbalist with you to gather the delicate flowers in the dungeon first or a master hunter to skin and gut the right creature. And the other way around - you might want to have an alchemist with you so in case someone floods the dungeon with poison from sacrificing the flowers on the altar, they can use the same flowers to quickly create an antidote and cancel the effect of the poison.