Forums » General Pantheon Discussion

World Events

    • 68 posts
    November 29, 2015 10:26 AM PST

    Kilsin said:

    Tuhart said:

    ok newbie here still dont understand the differnce.

    Would it not be predictable for a tribe to come after you if you killed one of their clan on your travels and went too close to the homelands.

    apologies for being dull.

    You may not know you are close to their camp and accidently kill a roaming scout, for example, it may turn them all against you, they may run away and leave the zone in fear of you, different "surprising" reactions are what we call world events, usually in MMORPGs the mobs stand still while you slaughter their friends and families or all charge you at once while being predictable social aggro mobs with limited AI but different responses to your actions or triggering a bigger chain of events is what I am talking about.

    They can range from killing a cow and suddenly as farmer yells at you to get off their land or kill a rest alpha deer and have the nearby herd charge at you (you had no idea they were there) or casting a spell that reacts to the environment and backfires, causing a storm that actually damages your health etc. all random but immersive world events. :)

    I love this idea!  Fear or consequences for your actions (even a %) would be amazing.  Additionally, a GM event in which a high level NPC is stirred by outside events and comes out of this secluded dungeon and wrecks havoc on those unsuspecting players going to him/her would be awesome. 

    J


    This post was edited by JoshuaLLFE at November 29, 2015 10:29 AM PST
    • 70 posts
    November 29, 2015 1:44 PM PST

    Kilsin said:

    Do you like random or predictable world events or would you rather stick to normal structured content? :)

    Both.

    These are examples I recall from EQ.

    Random events make the world immersive and surprizing and keep the world interesting:

    Being able to sometimes get by a guard gives a real feeling of accomplishment, if each time you've had to attempt to get past him before -you've been caught and killed.

    Walking thru a grove of trees and knowing the danger: ie the crazy Black Stallion in the forest in GFay, and actually getting past him. Or not.

    Traveling thru Kithkor Forest after midnight, when the dead walked...and actually making it. But, usually not.

    Boarding a boat and wondering if it would sail out from under you and leave you stranded in the OOT, which it did as often as it delivered you to port.

     

    Predictable events, keep the world somewhat sane:

    as a Tier'Dal necromancer, walking thru the gates of any city but my own = kos.

    attacking something 10 levels higher than you = splat

    staying underwater to long = drowning

    falling off a high enough cliff = dead

     

    And off topic a bit: I totally loved the GM events which were never predictable unless seasonal: like the giant skelly attacks on Qeynos at Halloween.

     

    • 29 posts
    May 19, 2017 8:58 AM PDT

    The idea is interesting.

    If I may, the system that was used in Warhammer : Age of Reckoning was pretty amazing too. It made sure that everyone who participated got loot.

    Though, there were too many of those. Perhaps events that dynamically change the zone would be good too. A little bit like EVE Online does with the Index of a system for better loot, better sites (dungeons) and what not.

     

    Just throwing a few ideas out there.

     

    • 338 posts
    May 19, 2017 9:24 AM PDT

    So far in all the games that I've played that have tried public quests and dynamic content it falls short.

     

    I'm sure there is a brilliant way to have this type of content I just don't know exactly how you would do it.

     

    Seems like a lot of development without the guarantee of bang for the buck.

     

     

    Thanks in advance,

    Kiz~

    • 119 posts
    May 19, 2017 9:42 AM PDT

    i like the idea, but when i think it through:

    lets say event A is triggered by killing the tribe shaman. the tribe gangs up on you and after an epic fight you get some nice reward (whatever it is). now, others will want to have the same reward too. if the event is that rare, that means people will now camp the shaman in hope to get the event triggered, but it will rarely happen. i don't think that's satisfactionary in the long run. on the other hand, if the event triggers too often, it's not special and rare (go figure!) anymore and, well, not the type of event that was described here anymore. not getting anything interesting for managing a random and unexpected danger is not a solution either (risk vs reward should always be in place). unless the event doesn't really matter anyways, then it's wasted dev time. so whatever i come up with, i don't see it work in a good way in the long run.

    so, i agree with angrykiz. and also with someone who said in i-don't-know-which-thread: "we've seen so many great sounding ideas fail that we'd rather stick with what we know".

    but i assume you have better ideas than i do =) maybe you can get it to work.


    This post was edited by letsdance at May 19, 2017 9:43 AM PDT
    • 24 posts
    May 19, 2017 10:52 AM PDT

    I think I am on the same bandwagon here lol.  I like both.  

    Predictable Ring events were fantastic fun in EQ and EQ2, and a good way to spice up some openworld kililng and Dungeon crawling

    Random events are even better.  (GM or Game Driven).  I like the natorious high level mob, pack, or camp that pops up if X happens (and is still kinda rare).  I also think it would be nifty if the even announced itself like a Bandit leader coming out of hiding after you have been slaughtering his lakies for some time.  He would /shout to zone "RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE" or somthing liek that.  Little bit of something different and a dash of immersion.  

    • 1714 posts
    May 19, 2017 5:02 PM PDT

    GW2 proclaimed to have this kind of dynamic system and it was horrible. The same scripted event would happen 50 times a day. 

     

    • 1714 posts
    May 19, 2017 5:02 PM PDT

    letsdance said:

    i like the idea, but when i think it through:

    lets say event A is triggered by killing the tribe shaman. the tribe gangs up on you and after an epic fight you get some nice reward (whatever it is). now, others will want to have the same reward too. if the event is that rare, that means people will now camp the shaman in hope to get the event triggered, but it will rarely happen. i don't think that's satisfactionary in the long run. on the other hand, if the event triggers too often, it's not special and rare (go figure!) anymore and, well, not the type of event that was described here anymore. not getting anything interesting for managing a random and unexpected danger is not a solution either (risk vs reward should always be in place). unless the event doesn't really matter anyways, then it's wasted dev time. so whatever i come up with, i don't see it work in a good way in the long run.

    so, i agree with angrykiz. and also with someone who said in i-don't-know-which-thread: "we've seen so many great sounding ideas fail that we'd rather stick with what we know".

    but i assume you have better ideas than i do =) maybe you can get it to work.

     I agree. It's not a random environmental interaction anymore, it's a quest or scripted event that you hunt for to trigger. 


    This post was edited by Keno Monster at May 19, 2017 5:04 PM PDT
    • 510 posts
    May 19, 2017 7:03 PM PDT

    I don't care WHAT anyone else says, that Bertoxulous event toward the start of EQ2 with the spreading disease and all?  That was pretty fricken cool.

    • 169 posts
    May 19, 2017 7:18 PM PDT
    I personally would like to see a mix or both timed server events that happen a few times a day, and other mini events we cause by our normal play time interaction with the environment.
    Then on top of that having gm or guide events 2 or 3 times a,month would just be icing on the cake.
    • 999 posts
    May 19, 2017 7:34 PM PDT

    I'd prefer a combination of both events.

    Random events like GM events that award unique/rare items only obtainable through those events.

    Predictable world events that can be triggered either through an epic questline or a "epic quest" type similar to the Coldain Ring/Shawl quests mentioned previously.

    And the rest be normal open-ended content - I'm not a huge fan of the word "structured" though as that makes me feel like it is more linear/quest hub style.


    This post was edited by Raidan at May 19, 2017 7:36 PM PDT
    • 25 posts
    May 20, 2017 12:37 PM PDT

    A healthy mix of both. Random helps make the world feel more dynamic and alive. Too much structured and it feels more "gamed".

    • 157 posts
    May 20, 2017 6:16 PM PDT

    Kilsin said:

    Do you like random or predictable world events or would you rather stick to normal structured content? :)

    I think random events add emersion to the game, when implemented correctly.  Dragon wandering the zone, or a horde of marauding Orcs that need to be put down.

    I think planned events (character triggered events) are necessary to promote dynamic quest lines / character advancement.

    The difficulty of random events is the outcome:  Should the group of marauding Orcs attack and conquer a player city, then what?  What happens once the (hypothetical) trolls re-conquer Guk?

     

    • 409 posts
    May 24, 2017 7:47 AM PDT

    deleted


    This post was edited by Nimryl at August 23, 2017 7:52 AM PDT
    • 105 posts
    May 24, 2017 8:52 AM PDT

    I like the idea of both... Would random, 1/100 events reward unique loot? If so you would end up with loots of people trying to trigger them...

    • 2 posts
    May 24, 2017 9:38 AM PDT

    As an example of a random thing that happened I remember one of the times we were playing Planescape in DND and we made it to the outer planes of Ysgard.  We ran into some problems with another group and our wizard decided to cast fireball.  Well being the plane of elemental forces and such as he was casting the spell the DM let us know that something was going awry.  He could not stop his chant and as the spell went off it struck for 5 times normal force.  It instantly killed the person he shot it at but also sent a shockwave backlash back at our group causing us to be enveloped in the blast.

    These types of unpredictable and unforseen events tend to break up the monotony of an adventure.  So if an electrical storm is present in a zone and you are using metal weapons or water spells it would be nice if you might want to think twice about what you are doing lol.  You may become a lightning rod or cause a chain lightning effect you did not intend.  :P

    • 368 posts
    May 27, 2017 12:56 PM PDT

    Would love to see things like NPC city invasions, where players are called upon to defend a city or town. 

    • 13 posts
    May 27, 2017 2:40 PM PDT

    World events in early EQ were fun.  I was a Guide back then and getting to transform into a Sand Giant and terrorize the W. Commons between the ocean and the tunnel was fun.  We had a little script we'd shout out and get to fight against a large group of players.  I had 3 peices of rubicite (back when it was the holy grail of armor) I dropped one time, fun fun stuff.

    • 12 posts
    May 27, 2017 3:37 PM PDT

    These would be truely great but rare is key with the surviver getting a title or rare drop to peek interest to insure people add in these events instead of avoinding them leaving the unfortunate soul to die.


    This post was edited by Madass at May 27, 2017 3:38 PM PDT
    • 2419 posts
    May 27, 2017 4:42 PM PDT

    Kilsin said:

    Do you like random or predictable world events or would you rather stick to normal structured content? :)

    I'm not a particular fan of random events where the event is not in response to anything I did.  A lightning strike during a rainstorm might be random but it is still an expected event within a rainstorm and even the rainstorm is itself in response to some triggering condition(s).

    I much prefer events to take place in response to my actions or in actions, even if that event happens to be very rare or even if the reaction is not immediate.  You've already building a very indepth faction system, use it to its full potential.

    • 13 posts
    May 27, 2017 5:51 PM PDT

    Vandraad said:

    Kilsin said:

    Do you like random or predictable world events or would you rather stick to normal structured content? :)

    I'm not a particular fan of random events where the event is not in response to anything I did.  A lightning strike during a rainstorm might be random but it is still an expected event within a rainstorm and even the rainstorm is itself in response to some triggering condition(s).

    I much prefer events to take place in response to my actions or in actions, even if that event happens to be very rare or even if the reaction is not immediate.  You've already building a very indepth faction system, use it to its full potential.

     

    I think both triggered and random would be great.  Triggered for when you want to do a world event where you can get your guild and friends together to all participate.  But also a random event because lets face it, life is random.  A group of bandits aren't going to invade a settlement because of something a player did, they are going to invade it for gold, jewelry and whatever else they want.  To be in the right place at the right time would be a fun.  Also a random event like this in leveling areas for lower levels would prevent a lot of higher level people from being around to come in and dominate it when it was ment for the people leveling.

    • 187 posts
    May 27, 2017 8:23 PM PDT

    I think a combination of both would be amazing.

    The "planned events" could be looming in the back of everyone's mind, intertwining a commonly threaded psychological effect on all the players. Whispers have spread across Terminus that the mad magician is working on creating portals to other worlds. It is said that his newest portal could unleash a spawn of demons that could ransack the world if he is able to complete in 15 days...

    Then the "spontaneous events" would significantly add to our immersion by instilling Terminus with a key experience that we all encounter in our daily lives on Earth, unpredictability. It would make the world feel more alive and give us more opportunities to randomly team up with new players.

    TLDR
    Both spontaneous and predictable events have their purposes! Include both Kilsin! <3

    • 29 posts
    May 31, 2017 3:35 PM PDT

    Kilsin said:

    Do you like random or predictable world events or would you rather stick to normal structured content? :)

     

    I would go for all of the above.  My favorite random event was a GM event from Everquest.  The dreaded War Bones invasion of Qeynos Hills.  It was my first random world event and was very exciting!  I also like scheduled events similar to Darkmoon Faire from World of Warcraft.

    • 363 posts
    July 31, 2018 8:18 PM PDT

    The game will have plenty of triggered elements with perseption system, but the more the better. Also love love love rare and random events. Whether its a giant that appears and wanders around for an hour and leaves or raiders setting fire to a farm. These things make the world feel alive. 

    One of my favorite things in vanilla WoW was Stitches wandering the roads of Darkshire and some random player pulling him to Goldshire when there weren't enough high levels to handle the situation. He created chaos and playerse had to deal with. For me those things are amazing and sadly missing from games in that way. Now everything is to planned, therefore static and boring.

    • 1714 posts
    July 31, 2018 9:10 PM PDT

    I've never seen a scripted "random" event that wasn't complete garbage. GW2 I'm looking at you. 

    I love the idea of different NPC factions at war in the same zone and how players could take advantage of that, as RallyD described, however that's not an event. 


    This post was edited by Keno Monster at July 31, 2018 9:10 PM PDT