Ok, ya'll blame Kilsin for the length of my reply, since he left the question wide open.
Here is what I would love to see done regarding meta-content or things that are larger than a single dungeon/quest/zone. The reason I would like to see this stuff is that it will help Terminus feel like a living, breathing world, where things happen and change over time (instead of just everything being stuck in groundhog day mode).
One-Time Events
Story Events - region or world-wide, scripted events that involve the entire region/server population. Examples: Invasions, Building a new (NPC) outpost or town, royal/clan successions, wars, assassinations, political upheaval. These events should happen probably once a year or so but should help tell the ongoing story of Terminus. They can be used to make major changes to the world or to the NPCs within it, or to introduce new areas or revamp old ones in some way. The "event" itself should have a progression to it - there should be signs and warnings leading up to it, the event itself should happen, and then there should be a denoument afterwards before things "settle". Players should be able to participate in the event somehow - they're not just bystanders. Players should receive unique rewards for participating, including things like titles and trophies.
Threats - In addition to story events, maybe twice a year, Terminus faces unique threats that require adventurers to band together to defeat them. These are like story events but combat focused and play out more quickly, and could be things like an assault of renegade dragons to an organized attack on the Six by all the orcish clans to a resurgence of the Revenant (to something else entirely). Threats are essentially "super raids" that ask all players to work together to defeat the enemy, whatever that enemy is and wherever they are. The forces of the enemy remain in place until their leaders are killed, at which point any remaining enemies that are part of the event flee back to whence they came, and the status quo is restored. Like story events, players should get rewards for participation, that scale based on how much they contributed. Only one threat can happen at a time and after it is vanquished, "peace" will reign again... but as is so often the case, eventually a new, different threat will emerge.
Mysteries - In addition to both of the above, periodically, mysteries should emerge. Mysteries are giant lore-based puzzle events that involve players all across Terminus. As an example, one night, strange stone monoliths appear in every region of the world, marked with glowing glyphs. Players must find the clues hidden in forgotten places of the world to determine what it all means. Are the monoliths a threat? A curse? Some sort of strange device? Once players have worked out the mystery, it should lead to an event of some sort - perhaps a raid boss spawns at each monolith, or perhaps they just shoot a strange light into the sky and then crumble into rubble. Mysteries differ from threats in that while there may be small-scale combat involved, the focus is really on solving the world-spanning riddle or puzzle. Players who participate in solving the mystery should get some sort of reward or recognition for their part in it, through whatever means best fits the nature of that mystery. The funny thing about mysteries is that often when you solve them, they lead to even deeper mysteries later - so while no mystery ever repeats, future mystery events may be related to previous ones (or may not)
Repeatable Events
World Bosses - Basically, "super raid" encounters that spawn in different zones/regions with very long randomized respawn timers. These encounters should be tougher than normal raid encounters, requiring either a very well-equipped and skillful raid force, OR a much larger raid force than normal to bring down. Once defeated, they crawl back into their holes to lick their wounds, only to emerge weeks or months later to rampage across the countryside.
Micro-events or Zone-specific events - These are smaller events that repeat periodically (or can be triggered periodically) and involve players in different ways. For example: Every month (real time), a trade caravan leaves Thronefast and travels to Faerthale. Along the way the caravan may be beset by bandits or monsters, and adventurers can join the trade caravan and protect it. There should be many of these sorts of micro-events that happen all over the world, to help the world feel a bit more alive and real. However, individual micro-events should have cooldowns measured in weeks, to help keep them feeling special.
Bounties - In each major city or town there is a bounty board, maintained by the local government. Each week, a bounty will be posted for a notorious monster or villain. These bounty targets are special boss-class encounters that only spawn while their bounty is active. There are potentially many different bounties within a region, but only a few may be posted each week, so it may be many weeks before a particular bounty appears again. The point of bounties is to "spice up" static content a bit and provide something special that players can compete over.
Those are just a few ideas, I can probably come up with others given time. I hope that answers the question :P
Kilsin said:Pyye said:Kilsin said:Do you like random or predictable world events or would you rather stick to normal structured content? :)
Kilsin can you give a few examples of the differences to be crystal clear what you mean?
Having random world events was one of the amazing things about early EQ. It is this kind of thing that makes you feel like you are missing out on a living, evolving world when you are not logged into it... GM events back in the day were a lot of fun and provided unique item or title opportunities! So having random content to go along with the regular structured game would be incredible...
Certainly mate! :)
I am speaking about world events like having your actions trigger a wild stampede (by killing an alpha male deer) or a storm (by using a certain spell that interferes with that zones weather system) or an angry mob or clan try to scare you off (due to travelling to close to their camp or killing one of their scouts) etc. immersive content that helps bring the world to life.
I love GM events too and public boss events but this question is specifically directed towards immersive world events. :)
Ok, I wrote that big long post and then I read this clarification. Dangit Kilsin :P
As for randomly triggered things like stampedes, storms, etc. I like these sorts of things when they make sense based on where, when, and how they happen. What I don't like is when you know that (for example) every 3 hours a storm is going to roll through the zone. The triggers can be predictable but the conditions for those triggers to occur should not always be present.
Yes to this please!
One of my favorite things about Eq was when there was a zone wide event.
For me it helps a lot with my immersion that I am a part of the world that was forever changing.
It could be simple things as an undead invasion triggered by some dark magicians, as a player we then had to go and fix this situation and bring the zone back to a normal state.
It could be that some zones get hit by a snow storm, tornados or extreme heat.
It could be triggered by a players quest.
It could be triggered after a guild killed the end boss, like a festival in the nearby capital city.
It could be a volcano that start erupting, bringing lava golems to our surface.
A war against the ratkin and the nearby human fortress.
It could be a gladiator event in the skar or ogre city where players fight against npcs and other players and the last man standing will get a cool titel "arena master" or maybe a cool item.
It could be triggered by seasons or months, and only be available once a year for a couple of weeks. Here special items could be collected and other players could envy such special loot until next time it's available again.
Other mmos did this also like rift and warhammer online, but they did it in such way that one event was basically the same as the other and after very short time it got to genuin. and you only did the rifts due to item drops and rep. Therefor if it's done it needs to be done in a way that it's not just a copy pasta of the same thing.
Monthly event with local quest
Villagers report that their sheep has gone missing and of a strange sound coming from far up in the woods. As a faint awuuuuu. Tonight it's fullmoon could you go and take a look?
Weekly fishing occurrence
The dark myr fishermen report of a strange fenonomen, a lot of small fish has gone towards the shallow water, as if they where scared of something.
Hurry up and catch some! (optional go search for what's causing these fish to be scared)
Every 14th day
Our woodcutters report of some strange, unnatural dancing lights coming from the woods.
The wisps of the forest have gathered in order to preform a special protecting spell. The player can join in and receive a buff and colorfully mana. maybe more mysteries lie underneath. Who or what, are they protecting them self's from?
Harvest festival one every year, for 3 weeks.
To every thing there's a season. A time to plant, a time to pluk. The farmers need help with collecting their yield. reputation and trade skill event.
Winter season event.
Collecting mining supplies for the army and wood for the dwarven people to keep them warm and safe during the long winter. The undead has moved closer this winter than ever before. The dwarfs need help with collection iron, bronze. Food and wood to keep their city and people safe for the winter. Help the dwarfs for rep and small coin. Why are the undead moving this close to the city gates this winter? Explore the reson why and bring an end to the cold undead.
Weekly event Sandwurm.
The desert oasis has been hit hard by a sandstorm lately, the nomads has reported that some of their horses and men has gone missing, with no trace to find. Go explore the reson to their disappearance and why theres a constant sand storm in the area, thread wicely...
Every 3th day event
A local huntsman has come across a levitating fether, go track down the origin of this feather. Roumers say that it can only belongs to an ancient mythical beast called a Pegasus. Find more feathers in the wilderness, if a player can gather enough, the craftsmen in the town can craft the Cape of levitation for the player. With bonus movement speed and slow fall effect. Optional kill the ancient beast and the towns craftsmen can use its horn to make healing assessories that can purge plague, cure poisons and nullify fever.
Every Friday event
A grp of mad summoners are performing a dark ritual to summon an enhanced magical iron golem. (boss mob) Players can interrupt there ritual and potentially save the lands or wait and try to defeat this twisted evil.
Every Saturday event
A dark Direlord are planning to invade the lands of the elfs he's army are moving through the zones leaving havoc in its wastes. Players has to come together onorder to stop he's crusade and avoid civilian loses in the elven city.
Every 3 day event
Our traveling traders report of a Gobling Horder that ambushed caravans in the nearby lands, go take care of this creature and bring back he's head.
Some ideas I really hope we will see a lot of these events! #storytellingmatters
I think its nice to have a good mix of static events (ex; every game day at night, a big bad vampire shows up) and dynamic ones (a random trigger monster that spawns and is killed or interacted with in a specific way causes a series of events to occur). A bit of predictability is important as it allows folks to plan out some fun, but the dynamic stuff will really make the world feel alive ^^ I quite enjoy "invasion" type events as long as they don't TOO heavily interfere with everyday activities.
I want things like that. Pretty crazy that a battle-royale game is putting all these MMO's to shame in terms of live events. Doesn't always have to be a 1-time event, but that shoudl be on the table.
I am a fan of Quest events, repeatable but unique events that make a zone come alive for a night. I am also a fan of individual server changing events that happen once a major accomplishment is completed by a top tier guild. I am also in favor of smaller triggered AI events like rainstorms bring certain mobs out, or night-time brings certain mobs out, or even just killing every bunny in a zone causes wolves or other predatory animal to spawn in massive amounts with a boss mob attached to the event. I like the world to feel like it is reacting to the actions taken upon it.
I would love to have an immersive, organic weather system. One that doesn't simply provide beautiful weather effects but also impacts gameplay. A great example is the sandstorms in Conan Exiles. The storms were beautiful, but when you heard that wind pick up and noticed the sky quickly getting darker, you knew to seek shelter (or put on your sandstorm mask). It was a nuissance, sure, but it was immersive and broke the monotany of whatever you were doing. And man was it cool to be safe inside your home and watch the storm pass over through a window or while hanging out on your balcony. I to be frightened of tornadoes and high winds and lightning strikes and hail and sandstorms and hurricanes...
I would also prefer that storms didn't simply last for 5 minutes. If it's storming in game, I'd love for it to storm for a significant amount of time. And for storms to have varying degrees of strength/intensity. For example, a single storm can start out strong, then let up a little bit, then get wild.
I can't even express how much I would love a well-crafted weather system...
Manouk said:I like them all! except for world events that I missed. I would like to see major world events maybe occur every 2 or 3 years if they can be scripted as such or discoverd by the plater base.
The way i see world events happening is prior to a new expansion launch to change the dynamic content to match the lore of the new expansion. Or even after the new expansion this dynamic content could be implemented. I don't see it happening all that often unless they need to change some of the lore to match something happening in the future.
Manouk said:I like them all! except for world events that I missed. I would like to see major world events maybe occur every 2 or 3 years if they can be scripted as such or discoverd by the plater base.
Thing is, even if you miss them, they still add to the game. Sure, it would be nice if you could see every event, but I feel strongly that unique, limited events add a lot to the feeling that the game world is alive. Having a massive event that happens over days/weeks every few years that everyone can participate is great. Thinks like the legion invasions before WoW's last expansion were cool. But I want to see more frequent events on a smaller scale. Have a GM take control of an orc general, and lead a raid on a town. Random, totally unique. Allow the players to interact with a real person playing as the enemy. Things like that are what make the game feel really alive.
Perhaps the best example of a world event was in Asheron's Call during the Shard of the Herald event. I completely missed out on this event (college network started blocking AC from connecting, so I had to quit AC for a semester). But you know what? It only reinforced my desire to play.
On the Thistledown server, players had banded together to protect the Shard of the Herald, last of the Soul Crystals imprisoning the Hopeslayer Bael'Zharon, taking turns in shifts to defend it from attackers throughout the day. It was these "Shard Vigils" (nicknamed by Turbine) and the clever use of game mechanics such as levelling the shard up by sacrifising themselves, which kept the shard intact for so long. In fact, the TD team were so good and the crystal so powerful that eventually the developers had to intervene to destroy it. Vidorian, a Thistledown monarch and also a Dark Master was called upon to help the devs to destroy the stone. In the lore context, she was summoned by the Shadow Generals Ler Rhan and Black Ferah, who buffed Vidorian and her Peerless Shadow Atlan Dagger (Shadow Stone from the Gauntlet) with +12000% to attack. After the developers finally found a way to make the TD shard "Harry" vulnerable again, it was destroyed by Vidorian and the two shadow generals. In respect to the players that defended the shard so well, a monument was created on the Thistledown server engraved with the names of those who took part. It is located at 82.3S, 93.4E outside Ithaenc Cathedral on the Thistledown server only.
Can't go wrong with adding a little unpredictability to the game. Doing it right has it's own set of issues, but I can't understand why anyone would really have a problem with the idea. One of my fondest memories of EQ was this big good vs evil event around launch that built up over a week or two, and culminated in an "epic battle" (some might say failure) in Kithicor Forest. Still makes me chuckle. I have this theory that the GM's were so fed up with everyone yelling and whining about how bad it turned out that they just decided to run around deathtouching people for the hell of it.
Some fantastic ideas in this thread.
Of course designed and learnable content is very important, but a big YES to some random/triggered/consequential/escalation/GM-driven/whatever-it-is-but-less-predictable content too PLEASE.
Would be fantastic.
It's a very important 'next-gen' thing for a modern MMORPG and would go a long way to making this old-school-based game a fresh and new one also.
I was watching a Video On the Nathen Napalm show makeing MMO's a adventure again. Around 6 minutes into the show he started in with events in world and so on. I don't know if this has beed brought up before but, what if . Due to the fact we are killing mobs all day every day in zones lets say the orks of Danger Falls have had enuff . Now u can find your little out post u buy potions at and sell trash look at Hildies market. The 4 guards are missiong from the bridge you crossed just two days ago. Man wonder what next so i go back to the ...let say human town to find out im not the only one seeing people and places removed from the map.
I set down for a meal with friends at a tavern, right in the middle of it a wave of over 100 orks are attacking the frunt gate . Of corse every one hears the CALL TO ARMS ring out inthe streets . Many wonder why this is going on others . Grab their gear and head to frunt gates .
Thats it yopu can take it from there . just a thought about a event that woul;d happen if some groups of people keep attacking your home land aye .
Thats all i wnat to say i hope u all have fun with it if not well its out there .
Till next time Take care of each other and be saf. Bo
Pyye said:Kilsin said:Do you like random or predictable world events or would you rather stick to normal structured content? :)
Kilsin can you give a few examples of the differences to be crystal clear what you mean?
Having random world events was one of the amazing things about early EQ. It is this kind of thing that makes you feel like you are missing out on a living, evolving world when you are not logged into it... GM events back in the day were a lot of fun and provided unique item or title opportunities! So having random content to go along with the regular structured game would be incredible...
Wow. Reading this sent shivers down my back. My memory just exploded with all the fun that devs had at my expense lol.
Sekkong
GraveRobber said:I was watching a Video On the Nathen Napalm show makeing MMO's a adventure again. Around 6 minutes into the show he started in with events in world and so on. I don't know if this has beed brought up before but, what if . Due to the fact we are killing mobs all day every day in zones lets say the orks of Danger Falls have had enuff . Now u can find your little out post u buy potions at and sell trash look at Hildies market. The 4 guards are missiong from the bridge you crossed just two days ago. Man wonder what next so i go back to the ...let say human town to find out im not the only one seeing people and places removed from the map.
I set down for a meal with friends at a tavern, right in the middle of it a wave of over 100 orks are attacking the frunt gate . Of corse every one hears the CALL TO ARMS ring out inthe streets . Many wonder why this is going on others . Grab their gear and head to frunt gates .
Thats it yopu can take it from there . just a thought about a event that woul;d happen if some groups of people keep attacking your home land aye .
Thats all i wnat to say i hope u all have fun with it if not well its out there .
Till next time Take care of each other and be saf. Bo
Just gotta say, you have the most appropriate name for necroing a thread
