Forums » General Pantheon Discussion

Starting Cities and the Future

    • 73 posts
    January 15, 2019 10:50 AM PST

    Long ago in a far away place a little elve started his training...He played and practice his skills with all of his friends high up in the tree community. He was guided along his path by Ranger Guild Master. He ventured close to home taking the lift down to the forest floor where he honed his skills on the like of snakes, rats and bees. Foraging along the way to his next bee, enjoying the safety of the lift guards protection if he got more than he could handle. He  wander further out exploring, but neglected to heed his training and his sense of direction got him lost, night fell and sound of the forest had an ominous tone. He saw in the distance a bonfire and started to make his way to it when he heard the low guttural growl of the Orc. He started to run as fast as he could... the orc closed the gap and as he felt it overtake him a arrow zipped past his head and entered it's left eye socket of the orc just behind him, killing it in midstride.  He finally saw where the arrow came from, a figure stepped out of the bushes some fifty yards ahead of him and jogged up to him. He was and older ranger that has spent many years away from his home city questing and adventuring in his travels to see and explore new lands, He was wearing the epic weapons the Guild Master had shone him in his recent training. As the older ranger walked the young elf home he talked about some of the raids he has been apart of and how recent news has brought him home once again to search for and older unassuming sort that lives up in the tree city. He stated we have all probably walked past this character many times in the past, but as life in this world Expanded he heard rumors of new quest, being a Perceptive  ranger he knew he should start here.

     

    It would be nice if new expansions involve these old starting areas, keeping these older character revisiting the starting areas utilizing the perception system to start new questlines and to populate these areas, perhaps helping out new players along the way. These questlines then should lead these higher level players to these new regions. These new perception quest would only pop up for, lets say, max level characters or perhaps ones that have completed certain quest or raids making them flagged. Some of the games I have played in the past forget about these areas, they become empty and unused sadly and some are the most dynamic and scenic in the game.

     

    Now I know I am talking about expansions way to soon, but incorporating these thoughts now can only help in my opinion.

     

    Soaren 

    Humble Ranger

     

    • 127 posts
    January 15, 2019 2:05 PM PST

    Why does incentive for higher level players to hang out and do things in the same zones where low level players congregate have to be tied to future expansions?

    I'd say this is something the developers should seek to incorporate from the get go. It goes well with their focus on creating the best circumstances possible for strong communities to form. I personally also find it more immersive if there are some really high level enemies and 'impossible' questing content out in the wild within zones that are overall considered to be suitable for lower level characters. It adds a sense of danger and shows you challenges you might be able to tackle later if you return. Meanwhile it also allows players to spread out for their late game activities, which is useful in a non-instanced world where most content is contested.

    EDIT:

    As for cities and towns, I'd imagine that's where a lot of the faction and crafting-related content is going to take place. And hopefully engagement in that content is going to be relevant from 1 to 50.


    This post was edited by Kaeldorn at January 15, 2019 2:08 PM PST
    • 1281 posts
    January 15, 2019 2:43 PM PST

    Kaeldorn said:

    Why does incentive for higher level players to hang out and do things in the same zones where low level players congregate have to be tied to future expansions?

    I'd say this is something the developers should seek to incorporate from the get go. It goes well with their focus on creating the best circumstances possible for strong communities to form. I personally also find it more immersive if there are some really high level enemies and 'impossible' questing content out in the wild within zones that are overall considered to be suitable for lower level characters. It adds a sense of danger and shows you challenges you might be able to tackle later if you return. Meanwhile it also allows players to spread out for their late game activities, which is useful in a non-instanced world where most content is contested.

    EDIT:

    As for cities and towns, I'd imagine that's where a lot of the faction and crafting-related content is going to take place. And hopefully engagement in that content is going to be relevant from 1 to 50.

    Congratulations!!  You get your wish.

     

    They've already stated that there will be both high-level and low-level content in the same areas to encourage the mingling of the levels of players.

    • 127 posts
    January 15, 2019 3:21 PM PST

    Yeah, I've heard them mention their goals and I hope VR will stick to their guns on this one.

    We'll have to wait and see to what extent it will be realized, but I'm not really all that worried. They're on the right track.

    • 1785 posts
    January 15, 2019 5:49 PM PST

    A huge part of ensuring that higher-level players need to visit lower level areas is not just having pockets of high-level monsters to fight, but also insuring that there are non-combat objectives for those players too.  Quests, whether they're traditional quests or obtained via perception triggers, should have people traveling back to their starting cities or other areas, and not just immediately send them off to fight level-appropriate things.  This isn't to say that the game needs a bunch of running back and forth, but ideally the different towns and cities are set up so that having to travel back to them periodically makes sense within the fiction of the world.

    I also feel that if high level players are encouraged to travel around, low and mid level players should be as well.  While it makes sense for very low level players to earn their first few levels close to home, if someone's still hanging around their starting city at, say, level 10 or so, then things are maybe a tad bit too centralized.  Get players out into the world early, and get them traveling.  You can even have them pass through higher-level areas, and just make it so they're relatively safe as long as they stick to the road and don't venture off of it.

    • 1281 posts
    January 19, 2019 5:39 PM PST

    This subject is one of my passions and I've written about it here at length before.

    Basically, it comes down to game design. When you add expansions to the game the developers have a choice to make. Do they add new towns and places for high level players to mingle with the amenities of home, or do they force players to return to their starting cities to sell, bank, craft, etc.

    EQ suffered from this issue with each expansion. The starting cities became ghost towns very quickly. Eventually they released a central gathering place for everyone (Plane of Knowledge), but that broke the game in other ways in my opinion.

    I really hope in Pantheon that active attention is made so that even five years after release, max level players are returning to their starting city each day. The last thing you would want is new players jumping into the game and having a vacant city. When the players see all of the high-level players running around, then later learn this is only one city of many great cities full of players, that would give them, well at least me, a great incentive to explore the world.


    This post was edited by bigdogchris at January 19, 2019 5:39 PM PST
    • 211 posts
    January 20, 2019 7:37 PM PST

    Who knows what the death penalty will end up being, but instead of a non-recovered corpse disappearing forever and the player losing their gear (like EQ), it could disappear after the timer expires - and reappear in the player's starting city somewhere (a holy or shamanistic alter etc), that's one way to get high levels back!