speedmeteor101
Member
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Yes. quote:
We think that exploration achievements and side quests and cutscenes and content that we plan on eventually adding as we refine the areas will also help keep things lively. @Frosthowl and @Anvos That's right. That means once closed or open beta is over we'll still probably have these same boring, grindy quests at the game release, most likely or hopefully at open beta; but over time we're supposed to get more features as the devs add new areas and refine old ones. quote:
Open to suggestion on how to make people WANT to spend more time in smaller areas. I know this is something meant to happen over time, so I got ideas! (If you want the main idea of what I'm going to say and no examples it's at the bottom) take this image @ckdragonck made http://i.imgur.com/ozr6Bd7.png Now take into account that AE doesn't have as much time to make full blown areas very quickly, while dungeons may be quicker. So really the answer to how to make people want to spend more time in smaller areas would be more dungeon exits. And lots of cutscenes and small puzzles/interactives- even inside of dungeons. We know this will take more time, but with multiple people animating [maybe snag from another game team?] and less extravagant dungeons (we don't need decor) this can get cranked out a lot faster. I'll say it again at the end. So let's say those paths in the picture above without dead ends may have dead ends. Maybe a couple of them lead to an area with no NPC and a natural dungeon... A cave, a Spider tunnel.... something like that. Then another one of those paths could end at a tent and an NPC outside. He has four quests. One of them is a small reward for finding the Natural cave [dungeon] somewhere and clearing out the spider tunnel. And then get this! After you battle your way to the boss, how about a cutscene where you see a spider wrapping up people and then your next mission/quest obj is to defeat the spider once so you can solve a puzzle to free the other explorers/ NPC adventurers. Kinda like DF's lock-picking "Jab, wiggle, nick, tap." How about for the spider web "Tug, Cut, pull, snip." This is the creative stuff we want from AE (I took these ideas from other AE games) so if you make a simple dungeon with dirt walls and a windy maze path just pop in monsters. and checkpoints so it's not super easy to get to the boss. If certain parts of the dungeon are "locked" until you reach the checkpoints, a player would be forced to battle all of the monsters and reach the next part of the dungeon (with it being divided into many smaller segments). So you can't run all the way through, but if you die you can pick up where you left off, like I said before (like if 3 monsters spawn before a checkpoint, you have to kill 3 for the next checkpoint to be unlocked). Also do note: I'd prefer a longer dungeon with shorter ceilings and closer walls than a tall short dungeon. You could probably take advantage of this to make it windy, have multiple floors and slip monsters in a way to where you're battling towards a goal. The Next kinda side-quest/dungeon (DF style) we would get from an NPC is one where you click "quest" and you are 'teleported' to a dungeon. (Considering there's a side-quests button for quests you can do as many times as you want in NPC dialogue) Let's say you're in Doomwood and that Artix by the tent says "on that island across the water, there's a haunted castle, and at the top there's a key, that the undead king has. Bring it here so I can open this chest and I'll have some good gold for you." Then basically repeat the "Haunted Castle" quest from the necropolis in DF (here http://forums2.battleon.com/f/tm.asp?m=10584200 and video here because listenonrepeat is broken) but make it 3d and multiplayer. We don't care if it's all identical rooms with a chair and bookshelf in a different place, so ideally, you'd be able to paint one room or a whole hall with a repeating brick pattern and maybe a couple of identical explorable rooms (rooms not mandatory :P) and crank out a relatively quick dungeon. Just Repeating brick walls w/ torches, two sets of stairs another hall and a king's room. If you keep it simple throw in a couple small cutscenes and you have a good dungeon. The areas we have look like the were all made with every little detail in mind, so I'm guessing that's what took them so long. Simple dungeons could hopefully take a week or two, so month after month you slowly rack up dungeons that will keep players from getting bored as they can play them over and over and have different ones to choose from. Maybe even as features get added, there will be some hidden places in a dungeon to explore. And like other players said, random items as a quest reward for just finishing a dungeon, sometimes. Edit: Now that I think about it won't we be getting daily dungeons? Maybe a few could be made before the daily dungeons really start and then they get worked into the area. If there are daily dungeons, maybe you guys (AE) were already were planning to crankem out quickly. Meh, whatever :P Also idk if this is possible, but if you think up a way to do short, randomized dungeons with the same idea as above, that would be KILLER for aq3d and just amazing. It might not be possible, but the way I see it, it would be like the devs already have 'template' chunks/rooms/checkpoints for a dungeon and they spawn in a logical/random order, like in DragonFable. Maybe the dungeon would normally take 10-15 minutes to complete, so you put a 30 minute timer (also a timer in the corner of the dungeon screen) before a reset (where the players are kicked and new templates/sets of rooms are loaded). Then when it's time to kick out the players (in the last 30 seconds, maybe) the players will instantly die and a message displays like "I don't feel so well" and an iconic "ghost of the dungeons" flashes on the screen. Then instead of teleporting back to spawn point when they die, they go to the NPC or front of the dungeon, and must wait for the timer to reset when the new version of the dungeon is ready. If you could do something similar to this, like maybe every server reset the randomized dungeons changed, that would even be good enough. That may also mean randomized rewards at the end of the quest, a randomized chest with a random shop, many things.... but that would definitely keep players coming back to a certain area. For that "new" dungeon. Then maybe certain configurations would have a low 'loading-rate' and a player would be lucky to come at the right (random) time of the day or week to find a certain shop in a dungeon that may sell... 2 free potions, a 5k gold bonus chest, or a rare-ish pet or something. Just a real nice 'weapon' (figuratively)/feature to get us coming back. I'll say it again: I think that's the way you make small areas more attractive. Give them multiple simple, easy-to-make, dungeons to play over and over possibly from exploring or from an NPC. Give these dungeons and areas some cutscenes and some interactives/puzzles (maybe parkour) and you've got a like-able area.
< Message edited by speedmeteor101 -- 1/13/2016 8:51:54 >
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