World event?

[Marynah]

Might be kind of cool to make up a newly blighted island somewhere, where folks could kill off the undead (who don't then come back) and then maybe use purified essence orbs and who knows what, to 'cleanse' the blighted land and return it to a nice resourceful isle.

It would be a flow along the storyline that we can take back the land without disturbing the main blighted areas. Could run them hither and yon every year or so, so that new folks and others who missed it could have a go at it.

Not sure how hard that would be to do.

Something to think about...

[Racktor]

No matter how much we'd all love this, the devs have said multiple times that the events of the past aren't going to happen again, at least not for a long time, as the devs do not have the time to coordinate them.

Not sure if this counts as one but it may.. so I may as well mention.

It would be nice to have though, really.

[LOVWYRM]

*shrugs* anyway-
things like this would bring more folks back than anything else.

[AmonGwareth]

I have my doubts that they would. The events post-release required numerous people to design, develop and coordinate. With only 2 - 3 people you'd only have events at best twice a year and little else would get done in the meantime. Even if it did bring players back, they'd run into the issues we're attempting to fix... empty land (T3, T4), lack of things to do, systems nobody likes (blighted items, epic loot, etc). How would those get fixed?

The problem with GM-run world events is that once complete, they are content lost. You can't do them again, new players can't experience them again. Say you did an event and it brought 1,000 people back. Would they stick around 3-6 months for another event to occur? Or would they expect an event to occur frequently so that they could enjoy it as well?

Therein lies the problems for live events and one-off content that isn't setup as instancing. Sorry, but those are the realities of the situation. Very few MMOs these days do active events... Even those that do, such as Rift, the events are more automated and instanced. I can't think of any (unless there are new ones) that do actual story-driven events that have Dev or GM involvement and aren't instanced.

[LOVWYRM]

all true Amon- and I already knew-

indeed, the cost-benefit thing might not work..

[AmonGwareth]

all true Amon- and I already knew-

indeed, the cost-benefit thing might not work..

It truly is unfortunate because they are very neat. Something smaller in scale with the right tech and content would work, but would require a lot of work ahead of time (design, planning, etc) to get it right. Something on the scale of the Dryad or Satyr release? No way that would be done by less than a full team.

[Tzael]

I was chatting to Guaran in-game a few nights back, and expressed an opinion that I felt the werewolf event could be reintroduced with some minor tweaking to keep the lore intact. Guaran reminded me that it was quite a short event, and that in itself might also make it more manageable for the developers. Naturally this would result in an end to my stranglehold on the elm reed market but I'd be willing to make that sacrifice

[Guaran]

Ocassional, seemingly random raids on towns and resource areas by mobs that are high level even for the tier, would be fun and exciting.

The big werewolf that attacked Dalimond so long ago, a lvl 80 avatar of pain spawning in lesser aradoth deadlands once a month, and patrolling around laying waste to all the npc's and players. Shadow dragon attacking Dralk or wandering in from eastern deadlands.

It wouldn't need to be really complicated. Just put in some big long patrol routes for some of the baddies, like from someplace in ED, all the way to Aughundell, thru Tazoon, down to Dalimond, then to Bristugo (assuming the boss makes it that far).

Would use existing assets. Just some scripting work would need done. Could be one per month, so its not too often to get old. Werewolf boss could have werewolfs and hellhounds as guards. Again all existing in-game assets would be used.

And don't worry about t6 mobs roaming into Dalimond. If there isn't some danger and unexpected occurrences, it would defeat the purpose.

Even if the event has to be manually kicked off (to keep it random and not too often), I bet it could run itself once started.

[Kyala]

It's an interesting thread that caught my eye. I always thought, perhaps a volunteer from the community to liaison with the game masters?
It's tedious to pick of course, and would have to be carefully examined. But perhaps those who know the limits and wise decisions, could (under scheduled timing) create the said-event. Of course, there needs to be specific path nodes and whatnot, but I suppose it's the closest one would get with the current situation.

Now, I have very, VERY limited experience when it comes to AI, but even something based off the respawn system. Monster X is given specific path to walk. X is spawned with Keyword Y. Instead of a respawn timer, it is triggered manually by the user.

... I am so far off how it works, aren't I?...

[AmonGwareth]

Players doing it brings up a whole other issue of fairness... And having to give them access to a lot of other capabilities in order to accomplish their job. Which could engender claims of cheating and so forth. A dangerous road.

I'm not even sure the content from the werewolf event still exists... or the documentation from it.

There are four issues/drawbacks to town raids:

1) The spawn system. If no players are around, the spawns disappear.
2) NPCs. Even when killed they can be interacted with and will respawn only to die again.
3) Destination pads. Remain active when the town is "taken over" so players in lower level areas die when they arrive before they even know it.
4) Rewards. What rewards should you get for fighting these raids? giving out standard rewards wouldn't encourage players to fight or be anythign worth writing home about. So new rewards would be needed. As you are well aware of, rewards in a game where most content is player-created can be difficult to do well.

2 and 3 would require new tech. 4 woudl require a bunch of design work. Not sure how to fix #1.

[Marynah]

Good points, Amon, but consider for
1) if the ecent were triggered by someone, it's assumed there would be players there to benefit from it. If they run away screaming, then the despawn is an OK thing.
2) Not sure I understand why it is a problem. If they die and respawn, that's kind of what is wanted. Also, like in 3, keep them away from the NPCs. Perhaps whatever keeps players from killing NPCs could be added to monsters.
3) The pathing for the attacking mobs would just have to be laid out so they don't get near the pad.
4) Yes, that would be a bit of a project. Both in thinking up new rewards and then implementing them. Not much can be done to speed that process.

If nothing else, can shelf the idea for some time when there is more time.

[Azath]

...3) The pathing for the attacking mobs would just have to be laid out so they don't get near the pad...

There comes the issue of attention.
If it's close to the pad, then you get what i saw screenies of of old-pre-merge aughundell (looked fun), but if it's too far away it can go unnoticed/or there's no need to kill it.

[Guaran]

There are four issues/drawbacks to town raids:

1) The spawn system. If no players are around, the spawns disappear.

Hopefully certain mobs could be wired to not do this, the way npc's don't despawn?

2) NPCs. Even when killed they can be interacted with and will respawn only to die again.

Not a problem really.

3) Destination pads. Remain active when the town is "taken over" so players in lower level areas die when they arrive before they even know it.

This is part of the reality of an invasion. Once you figure out you can't port there, player could just use a different port. It's not the end of the world.

4) Rewards. What rewards should you get for fighting these raids? giving out standard rewards wouldn't encourage players to fight or be anythign worth writing home about. So new rewards would be needed. As you are well aware of, rewards in a game where most content is player-created can be difficult to do well.

The event itself is the reward. Doesn't need to be any other.

[LOVWYRM]

consentaneity 100%..with Guaran

[AmonGwareth]

1) No, they cannot. NPCs are very different than spawned monsters. Regarding this further, if an invasion occurs and nobody is around to fight it... or if they are around, but die, eventually the spawn system would remove them. In other words, not fighting would accomplish the same goal as fighting under the current system. New technology for how the spawn system works with regards to invasions would need to occur.

2 and 3 and 4) I respectfully disagree. To create some impact upon the world beyond "hey there are monsters in the town" there must be a reason to fight... disabling NPCs and Destination Pads helps create that reason beyond simply the story point of "the war" or the rewards. After a while rewards and challenge become boring, there must be multiple levels of interest for the system to appeal to many types of players. Until we can accomplish 2 through 4, I don't feel this system can be adequately done.

5) One final thing that I feel would be required is some sort of system notification to a system channel (World Event or Invasion) letting players know that X Town is under attack. That way you can organize and respond, players adventuring might have some warning.

[Guaran]

But don't the Anchors spawn, regardless of a player being around? For some reason I was thinking they did.

Or at least, they should. And then spawn mobs to go blight the nearby resources.

And then that existing system could just be tweaked to spawn a different boss in place of the anchor, who in turn would spawn his entourage, and then go on a nice big patrol route, killing npc's, blighting resources, and temporarily disabling landing pads (if possible, this would be quite cool as well).

Any chance the new technology with regards to invasions you mention could happen? It could go a long way to bringing some life back to the feel of the game.

[AmonGwareth]

Anchors only spawn when somebody gets near one of their spawn regions. Once spawned, they use a Generator (mobile spawn region) to spawn their guys. The Generator is somewhat bugged in that it sometimes spawns out of control and other oddities.

So, that would also have to be fixed before this could occur. Because, in my mind, this all starts with anchors.

Yes, it could be done if the system were detailed and enough time and priority were given to it by the tech team. And if the rewards and a variety of invasions as well as locations were defined.

But don't the Anchors spawn, regardless of a player being around? For some reason I was thinking they did.

Or at least, they should. And then spawn mobs to go blight the nearby resources.

And then that existing system could just be tweaked to spawn a different boss in place of the anchor, who in turn would spawn his entourage, and then go on a nice big patrol route, killing npc's, blighting resources, and temporarily disabling landing pads (if possible, this would be quite cool as well).

Any chance the new technology with regards to invasions you mention could happen? It could go a long way to bringing some life back to the feel of the game.

[Ming]

I, too, thought of the anchors. I think what we're all saying basically is the world feels "dead" at times. Perhaps just increasing the range of some of the mob might help that. They seem very contained in little bubbles.