New Areas to Explore: The Discourse
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/forum/viewtopic.php?p=750749#750749
In reference to the above poll.
1). When exploring new areas, what is it that you want to see? What do you enjoy about it?
2). Another thing to consider is, what can be done with current "exploration" areas already to make them more interesting? The Haunted Halls use to be checked out quite a bit, as were the Stormhorns once, and the Hullack Deeper--but now many just hit the Underdark.
3). When an area has been around to explore long enough--should we remove it and put in some new things? Presuming, you don't have any good ideas for question 2.
You have thirty minutes to prepare a response, you can not use your notes and all answers must be in your blue book.
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As with the Haunted Halls, they're meant to be changing, or something along those lines. So, maybe every few months, mix it up a bit?
The Stormhorns could probably be expanded, extra areas, bigger dangers, more frequent dangers. Maybe some mysterious relics or somesuch to liven the mountains up, perhaps hidden areas like abandoned dwarven settlements?
And maybe an area or two between the Stormhorns and the Anauroch Settlement, it just seems to go from one extreme to the next, something to make up perhaps a dry, arid, but colder expanse as it descends or expands out onto the desert itself.
Just throwing a few things out there.
-VtG
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- YES. I can't speak for everyone, but for me at least, I think I've seen most of the areas the module has to offer. It still can be fun to lead tours of the Underdark or offer for my character to guide others around the Haunted Halls or Hullack, but there's little motivation for me to explore alone or in a small group that's been there before.
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The starwater gorge crystal. More things like that. That kept people going to all sorts of places to gather many things.
Theres something about the liche kings lair that keeps me going back, I dont know what it is exactly, perhaps the things that can spawn there, the fact there is pretty random loot to be found etc.
The haunted halls are great, but it seems there are too many 'dead ends' with very very little in them. there's even a secret trap door that leads to…. a dead end.
Perhaps something that you could touch, and have a chance to be given something good, or be cursed (lvl drain, as its the only thing other than losing XP that bugs people, due to it being hard/expensive to remove) Perhaps different alignments could have different chances to gain or lose from said place-able. Or you could need to decipher something about it first, to find out what you need, through a riddle, to then get this chance.
Again though, this would lose its fun once solved a few times.
It's basically 3, switch things up every so often.
I dont think removing whole areas like the stormhorns is a good idea, but places like the haunted halls, elven ruins could be switched about a bit. And perhaps place like the stormhorns could just be changed around a bit every so often, so people dont know the perfect route to the top, or the spawns are completely different to anything they expect.
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I would like to see more spawns in the exploration area like the Firy pit and the sand area in underdark which has dangerous spawns that appear quite frequently.
If you take an adventuring party and are succesful in exploring these areas, a low level player can easily amass around 5000 exp.
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I'm going to throw something out which I haven't really thought through, so feel free to rip it to shreds:
There's the dank caves quest which is level limited quest which you click a rock to take.
Any chance of creating (or changing) areas like the Haunted Halls to have a similar marker? It wouldn't check levels or necessarily give you a quest with XP at the end, but it would reset loot, monsters, traps, etc.
I don't know what you do if party 2 clicks it while party 1 is still in there. I do like multiple entrances and exits from these areas so you can go from point A to B via the area, which might make the system hard to do. I don't think the point of these areas is another location where 2 groups can't be in at the same time, removing PvP options in out of the way areas, etc. so, like I said, didn't really think it through. Maybe it could check for other characters in the area, and not reset anything.
The reason I'm throwing it out is because I've taken people on these things, only to get there and find out someone was there 30 minutes prior and all you get is a few skeletons and no loot. Doors are all open, traps sprung, etc. I know NWN sort of sucks on the spawn stuff and hate to have "open" areas on the quest system. Some of these places are a hike, and getting there to find an empty tomb isn't real fun for anyone though.
I love that the Haunted Halls is random and leads to other areas. If stuff spawned there either to fight or to steal reliably I'd be there more often.
Maybe add the 2 & 3 socket items to these areas instead of quests to start? Hate to create one of those server reset- rush to crypt X thing.
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I'm not a fan of "grinding" for xp, but I would like to see places that are more readily populated with hostile monsters that players can visit without a quest, per say.
If a section of the stormhorns isn't visited very often, have a new tribe of giants move in and set something up. The Deep hullack populated by orcs or spider-cultists, the underdark giving refuge to hostile drow encampments (Some Vhaerunian drow are very migratory, it makes sense to see them come and go). The opportunity to test your mettle against these transitory threats, and possibly gain access to rare scrolls, potion recipes, or a variety of magical items would all make for some great adventure, and give players the opportunity to create their own intrigue.
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Don't add too many areas. It lowers the chance to casually find someone else out exploring.
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The Goldfeather (?) plot put a lot of secret doors in the module that were awesome to find little mini dungeons dotted around the module. Any chance of putting some secret doors in that go to one room areas (like a desert) that are randomized like the haunted halls.
Anyway- my prior comments were made mostly thinking about the HHs and other crypt areas, not giant open spaces like deserts and mountains.
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the idea of the exploration of areas needs that they are new to you the player i think. so the redesign of hullack got lots of use as people wanted to see the depths that they didnt know.
i think the same applies with the new road north too, it is worth exploring just to find the corners!
i would suggest rearranging the map every now and again to keep it fresh, maybe changing the spawns that arrive slightly to according to 'season' etc.
That way the area is a constant but has attraction over time.
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1: I looooove the climbing,jumping,swimming features. While there are plenty in the module, I like seeing people show off their skills when they pole out a 10 foot pole to jump a long jump. Or more hostiles AROUND these features so that in certain situations, your only chance is to make an epic jump to safety.
2. I don't know about anyone else here, but I keep the NWN music on and listen to only that. Music gets me motivated in roleplaying out adventures. I think if you want to make the areas more interesting for people like me, pick better music scores!
3. I would -love- to see more island adventures or forest. I personally hate going underground all the time. Sea adventures and treks through the forest are always a plus for me. I would rather go to Immersea than the Haunted Halls anyway. Again, tis me.
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Any chance of creating (or changing) areas like the Haunted Halls to have a similar marker? It wouldn't check levels or necessarily give you a quest with XP at the end, but it would reset loot, monsters, traps, etc.
You just made a damn good suggestion. I can do these things.
Plus, it may encourage people to explore in groups. I'm really not a huge fan of solo exploration, I'd rather see people involve others. So now the first guy to rush the Halls to try to find the loot will discover the next group to come can still find some loot and get more XP at the end.
I may set it up so when you're done exploring, you get an XP boost (small but hey, XP!–and that boost is bigger the more people in your actual party).
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I like the Haunted Halls of Eveningstar, and I like Myeritar. Free-form dungeons to explore are fun for me. When I go to Eveningstar or Myeritar, I know I will find something different each time (which is why I prefer them over scripted quests, which can be boring after I have done them for the 100th time), but I know I will find something (which is why I prefer them over the wilderness, which I can explore for hours without encountering as much as a goblin). The free-form dungeons - Myeritar, especially - have everything I like; mystery, action, and danger…lots of danger. I would love for more dungeons to be added. I think it would be awesome if the risks and the rewards of the current dungeons were upped too.
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Oh hell yeah. Too bad the no one ever thought of this before. Glowers at the DM team
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I would respond in a well argumented fashion with quite a few ideas, but you made it sound like a school assignment or exam, so my motivation died.
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If a section of the stormhorns isn't visited very often, have a new tribe of giants move in and set something up. The Deep hullack populated by orcs or spider-cultists, the underdark giving refuge to hostile drow encampments (Some Vhaerunian drow are very migratory, it makes sense to see them come and go). The opportunity to test your mettle against these transitory threats, and possibly gain access to rare scrolls, potion recipes, or a variety of magical items would all make for some great adventure, and give players the opportunity to create their own intrigue.
I -HATE HATE HATE- it when areas vanish and new ones appear (unless as a result of some god-interfering plot). Why should a very large cave suddenly vanish? or a pass to mountains go away? or a swamp go away? it turns a "Persistent World" into "App of the Month PVP plot Arena".
Mammons suggestion to have "old" areas have new critters move in is a darn good one. Keep the LAND the same, just change whats there . Maybe have boulders block things (as has happened in sewers a bit ago) but keep the basic structure intact.
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I think it would be easy to explain changing the existing areas. The stormhorns you can visit are just one small part of the mountain range. So you just explain it by saying that you are going into different parts of the mountains. Or forests, or plains or whatever. The areas aren't representing the entirety of the areas around Arabel, just small parts of them. Lets see some of the different places.
I for one am a bit tired of seeing some of the same areas year after year and would love for some of them to be changed.
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Moloch, I LOVE exploring new areas. It gives me a sense of risk, adventure, and general feeling that the server is more alive. BUT, I've noticed it's next to impossible to get people to explore new areas, because, in general, the risk-reward ratio of questing vrs. random exploration is WAY skewed in favor of quests.
I'm so interested in drawing people away from quests and more into exploring, I've thought this very question over hundreds of times in my head. Unfortunately, each time I think of something, I realize it basically involves having a DM manually do something on each server reboot to "spice" random areas, and let's face it, that's just not really feasible.
The idea of adding random reagents to areas was great at first, but as people started to learn the locations of these reagents, they literally just always go back to the same places and only those places, and they do so REGULARLY.
I always thought it would be cool to have a "traveling merchant" in the DM "inventory," so that they could randomly place the merchant out somewhere people seldom explore (changing), and he could have some neat things to sell, should he ever be stumbled across by explorers.
I'd also like to have the DMs try to keep tabs on areas that aren't explored much, and try to develop more small scale plots to draw people to these areas, even if only for a short period of time. They could literally be one shot events, like a treasure hunt hosted by "Noble No-name." that isn't announced and pops up randomly, until the treasure is found.
To be selfishly honest, I'm sick of underdark areas. I like to keep underdark sparse, and not expansive. Dark areas in general bug me (I can't wait for you guys to turn back the daylight time changes to normal), partially because I find them less visually exciting, but partially because if I wanted to wander through perpetual darkness, I'd play on EfU or that other server that starts with an Are(lith).
Anyway, my 2 cents of obnoxiousness for the day.
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I agree with Ko-Ri-Us regarding the Underdark. I love to explore too, and the Underdark seems to be the most expansive area to explore. Unfortunately, I can't think of anything less exciting to look at for hours at a time than blackness and rocks. I wish the forests, hills, and mountains were as expansive. I still prefer dungeons the most, however.
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Expanding on Nikkos idea.
A hunting system.
A small chance that a npc will spawn in a wilderness area, with one of a dozen or so quest trees. Taking the quest from the npc will spawn a supped up critter somewhere close by that the player has to kill for a small gold and xp reward.
For example Mr Biggs spawns in the middle of hullack deeper, and he will pay eight hundred coins for the front paw of a Ancient Dire Badger that roams the Forrest. So off the adventurers go, they find that there Badger, cut through its 1000 hp using cunning and battle tactics, troop back to the npc and get their reward.
Mr Biggs might not spawn for the next three resets, or he might be there five in a row. No one knows, and suddenly theres things to do in the wilds. You might start off exploring for some artifact, and get drawn into helping a damsel in distress or breaking a witches curse.
Travelling merchants could be incorporated into this system, as could bards with interesting folklore about the surrounding area, fey creatures who give an insight into the workings of the forests, spirits haunting their place of murder, shafts of light that transport the party on weird planar adventurers.
I'm basically wondering if it would be awesome to move away from the traditional questing format for a while and see if its possible to create something more dynamic and shifting.