New Areas to Explore: The Discourse
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Isn't that why those points of interest were added in? I mean, sure it's only a one time XP reward, but they're still pretty cool.
As a druid, I tend to roam a lot. As long as you're careful, the reward is always greater than the risk.
With low wisdom characters, though, I suppose this could be a problem. With low wisdom, your character might not know when a challenge looks like too much. So…That idea about the randomly spawning NPC would be nifty.
At the same time, that idea would only work with people who played characters who don't mind killing forest critters for gold. As I RP a peaceful druid who tends to stealth around and run away from animals she doesn't want to hurt, this can be problematic. Maybe something like a hill giant or other big meanie would work better.
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back to Nikkos area entrance idea, and taking haunted halls as an example.
At the entrance of the halls there is a quest marker with a minimum party of three, taking this quest resets critters and loot.
All areas of the halls are still accessible.
If another group arrives and attempts to reset the area, they are presented with the message "footfalls have disturbed the dust ahead. Clearly someone has not long passed"
They are unable to reset the loot untill the first party ends their quest.
If they decide to transition deeper into the halls, the quest is flagged as failed in their journal, making them unable to reset the spawns for that reset.
However, the option is still there for them to press on, to loot the place before the other party, to steal the items from them and to create various conflict and pvp scenarios.
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Oooooh? Now that sounds like an awsome idea! Exploration, conflict, and intrigue, all in one!? ♥
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@Cunning:
back to Nikkos area entrance idea, and taking haunted halls as an example.
At the entrance of the halls there is a quest marker with a minimum party of three, taking this quest resets critters and loot.
All areas of the halls are still accessible.
If another group arrives and attempts to reset the area, they are presented with the message "footfalls have disturbed the dust ahead. Clearly someone has not long passed"
They are unable to reset the loot untill the first party ends their quest.
If they decide to transition deeper into the halls, the quest is flagged as failed in their journal, making them unable to reset the spawns for that reset.
However, the option is still there for them to press on, to loot the place before the other party, to steal the items from them and to create various conflict and pvp scenarios.
Dont make it fail the quest for them, or people will look at the 'footfalls' dialog and leave, or worse….wait there, then go in once the others are out. Just dont make it reset the loot yet.
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This "reset-script" could just as well be placed on a transition (door or portal) as on an object you must "talk" to, and it could also check the party size to make sure noone goes in there alone. That would also do away with the problem with loone PCs sneaking or going invisible to these places just to loot the places where they know they can find reagents.
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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".
This is my view on it also.
But that said i think the core should be kept the same if you wanted to add islands thats easy done as you can change them when you want to just have the boats going somwhere else.
Adding area's to the mountains etc..you can always tack on a map to an existing one for awhile then remove it later after a landslide or somthing that opens parts to explore but keeps the core intact. -
"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. " CS
There was once a quest in Eveningstar that the merchant spawned a delivery recipient NPC in a random area. It was your basic FedEx quest but had a random element. I'm not sure if there were issues with this quest or the random element.
Expanding of CS's idea of an NPC who spawned a sort of boss critter somewhere in the module. Add a ranger option to the dialog or to the tracking scripts that would give you info like, "tracks of the boss-critter lead to the north". I also wouldn't necessarily put it "near-by".
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@Cunning:
Expanding on Nikkos idea.
…as could bards with interesting folklore about the surrounding area, fey creatures who give an insight into the workings of the forests...
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.
I like the idea of encountering random NPC's who can give you insight into the areas your characters are exploring. I would love to play a scholarly character and learn all I can about the areas from these NPC's. Plus, I feel like adding history to the areas would make them feel more alive.
Also, the idea of moving away from the traditional questing format to something more dynamic sounds way, way, way awesome to me.
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@Eddie:
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.
I agree with this. Quests just feel like a run through the mall at times you know what your gonna face you know what your gonna get at the end and you know the exact linear path you must take to get there. Some quests have gotten alot better at this offering optional explorable areas. Could use more of these I think though.