Post#15 » 18 Apr, 2017 3:11 am

So right off the bat I want to state what I think really draws people in to repop: The feeling of exploration. This feeling often comes with a purpose, but it is still there. You explore combat, crafting, and especially the world. The way you make this exploration meaningful is capitalizing on uniqueness. ABT started this with the different zones, but really taking this an extra step in a few different ways really sells it. The most important part of exploration is that feeling of wonder or finding an easter egg/hidden/little known location. I will flesh out the different areas below with this focus in mind.



The second thing to keep in mind is that the reward should be worth the effort. I see this in single target quests where I have to kill a miniboss/boss and get 50 credits or where a ‘meh’ node is guarded by a horde of mubarks. I am ok with a powerful den spawning on resource nodes, but want that node to be worth the effort of calling over a friend to get to it.



Both of these opening two paragraphs I would consider extremely high priority



Zones(High Priority): Currently there are a lot of mountains that, as I understand it, are put in because the zones have not been fully developed. I would love some more zone-specific themes. Coloring, lighting, ambient noise, non-interactive plant life, and especially NPCs and quests that demand you interact with this zone's uniqueness and rewards based on the time spent. A simple example of this is in SWG. On Tatooine you would occasionally get nasty sand storms with wide open plains, but when you wandered into an area that looked different it almost always meant something interesting. Whether it was a fort full of sandmen, krayt canyon or jabba's palace. Switch to Dathorimir and you get much more mountainous terrain, heavily populated areas, nastier enemies, rain and darkness and different sounds, but even more rewards due to the higher difficulty. Lastly I would love to see quirks randomly pop up or certain high value resources move or become more difficult if a nearby den spawns.



zone summary: Atmosphere and unique settings/quirks-Highly Important

Unique quests that highlight the territory’s uniqueness and help the feeling of exploration-Medium Importance



Node placement(High Priority is the risk/reward for nodes being better balanced): I like the current setup mostly. I like the idea of being able to trade your time to harvest resources. I think that harvester nodes should be somewhat predictable(no plants in dry regions etc). I think harvester nodes should be in high demand, but require lots of travel and exploration to find them and that to find/harvest them often you will have to fight to get to them. I think that there should be higher risk zones reflected by both creatures and PvP and possibly add in a dynamic element, like the zones that get low traffic get a medium time-based increase to quality for every amount of time since somebody has visited the region, etc. I also think that having ‘treasure chest’ spawns would be fantastic. Like nodes that have a den spawn on them increase their quality as the den grows tougher and having several guaranteed minimum A0 resource and harvestable nodes in dungeons where you can’t just ride in to get them but have to clear parts of them.



Outposts(Medium Priority): I like the idea of outposts, but think there should be at least a few high difficulty high reward zones where if you die you have to drive all the way back in again. You could give players one movable cloning location besides the big allied nearby towns allowing them to somewhat save their progress and force them to become friendly with different outposts to unlock this ‘save point’.



PVP areas(Medium priority...this would help with endgame some): As others have stated a more obvious warning so people kind of panic. Also, I think that 30% of the regions should be PvP with scaling difficulty of mobs as well to the point where you have drake and mubark infested region with by far the best average resources, but you need a group of 3+ people to even try to clear it.



NPCs(Medium-high Priority): Obvious tweaks and more hidden/epic questlines. I have quests turned off right now because of all the spam I was getting. I like how the underground quests are set up and I think quests should also give a decent chunk of skilling up. There are some animal handling quests where you have to hunt down lingmaa babies that are rare except for 1-2 way out of the way regions, but the rewards don’t match that effort it takes. Same in crafting. Animal handling is a pain to level and has no way to grind it effectively, having skill ups in crafting and animal handling from quests like this where the skill ups are proportional to the effort would help players want quests and to prioritize them and their interaction with NPCs. Similarly having NPCs start talking about the bounty placed on a den as dens grow bigger and bigger and encouraging people to group up to wipe them out for a hefty paycheck would be cool.



Combat(Low-Medium Priority): It would be nice if each different weapon type had more of an unique feel for it. Like a further 20% difference than it is now with small differences but by and large similar(like blunted and unarmed having many similar skills) etc. Please please please switch shields to a chance to skill up on hitting an enemy. It takes so long to skill up shields compared to dual/2 handed wielding because of this.



Bestiary/Survival(Low Priority): Make it clearer what bonuses increased knowledge gives and let it open a bestiary page that as you learn more about a creature it shows its HP, resistances, damage type, moves, etc



Crafting(Medium-High Priority): I think crafting is a fascinating and appealing part of the game. I would like to see crafting made more useful for newer/starting players with simple beginning recipes that give nice little rewards(like health packs or a simple 3 component robot that has infinite summons but is pretty weak). As they get further into the crafting class the more complex it becomes. Lastly, the way that grinding works feels odd. At least in cooking and pharma often the components for the epic recipes only require simple. I think that as the end result becomes complex/arduous that the components should too(but with a lower cap), which would help it be less of a grind and more of a natural increase.

“This is insanity!"

"No this is scholarship!”-Brandon Sanderson Words of Radiance

“It’s not a lie,” Shallan said, “if everyone understands and knows what it means.”

“Mm. Those are some of the best lies.”

― Brandon Sanderson, Way of Kings