Curse

Zhou Feng · Apr 27, 2006, 09:59 PM // 21:59

A Compilation of the several PvE related ideas seen as of late, hopefully some of these might be or can be useful:

Rework Favor System

The current Favor system doesn't seem to be viable for most players. Therefore it is suggested that Favor works in a diffrent way. Perhaps Favor should be reworked in the following way:

PvP- Favor gains accelearted Faction and Fame gains. While Favor is active it also opens up Elite PvP Maps such as 12 vs 12.

PvE- Characters can enter the UW/FoW areas in the following way, all of these are just suggestions. Some or all could be considered:

a) Entrance can be achieved by using up 1000 Balthazar's Faction Points (Idea contributed by Trin).

b) Characters can undertake some Dynamic Epic Quest that grants the Mark of Gods which allows free entrance to UW/FoW for a limited time.

c) Characters can pay a pricey fee to enter UW/Fow without need of undertaking Quests or using up Balthazar's Factions for those who do not wish to PvP at all.

Farming Issues

Farming should be a viable and reasonable practice. Both Solo and Team Farming should be equally rewarding. However the issue is 24/7 Farming may and can ruin the Economy as stated by Anet themselves. Therefore a sort of regulation should be undertaken to limit farming but not do it impossible. Current suggestions are:

- Make Quests be more rewarding. By making Quests give out random but uncommon to rare rewards, people will actually have a reason to engage in other activities other then just Farming.

- Cooldown rate for both Solo and Team Farming. This affects the Account as a whole. The more the characters spend in an area the less good drops the Account will earn in a whole for all Characters in that account.

- More Dynamic Map Instancing to make Farming challenging and rewarding.

- Perhaps rotate the current demand on market by creating overabundance of uncommon salvage items and scarcity of common ones(?)

PvE Missions

The current Missions are pretty good. But once done they become seriously lacking. Suggestions are the following:

- Mission sub-arcs/sub-quests that affect the Story Line so when the person plays it depending on their actions the story can be altered to reflect past actions taken. This will make playing Story Missions more Dynamic and interesting even if its your 200th time play through.

- Non Story based Missions with a dynamic random factor. These missions will have interesting Tie In Quests that may span various Map Instances. These Missions should offer random uncommon to rare rewards to make it an incentive to actually do these quests as well as perhaps honorary titles for doing epic type quests.

- Live Real Time Mission Events sparked by perhaps Anet hand picked "role players" who can make use of existing or random generated NPCs (READ Old man, Strange Woman) to start a Mission for uber rewards for a limited time (READ During a certain alloted time not more then a day) for players to enjoy.

PvE Mini Games

This has been seen in some MMORPGs like Runescape. They should be not only fun but should have to do with Guild Wars. Mini Games could be capture Mythical Beasts or Defend the Outpost from Charr Scavengers. Many ideas where contributed by actionjack. Some of these Mini Games could be uber but fun quests with funky rewards (READ actionjacks Fun Collectibles ideas)

PvE Collectibles as seen by actionjack

This game could benefit from having collectible items such as cards, badges and such that players can gain from combat, completing missions and quests and mini games and/or other activities. These collectibles have no in real game purpose (READ they have no affect on combat, skills, health, etc. and are mostly for show/bragging rights) unless you'd want to make an in Guild War Collectible Card Game or Tabletop Game (I propose an idea like this but it didnt garner much response)

PvE Dynamic AI

Currently the enemy and henchman AI is quite... umm... lacking and perhaps unreal. Although there is nothing wrong with the current AoE AI (Just snare them just like we would do in PvP :P) it is still really not smart enough to present a challenge. Perhaps give mobs governing AI characteristics which will determine how they will act given by:

-Mind, which controls how they act in combat. Are they dumb brutes who wont retreat even in the face off AoE plowing onward? Or smart shrewd cunning fellows who employ tactics like kiting, hit and run, etc.?

-Heart, which determines how the creatures hold up their morale. Are they brave because they have many numbers? Or because they have a healer?

-Temper, which determines how a creature mantains it "cool" in combat. Do they go berserk quick? Or keep cool and collected even in face of danger?

-Perhaps have mobs be more dynamic in their skillbar sets so they can be less predictable such as having dual professions.

- Have mobs/henchmen be smarter and try to deal with hexes/conditions on them as quickly as possible if able and/or their mob/henchmen healer(s) takes care of them.

- Having more dynamic mobs can solve the issue of feeling like mobs after mobs are thrown at the player with lack of any strategy, just sheer numbers trying to steam roll the players (although I favor that certain creatures do make use of this tactic. For example Goblins would rely on sheer number because otherwise they are too stupid and under skilled.) This makes the game be more fresh to play with rather then become stale and boring "meeting the same mobs over and over again".

- Have henchmans act accordingly to their class. No healer that goes in to fight when he/she should heal.

Henchman Control Menu

- A menu that allows a Player to adjust the Henchmans AI and give out commands like Hold Position, Defend Member, Etc. This menu might also allow to set some governing general strategy for the henchman to take such as Cast Support Spells, Defend Members, Tank for Team, Interrupt Enemies, Energize Casters (READ Battery Necro), Concentrate On Healing, etc. as seen on some of the latest RPGs (considerably the Tales of use this a lot)

Dynamic Henchman Customisation

- Ability to customize henchmans further by choosing their skillbars from a range of skills.

- Perhaps take in consideration actionjack's idea of Henchman out of the town/outpost instances.

LFG Menu

- A menu in Towns/Outposts that when oppened allows to see each players within this current instance: It will show their names, their level, their profession, their interest (Exploring, Questing, Farming) and for what Quest or Map area they seek a group for (LFG Goblin King Quest, LFG Farm FoW, LFG Explore North Kryta) The tags to fill up the LFG part would be:
LFG "Player add text here" Quest
LFG Farm "Player add text here"
LFG Explore "Player add text here"

People can use this same menu to switch their current tab of interest. So if it was on Farming they can just switch it to Questing or Exploring.

NPC Private Trader

- An NPC trader to which players can take their "valuable" stuff, set them up for the NPC Trader to sell them and put a price. There is no cost to retrieve the item, but if sold players get paid only 90% of the profits while the merchant charges 10% for his/her service. Players can browse through the available items which have the name of their current owners tagged just in case players wish to further discuss negotiations. Players can see either their wares set up for trade or other players wares to trade for. This would reduce the hassle of players looking for people to buy their wares. Still if you want full 100% profits you can use the trade market chat, you stingy you :P.

actionjack · Apr 27, 2006, 10:18 PM // 22:18

can you put that in a Journal form?

lightblade · Apr 27, 2006, 11:23 PM // 23:23

Hmmmm you AI suggestion is just too hard to implement.

It take too much time for little improvement.

Zhou Feng · Apr 27, 2006, 11:58 PM // 23:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by lightblade

Hmmmm you AI suggestion is just too hard to implement.

It take too much time for little improvement.

Maybe it is hard but not by much. Im taking this very same class in Computer Programming. AI is actually a "trick" foir want of better terms because at the moment AI is basically a more advanced pattern that recognizes more actions in game:

Computer Mob with Mind 5 can recognize that horrible Backfire
Computer Mob with Mind 5 AND Heart 2 can also recognize Backfire but "scared" of what it might do it wont cast
Computer Mob with Mind 2 AND Heart 3 might not recognize Backfire but after losing X life when casting spells it will stop due to something wrong it will renew casting spells after Y time.
Computer Mob with Mind 3 might recognize it but wont know how to remove it or deal with it
Computer Mob with Heart 3 will run whever AoE is casted on it
Computer Mob with Heart 5 wont run from AoE unless its health is below 50%
Computer Mob with Heart 5 AND Temper 2 wont run at all from AoE effects unless its health is below 35%
Computer Mob with Mind 5 AND Temper 5 AND Heart 3 will remain in the back line, avoiding unneccesary confrontation with player, but remain "calm" under fire-> "calm" as in doing what it can to the best of its abilities but if it goes down 50% life it will try to escape and then regroup later.
Computer Mob with Temper 3 AND Mind 5 will "berserk" you but will "know" what attack skills to best use on you

This are just fictious examples mind you.

The thing is by giving the computer mobs a bit more "complexity patterns" to deal with situations but not just every mob is suddenly Einstein mind you the game is more diverse.
In essence Mind for smart or stupid from really smart to really stupid
Heart for brave or coward from really brave (perhaps foolishly brave with low mind) to really cowardly and easily demoralized (needs large numbers of foe to be brave)
Temper for calm or enraged from really calm and collected (does the best it can) to really enraged (berserker types might not even use their skills correctly)

calamitykell · Apr 28, 2006, 02:00 AM // 02:00

Canthan mobs recognize Backfire. I know this because EVERYTIME I cast it on something, they cancel any spell they were casting, and stop casting.