Introduction to the FE Community

Datawight

Greetings all! I’ve been watching the board, and checking posts here linked from a friend. I’ve been following FE since I first heard about it about 11 months ago now.
Out of them all, this game has my hopes the highest and the drool flowing.

I thought a lot about what to post, and in the end decided to just introduce myself by selections of other posting I’ve done from various sources and places over the last year.

What follows is a very long post of ideas, thoughts, and rants about MMO’s over that time. I think it’ll sum up where I’m coming from, and my thoughts on the genre nicely.

I look forward to joining the community here and can’t wait for more FE goodness.

Once again sorry for the length, but hope you enjoy!

Zone line and Access Quests

Good game design shouldn't have to use this sort of band-aid. As a designer (or DM/GM) if I wanted my players to stay out of a area, I'd design it in such a way for it to be VERY hard for them to get in there without meeting certain reqs. Though they still could if they wanted to, and were smart about it. Heck, if they got in by being smart and crafty well before they should be there; I may even reward them for it in some manner.

If I want to unlock zones, I'll go play a console game; thanks.

Difference between true questing and errand running.

I have no issues with having this sort of thing in game(in fact I enjoy them alot), but let us not call them "quests". What they should be called is "tasks" or "errands". They are fun, they are a learning tool, but they're pretty mundane. A quest shouldn't be straight forward mundane. It should entail that your going for something out of the norm, something that 95% of the other people in the world have never found or haven't been able to achieve.. thus you're "questing" for it. You quest for the Holy Grail, the Sword of King Arthur, the finger bone of Saint X. You run "errands" for the local shop keeper, or help the city watch out for a shift by doing a "task".

One of the big hurdles is breaking the 3rd gen barrier. I think a step in the right direction is linked into actual and true questing. You can have your tasks, jobs, assignments, etc., but a quest is a completely different beast.

First I don't think a quest should be one step. I think a quest should be many many steps, that happen throughout a period of time. Each step is a mini adventure in itself, but is still part of the overall whole.

The big thing that truly sets a quest apart (for me) from all the other types? A quest changes the world in some manner. Completing a quest should change or update the lore of the world, and the player completing that quest should be linked to those changes in some manner.

If Brok finds the Long Lost Sword of Tuarial, the Sword of Tuarial is no longer lost and is no longer available to be found. To take this further lets say the sword is cursed and Brok finds himself slowly losing faction over time, but gaining other faction. Brok now is given the option to start questing for information on why the sword is cursed and how. After he finds that information he may even be given the option to give a task out to another player(s) to help him rid himself or the sword of the curse. Which in turn could be something as simple as going to a wizard in the Land of La La and buying a scroll, or could entail another quest involving more people.

I don't know if I explained that very well, but I hope you get the idea of what I'm going for. A quest should involve rewards, items, steps over time to complete, but mainly should effect/change the world in some manner. It should be something that once complete, the player should have a great sense of accomplishment and reward. The player should also feel special in knowing that there isn't 100 to 1000 other "special" players who've "accomplished" the same exact thing.

Rant on EQ2

This is just MY opinion and how I see things from my very jaded eyes.

SOE has been on my s***list for a long time now. They've shown over and over again that they don't care about their customers, just keep spending your money on their crap.

SOE also has a track record for releasing incomplete games, that never seem to actually get to what they promised from the start. Then I get the privilege to pay for them to keep fixing things that should have been taken care of before it went gold.

While I have no issue paying for a game, then later purchasing a expansion for it; this only works with games that don't require a fee to pay. EQ2 is asking 50/80 bucks for the game then 15 bucks a month. Call me silly, but I thought the 15 bucks a month was supposed to cover the bandwidth fees AND the further development of the game. Seeing as how I'm paying 10 bucks to 30 bucks for expansions, I guess that isn't actually the case now is it? The question I feel needs addressed is: So where does the profit stop and customer consideration begin? SOE seems to have a screw the customer, rape the profit attitude of 99% of big businesses out there.
I remember them saying something along the lines of its how movies work, and you pay extra/more for the sequel, same thing goes with online games. Really!? Since when have I had to pay over and over again a monthly fee to see that movie or the sequel. I pay to see it in the theater, I may pay to buy the dvd; but once I buy that dvd I can watch it over and over and over again with no more money out of my pocket. So that analogy doesn't work in my book.

Now as for EQ2 itself, everything else set aside.. I ask, what is so new, dynamic, and 3rd generation about it. Lets break it down (my perceptions).

Instanced Dungeons - AO has them and has from its start.

Quest system and setup - DAOC had that same setup in its infant state. EQ2 just took it and went hog wild with it after they flushed it out. Quests themselves seem pretty pointless though. When I Quest for something, I want to feel special after having done so. Most the 'quests' I've seen in EQ2 are what I would consider "Tasks" from DAOC. Something you do to earn money, or gain influence; something fairly mundane that a adventurer would do on a off day.

Combat skills - Nothing new here really...

Shields and such on backs - DAOC has it, think others have as well...

The con system -Its a good bit different then what’s out there, but still not earth shattering.

Graphics - It sure looks purdy! Eye candy is just that, eye candy. Give me cool things like being able to actually climb walls, texture changing and color changing cloths and armor, and cloaks over eye candy any day. It is almost top of the line though, I'll give them that.

The HO wheel - not a truly new idea when it comes down to it. The basics for it where in DAOC with its tiered combat styles building up to better styles. Instead of having it as a basic tier setup, they have it as a wheel setup that represents the same tiered structure. Even the team taking advantage of others HO stuff gets its basics from DAOC's combat skill setup. You don't have to believe this, you don't even have to agree; but if you've played DAOC think about the similarities for a bit.

AI - may or may not be as good as they claim, to me it looks like many mobs are still pretty stupid (from watching a friend play). *shrug*

Trade skills - Well, what they had setup sounded pretty cool. What they have now is a trade skill setup much like AC1 with a pop-a-mole to complete. So instead of just dealing with the repetitive nature, carrying around a ton of resources, and finding those resources, I get to do all that with a twist and possible death (I've learned alot of trades in my 35 years, haven't died while doing so yet..) .. and still have to level as a adventurer to do it.

The website front-end to your character stats - Hmm, while being very nice it still isn't a new idea. AO has a similar setup, they just never flushed it out. EQ2 just took what AO started, combined in elements of Magelo from EQ, and put a new face on it. Great idea really, but not something that'll change my mind on whether or not I buy the game.

I could go on and on, but lets face it.. there really isn't that much about EQ2 thats completely new. Its mostly old hat with a new face and maybe a tweak or two. They call this 3rd gen?! Pardon me, but I still have yet to see a 3rd gen game. This is simply the continued tweaking of the 2nd gen line of games. Alot of companies are doing the same thing; while trying to get their cut of the pie. I don't mind that, though it does get tiring. Just don't try and glitz and glam it into something that its not.
I'm personally tired of cookie cutter/tweaked RTS and FPS games, and have basically stopped playing them. I'm about at the same point with MMOs. What I want is a 3rd gen MMO.. Till I get it, I don't think any game is going to take as much money out of my pocket as EQ did.

SOE has always been a PR king, and if they say it enough, everyone seems to believe it.

Speaking of PR, one last thing that bugs the heck out of me. They keep saying Seamless World. What!? You have zones and zone lines, and level reqs on some of those zones. Zone line = seam. Every time I have to zone or can't access a zone, that's a seam in my book. A seamless world has little or no seams. Only game to come close to a truly seamless world is AC1, where the only time you zoned was for dungeons. I guess seamless only applies to background and setting, but umm maybe not.. flying carpets?

In this same boat is Dynamics. What's so dynamic about having the same quest available day in and day out, with new quests and content only being added after a patch and a lengthy amount of time to develop that content. Dynamic entails fluid and constantly changing. If a mob spawns in the same spot over and over, that's not very dynamic in my book. The characters may be dynamic to the player playing it, but when it comes down to it Wizard X and Wizard Y are almost exactly the same. I don't think there's a game out there that can truthfully lay claim to being Truly Dynamic(tm).

So here's to SOE, EQ2, and its 3rd Gen, 800lbs Gorilla, Seamless(tm), Dynamic(tm) game.
"Don't believe the hype!"

So if you haven't played alot of AC, DAOC, EQ, and AO I guess EQ2 will seem pretty new and cool to you. I've played them all, alot. Doesn't seem so new and exciting to me. Which is most likely the reason SOE is so heavy handed about people comparing EQ2 to other games.

Tired of paying these companies for what would be considered lemons or unfinished products in any other industry.

Fellowship Questing – Not guild raiding.

You know some of the better quests in AC are set up along these lines and I LOVED them. Everyone did the small parts of the quest either solo or as a group till you or the whole group had the set of items needed for the big part of the quest. This sometimes took weeks to do. Then one guild or other, or some nice person would call a raid for the main part of the quest and help get everyone to it and through it. Sometimes it took multiple large groups in different spots in the dungeon to get a door open, then a big rush to the end encounter area for the big fight which while not lasting very long and being fairly chaotic, was fun and usually everyone got to help kill something. Then the quest would complete through whatever manner and EVERYONE that did the little parts before hand got the BIG UBER item at the end. Even the people who had nothing (this was me the on my first time) still got something that was pretty cool and useful.

I would really like to see more quests done in this manner. It is by far , hands down, the most non frustrating and fun sense of accomplishment I've ever had related to any quest(s) ever. Getting my epic in EQ, was a great sense of accomplishment... BUT it was frustrating, often boring, and alot of times just no fun.

*edit* Forgot to mention my character didn't need the item, or even want it alot of the time. Next step was getting the item activated, which usually involved a trade skill or a combine with another item from a similar quest setup. I just sold or gave away the unactivated item if I didn't want it. It really did leave alot of options open, and I never heard one person saying they felt left out.

Giving life to NPCs

The original concept I had of this was for you casual players or even your hardcore players who at the time just didn't have enough time to make it worth their while to try play, and still runs into the same issues basically. The concept was to allow each account a monster login option. When you log in and hit the monster login, you are logged into to a random server and a random non-named and unimportant monster. Your options are very limited to what you can do, but for a short period of time you can basically run this monster within a very set and defined set of parameters. If done right, it could add a whole new element to the genre. Like I said though, it may be just a pipe dream; but I sure like the idea.

Giving world areas meaning to a class

I'll see if I can help Fozzik get his point across. I think I understand what he's saying and I basically agree with him. I do have to say though, that I never have liked the fact that most MMORPS are built around a 6 person group, and it's set in stone. I'd like to see a MMOG built with like a 8 or even 10 person group in mind, or being able to link two groups and form a band.

As for Fozzik's idea.. hmmm lets look at it from the view points of two different groups and their function and encounters in a area/zone called the Thornwood.

Group A - Cleric, Shaman, Wizard, Fighter, Rogue, Paladin.

Group B - Wizard, Fighter, Rogue, Ranger, Druid, Bard.

The Thornwood is a plush, old, prehistoric, jungle area where many of the vegetation have thorns to protect its fruits. It’s a place of almost out of time and in some ways mystical in its feeling/nature. From previous groups being in the area you know this jungle has a couple unique elements. These are, that if a Druid is present everyone feels a sense of peacefulness and players have noticed an increased regen rate while in the jungle. In fact, there are some areas that, without a Druid, the foliage and its thorns continually do damage to everyone in the area. The other more important factor is that the foliage tends to move around, or creates illusions that obscure paths. It’s very very easy to go in and wander in circles. With a Ranger along using their Pathfinding/Tracking ability, this doesn't happen.

In a place such as this Group B is going to end up doing just as well if not significantly better then Group A. Yet Group A can still hunt there and gain XP, but Group B will be able to so to a much higher extent.

Maybe a even better example would be a in town encounter. Rogues have access to the "thieves' highway" (the rooftops), bribes, pickpockets, have seedy contacts, etc. Cities are their bread and butter. In city encounters its makes more sense to have a Rogue or two along then it does to have a Ranger in those slots.

I think this is what Fozzik is getting at. Areas/content within the world lend themselves naturally to certain classes' abilities. In current MMOGs, the only thing that comes close to this is Druids in EQ not being able to use certain spells indoors. Take that basic concept and broaden it.

Rangers tracking works just as well in cities, dungeons, and outdoors (In current MMORPGs) as anywhere else. In Fozzik's world Rangers would track really well in the outdoors, fairly well in dungeons, but have little or no success in a city. In a city you'd hire a Rogue to shadow someone instead.

To sum it up, the content is mostly generic to all classes and their abilities; in current MMORPGs. In Fozzik's world, you'd be making certain content more specific. Its something GMs for pen and paper gaming do all the time, but it really hasn't moved into the MMOG realms yet. It’s differently something I'd like to see!]

Making a 3rd Gen DYNAMIC Game

I like exploring, I like adventuring - usually with a group. I like soloing just as much. I want my actions to mean something other then another level, some loot, and maybe faction if the game has it. Most of all I want new content, on going, and not every 6 months in a expansion. Once again I'll point to AC for this. The graphics may have been poor, and it had other issues, but hands down no other game can touch it for the sheer VAST amounts of content they added on a regular basis... and it didn't cost me a dime I might add.

No other game has given me the OMG! WTH happened here.. wow, wow, wow, must explore, find out what happened.. adventure and do quests to do so. The best "event" like that was in AC when I logged out for a time, came back in an realized I needed reagents so made a run to Arwic to resupply.. I had just been there a couple hours ago. I got there and flipped out! The town was leveled, a meteor had struck. No patch, it just happened. Part of the strenght of their streaming content setup. I was giddy with excitement, and spent almost a week running around and doing quests and talking to npc's to find out the whole story. THAT is what I want in a game, THAT is the type of stuff I expect in a 3rd gen game. This is what's missing in almost every other game out there.

There's a whole lot more that'll I'd like to see in a game, but that's what being a dynamic game means to me. This is also the most important thing, in my book.

Some other things I'd like to see -

A combo of DAOC and WOW's combat. Those two games have had the most fun combat to date. There's elements in each that with some tweaking and additions, would make a great combat system. I'm not much of a one for key spam or hit a key and read a book. (WOW grouping issues set aside)
**The FPS setup in FE has be drooling**

I really like what EQ2 did with the housing setup. Talents and extras changes to be made to a character as you progress are a big plus, but wish more companies would figure out a way to add in the level of changes you could get with AO's setup. Armor, weapons, skill points, stats, AND cyberware. I want control over how my character is set up. I don't want X int, X str, and X sta every level as a given.

Tradeskills, ok.. I don't mind if they are somewhat a pain to get the materials for. What I do mind is the stupid concept that I should have to be near a bank, have 75% of my pack space and bank full of tradeskills stuff, and have to make trips back and forth between the bank and the tradeskill area to do said trade skills. That's a bit too much of a pain in the arse for me. Is it so hard to give me a shop, or how about cart or mule to carry this stuff or store my tradeskill stuff in. Sure I'd have to buy said shop, cart, or mule..

Why I’ve been game hopping

I stopped playing my rogue in WoW at 52nd level, played a Priest to 30th and closed the account. My rogue was the character I loved to play, but my build was basically complete at that point and it was pretty insane. After the honeymoon phase got over from being nasty in PvE, I lost interest in him. I tried to raid, but just couldn't make the time my guild or buddies were raiding at. I'd seen just about every zone in game save some of the raid only stuff, and there was nothing else of interest in game for me. Came back a few months later and played the priest up to 60th, then raided for a month a few days and got insanely bored with the repetition.

It’s been that way in a fair amount of the games I've played. I'm not too much of a alt person; I tend to find something I love to play and play only it. I'm a explorer type, but that only lasts so long really. I see raids as mainly being a time sink and don't consider them much fun.

I love developing a character, but quickly lose interest if its just upgrades of spells/skills I already have with one "cool" spell/skill tossed in for flavor. I tend to get bored with trade skills very quickly.. either due to the stupid repetition or the fact that it involves so much pack space its a chore to deal with.

In the past I stuck around just to keep in touch with friends, but we have our own forums now and having a visual chat isn't worth the monthly fee.

So until I find a game that keeps throwing me something to develop beyond a stat add or increase to spell/skill and keeps the content and new areas to explore coming.. I'll just play them till I lose interest and move on.

Last, but not least.. I’m sick and tired of fantasy and elves..

Sadly it doesn't even bother me any more...

FE has me thinking AC in terms of their content addons with what they’ve said so far
about their quick and easy content addition setup from the ground up.

Healer doesn’t have to equal 1 key spam heal bot.

There's one idea of a healer that I've always loved.
Healer - The Healer has a much higher regen then other classes, as they level this regen increases. The regen can either be magical based or more like a monk self awareness of the body based. The healer uses his/her knowledge of anatomy and magic to form a mystical link between him/herself and the target(s). As the targets take damage, part or all of that damage is transferred to the Healer which is then regen'd through their innate increased regen enough to keep the healer alive . As the Healer progresses they gain spells that increase their regen and do a standard heal to themselves mainly and to others secondary. These heals address the rest of the built up damage that the regen can't take care of(helps prevent botting a bit).
Through their knowledge of the body and the mystical they can increase the density of the skin to provide extra protection against damage. In this same manner they can boost the bodies immune system of their friends and party members.

Essence Mage - Is a mystical healer of sorts. Their magic focuses on the transference of existing life essence(s). Their spells allow them to take life essence away from creatures, themselves, or even other party members and transfer that essence to someone who's been harmed. All beings have a source of mana/power within them, even if they can't use it themselves. A Essence Mage can tap that power source for you, with your consent (being in the party) and heal others with it, heal the person they gained it from, or do such things as create a heal loop that converts the mana/power not being used by the target to health. Some of the spells in their line up allow for greater increased hit points to the target.

This is just a couple examples of a class that could still fill the same roll as a cleric, but in a much different manner. In some ways I think they are truer to what a real Healer concept over a cleric.

There's so many ways to do things differently, its just a manner of seeing them. Instead of focusing on what’s out there already, how about coming up with some cool new concepts to discuss? I know my concepts have holes when it comes to a mmorpg, and I expect them to be pointed out. Its part of the flushing out of those concepts, and I won't take offense. Its all good.

All bars get tossed out the window for a group. Nobody else has any bars that monitor anyone else at all. The only person who sees bars of any sort are the people playing their characters.
At first level a healer type class gets a skill or spell - Assess Wounds. This spell/skill allows them to see a brief outline of the target in varying shades of colors from a healthy blue to a near death dark red going in to black. We'll call this a Life Aura. At this stage the Life Aura view is only of the target, and line of sight. Any caster type gets the same thing save for power.

Heals work like they normally do up till about 20th or so. At that point a new spell/skill is given called Maintain Wound Assessment, that allows the caster to see the life aura of everyone within line of sight for a set, longish duration. While maintaining, if the caster takes any damage they lose the sight. All higher level heals, being that wounds are so drastic require the Wound Assessment sight in order for the healer to cast them.

In DAOC and in some other games, stamina is what is used by the fighters to get off combat abilities, attacks, shield blocks, and special feats. I like the whole concept alot, and it seemed to work well in DAOC. It also limited the amount of higher end damage a fighter could put out before they played out. Just like casting for a mage and mana.

Blackmoor and I started talking about all of this and a light came on. What would happen if you gave all fighter classes say 25% more stamina then the rest of the classes, and their fighting was set up in and based off of stamina setup. Now on top of this ALL healing takes away from the target's stamina pool. Casters and such, this wouldn't hurt much at all, but for fighters stamina is important. No stamina = no higher damage/fancy moves.

Clerical heals would be the best of all healing classes since their heals take away a smaller amount of stamina, BUT their large heals would take away enough stamina to cut into the fighters combat abilities. Making the truly big heals something that would need some consideration before use.

Shaman and Druid heals would have a higher base hit to the targets stamina, BUT their regen and wards would have a very small hit to stamina. Shaman, Druids, and Bards also get a stamina regen and a stamina heal, but this regen and heal should NEVER be over what would normally be used by a same level range fighter for his/hers normal attack sets.

At any point in time there is a max value that any one target can be healed for health or stamina. There's only so much the body can take, and magic overcome.

sinoth

Datawight, you have some good ideas about the general state of MMOs but I'm not sure if some of your suggestions would work in a real world environment.

Global Quests: Having one person get the Long Lost Sword of Tuaria would be great fun.. if you're that one person. Imagine the other thousands of players that get left out of this unique quest line. If you have a system where players can change the lore, then I think you have to add a degree of danger to it. For example, the player who has the Lost Sword would be flagged PvP all the time, and other players were constantly hunting him for the sword. Without this kind of danger to the special player, everyone else gets left out.

Raid system: It sounds like a good idea to have everyone in a raid get the unique item at the end of the battle, but I don't think this is good for player economy or balance. All you'd have to do is get a decent group of players together, then start inviting random people till you hit the raid limit. Lets say you have 50 people doing a quest, and all 50 people get this special item. Suddenly the market gets flooded with this item and the uniqueness/rareness of the item drops. Its more harsh, but I think I'm still partial to the one boss - one item system most current MMOs use.

Different areas useful to different classes: Great idea, I support this 100%. Although, I don't think we should use the word "classes", because honestly... what usual class besides a Ranger would have an advantage in some environment? I mean, a warrior or mage just don't seem specific to any sort of climate. Instead, we should focus on FE's gene altering system. For example, splicing a snow wolf's DNA with your own would allow for combat bonuses in cold environments, while splicing with something like an alligator could allow bonuses in wet environments. This kind of immersion would be excellent.

Giving life to NPCs and dynamic quests: Icarus seems to be hitting these two areas hard. We have learned they are creating tools specifically for easy quest creation, which is a definite plus. Also, well scripted NPCs (with voiceovers!) seem to be high on their priority list as well.

Above all, I think what current MMOs are lacking is immersion. EQ2 has pretty graphics, and WoW plays well, but I don't feel like I'm -in- the world they portray. Icarus is trying to improve immersion through detail to sound, temporarily deformable environments, and intelligent NPCs. These improvements would be great, and who knows what else they have up their sleeves

Blackmoor

The global quests- I like the ideas and would also add to them. Make it so that item has to be used or else it finds a new owner. So it doesn't just end up being a trophy to haul out and show people. Or if the quest for it is not done in a certain amount of time it also moves on.

Raiding - Data got one thing wrong about the AC1 raids/quests. Once you got the raid/quest reward it was soulbound. So flooding the market was not a problem with it. Once you did the pre req quests and gathered the items needed for it you only had to do the raid once. It balanced out in a couple of ways to other types of raiding. The pre req stuff took a good amount of time to do so unless you were very lucky it was fairly comparable to time spent raiding for drops. The items you recievied were based on your skill level. So no getting a sword meant for someone 5x your ability and being able to use it because the items all had skill reqs. Also a lot of the items were set up so you could quest to upgrade them as you gained skill, so they could stay with you instead of just being a throw away once it got to weak.

As to them not staying unique or rare ,, no more so than in any other game where instead of doing lengthy pre req stuff you instead just camp the mobs for ages and after a time a good portion of the players have it anyway. Some of the AC raids also had like 7 day spawn mobs so you couldn't do it night after night after night. It was just much more fun running the raid once ( or more if you wanted to help others out) and moving on to another quest than camping raid dungeons for months for a full set of gear.

The diffferent abilities for different areas/regions. Well that all depends on how in depth you want to go. Fire being more potent in hot and arid areas than it is in wet ,damp, cold areas( too wet fire may not even work). Melee fighting being hampered because of mud, snow ,ice if you are not wearing the right footwear. Or being hampered because your weapon is too large to use to its fullest in small areas. Ranged users not being as effective if they don't have the gear or the skills to deal with rain or smoke or fog or wind. There are quite a few things that can be done in that area. As to the time and effort to do it vs the gameplay rewards i can't even guess.

Now on to immersion, the slayer of almost every game i have played. Its one thing to enter a game world and lose yourself in an area ,, too bad you move one direction for a bit and hit a zone wall or some mountain range boxing you in. Or when you play the game for a few months and realize that nothing ever changes in the world. Not the seasons , not the mob spawns , not the weather in any significant way, not the quests , or the towns etc.

AC1 did immersion right in many ways. We used to just pick a direction and that was our adventure for a night of playing. Just keep going till we hit an ocean or something else of interest we wanted to check out. The seasons changed , the world had holidays , new quests , new landscape features , places destroyed etc. There was always something to look forward to each month, and when i explored i never felt that the world was barren because there were places and critters everywhere. When you have box zones , whether the transistion is seamless or not (WOW VS EQ) it kills immersion, as does having a world that never changes or seems more barren than alive.

Datawight

Here's how a Global Quest could work in a FE setting.

Games been live for 3 months, a content addition is made real time. Certain NPCs start reporting that they heard of a mutant band with a new weapon and they've taken over a old factory in the northern free territories. A band of reclaimers were in the area, and only one of them made it back to tell the tale. Following the info back to the last reclaimer finds him in a outpost being taken care of by the people there. After talking to him you find out that it sounds like that band of mutants got their hands on a old high tech weapon.

At this point the weaponsmith in the outposts gets your attention and you talk to him. He offers a nice money reward to be able to study the weapon if you can retrieve it.

You gather up some friends or head there solo, adventure insues and you come back successful in retrieving the weapon after a long, nasty, running fight in the old factory.

The Weaponsmith takes the weapon studies it for a period of time, maybe even dismantles it, makes notes, and gives it back to you.

The person that did this quest now has a one of a kind unique item within the game world. It has a unique look, some very nice stats, and doesn't require ammo.

The weaponsmith figures out how to make a similar weapon with similar effects, but just not as good of stat adds and it takes some form of ammo. The tech and knowledge just hasn't come back enough to recreate the power source. Now anyone can buy the weapon from him, but he only has like 3 a week world time due to the fact they take so long to make. He also sells the plans for the gun to any tradeskillers - weaponsmith capable of making that skill of item.

One person gets a unique quest based item, 3 people a week can buy the current tech version, and all weaponsmiths now have a new item they can make from their tradeskills - allowing more people to get the weapon if they want.

3 different levels of content addition, a unique item, and everyone basically being able to get in on the cool loot. Its just one example, and it may be easier to discuss then implement. If a games setup for that sort of content addition from the start with that type of item and knowledge disurpsement though.. it just may be doable.

Great thing is it leaves a opening for more content in the future.. 10 months later more tech has been found and knowledge levels have increased. You receive a message from the weapon smith saying he thinks he can now make the power source for the gun as well if you or someone else could retrieve this thing he's heard about in the twisted lands.. if its actually what he thinks it is..

Adventure, retrieve, bring back, he studies and now theres a new gun that can be made that doesn't need ammo. In studying the item you brought back, the NPC turns a flag on that signals for a new unique quest to start.. he thinks there's a old tech pda somewhere in that area judging by this power source. A week goes by and the content is added, allowing everyone including the gun owner a chance at something else.

It needs work, but I think you get the idea.. 8)

Delgado

Holy Crap that was a long read. Skimmed through it briefly and I like what I read. Nice write up dude. Will comment when Im not so baked...

jlan26

I really enjoyed the read.... excellent points and ideas!

Some other things that I think about is CTF type quests.  Items that, once found, have posession time constraints in which you must return the item to someone.  These items could be part of a quest chain that led you to a weapon or something like a rare resource.  Upon posessing the item, opposing rumor quests become available to investigate/interrogate/take you down and retrieve it for the opposition.  You can enlist help.  If you succeed, then you and your party are rewarded and the others have failed.

I like concepts like this and Datawight's global quest elaboration for a method of unlocking technologies.  It could not have a PVP aspect if needed... where NPC squads head out to hunt you down or  mix it up NPC/PVP both come after you and anyone helping.

 

Calmar

i have ADD, can i get a 3 sentence summary?

Blackmoor

Summary

Get some Adderall or Ritalin.

Blackmoor

Summary

Get some Adderall or Ritalin.