We had what I would call "big events" in CoX. The Rikti Invasion being the prototype example. It was advertized in advance, so everyone knew when it was going to happen, and so you'd try to be online when your friends and SG mates were to be there for it, for various reasons.
Looking at the "Bartle's Taxonomy" episodes of Extra Credits (it's on YouTube) gave me the idea of trying to design those with all four taxonomic types in mind. That is, to make them have an appeal for everyone.
1. Socializers: just having a big event in the first place is the biggest thing there for the Socializers (my group, primarily). I don;t think they need much of anything more to appeal to that group. Maybe occasional short lulls to let people talk and anticipate the next wave of fighting.
2. Achievers: the big events in CoX had a lot of stuff for the Achievers. Badges for defeating certain mob types that would only spawn during events, for example. I would always want to have this component in there.
3. Explorers: this is harder. Explorers want to essentially "map the game" and as such you'd want each event to have something new for the explorers to discover and/or figure out. Maybe it's a clue to the nature of the event itself, maybe it's a clue to so other content that's coming soon, maybe it's just a new thing that's different that nobody else noticed (Why are the invading ship Red this time? what does that mean? Maybe there's a way to find out.).
4. Killers: Some kind of PVP port where the big event happens on the PVP instance too and has dramatic effects on PVP in that zone. Maybe the invaders and the earth defense can be helped/attacked by the heroes/villains. Maybe you can unlock some kind of temporary buff/debuff for yourself if you help/defeat certain stuff. Maybe the whole zone is subject to various PVP-altering effects during the event (like "The Vanguard try to shut down Rikti telepathic powers by broadcasting a jamming signal, so certain powers are effected" etc
Some of this stuff was done in CoX, so a lot of what I'm saying isn't new. Does anyone else have any ideas for what could be done to enhance the events to make them have something that appeals to every broad category of player, so as to give them a near-universal appeal?
P.S. I know some badge hunters are like "Don't make the badges only available once" and I'm fine with that, but if every annual event is going to have, say, invaders, then you COULD have badges for defeating X number of invaders, I'm not against that.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
Going off on a slight tangent, this is how Wildstar dealt with this.
The 4 paths in Wildstar split (very roughly) into the 4 Bartle groups.
Settlers -> Socialisers
Scientist -> Achiever
Explorer -> Explorer
Warrior -> Killers
Now because you HAD to choose your path at character creation, it means that the Developers were able to design content that customised itself (to a small degree) to the player group makeup.
Now, in one of their zone events (R12 reactor), depending on your path, you had your own method of contributing to the event, to progress it. You didn't need an equal split of the paths, just that your path gave you a specific method of contributing. So the warriors would start up holdouts, the explorers would mark drop point areas... I have no idea on the Scientist/Settler part as I don't have a character that high wiht that path chosen.
And in the Malgrave trail adventure, the various paths of the players would give the caravan different buffs:
Soldiers will give caravan members rifles, letting them shoot enemies near them.
Scientists will increase the maximum health of the caravan members.
Settlers will increase the maximum amount of food, water, and feed that the caravan can store.
Explorers will decrease the fatigue the caravan suffers from, as well as make the caravan move faster.
The thing is, there is no "ideal" setup in terms of path for this... you can get the gold medal with 5 soldiers in theory.
And yes, I know that Wildstar doesn't do this enough for their content, but there is at least a framework for them to add more stuff to it.
Gangrel - I love paths. It really lets you focus on your preferred playstyle. It's something I hope to see CoT do post launch.
Many in my guild like to stand around and talk and as Settlers I think benefiting them with added RestXP (and more) is amazing. As someone who wants to sure to touch EVERY aspect of game lore for achievement is something i love.
Then when it comes to major events.. I like that i DONT have to do the playstyle I don't enjoy. I generally hate standing around to chat.. and hate (loathe really) movement puzzles.. so the idea that when a huge supervillain hits players have to complete some kind of maze or race .. I'm okay for Explorers needing to do that.. but I'd much rather go collect information needed to aide in the mission quest. I (as a scientist) do NOT want to feel obligated to do movement puzzles.. sure I'll do a few if someone shares them with me (so i can unlock the achievement lol) but I want to contribute MY way.
Expanding on a tangent here but I completely like setting up gameplay so that people can do what they love. Soloers gonna solo, Guilders gonna guild, Crafters gonna craft, etc.
Crowd Control Enthusiast
And for another tangent :P, the Bartle's Taxonomy has always confused me. I can never tell where I fit in.
I just always liked--and still like in other games but have a much harder time making it work than in CoH--to come up with a story for my character that is woven into the game lore, and then just play the game and dwell in the world "being" a part of the lore. I PUGed and played with RL friends a bit, explored a bit, and chased the few achievements that actually improved my character--but never did any of these intensely.
I just liked making up my own story and being part of the game's story by playing. Not even RPing, which I did very, very little of, just playing and enjoying the interaction between my story and the game story. And I knew of, and have heard on these forums of, quite a few who mostly did the same.
Does that make me a part of Bartle's Taxonomy that I just am not catching on to? I think maybe one of the unique things about CoH was that it made plenty of room for another category not listed there. People looking mainly for immersion in the story and the genre by telling their own story (their character) and then interacting with the world through gameplay.
Anywho, either that or I'm just missing something about ole Bartle.
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
I personally would say that many people are not one thing per se, but that the four groupings are sort of the base elements that all gamers can be made out of, in theory. Like the RGB pixel colors make up all the colors you can make in a computer monitor display. Just because the pixels only have red, green and blue as their constituent colors, that doesn't mean that each and every person must be either red or green or blue, we're all some amount Killer, Explorer, Achiever, and Socializer. Some of us are mostly one thing or maybe mostly two things and less or zero of the others, but it's a mix of ingredients, not a strict all or nothing proposition. The actual mix for a given person is subject to change over time too, as Bartle points out in the actual treatment of the subject.
If any of that made any sense, I'd say you probably are made of mostly Explorer and Achiever with a little less Socializer and very little Killer.
To respond to the "don't make me do stuff I don't like" comment, I think the trick is to have different parts of the event content and have them appeal to different people. That said, I'm not going to want to do event content that absolutely requires PVP or having THE BEST loot, etc.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
If the game noticed how many of the "non-essential" missions we completed instead of forcing us into ONE, i'd prefer that. I've often said in Wildstar I'd probably never do any of the Settler Quests or Explorer Quests if I didn't have to..
But every time I see a new plant or animal I want to scan it and whenever I pass the Soldier kiosk (when teamed .. because I'm a goddamn healer) I feel re-energized to kill something tough, especially when they come in waves.
When it came time for big events or raids just move the people with the highest skill point in a certain path and force (offer?) them into that role.
Crowd Control Enthusiast
events for pvp make boss show up in a raids or dungeons can summon NPC's or invaders (Killers)
whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster and when you look into the abyss, the abyss also look into you, -Friedrich
[img]http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm106/hinata1032/Kitsune.jpg[/img]
That is what I was thinking. Sure, it ain't PvP, but if there is way to hinder the "opposing" faction player base (not directly attacking though) via zone/event buff/debuff style.
ie capture control point: Opposing faction gets a -1% debuff on outgoing damage (or something like that).
I feel like the Explorers are the group that is most concerned with adding in new things to find or find out. Is it possible or reasonable to expect every year's annual Alien Invasion event to have something new or for them to have a common thread story-line that they follow? Like so the Explorers could somehow investigate the Alien Invasions in some way? Missions I guess, probably dailies, maybe dailies that only get added to the list of available dailies during a particular time of year, i.e. Invasion Season?
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
There is no harm in mixing it up a little bit each year. But what I would try to avoid doing is "one time only" rewards... so not even a case of "Only the valentines event gives you the opportunity of getting X/Y/Z costume piece" (as an example) but that it would be "Only the valentines event of 2015 gives you the opportunity of getting X/Y/Z costume piece".
So if anything, always try to add to the reward pool, never remove rewards from the event.
I think GW2 is pretty close to the mark for giving explorers something in their Seasons of content (think TV seasons not weather seasons) Basically they have a series of missions that are released that progress the world story, or some part of it. With guild wars these are substantial productions. I think it would be easier to do these in COT. The problem with timing it to major world events is that a similar event is expected every year, but how many times can you write new stories for the Winterlord and alien invasion and Zombie-apocalypse? Is it impossible? Absolutely not and it may very well be that the stories drive changes to the event that keep it fresh but also familiar.
Just like certain AT's have a more complex power system and thus get the fewest updates (due to the cost/benefit ratio) explorers fall into that same category. Explorers going to Explore and to give them something new to explore means content and places. This is why I've very much been a proponent of having a functioning "travel"port, be that air space or portal, that allows characters to see mission maps and even zones that are substantially different from "urban" or "forest" which accounted for 80% of COX. And looks to be 90% of COT. It's an easy story hook to connect two incredibly different landscapes. Without needing to throw up an impassable mountain range or build a whole continent with natural ecosystem fading.
As far as dynamic "Killer" content. Again GW2 provides some options. Each of their seasonal events features a unique arena with special seasonal powers. Snowball capture the flag in the winter and a modified version of tag for halloween (you tag someone by defeating them then they turn into a ghost and this continues till the final survivor is downed or time expires. Everyone gets points for their victories on both sides.) I could see a either of these events being quite popular in the COT setting. Even among non-pvp players. These events are about the only times I play pvp in GW2.
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i like your idea but my idea come from Looking Glass Knight boss - Dark Souls 2 here video link look at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3RPD10xSQs
whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster and when you look into the abyss, the abyss also look into you, -Friedrich
[img]http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm106/hinata1032/Kitsune.jpg[/img]
OMG Great Idea to me.. it brings me to what the devs talked about for mission acquisition.
Dailies based on "Path" are better (and allow for a bit of redundency, If we can make them level-less most especially (Like champions does for event missions with "Skeleton" level enemies) that'd be even better.
Reconnaissance - As an Explorer you can find a new path and keep improving on time. (timed, escort, and surveillance [watch a mark without drawing threat] missions)
Detective - As a Achiever you can go on a new scavenger hunt (collection, lore, and landmark missions)
Intimidation- As a Killer you can be asked to kill 100 henchmen maybe 40 villains or 15 supervillains maybe a specific openworld master villain (depending on mob density)
Schmooze - As a Socialite you need to win over NPCs (a favor mission, incognito missions, buying drinks, find a Confiedntial Informant)
These are all side missions that lead to an instance that has a boss fight inside it. Great for soloers and for teams you can get some kind of bonus to do them all before entering the mission. (some teams will want to do them ensemble, some teams will want to split up
Daily missions can be added with quite a bit of frequency to any particular map and just be added into the rotation. This is in essence what I do in Marvel Heroes daily. When it comes to big events you can just make event dailies that take a bit more to complete to unlock the event missions.
Its not revolutionary but what are your thoughts?
Crowd Control Enthusiast
PvP of this sort, especially with some kind of temp powers, would appeal to me. More so if a defeat results in being KO'd for a few seconds, or some such thing, so you can get right back into things after that little "time out". The temp powers would also put everyone on a mostly even playing field, allowing for potential advantages tertiary power sets or travel powers might provide.
If everyone progresses, win or lose, so much the better. In my view the focus for such events should be to encourage participation, not create a situation in which players prevent other players from being able to obtain rewards.
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That is why I actually like the Wildstar PvP stuff... even loosing you stand a chance of getting in your reward bag some good stuff.
Yes, being on the winning side gives you a greater/faster acquisition rate, but it is nothing that you cannot overcome just with time.
This is not counting PvP reward costumes for being at a certain ranking level (which is just mount flair for the PvP mount. The mount ITSELF is just a basic PvP currency cost. Its specific flair is linked to PvP rating and currency)
In terms of the "Two factions racing for the same goal" against each other, Wildstar does this as well... although depending on how often the event runs, you might find that there could be an "unofficial" "me first, then you" in terms of event swapping between the two factions.
This happened a little bit in Wildstar on my server. What it meant though was that (in theory) you wouldn't get trolled by the opposing faction. Sure, it happened a few times... but in the 50+ times I have ran it, it was just 2 or 3 times that it got screwed up. So minimal really.