I have proposed a system of stats that would have no crafting or chest system system. One of the features of a crafting/chest system is that i turns the whole map into a giant easter egg hunt. Players stop moving from mob to mob, and they start peaking into corners and looking for these goodies. So what would cause players to stop and smell the roses in AJSB world? People watching of course! While moving from zone and mission to zone and mission, players would carefully watch crowds of civilians for extremely rare characters. Approaching and pressing the interact button would unlock the civilian in the hero's people watching tab. Completing a large amount of these would give XP bonuses, lair items, costumes, titles, or any combination of the above. Here are some examples of rare civilians:
1. Nun being followed by 12 school children in single file
2. A construction worker talking to an Indian and a cop
3. A silver skinned robot dancer (could also have the mini game of dancing against him)
4. A guy with a tail peaking out from his suit jacket
5. A big foot lawyer
6. A Shakespearean theater troupe
7. Two guys in bright pink body suits playing ultimate frisby
8. Hover car
9. Girl with alien dog
10. Boy with pet ostrich
11. Crocodile dundee type guy
12. Person who floats, not walking
13. Business man wearing tiara for no reason
14. Anthropomorphic wolf serving hot dogs
You get the idea. This system would make the world much more interesting to look at instead of having 5 different civilian types who walk in circles.
What do you think?
An NPC Easter Egg Hunt.
I like having multiple options to progress, rare objects and events sprinkled about the game being one of my favorite features (I'm a sucker for good ol' ambiance). I don't think completely eliminating a crafting or chest system is a viable idea in an MMO. Finding an "egg" shouldn't always grant a "reward", rather sometimes just serve as a nice piece of ambiance.
To expand on the idea, what if you could also watch an NPCs actions that would subtly hint a secret place.
"You spot a suspicious figure walking toward a dead-end alleyway and doesn't return. Upon curiosity you discover a door hidden behind a dumpster in that alley. Enter, and you find an underground black market. You can make purchases here - however it may alter your alignment."
"You notice a child climbing a tree. You inspect the tree and find a little tree house. Nothing fancy - just a feel-good piece of the game to go 'dawwww'."
"There is a building that won't just let anyone in - unless you say the password. Watch as members enter the building, listen to what they say, in order to obtain the password to enter."
I like where you're going with this, Folly!
Spurn all ye kindle.
I can go for more stuff to do in the open world... rewards you with actual stuff that you can use in the game world...
side note: In wildstar I have found a "ghost character" in some of the low level zones... apparently she pops up later on in the game for some reason or another... Not sure yet, but she was NOT easy to find.
Being rewarded for exploring is always good, and why I am going to be playing the explorer and scientist path in WildStar....
Love the idea of unusual NPCs, and unique situations scattered around the world. CoH had a person wandering the streets that would pop up all over the place, kind of a Beetlejuice lookin' guy. Oscar or something? Anyone remember that? DCUO has the occasional generic, chubby SpandexGuy standing around posing for pictures. It would be neat if interacting with these rare characters might affect your alignment, if nothing else. Like encouraging the newbie hero, or mocking him.
And being able to follow "suspicious" characters to interesting things/places would be great. Especially if they yielded some little reward, like a temp power or a mission lead. Say, you break up a dice game in an alley, and one of the bad guys gives up a mission lead so that you'll let him off with a warning. If you're a villain, he tells you that he's "connected" and you can take it up with his boss.
Another "Explorer" type badge might be specific symbols or artifacts located around certain areas. Heroes: Find all of the Gang Sign Graffiti in a zone and you get a unique mission with the gang. Villains: FInd all of the Security Cameras in a zone and get a temp power that lowers police response time. Things like that.
Now that's one thing that games don't do quite enough for my taste: recurring characters. Someone you meet at one point -- who may or may not be involved in an important activity at the time -- whom you then meet again much later and learn something that links up the two appearances. I especially like this if the first meeting is rather innocuous but the later meeting adds a whole dimension of meaning that casts the first meeting a new light. For example, as part of a kidnap mission one of the hostages you rescue thanks you but acts just slightly odd, or there's something about their appearance that is unique -- maybe he/she has a limp or a stammer or something. Then, much later in the game you're following an arc with a shady mastermind behind the plot who turns out in the final reveal to be the person you rescued when you were a lowbie. Maybe this person is trying to get revenge for being kidnapped, or because you let someone die in the original mission, or maybe he/she was a villain all along and was originally scoping out an area for a crime when he/she got caught up in the kidnap. You get the idea.
Tough part is making sure, with so many paths to follow, that a character has played the first arc or else the second won't make much sense.
Spurn all ye kindle.
Which is why in WoW style games that have different starting zones, I will go around and do all the zone content that I can do... just to learn as much as I can without having to resort to using Wikis and the like.
CoX had the problem in that although I could use Oroborus to do it, there was no way for me to do *part* of something, and then go and do something else, and then return to where I left off with the story arc I was doing in Oroborus.
The Unreal engine is pretty amazing at NPC pathing. If there's a "ambient scene developer" he could have alot of fun in U4.. but I don't think players will necessarily want to know the distinction of civilians seen throughout the city.. but it could be fun. I know in CO my character had a relationship with a little known NPC and it worked..
But again I suspect CoT civilians and NPCs to follow a standard programming that can be easily replicated without much need for individual coding.
Crowd Control Enthusiast