That...covers most of the basics, doesn't it?
Hm...
...I'd say things to do with exploration, then. Especially given Pantheon's climbing mechanic. I'm not talking Breath of the Wild here, but there's definitely room for a lot of exploration skill and content and that would do well with Pantheon. Leveraging both the climbing mechanic and the perception mechanic ("You notice a small crack in the cliff face that seems to have air rushing through, as if there might be a passage behind it...") could have some interesting things out in the world to find, from little places that grant access to stellar views to hiden troves of random zoneloot treasures and such, depending on how far you wanted to go with it. (EDIT: Oh, and lore. Maybe rare chance, but imagine finding some old tablet or scrolls with lore. :D Or I guess spell upgrade components or whatnot, depending on if THOSE systems are still in the game. I never really played it, but I think FFXI had some spell tomes/scrolls to learn abilities from drop from mobs or rare chests, and it's been a WHILE but I think WoW did that a looooong time ago in Vanilla where you found some of the most powerful spell ranks - before they removed ranks, anyway - from drops in ancient libraries and raids and such. Basically, this sort of mechanic lends itself to kind of whatever you want to do with it... :ENDEDIT)
It would also serve to give that feeling of Pantheon being a world instead of a themepark, especially if there was some element of randomness to the spawns (e.g. so people don't just go to "PantheonHead" and look up all the exact locations to go and find things.)
That's just the first thing that comes to mind.
I was thinking pets/mounts type stuff, but those could fall under crafting/harvesting, and housing itself covers a lot. Not to mention exploration feeds into the Bartle player types rather well if done decently.
Some kind of diplomacy skill/system. Something that allows players to become "official" representatives of any given faction. Most games I've tried that implement those kinds of systems fall flat because either the factions themselves are more or less meaningless, or the rewards for focusing on one or a few factions in particular don't have any real impact on the players and how they interact with one another.
The importance of factions and reputation have been hinted at in the last few streams. I think a system that allows players to identify with one or another, with tangible benefits and consequences, would add another layer of depth to Pantheon's current systems.
To go along with what @Renathras said... Collectibles!
EQ2 had this great system where you could find little shiny points out in the world (random spawn) and interact with them to find a rare bug, flower, piece of local history, sea shell etc. Each zone had it's own group of collections. It really rewarded you for looking around at your surroundings and searching around corners.
I feel like it would be a great thing to tie into the Perception system. You only notice the little collecctibles if you succeed on a Perception check. Completing collections could give you a little Perception XP or a bonus to Perception as a reward, as well as other things like decorations for your house.
I enjoyed the Collection system as well, if we had an exploring reward for zones I'd be pretty pumped.
One of the best parts of the system was that it gave me an excuse to run around zones I had out leveled, showing off my equipment and powers to the noobs.
But it also meant I got more time to spend in my favorite zones and it wasnt a complete waste of the time.
Collectibles in the EQ2 sense. I loved collecting.
Deeds in the LOTRO sense - rewards for having explored a certain number of places in the world or an area, or having killed a certain number of certain types of enemies etc. By rewards I mean things that will not unbalance the game - titles or a piece of cosmetic gear, or even real gear that is not any better that you can get rountinely in the game.
What about religion choices and religion itself? It seems pretty abandoned these days. Usually not much is done in this area. I mean the game is called Pantheon after all.
Kilsin said:Community Debate - Other than your usual Combat, Crafting/Harvesting, Housing, Diplomacy etc. what is a skill or sphere you think would do well in an MMORPG like Pantheon and why? #MMORPG #CommunityMatters
Haggling and bartering with NPCs.
A Vanguard-esque type of Diplomacy systemtied into the faction system where the intent is to dramatically, and permanently, through various ever-increasily difficult tasks, adjust your fation standings to gain access to otherwise unobtainable crafting recipies, quests, armors, items, spells.
IMO:
Systems with tangible progression that affects the character and/or guild and/or world.
Religion, Lore (many types), Politics, Worship, Sacrifice, Charity, Luring, Distraction, Tempting, Planar/Dimensional Communication/Sight/Exploration, ...
and for Crafting/Harvesting:
Lapidary, Woodcrafting, Leathercrafting, Metallurgy, Heraldry, Bonecrafting, Many types/materials of/for: carving, engraving, inlays.
Prospecting, Surveying, Hydrology, Gemology, Gem Cutting, Stone Shaping, Geology, Chemistry, Potions, Biology, Skinning, Butchery,
Farming, Animal Husbandry, Cooking, Baking, Veterinary, Taming, Carpentry, Cabinet Making, Furniture Making, Shipbuilding,
Spelunking, Climbing, Navigation, Mining, Fletching, Trapping, Swimming, Fishing, more.
Any in game material, organic or non-organic should be able to be adjusted, manipulated, grown, harvested, or similar. The rest is just movement and client-server interactions.
Any part of the world should be interactable in all non-combat progression loops. Many, some or all loops could have many, none or some events, items, or interactions with other loops.
Many MUDs have skills, spheres, and/or loops that interact well with other loops or stand on their own, as a means of tangible player progression.
What you're approaching (whether you know it or not) is that there are incredibly detailed frameworks (such as DnD or Pathfinder) that already have much of this design work done, or are very easy to extend. :)
Nimryl said:What about religion choices and religion itself? It seems pretty abandoned these days. Usually not much is done in this area. I mean the game is called Pantheon after all.
I thought about bringing that up since it adds a ton of roleplay identity in EQ, but with the way the lore and world is built into Pantheon I dont really see how this would be setup without feeling duct taped on.
If they did add it in though I'd be happy.
Gintoki88 said:I thought about bringing that up since it adds a ton of roleplay identity in EQ, but with the way the lore and world is built into Pantheon I dont really see how this would be setup without feeling duct taped on.
If they did add it in though I'd be happy.
Quest Master. Being able to lodge your own quests on a town board. Perhaps something simple like kill x bears in the surrounding area, or return an item, or perhaps more involved such as fighting through a dungeon without dying.
I used to do these back in EQ in the newbie areas and it was heaps of fun.
Something to engage the community and instill some rp.
Not really a new game system, but I would like to see the mastery system really fleshed out to include many opportunities to earn extra abilities and bonuses at higher levels. Some of these might be class specific, but I would also love to see some masteries that anyone could earn in order to customize their characters abilities in small ways that don't detract from their overall class identity, like little health/stat increases and quirky but useful combat and utility abilities. Also think it would be great for some of those masteries to be race-based.
Duels where each opponent either chooses what goes on their opponent's LAS bar or eliminates a number of abilities from being added to the LAS for the duel. A duel only begins if/when both players agree upon the predetermined restrictions. During the selection period, opponents can offer to return an ability or two for one of their own, bartering for certain advantages. Sort of a different take on the Ability Draft from Dota 2. Also, horse racing and jousting. Each of these would offer the community a way to engage with one another while testing their skills without the threat of experience loss. If I mained one class and took pride in it, but then took a 6 month break from the game, I might want to see how rusty I was before joining a pug or raid. Yes, I could go out into the world and solo, but I might also want to learn by dueling a friend, who claims to now be better than me at my favorite class, especially if changes had been made to that class. He/she has even agreed to put themself at a disadvantage just to prove their point.
I would like to see a way to Improve the guild thru a leveling process (guild quests/crafting/achievements etc.) that allows the guild to have quality of life (higher percentage of crafting success, more coin drop, faster regen, teleport flag, buff increses, larger guild hall etc.)
A few ideas from another MMO I played last year with a great community(Project Gorgon):
1. Cooking. This skill takes a really long time to master. You increase your level by combining ingredients into a pot/stove. Ingredients can be farmed, bought or dropped by mobs, and can be hard to come by in the upper levels. The resulting food will give buffs for X amount of time.
2. Guild Quests that require you to kill certain mobs, complete a dungeon, collect or make certain food, or other difficult tasks that require a group or more to complete. This leads to guild points that can be spent on various guild member buffs in crafting, bargaining, building, etc.
3. Farming. This skill increases with use and ingredients become harder to find or more expensive as your level goes up. You can then sell the crops or use them to boost your cooking skill and make better food.
4. Infusing armor and weapons. Items that are dropped by mobs or salvidged from armor by a skilled smith can be infused into existing armor for permanent buffs. There is risk involved if skill checks are failed.
Interesting skill system had Shroud of the Avatar https://sotawiki.net/sota/Skills
Examples of skills:
Taming
Safe Fall - taking reduced damage from falls (leveled by falling from hights)
Additionaly I like when increasing skill unlocks perks when reaching certain levels of it - like mastering 'jumping" unlocks double jump
I like to see the following.
- Cartography - maps or the ability to create tradeable maps.
- Discovery - for exploration type of player
- Collection - for collection quest type of player
- Research - for crafting type of player
In general these types of broad spectrum skill types.
Sneak - I know rogues have their special class ability of effectively invis sneak, but I like the idea of general sneak skill. Try to get the warrior in plate to skirt past a patrol, perhaps with the rogue throwing a rock, providing a distraction because sneak would need to avoid a frontal cone of detection. It is a great trope from D&D that MMOs lack. So many MMOs are built around training your way wherever you want to go, virtually no mobs able to stop you. I would love to turn that on its head and make pulling a mob a great danger. Outside of main roads and large open areas players wouldn't want to be on mounts due to the risk. Players would need to reduce agro range and sneak/kill through zones. This would also fit in nicely with trying to overhear conversations in game.
Languages - EQ had a horrible amount of grind for languages, but I feel like languages offer a great deal of verisimilitude. Learn them from lore books, watch plays, talk to NPCs, overhear conversations, etc please no yell spamming sessions to learn 30 languages. Learning languages could be more like quests / perception based flags.
First Aid - Both for players to use out of combat as well as for injured NPCs that could use help. Gain faction, quest hooks, NPC allies, etc by saving their lives. End up double crossed by a bandit who stabs you as you kneel down to help him with bandages in hand. Did you save the life of the deer a tiger was trying to feed on? The forest's Dryad approved.
I saw some people say languages and religion/worship which would be really cool. I remember each race having a different language in eq1 and while I dont think a ton of people used the feature it was still cool and added to the game, I think it could probably be improved upon as well to affect the perception system. Like if there were signs in a city with a known language it could ping an event, since you'd be able to read what it said. Worship/religion I dont feel is used very much either nowadays and since this is Pantheon then it could be a great system to have and would tie in well with the faction system and possibly even the perception system if influence changed by zone.
Also, I think sailing could be a cool feature for down the road. Maybe when expansions start to come out.
