I was playing WoW tonight and went to ironforge and was wondering around a little. Near the great forge, there is a room with Massive iron-clad doors and some NPCs inside.
I noticed a passage near one of those doors and it took me down a Long corridor that wound down and down, deep into the bowls with spider webs and torches along the walls...
The corridor finally opens into an area I had never seen before, large cauldrons of fire scattered about, and steps leading up to more steps going up, or a narrow passage sprialing back down.
I went down first. It curved around many times, I could see more below me as I traveled. I finally get to the bottom of this mysterious place and I see two path leading to what appeared to be door ways at first.
When I get to the end of each of these passage ways, There is a guard at one, and nothing but a fire at the other. They did NOTHING.
I went back up. then climbed the stairs I passed by before going allllllll the way down to the bottom, for Nothing.
I get to the top and there are these MASSIVE spells books, and more regular tombs upon the two book shelves and a table and an NPC.
You could right click the NPC and he has a little two paragraph thing you could read. .... that was it.
All that work, all those graphics, for Nothing. You couldn't read any of the books, the passages went nowhere.
In Pantheon, can you please give us reasons to explore. I would have loved to been able to interact with this area I found in some way. I immediately thought, this would be a great place for perception to kick in and have to Do something, anything. Read a book, turn a page in the 6' tombs, move a crystal to expose something hidden.
WoW has a LOT of this in the game. You can go in nearly every building you see, but once inside. its just to see a little game art and walk out and never go back again.
Will Pantheon have anything fun or creative they plan to add to structures to give players a reason to want to go inside?
I loved the look of the area I found tonight, and loves the art (graphics) the way the crystals sparkled in the stone walls etc. and the Lava's bright contrast to an otherwise dark area.
I will try to attach a few pics so you can see the area.
Do you guys also go inside every single place you find along the way? Do you get disappointed when you go in, and its just there for looks? Just curious how others thought about this part of the game.
It doesn't always have to be something that wants to kill you. Maybe be able to click on an NPC and get some lore. Or info that may lead you to a quest or a journey etc.
Maybe have some books that if clicked on, would allow you to read them and would give you the a piece to a spell upgrade. or if the area was pretty well hidden, you might even discover a rare spell.
You shouldn't ALWAYS have to kill something to get something. The effort of exploration and carefully looking around could be the reward. I am not talking about freebies just laying on the ground all the time. Just an occasional little perk for exploring. it doesn't always have to be perception related either. It could just be, hey, look what you found!
opinions? wants? thoughts?
it will only let me attach one phot per post, here is another.
This is a great example of an MMO that isn't thinking ahead.
If we know our Bartle, then there are 4 spheres of focus for player types: (1) Explorers (2) Achievers (3) Socialisers (4) Killers. These above are fantastic examples of what could be done to enhance 2-3 of these areas with little effort or overhead, while additionally providing future-proofing.
A. The items should have been clickable/'perceptible'. Some should have had (1) simple information, some (2) Lore information and some (3) hooks to 'perception'/quests or 'ready for later stuff'.
1. Simple information could describe the book, perhaps give its author or topic. (this can be used later)
2. Lore information could be hints and info... some PCs may get more out of it than others.... depenedent on many factors, such as perception, INT or other things.
3. These hooks will be used later when a quest, say, refers to 'The poisonous root mentioned by Callaxis N'Doris' as an ingredient. Re-reading this book (or if you took notes) would have mention of this guy's name and a list of chapters - one of which was on poisonous roots. Going back would then allow the perception system to now show information on the roots (a passage of text) which would allow you to identify the particular root needed.
B. The area could end in a sealed door, or some such. Perhaps a deep deep well. This would be used for later content, but provides hints and information now.
C. This is the kind of place that may have (rare) NPC mentors wandering from time to time. They would not spawn here, but travel here occassionally to refer to the texts. A skilled tracker may be able to work out that 'somebody stayed here about a week ago. They were of humanoid size and, possiobly, smoked a pipe'. By making judgements on recurrence (say monthly) they could encounter the travelling Sage. He may have important information , skills, quests, or just be a placeholder for later ones.
These are great opportunities for games to ensure they have existing lore and hooks with which to attach future quests and lore.
Think about this:
You wandered round. You read a (fragment of a) few of the books... one of them you could not read! You got the message:
'Though the text is perfectly legible, this book is written in a language you are unfamiliar with. It sems to resemble Elvish, but you cannot tell any more than that'.
Would you not now go find a friend who has (high skil at) the Elven language. See if you can convince him to come along down to these depths and try to read the book. What information might it present? What if it turned out to be an ancient combination of HIgh Elven *and* Dark Elven. Now we need to find a trustworthy Dark Elf....
... and so the adventure continues!
I wasn't familiar with Bartle, but did read up on it and took the test. I am an SEAK, although I expected to be ESAK (my S & E were very close, anyway).
So, this type of topic is right up my alley.....or, rather "down" my alley.
I agree that it seems like a waste to have so much design and imagery for no purpose. WOW was bad that way - you could see a lot but not "go there". A lot of facades without substance.
On the other hand, it is very important to not get bogged down trying to make a purpose and reason for everything. Thnik about the real world: as you walk down the street you never pause to figure out the backstory or reason behind a bucket on the side of the road. It's just there. Yes, there is some story behind it, but its unimportant. What's more important is that it adds flavor and immersion to the world around you.
So, I agree, make the world a fun place to explore. I love finding places and things simply by exploring. But leave a lot of it as unsolvable mysteries. Let our subconscious fill in the missing blanks and try to imagine whats the story behind this.
Last one. This is a really good shot because of coloring, the way it twists around and without much influence from the lava brightness. In the above examples, something that could have made it all worth it: getting to the door and seeing ancient writings on the door or around the doorway area that you couldn't read, maybe be able to pull out a name etc.
Games can do so much with so little. Good post Evoras.
Fazool, yes, when you are walking down the road and see a bucket, you do not stop to ask why its there.... But if you are in the area looking to buy a house, and the house you look at has a "secret" tunnel that can be accessed from your basement and it leads around to an area that looks like something straight out of Book of Secrets (the movie), you would probably ask Why it was there....
That's not getting bogged down, that's wondering why the heck the house you want to buy has an ancient Tomb under it. Completely different than the bucket on the street...
Evoras said:This is a great example of an MMO that isn't thinking ahead.
If we know our Bartle, then there are 4 spheres of focus for player types: (1) Explorers (2) Achievers (3) Socialisers (4) Killers. These above are fantastic examples of what could be done to enhance 2-3 of these areas with little effort or overhead, while additionally providing future-proofing.
A. The items should have been clickable/'perceptible'. Some should have had (1) simple information, some (2) Lore information and some (3) hooks to 'perception'/quests or 'ready for later stuff'.
1. Simple information could describe the book, perhaps give its author or topic. (this can be used later)
2. Lore information could be hints and info... some PCs may get more out of it than others.... depenedent on many factors, such as perception, INT or other things.
3. These hooks will be used later when a quest, say, refers to 'The poisonous root mentioned by Callaxis N'Doris' as an ingredient. Re-reading this book (or if you took notes) would have mention of this guy's name and a list of chapters - one of which was on poisonous roots. Going back would then allow the perception system to now show information on the roots (a passage of text) which would allow you to identify the particular root needed.
B. The area could end in a sealed door, or some such. Perhaps a deep deep well. This would be used for later content, but provides hints and information now.
C. This is the kind of place that may have (rare) NPC mentors wandering from time to time. They would not spawn here, but travel here occassionally to refer to the texts. A skilled tracker may be able to work out that 'somebody stayed here about a week ago. They were of humanoid size and, possiobly, smoked a pipe'. By making judgements on recurrence (say monthly) they could encounter the travelling Sage. He may have important information , skills, quests, or just be a placeholder for later ones.
These are great opportunities for games to ensure they have existing lore and hooks with which to attach future quests and lore.
Think about this:
You wandered round. You read a (fragment of a) few of the books... one of them you could not read! You got the message:
'Though the text is perfectly legible, this book is written in a language you are unfamiliar with. It sems to resemble Elvish, but you cannot tell any more than that'.
Would you not now go find a friend who has (high skil at) the Elven language. See if you can convince him to come along down to these depths and try to read the book. What information might it present? What if it turned out to be an ancient combination of HIgh Elven *and* Dark Elven. Now we need to find a trustworthy Dark Elf....
... and so the adventure continues!
Nailed it! I love it when people actual get what the game is supposed to be about.
Ox
Oxillion said:Evoras said:This is a great example of an MMO that isn't thinking ahead.
If we know our Bartle, then there are 4 spheres of focus for player types: (1) Explorers (2) Achievers (3) Socialisers (4) Killers. These above are fantastic examples of what could be done to enhance 2-3 of these areas with little effort or overhead, while additionally providing future-proofing.
A. The items should have been clickable/'perceptible'. Some should have had (1) simple information, some (2) Lore information and some (3) hooks to 'perception'/quests or 'ready for later stuff'.
1. Simple information could describe the book, perhaps give its author or topic. (this can be used later)
2. Lore information could be hints and info... some PCs may get more out of it than others.... depenedent on many factors, such as perception, INT or other things.
3. These hooks will be used later when a quest, say, refers to 'The poisonous root mentioned by Callaxis N'Doris' as an ingredient. Re-reading this book (or if you took notes) would have mention of this guy's name and a list of chapters - one of which was on poisonous roots. Going back would then allow the perception system to now show information on the roots (a passage of text) which would allow you to identify the particular root needed.
B. The area could end in a sealed door, or some such. Perhaps a deep deep well. This would be used for later content, but provides hints and information now.
C. This is the kind of place that may have (rare) NPC mentors wandering from time to time. They would not spawn here, but travel here occassionally to refer to the texts. A skilled tracker may be able to work out that 'somebody stayed here about a week ago. They were of humanoid size and, possiobly, smoked a pipe'. By making judgements on recurrence (say monthly) they could encounter the travelling Sage. He may have important information , skills, quests, or just be a placeholder for later ones.
These are great opportunities for games to ensure they have existing lore and hooks with which to attach future quests and lore.
Think about this:
You wandered round. You read a (fragment of a) few of the books... one of them you could not read! You got the message:
'Though the text is perfectly legible, this book is written in a language you are unfamiliar with. It sems to resemble Elvish, but you cannot tell any more than that'.
Would you not now go find a friend who has (high skil at) the Elven language. See if you can convince him to come along down to these depths and try to read the book. What information might it present? What if it turned out to be an ancient combination of HIgh Elven *and* Dark Elven. Now we need to find a trustworthy Dark Elf....
... and so the adventure continues!
Nailed it! I love it when people actual get what the game is supposed to be about.
Ox
You had my curiosity, now you've got my attention :) !
Nice, Naim! :)
For future reference, you can upload those screenshots/pictures to somewhere like http://imgur.com/ and then copy/paste them in the same post multiple times underneath each other but if you use the upload feature on the forums you can only do one per post.
Huh. Didn't know Magni wasn't there any more. There definitely used to be a big reason to go here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvOUCi3ATew
Exploring is a lot of fun in a MMORPG and one way for the developers to provide content for the players.
During my WoW time, I liked it to get to some of the secret areas in the game. The harder it was to get there, the more fun it was.
If you are alone at an isolated place, knowing that most of the players were never there, gives a good feeling.
It is even entertaining, if there is not more to do than seeing something beautiful or curious.
I would appreciate to see such places inside of Pantheon. :)