Instancing stance?

ldon = evil
people are bringing up interesting ideas and im enjoying reading about it.
who knows maybe something said here will find its way into a creative dev's mind and they will run with it.
I just personally hate instanced zones, refering to LDON I never saw my guild because everyone picked out an instance they wanted to crawl and thats all they ever did.
 
I loved LDON alot.

And I think a randomly spawned instance with a boss or multible nameds is alot cooler then Tmaps. Its like having Cmal but then not the same all the time and i loved SOD cmal. Instanced zones might be a good way to make Extreemly difficult maps more interesting.
 
wolfwalkerEci said:
people are bringing up interesting ideas and im enjoying reading about it.
who knows maybe something said here will find its way into a creative dev's mind and they will run with it.
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The whole concept I start with is "What if" and if it helps someone run in a new direction and make SoD a bit more unique, SWEET. People who wait for the Dev's to do all the creative work are ignoring the fact that this server is a living server. They read and listen and consider everything we put out there. Nothing wrong with trying to inspire their creative juices!
 
I dont think anyone is suggesting SoD implement LDoN, but I think the idea of having tmaps take the group to an instanced dungeon on occasion instead of sitting in one of the same general zones with mobs popping in one place. I personally think turning the tmap system into some sort of instanced dungeon system would make a great contribution to the game and get more people interested in doing tmaps. Dungeon crawls are a lot of fun but the number that are possible is limited, so it would be fun for tmaps to be an alternative.
 
I didn't read every post here but this is what I would suggest if anything (if it's already been said disregard me then).

Keep Treasure Maps the same as they are.

Add a rare/ultra rare key that can drop during -any- level of difficulty of map. Make the key no-rent to discourage the looter from keeping the key for a later date or time. The key looted should be on par with the same level of difficulty that the map was.

The instanced zone would be one of say 5 or 6 random zones, each with it's own flavor/design/mobs etc. Each zone would be a typical dungeon crawl and have all of it's own named and drops etc. Maybe at the end there is either a treasure chest or a boss. Maybe even make 1 of the random zones lower on the random scale which is a bit harder and has more reward, to make it even more prestigious.

Each instanced zone should only take on average less than 2 hours to complete, to encourage people to get in on a treasure map group for the chance that the key would drop, and have the time to complete it.

There should be a clicker of some sort at the end of the instance to zone out. The zone should have a timer of, say, 5 hours, to allow ample time to complete it in case of a wipe or link death etc..

Now, assuming something like this is done, treasure mapping will become increasingly popular and eventually people will get tired of the same old tmap loot and might be discouraged to join in on the fun, so add something like an experience scroll as a drop which can be clicked to gain experience based on the difficulty. This will encourage people to still join in for a chance at a good chunk of experience at the end.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the subject.
 
GregorHawk said:
To bad it seems all these neat ideas for t-maps are falling upon deaf ears. :haw:
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3 GMs have both read and commented on some ideas. I'm sure others have not been inclined to input because frankly none of these ideas are both good and feasible.
If there is a really good idea posted in the forums, the devs find out.
 
I played LOTRO for a few months. And that game is the perfect example of why I don't like instances. To be fair I'll give a pro first. Instances really help developers. You can customize content for very specific encounters/items/et cetera. There are other advantages, but they aren't worth mentioning since they add to the problem too.

Instances, like it or not, change a game from an immersive world with thousands of players to a lobby for clans. Now if that's what you want, then go for it! Plenty of online games out there that can offer it to you. But the drastic effect cannot be argued away. Here's an easy example. In the 6 or so months I played LOTRO I was very active on the forums and paid particular attention to players and guilds (I was in one of the most active guilds on the server.) Right now I couldn't name more than one or two guilds on the server. I saw TONS, and there were plenty that were active, but I rarely saw them. The lobby doesn't give interaction.

After a while I just had absolutely no desire to play it anymore. Everything I did was just a step or two to get to the next instance. Of course there were other reasons, but things like bad quest implementation certainly won't make up for instancing everything so there's really no reason to list them. Plus that has nothing to do with the topic at hand. I always felt like I was playing a first person shooter in some random clan.

Of course the argument could be made for using instances very rarely or with slight variations, but SoD already has that in Cmal. No it's not exactly instancing but my point is a mechanic is used that addresses some of the issues instancing is supposed to help. I guess in the end my point is simple. Be careful what you wish for, it might take away a lot of the things you love about a genre. Especially things you take for granted.
 
I don't think having anything like LDON on SOD would be the best idea. A huge number of people would vanish off into a "black hole" never or rarely seen again. This was the huge problem with LDON in the first place. I would never want that to happen to SOD. The T map idea or something simular would be fine in my eyes. It would be a neat little twist that would happen uncommonly or rarely. It would add a little needed spice into T maps in general. It's not like LDON as everything revolves around the instancing over and over.

It also seemed very aparent that everyone thought it was a pretty cool idea. :toot:
 
A while ago, when tweaking MQ2, I happened to see a newbie who was doing the MQ come upon a group doing a tmap in the Storm Sea. The newbie and the tmap group struck up a conversation about what they were doing, what tmaps is, and then the guy stayed around to watch them get the treasure. Just sort of a "wow that's cool, I want to do that when I level up" moment for a new player.

That is what differentiates tmaps from instances. They take place in the actual game world and they take nothing away from player interaction, unlike instances. Cyrtho Malath isn't even an instance any longer. I don't like instances because they eliminate the feeling of sharing a game world with others and turns it into a bunch of little secluded bubbles hovering around a central lobby. It limits interaction to only what you strictly choose to partake in, almost solely with people on the same level of progress as yourself, and this takes something away from the game.
 
Please tell me the EverFrost Instant LDON zones are used in Shards. Those Dungeon were just... WOW and I would hate to think that such a beaitful zone was not being used for something epic in Shards.

As to the matter..

I was a big fan of LDON, however I do agree with Wiz and other points about it hurting a game like Shards in the long run. I don't feel LDON instant hurt Live nearly as much as others felt, a huge population makes instance work. Given a much smaller and more tight nit population of shards, putting in mass instance zonesss would alienate many players from the small population, making finding groups even worse for many.

More Cata, Cmal type zones for morel levels I will endorse however as they would not only serve as "training" grounds of more advanced tactics, but give the feel of a instant zone without being a instant zone.
 
I totally understand where you are coming from Wiz. Just looking for things to spice it all up =) Ideas are great because they breed new ideas and new ideas keep people from getting bored. That has always been one of the great things about the server, ideas flow constantly here.
 
I agree Danku it's something that is really neat about this server. We are encourage to talk about things we might like. I like the t map idea as it would spice things up. If thats however something that staff feels will never happen then so bit it. It would be really nice however if something can be done to eventually spice up Tmapping. I admitt when I first did them they were fun. Now on the other hand it's like pulling teeth or having sex in the same position over and over again. Sure it can be fun but it's basically the same old same old. Any type or spicing up tmapping would go along way for the tmapping economy along with the over all enjoyment of doing maps.
 
:tinfoil:
We don't know that much of one another do we ? I'll just keep it at : will you ever consider removing my quote ? kinda outdated
 
I support using more LDoN zones (which is already in use and most likely being implemented in ikisith) but using a system like ldon to automate group experiences and give universal rewards for mundane dungeon crawls is what would kill the server.

A LDoN system would negate current content and trivialize leveling to a point of mind numbing progression of both experience and gear.

Do not equate LDoN with instancing in general.


Instancing can and already has proved to be an interesting tool for things beyond raid and group content. I'm sure there are a number of decent ideas for the use of instancing but the problem is are they worth implementation over static zones. Housing is a great use of instancing, but beyond that I think it's uses are slim.
 
I can see why instancing may have seemed like a good idea to live devs as well as see how it would be bad for SoD. Personally, I loved instances on live. A few GoD (or was it OoW?) zones, ldon, DoN. As a non-raider, they were a fun single-group challenge that had good rewards. If not retreivable in-zone, you could purchase some later. Again, as a non-raider, the best gear my toon had access to was stuff from the DoN merchants. A side benefit (a huge disadvantage in the eyes of many) was that it pulled people out of the persistent world, making zones less crowded. Since the instances were hosted on another physical server (if my understanding is of it is correct), then live could handle a larger overall server population assuming that a certain percentage were consistently in instances. It also left a little more breathing room for people that were grouping in the persistent zones.

That reason is why it wouldn't work well in SoD, at least in my (extremely noobish) opinion. SoD simply doesn't have a large enough population at this point to warrant having a people-sink like instances. Taht, and it does require a lwee bit more of a suspension of disbelief to justify the fact that 10 groups are crawling the same dungeon at the same time, killing the same mobs and looting the same toys without running into each other.

I tend to ramble so I forgot where I was headed with this, but yeah...

Deylan - currently a really crappy lvl 9 monkey. Hope to be a really crappy lvl 65 monkey someday. :)
 
Rezzing threads is usually against the rules. If you want to talk about an old thread, start a new one and link to the old one.
 
Sorry about that. Was just reading through the discussion board, and came upon an interesting post. Must not have realized how many pages back I had gone. I'll pay closer attention next time.
 
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