Adventure Journeys Concept

This is an idea for a a multi-zone instance for a party of 4-8 players. It works kind of like a cross between Deep Dungeon and Survival games. I posted it under exploratory missions since there is a role-playing adventure vibe to the content. If this sounds cool to you, I had more ideas for different themes and mechanics. I would like it to be scale-able from solo up to 8 man but I don't know if they could scale it properly to be challenging but not insanely difficult for lower than 4 people.

http://i.imgur.com/Mk1pAdQ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/s1WX8u2.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/aLxoxL3.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/swrqqTX.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/H31SoCI.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/TbkqNEf.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/1GStgFK.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/jGfux3T.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/dFioZ87.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/tOcz9kV.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/tAHsz31.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/s7822PT.jpg

While I'd slightly prefer for this, especially in the form of the Endless desert itself, to simply be a very real zone in 4.0 or 5.0 (bringing out the themes of either) with limited shared phasing (you see only your party, events, changes, content, etc., unless flagged otherwise or when crossing certain areas), this sounds great. I suspect some people might complain that there aren't enough scouting advantages, etc., for the day time to be as fun as the night time, etc., or that certain environmental elements are too severe, but I'd love to see this concept explored and implemented.

I think an open zone would be fantastic even preferred. I just think it would probably be instanced. If by chance it was implemented to perfection and was good. I can see the content getting swamped with people which could cause server issues. Unless I am misunderstanding what shared phasing does?

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Originally Posted by Sandpark

I think an open zone would be fantastic even preferred. I just think it would probably be instanced. If by chance it was implemented to perfection and was good. I can see the content getting swamped with people which could cause server issues. Unless I am misunderstanding what shared phasing does?

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Shared phasing, while an oxymoron of sorts, would mean that a zone is generally phased so that each player or party is in an instanced version of the zone at any given time — simply put, a "phased zone" — but with certain exceptions to the rule, or differing degrees of instancing, such as around certain hubs. Essentially, the zone would seem very much a typical open world zone at the oasis or canyon base hub, etc., but as people start vanishing off into the sandy winds, even if you were to chase after them in the exact same direction they're going, you'd be unable to find them, and might well end up with entirely different terrain or content at those coordinates. As for some of the crazier possible features of this system, you could even have certain landmarks that players discover could rephase them together, either automatically (their auto-generated map has a chance to seed a particular doodad or feature that would work as a landmark, allowing passage into another party's instance, etc), or could be charted down on maps that you could then trade at the wholly shared hub in order to pin down some of the auto-generated elements of your particular journey for some amount of time.

Let's say there are some 20 landmarks, each with a certain theme of auto-generated area around them (perhaps a stream flowing by, lending consistency in so far as there having to be area above and below it, and likely connecting to another landmark found by a stream). They each have certain rules and patterns to their placement. The seed accomplishes these rules by starting from a given landmark and pattern matching to all others. As such, at least a few landmarks, according to the map's ruleset, are likely to be found in fairly consistent relative locations, but which set of landmarks those will be depends on the seed. The seed is assigned to players in chronological order; the closer in time you enter the desert, the more likely you are to have similar maps. Simplest way that I can put this sense of overlap: if you were to yell from atop Eagle's Crest, only those players within range of their version of Eagle's Crest in their own maps would hear you.

The way you combine parties after entry, if that should ever be allowed, is by matching rule-sets. For instance, if one party creates a bonfire or leaves a carving where the river passes through the shadow of eagle's crest (intersecting patterns), that will appear on other instances, and approaching it with both parties present in their respective seeds will make them visible to each other. As in the above example, at least one such relative positioning of landmarks between Eagle's Crest and one of its patterned nearby landmarks or connectors will exist in both world versions. You'd have to find that one.

Granted, the idea that people could combine parties at all means that you'd need perhaps a second level of balance. Scaling for one to eight people in a single party may be a simple enough matter in itself, but what of multiple parties? And how quickly should groups of one to three be able to find each other vs. a total of over eight players? For this, I give you sandstorms. While sandstorms also occur naturally (randomly) within the zone, they also increase in frequency and severity as the player count in a given relative position (e.g. position in the same mini-zone, named after it's landmark, or some smaller area around the landmark) increases, making it harder for people to find each other. The fewer people, the easier it is to find others and join up, perhaps even automatically combining world seeds where activity is so sparse and far between as not to affect each other. The more players... the more the game balances. Start off in an alliance of three parties, and sandstorms may literally blow you apart.

That's on average, at least. That's not to say that this mechanic is invariant. Particularly clear days may have a reduced effect, and carrying certain quests may further reduce it, as many any other number of things. It's just a way to keep the zone at a good mixture of instanced and open play, and to carry a good level of mystique. There could just as easily be daily resets that cause the actions of one party to open up new paths for others, optionally (sending back a scout, be it player or NPC, to the hub) or automatically, such as discovering some old machinery somewhere to be salvaged, where the resulting salvage allows access to another ruin. Or it could even have weekly progress, server-wide. I just figure it's best to have the systems for the intended open/closed gameplay first, perfecting the wholly single party enjoyable time-sink model first, and then add on these larger, more amazing events later.


...Well, that went on about five times as long as I thought it would. /rant

I would like this or something similar.

It's a good idea but I have the sensation it's a bit too much for a new content.
Furthermore, I don't feel well where you want to go with this content.
It is a survival content with an end ? or it is infinite ?
I have the impression, it's like a new game in our game because we have to begin level 1 in every of our class and it seems like it's will be longer than PotD to reach level max.

How many players can play together ? Can they meet another team ? Can they build alliances ?

Another question is how do you plan the save of your progression because if you play with people who reach your level the first time, the next time, you will play with people from any level or your level ?
It is slot save or one unique save with / with no possibility to reset ?

Do you think our day/night cycle 30 min/30 min would fit in your Endless Desert ?

How much time do you want the players stick in The Endless Desert each time they enter it ?


If you have time, I would like you expose a journey with one entire cycle day/night.


PS: I like the effort in the presentation :)

@Caesaria
It's a journey of survival content with an overall end however you can replay it by coming in with another character or doing perpetual quests for tomes or whatever.

You can go solo or group up with 4 people premade or join up with whoever during low man journeys. The alliance joining was a want from Shurrikan, I would like this content with or without it.

The save is character bound, meaning you can continue from there yourself and join with anyone at that leg of the journey. The possibility of reset would be up to SE or player demand.

Sure I think the normal day/night cycle would fit.

The time spent depends on player goals. It isn't timed as of now unless SE thinks it should have a timer. If you explore without the constant push to an end goal with scavenging and stuff it could be pretty long but if you cut to the chase it could be about as long as deep dungeon 1-10.

I have oodles of other versions of this with alternate themes and mechanics ranging from Volcanic Islands to Oceanic journeys. Which wouldn't make sense to lay all that out now not knowing if SE would even add this first version yet. Or not yet due to watching how it would be received and played.

I could see a content like this being a good introduction alongside a new job such as beastmaster or BlueMage with a Tamer class.

Very involved development, and I really like it conceptually. There may be things that need further tweaking, but that is with most concepts. I "liked" it, hopefully the devs will take a look!