Add Randomized Roaming Boss Packs and Quests for a More Dynamic Erozea

One of the major complaints about the world is that it is too static, too boring, and not dangerous enough. This suggestion aims to improve that with the addition of randomized quests and boss packs.

Right now, everything is the same all the time. Do leves - same mobs, same patterns, same area, same everything. Grind raptors - same raptors, same colors, same moves, same patterns, no variety.

Randomized content is one way to shake things up and keep the gameplay experience fresh and unexpected. In this post, we will look to other successful games that have such a mechanic: Diablo II and Diablo III.

This is the sort of approach to game design that helps to keep the gameplay experience fresh and unpredictable:

http://www.atomicgamer.com/articles/...-iii-interview

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So the fact that we have random dungeons, random monsters, random loops, pretty much random everything. Every time you go around a corner in a dungeon, you don’t know if you’re going to see a brand new quest that you’ve never seen before. You might see the same monster, but with totally new powers. You might see a totally different monster.

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Randomized Boss Monsters:

Random boss mobs that spawn at random locations in the map would be good to spice up the adventure and make things more interesting.

Give them boosted stats, a greater base SP modifier, and a couple unique abilities. Give them a few randomized skills and traits, and if possible, randomize the palette a little as well.

Have them spawn with minions as well, like some of the bosses on the Faction leves do.

Encountering special boss mobs would break up the tedium of having to fight the same exact thing over and over, and would give players something unexpected to look forward to. Roaming beat men packs, random Super Imp, gang of rogue knights, zombie horde, whatever it is, it can be fun and exciting!

I doubt this would take much extra programming to implement, since most of the assets are already in place, so this would be a quick fix to alleviate some of the complaints.


Randomized Quest Encounters:

Have NPCs randomly spawn around the world map and offer quick, bite-sized quests for explorers to do. Perhaps a chocobo caravan needs protecting, or an NPC needs an escort to a certain place on the map, or perhaps you need to hold off an area from a beatman seige for a certain period of time.

Whatever the random quest content, it would be something that again breaks up the tedium and puts a halt to the predictability that we see so much right now.


More ideas to help fix FF14: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/s...vBForum_Thread

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Oops, typo in the thread title, can't change it, hahah!

"Erozea"....sounds kinky!


edit 2:

Randomly spawning beast tribe towns that can be pillaged.

Another type of addition that I think would make the environment more interesting:

Another new MMO, Rift, has random events in which a portal opens up at some place on the map, and monsters pour out. Players then group up and kill off the monsters.

I was thinking that this kind of concept could be incorporated into FF14, but altered in a way to fit the world and add excitement.

My inspiration for this also comes from FF11, specifically, Fort Ghelsba. I would love partying with my friends and having an adventure - penetrating the stronghold's defenses and working our way in and defeating the mobs within. It was always the same everytime, however, and there wasn't really any real impact on the world. Kill all the orcs one day, they'd be back in a few minutes anyway, no big deal.

So here's the plan:

Once every few days, a beast tribe hamlet is spawned at some remote area of the map in each region (kobold hamlet for la noscea, amaljaa hamlet for thanalan, ixal hamlet in the black shroud, along with goblin, qiqirn, reaver, and bandit hamlets as well)

Each beast tribe hamlet isn't just some temporary 5 minute event, but rather a decently sized town full of enemies to fight. A "mini Fort Ghelsba", so to speak.

Players go in, fight a bunch of mobs, rescue NPCs, search for loot, seek out boss monsters, destroy structures, etc.

Players who had a hand in the beast-tribe hamlet destruction are further rewarded with faction points, fame points, achievement points, whatever.

Hamlet spawn locations are random, or picked by the devs, and put in remote areas, without telling anyone, so that players have to actively explore the world if they want to find any new beast tribe towns. (Hey now, this would be pretty fun to do if we had chocobos, huh? ( http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/10792-DevTalk-Chocobo-Thread.-Riding!-Raising!-Racing!-You-Know-You-Want-Your-Fix ) :)

Rank caps are put in place so that Rank 50 players can't just ransack a Rank 30 beast town in 10 minutes. Temporary level-matching system in place so that high rank players can still participate in lower ranked assaults.

I like this idea....
A little random spice could be a good thing
+1 *like*

hell i like it...anything that makes it more dangerous and cautious seems more fun and more involved and that is what XIV needs. Lets just hope they read these forums because there is so much constructive ideas and opinions in them. They could make the game 100% better if they read them.

I support this, especially if it makes dungeon exploration and exploring various out of the way parts of Eorzea that much more interesting and worthwhile.

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Originally Posted by Smokie23

hell i like it...anything that makes it more dangerous and cautious seems more fun and more involved and that is what XIV needs. Lets just hope they read these forums because there is so much constructive ideas and opinions in them. They could make the game 100% better if they read them.

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They do. Now whether or not they want to follow through with a suggestion, thats a different subject :P

Very great idea. This would be really nice and I can't see random triggers being too difficult to implement or balance.

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Originally Posted by Smokie23

They could make the game 100% better if they read them.

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I think they do read them. Well, the community reps read the non-japanese posts and send them to the dev team. Maybe I should post on the Japanese side more, lol

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Originally Posted by NYAMeowPurr

Very great idea. This would be really nice and I can't see random triggers being too difficult to implement or balance.

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Ya, like I've mentioned before, I think they should try to implement things that would add a lot of value to the game but won't take that long to implement.

Even for this idea, they wouldn't have to do too much to start with...just use the same assets you have already, and add in more features later. But at least the core concept of random boss packs would add loads of variety to this world that currently has none at all.

Hopefully this includes stuff like defending the Hamlets from attack, featuring large scale battles similar to Campaign (but a little more action packed).

And yeah Renta, if you can, you should post some of these ideas on the JP side.

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Originally Posted by Teknoman

And yeah Renta, if you can, you should post some of these ideas on the JP side.

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Hmm, I guess I can try. I'm just afraid I'll be reposting some stuff that they've already discussed to death. It's not as convenient to read through all that JPN text ><

The only one I've done so far was my Triple Triad ideas.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...1%99%EF%BC%81?

This topic would be a great choice...possibility it might've been covered, but there have been multiple topics here with similar subjects but different ideas.

If anything it would be cool to see another region's point of view.

Yep I played a game that (mostly) all I did was hunt rare spawns (snowmen and "elite" type mobs)

Of course that's much easier when there are multiple "worlds" to bounce to and from. With one static world, camping would be pretty bad.

Actually this kinda come up in my ls the other day. We were talking about fighting a HUGE marmot as something kind of silly/different. Then I thought "Why not?". This would be almost a total rip off D2, but have a hidden marmot counter for each server. As you kill marmots the counter goes up and once it hits a certain number(or the more you kill after a certain number, an increased chance) you have this huge marmot spawn randomly in the areas around Grid, Uldah, or LL. Make it like a king marmot that's pissed off you've killed all the little ones. Personally I think this would be fun. You'd probably have a bunch of noobs yellin when it popped(why not have it pop in lowbie areas? lol) making it even more comical. You could even go as far as to have it pop after the death of a marmot in the same spot. This would lead to people xping for their first time, killing a rank 1 mob, and having a rank 50+ mob pop killing them. Kinda like my first time playing fallout 3, getting out of vault for the first time and running into a deathclaw.

I suggested a similar idea at newspaper/tribune topic...i think its a valid idea for this topic aswell. Roaming monsters that can change areas completely in a weekly basis.

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Originally Posted by CrstyCaptin

Actually this kinda come up in my ls the other day. We were talking about fighting a HUGE marmot as something kind of silly/different. Then I thought "Why not?". This would be almost a total rip off D2, but have a hidden marmot counter for each server. As you kill marmots the counter goes up and once it hits a certain number(or the more you kill after a certain number, an increased chance) you have this huge marmot spawn randomly in the areas around Grid, Uldah, or LL. Make it like a king marmot that's pissed off you've killed all the little ones. Personally I think this would be fun. You'd probably have a bunch of noobs yellin when it popped(why not have it pop in lowbie areas? lol) making it even more comical. You could even go as far as to have it pop after the death of a marmot in the same spot. This would lead to people xping for their first time, killing a rank 1 mob, and having a rank 50+ mob pop killing them. Kinda like my first time playing fallout 3, getting out of vault for the first time and running into a deathclaw.

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Might work for Dodos (dodo with a mohawk?) since they seem to be a XIV mascot of sorts, like how Mandragoras and goblins were for XI.

More trouble then it's worth. Maybe when they have the laundry list done, and go back. "Randomizing" is never randomized.

Randomized = buggy and no fun because it's unfair
loaded randomize = possible if done right

It takes a lot of effort and QA to do the latter.

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Originally Posted by CrstyCaptin

Actually this kinda come up in my ls the other day. We were talking about fighting a HUGE marmot as something kind of silly/different. Then I thought "Why not?". This would be almost a total rip off D2, but have a hidden marmot counter for each server. As you kill marmots the counter goes up and once it hits a certain number(or the more you kill after a certain number, an increased chance) you have this huge marmot spawn randomly in the areas around Grid, Uldah, or LL. Make it like a king marmot that's pissed off you've killed all the little ones. Personally I think this would be fun. You'd probably have a bunch of noobs yellin when it popped(why not have it pop in lowbie areas? lol) making it even more comical. You could even go as far as to have it pop after the death of a marmot in the same spot. This would lead to people xping for their first time, killing a rank 1 mob, and having a rank 50+ mob pop killing them. Kinda like my first time playing fallout 3, getting out of vault for the first time and running into a deathclaw.

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Yeah, some sort of counter system might work. Basically, I'm envisioning the experience to go something like this:

A party enters some area and starts killing the mobs there for SP, or for item drops. Since killing the same things over and over can be a little boring, once in a while, a boss pack spawns that is harder to kill but has greater rewards. This would break up the tedium and introduce some dynamic content into a player's routine.

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Originally Posted by Rentahamster

Yeah, some sort of counter system might work. Basically, I'm envisioning the experience to go something like this:

A party enters some area and starts killing the mobs there for SP, or for item drops. Since killing the same things over and over can be a little boring, once in a while, a boss pack spawns that is harder to kill but has greater rewards. This would break up the tedium and introduce some dynamic content into a player's routine.

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AKA beastmen. Which totally suck because we found that players didn't like it and actually avoided it. It's all fun and games, as long as no one loses as they say.

I don't want to be randomly "dead" or wasting valuable time going along my route because of some code in the game to make it more "fun".

That's what started the whole sneak/invisible craze as well as camps in FF11. People didn't want to deal with stupid over powered pests...like Guivre. Though it was fun if a party got snacked on by her once in a blue moon...rarely.

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Originally Posted by kukurumei

AKA beastmen. Which totally suck because we found that players didn't like it and actually avoided it. It's all fun and games, as long as no one loses as they say.

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Huh? Beastmen don't work that way.

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Originally Posted by kukurumei

I don't want to be randomly "dead" or wasting valuable time going along my route because of some code in the game to make it more "fun".

That's what started the whole sneak/invisible craze as well as camps in FF11. People didn't want to deal with stupid over powered pests...like Guivre. Though it was fun if a party got snacked on by her once in a blue moon...rarely.

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The system I described above in no way fosters the scenario you just wrote about.

I wouldnt mind if you ran into a same rank beastman ambush solo or in a party every once in a while on the field. Or a timed spawn mini-boss in a dungeon, unique to that dungeon. A guardian of sorts.

Either way, if I get k.o.'d, it just makes me want to get back up and try harder the next time, especially if there isnt some huge substantial devastating loss.

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Originally Posted by Rentahamster

The system I described above in no way fosters the scenario you just wrote about.

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All you're doing is margarine instead of butter. The concept have been done, redone, and redone ad inf, and every time people are like the idea hate the result.

Most people skydive for a thrill but not for a living. We like our boring standard predictable lifestyle, real or MMO. When we want some "excitement" we specifically go to it, not it to us. That's how the invention of instances or dungeons got designed.

Sure we have spice it up here and there, but any boldness is quickly hated.

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Originally Posted by kukurumei

All you're doing is margarine instead of butter. The concept have been done, redone, and redone ad inf, and every time people are like the idea hate the result.

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Worked out well for Diablo.

But anyway, seeing as Diablo's slightly different in scope than FF14, just exactly how will randomized bosses and quests detract from FF14 as it currently is now?

i totally agree with this post i would like to fight enemy patrols and have escort quest were you need to fight your way trough, and rescue missions in some enemy camps or fortress, having great rewards like factions points, gil, and whatever they can think of

I think it could be taken a step further to reduce camping itself.

Any time you start killing a particular amount of mobs, "elite"-esque mobs start spawning that are the same level but are much tougher. As you kill more, they become stronger and turn into "hero" and eventually "legendary" mobs (and thus spawning what we know as NMs).

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Originally Posted by Dragon

I think it could be taken a step further to reduce camping itself.

Any time you start killing a particular amount of mobs, "elite"-esque mobs start spawning that are the same level but are much tougher. As you kill more, they become stronger and turn into "hero" and eventually "legendary" mobs (and thus spawning what we know as NMs).

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Wouldn't work, what you're talking about is "place holder" and it's again, been done, redone, ad inf.

All people would do is have a reset clock for or against spawning of special mobs. The taking away of camps, in hindsight simply changed the name to "runs". We do runs now instead of camps. Same exact thing only with more narrow definitions.

We have already invented the idea of IT++ where you have same mob of differing levels. And the first thing people did was to use it in the least common denominators thus completely neutralizing it. That's basically the result of any of these implementations. An annoyance that need to be "neutralized".

It's a voice of experience in the kind "been there done that". It's something developers have kept playing with but considering the development effort involved, and how many times the results end up being crappy...pointless investment in hindsight.

Parallel to the "soul staring" problem we had in the past for FF14. Someone had the great idea and ended up with a total annoyance which didn't matter in the end. Thus we killed it.

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Originally Posted by kukurumei

Wouldn't work, what you're talking about is "place holder" and it's again, been done, redone, ad inf.

All people would do is have a reset clock for or against spawning of special mobs. The taking away of camps, in hindsight simply changed the name to "runs". We do runs now instead of camps. Same exact thing only with more narrow definitions.

We have already invented the idea of IT++ where you have same mob of differing levels. And the first thing people did was to use it in the least common denominators thus completely neutralizing it. That's basically the result of any of these implementations. An annoyance that need to be "neutralized".

It's a voice of experience in the kind "been there done that". It's something developers have kept playing with but considering the development effort involved, and how many times the results end up being crappy...pointless investment in hindsight.

Parallel to the "soul staring" problem we had in the past for FF14. Someone had the great idea and ended up with a total annoyance which didn't matter in the end. Thus we killed it.

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And you're also against open-world NMs, aren't you?

Yes I know it's been done before, I played XI for the past seven years; where it happened, it was good in XI, and it'll be just fine here. (They wouldn't even have to drop anything beyond their 'normal droplist' either if you're so afraid of not being able to get a piece of gear; they'd just offer more experience points, and perhaps points of some kind.)

Fallout 3 did random encounters, be it quests, or stumbling upon npcs, or hostile and friendly npcs fighting. I'm up for whatever makes Eorzea feel more alive.

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Originally Posted by TehMi1kman

Fallout 3 did random encounters, be it quests, or stumbling upon npcs, or hostile and friendly npcs fighting. I'm up for whatever makes Eorzea feel more alive.

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Do you feel that those random encounters in Fallout could be adapted to work in the FF14 universe?

We discussed this with Matsui to see what he thought about the idea. He thinks that random/roaming bosses and such are definitely necessary, and he himself would like it, as well! After we finish up the vast amounts of battle-related tasks, we would like to implement these as soon as possible.

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Originally Posted by Bayohne

We discussed this with Matsui to see what he thought about the idea. He thinks that random/roaming bosses and such are definitely necessary, and he himself would like it, as well! After we finish up the vast amounts of battle-related tasks, we would like to implement these as soon as possible.

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Good news, everyone!

/farnsworth

Thanks, Bay

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Originally Posted by Bayohne

We discussed this with Matsui to see what he thought about the idea. He thinks that random/roaming bosses and such are definitely necessary, and he himself would like it, as well! After we finish up the vast amounts of battle-related tasks, we would like to implement these as soon as possible.

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Excellent news, that would be a lot of fun, and very cool to see.

More dynamic content... yes please. :)

Hopefully they're not on a 21+ hour timer.

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Originally Posted by Bayohne

We discussed this with Matsui to see what he thought about the idea. He thinks that random/roaming bosses and such are definitely necessary, and he himself would like it, as well! After we finish up the vast amounts of battle-related tasks, we would like to implement these as soon as possible.

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Random Lv.50~ Behemoth storming newb Aetheryte camps and wiping everyone!

Probably will be, like the rest of the current NM's.

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Originally Posted by Bayohne

We discussed this with Matsui to see what he thought about the idea. He thinks that random/roaming bosses and such are definitely necessary, and he himself would like it, as well! After we finish up the vast amounts of battle-related tasks, we would like to implement these as soon as possible.

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Bayohne King of the Community Reps, I thank you dearly for keep us up to date on everything. Not everything you post is a "Will look into this" type deal, Your only keeping us up to date on whats at hand!

Thank You Bay :D

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Originally Posted by Corrderio

Hopefully they're not on a 21+ hour timer.

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The point I was getting at in my OP was some kind of intermediary mob that's goes in between normal mobs and NMs.

I would think boosted stats, and greater SP rewards, with a slightly improved item drop table (but nothing too good) would be fine.

This is just an idea that would make open world grinding more varied and exciting.

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Originally Posted by Bayohne

After we finish up the vast amounts of battle-related tasks, we would like to implement these as soon as possible.

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I would only know if these changes will be done completely in August max. This will be a great thing and a good way to be patient until new contents (battles,NMs, Materia System ecc).

They said earlier conversion of ordinary roaming mobs to NMs, I didnt' know if this meant those boring nms that dont' look any different or if it meant that we might get more stationary camps (xi-ish) for those of us who would like to grind, and the whole roaming concept would be for nms. Idk just my wish I guess.

This kind of stuff has been said before in "rare monster" thread

the topic request for rare version of normal mob that can randomly spawn anywhere to replace the original but shown in different color.

The mob could drop unique color of the normal item as reward for killing it. You can use that materials to make unique gear color.

Since it can replace any mob any where, this will also prevent camping problem too. And I not think many people would try too hard to look for just normal gear with different color. It is only for lucky one.

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Originally Posted by Bayohne

We discussed this with Matsui to see what he thought about the idea. He thinks that random/roaming bosses and such are definitely necessary, and he himself would like it, as well! After we finish up the vast amounts of battle-related tasks, we would like to implement these as soon as possible.

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Makes me really excited for the battle changes to be finished just so I can see all these changes that are supposed to come afterwards

I think it would rock if the towns would suddenly sound alarms and you see NPCs running over to the gates to beat off a mob invasion of some kind...

Another type of addition that I think would make the environment more interesting:

Another new MMO, Rift, has random events in which a portal opens up at some place on the map, and monsters pour out. Players then group up and kill off the monsters.

I was thinking that this kind of concept could be incorporated into FF14, but altered in a way to fit the world and add excitement.

My inspiration for this also comes from FF11, specifically, Fort Ghelsba. I would love partying with my friends and having an adventure - penetrating the stronghold's defenses and working our way in and defeating the mobs within. It was always the same everytime, however, and there wasn't really any real impact on the world. Kill all the orcs one day, they'd be back in a few minutes anyway, no big deal.

So here's the plan:

Once every few days, a beast tribe hamlet is spawned at some remote area of the map in each region (kobold hamlet for la noscea, amaljaa hamlet for thanalan, ixal hamlet in the black shroud, along with goblin, qiqirn, reaver, and bandit hamlets as well)

Each beast tribe hamlet isn't just some temporary 5 minute event, but rather a decently sized town full of enemies to fight. A "mini Fort Ghelsba", so to speak.

Players go in, fight a bunch of mobs, rescue NPCs, search for loot, seek out boss monsters, destroy structures, etc.

Players who had a hand in the beast-tribe hamlet destruction are further rewarded with faction points, fame points, achievement points, whatever.

Hamlet spawn locations are random, or picked by the devs, and put in remote areas, without telling anyone, so that players have to actively explore the world if they want to find any new beast tribe towns. (Hey now, this would be pretty fun to do if we had chocobos, huh? ( http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-Want-Your-Fix ) :)

Rank caps are put in place so that Rank 50 players can't just ransack a Rank 30 beast town in 10 minutes. Temporary level-matching system in place so that high rank players can still participate in lower ranked assaults.



What do you think?