Are we as players afraid of a challenge?

[Windi]

Windi PSA here,

Don't confuse challenge with difficulty. Challenge is a broader subject that deals with how an individual solves a problem; difficulty deals more with how hard that problem is to solve. All games, including this one, provides some challenge, it's just that some challenges are more difficult than others. Typically, in games aimed towards broader audiences, the challenges presented early on are easily or intuitively solved, while, gradually, more complex solutions are required later on.

In that regard, the reason I'm not keen on strong overworld monsters at the start is that there is little the player can do to work around it, with the current system in place. Following the steps you proposed in your OP could help, but I question whether many players would be willing to do anything you mentioned or just put the game down as a whole?

[Jynx]

In that regard, the reason I'm not keen on strong overworld monsters at the start is that there is little the player can do to work around it, with the current system in place.

Mainly why I would only consider something this scale to be tackled in an expansion style advancement. New mehcanics would need to be made for these zones, large sprawling and have multiple areas of interest allowing division of player mass to discourage over-crowding.



XI took this approach in two ways to ensure player concentration never became a big concern for most of it's open world content.

1. The three starting cities: Player decisions of three starting areas allowed the developers to reasonably expect 1/3 of the total game population to be in one of the starting areas.
2. Areas of Oportunity: In the early game there was at least 20 or so viable "Areas" that players could actively level up without much competition or interuption even at the most busy of times.
3. Spread out...again!: As players leveled up they would spread out even more rather than start to concentrate in areas. Up until the "Dunes" phase where it encouraged grouping up players would slowly spread out on a large map looking for stronger prey and in doing so make room for the newer players behind them.
4. Group up!: Once the dunes phase was hit it allowed players to concentrate in larger masses while still having many areas of oportunity for leveling allowing for a vibrant but busy overworld to function.
5. Monsters don't mess around: I often see people say a higher level player could troll lower levels by training monsters on people trying to complete the content but XI actually tackled the "Train" issue later in it's life by making monsters still chase a character to the death (Or any agro loss mechanic) but once lost they would "Phase" back to their spawn instead of leaving a trail of death.

New systems and mechanics would have to be put into place to allow more dynamic open world interaction but I feel it would be well worth it. Sure there will be cases of people zerging areas with sheer numbers but there could even be interactive game mechanics to counteract that such as player density causing areas to go under alarm and dynamically interacting with the size of the horde of players coming at it.

Other such things as day/night monster cycles could also be ways to encourage times of peace for more casual players to traverse and night time dangers (And rewards) for those who would venture out at night.

There is no shortage of interesting ways we could make the open world a viable part of the game and foster a sense of community.