Instances... without instances..

Aazenius · 07-06-2005, 12:34 PM

This was taken from here

Quote:

"MMO's have been getting simpler and more accessible to the casual gamer, and that's a good thing," says Zack from Sigil. "But that's not what we're doing."

Erm. An MMO without an instance in it sounds a risky prospect, but Sigil reckons it's got it covered with elaborate item usage, where critical battles will only be launched for people with the correct item, and an advanced series of charecter-specific battle features that enable parties to daisy-chain their attacks together. It's squarely targeted at the daylight-fearing MMO hardcore, and we'll know more once the developers have got more of it to show us."

I've read a little about this before... but this makes it a little clearer. This is an interesting concept. Hell the entire game is made up of tons of interesting concepts. I wonder how it will work though. What if 3 different groups show up with the correct item. Will it spawn 3 different battles? Can you help fight the monsters? Will the monsters attack you if the other group dies?

Pirotess · 07-06-2005, 01:20 PM

As I understand it starting items will be on the rare side and the routes should have the ability to randomize themselves to a certain degree so the situation you present should be very very rare. You will be able to help fight the trash mobs on the encounter route but its been speculated those will be triggered as you advance through the dungeon and will aggro on the triggering group first. The boss mobs, which were dubbed "golden mobs" a term that I think is kind of clumsy, will only be able to be engaged by the group which started the event.

Aazenius · 07-06-2005, 02:06 PM

So lets say 6 months after release there are a couple uber guilds that have the needed items to start up a dragon encounter. Both guilds just happen to meet at the entrance to the Dragons cave at the exact same time. I'm guessing that both guilds can start the encounter but one guild will have to wait until the other guild finishes? I'm betting situations like that may be rare, at least I hope. I really don't want to see a calendar like we had in EQ (on this day, guild "A" can do this...).

Pirotess · 07-06-2005, 05:17 PM

Encounter routes to date have been explained as single group events. I havent seen any devs suggest that they might occur on such a broad scale that a guild raid would be needed. Content for guild raids so far has been explained as being much more EQlike in nature. Rare timed spawns and/or keyed access. Of course its way too early to say what Sigil might ultimately have planned.

Zeex · 07-10-2005, 06:07 PM

Instancing sure makes it nice as far as content accessibilty goes, it does feel like it cuts some of the Massive from the game though. It's really a coin toss for me which is better, I'm anxious to hear more of how they plan this out.

Melchizedek · 07-10-2005, 07:05 PM

Instances ruined EQ, in particular, Plane of Time. Anyone could just stroll into PoT and load up on some really nice lewtz. I am looking forward to the new encounter route system being implemented. I cannot help but feel that instancing really ruined the competition aspect of EverQuest.

Friends don't let friends Instance

I did not like LDoN as well, the instances seemed like they came from a cookie cutter. I am not trashing them completely, I liked the way they tied in Guk and MM in particular. However, they seemed to lack some creativity as well as the mentality of everyone wanting nice gear. They created LDoN with the single group in mind. They did create raids, but this came on the heels of Planes of Power where they made guilds plus up to 72 people. Now only 36 could raid in LDoN.

Poor planning on SOEs part in my humble opinion. This was really the beginning of the end for my and my EverQuest playing days.

On a positive note, augments were very cool.

Aazenius · 07-11-2005, 12:52 PM

There are good and bad things about instacing. Instancing lets a player play on their time, not the time of "the group or guild" who got to the dungeon/zone first. However instancing does take away the "competition" aspect which can be exciting to some.

I am curious as to how big they plan on running their servers... 3000 players? 5000?

Pirotess · 07-11-2005, 01:02 PM

No word on that yet Malkius. I would assume Sigil wont even know until later on in the beta test.

Penthesileia · 07-11-2005, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Melchizedek

Instances ruined EQ, in particular, Plane of Time. Anyone could just stroll into PoT and load up on some really nice lewtz. I am looking forward to the new encounter route system being implemented. I cannot help but feel that instancing really ruined the competition aspect of EverQuest.

Friends don't let friends Instance

I did not like LDoN as well, the instances seemed like they came from a cookie cutter. I am not trashing them completely, I liked the way they tied in Guk and MM in particular. However, they seemed to lack some creativity as well as the mentality of everyone wanting nice gear. They created LDoN with the single group in mind. They did create raids, but this came on the heels of Planes of Power where they made guilds plus up to 72 people. Now only 36 could raid in LDoN.

Poor planning on SOEs part in my humble opinion. This was really the beginning of the end for my and my EverQuest playing days.

On a positive note, augments were very cool.

LOL How funny.... I like instancing /because/ it takes away that competition. I don't like that competition, I play MMOGs to play with friends - I'm a social gamer at heart.. I also think it's pretty silly the way people will 'farm' raids. . But at the same time, I don't like the way instances detract from the community...

That's why I am so excited about the AES. It seems the best of both worlds to me. It doesn't keep people out of the world, it doesn't require such competition, and (from what I can tell) it's so random it will be harder to farm.

Melchizedek · 07-11-2005, 06:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Penthesileia

That's why I am so excited about the AES. It seems the best of both worlds to me. It doesn't keep people out of the world, it doesn't require such competition, and (from what I can tell) it's so random it will be harder to farm.

Exactly! You will be camping for that quest item or peice of loot. There will still be a mob on that timer, but instead of sitting in one spot letting the monk pull singles, you will be "crawling" through the dungeon. This is one aspect I am so looking forward to. Moreover, there may be other groups in the same dungeon doing the same crawl as your group. However, they may be on the other side of the dungeon you are.

So many possibilities!