Dream mission...

[_____________Trosida]

There is a fairly simple way to actually fix the camping in these EQ ... I mean Static Missions.

Take the Steps of Madness for example.

Rather than have Neleb spawn in a single point at the end and everyone becomes a angry mob in the vain hopes of getting enough damage to get looting rights you use the mission system.

How?

Simple... for each character (and only ONCE for each character) when you have explored the entire dungeon (i.e. revealed the whole map) you get a KEY that can be used on an Object at the end of the mission (similar to how you originally entered the Steps). Then you and your team will port to an autonomous dungeon area where you get to fight through the last few rooms to Neleb.

A character with Neleb's Cloak *cannot*actually get a key, perhaps the key becomes Neleb's Cloak or something when Neleb is defeated.

Eitherway, the point is simple, for Boss Mobs in these EQ, I mean static missions, you spawn off a small personal mission area so each team can get in and enjoy the mission without this infernal camping.

[Nullifax]

You know how we've all been saying it would be nice if a mission weren't just hack and slash but instead took a variety of skills based on who was in the team? You know how we've been saying that whoever implements this first will have an MMORPG that has almost limitless fun factor at all levels?

Here is an exerpt from a review of "Citizen Zero"

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These missions will also take into account your skill set and how you might be able to help out your faction more efficiently. Skills are improved by spending character points. Character points are earned by doing missions and completing quests and tasks. The game lets you "unlearn" a skill so that you can master a new one, letting you reinvent your character over time as your interests change. Just because you're good at one thing or another doesn't mean you have to take certain missions, they're just suggested to fit your playing style and wants.

This fits in perfectly with the team-based missions that will be built into the game. These sound particularly fun and will work in ways that those in EverQuest and games of that ilk can't pull off. This is for a couple of reasons. The game will generate missions that take specific example of some of the long list of skills available in the game. One particular example that fits well, which also happens to be on the game's website is a mission where you'll need a hacker to open some doors, a demolitionist to blow up the contents in a building, and a couple of snipers hanging out to cap any guards that come along in the meantime. Coordinating efforts towards a common goal instead of everyone just hanging out in the same place waiting for an unsuspecting creature to spawn so you dog pile it before it can clear the sleep from its eyes is appealing.

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You're too late, Funcom, we told you to do this, we told you how you could, and you didn't listen. I found the MMOG I'm going to be playing, and it ain't AO.

[_____________Trosida]

Citizen Zero hasn't done it yet, and if I recall FC had similar promises prior to the release of EQ... I mean AO.

[Sean-Roach]

One simple thing that'd make missions a LITTLE better. Rig it so that you can get missions where your chances of getting a token at the end are REDUCED for each mob you kill.

Better would be to have certain mobs that count negatively, within the same dungeon as the ones that count positively.

The former would allow for actual stealth missions, (not that I intend to do them, I want the loot and I can hide about as well as a chirrop against a black background.)

The latter would allow for some other interesting possibilities. Assist a mob against the other mobs. Deliver a message, but don't do TOO much damage.

Maybe have clan missions where there are actually clan NPC's in the mission area. They'll still shoot at you, but you can't kill them. You are free to take out the neutrals, (which could represent bank employees or somesuch.)

Or, more simply in the storyline, you can kill all the OT members in the mission area, but you aren't supposed to harm the neutrals.

[Nullifax]

OMG BUMP THAT BABY!

it got onto the second page!

[Sean-Roach]

For a thread that has run continuously for about 6 months, I'd call the second page a mere short-term setback.

Here's another idea. If the computer could watch for collections of people with matching political stances, and approximate level hanging around in the same area, walk an NPC into the mob to declare "I need a murder avenged" for an assassination team mission, or "I need an item recovered" for a recover item team mission, etc, and allow the players there to team up to go after it.

It might be a little difficult to shoehorn into the existing system.

Better would be to have a mob walk in to a crowd and announce. "I need a scorpid colony censused", "I need a decent slashing weapon of at least QL125", or "I need a region explored". Of course, for this you'd have to revamp the mission builder that players can use, and probably just use an ARK.

Maybe once a day, at a random town, on both sides of the conflict.

[_____________Trosida]

More arks around giving out interesting missions would be cool. Heck even actually implementing the player mission creation system would be nice.

[Sean-Roach]

Whoops, Trosida, I got your nym registration date confused with the thread start date.

About 3 months.

[_____________Trosida]

Three months, 6k in views and 13 pages of replies. Not bad for being bored in the lab one day.

[coldwarkid]

Wonderful ideas, and far more deserving of a bump than most of the threads here. As I see it, a profession picklist on the mission term would allow a number of standard class-specific scenarios to be added to the mission, although perhaps a better solution would be to have the game examine the group's membership. Either of these would also work for solo missions, adding a bit of interest and making those tradeskill worthwhile.

Cheers,

~R~

[_____________Yureiko]

this is a great thread and far more deserving of being sticky then some of the things you see. The ideas in this thread would make this game more than a leveling treadmill, and give more avenues for non combat skills.

Pity not a single one of these will get implemented.

(sigh)

[Sean-Roach]

More ideas to improve missions, or actually a refinement of one I mentioned earlier.

Right now the only way to ensure a token is to get no gray mobs, and to kill all the mobs before completing the mission. This is unrealistic as there are missions where stealth is more important than killing everything that moves. Missions where time is of the essence, and thus more important than wiping out every last living thing.

The last mission I ran, for instance. Deliver the fire suppressant.

There should be two to five changes to the mission system. There should be an early completion bonus that can be turned on, (complete the mission by some set fraction of the available time and it's as if you killed 3 more mobs.) There should be two-three sets of mobs in the mission area. Those that improve your chance of getting a token if you kill them, those that reduce your chance of getting a token if you kill them, and those that don't effect your chances one way or the other. It's not unreasonable to have any or all three groups shoot at you.

There should be a double mission clock. Fail to complete by the shorter clock, and you can still get the prize, but your chances of getting the token are reduced, if not eliminated. Perhaps 5% less likely to get the token for each 2% of the mission time that passes before you complete, with a SIGNED value, so you can actually have a negative value. (Otherwise the solution would be to start the mission, go get a bite to eat, and come back to run it after the first timer elapsed.)

There should be missions where you start out with a fair, or absolute, chance of getting a token. Where anything you do BUT the objective reduces your chances at getting the token.

And yes, this could cause, or rather would cause, mission blitzing to be a goal, except.

Missions should be able to be layed out in two basic patterns, random and linear. The random mission would be like now, with rooms generally off of a central hub room. The linear would be where it is guaranteed that you'll have to pass through at least 50% of the rooms before reaching the objective...even if you know right where it is.

Missions should be able to be stocked with varying numbers of mobs according to the conditions. A stealth mission might very well have twice the number of mobs as normal, and no room without at least one mob, with all willing, and able, to root the players.

These two additions would be for when blitzing a mission is the intent, and not the cop-out.

[Nullifax]

periodic lingering here waiting for my account to expire.....BUMP

[Nullifax]

Come on. I can't think of anything atm, but at least give this thread a good bump bump once in a while folks.

[_______________Flope]

Originally posted by Trosida
Three months, 6k in views and 13 pages of replies. Not bad for being bored in the lab one day.

I wish I wouldnt be so bored and read this forum post tho..

[Lador]

Here are my ideas for new class specifice missions that were put up on another thread.

Senario 1: Picture this my young AGENT..you join OMNI Pol..you speak to your commander he has a mission for you, to prove your loyalty to OMNI-TEK ...you are sent on a mission deep into clan territory using your Yalm, stealth and concelment skills to assassinate a clan leader in the city of TIR..having returned successfull in your mission, you discover that the Clan has now put out a contract on you. You are to be terminated on site! Any clan member, will gain the immediate love and admiration of the Clan government (lower cost items or access to new items not avail in normal shops from a drop down list that appears from guild master) as well as a hefty exp/monitary reward and possibly a new title/medal with stat buffs depending on the severity of the offical assassinated!..OOPS thats to much content for this company....instead we get a hole in the ground that looked like the last 500 holes.

Senario 2: You are a Crat, you join your beloved Omni-tek Crat guild and begin, using propaganda and disinformation to weaken your enemy buy and selling secrets from both sides of the fence, delivering packages to specified drops for exp/money/items.. just like RL politicans..Oops wrong again.

Senario 3: You are a shrewd business man, after joining the OMNI-TEK trading guild you begin to establish connections to smuggle, secrets, arms, out of Clan territory (or into it) for profit/exp.............Woops..we all use the same armor/guns/nanos so what would be the point....aint gonna happen in this game!

Senario 4: As a member of OMNI MED, you begin your research on a new virus to send to an unsupecting Clan outpost, having returned and learning that your virus killed X# of clanners you are rewarded by your guildmaster for your heroic effort..with favor/exp/title....humm nope.

Senarior 5: As a studious young Fixer, you decide that your current cadre of nano programs are not powerfull enough, so you hack into the OMNI Mainframe and/or the Clan mainframe and begin compiling your own algorythms for Nano programs from the weaknesses in their defense grids that you find. to create an new deadly AOE that you will take with you over the city of TIR and will release at your convenience.

These ideas are not new missions that you get from the terminal but ones from an NPC of your respective guild, they can be tailored for either side..its not THAT hard to add new content!

[________________6of1]

How about, in addition to profession tailored missions, we turn the idea around a bit and have "assemble your team" missions?

I single player goes up to a team terminal and gets a mission where, based on the text of the mission and sometimes mission recon, he has to figure out what professions he needs to complete the mission.

I'm sure there are people who can shoot huge holes in this idea, but then again, maybe there are some others who can plug them. In any rate, I just thought I'd throw this out and see what happens.




(user 6of1 did have the Mission Impossible theme running through his head when he thought of this, in case you were wondering)

[Nullifax]

Originally posted by 6of1

(user 6of1 did have the Mission Impossible theme running through his head when he thought of this, in case you were wondering)

OMG, that's creepy. I had the MI theme running through my head too while I read your post. VERY creepy

[Sean-Roach]

This is Not a BUMP. THIS IS NOT A BUMP.

Okay, maybe it is.

Serously though. I thought of another idea to make missions more interesting. Hostile Territory.

We're all familiar with that toxic sludge you have to wade through.

What about a rockslide? Make it detectable like a trap but not disarmable. Make a spot in the ceilin flash to indicate the danger. Make the trigger just walking past it, (unlocked, invisible, trapped door across the space. Opens for you even though it's trapped, setting off trap.) Make it avoidable. No instant death to the first person, if he can get in close and move back, or blitz through fast enough.

What about fire? Make the environment constantly do fire damage to everyone in the mission area. Perfect for those deliver the fire suppressant missions. The animations for flames would be interesting to see.

What about vaccume? Not as likely, but in some of the labs it might be interesting to have evaculated rooms. Make trying to get that contrary chest picked, or worse, the door beyond, before suffocating, interesting. If some of the more unusual mobs, say the one that looks like a venus flytrap, seemd to thrive in here, all the better. You'd definately have an incentive to wrap up combat quickly, and those things don't move if I remember right. Of course, it doesn't have to be a vaccume Per Se. It could be a carbon dioxide charged room. (That'd explain the plant type mob living fine in there.)

What about radiation? Again, perfect for some of those missions. The recover the bomb or get the leaky container missions. Also excellent for specific rooms of other mission areas. Might be fun to animate this one.

What about a running firefight between two sides? With no way of getting to the non-aggro "allies", except by killing the last of the very-aggro "enemies", (the normal 3-4 mobs that usually occupy the center room? Pinned down with your exit to their backs? With your "allies", or just some stationary guns, on the opposite side shooting toward the "enemies" until dead?), but a field of "bullets" that'll do normal combat damage to anyone in range nonetheless. Just because aim is perfect, and you can't properly simulate good aim in the game controls due to lag, doesn't mean there shouldn't be crossfire where mobs are concerned. Should probably animate this one.

How about rickety bridges, and turn falling damage back on? (Or at least put those rickety bridges over something hazardous. Pools of toxic sludge, vats of chemicals, lava, spikes, a horde of non-counted toward token chances, low-level rollerrats with no quick way back out, etc.) Again, the bridge should be detectible with detect traps, but this time someone with actual tradeskills, (probably mechanical engineering), should be able to "disarm" it with a screwdriver.

In any mission where 50% or more of the rooms are "hazardous", counting trapped pathways for half, I'd automatically discount any greys from any counts toward mission token, and make the token winnable if even one green or higher mob is killed. (Not guaranteed...unless it IS the only green or higher mob.) Plus, I'd at least half the number of mobs in those missions, (not counting active firefight participants and rollerrat pits.) After all, you're already dealing with extreme flames and dangerous radiation.

[phil]

If FC put this into the game i wouldnt even think of another mmorpg. AO would be so cool at that point. WHY HASNT IT BEEN DONE??? You people make me angry. BUMP