#1 - Oct. 18, 2018, 10:29 p.m.
I made several topics ages ago about as an mmo rpg personally I am not pleased the direction the difficulty and social gameplay goes. I try to take the issues apart, but they will be still connected, so some suggestion won't look amazoing on its own, but personally I think in the big picture it would be amazing, and I would like to see WoW would had in this direction in the future.
Most importanlty, because the way I see, the mechanic are already in the game, but the features aren't connected in the good or fun way.
One major thing is as a gameplay mechanic WoW is unfortunatly boring now. The game is repetitive, and each expension or content patch techniquely the repainting of the same stuff.
We already know, at the next raid tier, we will have mostly the same thing, but every reward will be +30-40 ilvl, making the old content obsolite.
There are 4 stats in the game, so theres 12 combination. Most specs are minmaxing now, pick two stat and stack them. Micromanagement of the items disappeared.
Most people complain about the azerite gears, and want set items back. I understand the filosophy that 4 item slots was instantly occupied by set items, making any amazing drop useless regardless of the stats.
Azerite gear and AP
I actually love the azerite system. My serious issue is the old boring carrot on a stick that some developers think it is fun to grind.
back in legion I got absolutely fed up with AP farming. I avoided any wq that even gave Ap, since it was fun untill you unlocked the next trait, but became a waste of time to do literally thousand of dungeons for 2k versatilty. (extra negative reason for me, that as a demo lock versa was the absolute worst stat to get)
Suggestion
Make the ring unlocking the other way around.
Instead of starting outside with the boost than grinding for a lousy +5ilvl it should be the other way around.
First you unlock the +5ilvl, than the defensive talent, and the last would be the extra skill boost.
if you really want to hang a carrot on a stick, personally I would be more motivated to unlock the fun stuff last, especially if I would connect this piece together with the contribution system.
The Warfront:
First it seems fun, epic, and amazing.
Untill you realise it is too easy, barely any challange, and it is nothing more than a cath-up mechanism. In the last patch the best thing they could come up with, that afk/ers are kicked. Why not tune the difficulty a bit higher, so people wont asleep while playing it.
Is it actually possible to lose a Warfront?
Suggestion:
I really wish to see warfront as a 20vs20 pvp battleground. Seems like some proper tactical brawls could go on if 40 players would start to do some PvEvP enviroment like oldschool AV. The warfront actually have the mechanics that I imagined in a WoW mmorpg.
The ingame tuning would be left for theorycrafters. I've seen videos why AV and IoC is a guaranteed Alliance win (the critical flagpoints are closer to alliance spawnpoint that a pug can capitalise any time)
The map around Warfront
The problem is as soon as the warfront over, the open world is an idle game, barely without any goal. Ok... you get some quests, maybe a few reward for completionists, but I consider myself as a semihardcore player, and I don't see any point of going to the world...
Suggestion
Once the war is over the map should be an important part of preparing for war.
Instead of killing 6 times 20 npc for some free farmville coins the outdoor world should be a place where the fuel for war are gathered.
This will be a multilayered solution:
I - The contribution system
The first time I've seen it I was like "finally, some itemsink that can be fun, gives purpose for proffessions, and maybe helps the fight hiperinflation of gold"
Yet most of the time the contribution aren't great, since
- 500 ap isn't too appealing (thats why I suggested to reverse the azerite trait unlocking above)
- there's a high chance that instead contributin for 500ap, it is more benefitial to sell the thing in AH for gold
- the whole process seems to be automatic, so no point to urge for something that will come anyway, that will be a catch-up mechanism anyway
I mean once you have hc raid gear, do you have any reason to even qeue for Warfront? Again... completionist cosmetic stuff are boring. It is only great for players who want to finish collections. As any new player or anyone who skipped the game for a while, it is really demotivating that actual gear is almost free loot, while the "good" reward is something that doesnt really change gameplay at all.
Suggestion for this
The contribution system should increase the warfront npc-s BASE stat. Each proffesion targets some stat:
Blacksmithing the health and def stats of mail user npcs,
herbalism and enchanters the armor / weapon upgrade boost
gold the amount of peon/peasant that mines, or efficiency
etc, etc...
Same the other way around. When you controll the zone, the materials are gathered boosts the hp and defensive stats of the wall, respawn time of woods and iron, whatever you can imagine or make it lore relevant.
And make this global with some cap
For obvious reasons.
Since the warfront could be a pvp bg, on a certain week when the war is on, whichever side wins more battle in global that side will controll the zone.
I understand that there are pve-ers.
So pve-ers arent forced to to warmode gathering at all.
The contribution for war preparation should be global, and this is exactly one of the reason, so pvp haters can just have fun on the bambi servers, and gather weeds.
PvEvP-ers can turn warmode on, gather a group, and the hardcore fun can begin.
It is on option, not a way of playing the game.
Just didn't wanted to highlight this option, since it already exists.
Some players don't like the PvP warfront.
Again... a supremely easy solution for this:
Same what island expedition already has. There should a pvp qeue.
The number of wins could go under a weighed avarage calculation.
A win against npc-s worth 1 point,
a pvp warfront worth 10 point.
This is a random number, just as an example to get the point.
Since AI-s are not human, and we dont need Skynet controll npc-s. If wins against npc-s wouldcount the same, than the warfront results are decided by which faction have more max lvl players worldwide...
And thats not fun, but if I remember correctly, the two faction is quite balanced...
But there was a system back in vanilla, that could come back:
PvP warfront is free entrance.
PvE entance needs some entrance fee.
In before some people says, in that case its a matter of credit card balance (which would be an blizzard stock investors wet dream...)
with time all the gathered goods would dissappear in the contribution sink system.
Since players hoarded way to many items up, and apart from consumables theres not much that makes money and goods disappear from the economy.
So summarizing the cycle:
- players contributing goods to boost the warfront base stats
- players contributing goods to make themself powerful (the want easy and quick ap, and the contribution system needs boe item, so this is a good news for AH jugglers)
- and the most effectiv way would be to gather more materials is to win the war, because in that case your buffed faction npc-s would patrol the zone, making the enemy faction collect a few stuff harder (but far from impossible, since we know that even elite guards can be farmed in solo)
And yet again... the contribution npc base stat bonus is capped at a level)
And than the metagame starts:
Warmode would be fun, and with a purpose.
PvP-ers gank farmers to hinder the enemy of contributing. Other pvp-ers want to defend their farmers from enemy players.
Once Warfront is tuned, a metawarfront could come
This is the next level suggestion. One major problem with the game, is when a new content is added, EVERY other zone became out of date. WoW have 120+ zones, yet the endgame happens only on a half of dozen. With the next content patch it is foreseen, than MAYBE we will get 1-3 zones, where the wq rewards are multiple amount of the current one, making the new area more time effective, while more boring, since ALL the endgame players are packed into a tiny space.
So when the next warfront map would come in, the old one would still be in game. In the long term, there would be so many warfronts, that players cannot be there at all, and they have to specialise to maintain zones. (an actual purpose of a guild perhaps)
Even giving Zone Controll Bonuses:
If a faction controll a zone, all the faction npc-s get +1% stat.
When several zones are controlled, that could give extra boost, following some lore. (example: if the faction controlls specific zones they get +10% mount speed outdoor, or +5% damage, etc etc...)
The endgame content should be the other way aroung
Again... a major issue is that the true endgame in current wow are:
- mythic raiding
- really high lvl keys
- rated arena and bg
Everything else is a catch up mechanism to step into these instances...
The open world itself is too easy, and it doesnt even have a great purpose. I know a lot of players (and I am included) that once reach 360+ (or replace the number with current heroic raid tier level) they wont even go to any instances. It doesnt even matter how great quests are in dungeons, it will be boring. Even now, I don't really step into m+5 keys. Especially since the players are so disconnected from each other, that we know, helping a random guy out can be more toxic than benefitial...
Soltuion for this:
Turn the difficulty to the other way around.
Open world should be dangerous. An extreme nightmare hell difficulty, where (currently) even the blood corrupted butterfly could rip the player apart.
And people need to go to dungeons, raid, arena, and warfront got gear up for the world.
I think this is what most people miss from classec wow. Outdoor was deadly and dangerous. And instances made outdoor experience easier.
The higher outdoor difficulty made socialising usefull. And toxic players were outcasted.
Seems most people brutally misunderstands the definiton of difficulty.
Difficulty =/= turning everything into a meatshield. Obviously I wouldnt suggest to turn every npc into a target dummy and giving you a lvl1 fishing rod.
Difficult could be that mobs hit harder
-use spells
-fake casting
-interrupts
-cc on players
do a bit more complicated thing like
- calling for help
- rouge class npc-s actually sap you and ambush you
- scout type npc-s could have higher agro range, or keep an eye on their fellow members. So if the scout is alive, it will aggro everyone in the area if you attack anyone in the scouts vision.
- tank type npc-s actually fear you, and able to taunt you
etc...
The other reason to make outdoor hard, because...
The gold and materials are there! If nothing else the financial team of blizzard could keep this idea in mind, that gold can be free month, or since outdoor is more difficult, some players would spend more irl money for gold transaction...
But summarising the ideas above, and connecting them together, both players and npc/s would make open world much more fun and richer.
especially, since as a tailor, I reached the level of I can make Battle flags.
And... there are great ideas, but you cannot use them where it would be actually benefitial.
The only place where it could be benefitial, is so tuned down, that creating a Battle flag (or any similar consumable) is a waste of ingredient. As a tailor I would rather make a cloth, and brake it or disenchant it.
But again... if the open world is much more hardcore, than even these items would get more love.
Guild size
Guilds are currently closed chatrooms.
Personally I would make some benefitial guild perks again, and put some limit on guild member number. Not characters, but at least account that are in the guilds.
Especially in the long term, when there are several warfronts are constantly on, some guild could specialise to fight for a certain zone.
Outside the game
Players need to be taught the WoW is only a game, a giant playground.
With all the ideas I mentioned above after a time the game should be a giant playground, where each material from one zone or instance can be used in a different feature of the game. The dots should point to each other.
Currently wow is too linear. You have the set of goal to climb arena ladders OR kill mythic bosses OR do the goldfarm game in AH
I think it should be "we farm an instance BECAUSE the item there can be used in arenas, WHERE the winning prize is good for, etc etc etc...
WoW currently tagged as an MMORPG, yet in reality it is a single player hack n slash idle game, with multiplayer elements.
I think with these suggestions it would be benefitial for the future of the game, since new zones would EXTEND the game, not replace it. Since each warfront map contribution needs the certain collectables from the zone itself.
And each and every element, mechanic and feature is in the game already, they only need to be connected this way, and at a few point fine tune since ina global scale pvpve enviroment players WILL find an abusable advantage.
But that's why I recommended global counters for contribution and war winning.
Thank you for reading it, and if you want to give constructive criticism, keep in mind, that these are a collection and connected changes. It is NOT like one of the suggestion would make the game better. We cannot talk of an mmorpg, when the game is a giant theme park, where the open world in nothing more, than a fancy lobby.
