Post by ronan on Jan 30, 2017 12:52:24 GMT -5
I thought I would put forth a few things that I think might improve our server, and that have been brought to my attention by players who's names I will not mention, and whom have already departed our server for parts unknown.
1. While there are quests on our server, and they are extremely well designed and rewarding endeavours, they are fairly hard to find on your own and are limited to grand, expansive scopes. This leaves one two options for when DM events are not happening..... you either grind away at the dungeons, or embark upon social campfire RP, both of which have been pointed out to me can become repetitive over a lengthy period of time. Not that the dungeons are not extremely well designed and fun endeavors themselves, or that campfire / social / bar RP is not fun and rewarding, but that even the most well designed dungeon can become repetitive when done night after night, and social RP can become stale without new elements being injected on occasion.
One thing I miss from Legacy and other servers I have experienced, which I think here could possibly benefit from, are small repeatable quests or bounties scattered throughout the world. I recall the patrol quest from Legacy, that would toss you into that generated forest map and have you hit checkpoints and fight your way out for a small XP / cash reward..... but even more so I would suggest bounty NPC's tied to each dungeon, giving you a daily repeatable quests tied to that dungeon for an amount of bonus XP or guaranteed coin. These NPC's are already present, and it would give them even greater purpose..... for example, Willy within the graveyard could task you with bringing him an assortment of deader ears or heads in an attempt to help him maintain or clear the place, perhaps?
2. Something Engines lacks which other servers also have are plenty of passively explorable areas, complete with gathering nodes for lower-level more common ingredients within them. Although it is rare, there are occasionally those players who prefer non-combat oriented characters, and nearly every area on this server forces you to indulge in combat to work through it. One exception is the waterfall map, another the beach in Plencken, though you have to fight through or run past some pretty dangerous mobs to reach it. More exotic, RP locations without mobs on them would always be welcome, and it would be nice to have some of these locations have low-level ingredients for crafters to walk about and harvest without danger.
For example, perhaps a meadow location with common potion ingredients growing in it, which can be harvested daily and funneled through our alchemists. Or a sub-section of the Mines, a place BEFORE the dungeon which is already cleared and still working, akin to a.... secured tunnel, where players could go to mine nodes of common ores..... copper and iron, while keeping the rarer alchemical ingredients or ores to more dangerous, combat-intensive areas.
This diversity of spawns could also potentially allow greater tweaks to spawn rates per area, allowing a greater control of spawn rates for the rarer metals and ingredients by separating their nodes from those of the more common ones?
Changes such as these, I believe, would be a good step towards both making the server feel more alive when DM's aren't present to breath life into it, and make the economy a living, breathing thing, both things that only bolster a servers appeal and lifespan, I feel.