Any number of MMORPGs have had gods and deities, but none have ever given us a simple religious system to compete with combat and crafting. There haven't been shrines or temples to a specific god nor guidelines for how the population expects the individuals (read: players) to worship that god. You wouldn't expect a Rallos Zek worshiper (to use EQ1) to behave the same as a disciple of Mithaniel Marr. There should also be some recognition of standing within the 'religion' proper -- disciple, followers, priests, bishops, etc.; ranks within organizations. There is a progression there.
The 'choice' of a god is frequently window dressing in character creation, all I'm asking for is to make this 'choice' meaningful in the rest of the game.
My aspiration was always to be known as Mendel, Choir-boy of Karana. (Okay, maybe temporary 3rd alternate Choir-boy).
Get this.
In DDO, IF you play a divine (Cleric, FvS, Paladin) The deity grants you unique abilities and even favored weapons that your class can use, even if they otherwise could not.
For example, a WarForged Cleric, that follows the Lord of Blade, gets Great Sword as their Holy weapon, so they are proficient with Great Swords, even if their class does not normally grant such proficiency.
If say that same Cleric opted to follow the Silver Flame, their Holy Weapon is now Longbow, so they gain proficiency long bow.
Now, this in no way means they have to use that weapon, just that they gained proficiency with that weapon and can use it better than other clerics that didn't follow the same deity.
For example, there is nothing stopping the above mentioned Warforged Cleric from following the Silver Flame and opting to use the traditional heavy mace as their primary weapon, if they so wish.
Each Deity also grants additional abilities, like for example, if you Followed Lady Vol, who's chosen weapon is the Dagger, when you get high enough level she provides a special ability called Blood is Life Transformation, which makes any dagger you are wielding vampiric (Meaning they heal you when you hit mobs) for a short period of time, as well other boons while in that form.
So, some games have touched upon this. Not saying this is the best game out there, but, it has some truly amazing features that a lot of modern MMO's have not even begin to touch.
Not close to the same at all to what I'm thinking.
In DDO, a priest class chooses a deity and that deity provides a set of spells/skills. In many regards, these special skills are no different from a ranger being able to shoot bows and track, or a rogue being able sneak about and backstab. They are just lore that builds into the character creation, it doesn't affect the goals and aims of the character in-game.
I'm thinking more about an in-game organization essentially ran by the deity. The character can move into more prestigious positions within the religion, and the in-game actions and behaviors of the character affect this standing. The deity can dictate what earns favor with them, and the highest ranks (of NPCs/PCs) could set some tasks and obligations for the followers. These religions could easily have been a sociopolitical group vying with fighters, craftsmen and magicians for dominance in the world. The key is that this organization has a finite leadership structure, and has specific duties and privileges for each follower from the lowest follower to the highest high priest. (If the development team was especially blessed with time, money and some stray ideas, they could create different organizations for each deity -- a god of healing wouldn't necessarily operate the same as a god of war).
Oh, I got what you were striving for.
While, the chances are of something like that that happening, are near to zilch, as that would require the dev team to make entire swaths of content based around a single deity, with their own unique skills and abilities and story lines, which, simply have no ROI.
I just showed a point where some games, put in some effort so that what you chose as a deity does affect some of the abilities you can get, that are not the same as a cleric of another deity would get.
So it is not the same as Ranger, where they all get Tracking and Bow use, in this case, each deity grants a different skill and ability.
There is also some flavor text, and some additional interaction options in the game depending on your deity.
Which is pretty advanced for an MMO, and no MMO even comes close to doing that, and that game was made in 2008
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
I would love mmorpgs that allowed player created dungeons and content(but not crappy voxels like minecraft/trove). I think EQ Next was supposed to have that...
I would love mmorpgs that allowed player created dungeons and content(but not crappy voxels like minecraft/trove). I think EQ Next was supposed to have that...
Neverwinter has it. Was pretty interesting and a lot of games have level editors and such.
Catch me streaming at twitch.tv/cryomatrix You can see my sci-fi/WW2 book recommendations.
Also, if you want innovative, then project entropia is where it is at.
Real cash economy baby. Every bulley you fire, every armor decay you get, every km you drive in a vehicle costs real money . . . . As well as all loot.
Hit a 2820 ped hit last night ($280) and got another 490 ped hit today ($49) but i did just buy a weapon for 10,200 peds ($1,200) so you know, im net negative but still fun as heck.
Catch me streaming at twitch.tv/cryomatrix You can see my sci-fi/WW2 book recommendations.
Personally I think when it comes to game innovation at this point, and what kind of cool stuff some MMO's have in fact put out over the year, It reminds me of a quote.
"If you want a new idea read an old book"
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
Personally I would like to see cascading dungeons. This would be cost effective and add repeatability.
So let me explain, Say you design a dungeon, and it repeats the lower you go, so as you start cascading down(or up) the layout is exactly the same, but the monsters are getting more difficult (improved AI, better mechanics, increased resistances, more health, more damage etc...)
You could put checkpoints at various points like 5,10,15... so if your party dies it goes back to the last checkpoint, but you can auto-teleport to any checkpoint you have successfully completed in the past.
In addition, you could make some points like 10,20... safe areas where there are repair vendors, hangouts for LFG, player vendors...
So in concept you build 10 dungeons around the world, but each is a hub with infinite repeatability to the player no matter what level they currently are, they can continue to challenge themselves by going deeper at any hub. Even have leaderboards for top 100 people to complete deepest dive in last 7-30 days for that dungeon.
More features that make my avatar realistic. Need for food and drink. Item weight. Footprints in sand and snow. Visible breath in the cold. That sort of thing.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Personally I would like to see cascading dungeons. This would be cost effective and add repeatability.
So let me explain, Say you design a dungeon, and it repeats the lower you go, so as you start cascading down(or up) the layout is exactly the same, but the monsters are getting more difficult (improved AI, better mechanics, increased resistances, more health, more damage etc...)
You could put checkpoints at various points like 5,10,15... so if your party dies it goes back to the last checkpoint, but you can auto-teleport to any checkpoint you have successfully completed in the past.
In addition, you could make some points like 10,20... safe areas where there are repair vendors, hangouts for LFG, player vendors...
So in concept you build 10 dungeons around the world, but each is a hub with infinite repeatability to the player no matter what level they currently are, they can continue to challenge themselves by going deeper at any hub. Even have leaderboards for top 100 people to complete deepest dive in last 7-30 days for that dungeon.
The repetitious part makes it sound more like a rogue-like than an MMORPG, but otherwise solid. I could see this making the 'trek to the next safe spot' a very real thing, especially if it considered player ability (level, gear, etc) in the difficulty computation. One raid geared character in a party of scrubs (as if that ever happens anymore) could seriously up the danger level.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
Personally I would like to see cascading dungeons. This would be cost effective and add repeatability.
So let me explain, Say you design a dungeon, and it repeats the lower you go, so as you start cascading down(or up) the layout is exactly the same, but the monsters are getting more difficult (improved AI, better mechanics, increased resistances, more health, more damage etc...)
You could put checkpoints at various points like 5,10,15... so if your party dies it goes back to the last checkpoint, but you can auto-teleport to any checkpoint you have successfully completed in the past.
In addition, you could make some points like 10,20... safe areas where there are repair vendors, hangouts for LFG, player vendors...
So in concept you build 10 dungeons around the world, but each is a hub with infinite repeatability to the player no matter what level they currently are, they can continue to challenge themselves by going deeper at any hub. Even have leaderboards for top 100 people to complete deepest dive in last 7-30 days for that dungeon.
The repetitious part makes it sound more like a rogue-like than an MMORPG, but otherwise solid. I could see this making the 'trek to the next safe spot' a very real thing, especially if it considered player ability (level, gear, etc) in the difficulty computation. One raid geared character in a party of scrubs (as if that ever happens anymore) could seriously up the danger level.
I concede the point from simplicity sake that too much repetition could be boring, but I am just showing a concept. Ideally the dungeons could randomize somehow.
My main point is how much time could be saved in development if devs could use the same dungeon designs for many interesting experiences, rather than spend all their time designing these huge wonderfully detailed graphic dungeon biomes where people go 1 or 2 times then never go back to them.
If designers could make repeatable dungeons with mechanics phasing in at certain levels it would be way easier to create lots more content.
I played ESO and they had something similar where they had like 3 difficulty levels, there were some additional mechanics for bosses.
I imagine it going way farther. Where the deeper you go, the monster AI just starts getting much better. The environment becomes more hostile like poison/fire areas you have to dodge while fighting. Monsters start using defensive and offense spells. This way all types of people from casuals to hardcore can enjoy the content.
Personally I would like to see cascading dungeons. This would be cost effective and add repeatability.
So let me explain, Say you design a dungeon, and it repeats the lower you go, so as you start cascading down(or up) the layout is exactly the same, but the monsters are getting more difficult (improved AI, better mechanics, increased resistances, more health, more damage etc...)
You could put checkpoints at various points like 5,10,15... so if your party dies it goes back to the last checkpoint, but you can auto-teleport to any checkpoint you have successfully completed in the past.
In addition, you could make some points like 10,20... safe areas where there are repair vendors, hangouts for LFG, player vendors...
So in concept you build 10 dungeons around the world, but each is a hub with infinite repeatability to the player no matter what level they currently are, they can continue to challenge themselves by going deeper at any hub. Even have leaderboards for top 100 people to complete deepest dive in last 7-30 days for that dungeon.
The repetitious part makes it sound more like a rogue-like than an MMORPG, but otherwise solid. I could see this making the 'trek to the next safe spot' a very real thing, especially if it considered player ability (level, gear, etc) in the difficulty computation. One raid geared character in a party of scrubs (as if that ever happens anymore) could seriously up the danger level.
I concede the point from simplicity sake that too much repetition could be boring, but I am just showing a concept. Ideally the dungeons could randomize somehow.
My main point is how much time could be saved in development if devs could use the same dungeon designs for many interesting experiences, rather than spend all their time designing these huge wonderfully detailed graphic dungeon biomes where people go 1 or 2 times then never go back to them.
If designers could make repeatable dungeons with mechanics phasing in at certain levels it would be way easier to create lots more content.
I played ESO and they had something similar where they had like 3 difficulty levels, there were some additional mechanics for bosses.
I imagine it going way farther. Where the deeper you go, the monster AI just starts getting much better. The environment becomes more hostile like poison/fire areas you have to dodge while fighting. Monsters start using defensive and offense spells. This way all types of people from casuals to hardcore can enjoy the content.
DDO already does this with their Challenges.
Yah yah yah.. I know.. what DOSEN'T this game do.. right.
But, just to explain, DDO put in what is called "Challenges" with their House Cannith expansion pack, where players can run various challenges, at various levels, and each level applies harder mobs, and more challenges, even if the map mainly remains the same.
They also do this for their Halloween Event, Mabar.
Just going to use Mabar, because it is going on right now, and I don't need to explain too much.
You have a fixed Map, called "Delera's Graveyard" that you pick the level difficulty for, from 7th to 35th (Max Character level is 30th) so, yes, you can pick a higher difficulty than you characters level.
So lets say, you are 7th, and you go in on 7th. The graveyard is mainly full of skeletons and a few wights... very low level characters.
Then lets say you feel that was not hard enough, so you opt for 10th level, now you are facing Skeletons, Goules, Wrathes, and Wights.
You scoff at this weakness and go to level 12 (Keep in mind you are still level 7). Well now the graveyard is full of Shadows, Wrathes, Dread Zombies, and Vampires.
and on it will go.. as you keep going higher and higher level.
The goal of course is to complete objectives (it is a challenge after all), before the time runs out, there are 5 objectives, and if you complete them all, you get max rewards and exp.
If do not get 5 stars, you get lesser exp and loot. It's that simple.
And there is no limit to how many times you can keep going back in, to test your skills, or move up and down the level ladder to find that ideal challenge, or that perfect cake walk, or perhaps that much needed getting your face stomped into the ground.
The rewards are just ingredients that you trade to a vendor for various other loot, no real loot drops in the dungeon itself, it is all about how well you complete the objectives.
Just wanted to put out that there were some games that already work this principal.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
Personally I would like to see cascading dungeons. This would be cost effective and add repeatability.
So let me explain, Say you design a dungeon, and it repeats the lower you go, so as you start cascading down(or up) the layout is exactly the same, but the monsters are getting more difficult (improved AI, better mechanics, increased resistances, more health, more damage etc...)
You could put checkpoints at various points like 5,10,15... so if your party dies it goes back to the last checkpoint, but you can auto-teleport to any checkpoint you have successfully completed in the past.
In addition, you could make some points like 10,20... safe areas where there are repair vendors, hangouts for LFG, player vendors...
So in concept you build 10 dungeons around the world, but each is a hub with infinite repeatability to the player no matter what level they currently are, they can continue to challenge themselves by going deeper at any hub. Even have leaderboards for top 100 people to complete deepest dive in last 7-30 days for that dungeon.
The repetitious part makes it sound more like a rogue-like than an MMORPG, but otherwise solid. I could see this making the 'trek to the next safe spot' a very real thing, especially if it considered player ability (level, gear, etc) in the difficulty computation. One raid geared character in a party of scrubs (as if that ever happens anymore) could seriously up the danger level.
Get this.. Yah.. I know.. I am gonna say DDO does something cool.
I get it.. I sound like a broken record.. but.. still... they do shit like this. for reals.
Imagine, if you will, you could walk up to a Dungeon, and Pick Casual - Normal - Hard - Elite - Reaper(Nightmare 1- 10 skulls) modes for the dungeon you are about to enter.
What you pick, affects how powerful the mobs are, what level are they are, how abundant they are, as well as chances for them to Champions, of 3 tiers of Difficulty, Yellow / Orange / Red, with special abilities like "Stone Born" which gives them an inherent DR to all physical damage.
If you opted to go for the Reaper mode, Reapers (Just real pissers to kill) can spawn when you do any task, like kill a mob, disarm a trap, open a chest.. so, imagine you are at the end, open a chest, and a Massive Shade like Extraplanar creature spawns on you, and then inflicts a plague upon your whole party, or just one shot kills the tank.. so some such.. again, depends on how many skulls you picked and how ready you were... trust me, that add a whole new level of needing to be on your toes when playing.
Now if all that was not fun enough for you..
The Dungeon also scales by Group size. So if you went in on say, Normal, with 2 people (You and your Friend) the dungeon would be easier, in the sense of the power level of each individual mob, and their frequency, then if you went into the Dungeon with say a full group of 6 people.
This is to accommodate how much more efficient the larger group could clear the dungeon, using all their resources together, so the individual mobs become stronger to accommodate the additional players.
Now anyone can do a dungeon at any level, so say a level 20 character could do a level 1 dungeon, this happens for favor runs mostly, where players clear up their favor rewards and such.
However, the game makes it so that if someone is in the group that too many levels above someone else, I believe the limit is 5 levels, or something like that, been a long time since I looked that up, and I don't deal with it anyway, but in any case, the lower level player gets hit a negative in EXP called a "Power Leveling" negative. This stops someone from having their high level friend in all raid gear from carrying them through content.
If there is a player in the dungeon is 3 or more levels above the dungeon, all daily and bravery bonuses are lost.
If the player is 4 levels above the Dungeon level, the whole party starts to take Negatives to EXP for running the dungeon and at I believe 8 levels above the dungeon you get 0% exp for the Dungeon.
The only exception to this rule is Reaper, that will not let someone over 4 levels even enter the dungeon at all. If you plan to do Reaper, you need to do it within the level restrictions.
So the ideal incentive range to run a dungeon is 2 levels below to 2 levels above, that way you get max exp with bravery and everyone is within the right level to play together.
That also tends to be the hardest levels to run the dungeons, obviously.
But, the game does take into account the difficulty setting you picked, and your party size, when setting up the challenge you will face going in.
Just thought I would mention that.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
Personally I would like to see cascading dungeons. This would be cost effective and add repeatability.
So let me explain, Say you design a dungeon, and it repeats the lower you go, so as you start cascading down(or up) the layout is exactly the same, but the monsters are getting more difficult (improved AI, better mechanics, increased resistances, more health, more damage etc...)
You could put checkpoints at various points like 5,10,15... so if your party dies it goes back to the last checkpoint, but you can auto-teleport to any checkpoint you have successfully completed in the past.
In addition, you could make some points like 10,20... safe areas where there are repair vendors, hangouts for LFG, player vendors...
So in concept you build 10 dungeons around the world, but each is a hub with infinite repeatability to the player no matter what level they currently are, they can continue to challenge themselves by going deeper at any hub. Even have leaderboards for top 100 people to complete deepest dive in last 7-30 days for that dungeon.
The repetitious part makes it sound more like a rogue-like than an MMORPG, but otherwise solid. I could see this making the 'trek to the next safe spot' a very real thing, especially if it considered player ability (level, gear, etc) in the difficulty computation. One raid geared character in a party of scrubs (as if that ever happens anymore) could seriously up the danger level.
Get this.. Yah.. I know.. I am gonna say DDO does something cool.
I get it.. I sound like a broken record.. but.. still... they do shit like this. for reals.
Imagine, if you will, you could walk up to a Dungeon, and Pick Casual - Normal - Hard - Elite - Reaper(Nightmare 1- 10 skulls) modes for the dungeon you are about to enter.
What you pick, affects how powerful the mobs are, what level are they are, how abundant they are, as well as chances for them to Champions, of 3 tiers of Difficulty, Yellow / Orange / Red, with special abilities like "Stone Born" which gives them an inherent DR to all physical damage.
If you opted to go for the Reaper mode, Reapers (Just real pissers to kill) can spawn when you do any task, like kill a mob, disarm a trap, open a chest.. so, imagine you are at the end, open a chest, and a Massive Shade like Extraplanar creature spawns on you, and then inflicts a plague upon your whole party, or just one shot kills the tank.. so some such.. again, depends on how many skulls you picked and how ready you were... trust me, that add a whole new level of needing to be on your toes when playing.
Now if all that was not fun enough for you..
The Dungeon also scales by Group size. So if you went in on say, Normal, with 2 people (You and your Friend) the dungeon would be easier, in the sense of the power level of each individual mob, and their frequency, then if you went into the Dungeon with say a full group of 6 people.
This is to accommodate how much more efficient the larger group could clear the dungeon, using all their resources together, so the individual mobs become stronger to accommodate the additional players.
Now anyone can do a dungeon at any level, so say a level 20 character could do a level 1 dungeon, this happens for favor runs mostly, where players clear up their favor rewards and such.
However, the game makes it so that if someone is in the group that too many levels above someone else, I believe the limit is 5 levels, or something like that, been a long time since I looked that up, and I don't deal with it anyway, but in any case, the lower level player gets hit a negative in EXP called a "Power Leveling" negative. This stops someone from having their high level friend in all raid gear from carrying them through content.
If there is a player in the dungeon is 3 or more levels above the dungeon, all daily and bravery bonuses are lost.
If the player is 4 levels above the Dungeon level, the whole party starts to take Negatives to EXP for running the dungeon and at I believe 8 levels above the dungeon you get 0% exp for the Dungeon.
The only exception to this rule is Reaper, that will not let someone over 4 levels even enter the dungeon at all. If you plan to do Reaper, you need to do it within the level restrictions.
So the ideal incentive range to run a dungeon is 2 levels below to 2 levels above, that way you get max exp with bravery and everyone is within the right level to play together.
That also tends to be the hardest levels to run the dungeons, obviously.
But, the game does take into account the difficulty setting you picked, and your party size, when setting up the challenge you will face going in.
Just thought I would mention that.
Yah Diablo 3 allows selected scaling also. Just curious how did this work out anyway, what were the problems of this type of system?
Get this.. Yah.. I know.. I am gonna say DDO does something cool.
I get it.. I sound like a broken record.. but.. still... they do shit like this. for reals.
Imagine, if you will, you could walk up to a Dungeon, and Pick Casual - Normal - Hard - Elite - Reaper(Nightmare 1- 10 skulls) modes for the dungeon you are about to enter.
What you pick, affects how powerful the mobs are, what level are they are, how abundant they are, as well as chances for them to Champions, of 3 tiers of Difficulty, Yellow / Orange / Red, with special abilities like "Stone Born" which gives them an inherent DR to all physical damage.
If you opted to go for the Reaper mode, Reapers (Just real pissers to kill) can spawn when you do any task, like kill a mob, disarm a trap, open a chest.. so, imagine you are at the end, open a chest, and a Massive Shade like Extraplanar creature spawns on you, and then inflicts a plague upon your whole party, or just one shot kills the tank.. so some such.. again, depends on how many skulls you picked and how ready you were... trust me, that add a whole new level of needing to be on your toes when playing.
Now if all that was not fun enough for you..
The Dungeon also scales by Group size. So if you went in on say, Normal, with 2 people (You and your Friend) the dungeon would be easier, in the sense of the power level of each individual mob, and their frequency, then if you went into the Dungeon with say a full group of 6 people.
This is to accommodate how much more efficient the larger group could clear the dungeon, using all their resources together, so the individual mobs become stronger to accommodate the additional players.
Now anyone can do a dungeon at any level, so say a level 20 character could do a level 1 dungeon, this happens for favor runs mostly, where players clear up their favor rewards and such.
However, the game makes it so that if someone is in the group that too many levels above someone else, I believe the limit is 5 levels, or something like that, been a long time since I looked that up, and I don't deal with it anyway, but in any case, the lower level player gets hit a negative in EXP called a "Power Leveling" negative. This stops someone from having their high level friend in all raid gear from carrying them through content.
If there is a player in the dungeon is 3 or more levels above the dungeon, all daily and bravery bonuses are lost.
If the player is 4 levels above the Dungeon level, the whole party starts to take Negatives to EXP for running the dungeon and at I believe 8 levels above the dungeon you get 0% exp for the Dungeon.
The only exception to this rule is Reaper, that will not let someone over 4 levels even enter the dungeon at all. If you plan to do Reaper, you need to do it within the level restrictions.
So the ideal incentive range to run a dungeon is 2 levels below to 2 levels above, that way you get max exp with bravery and everyone is within the right level to play together.
That also tends to be the hardest levels to run the dungeons, obviously.
But, the game does take into account the difficulty setting you picked, and your party size, when setting up the challenge you will face going in.
Just thought I would mention that.
Yah Diablo 3 allows selected scaling also. Just curious how did this work out anyway, what were the problems of this type of system?
Well, ironically the biggest problem was that players always wanted to Elite /Reaper because they offered the most exp/favor/loot, and ended up no being able to handle it.
Ironically, it tends to be one of the best systems I have ever encountered in an MMO, and it's even is used in their Raids.
Not to say that DDO isn't a buggy mess, but that Difficulty setting thing, they got that right.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
Comments
While, the chances are of something like that that happening, are near to zilch, as that would require the dev team to make entire swaths of content based around a single deity, with their own unique skills and abilities and story lines, which, simply have no ROI.
I just showed a point where some games, put in some effort so that what you chose as a deity does affect some of the abilities you can get, that are not the same as a cleric of another deity would get.
So it is not the same as Ranger, where they all get Tracking and Bow use, in this case, each deity grants a different skill and ability.
There is also some flavor text, and some additional interaction options in the game depending on your deity.
Which is pretty advanced for an MMO, and no MMO even comes close to doing that, and that game was made in 2008
You can see my sci-fi/WW2 book recommendations.
Real cash economy baby. Every bulley you fire, every armor decay you get, every km you drive in a vehicle costs real money . . . . As well as all loot.
Hit a 2820 ped hit last night ($280) and got another 490 ped hit today ($49) but i did just buy a weapon for 10,200 peds ($1,200) so you know, im net negative but still fun as heck.
You can see my sci-fi/WW2 book recommendations.
"If you want a new idea read an old book"
So let me explain, Say you design a dungeon, and it repeats the lower you go, so as you start cascading down(or up) the layout is exactly the same, but the monsters are getting more difficult (improved AI, better mechanics, increased resistances, more health, more damage etc...)
You could put checkpoints at various points like 5,10,15... so if your party dies it goes back to the last checkpoint, but you can auto-teleport to any checkpoint you have successfully completed in the past.
In addition, you could make some points like 10,20... safe areas where there are repair vendors, hangouts for LFG, player vendors...
So in concept you build 10 dungeons around the world, but each is a hub with infinite repeatability to the player no matter what level they currently are, they can continue to challenge themselves by going deeper at any hub. Even have leaderboards for top 100 people to complete deepest dive in last 7-30 days for that dungeon.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
I concede the point from simplicity sake that too much repetition could be boring, but I am just showing a concept. Ideally the dungeons could randomize somehow.
My main point is how much time could be saved in development if devs could use the same dungeon designs for many interesting experiences, rather than spend all their time designing these huge wonderfully detailed graphic dungeon biomes where people go 1 or 2 times then never go back to them.
If designers could make repeatable dungeons with mechanics phasing in at certain levels it would be way easier to create lots more content.
I played ESO and they had something similar where they had like 3 difficulty levels, there were some additional mechanics for bosses.
I imagine it going way farther. Where the deeper you go, the monster AI just starts getting much better. The environment becomes more hostile like poison/fire areas you have to dodge while fighting. Monsters start using defensive and offense spells. This way all types of people from casuals to hardcore can enjoy the content.
Yah yah yah.. I know.. what DOSEN'T this game do.. right.
But, just to explain, DDO put in what is called "Challenges" with their House Cannith expansion pack, where players can run various challenges, at various levels, and each level applies harder mobs, and more challenges, even if the map mainly remains the same.
They also do this for their Halloween Event, Mabar.
Just going to use Mabar, because it is going on right now, and I don't need to explain too much.
You have a fixed Map, called "Delera's Graveyard" that you pick the level difficulty for, from 7th to 35th (Max Character level is 30th) so, yes, you can pick a higher difficulty than you characters level.
So lets say, you are 7th, and you go in on 7th. The graveyard is mainly full of skeletons and a few wights... very low level characters.
Then lets say you feel that was not hard enough, so you opt for 10th level, now you are facing Skeletons, Goules, Wrathes, and Wights.
You scoff at this weakness and go to level 12 (Keep in mind you are still level 7). Well now the graveyard is full of Shadows, Wrathes, Dread Zombies, and Vampires.
and on it will go.. as you keep going higher and higher level.
The goal of course is to complete objectives (it is a challenge after all), before the time runs out, there are 5 objectives, and if you complete them all, you get max rewards and exp.
If do not get 5 stars, you get lesser exp and loot. It's that simple.
And there is no limit to how many times you can keep going back in, to test your skills, or move up and down the level ladder to find that ideal challenge, or that perfect cake walk, or perhaps that much needed getting your face stomped into the ground.
The rewards are just ingredients that you trade to a vendor for various other loot, no real loot drops in the dungeon itself, it is all about how well you complete the objectives.
Just wanted to put out that there were some games that already work this principal.
I get it.. I sound like a broken record.. but.. still... they do shit like this. for reals.
Imagine, if you will, you could walk up to a Dungeon, and Pick Casual - Normal - Hard - Elite - Reaper(Nightmare 1- 10 skulls) modes for the dungeon you are about to enter.
What you pick, affects how powerful the mobs are, what level are they are, how abundant they are, as well as chances for them to Champions, of 3 tiers of Difficulty, Yellow / Orange / Red, with special abilities like "Stone Born" which gives them an inherent DR to all physical damage.
If you opted to go for the Reaper mode, Reapers (Just real pissers to kill) can spawn when you do any task, like kill a mob, disarm a trap, open a chest.. so, imagine you are at the end, open a chest, and a Massive Shade like Extraplanar creature spawns on you, and then inflicts a plague upon your whole party, or just one shot kills the tank.. so some such.. again, depends on how many skulls you picked and how ready you were... trust me, that add a whole new level of needing to be on your toes when playing.
Now if all that was not fun enough for you..
The Dungeon also scales by Group size. So if you went in on say, Normal, with 2 people (You and your Friend) the dungeon would be easier, in the sense of the power level of each individual mob, and their frequency, then if you went into the Dungeon with say a full group of 6 people.
This is to accommodate how much more efficient the larger group could clear the dungeon, using all their resources together, so the individual mobs become stronger to accommodate the additional players.
Now anyone can do a dungeon at any level, so say a level 20 character could do a level 1 dungeon, this happens for favor runs mostly, where players clear up their favor rewards and such.
However, the game makes it so that if someone is in the group that too many levels above someone else, I believe the limit is 5 levels, or something like that, been a long time since I looked that up, and I don't deal with it anyway, but in any case, the lower level player gets hit a negative in EXP called a "Power Leveling" negative. This stops someone from having their high level friend in all raid gear from carrying them through content.
If there is a player in the dungeon is 3 or more levels above the dungeon, all daily and bravery bonuses are lost.
If the player is 4 levels above the Dungeon level, the whole party starts to take Negatives to EXP for running the dungeon and at I believe 8 levels above the dungeon you get 0% exp for the Dungeon.
The only exception to this rule is Reaper, that will not let someone over 4 levels even enter the dungeon at all. If you plan to do Reaper, you need to do it within the level restrictions.
So the ideal incentive range to run a dungeon is 2 levels below to 2 levels above, that way you get max exp with bravery and everyone is within the right level to play together.
That also tends to be the hardest levels to run the dungeons, obviously.
But, the game does take into account the difficulty setting you picked, and your party size, when setting up the challenge you will face going in.
Just thought I would mention that.
Ironically, it tends to be one of the best systems I have ever encountered in an MMO, and it's even is used in their Raids.
Not to say that DDO isn't a buggy mess, but that Difficulty setting thing, they got that right.