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Turn up difficulty on most, BINGO we have our mmorpg back.
delete5230
Member EpicPosts: 7,081
Trying a new approach someone suggested, keep it short and to the point.
Short version,
In studying Elders Scrolls Online, I pumped myself up with so much energy to play it was amazing. Features, quality, graphics. Could actually surpass World of Warcraft.
This is until I watched Youtube footage. No damage ever. People maximizing their characters along with deep crafting……… all for what ?.... To gather 40 and kill them all faster than just 30 ?
Really, REALLY !!! Whats with that ?
Three possible reasons I could think of:
- low amount of content, get you to end game in 30 days, and lazy balance of creatures.
- 4 year old Johnny can play too.
- Rush you to the next paid expansion.
Same with GW2, FF14, ESO, WoW and most all second generation games.
My Final point TURN UP THE DIFFICULTY X10 and all these games became mmorpg's again (with community). Other than balancing things, all normal features seem to be in place automatically.
Short 
Comments
Rewards seem to be pre-adjust..... But the good news, it would count
Off the cuff.... It seems like EVERYTHING is mostly in place but the hot button for difficulty.
More difficulty in MMOs in the right areas would be a big help to stopping MMOs being a yawn fest as XP is like taking candy from a baby. The other side of this is solo play, everything must be soloable and that makes it a walk over for the few players who still group. Yawn...we need something to put a boot up players arses and put an element of danger into gameplay.
Grouping should happen because you've designed it to be more fun than not grouping. If you try to force people to do it you're already doing it wrong.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
All I'm saying is it's a simple button that simply can be pressed.
Same old shit my ass !
Like for example... did you ever play LOTRO at release? In groups you had a special mechanic called Fellowship Maneuvers that was powerful and fun to use and there were even a couple of classes that could trigger them deliberately.
Grouping was fun but there was plenty of room for soloers or role players that just wanted to hang out somewhere and play music together.
Forced grouping through higher difficulty that can't be done solo is just zealot thinking: "you must do it the way I like it or GTFO." It's dumb shit man.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
I also think that there needs to be some logic to it.
I proposed several times that some dungeon "rooms" or areas should have some means for the MOBs to call in reinforcements. Things like bellowing horns, large bronze bells, and huge gongs. And give the players a chance to prevent such a "calling" through tactics. Assassins would be special forces here, but so could the right Mages or others.
I think there should be a fixed number of MOBs in the entire dungeon, and defeated MOB reinforcements should reduce the next encounters. However, if the MOBs get away with a randomized AI strategy to summon enough reinforcements, the Players might be driven back. Defeated. Live to fight another day.
Got some loot, some advancement, and some knowledge of what that Dungeon MOB set can bring to the battle.
As far as Solo, I never expected that all "Classes" or Players could be able to be effective Soloers. That should be the place for stealth, magic of that nature, and quick, deadly hits in silence.
Please, for the love of all that the gods gift ye, get away from this standard game design. It can never work well. It's too rigid and formula driven.
Once upon a time....
These games (if you can even call them a game) are a joke. Don't use back in the day an excuse to play word games I don't play them.
You cannot have true difficulty if the content never changes.
Randomness and adjustments combined, these are the means to "difficulty" that works for game play. Otherwise, players can figure out the defined means to always winning. It'll be on some cheat site.
Once upon a time....
Forcing grouping through difficulty is just another one of your dumbass ideas. You might build a community of Deletes but that's about it. Have fun with your 2 other buddies in your community lol.
Your ideas are always about making people do what you want them to do, not what they want. Forcing people to have fun against their will... you don't see the problem?
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Your point is part of the 3 reasons In my OP..... Seems laziness on developer part.
At least Triple A should make all the effort to give a quality game, balancing is part of the obligation.
We used to call games and puzzles a challenge.... But them again I'm getting older.
Thank you, really
Nothing, and I repeat Nothing, Sucks balls harder then needing to get a group together just to wander around a map.
When me and my online friends tried neverwinter it took a couple minutes to realize that we woukdn’t need each other at all and we dropped the game like a rock.
90% of the game can be soloed, I wager at this point, maybe 95% of the game, given some raids can also be soloed.
Groups allow you to harder difficulties, they gave you more hands in the chest to get rare drop loot, and they make the quest go faster and easier in most cases.
Not needed, but adventegious.
What I would prefer is a separate system of advancement in "grouping". Much like you can (and should always) have separate rewards for PvE and PvP. In a sense a raid is part of such a system. You could have gear only for grouping with harder difficulties to match the fact you are doing a quest as a group. But that's a lot of development work, raising the overall difficulty is much easier to do. There is precedent in single player games, I don't see why it should not be tried.
However, if you want to appeal to more than a minority I am not sure increased difficulty would get of the ground. Just like Dark Souls there could be room for such a MMO but it won't change the industry, ever easier solo and team will remain the direction of travel. When I say "team" I mean co-op/team games where funnily enough nobody says "why can't I play this game solo."?
DDO, much like P&P, is something I can log into casually or get together with friends, but when I play an MMORPG it’s a completely different expectation.
You MUST have that gear score or your can't play is such a stupid idea for design but makes it easier for devs to gate content,to CONTROL you as a player.So content becomes more about your gear than you and that is NOT a proper way to design a game.
Sadly over time FFXI was losing players to other games including FFXIV so eventually the developer needed QOL to be added and imo rightfully so.The game is now a MUCH different game than during the vanilla 1-75 days.It is not so much in the difficulty but how it is played,you still benefit from the group but now you can make your own group out of npc's.
I actually like it because collecting and using various npc's to your liking is sort of fun,yes it takes the grouping out of the game which is sad but after 16+ years you simply don't have enough new players to keep the original design in tact.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Let me ask you all, what makes your MMORPGs "more difficult?"
All you're really doing is bumping the content up to a higher Level, as in Level Grinds.
It's still predictable.
It's still documented on "cheat sites."
It's still "connect the dots."
Player characters are still nothing more than puppets on strings.
It's still "rinse and repeat."
It's still got all those nagging problems on the social end of it.
It's still a Gear Grind that goes from need to meaningless as you level.
It's still basically Multi-Player under controls of Grouping rules.
What would make a difference in your Themeparkish games is if you could lose your gear if you died. (GASP!!!)
I'm being a little unfair here in one way.
If you are playing more difficult content (higher leveled) to get the gear you need to beat that content, rather than getting that gear, spells, etc. that you need in previous levels.
You know, if THAT'S why it's more difficult.
But that would slow advancement down quite a bit, causing a lot more player deaths, and defeats you just don't see anymore, where you have to re-outfit and restock your character and try again, maybe another day.
I don't think most of you would want that.
Once upon a time....
It's just an example of a grouping incentive not based on difficulty. Carrot instead of stick as it were.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Really unfortunate, FM is an interesting and deep system, was a tremendous help with those early bosses and raids.
You can go as HCMF as you like in that game.. really.
Maybe a few hundred times, so it sinks in.