Ideas on improving the gaming experience

I got inspired by the long term motivation thread and came up with some problems and possible solutions.

I'm not saying that these ideas are perfect. Maybe these ideas are far fetched and unreasonable. Maybe one or two might be worth considering or maybe they'll inspire more players to think of solutions that will improve the game for all of us.

My ideas are based on closing the gaps between OP players and everyone else. Also to add more fun and content per map or level.


Problem 1. Regular maps:

Sure you could separate them, but why? They all suffer from the same exact fate. Each map is only useful for experience points. Once the quests are finished, there is zero point in ever returning to one.

The gear drops are pointless, the other resources like HP or rage (or equivalent) or realm frags are rarely seen. The supposed uniques (other than the new sets) rarely ever drop.
All the planning, design, and implementation were completely wasted because no thought beyond leveling was ever considered for any of these maps.

Stupid quests versus side quests. What is the point (other than to annoy players) to allow us to take on unlimited quests if most are side quests?

Solution 1.

Slow down the experience points and add more interesting quests with better rewards (other than exp).

Players should not finish a map in an hour. That defeats the entire purpose.

Players should not only level up, they should also improve. Eliminate all white gear drops.

If you are going to offer uniques, let the darn things drop. After all once you level up they become pretty useless and need to be replaced anyway.

Wisdom points should also grow per level. Why hold back players other than to annoy them?

Plus this would go a long ways to solving the twink problem.

All quests at your level should be allowed to be picked up. No more of this side quest garbage.

Problem 2. Parallel worlds:

This was another epic fail because there was zero thought in the process. Yes the maps are pretty, but they all are. However, Q3 is the only map worth running once you finish the quests.

The other 5 are simply too long and too boring to justify the time and effort that is needed to finish the run.

Solution 2.

DO NOT NERF Q3.

On the longer boring maps, improve the drop rate so players would be encouraged to play on these maps.

Create some quests that offer good rewards, like new gear sets, gems, gops, etc.

Offer group only quests to encourage us to play together. Stop punishing us by raising the monster strength and hp so much. It’s an MMO, we are supposed to want to group together.

Problem 3. PW Bosses:

The idea behind adding 3 levels and specific gear for these bosses was a great one however, like everything DSO does, it came with a catch.

They don’t allow us to do back to back boss runs any longer (without a bought pass) and on top of that they made the drop rate incredibly horrible.

At this point in the game, end level players have nothing else to do but try to improve their characters, and DSO goes out of the way to make that impossible.

Solution 3.

First scale the drops better. Tier 1 drops in painful, tier 2 in excruciating, tier 3 in fatal.

1 legendary in painful, 2 legendary in excruciating, 3 legendary in fatal (if uniques do not drop.

Let players do boss runs again. The frag thing is okay, but should be automatically deducted in multiple runs without having to go back to town between each run.

Create interesting boss only quests, like 500 kills = ? and 1000 = ? and 5000 = ?

However, the rewards must be worth the time/effort.

Problem 4. Events:

Outside of Dragan, every piece of feedback for all these events has gone unnoticed.

Most are so unrewarding that they are barely worth noticing that they are going on. Add to that the pure crap random generator that makes good drops all but impossible and you have an event designed to be ignored.

Then on top of this, the so called regurgitated hard maps are even worse. We could almost ignore the fact that no thought was put in if it weren’t for the fact that DSO has made it almost impossible to get access to those hard maps.

Could there have been any point to not let us do hard maps by choice other than to frustrate players?

Solution 4.

Events are supposed to be fun and rewarding, with the added bonus of giving us something to do outside of grinding the parallel worlds.

1 kill = 1 good reward. That is truly a no brainer. You can still keep the stupid random so we aren’t too happy, but we should never, ever, under any circumstances kill an event boss and walk away with a crappy blue item as a reward.

Stop giving us temporary garbage like 3 day emotes. Is there really any purpose in this other than to annoy the players?

If you are going to offer a hard version, let us frickin run that map without relying on some stupid random drop.

Problem 5. The slot machine (gambling) part.

Whoever suggested adding gambling to an rpgmmo game should have been fired on the spot. If there was any real justice in the world, these same individuals would be fired, but also banned from ever playing any game again.

It was bad enough to add the jesters, but turning gnob and events into slot machines is just a complete slap in the face of every player in the game.

Solution 5.

Leave gambling to the jesters.

Problem 6. Incredibly useless and impossible gear drops:

The world uniques (outside of new sets like Duria) for the most part are completely worthless.

Some of the most desirable sets like Keens (or equivalent) are near impossible to get. How or why it should take over a year to get a 3 piece set can only be designed that way to frustrate players?

Solution 6.

This is really a no brainer; make the world drop uniques at least interesting. Then allow them to drop at some point. It should never, ever, under any circumstances take years to find a 3 piece set.

Problem 7. Ignoring players.

When DSO asks for feedback and completely ignores it that frustrates players.

When DSO fails to implement ideas (broken promises) that frustrates players.

Solution 7.

Everyone knows that not all player ideas are good, but we deserve an answer to those ideas.

Tell us why something cannot work or should not be implemented.

Finally a roadmap needs to be shown instead of just promised. The year is half the way through and we are still waiting. This is a perfect example of yet another failed promise.

If there is a delay, there needs to be an explanation. Why was something delayed and why was something else added in its place. Currently we are only left to assume that DSO doesn’t care what players want.

Problem 8. PVP balancing.

Number 1 problem twinks.

Number 2 problem, the vast differences between the OP and regular players.

Number 3 problem, the lack of interesting rewards.

Number 4 problem, rank balancing.

Solution 8.

Now this will be unpopular, but it’s an idea. If you have a better one, speak up.

1. Wisdom points = character level points (level 50 can only have 50 wisdom, so it should be the same for everyone). This one applies well to pve also.

2. Gear levels up to 5 points above character only (level 50 can only have 55 gear, so it should be the same for everyone).

3. PVP rank based on your character level.

There are currently 20 pvp ranks from candidate to high grand master.

1-10 should only be able to get to Legionnaire
11-20 should only be able to get to Centurion
21-30 should only be able to get to Knight of the Order
31-40 should only be able to get to Marshal
41-50 should reach high grand master.

If you want to get a higher rank, level your character up.

Now you could also add in dmg or other stat caps, but more than likely people would level up on their own if they didn’t get anything for staying at a lower level.

Finally the rewards should be character level based. This would also encourage players to level up and look forward to getting something new.

Certain mounts for levels 1-10, others for 11-20 and so on. PVP gear and stats could be done the same way.

No more preying on the newer players.

Now to satisfy those who like beating up on people regardless of rank, you could offer an open arena where anyone could step up. Of course the little twinks at lower levels might see the big boys/girls at 50, but they should get a taste of what it is like to face a tough opponent.

 

Problem 7

I have said exactly the same thing in the PT/BR forum for months. I have even suggested that the game designers make a topic like Ask CMs, but it must have been lost in the midst of so many suggestions that would really improve the game.

 

Problem 8

The developers not read this forum...

 

Oh yes they are reading the forum ... otherwise how would they make things contrary to what we want?

 

Most players want to level to 50 as fast as possible. It already takes ages to do this. It is even worse if its your 2nd time levelling to 50. Don't make it even more grindier. Spending longer on a map doesnt make it more fun.

BP doesn't listen to any feedback including dragan. They obviously know how much we need the old warlord set, and thats why the screwed us. They must have looked at their ander income seeing desperate players spend a ridiculous amount trying to get the old warlord set from gnob, and doubled down.

It really is the beginning of the end. It is pretty difficult to tank without the warlord set. Since new tanks are no longer replacing the old tanks that leave the game, the problem of finding a capable tank is going to get worse and worse. Just look at region chat, its full of groups looking for a tank.

 

I thought of some improvements on the game as well. It has not so much to do with gaming itself, rather some new settings:

1. Colour Code for players in group:
As we know, when you're in the group, your own char appears as a green dot, everybody else as a blue dot. I thought so many times it would be nice which player is where on the map and why not give them a different colour, the dots matching to the name bar on the right hand side.

2. Player Profile:
I imagine a type of "profile card" to pop up when you click on a name on a map. The person behind this char may allow the information other players get to see, like char related info (CV, stats, guild, PVP / PVE ranks or titles etc) and maybe real info (location, language, birthday / age etc). Character related info would make sense to me, if a guild looking for a 'matching' member or just to get a general idea of who is behind that character.

3. Guild Profile:
Something similar to player profiles would be also nice to see for guilds: for someone who is looking to join a guild to get an idea of how many members are in this guild, who is the guild master, maybe a guild status (about activity or maybe a statement type thing, about what's their idea to accomplish in the game etc), maybe with a link to their facebook page if they have one etc.

4. "Gifting" other players:
This one I would really like to see some day: players being able to buy / gift other players with items from the general shop in game (gems, essences, potions, buffs etc), but also andermant and maybe even premium memberships (and if its only for some days / weeks whatever). I imagine, when players could get a profile card for their character, there could be a section "wishlist", where the player can put some items on, which are linked to the shop when you click them. And in the general shop, on several single items could be a button saying "gift / gift someone (this item)" and a window pops open where type the players name you wanna gift.
I think it would be a nice idea to surprise a friend or guild member with a little gift for their bday or xmas, for saying thank you or any other reason to any time.

DSO would profit from this as well of course

 

Ander and in game items are a little iffy. Even premium.

And I see how this can exploited. Mechs with awesome 237% and +95 damage guns for with 1350 dps at level 50 (and now 1450 dpd at level 52) would rent out their farming time in a group for an ander gratuity. 200 ander gift for each heredur kill, perhaps?

 

If someone is spending their "precious" ander just to let others do all the work for them.. well, their problem.. They also can spend those same ander to upgrade their own gear to get stronger.. I just thought, there is no other way to communicate with other players than in chat, there is no messaging, I don't see on whoms buddylist I am.. And for my part, I like to gift, I wouldn't like to send my game friends a little gift now and then.. Set a daily limit on what amount to gift i.e., just like yourself can only make 1 ander purchase a day. I like that idea and DSO could increase the ander and real money income source.

 

And what if the gratuity was coming from a level 10 twink?

 

Why rather drop a "potentially" good idea, because there's the fear or worry that there'll be a lvl 10 twink EDIT their way through the game and not letting other players (and DSO) benefit from that? If that's the way someone would want to play their game, that's their problem, if they prefer to level up to level 50 in 5 hours and then getting bored cause there isn't much more they can do in the game - their loss. I, for my part, enjoy playing a game for the sake of PLAYING it, working my way up to level 50, get stuck and then being successful again.. You always will find people who try to cheat or EDIT through the game, such as in real life: they then prob cheat and EDIT through school and drivers license test as well, you can't always prevent that. If it's a lvl 10 twink with lotsa money to spend on a game, they'll do it the one or any other way. And then, there are possible ways to at least limit such a behaviour: open up this feature to premium players only, or let players buy that "gifting function" like you can buy your premium memberships, character changes etc., then you exclude at least a little bit. And others don't hit the "gift others button" by mistake

 

You mean like ... gifting my main account with my alt accounts?
There is a reason why i am having over 200 Facebook accounts

 

Well, I don't know about your alt accounts.. I am busy enough on one account
But if someone pays premium for 200 alt accounts, I bet bigpoint would love that to see

 

I said Facebook accounts ... because those stupid FB games are working that way.

 

The issue with gifting is that it is too easy to exploit in almost every form recommended. I wouldn't mind people being able to buy gifts for others for cash though. Say you have a friend in guild who is a really good player, but can't afford premium. Another member in the guild might be loaded and wants to help them out. That would be nice, and easier than the current way people do it (buy a gift card and share the card number with the other person). The only issue I see with this is that some top players might try to monetize their services, basically, "buy me 10000 andermant and I'll do 5 hours of boss runs with you or what ever else you need help with." That also already exists, but a system like this could make it more wide spread and I don't feel that it is a good thing.

The truely important thing about any proposed "trade/gift/auction" system is that it has to be designed in such a way that it will be impossible for someone to exploit it with other accounts they control for personal gain. Paying cash to give people stuff that they could get for cash anyway is one of those things that would be very difficult for someone to exploit for personal gain (beyond what I described above), so I could see that being better than the usual suggestions for trade/gift/auction that are made.

 

I imagined the gifting others with my andermants, like I am able to buy items for myself, I also could chose a member of my guild or a buddy etc to send a gift. I understand the concern about the exploiting-factor. A feature like this needs to very well thought and designed through (eventhough in other games and virtual worlds it's possible as well and it's not getting exploited).

But I'd be happy with the feature of buying andermants or premium for other players, since you can get both in smaller amounts as well.