ninjarr_sl
shitlord
- 50
- 1
Dungeon finders are lazy solutions to hard problems.Hey guys, there's a design idea and issue that we're debating, and we'd really like your feedback.
Ok, so Pantheon is about a huge, interesting open world to explore. We don't want people teleporting all over the place, missing out on content and the grandeur of Terminus.
So far we've said that there will be some opportunities to teleport to some locations as long as you've travelled there before without teleporting. Kind of like the Velious teleports.
We've also said that if you're at the entrance to a dungeon, a group within that dungeon can teleport you to them (likely a spell shared by some classes).
But from a design and philosophical standpoint, huge open world to explore and teleports/quick travel seem mutually exclusive to many who are interested in Pantheon.
So what about an elaborate LFG system? A dungeon finder? Someway to quickly travel to adventure areas where other people have already gathered and are trying to form groups?
it's anti-exploration, but it's pro-grouping. And exploration and grouping are both two major components of what makes Pantheon the game we're so excited to be working on.
So how can we strike a balance here? How do we offer game mechanics that are focused on people finding groups, making friends, eventually guilds, etc., but not shrink the world by allowing people to port all over the place? Where do we draw a line in the sand? Is finding groups and making friends more important or less important than a vast open world to explore, where taking the time to travel to an exotic and distant location gives you a great sense of accomplishment?
Pantheon already has a strong Vision(TM) behind it. We are wrapping up the high level design documents. The team is ideologically on the same page and agree with our goals and tenets. With probably one exception, the one I'm bringing up here. We go back and forth on it. Heck, I can argue either side just as convincingly.
So what do you guys think? Where is the balance? What tenet takes priority over the other?
When I said the community would be more involved with Pantheon than any of the other games we've worked on, I meant it. I love doing interviews and chats and videos. I really enjoy answering future players' questions. But this issue is turning out to be a tough one and we could really use your help and feedback.
Thanks in advance!
If you run around exploring and get to a new area and find nothing to do because there is nobody there, then the community (mechanics) have already failed. No dungeon finder will fix it. Helping players know where to go/be according to where other players are, or where mystery is, is a far better solution. Instead of giving the player a fallback mechanism to cure their boredom, create systems which help players from getting into that predicament to begin with.
If in ignoring those systems the player finds themselves bored: they deserve to be punished with boredom. This is how you train players to use your systems correctly. If you always create fallback systems, the players will embrace their laziness and never contribute to the other systems.
For ideas on how to do this, I would suggest looking at what Valve have been doing with respect to the community of DotA. There, the community is absolute trash, and in a sense that's never going anywhere, its too much a part of the game itself (5v5 pvp). But there are a ton of great ideas to be drawn from. Commendations from other players about your own community behaviour! Extend this to honesty with respect to the LFG flag. Promote proper use of your community systems to help drive players to interact with it properly.
Another interesting idea is to draw from Candy Crush Saga: limit the number of times a player can flag themselves as LFG per day. Maybe you get 3 usages per day, and if you are offline for 30 consecutive minutes, the flag is lost (relogging or disconnecting for a short period of times doesn't eat a flag). Give the tag meaning so players use it properly and you'll have a system players can depend on.