If you're like us, then you always appreciate it when game developers open up and share their design process. And while this latest Champions Online developer diary on Open Missions may not have the most crunchy pieces of information -- or really any new stuff, for that matter -- it does a great job illustrating how Cryptic formulates their open missions.
You may be more familiar with Warhammer Online's original concept, Public Quests. Although it probably does both games a disservice to compare the two mechanics all too much, because they do different things for different settings.
What's presented here for Champions Online has us very curious to see how creative Cryptic can get with zones that are set underwater and even potentially in space. That's of course assuming there's a moon zone or something -- but why wouldn't there be something that awesome in the game?
Reader Comments (5)
Posted: Jun 21st 2009 8:32PM Who Plugged in the Overlord said
Glad to see them doing away with the terrible roll system WAR had. Work your bum off only to lose to someone who just arrived because you rolled 2, and they rolled 900. Terrible.
Do the most, get the most, but everyone still gets loot.
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Do the most, get the most, but everyone still gets loot.
Posted: Jun 21st 2009 6:09PM (Unverified) said
I wonder if there will be an open mission in Sakura Park.
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Posted: Jun 21st 2009 7:35PM (Unverified) said
The roll system in WoW is what I would consider a necessary evil.
It's clear that everybody that participates in Public Quests are there for the loot.
However if said person arrives much later then the group that started the Public Quest, there is no incentive to actually participate in it since they are guaranteed shoddy loot.
With nobody but the initial players participating it's a good chance the PQ won't even be completed at all and thus ultimately nobody get the loot.
The random roll is to encourage people to actually participate in the PQ which is the most important factor and loot secondary to that.
Reply
It's clear that everybody that participates in Public Quests are there for the loot.
However if said person arrives much later then the group that started the Public Quest, there is no incentive to actually participate in it since they are guaranteed shoddy loot.
With nobody but the initial players participating it's a good chance the PQ won't even be completed at all and thus ultimately nobody get the loot.
The random roll is to encourage people to actually participate in the PQ which is the most important factor and loot secondary to that.
Posted: Jun 21st 2009 7:52PM Belmondo said
Good point. I think the PQ system is fine: the more you contribute the better your odds become at getting a top roll, but there's still enough of a random factor that anyone can win. If the loot went to whoever contributed the most. then I think there would be louder complaints about how this contribution is calculated. How do you measure healing vs. dps vs tank maintaining aggro vs cc, etc. Perhaps because they are called Public QUESTS people expect a definite reward after a definite effort, like with quests, but PQs are more of a variation on instances, and instances are mainly about doing a lot of work just to get a chance at a totally random roll.
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Posted: Jun 21st 2009 8:38PM Who Plugged in the Overlord said
There needs to be a middle of the road in my opinion. One or two of the top loot is rolled off, and a couple of the top contributors get a guaranteed piece.
You can't tell me it's fun to work your butt and lose it to someone that showed up on the last mob because they lucked out with a huge roll?
I don't think set rewards will necessarily kill participation either. People tend to stick around for more than one run from my experience in WAR. If you're too you late to get meaningful contribution, then the quest is probably decently far along the chain. You help out, the quest gets finished, and it resets for another go faster than waiting for it to reset on its own. I think you might be overestimating how selfish people are honestly. Loot is nice, but playing the game and having fun is better.
Reply
You can't tell me it's fun to work your butt and lose it to someone that showed up on the last mob because they lucked out with a huge roll?
I don't think set rewards will necessarily kill participation either. People tend to stick around for more than one run from my experience in WAR. If you're too you late to get meaningful contribution, then the quest is probably decently far along the chain. You help out, the quest gets finished, and it resets for another go faster than waiting for it to reset on its own. I think you might be overestimating how selfish people are honestly. Loot is nice, but playing the game and having fun is better.
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