Originally Posted by
Amulree
Having wrestled with the problem of easy-to-consume open world content that players blow through and never go back to, it’s fair to say Blizzard has done little other than fire blanks in their effort to find a solution. In Warlords of Draenor, it seems they’ve literally decided to simply not bother trying to provide open world content because they can’t find a way to make it last.
But is there a way?
Well, I play Shadow of Morder. In that game (which is more or less finding fun ways to slaughter orcs across Middle Earth), there’s something called the Nemesis system. Put simply, this works by having orcs in Sauron’s army big themselves up by moving through the ranks via infighting, intrigue, or simply surviving an encounter with you. Should they survive, they will remember what you did to them and will react accordingly – so if you set one on fire before he ran off, he’ll be disfigured and will have a fear of fire.
Now obviously, nothing that deep is likely to find its way into World of Warcraft. We haven’t got talented enough designers. But, could a system be designed that causes certain groups of enemies to remember you, and tool up accordingly?
Think on this:
There’s a daily zone where you go and fight the Iron Horde. Let’s call it the Iron Rise. When you first go up there, the enemies are as strong as you’d expect them to be – not very. However, rather than merely a set of quests, a more scenario-led series of objectives allow you to assault the Iron Rise and weaken their stronghold in different ways. The final objective is beating up a boss of some kind, stealing his stuff, and flying (LOLZ) back for your rewards. Hell, there could be 20 objectives up on the Iron Rise, and they randomly generate each day you go up there.
So far, so good. We’ve seen this before.
But let’s imagine for a second that Grom finds out about it, and he’s pissed. Unhappy that the Iron Rise was infiltrated so easily with some of the walls vandalised with meme graffiti, he sends Grimtooth Arseface up there to retrain the slackers and make sure they’re better prepared should they be assaulted again… Which, of course, they will be. The next time you go up there, the orcs under Arseface’s command have either had their damage and health buffed, have been equipped with enchanted weapons, or are reorganised into tighter groups to stop them being picked off individually. The next time you go up there, they’re ready to fuck your shit up… Or so they hope. Sadly, they’re still pretty duff orcs and you complete your six or so objectives but with a bit more trouble than before.
Grom loses it.
In a fit of rage that, again, the Iron Rise has seen its coffee creams all eaten with mocking IOUs left in the boxes, he sends Gnarla Cockmouth up there to get the place on lockdown. Gnarla is a warlock with a penchant for humping incubi, but she’s also pretty handy at summoning demons. The next time we go up there, Arseface’s training remains intact and the orcs have the enchanted weapons he gave them, but they’re now accompanied by powerful Felguards.
You see where I’m going.
In its simplest sense, what I’m suggesting is a daily quest zone that gets harder every time you complete it and provides rewards commensurate with that challenge. If the general that takes charge of the Iron Rise is randomly generated, and the soldiers under their command retain their previous skills, you’ve effectively got personal progression that could be infinite. There are so many other things you could do, like let the general live when you confront them, put in a random escape mechanism, or have generals from other places that you know slotted into the zone, but on the face of it we have a relatively simple idea going on here.
What do we think?