This is a suggestion i have to funcom, but since its a bit long, i didn't post it in suggestions thread (only link to come here), but also, and more important, to have feedback from the community if the idea is good or not (pros & cons), the more people like it or if the idea is even good overall, it gives more reason for funcom to implement it...
THE SUGGESTION
In The Secret World game players don't need to level up and i though, that would be a good idea for AoC but then lots and lots and lots of stuff would have to change for that to happen, and could easily change to worse, so i though on a mixed idea, where players still level as it is currently, but the regions scale up to a certain bracket of levels on the players.
If we look at the dynamic dungeons like Imirian Ravine, Frost Swamp, Oasis of Zaara, and some solo dungeons (villas, forgotten city, breach) we see this idea of dynamic already works where the game, at least determines the lowest level of the first player that enters the area and changes loots and enemies accordingly.
Explanation with example
For a whole region instead of a dungeon, let's use the example of conal's valey region with players of several levels (lots of players i know, but its to explain better):
- PLAYER-A has level 25
- PLAYER-B has level 33
- PLAYER-C has level 47
- PLAYER-D has level 68
- PLAYER-E has level 71
- PLAYER-F has level 80
Now, all those players enter the region, but they won't see all each other on the same instance since they have different levels, but also they won't be alone in the instance with players of the same levels, instead they see players, loots and enemies of the same level and higher/lower determined by the region's threshold, so if the region has the several thresholds the players would be in the instances as follow:
- threshold of 20-33 --- PLAYER-A and PLAYER-B
- threshold of 34-45 --- none of those players in these levels
- threshold of 46-60 --- PLAYER-C only
- threshold of 61-71 --- PLAYER-D and PLAYER-E
- threshold of 72-80 --- PLAYER-F only
now, imagine that with more people online and more levels of course, the game always determines the level of the player and spawns him into the respective instance.
Looking at the example i made its clear that the region cannot be 100% dynamic as the dungeons are, because that would be almost the same thing, the has to be a limit between higher and lower, so the region itself remains static, but with different instances where players are allocated to the respective threshold of the region
Good stuff in my option about this:
1- everyone can go to old world regions and always have some kind of fun when fighting, completing quests they have when on low level, but want to finish them with thrill and enjoy it;
2- lots of players currently farm low level dungeons in epic modes and then go to trader to sell the gear obtained since a lot of it is bind on equip, but, with this idea, that solo farm would disappear, and players would always have to group up to farm the equipment to sell it on trader and this, not only makes this game even more of a MMO (multiplayer means several players and not solo play) but also makes the items in the trader more rare and higher prices instead of 1 silver like i see so many times on trader;
3- if a player, for example, chooses a character of stygian race, he usually levels up from 20 to 30 on kopshef province, and doing so, going to zelata or conals valley, won't make too much of a difference to level up, plus the quests wont give rewards decent enough and fun decreases a bit because enemies and fights will be easy since the player reached a higher level than the one meant for the region. With my idea, players, specially role-playing players, have a chance to explore the regions and always have fun in the loots, fights and quests will be available at any level and rewards are appropriate to it;
4- with the new crafting system coming in near future, and on the video interview of craig morison some moths ago showing the dragon's spine update, he said that some materials required to create new items would only be available in ceartain regions/dungeons, now imagine players fighting for those rare resources in an certain region against mobs of same level or close (like those sneak attacks in resources areas) but also, and even cooler, on PVP, players would fight for that material always agaisnt foes of similar levels, instead of a player of level 50 trying to harvest only to find a player of level 80 is already there (no chance for him);
5- this idea makes every region playable at any level and always populated for both pve and pvp (i think pvp would be even more fun), and also, if funcom creates more content like ardashir where the region is for level 50 player, and the community request funcom to create more lvl 80 stuff instead of low level, with this idea, funcom can create both, for low level and high level (everyone wins, new players and veterans);
6- old static dungeons themselves could also implement this idea along side the unchained versions that also will come in near future, so players while leveling can go to dungeons at any time they want, and when they reach level 80, the option to choose normal or unchained pops up;
7- even tortage areas could be accessed (acheronian ruins, white sands)
PROBLEM
- currently the rewards from quests are determined by the quest level itself, so they would have to scale also to be between the region threshold (not the player itself), so that a player of level 80 finishes a quest in connals valey for example, instead of receiving gloves of level 23, he would receive gloves of level 73;
MY REQUEST
Say your comments about it people, constructive comments, if you find it a cool idea, it will help funcom if they also think on doing this and many other ideas of course
P.S.: if anyone wants this shared on german, french, spanish server, feel free to translate and show it to them