When I was but a boy, my sister and I would play some D&D from time to time. Anyway, to make long story short, I loved the scenario packs. Zoned games like EQ1 and EQ2 are very well suited to a scenario approach. A scenario is basically an idea like, "What if Freeport was overrun by goblins under a certain general." The game has so many art assets and zones you could create many scenarios and perhaps even auto generate them... ..into a list. The scenario would have a paragraph describing the scenario. It could have some professional authorship to make it sound interesting. It would list the rewards. Either certain rewards or random or some combination. It could also list experience rewards for winning the scenario. It might be listed as a number of orc pawns or something. Like, a win is worth 5000 victories over an orc pawn. There could be different goals like defeating the boss, clearing the whole zone, or perhaps you start in the middle and have to escape. Scenarios could have rules or conditions such as time limits, number of players that can participate 1 to 64, disabling certain spells or abilities, whether all players must survive, allowed level ranges, whether mercs are allowed, respawn rate of the zone or whether they respawn, class requirements, and the list goes on. If you like a scenario, you can tap a button and your character is on the roster to play it. Perhaps you can tap to join up to 10 scenarios or perhaps you could slide a switch that automatically puts you on the 10 fullest rosters that you qualify for (or you join the first 10 empty scenarios that you qualify for, if there are no players on any roster yet.). If you leave it like that, then your basically joining a pickup group. So if you are already in a group, then maybe your whole group joins. Same for a raid larger than 6 players. So the oldest unplayed scenario is at the top of the list, though a handy set of filters and a search box when used together can help you find particular conditions and rule sets. As a scenario gets older, the rewards gain increasingly larger multipliers until the scenario cannot be resisted. Well, I have not played all the expansions of EQ so if this is already done then nevermind. I think I might have played LDON or maybe something else that had similar features. I only suggest it here because I wanted to explore the idea further and I think utilizing all the game assets could make for some pretty cool scenarios. Edit: Oh yeah, and you could also chain zones together in a linear progression for longer scenarios. I really favor hand crafted scenarios. Maybe players could use a tool to craft a scenario and submit it for approval.
Additionally, for artistic purposes, along with a nice paragraph or two or more describing the scenario, perhaps a nice drawing or screenshot. Either could be an option. Probably a multi-pane window. A pane for the drawing, another for the synopsis, one for the list, another for the rule set, another for the roster. Also, might need a seperate list of scenarios for those that don't have themselves being auto applied to the first qualified scenarios. The reason is, those people who want to be choosy about which scenarios they play, might want to play with others who are choosey. Same pool of scenarios just different ways of putting a group together. Last, when the scenario starts perhaps it can load up a preparation area first. Optionally. Timed or untimed. So groups can be reorganized. For larger or raid sized especially.
Also, just as a group organization tool, instead of only scenarios, a seperate list could include safe spots from all around the open world so that you can easily organize groups or raids and begin your campaign from that safe spot. I think there is a tool already. I can't remember how it worked exactly. In this one which I imagine, it may contain the same panes in the window as the scenario one. The synopsis is rather lore for the area. Once you select one, you are on the roster and then it can be seen and joined by others.
If there were to be longer campaigns where zones were put together in a linear fashion, these campaigns could be very long and a safe zone could be inserted every so often. Then the progress could be saved at the studio, so that when the group members were online again they could continue it. Maybe up to 20 scenarios or campaigns could be saved. Perhaps there could be a browser window that would allow a player to browse the saved scenarios and see the rosters for them, which would light up the names of those who were online. If all of them are online, it could be started again. These longer campaigns would add more story telling ability and adventure creating options to the game. They would also allow for large rewards. Though, all access members might be able to move up to 500 in-progress scenarios or campaigns into cold storage. Seriously, I should work here. Hehe. I can work from here. I don't like 'going in to work' , as it were. I will post on the forums and you can send me money. And if players don't opt out, there could be a button to send a message, like email or sms, that can be used every so often to remind people of the ongoing scenario. These messages can be forwarded by the studio so that the contact info is not shared.
Well, I don't know if storing these will work considering they might level up. I wonder if this will hurt my chances of becoming a profession forum poster...
Well, I did draw from my youthful experience with pen and paper D&D. I guess it might sound a little more like D&D than Everquest but Everquest is also based heavily on the D&D franchise.
It was probably pretty cool but it is hard to get these kid's today off their devices long enough to use pen and paper. You have to work with what you have. Well, you know, kids are different from old people. I used to play with EQ veterans when they were kids. I think I get what happened here. Ya'll turned into townsfolk. Yeah EQ Town. We'll call the sequel to EQ1, EQ Town. One guy actually said the equivalent of "Go seek your adventures else where and when you are done, we'll be right here in town, waiting for you." So much for proposing new adventures around here.
