I might be alone in this. My main character was above most of the little instance zones that are all over in TS, Zek, EL, etc. when they were added to the game. I started an alt and was all happy when I found instances that were level appropriate. Then I zoned into a few of them. I've been pretty disappointed with them. They're just little zones with the same level mobs as outside the instance. All in all, they seem kinda pointless to me. I guess they're supposed to be. But - to me - it seems like they would be a lot cooler if they were like little quests: Zone into the mine instance in Zek and a quest dialog pops up about the mine seeming to be the source of metal for orc weapons or something, with the quest being to purge all the orcs from the mine. When you do so, maybe a boss orc spawns at the entrance and kiling him gets you a chest or something. Make the quest non-repeatable if you want to prevent farming, or not - I don't care. I just think it'd be nice to get a feeling of accomplishment from finishing the instance, instead of "That's it?" Anyhow, just wondering if anyone else had noticed / felt the same way about them. After doing 3-4 of the instances, I pretty much avoid them now.
Yup. They are pointless. Went into the Caverns of Wonder the other day. Wondered why they called it the Caverns of Wonder. Guess I answered my own question.
You know, instances would be the perfect place to have quests that change upon your actions. Perhaps the intial quest says: either choose to kill this NPC or salvage him, the choice is yours. If you save him, the quest will lead you down one progression, if you kill him, the quest will lead you down another progression. Having a branching system like this can certainly increase replayability in instances so that your not doing the same repetitive thing over and over. Instances would be perfect for these types of quests because they could be repeatable. Complete one instance/quest branch, get locked out for 18 hours. Next time you do the instance, choose a different path. It would be nice to add something like this to the current instances around the world, especially in the ones that were added when all the solo content came around.
