'Boss' Encounters!

[QuantumWire]

Regarding the idea of the players being the BOSS and an army of NPCs attacking them:

Probably every WoW players who has ever witnessed it remembers the "stairs event" in Zul Farak (I think), where the players free an NPC party, which was taken captive by trolls, from their cages at the top of a maya-style temple and then waves and waves of angry trolls rush up the stairs towards you. Great fun and very challenging.

So, yes, this kind of thing is really enjoyable. In WoW they had to come in waves, so that you didn't get zerged.
In a game which has collision checks they could come at you all at once. Should be great: The player party in the middle standing side by side in a circle, protecting the cloth-wearing weak members in the middle and facing a sea of substitute-your-favourite-enemy-here-though-probably-not-dragons-if-you-value-your-life.
Epic.

 

[Sisca]

Let me start by saying these are just my ideas, my vision of a perfect world, and whether or not any of them end up in HJ is going to be left for you to discover later .

First of all the only reason players should feel that something is required is because it's fun to do. So, yeah, some raids might be required...come on Morne you have to do the Fizzlesniffer raid, it's a blast. If that raid takes 10 hours to do then you should be having fun for 10 hours.

The only reason I can see making someone repeat a task that takes up 1 or more hours of their entertainment time is if they either had so much fun doing it that they can't wait to do it again - like the rollercoaster at the amusement park - or they failed and they want to go back and get it right. Failure should be an option, if you fail you should be able to just walk away and accept the consequences - the princess didn't get rescued so she won't be there later to reward you for turning back the horde of undead - but you also shouldn't fail without having at some clue of what you did wrong. You should be able to look back at an encounter and say "If only we'd done X we could have taken him", though sometimes X might be ran away until we got more powerful .

The same thing can be said of quests, or camping, or hunting common lands. It's a bloody GAME, and no matter how much some game designers want to be thought of as artists, it's about entertainment. If you're not having fun then we screwed up somewhere.

 

[Eve_CinVin]

Just remember, fun is subjective, in the eye of the beholder, or whatever. A raid shouldn't be required for advancement if some people don't like raiding. Of course, there is raiding and then there is raiding. It's the large groups required that most players don't like. If it can be done with smaller groups, less anonymous and less laggy, then it can be fun for all.

And, knowing Morneblade, I doubt he liked the EQ raids, and I know he hated camping. If we wanted an EQ game, we'd play Vanguard. We argue with the Vanguard groups about how EQ it's going to be and how unfun that is.

 

[Thea Nightwind]

Well.. my two cents says:

The absorption of each NPC into the Boss still results inteh same thing. An uber NPC with unholy stats and buffs. The POV of how that uberness gets there is what makes the difference I guess?

I think each Epic Boss encounter and their minions should be uber GM's treating each player like a caught farmbot. Hahahahahaaa!!!

 

[Morneblade]

Regarding the idea of the players being the BOSS and an army of NPCs attacking them:

Probably every WoW players who has ever witnessed it remembers the "stairs event" in Zul Farak (I think), where the players free an NPC party, which was taken captive by trolls, from their cages at the top of a maya-style temple and then waves and waves of angry trolls rush up the stairs towards you. Great fun and very challenging.

So, yes, this kind of thing is really enjoyable. In WoW they had to come in waves, so that you didn't get zerged.
In a game which has collision checks they could come at you all at once. Should be great: The player party in the middle standing side by side in a circle, protecting the cloth-wearing weak members in the middle and facing a sea of substitute-your-favourite-enemy-here-though-probably-not-dragons-if-you-value-your-life.
Epic.

I agree with this, but take it to the next level. Have a zerg on you. Or a dragon. But because you are a HERO this is not certain death. You're a group of HEROES, and you can stand face to face with a army, or a dragon if you play your cards right. But by al means make it EPIC.

We're heroes. It's what we do.

 

[Kuzzle]

Well, I'm not a big fan of the whole merging enemies thing, but I can see how it might be fun. As for raids, well... Truth be told, I've never done a raid. Never gotten to an endgame before, either... I always got bored and left.

I don't like the bosses being my size, or, well, I wouldn't like all the bosses being my size, anyway. Also, I think that no quest/raid/whatever should be required. I mean, you'd have to do some, sure, but you wouldn't have to do a specific one if you didn't want to. That way if you have more than one character, you can still have fun without feeling like you're just replaying all the same old stuff. Also, I find that there are always certain quests that I absolutely hate, and I hate having to do them with all my characters.

I like the idea of people dropping what they have, or, like, being able to take what people have, but I don't know that it'd work here. I mean, sure, it might work for bosses, but what about when you're really low leveled? I'm sure there would be some low leveled bosses, yeah, you're right, but... I just think that the primary boss drops would be Wyr, right? Ok, well, can non-humanoids use Wyr? There would have to be some kind of drop from non-humanoid bosses, though, right? Yeah, that's my concern, just thought I'd throw it out there...

As for interesting boss encounters? I like the trap idea. I liked trapping the Wyverns in Monster Hunter... I know that wasn't an MMORPG, but it was still fun. Anyway, just saying that I approve of traps... Now, for the actual encounter...

(Disclaimer: This next part sucks!)

Ok, you're walking through town and some out of shape, bald old man runs up to you. He explains that he's a trader, and that his friend is in danger. There have been bandits in the area, but this guy's friend doesn't know that, so you're supposed to meet up with him. You accept, and the guy tells you you'll have to meet his friend in "Such-and-Such Pass," and what he looks like. You gather a couple of friends and run down there. You see the caravan down on the other side of the pass, so you go to investigate. Things are quiet... too quiet. There isn't anybody driving it, and the horse pulling it is just trodding along slowly. You climb in. While inside, you hear screams and the sounds of a ton of arrows swooping through the air. They're attacking. You go outside, and you notice the man's friend is among the bandits. No, he is a bandit. You fight them off... Ok, yeah, I suck at this... Just ignore this part and forget I even tried...