Idea for solo content: Grand Quests!

Community General Discussion
1

Purpose: I am trying to design solo content that is challenging and provides a way for solo players to earn various group content mogs, pets and mounts without having to group, while also keeping costs down by using assets and rewards already in the game and making it so multi-player content players could also participate in order to supplement their play without undermining the mulit-player aspect of the game.

(No, Mrs Peters, that is not a run-on sentence. And get out of my head!)

GRAND QUESTS

Description: ‘little story’ linear quest chain with a Mid-Boss :imp: and a Final Boss :smiling_imp:

Faction flavor: NPCs and names in quests would reflect either Alliance or Horde but basic story would be the same

Amount: eight different ones

Length: 10 to 12 quests including the Mid-Boss and Final Boss

Frequency: one offered every fourteen days (chosen by RNG but none with a lower probability than 5%)

Time for completion: the fourteen day period it is available

Character prerequisites: must be max level

Achievement: ‘Hero’s Journey’- complete all eight Grand Quests and receive ‘Grand Quester’ title :crown: .

Quest marks: purple (only spawn for a character on a Grand Quest)

To begin: find the caucasian grey-haired human wizard Lady May Erlin (alliance) or the green white-haired goblin prietess Oda Lightfoot (horde) in main hub of the expansion to get first quest in chain (only new quest-giving NPCs added, all others would have already been in-game for base game/leveling quests).

To play: each quest will send the adventurer to complete a task and then turn it into the next NPC in the chain for rewards, including bosses

To end: complete final quest by returning to original quest-giver with final boss’s head :crazy_face: or heart :heart: or weapon :crossed_swords: or whatever :woman_shrugging: to recieve loot

Quest objective mobs:

  • already in World
  • difficulty scaled up to xp level and amour level minus trinkets
  • rewards would be gold, expansion-featured currency and a 5% chance at an uncommon item with a rare drop rate from anywhere and a 1% chance at any uncommon pet found in the open world

Quest objective Mid-bosses :imp::

  • downsized and/or recolored renamed boss model from expansion’s dungeons/raids
  • only spawns for and can be attacked by character on Grand Quest
  • Mid-Boss difficulty equal to the most recent patch’s heroic dungeon bosses if it was tuned for one character
  • Mid-Boss rewards would be gold, one guaranteed piece of rare armor (same as found in any of the patch’s Heroic dungeons) and a .1% chance at one of a variety of mounts presently available in any of the expansion’s dungeon/raid

Quest objective Final bosses :smiling_imp::

  • downsized and/or recolored, renamed boss model from expansion’s dungeons/raids
  • only spawns for and can be attacked by character on Grand Quest
  • Final Boss difficulty equal to the most recent patch’s mythic dungeon bosses if it was tuned for one character
  • Final Boss rewards: gold, expansion featured mat, one guaranteed piece of rare armor (same as found in any of the patch’s Mythic dungeons), 10% chance at a rare weapon (same as found in any of the patch’s Mythic dungeons) and 1% chance at a variety of mounts available from an expansion’s dungeon/raid

Please critique from a game design perspective involving viability, cost/benefits, difficulty, possible effects on other content, ect.

(And :cupcake: for you if you can figure out first quest-giving NPCs basis :smiley:)

18 Likes
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That’s cool and all (and I’m not opposed to it existing), but personally, I’m not actually looking for more “challenge”. I’m more into the fisherman end of solo play.

6 Likes
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Not bad ideas in addition to the rest of the storyline.

Though fighting that darn bird at the top of the hill in Tiragarde/bfa felt like a final boss and would drop that elusive ring the casual solo needed for gear. So this feels something like that. We did get that in BFA - some stuff that took work to gear up in other places (not dungeons) to finally kill that thing on my Hunter. Problem is at first I was always thankful when others showed up.

A Final boss takes away from actually being with people. As a solo I’m not playing alone while weaving through the game. If part of your idea was finishing the story - or being able to see the end of the story without touching a dungeon I’m in.

I’m not sure we should get any gear comparable to any mythic dungeon.

1 Like
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Would the difficulty be Mage Tower level?

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I don’t think they want to develop content of any sort for solo players.

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Definitely not. I was being very careful not to step on the toes of multi-player content.

These would be completely independent ‘little stories’, simple stories that involve the setting, NPCs and culture of that World, adding flavor and depth to it like the Pamela Redpath story did. We could save a village from a monster that turns out top be under a spell, reunite lovers, find a lost child, save a young person from their own foolishness, solve a murder mystery, the list is endless.

Question: isn’t rare (as in blue) gear from a mythic dungeon fairly low on the totem pole when compared to gear from M+, Heroic raids and Mythic raids?

(Did not include PvP’s BG/Arenas because I still trying to figure out their gearing systems.)

1 Like
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I understand that is fair enough. If you don’t do the content you’re doomed to only see it on YouTube.

That was so much fun, but it was also just part of questing.

These are the things we were doing. I’m not sure if this is a way for the high-end players to circumvent story so they can go straight to their endgame content and the solo’s just do the story - like they used to. They had all that then that part of the questing just stopped in SL. If I don’t do end content, like I said, it’s fair I don’t get to see it or get the gear. So doing your suggestions, which are pretty good, this brings back mini-stories and end gamers get their wish to skip it.

Don’t know, haven’t done them. Probably someone else will know.

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Not wanting to create content for solo is the problem. We’ve gotten to the point where traditional solo content…the questing, the open world and such seem to be created by the devs as something for raiders to do when they aren’t raiding. That leads to situations where there are very few world quests, very limited quest content because they want to compress the time required to get to max level, and basically not enough to do end game which isn’t raiding, M+ or PvP.

On the few occasions devs do talk about the open world, they often seem to be focused on “reducing chores” (for raiders), making things more challenging (For raiders and their ilvls), and moving power progression away from open world generally, further reducing the available content for solo players.

We shall see what happens in 9.2, but I suspect it will be more of the same, and it won’t be long when we reach the solo ilvl plateau again.

4 Likes
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Personally I like the Legion Invasion things. They were like ESOs open dungeons and delves. Love being able to run into those without having to queue…and its scales well enough that 6 or 60, it was just enough to be fun.

4 Likes
10

No.

Quest objective Mid-bosses:
Difficulty equal to the most recent patch’s heroic dungeon bosses if it was tuned for one character

Quest objective Final bosses:
Difficulty equal to the most recent patch’s mythic dungeon bosses if it was tuned for one character

1 Like
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This is such an odd belief.

The majority of the time is spent on content for solo players. The zones, the story, the quests, the mogs, the pets, the mounts.

Even the dungeons and raids are built for solo players. You have LFD and LFR. And how much time is spent building new PvP maps?

The high end group content is just solo content with the numbers cranked up. They don’t make a completely new dungeons for the higher difficulties. It’s already made for LFR and LFD with maybe one or two people tweaking numbers.

1 Like
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Yes.

I am quite put out at not being able to at least do Legion dungeons for just this reason.

So I stopped playing Legion (well for that and other reasons) and am impatiently waiting to see what they do with the xp level when the new expansion comes out 'cause if they just roll Shadowlands into the 10-50 and make the new expansion 50-60, I will never be able to do those dungeons or the raids and that is deal breaker for me.

Yes.

That is one of the reasons I added the mid-boss and final boss.

Yes.

And it doesn’t conflict with Ion’s odd design choice to make the base game/leveling irrelevant and funnel everyone into end game. In fact, it both accommodates and supports it.

13

I like both of what you said, but in addition:

-player housing
-dye system
-mounted war mode pvp and dismount turret system
-same faction crime and policing system
-cross faction for instanced content
-upgraded selfie cam and group pose options
-darkmoon faire updates-new rewards and it is always available.
-timewalking never ends.
-bring back challenge modes and original mage tower rewards and build upon that with current dungeons.
-hearthstone accessible in wow to challenge other players in-game, plus access to your hearthstone decks.
-more battle pet dungeons.
-world pvp objectives (halaa, hellfire), crates, world pvp achieves added back in to current and future zones.
-garrisons updated to support the pick a location for your garrison that was abondoned.
-make professions personal again by adding extra percent rewards to player interactions vs ah scrolls (using the trade function to apply enchants from enchanter).
-more casual mogs and a loooot of more emotes , dances, etc to support player expression.

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In order for me to see the end of numerous over-reaching zone stories, I have to enter a dungeon or raid, so no, it is not just solo play.

Agree that, although they can certainly be done with another player, they are mainly set up to be played alone at this stage of the game.

Do you mean collecting?

Because it is both a solo and a group activity, given how much stuff is in dungeons and raids

No, they are not.

Every dungeon and raid is specifically built for multi-player play hence why you need a specific number of players to play them and with specific roles fulfilled. And for raids, they actually have to make changes to the content to make them soloable even two expansions later.

And LFD and LFR certainly don’t support solo play, given you have to group with others in order to use them and get their rewards.

1 Like
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They are accessible for solo queue players.

The VAST majority of the effort is spent making the actual geometry of the instance. Tuning for different difficulties is not costly or labor intensive in anyway.

Do you have an example of this? Because it seems like it’s just global scaling systems that handle this. The few places where mechanics force groups never seems to be addressed at all. Thinking mostly of the legion dungeon and raid achievements here.

LFD and LFR are specifically for solo player access to the content. You don’t need to know a single player are take part in any social interaction to participate.

Just look at this patch. How much time do you think was spent on the raid compared to everything else? The tuning can take time, but not a lot of labor. The expensive part was the design and labor in making it and the cinematics, and that’s accessible for solo players.

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If challenge is something you are looking for, there are dozens of solo games out there that will present a challenge. What this feels like is wanting to solo play and wanting to brag about it at the same time.

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A pretty cool idea, though you seem too focused on the specifics and mechanics. This concept seems tailor-made for the CC to discuss and see if they feel it is worth pushing the devs for

1 Like
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I like it and it offers the player as a want not a need to do. They’ll have the choice of wanting to run dungeons, run the grand quest, or both which is great and furthermore, that player won’t feel like they’re behind if they miss a day.

1 Like
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Solo queue does not equal solo play.

Still have to group to run the content.

So what?

It is still created for multi-player play, not solo play.

If they were created for solo play, I would be able to solo every dungeon in the game right now.

I can’t. Neither can you.

My full quote was:
‘And for raids, they actually have to make changes to the content to make them soloable even two expansions later.’

And yes, I have an example.

The C’Thun fight originally needed people both inside and outside in order to beat it. They had to change it along with any mechanic in any other raid that requires more than one person to beat it. On top of that, they apply legacy scaling. Apply as in implement a change to the content to make it soloable therefore it was not built as solo content.

But I still need to group.

Therefore, I cannot do it solo therefore it is not built for solo players.

I do not think you understand what solo play is. Or what solo content is.

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provides a way for solo players to earn various group content mogs, pets and mounts without having to group

TDLR: I want something but won’t work for it.

making it so multi-player content players could also participate in order to supplement their play without undermining the mulit-player aspect of the game.

You quite literally defeated the purpose of the suggestion by making it multi-player content. You are just trying to justify the fact you refuse to cooperate in a MMORPG a cornerstone of the genre.

10 to 12 quests including the Mid-Boss and Final Boss

You’re quite literally asking for content rewards for doing what is already the design for lore progression based story mode.

The whole thing is ludacris, you are just asking for Torghast with special quests to make yourself feel better.

Either do the content for the rewards or don’t get the rewards.

1 Like