My first idea is just a small thing and won't affect the overall campaign but it'll be a lot of fun and bring some epic moments.
It's giving the players the option to play as Warhammer Monsters! One of the great things about fantasy is the monsters. Ogres, Trolls, Giants, all that jazz. Take a look at these bad boys.
The introduction of Player-Champions to the new City Siege has been a big hit and Player-Monsters is really building on that. I actually had this idea in March - shoulda posted that shit.
The nitty gritty details don't matter here but basically a player would collect some kind of currency, be that Invader Crests or new Monster Tokens, and then trade these in at a merchant to receive an item that would turn them into a montser of their choice.
The Monster-Buff would last about an hour I'd guess and have a lockout timer on it, perhaps a day. The monsters wouldn't be super-powerful, just a bit different, maybe have twice the Wounds as normal, nothing extravagent, it's really just for variety and fun.
I would try to implement 3 monsters choices for each of Order and Destruction. All monsters would be hybrid classes - they would each have ranged ability, melee, and some heals. Basic stuff, think T1 :)
To make it more interesting I would also tie a mini-progression system to the Monster-Buffs, so that whilst you are playing a Monster you earn influence or something that levels your Monster up earning you new tricks. Nothing major of course, just a few different abilities, some specialisation, or access to bigger and better weapons.
Order Monsters - not so easy to find monsters for the good guys - any ideas??
Ogre Butcher : Ths guy is big and fat and carries two giant cleavers!
Ogre LeadBelly: Carries a small hand-cannon so short-ranged RDPS is it's thing
Treeman: Treeman. Nuff said.
Destro Monsters
Troll: Vomits Acid for fun. Swings Big Clubs.
Minatour: Giant Bull prone to feeding frenzies. Perhaps have a Charge for it's ranged attack?
Giant: Be that big, bald guy from Nordland!
I think this would be a great addition to the game, not too hard to implement and would provide some epic massed monster battles!
I LOVE this idea!
ReplyDeleteIt would be a sweet balance idea too if part of it was that you could get free access to certain monsters and fight with the opposing realm, if they were outnumbered.... kind of a self balancing mechanic in oRvR.
Just give the Monsters free ports to any lake, and their own "Monster Only Chat" and voila, there would always be some people that would switch out of the dominating side to play a monster.
Just port the renown etc earned back to the toon you were on when you switched sides...
Cheers, TzuDevil.
Tzu, Fighting on the other realm is a very smart twist on the idea. I like it. Will add it as in as an edit I think.
ReplyDeleteI really think this concept is limitless in it's application, and would be relatively light on developer time. The animations and monsters already exist. It would be a pretty massive game play expansion for the effort, and a LOT of people would love it. I can't count how many have posted that they would resub in a heartbeat if they could play such and such monster.
ReplyDeleteA simple set of abilities, and gating access by RR to more and more powerful mosters would tie in perfectly with MMO progression ideas.
You mean I get to play a giant Gor if I want when I hit RR70? Queuing now...
Cheers, TzuDevil.
Neat idea. Who wouldn't want to rumble through the enemy as a fire-breathing dragon or as a giant? Doesn't LOTRO offer something like this? I don't know, never played it.
ReplyDeleteThis could definitely add an unexpected element to RvR. Imagine trying to defend a keep and you're doing well. All of a sudden a Chaos Giant appears and smashes the door, throwing boulders, and crushing enemies. That would cause some chaos to be sure.
Love the idea!
Yeah, it's similar to LOTRO's Monster Play. I can see inifinite amount of balancing problems but blimey, it sounds fun. Especially if this was tied to the underdog system. I imagine people would much rather go out in ORvR if they had a monster on their side played by one of their realm mates. But again how would you balance this? :S
ReplyDeleteI think this could be balanced pretty easily actually. First off, a set of Monsters you could play along side your own realm based on some sort of resource collection. Could basically be played anytime.
ReplyDeleteThe second set of "oRvR balance" gated monsters could be gated by the underdog system, server population (people for each side logged on), or the zone you are in (ie once Destruction pushes into the last Elf zone, Eataine, Destro players would get the option to switch sides as a monster). Or it could be gated by all three with different Monsters available for each, different power levels gated by your RR.
There so many possibilities!
Cheers, TzuDevil!
Thoughts for balancing the monsters that I've had are:
ReplyDelete*To make them powerful give em good stats, like 1000 Str and 1000 Tgh, 15000 HP.
*Makes 50% less effective on them.
*Can't be rezzed.
*Can't be buffed or auru'd or guarded
*Can't use potions.
*CAN be debuffed.
*Take up 2 spots in a warband or group
* Make them slower than normal.
The lack of a rez is interesting because you'd need to decide tactically when to throw your monsters into the fray. If they go early they could do a lot of damage but will probably get focused and die. Or they could be held back in reserve and used to try and finish off an encounter.
Like TzuDEvil said above, tieing the monster price to the underdog system, current campaign position, or renown being earnt per side would be a really good way of balancing RvR a little. It could be like Karl Franz looking out and seeing the enemy getting on his doorstep he provides emergency aid in the form of mercanaries.
Ok, that was supposed to be make healing 50% less effective on monsters
ReplyDelete