Forums » General Pantheon Discussion

Exploring Experience

    • 45 posts
    December 15, 2019 5:02 PM PST

    Dear Pantheon Creators

    One thing I loved from EQ2 is that you got AA point experience from discovering new areas on the map, and also from slaying named mobs the first time. For my small group and me, this was a weekly thing where we would run around in areas we had not seen before hunting those named mobs and discover stuff in zones we would normally never had walked into (either because we had passed the level of the zone, or we just did not have any quests there)

    Now I understand that AA points won't be in the release version of the game, but if there was some way of implement a reward system for running around Terminus that would be great. (It's a small thing but I thought it was a cool thing)

    Best regards Nusser

    • 1714 posts
    December 15, 2019 6:05 PM PST

    Players should not require being bribed with EXP to explore. If the game is great, players will be rewarded by finding rare mobs and unique items, cool bits of lore, and beautiful scenery. Playing the game is the reward. If the game doesn't organically reward exploration then a bandaid isn't going to fix the underlying issue, imo. GW2 had this as well and it was the most contrived thing I've ever seen in a game. "go find the 15 waypoints marked on your map for a zone exploration bonus,  but there's not actually anything at any of those places."

    blech

    • 145 posts
    December 15, 2019 6:18 PM PST
    incentivizing can be done organically and doesn’t just have to be xp the rewards can be various and can be xp for your character or just a pleasant experience for you as a person
    • 1584 posts
    December 15, 2019 6:21 PM PST

    It would make a lot more sense for exploring to level up your preception system, than gaining experience, but honestly if they wanted to have leveling up preception more than just traveling and exploring i would be fine with that as well, but if they were to reward exploring this would make a lot more sense to me.

    • 379 posts
    December 15, 2019 7:20 PM PST

    Human Racial Passive: Wanderlust - Grants a bonus to faction gains with neutral factions. Also, increases experience gained through exploration.

    I would imagine they have something planned for exploration experience(s).

    • 45 posts
    December 15, 2019 7:45 PM PST

    @Fragile - Ah I had forgotten that about the Human passive.

    I think it's great to get a little extra something for exploring and finding new areas.

    • 2756 posts
    December 16, 2019 2:44 AM PST

    Keno Monster said:

    Players should not require being bribed with EXP to explore. If the game is great, players will be rewarded by finding rare mobs and unique items, cool bits of lore, and beautiful scenery. Playing the game is the reward. If the game doesn't organically reward exploration then a bandaid isn't going to fix the underlying issue, imo. GW2 had this as well and it was the most contrived thing I've ever seen in a game. "go find the 15 waypoints marked on your map for a zone exploration bonus,  but there's not actually anything at any of those places."

    blech

    You may as well say combat is rewarding in itself, so why give XP for it? Your skills go up when you fight and it's fun - isn't that enough? Personally, I think directly rewarding exploration is fine as long as it's not too major. Why should combat have the monopoly? Maybe exploration should be the only way to get XP and combat is just the way you get to explore some parts?... I actually don't really advise that last part, just trying to be open-minded ;^)

    Also, those points in GW2 were viewpoints, largely, weren't they?  They even had little clips that played that showed you great views of important places in the region you may not have explored?  Often definitely worth visiting.  Anyway...

    We may not need it handed to us on quite such an obvious silver platter - we perhaps don't need a map marker or a X out of Y counter/score - but if exploration is made into a 'collection' meta-game and has XP awarded, how is that not rewarding something worthwhile? It's almost certainly a risk vs reward situation too - most exploration will involve stumbling over monsters.

    • 1019 posts
    December 16, 2019 5:57 AM PST

    Keno Monster said:Players should not require being bribed with EXP to explore. 

    I don't think this is what it is.  And I agree with OP.  When I first started playing EQ2 it was such a surprising reward to do something I was going to do anyway.

    It's like finding out the batteries are already charged in your new RC car.  

    • 238 posts
    December 16, 2019 6:51 AM PST

    I find that receiving experience for exploring is less of a "being Bribed with EXP" concept and more of a way to reward a character for understanding the location that they are in.

    For example, if you're a character and you go out and explore and discover a waterfall, mountain, or set of ruins then your knowledge of the surrounding area has improved and it makes sense that this increase in knowledge is rewarded through an experience gain.    

    • 1281 posts
    December 16, 2019 3:31 PM PST

    Nusser said:

    Dear Pantheon Creators

    One thing I loved from EQ2 is that you got AA point experience from discovering new areas on the map, and also from slaying named mobs the first time. For my small group and me, this was a weekly thing where we would run around in areas we had not seen before hunting those named mobs and discover stuff in zones we would normally never had walked into (either because we had passed the level of the zone, or we just did not have any quests there)

    Now I understand that AA points won't be in the release version of the game, but if there was some way of implement a reward system for running around Terminus that would be great. (It's a small thing but I thought it was a cool thing)

    Best regards Nusser

    Finding new areas will have rewards unto themselves due to Perception and due to the potential for discovering NPCs that are trainers or give you hints to other things.

    • 1714 posts
    December 16, 2019 4:54 PM PST

    nm


    This post was edited by Keno Monster at December 16, 2019 5:07 PM PST
    • 1019 posts
    December 17, 2019 7:49 AM PST

    Keno Monster said:

    nm

    Prime example of "When you just can't anymore".  LOL...we still love you Keno.

    • 1785 posts
    December 17, 2019 8:58 AM PST

    So, I'm on the fence here.  I love the idea of earning additional experience from exploring new locations or points of interest, and it's a lot of fun to get that message on your screen when you visit a new point of interest - but I feel like the concept has been heavily overused in many games.  I think if the game is going to reward experience for exploring, it should not come from visiting places that you were always going to end up going to anyway.  It's cool to have it linked to POIs that are off the beaten path, to reward you for venturing out where others fear to tread, but not more than that.  Likewise, I feel that the rewards would need to be fairly limited so that you don't have people incorporating them into the "How to level to 50 in 7 days" guides with checklists and exact locations to guide everyone through them.

    Discovery experience from killing a monster or creating an item for the first time is neat in principle, but I think it can also suffer from similar problems.  For example, in many games where there's discovery experience linked to crafting, you can essentially just earn your crafting progression by making one of everything and maximizing that discovery experience.  So again, I feel like this should really be used in moderation if it's used at all.  Not everything should award it - only very rare/special things.

    I think what I'd prefer to see, instead of experience rewards, are other benefits.  For locations, having some perception pings be dynamic and associated with hidden triggered spawns that can be fought for potential rewards.  For monsters, I think I'd rather see a lore skill advanced in some way than an experience boost for the first time killing a new monster, since we're all going to be traveling the world killing pretty much everything we see.  For crafting, maybe discovery-related skill or experience boosts only happen with legendary items that are very hard to make, rather than everything on the list.  In any event I think moderation will still be key - these sorts of rewards should always feel rare and special, and not something that we just expect.