Exploration Rewards

[Zhofe]

This idea came from something that a friend of mine told me (or that I thought he told me) about World of Warcraft.

Why not get XP rewards for reaching certain areas?

Is there a way to script a quest to be recieved and completed upon entering a specific area? If so, then certain locations that are hard to get to, difficult to find, or that have specific history would give XP rewards. It would give people an incentive to explore.

[Etinfall]

not bad, I like this.

I reach a certain point I get a bonus exp. And have something there that tells about some form of history or geography or something. Kinda like sight seeing. I went too the grand canyon...read a plaque, did you know that the canyon is blah blah blah? Instead it would be, I went to "a place". Saw the elvan carvings there. I didnt realize that was the place that yadda yadda yadda happened.

can also have a npc quest that has a lore trend. Like the  mail ones but instead have you go to certain monuments and read about them, ie the monuments in Hampshire". Then come back to the npc and answer questions for exp. I guess that is kind of like the pc quests you have now. hmmmm... oh well.

I do like Zhofe's idea though

[Frendh]

I don't like the idea at all, unless it restricted to certain areas
like the bottom of the rift cave. Since invis (or greater sanctuary?)
and haste combined with a well placed summon can get you past most guards.
Alone.

[FlameStrike]

Creating some sort of ward stones that dispel invisibility/gsanc effects in the more important areas would do the trick, i saw that system on some other server and it totally rocked, people were actually more careful.

[Talan Va'lash]

This idea would be really cool even (and especially) if there were no xp rewards.

Just have a few semi-hidden places with plaques that start a convo, or even ones that you just examine and read like the ones in hampshire that describe the place, the thing you're looking at, and any inscriptions that exist.

Like, one readable only by druids/rangers.  It only appears on a successfull spot check and its a few symbols of animals carved into the base of a tree limb.  Anyone can get the description of the symbols (visual description.)  But only rangers and druids can discern that the symbols mean that this wood is protected by the druid circle of the grey wolf and some message from them.

Acctually, my examples probably a bit overcomplicated, but little things like that make the world seem more alive, that the PCs arent the only ones living in it.  They also give you some good information to RP about, and possibly the basis for a CDQ to join the grey wolf druid circle.

-TV

[Xerina]

Fl/\\m3Str!k3 - 7/19/2005  9:19 AM

Creating some sort of ward stones that dispel invisibility/gsanc effects in the more important areas would do the trick, i saw that system on some other server and it totally rocked, people were actually more careful.

On my old server we had statues that stripped invis/gsanc in many areas that the inhabitents wanted guarded by none magic using mobs, IE a wizard's tower could have this. The wizard and his apprentices could cast see invis on guards but the guards can't so the statue works like this.

We also had statues that were placed by the gods, typicaly Lloth that striped your invis/gsanc but they also knocked you prone and stunned. Lloth don't like you sneaking into her underdark cities or her areas of control on the surface. Several of these were scattered thru out the world at narrow points in a pass, or at a gateway.  It really helped since not everyone can invis to a area it helped keep wizards and such from soloing out to an area at higher level, keeping it more balanced.

It also kept wizards and such from invising to a chest and stripping it of loot without a fight, as my old server had several strong boxes of loot in some dangerous areas.  The problem with exploring for xp is it has to be kept small to avoid it becomming an exploit where you invis up and go get free xp.

[Zhofe]

The point of getting XP for exploration is to give EVERYONE the incentive to SEE things, not really to give XP.

It wouldn't be much XP, but something saying "Hey, look what you found!"

It isn't there to be any real source of XP for anyone, but to get people out there and looking around. MAking it dispell invis so wizards couldn't get there solo is defeating the purpose.

[Imperious]

Another persistent world that I played on before Layo used this system...you actually XP for going into any new area you had never been in before..not a bunch...even the major areas never gave you more than 150 or so (although I didn't scout around all that much).

An interesting wrinkle was that your XP reward for exploring was based on your class...rogues and bards got full XP, while fighters got around 80 percent, I think....wixards and priests/druids got less than that, etc. So it encouraged rogues to play as scouts, I suppose, and really get to know the land, while somewhat "penalizing" wizards a bit if they happened to go around invisible. It was also a nice way for lower level characters to get some experience without having to engage in a ton of combat, and was especially good for wizards and sorcerors that way.

[Xerina]

Zhofe - 7/20/2005  10:15 PM

The point of getting XP for exploration is to give EVERYONE the incentive to SEE things, not really to give XP.

It wouldn't be much XP, but something saying "Hey, look what you found!"

It isn't there to be any real source of XP for anyone, but to get people out there and looking around. MAking it dispell invis so wizards couldn't get there solo is defeating the purpose.

Right I was commenting about the statues for invis in general not for exploring xp. As a caster I always used invis as primarly a exploration tool.  

And the original person mentioned they got the idea from WoW and you can seriosuly level off the exploration xp in WoW. I did it a few times if I was half way close to leveling I would grab a bird and fly to the next major region and run back just to grap the 150+ xp per zone, cross 10 zones with my hunter speed and get 1500 xp pretty easy. Thats good considering most WoW quests at that level were 200-500 xp and took 30+ minutes to do if you were lucky and the spawn was up and you could kill it.

I think I once gained two of my first 3 levels off just exploring xp because I didn't like my starting city so I did the intro quest for my gear got 1 level then ran to the starting city I liked 15 or 20 zones away. And in WoW all you have to do is enter the new zone not explore or anything. I just want to avoid that. ANd keep it balanced so fighters who can't invis can explore on equal footing to the invis/stealth classes without taking anything from them.

[Etinfall]

I was thinking of this as a one time exp reward. Like a mailman quest. Travel to the high forest and recieve a small exp for finding the carved message on a rock. The message can be something to do with the history or geography of the region. Just have some of those placed about the world. Maybe the first time you enter into an area with one of these a quest pops into your journal and you need to search the area to find the spot (ie rock carving). whe you read the rock you gain the exp reward. Not alot. I mean at this point the only reason I still deliver packages for whats her name in Krandor is cause it is there, not for the exp. When you need 300,000 to lvl the 100 exp or whatever is meaningless. Which is good. But it got me to go somewhere. The farmer part mail is another good example. It gets you to travel there, just to find another quest that usually you have to come back to do with help.

remember these are just ideas. And the more input might help the team implement these sometime.

Etinfall

[Zhofe]

Every zone would definatly make it just kinda silly, unless you got a very small amount of XP for every area (like 2-10 XP.)

I was thinking areas like the Forest of Illusion give you XP for finding them.

Not necessarily dangerous or hard to get to areas, but out-of-the-way areas with importance to the game-world could give a little bonus.

Maybe even have it be a quest, if you can find all the areas you get a special item, like a badge or something similar.