Harder, more interesting orc prides
Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 1:08 am
I'd like to see the role of the orc prides change. Currently, they're how you level up in the Far East. I'd rather see them as being the roadblock that forces you to level up elsewhere. They're the penultimate step in the endgame; they should be brutal and approached very carefully. What I'm thinking is that the first orc pride should behave as it does currently. You wander in innocently, looking for the Staff of Absorption. When you beat it, you get a message from Aeryn saying that the orc prides are in an uproar because of your assault, and that every orc on the continent has converged on the three remaining pride strongholds.
In game terms, this means that the three other prides just got much, much harder. Hard enough so that you'll probably get trampled if you try them immediately. And when you finally do beat a second one, the remaining two get another huge boost in difficulty. Then beating the third turns the fourth into a nightmare. This would encourage experienced players to choose the order of their pride conquests carefully, and would provide a nice, unpleasant surprise for new players. To gain enough power to take on the prides, players will have to do the side content: water cave, portal to Middle Earth, new Middle Earth dungeon bosses, portal back to Far East, and whatever else we can come up with. I vote dwarves! But however it's done, the orc prides should feel like the Vor Armory does now: something you prepare for very, very carefully.
In game terms, this means that the three other prides just got much, much harder. Hard enough so that you'll probably get trampled if you try them immediately. And when you finally do beat a second one, the remaining two get another huge boost in difficulty. Then beating the third turns the fourth into a nightmare. This would encourage experienced players to choose the order of their pride conquests carefully, and would provide a nice, unpleasant surprise for new players. To gain enough power to take on the prides, players will have to do the side content: water cave, portal to Middle Earth, new Middle Earth dungeon bosses, portal back to Far East, and whatever else we can come up with. I vote dwarves! But however it's done, the orc prides should feel like the Vor Armory does now: something you prepare for very, very carefully.
I like your idea of the other prides gaining in strength after the first one is attacked, though.