What would REALLY improve Star Legends? (Discussion)

[Cahaun]

What keeps a game interesting? What keeps people wanting to play more of a game? I believe the view of what makes a game stay alive longer has been skewed recently as I noticed many people propose that a longer grind in the end game of the new expansion will keep people from being bored as fast as if a person with a smaller grind will get bored faster. Is this REALLY the solution? Maybe we are looking at the wrong things at what keeps a person interested?
Since the cap is soon enough to be 51, I have decided to open up this discussion where we can all discuss on what will REALLY improve the game. Below will be the discussions that will go over different areas of the game like endgame, casual gameplay, merchanting, and miscellaneous dungeons and things that break away from making a game too linear in style.

Discussion #1: Comparing the prosperous Golden Age of PL to SL (Endgame)


If you were in PL during the level 50 cap, you'd know that it was like a golden age compared to where it's at now. I myself joined PL during this time and I still consider it the best version of PL because of how it captured interests for casual and people who wanted to be "elite". How was it so interesting back then? How was its endgame a lot better than the kind we now have set up in Star Legends? Star Legends is almost at the same level that PL was, but the game feels like it fails to keep itself alive unless injected by level caps while Pocket Legends was able to stay heavily populated over time... Why?

Here's my thoughts on this. What keeps a game interesting? Content. Content can come in many forms in a game and can appeal to many different types of players in the game. So what did Pocket Legends have at its 50 cap that made it so awesome? I can tell you it wasn't the grind that was making so intriguing at the time (If anyone can remember the endless Plasma Pyramid runs, you'd now what I mean about the grind at the time).

Here's an example of something that SL could benefit from: Shadow Caves.
This was something that was released during the level 50 cap as a content update without rushing ahead and adding another level cap. When it was released, the dungeon was only accessible to people who fought and defeated the Galactic Overlord in Victory Lap which was only accessible to those who defeated the Overlord in the last level of the AO3 dungeon which was only accessible by defeating every single boss and dungeon one at a time. Even then, the portal never showed up every time so it was harder to access the Shadow Caves back then. So what did the Shadow Caves provide to the current level cap that would make the game interesting? Content. It provided the rare Shadow Sets which were spiffy at the time and very, very hard to get. What did this dungeon accomplish? It provided the really hardcore players with a challenge to collect the pieces of armor inside the dungeon. This was a successful content update in my opinion and really kept the game fresh beyond what it already was at the time. How can we implement this in SL? The devs have announced hardcore content in the new cap, and what I'm hoping to see is something similar to the way that the Shadow Caves has in the level 50 cap.

Let's back up into what really made the endgame during this cap the best: Cyber Quests.
Being level 50 wasn't what people considered elite nor grinding xp being any type of entertainment at the time. So what was giving people a good challenge to show off and feel good about themselves at endgame? Cyber Quests! These quests took dedication and teamwork, and were only accessible once a player has reached the level cap of 50. What made it slightly more interesting was that you had to explore Crush the Keeper in the Cyber Ghosts room for the mysterious cyber ghost who'd give you the Quests for the Cyber Set. So how can SL be made interesting over a longer time? Adding something just like the Cyber Quests will absolutely keep people playing even after they cap a character. They may even want to collect all three and try and have the entire bunch of them.

These are the two main things that made the level 50 cap of Pocket Legends have a longer freshness time then Star Legends is right now with the measly cap-a-toon-and-quit style that just about everyone is now doing. Star Legends needs more content in endgame terms, and I believe the endgame style that the old PL had will be perfect.


What do you all think about this here? What do you think will keep SL fresh over a longer period for people who focus mainly on endgame?

Discussion #2: Comparing the adventurous side of PL to SL (Side Dungeons)


This will be a small discussion for the day today. Yesterday, I emphasized the need of content that would keep a game fresh over a longer period of time for the players that focused more on the endgame of the cap. Today will be for the group of people who like to detach themselves from the straight path and into detours along the route for a sense of adventure.

At the time of the Golden Age in Pocket Legends, the players there had an immense world to explore. All of the areas of Alterra was free for them to explore, but some areas were more suitable for better equipped players at higher levels. This meant that any player at level 18 can choose to venture forth into the beginning of the Crypts if they didn't feel like going into the Balefort Castle at the time, go and join friends at any other dungeon that they were on, or go into the Wylwood Forest that was the side dungeon.

This was all trapped by the update that forced people to only be in the dungeons that are at their levels or below, but it left a mark that showed how open the world could have been. Let's look back and I'll point out in better detail of the things that I wanted to show.

Side dungeons was a part that I pointed out along with the feel of how unlinear games can be more intriguing than games that just trap you in a single corridor. Star Legends is a heavily linear game currently, and when even compared to the current version of Pocket Legends and Arcane Legends, it really shows what it is lacking. Side dungeons are ways for people to "escape" from the linear path that a game has and are sources of even more content that can contribute further into keeping a game fresh.

The side dungeons that Pocket Legends had at the Golden Age were and still are good places to go to if you ever wanted to mix things up after a while. Forest Haven and the Dark Forest both had some interesting places called "Hidden Paths" which would lead you into small dungeons that have mini mobs and bosses in it like Meathead's Deli, the Skeleton Crypts, Kings' Forest, et cetera. The Dark Forest town even had a "Hidden Grate" that a person can just enter and explore like the ones in the Base Camp in the mountains and the rusty grate found near Balefort Castle. The best thing that Pocket Legends had that was the pathway between Balefort Castle and the Crypts where there were enemies along the trail in the forest along with the Forbidden Tomb as yet another side dungeon to explore while on the way to the cemetery.

Arcane Legends had a small but really good way at adding some side activities to a person's schedule which was the addition of the Bard whose stories where daily mini-dungeon fights, the timed crypt/tomb runs, and the Hauntlet. The levels even had a few extra areas so that it wasn't just a straight line all the time.

In order to keep the people of Star Legends interested, we need something to spark a sense of adventure as they explore a seemingly more open area, give them a new place to relax from the main levels, or by utilizing the side dungeons as a way to make more quests and items for people to spend time completing and collecting.

How do you think side dungeons can be implemented into Star Legends? How about having some different dungeons at the same level branch out and connect and intertwine with different ones so that the story could be different by how a person progresses through the game? How about having the USC Blackstar being more explorable with air shafts, maintenance halls, and such? I'd like to hear what you all think on this.

Discussion #3: Item Uniqueness in Star Legends compared to other methods used in Pocket Legends, Dark Legends, and Arcane Legends

Since this is something that pops up in all of the games' discussions, I'll take examples of how the devs made items unique in different games while keeping the same base object. In this discussion, we will discuss over the issue that has popped up here and there over the time of SL's life and became a major issue when the second part of the Scorn Trilogy came out.

Main Issue for Discussion
This one is a bit different than the rest so I'll start off by talking about this in the way as I see it.
Before the Shipyard came out for a few months... (TBC)