Similar ideas, or ideas along the line of creating storyline-based quests have been proposed before, like this one by Kalizzaa/Goodsyntax:
http://www.spacetimestudios.com/show...-elite-farmers
This one by Energizeric has to do more with gear (some great ideas on the replies as well):
http://www.spacetimestudios.com/show...-game-exciting
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to undermine your excellent idea. Merely to point out that the death of pve farming has been an issue for some time and yet still unadressed. Instead of getting the incentive to run maps, we are encouraged to flock at cs in town, opening lockeds or egg crates (which, btw, completely destroy what little farming opportunities for leveling players who can't run elite yet). There are events where people can make money, sure, but between events the game gets tedious and unexciting and barely profitable. Don't even talk about how the crate events are further driving a wedge between players who buy a lot of plat, those who could afford a small amount of plat, and those who play with no plat whatsoever.
Apart from the wealth and asset issues, this trend just pulls the game away from what I think was its initial purpose, to occupy, amuse, challenge, excite and entertain the players. There is too much emphasis on having and accumulating wealth, to me it just becomes the sole focus of the game, instead of exploration and teamwork and strategy.
I believe that players like and want to run more maps and do quests. Running maps and killing bosses were what made Tarlok 2013 such a huge hit. On a smaller scale, I'm sure I wasn't the only one enjoying the Lovecraft and Egg-hunting event, simply because they kept us busy on maps, there were lovely things to loot we could make money of, and more people were around to share the fun. But what happened when the event ended? Another plummet in activity and general buzz and fun of the game.
Or take Kalizzaa's Tour of Arlor, look at the number of people who ran those elite maps. And there wasn't even the kind of gamewide reward like on the Lovecraft event.
If AL is to survive it has to make people play the content and enjoy it. It has to be able to give starting players, leveling players, some hope, some reasonable goals to work toward. AL needs these new players, the plat-buying ones and and the nonplat alike, to offset the loss of previous season players. And IMO they can't do it by crate events. Quests that get players to explore maps, work with each other and become better together, these inspire better loyalty and attachment to the game, instead of the frustration I've been seeing a lot lately.
Sorry for the tl;dr reply.
Bookmarks