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Why don't mmos have "hard mode" servers?
Amathe
Member LegendaryPosts: 7,630
Many games already have "PvP" servers, where you can PvP anywhere instead of it being voluntary or in designated areas. Some games even have different PvP ruleset servers.
So why not a "hard mode" PvE server? Beef up the mobs. Slow down the leveling curve. Take out some of the conveniences and maybe put in a little better loot for the extra effort. Suddenly the folks who want it faster and easier aren't in conflict with the folks who want it slower and harder. Both can have it their own way.
I know one answer will be yeah, but you can't have 500 versions of the same game where everyone has their own server that is somehow different than the others. I get that. But if they can tweak it once for PvP tastes, they should be able to tweak it once for PvE tastes.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Comments
Many MMOs are coming out with hard mode dungeons. It would probably require a bit too much manpower to alter the entire game in such a way.
From a theoretical standpoint, it's easier to talk about changing this and that than actually programming the changes into the game.
UO does... or did, not sure if it came back, but it went off for some time, think they brought it back... *looks* it'sup, but not sure if they kept it as hard when they brought it back up. It's called Siege Perilous. I remember the original one was very hard
but I think they toned it down some when they brought it back up again... but that may have changed. Or wait, maybe there was one called Abyss which was even harder, I forget now, that was early on.
But other than that, no, people want easy...
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Why don't mmos have "hard mode" servers?
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customer service. customer service rules all. It's an p2p's biggest expense after launch.
Well shave my back and call me an elf! -- Oghren
Because it is a small percentage of playerbase who would use such a server. Truth is players today like easy mode. When you add in the maintenance, server cost and staff to run such a hardcore server they see there isn't any real profit to be made from doing it.
EQ use to have a similar server that cost $40 a month or so and it failed big time, eventually shuting down do to lack of players. But it also was expensive because they tried to make up for the fact that they would have fewer players interested in such a server.
Good question.
The answer is because they are stupid.
DDO kinda adresses this, but even elite is easy with a decent party, and there arent many epic dungeons.
Still one thing is changing the rates, wich anyone could but they dont bcs they are stupid, but changing the strenght of mobs is a different deal, maybe it wouldnt be so hard in games where you can change the mob's level if there are such, but that wouldnt make it easy just easier.
But for a paid team its cake thats for sure. Only a matter of time not difficulty.
Shaiya Online had an interesting take, where your character has a leveling mode, which steeped the leveling curve and the death penalty drastically. Ultimate Mode, the most difficult mode to roll, has something similar to a permadeath, even. All this, of course, came with much more powerful characters, and made the replay value of the game very high.
I say all this because I like the idea behind it. Not a "hard mode" server, but allowing multiple people on different difficulties play together.
Food for thought,
#K
Gw does
THIS.
It was one of the aspects I enjoyed. I do not like PVE at all really, I really hate NPC's and AI. I enjoy killing players not bots. The hardmode option made the PVE tolerable for me. Now if they include this on GW2 persistant world with their interesting event system, it will be awesome!
AoC has the option to enter questing zones as normal or group difficulty. It's not something that you would solo though.
Yeah, Hard Mode for GW made PvE interesting again, with the addition of the Zaishen Quests it got even more interesting (as in something to do). At least for me.
They don't have hardmode servers because pve difficulty is pretty much up to the player outside of raids and such. You can grind on easy enemies all day that you can 3-shot, or you can choose to quest in an area with mobs that you can just barely beat alone, or maybe team up with friends and go some place higher level than that. Even "easy mode" WoW can be made exceptionally difficult during the leveling process if you know where to go (or if you're a total noob and don't know where to go - wandering into a difficult place).
Guild wars had hard mode pve servers because the pve was organized into a linear story mission-based format. Most mmos are not quite THAT linear in pve.
As was mentioned, GW gives you flexibility, and DDO does it pretty well by having various difficulties of dungeons (solo, easy, medium, hard, elite). In DDO you can generally handle up to medium pretty easily solo, but above that you usually need a pretty decent group, but you also get much better rewards. And though people will argue its not an MMO, Diablo 2 had not only the 3 different difficulties, but also Hardcore mode.
Unfortunately, while there are a few exceptions, the majority of the market right now gets catered to either casuals, people who want everything pretty much handed to them, or a mix of both, and the people seeking more of a challenge become a niche group who cant find a worthwhile game to play so they settle for something less than appealing. Ive seen the argument of "Well go kill higher level stuff" or some such nonsense, but the sad reality is, way too many games do this retarded little thing where killing a mob 10 levels higher than you gets you, if youre lucky, maybe 10% more xp than a mob your level, and in some cases no XP at all because of the level gap (mobs greyed out if theyre X levels highe rthan you, punishing you for taking them on rather than rewarding you). The loot rewards also tend to not be improved for taking on higher levels too, so its usually either kill stuff your level, or go spend 5x as long killing higher level stuff only to earn rewards that dont match that increase in difficulty.
Im really hopeful that GW2 with its DES will help change this at least somewhat as the events themselves, as well the rewards, will change and might offer the oppurtunity for the lone warrior, or small band of warriors to take on challenges that might normally be handled by much larger groups and actually get worthwhile rewards at least a portion of the time. God I wish theyd hurry up and come out with GW2... hopefully the wait will be worth it. Theres a few other potentially great games coming out in the next year or so that have a chance to bring something new and impactful things to other games after it as well, but im pretty certain GW2 is where ill end up staying.
Leveling curve and conveniences don't make a game easier. They make it less tedious, and more convenient.
I don't think a hard mode server is as reasonable as simply offering a variety of challenges within the existing world (or a COH-like difficulty selector.)
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Well a Mob with a few more HP's and more damage isnt exactly too much harder imo. They would have to create better faster and stronger AI to make me play on a "hard server"
But i like the idea, and i do feel it should be implemented.
Playing EVE
Played Darkfall, Played Wow,
But it would be great if it were somehow supported. Using WoW as an example, the mob power doesn't raise that much per level, so that it would be fully possible to go and tackle higher level mobs if the lower level ones are too easy.
Except that hit rate for spells decreases 11% per each level the mob is higher than you (starting from 2 level diffirence). Comparing just the amount of damage and healt, I think I'd be able to match a mob 10 levels above me in equal fight if I could hit it. But Blizzard has made the mechanics so that I'd need to cast more than 16 spells on that higher level mob to get just one spell hit. It's really effective way of decouraging fighting against higher level mobs.
I'd really like a hard mode WoW server with mob health and damage increased. Or even a WoW server with the miss change made more lenient so that I could choose to go against harder mobs.