Could Open World Dungeons Work?

SBFord · March 2016

Could Open World Dungeons Work?

I remember when playing Dark Age of Camelot that one of my favorite ‘dungeons’, Spindelhalla, was a non-instanced location set in the open game world. As a classic dungeon alongside other locations such as Nisse’s Lair or Darkness Falls it demonstrated that there isn’t always a need to instance a location in order for it to be fun and functional.

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Sovrath · March 2016

I think the article is misnamed. This has less to do with whether "open dungeons work" and more to do with whether a dungeon like "Darkness Falls" would work.

Alverant · March 2016

Open world dungeons are in Wildstar and it seems like half the website is bashing the game senselessly.

PurplePoloPlayer · March 2016

A Darkness Falls type area would be awesome! It would only work if there was a good risk vs reward ratio. Also Karma should be disabled in this kind of area.

Infeareal · March 2016

Well Darkness Falls is a cool idea but seems against the grain of BDO. I have however played multiple MMO's that have had non instanced dungeons that were amazing. Prime grind spots were controlled by top guilds and I had massive amounts of fun trying to take them over and hold them. Large organized guild fights or even one on one guild leader vs guild leader for agreed to time frames of control of the dungeon. The best one on one PvP fight I ever had was because of that.

Sovrath · March 2016

Infeareal said:

Well Darkness Falls is a cool idea but seems against the grain of BDO. I have however played multiple MMO's that have had non instanced dungeons that were amazing. Prime grind spots were controlled by top guilds and I had massive amounts of fun trying to take them over and hold them. Large organized guild fights or even one on one guild leader vs guild leader for agreed to time frames of control of the dungeon. The best one on one PvP fight I ever had was because of that.

Even though Lineage 2 was an FFA pvp game it had a version of of faction controlled dungeons.

"The armies of Dusk and Dawn". Castle Controllers were one army and everyone else was the other. Still, Castle Controllers could sell the ability for non-castle controllers to essentially "vote" for their faction. Once a side won only that faction could enter the dungeon.

Iselin · March 2016

I was and still am a big fan of Darkness Falls in DAoC as well as its other large PVE-only dungeons with their different areas with higher level spawns the deeper you went.

They were also not "rides" that one did during leveling or at "end game." They were just there as other places you could go and other things you could do... even the ones we liked a lot and spent a lot of time in.

IMHO, that's the good way to do dungeons in MMORPGs instead of the scripted 15 minute rides that WOW begat.

I can see DAoC types of dungeons existing in BDO although the PVP everywhere nature of the game would make going into them much more like the experience was in the full PVP servers than in the core ones.

Urncaller · March 2016

Only problem I see with non instanced dungeons and being there will at least at the start so few of them would be the top guilds on the server controlling them....which is fine but then if they do make the rewards not the end all be all of loot.

These days seems there is no honor in pvp anymore just all kill kill .....even BDO was never intended for your to go red and stay red all the time. Why it works in Korea because they are not killing eachother non stop all the time for no reason at all...there is usually a very good reason when they do pvp over there in BDO.

carvalho677 · March 2016

I've seen some dungeons in BDO planned to be put in an update in the KR version but I'm guessing none of them are instanced so not sure how they actually work

Distopia · March 2016

They work in the case of Darkness falls, as they're contested; this creates the sense of danger a dungeon should possess. Yet in examples like Fort Tusken in SWG, or just about any other in said game, the open aspect diminished any danger that may be present, in many cases you were lucky to even get attacked by something.

Scott_Jeslis · March 2016

Yes, please! "Darkness Falls" had some memorable moments for me, even personally speaking, I'm not a hardcore PvPer. Thane Troll FTW! :-)

arieste · March 2016

Isn't the game like 2 years further into development overseas? Rather than articles speculating on what's coming, I'd like to see some that KNOW what's coming and speculating on how it'll work in the NA/Euro version. Seems silly to speculate when you can actually KNOW the future just by talking to a gamer overseas... like... actual research into the article.

clownst0pper · March 2016

arieste said:

Isn't the game like 2 years further into development overseas? Rather than articles speculating on what's coming, I'd like to see some that KNOW what's coming and speculating on how it'll work in the NA/Euro version. Seems silly to speculate when you can actually KNOW the future just by talking to a gamer overseas... like... actual research into the article.

Open dungeons aren't in the Korean release and this is as much speculation on what arrives over there, that then impacts here.

H0urg1ass · March 2016

Age of Conan has several group dungeons. In fact, they've been around for almost nine years now.

Tortage Underhalls
The House of Crom - Vile Nativity
The House of Crom - Threshold of Divinity
The Cistern
The Main System
The Catacombs
Onyx Chambers

These types of dungeons work just fine unless there's some kind of "Kill X amount of mobs" quests in them and the game has just been released. In which case it's pretty hard to get those kills unless you group up.

Tabloid42 · March 2016

"

Discussion / Could Open World Dungeons Work?"

Wait,..did someone time travel and change the past?

Wasn't the entire game of Everquest open-world?

Anyone can just walk in and out,. Zoned maybe but .non-instanced.

Difference is,..unless you were on a PvP server,..you'd have to compete for mob camps.

Nanfoodle · March 2016

DF still stands out as the best dungeon I have ever played in be it instanced or open world. IMO DF model would work in just about any MMO if they are willing to commit to it. Big part of that, some of the best gear in the game dropped there. You had vendors that sold gear from currency that dropped in DF. It has to be earned to gain access. It really needs to mean something to make DF work. Most games dont want that kind of depth any more.

Myrdynn · March 2016

see Asheron's Call

Iselin · March 2016

clownst0pper said:

arieste said:

Isn't the game like 2 years further into development overseas? Rather than articles speculating on what's coming, I'd like to see some that KNOW what's coming and speculating on how it'll work in the NA/Euro version. Seems silly to speculate when you can actually KNOW the future just by talking to a gamer overseas... like... actual research into the article.

Open dungeons aren't in the Korean release and this is as much speculation on what arrives over there, that then impacts here.

It's true, they're not in yet but it's more than speculation. They've already announced 2 open world dungeons back in December coming with the Valencia part 2 update. The KR version should be getting it sometime soon.

"The next big change in Black Desert Online is the addition of two new open-world dungeons named Akman Temple and Ruins of Histria"

Octagon7711 · March 2016

I was on ESO last night and a quest line took me to a public dungeon. As it happened another player was there and we had a good time completing the quests that were inside. That said their public dungeons are really nice and was even better before the nerfs.

arieste · March 2016

Iselin said:

clownst0pper said:

arieste said:

Isn't the game like 2 years further into development overseas? Rather than articles speculating on what's coming, I'd like to see some that KNOW what's coming and speculating on how it'll work in the NA/Euro version. Seems silly to speculate when you can actually KNOW the future just by talking to a gamer overseas... like... actual research into the article.

Open dungeons aren't in the Korean release and this is as much speculation on what arrives over there, that then impacts here.

It's true, they're not in yet but it's more than speculation. They've already announced 2 open world dungeons back in December coming with the Valencia part 2 update. The KR version should be getting it sometime soon.

"The next big change in Black Desert Online is the addition of two new open-world dungeons named Akman Temple and Ruins of Histria"

Cool. Now if someone could just write an article about the actual open world dungeons actually coming to BDO rather than about open world dungeons of DAoC, that would be fantastic

[Deleted User] · March 2016

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rojoArcueid · March 2016

This Darkness Falls sorcery you speak of sounds pretty cool. I wonder why not many mmos have adopted a similar mechanic. Some mmos(ESO, AoC, a couple more) implemented the same idea but they dont feel the way this article is describing DF. Also that map reminds me of a Monster Hunter map but on crack. I like it.

blbeta · March 2016

I love open dungeons. Back in the day of Asheon's Call the only bad thing really was only one person could get loot and the spawn could be slow.

ESO's open world dungeons were a lot of fun to me. Difficulty was more than open world. It's fun to run into people in those dungeons.

Granted I never really cared for instanced dungeons with boss at the end. I prefer catacombs you can spend hours in getting lost. To me they are best when they are just other areas to explore that are not in wide open area on the surface of the world.

Yes they can work and are much fun.

Amathe · March 2016

I enjoyed them in EQ.

Xarko · March 2016

They can work, why wouldnt they. Just dig a hole in the ground a fill it with harder creatures, there you got a open world dungeon. Its important to realize though, that open world dungs and instanced dungs are very different features, serving different purpose and should never be compared with each other.

RolanStorm · March 2016

Open dungeons work since Everquest. Some people hate them, others think they are only dungeons should be out there ("not that instanced $%#*").

I am pro-open dungeons, so I think they should be in BDO.

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