Lonami

So the game has a "problem" with the RNG on monster and chest drops. Some people have never seen an Exotic drop, and some Ascended and all Legendary items require a series of materials that take ages to drop (like Charged Lodestones). Fortunately, we don't have farming problems (As in farming a fixed reward, because we don't have many fixed rewards, and those we have (dungeon tokens, common crafting materials, etc) don't require a lot of repeating, and come with extra bonuses).

In the other hand, we have a pretty successful system: dungeon tokens. You know how many you get in each run, you can get extra from RNG, and your first run gives more than the next ones, encouraging playing different routes instead of repeating the easier ones.

A token system wouldn't work for monster and chest drops, but that progression system, tuned a bit, could be fine. I have a system of my own, which I call "reward tables".

So, for example. I want to farm Charged Lodestones. Right now, I may get none, or get a few. I don't have a real goal, no tangible progression, because of the RNG.

Now, let's give these reward tables a look. How do they work? Each reward table has a limited number of rows. These rows have numbers between 1 and 100. Each time you kill a monster, you get a random row from the reward table. That row will be then disabled, and you won't be able to get it again.

Those values add up, and when you reach 100, you get a drop. After you spend all rows, you get a new table with worse points, or you get 100% RNG. The tables reset after a fixed time

What's the point of this? Check this simple reward table example (points x rows):

* 80 x 2
* 40 x 4
* 20 x 6
* 10 x 12

The total points of this reward table are 560, meaning after 18-24 kills you are guaranteed 5 drops. After you spend the table you get a 100% RNG system, or worse reward tables, that like dungeons, encourage you to visit other zones for other rewards instead of keeping farming the same spot for the same reward.

Of course, the example above would be far too generous for rare materials, but you can extrapolate the concept easily to make it more difficult, like giving a lodestone after 20-50 kills. Too many kills? Yes, but you know you'll eventually get it, and it's not like there will be many spots, you'll need to get other materials and exchange them, farm the RNG after the daily or just be patience and do it daily for many days.

And even better, by placing these reward tables on enemy groups by zones, you can make people travel around the world. And after they spend all their tables on an item, they are encouraged on going after other items, so not only they will stop farming the same spot over and over again, they will stop farming the same items again and again, too. People don't run Ascalonian Catacombs more than 3 times a day, when they can go run Citadel of Flame instead.

This reward tables system can be improved and made more complicated, too, adding "extra row for getting higher quality material" or "extra row for getting extra materials in a single drop".

In the end, it's all about guaranteeing a reward after a number of tries, and then stop guaranteeing anything to incentive the player to travel elsewhere, fixing the RNG problem and the frustration of the lack of progress together with the empty zones problem, because ultimately they're tied to each other.

If I ever get to develop some RPG game, count on this system being the core mechanic for loot. Waiting for your opinions .

PS: Thread at the official forum: https://forum-en.gui...-zones-problems

Some theorycrafting around the first expansion for Guild Wars 2. Summarized:

• Enemy: Jormag
  
• Regions: Woodland Cascades, Far Shiverpeaks, Blood Legion Homelands
  
• Race: Tengu
  
• Profession: Watcher [“Pikeman/Phalanx/Hoplite/Samurai”] (Soldier)

Extended:

• Jormag would be our next target. Why? There’s a lot of hints in-game, both lore (A norn NPC saying Jormag’s next, heavy Pact presence at Frostgorge Sound and Fireheart Rise) and gameplay (Jormag’s minions, the Icebrood, are the second most extended enemies after the Risen, Zhaitan’s minions).
  
• There’s a lot of things pointing to tengu being the next playable race. First of all, they were supposed to be included with GW2, but they were delayed. They’re hidden behind their wall, but they still manage to show themselves around. But, how would they make sense with a Jormag expansion? Well, we know there were some tengu north, the Quetzal. This could be enough to make them relevant on the campaign to the north.
  
• All the northern Tyria regions are unique and distinct enough to combine into an expansion on their own:
  
  • Woodland Cascades would fit the taiga and boreal forest roles. Centaur territory at the west, advancing Icebrood at the east, with potential for new forest races, like bark dryads and squirrel people. We would defeat the remaining centaur armies, and then stop Jormag’s minions’ onslaught before it reached Kryta.
    
  • Blood Legion Homelands would fit the Siberian tundra role, climate changed after all these years. The Flame Legion’s headquarters would be here, together with some Branded presence at Kralkatorrik’s former resting place and the beginning of the Brand there. Primordus’ Destroyers could peek around, too, maybe even sharing a relationship with the Flame Legion.
    
  • Far Shiverpeaks would be divided in two, a frozen sea to the south and corrupted glaciers to the north.
• The new profession would be a soldier, making the soldier/adventurer/scholar relationship even. It would use halberds and long swords. It would inspire on the fighting styles of spear amazons, monk warriors and classic pikemen. Its in-game origin would come from tengu mountain-rangers at the north.

Well, those are my ideas so far. Opinions, suggestions, criticism, etc?

More information (lot of text) elaborating on each point: (I'll edit and include future long answers and explanations here, to keep it handy)

========18 new zones========

Work in progress, I plan to add a map, too.

========The story========

Basic story

The Pact would decide to strike Jormag before he does, dividing its forces in three different armies advacing from three different sides, planning to surround Far Shiverpeaks from west, east and south.

The entire expansion's story would be divided in four different storylines:

The conspiracies of a tengu sisterhood, that want to defeat the Elder Dragons using their own powers to destroy them. They would be behind the events at the tengu starting zones, and would later work with the other racial criminal groups (Sinister Triad and Flame Legion).

The Pact's western advance, lead by the Order of Whispers. They would march across Woodland Cascades, and would need to make peace between centaurs and humans first. They would need to defeat the Modniir ruling caste and expel the White Mantle cultists supporting them. The Seraph and the Shining Blade would be involved, too.

The Pact's eastern advance, led by the Vigil. They would help the Blood Legion defeat the Flame Legion remnants, securing the supply routes and gaining their support in exchange. The Flame Legion would have renewed, though, and they wouldn't be easy to defeat.

The Pact's central advance, led by the Durmand Priory. They would charge and hold the line until the other two advances can flank the enemy. They would be fighting Jormag's minions from the very beginning.

Extended story

Tengu story


Initial Pact story


Western Pact story


Eastern Pact story


Central Pact story


Final Pact story


========Six new dungeons========

There would be a total of six new dungeons:

• Largos Slave Coliseum (Largos, Krait, Underwater)
  
• Ruins of Surmia (Branded Ascalonian city)
  
• Centaur Bastion (Centaurs, White Mantle)
  
• Flame Legion City (Flame Legion, Destroyers)
  
• Old Alliance Fortress (Racial criminals, Ancient races)
  
• Jormag's Lair (Final battle)

Extended:

First dungeon: Largos Slave Coliseum


Second dungeon: Ruins of Surmia


Third dungeon: Centaur Bastion


Fourth dungeon: Flame Legion City


Fifth dungeon: Old Alliance Fortress


Sixth dungeon: Jormag's Lair


========Other stuff========

Details and minor stuff that don't fit in the fields above.

New profession: The Watcher

Tengu on the north:

Flame Legion’s return

Tengu starting zone ideas:

Mursaat and/or White Mantle presence at tengu starting zone and Woodland Cascades:

Giants at Woodland Cascades:

Extra: Thread at the official forums: https://forum-en.gui...Far-Shiverpeaks (I'll keep this thread updated with answers there and vice versa outdated, not sure if I'll update it, make a new one or just link here).

My first post around here. Let's try some expansion ideas:

.

======General expansion ideas======

-X1: Jormag
--Locations: Blood Legion Homelands, Far Shiverpeaks, Woodland Cascades.
--Races: Tengu
--Professions: ?

-X2: Primordus
--Locations: Depths of Tyria, Maguuma.
--Races: Stone Dwarves
--Professions: ?

-X3: Bubbles
--Locations: Cantha, Unending Ocean
--Races: Naga
--Professions: ?

-X4: Kralkatorrik
--Locations: Crystal Desert, Elona.
--Races: ?
--Professions: ?

-X5: Final Secret Dragon?
--Locations: Isles of Janthir, New continent (West of Maguuma, may include original stuff from Utopia)
--Races: ?
--Professions: ?

.

======Race ideas======

-Tengu (Capital floating on the air above Dominion of Winds)
--They join when Jormag starts its invasion from the north and their cousins of Woodland Cascades get trapped. They're customized mostly by the different feather shapes and colors.

-Stone Dwarves (Capital south of Ascalon at Deldrimor Front)
--They join to fight against Primordus. They've mastered some techniques to store souls on stone bodies, so they can reforge themselves. Their skin is made of rocks, diamonds and other stuff.

-Naga (Capital underwater, off the coast of Tyria)
--They've changed, and resemble the krait a bit more. They join to fight Bubbles and free Cantha from his influence. They're customized by different facial spines and fins. The boots and pants get the shape of a ring at mid tail and a mantle to fix the no-legs "problem".

.

======Profession ideas======

-Juggernaut (Barbarian+Berseker+Viking soldier that charges brutally into battle)
-"Paragon" (Paragon+Amazon+Legionnaire, soldier with halberds and spears)
-"Chronomancer" (Chronomancer+"Bladedancer"+"Prince of Persia", adventurer with swords and time abilities, slows enemies)
-"Dervish" (Classic Dervish with more generic deities, scholar)

.

======Other ideas======

-New weapons each expansion (With new abilities for each class)
-Polymock (In case it's not included in release)
-Naval battles (A player controls the ship)

.

That's all for now. Feel free to talk about these ideas and post your suggestions to them as well (I know there's already a couple of ideas threads, but I don't want to monopolize those with my stuff).