a better standing system for open worlds

[Keyhound]

this is "part 2" of my better open worlds discussion, this will focus on standing, npc questing, and rewards.
One of the biggest problems people are having with deimos is how we are forced into doing everything in order to progress. it shouldnt be, npcs should be interactible based on what they offer, and the player desire for that type of content. because of this, i came up with a few ways of to fix that, and make the experience not only worth it, but also give the player a reason to keep doing it even after completing it.

1-QUESTS: if there's one thing we can all agree with about deimos, is that the main quest was great, and the npcs were very fun to interact with, even though the mission itself wasnt anything to write home about, it had everything the world had to offer... and that may very well be its biggest flaw, because it wasnt just what we could do in the drift... it was basically everything we would need to do in order to progress. for that reason, i think it would've been better to have multiple quests, as you progress through the "main standing" of the world. they dont need to be as big, or as many, but it would be better to be rewarded with more events that show their level of trust in us as we keep playing.

2-DIFERENT STANDING FOR DIFERENT NPCS: one of the biggest problems with deimos, is how players felt forced to do everything, if they wanted to progress. "hunt 5 birds if you want rank 3". and then there were the tokens, players would farm for things, trade them for tokens, trade those for a diferent token, that would then be traded for standing... so, instead, i think they should do a similar thing, each npc would have their own standing, however, they wouldnt need to "sacrifice" in order to level up, on the contrary, ranking up would net the player something unique, even if not that valuable, a glyth or a decoration piece, something that feels personal, but not massive. for example, a fisher npc, could offer their very own personal fishing spear(maybe its a decoration in their shop, but its disapears once you get it). the idea is to reward the player, instead of fill them with roadblocks.

3-DIFERENT MISSIONS FOR DIFERENT NPCS: basically, i propose diferent types of bounties for diferent npcs, imagine this, the hunter npc has a list of things he need us to take care off, so he offer us, a number of diferent missions, one of them is basically the hunting we have today, he says he has found tracks of a rare game in the wild, he want to see if we can get it, he tells us the overall place, and we have to go and do the hunting minigame. another has him ask us to setup traps, so, it starts a 2-3 step micro bounty, of finding bait(or using or own if we want), set the trap and wait until it comes out, it could have diferent random outcomes, like other animals apear to hunt it and we have to protect it(mini defense), or it could get free from the cage, (mini capture), and so on. he could have bounties on poachers, requiring us to hunt them down, and, of course, have those tag missions. that could do for any quest giver npc. except, they would be tweaked to work for their types.

4-NPC SHOPS MAKE SENSE: lets be honest, the standing system in open worlds is functional at best. but that comes at the cost of making players get fed up with those places quickly, that's because of how standing works. bounties arent good because they make no sense in a real world logic. they feel too "gamey". instead, they should feel like something that makes sense in the society it is set on instead of standing, have them possess a custom currency that is separate from standing the tokens were a nice step, but because they are the only way to get standing, they feel like a step backwards instead.

5-BETTER MINING AND FISHING: this was a nice step in deimos, with finding random resources in diferent pots, however, it makes no sense that its more rewarding to get them from those than from fishing and mining. mining should also be heavily revamped, instead of that scar on the earth, why not make a custom crystal for each one? make it a breakable rock,maybe as you start to break you get a glimpse of what you are mining. fishing should also get a new way, spear fishing was fun because it was diferent... but there's no reason to be the only way to fish. why do we spear fish robots? and why do we do it against flying fish as well? instead, do something diferent, maybe instead of a spear we throw the parazon and hack it, maybe on deimos we should get a tentacle arm that shoots out 5 smaller tentacles that try to grab the "fish" out of the sky, and we have to pull it towards us, maybe on the next one, we throw the bait directly into the sand, and pull it out with our own hand when it bites it. similarly, why not have other things that can be fished and mined, for example, a warframe fragment could be in the bottom of the sea(if mars it could be a sand sea). or maybe its in a rock that we break from mining. maybe we could find it in the bottom of a monster lair. as a side note i think broken should use a diferent crafting recipe than normal maybe instead of using the traditional 3 parts, need 10 fragments, that can be found randomly, and we would need 5 body fragments, 4 arm fragments and 1 head fragment to build it. but then again, i also think broken should have been a frame that is... you know, broken(as in fragmented, not working correctly, falty)...

[Bhao]

You seem to assume a lot of things, that I feel need discussion first. I do not agree with some of your initial givens and that makes a discussion about your ideas and conclusions difficult.

 

Point one: You use "we" in point one. Who is this "we"? Did you make a survey? Did you ask around? And again, I actually agree that the Quest was great, but I don't see how you can just state that "we can all" agree. Your "biggest flaw" assumption also needs discussion, because I can easily see how front loading deimos with a big quest can make for an exiting first impression (and in my case, it did) and that can be way more important.

 

Point two: How can you say this is one of the biggest problems? You say this in the lead-in as well, what are you basing this on? Maybe for you, but not necessarily for me. This seems to be another assumption based on your impression or play style.

 

Point three: I have no opinion on point three.

 

Point four: "Let's be honest". This seems to be another rhetorical device used to present your subjective impressions as overall facts. I actually think you are wrong there. "Let's be honest, it's really nice the way it is." There, now what?

I also don't agree with your assessment of how things "should" feel. Gamification in a game can be and often is a good thing and I think it works well here. Your appeal to "real world logic" seems misplaced or at least odd in this context.

 

Point five: A long list of "maybe"s. Seven, if I counted correctly. As if you are just throwing things hoping that something will stick and someone will agree with you. If you have a concrete idea how to make it better, say what you want. I'm sure you will find people to agree with you on some of your points, but the difficult thing is to make a majority agree with you on a complete restructuring that works, and I don't see that in there.

 

 

[Keyhound]

i think you are looking at this in a diferent way to what i intended, im not trying to be "the voice of the people", if i gave that impression, im sorry, it wasnt my objective.
i just wanted a better system for standing, something i see many people disliking,