One of the unique, new features that Warhammer Online will be bringing to the table top of MMOG's is their system of Public Quests.
This is, as far as I can tell a great step up, or at least a nice diversion from chopping through the critters in a given area ad nauseum, until you can get a party going for the tougher dungeons or levelled up far enough to move on to the next area where you can start inflicting mindless genocide on the local wildlife all over again.
From what I've been able to gleanse from various sources, Public Quests tend to follow three stages, or phases, of progressively tougher opponents. During the first participants, and that's effectively anyone who happens to be in the area and willing to do his or her bit for the greater glory of their Realm, have to beat a significant number of relatively easy (soloable) opponents.
This can be done alone, or as a duo. Even a group. But the cool bit is, that's all up to you. You don't have to group for it, but because you're all in the general area working together as it were, throwing out a Heal to that caster who just took a beating from the critters,if you're a healer type, or pulling a slightly to large mob from that healer if you're of the tanking persuasion would soon start to feel natural. They're all contributing. It's not like they're stealing your kills.
Second stage tends to be a bit tougher, so more unofficial cooperation is warranted, maybe duo up with that Healer if you're a squishy caster. I should note that the Public Quests aren't always purely Kill Quests, sometimes it's sabotaging things while keeping the mobs at bay. So there's variety in that area as well. The mobs you face in this stage may not be solo-able, or very tough for the less solo inclined careers.
The third, and generally final stage, features bad-ass mobs, possibly just one big bad Boss to tackle. Methinks this is where your duo of healer and caster might want to ask the tank nicely if he wants to come stand in front of you and take the punches of the Chaos Demon, or Dryad, or Giant, or... Lots of possibilities. The thing is, this system encourages grouping for the latter stages, but it's not required. You can solo and make a real contribution to first and second tiers (that's the word I've been looking for all this time) of the Public Quest. The final Tier, well you can probably land a blow if you're good, but you're not likely to reap the guaranteed loot rewards that the most puissant participants (likely grouped) will reap.
Now for a bit of moving images to show I'm not just making this up, Paul's old podcast on Public Quests:
What I like about how this system is presented is that it seems to steer away from systems like Guild Wars' Alliance Battles where several instanced battles would determine which way the border would move after a certain amount of battles. That's a system where the Top Dogs would really prefer if all the mediocre players on their side would get the bleep! out and let the big boys win for them. I.e. if you're not amongst the best of your faction, you're immediately a liability to your faction rather than a less valuable asset. Warhammer's system appears to allow everyone to participate in keeping control of an area, at least on the PvE end. With Scenario's, the PvP variant this might be different. Not sure though, Mythic is aware of the pitfall that ArenaNet dug for themselves. ArenaNet did carbon copy that from the Dark Age of Camelot (which is Mythic's previous product) after all.
What do you folks think about all this?
***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***
04/18/08 09:16
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