[netburnr]

I was thinking about the whole Instancing/Group Raid thing and I thought of this.

Station sectors have a special kind of WarpGate. This will allow a pilot to take an instanced mission of some sorts (kill flux, find a pirate, etc etc), and upon launch the gate will be their "waypoint" (without a mission the gate will not function). When the pilot hits the waypoint gate and jumps through, they are taken to a special sector that allows them to complete their mission. Then they simply come back to the station sector gate and come home.

1) Allows people to have some fun in a short time period
2) Allows people to have a single player game.
3) Allows ND to say they are using instancing
4) Can be balanced so there is no way to mass-farm the XP or money rewards

Questions

1) Would you want multiple people to be able to enter the instance at once?
2) What kind of instanced missions would there be? WoW players here is your chance.
3) Should the instanced sectors have other gates to allow going further into the instance?

[Ambrosius]

Just say "no" to instancing.

[Zeshin]

No to instancing.

[netburnr]

I'm not so sure its going to be that simple....I'm pretty sure ND wants it so they can use it as a marketing ploy to get more WoW fags, err, players.

[biteme]

Should I slap you in the face? Did they make you take a pill? Did they wave 2 fingers over you and say "instancing is good"? Dude WTF is wrong with you?

[Jump]

Well, they have both indicated that there would be a form of instancing as well as there will not be, so it is a bit confusing as to how they will go.

[netburnr]

Personally I don't like the idea of instancing, I'm just trying to spur some discussion on how it can be done.

[Jump]

Technically, the current flux sim is an instance is it not? So the concept is not new. I just wonder when it changes the game to the point that it's not a persistent universe anymore. Or worse, interferes with human interaction.

[Wild_Bill]

Originally Posted by netburnr

....

Questions

1) Would you want multiple people to be able to enter the instance at once?
2) What kind of instanced missions would there be? WoW players here is your chance.
3) Should the instanced sectors have other gates to allow going further into the instance?

Okay, no WoW experience here. If we are going to have instancing, this seems a workable way to do it. In answer to your questions

1) absolutely. Use the "fleet" command discussed elsewhere to add players. Once in, you are there until the "instance" is completed or you take a pod home.

2) here's the difficult part for me; I have no idea what I would do in an instance that I don't already do in Jumpgate Classic. Lack of imagination on my part of course. If it doesn't have persistence or affect the whole server (no matter in how small a manner i.e. mining, fluxing) then I'm not sure I could relate to it. If it was a matter of producing something, like hunting a certain arty then adding another arty or a high level piece of equipment... naw, I don't think so. Special Flux Hunt? I just can't see it. Sorry. Maybe something for the PvP squads to settle feuds? Perhaps two squads enter from different gates, have damageable/destroyable stations (fully stocked of course) and they could fight to the last man/woman standing would be as good a use as any. Sort of like some of the events that were done in the sim in Jumpgate Classic perhaps.

3) if you can come up with a reason to go there in the first place, then I guess it would be okay to have additional sectors and gates once you were there.

[Grimfalcon]

I can see why Instancing is used in games like WoW or the like, be it the nature of their game-design to encourage rampant, repetitive raiding / grinding. If those games didn't have instances, why, people would just be standing around waiting to get their chance to get a chance for loot that has a chance of being the loot they want.

Instances give them that illusion they have "more chance".

In Jumpgate, I don't know other than perhaps having a training/newbie starting area thats instanced/non-returnable and maybe the old simulators. Past that, I'm not exactly sure how it wouldn't be just an extra issue to worry about technically.

Now, if they did do it, and as well, to answer the questions posed in the OP's post:

1.) If there was instancing, I'd like it to be a multiple person thing. I'd like to see it used for training purposes for those new to the game to get down basic mechanics/game theories. Not as an instrument for missions. Be it a mandatory sim that you can choose to use on your first login or what. I'd rather see it used to help newcomers get accustomed to an MMO not based on point and click than to make Jumpgate less social.

2.) If it was a reality for missions, perhaps it could only be used for very specific missions that require a rare spawn to help fight spawngrinders for missions that require that level of uniqueness. Not sure, I don't want every mission to be instanced for sure. That would make the game a Single Player game with a Multiplayer meeting room basically. If it's a "Feature", I hope it's one that is rare and well used for things like "Get Brownie the rare Flux" or "Mine the rare Cottage Cheese Roid" and get a Dairy Cow Canon.

3.) I think Instanced sectors should be single sector only and non-returnable. I liked Jumpgate because everyone was everywhere. While yeah, I would lose my cool when someone would kill steal or roid steal, it forced people to either group together and also, helped the police atmosphere. If everyone has their own instances, it's much harder to weed out the asshats.

[Eraser55]

As soon as you start rewarding players that achieve something in a instanced
zone, the game will lose what we call persistant universe/world.. Witch imo is the essence of mmorpg games.

Instancing mmorpg games is again IMHO, an easy way to create gameplay for many players without having to think of all balancing issues that mmos require. Im rly dissapointed that so many developers chose to instance mmos. It is annoying to have this single player element in games that should be all about playing with and against other REAL people.

[GrimGriz]

Instances simply support the fact that most MMOs are single player games that a lot of people play at once. Everyone can have their own instance, just like they're playing a private game.