[Suggestion] A better approach for the game's story

[tsigetartseht]

The current story of the game right now is sorta lacking in many departments such as character development, lacking of feel/excitement in each major part of the story/climactic end, and many more which I wouldn’t further delve into.

So with that in mind, I would like to a suggest a number of things for the game’s story-writing in order to give it more life through its hidden potential.

Things like:

• Mean masterminds of true evil who you would truly hate and would love to beat in a fight yet they can’t be killed(storywise) yet.

• A grand quest for each map set. This could be a part of the whole storyline but could also be a grand side story adventure. This would of course, require the player to embark on an adventure in order to achieve an ultimate goal.

• Legendary/Lorewise dungeons. Because who wouldn’t want to conquer such dungeons and be called legends for clearing it? This could be anything that was mentioned in some part of the story and is greatly feared by many. And of course, this dungeon should live up to its name by being extremely hard to clear without proper group of people/friends to challenge it + equipment.

To further spice it up, you could add leaderboards for clearing this the fastest/least damage taken/least deaths/and etc.

So far these are my thoughts, I do hope this helps make ToS a great game in the future!

[Melon]

I agree with so much of this.I very quickly lost interest in the story,other than the ones directly related to the obtaining the revelations,because everything else just felt like errands or chores.I had no drive to get emotionally involved in like 75% of the story.

I think if you gave the monster killing quests more of a say…bounty hunting feel rather than a “I need this item from this monster,kill this many”,you would feel more accomplished killing them.Especially bosses,but I don’t think they need too much work [just more variety,really].I don’t think this could be done for everything,but some.

I agree with the dungeon point as well,they need to be way more interesting and challenging.I think a title for clearing a dungeon the first time would be better incentive,and a neat challenge would be a different resistance or debuff or something every time you went in.Something you can’t cure but have to work around as a party.

[Itzkyo]

If possible they could even let u have an option to be evil with a reputation system with how approach the story/people around the game

[exdarklight]

ToS’ story just isn’t very good.

You don’t have any connection to the villains. They just happen to be the enemies you encounter while Laima takes you on a tour around the world.

The villains are fought then forgotten. You almost never see them again. Moreover, they don’t have any build up. I have no reason to fear or detest them because of it.

---

You can fix the first problem by making the encounters more personal. For example, they could steal some of your stats or silver until you defeat them. You can also feel more connected through their actions in the story. Gesti was ok since she would kick you back to the entrance if you met her before your battle. However, she runs the problem of being fought then forgotten.

To remedy that problem, you just need to encounter them more often before the battle. Rexipher is one such example. Though since you don’t really fight him, but his minions, the impact is lessened. If he had a cutscene where he attacks you, dropping your hp/sp to 1 before summoning his minions, that would improve the impact he has. Fighting him again later in the story would be fine as well.

There are bosses you fight more than once, like nearly every early instance mini boss, are often encountered again but since they are of no value to the story, they contribute nothing.

[Brobbulus]

[quote=“tsigetartseht, post:1, topic:125352”]Things like:

• Mean masterminds of true evil who you would truly hate and would love to beat in a fight yet they can’t be killed(storywise) yet.
• A grand quest for each map set. This could be a part of the whole storyline but could also be a grand side story adventure. This would of course, require the player to embark on an adventure in order to achieve an ultimate goal.
• Legendary/Lorewise dungeons. Because who wouldn’t want to conquer such dungeons and be called legends for clearing it? This could be anything that was mentioned in some part of the story and is greatly feared by many. And of course, this dungeon should live up to its name by being extremely hard to clear without proper group of people/friends to challenge it + equipment.
  [/quote]

[quote=“exdarklight, post:4, topic:125352, full:true”]You don’t have any connection to the villains. […]

You can fix the first problem by making the encounters more personal. For example, they could steal some of your stats or silver until you defeat them. You can also feel more connected through their actions in the story. Gesti was ok since she would kick you back to the entrance if you met her before your battle. However, she runs the problem of being fought then forgotten.

To remedy that problem, you just need to encounter them more often before the battle. Rexipher is one such example. Though since you don’t really fight him, but his minions, the impact is lessened. If he had a cutscene where he attacks you, dropping your hp/sp to 1 before summoning his minions, that would improve the impact he has. Fighting him again later in the story would be fine as well.

There are bosses you fight more than once, like nearly every early instance mini boss, are often encountered again but since they are of no value to the story, they contribute nothing.
[/quote]

@STAFF_John it’s not too late!

Really, I like those suggestions, also those from OP, because I also felt like I had no close connection to any NPC, nor the story in the game.

[Divini]

Also could use more NPC deaths, and I mean on the good side. Nothing makes me want to beat up a villain more than them taking out a NPC I was attached to or really liked.

While I know Korean MMOs aren’t exactly the most lore-focused games, I know they’re capable of it. For example, Mabinogi made me care A LOT about the good guys. Everything they went through was just so tragic. (and the main story in my opinion was above average)

Here’s to hoping Orsha’s and the 200+ storylines improves. There’s some great potential with all the mystery and multiple factions for that 185+ city area with the stone winds.

[rofldat]

You don’t have any connection to the villains. They just happen to be the enemies you encounter while Laima takes you on a tour around the world.

Not quite, they all are going after her revelations, which is also what you are going for.

Rather than ToS having a ‘story’, it’s closer to LotR that you are just cleaning up loooooong after the real goddesses vs demons fight.
Or rather, some of the quest lines hint at this thing being more than just good vs evil thing.
Like the quest in Goddess’s Ancient Garden implying that the guy who’s called traitor by everyone is not a ‘bad guy’.

So if anything, ToS’s lore is less of a ‘story’ and more of you exploring the world following guidance of the revelations and pick up bits and pieces here and there about the past.
(For example, the books you can read in Mage Tower hint at Grita’s identity)

Think of it as something closer to Dark Souls.

[nemisishiro]

I rather had fun with the story. The first time though anyways. In hindsight some areas were bland but what i would like to see most is voice acting! You can portray so much more emotion and npc personality with voices. I absolutely loved the voice acting in Path of Exile. The voices added so much ambiance. But is has to be quality voice acting or no one will take it seriously.

[Kuro-pi]

ToS’ story just isn’t very good.

You don’t have any connection to the villains. They just happen to be the enemies you encounter while Laima takes you on a tour around the world.

The villains are fought then forgotten. You almost never see them again. Moreover, they don’t have any build up. I have no reason to fear or detest them because of it.

You can fix the first problem by making the encounters more personal. For example, they could steal some of your stats or silver until you defeat them. You can also feel more connected through their actions in the story. Gesti was ok since she would kick you back to the entrance if you met her before your battle. However, she runs the problem of being fought then forgotten.

To remedy that problem, you just need to encounter them more often before the battle. Rexipher is one such example. Though since you don’t really fight him, but his minions, the impact is lessened. If he had a cutscene where he attacks you, dropping your hp/sp to 1 before summoning his minions, that would improve the impact he has. Fighting him again later in the story would be fine as well.

There are bosses you fight more than once, like nearly every early instance mini boss, are often encountered again but since they are of no value to the story, they contribute nothing.

I really agree with pretty much everything in your post, but you’re also forgetting something very important:

We need some static characters on the side of good besides the goddesses that we’re going to help, characters that are likable and whose plight we sympathize for those that give out quests. For instance, the researcher that Rexipher kidnaps. Because she sticks around for a while and is a decent person and is trying to help, to have her put in danger, you actually come to care (if only a little) when she gets turned into a hostage and taken away. There need to be more NPCs involved in quests like this, and more of the NPCs need to stick around for longer, giving you a series of quests that lead up to something instead of just, “I’m hungry, go find the bread I hid in the bushes” (like really?)

In addition, we need some static characters that work with the main characters, not just in the short term, but the long term. Maybe a special organization created specifically to guide and support the revelators, in which you have people that are long time contacts that become involved more deeply in the story than those that are currently in the game. You could even throw in some politics where some people in the organization are working against others, maybe just for selfishness, or maybe because they’re working with the demons. All of these things would help us to CARE about what we’re doing.

Make use CARE about the people we’re helping, make us ATTACHED to them, KILL SOME OFF after we’ve gotten to know them for 100 levels or so, suddenly one gets killed by one of the bad guys we’re after, then we have a reason to really want to find and kill the bastard that did it. That kind of thing.

The quests are so disconnected from one another (even in the main storyline, nevermind the side quests!) and the goals we’re trying to achieve are so vague, it’s impossible to really care much about why we do the things we do.

[exdarklight]

I didn’t list all the problems. That would take way too much typing and it’d be difficult to dissect and read, though that’s more of a personal lack of writing talent than anything.

Your suggestion is also a strong improvement to the story.

I think that once they get the mercenary system working, which is the ai controlled/player commanded party member, it will greatly improve the story. You could then have say, the Paladin Master, keeping you company while you do a few quests as he uses some pally skills to help you fight. Possibly chat and explain the story while you’re moving between zones and fighting instead of standing still and mashing space. If this can be extended to more class masters or story npcs of varying strengths joining you in your quests, it could add a lot more flavor to the homeless class masters loitering around on klaipeda’s streets.

[Kuro-pi]

I think that once they get the mercenary system working, which is the ai controlled/player commanded party member, it will greatly improve the story. You could then have say, the Paladin Master, keeping you company while you do a few quests as he uses some pally skills to help you fight. Possibly chat and explain the story while you’re moving between zones and fighting instead of standing still and mashing space. If this can be extended to more class masters or story npcs of varying strengths joining you in your quests, it could add a lot more flavor to the homeless class masters loitering around on klaipeda’s streets.

Oh my god, I love this idea sooooo much.