So I thought of a possible solution. After all, if you require simultaneous movement of switches or something, all you're doing is requiring more people. So what about a randomized area?
There are two ways to do this: Randomize the mob build up, or the rooms themselves (if you've ever seen the movie "the Cube" you know what I mean).
Type A would work like this: The guys that make the game set up the paths and whatnot through the area, but leave the blank for what type of mob occupies a 'room'. When you try and enter the room the program picks randomly from a list of premade mobs (i.e. trapper mobs, mesmer mobs, etc. with bosses for KISS purposes). So for each section you don't know what you're going to run in first.
While it might be possible, and is probable to destroy this mob with a cookie-cutter, if the mobs are varied enough its possible to keep any particular build from working most proficiently. While this would work, I don't like this as much as Plan B.
Plan B: Set up something like this.
[a][b][c]
[d][e][f]
[g][h][i]
Now originally (as I was typing this) I thought about having the rooms come from this selection and actually move into the path of the player. The difference between this and Type A, however, instead of changing mobs (which could still be incorporated into the different rooms) we'll be changing PUZZLES. Let's say the player starts at H (though we could randomize the start point as well). To get from H a puzzle must be solved. Once the puzzle is solved, a door opens. But rather than a normal GW level of A) Go to point B, B) go to point C and kill something, the puzzle will randomly choose a door from G, I and E.
People will still be able to solve these puzzles from wikis, or destroy mobs with cookie cutters, but if you use a lot more room options like this, than it will certainly slow down how quickly people solve the area (and even if they do, it won't matter from a wiki unless you get the same combo of rooms).
Also, could you imagine if instead of a simple 3 set matrix like this, a full 20 rooms, or more in the rotation? Something like this?
[a][b][c][d][e]
[g][h][i] [j] [k]
[l][m][n][o][p]
[q][r][s][t][u]
And since these rooms wouldn't have to exist until the player solved the puzzle, it wouldn't suck down computer time or bandwidth (just as areas are seperated in GW now. Going from Ascalon Foothills to Diessa lowlands requires a zone)
Even if you wanted to have seamless movements from room to room (by having you enter each threshold, the game would begin loading the possible rooms you could enter), it would only have to load a total of 4 rooms max. I.E. you're standing in room I, the game doesn't know which way you'll go, so it loads rooms H, C, J and N. When you enter one of these rooms it loads the next set.
Well I hope I haven't bored y'all to tears, but that's my idea. And if you'd like, I can clarify portions or divide them up to make it easier to read. It was kind of an epiphany, so I may not have explained it well.
But that's just my two cents
/edit Forgot to mention earlier that with each room would come a different puzzle. While each room may eventually be force to have a similar puzzle to another (after all, creativity can only go so far); terrain, enemies, etc. should keep the challenge going.
