Fixing Arena Net's Mistake - Part 2 - Bosses

I'm back again, after the block-buster hit Fixing Arena Net's Mistake - Part 1 - Character Customization. I am back again; this time I will be fixing bosses.

Fixing Arena Net’s Mistakes – Part 2

Bosses in their current form suck.

The majority of bosses suck because of the lack of effort and uniqueness. The majority of bosses are a simply a re-skin of a regular monster while a glow added with a couple attributes boosted up. Talk about boring!


Here is how to fix it:

- Create Unique Skins (If you plan on just re-using skins at least attempt to make it semi-unique; You could add some fangs, arms, feet, hair, heads, wings, etc)

-Increase The Size! Boss fights need to feel epic and heroic.

- Unique Skills - When I fight a boss I want to fight a creature I haven't faced before. I want to encounter new things. I don't want to face the same skills that I have seen before. If you plan on using skills already in the game then tweak them slightly to make them more interesting.

- Add Audio - A boss should speak! Make bosses taunt players, call for help, order patrols around, etc.

- Lore - There needs to be a reason why I should kill this creature. What did they do? Yes, a few boss fights have a little lore behind them, but the majority don't. Only the bosses in dungeons have the slightest lore behind them.

- Amp Up The Sinisterness - Bosses need to do more than just patrol around like regular monsters. They need to have a wider patrol area where the go around the area yelling commands and orders at their minions! Bosses should be doing something evil (Why else would I be slaughtering them?). I.E attacking a town, attacking peasants, stealing, etc.

- Add Unique Movement - Bosses need to do more than walk around like your average monster. Bosses should be able to fly, burrow, jump, leap, swim, etc.

Feel free to add anything else you think I have forgotten.

All comments welcome!

Hmm lets see....how about no???
seriously if bosses could do any of that...fly, burrow(oh wait mandragor bosses burrow), jump, leap, swim or anything you consider under ect. then every player in the game would want to do that(GW2 neone?)

and sure talking mayb cool...but you need a crap load of voice overs and would have to have them implimented into the game and occur w/o triggers(NPC's talk when you click on them you dont hear them when others do)

and as for skins and unique skills...you are aware how many bosses there are in GW rite?? good then you know that spending that much time on making a skin for each one is pointless and they already have "elite" skills that you dont get from the creatures around them(excluding HM) but u cant cap it unless u kill a boss.

As for size...they are bigger and ppl dont want to have a hour long boss fight after grinding out a 3-4 hour dungeon

ok. maybe a few areas in the game should have elite bosses...players would eat that up. that rotwing dragon in majesty's rest is a good example, but it would be nice, as you said, to make it look different from the rest, and give it some kind of special skill.

regular bosses in the main missions are fine the way they are(challenging the first time, easy for experienced players). i enjoyed playing the game the first time, and still enjoy it, so they must've done something right.

Bosses we're always like that, don't try to change gw now that gw2 is about to come out

Late in 2009 which is over a year from now counts as about to come out?

The only thing that bothers me about bosses is that they are diffrente from regular mobs from one thing: 2x damage and 2x cast
And yes, bosses should have a unique skin too, but for some the glowing aura gives a curious aspect, like the elementals =]

Warrior bosses should have about 200 armor and 2x hp
Ranger bosses should ahve a 50% block chance (or something more... ranger)
Assassin bosses should allways double-hit, attack 33% faster and move 33% faster
Monk bosses should ahve a fix +5 regen and conditions and hexes should expire 50% faster
and etc...

And obvsioudly, bosses should have a shout "Out of my way", wich would shadowstep adjacent foes to a nearby location, so that they would be immune to "tank, nuke heal" strategy... well... that was before ursan, but lets not get into that.

I just remember my first encounter with Rocktail... that felt epic. More bosses like him would be great. I felt like I took down some huge beast that was terrorizing the green-hilled countryside.

1) The "Cursed" bosses in Perdition Rock should be able to drop greens. An example of such is:

Dwanya's Cursed dropping The Cursed Staff.

Energy +10
Holy Damage: 11-22 (req. 9 Protection Prayers)
Halves skill recharge of spells (Chance: 20%)
Halves casting time of Protection Prayers spells (Chance: 10%)
Divine Favor +1 (20% chance while using skills)
Health +30

/unsigned

I just don't see a reason for it. I kill bosses for elite skills, greens, quests/missions, or fun. No reason to change them, as they do what they are supposed to do. They already get health regen, skill activation/recharge bonuses, damage boosts, hex/condition reduction, and probably more I'm forgetting. This is GW, not some other game you are trying to turn it into.

the earths been around for about 15billion years

so in retospect, yes one year is pretty damn short

as for the OP, some of your ideas SOUND good but in actual fact require a shedload of work anet arent going to consider doing

I don't think you understood what I was saying, GW is almost at the end of it's life, they won't change anything now, let them concentrate on gw2.

Totally agree with you. I'm currently doing the Elite hunter title (Got Proph and NF done, Faction 1/2 done)

The only memorable bosses i've encounter so far are Maw and Rocktail (Jora got his huge blade ). Maybe they go down as fast as most other bosses, but a screeny of your party by their dead body is some souvenir.

I know Anet wont change them, but if they are to fix bosses in GW2, making them more EPIC would be the way to go imo.

/halfsigned
The current bosses are fine, but some should be "mini-bosses" instead of actual bosses for GW2.
We need more bosses like Abbaddon or Cyndr the Mountain heart, were you need to find the weak point.
HOWEVER Bosses like Shiro should be kept in the game.

i believe bosses themselves already have an extra armor boost and more health >.>, also since the attributes on bosses are significantly higher than normal monsters the rangers block skill lasts a lot longer and the assassins most likely double-hit more often, and also about the conditions and hexes, i believe that they already expire faster on bosses(or maybe just certain ones)

Actually, the earth has only been around for ~4.5 billion years.

But back to the topic, I fell this would be unnecessary.

New skins would be fine by me, but it really isn't that important. As for size? Have you ever seen Archimode in WoW? He's about 50x the player's size, if he steps on you it's over. I prefer the realism of Guild Wars.

As for unique movements, the only bosses I could see flying would be the harpies. And such movements would either allow them to get to places players cannot (like swimming off of the usual terrain and burrowing so they can't be noticed) and just sit there and heal out of range. Flying would be pointless, as I'm sure some of you noticed Guild Wars doesn't have the full 3 dimensions (such as in PvP standing below a bridge and attacking those above you on it)

see GUILD WARS 2 ftw. all of these things they have said that there going to do in gw2. also it would be alot of work to go in and tweek ever boss. also bosses are there to get 3 things, one is a boost and the other is to cap there elite and get there green if they have one.

/notsigned. Though I understand the OP's perspective, I agree with above poster. Bosses already serve their purposes, and to romanticize the regular bosses is a moot point. Elite area bosses such as Mallyx already fit this bill, no need to make every regular boss more than what they already are.

Yes, they do, but slightly.
Im taking about replacing the 2x damage 2x cast time for something similar to the profession's role.
I mean, why does monks bosses need 2x damage?

And as a reminer, the "aditional armor" they have are due to the difference of their level to ours, if you pay attention, you deal less conditional against high levels
*Conditional damage: damage x armor
And the high attributes are due to their level.

So basically, they are high level monsters with a 2x cast & damage =]

How about we fix the REAL mistakes?
Consumables, PvE skills, Nightfall power creep ect.

lets not forget lame ass grinding for some titles.

i like the idea but still not signed

Great post.... but you dont need to write these anymore. Anet has alot of problems with GW1 and they aren't gunna fix them. Dont listen to these people saying that this is a bad idea. Most of them fail to realize the Anet put little thought to many aspects in the PvE part of the game.

How would these fixes take a long time?

Make them bigger - Just dilate them.... Takes all of two seconds.

Audio? Have everyone in the office come up with 2 cool phrases, record them and place them in the game. How long does it take to say something? No very long.

Lore? How long does it take to design a quest? Not very long.

I don't understand where the illusion that these suggestions would take enormous amounts of time are coming from.

These would be fixed a lot more easily, too. Just remove the first two and make the third more in line with the other chapters, since it was the power creep that caused the need for PvE skills, a band-aid response. This would keep elite areas elite, and make the bosses stronger, instead of 6 retards with Ursan and consumables and two monks steamrolling a boss that's supposed to act as a choke point in some parts of the game.

A "bigger is better" attitude in PvE is what's wrong.

learn

I'm guessing this thread isn't going to be another "block-bluster hit."

What?

I have learned quite a bit in my lifetime. How can you jump to the ultimate conclusion that I have not learned enough in my lifetime?

Stop being such an ignorant barbaric Neanderthal.

Thanks

You haven't learned enough if you think Arenanet has all the time and money in the world to turn Guild Wars into your idea of a perfect game.

Maybe you should read the thread you are responding to prior to useless posts?

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How would these fixes take a long time?

Make them bigger - Just dilate them.... Takes all of two seconds.

Audio? Have everyone in the office come up with 2 cool phrases, record them and place them in the game. How long does it take to say something? No very long.

Lore? How long does it take to design a quest? Not very long.

I don't understand where the illusion that these suggestions would take enormous amounts of time are coming from.

TLDR: These suggestions would take a minimal amount of time to put into the game.

QFT

Ummm...I never said anything about you, personally. I referred to your knowledge of the GAME, which is what we talk about in this forum. Your posts have seemed to be hyperbole about how you have the absolute answers to fix a game better than an office of developers and millions of dollars have the ability to do. You title it "a suggestion on bosses" and you would get a listen. Not a non-critical one, as this IS Guru, but a listen. You title it "Fixing Arena Net's Mistake" and talk about how you, with no proven knowledge about what goes into making and maintaining a game(hell, Gaile was a so-so PR and she was burnt out doing 80 hours a week), can fix the game for these guys, then you better EXPECT a bunch of people to come at you with flame-throwers.

EDIT: that last made me choke with laughter. "record a few lines from the guys in the office...." Lawlerz for everyone! Let's just have stick figures year-round.

God help us if there's a Part III

I expected to see some kind of idea how to make bosses hard and more interesting without cheated damage and skills. Not some crap about making bosses fatter and wear more bling.

When guildwars reaches the point where both PvP and PvE are in state of perfect balance, we can start talking about things like this.

We're still waiting for you to write the code and send it to Anet for part 1.

Well just go kill the bosses of elite zones xD.
And the dungeon bosses have special skills and are generally bigger than you.

Are you a friend of Solange ?

/notsigned, I don't want to fight something that takes more than half of my screen for 1hour or more...

Bosses are meant to be strong versions of the same monsters you fight, nothing else, adding fangs and whatnot would be unneeded work.

The size of bosses are bigger then the size of monsters. Ever seen a real Stone Summit boss?*the ones in the southern shiverpeaks* They are nearly the size of my character *which is always at tall as possible*. How's that for big? Twice the size they should be.

Some bosses do get unique skills, not all bosses need them, as they are just strong versions of the same monsters you fight hordes of.

That is a new thing that was added with EN, but for NPCs when you talk to them, could be put in for GW2.

The "majority" of bosses are just, as I said, strong monsters, no lore to their background. If anything, they are 'clan leaders,' and if that is the case, they don't need any more background. The bosses in the dungeons are only important because dungeons are like mini-missions. Only the important enemies get lore and the unimportant enemies don't need lore because they have nothing to do with anything and therefore would be a waist of time to make lore for them.

Many bosses do have big patrols, many bosses just sit in the same spot, all monsters and bosses are different, and patrols has nothing to do with 'sinisterness.' Also, not all bosses are evil, just anti-human/hostile, and that is not always evil.

Some bosses can fly or burrow, I can name a few bosses that are very evil. Such as this guy, and he flies! As for the jump and leap, same thing. And for everything else, if its not for the regular monster, then it is not in the current gw system for anyone to do. Character or monster or boss.

Overall, I think you are overthinking the role of bosses. Should this be put for important bosses? In GW2, yes, in GW1, no, no longer a need. If every single boss got his/her own lore, special skills, special skins, etc. then there would be over 1000 skins and whatnot, which is way too much work for ANet to do.

Edit:I was roling on the floor when I scrolled up to read that after posting. Seems so true, both rather stupid idea makers *no offense but overall, this idea was just stupid.*
Ok, for one boss, of a handful of bosses, that is no problem, but there are hundreds of bosses in the game, making a quest for ALL of the bosses, making audio for ALL of the bosses, increasing the size of ALL the bosses, changing the skin of ALL the bosses, giving new motions to ALL the bosses, and not to mention there is GW2 WOULD take a lot of time.

Still waiting for you to code in your "part 1" into the game......

Time they could spend actually doing something useful.

^When it comes to the Anets time all we need is a few questions answered and then we can tell if they have the time or not.

question: For a average Anet Employee

1. How long is the average day of work 8 hours? 10 hours? more?

2. How many emails do you get in 1 day, this is in relation to how much time is spent checking emails (in my job its around 2 hours out of the day to check up on emails)

3. Is a lunch break included and how long is the lunch break. Is the lunch break included in the normal days shift or is it excluded.

4. Are small breaks included in the job? IE: every 2 or 3 hours you get 15 mins to take a break.

5. The main one is are alot of the employee's salery or hourly pay (do you get paid time off and vacation time)

6. Does everything have to aproved by 10 different people (can be more or less) befor you can change or add or do anything? (Red Tape question and how many hoops must you jump through just to lets say change the announcment text)

7. During the night time hours do you have a crew working?


With all of these answered we can get a very good Idea of how much time Anet spends on the game its self

as far as i remember most people think you were being too precise, anyone can suggest somthing but if it's not practical theres no point.

And if all bosses were like how you described the game would become tedious fast with the amount of bosses in an area-.-

......again....its only a mistake if its bad, the current system works grand, your just ranting


with at least 4+ bosses an area it would get pretty dull fast.
it's all perspective....they'd need to be towns for them to attack also-.-
Also it would made normal skill capping worse then Tyria is currently><


...no...just no.

Learn what it takes to program a game dealing with multiple languages and servers. Learn what it takes to test a program change for bugs (and we know they still make it into the game). Learn what is in the game that a change like this would entail (how many bosses total? each with new skins, quests, skills, sizes, etc.). You need to learn.

- Create Unique Skins.
No need to. They have their auras and they are bigger.

-Increase.
They are already bigger. Haven't you seen the Dungeon bosses?

- Unique Skills
Monster skills say hello to you. Some monsters have a complete set of unique skills. They have golden icons.

- Add Audio
Audio has some problems to add. But many monsters already taunt enemies with lines.

- Lore
All dungeon bosses have lore.
Many other bosses have lore. Go to Silfhalla.

- Amp Up The Sinisterness
Some monsters do so. Not only bosses

- Add Unique Movement
Some monster do fly, burrow, and jump.


The only change in monsters I see fit is to change ALL generic monster icons:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/images/2/2...tral_Agony.jpg

Into golden skill icons like this one:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/images/f/f9/Crystal_Haze.jpg

Just that, nothing else.

You don't actually have any clue as to how long it takes to do anything in terms of programming, do you?

Your ideas don't exactly make the game better, they just make it how you want the game.

Honestly if making a game isn't that hard, and you have all these great ideas, what are you still doing here?

What do you think they're using? RPGMaker 2005 and a Flash program? It might take two seconds for one boss in some rookie Flash designing program, but there are far more than that and they actually do put in a lot of work into the game development as is.

Now that GW2 is coming out with a brand new engine, we're looking to the future rather than thinking how we can drag the life out of a game most of us have finished a thousand times over.