Shared instances

This would allow for large scale cooperation on super tough zones/bosses and it would also allow for PvP in the PvE areas... this is how it would work

You enter any instance portal (let's just say, into old ascalon) and the team leader is given the choices:

1-unique instance
2-enter shared instance
3-create shared instance

the max would be 3 parties per instance, it could make for fun hunting (3 minutes head start, then second party comes to get you)

Good idea, and I know I am going to get quoted and have this reply picked apart as this 'is not in the spirit of the game'..

But..

How about if the shared instances were full PvP, and also a lot more difficult, requiring all 3 parties to work together or kill eachother in a completly random free-for all.

The issue here is balancing.
If you could just go 24 people to Perdition Rock to fight, you would own the place, seriously.

_Zexion

Not if they adjusted the difficulty, meaning that even 24 people would have trouble.

It would most likely stop people from growing bored of the game so quickly, and possibly keep them playing until the expansions if the PvE was a little more difficult.

Edit: 24 is (quite often) an entire PvE guild, I would like nothing better than to have my entire guild fighting beside me against some awesome monsters.

The trick to it being easy here is, whoever kills the boss gets the assigned items... or any items that drop are assigned to the killer (not killing blow but majority dmg done, so you couldn't cast a bad ass fire dmg for 200 after I had done the initial 900). The key point of the idea (which I may have lifted from someone in another thread I honestly don't remember) is for competition... fighting for available resources. Those who don't want to or don't feel like it's worth the hassle to take out 8 other players AND a dragon, they could go into a unique instance...

EDIT: yes, a whole guild working together would be great!!! and it would give something more challenging for future updates/expansions so that it doesn't become necessary to up the level cap.

hmmm. some classes contribute a lot to the success of a team and do little damage. Some classes just rule out damage. (elementist)

If we are going to be fair, we need another way to assign an item. random..is the best idea I can come up with.

How about its a random drop and its visable identifable as not belonging to your team. Then, if the person who it is assigned to dies, that item is open for anyone to grab. You would know who it that person is as the chat log would read, "Hydra drops really sweet axe for ..some dude" Then youre all like, "oh crap I want that axe, kill that dude!"

When I said "most damage gets reserved drop" I mean random within the highest dmg dealing party. So if my party attacks something and I personally do 900 dmg while the others do nothing but tank and heal, when the other party in the shared instance comes along and smites my target for the lethal 200 remaining life, it doesn't matter, our party gets assigned the drop (to a random member)

I had a thought where it would be cool to have competitive missions, where you'd get a mission from a quest giver as normal to do an objective. But randomly, another team may or may not be sent to the same instance with a COMPETING or UNRELATED objective from another quest giver. The other team might spawn some time after you have entered, or before etc, depending on when each team entered the mission. So you never know if you're going to cross paths with another group, who might be after the same thing you're after (so you have to fight them) or you might need to work together to do a bonus (and maybe double cross each other in the end to get the reward) etc. Full PvP on of course. I think it will add an element of unpredictability and excitment to missions.