Invigorating day and night cycles, creating a more dynamic world

[Itsmirageisvoid]

I've been playing on/off for a couple months now and I've been enjoying the expansion to the original game pretty well.

One thing I've always kind of wished though is for the world to be more "alive" in a sense, though not in the A-LIFE S.T.A.L.K.E.R. kind of way but in a way that Vanilla already innovated over other old MMOs on.

Back in the day with older MMOs like Everquest there was no day and night cycle to speak of, but in WoW there is a very clear one that affects stuff like mob spawns. An example would be Leprithus or the Moonbrook Ghouls in Westfall that come out at night.

One thing that this really added over older MMOs is both in making the world feel more alive, but also in changing player behavior and priorities as night came and went. I think experimenting with stuff like quests, NPCs changing their behavior, "hidden" events and such that take place during night would be cool.

It could be a bit of an undertaking to fully enrich zones with this, but sprinkling some of it here and there may be more doable.

[Forthehorde]

Back in the day with older MMOs like Everquest there was no day and night cycle to speak of

iirc, EQ1 actually did have day/night night cycle. In fact, some areas like Nektulos Forest had ghosts that would only come out at night and be fatal to lower levels. So you'd often see groups of low-level characters huddled around waiting for sunrise before feeling safe enough to travel through. Unless a high level character was around to guide them.

They took this a step further with weather, which could affect spells. For example, rain would cause fire magic to be weaker, while making lighting magic stronger. There was even a quest-able staff that controlled weather in the zone, so if it was raining, they could click the staff and make the rain stop, to the cheers of players.

EQ1 had some fun immersive mechanics.

[Itsmirageisvoid]

Back in the day with older MMOs like Everquest there was no day and night cycle to speak of

iirc, EQ1 actually did have day/night night cycle. In fact, some areas like Nektulos Forest had ghosts that would only come out at night and be fatal to lower levels. So you'd often see groups of low-level characters huddled around waiting for sunrise before feeling safe enough to travel through. Unless a high level character was around to guide them.

They took this a step further with weather, which could affect spells. For example, rain would cause fire magic to be weaker, while making lighting magic stronger. There was even a quest-able staff that controlled weather in the zone, so if it was raining, they could click the staff and make the rain stop, to the cheers of players.

EQ1 had some fun immersive mechanics.

Well, looks like I might not be completely correct then. Though this kind of stuff is definitely good inspiration.
But still, I do think introducing some of these more "alive" elements into the world would make it feel fresh to stay in zones longer and also to revisit them, and depending on the kind of events (hidden or something more public, like say a ceremony in a chapel) it could also motivate players to move about and change their behavior in nice ways.
The most impactful ways to implement it would probably be best saved for new zones though, since you still want to preserve the "vanilla-ness" of the original zones.

[Forthehorde]

Just remembered... EQ1 also had GM events, where a GM would assume direct control of an NPC, usually some sort of diety, make it 20 stories tall, then stomp through a zone, dispatching players by the dozens and taunting everyone directly. People traveled from far and wide just to get a glimpse. It was nothing short of hilarious and fun.

[Koma92]

I have problems with the drid que, I can't solve it for 3 days now, I've been calling the GM, it gives me no useful information or I've made a dialogue with the machine, it's this QUE. (Bloodpetal Poison ) Gorishi Sting i need x8 druid QUE Un' Goro Crater.

[Fizzler]

I think having making the world more dangerous at night would be a nice idea overall. Just add some Defias bandits who stealth at roads who can kill you

[Itsmirageisvoid]

I think having making the world more dangerous at night would be a nice idea overall. Just add some Defias bandits who stealth at roads who can kill you

That's the kind of stuff I think would be really nice. In Westfall overall you can make an effort to have the Defias be more of a proactive threat as you say, like having them stalk roads at night to shake you down or jump anyone working for the kingdom. Maybe have roving gangs trying to control the roads coming out during the night that are too numerous to fight alone, requiring groups to fight through them. Hell, if you go far enough with the concept you can make an attempt at having more world bosses appear under certain conditions.

I do think there should be stuff that isn't just combat related though. I did mention having events occur at say, chapels, and it could be like a church service where you get a blessing or different blessings depending on where you go (e.g. going to Stormwind's Cathedral of Light gives you something different than going to Light's Hope) and if you're there at the time the service is happening. Similar stuff could be done with the Horde's shamanistic stuff.
Maybe someone setting up shop specifically around night time or in the morning.

[Geojak]

make some nightstalker cats mobs be stealthed at night but not stealthed during day