How About Re-Vamping Old Content

[DWho]

Since it is clear there are not enough resources to add any substantial new content to the game how about re-vamping the existing content to make it less predictable.

You could start with something small such as a single flashpoint. Since both solo and group players play flashpoints to some degree, both types of play would benefit. A few "simple" ideas:

1) Add some randomness to the "trash" mobs both in size and identity. Have 2 or 3 possible types of npc/creature that are determined randomly when the flashpoint starts at each of the spawn points for the mobs (maybe different mixes of ranged/melee/healer types)

2) Give the "bosses" better AI so that they respond to what the players are doing. If there is a lot of healing going on, they redirect their attacks to the healers breaking the tank's hold on them regardless of how good the tanks are and it is up to the tanks/DPS to pull those attacks back off the healers (which for good tanks and DPS should be fairly easy to do quickly but requires the players to respond rather than just being heads down pushing keys). For high levels of healing, the boss could also throw out a healing debuff or damage booster. If there is a lot of ranged DPS, maybe they deploy a shield that reduces damage from ranged attacks, if its melee damage, they use a knockback effect. Basically have them respond to the way the players are attacking them. Maybe even give them minor adds that are designed to go after players using structures to hide behind (maybe something with a pull type attack).

3) Change the loot tables to reward loot that is relevant to the level of the participants. High level characters get tech frags/tokens, low level characters get appropriate gear when grouped together.

4) Add back the flashpoint specific gear sets from the older versions (Sentinel's Foundry Coat, Marauder's Maelstrom Pants, etc) to create an incentive for people to run the flashpoints at levels other than max level. "Back in the day", lots of people ran flashpoints specifically to get those pieces of gear.

5) Adjust health and damage done by the bosses based on the health and damage potential the players start the fight with. A bunch of high level BIS equipped characters would face higher damage output and boss heath than players running it at the "correct" level. This also potentially reduces the "slog" effect many of the later flashpoints have for smaller groups/solo

Using a flashpoint for this experiment is better than using other content because if you break one flashpoint doing it, only that flashpoint is out of play. If you use operations, you risk taking one of very few of them out. If you do it with other missions you potentially could block character progression. Heroics would be a viable place to go as well but very few players do heroics in groups anymore even though it is much more profitable to do so.

Any other ideas on how to change the existing content to make it more interesting for everyone?

[SteveTheCynic]

2 hours ago, DWho said:

Give the "bosses" better AI so that they respond to what the players are doing.

This made me think of when ArenaNet introduced the "Winds of Change" environment for Guild Wars 1.  It was max-level content taking place in non-max parts of the Factions part of the game world for characters who had finished the Factions stories, and featured opponents set up to behave more like players would behave.  It attracted some antipathy from players because of the (substantially) increased difficulty.

[DWho]

19 hours ago, SteveTheCynic said:

This made me think of when ArenaNet introduced the "Winds of Change" environment for Guild Wars 1.  It was max-level content taking place in non-max parts of the Factions part of the game world for characters who had finished the Factions stories, and featured opponents set up to behave more like players would behave.  It attracted some antipathy from players because of the (substantially) increased difficulty.

I do agree it could make things more difficult, but in a good way. Right now, making a flashpoint "more difficult" pretty much means tons of hp for the boss which makes it a real slog for weaker DPS groups/solo (without really adding any challenge at all to high level BIS geared groups - they just power through the extra health without changing their tactics). Changing the AI could offset the slog with more tactics and responding to what the boss is doing rather than just a heads down button mash. Adding more variety to fights would make things more enjoyable for most players (there will always be a few that hate change and hate unpredictabilty - unfortunately, they are usually the loudest voices on the game forums).