I was thinking about this neat idea which is inspired by aspects of multiple other games. I wonder what you guys think.
WoW could have a “hard mode”, that would offer elements of gameplay that either simply provide more of a challenge (for those that consider retail WoW too easy) or offer an experience more akin to classic but in the modern retail setting (for those that might enjoy a mix of the two). This would essentially turn the overworld into what could be dubbed “heroic hard mode” or “mythic hard mode” for the individual player, depending on how hard the game is made to be. This needn’t be on a separate server, it could just be settings within the options menu that players can toggle on or off at will (like the races in Forza where at the beginning of the race, you can choose to enable/disable certain options that either make the race harder or easier and your net profit should you win reflects the choices you made; the harder, the higher. This wouldn’t split the playerbase either. On the surface, hard mode players would be indistinguishable to those playing without it, it’s just a personal thing for the player if they want hard mode enabled or not.
Some small examples of what would make the game harder: no waypoints or map and quest markers, you could have self inflicted debuffs (a bit like the skulls in Halo) that reduce your damage by x%/your max hp by x%/your experience gained by x%, mobs hit you x% harder, mobs are aggroed from further away, you have to return to your class trainer to learn new abilities, so on. Perhaps others can continue this line of thought with their own suggestions?
Rewards could simply be bragging rights/achievements or it could also be a way to have players earn more gold (ie, maybe 2% more gold per option you enable that makes the game harder).
Your idea reminds of the masks in Horrific visions, where putting on more masks adds cumulatively more rewards in the end.
In other threads we have discussed this extensively. My ideas were generally of the following mindset:
A hardmode should not split the playerbase. It should allow players of different difficulties to play together, with the difficulty impacting only the players that have chosen it were applicable
The extra difficulty should not be of the type that requires faster reflexes, but better preparation, spatial awareness and use of abilities, like in the WoW of old.
The rewards of such a mode should just be more of the same thing (for example more gold, more valorstones, more crests). But they should absolutely not be optimal compared to normal mode in terms of reward-per-time-spent except for maximally-geared characters. No achievements, no cosmetics etc.
Tbf you can do this yourself by wearing less gear. Aside from a few people who made a thing of levelling only in greys, I don’t think anyone actually wants this particular feature.
Other difficulty changers, maybe? Caster mobs that actually hurt if you don’t interrupt (rip priest though), mobs that give a bit of dungeon style floor spam mechanics, charges, things to avoid, maybe.
But on the whole, I feel like retail WoW is the wrong audience for this. Most of our game happens in instances where we are already picking our own difficulty. The outside world is kind of just an obstruction to many players, something to get through before you can play the game.
If it didn’t offer anything extra as a reward, I’d be fine with it. Of course it goes without saying that such a mode should be completely optional.
I don’t want rewards because that means people who actually want that kind of harder experience will do it for the love of it. If they include extra rewards, it’s going to be like warmode, where people just do it for the reward without having any actual interest in what that mode should be about.
