Black Desert - Desert Content Rework

Story Legions - Muiquun Freefolk and Shakatu Mercenaries

Players can align themselves with one of two in-game legions through a crossroads quest line, earning titles and rewards, before unlocking daily and weekly quests designed around careful, incentivised player vs player content. Joining either legion is a player consenting to incentivised, openworld, solo, player vs player content, decided by the game through assignments (Muiquun marks or Shakatu bounties).

This should offer plenty of Player -> NPC and Player -> Player engagement to make players feel more involved with their world and a part of it.

Freefolk and Mercs take quests which assign them a mark from the opposing legion via a roulette system. This would need to be carefully balanced to avoid one individual getting bombarded by 50 people from the opposite team hunting them down. 

They work their way up through the ranks, gaining points for Beginner Marks, Intermediate Marks, Hard Marks and Legend Marks, as they themselves grow from Beginner to Legend. Each rank they gain provides perks which are active for as long as they remain in the legion, such as exp, drop rate, hp or stamina buffs. Switching legions is possible through a repeatable quest line, but means forfeiture of rank.

The assignments to kill other players in the opposing legion comes with a decent reward - bounty hunters spoils, like a mini version of node war rewards.

Karma is handled differently for players in Legions: killing players in the opposing guild gains no penalty. These effects end immediately if the player leaves their legion, and standard rules for karma and pvp would then apply.

Limits would need to be in place to prevent certain abuses and prevent the same player from being hunted over and over by chance, but this could liven up the PvP scene, establish a characters identity within the game world as making a name for themselves as legends in their respective legion, it would turn Miquun, as well as the oppositions headquarters into vibrant, living, breathing hubs that see use and adds long-awaited bounty hunter content.

I had ideas for a special 1v1 arena match where players can place bets on who wins, but I've not fleshed out how this would work yet. (Betting on fights just seems like a very mercenary/bounty hunter form of entertainment, it's hard to say how to prevent this from being abused for gains though)

Muiquun Rework

With the above idea in mind, the intent is to change the purpose of Muiquun, making it a fully realised hub at the end of the world, somewhere to fight for, removing the Red player niche, providing all services, housing, markets, coastal fishing behind Muiquun, as well as access via ship. It needs to feel lived in and a place to belong. It also needs a counterpart location for the opposing legion. 

I’m suggesting Shakatu as opposition for the Muiquun Freefolk: two opposite corners of the desert, Shakatu being rich enough to have his own band of mercenaries (who clash with those who don’t follow the laws of land or trade) doesn’t seem that unlikely. Maybe we’re introduced to Miquun by assassination attempts on Shakatu?

Follow the Stars - Footsteps of an Adventurer from Valencia Telescope (3-5 man recommended)

Use the telescope of Valencia to read the stars and determine your fate. Alone or with friends, set a course for far off destinations, collecting valuable caches of goods and encountering unexpected, powerful enemies along the way. 

Bonus criteria include finding a certain number of treasure chests, transporting a trade item, defeating x number of dark rifts while the quest is active, or defeating an enemy guild during a declaration of war. The quest is forfeit if the players use maps, horses or magnus transport - the aim is to appreciate the world of Black desert on foot, add value to exploration and revive a feeling of discovery.

Gain rewards at certain checkpoints throughout the journey in obscure locations, and the rewards received at the end of your journey are multiplied for each party member who has participated and interacted with the other caches. Certain npcs will have special dialogs when Footsteps of an Adventurer is in progress, speaking to as many people as possible in towns may earn surprising rewards. 

This content is ideal to activate and complete alongside other tasks and should hopefully be a rewarding and pleasing supplement alongside standard play. Newer adventurers are welcome too, as they discover new things and veterans show them the ropes and all involved are rewarded for their shared pilgrimage across the world.

Short, medium and long journeys are available, with destinations all over the world offering a variety of routes and rewards.

Random Encounters in the Desert 290 ap - (4 man recommended)

The sandy environment of the desert provides a feasible place for monsters to be able to pop out of the blue to attack the player and keep adventurers on their toes.

In a similar style to the random encounters with Spook for halloween years ago, these monsters would be driven into a frenzy, as strong as Turos and offer worthwhile loot in a party. Their appearance should be thrilling with accompanying battle music.

The chances of being attacked by these powerful monsters increases for each player included in a party, encouraging groups to band together to explore the desert together to increase their chances of encounters. Encounters could be affected by drop rate too, similar to elvia weapons.

Each desert zone could be home to particular rare monster, such as huge aggressive basilisks, raptors from Sulfur Mines, even enemies like the Spook, to provide a different flavour from the ancient weapons and Aakman folk we come to expect in the desert.

Protect Grind Mechanic for the Pilgrims Sanctums 260 ap - 290 zones

Along the same lines as Altar of Blood, protect each of the Pilgrims Sanctums across the desert region from waves of corrupted creatures emerging from the dunes of the Black Desert. The longer the Pilgrims Sanctums are protected, the more blessings (loot) they bestow upon those who fight to protect it. Requires a great many adventurers to work together to fend off the hordes. The type of blessings bestowed on adventurers and the hordes of monsters varies between Sanctums.

Horde mode Grind Mechanic for Sulfur Mines - 260ap - 300ap zone (3-5 man recommended)

At the end of the world, a pestilence and a corruption has emerged from the crater behind the Sulfur Mines. Inhuman cries of workers and wildlife both, corrupted by the energy of the black stones of the desert, their proximity to the land of the demons, and years of exposure to the hazards of the mines has turned them into frenzied hordes of monsters. The people of Ancado and Valencia are in danger of this rapidly approaching terror and the clock is ticking - do you have what it takes? Your efforts will not go unrewarded.

Essentially an Altar of Blood grindspot for 1 - 5 party members, heading to the crater behind the Sulfur Mines allows transport to a self contained zone much lot like Altar of Blood with some scripted NPC interactions for immersion, encouraging you to protect a barricade from waves of monsters, either alone or in a team. These stronger enemies can drop alternative loot, and working together in a party to save the Desert increases the number of enemies and the rewards available to all, but also increases the ferocity of the rampage and makes it easier to be overwhelmed if not paying attention.

Growing Threat in the Depths of Pila Ku Jail - Test your Mettle (solo or party forms available) 

The calls of something dreadful echo through the cave system of Pila Ku Jail. Condemned souls have amassed at the ominous pool at the bottom of the jail, creating one writhing, malevolent entity.

Plumb the depths of this cursed place and challenge the being to save the deserts inhabitants from it's fell influence.

Interact with the pool at the bottom of Pila Ku Jail to enter a challenge zone with you, your party and the entity. The entity starts off small, much like the black spirits metamorphosis.

It carries a predetermined ap dp and level of aggression. With each defeat, the entity swells and transforms, dropping valuable loot for the level before before beginning its metamorphosis, gaining more ap and dp and new attack patterns.

Each form comes with its own unique tactics, so observation and teamwork are paramount.

There is a specific loot table up to boss level 10, and then every successful defeat after that grants a chest with a random assortment of loot. This continues until the Boss brings the player to 0 hp. When this happens, the entity is exhausted, it's energy disperses, the player/s gets to their feet and leave the challenge zone with their narrow victory and well rewarded.

Theoretically there's no limit to the strength of the boss. Rewards can be titles, a short quest line, valuable items throughout the battle and bragging rights. The boss can be fought alone or in a party. Loot should be proportionate to the time spent fighting, and is not affected by scrolls or agris.

Supposed to be seen as a superboss type enemy with uncapped challenge and exciting rewards.

Very cool ideas!

Thanks! 

OMG! I wish I could upvote more than once. Every idea is fantastic. Especially the protect against horde PVE content one. Chef's kiss.

Group up in parties with roles of sorts. Add some different crystals only usable in the zone to increase potency and effeciency of your role like RBF crystals-ish. Ie, witch/wizard/shai Support crystals; Nova, Drak, Guard, Warrior/Valk Tank crystals so on and so forth. They would still be able to do their normal damage and skills, but their role tagged skills like shai buffs would be increased for either potency or number effected.

I could theory craft ideas all day for these scenarios. cept pvp, I no pvp but it's cool af.

Great suggestion! Really needs more attention here.

Thank you! 

This kind of content would be perfect. If they manage to keep it fresh for players to still get engaged by this content, it would be the perfect kind of PvPvE content that is missing as OW still-going activity.

Hopefully, this gets more attention.

I've changed the ideas I had for Pila Ku and Sulfur Mines because the concepts were a bit cloudy. They should be easier to visualise now.

Enjoy! 

This is such a cool idea wow, the desert could really use that kind of revitalization that doesn't take away from solo grind spots while adding a fun twist on the usual circular rotation grind spots usually have! It would be like exploring the desert all over again except with incentive on doing it with your friends.

Seems like a fun idea = will never get implemented.

Thanks for the kind words!

Agreed! A memory that always stands out in my mind, is the first time I journeyed to Sulfur Mines on my own. It had a very end game feel, like I was approaching a dangerous place and I was excited and wary, it's a shame Sulfur and Pila Ku are visited for one item and never again.

Even though they are memorable locations, they are too out of the way to have no ongoing incentive to visit them except the treasure items. Trash loot can't compare with centaurs or calpheon elvia so it becomes dead content.

Making the desert interesting is important for the game world and it CAN be done - just because it's a desert locale doesn't mean it has to be empty and dull. Variance and interest can be added, more caves, more exploration, more verticality and more engaging grindspots with party content.