First of all, I want to thank OctoWoW team for the restoration efforts of TWoW Patch 1.18.1. The Shutdown and loss of TWoW to Blizzard is unfortunate, but I hope this turns out to be a new beginning, a new page for Vanilla+ fans across the world with more new content to come!
While it might be early to discuss ideas for new content that might come after Patch 1.18.1, I do want to voice my ideas and suggestions that emphasize the World aspect of Vanilla WoW for the OctoWoW team to consider implementing in the future.
Day & Night Monsters & Bosses (Immersive RP & PvE)
Inspired by Old-School MMOs that put a huge emphasis on the RPG side of the MMORPG. The Day & Night cycle for Monsters & Bosses establishes that certain (not a ll) mobs such as Undead, ghosts, Demons, etc... spawns more frequently (in numbers) during the night or a specific period of time, and during the day (or another specific period of time) they're replaced by Bandits and Animals roaming around the exact same area.
Within the context of WoW, the technology already exists in-game. Moonbrook graveyard is such an example that during the day, it has vultures flying around, but comes night you'll find ghouls roaming instead of vultures.
For Immersive RP, what can be done is to have some mobs (non-quest related) exist only during night cycles while others spawn during day cycles. It can be expanded to be beyond Day & Night to have other periods such as Dawn, Morning, Afternoon, Dusk, Late Night, etc... which adds to the thrill and excitement of exploration. We could even make these time-specific mobs a little bit more dangerous than your regular mobs to add the feeling that they're not to be trifled with.
For Bosses, we can have 3, 5, or 10-man bosses (Not world bosses) that spawn during these specific time periods, which require players to band together to take down for rewards or a significant XP (Quest-equivalent?). Again, all of which adds to the exploration in the open world and turns leveling into an experience unlike any other.
Bounties (PvE)
Bounties for PvE is an open-world activity in the form of repeatable quests for leveling and early endgame players who wish to take on bounties and search the world over for the mob/boss in question to kill before turning the bounty in for a unique currency to earn unique rewards such as gear, materials, etc...
Up to three bounties can be taken at a time, and the bounties are randomized by player to encourage exploration. You can be in Stormwind and pick a bounty that takes you to Darkshore, or you can be in Ogrimmar and pick a bounty that takes you to Hillsbrad, and so on....
We can also consider group bounties, although this idea is specifically conceived for solo players.
Badges (PvP)
Originally thought of as a PvP version of Bounties. Badges are a low or medium chance drop from slain players in the Open world only, which could be turned in at major cities for slightly extra rewards such as experience, gold, and reputation. Each PvP rank has a chance to drop its own badge upon a player kill. The greater (higher) the rank's badge is, the more reward a player can obtain upon turning it in.
It's meant to encourage open-world PvP and to avoid exploitation. A repeatedly killed player may not yield a badge for a specific period of time.
Side note: I want to add that we can consider having the badges as currencies in the tab-currency instead to avoid inventory clutter.
Weather Elementals (Immersive RP)
Following on the principle of Day & Night Monsters, we can have Elementals spawning during certain weathers that adds to the Immersive open world RP. For example, Water Elementals can spawn during rain, and Ice Elementals can spawn during snowstorms, and so on....
They can also follow the principle of being hostile and challenging mobs to kill, adding the unexpected factor to the leveling and exploration journey.
Cry of Help (Immersive RP)
This is a small feature that could add a spirit to the world and makes it a little bit more alive. Occassionaly (and on random locations) an NPC can spawn who requires a player's aid. They could be an injured soldier who requires first aid or healing spell, or they could be a traveling merchant who's under attack by a mob, or a patrol that's under attack by bandits, and etc....
Aiding these NPCs successfully can reward you with a small buff for 30 minutes that boosts your XP for 5-10% or maybe your other attributes too. Similar to the above ideas, the purpose of suggesting this is to have players looking around for NPCs to help rather than for taking quests only. Instead of being on the lookout for a dangerous time-specific mob, or a raging elemental. This could be a situation in which you can benefit from that makes the world lively.
Challenge Idea: The Traveler
Inspired by the classic lack of transportation in Vanilla, where you have to go anywhere by foot.
Rule #1: No flight points (You may unlock them for when the challenge is taken off, but never using them while on the challenge)
Rule #2: No rented mounts, as this will trivialize the challenge
Rule #3: On death, you'll respawn back from the city, so you'll have to walk all the way back (Disabled on Dungeons & Raids)
Title Reward: The Traveler
Challenge Idea: The Way of the Monk
Inspired by the Way of the Samurai challenge, the only rule here is that you cannot use weapons. You'll have to rely only on your fists!
Title Rewards: Class-specific!
- Warrior: The Furious Monk
- Paladin: The Holy Monk
- Hunter: The Beastial Monk
- Rogue: The Shadow Monk (Alternative title idea: The Shady Monk)
- Mage: The Arcane Monk
- Priest: The Divine Monk (Alternative title idea: The Disciplined Monk)
- Warlock: The Demonic Monk (Alternative title ideas: The Vile Monk, The Tainted Monk)
- Druid: The Dreaming Monk
- Shaman: The Spiritual Monk
Challenge Idea: The Battlemage
Inspired by a thread on Reddit a few years ago of a Mage leveling up while using only melee weapons.
Rule #1: This is a challenge for casters only (Mage, Priest, and Warlock)
Rule #2: Only Melee weapons can be used. Wands are not usable
Title Rewards: The Battlemage
Challenge Idea: The Lone Wolf
Inspired by none other than solo players themselves!
Rule #1: You cannot party-up with any other players. Interested in doing a dungeon? You may want to find a way to solo them, and maybe as a higher-up level too
Rule #2: The challenge automatically completes and is taken down upon reaching lv60 (Maybe a little bit earlier?) so that the player can participate in the endgame properly.
Title Reward: The Lone Wolf
Challenge Idea: The Local Wanderer
Honestly, this is just a meme challenge, but thought to type it anyway.
Its only rule is that you cannot travel to the other continent. So if you start on EK, then you'll stay on EK until you get to lv60 first.
Title Reward: The Eastern Wanderer (For EK players) & Kalimdor Survivor (For Kalimdor Players)
Challenge Idea: The Survivalist
Inspired by survival games and Skyrim survival mode. The Survivalist challenge entirely reshapes how you play the game by introducing several metrics, benefits, and detriments that can change your playthrough and require you to be on the lookout constantly. These are:
- Hunger
Similar to how a Hunter pet works. Dependent on whether your character has eaten recently or not; your status may be one of the following:
Sated: If your character is well-fed or has an active food buff. The food stats are either doubled, or your health regenerates at a faster speed (The former for food with stats, and the latter for food without stats)
Content: If your character is neither full nor hungry, there will be no benefits or detriments.
Hungry: When your character is hungry, you become slow, dizzy, and regenerate health at a slower rate
How to keep up: By eating level-appropriate food.
- Thirst
Similar to hungry, this is dependent on whether your character has drinked recently or not, in which your status may be one of the following:
Sated: If your character is sated, your rage/energy/mana regenerate at a faster speed
Neutral: If your character is neither sated or thirsty, there will be no benefits or detriments
Thirsty: If your character is thirsty, your rage/energy/mana regenerate at a slower speed.
How to keep up: By drinking level-appropriate drinks
- Warmth
From the hot, scorching sands of Tanaris to the snowy lands of Dun Morough. Your character's warmth depends on your race, the weather, how much time you're spending outdoors, and how much time you're resting inside warm buildings or beside the fire.
Overheated: If your character is feeling overheated, you will start to feel dizzy, and your thirst will constantly go down at an accelerated pace.
Warm: You're feeling warm. No benefits or detriments here
Cold: You're starting to feel cold, and your character is slowly losing HP
Freezing: You're freezing out in the cold, and your character is losing HP on an accelerated speed and is weaker
How to lower overheat: By drinking cold juices, resting for a moment in the shadows or indoors.
How to keep yourself warm in cold/frozen areas: By drinking hot juices, resting beside a fire (even a cooking fire), or by resting for a moment indoors (Does not keep the cold completely away unless it's a warm building)
- Danger
The Wilds and Outdoors of Azeroth are unsafe even for veteran adventurers...
Safe: You'r feeling safe within the bounds of cities and towns from the threats of the outdoors.
Calm: You feel calm in the familiar outdoors.... for now...
Unrest: You keep hearing voices in the distance. Be wary of bandits and savage animals...
Paranoid: You feel you're being watched, and you hear something moves nearby...
Terrified: Something is wrong!
To explain these mechanics:
- Safe is when your character is resting in cities and towns, where the guardsmen keep watch for you.
- Calm is when your character is resting in NPC camps or in a low-leveling zone
- Unrest is when your character is at level-appropriate or high level zones where you might get ambushed by zone-specific mobs at any second. So be prepared to defend yourself!
- Paranoid is when your character is alone outside of cities and towns for an extended period of time (Partying-up with other players can changes this status to Unrest)
- Terrified is when your character is in dark zone (Literally like Duskwood) or in a zone with high demonic, undead, or old-gods influence in which you have to keep them at bay by using torches or by not wandering away from light sources for an extended period of time.
- Terrified is when your character is in a literal or figurative dark zone like Duskwood (literal) or Desolace (figurative) in which you have to keep the danger at bay by using torches or by not wandering away from light sources for an extended period of time. Demons, Worgens, Undead, Old-gods minions, and others are watching and waiting for the perfect moment to strike!
Important note: This idea is honestly one of my best I've suggested in this post. So much that I wasn't even sure if it should be a challenge idea, a zone mechanic, a dungeon mechanic, or etc.... As such, please let me know your feedback on this. I'll explain it within the context of the leveling/Character challenge.
Weekend Event: Scourge Invasions
Inspired by Weekend events in some niche old-school MMOs. While cool and memorable, it always felt a shame that Scourge invasions to major cities are a one-time event. So why not have them back as a fun weekend activity?
The point of Weekend events is to rotate or to be activated each now and then. So we can have a Weekend Scourge Invasion each month for example rather than recurring each week to leave some room for the below Weekend events too.
Weekend Event: The Gates of Ahn'Qiraj
Similar to the Scourge Invasions, we can have the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj event (the fights against the Qiraji only) as part of the Weekend events roster.
Weekend Event: Demonic Invasions
Following on the above idea of Weekend events, we can have a Demonic invasion to zones with demonic presence (Example: Felwood, Blasted Lands, etc....) where each couple of hours, only one zone becomes actively under invasion and players have to repel and kill the demons off during the duration before the demons decide to move on to another zone.
Weekend Event: Pirate Mayhem!
Similar to the Demonic Invasions, we can have some Pirate Mayhem happening around in areas with Pirate influence such as Stranglethorn, Tanaris, and the Barrens where several pirate factions (crews) are fighting amongs each other
Weekend Event: The Nightmares
Inspired by SoD phase 3, the areas surrounding the four Emerald portals can become infested with Nightmare-tainted mobs that can be killed solo. However, the portals themselves are guarded by elites. This is because once you step through the portal to the Emerald Dream/Nightmare, you'll soon find out that the other side is much more dangerous and is akin of a public dungeon with respawns.
Of course on the other side, the rewards are greater than on Azeroth. Even more so when you learn that the deeper you go into the Emerald Dream/Nightmare, the greater the reward (and the risk!)
Side Note: Honestly, if this is done right and better than Blizzard's implementation, it could become it's own side content rather than a weekend event only.
Weekend Event: Open-World Honor Bonus
A little different than the other weekend events. This event is meant to encourage open-world PvP via a bonus to honor gains, and to put in something PvPers can look up to at the Weekends every now and then.
Side note: Again, not every weekend, but some of them. Otherwise, we'll end up having PvPers only pvping at the Weekends only
Weekend Event: Double Dungeon loot
Inspired by the same event from Retail WoW. During this event, each dungeon boss has a SMALL CHANCE to drop double loot (Just an extra item, nothing more)
I say small chance, because this preserves the Classic/Old-School vibes while also encouraging players to run dungeons even more.
Expanded Barbershop (Quality of life)
After my recent visit to the Barbershop, I've been wondering why options like Skin color and Face are not included. It makes sense that throughout time, your face might change for better or worse so I don't see a reason why it cannot be an option.
Furthermore, we already have cash shop skins, so it will be pretty nice to give vanilla skin options (from character creation screen) in the barbershop. A little customization and freedom shouldn't hurt anybody.
Toggle Transmog Visibility (Quality of life)
If you've been playing Vanilla/Classic for a while, you sure have heard the argument of "TMog are bad because I cannot tell what gear they're actually wearing!". If not, you may have heard the other argument which is: "TMog breaks the immersion!"
While I'm not one of those affected. Some players out there truly care about the visibility and immersions. As such, they can have a Transmog visibility toggle in the settings. Turning it off will disable any Tmog they see on players without affecting anyone else visibility.
A perfect solution for everyone!
Dual-Wield for Shamans (Class Change Suggestion)
Nothing much to it. I just have a Shaman and I'd like to dual wield because I really like dual wielding
Yes, that's it. There are no further justifications. I really, really just like dual-wielding
Parkours (Open-World)
Inspired by certain community events and Guild Wars 2. I think it would be neat to have open world parkours that utilize natural environments and structures to reach the end, where a treasure chest with modest rewards awaits players.
For a sense of reward, the treasure chests could be exclusive to parkours and could reward more than a regular open world chest would to encourage players into participating in these parkours.
Cash Shop Cosmetics Account-Wide (Quality of life)
I think it's fair for Cash shop cosmetics to be account-wide rather than character-specific. From mounts, to pets and skins. It makes sense and is pretty much fair for any character you create to have access to those already without re-purchasing them or by any different means (Mounts should be accessible at higher levels. I'm one of those who firmly belief low levels shouldn't get mounts even through the cash shop)
Items like the AH pet or any other may remain character-specific since they could provide an unfair advantage even early on.
Cash Shop Currency Trading (Controversial!)
This might be one of the most controversial ideas and suggestions I may ever say or write, but I'll take Elder Scrolls Online Currency Trading Community as a reference here.
The idea is simple. If you have a Cash Shop currency, you can trade the currency with another player in return for gold. You're NOT buying gold from the cash shop, but are just trading it from a player who already has it.
An example would be: Player X has 100 Cash shop currency and is looking to trade with Player Y who has 100 gold. The ratio is 1:1 so they trade. Player X has no option available for him to buy gold from anywhere else through the cash shop. If he wants gold, he has to trade the currency with another player.
This should minimize the participation in RMT, while also gives players who may not be willing to donate with an option to obtain cash shop cosmetics (especially if we take into consideration the prior suggestion)
Background Sound setting in-game (Quality of life)
Self-explanatory, but in short it's to have the option in-game rather than from the launcher
Character list Re-arrange order (Quality of life)
Also self-explanatory, but in short it's to have the option to move characters in the character list in terms of order just like in other clients.
Minimizing Addon Dependency: Auction House (Quality of life)
As part of minimizing Addon dependency and moving on with future patches and updates. I think it will be a step in the right direction in terms of QoL to have an updated AH where searching, listing, selling, and buying are done dynamically, just like in retail WoW.
This system shouldn't be new, as even Old-School Runescape is doing it, and that game is old!
Minimizing Addon Dependency: Mails (Quality of Life)
As part of minimizing Addon dependency. There should be an option to collect all AH mails.
Minimizing Addon Dependency: Threat meter (Quality of Life)
As part of minimizing Addon dependency. There should be an in-game Threat meter rather than having to download an addon for it.
Minimizing Addon Dependency: Rested XP
Since Rested XP plays a role in the leveling journey, and as part of minimizing Addon dependency. There should be a visual indicator in-game to tell players how much RestedXP they have accumulated rather than going back and forth between addons or in-game commands.
For now, these are my ideas and suggestions. I could add more to the thread if some comes to mind, but would love to hear other players feedback on them, and who knows? Maybe they might get added in the game one day.
Thank you for reading!