We need more exploration

Here, here. I liked these sort of open-to-all objectives when I tried the CO beta. It was fun to stumble across something where people could work together without being on the same team. Of course, they repeated too often, making it feel as if you hadn't accomplished anything at all. I like the general premise though. Couple something like that with the world changing mechanics in RV and I think you'd have a winner.

As for exploration in games, one of the most fun experiences I had was on a persistent world module in NWN called Three Towns (think of an MMO, but with a cap of 40 or 50 people to the server). As I was skulking through mountains fighting giants spiders I stumbled upon a cave and slipped inside for a look. There I found a little girl turned to stone. Probably not a good sign, but I crept forward bolstered by the a ton of skill points in Hide. I turn a corner and stare down a basilisk. No problem, keep creeping. Then another and another. Thinking I may be getting in over my head, I started back to the entrance. Somewhere along the way, I failed a hide roll and suddenly I've been exposed so it was time to run for my life. Sadly, my little rogue never made it out alive. I was petrified then shattered to pieces.

There were a lot of situations you could wander into and find yourself feeling not so safe. Maybe you would push a little further or turn back the way you came. Not knowing if the next turn brought an insurmountable threat or a safe haven was pretty fun. Of course, after you know where they were you avoided them until you hit a higher level, but even areas you would revisit would occasionally surprise you with a deadly trap or a the side trip into somewhere even more dangerous. The proximity of safety and danger was well paced and it seemed like the module had exploration in mind from its conception.

Of course, that goes to show that part of the fun of exploration is danger and that's something lacking in CoH unless it's self-imposed. In part, it's due to how our zones are laid out and filled with wide open spaces. Mostly I think it's due to the modes of travel we have. Flight and teleport keep you out of enemy range and superspeed grants you stealth. Superjump could be the most dangerous form of travel, but it even it allows you to escape danger fairly quickly.

This reminds me of something I had completely forgotten about. One time I was tooling around Sharkhead on a villain (I forget which one) and joined a PuG to do radio missions I think. After the second or third one the leader said "we should go attack that Wyvern base on that one island near here." It didn't exactly go over well. "Aw, c'mon, it'll be cool!" So we sort of begrudgingly went along, as players in a PuG who don't have the star tend to be a lazy bunch... only to discover that we were really too low level for the foes that spawn there. I think we all died twice before we realized what a big mistake that was ("outside debt" too, ouch).

Still, now that I think about it, it actually would have been kind of cool, if it had worked out. Maybe they need to drop this "outside debt" stuff to make such walking about a little less crazytalk-ish.

So I started that thread I was talking about; you might find something there you agree with.