Next game idea: PvE activities

Great points! 👍

The PvE side of the games have seemed to have built up throughout the shooters. For instance, GW had a small amount of PvE options, GW2 had more options (including a story mode) and BfN has lots of options (including 4 free-roam zones with large amounts of content in each). The free-roam zones were made so well in BfN, all the story quests, activities to complete, collectibles to find, enemies to fight and all that were lots of fun and provided hours of entertainment. The problem was that, once players completed their regions fully, there was near no incentive to return, except for really limited reasons. In a potential future shooter, it would be really cool to keep the idea of the free-roam zones, while also expanding on them at the same time. Making sure that they are replayable and giving players reasons to revisit more times would really benefit.

The idea of Gnomes seem really appealing. The Gnome themed activities are quite interesting to complete and fun as well. GW2 had a decent amount of them, including Trials of Gnomus activities, a Boss Hunt which revolves around them, and another mode which is mostly dedicated to them (which is Infinity Time). BfN still had Gnome themed stuff, such as the Gnomoliths and final Gnome boss fights, as well as the Gnome puzzle in Giddy Park. While the Gnome stuff was not as involved in BfN as much compared to GW2, there were still Gnome stuff. In a potential future shooter, I would like to see more Gnome activities and stuff. Some storyline about the Gnomes, and maybe a bit of "history" on them as well, would be cool to see as well. Gnomes have never seemed to be a major part of a shooter, not that they need to be, but Gnomes and their themed activities are quite fun to do, so if they appeared in a future shooter, that would be cool.

Doing quests is something that I find really fun to do. It gives players more incentive to log in to the game more often, and as a pretty decent and easy way of earning rewards as well. There could be daily quests in the hub that players could do (or perhaps even more similar to the almost 2 days before quests change like in GW2), and maybe in each of the free-roam zones, there could be exclusive quests (about 5 at a time) that players can do for that specific region's exclusive currency, perhaps with other rewards (those quests could be weekly or something, and then they will change, similar to the quest board in GW2). Quests are something that could be repeated, does not force players to do (but of course they have the option to if they feel like it), and might give players incentive to play characters that they do not normally play, depending on the quest. 

As well as things like free-roam zones, there should be other PvE based content, such as Ops that have appeared in all shooters to date. Your hub could have many places to explore (including places similar to the Trials of Gnomus in GW2 in the Sewers in the Backyard Battleground). Garden and Graveyard Ops modes have always been fun to play, and are very repeatable, especially because there are many types of Boss Waves, Special Waves and Challenge Waves to explore, and you can play with friends and other players. Private and Solo Play would also be good to see in a future shooter, because players can play against Al or other players if they prefer, such as if trying to complete quests or want a break from Multiplayer. If the developers could also make it so that Private Play could be played offline, that would be even better.

I have said this before, but adding seasonal events in the PvE aspect of the game, similar to the Pie Hunt we would get for the free-roam regions in November in BfN, would make the PvE aspect of the game more interesting, and it would also give players more incentive to return to free-roam regions multiple times. Being able to play all modes in a new shooter with other players as well would be really cool, I really enjoyed going through PvE with my brother in BfN, I was going to do it seperately to him but then realised that we could complete the story and collect the collectibles together so did that instead. Having to do the story quests in GW2 solo, on the other hand, was quite annoying as I would have preferred to complete it together. PvE is always a great part of the game to explore, so in a new shooter if it can be improved on further, that would be super cool.

In Conclusion

The PvE aspect of the shooter games are always really quite fun to play. This is especially the case in BfN, because they added complete free-roam regions, which was a big step up from the GW2 story quests. The story quests are fine in that game, but they really expanded on it in BfN. The free-roam regions in BfN provides hours of entertainment for players who completes the story modes and activities, but once you have fully completed your regions, there is not much reason coming back to them, except under limited circumstances. The incentive is not really there. In a potential future shooter, there should be more additions to these regions so they become more replayable and players would want to revisit them after completing the main activities. Gnomes is something that could be expanded on in a potential future shooter, as it is fun to do the Gnome activities and they are not seen in abundance particularly in BfN. Quests are something I always would enjoy doing, giving players the option to do quests continuously will encourage players to log in more for more rewards, there could even be special quests available in the free-roam regions to keep players coming back there. Adding and expanding on the other PvE modes, such as Ops and Private Play, would be really cool too. Because PvE is a pretty significant part of the shooters, seeing them expanded on in a future shooter, and having them be replayable, would be really awesome to see.