Personally Im not a huge fan of Tall Tales.
The only one I enjoyed playing (5 times) was Shores of Gold and Heart of Fire. The rest just seemed like an amalgamation of Gold Hoarder and Order of Souls voyages and in the end got a bit boring.
Don't get me wrong. The first time through they were great (The Shorudbreaker was the first thing I ever did in this game) but the checkpoints have trivialised them a bit and now they are just PvE quests and after doing them all 5 times I lost interest.
Then APL ones came out and I still haven't done 4 or 5. Because I found them boring. Sorry Rare, not my thing. It just seemed like I was doing the same Siren puzzle over and over again with some voices thrown in.
Now we have adventures. They are basically restrictive events with less rewards. BUT I think they can be merged with Tall Tales and Events to make great things.
Let's look at the Pros and Cons of the 3
Tall Tales:
- Gets repetitive, little variety
- Requires you to go out of your way to do them
- Adds some nice environments
- Some decent puzzle sections
- Good rewards for them
Events
- Can be done in the background (with a few exceptions)
- Generally not restrictive
- Last a while
- Good Rewards
Adventures:
- Like events, but with fewer options
- You must go out of your way to do them
- Little Reward
- Grindy from RNG
So taking this into account, here is my proposal for Adventures.
I will explain what an upgraded version of Forts of the Forgotten would be like:
First, you visit Belle and now the adventure is active. Forever.
There is a new commendations tab inside Tall Tales called 'Adventures'.
Now, until the adventure ends, these are active before being replaced with the next one. After you unlock all the Commendations, you receive a reward and can visit Belle again to finish the quest and get the lore and a final mission (like the Coral Kingdom thing)
The commendations would have more activities than "do forts" "get enchant vessels" and more ways to do them.
For example:
FORTS OF THE FORGOTTEN
- Return Enchantment Vessels, 1-2-3-4-5
- Kill any Phantoms, 5-10-25-50-100
- Sell Damned Loot, 3-5-10-25-50
- Rescue different people from GSO, 2-4-6-8-10
Then rewards:
- Sword, sell 5 EVessels
- Hat, kill 100 phantoms
- Banjo, sell 50 damned loot
- Title, rescue 10 GSO people
- Sails, complete everything
Then you return to Belle and complete a Tall Tale-esque mission.
For example:
You need to save xyz from Old Brinestone fortress. This time, however, ghost ships will circle the fort and you must fight through them. Then when you park, you must fight a buffed fort, with double the phantoms.
Then the boss wave, but this phantom has the special ground-pound and summon attacks. Then you get a key which opens a door on the lower layer. It leads to a separate area down below where you must navigate through to find xyz. You then return to Belle. The end.
Now obviously this whole example is an absolute mess, but with a few tweaks I think it could be a good way to please everyone (lore people, cosmetic people, action people, completionists, etc.).
It would make adventures less invasive, with there being many ways to complete some of the commendations.
And then the whole thing will be less of "get quest and do forts" and more "play the game".