Guild Wars 2

We all love dynamic events, but after a while they get a bit repetitive, so here’s an idea to spice them up a bit.

Make events branch. For example, you know the Queensdale water pump quest? Bandits poison it, you stop them…blah, blah, we did it 100 times so far.

Why not add different “paths” that will be selected randomly, or by some other factor? For example, why don’t bandits try to destroy the pump once in a while? If they succeed, you have to drive them out to repair the pump. After driving them out, you need to repair the pump, but here’s the branching part, you might have, or don’t have enough metal for it (this could be determined by a random factor or it can be related to another quest), if you don’t have, you have to gather the scraps and protect the workers in the next stage or you have to go to the mine and collect some on your own, and use that metal to repair the pump. Here’s another branch, if the mine is captured by bandits, you have to clear it before you can gather the metal, if there are no bandits, everything goes by the plan. Also, a random Veteran wouldn’t be a bad addition to a event once in a while.

Here’s just a one idea how can you make one event more interesting and less repetitive. However, although this idea sounds nice, I don’t know if it even possible to add such thing in the game, it will probably take too much time for the devs to rewrite the code and add branching events.

What’s your opinion? Do you have any ideas how to make events more interesting?

I agree with this. The events aren’t very “dynamic” right now.

There is a chain for the DE you are describing and several other events do have chains. Some start right after one finishes, some have time between them and we don’t stick around to find that out.

Here is a list of events with chains, I don’t even think this is totally complete:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Meta_event

I would like to point out that focus is on multiple chains related to a single event. That way, event will have more variety, especially if other events in the chain are branching as well.

I completely agree and have had the same idea, myself. The same old chains need to break off in unexpected directions now and again. In addition to (or perhaps instead of) randomly branching to different chains, I’ve had a few other ideas that would help add significant variety to dynamic events.

1) Randomness in difficulty of events + degrees of success or failure.

This SOUNDS daunting but needn’t be. Even as small changes in limited areas, and not a wholesale rewrite of the system, this could help a lot. Perhaps a minor victory repelling an invasion will set off a follow-up related to repairing damage and healing the injured, while a major victory leads directly to retaliation. A minor defeat sets up a small camp outside town and prepares a counter-assault, and a major defeat has you protect a scout that runs to another town for help. Perhaps a special condition or threshold must be met for a major victory, such as protecting a special NPC or leaving a number of buildings unburned or something. This leads to the next idea…

2) Expanding meta-events (to simulate travelling event triggers and/or overlapping event areas)

When that scout reaches another town, it would be great to see that set off a chain there. Events feel entirely too focused in their little areas to have any real consequence. I like the idea of events in one area “spreading” or “wandering” to other areas. This could probably use the meta-event mechanic already in place, with a local event changing the meta-event chain, which then causes a local event elsewhere to change. Some events SEEM to do this, but I’d really like to see this expanded much further, with multiple types of meta-events.

A simple and compelling example of what I mean: weather. Perhaps it’s raining and instead of the normal event chain playing out, the rain instead randomly sets off a flood event chain, or thunder causes a dolyak stampede. Maybe a dust storm sweeps through the ruins of Ascalon, travelling across the zone, and its appearance causes marauding beetles to spawn in a certain area.

But weather is also related to another interesting possibility…

3) Changing environmental conditions INDEPENDENT of dynamic event chains

The greatest weakness of dynamic events is that they play out almost exactly the same every time. Whether the event plays out in day or night, rain or shine, it’s the same thing. Weather can help change the aesthetics, but imagine what a difference just a little thing like rain would make if it changed dirt to mud (-25% speed) in certain areas, if strong wind caused areas where someone might be pushed around, or if a storm randomly caused lightning (red circles!) that struck friend and foe alike. What if there was a certain kind of mob that acted one way in the day and another way at night? Layering another shifting set of conditions on top of events could be just what is needed to make the world feel more alive.

—Tim

The best thing that ArenaNet could do to improve DE’s right now is to fix the excessive number of them that are broken.

I’m currently in Iron Marches, and no less than half the events that I’ve come across on this map are simply not working. NPC’s just stand around doing nothing, and my favorite, the branded army, killing the army does not diminish the mob counter, so after you kill the army, then kill the boss, he just laughs at you and resets.

osirisneits.5940:

The best thing that ArenaNet could do to improve DE’s right now is to fix the excessive number of them that are broken.

I’m currently in Iron Marches, and no less than half the events that I’ve come across on this map are simply not working. NPC’s just stand around doing nothing, and my favorite, the branded army, killing the army does not diminish the mob counter, so after you kill the army, then kill the boss, he just laughs at you and resets.

Wait they’re still having problems fixing DE’s? Wow……..

Pretty sure they’re doing exactly the same as other MMOs, ignoring the broken ones.

not only do they have to have branching DEs, they need to reward you by completing specific ones. AKA: A perfect complete (you do everything correctly, in the utmost timeliest of manner, with little to no deaths in the process), would yield a chest that grants all participating parties a unique component to a legendary weapon. However, it can only be opened if you have a specific key found earlier in the quest.

Now, put about 15+(or one in each zone) of these ‘chests’ throughout the game. Make the portion of said quest interweave with multiple DEs within the zone. Meaning, you could come across this quest while doing any DE in the zone by crossing DEs with other DEs. For instance the ‘random’ factor comes at any point in a DE chain. The NPC finds a “dragon egg” and stops everything hes doing….says, “meet me at this town in 5 minutes, I need to do some research.”

Game Solved

I’d love to see intersecting events. Caledon Forest there is an event which requires you to collect firefly essence. However just over the hill there is an event to stop some Risen from repulsing the wildlife. If this event fails then there might be an event to stop it expanding and then if that fails then the fireflies dont spawn.

Or maybe there is an event which requires the lamps to be relit. Cant think of this but imagine you’re in the middle of an event and the NPC tells you that he simply can’t continue till this problem is solved, and that problem is part of another event.

Also, what about player choice. In the same firefly quest, maybe the closest fireflies are all sickly and thats why they attract mosquitoes right after. If you take just a little more time you could go to another area and that event wouldn’t happen.

Bump for visibility. So what I am seeing agreement on is:

a) Branching DE chains for greater variety. More player choice. More possible outcomes than mere success or failure, hence:

b) Degrees of success or failure, wanted for MANY reasons. Mentalhead’s original post hinted a little bit at this. I originally wanted this as a means of forcing players down different branching chains, depending on how hard the event is. FrOst would like to see it connected to rewards of legendary components for “perfect” completion of one or several events in a chain, with the legendary part gated only for those who have participated in a large portion. I would also like to see a chain of “perfect” completions rewarded, such as a zone-wide meta-event conclusion that opens up, like a world boss except started by events, not by timers. But EVERY zone you want players to visit should have it’s own “boss”, or MULTIPLE bosses, chosen from by player behavior, determined by which events succeed and fail. “Raiding” becomes an activity that happens EVERYWHERE. (Isn’t that the GW2 philosophy – that the endgame is everywhere?)

c) Intersecting/interacting/overlapping events. RiKShaw agrees with the principle that event success or failure should be felt to “spread” somehow to other areas. I like the idea of dynamic events that travel across the map and cause new branches to occur as they go. They’re too localized.

But when you get down to it, I think what everyone here wants is an incentive to return to old areas. To see them change. So far, we’ve been suggesting things driven by players, but what about when you stumble across a place where NOBODY else is playing?

Part of why Tyria doesn’t feel as alive as it should it that it’s still very “them park”ish. You can sense the game waiting for the player’s involvement. It’s like everything returns to the same “neutral state” in the absence of the player, which unfortunately feels like every other MMO.

I LOVE this game. I want it to be the exception to the MMO rules.