Guild Wars 2

Currently, there isn’t really any point in visiting/staying in towns, apart from visiting a crafting station, bank, or trading post. However these are only present in specific spots, but the towns themselves are pretty huge, and those other parts feel completely empty devoid of life and activity. Yes we can explore them, grab some PoI’s and Vistas, but once we do so it is easily noticeable how empty they are and we never have a reason to go to those other parts of towns again. So many streets and so many houses with nothing going on in them 24/7. For starters, it would be really nice if some dynamic events could take place in towns as well. Doesn’t need to be combat oriented, but they would be welcome as well, like a bank robbery for example, or a mugging at the marketplace, or maybe a simple package delivery to one of the houses. It could really be anything, currently every city apart from LA (which is always in overflow) is completely empty of players, give us reasons to visit these beautiful vast cities you have crafted. Some of us want to live in Divinity’s Reach, not just warp there to stash an item and then warp back out.

Another thing, the Karka invasion on Lions Arch might not have been the best example of how an assault on a town is executed, and that could certainly be improved. I am aware player’s need a safe place to call their home, but some kind of major attacks or assaults on Black Citadel or Divinity’s reach would also be a great addition. Unlike the world boss dragons, these would be on a big timer so they don’t become annoying or old, like lets say a week or two. Maybe have a different city get attacked every week, after the attack players could help out inside the city rebuild and help survivors get back on their feet, there could be a number of interesting events taking place there.

I like this idea, unlike everyone else, I try to avoid LA at all costs unless absolutely necessary. I prefer my home town much more (and since I’m usually the only one there 95% of the time it kinda is my town now lol). Anything to get people out of LA and back into the home towns. Personally I think there should be more minigames in towns like keg brawl (and I know there are several coming soon, which I’m excited about) but needs to be one for each town. I have a suspicion they plan to do exactly that for each town because they all are pretty much set up for it already. Polymock in Rata Sum, Arena in BC (at least I hope it becomes a fighting pit one day), we have the shooting range and bar brawl coming to DR soon, of course keg brawl in hoelbrak, and still not sure about the Grove but I’m sure something can be put in there. Maybe bungee jumping or diving contests lolz.

I heard something about Moa Races, maybe that will be in The Grove. But these things will be instanced if Keg Brawl is any indaction, you won’t be seeing people that are interested in playing those roaming about the towns, and just like Keg Brawl, they will only occupy one small space of the huge town. They most certainly are a step in the right direction though, but just that won’t be enough.

Yes. I think that towns are just a waste of good scenery, as they are now. There’s just few spots that actually matter and that you’d have a reason to go to. But once you’re finished with exploration, there’s really little reason to go “roaming” the town, because there is most certainly nothing to see there. Nothing is ever happening. It would be awesome if some kind of interactive events would take place in the future.

+1 for this!

Instead of only giving content to towns like mini-games and such, I think it’s more important to give reasons to use those cities, turning them into hubs.
Examples:

• Guild Halls instance area – each city has one, with it’s unique culture and design of course. Take the example of Divinity’s Reach’s Personal Story area for humans.
  Each city would have an instance inside it where guilds could claim their own guild halls and have neighbours from the same city, making the city more alive.
  The only way to go in and out of the instance is through the city.

• City Arenas – should exist in all the cities of the world. Each city has with it’s own tournament table. They could even put duels and 2×2 battles in there.

• Guild Missions – A map in each city , with many missions that ask for a min and max number of members to participate. Missions vould ask for only 1 to 5 members, while others could be much bigger (10, 20, 50, 100?).
  The missions could happen beneath the city, inside it or in other places possible around it, generating more activity in many other maps too.

• City Economy – If they aren’t selling, then they should have items with a much lower cost, while other cities with many overflows should sell much more expensive items. With a limit at the prices to balance this, people would see things cheaper in other areas and tend to go there just because of that alone.

• City portals in mists – What makes people go to LA only is because it’s free to go there wherever you are. They can change this in many ways.
  1- Make portals for all the citys in the mists.
  2- Make all portals have fees to pass through, except for you “home” city – Your home is set to LA by default, unless you changed it.
  3- You can change your “home” city by talking to your Guild NPC there, because your guild has claimed a Hall in it (see the idea about Guild Halls above).

With imagination we can get many ways to do this. I just hope ArenaNet is watching this.

a buffet line for my character to pig out on tyrian cuisines, then go travel while full and boosted (food items give boosts).

in town games and carnival. divinity’s reach has the foundations of a great party, but it needs to be worked on. the animal/zoo thing was interesting, until i realized how short the trip was.

asuran basketball court or that mayan ball game with the stone balls. could be energy balls that kd, or something. or the asurans can have that trampoline/basketball hybrid thing, except with wind gusts from vents.

more golem battles in metrica province to bet silver on.

I am in agreement. I recently saw another thread for someone calling for the implementation of dueling/sparring. It would probably put tons of traffic into towns if they were the only areas dueling was permitted in (excluding LA, because it’s crowded enough as is there).

rgrwng.4072:

a buffet line for my character to pig out on tyrian cuisines, then go travel while full and boosted (food items give boosts).

in town games and carnival. divinity’s reach has the foundations of a great party, but it needs to be worked on. the animal/zoo thing was interesting, until i realized how short the trip was.

asuran basketball court or that mayan ball game with the stone balls. could be energy balls that kd, or something. or the asurans can have that trampoline/basketball hybrid thing, except with wind gusts from vents.

more golem battles in metrica province to bet silver on.

Yeah Divinity’s Reach already has a carnival and a zoo but there really isn’t anything to do or see there. The whole world is dynamic yet the towns are static, npcs just standing there minding their own business.

This is a very excellent and well thought out suggestion. When I explored the land of Tyria in Guild Wars 2 I was incredibly impressed with the cities for the major races. Especially Divinities Reach…arenanet promised immense living cities with personalities of their own and you came through with that. I am simply in love with Divinities Reach, maybe because it’s so typical of the fantasy lore, the architecture is amazing and it’s so vast. I have to agree with the original post here….the cities should be places we want to return to and stay around in for more than just a stop over for racial armor or the occasional merchant interaction. The NPC liveliness is great but it’s devoid of players….we need more content in these cities, i think it would amazing to have interesting events in cities, defending some kids from a bully, delivering pies to a nearby homestead, tasks or events in town would hit the spot. Also I understand that you have yet to release a lot of the mini games like the fairgrounds in divinities reach for example. I think those will help with keeping the cities populated with players as well.

Divinity’s Reach is just beatiful and Rata Sum is built so well you can reach anything easily without much running around. Just make portals from every city to every city. That will help. Or maybe give people a heartstone.

SSalp.6423:

Divinity’s Reach is just beatiful and Rata Sum is built so well you can reach anything easily without much running around. Just make portals from every city to every city. That will help. Or maybe give people a heartstone.

It’s not a problem getting there, there are tons of waypoints so you can always port, the main issue is staying there. We all ever only use one waypoint, and that’s the one in between TP and the bank, we go, we do our business and then we leave cause there is nothing else to do really. Why in the world I use any other waypoint in Divinities reach? There’s one in every plaza, but there is nothing there for us to do, give us a reason to visit.

Anet mentioned they are working on populating the world with events, I can only hope this will include the towns as well, if not be sure to +1 this so they can eventually notice it. At this rate the towns aren’t lively, they are a graveyard.

Put events in towns! Not like random, only-for aesthetic loot things but like actual events that give Karma and Exp.! Have some bandits raid a hospital! Have a fire start that needs putting out! Have events like the heart quests in Beetletun!

Town and cities need:
*history and lore
*Small event
*npc’s doing everyday activities
*mini-games to be finished
*Endless individual quests (bounties, lost and found, kidnappings, treasure) This could part of the story quests.

I go lions arch all the time, mainly from heart of the mists, because its a quick way to portal from one city to the other costing nothing, but reducing overall amounts to money travelling from one side of the map to another.

The 6 town portals should be just 1 portal, instead of having the LA portal in sPvP and WvW, which then has the other 5 portals, there should only ever be 1 Asura Gate that asks you to which town you would like to port when entering, this would reduce clutter that would be created if all 5 portals were to be placed in say sPvP lobby.

I was running around Divinity Reach and looking at all the houses and building that no one can enter and thought, what a waste. All of these structures would be great for having instanced homes for players. Why don’t you make use of these wonderful structures and let players pick out a home? Unfortunately, DR seems to be the only city other than LA that seems to lend itself to use as player homes and guild halls.

Nay of the Ether.8913:

I like this idea, unlike everyone else, I try to avoid LA at all costs unless absolutely necessary. I prefer my home town much more (and since I’m usually the only one there 95% of the time it kinda is my town now lol). Anything to get people out of LA and back into the home towns. Personally I think there should be more minigames in towns like keg brawl (and I know there are several coming soon, which I’m excited about) but needs to be one for each town. I have a suspicion they plan to do exactly that for each town because they all are pretty much set up for it already. Polymock in Rata Sum, Arena in BC (at least I hope it becomes a fighting pit one day), we have the shooting range and bar brawl coming to DR soon, of course keg brawl in hoelbrak, and still not sure about the Grove but I’m sure something can be put in there. Maybe bungee jumping or diving contests lolz.

You’re not the only one. I hate LA cause of the lagg and spam. It’s also pretty chaotic and doesn’t even look like a real city. There should go a bit more attention for other cities. Divinity’s Reach is a pearl, Black Citadel is the most epic one, Rata Sum is absurd, but still nice to walk around. Hoelbrak is very majestatic. The Grove I won’t talk about: pure confusion xD

The life in those cities is pretty low though. Everything seems to be the same always. There’s no evolution:
for example → in winter there wasn’t even snow, and there should be a lot more lanterns and stuff.
In spring should be more fresh life etc.

I posted a similar forum about this, spreading things out in citys. +1

I was running alts thru cities getting area completion on them and thinking, what a waste of effort for the Devs to make these cities. No one there except people doing crafting (a very few) or area completion. Except for LA there is no reason to be there. Some suggestions.

1) dynamic events in cities. Ebonhawke, which is something like a city, has a couple of dynamic events and a quest (reading all the books is order to give you an achievement). It keeps you in there to do them. A real city has problems that need to be solved, not just pretty scenery. There are robberies and murders for example that could be solved. Bandits that could turn hostile when you locate them thru the quest line. Something, ANYTHING, to make the cities feel alive and not just painted backdrops.

2) quests. I know the Devs don’t want to use quests in the game, but cities may be one place that could use them. As WoodenPotatos said, the cities feel hollow.

Reditt discussion and video: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/18lkjj/woodenpotatoes_on_traditional_quests_and_feeling/

3) add the mini games that they said we would have, to different cities and give progress to a title thru them like the titles in Guild Wars 1 such as the party title.

4) for the role players, open up some of the houses so people can go inside.

5) add free waypoints from anywhere in the game to the center of any city. Divinities Reach has a gorgeous central area that no one uses. A free waypoint there would encourage people to go there and if others are around to stay awhile. It would greatly reduce the traffic to/thru LA and cut down on the overflows if people were able to stop using the Mists to LA feature and just go to cities directly. It would encourage people to use the other cities banks and crafting tables.

6) add some hearts to each city and make the hearts redoable after a period of time with a small reward of some sort, maybe a token that can go toward buying a weapon or armor skin from a local vender.