Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, I have posted something similar to this in the past, and it has gotten very few replies mostly because of the fact that I “wall-o-texted” it. I’m learning from my mistakes this time and I am going to post a quick blurb at the beginning about what my idea is and then I will explain it in full later on, for those who wish to continue reading.

Quick Explanation
Low level areas are dead. Flame and Frost helped this a little, but let’s be honest, this only gave us more players in 2 low level areas and the level of players dropped significantly by the end of each month. Living Story is a great idea that I hope they keep up, but we need more and this. Two things make low level areas unattractive to return to, loot and story. Let’s be honest loot in Cursed Shore beats Queensdale; this needs to change in some way, and zones are locked in constant warfare, which means from a storyline perspective it is hard to get involved in an event that will only restart 5 minutes after you complete it. We need to add real physical change to the world to show the effect of our players actions in the world for this world to be the dynamic thing that it is meant to be, and give players the incentive to return to areas lower level areas. I think by taking the great wars found throughout Tyria and having the actions of players in these battles span across the zones of the world would allow these effects to change the way in which a zone is seen each and every time you enter it, and will make the game much more dynamic and give the players a sense of purpose. I understand this is about all most people have the time or motivation to read, and that’s fine. I also understand it can be a bit confusing, but it is a lot to put into a short paragraph. Please give any feedback, even if this is all you read and you didn’t get all of the finer details, because all feedback can be good as long as it is constructive.

Loot
Alright, getting to the finer details. Loot is important to all players. You always need to make sure that as people playing in the world feel like they are making progress, and one way for people to track this is either the type of armor they have or the amount of gold they have. Loot is the backbone of both of these. If we have it so the only areas to get the highest level loot are the lvl 70-80 zones, then that is the only place that farmers will go. Heck, they don’t even have to be farmers. Regular players like me all feel the need to get bigger and better stuff, and when there are only like 5 zones to get it in those are where you focus your time.

Story
In my mind, this right here is more important than loot. I understand not all people feel this way, but it must be included to grab the attention of a large portion of the player base. Going through a zone where nothing ever really changes is just about the most irking thing to players like me. Sure dynamic events make sure that every time you are in an area it is a little different, but nothing ever really “changes”. The same places are always under attack by certain groups every 5-10 minutes and the people you just saved are all dead on the ground or are slaves again. I think this dynamic process needs to be brought to a whole new level in order for players to really make an impact on the world we are a part of.

Wars
I think the easiest way to think about this is to look at the greatest wars that are happening in Tyria at the moment, and using those wars as ways to bring the life back into the world. Not every war can be used, but I think taking these few wars to the next level we can significantly alter Tyria.

Centaur – Human
Bandit – Human
Inquest – Asura
Nightmare Court – Sylvari
Sons of Svanir – Lion’s Arch Havens
Flame Legion – Charr
Orrian Risen – Pact

Let me give a brief explanation of each war I find important and why it should be included in this list. Centaur – Human, Flame Legion – Charr, Inquest – Asura, and Nightmare Court – Sylvari are pretty obvious. These are the main racial antagonists, and much of the lower level zones are about pushing these groups out, or wreaking havoc on them. I put the Sons of Svanir against Lion’s Arch as opposed to against the norn just because of the way of the story in those zones. The norn do not have armies like the other groups seem to, and the Sons of Svanir seem to be affecting the Lion’s Arch havens much more than the norn in general. The war to push further into Orr could easily be added to this kind of project. I also added the bandits because I feel that you cannot forget the storyline of Brisban Wildlands and how the bandits, nightmare court, and inquest have created an alliance that we are attempting to push out.

Making these events work
I believe whole heartedly that the players should be able to instigate the events that push the advance against the enemies in these wars. My thought is perhaps players can go into an enemy contested zone on the frontline and once they have culled enough of the enemy population they can trigger an interactive object that allows them to call for reinforcements from the closest camps. This in turn leads to events where players have to hold the newly acquired objective until reinforcements arrive and an event to escort the troops to the new site. Eventually players should be able to fully push an enemy force out of a zone and into another in a large scale advance that creates change in the world.

Say players are able to push the centaurs out of Queensdale, this would mean zones would finally have a chance to grow and prosper. The farms south of the Shaemoor Garrison would be allowed to be rebuilt and tilled and farmed. The players would get a chance to play a part in this as well. Gathering materials to rebuild, and even though the centaurs are gone it doesn’t mean that there are no foes to kill. Skritt still bother people around certain areas, ettins, the shadows in the swamp. There is still life to the world, but players have been able to push out a large threat and because of this they can feel the effects of what they have done making a larger impact on the world.

How does loot fit into all of this
I personally feel that drops should be more related to the level of the character than the level of the zone. I understand personally that there has to be some balancing going on there, because having drops in Orr the same as drops in Metrica would make Metrica the easier and faster farm. My thought is to just slightly alter the way in which loot drops in zones by adding chests to the end of the events for taking enemy held land and pushing the advantage. These chests should be ranked for the level of the player opening it, not for the level of the zone they are in. Obviously these aren’t going to be massive chests for each outpost taken, perhaps just small single item/3 item chests for each small outpost and if you take larger zones like differing castrums in Fireheart Rise or Centaur camps in Harathi Hinterlands you should get larger chest. And pushing the enemy all the way back to their “headquarters” whatever that may be would result in a Grand Chest much like the Tequatl/Claw/Shatterer events.

Including Dragons
I was taking part in a conversation earlier this month with a player talking about how stale the dragon battles currently are. Players can just stand in certain positions hitting their target and never be hit making the dragon events plain and easy. I personally believe that these dragon events should be included into this idea with the thought of a “break-out” event. Say players have been able to hold the Sons of Svanir inside of a steading for a few hours and they haven’t been able to push their way out, there should be a Breakout event. This event is more of a “master” level. It is highly likely that players will fail this without coordination, but even failure is rewarded with enough coin to make up for armor damage/waypointing. In this instance I can see a combined assault where the Sons of Svanir push from the steading at the same time that the Claw of Jormag appears giving them a slight advantage. This doesn’t mean that players cannot win, by any stretch of the imagination, but it will push the limits of players making the battle more dynamic. The dragon will target large clusters of players instead of just looking forwards all the time, and will move a little to give the players a fight to think about as they move forwards with their assault.

Conclusion
I understand this is not a perfectly thought through idea. There are lots of points of contention, but that is why I posted it here. If I had the full idea thought out perfectly without flaw I would just write it up to ArenaNet, but instead I post it here to get new ideas from fellow players like me who feel the same way, or even absolutely different about the current situation. I just have 1 request, keep things constructive. By this I do not mean you have to agree with me, but outright slander is not welcome here. I look forward to your responses (assuming anyone was able to actually make it all the way to the end of this :P)

I definitely agree that lower areas need to be resurrected. Personally, the dailys encouraged me to go bak to low lvls because its easier to complete there. Also some daily challenges require this such as “complete 5 side kicked events”

Yes, I agree that the daily helps a little, but the zones are still dead. The only time I evesee groups of people in an area like we had in the BWE’s was in Queensdale during a Krytan Event day, but usually you search a zone and you are lucky to find 10 people to help you with a META-Event.

I need ideas that aren’t mini-novels…

Well more events and longer entwined event chains will come over time, and I think that will make all areas more attractive to play. At the end of the day though, the mass of people follow the path of least resistance, so I just say, have at least one world boss in each zone, and maybe have events that lead off them and towards them to entice people to stay in the zone.

emikochan.8504:

Well more events and longer entwined event chains will come over time, and I think that will make all areas more attractive to play. At the end of the day though, the mass of people follow the path of least resistance, so I just say, have at least one world boss in each zone, and maybe have events that lead off them and towards them to entice people to stay in the zone.

Emiko speaks truth.