Guild Wars 2

1. Cutscenes
They’re stale, uninteresting, and dreadful at maintaining interest. It’s just a bland background that was probably done in photoshop within minutes with two characters facing each other. This isn’t a cutscene, this is boring. It’s no wonder nearly every single person hits that bottom right button to skip.

Solutions

• Forget the background and start being creative. Use different camera angles, have the characters actually interact and engage with their surroundings. We want to feel engaged in the story, not be lectured of it. For reference, here is an example of a REAL cutscene. Just as before, keep the option to skip the cutscene if desired.

• An additional idea I’ve had for cutscenes that would certainly solve a lot of issues with parties would be to implement a way for toggling cutscenes on or off for a dungeon. This way groups of people that want to view the cutscenes would be able to without feeling pressured to hurry up and stop wasting others’ time.

2. Dungeons
The exact same things happen every single time you repeat a path, which is understandable but realistically is this the absolute best way to go about this? Do most people actually prefer to know exactly what to do every single time or is it more fun and thrilling to explore something new?

I’m almost certain that adding a bit of variety to dungeons would overall be significantly better off overall for GW2. In a previous game I played, dungeon instance maps were randomly generated. Every room on the map would be opened with a certain degree of uncertainty; the most you could do was predict the type of puzzle you’d find and/or what mobs would be in it. Ideas that I’ve had that incorporate randomization like this to some degree:

• Implementing an easy/medium/hard mode option for dungeons. Some of the things that could change would be similar to what you’d expect with increasing the scales for Fractals of the Mist; more powerful mobs, more mobs, possibly a unique condition. More obstacles, more objectives, more danger, a differing pool of options for rewards based off of difficulty setting as well.

• Add randomization to the steps that we need to do in consecutive order to reach the end goal. This would be a major change but I’ll do my best to illustrate what I’m thinking when I say this with Arah path 1, for example. The steps that must be accomplished in consecutive order are currently to escort an NPC to the Jotun observatory, which includes:

1. killing an Ancient ooze boss for the ‘Blood of the Ancient’ and bringing it to an apparition
2. killing off a bunch of champion crystalline entities
3. killing off Legendary Shoggroth
4. killing off Legendary Jotun Stargazer

As it currently stands, it’s really easy for one to know everything there needs to be known about the path and after experimentation with tactics, there is very little opportunity to thoroughly enjoy repeats of dungeon paths aside from wanting bonus loot or gilded coffers etc.

Possible solutions:

• Different order of objectives. I’m aware of how tough this would be to implement as it would require entire dungeon maps to change, but an idea is an idea.

• Building off of the first idea, different maps which would be generated psuedo-randomly upon loading the instance. An example of what I mean by the word “different” would be perhaps for the sake of Arah path 1 as an example, massive torn-down structures or dead trees in different spots with traps put in different areas. The degree of how much should be different is obviously up for debate, which is why I chose to be vague about it.

• Different bosses for each step (alternatives). To clarify what I mean, use the first boss in Arah path 1 (Ancient ooze) as an example. What if there was a chance of having it as the boss or possibly two or three unique bosses to the path? Tons of potential here with this, so I’ll leave it at that for now.

3. AI (Artificial Intelligence) of mobs/NPC’s
First and foremost, I want to say that as far as AI goes this game’s characters are NOT horrific. However, there is always room for improvement and I think ArenaNet should strive for it. They’ve already shown wonderful things that they can do with the stupid Toxic Living Story mobs (Krait reviving downed Nightmare Court). However, there are a lot of things I’ve noticed since I’ve started this game that I want to point out in regards to mobs/NPC’s:

• LOS/Stacking
  It’s incredibly easy and an overly used & abused tactic to clear everything in PvE. As much as I love free stuff, I’d much rather be indulged in a truly engaging fight. This is why bosses like Gigantic Lupicus are a challenge to many; they can’t just stand there and spam buttons. Some may hate it, some love it. The point that I’m trying to get across is that I think some adjustments need to be made to how the game’s mobs react when in a situation like this, or with LOS in general.

• Attack range/Aggression
  I find it a bit silly how a mob can chase you only up to a given point before it gives up, returns to its original location, regenerates to full health, and forgets what happened immediately afterwards. It isn’t very realistic and I think once startled, it should take significantly longer for it to remain calm and still again. Perhaps a certain ‘aggression level’ could be implemented? Upon engaging in combat, the mob would start out at its highest aggression level and as time elapses, it lowers until it reaches the minimum level (whether or not this would be viewable by the player is up for discussion). The higher the aggression level, the more alert; increased attack range, etc.

When I think of what I’d love to see for mobs in this game, I think of risen travelling together in packs. I think of deer spotting a player and running off. I think of wolves spotting me and eyeing me down together. As it currently stands, a mob on this game mindlessly attacks the first player that walks within its designated circle and stops once killed or once it roams too far away. There’s plenty of room for improvement and I’d love to see more.

I have plenty more that I could mention but this thread is already getting a bit lengthly and I think adding more topics to it would only hinder the potential for discussion due to the length of the read. Let me know what you guys think!

The storylines in GW2 are very interesting; however, the way it’s presented to players is horrible and boring. The aim of the cutscenes should not only be to convey the storyline but to try and capture the attention of those who would normally ignore and skip them. There are a few examples of cutscenes that are made well but as you said, the ones involving characters speaking to one another are stale. If it relates directly to the story then players need an incentive to keep watching.

I would like to see better use of music. It can really set the mood/scene for what’s to come or what’s happened. Nothing like some war drums to get you pumped for a huge fight!

It would be great if there was a way to view all the cutscenes from your completed main story segments via the Hero Tab. Sometimes players skip through them, and then when they want to understand something better the only way to go over it is to read a summary of text.

I love the idea of a toggle option during dungeons. Having to wait for one player to finish watching theirs can be really frustrating, and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve died because someone has triggered a cutscene which I’ve seen plenty of times but still need to skip.

The implantation of increasing difficulty modes is an awesome idea! Currently dungeons scale based on character level, but they do not take in player experience or skill into consideration. This leads to a very unchallenging and boring experience for those that find it easy (CoF). A way of having unskilled players from joining the higher difficulties would be to have them locked until the predecessors are completed.
I really like this one! Even opens up the possibility for more achievements.

An idea I have of my own relating to dungeons is being able to see how long your party took to complete it. Would be fun for groups that regularly do the same dungeons together to try and beat their record.

Well thought out suggestions! I approve and would love to see them all in the game.