Guild Wars 2

Now, this will be lengthy and perhaps confusing at first but read it through and keep the implications in mind. I’m posting this because I strongly believe that this system, or some variation of it, would improve the game for almost all types of players for years to come.

The Basic Concept of Heavy Items

Heavy Items would be a special sub-type of crafting component. They could be used in player housing or high end weapon/armor skins. (or anything really)

Each type of heavy item is bound to a city – this is its origin city. Simple examples would be a special type of wood that originates in The Grove or a unique alloy made in The Black Citadel.

A heavy item can only be crafted in its origin city.

A heavy item has a set of properties that change the way it is stored, moved, and traded:

• When carrying a heavy item you cannot use waypoints, Asura gates, or teleport to the mists/WvW. You can also only enter a Mesmer portal every 90s.
• Heavy items behave regularly inside a city, but if you leave a city you can only carry a single (unstacked) heavy item in your bag.
• If you die while carrying a heavy item the only waypoints you may use to res are in the heavy item’s origin city. (Or any city you are currently in, just in case you die to fall damage while carry it around a city.)
• A heavy item can be placed into your bank, but can only be removed from the bank if you are in the city where you deposited it. Heavy items can only be banked in cities.
• If a heavy item is mailed, the mail can only be opened in the city it was sent in. Heavy items can only be mailed in cities.
• Heavy items can be sold on the trade post but they are tagged by the cities they are currently in. When you buy one you can only collect it from a trade post in the city you purchased it in. Heavy items can only be placed on the trade post in cities.
• Heavy items cannot be placed in the guild bank.

These specifics lock down the flow of these items between people, servers, and even physical locations around Tyria.

Acquiring Heavy Items

For the sake of clarity I will only suggest the core method of acquiring heavy items here, though others are discussed at the very bottom of the post.

The primary (and most reliable) way to get heavy items would be crafting from existing T6 mats – this can only be done within the heavy item’s particular origin city.

It’s important that this remains the best way to acquire heavy items, even if other methods are added, because it directly stimulates the standard global economy.

Contracts

In an additional tab in the Trade Post window players would be able to create contracts that offer rewards to other players willing to transport heavy items between cities.

The poster would provided the heavy items at the cities they are currently in and offer gold, gems, items, or a mixture of these as reward of the transport. That player would also define a certain amount of collateral in gold, the destination city or cities, and a timer within which the delivery/s must be made.

When a player accepts the contract the collateral and the rewards are placed in escrow and the heavy items are mailed to the transporter. Once the transporting player moves the heavy items to the destination/s they receive the rewards and get the collateral back. If they fail to do it in time or choose to take the heavy items for themselves, they forfeit the collateral.

This system, and any ways it gets expanded upon, would allow players to create objectives for each other.

Travel Dangers

When carrying a heavy item out in the world you will be a beacon for certain kinds of attacks and events. These would correspond with they type of item you carry. Heavy precious metals would attract bandits, while masonry stone would draw elementals. A dragon’s tooth might bring dragon minions.

These events would give very low karma/item/gold drops to discourage farming them, perhaps even none. They are primarily to add danger and challenge to transporting the item. Remember that If you die while carrying a heavy item, the only waypoint you may use is its origin city. This means playing well, tailoring builds, and bringing friends are all good options. The event scaling would have to be carefully tuned to make sure people couldn’t barge through – enemies would use CCs to make sure they couldn’t be skipped easily.

While carrying a heavy item roads would give boons, such as swiftness and protection, and scale down the attached event difficulty to avoid driving players into hugging the edge of the map for the shortest route.

If rarer and more expensive heavy items had harder attached events it would promote grouping, guild running, even hiring other players to help out.

Using Heavy Items

Crafting recipes that require heavy items also require locations. And this is really the key element that brings this all together. A hammer skin could require several planks of wood from The Grove and ingots of the Alloy from The Black Citadel. These items would be forged together on a Divine Anvil at the foot of a Balthazar statue in Divinity’s Reach.

As a player this presents a set of choices: You could buy the heavy items in Divinity’s Reach for what will be their highest price. You could buy them cheap in their origin cities and run them yourself, investing your own time but saving a bunch of gold. Or you could buy them in the origin city and try to post an attractive contract to get them shipped for you.

The items crafted from this would be account bound so that the system cannot be circumvented – we wouldn’t want to have to make the skin for the hammer a heavy item too…

The Broader Meaning

This system would give the cities long lasting individual meaning and it populates all the zones of Tyria, no matter the level.

With differing levels and rarities of heavy items this system would be accessible to players from different play styles and wealth brackets. With the contracts being posted on the global trade post you could be moving heavy items for players on other servers.

Provided the craftables from heavy items were desirable and the locations for crafting were evenly distributed; there is infinite fuel for not only the economy but also the living breathing game world itself.

The down-scaling directly supports this system and it would, in turn forever support old content. Four expansions down the line people would still be in visiting the Fields of Ruin if there was an awesome greatsword to be forged in Ebonhawk.

Interesting side-effects:

• Promotes the difference between the cultures as well as the game’s overarching message of bringing the races together.
• Simulates real world trade.
• Promotes personal accomplishment of shipping your own goods and earning your rewards, or creating rewarding objectives for other players to undertake.
• Promotes build diversity as players figure out ways to make the fastest/safest runners.
• Enhances the PvE meta game and the trading meta game.
• Adding recipes, cities and more Heavy Items down the line directly stimulates the entire game world.
• It would be kitten fun.

Taking it Further/Room for Growth ( these are just spitball ideas, not part of the core system)

Unidentified Heavy Items:

Dropped randomly out in the world with a greater drop chance from champions. If you are carrying an unidentified heavy item no more can drop for you. These get identified upon entering a city and can be any random heavy item, much like unidentified dyes. They could also have a small chance of dropping from the last chest of explorable dungeon paths.

• you can waypoint while carrying an unidentified heavy item.

• Unidentified drops give players another reason to go out and explore and also function as an exciting type of discovery.

• For Gem Store synergy you could buy an identification kit that would let you identify the heavy item out in the world.

Imbued Heavy Items:

Participating in events while carrying a heavy item in the open world would slowly charge it. When fully charged the heavy item would become imbued. If you die while carrying an imbued heavy item it loses the imbued state. An imbued heavy item could either count as more than one item or be used in special recipes.

Only regular area events would count to this, not events spawned by the heavy item itself. This would encourage players to not only run through areas, but also get involved in the world at large.

A contract could stipulate that an item must arrive at it’s destination imbued.

Group Crafting:

Some of the bigger recipes could require extra crafters. When you start to create a special item from rare heavy items you will have to have two crafting professions active and then a person near you in your party with a third crafting profession or a rare recipe. This way crafter could sell their services.

There is also the possibility of crafting mini-games or events in cities that relate to crafting heavy items or their derivatives.

Other Forms of Acquisition:

• sPvP paid tournament rewards and WvW kill streak/chain capture rewards.
• Gambling in the Mystic Forge
• Guaranteed drops from larger infrequent meta-events

Right this has been a really long post and it’s probably littered with errors, but hopefully you get the gist. Thoughts?