How to incentivize players to return to old zones at lvl 80

How to incentivize players to return to old zones at lvl 80

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Posted by: Nelien.7968

Nelien.7968

TL;DR: Make 2-3 zones per day have a special zone event that asks you to finish 15-20 events in that zone and rewards you with similar rewards to zone completion. Zones change daily.

At level 80 and 100% world completion there really isn’t much else to do in the world other than dungeons and pvp, so here’s my idea on what could be done to reward players that prefer the explorable part of the game or simply would like more variety at max level.

The idea comes partly from Guild Wars 1’s Zaishen Vanquish quests, for those of you who know what they are, and from a reddit post posted earlier today (Apparently the post was removed by the poster, wierd..).

So here’s my suggestion:

Players at level 80 will be able to start seeing 2-3 random zones per day get a special daily quest that asks you to finish 15-20 events in that zone. Once finished it would reward you with a reasonable gold/loot reward similar to zone completions.

What zones are currently “active” would change from day to day forcing people to explore different zones and maybe discover events they haven’t seen before.

The daily zones would have an increased rate of events (2-3x more) to accommodate for the increased number of players in those zones.

The quests could be announced in the capital cities, with NPC’s calling out for urgent aid as the zones are being overwhelmed with whatever threats reside there. But simply stumbling upon the correct zone would grant you the zone quest just like meta events currently in game.

So, if you don’t feel like doing dungeons, don’t like pvp or are bored of only doing events in Orr, this could be a nice change of pace and offer players some change in scenery from day to day.

This would have the added bonus that players levelling up would feel like the world is more dynamic, with certain zones suddenly becoming much more active and “dangerous”. In general, NPC’s would talk in the capitals about the “recent increase in [insert enemy here] activity in [insert zone here]” and would make the world feel much more alive!

Zaishen quests in GW1 were much loved (there were some who didn’t like them of course, but the general opinion was positive) and it would be great to see something similar come back to Guild Wars 2!

What do you guys think?

(edited by Nelien.7968)

How to incentivize players to return to old zones at lvl 80

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Posted by: ulukaiulukai.2584

ulukaiulukai.2584

Allow level 80 in drops in every zone, adjust DE rewards in every zone (based on level), allow high level crafting materials to spawn in every zone. Problem solved.

How to incentivize players to return to old zones at lvl 80

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Posted by: Nelien.7968

Nelien.7968

While I agree that solves some of the problems, unless it’s balanced extremely well, people would still find the optimal zone to grind in and it would just move Orr to some place else (or not at all).

Also, my suggestion doesn’t cancel out yours. Both would work perfectly well together.

(edited by Nelien.7968)

How to incentivize players to return to old zones at lvl 80

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Posted by: Ixal.7924

Ixal.7924

Allow level 80 in drops in every zone, adjust DE rewards in every zone (based on level), allow high level crafting materials to spawn in every zone. Problem solved.

Have all lvl 80s flood the starting zones as they are the most easy ones.

How to incentivize players to return to old zones at lvl 80

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Posted by: ulukaiulukai.2584

ulukaiulukai.2584

Have all lvl 80s flood the starting zones as they are the most easy ones.

In this case, downscale players one, two, or three levels lower to make it harder.

Also, my suggestion doesn’t cancel out yours. Both would work perfectly well together.

I agree and I also like your suggestion.

How to incentivize players to return to old zones at lvl 80

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Posted by: Ixal.7924

Ixal.7924

Have all lvl 80s flood the starting zones as they are the most easy ones.

In this case, downscale players one, two, or three levels lower to make it harder.

Which penalizes legitimate “downscalers”.
Also, starting zones are easy by design. No way to change that.

How to incentivize players to return to old zones at lvl 80

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Posted by: ulukaiulukai.2584

ulukaiulukai.2584

Well, the DE rewards could be adjusted to the easy design. Easy DEs → small reward, hard DEs → big reward.

I don’t know what a legitimate downscaler is. It wouldn’t hurt if it was a bit harder for downscaled players. They have more traits, skills, experience, etc.

Also, since in lower zones lower stuff can drop as well, the overall level 80 item drop rate would still be worse than in Orr. However, at least there would be a chance for them to drop.

How to incentivize players to return to old zones at lvl 80

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Posted by: runeblade.7514

runeblade.7514

DE rewards are already adjusted to level. Are you playing the same game as I am? I got the same amount of reward in one event in Wayfarer foothills as one in Orr.

However, that doesn’t make it any more efficient than grinding on Orr.

In my opinion, Highest tier nodes needs to be found everywhere in the world with the same amount of chance to get them. This way, you have to re-explore the entire world in order to get the max amount of ori/wood/gossamer/leather.

5x Warrior, 5x Ranger, 4x Elementalist, 4x Engineer,
4x Necromancer, 3x Mesmer, 4x Guardian, 4x Thief, 4 Revenant

How to incentivize players to return to old zones at lvl 80

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Posted by: fony.5102

fony.5102

nothing at all need be done short of making better loot tables for champions(which everyone had asked for since the first beta….) and making event rewards(karma, exp) scale for lvl 80’s. and this is like a few days work here, without chopping up and creating game systems and having some wonky negative side effect on everyone.

@ runeblade, the only DE reward that is the same for me in Orr and other zones is the amount of coin. the EXP and Karma are exponentially lower in other zones.

(edited by fony.5102)

How to incentivize players to return to old zones at lvl 80

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Posted by: runeblade.7514

runeblade.7514

I agree Karma needs to be amped up but we don’t really need exp at level 80.

5x Warrior, 5x Ranger, 4x Elementalist, 4x Engineer,
4x Necromancer, 3x Mesmer, 4x Guardian, 4x Thief, 4 Revenant

How to incentivize players to return to old zones at lvl 80

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Posted by: helladoom.4317

helladoom.4317

At the very least adjust drops for downscaled players in low level zones so that it offsets their high cost of repairs and waypointing.

How to incentivize players to return to old zones at lvl 80

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Posted by: Nelien.7968

Nelien.7968

The issue of balancing the downscaling is a different issue than what I was suggesting. Sure, it might alleviate some of the reasons people choose to spend most of their time in high level zones but it’s only going to be minor. The maximum reward/hour is still going to be in Orr as they simply can’t make the rewards in much easier zones at the same level as the harder ones. Sure some balancing might need to be done (and probably will be) but that’s not changing anything of what I suggested.

Any actual criticism on my specific idea?

How to incentivize players to return to old zones at lvl 80

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Posted by: Taerik.3405

Taerik.3405

Downscaling players is great

NOT upscaling the rewards/loot to the players actual level (most importantly, karma) is what keeps people in cursed shore

How to incentivize players to return to old zones at lvl 80

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Posted by: fony.5102

fony.5102

loot scaling does work, because i got a lvl 76 exotic rifle in queensdale. what they need is a cap on loot level. basically make it impossible to get loot more than a level or two below your level.

How to incentivize players to return to old zones at lvl 80

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Posted by: Hydrophidian.4319

Hydrophidian.4319

Any actual criticism on my specific idea?

I’d make the event requirement lower.

Other than that, I like it. It would indeed add much to the sense of dynamism in the world. Depending on how it was structured on the back end, it could also be a useful dev tool to change things up pretty frequently. The team in charge of events should really be looking at something like this.

As for some of the other suggestions in this thread, not so keen on those.

How to incentivize players to return to old zones at lvl 80

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Posted by: ulukaiulukai.2584

ulukaiulukai.2584

loot scaling does work, because i got a lvl 76 exotic rifle in queensdale.

You can’t get level 77+ items, though, at least I don’t know anyone who has.