I love the dynamic event system in Guild Wars 2. It’s a very robust, interesting take on questing (or new direction even). It’s a great idea, but I believe it does have some flaws:
Scaling is limited – This may only be a personal observation, but I feel like the scaling on events stops at a certain point. I haven’t been able to count the monster spawns at certain events (Penitent Camp in Orr chain), but it feels like after players hit a critical mass, the event is simply nuked on spawn. There is no challenge or thought involved. Up until that point, things are fine.
Incentive to go elsewhere is very low – If I want to obtain karma, Orr is the place to do it. There is no point to going back to say Metrica Provence and doing events since the karma reward is much lower. The diminishing returns system attempts to curb this, but I feel it is inadaquate by itself.
Navigating to events can be frustrating – This may only be a personal issue, but I feel like there is a disconnect between the minimap and world map. I may be able to see on the rims of my minimap what direction an event is in, but in the world map, I see nothing. Sometimes this isn’t an issue and the event shows up on the world map, but it’s largely inconsistent.
So how do we fix these things? Here are a few suggestions:
1. Improve event scaling. Perhaps expand the (seeming) limit of scaling. It stands to reason that having not expected so many players (and having to stop sales) that the number of players expected in events was far exceeded. Perhaps scale other attributes of the enemies in events as well (more hp, more damage, different tactics, different spawns).
2. Add karma boosts similar to exp boosts. Guild Wars 2 is all about exploring the world. It aims to have players fan out and prevents “grind” by adding incentives to do so (both positive and negative). The diminishing returns system is an example of a negative mechanic to encourage players to go to different places. A positive example is the extra experience from monsters that haven’t been killed for longer periods of time. I believe by adding increased karma gains from events that haven’t been completed often/recently, it would encourage players to take part in a larger amount of events as opposed to the same event chain repeatedly.
3. Add karma scaling. In addition to number two, there is very little reason to complete events in lower level areas. The rewards are small, and the events are easy. In order to encourage higher leveled players to return to lower leveled areas, there are systems such as loot scaling. With loot scaling, you have a chance to obtain gear relevant to your level instead of the area you are visiting. This makes sense since even being downleveled, you have an advantage. I propose adding karma scaling to events in lower areas to give you karma relevant to your level. Like loot scaling, it wouldn’t be the same amount you’d get in a high leveled area (Orr), but it would be worth your time comparatively. Instead of “min-max,” the question becomes “do I do events in lower areas faster for less, or do I do harder events which take longer for more?”
4. Make it easier to track events on the world map (pressing M). The mini map is great. The world map seems inconsistent.
Add any suggestions you have or comments on these below!