Guild Wars 2

I’ve had an interesting idea and it is my belief that it has not been proposed before (if it has, forgive my ignorance). It would be interesting to add a new feature to Tyria: time-warps (known as a glamour). By way of example, a character could be wandering around common locations in whatever region they are exploring when they suddenly and unexpectedly find themselves confronted by a bizarre changing of their immediate environment (perhaps illustrated as a shimmering field as the necessary elements are loaded up). When realization finally dawns they discover that things are as they once were and that they have been somehow moved backwards some considerable distance in time but not necessarily in space.

Imagine discovering a glamour close to the breached wall in the Diessa Plateau for example; you could see the city as it was and a party of Charr moving up the hill, an advance scouting party for it is the preamble before the battle. It is up to you to somehow foil their efforts or to join them to make sure that they succeed depending on your chosen race. In another instance you could find yourself lost in time and witnessing the birth of the Sylvari or join legendary Asura in great discoveries! Whatever the case, once a given series of events has played out to it’s logical conclusion you find yourself once more back in your original time and the landscape back to it’s present form. The potential for this idea is enormous – things which have only been experienced by those who played the original Guild Wars, and it’s add-on packs (nightfall, eye of the north and factions) can now be experienced by Guild Wars 2 players.

In order to keep these glamour’s as elusive as possible it would be interesting to program their triggering point so that it moves around randomly so it will randomly intercept with an exploring character. There would be no paradox to consider as the character either assists and succeeds or fails and the glamour sequence ends and returns them to the present. I for one would love to see ruins resurrected to their former glory and perhaps such glamour’s would help new players unfamiliar with Guild Wars to understand what happened to create the ruins that they take for granted.

Wow what a fun idea! I always loved time travel concepts and caverns of time were always my favourite instances in wow! This is right up my alley

This is an awesome idea which can be developed a lot in the future for the horizontal progression of the game.
Imagine time travels in the past as well as in the future. This equals using the same game zones and transforming them into something else: a past from GW1 (expl. adding the Hydras) or something completely futuristic.
The possibility are just endless in these cases.
Instead of adding new levels to the fractals or more dungeons for parties, changing the existing zones into something else is better in my opinion.
As the OP suggested, the time travel will be done through random locations and the zone will be time limited for each player individually: lets say 1h. After this, the player will be teleported to the original zone and if he wants to go inside again, he will need to find another time portal.
These portals will be rare and will have an event around them before they become operational, similar to the molten army invaders portals

That’s more or less what I had in mind Ronah.2869 but orientated towards historical situations so that characters can interact with history. For example, going to Lion’s Arch you suddenly realize that it is the old city, the original city and that you have to warn people about Orr rising but nobody wants to listen to you and may even cast you out. Whatever the outcome you find yourself back in the present which gives players an incentive to explore the city they were just in which is now below the waters.

As for more futuristic elements, it is my understanding that one of the Asura story lines [spoiler] involves meeting a future version of yourself [end of spoiler]. Given that players will be eager to visit the past again they will have to find a glamour again. Since these glamour’s are essentially pockets of time and are time-locked they play out again and again and again without end and the character can choose to visit and interact or simply explore the area of it’s effect.

I had considered the possibility of whole maps as glamour zones but exploration of such a large area would mean gaining control over it which may be an additional feature – the character receives points for example or come into the possession of a spell or perhaps a device and when they have a sufficient number they can stay in the past for an extended period to explore and interact, even remaining there when they log out and back in once more. I refer to this time-warp idea as a glamour as it is an ancient word for a bewitchment, a thing you are drawn too whether you like it or not. to be glamorous refers to a user of magic.

An additional element which I’ve also considered is the acquisition of unique ‘time-locked’ items which are unique to the distant past which can be obtained and brought back to the present with you. You could for example obtain items which can be sold on, ancient armor, weapons, etc. Although I have not given this any great consideration, it is my opinion that while in the past the character can access the bank, the Black Lion (perhaps) and of course use vendors as normal. I would strongly suggest that ArenaNET not ‘advertize’ the location of such time-warps with events around them because to do so would in essence announce their presence. The element of surprise is a BIG part of this idea and makes it all the more special in my opinion (but nice suggestion nevertheless).

I feel you tricked me into clicking on this thread, so as a mesmer, I think that should be an elite skill exclusive to our class :p

Hmm, request denied, Iruwen.3164. It would be open to everyone I feel else where is the fun in a time displaced world of fun and adventure and really wild things if it’s just going to be populated exclusively by mesmers? (and I have at least one of every class of character because I wanted to try out each and every one. So far my favorite has to be the ranger but the others, including mesmer are close behind).