Guild Wars 2

I often find myself wandering around the world by myself, doing events here and there. Just now though, at one of those off hours of the day where most are sleeping, I stumbled across a champion that I really wanted to fight. I asked for help on the Map channel as well as in my Guild’s channel, but no one is out there responding to my requests. I think it would by awesome to be able to hire one NPC for a recurring fee, with a higher scaling cost, yet similar to the the gates that we use to travel, to travel with us and aid us when we need that extra hand.

I like the idea of making it somewhat expensive, but not so expensive that casual level 40+ players wouldn’t be able to afford it.

Restrictions could be placed on these hire-able NPCs, for instance, changing maps would remove the NPC, as would teaming with other real players, entering a dungeon, entering an event radius in which 3 or 4 other players are in, and a limit of only one NPC hire-able would be enforced. I was thinking that these NPCs could reside in “Taverns” or various other locations where you could visit and hire them for a duo adventure.

I figured the NPC level would dictate the cost, based on the map that they’re in, for instance, a hire-able NPC in a starting area would cost significantly less compared to a hire-able NPC in Orr.

The costs for these hire-able NPCs could additionally scale with how many heart quests the player has completed for the map, a kind of renown for players to strive for to be on better terms with the NPC of the area perhaps. This idea is a bit in the spirit of Role Playing over anything else.

That’s all I can think of at the moment. Any extra ideas for this would be greatly appreciated.

As the suggestion is is perfectly ok by me as long as it is a recurring charge and higher then proposed.
In GW1 there was a (permanent and free) hero system that in my personal opinion ruined the mmo-aspect of the game. Heroes where free to use, almost as equal to the real players and could do almost anything. I dont want that back in GW2.

My suggestion would be to make it timed and a tp item. 100 gems for a kit that lasts 1 hour. you can choose from 8 different kits (e.g. a necromancer kit, an ele kit, an warrior kit, etc).

The kit let’s you summon a companion npc for 60 minutes wich replaces one partymember. the companion is stowed manually by the owner or when the owner maps to a different place. If the companion has been out for e.g. 12 minutes, the kit will still be usuable but for max 48 minutes.

mercury ranique.2170:

As the suggestion is is perfectly ok by me as long as it is a recurring charge and higher then proposed.
In GW1 there was a (permanent and free) hero system that in my personal opinion ruined the mmo-aspect of the game. Heroes where free to use, almost as equal to the real players and could do almost anything. I dont want that back in GW2.

My suggestion would be to make it timed and a tp item. 100 gems for a kit that lasts 1 hour. you can choose from 8 different kits (e.g. a necromancer kit, an ele kit, an warrior kit, etc).

The kit let’s you summon a companion npc for 60 minutes wich replaces one partymember. the companion is stowed manually by the owner or when the owner maps to a different place. If the companion has been out for e.g. 12 minutes, the kit will still be usuable but for max 48 minutes.

This sounds a lot like the summoning stones in Guild Wars 1. You could summon not only animals but different professions.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Summoning_stones

A system like this might be useful for soloers who need some extra help.

Actually the Heroes/henchies in GW did cost money, you share loot/gold with them.

Besides that, while the idea is nice, this could make alot of content easier, a party of 5 would now change to a party of 10, add the other summoning items(fire ele,ogre pets,…) and it makes the general pve content really easy. I don’t think the heroes/hench system works in a openworld game, with the dynamic content GW2 has

I’m not sure about hire-able NPCs in PVE (NPC companions were abandonned early in GW2’s development for a good reason I belive), but I could definitely see them included in WvW !
WvW Mercenaries are very lackluster at the moment. When they were first announced I imagined them as NPCs you could hire so that they follow you and help you in your objectives, instead, you just capture an NPC spawner that will regularily send a few mobs to death always at the same locations.

I believe hire-able NPCs could help in adding diversity to WvW strategies (I mean doing something else than zerging). A few AI-controlled allies probably wouldn’t be of much help to an already big zerg, but I think it would give solo players or small groups the opportunity to have a lot more impact.

Wow, nice ideas guys/girls. I wasn’t aware that Guild Wars 1 had this type of game mechanic. I like the idea of making it somewhat expensive, but not so expensive that casual level 40+ players wouldn’t be able to afford it. My emphasis on the restrictions was intended to be pretty high. For instance, changing maps would remove the NPC, as would teaming with other real players, entering a dungeon, entering an event radius in which 3 or 4 other players are in, and a limit of only one NPC hire-able would be enforced. I was thinking that these NPCs could reside in “Taverns” or various other locations where you could visit and hire them for a duo adventure.

I’m terrible at math, but as I’m typing this, my brain is trying to work out a decent scaling amount. I figured the NPC level would dictate the cost, based on the map that they’re in, for instance, a hire-able NPC in a starting area would cost significantly less compared to a hire-able NPC in Orr.

The costs for these hire-able NPCs could additionally scale with how many heart quests the player has completed for the map, a kind of renown for players to strive for to be on better terms with the NPC of the area perhaps.

Analyzing this idea further makes me realize that it’s a bit in spirit of Role Playing over anything else.

I’ll update my first post with this info of mine.