Guild Wars 2

First of all:
I really like the event system we currently have.
It’s dynamic, group oriented and in general a lot to do.

Now comes the big BUT
The events are always more or less the same: kill everything and watch the orange bar grow. (same with the hearts)
The rewards is also always the same: X silver and some karma.

I was thinking: why not just add some real quests to the world?
Something that is just completely different from what we already have.
Finding missing people, beating a hard npc (maybe with some group help ;-)), collection some materials, crafting stuff, beating a special NPC in some dungeons etc. etc.

In other games you even have quest chains telling a great story.
In GW2 you have anonymous, exchangable events and you don’t even care about succeding or the story behind it. “oh, another wave of undead… yeah….”

With real quests, People can set themselves a real goal -> complete that quest and help the people involved.
At high level nobody cares about hearts anymore and events are only participated because the are a cheap source of gold and karma (an mobs to crush to find that kitten precursor).

Imho this would be a nice addition to the game.

I really liked the event chains of lornars pass telling about the dwarfs leading into a jumping puzzle.

Or the necromancers lore in iron marches or whatever.

However it’s true that there should be more personalized events and quests.

Well, I can’t say I agree with your argument. Quests can have exactly the same problems as the Events:

• Killing things until you’ve met a quota (kills, collecting ect)
• Bland / non-existent story no-one cares about
• Rewards being the same (XP, Money, Gear)

As well as Events that have the same positive attributes as Quests:

• Event chains that tell a story (Battle for Mount Maelstrom, for example)
• A set goal (retake the temples, beat the big baddy ect)

That being said, I’d have no problem with Quests, providing that:

- NPC’s didn’t tell you that they were a quest-giver. There wouldn’t be a symbol, quest journal (although maybe a journal players can write in to take notes would be nice), arrow pointing where to go ect. They’d simply make some off-hand comment about how they need some more of something. You go collect what they need, come back, and you’re given an option to give said things. I feel this would cut down on the collect all the quests in the area > do them > hand them in. And yes, there will be people who use the internet to do this, but then that’s their choice, and doesn’t affect the people who don’t want the hand-holding.

- They didn’t ruin immersion. Nothing was worse that having to wait for someone to finish an escort mission before I could start it. Maybe save quests for things like:

• Ascending Exotic Armour (still makes Exotic Armour useful, and crafting can be focused more on cosmetic rewards than continual stat progression)
• Parts of creating Legendary Weapons
• Personal Story
• Order Missions (in the theme of the Order, bringing the Orders more out into the world and more importance in gameplay, both group missions and solo, maybe tie this in with rank progression to gain access to harder missions?)
• Racial Missions (Bounties, helping out your race ect. These would be placed in the races main cities, making use of them)

Things like:

• Escort
• Kill x of y
• Defeat
• Defend
• Retake

Should stay as DE’s in most cases, imho (unless they’re tied in with Racial / Order missions).

arrow pointing where to go ect.

oh god no! ^^’ Keep the current style just change the content and make the quests have a greater impact.

GreenNekoHaunt.8527:

arrow pointing where to go ect.

oh god no! ^^’ Keep the current style just change the content and make the quests have a greater impact.

I’m confused…Oh god no because I want to get rid of it, or because you misread? :P

TheDaiBish.9735:

GreenNekoHaunt.8527:

arrow pointing where to go ect.

oh god no! ^^’ Keep the current style just change the content and make the quests have a greater impact.

I’m confused…Oh god no because I want to get rid of it, or because you misread? :P

Oh god no because I don’t want an arrow pointing at where to go ^^.
The best about events, quests and jumping puzzles is trying to figure things out yourself. There are some quests and skill points that actually require thinking. Not every game includes this.

GreenNekoHaunt.8527:

TheDaiBish.9735:

GreenNekoHaunt.8527:

arrow pointing where to go ect.

oh god no! ^^’ Keep the current style just change the content and make the quests have a greater impact.

I’m confused…Oh god no because I want to get rid of it, or because you misread? :P

Oh god no because I don’t want an arrow pointing at where to go ^^.
The best about events, quests and jumping puzzles is trying to figure things out yourself. There are some quests and skill points that actually require thinking. Not every game includes this.

Then that we agree on

Yeah, quests should encourage thinking, reading, and paying attention to your surroundings. It’s mostly why I love the Investigation, Faction and Sabotage Missions, and some of the Storyline Missions in TSW.

Unfortunately, even if the game didn’t do this, people would still go to a walk-through site and then complain it was over too fast.

L2p. I’d say :O
You have to ignore those who use walk-through. They are those players that will turn into hardcore zombies instead of hardcore pro gamers xDDD

However I understand that people use walk throughs for the super adventure box. It’s like in the first zelda game. Either check out an walk through or guess by throwing infinite bombs around.

Sure some secrets are okay (like the way to get into the southsun dungeon without starting the instance) and etc.. Eastereggs and secrets are awesome but honestly there shouldn’t be an achievement about those. It’s supposed to stay secret ;P

GreenNekoHaunt.8527:

Sure some secrets are okay (like the way to get into the southsun dungeon without starting the instance) and etc.. Eastereggs and secrets are awesome but honestly there shouldn’t be an achievement about those. It’s supposed to stay secret ;P

This I disagree on.

Achievements should be used for things like this.

In no way are they needed, but they allow the player to get more out of the game. Achievements for things like this encourage players to play off the beaten path, as it were. Just have the Achievement hidden until you actually do it, so it stays secret.

TheDaiBish.9735:

GreenNekoHaunt.8527:

Sure some secrets are okay (like the way to get into the southsun dungeon without starting the instance) and etc.. Eastereggs and secrets are awesome but honestly there shouldn’t be an achievement about those. It’s supposed to stay secret ;P

This I disagree on.

Achievements should be used for things like this.

In no way are they needed, but they allow the player to get more out of the game. Achievements for things like this encourage players to play off the beaten path, as it were. Just have the Achievement hidden until you actually do it, so it stays secret.

Secrets themselves sure can earn Achievements but no such secrets that are on the same level as easter eggs. The thing in SAB was really unnecessary and forced the players to either use a walkthrough (which should not be the case. YOu shouldn’t be forced to use a walkthrough) or to ask them to spam their bombs at every place in the whole game. (There is no other way to find the secret rooms that were hidden without any hint)

I think I mixed those “high-leveled” secrets with the actual secrets you have to figure out that are beyond the possible to be figured out if the player is trying.

Racial quests sound like a good idea.
Quests for Precursor parts are also nice.
Order quests is most likely a must have, cause you dont have to do anything with them after your personal story.
And I also agree, that your quest shouldn’t conflict with other peoples quests or end up being a respawn circle.
This can be solved by instancing the actual fights.

Example: the People of a village ask you to find the bandits hideout and kill the bandit leader. You get a few hints where the bandits where running when they left, but ofc they dont know their secret lair. You also get some hints where they could be hiding ofc.
Your task now is to find the lair and enter it (-> instanced area begins like in a personal story) now you and your group can defeat the boss without killing the questobjectiv of another party.

My simple idea is, that ANet could make use of quests, hearts and events at the same time. Quests offer a lot more space for creativity and story telling while also allowing different mechanics.
completing one of those hearts is ALWAYS filling the yellow bar (and it even takes longer the more players are there….). For me, it doesnt matter if I collect 20 apples or kill 20 centaurs or 10 Weaponracks – its filling the bar, nothing more.

A very well designed quest would even offer you choices.

Take the above example:
Upon entering the Bandits hideout, the Banditleader offers you to work for him in exchange of a share of his recently stolen goods. You (or your party) can now decide if you bring the stolen goods back to the villagers, or get a share for your self and do another task for the Banditleader.

A precursor focused quest could either be a long questline rewarding your with the precursor (I dont prefer that actually) or it could offer you “parts” of a precurser which you have to combine in the mystic forge for a higher chance of getting a precursor.

This could be something like:
“Bring me a slice of the super-special-magic Tree found in Wonderland (→ find a location), the Blood of a Dragon (→ take part in one of the Dragon events) and X material Y”
The reward would be Part 1 of 4 needed to gamble for a Precursor in the MF.