Guild Wars 2

I think dungeons have two major problems, aside from loot and difficulty:

-Story mode isn’t worth replaying
-There’s no incentive for doing all the explorable mode routes

To fix this, I think it would be nice to have some kind of reward for players that complete all routes, like some special content, like a new shorter bonus round with special loot.

How would it work?

Below “story mode” and “explorable mode” there would be a new locked mode, “bonus mode”. Next to the button for it, we would see a 0/4. To make it 4/4 and unlock it, we would need to complete the story mode and all the explorable paths.

Only one member of the team needs to have the bonus mode unlocked to let the entire group in, but once everyone’s inside, the entire team’s progress will reset to 0/4 with the bonus mode locked once again, and you won’t be able to invite new players if someone leaves the group.

The progress wouldn’t be daily, so you could do one of the four runs in four different days, and still unlock the bonus mode the last day.

Why a new mode?

The obvious answer to this problem could be giving away some extra loot and tokens, like it’s already done with the daily fractals chest, and even add some dungeon-unique items, too (in line with the unique boss drops added recently). However, I don’t think this is “encouraging enough”, and also, it could leave a lot of people out. Dungeons can be long, and not everyone would be able to work for this reward.

This bonus mode needs to be a goal you can reach no matter the time you dedicate to it. Some hardcore players could reach it twice in a day, while more casual players could unlock it over an entire week. Those who reach it more often will access its reward more times, but the bonus mode remains accessible for everyone no matter the dedication.

Any example?

Yeah. Let’s try Ascalonian Catacombs, using some Ghosts of Ascalon novel lore (beware spoilers). With the place safe, the Durmand Priory would move into the treasure chamber. Dougal Keane would accompany us, together with Ember Doomforge and Gullik Oddsson, who would lend a hand, interested on recovering Kranxx’s body.

There would be some ghosts guarding the entrance, and we would trigger a cinematic where they would tell us about their mission to “keep the chamber and its monster sealed”, with some puzzle to open the door.

After defeating them and getting inside, we would find a reformed King Adelbern performing a ritual, together with the ghost of Riona Grady and the subjugated ghost of Kranxx. Adelbern would run away, leaving Riona to fight us (miniboss).

Once dispatched, Kranxx would tell us about Adelbern bringing him and Riona back to discover how the Golem’s Eye worked, planning to empower it with ghost energy to create a monster to slaughter the enemies of Ascalon. Next room, we would fight the oversized bone golem (boss).

In structure, this bonus mode would follow the basic fractal structure of miniboss + boss, with the boss being a big thing, similar to the Jade Maw.

More examples?

The bonus modes work well as a consistent finale for the dungeon, but they could work as preludes or just important events going on long before the current events, too, even not necessarily happening at the location of the dungeon itself.

As finales, we could fight a wounded Zhaitan face to face in Arah, recovering in his underground lair (we didn’t kill him 100% on the story mode), or face a huge destroyer dragon summoned by the surviving dredge tyrants and Inquest on Sorrow’s Embrace, who could turn to be the reason the Inquest were there to being with.

As preludes, we could fight as Sons of Svanir and invade Honor of the Waves, or help Kalla Scorchrazor defeat the Flame Legion at the Plains of Golghein.

Sounds good, I like the idea of having more reasons to run a dungeon properly

Well, we have dungeon master yet, and a bar filling as completed when story+all exp are done. The extra stage would give a sense to even do story+exp all paths to the player, but this is design. Something lacking here, most who don’t care of a dungeon if not for a particular task, don’t even waste time for story, let’s not mention exp. Lore talking “Why would i? Do i have a reason to do all paths? Something change maybe, do i have a reason to do it? Nah, let’s do the easier, token done, move out, ask that guy if he did story when you invite him”
I like your idea.

Making progress be player-tied and not group-tied is good, too, since it doesn’t force you to stick with a group.

Right now, trying to do some paths is impossible. People don’t find them effective. For example, Citadel of Flame, no one ever does the third route, but people usually repeat 1 and 2 for a second time. And once they’re done, they go farm another classic dungeon or just go fractals.

Same with The Ruined City of Arah, people only do the Seer path, and it’s impossible to find anyone willing to try the other paths. I’ve been trying to find groups for a long time.

Of course, those paths need to be fixed to make them better, because some of them are just plain ridiculous. My idea focus on making sure people will complete all of them, and not just the easiest ones.

Bonus mode would be nice if it cointains results of designers’ brainstorm, some unused ideas, more pop-culture references, randomly triggering easter-eggs and jokes. In every RPG I’m seeking such stuff, I’d like to see more of it in GW2 dungeons, just like in specific locations in classic RPGs, which are mostly some caves/dungeons

Orissa.1872:

Bonus mode would be nice if it cointains results of designers’ brainstorm, some unused ideas, more pop-culture references, randomly triggering easter-eggs and jokes. In every RPG I’m seeking such stuff, I’d like to see more of it in GW2 dungeons, just like in specific locations in classic RPGs, which are mostly some caves/dungeons

That’s not what I’m talking about :/.

I guesss he was Ironically pointing how pathetic the actual design is

This isn’t a good idea.

You would split people even more. Today, players are split between 25 dungeon paths (the “classic” dungeons) and the 30+ Fractal dungeons. Adding a bonus mode would make people split among even more options, making it harder to find groups. At this moment, ArenaNet should not add more dungeons to the game.

Your idea would also not fix the issue you complain about. People would not magically begin doing all dungeons – they would just pick the easiest one and do it over and over. There would be a lot of groups for AC bonus mode, and no groups for CoE bonus mode. If the longest dungeons were given a bigger reward, people would still find the single dungeon most efficient to farm and do it over and over, ignoring everything else.

What would the solution be, then? Unique drops per dungeons? That’s pretty much what already is in place, considering the unique skins and stats available from dungeons, and people still never do most of them.

Lonami.2987:

Making progress be player-tied and not group-tied is good, too, since it doesn’t force you to stick with a group.

Right now, trying to do some paths is impossible. People don’t find them effective. For example, Citadel of Flame, no one ever does the third route, but people usually repeat 1 and 2 for a second time. And once they’re done, they go farm another classic dungeon or just go fractals.

Same with The Ruined City of Arah, people only do the Seer path, and it’s impossible to find anyone willing to try the other paths. I’ve been trying to find groups for a long time.

Of course, those paths need to be fixed to make them better, because some of them are just plain ridiculous. My idea focus on making sure people will complete all of them, and not just the easiest ones.

What do you mean people only do Seer? Seer is the biggest pain in the kitten path in the game. Everyone does Forgotten. :P

@Lonami

Not exactly, however unused ideas are often pretty much about the dungeon lore. What comes to my mind is CoE. Order of Whispers agent is pointing that path 3 is the way we’ve got to the point we were escaping from. But what for we were even going there? It’s only said to stop inquest foolness, but noone knows what exactly happend there. I’m sure designers were talking about it at some stage. Some of their ideas might be plain stupid or funny/interesting. That’s what I’m talking about. CoE brainstorm could result in some sci-fi pop-culture references. Hey, do you remember […] from this show/game? It would kinda fit in here, let’s make […]

We’ve got only 1 official feature of this kind, unnamed fractal with raving asura. This is result of foolish brainstorm, it’s not even fail, it’s something funny. Fits the game lore much enough and brings some references, like old Tom from cartoon, crazy rave parties…

I know you’d like to see something purely based on the game lore, however I’m finding it boring. Easter-eggs in some special places are much more appreciate, they’re funny and more interesting. As in every RPG, let’s leave the lore for basic content and put something extraordinary in bonus content. This is the magnet of bonus content. Not rewards it’s giving, just the content itself

I don’t want to play a joke-game, thank you.

Vayra.3290:

What do you mean people only do Seer? Seer is the biggest pain in the kitten path in the game. Everyone does Forgotten. :P

Yeah, my mistake :P xD.

i find it strange also that there are dungeon paths harder than others while the tokens or gold or loot reward is the same or even smaller than other paths. They really need to come up with something to give the incentive to players to do all those harder paths. For example i like CoE (despite subject alpha being bugged 70% of the time…) and i like path 3, because it is harder and different, and i like the reaction of players that have never tried this path before when we start on that boss who is surrounded by lava (with the lasers..). I often say “hey, let’s do p3” just to lure the players to that boss ! I like the fact that with this boss the players have to do different things (but i agree activating lasers is the most boring thing on earth and that is why i always go down to the boss).

So, good idea, we need a way to give the players the incentive to do story again and all paths.

I second the idea of a bonus path. Some players who usually do only one or two path may do the third to unlock the bonus path.