Guild Wars 2

…require HoT to play?
I was thinking about it.

When they release the long awaited HoT,they will want to expand it,right? I don’t think they will release an expansion and just leave it there the way it was released,we must get to Mordremoth afterall,and I don’t think the map where he is will be ingame with the release of HoT,probably the map will be locked and they will unlock it with future updates.

So,I don’t think any Living Story after HoT release will take place outside of the Maguuma. And after the story in Maguuma is finished,they probably will release another expansion.

Basically,the core game (GW2) will be “dead” (not really) for everyone without expansions,right?
With (probably) only balance patches and holiday events being released for players without HoT and outside of the Maguuma jungle.

I just want to hear your opinions on this. Of course I’ll buy the expansion,it looks promising (welp,we will be able to fly,possibly like in Archeage,this is the best of both worlds since I dont like Archeage but I like their “flying” system and I love GW2)

Expecting all Living Story to be contained in Maguuma seems silly to me. Also, expecting Mordremoth won’t be the ‘final boss’ of the expansion content as released seems silly to me too!

There might still be issues with Living Story Season 3 for people who don’t have Heart of Thorns, but there should still be a good amount available in the old zones. One of the major selling points of doing no level cap increase and horizontal progression is that the old zones don’t get invalidated by new content. Now, some parts of the story will go into the new zones, I’m sure, and I don’t know how they’d handle that for those without the expansion, but expecting all Living Story to be cut off for them isn’t realistic, I don’t think.

It really depends on how they gate the content. Just looking at how they handle the Digital Deluxe Edition, the gem store, and Season 2, I think it might look something like this:

Mastery system: free for all. The caveat here is that masteries are map-specific, Colin explained gliding would break the old maps, so they’re making different masteries for those instead. If you don’t have HoT, you’ll still be able to get masteries for the old maps, but you won’t for HoT content (which you wouldn’t be able to access normally anyway). The basis of this thought is that it simplifies the process of introducing masteries for subsequent expansions and/or updates.

Specialization system: free for all. The caveat being it’s the system that’s free for all, not the first series of specializations; subsequent expansions and updates (which may have free periods like Season 2 chapters did) will introduce more specializations. Reasoning is the same with the mastery system, easier to just enable the system for everyone and gate individual add-ons to it.

HoT Specializations: included in HoT package, gem store purchase otherwise. No idea if this would be selling specializations individually or as a “Wave 1” package.

New Revenant class: HoT exclusive. Like the Mistfire Wolf elite skill it’ll be the thing that will always tempt you to get the expansion, even if it’s not necessary.

New maps (PvE, PvP, WvW): included in HoT package, gem store purchase otherwise. This would give people the option to get to the new maps without paying the full expansion price, but at the expense of not having automatic access to the HoT specializations and Revenant class. It will let you access any LW updates there though.

Guild halls: dependent on access to new maps? The guild halls apparently will be in the new areas, so maybe you can only access them if you can access the new maps.

pretty sure the hot addon finishes the mordremoth chapter of the story and coming living story parts will aim for other dragons, so the north or crystal waste could be the new targets

Xiahou Mao.9701:

Expecting all Living Story to be contained in Maguuma seems silly to me. Also, expecting Mordremoth won’t be the ‘final boss’ of the expansion content as released seems silly to me too!

Not necessarily ‘silly’ we all kinda thought that Mordy might be the final boss of S2. But I’d say it’s a good bet that HoT will finished the Maguuma + Mordy narrative and if there is to be a S3 it will follow a similar format to S2 in that it will lead into a new expansion. We might get a few new zones out of S3, maybe revisit a few old zones (similar to Tower of Nightmare, or Marionette) see them updates and a few plot threads resolved that lead us to the next expansion.
On an unrelated noted, I’d love to go to the Blood Legion homelands next. Although I guess everyone else wants to go to Cantha. There were a few hints at he start of S2 that the Pack was planning on going for Primo.

Pandaman.4758:

It really depends on how they gate the content. Just looking at how they handle the Digital Deluxe Edition, the gem store, and Season 2, I think it might look something like this:

Mastery system: free for all. The caveat here is that masteries are map-specific, Colin explained gliding would break the old maps, so they’re making different masteries for those instead. If you don’t have HoT, you’ll still be able to get masteries for the old maps, but you won’t for HoT content (which you wouldn’t be able to access normally anyway). The basis of this thought is that it simplifies the process of introducing masteries for subsequent expansions and/or updates.

Specialization system: free for all. The caveat being it’s the system that’s free for all, not the first series of specializations; subsequent expansions and updates (which may have free periods like Season 2 chapters did) will introduce more specializations. Reasoning is the same with the mastery system, easier to just enable the system for everyone and gate individual add-ons to it.

HoT Specializations: included in HoT package, gem store purchase otherwise. No idea if this would be selling specializations individually or as a “Wave 1” package.

New Revenant class: HoT exclusive. Like the Mistfire Wolf elite skill it’ll be the thing that will always tempt you to get the expansion, even if it’s not necessary.

New maps (PvE, PvP, WvW): included in HoT package, gem store purchase otherwise. This would give people the option to get to the new maps without paying the full expansion price, but at the expense of not having automatic access to the HoT specializations and Revenant class. It will let you access any LW updates there though.

Guild halls: dependent on access to new maps? The guild halls apparently will be in the new areas, so maybe you can only access them if you can access the new maps.

I’m not sure how much they’d actually throw into the gemstore or bundle with HoT. If we take the Ranger specialisation Druid it sounds like something you’d only be able to unlock of you had access to Maguuma Jungle (because thats where the Druids were running around in GW1). So if specialisation are related to so sort of a quest or series of events then you wouldn’t be able to easily put it on the gemstore or make freely available.
As for WvW that’s seems like the sort of thing you’d want everyone to be able to access (you wouldn’t like to segment the WvW playerbase). The same goes for Guild Halls, it’s a pretty nice feature for the game overall, so saying “no you need HoT to join your guildies” would probably be a bit of a turn off.

CureForLiving.5360:

I’m not sure how much they’d actually throw into the gemstore or bundle with HoT. If we take the Ranger specialisation Druid it sounds like something you’d only be able to unlock of you had access to Maguuma Jungle (because thats where the Druids were running around in GW1). So if specialisation are related to so sort of a quest or series of events then you wouldn’t be able to easily put it on the gemstore or make freely available.
As for WvW that’s seems like the sort of thing you’d want everyone to be able to access (you wouldn’t like to segment the WvW playerbase). The same goes for Guild Halls, it’s a pretty nice feature for the game overall, so saying “no you need HoT to join your guildies” would probably be a bit of a turn off.

Fair points, so it could be that the maps are free for all, but the initial specializations and Revenant will only be accessible if you have HoT; guild halls would also be free for all, but only offer limited services to people who don’t have HoT (maybe in the form of additional building options).

I get the feeling that initial GW2 maps will become the hub maps for all future expansions and much of the LW will still be present in these zones. Each expansion will then be a standalone season in it’s own right with the story gated in some way, and once that story is complete they will kickstart livingworld season 3 after the climax of the HOT story, taking place in areas back in the olds zones leading up to a new expansion etc, bringing in another dragon, specialisation and story arch.

I think it is still vauge what they will do and we have to wait for the beta to see the nature of this expansion. However, I do believe that they already have plans as where the game will be going from now on. Anet seemed to have been trying alot of different things during the last 2 years. I would await them though to settle on specific models from now on and focus on expanding the game content-wise.

Assume everything new will require HoT to play, unless specifically told otherwise.

The only thing I can definitely see as being free for everyone is the new WvW map, and only because they can’t shut off an entire game mode for people while it’s on in the rotation.

In Aion when the first expansion came out, you could still play the core game even if you didn’t buy the expansion. You just couldn’t enter the new areas (they were instanced just like in GW2).

You almost certainly won’t be able to experience new LS content, though. As that would undoubtedly take place in the new zone.

I feel sure that at least the next few (main) LS will be set mainly in Maguuma, similar to the past few set in Dry top and Silverwastes. but I wonder if they will add some side LS for the people that don’t buy similar to dragon bash or some type of filler-arc

ofc then again.. I’ll be purchasing HoT as soon as they put it up and maybe even a collectors edition if there are shinnies (channels inner skritt)

I think future updates will be mainly for the HoT and a few bones thrown to the base GW2.