Hello, I like quest chains the most in GW2s Open World but I think there should be a way to catch up with the story it is trying to tell.
There is this box under the achievement tab that have a small recap on what’s happening in the meta event right now. I think that should be expanded to make the story more grokkable:
Add a button that open the map like a scout and shows a moving progression of the current meta event or better yet use either actual scout-like NPC or those characters that come crying asking you for help.
Just add a “Tell me the whole situation”dialog option that will recap the whole meta or quest chain until the current situation
Let’s take “The battle for Fort Salma” meta/quest chain as an example the NPC will open t map and show:
- (Fort Salma gets boxed, marking the start of the event chain)
- Centaurs have pushed the Seraph back to Fort Salma but the siege has been broken ! Lieutenant Gregorie then led a force of seraph and volonteers to take Wellwatcher camp.
- (an arrow points to Wellwatcher camp, map panning to follow it, Wellwatcher camp gets circled)
- Lieutenant Gregorie Drove the centaurs out of the camp
- (a Shield icon appears)
- And repealed their reinforcement for the sake of Fort Salma !
- (Arrow, Panning Map, boss icon appears)
- He then led the Seraph to the Harathi’s Overlord camp and took out their lieutenants
- (Big Red boss icon, either the redness or the bigness marking the end of this chain maybe add a pulse to show that the event is currently happening)
- He is currently fighting the Harathi Overlord! Sergeant Talbert is there too, and need as much help as they can !
Now I think you can imagine what that would look like at different states and how better written it could be. Also the text should reflect failed events as well.
You can also imagine tracking completion per account/character, adding achievements for doing every steps at least once, adding different icons, like a darkened chest at the end showing that a unique reward waits at the end, an opened chest that show that you already got the reward, etc…
The point is to use signals to inform us players that we are on a quest chain and where we are in that story, as well as “stick around this story is not over yet”, also it makes me want to follow Lieutenant Gregorie as he is kind of a leader, that is to say those Side Characters get more fleshed out so I get more engrossed in the lore.
It could be as short as the Shaemoor Garrison and Scaver Plateau’s mini story ecosystem or as long as The Temple of Grenth’s Assault.
We get directions, progression, completion and closure.
Then we can really say “Been there. Done that”.
Thanks for reading
