Guild Wars 2

Let’s start with our personal story. At the end we could witness Orr being cleansed but as soon as we left the instance, everything went back to normal. Especially now it would be too much work to revamp every Orr map. This would also mean we needed 2 different instances for each map. But right now it feels like your hard work didn’t change anything in Orr.

A much more up-to-date topic is the new season of the current living world. At the end of the second episode Aurene hatched. But if you're trying to visit her in the open world you'll stumble upon the egg again. So it seems like we're time travelers now! Of course there will be some parts of the game that can't be changed (Mordremoth is dead, so should we shut down Dragon's Stand? I don't think so). But smaller details such as the egg should be possible to work out. Will we need instanced maps to solve this problem?

TL;DR: There’s no actual progression in the open world maps compared to the (same) instanced maps in the story. Will we have instanced open world maps in the future?

WoW did something similar if I recall, where quest actions reflected on maps. They had to use special instancing for it but it’s possible. If ANet has the money or resources to do the same thing is a question to be answered.

Something I saw back in the old days of EQ1, before I quit, were ‘random’ dungeons. I’d like to see those as well. They weren’t so much random as a group of 20-30 connectable dungeon map sections randomly set together in each new instance so they at least had the appearance of being random. Regular players that ran a dungeon 5x a day would learn it by heart, but occasional dungeoneers would come into a new (and mildly confusing) map each time.

The original Guild Wars had instanced maps. The GW2 team decided to go away from that route in GW 2.

The Devs already commented on phasing, if that’s what is being referenced.

Also, OP might be interested in the latest Guild Chat; the Devs talk a bit about how maps can now show different things to individual players, at the same time.

Good luck.

Gryphon.2875:

The original Guild Wars had instanced maps. The GW2 team decided to go away from that route in GW 2.

I know, I’ve played both Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2. But simply saying “we did it back then but we won’t do it anymore” won’t solve the problem.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

The Devs already commented on phasing, if that’s what is being referenced.
Also, OP might be interested in the latest Guild Chat; the Devs talk a bit about how maps can now show different things to individual players, at the same time.
Good luck.

What did they say about phasing?
To the Guild Chat: If that is the case, it would be interesting to see how it worked out. Do you mean the Guild Chat which started 13 hours ago or the one before that?

Yakubyogami.7586:

WoW did something similar if I recall, where quest actions reflected on maps. They had to use special instancing for it but it’s possible. If ANet has the money or resources to do the same thing is a question to be answered.

Something I saw back in the old days of EQ1, before I quit, were ‘random’ dungeons. I’d like to see those as well. They weren’t so much random as a group of 20-30 connectable dungeon map sections randomly set together in each new instance so they at least had the appearance of being random. Regular players that ran a dungeon 5x a day would learn it by heart, but occasional dungeoneers would come into a new (and mildly confusing) map each time.

Runescape did this as well for their dungeons and I’m not even sure it is possible to see every single combination they could come out with. There were many different rooms with many different systems to them. Combat ones, trap/mechanic ones etc and they were adding new rooms all the time.

When Anet first announced Fractals this is what I was hoping for but it was not.

All they gotta do is google Runescape, maybe make a free account there and go in and play dungeons (if you can, I don’t recall if a free account could do dungeons) to get an idea. Something like that here would be an awesome addition and I am sure Anet could do it far, far, far better!

As to the topic at hand and the OP. I have mentioned upon this in the past as well and I too am disappointed with how it is. Perhaps maybe a new map or 2 in Orr could make some good on this? A map that IS cleaned up after Zhaitan is dead and HAS changed. This could bring a whole new breath of fresh air to the story and this area of the map. The same could then be done perhaps to other areas in the game?

The “ley line anomalies” that spawn randomly around the maps are all based on the client. So maybe they are testing some new tech about phasing?

Having multiple maps dependent on where you are in the story line would split the player base and could cause immersion problems.

If there are 2 Orr maps and if having the post Orr map requires having the story done on that character then not only does it force people to do the storyline to the end on every single level 80 they have if they want access for all, but people who haven’t done the story on that char can’t play with those who have. Or it forces them not to do the story on that char if they don’t want to be switched over. If it’s account wide then you’ll have chars that haven’t done the story and who have post Orr maps, which breaks immersion for a lot of people. Plus, not everyone is going to want to be moved over to a new map after finishing the story. Maybe they like the events on the old map better or like the way it looks.

I looked through more than a dozen Google-search pages, but I could not find the quote from the Dev about phasing. It explained why they can’t or won’t use it in GW2. Sorry.

As for the Guild Chat, it’s the most recent one…September 30th.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Having multiple maps dependent on where you are in the story line would split the player base and could cause immersion problems.

It’s the opposite of that, we need different maps to prevent immersion problems. As I said you’ll finish your personal story, seeing all those plants grow in the cutscene and as soon as you leave the instance, Orr just looks the same as before. That is immersion breaking.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

If there are 2 Orr maps and if having the post Orr map requires having the story done on that character then not only does it force people to do the storyline to the end on every single level 80 they have if they want access for all, but people who haven’t done the story on that char can’t play with those who have. Or it forces them not to do the story on that char if they don’t want to be switched over.

You’re right, that would be like Ascalon pre- and post-Searing. Maybe we don’t need to go all the way because the events would have to be changed accordingly to Zhaitan’ s death. Maybe it would be possible to remove the depressing foggy weather in Malchor’s Leap e.g. and let the sun shine through again, also add some smaller details such as some plants growing. That could be done client based without changing the maps completely.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Plus, not everyone is going to want to be moved over to a new map after finishing the story. Maybe they like the events on the old map better or like the way it looks.

Changing maps after you’ve done a certain story would just show progress along the story. Actually everything a living story is about (like the destroyed Lion’s Arch, Kessex Hills, etc.).

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I looked through more than a dozen Google-search pages, but I could not find the quote from the Dev about phasing. It explained why they can’t or won’t use it in GW2. Sorry.

As for the Guild Chat, it’s the most recent one…September 30th.

Thank you, I’ll look it up ASAP.

maddoctor.2738:

The “ley line anomalies” that spawn randomly around the maps are all based on the client. So maybe they are testing some new tech about phasing?

If I remember correctly my friends and I were able to see the same anomalies, so it’s probably map based, but I’m not sure about that.

Tekey.7946:

maddoctor.2738:

The “ley line anomalies” that spawn randomly around the maps are all based on the client. So maybe they are testing some new tech about phasing?

If I remember correctly my friends and I were able to see the same anomalies, so it’s probably map based, but I’m not sure about that.

You can’t see the same ones because they are client-based, not server based. I’ve seen them in Heart of the Mists and nobody else could see them, I’ve seen them even during Raids and nobody else could see them. Maybe some open world versions are server-based, or it was just luck that you saw the same one as someone else.

Changing maps after you’ve done a certain story would just show progress along the story. Actually everything a living story is about (like the destroyed Lion’s Arch, Kessex Hills, etc.).

That’s how it works when it’s changing live but if it’s story based it’s different. You can’t have a “living” story for everyone that is also based on YOUR story progress. Imagine what would happen in a zone once the majority of the playerbase passes that point in the story and newer players can’t see anyone to play with.

Tekey.7946:

Let’s start with our personal story. At the end we could witness Orr being cleansed but as soon as we left the instance, everything went back to normal. Especially now it would be too much work to revamp every Orr map. This would also mean we needed 2 different instances for each map. But right now it feels like your hard work didn’t change anything in Orr.

A much more up-to-date topic is the new season of the current living world. At the end of the second episode Aurene hatched. But if you're trying to visit her in the open world you'll stumble upon the egg again. So it seems like we're time travelers now! Of course there will be some parts of the game that can't be changed (Mordremoth is dead, so should we shut down Dragon's Stand? I don't think so). But smaller details such as the egg should be possible to work out. Will we need instanced maps to solve this problem?

TL;DR: There’s no actual progression in the open world maps compared to the (same) instanced maps in the story. Will we have instanced open world maps in the future?

THIS!
I pointed it out many times before, if they want to give us a “living world” then give us consistency in the world too, if not it all feels fake.
And I want to see Aurene because she is so cuuuuteee!

maddoctor.2738:

Tekey.7946:

Changing maps after you’ve done a certain story would just show progress along the story. Actually everything a living story is about (like the destroyed Lion’s Arch, Kessex Hills, etc.).

That’s how it works when it’s changing live but if it’s story based it’s different. You can’t have a “living” story for everyone that is also based on YOUR story progress. Imagine what would happen in a zone once the majority of the playerbase passes that point in the story and newer players can’t see anyone to play with.

That’s the problem we’re discussing right now, as I said earlier maybe they don’t need to work out 2 completely different maps. And again: not changing anything and leaving it as it is right now isn’t a solution either. Everything has its negative points to it. But as you say: The majority of players would’ve done the story at some point. So it would be logical to adapt the maps to the majority of players.

The majority of players might have done the story to the end, but not the majority of characters. I have 10 level 80s and I know that 9 of them are highly unlikely to ever do the full personal story. Too long, I’ve done it once already and doing it again and again and again and again isn’t worth my time. I have a feeling that a lot of people have not done the story all the way through for more than a couple of their characters, and they may never do it. It would be immersion breaking for many people if most of their chars had the post Orr map when those chars hadn’t finished the story.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

The majority of players might have done the story to the end, but not the majority of characters. I have 10 level 80s and I know that 9 of them are highly unlikely to ever do the full personal story. Too long, I’ve done it once already and doing it again and again and again and again isn’t worth my time. I have a feeling that a lot of people have not done the story all the way through for more than a couple of their characters, and they may never do it. It would be immersion breaking for many people if most of their chars had the post Orr map when those chars hadn’t finished the story.

In that case they could just give us the opportunity to choose. If you already finished the story with 1 character, you know what happened and how you got there. Then you could choose whether your new character should start directly at the post-cleansed Orr map or not. That way, you’re not forced to play it through over and over again but still got the opportunity to play it through for immersion reasons (if you’re a roleplayer e.g.).

It is much more immersion breaking if there’s no cleansed Orr map at all – so no player ever had the chance to see what it looks like after the story. It’s even worse with the current living world episode – as I said it’s like we’re time travelers. The events simply didn’t take place in the open world.

Tekey.7946:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

The majority of players might have done the story to the end, but not the majority of characters. I have 10 level 80s and I know that 9 of them are highly unlikely to ever do the full personal story. Too long, I’ve done it once already and doing it again and again and again and again isn’t worth my time. I have a feeling that a lot of people have not done the story all the way through for more than a couple of their characters, and they may never do it. It would be immersion breaking for many people if most of their chars had the post Orr map when those chars hadn’t finished the story.

In that case they could just give us the opportunity to choose. If you already finished the story with 1 character, you know what happened and how you got there. Then you could choose whether your new character should start directly at the post-cleansed Orr map or not. That way, you’re not forced to play it through over and over again but still got the opportunity to play it through for immersion reasons (if you’re a roleplayer e.g.).

It is much more immersion breaking if there’s no cleansed Orr map at all – so no player ever had the chance to see what it looks like after the story. It’s even worse with the current living world episode – as I said it’s like we’re time travelers. The events simply didn’t take place in the open world.

Exactly what Tekey says:

Now I HAVE done the PS on all 9 of my main chars as well as all the LS and etc. Now here’s a funny tidbit for you. warning spoilers follow regarding the newest LS:

So how’s that for an example? However I would still prefer they added my idea instead. Just give us a couple more new maps for these areas AFTER the fact so they can be consistent with the stories (well in the example of Orr at least anyway as I think this is important).

Paulytnz.7619:

Exactly what Tekey says:

Now I HAVE done the PS on all 9 of my main chars as well as all the LS and etc. Now here’s a funny tidbit for you. warning spoilers follow regarding the newest LS:

Show Spoiler

hide spoiler

When taking my alts through the latest LS after my main had done it. Speaking to the ringmaster at the circus BEFORE being up to that part of the story let me enter the area where the 3rd machine thing is. Thus people, if you have alts you can speak to the ringmaster on them and glide from there to take apples to Hal without even needing to do the story on them!

So how’s that for an example? However I would still prefer they added my idea instead. Just give us a couple more new maps for these areas AFTER the fact so they can be consistent with the stories (well in the example of Orr at least anyway as I think this is important).

Anyway, they had 4 years to do something with Orr and unfortunately we didn’t get any update on that.

I just hope they’ll take care of the living world problem I described because it’s much more recent. It would be plainly disappointing if they didn’t. As Dantert said everything would feel fake. Why should you care about the things happening in the story if they don’t even exist correspondingly in the open world?

I don´t know if it is possible or makes sense, but I would welcome a slightly greener Orr with different quests, Risen driven back from Caledon(not vanished, driven deeper back) and some Mordrem replaced with Mushroom, Itzel, Chak, Inquest or Nightmare court in areas that are not vital for the metas.

I mean just look at the escort event in Orr. This event is made to fail on purpose for years now. That is neither heroic or replayability, it´s a farm.

Even with Orr cleansed, it’d probably take over 100 years to clean out the Risen population and for nature to return. In the meantime, the most they’d do is add some plant life, doing minor updates like they used to do during season 1.

GW2 has a live story. It doesn’t matter what you’ve personally played through, you were the commander and Zhaitan is considered dead. Playing through the personal story now is reliving past events. Any updates would be for everyone; that’s something they specifically wanted with the living world concept. A fully cleansed map would be rather void however, so they’d have to do something like replacing everything Risen with the ghosts of Orr, likely turning the zone into a reenactment of the Charr invasion. It would essentially be the exact same, just with ghosts and some dialogue.

Paulytnz.7619:

Tekey.7946:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

The majority of players might have done the story to the end, but not the majority of characters. I have 10 level 80s and I know that 9 of them are highly unlikely to ever do the full personal story. Too long, I’ve done it once already and doing it again and again and again and again isn’t worth my time. I have a feeling that a lot of people have not done the story all the way through for more than a couple of their characters, and they may never do it. It would be immersion breaking for many people if most of their chars had the post Orr map when those chars hadn’t finished the story.

In that case they could just give us the opportunity to choose. If you already finished the story with 1 character, you know what happened and how you got there. Then you could choose whether your new character should start directly at the post-cleansed Orr map or not. That way, you’re not forced to play it through over and over again but still got the opportunity to play it through for immersion reasons (if you’re a roleplayer e.g.).

It is much more immersion breaking if there’s no cleansed Orr map at all – so no player ever had the chance to see what it looks like after the story. It’s even worse with the current living world episode – as I said it’s like we’re time travelers. The events simply didn’t take place in the open world.

Exactly what Tekey says:

Now I HAVE done the PS on all 9 of my main chars as well as all the LS and etc. Now here’s a funny tidbit for you. warning spoilers follow regarding the newest LS:

Show Spoiler

hide spoiler

When taking my alts through the latest LS after my main had done it. Speaking to the ringmaster at the circus BEFORE being up to that part of the story let me enter the area where the 3rd machine thing is. Thus people, if you have alts you can speak to the ringmaster on them and glide from there to take apples to Hal without even needing to do the story on them!

So how’s that for an example? However I would still prefer they added my idea instead. Just give us a couple more new maps for these areas AFTER the fact so they can be consistent with the stories (well in the example of Orr at least anyway as I think this is important).

Are you sure that’s the requirement for the Ringmaster? I’m sure I used characters that had already done the story completely. I thought it was if you had purchased a ticket, but I’m not sure; I always purchase tickets, regardless.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Paulytnz.7619:

Tekey.7946:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

The majority of players might have done the story to the end, but not the majority of characters. I have 10 level 80s and I know that 9 of them are highly unlikely to ever do the full personal story. Too long, I’ve done it once already and doing it again and again and again and again isn’t worth my time. I have a feeling that a lot of people have not done the story all the way through for more than a couple of their characters, and they may never do it. It would be immersion breaking for many people if most of their chars had the post Orr map when those chars hadn’t finished the story.

In that case they could just give us the opportunity to choose. If you already finished the story with 1 character, you know what happened and how you got there. Then you could choose whether your new character should start directly at the post-cleansed Orr map or not. That way, you’re not forced to play it through over and over again but still got the opportunity to play it through for immersion reasons (if you’re a roleplayer e.g.).

It is much more immersion breaking if there’s no cleansed Orr map at all – so no player ever had the chance to see what it looks like after the story. It’s even worse with the current living world episode – as I said it’s like we’re time travelers. The events simply didn’t take place in the open world.

Exactly what Tekey says:

Now I HAVE done the PS on all 9 of my main chars as well as all the LS and etc. Now here’s a funny tidbit for you. warning spoilers follow regarding the newest LS:

Show Spoiler

hide spoiler

When taking my alts through the latest LS after my main had done it. Speaking to the ringmaster at the circus BEFORE being up to that part of the story let me enter the area where the 3rd machine thing is. Thus people, if you have alts you can speak to the ringmaster on them and glide from there to take apples to Hal without even needing to do the story on them!

So how’s that for an example? However I would still prefer they added my idea instead. Just give us a couple more new maps for these areas AFTER the fact so they can be consistent with the stories (well in the example of Orr at least anyway as I think this is important).

Are you sure that’s the requirement for the Ringmaster? I’m sure I used characters that had already done the story completely. I thought it was if you had purchased a ticket, but I’m not sure; I always purchase tickets, regardless.

TBH I’m not so sure now. I was in game a few hours ago on my main and I couldn’t get back to that place again, speaking to her she has totally new dialogue. Perhaps they added it in with the last patch?

I do know that I did buy a ticket but it was in my bank when I did my LS on all of my alts.

All my tickets are always in the bank, as the vendor does not require you to have them in hand.

We have access to instanced version of Rata Novus from Ember Bay. W/O need to start story. That place show what actually happens there. If there will be vanquishing of Orr or something like that it may come as full instanced map.

Update: I found the part of the last Guild Chat Inculpatus cedo mentioned.

Now here’s what’s going on technically in the Rising Flames open world story, Aaron Roxby, Game Designer saying:

• We do have the abilty to set things so that only a specific player who’s interacting with it can hear it or see it.

• As you turn off the machines – (when you go through the story) – the skulls on the central volcano actually go out one by one just for you. Depending on which machines you turned on and off different skulls will be lit on that central volcano. You can see it best when you do the circus step if you watch the skull that’s right in front of you as you stand on that cliff it’ll go out and it’ll erupt also.

• The eruptions also are only – depending on where you are in the story you’ll see different eruptions than a different player.

• When you talk to any quest NPC you should be the only one who hears it.

Now that’s exactly the technology we need in order to solve those problems. The players who didn't finish the story yet should see the egg standing in Tarir, for other players there's Aurene sitting on the platform.