Guild Wars 2

I just started a similar topic, but I got to thinking last night. Why would I ever visit the lower level maps, or create low level gear?

As players progress, most of the content in the game becomes redundant. This means there is a huge world out there that, unless new players are constantly exploring, becomes basically a waste.

I’m sure this happens with all MMO’s, but my question is whether anything can be done about it?

For example, lets say that a global story started that resulted in evil forces pushing their way into the starter areas. This of this like in Lord of the Rings when the forces of Mordor pushed their way further and further across the world.

This could mean that all current hearts, dynamic events, vistas, and POI could be slowly replaced with others. The environment could also slowly change as evil spreads. Either way, do you guys have any thoughts on what this means for the world when only the edges are worth visiting?

Well, unless I misunderstood the original goals; part of the “End Game” was being able to return to any area and play around in those zones – the downscaling meant it was to be kept at least semi challenging.

The problem is: rewards don’t scale. As a level 80 with a 100% map clear, I was rather annoyed when clearing some areas and getting coppers and low level items – yet my out going costs (WPs, repairs for that Ooops moment… and the Charr Effigies that humbled me quickly O.O ) were scaled to 80.

Unless the scale the rewards to match the level of the player like they do the costs; then I agree. There’s no reason at all to return to low level areas.
Some might argue “For Fun” – but a person can not dictate what another person finds fun, so it’s an empty suggestion. I find getting shinnies fun; so no shinnies means a dull night. /shrug

GW2 is better about this than just about any other MMO I’ve played, in that you can still play in and rewarded by zones that are lower level than you are.

It’s not quite there yet where it doesn’t matter what zone you’re adventuring in, but hopefully we’re getting there. Event rewards need to be scaled to player level instead of zone level, for example (the chests are already scaled to player level, I believe).

Oddly enough, one of the few games I can think of that did this better than GW2 is GW1, which had a hard mode for every zone that changed enemy levels to be much higher, and also updated their tactics so as to provide a greater challenge to the player.

That’s probably not possible in the main world in GW2—GW1’s zones were instanced for each player/party—but who knows for story instances and dungeons and stuff.

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

For example, lets say that a global story started that resulted in evil forces pushing their way into the starter areas. This of this like in Lord of the Rings when the forces of Mordor pushed their way further and further across the world.

This could mean that all current hearts, dynamic events, vistas, and POI could be slowly replaced with others. The environment could also slowly change as evil spreads. Either way, do you guys have any thoughts on what this means for the world when only the edges are worth visiting?

Personally, I would love so see ANet switch it up with the hearts and stuff in the future, but considering that stuff counts toward your 100% completion, there could be some major technical issues with that on their end. I’m thinking the most we’ll see for a while in terms of open-world PvE will be new and changed dynamic events.

But I’m not really seeing the whole “only the edges are worth visiting” stuff. I’ve been working my way down through the Norn starting era through the Shiverpeaks as a level 80 and I’ve been having a blast.

I would love to see DE chains that span multiple maps. For example, a large-scale invasion from Orr, that, if unchecked, pillages Lion’s Arch. Unfortunately, I don’t think this could ever happen because GW2’s world is not monolithic, it is divided into large instances we call “maps”. This cannot be implemented in the current model because you have to account for overflows, which are shared between servers; The state of the event might be different on each server, and on each overflow. During such global events, the areas would be crowded with people, forcing some to overflow and making them see a different event state than what they where at before. This is a huge drawback of the non-monolithic world map. Sadly, we’ll most likely never see epic DE’s that span several maps.