Guild Wars 2

After Personal stories, Living story seasons, and HoT story ect.

Beating adversaries, killing dragons, restoring Orr, ect. Will we ever see a day when maps are restored, Orr full of life with no undead, ect. Or will we always be reminded of past events in never-changing maps?

I for one would like to see the changes that would occur after completing stories, ect.

What you’re asking for isn’t something that’s easy to do with an MMO with (sorta) persistent maps. People go through the game at differing paces, some starting much later than others. You can’t really make the maps match up with everyone without splitting us all up into instances like in GW1.
I honestly don’t know how Anet could do what your asking for.

It will never happen imo. What would Orr be like for a combat orientated game without the Risen? What would happen to all the skill points, the achievements, the precursor related collections, the Arah dungeon etc etc should Orr be cleaned up.

To re-do all that, plus phase it so story would be unaffected would take development time away from progressing the rest of the game for something that would look pretty, but be devoid of actually anything to do.

One idea is to phase the whole thing – pre- and post. The game will struggle enough with split population as it’s life goes on, phasing zones will only compound that.

The true Living World concept doesn’t exist, nor has it ever. The World changes no more as a result of our story and actions than it does in other MMO’s. It would be fascinating to see such an idea come to fruition, but I’m not sure an MMO is the right type of game to cope with it.

What you’re talking about would require time travel. Like, a portal to a version of the world 200 years in the future when the last dragon awakes, and our characters have to be there because we otherwise can’t be sure it will die.

Or, alternately, wait until GW3, if that’s ever a thing.

I was really excited to hear Rytlock went into the mists with his sword to stop the Ascalon ghosts at the end of LS S2….. yet the ghosts still persist after the release of the expansion.

It would have been an excellent addition to the HoT release to see the ghosts taken out once and for all, and have those areas reworked.

In GW1, they overhauled almost all of factions, replacing most of the afflicted with Ministry.

We won’t get that sort of treatment for GW2 tho it would seem….

more missed opportunities to make the game really great….. and instead its just mediocre.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

I was really excited to hear Rytlock went into the mists with his sword to stop the Ascalon ghosts at the end of LS S2….. yet the ghosts still persist after the release of the expansion.

It would have been an excellent addition to the HoT release to see the ghosts taken out once and for all, and have those areas reworked.

In GW1, they overhauled almost all of factions, replacing most of the afflicted with Ministry.

We won’t get that sort of treatment for GW2 tho it would seem….

more missed opportunities to make the game really great….. and instead its just mediocre.

First of all, Rytlock didn’t go into the Mists to get rid of the ghosts, he went into the Mists to keep from losing his sword. Yes, prior to him and his sword getting sucked into another dimension he was attempting to get rid of the ghosts via some kitten ritual…but that failed.

Secondly, GW1 was a completely instanced game, while GW2’s maps are effectively persistent. In instances you can more easily control what happens, what spawns, etc. and do so as is appropriate for how far along each player is in the story.
Getting rid of the ghost mobs not only would cause conflicts with newer players, or even newer characters, it would require re-designing many of the events, renowned hearts and even the dialog of several maps. Which would be a kitten-ton of work.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

I was really excited to hear Rytlock went into the mists with his sword to stop the Ascalon ghosts at the end of LS S2….. yet the ghosts still persist after the release of the expansion.

It would have been an excellent addition to the HoT release to see the ghosts taken out once and for all, and have those areas reworked.

In GW1, they overhauled almost all of factions, replacing most of the afflicted with Ministry.

We won’t get that sort of treatment for GW2 tho it would seem….

more missed opportunities to make the game really great….. and instead its just mediocre.

Rytlock went in to the mists because the ritual to banish the ghosts failed, and in stead attempted to swallow the sword, so he went after it. The ghosts were never banished. He just tried and failed to do so.

That said, Arenanet tried for an entire living story season to do massive permanent map changes, and people hated it and complained about removal of content.

I’m convinced we’ll see what an Orr on the mend looks like in the future, but it’ll be on a new map in some of the unexplored area of Orr, likely as a staging point on our way to the fire islands. Anet took an obvious direction in HoT of placing zones at specific points in time, just like GW1, and making the story move you through the zones in chronological order. Now that core tyria and it’s multiple optional zone paths for leveling don’t need to be a thing any more, I’d expect future releases to follow the same strictly linear time scale.

Odokuro.5049:

After Personal stories, Living story seasons, and HoT story ect.

Beating adversaries, killing dragons, restoring Orr, ect. Will we ever see a day when maps are restored, Orr full of life with no undead, ect. Or will we always be reminded of past events in never-changing maps?

I for one would like to see the changes that would occur after completing stories, ect.

Not in this iteration of Guild Wars. IIRC, the first game’s span was all of what? 1 year at best? That means GW2’s span is going to be similarly short. The PS is 1 year story time from beginning to end (at least I think it is), and given that as a base, we’ve had 2 more or so since thanks to LS1/2.

As for Orr itself, it wont be restored that quickly. Dont forget, lore-wise, Tequatl took zhaitan’s “spot” and grew in power after his defeat. That would also include the mastery over the risen.

Randulf.7614:

It will never happen imo. What would Orr be like for a combat orientated game without the Risen? What would happen to all the skill points, the achievements, the precursor related collections, the Arah dungeon etc etc should Orr be cleaned up.

To re-do all that, plus phase it so story would be unaffected would take development time away from progressing the rest of the game for something that would look pretty, but be devoid of actually anything to do.

One idea is to phase the whole thing – pre- and post. The game will struggle enough with split population as it’s life goes on, phasing zones will only compound that.

The true Living World concept doesn’t exist, nor has it ever. The World changes no more as a result of our story and actions than it does in other MMO’s. It would be fascinating to see such an idea come to fruition, but I’m not sure an MMO is the right type of game to cope with it.

Hate to slightly veer the topic off course, but this isn’t true. Ultima Online had a massive event back in the early 2000s in which the base world of Britannia came under assault by a new enemy. One of the most beloved cities, Yew, was attacked routinely during the event, and the playerbase had to go all out in order to save it (imagine if LA were attacked by Triple Trouble six times a day and you get a relative scope for the challenge). Servers that failed to protect the city found Yew permanently transformed from a charming woodland area into an ugly swamp teeming with obnoxiously powerful foes, while the city returned to its former glory on servers that succeeded.

During its prime the game also hosted routine GM and Seer events, which functioned similarly to D&D campaigns complete with branching paths: based on player participation, some servers had special buildings, exclusive items, and much more.

Aidan Savage.2078:

As for Orr itself, it wont be restored that quickly. Dont forget, lore-wise, Tequatl took zhaitan’s “spot” and grew in power after his defeat. That would also include the mastery over the risen.

Lore-wise, Tequatl has been slain. Rox brought Rytlock part of the tail, as I recall.

Which means that the power should be free again. Free to be grabbed by someone else who has some experience with death, dying, and returning. Someone able to wield such power, and command an entire country of Risen.

That’s right. Orr should fall to Mad King Thorn. We’d still have risen all over the place, and plot advancement, too.

I don’t really see this happening but I think it would be great. Especially important maps such as Orr would give you an option upon loading in if you want “past” or “present.” Similar to Pre-searing and Post-searing. Of course being able to transverse which you want.

Present Orr could have different and/or new enemies. Of course this would take a lot of work developing new enemies. It would still be cool though.

Odokuro.5049:

After Personal stories, Living story seasons, and HoT story ect.

Beating adversaries, killing dragons, restoring Orr, ect. Will we ever see a day when maps are restored, Orr full of life with no undead, ect. Or will we always be reminded of past events in never-changing maps?

I for one would like to see the changes that would occur after completing stories, ect.

I think it would be good but only for level 80 characters. Since lower level zones are in the past our powerlevels need to reflect us how we were back then, not as we are now. How else would you justify level scaling anyway? So it’d be a good idea but only if level 80 characters get to see the updated versions.

Maybe there could be a time travelling story, or some future vision crystal where we could have instances of a fully restored Orr, maybe an alternative universe in Metrica Province where they ripped the fabric of reality to where you could slip through the rift and see Orr as if it had never fallen? That might be interesting.

In theory it’s possible to do, all it would take is to use the existing story journal as a flag to set your place in tyria’s history.

Maybe one day Orr is restored to all you would have to do is progress the story to that point. If you want to play in Old Orr, just select the story step (or something similar).

RaiderZ managed to do it. Totally different game style but… I imagine it’s possible. Just not with the kitten team ANet’s got developing stuff for them right now.

Not that that game was any good, but the story was immersive because the scenes kept changing as you played. Blade and Soul manages a good deal of change too, but it is pretty instanced as well.

I’d prefer if they merely updated the area with new stuff next Living Story. And by new stuff, I mean show some plants and whatnot growing around Orr in all areas. That alone would do it for me, maybe even the clouds parting a little so we see some actual sunlight instead of dreariness. You know, the tiny things that would show us that Orr is healing, if only slowly.

The Greyhawk.9107:

What you’re asking for isn’t something that’s easy to do with an MMO with (sorta) persistent maps. People go through the game at differing paces, some starting much later than others. You can’t really make the maps match up with everyone without splitting us all up into instances like in GW1.
I honestly don’t know how Anet could do what your asking for.

Try playing ESO then come back and say it can’t be done.

Try playing recent updates to LOTRO then come back and say it can’t be done.

As it so happens I completed the Personal Story for the first time last week and I thought “it’s a pity this isn’t ESO, we’d get to see Orr restored the way the narrative and the static images being shown as it played described”.

Kraggy.4169:

The Greyhawk.9107:

What you’re asking for isn’t something that’s easy to do with an MMO with (sorta) persistent maps. People go through the game at differing paces, some starting much later than others. You can’t really make the maps match up with everyone without splitting us all up into instances like in GW1.
I honestly don’t know how Anet could do what your asking for.

Try playing ESO then come back and say it can’t be done.

Try playing recent updates to LOTRO then come back and say it can’t be done.

As it so happens I completed the Personal Story for the first time last week and I thought “it’s a pity this isn’t ESO, we’d get to see Orr restored the way the narrative and the static images being shown as it played described”.

There’s a significant difference between saying something is difficult to do and saying it can’t be done. Take a closer look at which one I said. Also, Arenanet isn’t Zenimax, you have to be willing to take into account what differing game studios are willing to do. And frankly, I’m not placing any bets on Anet going through the metric kittenton of work to completely re-make Orr.