Megaserver and Lore?
The megaserver is just a mechanic to get more players together in more desolate zones/smaller servers (in the long term). The cleansing of Orr would have to be actual story content. The megaserver itself doesn’t really affect the story, it just allows a more evened out the playerbase.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Buuuuuut if you want lore fo this, I’d imagine it functions the same way as white soapstones do in the Dark Souls series, they intermingle and bend time and space to allow for others to band with you for jolly cooperation
Shawtell, Zen Verani, Rayshia Howen, Iyado, Colace Nzoir, Arteel Fyrien [Teef]
The megaserver is just a mechanic to get more players together in more desolate zones/smaller servers (in the long term). The cleansing of Orr would have to be actual story content. The megaserver itself doesn’t really affect the story, it just allows a more evened out the playerbase.
there are a lot of handy benefits to a mega server other then bringing players together like putting players that have finished the ps together and the same for players that havnt together, now the question would be how to implement it, firstly story isn’t a big thing here simply because the ps covers the important parts, players that have beat the main story get a new map that covers cleaning up Orr, wait what about all the old stuff how can players get back to that, well I had a thought on that the pale tree has the ability to show the past and future with the dream now let’s say trehearne (who’s wyld hunt is the cleanse Orr) sticks around to aid in the clean up gets a weak version of that and is able to show people the past and those players who have beaten the ps can go back to the old map to enjoy all the old events and get placed back in the old Orr bracket of the mega server, players who havnt beaten the ps stay in the old Orr map, now what if people don’t care to beat the ps and just want to enjoy the new content well same thing with trehearne but shows them what could happen if they beat zhitan but only available to level 80s, everyone wins in this eexcept new players who have to get to level 80
What you are describing would, effectively, be a form of phasing. ANet have explicitly stated that they don’t want that in their game (yes, it’s fine when it happens once, but the game is going to continue to grow and then we would have more and more instances of similar things happening).
They just have to figure out what they want to do about the time conundrum caused by Personal Story being locked in the past. Maybe they are going to retire it? There have been different suggestions around the forums already, but having different versions of the same maps is highly unlikely.
The megaserver functions basically like a permanent overflow – one that is aware of certain aspects of player data. That’s all it does, decides which overflow to place you in (everything is effectively an overflow now). It doesn’t have any impact on how story is delivered because you are still playing in instanced channels/shard/maps/whatever you want to call them with other people. If Anet wants to do something like the Cleansing of Orr they will, but the megaserver does not impact how that kind of content would be delivered in the slightest.
Don’t see a lore impact of this, seems purely mechanical.
Phasing happened on the same map though? (I gave up WoW before that was introduced). Having separate maps would make more sense. I don’t see them having to do it often. Major events like killing an elder dragon aren’t going to happen often.
Orr isn’t clean now (even after ps), so there is no phasing and the map will be altered if Orr gets cleaned.
What is the story behind different server? If there is lore needed for megaserver then we should have a simple explanation for the realms (never heard one)?
Slow clap for the great puppet player.
there are a lot of handy benefits to a mega server other then bringing players together like putting players that have finished the ps together and the same for players that havnt together, now the question would be how to implement it, firstly story isn’t a big thing here simply because the ps covers the important parts, players that have beat the main story get a new map that covers cleaning up Orr, wait what about all the old stuff how can players get back to that, well I had a thought on that the pale tree has the ability to show the past and future with the dream now let’s say trehearne (who’s wyld hunt is the cleanse Orr) sticks around to aid in the clean up gets a weak version of that and is able to show people the past and those players who have beaten the ps can go back to the old map to enjoy all the old events and get placed back in the old Orr bracket of the mega server, players who havnt beaten the ps stay in the old Orr map, now what if people don’t care to beat the ps and just want to enjoy the new content well same thing with trehearne but shows them what could happen if they beat zhitan but only available to level 80s, everyone wins in this eexcept new players who have to get to level 80
As SunRoamer said, this is phasing which Anet said they will not have – see Tower of Nightmares and Lion’s Arch itself for examples, Anet will alter it for everyone at the same time. Megaservers do make phasing’s problems (dividing the playerbase) a smaller issue because the least common phasing versions would be combined cross-servers thus not so unpopulated, but unless Anet changes their mind about how they’re doing the Living World concept, which I doubt will happen tbh, we won’t see phasing.
They just have to figure out what they want to do about the time conundrum caused by Personal Story being locked in the past. Maybe they are going to retire it? There have been different suggestions around the forums already, but having different versions of the same maps is highly unlikely.
Why remove it? Just keep it there and make sure it’s clear “these are past events”. Hopefully they’ll one day get about to making LW Season 1 as an extension to the PS, and make Season 2 in the same format from the get go (or at least a much similar one that can make it function as a continuation). Won’t hold my breath for either though.
But there’s no need to remove the PS – especially since the game promises in advertisements the chance to face and kill Zhaitan… which will become no longer the case, thus false advertisement, thus fraud.
What is the story behind different server? If there is lore needed for megaserver then we should have a simple explanation for the realms (never heard one)?
Different servers hold no lore, except possibly via WvW in which the other two are – as far as we know – “not (our) Tyria”. And Anet doesn’t seem interested in explaining WvW in lore so I doubt we’ll ever get server explanations in lore.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
They just have to figure out what they want to do about the time conundrum caused by Personal Story being locked in the past. Maybe they are going to retire it? There have been different suggestions around the forums already, but having different versions of the same maps is highly unlikely.
Why remove it? Just keep it there and make sure it’s clear “these are past events”. Hopefully they’ll one day get about to making LW Season 1 as an extension to the PS, and make Season 2 in the same format from the get go (or at least a much similar one that can make it function as a continuation). Won’t hold my breath for either though.
But there’s no need to remove the PS – especially since the game promises in advertisements the chance to face and kill Zhaitan… which will become no longer the case, thus false advertisement, thus fraud.
Yes, of course! I didn’t really mean that they are going to outright remove it, I should have been clearer about that part.
About the “playing in the past”, it is still going to feel horribly clunky though. Just look at the current LA story steps; let’s just hope they eventually implement a system which allows for a different version of a map to be loaded for personal story instances. Besides, some story steps also take place in the open world, and often players have to travel somewhere first to activate the story instance. If they say that this act of traveling is part of the past you relive, by all means you should already be in the past version of the map by then (but instead, you will be transferred to the “correct” version of the area once you activate the story beacon). If, instead, they say that the act of traveling is done in the present, and you go to that specific location to catch a glimpse of the past, they would have to change a lot of the personal story objectives (as, right now, they often suggest a sort of immediacy while you travel. Instead, they would have to be remade into something along the lines of “retrace the steps of past heroes and travel to x to relive what happened when Fort trinity was taken by the pact”).
Also, since these are then past events, won’t it be awkward that newly created characters have to relive this tale (imagine being a new player and constantly getting the pop-up “you are reliving stories of the past” while playing through their PS for the first time)? Usually, things like discovering past events should be more of an optional story. And since it is in the past, does that mean that all characters created now are already commanders of the pact?
Okay, this is going to derail this thread too much, so I have to stop. Point being, this issue is IMO much bigger than simply indicating “you are reliving events of the past”.
Never said you said they were going to, guess I should have been the clear one. :P
As to different maps – I think the megaserver may be a step in that direction, actually. While one wouldn’t think it would, just consider how much room they’re making by the megaserver. As is, we effectively have 51 versions of each zone and city active at all times. There’s 26 zones and 6 cities – so there’s effectively a minimum of 1632 maps always in existence on the servers. The megaservers’ purpose is to reduce this number – there will be no less than 5 versions of each map at a single time (one per EU language, then one for NA); 6 once the game goes live in China. That means a minimum of 192 maps once China goes live.
This doesn’t count for any current overflows/future “dynamically generated maps” or any dungeons. Nonetheless, that’s a substantial reduction of server loadout I would imagine. And with this, they can easily store versions of the old maps for instances (PS and LW should the later need to) to utilize because they now have much more room.
As to the whole “traveling between steps” – I think you’re making it overly convoluted. Take GW1 for example. Prophecies was the first to chronologically happen in lore, but you can at any point go back and forth between Prophecies and Factions which takes place immediately after, or even to Nightfall which is 3 years after Proph/Factions, and also to Eye of the North which is 3 years after NF. There’s no “glimpses into the past” and no issue with going into Beyond-affected zones then entering a mission.
Technically speaking anyways, the only thing that has progressed in the timeline is anything affected by the Living World. Orr zones? Fireheart Rise? They’re all “stuck in time” effectively, as they haven’t been altered. Beyond guild missions or the very few added mini-dungeons, at least. There is no need to explain the whole “look into the past” or whatnot, since this is all mechanical mumbo jumbo.
To your final question about all characters being commanders – the Living World would likely take them as such, in the “canon lore” but given how Anet wants to avoid spoilers and paradoxes they will do things like with Laranthir’s dialogue – he’ll only call you the Commander if you did Forging the Pact, and will mention the ongoing assaults on Orr if you hadn’t done Victory or Death. But chronologically, Zhaitan’s <s>dead</s> defeated before Scarlet by a year – Bobby Stein already confirmed this.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
If you take a closer look at the personal story, then you’ll notice different enemies than usual in a lot areas.
But it is pretty awesome if the megaserver gets older maps for story instances. Taking as example the attack on the Cathedral of Verdance which is already destroyed the moment you approach, but it’s unclear if it’s detroyed by cataclysm along your personal story (at this particular step of the story).
Slow clap for the great puppet player.