Guild Wars 2

Provide your suggestions:

1) Play as bad guys – Its always interesting to play from the bad guys’ point of view. And using monster only skills could make for some interesting game play. Gears and levels won’t matter at all, because everyone involved will be playing as bad guys.

2) Focus on existing lore – GW1 and the existing GW2 has tons of lore already (Mursaats and Seers, for example). Anet should focus on explaining and expanding on the old lore first. Afterwards, they can expand into new lores (e.g. Scarlet).

3) Focus on world events – I think both the MA dungeon and TA dungeons were very well made. However I only did them once. I think it is a fair guess that those dungeons took a lot more development time than the Teq event and the Scarlet’s Invasion event.

Yet, I attempted Teq and Scarlet’s Invasion at least 4 times, with 1 success on Teq. And the forum traffic on Teq was MUCH higher than MA and TA dungeons. I am going to guess that the player bases in general much preferred world events in LS over dungeons.

So focusing on world events not only cut down development time, the player also attempt those more often and, more importantly, talk about them more.

I know at least one new guild was set up to help overflow players kill Teq, with great success. I have yet to see a new guild set up to help players do MA and TA dungeons. That shows (at least indicates) how much more player interest world event gets when compared to dungeons.

4) Add world invasion events – World invasion are easy to make and you can give the players a serious challenge. Imagine 1,000s of mobs starts from one direction, and slowly push their way toward the player’s starting point. The player wins if they kill all the mobs. The mobs win if they reach their objective.

One of the examples I love to use is a Centaur invasion. It fits the lore very well. And the map I love to pick is Harathi Hinterlands.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/8/84/Harathi_Hinterlands_map.jpg

This map contains 5 bridge accesses. The Centaurs would start from the north east, and push south west though all 5 bridges. If the players lose any bridge, those centaurs would advance and flank the players defending the bridge next to it. That means the players would need to set up reserve forces to take back any lose bridges as soon as possible, so it doesn’t grow into a bigger threat. It also means communication to update the situation on all the bridges are key.

The players loses of any centaurs get to the one of the way points of Faun’s Gap and Shieldbluff Point.

Example:

http://i.imgur.com/dhQmorE.jpg

5) Don’t remove old content in the process of giving new content. I’d like to see Twilight Arbor restored to its old format, then the new Aetherblade path act as an “elite path” accessed by talking to the NPC outside the dungeon. Likewise, old achievements should be made uncompletable when new achievements are introduced.

6) Ease up on the release schedule just a bit. A Living Story update once a month, that lasts for a month, would go a long way towards fixing the “rushrushrushRUSH” mentality that’s permeated so much of the last few months. (I will, however, acknowledge that September/October so far have avoided this by making most of the Living Story content permanent.) The mid-monthly update can be QOL changes like bug fixes, balance updates, new gem store updates etc.

7) Start making whole stories in Living Story. Stop only mentioning many things and then leaving them for months. Make story a whole and then next whole story, then make something on top of those stories. We get so many unclosed stories now it hurts so much and no real world lore progression.
We expect world loge progression… We know it’s easier this way, but really… There are people working on the story their should finally push it forward instead making us sit in the same spot all the time and run like dog trying to bite our own tail.

8) Get rid of Scarlet finally.
It’s tiering to see her all the time cause it will make more sense if we make some new LS somehow bound to previous ones… Destiny’s Edge should bound LS if nothing else comes to the mind. Not some half god twisted Sivari that we can see at each corner.

9) Add cool mission briefings – Mission Briefings are often overlooked in games, but a cool mission briefing really drives home the importances of the mission ahead.

Example:
-Show a 3D battle map of the area. Show some 3D fighting scenes of the enemies expected. Show a recommended path to take. etc. This shows the “professionalism” and importance of the upcoming mission.

-Round table discussions of different main characters talking about the up coming mission. This brings everyone together, and give the player a sense of “team work”.

I would get rid of it altogether and package it as permanent expansions to the Personal Story along with upgrades to the Personal Story to help make it more engaging and immersive, such as:

-use more elaborate in-game lore and piece them together into a more coherent narrative
-the ability to replay instances and/or reset your story through a gem shop item
-create longer, more complex instances/dungeons. Right now, they’re so short and spread out that they’re highly forgettable.
-add a mechanic that lets you gain allies that you can use in personal instances
-add an interface where you can review bios/images of allies and NPCs, manage certain things about them, and add/remove from your personal instance party.

11) Its better to use numerous mobs than overpowering mobs – When was the last time you found a mob that’s weaker than your character? Are we really the superheroes?

I had been saying this for months: The PvE fights in this game stopped being “fun” when the mobs stopped being “relevant” to the player’s health, armor, damage and skill.

How do I know this.

Because GW1, which I love very much, have mobs that are relevant to the player’s health, armor, damage and skill. And the fights were fun.

There is satisfaction in killing 10 weaker “trash” mobs in 5 minutes. It shows how awesome our character is. “Haha look 1 on 10 and I still win!”

There is no satisfaction in spending 5 minutes killing just 1 “trash” mob who have 50 times the health of a normal player character. Even if the player wins, let’s be honest, the player’s character sucks. Look again. A “trash” mob have 50 times the health of your character. “OMG 1 on 1 against a trash mob, and my character takes this long???”

Increase the number of mobs spawn and decrease their stats.

12) Give the Living Story Structure
I’m convinced that Arena Net has a great story they are itching to tell us, and that the game’s original story is really just a sort of prologue. The problem is we can’t see where the Living Story is going, and for a while it didn’t seem like it was going anywhere at all.

All stories (novels, TV series, video games, etc) have structure to help the audience comprehend when one part of the story ends and the next begins. I really think the living story needs to be sorted into “Acts” or “Chapters” or something to help us feel like it’s actually going somewhere exciting.

Do away with it entirely and focus on developing an expansion.

Make you 2-week updates, but do it in terms of Quality of Life improvements as well as balancing. Maybe even (gasp) skill updates and additions! Or more dungeons/fractals!

You know, stuff people have been wanting since the launch of your game.

Bring it on home:

Use our (or other) home districts in the living story. Let the LS NPCs mull about in those existing zones. Let us fight on a smaller scale for smaller stakes, closer to home. Not everything has to be about saving the world. What if we had a house… and someone was just trying to blow up our neighborhood?

Lore:
The original mad king event was great. There was a ton of lore packed in to not too many text NPCs. I don’t see any reason there shouldn’t be similar “lore scavenger hunts” in each release. For people who don’t care, it’s an easy achievement by following Dulfy’s inevitable guide. For people trying to piece together the story, it would indicate and give some good foreshadowing as to the significance of events.

Less disposable characters:
I was really happy the adventure with Rox and Braham again, to see how their relationship had changed and how they’d grown a little as characters. Similarly, it’s been interesting to watch Ellen Kiel rise from simple inspector to captain (Though she’s kind of tiresome as a permanently invincible authority figure) but then you’ve got all of these one-offs like Mai Trin, the market, Marjory, etc. that show up, seem important, and are never heard from again in MONTHS. There should be a rule that if a major character is introduced, that character should stick around for an entire arc before departing, so we have time to get to know them and have a reason to be happy to see them again when they’re gone for an arc. Also, stop presenting minor characters as if they are major ones. It’s just confusing.

No new enemy groups!
We have SO many enemy factions in the game that adding new armies every few updates seems wasteful. What are the sons of Svanir up to while we screw about with the aetherblades? How about those pesky centaurs? Nightmare court? We have a lot of great enemy factions with established lore that already own a big chunk of the map. You mean to tell me they’ve spent an entire year just sitting on their hands? Less time spent designing more groups means more time adding breath and depth to the existing ones, which is, in my opinion, a much more natural path for the living story. Operate on things we are already familiar with and it seems less like things get made up on the spot. If you DO invent an army, stick with it, and give it substance rather than just tossing it away or baking it in to a greater coalition of evil like the molten alliance. Imagine if all of the updates to this point had been centered around the story of the molten alliance, and JUST the molten alliance. They’d be much more belivable as an enemy faction because we would have had the time to get to know them. In stead we got the aether blades unceremoniously dumped on us with little explanation, and then suddenly Scarlet shows up and owns both groups for no apparent reason. Also, clockwork. All of a sudden clockwork because she apperantly doesn’t have enough minions. It’s too much too fast and it results in nobody giving a crap who these factions are or what motivates them.

Foreshadowing!
Imagine that during an update you got a key. You don’t know what it’s for, but you have it. Maybe give it a special “living story” rarity so you know it’s important and not to throw it away. In the next update you find out you can use that key to unlock a door, behind which is a dungeon. Completing the dungeon, you find a mysterious ancient tome, which you submit to the priory for research. In the next update you get mail from your priory contact, who has deciphered it and found that it points to a powerful artifact of some sort in a specific location, and you are sent there. Upon arriving you’re annoyed by a specific NPC, who is also searching for the tome, and you spend the next bit of content competing for it. You fail, and your new enemy absconds with the tome. During all four of these updates you’re free to do the previous parts.

Next update, the enemy, with the tome, summons the WTFBBQ army of death. You can’t do the previous parts now as the event they caused is now live in the open world. You and the other players battle said army of death. Next update, you track down said enemy and slay/disarm/jail them. Arc over, you get some cool stuff, but after the fight you find an odd object…

This is how I would phrase the living story, with foreshadowing of future events and built in to 1 or 2 month chunks of content (like flame and frost, only with more actual content) that are doled out in pieces so that there’s regular new releases, but people don’t feel rushed to complete it all in 2 weeks. Something that cretes mystery and apprehension and delivers on it rather than taking a side road to a completely different story.

I would fix it by, having the devs take their time and make something good, do away with the rigid two week updates.

That way they can make a quality story pushed ahead with voice dialogue cutscenes, instead of throwing it together quickly and putting some of it up on the web.

Make it an entire story, not just bits and pieces the way it is now.

Don’t bury critical information, like Scarlet not actually seeing the Eternal Alchemy, in obscure places.

If someone has an idea for an encounter that it will take players weeks to beat for the first time, do not use that idea.

Do not remove open world current content and replace it with content that requires out of game logistical coordination and 3rd party programs. New content of that nature, whether open world or instanced, is perfectly fine however.

17) Story telling must match target audience.

Scarlet would do fine as a villain in a cartoon for 8 years old kids. However most of GW2 players isn’t 8 years old. I would say most players here are 20-40. Putting in a cartoon villain is way too childish for us.

People our age requires better character development in our stories. I am talking about the likes of Grand Admiral Thrawn from Star Wars or Pain from Naruto.

And with GW2’s expansion into Asia, it is very important to look at the story that the locals enjoys. Check out “Attack on Titan” to get an idea.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Titan

18) Game design must match target audience.

GW1’s target audience are MMO lovers who grew tired of endlessly farming for loots and the next best equipment. GW1 got it right by limiting everyone to level 20 and making max stat armor easy to get. Additional farming is for cosmetic only.

GW2 is straying away from that path by introducing Legendary and Ascended equipments. And now they risk losing loyal GW1 fans.

Its the same way for the “World Event vs Dungeons” and “WvW vs sPvP”. GW2’s target audience wants World Events more than Dungeons. And they want WvW more than sPvP. And Anet should put more resources into what the target audience wants.

How does this relate to LS? Everything. The target audience will always have a preference for something and hate something else. When Anet starts thinking things from the target audience’s point of view outwards, they will do much better.

For example, if the target audience loves bullet hell games, then include some sort of bullet hell game play in GW2. Dodging fast moving projectiles is the key (not AoE the whole screen).

If the target audience loves hack & slash games like God of War, then the world events should have more “easy to kill” mobs than “champion never dies” mobs. Letting the players kill waves upon waves of mobs is the key.

If the target audience loves RPGs, then write a better story to get them hooked.

Add a new mail after completing Victory or Death – one from Trahearne telling the PC to take R&R while the Pact recover their forces and continue the fight with risen clean up.

Then retroactively make all past instances of the LS to be post Victory or Death story steps. This includes the dungeons returning, but rebalanced to be like Canach’s Lair or Scarlet’s Playhouse – soloable but better scaled in groups. Throughout we get the old mail and new ones – updates from our orders or the Pact. This would also include the moving of Historical achievements into two new categories: PS/LS, which also includes the PS achievements, and Festivals (Gauntlet, SAB, Halloween, Dragon Bash, and Wintersday categories). Also re-add all related content to those achievements.

On top of bringing back achievement and instances capability of completion, create splitting instances of the Lost Shores – the split being between Kiel’s investigation or Levvi’s research to counter the karka, each having 3-4 instances added for one step. A total of 4 story steps, 7/8 instances added to take place between Victory or Death and the Flame and Frost instances, which would start with split between following Rox or Braham before the Molten Facility final instance (3 steps, 4/5 instances).

Return small portal/drill events and spy scopes from F&F as a resurfacing of the MA under Scarlet. Just to keep some more real time progression. And also return the TA F/U path, but with a balanced boss fight. There was no reason to delete it…

Lastly in retroactivity : remove WvW from overall map completion, while adding skill challenges and vistas to Southsun Cove and make that count to both Krytan Explorer and map completion. Would love Labyrinthine Cliffs to return too with different events, skill challenges, vistas, and contribution to map completion. Both can, in the future, be expanded into larger zones. Especially Labrynthine Cliffs which can be extended to connect to Mount Maelstrom at Judgment Rock – Southsun can be extended east to the road at Sparkfly that goes into a rock cliff.

Properly progress the story of Scarlet in January, February, and possibly March – ending her plot in March. I say those months because November and December are likely mostly done by now. And during this properly increase the world’s lore and create non-LS related events in all zones (no need for plot relevance. Just something new here and there anyone can do – like when Vexa’s Lab got added).

Then with Scarlet’s defeat we focus on the Pact’s renwed forces going after the last of the risen – open world having ambient undead outside Orr and Tequatl’s areas. This opens another player poll in-game – choosing which dragon to go after. April’s first update is the poll and lessened risen, second is a revamp to Arab story and exp with a new 5th path with Ogden going after Zhaitan’s corpse. The new story would be more epic a fight and highly suggested but not permanent. This leads into Tequatl’s power boost. Following months clear this in story then we love onto the chosen dragon – Jormag, Kralkatorrik, or Primordus.

Maybe have some updates only doable if you finish your living story? I remember in GW1, you had to complete stories to get to War in Kryta to get to other steps in “Guild Wars Beyond”. Basically: give a reason to finish the personal story.

I appreciate the more permanent direction the later updates have gone in. I don’t feel rushed to complete the new content and I feel like I can enjoy the older content now. I haven’t even gotten to Zhaitan in my personal story on a single character (I’ve been playing since release and have 2 level 80s), in part, due to the Living Story.

I’d also like more home instance additions from doing living story content (thank you soon-to-be candy corn and crystal nodes). But I’d like some stuff other than nodes. Like NPCs and perhaps trophies.

^ Agreed. I’d like to see more NPCs from your Personal Story show up in there, with added dialogue according to where you are in your Personal Story (and maybe even the Living Story).

In keeping with the “incentivizing” for players to visit their Home Instance, maybe we can have the NPCs occasionally give out little rewards to players. For instance, if you picked the Human Noble background, occasionally talking to Faren will have him give you a small amount of coin or a random fine/rare crafting material. Think of it as a kind of, “Hey, I know you’re away fighting the good fight, so here’s something I put together to help you out. Come back and visit soon!” situation.

I think that the most important thing the LS needs is a system where ALL players can view cut scenes and other relevant information from ALL the past LS updates regardless of whether they participated when the updates were live. It should be similar to watching the news and reading a newspaper from the Hero menu similar to the Personal Story UI or something unique. At the very least the Heralds should talk about (summarize) what has happened in the world so far since Launch.