Guild Wars 2

I played the Living Story Season I off and on, and am currently catching up on Season 2. Season 2 has been good so far, but I have one plea for ANet regarding the Living Story:

Stop blowing everything up.

I get that you want to make permanent and dramatic changes to the world, but more often than not you’re just destroying something. It’s the low hanging fruit of dramatic change. It’s also saddening – I particularly love Kessex Hills, but the whole zone is marred by the ugly Krait tower. Now you destroy Fort Salma in Season 2. It’s depressing.

So instead of blowing up the great world you’ve created, and then potentially leaving it damaged forever, I’d suggest you build more new things instead. If I hear about new things in the game, I get excited. If I hear about stuff being destroyed, it just makes me sad and frustrated.

Yo Fid gotta say I can understand where your coming from. And there are other people that feel the same way. But I want to say the same thing I said to them (in game not here on the forums yet unless ive forgotten). The world of Tyria…Well…its not a very happy place. We get some pretty sappy friendship and togetherness stuff thrown at us fairly often. However when you look at the state of the world…its REALLY kittenty.

If half the stuff that has ALREADY happened happened in the real world today…Im fairly certain there would have been LIBERAL applications of nuclear fire despite the long term side effects.

I kinda feel like the game throws two sides at us. From the NPC reaction we get this whole cheesy (we can handle everything as long as were together) kinda story. But if you look at the world itself not just as graphics but what it represents. Tyria is a hell hole. This was true back in GW1 as well. We REGULARLY saw evidence of large numbers of people being wiped out. Same as here. Infact one could say that the reason people in the world dont react more to the events of the living story it could simply be because the civilian population doesn’t see it as anything new.

(Oh ANOTHER fort got wiped out?) Theyd feel concerned but probably wouldn’t react to severly.

So what Im trying to say is. I see where your coming from. But large scale death and destruction are the norm in tyria from every experience I’ve had with the game. Im honestly suprised that it hasn’t been MORE effed up. Maybe it has and it is just already on a scale larger than we as players can currently witness. Don’t let the NPC interactions fool you. It’s not really a happy place to live. It’s just a place where everyone is forcing themselves to live and be happy with what they’v got because the “hero’s” are not fighting for a better world…there just trying to keep it from getting worse.

I’m still not sure what to make of their decision to blow up the best received update of the first year of the games life.

Blog post, “People loved Zephyr Sanctum!”

LS2 “Let’s create a new zone littered with the smoking ruins of Zephyr Sanctum!”

I get it. If people loved it, what better emotional impact when it’s destroyed? But looked at from another angle it can have the flavor of thumbing their nose at the player base.

Not saying that was at all the intent. But it can easily feel that way.

I do sometimes get that feeling too. I don’t believe it was intentional, although I am a bit surprised by it considering one of the biggest lessons ANet learned in GW1 was how many, many, MANY players hated seeing Ascalon get destroyed in the Searing, and some players refused to leave Pre-Searing entirely.

I suppose minor destruction and changes are acceptable, if they can be restored to their former glory.

Zaxares.5419:

I do sometimes get that feeling too. I don’t believe it was intentional, although I am a bit surprised by it considering one of the biggest lessons ANet learned in GW1 was how many, many, MANY players hated seeing Ascalon get destroyed in the Searing, and some players refused to leave Pre-Searing entirely.

I suppose minor destruction and changes are acceptable, if they can be restored to their former glory.

Pre-searing Ascalon was the most beautiful area ANET has ever created. Ever.

Mmm, I dunno about that. Pre-Searing holds a special place in my memories for me, but I think that Shing Jea wins the award for most beautiful region in my books. (Factions, in general, is the most beautiful of the three campaigns, I believe.)

And kaineng city the most depressing.

Destroying Lions Arch really bothered me. It also scattered all the players as that used to be the social spot for most servers. Megaservers kinda did that also. More and more beautiful landscape tarnished by Living Story is getting pretty depressing. If they destroy the Grove I am going to get really upset.

Mental Paradox.3845:

And kaineng city the most depressing.

Ah, the lovely sight of raw sewage waterfalls…brings back memories…

Concerning the topic, why bother waiting for LA or Kessex to get restored, they most likely won’t. We have to live with the great permanent changes in a Living World!

I think what makes me most upset is that they never rebuild anything that they destroy in the “living” world.

LA’s lion statue already got rebuilt once. Granted, that’s the only thing they’ve rebuilt yet…

Is it as cliched to have events that create new land features instead of destroying them? Something like massive fortress being coming out of nowhere for an invasion story followed by refugees turning it into a town after the enemy has been driven out?

I was expecting the Breachmaker to do exactly that: crash, but not explode, be too big of a structure to take apart and instead be repurposed as LA’s new fort/airport.

I feel the exact opposite of you, OP. I say blow up all sorts of stuff, I wanna see the landscape change and be able to say “man I remember when this looked completely different, darn that Scarlet!” Or whatever the reason the landscape changed.

I likes it a lot.

I don’t mind when things get destroyed. What I do hate is when it messes with the story. Playing your personal story is going to be really confusing for new players. They get to Concordia, and wonder why the “new” fort is trashed by vines. Then, They’ll have to play session 2 of LW to know why.

ANet just don’t seem to care about how changing the world affects there older story’s. They’ve made all these changes to leveling, but the personal story will be completely immersion braking. With all the current changes to the world because of the living world.

Who knows by the end of session 2 there might be even more changes to the world that will make little to no sense unless you’ve been playing since day one.

Burn it down – I love the feeling that no zone or NPC in the game is safe.

i think they are going a little too far in the dont change anything direction right now as it is. They need to be prepared to hit anything anytime in game with devastating consequences.

The best Living Story steps to date (and among the best received) involved the destruction, invasion and saving of Lion’s Arch, in my opinion. Am hoping we something similar in season 2.

And, as another poster noted, I dont mind seeing us go the opposite way either – building new structures in game to change the landscape/feel of the game as well.

I think there are times when it works and times when it doesn’t. I actually like the changes in Kessex Hills, but I think the toxic events in Queensdale and other maps are absolutely a blight on the landscape and far too difficult for new players to complete without a group, they really need to be removed. In general, I think if an event is clearly much more difficult than its surrounding area, it really should be nerfed way down unless it’s a clearly demarcated and easily avoidable world event like Tequatl or Jungle Wurm. And I definitely think that these sorts of things shouldn’t be in starter zones, those should be like sanctuaries.

The same goes for Iron Marches, the events in that area are at about twice the difficulty of anything else. I get that it’s because they’re intended to be challenging at level 80, but I’d rather have easy enemies that feel immersive than have super-challenging enemies that make things weird when just trying to do map completion.

That being said, I’m not sure how to reconcile my opinion with the OP, because like I said, I think Kessex Hills is the only example of the look being done 100% right. If there’s going to be a change to the living world, I want it to feel completely immersive within a map, not like it’s just a layer put on top of what was there before. I’d like if Iron Marches had mordrem spread even more across the map, maybe more vines in odd places. I just wish there wasn’t a champion more difficult than the world boss in that zone that was constantly present.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

Just a thought in regards to Kessex Hills, the Tower of Nightmares episode was almost a year ago now. Ask yourself, if you would live there, what would you do? Of course I don’t know how much work it would be from a development standpoint, but in my little bubble the DEs in those zones should change to reflect what is happening. Start cleaning up the place, build new. If there are new dangers you might need a new outpost/watchtower. Or the people there had it, leave a place which falls to ruins over time, unless the Quaggans move in, but maybe because of that a town further to the west grows. Over the course of a few months the picture changes.

Thinking about LA, I would not want to see the town rebuild as it was before. Often destruction is used to improve, build better, prettier etc.

Of course a lot of this then again starts to sound like “temporary” content.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

Hi Regina!
I don’t think the change in landscape is what people are complaining about entirely. More that for the most part it has been of a single tone, that of new threat, of destruction, of defeat. I think that for the most part what people are also wanting to see is the balance of that. Changes to the landscape to reflect growth, creation, and victory. Even something as simple as a dynamic event updating to reflect that a problem is at least heading towards resolution. Small struggling settlements we have been helping starting to grow to have slightly stronger defenses due to our efforts. Stuff like that. It doesn’t have to be things that drastically change the nature of the content in that zone, but just something that gives us that…flavor of bringing a small spark of light to a dark world.

On the whole, I have enjoyed the changes that have come so far in the game, but while sudden destruction can be dramatic and powerful, so can the quiet victories that let us feel like we are making a long term positive difference in the world of Tyria. We already get this on a short term basis through some of the dynamic events, it would be nice to see a similar philosophy applied to the longer term content.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

Ask your writers.

Things like construction and destruction have everything to do with the mood of the world. What do you want it to feel like?

Examples;

• Do you want it to be a miserable world where doom is inevitable?
  e.g. humanity are driven to the edge of the world and never get back anything and if one dragon doesn’t obliterate them, the next one might?

• Do you want to offer some hope in dark times? The reconstruction/re-population of some areas/frontiers? Not too much, and always the opportunity for dark forces to wipe these bold/desperate people out.

• Do you want a happy pixie elf-world where everything is reconstruction and buildypops? Oh and there’s some dragons to kitten down in certain, very specific spots (on a timer) too!

As a player, I love the idea of construction, it’s one of the reasons I played Horizons for (a short time when it came out). I like the idea of working with other players to make something, but I get depressed when that something is inevitable whether I contribute or not.

That’s your challenge.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

Change for the sake of change may not always be good. The changes to the world make things inconsistent overall. I understand that that is a necessity to keep the game replayable. But we have LA destroyed, for example, but Orr stays the way it is, although Zhaitan is “officially” dead. To me that is inconsistent.

A friend of mine started to play after LA had been destroyed and she can’t connect to the event in any way. For her there is just a destroyed LA, i am sure she would feel more to be a part of the world if LA did actually change back. I understand that that is a matter of resources, but simply destroying something and letting it stay like that doesn’t make the world feel more alive, but, as i said, inconsistent and still static. A true Living World does evolve permanently, but that is impossible. New players need to be able to experience Orr at the time of Zhaitan for example. So there is a limit to the concept of the Living World and finding a compromise is not easy i guess.

What i actually saw as a good change is the “corpse” of the Marionette. I do not need to see a complete area destroyed to feel the world change – as a new player i would like to be able to experience the world as it was at the start of the game.

Having Living World events instanced is a good way. It is enough for me to see the Pale Tree start to fade away in my personal instance instead of the open world. I still know it happened. I do not need to see Fort Salma destroyed in the open world. If you do that, make the Pale Tree fade away in the open world too.

Consistency is the key, either leave things intact and change happening in instances or change the whole world – which i think is not advisable due to several things like game resources, playability for new players etc.

As a new player i would like to start at the beginning, not be thrown into a world that shows me that i already missed a lot. Okay, the season 2 is playable by new players if they chose so, but LA and Kessex are still destroyed. I think it is time to not let them stay like that, but to let those areas evolve. New destruction should be reserved for instances, at least on a grand scale.

I do not feel the imminent threat of Mordremoth in the open world, but that is alright. I do not need to. I only need to feel the threat once i enter my personal instance of season 2.

Building up something “new” is a good way – rebuilding LA for example. Otherwise, a smaller scale is enough, like the Marionette corpse. Or the tentacles at waypoints.

TL;DR: Do not let a part of the world stay in 1325 and others move onward to 1327 – keep that to instances. Some small reminders of events are perfectly fine though.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

I enjoy the changing landscapes. If it were static it would be boring. Change is part of life. It is not always butterflies and sunshine. Destruction is some times needed. Please continue it is working. Thanks for a great way to change the land of Tyria.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

Make new maps and put your living story on new maps.

Frosch.7809:

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

…

As a new player i would like to start at the beginning, not be thrown into a world that shows me that i already missed a lot. Okay, the season 2 is playable by new players if they chose so, but LA and Kessex are still destroyed. I think it is time to not let them stay like that, but to let those areas evolve. New destruction should be reserved for instances, at least on a grand scale.

….

Okay but this is true of EVERY MMO. I can’t think of a single MMO you could pick up new today and still get the same experience you could at launch. Games have to advance and change and develop. So they can be just as fun for the person playing through for the tenth time as the person playing through for their first.

Like you said that sometimes means a new player is going to feel they missed out on something, but in the end the content that they missed isn’t really relevant to them anyway. Like with your friend and lions arch, to them its just how it is and they go from there while someone who was around before/doing has the additional impact of the comparison between what it was and what it is now.

There is no perfect solution to this, obviously, but I feel like making everything static outside of instances would be a step in the wrong direction

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

How about making it feel like a living world?

How about the hearts can go from yellow to red? Red means there is a new issue they can use help with? How about I can in some way help them rebuild?

I mean, let’s make the world living. A settlement of some sort is not going to just sit there after they been destroyed and say “well shocks, I guess I will just look at this”. Let’s make it dynamic… Let’s make the world living.

I picture something like this. A building of some sort was destroyed. I see a red heart, I check it out. The NPC asks me if I can find some of the parts left from the old building. I try and find a Skitt cave. A cut scene shows there is a lot of “stuff” in this cave. The skitt goes on about shinnies and I have to cut him a deal of some sort for the stuff back. But, not so fast. I have not built a reputation with the skitt so they have no idea and will not work with me.

In the RL living world we build relationships. Those relationships determine how friendly RL people are to me. Why not make the same in you living world? How about a rep system? What if I choose to never help the charr? Maybe the charr will not allow me in their cities? That would be a living world.

I don’t know what it would take to develop, but it would be awesome. We all choose to take a part in what the game looks like. We can choose to help and earn rep or we can choose to walk away.

For a world to be living it needs to feel like the world is alive and I can make a difference. Otherwise it is just a world with small living elements.

Just my 2 cents…

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

In my opinion, the Living Story should be the continuation of the Personal Story. The Personal Story was solely instance based, it was a single player campaign within the multi player. It is sad that world doesn’t reflect your progress, but that’s fine in comparison with the Living Story. The Living Story wants to deliver both, story and gameplay. But that’s rarely working. Not only are the remainings of those gameplay aspects still spoiling the area, it also takes away from the story. The part I liked the most about the PS was the freedom I deciding when I want to progress. I could ask a friend of mine and do all story missions with a new created character or I could wait until I’m lvl 80. The LS does not give me that freedom to choose. The Living Story should do what its name advertise: Telling a story. Likewise ANet should work on content updates, but not connected to the LS.

psionflames.5246:

Okay but this is true of EVERY MMO. I can’t think of a single MMO you could pick up new today and still get the same experience you could at launch. Games have to advance and change and develop. So they can be just as fun for the person playing through for the tenth time as the person playing through for their first.

Like you said that sometimes means a new player is going to feel they missed out on something, but in the end the content that they missed isn’t really relevant to them anyway. Like with your friend and lions arch, to them its just how it is and they go from there while someone who was around before/doing has the additional impact of the comparison between what it was and what it is now.

There is no perfect solution to this, obviously, but I feel like making everything static outside of instances would be a step in the wrong direction

A new player of Guild Wars (1) can still experience the Prophecies campaign the way it has always been – there are no War in Kryta changes to areas if that player hasn’t started it. There have been changes to the game’s mechanisms but the game experience is still the same as when GW1 first launched, or am i wrong here?

Concerning my friend, she felt at a loss in LA, amidst all the rubble, and i think she hasn’t visited the place since then. I do not think that is how it should be. I think there should be a city for her to visit.

I wanted to add that having new areas as a setting for new changes is imo a good idea. Let Mordremoth devastate Dry Top all he wants to. Outside of it, keep it to instances.

Frosch.7809:

psionflames.5246:

Okay but this is true of EVERY MMO. I can’t think of a single MMO you could pick up new today and still get the same experience you could at launch. Games have to advance and change and develop. So they can be just as fun for the person playing through for the tenth time as the person playing through for their first.

Like you said that sometimes means a new player is going to feel they missed out on something, but in the end the content that they missed isn’t really relevant to them anyway. Like with your friend and lions arch, to them its just how it is and they go from there while someone who was around before/doing has the additional impact of the comparison between what it was and what it is now.

There is no perfect solution to this, obviously, but I feel like making everything static outside of instances would be a step in the wrong direction

A new player of Guild Wars (1) can still experience the Prophecies campaign the way it has always been – there are no War in Kryta changes to areas if that player hasn’t started it. There have been changes to the game’s mechanisms but the game experience is still the same as when GW1 first launched, or am i wrong here?

Concerning my friend, she felt at a loss in LA, amidst all the rubble, and i think she hasn’t visited the place since then. I do not think that is how it should be. I think there should be a city for her to visit.

I wanted to add that having new areas as a setting for new changes is imo a good idea. Let Mordremoth devastate Dry Top all he wants to. Outside of it, keep it to instances.

You have a good point there, and I hadn’t considered that as it has been so long since I made a new GW1 character. But the exact reasons why that works for GW1 are why it wouldn’t work for this game. In GW1 everything was completely segregated so once you left town it was pretty much like being in a story instance now. It was easy to segregate old and new content.

Whereas now, you have an open world where people at various stages of the story are interacting at all times and I would hate to lose that. Limited the changes to a few/new zones is fine for regional conflicts, but if we are supposed to be reacting to a global problem it needs to feel global. And its not like they could keep three versions of the map in its pre, during, and posts states and put people in the one their progress matches because from the beginning that kind of player segregation has been against the spirit of the game.

This game is supposed to be “alive” to grow and change. Limiting that to instances and new areas would take away something special about the game. Once lions arch gets repaired everyone who played through the times with the damage will have shared memories of the experience that just wouldn’t be the same if it was just a one shot instance experience you saw for maybe 20 minutes during your playthrough.

The key I think is balance. Balance out these traumatic “area ravaged by x” type changes with positive changes and it wont be such a big deal. Wouldn’t you agree that if a location changed for the better both old player and new player alike could appreciate its current state?

I think it would be nice if LA could get some clean up of Breachmaker pieces going, and Kessex could get rid of fallen tower chunks. Re-purpose these things like the ship hulls were when LA was built after the flood. I think if we as players could see a gradual change in LA as it gets cleaned up, it would help us feel immersed a lot more than we are currently. We’ve seen “workers” hammering away at debris for how long now, and nothing’s changed. Heck, in WvW when the “workers” get going, towers and keeps change within the hour! (Ok, its not cosmetic, but you get my drift, right?) Maybe we need to get those “workers” out of the Mists and put them to work in LA.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

There are plenty of ways to demonstrate a changing world without relying on pure destruction.

First, you have character progression and reaction. Anet’s current attention has been lavished almost entirely on the Biconics, which means very few other characters have done anything remotely worthwhile throughout the second season. But if you broadened your scope and focused on more character progression, it would help demonstrate a growing and changing world. You’ve got hundreds of good characters. Use them.

Likewise, characters should actually react to the growing and changing world. When Kessex got nuked, people should have noticed, and that means it should show up in topics of conversation or discussion. Not only would ambient dialogue help, but key figures should have responses to current events that indicate they know what on earth is going on. If the Grove gets attacked, Niamh should be launching a crusade. If there’s trouble in the Shiverpeaks, Sigfast and Skarti should be at the front of the hunting party. To bring the world to life, it must react to the changes across the realm. Embellish the movers and shakers of the world, and they’ll help bring the nations to life.

Another way you can indicate change is making minor alterations. Most of the creatures across the world stay exactly in the same place every day, every week, every year. That’s not very lively, but you could alter that by making alterations to normal routines. Perhaps the dragonspawn encroach on a particular stretch of land, displacing its normal residents. Or maybe the opposite occurs, and we reclaim some land to allow the natural creatures (which are hostile, of course) to flourish. Do some beasts migrate during the winter months? Do certain flora only grow in the summer? Did the shift in magic from the laylines spark a change in elementals? Do the battle lines between the Legions alter over time? Tweaking the world could provide a sense of change, especially if it is coupled with story segments or ambient dialogue.

And finally, we need a sense that the civilized and benevolent parts of the world are actually proactive, that they are doing something. There is far too much stagnation across the world, as if every single race was just holding the line and seeing what happens. If you want to make it feel alive, you need to be able to allude to what is going on in every nation. This should often take the form of constructive work, not pure destruction. The developer giveth and the developer taketh away. You can’t just rely on taking.

If you want a Living World, you need to be able to describe what Cool Things happen every single year. Sit down and plan out what nifty things happen throughout the year, from the big deals (the Renegades are stamped out, the centaurs make a bargain with one of the last titans, the vaettir emerge from the northern Shiverpeaks, etc), to the minor details (Eilye Jeyne and Benn Tenstrikes get hitched, Professor Gorr gets nominated to the Arcane Council, Evon Gnashblade sues the Consortium, Job-o-Tron accidentally becomes a golem cult leader, etc). Bring them to life through small updates and little enhancements sprinkled throughout your normal schedule, and always keep an eye on which portions of the world aren’t getting any love.

Allow life to grow throughout the entire world, and where life goes, so shall we.

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

Just keep adding to the world, make new maps.

Ohoni.6057:

Just keep adding to the world, make new maps.

The opposite of this, please. There are plenty of maps. More than plenty.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

I’d like to see more fundamental changes to zones. Lion’s Arch was a great example of this; it really looks like the aftermath of a warzone. However places like Kessex Hills….not so much. If it wasn’t for a handful of new dynamic events scattered around, I’d honestly have no concept that anything even changed.

I played for the first 5 or so months then quit just as Living Story started, and came back for Scarlet’s final assault on Lion’s Arch. What struck me the most when I came back was how little things had changed. The really big thing I’d expected to see changed was actually Orr. The Personal Story ended with the beginning of Orr being cleansed and the death of Zhaitan. So I figured the Living Story would carry on from that. I pictured the green tendrils Trahearne had coaxed into being spreading from the Source of Orr like a carpet, consuming the corrupted landscape and transforming it into a verdant paradise. I imagined Tyria suddenly struggling to deal with political issues; who owned this new land; the Pact suddenly finding themselves as makeshift peacekeepers as desperate refugees or warlike races flooded into the new Orr, eager to build new homes. Centaurs running through reborn jungles, Ogres taming gorillas, skritt plundering ancient Orrian settlements, indignant human aristocrats besieging Trahearne’s office with claims of distant relations to Orrian nobility.

That’s what I thought a more dynamic world would be, one which carried on the story from the Personal Story and caused vast, sweeping changes to zones, rather like what happened to Ascalon in GW1. I think that’s what fueled a great deal of excitement during the Living Story Season 2, when a preview cinematic showed Rytlock apparently freeing the Ghosts of Ascalon. Reddit and the forums exploded with frantic speculation. Players were genuinely excited about the idea that Arenanet might remove the ghosts of Ascalon, revamping much of the Charr zones as a consequence. But then nothing happened. Perhaps that will change in the remainder of the season. But I think the reaction shows that I’m not the only player who would like to see changes like that.

Destruction, then creation.

Start with removing one big piece of debris in kessex hills every month and add one single finished house in LA every month and before you know it you have a living world.

These changes could be a little project of love by whoever devs “feels like it” = has enough time besides their current project.

Would this be difficult to achieve? If you’d focus efforts on cosmetic changes you could limit the need for a full team working closely together and once you decide that you’d like to add some mechanics (or remove), the assets would be already there?

A completely revamped map including new mechanics, audio and graphics puts a lot of stress on (too) many people and ultimately relies on (too) many different parts to work together in a short time. This style of adding content might be better suited for bigger updates like an expansion.

And a slightly different topic….
My favorite part of the current living story was breaking out of the dry top map to the now accessible caverns, completely empty. It was one of those very rare feelings you get exploring a digital world.
So, in addition to those smaller changes I suggest bigger maps with full access from the beginning. Then you can add one or two events every other week and see how they work out and balance. Add some wildlife and some mobs from the beginning though?

I think it is sad that you design great content like the sand giant but since you don’t have a PTR, there is no way for you to guess which events will be chosen to be played in the end and for which reasons.

Tl;dr:

• tiny cosmetic changes like one rebuilt house in LA every other week
• more “empty” areas which get filled with mobs and mechanics later. a few mobs here and there wouldn’t hurt.

psionflames.5246:

The key I think is balance. Balance out these traumatic “area ravaged by x” type changes with positive changes and it wont be such a big deal. Wouldn’t you agree that if a location changed for the better both old player and new player alike could appreciate its current state?

I think that our personal definition of what would be a better change may differ a bit or how much change is healthy, but in general i can agree.

I do not think that LA and Kessex have changed for the better (neither do i assume that you do think so). And i think it is time they started to change again. I am sure that the majority of players would want to see LA rebuilt, and some new trees growing in Kessex. A bit less rubble in both areas – i am sure that new players would appreciate LA more if there was a bit more than just piles of rubble. The tone of the game stays too dark this way. The theme is hope, not despair.

After all Regina asked for new ideas how to handle this, i hope she gains some from this thread.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

I have an idea, but it may be somewhat difficult to implement and full of challenges.

Lion’s Arch has existed in the game in at least 3 states: before the attack, during the attack and after. Those are all existing developed work.
One way to work it is to keep all of them on the game and put the player in the right copy depending on their position on the timeline, that is shown on the Personal Story tab.

• If a person is currently in the “meet Tybalt in LA” story step, show the city before the attack.
• If the person would like to replay the “Escape from Lion’s Arch” story step (not possible currently) he/she would be put in the “during the attack” copy.
• And players in the Season 2 story steps would see the “after the attack” copy.

That way, all versions are visible, depending on where the person chooses to be on the timeline (considering that is an option now).

Advantages:

• Makes it viable to replay all big battles of season 1! How I would like to kill the Marionette again. Also the Prime Hologram.
• Opens the path to bigger thanges in other regions. If Orr was restored to habitability, most of the Personal story would feel disjointed. But, with that solution, people what completed the story step that, let’s say, escorts zephyrite refugees too Orr get into that “cleaner” copy. People completing season 0 see the “original” copy in which killing Zaithan makes sense.

Challenges:

• Many, many copies of the current map on the server – this problem was reduced a lot by the megaserver system. If only 5 people on the whole MegaServer currently wanna see the “during the attack” map, they can share it.
• Many copies of the current map on the game client – don’t know how big this problem could be, but in the case of Fort Salma and Concordia, that doesn’t need to be 2 copies of the whole map, only of that particular part of it (the rest is identical). Server instances of the map would still be separate though.
• Ghost town instances – “why no one is in Lion’s Arch to help me kill those Aetherblades!”. Well, since the person chooses the story step he/she is, think this one is not a big problem.
• Separation of parties and guilds – I think that is not a problem (that’s why there is “Join in”).

What do you guys think?

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

I would begin by thinking about how we notice changes in our real-life world. The seasons change and we see new flowers blooming, or trees changing color, or snow covering the ground. Or that big brown building on the corner suddenly gets painted a cheerful blue. Or, hey, what’s up with the sky? Why is it suddenly a dark purple, with flickers of light illuminating the clouds? Okay, so that last one doesn’t happen in our real-life world, but it’d be cool, right?

Also, people’s actions and activities change depending on what’s going on in the physical environment. Maybe there’s a mob of people protesting outside a shop who’s been price-gouging its customers. Maybe there’s a celebratory parade marching through the streets to mark a special occasion. Maybe there’s a stage in the center of town where “live” NPC bands perform on occasion. And perhaps you could have certain times where parts of the city are more crowded with NPCs than at other times, to simulate the ebb and flow of a populated area.

I even recall one MMO I played where a dye vendor with a drinking problem would often toddle off to the tavern…even when I was in the middle of purchasing something. Yeah, I know, it sounds annoying, but it was actually kind of funny. I’d have to chase her down to the tavern to buy my dyes. And if ever she wasn’t in her normal place next to the other vendors, I always knew where I’d find her. Now that made the world seem alive.

I guess my point is that what makes a world seem alive is often the smaller changes that occur naturally, not the big changes we try to force into the world because it seems more dramatic. Sure, big things happen from time to time, and I think it’s great that you’ve proven that you’re not afraid to show that. But I think maybe turning an eye towards the smaller details would be helpful to your goal of truly making the world seem alive.

And maybe— just maybe— if you guys get that itch for more destruction, a building or two can burn down. Just one or two, you havoc-wreaking lords of destruction! No need to lay waste to the entire city, mkay? ;-)

Im largely of the opinion that destruction and reconstruction go hand it hand. I dont mind if the super bad enemies lay waste to the land scape changing it forever. As long as that land scape fights back or the civilians help it recover. Take the blight for example. Id love to see pits and pieces of growth on the edges of it. Or civilains escorted by local soldiers digging away at the earth to clear the corrupted land and replace it with imported soil.

It’s more like I want to see a situation where I feel less like “Bad kittens gonna happen and I can only work to not let it get worse” And more like "Bad kittens gonna happen. But I can keep it from being REALLY bad AND the world will recover from it.

Concepts of building/reconstructing and destroying as binary/polar opposites intended to elicit positive/negative emotion from the players, respectively, are kind of limited thinking.

Building the Berlin Wall wasn’t a particularly positive event. An earthquake or even an otherwise destructive event opening an ancient ruin/uncovering natural or archaeological resources isn’t a negative.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

Building can be part of a changing world, too. For example, if what happened to Lions Arch happened in real life, the people would pool their resources to rebuild the city to its former (or better) splendor. I realize the Elder Dragons destroy only (consuming the magic of Tyria), but the races should work against that destruction. This desire can go deeper than simply finding the dragon, and introducing it to the sharp end of a sword. Life grows and flourishes. That aspect should also be part of the Living World.

Some Ideas:

- Trahearne healed the Source of Orr, yet Orr looks unchanged. With Zhaitan destroyed, and Orr’s heart cleansed, Orr should begin to show signs of Life returning where Death once reigned. This could be a Living World story.

- Lions Arch is the symbol of Tyria without the racial divisions – a unified Tyria. That would imply a united effort to rebuild Lions Arch until Scarlet’s destruction is only a memory. This would be an excellent “building” Living Story step, and permanent change would still be involved because it would obviously not be identical to the original Lions Arch (GW2 version).

- The newest twist involving the Foefire (not giving it away) could open the door for building changes (once a certain act has the desired result). The Charr have been blasting at the Ascalonian Wall, but no dents have been made. Part of that wall could be cleared.

- A continuation of the Orr rebirth would be signs that the human gods have returned or are returning. Finding a way to incorporate the non-human races would be a hurdle, but I’m sure the writers could find a way. Maybe have them begin to help against the Elder Dragons. This could also open the door for the Underworld to be accessible (nudge nudge wink wink).

- Have a Living Story where the Norns begin to see signs of the other Spirits of the Wild (including Owl).

- Go deeper into the eradication (or redemption) of the Nightmare Court. We’ve only been told that once a sylvari turns to Nightmare, they can’t return to the Dream. Why? What did Faolain and Caithe encounter that warped Faolain? Why is it permanent? What about it makes it so enticing/tempting? You can see that there is a huge hole in the story concerning the Nightmare/Dream. That is a huge opening for Living Story seasons.

- Beginning the expedition into Elona (nudge nudge wink wink).

There are so many avenues that can be explored in addition to Elder Dragon madness and mayhem (though this is fun too).

It would be counter to the Living World concept to have anything remain one way forever. The one constant in a Living World is change. That applies equally to destruction and creation.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

Imo a few things that can be done to enhance the feel of a living world is conflict between none-player races. Something that I love to see in the world when exploring is watching a stalker hunt a deer or moa. When seeing animals “hunt” I always feel like the world is breathing, life and death, the circle of life. One of my favorite regions in all of Tyria is Harathi Hinterlands because it is an area that feels alive! Seraph and Centaurs fighting amongst themselves watching from afar I truly feel that this area is alive. If a creature or race is living in the area affected by the new threat it only makes sense to see those races in the fight even more then the 5 playable races.

Another thing that can be done and is very important to me personally is healing the lands. Many people have posted about showing the world heal after destruction and I agree in a living world this is natural and will always happen but at the same time it has to make sense. If a town or area near a town is destroyed then it should be rebuilt maybe not to look exactly the same but some type of rebuilding has to take place. Having said that, if an area that is far away from a town is corrupted it shouldn’t be rebuilt because that wouldn’t make sense. An example of this lets say a forest that has no intelligent race living near by what would help create the feeling of it being alive?

Well its simple let the forest retake what was once hers. (example) Maybe one patch show a few vines growing on the statue the next patch grass and trees grow around it and four or five patches in all you see is the face that was carved in the statue but the statue itself in covered in vines and moss etc.. (example). This not only will make the feel of a living world but will give the players who “lived” through the experience that feeling of “yes I remember this statue” and can reminisce every time they walk past the structure.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/lwd/Healing-of-Orr-just-for-fun-Season-3/first#post4367647 (shameful plug but it applies to the topic)

The problem that this holds is how will new players experience these events? Sadly the answer just like in life is not very fair. People replaying the LS will have an idea of what happened (because LS are being made replayable) but they will not be able to have the same experience because they didn’t “live” through the event. An example of this is a soccer match. When I replay a game I have an idea of what happened but it is not the same feeling as actually being their in the stadium living the moment. This is life and even though I wasn’t able to go and have the same feeling as when I do go to the stadiums I still know what happened I am still up to date. But this feeling motivates me to want to go to the match (play the game while the season is active).

These are just a few ideas hope it helps A-Net and gives my fellow forum goers a different point of view into this topic.

P.S destruction should still happen imo because without destruction rebuilding can not take place. Circle of life. (The Lion King – The Circle of life theme song plays in background)

Shriketalon.1937:

And finally, we need a sense that the civilized and benevolent parts of the world are actually proactive, that they are doing something. There is far too much stagnation across the world, as if every single race was just holding the line and seeing what happens. If you want to make it feel alive, you need to be able to allude to what is going on in every nation. This should often take the form of constructive work, not pure destruction. The developer giveth and the developer taketh away. You can’t just rely on taking.

I think this is a big thing here. At the moment, it does feel a lot like if an area isn’t currently the focus of the Living Story than it’s frozen in stasis, even if there are Living Story elements tossed in (such as the probes).

While obviously we can’t have every map being updated on a monthly basis, a lot could be done simply by dialogue options that allude to changes. For instance, consider Dragon’s Reach part 2: We have Jennah’s reason for baulking at the summit being that “centaurs run right up to our doorstep” – which implies, despite any evidence in open world events (the defeat of the Ulgoth in Harathi Hinterlands, which in an interview a year ago it was stated that while it didn’t remove the centaurs as a threat but certainly put them on the back hoof, and the centaur refugee stating that the charr-human entente meant that the centaur war effort was likely doomed) that the centaur-human war is still at roughly the same point it was when the centaurs were overrunning Shaemoor at the start of the Personal Story.

This is somewhere where, even if not translated into the world, it would be useful to have a kind of internal document giving the state of events around the Living Story that could be looked at when considering dialogue. For instance, let’s say that the current state of affairs in the centaur war was “The centaurs have effectively been eliminated as a serious threat in Queensdale but an insurgency continues from hidden camps in the southeast. Centaur strongholds in Kessex only hold out due to being supplied by bandits, while the Seraph is working on dislodging the centaurs from northern Gendarran Fields and holding the bulk of the centaur army at bay in the Hinterlands”. This would require no changes to the actual map dynamics, but at the Summit, Jennah’s reason for baulking might not be that ‘the centaurs are at our gates’ but ‘the Seraph is still tied up rooting out centaurs in southern Queensdale, and the damage to Fort Salma means we need to be especially vigilant against a centaur counterattack in Kessex.’. Largely comes down to much the same thing, but it comes across as ’we’re making progress but we can’t afford to divert resources’ rather than as ’we’re in the same state we were in 1325’.

Just looking at the human parts of Dragon’s Reach part 2, there are plenty of opportunities to have put in dialogue pointing to events elsewhere, but which may not have any repercussions for a long time to come. For instance, perhaps a reference to some breakthrough in the treaty negotiations could be made at the party. Or there might be some speculation among the partygoers as to what the fate of Orr might be, and whether Kryta should be taking a more direct interest. And so on.

At a more ambitious level… we’ve seen a willingness to make changes to hearts when the Living Story sweeps through an area, so what about the odd change to hearts and locations elsewhere that reflect changing circumstances? For instance, continuing using the human-centaur war as an example, the heart outside the Shaemoor garrison might finally have the centaurs driven out, but now rebuilding efforts need to be defended against thieving skritt. Meanwhile, a mention of a breakthrough in treaty negotiations involving Smodur relinquishing more land to Ebonhawke in exchange for magical support to the Sentinels could result in Ebon Vanguard mesmers and elementalists appearing in Sentinel bases in Blazeridge and Fields of Ruin.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

It’s probably unreasonable to demand world-changing events that don’t actually change the world, so I would say there really isn’t a way to convey such change without altering the environment.

That being said, new players can’t get a sense that there’s any actual change when the environments in the “past” are identical to the present, so there needs to be a method to convey that as they’re going through the story; I think it would be useful if the instances you pop into for the Personal Story were the original, time-appropriate maps rather than copies of current maps (because it gets a little ridiculous when you have, say, Destiny’s Edge holding their reunion in the middle of a burning, poison-gas filled Lion’s Arch during the middle of Escape From L.A. and acting like nothing’s wrong – well, aside from each other).

On a similar vein Living World map instances can “save” destroyed maps for new players to see that things have been destroyed before, which would allow environmental artists to clean up some of the old devastation in open world maps and begin creating new structures in response to previous events; I think it’s really critical that we have reconstruction (that actually finishes), because as some point the next Big Threat is going to roll around and… menace a trash heap.

I mean, really, even now Mordremoth is threatening LA and the only thing I can think is “well, good thing it’s still wrecked, everyone just get out, nothing to defend here.” If things keep getting destroyed and not restored, we’ll all be sitting around wondering why we’re trying to save rubble.

There a few months, I post this in the context of a reconstruction:

Rebuild on the past.

You’ll understand, I want to share with you a dream about the Arck reconstruction. And it’s extension step by step to other cities. I don’t want to be the only one to dream, and I think to submit my dream on the official forum.
To me, the Ark didn’t show well the cultural medley of all races. Then, Scarlet arrived. Since the ruines give me the ideal of a cosmopolitan city.

I imagined the inhabitants come back, scare the looters and reclaim their homeland.
I seen the Sylvaris share their love of nature and grow huge and colorful plants under the remainings archs, old mix with new, resculpting the “world”. Lamps half plant, half Asuran crystal illuminating the new streets with a soft blue shade.

I seen, drawn in my head, Human based buildings made of wood and stone, Norns girder protecting a merchant hall. The ground covered with Charrs gears, bridges made of gears with energetic fields filling the holes. I seen a plant bridge welcoming new Pact zeppelins. The houses, rebuilded, now bearing a luxuriant architecture, strange and beautiful.

I seen the Scarlet’s drill metal carved and used to make new shops offering Lion guard armor and pirates armor.

I imagined a new “leafy cathedral” as base for an auction house with new windows made ??of energy. I imagined a new shipyard behind the lighthouse, I could already see a new place where the old portal standed, protected in the middle of the rocks.
The Aetherblade fence disappear for a plant and Asuran entrance. Narrow passages in places being dug to accommodate black markets countertops offering strange products. Strange oceanic races comed to propose algas and seafood, foreshadowing the future submarine.

I imagined the Captain’s Council to manage the repairs. New city, more daring, more alive is what is in my dream.
Imagine these streets illuminated by a delicate blue shade, bright colors, buildings back and open to players. To clean water, and seek to create a protection on the disrupted ley line, the Pact style, the Quaggan back and expanding the village. Old farmhouses be assisted by sylvari to bring food, new caves with a new type of lion’s guard fortress, with sculptures and charr and asuran creations. The actual merging of cultures.
Corvan statue recreated, passages in the mountains near the tengu, operated by new watchtowers and a new lighthouse.

An hospital near the waterfall with the new model, held by Asuras and Charrs with Human secretaries, priests. Two floors, stone carved and vegetal, with a memorial slab.
Welcoming the strange new breeds and old taverns, making the ark even more mysterious and fantastic time.

I guess the new lion statue, surrounded by heroes of each people, standing proudly back on the main square, and sewers, a supernatural black market or traffic and the threat reign.

I never change avie, to evolve the history of life, but also rebuild and do better! =)

Orr is expected to live, build the Ark again, racial cities evolve, explorations around cities.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

There’s u’re problem. U keep on asking about alternatives when ppl clearly want a break from the destroy part. The destroy part is good..but when we’ve had that for 2 years now don’t u think it’s getting kinda boring?

It’s like u choose the easy way out (u already have the zone and the objective..just mess with it a bit) instead of actually creating something new and positive from scratch. More new maps….HEAL FREAKING ORR!!! and stuff like that…massive POSITIVE changes from time to time. Or if u want destruction create a new map for that don’t alter literally EVERY existing map just to slack.

Yes i completely agree with the OP here. It’s very frustrating and honestly with all your hard work put in the destruction of already existing content, it doesn’t make us feel like “oh look something new”….because we already know the zones. If u already know a zone (specially low level zones which just a handful care about)..whatever u do to it negatively will not impress us in a good way on the long run. Low level maps that have been altered are only visited by fresh players who have no clue wtf happened and think it’s been like that since the start.

U give us no sense of progression with all this “destruction”. My impact on the world should be a positive one….instead for 2 years, everything i did and went to..destruction followed. It’s boring..dumb and stupid all in one. It’s like a bad plot movie.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

I really don not mind the destruction. We are batteling the elder dragons, not unicorns, things will get messed up of course. Still i hope whit time we can rebuild some off those messes (LA), but differently and still have some memmories and aftermath of the messes,

Michael Walker.8150:

Start with removing one big piece of debris in kessex hills every month and add one single finished house in LA every month and before you know it you have a living world.

This. Couldn’t have said it better.

~MRA

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

Easy, what about the Tengu leaving their big home town, to create a new settlement? Their current town, might be getting too small to house all the Tengu and when scarlet destroyed LA (the neighbour town) they might have decided that some of them might be moving to a new settlement in the (far) west because that would make them feel more safe… (only to bump into mordy, so that they’ll need our help :p ).
A new town will also make the Tengu stronger as a race, because when they have only 1 town and if it’s under attack their is nobody to help them out

This settlement could grow over time untill it’s an actual Tengu based city.
This could would have following benefits:

• Get the Tengu involved with the Living World in the future (a tengu could even replace 1 of the current humans of the group :p)
• Give us some more background about the Tengu
• Make the Tengu a playable character (their personal story could be their point of view to everything that happened with scarlet. This would have the added benefit to make the important Living World stuff playable again. It won’t be exactly the same, but that wasn’t possible anyway as the Living world season 1 was 1 big zerg fest anyway )

Also: Cleaning up kessex hills and rebuilding LA come to mind. How realistic is it that nobody in tyria cleans up any of the dirt?

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

Changing people in power. Weather it’s a leader of an order, the Packed, or a race leader. I mean that’s some thing that changes often in the real world. Changing relations between nations is another thing that changes. Relations can change in an instant, or change over longer time frames. Seeing the human and charr relations improve in Ascalon would be a good place for something to happen.

Civil wars spring up for time to time. There has been a rumble of one brewing in Kryta for the last two years.

A power struggle between races for land and resources. Maybe a defence against an Elder Dragon, but there’s not enough to go around. Seeing the tension build as each race try’s to prove there worth over the others for the limited resource.

These are some I’ve just thought about off the top of my head.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

-snip-

A way to shape the progress of Tyria without destroying?

New groups forming or showing up.
This would be like how we got the introduction of the Watchknights (exclude Scarlet’s hijacking) or the Zephyrites showed up.

Other potential scenarios:
The Zaishen Order, with the destruction of Lion’s Arch, have stepped up to aid in its rebuilding and spread its teachings, now becoming prevailent in all main cities to help in bolstering defenses to prevent such devastation from befalling groups again, just as they did when they were a mono-racial order. Result: an extension of lore on the group spreading, and stronger defenses for future storylines, with more interactions between more groups, seeing how the Zaishen (who’ve been said to turn to favoring Bear, chivalry in the Dream, charr heroes of the past, and chaos and strife in the Eternal Alchemy) and seeing how these teachings interact with non-playable races (be they racial sympathies like grawl, hylek, quaggan, skritt, and ogre, or other groups like largos and kodan).

Two street gangs that were displaced, and as such thought disbanded, by the Great Collapse have shown back up; having their ties to the Kurzicks and Luxons respectively they’ve gone out to scout new members for their small-time guilds, and they become a threat to Krytans on a wider scale. Result: a new series of evetns throughout Kryta (and elsewhere) featuring these two guilds – sometimes in conflict with those previously in the lands (e.g., an assault on centaurs in Gendarran, or on Garrenhoff), or in conflict with each other. Their members would be designed in light of their origins of Kurzicks and Luxons, bringing a Canthan flair to GW2.

Bring evolution to things other than the main plot.
A lot of plots that involve continuous and immediate conflict have been put to the side in favor of Scarlet and Mordremoth. What happened to the Ministry that opposed Jennah while Caudecus was under house arrest? Who won the Flame Legion civil war (or is it still on-going)? What became of the revolution amongst the dredge? What’s the progress of the charr-human peace negotiations, and what became of the Renegades with Ajax’s death and where do Separatists stand? Where do the centaurs stand? How do the Nightmare Court fair after Faolain’s fleeing into who-knows-where? Just giving little expansions into each of these – so long as they are notable from the original content – would be enough every now and then. Because currently, it’s as if the entire world is stuck in place until the Living World decides to grace its presence with them. In all honesty, peace negotiations shouldn’t be at a complete standstill for three years (they began in 1324 AE). Maybe not complete, but some notable progress should be made. Usually treaties only take months (e.g., the Treaty of Versailles was negotiated over the course of roughly six months, officially).

After destruction, comes rebirth.
It’s been nearly a year, and yet Kessex Hills is still in utter disarray from the Tower of Nightmares. Lion’s Arch got a little improvement with Festival of the Four Winds, but after the “fundraiser” events, one would expect more improvement, yet we see nothing. Halloween brings a bit of hope, as the place has to be redecorated and reworked (as just putting in last year’s stuff won’t work – Mystic Forge moved, Thorn can no longer stand on top of the bank as it’s destroyed, etc. etc.), might as well see improvements then; same with Wintersday. Prosperity could see some loggers coming in and trying to cut down that destruction – where else will the survivors live (though some were said to have fled north). The Zephyrites can and should eventually rebuild – uniting their five camps together to build a single one, until they can rejoin the rest of their airship fleet (presuming all 13+ airships didn’t crash, as we only see three, potentially four).

If you introduce something, don’t leave it for the dust after its highlight.
There were a series of ranches and homesteads added to Diessa Plateau and Wayfarer Foothills with Flame and Frost – they were part of capture-the-altar esque events, and after Retribution, they’ve become pointless. No interaction, no event, they don’t even show up on the map (neither does Mordremoth’s corruption – wtf?). They were added, and then forgotten. And worse yet, they’re not the only one. After Last Stand at Southsun, Cragstead and North Nolan Hatchery were left for the dust; Southsun has gained little despite Dry Top even gaining things like vistas and skill challenges; the Watchknights have been practically forgotten, used only as a footnote when Scarlet’s involved; or the tower of Nightmares’ destruction. Just as highlights.

They just need minor updates periodically. Give a little bit of something in most places, alongside your main plot. Like what was done with the three books added to the Priory.