Guild Wars 2

In short: Different layers to Tyria under the surface with different themes – Crystalline, Magma – where special ore (and other mats) can be found to craft similarly themed items.

More DEPTH: There are caves in the game, but imagine this: You explore a cave, find a crack, and through the crack you find a tunnel deeper into the cave. Down, down you go until you find an opening with crystalline formations all around. Here and there are a few veins of unique crystalline ore that can be used to make similarly themed gear. But between you and them are many monsters. As you make your way to the back of this opening you find another crevice in the wall. Through here you go deeper and deeper. Again it opens up but this time to magma pools and smoke. Not for nothing though, there are even more precious magma/volcanic ore that can be used to craft similarly themed gear with smoldering smoke rolling off of it and magma dropping from it. It’s a dangerous journey though, as there are no way-points, but very lucrative if you can survive!

In addition there could be unique aquatic ore that only forms underwater. Maybe in obscure caverns to again craft similarly themed gear dripping with water.

(With a little creativity, mats for other crafts could also be found from these places)

Make some noise if you’d like to see this implemented!

cheshirefox.7026:

i got stuck under the wvw Borderland one time
psst, it’s filled with water

I’m not following you. What do you think about the idea?

I’m not too sure about the idea in its whole because you’d just end up with another farming spot that involves a bunch of mob-skipping. If it’s open world people would just leave characters parked near them and ruin the idea that way (like a jumping puzzle), and if it’s instanced then you’ve just made another dungeon. If what you wanted is the latter, then crafting materials involving dungeon tokens would be better because I’d hate to see how many people would get kicked out of impatient dungeon groups for trying to gather. (I’m 50/50 with good and horrible dungeon experiences BTW)

I do like parts of your idea that can be developed separately:

1. One part of your idea I do like is more themes and varieties for the nodes. Right now only vegetable (sickle) nodes are really unique, while Orrian metals and ugly trees give you the same stuff as Frostgorge’s metals and ugly trees.
2. A “truly” explorable high-end area! Rather than the dungeons right now where “explorable” is actually just being led by the nose by NPCs to get the golden chest at the end, just have some high end area where putting together a group and clearing the thing to get shinies that are deposited all over the instance is the goal.

NibriAyid.3680:

I’m not too sure about the idea in its whole because you’d just end up with another farming spot that involves a bunch of mob-skipping. If it’s open world people would just leave characters parked near them and ruin the idea that way (like a jumping puzzle)

Maybe the tunnel collapses behind you once you enter or once you leave and another one opens up in the zone? People are always gonna find a way to make things as easy as possible, but I think finding all of these places would make it pretty fun.

The gear thing, like you said is a much needed addition to the game. There are not enough different themed gear. And actually now that we mention it, the gear that we have is almost too themed. To the point that it is sometimes hard to mix and match gear with other gear because it just doesn’t work. (Have you noticed the hood from the Orr set? it looks open in the back without the rest of the set.)

I really like this idea.
It would be cool if the monsters were kind of scarce throughout the place, but very strong, and sitting in choke points unable to be simply passed up, so that the fact that there are no waypoints kinda sinks in and makes it harder for you to get down to the end of the caverns.
It would make for a great explorable place.

I think getting gear for simply mining the stuff would be kind of lame though. The monsters in there should also rarely drop special mats that are required to craft the gear, so that it is at least a little rare.

Spooky.7052:

I think getting gear for simply mining the stuff would be kind of lame though. The monsters in there should also rarely drop special mats that are required to craft the gear, so that it is at least a little rare.

I think you may have misunderstood me on that part. You wouldn’t get gear just from mining that stuff, that would be WAY too easy and quite lame as you said! What I meant was you’d use that ore perhaps specifically to craft gear that had a similar theme to it. Maybe the crystalline gear would have a glow to it, volcanic gear would have a similar effect to the hellfire vambracers, and the gear made from aquatic ore/mats would have a mist and water dripping from it. You know?

Sounds like Minecraft.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Sounds like Minecraft.

Imagine how boring minecraft would be if all the materials you could use were on the surface.

A combination of the ideas posted here by everyone would hopefully make a similar difference.

Why does this remind me of EverQuest Next?

Bolthar.7192:

Imagine how boring minecraft would be if all the materials you could use were on the surface.

Well I find Minecraft boring as well. It’s basically a more challenging form of Legos. I will admit building a my cow death trap was kind of fun though. Anyway I just brought it up because it seemed like an obvious integration of Minecraft game play.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Bolthar.7192:

Imagine how boring minecraft would be if all the materials you could use were on the surface.

Well I find Minecraft boring as well. It’s basically a more challenging form of Legos. I will admit building a my cow death trap was kind of fun though. Anyway I just brought it up because it seemed like an obvious integration of Minecraft game play.

Yeah, I can’t say I’m a HUGE fan of minecraft either, to be honest. But yes the layers do feel parallel to it.

This idea may be too big of an idea for Anet to implement, but it could be a permanent addition from a bit of the new content they keep releasing.

For example, a crafters fair or something where all the greatest craftsmen of Tyria come to LA to teach crafters new recipes. And also let you in on a newly discovered secret: the caverns as described above!

Every map needs hidden and mysterious places, and some sweet loot deep inside.
I don’t know what map layers really are, but if you say there should be an example of cave-complexum under Queensdale or else, well, that would be awesome.
Common players playing up, while the hardcores are deep underground.
Not to mention that this is an unique feature that no other game has, and it simply multiplies the value of each map.

But we need new areas also, to fill the huge map of Tyria.

I think every map should have a story line/quest line that a player can do that tells the story of the map gives some lore and at the end rewards the player. But that’s a different topic for a different post I may post up later.

Anyways, I agree. The maps should be more mysterious and deep. Adding some proper lighting effects to each map would help with the mysterious part, but adding some deeper cave systems compelling enough to explore would really help with the depth and the mysterious side of each map and the game.

Personally I’m a big fan of exploration. The exploration itself should be reward enough when there is enough diversity in the exploration, in monster mechanics and story. Those are the key factors.

You watched an EQNext video didn`t you?

Who didn’t? xD

15 chars

Bolthar.7192:

In short: Different layers to Tyria under the surface with different themes – Crystalline, Magma – where special ore (and other mats) can be found to craft similarly themed items.

More DEPTH: There are caves in the game, but imagine this: You explore a cave, find a crack, and through the crack you find a tunnel deeper into the cave. Down, down you go until you find an opening with crystalline formations all around. Here and there are a few veins of unique crystalline ore that can be used to make similarly themed gear. But between you and them are many monsters. As you make your way to the back of this opening you find another crevice in the wall. Through here you go deeper and deeper. Again it opens up but this time to magma pools and smoke. Not for nothing though, there are even more precious magma/volcanic ore that can be used to craft similarly themed gear with smoldering smoke rolling off of it and magma dropping from it. It’s a dangerous journey though, as there are no way-points, but very lucrative if you can survive!

In addition there could be unique aquatic ore that only forms underwater. Maybe in obscure caverns to again craft similarly themed gear dripping with water.

(With a little creativity, mats for other crafts could also be found from these places)

Make some noise if you’d like to see this implemented!