No, Evon Gnashblade doesn’t love us. The whole ‘voting thing’.

But Evon is John Smith’s boss, so it’s nearly the same result .

Handalf.1894:

I really like the scenarios described by Nike.2631, and would like to direct your attention to the also brilliant ideas developed by Shriketalon.1937 in his thread To Merge the Personal and Living Stories .

Yalora Istairiea.6287:

I must admit that I expected the link above to be a poorly hidden attempt of someone using an alternate account to bring a self-serving light to some piece of ill-inspired “Look at my idea” tripe… Boy, was I wrong.

ikr?

That thread is DRIPPING with the awesome.

Yalora Istairiea.6287:

I have been reading thru 34+ pages of player inspiration and I have been pleasantly pleased with the insight and forward thinking that is emerging from this thread.

A shining star of colour and brilliance that I have been enjoying so far has been the well thought out, in-depth experience by story-master: Nike.xxxx (in case positive call outs are bad too, in my defense, I didn’t include the actual .xxxx so it could be anyone right?)

Well, speaking on behalf of the broader category of all-possible-Nikes: Thank You. In a thread like this, even with direct and regular Developer participation, the accolades of our peers is frequently the finest of prizes . I really do appreciate the occasional approving word from fellow players. It encourages me to keep bringing my best game.

Yalora Istairiea.6287:

But move over on your pedestal Nike. It looks like Shriketalon.xxxx is looking to give you a run for your money. A bit of friendly competition of the enlightened just keeps everyone on their toes. Well done folks.

Plenty of room up here .

As much as I may be proud of my 3 larger concept pieces, they’re NOT intended as blueprints for action. They’re just examples of how to take one or two very specific pieces of technology we don’t have yet, and wrap them with things we know are possible with the current engine. When I give a big shout out to other people’s work in this thread (its a HUGE thread, apologies to those whom I’ve missed), its often because like my proposals, they are rooted in 90% re-used parts, brought to new life with small, ACHIEVABLE additions to the current toolbox .

Xairi.8965:

Do they glow or something? What makes them different then regular dyes?

Generally the high-end dyes have more contrast between the two colors that make up all dyes (many standard dyes the two colors are so close you can’t tell that there is a primary shade and a separate undertone).

On certain materials and armor pieces that contrast makes the details in the armor really ‘pop’.

Try them out in the Trading Post – you can preview colors from there and the a quick sort by price will shuffle them right to the first page or 2.

Adding it to this thread just to be thorough:

Correct the Stow/Unstow Pet functionality to not work in combat and for stowed pets to STAY STOWED until we call for them.

Then replace Skirmish 5 (the minor trait) with:

Lone Wolf: While your pet is stowed, you gain +25% damage.

There undoubtedly is. 1c will put you at the front of the line for a desperation sale, but you’d be shocked how often adding 5s to the top offer even on an item being bidded the multiple gold range will shake something out. Hoarders sometimes set very arbitrary limits. Hit one of their invisible tripwire values and BANG! deal’s done.

The contract is probably rarer than eternity, and it’s certainly more useful.

Holland.9351:

I want to call some attention to Hide in Plain Sight while I can.

It gives 3 seconds of camouflage, which is like stealth that breaks if you move. 3 seconds is very short and you often break it instantly because you are moving.

Is there any chance to make this 3 seconds of stealth? This would allow some movement and it could combo with Remorseless, which resets Opening Strike. Currently Remorseless only works with Longbow Hunter’s Shot.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey now. Are you suggesting Ranger traits should offer synergy? Or even work at all?

Because that IS just crazy talk.

I mean, I guess this does something in PvE where mobs are as stupid as our pets, but when I’ve had it traited in WvW I’ve never met a player that didn’t know my sudden disappearance was in reality a SELF-IMMOBILZE.

mercury ranique.2170:

The hate off a character off a story in progress also means it might be the perfect villain, cause those who are now saying (with good reasons) how irritating she is, are prolly be very happy to kill her off.

She is supposed to be a villian you are going to like killing her

the only criticism bout it I have is that she is made too unlikable during the waiting game till that moment.

Be VERY CLEAR on this: When people hate the writing of a character its a failure to connect with them. When people hate a character, that’s a brilliant success of communication.

The desire to kill off a badly written character isn’t the product of good storytelling – its working out your frustrations with the author-via-their-proxy. The least spiteful interaction you can hope for is they’re trying to kill the character simply to move it off the playing field so they don’t have to endure it any longer.

I mentioned earlier, I don’t want to kill Scarlet, I want to shatter her presentation as an untouchable mastermind. I want the writers to show us they aren’t so enamored with their creation and themselves that they’ll upend the current narrative and give us a the satisfaction of turning the tables and the further satisfaction of Scarlet having to live with defeat at our hands.

Ultimately, I want them to concede that player characters are more important than theirs.

timmyf.1490:

Wrong Prince, Nike. You’re thinking of Edrick Thorn. We’re talking about Rurik, son of Adelbern.

Yeah – caught that when I started watching the linked video… just not fast enough .

Carry on!

Edit: oops, quick edit – wrong prince.

I loved Prince Edrik- but not at first.

In my first encounter with him in the instance, I was sighing and hanging my head a little at this overblown, pompous snot…

…Then I got into the Labyrinth and started to listen. Ok, right off, Mad King Thorn is my hands down favorite piece of voice work in the game. So to have ‘Eddy’ and him practically spitting invective at each other was priceless from the first second on. Then when you really listen to it… Wow. That kid is MESSED UP.

You made me sympathetic to someone who just tried to kill me (not very successfully, but he did try…). Usually when people try to kill me I consider that instant and permanent suspension of their breathing rights. Eddy actually conviced me he was doing it more out of duress (and distress) than any real urge to be “The Bloody Prince – muhuwahahah!”

When I moved on to the climax instance, It was a lot less “I am SO gonna put you down!” and a lot more “Alright, Edrik. Just get back in the box. It’s better for everybody this way…”

I originally posted this in a separate thread, but have since realized it goes here if I’m hoping for Dev consideration .

On the concept of making people branch out in their Elementalist builds, with less absolute reliance on Arcane, I have a counter proposal for the Devs~

General: It would be nice to see more synergy between the elemental trait lines. Give me obvious, tangible reasons to build 30 Fire & 30 Earth or 30 Air and 30 Earth. Make elemental “pairing” sing. There’s only 6 possible pairs among the 4 elements, go through and deliberately make sure each pair offers something (probably by way of their 25 point minor trait) that has specific utility and application if you have 25+ points in another of the 4 elements. Give us an incentive to break away from the tyranny of Arcane rather than increasing the opportunity cost of Arcane in the hopes that we’ll maybe give up on the cornerstone choices in that line.

Specific: Dump all-aspect recharge% from Arcane entirely. Rather than neutering it down from 60% to 30% for a whole line’s worth of investment, keep the current recharge times and ADD “+50% recharge% for that element only” to each of the 15 point minor traits for each elemental line in addition to their current effects. Do you want fast recharge for Fire attunement? THEN SPEND POINTS INTO FIRE! Splashing 10 is not a commitment. Splashing 15? Cool, you get fast recharge for that Attunement. 15 points is also a low enough number that you could see a “fast-swapping master” built on 15/15/15/15/0 with 10 points left over to mix it up.

But what to replace the class specific boost of arcane with? Make it a stat buff that varies with your attunement! Make it “double down” on the attributes already associated with that element as seen in their trait lines. A fully fire-traited elementalist in Fire Attunement with 30 points in Arcane should get a huge bump to Power and Condition Duration (the Fire line bonus). When he shifts attunement to Earth, that Power and Condition Duration bonus morphs into a Toughness and Condition Damage bonus (The Earth trait-line attributes). Make points into Arcane something that reinforces the flavor and playstyle of your other choices, rather than diluting them.

Less “I want to be a hydromancer, and arcane lets me get away with occasionally swapping through other attunements…”

More “I want to by a hydromancer and arcane lets me stack even more vitality and healing power while in water Attunment, making me a BETTER hydromancer!” With it built-in that being a 15+ point hydromancer means you can get back to that attunement quickly after rotating out to answer some specific need.

Wanze.8410:

Yamagawa.5941:

Hum….
We have players who farm the level 1-15 areas. We have ayers who farm the level 80 areas. Are we missing players who farm the areas that drop silver doubloons?

They dont drop directly from mobs, so hardly farmable.

That it drops directly from a bag that is associated with a known target list is about as farmable as it gets.

Only difference is that as a bag you can choose to buy-&-sell the RISK as well as the final product.

Or you could try to actually control something. It’s an enlightening experience.

Long, long ago I set myself a modest warchest buying and converting gems, then set out to control an item I perceived as substantially more important than it was being priced for, and of an extremely finite supply.

It took me less than an hour to figure out there were THOUSANDS of them in the system, not visible but ready to boil out of the quantum foam seemingly just by putting a buy order 1c higher than seemed to be the stable floor.

Now when I see people try to equate the lingering FAILED offers to buy or sell to Supply and Demand, I just burst out laughing.

Shriketalon.1937:

Here’s the big old block. I hope you enjoy it, and thanks for reading through the long haul.

Daaaay-yaaam.

You win the internet for the day.

That was a ton of work. Lots of interesting ideas. I’m not sure I can digest it – it’s that rich of a banquet.

Zachary Haas.9803:

The Lost Arcanaeum

My brother in arms, right there.

Seras.5702:

A game needs to be focused or it will just be a bunch of watered down things here & there.

I think there’s an important nuance to be had here~

A broad, main-stream game trying to maintain a massive playerbase needs to be partitioned effectively or it will just be a bunch of watered down things here & there.

I don’t play sPvP. I probably never will. But because it is so effectively hidden behind a single small icon on the UI, it doesn’t interfere with my enjoyment of what I see as the core game. It doesn’t tap me on the shoulder constantly ((gives the evil eye to the Personal Story flag I just CANNOT GET RID OF)).

The addition of more casual, hobby-style gameplay elements can and should be done in a way that its there for those that desire it without hassling those who don’t. And by having it, you build a stronger, more diverse playerbase that ensures everybody continues to get what they want in the long run.

DOCTOR ORWEN’S THEATER OF THE AGES!
Two shows nightly. Additional performances by special arrangement!
Special Thanks to Professor Moto for technical support!
Bring the kids early to see Lady Kappa’s amazing dancing pygmy-moas!

Hear ye, hear ye! As a gesture of Councilor Kiel’s unending support for the cultural advancement of Lion’s Arch, the Captain’s Council is proud to announce the opening of the Stage of Marvels. This new facility offers entertainment and joy to the citizens of Lion’s Arch and its many esteemed visitors. Join us as GuildWars 2 raises the curtain on a new window in to the incredible richness that is the Lore of Tyria in this permanent Living World release!

TWO SHOWS NIGHTLY!
The Stage of Marvels is a masterpiece of theatrical production, using the latest in mini-pet production and holographic sets and special effect to bring you incredible recreations of moment’s in Tyria’s history. Twice each night the theater gives free live performance of up to 5 ‘acts’ run sequentially to educate and entertain you about recent events or Tyria’s most ancient struggles. During the day, the theater is available for special requests – pay just a few silver and see our talented mini-pet performers act out the slices of history. While mini-pets can’t talk, our expert crew of stage hands will hold up holo-banners throughout the presentation illuminating the action on stage. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, just don’t throw rotten fruit – the inner mechanism of these dedicated little automatons are delicate! Just interact with our Stage Master to select from a growing library of past events and fill the days of Lion’s Arch with lore!

Our scribes are always working to expand our portfolio of ‘acts’ so that you can stay in the know about the latest twists in the War against the Elder dragons or other up-to-the-moment happenings. Tell them about your own progress in the Personal Story to unlock additional shows you may then request for performance. Relive your favorite moments in miniature! Our squad of imbedded ‘field-playwrights’ can also be found all across Tyria. Leave the comforts of town behind and help them in their research into lost history to add even more choices to your library of shows!

FOR THE MORE DISTINGUISHING PATRON…
Not willing to rub elbows with the rough masses? Tired of jostling in line to request the next daytime showing? Feel the urge to put on a special presentation for your friends and guildmates? Look no further! Doctor Orwen’s theater troupe is yours to command! For a one-time contribution of only 5 gold coins, you can become a “Patron of the Stage”! In addition to this attractive title, showing your inestimable refinement and wit, you ALSO gain a permanent stage added to your Home instance, where the players of the Theater of the Ages will take your requests at your leisure and at no additional cost, ever. Make your neighborhood the place to go to look into the mysteries of GuildWars!

((Coming Soon to a game that brings lore to life! …Tiny, comedic life, but life all the same!))

((P.S. It still breaks my soul that I’d probably get banned for formatting this they way I’d like to. PLEASE consider ‘Rule #7’ and allow us to converse like adults.))

BobbyStein.2315:

Regarding GW1 lore in the game, I think it’d be really compelling to have in-game books or some other delivery device to allow players to immerse themselves in Tyria’s history.

I’m having another of my elaborate thoughts on how to take this to the next level of cool, but I’m waiting to hear back on if we can get special dispensation in the Collaborative Development threads to format our ideas attractively.

Elbegast.6970:

For the Player-Generated Dynamic Events, for example:

Okay, lets say I own a farm and have saved enough grateful NPCs around the world to hire some farm hands. How would my goods get to market?

From a drop-down menu or from a quick chat with my Farm Boss NPC, I send out some pack Dolyaks to carry my goods to town. This would start a scripted dynamic event. Other players could jump right in and help guard my caravan. If the goods make it to town, I get gold and the players get a standard reward of karma, xp, gold, random chest, etc. If the event fails, they get a little xp and I lose my goods to bandits.

This right here is GOOD STUFF. It’s almost entirely composed of parts we have and can see in the game right now.

Although, I think to keep from confusing people, you may want to call them “Player-triggered Events”. Just so readers know the Devs have to do all the set-up, but control over their use and activation is then in player hands.

Colin / Chris / Powers that Be,

At the beginning of this thread, some thirty pages ago (my how time flies), there was a list of rules laid out to provide a framework for our discussion and to guide our expectations.

I would like to see an additional rule added~

7: So long as it serves to advance mature discussion or illustrate a creative point, the usual forum restrictions on the use of complex formatting will be suspended. This is a privilege. Do not squander it.

At its heart, this thread and the other Collaborative Discussions are about the philosophies and processes that underlie making art. For us as posters to contribute, one of our most powerful tools is to make art and use it as a demonstration of the philosophies and process we try to highlight and share.

I am a writer. I paint with words. But I also paint with rhythm, with inflection, with the visual appearance of those words on the page. This forum is equipped with POWERFUL TOOLS that help me keep one of my 1,000+ word proposals from dissolving into a monolithic unreadable wall of blah, blah, blah.

I have had one of my posts redacted (since reinstated) and my account infracted (still true) for wanting to give the best, most engaging, and most enlivening presentation of my thoughts that I could. My offense: knowing how to make a title line look better when leading into a massive proposal. My crime was using paint when talking about painting.

Please extend us a little latitude as we go forward together. You won’t be sorry you did.

Thank you

minbariguy.7504:

You have GOT to be kidding me. How ridiculous.

I’ve been lead to believe the matter is being corrected. The central post has been restored (if somewhat the worse for rough handling). I am hopeful the related ones will likewise be repaired.

For now it’s best to let it go as we move forward.

Thank you for the kind words .

It’s a good counterpoint to me sitting here seething at having my work vandalized.

Oh, by the way… Your moderators in their insane zealotry just wiped the WANTED: PIONEERS! post and every post containing it off the thread.

And I got infraction points for it as added spice.

Evidently because I dared to use ALL CAPS in the first line as a formating tool.

RoyHarmon.5398:

How would you handle the differences in progress across servers?

Chris Whiteside.6102:

This is something for sure i would love you guys to discuss but not something i can comment on i am afraid in terms of straight answer.

It already happens… Allow me to direct your attention to WvWvW.

Every Server sees the events of their zone through a different lens of progress and presence. What keeps it from spiraling out of control is after a week it resets.

PIONEERS works similarly (in my head). Its a single closed zone and it has no calls into or out (like the temple/statue relationships in Orr). Because its enclosed its ok that for a time there are variations between the servers. Like we see with 1 week matches.

The Six Settlements are always secured in the same order. The end state – a new, permanent zone fully populated with hearts, vistas, PoI, skill points and DEs always resolves to the same condition. The only difference is the rate of progress. And that becomes the arena for competition between servers. Even then it’s simply friendly competition for bragging rights.

The minimum possible run-time for the campaign is 6 week. I’d be completely hands off in it’s management for probably 10 weeks. Then if there are servers still struggling I’d likely ramp down the minor events that suspend progress. Special mention has to be given to the Major events that can reverse progress – Failure costs 1 hour, but in all cases, I’d limit the event to no more than twice per day and it only launches at all if there were at least 6 hours of forward progress in the last 12 clock hours. If the minor events are bogging down progress worse than that, there is not reason to kick the Server in the junk further by making them sliding ever farther backwards. You can never take more than one step back for each six steps forward.

If after 12-16 weeks a server is still stuck, I think it could be automatically promoted to compete status, all servers are now realigned in the final state, and if Developer attention returns to that zone, its to a zone essentially uniform across all servers. Like starting a new WvWvW match. Clean reset.

And to reiterate about “the town population reflects the races on its Pioneer Marker” I would set those up as complete black boxes isolated from any other consideration. Each town will have 20 generic citizens – generic beyond the town has its own look up table for races matching the 20 player characters on the Marker. The end. They don’t talk, they don’t get involved in DEs in more than a generic way (run and hide, or similar). The don’t create an eternal nightmare for future development. They are a strictly cosmetic nod to the ‘winners’ for that town.

(And even then, I know that’s one of the most dangerous pieces of code I’d be calling for. Beady, watchful eyes on it for months to make sure it didn’t explode.)

I also wanted to say I can see a lot of existing WvW technology being used I this map during the event. Dolyak escorts, carrying supply. Helping to rebuild a town after a DE. There’s a lot of functionality that could be swiped and repurposed.

Finally, I think the many buffs WvWvW echoes out to the rest of the Server are an untapped resource in Living Story design. That was something I was drawing in with differentiating zone states in TIDES – I know harvesting crit exists as a potential buff because we get it from WvW .

Conncept.7638:

I made this exact same suggestion weeks ago in an LS brainstorming thread, except mine was the Sylvari and Asura pushing to the west in hopes of finding signs of the second pale tree, eventually leading in to the conflict with Mordremoth.

Signs are good that this is the place to bring it .

I like your structure in the Pale Trek – it’s well grounded in setting and connects the dots to a larger plot goal nicely. I also think its interesting that its works via subtraction – you Start with all the marbles, and you try to prevent losing them.

Sadly, I ultimately think its untenable for one unfortunate reason:

I believe we have to be EXCRUCIATINGLY CAUTIOUS about deviation between servers. For your model to pay off, the stakes are that the players can influence which settlements survive. Even with the assurance that there will be a set number (4), the zone is basically dead after the event because Devs can never easily come back and build on it because every server’s version of it is potentially wildly different.

Its one of those ‘drop an atomic bomb with a whisper’ line in the PIONEERS proposal – that the settlements would have a cultural mix based on their Pioneer Marker – just to be clear, by cultural mix I mean there are exactly 20 nameless “citizens” that wander around each town that map to the races on their marker. I literally don’t dare introduce anymore Server-to-Server deviation than that. I wouldn’t even be comfortable re-skinning the vendors for fear of the cascading maintenance issues.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Conner.4702:

To me none of the LV felt like it truly impacted the WORLD. Sure zones got changed, but the world stayed the same. Just look at the current LV there is a huge tower in the middle of a lake, but the humans and centaurs still have their petty land disputes..

So how would you try and solve this? And a second question is how far would you like to see the impact of say a tower in Kessex be felt content wise? The balance here is of course total volume of work for those involved, to literally have the entire world react to what’s going on would take us 6+ months to build, which at that point isn’t actually meeting our goals of a regularly changing and evolving world.

Just as you say there are clues to be had, our sense of commitment to the story sometimes relies on the smallest of flourishes.

In this case, I think just setting all the ambient (non-event) centaurs in the zone to neutral/yellow nameplates for the duration of the event would have a powerful impact on player perception of the importance of events.

I know if I were a Dev, I’d love to see a snippet of zone-chat saying:

“Why is this Centaur just standing here? He’s not attacking…”

“Did you not see the tower in the middle of the zone? Even the Centaurs see the threat! Centaurs (&*@#^&ing HATE US, and they’re playing it cool towards us for the duration of the crisis. That is SO AWESOME.”

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Now before folks get excited in terms of this being a statement of attention

It’s a statement of awareness. I’ll take it .

timmyf.1490:

CONFIRMED BY DEVS: NEW ZONE NORTH OF HARATHI HINTERLANDS COMING NOV 26 PATCH

Jerk. …But I did laugh really hard.

I just wanted to say WANTED: PIONEERS is mostly a riff on things said in this thread. I don’t have a working solution for players going out and launching settlements willy-nilly, but I think there are frameworks they could become invested in that would do the same thing narratively, but always ultimately resolving to a common, sustainable outcome.

While the event was running it would have to exist somewhat of a vacuum – while some servers might finish the march against Jormag in the strictest minimum time, others would have to be allowed up to maybe as many as 4 months to get there, and the zone really couldn’t be subject to further alterations until the catch up. Its a problem, but I think a small price to pay, and an opportunity to encourage guesting over out of goodwill to challenged servers.

While WANTED: PIONEERS! comes off as a slick 1-page advertisement, I have no illusions that it would represent anything less than a metric butt-ton of work across nearly every development department I can think of. It mostly draws on existing systems and existing assets, but stringing them together in the framework of a seven-stage campaign with only the final stage being kept as the permanent state of the zone… grueling. You’d kill months putting this thing together, and I mean month more than just building a zone in the traditional fashion must require.

One thing I will point out as a contrast to many things discussed so far: its incredibly light on rewards. No new gear. No cosmetic goodies. The reward it does offer though is one I think people would battle for passionately: PERMANENT RECOGNITION. While the Pioneer Markers as I first envisioned them would record the top 10 in two tracks of contribution, I think it would be amazing to have a second dialogue options when clicking on one that opens of a “Many thanks” page that lists maybe the top 1,000 participants – their efforts didn’t directly shape the town’s population, but they are still acknowledged for their play.

I also wanted to say I was a participant in the original big Southsun One-shot. I had a great time, even with the lag, the invisible beasties, and the occasional crash (thankfully mine were early so I got back in). But my roommate couldn’t make it that day – I have a pretty close up perspective of how unfortunately exclusive it was. This campaign is at its core that sort of event stretched out for an entire week, and then repeated with only minor variations FIVE MORE TIMES to give the best chance that the most extremely casual players still have a chance to at least look at a zone in flux, even if from a practical standpoint they were never in the running for a place on the top 10 lists.

In any event, thank you for reading . I thought it would be an entertaining extrapolation on a number of concepts put forward here.

Or, in less flowery language. I thing we could see another Southsun Cove style zone event, but by stretching it out to weeks rather than hours, you create a process where one disconnection because EVERYONE IN THE GAME is in the zone with you doesn’t crash the script.

I also think there is REAL potential in creating a rally race through a sequence of distinct stages that allows servers to compete with each other. And the guesting system ensures players can guest to other servers either to ‘peek ahead’ or lend a helping hand on servers that are struggling.

WANTED: PIONEERS!
“It’s a new frontier out there, your Majesty, and people are going to get hurt.”
- Logan Thakery

Join us as GuildWars 2 opens a new zone in a special one-time multi-week Living World event… That Everyone can participate in. Travel beyond the northern reaches of the Harathi Hinterlands to a new and untamed land waiting for the footsteps of heroes. The Lion Guard plans to seize the initiative, preparing new fortresses and new farmlands from which to base an army to one day strike against Jormag, the Elder Dragon of Ice.

OPENING THE WAY
The new zone begins as empty wilderness, with only a single cleared glade under player control. This is the first settlement in its infancy, and you must protect it. Each minute the builders are left in peace adds to the progress. Heroes will have to fend off all threats from simple animals attracted by the smell of food to angry Grawl defending their territory. Progress will be suspended until these threats are driven off as builders take shelter. When construction time adds up to one full week, the settlement will be firmly established – Permanently – and pioneers can press deeper into the region to the next promising site.

But beware, the sounds of hammers and the smells of family diners have not gone unnoticed. Local inhabitants and a forgotten colony of things best left undisturbed have begun to stir. As each town is completed, the resistance to the encroachment of civilization stiffens. Once tranquil woods become filled with flickering shadows, shadows that hunger for easy kills and a return to quieter times. The need for strong arms and steady hearts will not diminish as you press deeper into the wild. New dynamic events will be added throughout the campaign as the land responds to your presence.

In all, six towns, training camps, and fortresses are planned in this campaign against the Ice. Fill in the map, adding hubs of permanent commerce and trade with a variety of vendor and services. With each great milestone taking no less than a week, opening the new frontier to it’s permanent state will take over a month of dedication, giving each server a chance to compete against the others and display their round-the-clock commitment to opening the way and taking the fight north. Heroes can contribute to the Lion Guard’s initiative with more than just the strength of their sword arm. Scouts are needed to sweep ahead, while crafters and wealthy patrons are welcome – once per hour characters can turn over contributions of processed Lumber and Metal in Lion’s Arch and other major cities to advance the construction effort ‘clock’ by precious minutes, making up for time lost to threatening events. Rare, random daily major events will be announced world-wide, allowing defenders from all around Tyria to gather against dangers so great that if they are not beaten back the current progress clock can actually lose hours with buildings flattened and settlers slain.

As towns are added, veterans move forward behind the front lines and new hearts and skill point challenges become available. As scout reports are gathered new places of power and vistas are identified ahead of the advancing wave, calling explorers to the fore. Check with roving scouts to keep up on the current pace of the march to the north. Watch the map evolve before your eyes as your efforts to prepare for the next great assault on the Elder Dragons unfold! And when the final fortress is built, you can be certain that JORMAG HAS NOTICED. Help your server to be the first to unlock a new permanent Dragon Lieutenant Boss-Encounter as the Sprit of Black Ice answers this great challenge to his power.

MAKE YOUR MARK – FOREVER
As each hub is completed, the builders will erect a permanent Pioneer Marker recording and immortalizing the character names of the top 10 adventurers and the top 10 crafter/supporters who contributed to that town on that server. Every Marker is unique! Further, the permanent NPC population of the town at the end of the event will reflect the ratio of races among those 20 characters. Want to see the Charr tear off a piece of the new meat? Bring your Charr and place your clawmark on the land! Certain that only Asuran brilliance can ensure the safety of the new lands? Bring your Asura and show the bookahs how its done!

((Coming Soon to a game that makes new zones truly an epic experience))

Septemptus.7164:

Can you give us Scarlet’s head on the plate soon?
Please.

( Half of it is a joke, only half )

After throwing the idea of raiding Scarlet’s mysterious headquarters out there, it really crystalized for me that I don’t want to kill Scarlet.

I want to embarrass her.
I want to shame her.
I want to make a fool out of her.
I want to beat her decisively.
And I want her to have to live with it.

I’d still prefer she ‘lives with it’ entirely off stage, driven into exile or maybe imprisoned by her own master for her failures if she really is a dragon-servant. Anything so I don’t have to put up with her anymore… But her DEATH is no longer on my to-do list. It would be too kind of a fate.

The best revenge is living well. The worst punishment is living badly.

After doing a little checking, the SOMEBODY I need popping the locks on Scarlet’s secret base has to be Emisarry Vorpp, and he needs to do it with utter Asuran disdain…

“That sprout may have come up with a marginally novel kludge, cross-linking the quasi-metric field tables to make a one way gate- until it burns itself out 45 minutes later, but her so called ‘security protocol’ is no match for real Asuran craftsmanship. It may have taken me weeks to perfect my counter but I guarantee it works right every time.”

X “How did you do it?”

“I just had to forcibly stabilize the pan-stationary- no, no, you don’t care about the details. Suffice it to say, her front porch has a lovely welcome matt and the door’s unlocked. No need to look shocked: I’ve been an accredited Master of Statics longer than Miss Can’t-Pick-One-School has been alive. "

For the Future of Scarlet:

Ok, I want one thing, ONE THING, when it comes to dealing with Scarlet in future content:

These portals she keeps using? The ones that tens of millions of mobs come rolling out of every week as the invasion events continue?

I want my side to drop the idiot ball, take the initiative, and for SOMEBODY to figure out how to put me and a band of my hardcase friends (Hey, Rox. Whassup, Braham? Oh, Majory and Kasmeer made it too!) back through the portal all clandestine-like.

I want a 1-5 player roflstomp ROMP though her secret base. And the most important thing of all?

I don’t want to see Scarlet at all. If she’s always out building alliances, then kitten she can be out wining and dining her new harpies-&-skritt team-up or whatever. I want to burn her whole base to the ground and do racial dances in the ashes.

You give me bloody-handed vengeance against her Twisted Clockknights Factory, let me be the one launching the surprise attack on a secret Aeitherblades Barracks, let me dump a vat of acid over her personal stockpile of toxic spores, and most of all LET ME CATCH HER UNWARES for a change, I’ll take back fully a third of every nasty caustic remark I’ve ever made about the character. Just let her come up short one time.

1,000,000 bonus points if there’s a full fully voiced epilogue for after we pull out, Scarlet get back, sniffs the air curiously and says “That’s strange. I don’t remember leaving the stove on…”

Offer’s on the table ANet.

On the use of DEs to create a Living World:

The landscape has its base state: a few mobs, some resource nodes, maybe an occasional interactive object (i.e. driftwood, a rust dagger)…

Many parts of it have a DE that can overlay it…

A few have 2 DEs that can occur…

The places I remember best and tend to gravitate back to when bringing up alts have many DEs that might be going on there (the pumphouse in Queensdale remaining a favorite)…

I think there’s a real principle of critical mass were DEs are concerned, a threshold where the region finally becomes ‘alive’ to me, and that threshold is right around 4 events (+ the ‘at rest’ state). For example I recall the first island on the southern march across the Straits of Devastation not because it graphically distinctive but because there’s a DE to take it, a DE to hold it, and a DE that departs from it. The next stop of the march there’s only the taking and the moving on. Even thought there are services there, it’s just not a place I immediately think about when I remember the ‘Trek to Orr’.

I think part of why I remember the Frost and Flame chapters more clearly & more favorably than some of the others is that the massive infusion of events into the Norn Starter map (a field I know very, very well) tipped most of the zone into a 3-or-more DEs density of activity. While there have been issues throughout the Living Story where temporary events overlap enduring events, with Frost and Flame I felt less pressured to ignore the enduring events I came across, and the temporary ones occasionally lead me to enduring ones I had never seen before.

As I’ve said elsewhere, If I were king, introducing DEs would be a systematic exercise in pushing the majority of pairs of maps into critical mass. I understand the developmental directive to balance effort, but I think the returns on effort in this case are non-linear. For some locations, adding 1 more event isn’t ‘just adding 1 more event’, its pushing that piece of real estate into an entirely different class in the players’ minds.

20 pounds of plutonium is a dangerous paperweight. 23 pounds is a new sun flaring into existence (hopefully not on your desk…). Small increases can give dramatic results.

Dunan Atreides.5436:

Here’s an idea that I hope doesn’t get buried:

change the background in the character selection screen to reflect the current living story

In the entire process of booting up the game and logging in, This is the most visual and impactful thing you guys can change (I think) that clearly signals something is new in the game. It fills up the entire screen, and hypes the player for the new content. You’ll definitely notice, if last time you logged in there were floating ships, colorful banners, and a bright blue sky representing the bazaar of the four winds, but when you logged in this week, everything was a deep red and you see Divinity’s Reach in flames in the background (Maybe, clockwork chaos). I’ll be honest, I don’t read the text on the patching window.

This idea gets many, many thumbs up from me.

[APROVED]

timmyf.1490:

Nike, I’m curious as to whether we’ve had the same experience: after a few months into the game, I was BORED with dragons. I had no interest in fighting more dragons.

I will say I was bored fighting Risen. While there’s actually a pretty huge roster of critter types in the ‘Risen’ bin, they really run together in my mind. When I was listing out 5 ‘headliners’ for the 5 major events in my TIDES OF DECAY proposal, it was partially in an effort to showcase that the is more to Zaitan’s minions than just another walking corpse with whatever set of skills the name is hinting at.

My strongest emotional investment in the game is through the eyes of the Norn, so to me, that giant tooth in the great hall of Hoelbrak is an open wound calling out to be cauterized in the fire of some righteous beatdown. I’ve never not been ready to answer that call.

I had no interest in fighting the one dragon we had. “Victory or Death” stuck around in the top-right corner of my screen for months.

I’m not a very proactive group builder. I’m happiest as a faithful and capable lieutenant – the kind great leaders hope to have. For me trying to entice 4 other people to join a group to knock out Arah story mode is worse than any trip to the dentist (and I had 3 wisdom teeth out in a single visit, so the low end of my Dentist experience is pretty darn low…). Having the climax of the personal story be a dungeon is on my list of “5 worst GW2 mis-steps”. Even if I appreciate it tying together the dungeon storyline of Destiny’s Edge with your Personal Storyline [insert obligatory Trahearne’s Story joke here], it’s still just horribly jarring to me.

But now that we’ve had nearly a year of Living Story releases, I feel like it’s time to get back to the dragons. ESPECIALLY if it means getting to push further in the map to get to them.

I’m completely prepared to return to the essential conflict of the setting. That said, I also appreciate the dance ANet is going to have to so. As much as I’d love to pit my Legend against Jormag, he probably has to stay so far down the stack of choices that we’ll never fight him before the game goes dark, simply because a win against Jormag will BREAK tons of effort put into dialogue both in Hoelbrak and across the Shiverpeaks.

Mordramoth, Dragon of Blight (corrupted Wood) and Bubbles, Dragon of Murk (corrupted Water) are both low hanging fruit, easier to work with because so little has been said about them. Their annihilation at the hands of our character won’t impact a lot of the foundational work put into the regions we have access to now.

I don’t think Scarlet is a Dragon Lieutenant, but I do think her story could easily be prologue for the corrupted wood dragon moving center stage. Bubbles would still come third, but I see a revamp of underwater play/skills before moving the action so completely beneath the waves… (and inundating us with more Quaggan content ((shudder)).)

I do hope Scarlet is draconic prologue in some form, because honestly, MMOs die. The engine ages. The churn declines. I want to get on with it so at the very least I’ve put a sword through Primordius’ eye before we’re all looking at this game’s graphics and thinking “man, that is so last decade…”

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi Nike,

I really don’t understand why you think i am defending or justifying anything. I am discussing and listening to the feedback and folding that into actions as necessary.

I’m sorry. Truthfully, I don’t want to dwell on Scarlet. I have much, much more fun when we’re talking about Dynamic Events. (Something you may want to consider calving off into a new Collaborative discussion thread to ease the reading burden of everyone – I don’t think we’ve established a rule yet that there can’t be two open and running at once . Among other things it would allow you to bring the two topics to closure separately.))

Because scarlet is largely dead to me, I’m on to the post mortem in my thinking. When I say things to the effect of ‘a great ending cannot be used to defend/justify a weak start’ I’m already looking forward to the next volume. NEXT TIME, I hope we see the lessons learned here applied from the outset. Then we can find all-new plot potholes to trip over .

My point is very simple, which is that i agree with much of the foundational feedback regarding the dynamic of story within the living world, but that there is a lot of info, plans, and goals that the discussion group is currently unaware of. Thus my point is it is better not to turn assumptions into hard facts and this will lead to less valuable discussion. My point isn’t about the performance of what happens as this arc plays out, it is about what we are learning based on the facts in hand. And of course we are listening.

I imagine that last section seems to you like a near-echo of things you’ve said before, but for me, just now, I get it. Finally. I think I missed the intent to shape discussion as we move forward. While I’ll try to rein in my urge to froth at the mouth when a certain ginger-topped anti-heroine comes up, we are a bit of a handicap talking about the future of the Living Story in any concrete fashion: we don’t know the future, and you can’t talk about it.

Analyzing highs and lows to date I get. I’m just not sure how to offer anything forward-facing other than “I hope to get back to wrecking face on the Elder Dragons.” Or “I hope that the scale of the Living Stories is ratcheted back, while the intimacy and the commitment I feel towards it improves.”

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I hope you can appreciate this as i appreciate your dialogue and understand that when it looks like a point has hit home, it probably has.

Chris

((puts down sledgehammer))

Oh good. Because it’s exhausting belaboring the point sometimes .

I’m sure you know from my fondness for ‘Second Chances’ as a narrative tool, I’m a big fan of the heroism embodied by persistence…

Your efforts here have been heroic. Thank you.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

That the story line around Scarlet has been flat, specifically no clear angle toward goal or resolution.

Ah! Thank you. I get it now.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

And in regard to your second question as it relates to my above point. It is safe to say that goals and trajectory toward resolution are not clear yet outside of Arena. There are clues however.

I miss clues sometimes, so maybe there will be a point when we’re looking back over the first… ‘volume’ lets call it, of the Living Story and all these little tidbits will fall into place. I’ve seen it done well in Doctor Who, but I’ve gotta warn ya, in my experience its a hard structure to pull off entertainingly.

One thing for sleuths better than me to ponder: In the Scarlet invasions, the portals shared graphics with the Steam-monsters portals. There is a Portal in Kessex Hills right now delivering Toxic Forces into an area SE of the Tower of Nightmares. It has a very different graphic, showing somewhere… new. You might want to hang around there and take a look. I’ll try to grab a screenie latter.

[sidebar]
If the Devs are still podering ‘rewards for participation in Collaborative Discussion’, I admit I’d take a laurel and about 2,000 luck credited to my account – I’ve spent a LOT of time typing when I could have been logged in with the spore-zergs .
[/end sidebar]

Tachenon.5270:

As an aside to the more serious ongoing discussion, why do no NPCs ever mention sylvari farts? I imagine they would sound like flutes, or panpipes, or various other woodwind instruments. Perhaps even saxophones.

You forget that they smell like rose petals and give +10% gold find for 6 minutes.

Isn’t it great being the writers’ Pet Faction?

rizzo.1079:

I think the point is that her story so far is less an arc and more of a line.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Yep i think this point is valid.

Normally I’m all for opaque geometry analogies (no, really!) but, um…?

What are you two trying to say?

Also…

Chris Whiteside.6102:

…but please don’t assume that the direction of the arc is understood by all just yet.

‘Understood by all’? Is it understood by anyone not inside the ANet offices? Outside of the foreshadowing imposed by the graphic for the next release (I lean towards that being one of her minions standing behind her, not a ‘mysterious master’ reveal), and the assumption that after handing over all those spores to Marjory I’m be able to go into the tower in a few weeks, I have Zero Clue what Scarlet Briar’s endgame looks like. Or how many more mix-and-match alliances she’s entitled to before moving to some sort of resolution. I mean, if we finally get the centaurs/oozes team-up I’ve been dreaming of, great . Otherwise, lets get to the final act, shall we?

Was there some big long-term hints in the Aether Path? Because I had real life those weeks and missed that block…

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Also please also be aware that there is a lot of judgment around Scarlet when the arc has not completed yet. I agree with many of the points being made at a foundational level but please don’t assume that the direction of the arc is understood by all just yet.

You have to give up on that as a justification/defense.

It doesn’t matter if the ending is amazing if half your audience has tossed the book in the trash by the second chapter. Half being generous if the posted reaction to Scarlet is in any way representative. It’s like watching an M. Night Shayamalan flick – there is so much focus on ‘the twist’ that the fundamentals of storytelling get abandoned. You get a terrible movie in the first two reels and the third reel cannot reverse that no matter how clever.

We can already see the text portions of the dialogue in ToN – things you can change on a short lead time – trying to adapt to feedback. Believe me, I noticed. And I’m sure you’ll continue to struggle to salvage the credibility and improve impact of the Living Story as you work through those parts that are too far along to change course entirely. It is a learning experience. But sometimes the solidarity you are showing to past efforts makes it hard for us to be certain you’re getting the message. I will try to withhold judgment on the remainder of the arc – to come at it with fresh eyes. But please understand damage was done by what has gone before.

On the Epicness of the Living Story:

I think I was less than clear on how the ‘pursuit of Epic’ is derailing things in the Living Story:

Scarlet is never allowed to JUST BE COOL. Every time an NPC in setting opens their mouth about her, its to tell us she’s THE COOLEST EV-AR. Horribly horrible things have been done to try and build her credibility by brute force instead of organic progression.

I hate to say it, but for me it all comes down to one in-game piece of dialogue. “She graduated from all Three of the Asuran Colleges…” ((screeetch- car crash noise!)) Say WHAT??!? In that one moment the entire arc DIED for me. The ego-projection was strong in this one. Because if you’ve played the game – doubly so if you played an Asura – this is preposterous. And no amount of backpedaling or hand-waving in web-site fiction changes that. As offended as I am by it, I’m even more offended that apparently nobody in the writing bullpen raised their hand and asked the question “Isn’t that… isn’t that a little dumb?” Somebody’s enthusiasm for the new super-hero, this Dark Trahearne you got to building rode right over all common sense in the pursuit of EPIC-EPIc-EPic-Epic-epic ((echo effects)).

And what’s so sad, is if it had just been “She graduated from two of the Asuran colleges!” I think my eyebrow would have gone up, but I’d also be saying to myself, “…Ok, I guess she is supposed to be an incredible Engineer. Lets see where they go with this…”

Sometimes the line between awesome and absurd is just that narrow.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I think we have learnt a great deal from where we are now with the Scarlet Arc. I won’t talk about future plans for her i am afraid as this goes against the rules i set for this initiative. I appreciate all the feedback in regard to our current story telling foundations and look forward to seeing the game evolve from them.

I hadn’t gotten to this post when I wrote the above, so I’m folding it in here now.

As understated as this reply is, I choose to believe it is acknowledgement the message was received. While I can’t wait for Scarlet to exit stage left forever, I’ll try to look forward to what comes after with renewed enthusiasm.

timmyf.1490:

Chidori.9483:

Honestly, if I was going for an epic story I would start with something simple, no party crashing. I would have a little girl ask me to find her mother, and in doing so stumble across something so horrible that I cannot ignore it.

You mean like a bunch of Destroyers coming out of a rift in Kessex Hills?

The other way around – a summons by your Order, leading you to work with a new, very small Pact task force heading to Kessex hills to do a long-range study of Destroyers in expectation of battling Primordius some day in the far distant future… and when you get ther- HOLY CRAP THEY’RE EVERYWHERE! FIGHT FOR YOUR LIVES! WE HAVE BREACH, WE HAVE MAJOR BREACH!

And then sprinkle a few Dwarf themed rewards in .

No party crashing in part means even if Evil is on the march, the introduction to the story is WE have the initiative for a change. We’re trying to move forward when we interrupt Evil rather than Evil always interrupting us.

Chidori.9483:

Honestly, if I was going for an epic story I would start with something simple, no party crashing. I would have a little girl ask me to find her mother, and in doing so stumble across something so horrible that I cannot ignore it.

I. AM. IN.

Lets start this party:

To use the tools we already have in game, I’d start this with a letter that in flowery language basically says “Return to your Home instance to see [someone] about a small problem they are having.” And nothing else. No trumpeting horns. Let players be intrigued. Ramp up from there as what looks like a little side bet escalates.

You could have a minutely different scene script for each race depending on which home you end up launching the sequence from, but they then quickly align into a single story path to move forward along. Maybe not a missing mother but a friend that has vanished (easily replicated and understood to be happening in all 5 starting cities). Half an hour later we’re onto a cross-species child-smuggling ring and myyyy goooodness, I’m ready to burn some villain bases down to the ground and save me some kids.

You don’t even need new assets. This is all a really sick plot by the Inquest to get lab samples, and they are using Aetherblade muscle to do the grunt work. Bam! Bases populated, enemy roster fully and deeply populated. Game on!

I don’t get mad at ‘zerkers (other than when they don’t have the skill to operate one in the current encounter and keep face planting over and over…).

But I don’t run pure ‘zerker either. I’m not a teenager any more. I can give the game my absolute full attention, know fight mechanics intimately, be on maximum alert for the dreaded red circles… and still miss a key dodge from time to time. I build accordingly to give my team the best contribution I can offer. Maybe that means I lose about 10% DPS (I’m aggressive, just not suicidal) but I’m also keeping my active uptime percentage in the high nineties. I try to make up for that by knowing if I can’t be the pointy end of the spear, I need to bring major utility and support to the fight so that those who are hardcore ‘zerker ’razors’ can stay on task kicking buttock 100% of the time, even when they slip and miss a dodge now an then.

My frustration with ’zerkers is the occasional pig-headedness in the face of reality that some encounters just DO NOT favor it. You get this vibe “Zerker or GTFO” when if they are really as skilled as they think it should be “The RIGHT gear for the job or GTFO.”

OfTheDunes.2307:

It would be very nice, if after that there would be a nice way ingame to get informed what happened in the meantime.

Maybe books, newspapers, illustrations or more funny bards.

Or why not a puppetry, doing a puppet show or a stage-play for children with the minis of the LS-heroes, that already exist in the game.

It would be nice, if you could ask the puppetry or the bard to play a specific chapter of the living story for you.

Love this x 150.

One way to do this while cutting down production expense is to have a figure beside the stage periodically hold up a sign that prompts a text message that goes along with the minis bumbling around on stage. No voice-overs required.

(sorry, the puppet-show stage in the orphanage with the Asura sock-puppet leaning up against it may be my single most favorite scenery asset in the game…)

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Yep the story needs to more ‘Epic’, meaningful and better at evoking emotion.

Chris

I think this exact quote is what’s really hamstringing your writing team and the direction of the Living Story in general.

You don’t need to chase after Epic – epic is a natural outgrowth of scale.

What you need to focus on is ‘Compelling’.

In Kessex Hills there is a little stand-alone escort event in the Destroyer caves. A child from the nearby town has fallen into the caves and can’t get out. Lead her to safety.

Ok, first off, it’s a little girl and she’s surrounded by monsters that want to eat her. If you’re not a complete sociopath, you’re already committed to the endeavor just to put an end to this outrage. Second, I empathize with her: I fell down that same kitten crack while looking around – that’s how I found her in the first place. The monsters aren’t just after her, we’re totally in this together (yes, I realize I could just waypoint away, but that’s for chumps). Is time to hero up.

The fact that I’m on my rifle-toting engineer and I’m practically screaming lines from Aliens at the screen as we shoot our way out of there ("You want some of this? And you? How about that, come on! blam-blam-blam-blam!) is just a nice bonus.

And did you notice how I said ‘we’ there? She doesn’t do a thing except cower or follow along doggedly, but we are a party now, making our way out of the cave. Because I care.

There is NOTHING in the Scarlett Invasions that comes close to that. Nothing is under threat. Nothing says ‘step up, hero’. It may look EPIC-EPIc-EPic-Epic-epic-epic ((echo effects)), because it’s Big… but it has no heart. It’s a safari for big-game hunters, not a chance for heroism.

Give me a reason to care. I’ll suspend disbelief (no way pointing out just because), I’ll buy in if you let me. But don’t confuse scale with relevance.

Some of the finest victories are small.

Like seeing a little girl make her way home.

TIDES OF DECAY: Discussion

cesmode.4257:

See, the problem with this is that it doesn’t fix the current issue of zerging in one zone alone. While the idea is interesting, it still sounds like players will congregate in one zone and zerg zerg zerg. I think it would be better to spread the population out a bit more across many zones, not just one or two, but a half dozen or even all of them.

While I personally enjoy the occasional zerg – the chance to see my server really mass up and smite something actually appeals to me – I don’t likes zergs that are rushed and frenzied. Doing more invasions or the Queens pavilion because you know this opportunity will go away soon is a little too mouse in a maze for me.

The critical distinction in content like TIDES is there’s no threat of time limit. I think the initial wave will be smaller – people will want to come and check it out, but The Deal is clearly spelled out up front: “Please come check it out, but it’ll be here. Even if you’re stuck at work, in the middle of moving, on vacation with the family, TIDES will be here waiting for you.” And TIDES is design to scale down so if you come late you don’t NEED the entire server on hand to make it work. You can potentially flip the zone all by yourself if you want to commit some long hours to it (75 events at an average of 5 minutes each + travel time… 4-5 hours if you are Risen-mulching machine). You’ll need a party to see victory over the linchpin [group] events with bottom end difficulty akin to dungeon endbosses, but you can still come out and look them over all by yourself.

That change of pacing and acknowledgement of decline of player-mass over time, means TIDES should see a smaller zerg-upswell at the outset and burn cooler but much, much longer than most LS content has.

TIDES OF DECAY: Addressing Concerns

takatsu.9416:

TIDES OF DECAY sounds epic. That’s something I’ve always been wanting and suggested over the year in different places. Something like that where it’s dynamic and player-based on a large scale where players feel like they’re really influencing the land and the world, making history and controlling their fates.

It’s not an endless well of entertainment, but I think it could keep people engaged at least as long as we see in a typical LS release, and unlike what we’ve seen in those, all of it’s components are enduring. You aren’t rushed to complete it. Some of the achievements are deliberately long tern – it’s unlikely the initial novelty-zerg would last long enough to rack up 250 non-major events- that’s a goal specifically introduce to allow casual visits to the zone weeks or months later to still feel like progression to less driven users.

Phenn.5167:

This. Just…this.

Thanks . Remember to upvote the original post- if nothing else it makes it easier for me to find it later on through my profile by searching for popular posts!

Starscream.6498:

This is incredibly awesome, but, imo, this is what Orr should be. With Zhaitan instead of Tequatl. I think it always should have been on this grand scale, having impactful effects (both positive and negative) based on what failed and what succeeded. These effects are in Orr to some degree, but in very weak forms. If I walk over a patch of land that has a firestorm or brambles applying bleed and cripple, I’ll find it a minor annoyance, not a sign of Zhaitan’s power that was multiplied by seizing some of the temples.

While I don’t disagree, I see TIDES as a testbed – it involved a new technology (zone geography flipping) and it involves a boss we know we have narrative access to both before and after completion of the Personal story. If TIDES works, the lesson would absolutely be portable to other zones.

While “Senior” players who have completed the Personal Story cannot cause (or expect) a permanent cleansing of the larger Orr without wrecking things for players who come after, I think there is tremendous room for them to set the stage for a more successful (dare I say… Vibrant?…) Pact Campaign in Orr to assist other players on their trek across those zones.

draxynnic.3719:

On the Tides of Decay rewards::
Personally, I’d probably be inclined to flip the rewards between Vibrance and Decay. In Decay mode, grant increased gold, magic find, and event rewards when participating in the events that will reverse the Decay state – this means that people have an incentive to participate in flipping the state, but it’s not a farm that can last indefinitely. However, the vendors offering items for Sun Beads should remain locked in the Vibrance state, of course. (You might even get away with not explicitly increasing rewards at all, if the Decay events are extrinsically and intrinsically rewarding enough on their own.)

On the flipside, make node harvesting more efficient when you’ve won – more chance of getting rare materials, more chance of getting more than one resource per harvesting tool usage, more chance of getting more than the default number of gatherings per node. The general idea is that you get an incentive to stick around and help out when things go bad, but you also have an incentive to stick around and enjoy the benefits when you make things better.

Of course, the reward for simply defeating Tequatl and preventing a flip in the first place should be enough that people are happy with doing that rather than deliberately failing in order to instigate a flip.

Sure. The most important thing is that BOTH states be appealing to play with specialized rewards rather than causing player’s to arrive, look at the state, and leave because its currently in a mode they don’t want to hassle with.

My expectation is that the core Tequatl event remains tough, even with the scaling changes to make it more accessible. REALLY TOUGH. ‘Accessible’ means there can be more valid attempts – completion rates of valid attempts don’t have to go up very much at all from what we see now. The ‘default’ state of the zone would be Decay – setting up the grander, but also more personal struggle to flip it for the shiny rewards state. On the whole, I think the feelings the two modes are trying to evoke – the opportunity to relax and enjoy the bounty (Vibrance), or the opportunity to dig in and battle to make a difference (Decay) are better represented by loot buffs vs. progression buffs, but there’s room to bat it around . If TIDES were deemed a successful test, other zone absolutely should use other combinations of buffs to incentivize their states.

TIDES OF DECAY: Challenges to Implementation

Most of this Living World Release requires no new assets. The majority of the rewards already exist (thought iterating the Hylek-summoning consumables out to include more color variations may take a moment). The skins dropped by champions in Vibrance state are a set already in the game (crafted with sun-beads). The Household item could be built from existing Hylek features and does not require special mechanical benefits – its a genuine trophy for you housing area costing perhaps 5,000 sun-beads (not a lot really, if you’re buying them with karma to supplement those dropped by events in Vibrance mode). The principle investment of art department time would be doing a beauty pass on the zone as it exists now to hype-up its radiant natural glory and then producing the Decay map. The map would share mostly the same geometry (want to avoid players becoming trapped or dropping through the map when the zone toggles Vibrance/Decay states), but could have greatly repainted surface maps and natural clutter. If technology allows, the two maps would definitely benefit from separate creature spawn configurations. The promise of “more frequent Rich Harvest Nodes” would also demand new technology as I understand it.

The state-based buffs are chosen to reinforce use of the zone in either state: gold/Magic find for cashing out on a successful flip to Vibrance. Exp and Harvest crit to encourage traveling the full extant of the zone harvesting and engaging in combat despite the doom and gloom.

The five Lynchpin events require new scripts of course, but could each use an existing model as a headliner:
1. Risen Archmage
2. Undead Servant (Translucent Drake-type seen in the personal story, known to be a herald of Risen expansion efforts)
3. Mouth of Tequatl (renamed Mouth of Zaitan)
4. Eye of Tequatl (renamed Mouth of Zaitan)
5. Spawn of Tequatl (Tequatl skin over Drake Broodmother-sized skeleton)

The five events present almost a Who’s Who of the Risen’s uppermost tier. Repurposing the Mouth and Eye will show Tequatl consolidating power in the post-Personal Story environment. Players who have completed the Personal Story will instinctively recognize that the mere existence of a “Mouth of Tequatl” means kitten just got real.
Adding a Spawn of Tequatl hints that the purpose of Tequatl’s rituals to scavenge lifeforce is to prove that it can continue to produce new Draconic Lieutenants even after the fall of its master – guaranteeing it a leading position amongst all the forces of the Risen that remain.

It would also be interesting to link each of the 5 Lynchpin events to one of the 5 statue types seen in Orr, providing distinctive debuffs to the fight mechanics, adding plot complexity that Tequatl is now seemingly tapping the temples’ power for its own use, and further incentivizing flipping those temples to ease the pressure for the Sparkfly Fen events (we’ve already seen each temple’s Pact/Zaitan state can be checked from outside the zone the temple is found in).

TIDES OF DECAY

Tequatl hasn’t just evolved… It’s on the march.
Return to Sparkfly Den and Guildwars 2’s most challenging encounter in this permanent Living World release. The threat posed by “The Sunless One” has spread like a black tide… See the next evolution of GuildWars 2’s Dynamic Event system with new tougher challenges and “Second Chance” events that give you surprising ways to hold your ground when all seems lost.

VIBRANCE / DECAY
Battle for dominance across the zone as Tequatl presses toward Lion’s Arch. You control the very landscape in the battle between Vibrance and Decay as Tequatl seeks to leech the lifeforce of the land to power its continuing evolution.

When Vibrance reigns, this zone is more rewarding than ever before. Gold find and magic find are each increased by 20%. All champions have a chance of dropping sun-bead themed weapon skins. All events across the entire the zone offer 1-5 sun-beads in addition to their current rewards. New vendors will trade sun-beads for hylek, risen, and tequatl themed rewards. Mini-pets new and old, tonics, consumables to summon hylek warriors of all types and colors to your side, and even a special Hylek decorative item to add to your personal home area can be acquired to commemorate the service of those who fought long and hard for the Children of the Sun.

When Decay reigns the land is transformed. Face a new, darker Sparkfly Den where hope is on the verge of being crushed and heroes must rise or all is lost. Experience points and harvesting critical chance are each increased by 20% as you dare to confront evil made manifest. Rich harvest nodes become more common as Tequatl’s power strips the land back to its bare bones, but they are often guarded by savage creatures guided by the Dragon Lieutenant’s growing awareness. A new zone-wide meta-event tracks your every effort to push back this terror. But beware, if allowed to fester for a full day, Tequatl’s influence WILL BE FELT even closer to the gates of Lion’s Arch…

MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
The Tequatl encounter becomes more important than ever! Reworked to scale faithfully for groups of 15 to 100, more players mean more complex challenges as the fight progresses and better chances for the rarest rewards. A new pre-event allows you to gather your forces before the timed event begins. Even small groups now have a slim chance to acquire some of Tequatl’s greatest treasures while driving off the beast. Bring your friends, your allies, your entire Guild to increase your odds! But know that the price of failure has never been higher…

Failing the Tequatl event unleashes the Tides of Decay! This mega-event requires players to complete a total of 75 Risen-based events to repel Tequatl’s minions and free the land, restoring the zone to Vibrance. Five new major [group] events can be found as Tequatl enacts powerful rituals to seize the land’s essence for its own. These special events are extremely challenging, often involving the direct intervention of Zaitan’s Champion or a powerful Risen Servant, but completing one counts as 15 normal events towards pushing back the Tides of Decay. Show your mastery with a special permanent achievement by completing all five of these new challenges, unlocking the “Tequatl’s Bane” title. Or amass 250 smaller victories while Decay holds sway to gain the “Stalwart of the Hylek” title. Show your determination as a solo hero, taking the fight to Tequatl one challenge at a time, or team up to tackle the lynchpins in Evil’s plan to plunge Sparkfly Den into darkness!

((Coming Soon to a game I really want to play!))

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I am now going to take the family out for some swimming and some lunch and if i get time will get back into discussing these areas before tomorrow. If i don’t get the time today then i will pick it up tomorrow.

Thanks all,

Chris

Out of all the things to come out of this thread, I don’t think it’s possible to overstate the direct usefulness and indirect community building going on by simply leaving us these notes saying “Out for a bit, talk to you soon.”

We spend a lot of time completely in the dark about if you saw stuff and whether we’ll ever see a Dev post in that particular thread again. Right now I know I can spend time marshaling my thoughts and reasonably expect to have them at least glanced at by continuing to post them here. Because you left a note on the door. Its simple. But its also POWERFUL.

Thank you. Sincerely.