Curse

Shyft the Pyro · Jul 27, 2006, 04:12 PM // 16:12

Well, you'll be happy to know that my post was removed from the store thread, though some people seem to have noticed it before it was and incorporated it in their suggestions.

Seriously though, why not have optional content that wraps up loose ends in past chapter storylines available that way? It would allow for a change to Ascalon or Kryta that really reflects what happened after the Titan quests. Remember the "Temple of the Unseen" the Chosen were supposedly being taken to? There's got to be at least one Mursaat boss there that needs "cleaning up"

David Lionmaster · Jul 27, 2006, 05:13 PM // 17:13

Ok, I have an idea about chapter 4. If you look at Orr, its too small to be the whole area for a chapter. What they could do is add areas south of the crystal desert, and part of the story line should be to bring Orr back, in some magical way, because they discovered some magical artifact thingy. So twards the end of the missions we head north through those mountains to the right of Orr and then we go into Orr and save it.

Eldred · Jul 27, 2006, 05:54 PM // 17:54

I think i saw a post with the idea of charr fleeing from north becouse of a unkown enemy well that aint true couse in nolani mission you can see a wood shaped burning titan so titans gave the power of searing to charr

LordKestrel · Jul 27, 2006, 06:02 PM // 18:02

In one of the frog chats, the frog specifiically said that there would be no way to ever get to Orr, unless you had scuba gear. I'm willing to bet that scuba gear won't ever be invented

Sergeant Blades · Jul 27, 2006, 09:58 PM // 21:58

In the manual when it speaks of the hall of heroes it mentions only those whos deeds have become known across worlds have their souls come here.Im not sure exactly what it said because im too lazy to look it up.So possibly we can get to new worlds via the mists?Dunno possibly.Maybe even alienish races we can play.If they do hopefully not too sci-fi or anything.

Elessar Telrúnya · Jul 28, 2006, 01:05 AM // 01:05

Excuse the slight disturbance, but may I mention going back all the way to the very first thread, that Miller Upton does not mention Cantha in anyway in Pre-Searing. I checked the conversations.

Whether or not he makes such a reference in Post-Searing, I don't know. If you're refering to Namar, the guy who you help in the quest, he is from Kryta.

-Elessar

Shyft the Pyro · Jul 28, 2006, 02:12 AM // 02:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elessar Telrúnya

Excuse the slight disturbance, but may I mention going back all the way to the very first thread, that Miller Upton does not mention Cantha in anyway in Pre-Searing. I checked the conversations. Whether or not he makes such a reference in Post-Searing, I don't know. If you're refering to Namar, the guy who you help in the quest, he is from Kryta.

The OP's point is that we learn of an area before we can access it, both in terms of Namar (Kryta) and Jaiju Tai (Cantha).

The OP, however, is mistaken that we only learned of Elona in Factions. So far, all new chapter location names have come from Prophecies, and if I had to guess the name of the chapter 4 continent, my guess would be this:

If only some Elonians died in the desert, why couldn't only some Margonites build the towers there?

AuraofMana · Jul 28, 2006, 03:55 AM // 03:55

Wow if they have paid optional chapters I am going to quit GW right there. If I have to pay to get updates, I rather pay the monthly fee to WoW and play that. The reason why so many people play GW is because it is free. With the 6 month expansion pack it's already getting close to having a Monthly fee. Any more paying and I can bet you a whole lot of people are going to quit.

TedTheShred · Jul 28, 2006, 04:33 AM // 04:33

*PROPHECIES SPOILERS* What I've been noticing as of late is an astounding amount of people referring to the Orr. As I understood it, the Orr are all dead, their island sunk to the bottom of the ocean by the vizer to escape the meanace of the Char. However, a terrible price was to pay for this escape from the Char, as the people were converted to the UNDEAD. Two things prove this, what do all undead carry? Orrian emblems. Who is the last "surviving" member of the Orrian race? The Vizer also known as The Undead Lich King, the one who sunk the island and turned them all undead. It was a good plan, keep on keeping on while being so terrifying to the Char that they are left alone. The tradeoff of course was the undenyable lust for the taste of human brains. So the next chapter will not be in Orr, and neither will it be the locale for any of the upcoming chapters.

Shyft the Pyro · Jul 28, 2006, 06:14 AM // 06:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by AuraofMana

Wow if they have paid optional chapters I am going to quit GW right there. If I have to pay to get updates, I rather pay the monthly fee to WoW and play that. The reason why so many people play GW is because it is free. With the 6 month expansion pack it's already getting close to having a Monthly fee. Any more paying and I can bet you a whole lot of people are going to quit.

The suggestion isn't for optional chapters that introduce new concepts. The suggestion is for "extensions" rather than "expansions," things like Fissure/Underworld/Sorrow's Furnace. ANet has already stated that Factions wouldn't get any "extensions" the way Prophecies did, and with the 6 month chapter release schedule I see Factions setting the tone for all future chapters, where we get less content to support more frequent updates. "Extensions," even if paid, would support the player demand for "wrapping up" storylines because they would show that as a result of player actions something actually changed in some part of the game world.

Right now, the Guild Wars world is majorly static. In Factions, the only area that has any reflection on your character's progress through the game are the NPC ghosts in the explorable Tahnnakai Temple, who have different dialogue based on how far you've progressed through it. There is, however, no option to come back to an area you've previously visited and see the outcome of your actions in the storyline except for only one thing: Haiju Lagoon Afflicted are replaced by Crimson Skulls. I'm not sure about what precisely triggers this, but it's definitely there on at least one of my characters.

In Tyria, we had the Titan quests as a way to revisit locales with an "update" on the situation, but the Titan quests themselves were an add-on, an "extension" to the game introduced at the same time as the Sorrow's Furnace update. The suggestion is to include something akin to the Titan quests in the sense of "updating" or "completing" the storyline, tying up loose ends, except with possibly new towns/zones/missions that take it further than some new farming ground like the Tombs update.

I highly suspect that ANet has decided to release no more free "extensions" to games. Though I dearly hope that I'm wrong, the 6 month release schedule is heavy enough as it is, and the fact that we can't test the female Paragon and the male Dervish this weekend could be an indication of that (to bring us back to Nightfall in a roundabout way

). The people who create extensions have to get paid for creating the content, and if the content they create is released for free ANet effectively operates at a loss. Gaile Gray said the same thing about the changes of character names in the store thread: they can't afford to provide the service for free, but they might be able to if there was a fee.

Likewise, there is a big enough demand and a big enough following for each of the chapters to have the "extensions" released, but there might not be programmers/game designers available who can take time off from working on the current/next chapter. Additional revenue from paid "extensions" would spur ANet to expand its programming team and actually reconsider releasing "extensions," since as I said I don't believe they're thinking of making any at all.

Since they're based on already existing chapters, the "extensions" by definition require less work to put together. If there are no new skills or radically different weapon mods to introduce, there will be no balancing issues. That of course limits "extensions" to the following as selling points:

1) Item skins. People always go crazy for unique item skins and names. Maybe it would be nice to have a max damage Plasma Blade

2) Armor sets. Statistically identical to all others, armor sets provide both a gold sink and an incentive to play through the "extension" if they require certain materials more easily found in the "extension."

3) PvE areas. Exploration freaks always want to uncover more of their map, so an "extension" to explorable Maguuma or Ascalon would drive people nuts even if it used a different map.

4) Titles. Tell me "Protector of Ascalon" does not sound good to you and I will say you've never played Prophecies

5) Storyline. The main point of the "expansion" is to take the story further and update it to account for player actions, complete it where it leaves us hanging as we move away from separate areas of the game world along the main storyline of the chapter.

I'll say this again because it the most important part of the post. I believe ANet has decided not to release any more free "extensions" to existing campaigns like Underworld, Fissure of Woe and Sorrow's Furnace. Instead of never seeing another "extension" again, I'd rather pay for one that builds on the storyline of the chapter and updates it for player actions as well as introducing new content to support (albeit in a roundabout way) old chapters. Think about it: if new players get in on the "expansion" bandwagon and actually enjoy it, they'll want to buy the chapter and play through the storyline to see for themselves what all the fuss was about. This would give old chapters a new lease on life, possibly even without directly interfering with their maps or content!

If you can come up with a more brilliant advertising scheme for existing chapters, I want to hear it.