Curse

Symeon · Aug 05, 2006, 06:47 PM // 18:47

Here's an idea looking ahead to Nightfall/future chapters.

Co-operative/Competitive Hunt. This is a daily event that shifts between different zones each time. It is designed to bring some public-ness to the instanced zones of Guild Wars.

All towns that connect to the zone in which the event is taking place have an NPC by the gate, who informs you of the situation. It could be that a powerful monster has appeared that is rampaging around the area, and you need to find and kill it. Or it could be a group of monsters rampaging around, or some army deserters who are trying to run through the area and need to be stopped... or maybe all the monsters in the area have been afflicted with some strange curse that is driving them to attack innocent travellers.

If you accept the quest he gives, you can then ask to enter the area. He will tell you that as the threat is large, many people are needed to fight against it, and so if there are other towns in the area people will be exiting from them as well.

The event basically turns the area into a public place, like an outpost. Bear in mind that you can still go into the normal area by just going through the gate rather than talking to the NPC.

You can enter the area in groups of any size, or go alone. When you enter, you will be placed into one of many districts in the area. You cannot change districts once you have entered. There may not be the maximum number of people in the area at first (this number will be fairly low), but people can keep joining the district. The joining system would be designed to take you/your group to districts that need more people. However, the system should work to make as few districts as possible so they are filled up quickly.

It doesn't matter if the maximum number of people is reached, and in some cases there may be a time limit to do whatever needs doing. The name and profession of every single person in the district will be shown in a scrollable list at the side, and you may form groups of up to the maximum of the town with people who have exited from the same town as you. Whatever you choose, as soon as the countdown timer to the start of the hunt ends, you can begin to move through the area.

This is where the difference between a Co-operative and a Competitive Hunt comes in. For now I'm going to describe Co-operative. In this version everyone from all the towns works together against the AI enemy.

There will still be enemies in the area other than the ones you have to hunt down, and sometimes there might be more than usual. These enemies will not be easy to beat. There could also be enemies that keep spawning at certain points in the area in some hunts to create a bigger challenge.

In some cases you may not know where the objective is and will need to explore around. The All chat can be used to talk to everyone in the district, so if a player or group finds the objective they can inform everyone else, or if there is a certain way that the players and groups should spread out across the area that could be discussed. There won't be green items or any other special items dropped from the target enemies (to prevent some players rushing to get them); the main focus of the Hunt is the reward of the quest. Also, anyone who has been idle in the district for 10 minutes will be automatically returned to the outpost.

If the objective is missed or everyone in the district dies, then the quest fails and you must return to the outpost to try again.

As soon as the objective is completed, everyone in the district has finished the quest and can go back to the NPCs in the towns they came from to get the reward. The reward could be special item(s), gold, lots of experience, skill points, or something new altogether.

Once the quest is completed, the player cannot take it again. However, the option of doing the Hunt again (for fun) is still available if you simply talk to the NPC and ask to enter the area, Hunt-style.

So basically this is a large cluster of PvE groups/players all fighting through challenging enemies to reach one or more objectives, together or separately, whatever they chose. It's not quite the same as a free public PvE zone, but it's as close as Guild Wars can get to it in my opinion.

Here's an example of my idea in the Co-operative form:

You speak to the new NPC Himana Ose in the outpost Camp Khani, who appeared earlier in the day and will disappear sometime later in the day. This outpost is connected to the explorable area Badatu Ridge. Outposts Rojali Village and Messenger's Rock also border the area.

Quest: Criminal Gathering

I warn you, adventurer, Badatu Ridge is no longer a safe area to travel through, even for people with fighting power! There has been a mass-breakout from several prisons in Kourna, and all the criminals have made it out here, where they have set up camp to rest. The fools think they will go unnoticed by the people around. That's right, scouts from the three outposts around are watching from distance. They can see that the criminals are armed, and some are occasionally leaving the camp to kill wild animals, or raid nearby houses. Whatever their strength, there are many dangerous people at that camp, and any small party of adventurers would most likely be defeated swiftly at their hands. So, instructed by the government, we are to gather as many fighters as possible to enter the area and combat the criminals with force until the army arrives. We certainly cannot allow them to move outside Kourna. Say, you look like a mighty adventurer! Why not join the cause and head out into Badatu Ridge with the others?

Quest Reward: X experience/ X gold/ X skill points/ special item(s)

- Accept/Decline

Upon accepting:

A fine choice! May I take you/your party into the area right now to join with many other adventurers from the surrounding towns?

- Yes, let's go right now!
- Nope, sorry, got better things to do with my time.

You enter English District 25. The maximum for the area is something like 32-50 people (lag, I know, just... have to find a way to work around it). You are not currently in a party but choose to join a party of seven other people already in the district. The countdown timer reaches zero and the NPCs or gate or whatever blocking your way move. You can see lots of names in a scrollable list at the side, but it is too big so you click to exit it. The only names you can see now are those of your party.

In the All chat, everyone is discussing what to do and there is someone who has done it before. After some more discussion the groups decide to split up in certain directions from the different towns and begin fighting monsters. The criminal camp is in the center of the area and there are lots of monsters in the way there who have fled from all the people.

Eventually, two of the groups come to the camp but aren't in aggro range. They wait until more people have got there, then begin the attack. The criminals aren't too hard to beat but there are several bosses. A few people die, and an entire party is wiped out. These people are resurrected and eventually the criminals are defeated. gg, thx, ty, thanks people, gj, great, cool, nice job, ok that's it, bye, cya. Everyone maps back to the towns to get their rewards from the NPCs. The district is cleared and has a 5 minutes cooldown period before everything respawns and some more people can come in to start the Hunt.

Competitive version:

I haven't described Competitive Hunt yet, but basically it would mean that the people from different towns are competing against each other to reach the same goal as fast as possible. If they run into each other, they can fight. There would also still be AI monsters in the area, which makes this mode 'PvPvE'. Perhaps with the quest I've been describing above, there could be a separate NPC to talk to in the town who will give you a big reward if you/your party brings him the head of the boss. But as he has talked to more than one group and can only give the reward to one of them... once the Hunt begins, it becomes a competition to reach the criminals and kill the boss first - and the party that kills him takes his head.

Feedback on this massive idea would be much appreciated, though I can't reply for a week (going on vacation

). Hell, review my idea, change it, develop it, criticise it (constructively) as much as you want. And of course, there are bound to be mistakes in it.

Cheers.

actionjack · Aug 05, 2006, 08:08 PM // 20:08

King Symeon is back in the game? (game of forum suggestion)
welcome back.

Good idea, seem balance enough, and would certain by a nice addtion to the game. The map need to be big, and mob neet to be planty. Rest seem good. Kudos.

Kendar Muert · Aug 05, 2006, 11:01 PM // 23:01

So it would be kinda like the oni rampage in the dragon festival, but on a larger, cooler level.. neat idea.