Curse

Chronos the Defiler · Jul 14, 2005, 08:11 PM // 20:11

i certainly hope for the sake of Guild wars that the areas they plan to add as "Explorable areas" are not at linear as most of the areas in guild wars already.

SOME desert and tundra areas are the only truley EXPLORABLE areas we have...the rest if you look at any map or guide shows that in order to get from one point to another there is never a large amount of possibilites.

There are practically just "paths" you have to take in order to get around the map, and always on those paths are pre-set groups of enemies.

I think it would be a bit better to have the abilites to roam around the map freely instead of being confined to the linear path they set for you.

Instead of having 2 choices to get to an area (directly anyways) they should give more unrestricted access to areas....adding more "plains", "forests", and other somewhat free-roaming open areas with randomly generated enemy occupation would make it a bit different.

I am not saying that we should be allowed to swim in the waters or climb mountains, but maybe have more areas you can access, perhaps have several paths going around and throguh the mountains.

As well i just wanted to add that enclosed areas known as "dungeons" are very popular with many of the mmorpg players, underground caverns, charr prison temples, other caves and valleys will add another "difference" to the game, and that is what I find to be a great aspect of any game....VARIETY!!!

MasterQu · Jul 14, 2005, 08:31 PM // 20:31

I actually like the idea of climbing mountains and swimming, that might not be a bad thing. But back to the discussion: I agree with you that more open maps are needed that you can exploreand to set up a mob randomizer as well.

On the side of ANET i believe they were using the magority of the system to train your charecter and yourself. I mean for years it has not been a must to work with other gamers to achieve goals especially in rpg style genres. THe map and system is designed to break the old paradigms and really get you set on team based coop play. This is even more present with the latest update where they took out the henches from the higher levels of the game (FOW).

I think however there should be more of a balance. Say one out of three map areas is totally exporable. Or how bout a map that the quest item you are trying to get is spawned randomly on the map, that way no matter how many times you run the map, you have to go through the whole hthing. Granted runners won't like that but again I'm not saying all the time. Just to balance it out a bit.

Furthermore I think in all honesty this being the first instalation of the game the designers are giving us a taste of what they can do, they are now seeing what we like and dislike and in chapeter 2 we will see more of what works and less of what doesn't.

Chronos the Defiler · Jul 15, 2005, 12:29 AM // 00:29

i just thoguh of something else that would make this a different version of PvP play though...that sorta mixes PvP and PvE together.

Take (for example) a map consisting of equal sized (or perhaps just equal distanced portals) per say 5x5 grid (25 zones in total) and have 2 outposts on either side of the map (one 1/2 way down the west side and another 1/2 way down the east side...3 zones down/up) and both outposts would RANDOMLY aquire players just like the pvp arenas distribute players.

Once a player logs into this district or whatever you will call it, they are randomly put into one of the 2 outposts (each outpost belongs to a different team) and they would would make their way around the world areas (remember there are 25) and go looking for a battle, they would travel across the world until they reached a zone under siege or wait in a zone until an enemy enters, then a battel starts.

right now it is lookign like a purely PvP thing but i am not done yet :P

inside the outpost there would be a portal leading to a "training" area where players could reach a maximum of lvl10, then around the outposts are medium level enemies where you can level up more (but have a risk of enemy attack) and the mroe towards the middle of the map you get the harder the enemies. (since this is a 5x5 map there would be an EXACT centre "controllable" outpost, but you need to defeat really hard enemies to control it, or if it is under control of the enemy faction/guild then you have to defeat them)

Having the monster AI and respawning mobs would prevent the enemy team from simply storming over to your outpost and camping, since they would be pre-oocupied some of the time with trying to get rid of the monsters in the area first, or fighting through monsters to even GET to you in the first place.

The thing about the map would be that the entire zone would be explorable....you can use EVERYTHING to your advantage to flank and confront your enemy, instead of now wher eyo ucan simply anticipate where they are going and get them there. and since each zone is equally the same size it could blend easily with the next zone you enter...and the portals would be in exact location in the N,S,E,W walls of the zones (unless you are on the edge of the world map and it only gives you 2-3 options....corners are 2)

i wonder if i forgot anything in this post :/

Age · Jul 15, 2005, 01:46 AM // 01:46

What would you say about north and west of Ascalon that would be intersting.I wouldn't mind know what happened to the mountian entrace from Wizards Folly this could take you to the SouthShiverPeaks.This was in presearing.

Tactical-Dillusions · Jul 15, 2005, 01:51 AM // 01:51

My favourite areas are all open spaces.

Diviners ascent, skyward reach, nebo village, witmans folly, the arid sea....

Give us more

EDIT - near the altheas ashes quest there is an area that looks like a bunch of blocked off portals...anyone seen it?

Will that be opened up? Hmmm... Invade the pesky charr territories then maybe we can find a use for the useless "goldly shocking eternal bow of charrslaying"!!

Anarchist_Monk · Jul 15, 2005, 03:33 AM // 03:33

What ever happened to the catacombs? With all the evil type things that were already in there, just think about what has been forming in there since it was closed off.

Charrbane · Jul 15, 2005, 04:04 AM // 04:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anarchist_Monk

What ever happened to the catacombs? With all the evil type things that were already in there, just think about what has been forming in there since it was closed off.

I wish there were more dungeony areas to explore like the Catacombs. Outside areas are good but id like to go inside a few more times than whats possible..

Sereng Amaranth · Jul 15, 2005, 04:35 AM // 04:35

I like the PvP/PvE idea. But what would the timeframe be for someone to enter and eventually get to the middle? Seems like it would be about an hour if I understand you correctly. That means that the group holding the middle would be bored to tears waiting for someone who is worthy to oppose them.

I like your thinking though. Keep it up.

MasterQu · Jul 15, 2005, 02:09 PM // 14:09

You know another Idea, Wouldn't it be fun to play as a boss monster and beat on the PVE'rs? Seriously you could log on to a peticular map on district x and just camp waiting for unsuspecting victems, err i mean players. Would add some spice cause the player wouldn't know if they were playing an AI or human. Could be fun.

Or you could make it a reward like "signet of monster spot takeover". U beat the monster signet them, and poof your the monster untill you logout. Then when you log in you got to do it again.

Galatea · Jul 16, 2005, 03:22 PM // 15:22

I don't mind the idea of swimming. I'd also like to see more shallow waters that you can completely run through. In the Kryta mission for example, I can kind of walk in the water - until I realize that the land stops and it becomes a deep end, and there's a wall to keep me from falling.

Definitely need more explorable areas, and to add to that, roaming/patrol monsters that perhaps spawn or follow different walking paths each time the map is loaded. This would create a bit of variety, making the game a little unpredictable (in those areas at least), and would create more of a challenge for the PvE gamers that need one.

Magus · Jul 16, 2005, 04:27 PM // 16:27

I agree. In the PvE game, there are only two enjoyable areas, imo.
1. The presearing world in general. The catacombs were very nice.

2. The Crystal desert
The rest is basically "do mission A, go to outpost B, etc." which isn't too bad on the first time through the game, but doing it two or three times over again makes it get really boring, really quickly.

Being able to climb mountains/jump would be nice, although not necessary, but I don't agree with being able to swim. Besides being able to access areas outside of the "world" per se, swimming is extremely unrealistic, especially if you're a warrior with hundred-pound platemail armor on.

silvertemplar · Jul 16, 2005, 07:59 PM // 19:59

Just want to add, i think alot of areas lately have been totally spoiled with large amounts of red dots. There's areas i just do not bother exploring because there's just too many mobs!

Pre-Searing you actually had a decent balance between running across an open field and fighting mobs. It made me feel eager to run up the mountain [where the bandit camp is] to see if goes anywhere.

Post-Sear it's hordes and hordes of things crawling out of the ground and roaming the map, you can literally not take a step without aggroing something. This in itself makes it very anti-explore purely because you do not even fight small groups anymore.

For example, just outside Iron Mines when you go to CopperMines , there is right in the beginning 2 possible paths to take. But you will soon realise the second path is totally flooded by mobs, if you aggro one you aggro at least 20+ of them. So clearly you end up going the other path, also so flooded with mobs [but less] that you go into a type of "numb"-killing spree never actually exploering but just trying to get to the next outpost.

Now the fact you don't even get anything for exploring. Chests and Collectors in far of places do not contain anything more than a chest or collector right outside an outpost...stuff like that...sad.

DrSLUGFly · Jul 16, 2005, 09:50 PM // 21:50

perhaps the catacombs are the location for Grenth's Footprint

After all, when Ascalon seared it was as if Grenth himself had stepped down on the country

That would be cool.

And Sorrow's Furnace... I don't see how it would be connected with anything near the ashes zones, but it would make sense for them to block off inactive portals for future use.

drowningfish999 · Jul 16, 2005, 10:03 PM // 22:03

I think Grenth's Footprint and Sorrow's Furnace are connected areas, and they're going to be somewhere in the Shiverpeaks, can't remember where but I think there is a monument to Grenth's Footprint, I could be mistaken though.

ubrikkean · Jul 16, 2005, 10:55 PM // 22:55

It seems to me that there will be added areas that are like Fissure of Woe and The Underworld in that you get to them by giving an offering to a god at one of the statues, because all of the statues have that same menu, you just can't make an offering to any others yet. Even Dwayna's statue in the Sarledec Sanitarium has that. Also, Fissure of Woe and The Underworld are some fun explorable areas, and I would very much like to see more of that type of area.