Curse

Vangor · Jun 13, 2005, 11:07 AM // 11:07

Modes of Play - Akin to replaying a game in a harder difficulty, this could become a viable option after completing the mission, so long as all members have completed, to allow more difficult modes of play. These would include higher enemy level, twice or three times over infact to give a Normal, Difficult, Hard, Impossible tiers, and similar but with 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3x the amount of monsters within parties. This offers a bit more unique challenges to the missions we've already beaten, with slight rewards for difficulty raising, and can be used in combination with one another, so you can attempt 3x the amount of monsters raised by about 6 levels of difficulty. Rewards would be simple starting out, just more experience for recompleting it in this mode, not to mention item rewards would be increased with difficulty ratings, and amounts of loot to be had, but for later areas, say 2.5x and Hard, actually spawning chests or giving chosen rewards for completion, whether rewarding should be done, is sort of a toss up, I don't personally care, but wouldn't mind getting a few more unlockables.

Monster Challenges - Using a single party, these are unique singular challenges, perhaps taken from a mission, perhaps spawned solo, letting you replay a few past battles in new locales, with new conditions, or just experience whatever new A.Net can throw at us. This would be similar to using the Tomb of Primeval Kings first level of wave after wave of enemies while guarding the Hero, but would be the specific objective you are playing the mission for, and would be "won" based on the length of survival. Such as say, retaining a relic, enemies attempt to come up and steal it, it is your task to keep it for as long as possible, the longer you retain it, the more enemies are spawned, and then difficulty begins ranking up, until you are overwhelmed by level a hundred level 60 imps, not this far but, you understand. Again, rewards are kind of in the air, though I believe that the nature of this gametype means that picking up items dropped will not be as common as in the resting periods of actual cooperative missions, and should lean much more towards rewarding completion, not the ability to pick up in the midst of a large battle. Wondering if this could be subject to the Modes of Play, especially on gametypes which may not necessarily be wave type respawns of more difficulty, depending on what ArenaNet may think of this.

Competitive Challenges - Similar to Monster Challenges, but in direction competition, either a direct conflict where both teams must say, safe guard their relic while defending themselves from the opposing team and attempts to steal their own relic, or a less direct where both teams must simply safe guard their own relic longer than the enemy. Would just allow further gameplay elements for those Monster Challenges, and come now, who doesn't like direct competition, anyone can say they got level 100 in a game, but, it is getting level 100 and beating everyone else which matters.

Objective Based Arenas - I seem to recall an old Fort map for perhaps the first E34E event inwhich I first fell in love with the game, or perhaps it was the second for showcasing Kryta, as it had a Fort Koga look to it. Anyway, the idea was not simply slaughter one another, as many random groupings have become, but was instead, slay the enemy's leader, kind of like a priest in Tomb of Primeval Kings, but, less an influence and more the entire objective, as well, it became much more of a siege as there were multiple paths with guards abound. What these OBAs would be is simply a new path people can take randomly, similar to Capture the Relic, and I'd like to see that infact placed back to the random grouping rotation, I don't think I have played it again since the last weekened event.

Massive Objective Based Arenas - On a more massive scale, this would be akin to a larger conflict on an FPS server, where people can drop out, slots can open up, and it continues, rather than a lost person is one man down for a short fight. These would be huge, and may not even be necessarily ending, but could consist of items such as King of the Hill for points, gaining fame, or merely just notoriety on a scoreboard, even more points if you or your team originally took the point or have taken it from the enemy, as well as like the above assault mode, but with two teams, perhaps two leaders, on a grander siege.

Systems would have to be adapted for the Monster Challenges, similar to how current Arenas work, where it is merely enter arena and it randomly selects one, maybe even randomly selecting the more specific gametype if available. Then with Competition Challenges, these can be included to random or team building arena start locations, as part of a HUD display option for starting the mission, as the leader or solo, selecting removable mission-types, whether straight Deathmatch games, these Competitive Challenges, OBAs, or even MOBAs. This would mean most people would frequent all of these types of Arenas, while a few looking for more specific combat can be in a more massive rotation against all. Plus, there should be a combination of forming groups to enter missions, and simply going in solo to be randomly thrown onto groups, rather than one or the other currently divided, sure coordination may be a great advantage but, it isn't as though most of the teams I've played on where teams are selected are actually a strict single team, and who can say that the randomly thrown together teams with three monks against no monks is necessarily fair as is?

I think much of the above is what could set the already great system well above competition, and infact much of what I've noted missing from Battlegrounds for World of Warcraft, is what Guild Wars already started with, only what GW has is the greater portion, and simply evolving it is not the difficult part.

Rieselle · Jun 13, 2005, 02:30 PM // 14:30

I've posted bits and pieces of the following idea elsewhere, but since it's a similar theme to your post I thought I'd join in.

Rather than playing the same missions again (but harder) I'd really like to see some randomly/procedurally generated dungeons/areas, that are infinite in length/depth. (I haven't been to the underworld yet, is it like that?).

The monsters get progressively harder and harder the deeper you go, without limit. They also get more numerous, and they wander around a lot more, etc.

The monsters are of random type, and grouped together randomly. So you might get interesting combinations you'll never see in the normal game, like a horde of jade scarabs grouped with some Mursaat Necros or something (minions galore?

Rewards are not based on drops or kills, since that kinda rewards repetition, but on beating your personal record on how deep you've gotten into the dungeon. (eg. Every time you get to a level you've never gotten to before, you get a reward.) As for what the rewards are, good things like skill points, item parts or what not. Possibly also nice to be able to show how deep your character has gotten, like /rank.

The idea is to reward pve skill. A well balanced party that is ready for any situation should be the key to doing well in these dungeons.

I'd also like to see some *optional* party vs. party quests... say there's a mission with a couple of conflicting/related goals. You have to choose which quest you want to accept. The game randomly (sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, and the timing varies) spawns another team into the same instance as your team, following the same or a different goal. There might be ultra-tough bonus goals in there too.

So you never know whether you'll meet another team that will need to kill you to complete their goal, whether it becomes a race to get there first, whether you can cooperate to do the bonuses (and double-cross each other when you're done

etc. Heck, throw in some traps, simple puzzles that might require inter-team cooperation, levers that open pits that drop the other party into monster-filled rooms, etc, and we might have some real fun in there :P

Basically adding a little bit of MMORPG-style unpredictability into the instanced gameplay. Since it's randomly decided whether two teams get dumped into the same instance or not, and you never know if you've entered much earlier or much later than the other team, I believe it should reduce the opportunity for hiding and waiting to gank a team, and other griefing type stuff. As for dropping them into monster-filled pits, well, that's legitimate griefing :P

Vangor · Jun 14, 2005, 12:26 AM // 00:26

Randomly generated mission areas are actually rather difficult to craft with any kind of specialized graphical elements, which are abound in Guild Wars, while perhaps better than a single stone wall dungeon, not as good as many of the views and more meticuously crafted levels of Guild Wars. And, the drops was just an idea to not force them to actually change anything directly, rewards would hopefully be based on completion, but, I left it up to be decided.

As for randomly tossing them in, the problem is, you may wish to parctipate in these kinds of competitions and be unable to, or be on less than even footing for it, while unpredictability is great sometimes, the smallest amount of people have fun with griefing and imbalance, the more balanced you can attempt to make it, the greater amount of people are able to have fun.

Phaedrus · Jun 14, 2005, 12:46 AM // 00:46

Please don't turn GW into Diablo II...

If you want a challenge, don't do quests. Don't farm. Don't run exp.

Try to have two-person groups for the beginning missions.

Try to have at least two fewer people than the mission's max party size.

Only use weapons/focii shields with requirements at half of what you could max out its required stat for your current level.

Don't use runes.

Don't twink yourself out with items from other characters.

There's replay value in the game already...I don't want them to implement tedious rehashes. If you want to replay the game, you can. It's up to you to make it harder for yourself instead of easier.

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