ArenaNet:Guild Wars 2 suggestions/A More Immersive World

2008-10-23T03:43:44Z

128.82.42.237: A more immersive world, particularly concerning buildings.

{{ArenaNet:Guild Wars 2 suggestions/Sidebox}}
=== A More Immersive World ([[ArenaNet talk:Guild Wars 2 suggestions/A More Immersive World|Discussion]])===

In the original Guild Wars there was a constant feeling that everything was taken at face value. As mentioned in other suggestions, the world was very flat in its aspect that characters could only run about in the world that they could see on the outside and do little else. Sure, exploring the world was fun and immersive in its own nature, yet it lacked key aspects to make the world feel more on the real side. While it has been suggested that running, jumping, and swimming might be implimented, that merely scratches the surface. The main issue, however, is the interaction between players and buildings. Several players have suggested that the buildings, although designed nicely, seem little more than paper cut outs stuck together and provide only ascetic aspects. An example is the town of Ashford in Ascalon in the original Guild Wars. You had several intersting cottages and huts, all with smoke billowing peacefully from their chimneys, yet they were woefully inactive. I personally would've loved just to bardge on in through the door and see all what was in there. Another example is the major cities of Tyria, like Lion's Arch, Kaineg Center, and Kamadan. While they are labled 'cities', they don't feel like cities at all (save Kaineg I suppose). Instead of buildings that look inhabitable and able to explore, they are little more than walls and stalls, as I would put it. Specifically Lion's Arch seems rather disappointing in this aspect. The entire 'city' itself contains a mere one building that actually has a door on it, and you cannot enter it. There is otherwise a few docks, stalls, wide areas to walk around, and loads of stairs. What is more disappointing is seeing these huge towers all around the city that you can't get close to at all, just to view them longingly at a distance.

It seems that in a world which is much bigger in feeling like Guild Wars 2 is trying to promote with the persistancy aspect that is being pushed, the character should be able to experience the world they explore, instead of the typical waltz through and kill everything tactic of its predicessor. While that makes the play easy to get through, it makes it seem kind of shallow. Why have buildings that you cannot use, therefore? You can get through the game just as easily with removing every building that was visible and it would have no real effect on gameplay. Players will feel more like they are at one with the virtual world if they are allowed to feel like they are touching and moving the things they see, such as opening a door or looking through a window to the outside.

; Why this is a good idea
*   Players will be much more immersed into the world, making the feeling that they are actually there more apparent. It makes the NPCs seem more realistic as well, having places of buisness or places to live instead of the 'walls and stalls' approach of the original Guild Wars in their approach to cities and outposts. That way when a character enters a city, town, or outpost it feels much more like those than just a fort which people decide to somehow call home.
*   The world would feel bigger, particularly if the buildings are scaled to a size which seems reasonable for characters to walk around in. This would make a castle or city much more sizable and much more useful to players instead of a simple way-station for ditching items and perhaps furthering only a few simple quests. The functionality of buildings can be expanded upon, being places where actual shops (instead of mere stalls or a simple NPC standing by something relavent) are existing.

;Why it may not work out
*   The scale of the world would have to be enhanced to a more reasonable level, where just visual ques are more than just pixels in the distance. Buildings in the original Guild Wars, if able to be entered, would've been woefully small compared to the size of other objects. On the other hand some buildings were impossibly big, such as the castle at Lion's Arch, which would've had hundreds of floors and many thousands of rooms if taken at actual scale.
*   The open-air effect of the towns, with their large plazas for meeting might be lost to more crammed alleyways. Cities may become overcrowded if their functionality is improved thus causing heavy lagging and unstability in cities, where Guild Wars servers have been proven to be unable to deal with such larger numbers. Based on the system of 'worlds' in Guild Wars 2 this might present a problem of overpopulation of cities that are already bogged down by the larger scale and extra amount of NPCs or other objects.

[[Category:World suggestions|{{SUBPAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:GW2 suggestions|{{SUBPAGENAME}}]]

ArenaNet:Guild Wars 2 suggestions/How PvE Foes React to Players

2008-10-23T03:18:59Z

128.82.42.237: If low level foes should attack high level characters

{{ArenaNet:Guild Wars 2 suggestions/Sidebox}}
===Foe Reaction to PvE Characters ([[ArenaNet talk:Guild Wars 2 suggestions/How PvE Foes React to Players|Discussion]])===

With the idea of a persistant and instanced world in Guild Wars 2, a important question is chosen. In the original Guild Wars, every new zone had the same foes in relatively the same place, and once you approach any foes they instantly go on the attack and the player has little choice but to fight from one side of a zone to the other. Yet this idea may be good for instances, it is not a great idea for peristant worlds, where travelling outside of towns or outposts is much more heavily relied upon for basic things. The concept of 'everything aggros except level 0-2' becomes more of an annoyance than a pleasure. Yet a quick solution to this would be the reaction of foes to characters based on the status of said character.

An example: Say a character needs to finish a quest by going into a low-level area that is full of little bugs that attack low level characters because it is in a relatively beginner area. Yet this character in question is much higher than those creatures or other players in the area. It would become extremely annoying of a high level character had to fight through these things just to reach something, even if that character could kill them in one swing. Since the drops aren't worth much and no experience would probably be gained, it would be extremely annoying after doing this repeatedly for higher level players. To fix this annoyance, foes would actually examine the level and status of the characters like any foe or animal might in real life. No thug is going to go after a knight in full armor with dazzling swords if that thug is little more than a measly street urchin. That being said when the same character goes through an area where the foes react to level, if the character is considerably higher than those foes they would not attack, preferring to avoid the character altogether since to their own lives it would be foolhardy. Now if a character of a similar or lower level wanders into the area, obviously the monsters would love to make a meal of that character in no time, yet the character would gain something from engaging these foes, such as dropped items or experience.

However, in instanced situations like missions the foes will target whomever is in that instance reguardless of level due to the fact a mission is supposed to be completed and the foes there will try anything to stop them, it also means that the mission won't be a quick run for a higher level character. They still have to fight foes. Another option is to adjust the difficulty level of the instance to match that of characters going into the mission.

; Why this is a good idea
*   High level characters who have proven themselves need not be annoyed in a persistant area having foes constantly attacking them no matter their level. This makes just plain travel to specific areas the character is trying to reach a bit easier. Likewise the characters who are supposed to be in that area will be attacked by foes that will give them something in return if they succeed in battle. It also means higher level characters leave monsters alone which lower level characters are probably wanting to attack.
*   Instances will still cater to whomever is within an instance. That means foes will attack reguardless making the instance not just an easy street. Instances may also be adjusted based on the level of the characters entering the instance.

;Why it may not work out
*   Depending on the nature of the persistant and instanced areas of Guild Wars 2 the foes attacking or not may not matter despite levels. Based on the instanced nature of the original Guild Wars, running through low level areas by a high level character was still challenging. If the foes do not attack then 'running' might be easier than expected and an unwanted feature. Furthermore if a high level character is travelling with a low level character, the low level would slow them both down by getting attacked all the time while the high level character has to stop to remove the threat.

[[Category:PvE suggestions|{{SUBPAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:GW2 suggestions|{{SUBPAGENAME}}]]

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