I entered the mmo market through AC way back in the day so I never got to like the typical text and pointer quest system nearly all mmo's took since. This new system sounds amazing (an adaptation of a mechanic from old school rpg games).
Lets hope they pull it off. If game immersion is enhanced by it (I agree that Warhammers's pubs are very distracting and grindy) while pvp is still the central feature, this game could be amazing.
That said I wasn't a big fan of the original game.
This all sounds great. I'm uber excited.... I'm pretty sure I will love it. I mean Guild Wars surpassed my expections in virtually every aspect. A game I played for a years without hardly doing any quests is pretty impressive. And this seems to be on a much bigger scale with much more content... so they deserve the benifit of the doubt in my mind.
While the system sounds great and will be a big improvement over current questing systems, my only advice is take the hype minus 10 to just think a bit more realistic. They are in my opinion moving down the right path(for me) in trying to make such a system work. They recognize the biggest drawback to such a system. The good news is with the right time cranking out new scenarios to plug into the dynamics you as an individual will not likely "repeat" any of the scenarios as you advance your character so long as the cycles are long enough.
There are so many things that can be done with such a system to keep a gameworld fresh though. Example as a dev you want to shake up newbie town? let a local village get destroyed move the inhabitants to a nearby forest - let them take over the forest destroying the spider lair in the process rebuild a new town there and have the old town became a "haunt" with undead and or other ghastly monsters and thus without changing the underlying terrain just the cosmetic features and keeping everything within a sensible in game storyling you can completely change and revamp the newbie zone or any zone for a fresh experience for someone rolling up an alt. By simply using these events to constantly change the world in small ways everything can remain fairly fresh. No need for too many major expansions.
While I dont expect a lot for this system in the begining I have really high hopes that if done right will make a truly kick ass game. The good news is there are several new games coming out with systems like this in some form or fashion. Devs move from project to project all the time so perhaps this type of thing will be a true and lasting upgrade to the MMO world.
Excellent questions MMORPG.COM! Really well-thought out and cutting right to the practical problems of this intriguing game mechanic. It answered many of the things I wanted to know. Thanks for the interview!
I'm very impressed that ArenaNet seems to admit right out that they realize how much work and how much risk this Dynamic Event system will entail. That shows a level of common sense that is not seen often in developers interested in just hyping their game and not giving much solid details.
My interest in GW2 continues to increase with every article I read. Looking forward to more.
Excellent questions MMORPG.COM! Really well-thought out and cutting right to the practical problems of this intriguing game mechanic. It answered many of the things I wanted to know. Thanks for the interview!
I'm very impressed that ArenaNet seems to admit right out that they realize how much work and how much risk this Dynamic Event system will entail. That shows a level of common sense that is not seen often in developers interested in just hyping their game and not giving much solid details.
My interest in GW2 continues to increase with every article I read. Looking forward to more.
Heard of GW2, was intrigued, but had other games in my mind.
Heard some info, seen the images about the elementalist, read about skill combos, thought this was getting quite interesting (considering I use Ele alot in GW)
Now this...GW2 has just become my most expected MMO for 2010-2011, right there with FFXIV, SWTOR third.
Man, this sounds just...awesome. Can only hope ANet will deliver. But I gotta say I loved the line in the interview about MMO devs being too risk-averse, and I definitely agree. If anything, I'm happy ANet is trying to branch out with new things.
P.S. (and a bit OOT) Seems like 2010-2011 is bringing some fresh air in the MMORPG industry, about time.
First off, this game sounds amazing but I can't quite wrap my head around some things:
very good questions, here are my guesses
1. As a casual player, if I log out for a few days while inside a town, and while I was away those centaurs overrun the town, what happens when I log back in? you probably die, but there might be safe bind locations which check and teleport if you are in a later-became-hostile territory
2. Again, as a casual player, if I put an hour of time into a Dynamic Event but one of the event steps is not completed when I log, do I still get those rewards? Do I get them when I log back in? i think it depends on the rewards, if the reward was the rare item crafter in the saved town, if its still friendly post when you return you can get your reward, but if it became hostile again, overrun by centaurs or something you might need to clear again. rewards maybe titles and by participating you may get "savior of XX" but miss the gratitude rewards the villagers give after the event. i know guessing much.
3. What about gear/weapons? If 100 ppl complete a chain that takes out the Dredge King will he drop "epic" gear? Does everybody get said "epic" gear? What about normal drops from trash mobs, will there be a loot bag for the entire 100 ppl? same as #2, also in gw1 items dropped for specific people, there were no greed/need rolls, maybe something similar?
4. How do we know the steps in an event chain? Quest tracker? Journal? How do we know when we have completed a certain event? Do we get gear rewards from completeing events? What about exp or gold from saving a town? the way the dynamic events are i dont think there will be a quest tracker for them, you see villagers attacked by goblins, start clearing them(goblins you evil b), notice a goblin encampment near, raze the place, happy working villagers. one of them comes to you (or maybe sends a mail?) saying "this isnt much but thank you for killing those goblins"
5. I wonder how the Dynamic Scaling occurs. If a party of 4 is doing an event and suddenly 20 other players camp right outside our battle (close enough to do something, but purposly not entering the battle), will my event scale to match those extra players when they want to take no part in our battle, thus making it impossible for my party of 4? it may work something like this, you are fighting the boss, 20ppl show up with popcorn and everything, boss shouts "you bring allies?, well, i have some allies myself" blows a horn, throws summoning stone, 20 mobs show up on 20 pc's, aggro, popcorn and everything.
I am cautiously optomistic. So far this game sounds very impressive, but it is still a long way aways from release and a lot can change. me too
I don't quite get the "dynamic event" thing. It sounds to me basically like quest chains, that, in case you fail, give you another quest. And with less text. oO I mean that's not bad, but it doesn't sound to me as the holy grail the way it is presented here.
Reminds me a bit on the Blizzard employes, the way they comment SC2 games as if it would be the most exciting thing.
I don't quite get the "dynamic event" thing. It sounds to me basically like quest chains, that, in case you fail, give you another quest. And with less text. oO I mean that's not bad, but it doesn't sound to me as the holy grail the way it is presented here.
Reminds me a bit on the Blizzard employes, the way they comment SC2 games as if it would be the most exciting thing.
The point is their not quest chains they happen with or without you and multiple can occur simulataneously in one place meaning you'll be unlikely to see the same scenario twice. It provides far far more variety than your average quest and linked with the huge amount of interactivity the player has over them and with the environment (picking up logs, firing catapults, throwing boulders etc). It's provides a pretty dam different experience.
I guess people like to over generalise things to make it simpler for them to understand. Even the over generalised version sounds more interesting than your average quest.
Here's a problem I see with scalable events: what if some d-bag comes up when you're soloing an event just to increase its difficulty, then he doesn't help because he already did it or somethin? Not like I'm expecting this game to completely eliminate the human d-bag factor, just a thought...
Or even if just some big fat tard comes up and he sucks, and drags you down so you fail the event. And you can't make them leave just because they suck. But with regular quests, outside sources don't exactly affect you as much, you just get a quest to go harvest 10 rat butts and you do it. I wanna be able to do this crap without morons coming up and ruining it, or hell, I might even suck at a specific event! And I don't wanna ruin it for others.
Here's a problem I see with scalable events: what if some d-bag comes up when you're soloing an event just to increase its difficulty, then he doesn't help because he already did it or somethin? Not like I'm expecting this game to completely eliminate the human d-bag factor, just a thought...
They could make it scale up to number of people attacking activating skills to heal allies etc instead of amount of people simply there.
I think the answer is simple for your above question, if you would prefer todo normal questing, then this isn't the game for you? However it would be good to hear about some sort of protection against dbags ruining this dynamic event experience for people.
This system makes me think Fallout 3, where you could be out exploring, come across some Brother of Steel initiates out of their depth, deep in the city, under attack from Super mutants. etc.
Originally posted by Rambo621 Or even if just some big fat tard comes up and he sucks, and drags you down so you fail the event. And you can't make them leave just because they suck. But with regular quests, outside sources don't exactly affect you as much, you just get a quest to go harvest 10 rat butts and you do it. I wanna be able to do this crap without morons coming up and ruining it, or hell, I might even suck at a specific event! And I don't wanna ruin it for others.
In regards to the d-bag doing nothing, technically, why would that person be playing the game anyway just to sit there and do nothing? This scenario is highly unlikely and more likely than not, the MAJORITY of people will be participating because thats why they blew $50-60 on the game for in teh first place. The chances of you being alone with this type of systemw ill be slim to none as I expct territory to constantly switch hands and change forcing people into one hole and then into another.
With the retard sucking, that's kind of like how actual stories have always worked. Not everything works out perfectly and if life gives you lemons, you just try your best to make lemonade. That's probably the fun part about it is having to work together towards a more or less "forced" common goal. Playing with 1 retard is better than playing with no retard at all or else why play MMO's in the first place or at least if you're not there to play with anyone just hide in your personal story ;x
Here's a problem I see with scalable events: what if some d-bag comes up when you're soloing an event just to increase its difficulty, then he doesn't help because he already did it or somethin? Not like I'm expecting this game to completely eliminate the human d-bag factor, just a thought...
First off there's a greater incentivie for a player to help because the loot is 100% to all players involved. As long as you do enough to help out. The parameters that define 'helping out' haven't been fully revealed. but I think it was mentioned there would be potentially low minimun damage required to receive 100% loot. So really there's no incentitive to be a 'd-bag'.
Secondly, the failure of these events have repurcussions for everyone playing. If the 'd-bag' doesn't help stop the enemy, they could set up a staging area (temporary fort) and start bombing the nearest town. If that town goes under, it will have an effect on players who are using that town for whatever reason. There might be an important resource that effects 'd-bag'. So he'll be more inclined to help when he see's fellow involved in an event where the baddies are attacking nearby.
Lastly the dynamic scaling goes both ways, it will scale down accordingly if 'd-bag' decides to bail for whatever reason. How it down scales, remains to be seen. I can only speculate that the upscaling will be slow, so that it can top off quickly if there's a change in scaling. Then it will down scale accordingly.
Originally posted by Rambo621
Or even if just some big fat tard comes up and he sucks, and drags you down so you fail the event. And you can't make them leave just because they suck. But with regular quests, outside sources don't exactly affect you as much, you just get a quest to go harvest 10 rat butts and you do it. I wanna be able to do this crap without morons coming up and ruining it, or hell, I might even suck at a specific event! And I don't wanna ruin it for others.
'Big fat tard' is more likely to help than hinder as your skills will synergize his, in doing so 'big fat tard' is no longer the loser ally you fear. A prime example would be your Elementalist casting a firewall to assist "big fat tard's" Ranger shooting arrows, thereby becoming flaming arrows which would do more damage. There will be lots of ways to synergize each others skills, which is another incentitive to join in these events. All the skills are going to be visceral and self-explanatory in terms of how to compliment each other's actions.
As for soloing, you will have plenty of oppurtunities to do so, the events are going to be local as well as global, so there will be places where it's just you that has to deal with an event. Also your 'personal storyline' is very much soloable if you chose.
As for the dynamic events I remember reading in an interview somewhere that the event will scale based on the number of "actively participating" people. Plus I don't think anyone just standing around will last very long anyway.
Although I understand why they are being so vague with their answers because of competition and all. I can see how it is hurting them a bit. I think the word cycle puts a person's own predetermined ideas on the meaning in place. The events have to be cyclical in nature or the area would be at a stand still when they do hit the "end" coding wise. But it doesn't mean each event will have just 3 stages. Or that you will even notice that it is the "end". Or that each stage is the same amount of time. Each event's parameters could be wildly different not only from event to event but from stage to stage.
I picture each event being more like a tree. for lack of a better image. Where it could start at the trunk and one path could take you down a route of 20 stages all with possible deviations. Maybe a Net or Ivy would be a better image. Because I also believe that each event could backtrack or change it's path completely. I think this is why they say it's a lot of work. Though I don't think the majority of the events will have many stages. But I definitely believe the ones outside of the major cities will. But I also think smaller events will happen in other areas of the world. Where a player can see the whole cycle or at least one of the several cycles while they are playing in one session.
Then if you take into the account that one event can effect another it may be a month before you see the same scenery again. Although I bet that wont happen much. I'm going to assume that only the events out side of a main city will affect the surrounding event areas.
But it doesn't mean they wont add more later. They could easily add more event branches once an area gets stale. They could even change old events based on new expansions. So lets say the equivalent of Factions comes out for GW 2. Outside of Lions Arch they could add a branch of events where those disfigured blobs of flesh started to take over.
I'm trying with all my might to not get hyped. I know personally I expect to much being spoiled by WoW, and GW1 etc. Even if a person hates WoW... you have to admit they have a ton of content and polish...which would be insane for a new game to be able to compete with at launch. Hopefully, the basics are fun enough to keep us distracted while they keep adding.
First off, this game sounds amazing but I can't quite wrap my head around some things:
very good questions, here are my guesses
1. As a casual player, if I log out for a few days while inside a town, and while I was away those centaurs overrun the town, what happens when I log back in? you probably die, but there might be safe bind locations which check and teleport if you are in a later-became-hostile territory
Actually, since they've stated that there will be map travelling to asura gates, you will, yes die, or you can probably map travel to a nearby asura gate.
3. What about gear/weapons? If 100 ppl complete a chain that takes out the Dredge King will he drop "epic" gear? Does everybody get said "epic" gear? What about normal drops from trash mobs, will there be a loot bag for the entire 100 ppl? same as #2, also in gw1 items dropped for specific people, there were no greed/need rolls, maybe something similar?
Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing. Probably if your a higher level or gotten far in your story line you have a much higher chance of getting "epic" gear. So I don't think everyone will get the same thing.
5. I wonder how the Dynamic Scaling occurs. If a party of 4 is doing an event and suddenly 20 other players camp right outside our battle (close enough to do something, but purposly not entering the battle), will my event scale to match those extra players when they want to take no part in our battle, thus making it impossible for my party of 4? it may work something like this, you are fighting the boss, 20ppl show up with popcorn and everything, boss shouts "you bring allies?, well, i have some allies myself" blows a horn, throws summoning stone, 20 mobs show up on 20 pc's, aggro, popcorn and everything.
I think that the enemies attack everyone in the area, so I'm pretty sure those people who were planning on standing around and doing nothing are going to have to fight or run away.
I am cautiously optomistic. So far this game sounds very impressive, but it is still a long way aways from release and a lot can change. me too
Waiting is torture, I sometimes can't sleep cause I'm so excited (not that that's weird right?).
I don't quite get the "dynamic event" thing. It sounds to me basically like quest chains, that, in case you fail, give you another quest. And with less text. oO I mean that's not bad, but it doesn't sound to me as the holy grail the way it is presented here.
Reminds me a bit on the Blizzard employes, the way they comment SC2 games as if it would be the most exciting thing.
The difference in GW2 as explained(note none of us here have actually played it yet so...) is that in normal games when a quest fails you wait a certian amount of time then try again. You do the exact same quest over and over and over again untill you win. In GW2 if you fail the game moves forward and you face a completely new obstacle/quest/scenario. If you keep failing eventually you are left with a situation in which the mobs will force you out of the area by the simply fact you are unable to beat them. You do not get to keep repeating the same thing over and over untill you win. Its a small and sublte difference and I do not expect grand things out of this immeadiately, however, this type of system lends itself to much grander things in the future in which you do not need a "quest" per se. You simply live in a living breathing world that interacts with you.
Success takes you down path A
Failure takes you down path B
Both might be interesting paths to take so you never really lose. It will be really cool when taking a particular path becomes a permenant thing and the other path dissappears forever. This would require the ability to create paths on the fly fairly quickly and a ton of actual content...so I dont expect that to happen for a while.
The difference in GW2 as explained(note none of us here have actually played it yet so...) is that in normal games when a quest fails you wait a certian amount of time then try again.
From what i read, and according to my limited understanding, its not exactly" wait a certain amount of time" but rather it depends whether anyone do anything to set the event going.
Example: If a group of mobs take over a town and fortified it, but no one willing to take over the town, than the town will forever be under the mobs control and they will keep sending small groups to attack players around it.
So you will miss the rest of the events if nothing is done...
You do the exact same quest over and over and over again untill you win. In GW2 if you fail the game moves forward and you face a completely new obstacle/quest/scenario. If you keep failing eventually you are left with a situation in which the mobs will force you out of the area by the simply fact you are unable to beat them. You do not get to keep repeating the same thing over and over untill you win.
I think i miss this part, where is it where he say this? part 1? Because he did mention is actually a circle, but in order for the circle to be complete, players have to do something to keep it rolling and it WILL comes back to square 1 where you can participate from the start again.
He didnt mention you will be kick after a number of try.
Its a small and sublte difference and I do not expect grand things out of this immeadiately, however, this type of system lends itself to much grander things in the future in which you do not need a "quest" per se. You simply live in a living breathing world that interacts with you.
Success takes you down path A
Failure takes you down path B
Both might be interesting paths to take so you never really lose. It will be really cool when taking a particular path becomes a permenant thing and the other path dissappears forever. This would require the ability to create paths on the fly fairly quickly and a ton of actual content...so I dont expect that to happen for a while.
People are misinterpretiting cyclical. The end point won't necessaily become the start point look at the dredge example. Should the dredge succeed they won't just automatically dissapear after a certain amount of time. Either the NPC's or the players will have to drive them back. We do not however know if the NPC's are eventually capable of driving back all threats so some may remain permanent without player interaction or perhaps other enemies will change the status quo e.g a dragon destroys the village the Dredge have command of or new enemies eventually defeat the Dredge and begina new occupation etc. A pendulum would probably be a better example.
I can't believe the amount of skepticism that is floating around, why even question them for trying to be "dynamic" and different. I mean the robust amount of information hasn't even really come out yet. just wait... just wait!
Comments
I entered the mmo market through AC way back in the day so I never got to like the typical text and pointer quest system nearly all mmo's took since. This new system sounds amazing (an adaptation of a mechanic from old school rpg games).
Lets hope they pull it off. If game immersion is enhanced by it (I agree that Warhammers's pubs are very distracting and grindy) while pvp is still the central feature, this game could be amazing.
That said I wasn't a big fan of the original game.
You stay sassy!
This all sounds great. I'm uber excited.... I'm pretty sure I will love it. I mean Guild Wars surpassed my expections in virtually every aspect. A game I played for a years without hardly doing any quests is pretty impressive. And this seems to be on a much bigger scale with much more content... so they deserve the benifit of the doubt in my mind.
While the system sounds great and will be a big improvement over current questing systems, my only advice is take the hype minus 10 to just think a bit more realistic. They are in my opinion moving down the right path(for me) in trying to make such a system work. They recognize the biggest drawback to such a system. The good news is with the right time cranking out new scenarios to plug into the dynamics you as an individual will not likely "repeat" any of the scenarios as you advance your character so long as the cycles are long enough.
There are so many things that can be done with such a system to keep a gameworld fresh though. Example as a dev you want to shake up newbie town? let a local village get destroyed move the inhabitants to a nearby forest - let them take over the forest destroying the spider lair in the process rebuild a new town there and have the old town became a "haunt" with undead and or other ghastly monsters and thus without changing the underlying terrain just the cosmetic features and keeping everything within a sensible in game storyling you can completely change and revamp the newbie zone or any zone for a fresh experience for someone rolling up an alt. By simply using these events to constantly change the world in small ways everything can remain fairly fresh. No need for too many major expansions.
While I dont expect a lot for this system in the begining I have really high hopes that if done right will make a truly kick ass game. The good news is there are several new games coming out with systems like this in some form or fashion. Devs move from project to project all the time so perhaps this type of thing will be a true and lasting upgrade to the MMO world.
Excellent questions MMORPG.COM! Really well-thought out and cutting right to the practical problems of this intriguing game mechanic. It answered many of the things I wanted to know. Thanks for the interview!
I'm very impressed that ArenaNet seems to admit right out that they realize how much work and how much risk this Dynamic Event system will entail. That shows a level of common sense that is not seen often in developers interested in just hyping their game and not giving much solid details.
My interest in GW2 continues to increase with every article I read. Looking forward to more.
http://www.2xclick.com
I played GW, still do occasionally, had fun.
Heard of GW2, was intrigued, but had other games in my mind.
Heard some info, seen the images about the elementalist, read about skill combos, thought this was getting quite interesting (considering I use Ele alot in GW)
Now this...GW2 has just become my most expected MMO for 2010-2011, right there with FFXIV, SWTOR third.
Man, this sounds just...awesome. Can only hope ANet will deliver. But I gotta say I loved the line in the interview about MMO devs being too risk-averse, and I definitely agree. If anything, I'm happy ANet is trying to branch out with new things.
P.S. (and a bit OOT) Seems like 2010-2011 is bringing some fresh air in the MMORPG industry, about time.
i used to play GW for about 6 months i think before i switch to WoW, but damn, if this is true, im definitely going for this
but it's kinda a dillema, as im also waiting for Earthrise =(
i cant be possibly playing 2 at a time, 1 needs to be my main game
So What Now?
I need more vespene gas.
This game just sounds better and better all the time, I really hope it is as good as they say. I just can't wait for launch.
Dynamic events sounds really good and it will be something different for ones.
Currently playing: N/A
Retired from: GW, WAR, Aion, LOTRO, Rift, SW:TOR, Vinductus
I don't quite get the "dynamic event" thing. It sounds to me basically like quest chains, that, in case you fail, give you another quest. And with less text. oO I mean that's not bad, but it doesn't sound to me as the holy grail the way it is presented here.
Reminds me a bit on the Blizzard employes, the way they comment SC2 games as if it would be the most exciting thing.
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)
The point is their not quest chains they happen with or without you and multiple can occur simulataneously in one place meaning you'll be unlikely to see the same scenario twice. It provides far far more variety than your average quest and linked with the huge amount of interactivity the player has over them and with the environment (picking up logs, firing catapults, throwing boulders etc). It's provides a pretty dam different experience.
I guess people like to over generalise things to make it simpler for them to understand. Even the over generalised version sounds more interesting than your average quest.
Here's a problem I see with scalable events: what if some d-bag comes up when you're soloing an event just to increase its difficulty, then he doesn't help because he already did it or somethin? Not like I'm expecting this game to completely eliminate the human d-bag factor, just a thought...
Or even if just some big fat tard comes up and he sucks, and drags you down so you fail the event. And you can't make them leave just because they suck. But with regular quests, outside sources don't exactly affect you as much, you just get a quest to go harvest 10 rat butts and you do it. I wanna be able to do this crap without morons coming up and ruining it, or hell, I might even suck at a specific event! And I don't wanna ruin it for others.
They could make it scale up to number of people attacking activating skills to heal allies etc instead of amount of people simply there.
Whats with generalizing retards are big and fat?
I think the answer is simple for your above question, if you would prefer todo normal questing, then this isn't the game for you? However it would be good to hear about some sort of protection against dbags ruining this dynamic event experience for people.
This system makes me think Fallout 3, where you could be out exploring, come across some Brother of Steel initiates out of their depth, deep in the city, under attack from Super mutants. etc.
I really hope it is developed well.
In regards to the d-bag doing nothing, technically, why would that person be playing the game anyway just to sit there and do nothing? This scenario is highly unlikely and more likely than not, the MAJORITY of people will be participating because thats why they blew $50-60 on the game for in teh first place. The chances of you being alone with this type of systemw ill be slim to none as I expct territory to constantly switch hands and change forcing people into one hole and then into another.
With the retard sucking, that's kind of like how actual stories have always worked. Not everything works out perfectly and if life gives you lemons, you just try your best to make lemonade. That's probably the fun part about it is having to work together towards a more or less "forced" common goal. Playing with 1 retard is better than playing with no retard at all or else why play MMO's in the first place or at least if you're not there to play with anyone just hide in your personal story ;x
First off there's a greater incentivie for a player to help because the loot is 100% to all players involved. As long as you do enough to help out. The parameters that define 'helping out' haven't been fully revealed. but I think it was mentioned there would be potentially low minimun damage required to receive 100% loot. So really there's no incentitive to be a 'd-bag'.
Secondly, the failure of these events have repurcussions for everyone playing. If the 'd-bag' doesn't help stop the enemy, they could set up a staging area (temporary fort) and start bombing the nearest town. If that town goes under, it will have an effect on players who are using that town for whatever reason. There might be an important resource that effects 'd-bag'. So he'll be more inclined to help when he see's fellow involved in an event where the baddies are attacking nearby.
Lastly the dynamic scaling goes both ways, it will scale down accordingly if 'd-bag' decides to bail for whatever reason. How it down scales, remains to be seen. I can only speculate that the upscaling will be slow, so that it can top off quickly if there's a change in scaling. Then it will down scale accordingly.
'Big fat tard' is more likely to help than hinder as your skills will synergize his, in doing so 'big fat tard' is no longer the loser ally you fear. A prime example would be your Elementalist casting a firewall to assist "big fat tard's" Ranger shooting arrows, thereby becoming flaming arrows which would do more damage. There will be lots of ways to synergize each others skills, which is another incentitive to join in these events. All the skills are going to be visceral and self-explanatory in terms of how to compliment each other's actions.
As for soloing, you will have plenty of oppurtunities to do so, the events are going to be local as well as global, so there will be places where it's just you that has to deal with an event. Also your 'personal storyline' is very much soloable if you chose.
Wisdom is conquered with patience.
As for the dynamic events I remember reading in an interview somewhere that the event will scale based on the number of "actively participating" people. Plus I don't think anyone just standing around will last very long anyway.
Although I understand why they are being so vague with their answers because of competition and all. I can see how it is hurting them a bit. I think the word cycle puts a person's own predetermined ideas on the meaning in place. The events have to be cyclical in nature or the area would be at a stand still when they do hit the "end" coding wise. But it doesn't mean each event will have just 3 stages. Or that you will even notice that it is the "end". Or that each stage is the same amount of time. Each event's parameters could be wildly different not only from event to event but from stage to stage.
I picture each event being more like a tree. for lack of a better image. Where it could start at the trunk and one path could take you down a route of 20 stages all with possible deviations. Maybe a Net or Ivy would be a better image. Because I also believe that each event could backtrack or change it's path completely. I think this is why they say it's a lot of work. Though I don't think the majority of the events will have many stages. But I definitely believe the ones outside of the major cities will. But I also think smaller events will happen in other areas of the world. Where a player can see the whole cycle or at least one of the several cycles while they are playing in one session.
Then if you take into the account that one event can effect another it may be a month before you see the same scenery again. Although I bet that wont happen much. I'm going to assume that only the events out side of a main city will affect the surrounding event areas.
But it doesn't mean they wont add more later. They could easily add more event branches once an area gets stale. They could even change old events based on new expansions. So lets say the equivalent of Factions comes out for GW 2. Outside of Lions Arch they could add a branch of events where those disfigured blobs of flesh started to take over.
I'm trying with all my might to not get hyped. I know personally I expect to much being spoiled by WoW, and GW1 etc. Even if a person hates WoW... you have to admit they have a ton of content and polish...which would be insane for a new game to be able to compete with at launch. Hopefully, the basics are fun enough to keep us distracted while they keep adding.
I can't wait for this game, it keeps looking better and better everytime I hear something new
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
I don't hate much, but I hate Apple© with a passion. If Steve Jobs was alive, I would punch him in the face.
The difference in GW2 as explained(note none of us here have actually played it yet so...) is that in normal games when a quest fails you wait a certian amount of time then try again. You do the exact same quest over and over and over again untill you win. In GW2 if you fail the game moves forward and you face a completely new obstacle/quest/scenario. If you keep failing eventually you are left with a situation in which the mobs will force you out of the area by the simply fact you are unable to beat them. You do not get to keep repeating the same thing over and over untill you win. Its a small and sublte difference and I do not expect grand things out of this immeadiately, however, this type of system lends itself to much grander things in the future in which you do not need a "quest" per se. You simply live in a living breathing world that interacts with you.
Success takes you down path A
Failure takes you down path B
Both might be interesting paths to take so you never really lose. It will be really cool when taking a particular path becomes a permenant thing and the other path dissappears forever. This would require the ability to create paths on the fly fairly quickly and a ton of actual content...so I dont expect that to happen for a while.
RIP Orc Choppa
People are misinterpretiting cyclical. The end point won't necessaily become the start point look at the dredge example. Should the dredge succeed they won't just automatically dissapear after a certain amount of time. Either the NPC's or the players will have to drive them back. We do not however know if the NPC's are eventually capable of driving back all threats so some may remain permanent without player interaction or perhaps other enemies will change the status quo e.g a dragon destroys the village the Dredge have command of or new enemies eventually defeat the Dredge and begina new occupation etc. A pendulum would probably be a better example.
I can't believe the amount of skepticism that is floating around, why even question them for trying to be "dynamic" and different. I mean the robust amount of information hasn't even really come out yet. just wait... just wait!