23 Aug 2006 at 22:07 - 21
Note: The following is reallllllllllly long. When I say realllllllllllly, I mean really really. Yeah. You can jump paragraphs, read through the whole thing, or just tidbits. If you choose to read it all, thank you for your patience and dedication to the idea. If you don't, thank you for putting up with this first paragraph at the very least. On to your featured presentation.
I think that we need to start at the beginning and work up from there. In designing anything, you first need a purpose for that class/realm/skill/environmental effect/etc, from which breeds more ideas.
So! Starting at the top, why are we here? Why do your characters see the need to go to Melandru's Realm at all? There are three deeper options here. First, It's storyline based. Some idea from the Prophecies/Factions storyline that creates a need for your characters. Second, Tangent based. It's got an in depth plotline alright, but it has NOTHING to do with the Prophecies/Factions storyline, it is simply, its own tangent. Lastly, it can be non-plot based, and you're there because you're adventures. This is what you do. You go to places and adventure. And stuff.
Personally, I hate the third option. There is fun in: "Lets go kill stuff, Yay!", but not as much fun as if there is a storyline behind it. If we do Prophecies/Factions based, we have a semblance of limits when working with certain ideas. I've always been a fan of the whole story following the bloodstones. The Origin of Magic in Tyria/Cantha/Everyfreakingwhere. Assuming we take this and work with it, lets expand. The Bloodstones are divided, one of each of the first four for each school of Magic. Preservation, Destruction, Aggression, Denial.
Since the overall aim of business is to make money, its best if you leave room for a follow-up, which you can tie in later, thus making you more money. Therefore, from a practical standpoint, lets leave the Keystone out of this. Next, this is Melandru's realm. Goddess of Earth and Nature, of Preservation and Aid. Enemy of the unnatural, of the mechanic. Therefore, since we're working with bloodstones, it’s going to be either the ally of Melandru, (Preservation) or the enemy. (Destruction)
Unfortunately, since we're working with a God's realm, there's slim chance that Mel would still be hanging around with the embodiment of Destruction magic sitting there. So, Preservation it is.
Coming back to the original point, we need a plot basis for being here. I know plot isn't favored among some players who want to just hang and have fun, but there are plenty out there that enjoy a rich, well developed story. If we work with the Preservation Bloodstone, we can spin off one of a few things.
1, the traditional corruption story. "ZOMG! Teh bloodstonez is getting teh corruptzorz! Save us, Heroz!"
2, Invading army. "Crap, so there’s a whole freaking army down here trying to control this object of eternal power? And there are only 8 of us against all of them? Oh well...."
3, self gain. "Yeah, so this place has got phat l00t, and awesome armor. And there’s this thing, with never-ending power spawning from it, and it rox. Lets go get it!"
4, strife among the Gods. "The Gods are warring among themselves, and centerpieces for the arguments are the Bloodstones. Each God is wary to release control of their own, but there are always those that seek power... 8 Heroes answer a call for aid..."
5, curveball. "A lure to snare the greedy to her realm brings 8 battle hardened heroes to Melandru’s home. Looking to eliminate the greed that feeds the wars that sweep the mortal land like a scourge, she prepares to perform a ritual upon the Bloodstone of Preservation that will make these 8 her druids of preservation."
These are all based off of basic ideas that are all relatively traditional, but as far as storyline goes, there are infinite options. In my personal opinion, the 5th is the best, but it's a tad bit too active of a storyline for one of the Gods realms, given what we have so far. However, I'm going to run with it. The others that popped out of my head don’t work. Corruption has been done, done, and done again. It's dead now. Invading army has been done a little less, but still seems far too generic. That’s one of the things I never understood. They're freaking GODS! They don’t need mortal help to get rid of invading armies! GODS! Anyways, self-gain leaves no room for story twist or advancement, b/c the people that will buy that don’t want story. I suppose I like strife among the Gods, but it isn’t practical. If there was strife among the Gods, then it'd show elsewhere. It isn't something that would stay confined to Melandru’s realm. I love the idea though, but it's the kind of thing that you devote a larger region to. A bigger idea than we have space.
Wow, that only took half a page. Oh joy. Next! Enjoinment, including visual, audio, and mental.
I am absolutely positive that everyone has their own idea on how this should look, and that it will be very hard to come to a consensus on this one, but the way I see it, its a place entirely based on nature. Regardless, the environment is entirely based upon the plot. You aren't going to have a forest untouched by war or strife if there's an invading army. Forget it. There's going to be things of fire, and dead stuff. In this case, there is no war, there is no invasion. Beyond the whole "OMG a God is going to beat the unholy crap out of us" thing, there's not much wrong. So we need an environment that emphasizes the Nature and Earth elements of Melandru, but isn't so friendly that the players can kill things because all they see is "Happy Land Super Forest Yay!"
The mental aspect of any area is as big as the visual. So while we need a forest, it has to be slightly dark, in order to remind the players that they aren’t on a picnic. Normally, I'd revert to something like what the Kurz have, but for 2 reasons. One, it isn't natural. Its petrified, which is anything but natural. Two, Its been done. Don't do it again. As a result, you need tall trees with thick branches, giving a shading effect that darkens the environment. However, if the whole thing is exactly the same, we might as well name it the Redundancy Realm of Redundancy. Need variation. Lets also work with a rainforest type variation, a grasslands area, some kind of underground section, and then the Bloodstones area, obviously something climactic, but make sure to make it different than the Maguuma Jungle Bloodstone.
Aright, got our areas, now what order? 3 options here.
1) There is a set order that the players MUST follow, making this more like a gigantic mission.
2) Entirely explorable, similar to FoW and UW, with no restrictions at all. You can go anywhere at any time.
3) Both.
#1 Limits what you can do with just about everything, and tends to aggravate players. They already have missions, they don’t need it here.
#2 is nice, but doesn't work if you're going to set an in-depth storyline, or one that plays any part at all. I mean, if you can just walk straight to the bloodstone, then it kinda kills it.
#3 is a personal favorite. It gives the storyline guys a path to follow, and the exploration guys their fun as well.
A few ways to implement this. First, make the area mostly open, with a few places closed off. (Bloodstone, maybe some sort of inner sanctum, exit. you are trapped here after all...) If you want to explore the storyline and so down that path, you can accept quests that open up other areas, which are straightforward areas. This allows casual players to explore the area and enjoy the little touches that Anet puts on things, and hardcore players who want to be in here for 6 hrs to quest, explore, kill, storyline, and hopefully not err 7.
Audio is almost a footnote, simply because I'm not actually going to write out all the music, but there are things here that should be said. Given what our realm is, we want orchestral music, with no audio tweakage, nothing artificial. Next, we're going to be looking at foreground or background music. Guild Wars is typically about soft background music that simply gives you an afterthought as to the mood of any given area. It isn't ever way out there, in your face. I'm thinking that the mental environment/mood would benefit if we followed that pattern for Mel's Realm.
There's plot and environment. Bear with me. Enemies time.
Again, what you have to work with is all based on your plot. In this case, still working with the whole snared in thing, your enemies are going to be Melandru’s henchmen/underlings, which means we're going to be working with a couple of traditional skins and some new. First we need basic enemies, which we can then apply class rules to in order to make unique. Then Commander type enemies, uniques, and lastly bosses.
Basic enemy templates. I think we can recycle 1-2 skins, and bring in 1-2 new ones for each recycled. New things are good. Enemies have to originate based upon the area they are found in. Grasslands, we need something that looks bright and natural. Free and imposing. Grasslands are open, are never-ending oceans of grass. Something that represents that, which gives us a few options. We can work with actual animal type creatures, such as lions, tigers, and bears. (Oh my) OR, we can do the traditional Guild Wars monster animal. The enemies here are all going to be nature dwellers, things that seem at home in these environments, so nothing that is humanoid, incredibly foreign, or mechanic.
In all honesty, I don't have ideas for the grassland enemy. Seems lame after all the build-up, I know. If you have an idea you think fits in here, PLEASE let me know. I'd love to finish this.
Rainforest enemy. This is going to involve some recycling. Maguuma had a couple nice ones, we'll probably pull the Redwood Shepard skin, and the entire realm will probably feature Spider enemies with variation on that theme. Shepherds are nice, but they aren’t fodder. So maybe a scarab mod, certainly a different skin, but the same kind of cannon fodderish with mass rush element. Another new enemy could be a Trent type enemy, and the best part.... they could be anywhere! You're in a forest, and through the slanting light filtering through from the branches high overhead, you can see a clearing about 100 paces away. You move into the clearing, stop to get your bearings, and as you prepare to move on, you realize that you're surrounded! ZOMFGWTFBBQSAUSE! Yeah, just the kind of element that while you're in the forest that there could be enemies anywhere, masquerading as a tree, then ambushing your party from all directions. This adds to the mood quite a bit.
I realize that the last 2 paragraphs have been mostly ranting, so I'm going to wrap up this section with a couple statements. First of all, like anything else, your enemies have to make sense for the area and the plot. Secondly, which enemies you chose and how you make them appear will influence the mood quite a bit, which in turn, influences the gamers experience. And we all want to have a good experience.
Almost there, 2 more to go. Allied NPC's/Drops.
I'm combining the two because they're both relatively short. Allies first. Referring back to our plot, it seems as though you don’t have any allies, given the situation with which you're thrown into the realm. However, if you take a look at Melandru's lore, maybe you do have allies. This realm would be an excellent place to reference the original tribe of trees from which Melandru bred her watchers. From there, Allies all depend upon the plot. In order to ensure that your visit isn't short lived, that means plot twist! As a result, you may end up allied with Mel and her watchers, maybe druids, maybe simply some of the natives. Who knows. Maybe I'll go more in depth and write out an even more detailed realm...
Drops are probably going to fall under one of 3 categories. Weapons, Enemy Items, (carapaces, gargoyle skull, etc) and Crafting Materials.
Unique weapons will be nature based, I'm not too creative in this area, fill in your own thoughts here. Enemy Items will be Spider Legs, Tree Bark, (hell, irk) etc. Crafting Materials will most likely end up as Spiritwood Planks, wood planks, etc. Not much to do here, its all basic stuff that just gets filled in based on what has been done earlier.
Final Words
Well, sitting here for 3 hours and brainstorming and writing this has been fun, I must say. I hope that at least one person out there reads it all, making the entire thing worth it. There is one thing I want to say. For all of you out there who always want Anet to put out something new, stop and read all that I wrote. Now take that, make it three times longer, more detailed, and more original. Then code it, test it, debug it, test it again, and then release it. That’s what Anet has to do, and it is one hell of a workload. So please please please, don't get mad at them because they can't implement a favor emote, or because they haven’t put in a Sorrows Furnace for Factions yet, or because they haven’t done any new God realms, because they have it tough. Really tough. Especially since they're ALWAYS working on two new expansions, with a 1 year period to work on each, and that is one hell of a workload.
To you, A-Net, if you chose to read this monstrosity, thank you for everything. The great game, the great events, the non-existent subscription fee, everything.
There, I'm done ranting, writing, and giving myself Carpal Tunnel. Enjoy.
