Hope for Expansions

I dearly, dearly hope, that, in future pve areas, ANet introduces a different pattern of play than the current linear one. I definitely DONT want future pve areas to be "more of the same", just more sightseeing and more monsters to kill, with linear missions and a handful of subquests.

Here are some ideas that would be more fun:

1. "Mercenary" generated-mission based gameplay, found in many games. Have a large area with monsters etc arranged in logical sub areas. Have a town(s) where players pick from several generated quests. They then go into their instance and hunt down their target, etc. Have a global goal or a "side" system where doing missions for a particular side will gain you favour with that side and hate from that side's enemies...

---> specific example: Return to Old Ascalon! Take back Ascalon from the Charr! Starting from a military outpost on the edge of the map, players go on randomly generated military-style missions against the charr in Ascalon. (ie. "Stop this supply caravan from reaching the Charr! Kill this commander! Escort these siege engines to the front lines!" etc.). As the player community as a whole complete more missions rapidly, "progress" is made towards conquering Ascalon, the types of missions change to more offensive vs. defensive, etc. If the player community slacks off and don't complete missions as quickly or as successfully, then the Charr start winning again and Ascalon becomes overrun once more.


---> specific example 2: With the world saved, and the Prince/King dead/gone, Kryta and the Ascalon settlers again descend into guild-based bickering. Set in the city of Kryta, a large urban map.

Have a few story based "large guilds". The player made guilds are considered smaller unaligned guilds that ally with these large guilds. Players/Guilds complete missions for the "large guilds", gaining favour with them, and hatred from opposing "large guilds".

Missions are randomly generated "urban street warfare" sort of missions, "Trader X needs some convincing to join the cause." "The enemy guild is courting a noble at this safe house. Go in and kill them." "One of our top leaders is having a truce meeting with Guild XXX, escort and protect him."

The interesting part would be that, other people are occasionally receiving opposing missions from their side, so if you're doing "protect XXX" they might get "kill XXX" and they will spawn in whilst you're doing your mission.


2. "Tree-branching" storyline missions. This might not work since it means the storyline will vary across individuals, but it would be nice to have a series of missions where success or failure, what choices you make and what objectives you fulfill, have an impact on the progress of the story.



3. I've said this many a time, but again: An infinitely deep, randomly generated dungeon with random monsters that get progressively harder as you go deeper. Think of games like Nethack etc. Your pve skill as a team will determine how deep you can go. The point is not to "Finish" the area, but to constantly challenge yourself in trying to go deeper, etc. You get rewards for getting to a level you've never reached before. (like 1 unlock, ie. 1000 faction.)

Interesting variations: The dungeon has uber items and armor that gets taken away when you leave/die. Survival at the lowest depths means finding good items in the dungeon and making the most of them. These items might be placed as set pieces, guarded by tough optional encounters/bosses.

These are some good ideas. Also it would be cool (perhaps this is what you meant) to have randomly generated quests. You could go to, as you mentioned, the Mercenary npc, and hire yourself out for a quest.

-------a--------b---------c---------d---------e-------
-----goal-----object----npc------location----reward---

each list would have several options within it to end up with quests randomly generated such as these:

find holy scrolls and return them to Dweezle Z in Droknar's Forge and receive a +1 rune of weirdness

Kill XXXXXXXXXX boss Mr Dressup in Maguuma Jungle and receive a mask of innebriation

Yep, that was pretty much what I was talking about.

Another thought, it would be nice to have set-piece encounters with special AI. Like a monk boss being protected by a wall of warriors and archers firing from nearby hills etc.

Or scouts that see the players, fire at them, and then try to lead them towards an ambush.

Or a dreaded lightning-spike army. Rez signet anyone? :P

Set pieces should be placed in random locations and have nice rewards. The point is to make players see them, go "Woah!!!" and have the whole party stop and discuss strategy on how they want to approach it.

Also, combining PvP and PvE doesn't have to be a bad thing, and the new chapter could pit two factions against each other, with players on both ends trying to complete missions.