Open the catacombs again!

Please sign our petition and help us realising our ideas! But PLEASE don't just write /signed in this thread but sign THIS PETITION. This is really important!
Please ask your guildmembers and friends to sign the petition either! Every vote counts

Hello,

On April 2nd 2006 I suggested opening the catacombs in Ascalon after the tutorial. I posted my idea at Wartower.de and we talked about it long. Finally we decided to create a petition where everybody is able to support us and our idea.

A lot of players seem to like the catacombs and miss it. For sure, we all know ArenaNet is very busy working on Factions and part three. Because of this the catacombs are an excellent choice. They are already mapped so ArenaNet can just take the map from the tutorial and put the new enemies on the map.

I collected the most important and basic ideas of the people from Wartower.de:
• The catacombs are going to be opened after the tutorial.
• There are going to be several layers in the catacombs. At the beginning there are going to be enemies ofmedium strength but the more layers you complete the more difficult it gets. We thought of that because that would bring fun to highlevel-characters and characters below level 20. You just get as far as you are able to.
• You get to the next higher layer when you defeated all the enemies in the actual layer.
» Maybe instead of killing all monsters you have to solve a specific, difficult quest to get to the next layer.
» Most of the people want an outpost after each layer so you do not have to complete layers again you already successfully finished before.
• We also talked about a strong boss (level 30?) which extremely rarely drops a new green item. Maybe the boss should also be able to summon strong minions (level 20-25?).
» We also thought there could be a strong necro-boss (e.g. a Devourer level 30+, so to say a "Devourer-mother") which is able to summon little level 1-minions and use them in some ways like putrid explosion, death nova or similar stuff.
» We also talked about that the boss could maybe drop a powerful gold item instead of a green item.
• An addition or alternative to that boss could be a chest that is located in a different place every time you enter the area. This chest could also contain a green item. The randomization of the chest's location is supposed to work against professional farmes.
• A lot of the users also said they would love a Gwen-related quest that explains what happened to her.


This is just a short survey of all the ideas but I am not able to post it all here. It's simply to much!

You can read more about it, get to the official thread at wartower.de (unfortunatly not translated) and sign in to support our idea here: Petition

I really hope you like the idea and help us to make it real. One hint at the end: This all is just ideas. We will send it all to ArenaNet but there is no guarantee they will realize it.

Edited: Added new ideas and corrected some mistakes.

/signed

sounds fun, when do we begin?

Do you mean lvl 1 minion that run into enemies and explode?

How many layers?

/signed


I used to stand in Sardelac staring at the walls

/signed

When i first came post searing i was so dissapointed i couldn't get into the Catacombs anymore.

sounds like zelda

Details like how many layers will be there are not yet discussed. I think ArenaNet should think about these little things itself.

This should be just a motivation for ArenaNet to open the catacombs again.

And yes, we thought about lowlevel minions that explode because of death nova. The enemy who hexes death nova should have skilled the attribute very high that it gets really hard.

And now one request: If you see any mistakes in the text please let me know. There could be some because I'm german and I can't speak/write english very well.

/ signed, so long as between layers theres a rest stop thats map-toable once you have cleared that layers, and that theres is a visible map for each layer..

i hated the fact that i cant see where im going on a map in the cats....i absolutely LOVE the place, its soo cool and damp and cathedral-like and also just like a lovely cemetery in places...

i imagine you might even have the occasional henchie party at the lower and harder levels...(though if ya wanted to go against a 30th lvl boss, taking even 8 lvl20 hench would be hard going, but hopefully doable)

Mortez, you write very well and clearly, hell, you write better than me, and i am a native (but then again, i have only had one cup of coffee and my keyboard and fingers are only behaving, there not fighting today thank goodness ^^)

i realy like the idea of a multi-layered Cats....but adding a mappable tiny outpost ot rest stop would mean that if your in a group or party, and your times up, you dont feel like you got stuck just because you have to leave halfway to the bottom...
you would have to actually make it through to that area, maybe not totally clean each layer out to get to the rest stop, but at least 80-90% cleared.
once at the rest-stop, you can find the usual, a storeage lady, a merchant and the henchies (i would also sugest a seperate set of henchies...as much as Misha would Love to go drag Claude with her through the Cats, it ight make more sence to have Cats specialists...perhaps THATS where al the ascalon folks and farmers (npc farmers i mean) are at..down in the cats...)
maybe every 3-5 layers there would be a small town or settlement with a few hardened settlers from the Above..a mini-quest or two for fun..make it a whole new adventure

/signed

/signed. I also loved the catacombs and wish I could take my high level characters down there.

/signed

I miss the Catacombs. It was one of my favorite places in Pre.

/Signed

Seems interesting.

/signed

my only suggestion would be that, if there were outposts between layers, that they shouldn't be mapable, that you should have to fight there each time. It should be a challenge to get all the way down

Interesting ideas, certainly . Just so you know, your thread at Wartower has actually been noted and many of the ideas passed on to ArenaNet already. I know Martin (German coordinator) has been keeping an eye on the thread. Would be great to see people posting their own thoughts on this idea here, because that's more likely to get our attention than signatures are.

/signed as well

Honestly the Catacombs gives me a diablo 1 vibe, the layers idea that is, and I think the one thing PvE gw is missing most is a good dungeon crawl, granted not every rpg fan likes dungeon crawling, but I love it, best place for co-op play in my opinion.

/SIGNED x100

The Catacombs are like the greatest place in Pre-Searing, I spent most my time there, It would be cool if there were Multiple levels like in the Diablo games and maybe each level the monster would get harder and harder(Maybe) and when you reach the bottom there could be a Boss (Like Andarial) or something that could drop more greens. It would be cool if the monsters were the average lvls of your party( Like average lvl 13, make the monster lvls 13-28(If this makes any sense. but it'd be really awsome if they made the Catacombs accesible.

/ signed
Love this idea would be fun to be able to back to the catacombs.

oh! there should be a prize to completing each level (similar to the HoH chest, but not as high of drops). After each level a chest would appear near the "exit" or whatever it may be. As you progress down, the chest drops would get better and better.

there could also be entrances to the catacombes from various places on the map, preventing overcrowded towns

Don't forget to add secret Gwen level, mooooooooooooooo

/signed

This sounds like a very good idea. I hope a-net opens them up.

/signed

I loved the catacombs.

I know someone who has a permanent char in pre-searing because of the catacombs. ^^;;