Concept Chapter - Guild Wars - Mandate

Guild Wars: Mandate

This is my Guild Wars Concept Chapter. It is loosely based on Native American culture and mythology. The landscape includes rivers, swamps, mountains, cliffs, coniferous forests, waterfalls, lakes etc. It is a long read, but please read it. I thought about this long and hard. Let me know what you think. Criticisms are welcome. Suggestions are appreciated. Any ideas that I take will be given credit for. Read on and enjoy.



Introduction

After years of exploration in the far west sea, Canthan explorers come across a vast new land. Soon after, settlers from Cantha and Tyria set sail to the new world in search of a better life away from their war torn countries.
For years the natives and foreigners have lived together peacefully, but lately tensions have begun to rise, tensions not only among natives and foreigners but between natives alike, and foreigners the same. Something has to be done about this dilemma. The answer lies somewhere far beyond the enchanted Wayward Forest.



“It has been nearly six years since the foreigners first set foot on our land. We received them warmly, and they have responded with gratitude. Ever since then, they have established several small settlements. They are currently of no threat to us, but I fear that they will soon be. Some of our elders say that the foreigners have come in search of the Concealed Ones. It is, in my opinion, only speculation as the foreigners have no such knowledge. However, we must prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”

- Spoken Dialogue of a Native Brave



Major Areas

The Bending Riverbed – This is an area along the Bending River where foreigners have settled alongside other native villages. Players begin in this area.

The Ashen Coast – This is another area where the foreigners have settled. There are many small striving settlements here.

The Wayward Forest – This is an enchanted forest with monstrous coniferous trees. Natives live in these trees by carving in complex tunnel systems. The natives also make use of colossal mushroom-shaped fungi.

The Prairie Lands – This is an enormous area consisting of grasslands, deserts, small mountains, and small forests with nomadic natives and plenty of locations to settle.

The Cliffs – This is a mountainous region far beyond the Wayward Forest and the Prairie Lands never before seen by either the natives or the foreigners. A flourishing civilization has established several beautiful cliff-side villages here along with numerous marvelous underground cities.

There are many other locations deep within and beyond the Wayward Forests unknown to the foreigners, even further are areas unknown to the natives.



Miscellaneous Information
Why haven’t the natives discovered the flourishing civilization among the cliffs?
The natives believe that over the cliffs is the edge of the world and are forbidden to gaze beyond. Their legends tell of gods coming from over the cliffs, hence the undiscovered civilization.

The native elders seem to know more about this undiscovered civilization than they are letting on. Why are they covering it up with legends and myths?
I can’t tell you that.



Armor and Clothing

In this chapter, armor art will be designed accordingly to which one of the varying tribes of which you crafted the armor from. For example.

Eagle Tribe = Eagle Armor
Jaguar Tribe = Jaguar Armor
Turtle Tribe = Turtle Armor
etc.



Features

Settlements

Guilds will be able to get together to establish and build settlements from the ground up in the Prairie Lands. These settlements will operate similar to outposts.

A guild can only join one settlement and there is no limit to how many or what guilds can or can not join a settlement. Where a guild settles is entirely up the that guild's Leader. Quests and several new features will be made available through advancements in settlements. Any player, no matter what guild they belong to; will have access to these features. The location of your settlement will definitely have a factor in the quests and features of your settlement.

Settlements must be defended from hostile natives from time to time. Failure to do so will result in the loss of important, expensive structures, or ultimately the fall of a settlement. Warnings will be sent to settlement members several days before these attacks commence. Whether or not your defense is successful will be decided very much like the factions battles, if you win more than you lose within the time limit, then you have successfully defended your settlement. If no one shows up to defend within the time limit, then your settlement suffers more damage. Any non-settlement members present in the settlement at the time of an attack may also choose to defend.

How to Establish a Settlement
- First off, you have to explore and find your way to a prospect location. This will be fun for PvE players.
- Settlements will be a first come first serve comodity. Meaning that whoever reaches an unsettled area first and decides to settle there will be the founders of that settlement.
- There will be a small price to pay in order to establish a settlement.

Ways to Advance a Settlement
- The main purpose of a player is to help keep their settlement supplied and protected.
- Supply quests are available in order to keep NPC settlers supplied and therefore keeping your settlement growing at a steady rate.
- Advancements can happen based on the flow of money of and materials going to and from your merchants and traders. Therefore, the better your economy, the better your settlement.
- There may be certain quests available only to your settlement that a number of your settlement members must complete in order to unlock some special features in your settlement.



Possible Classes
Lupine - http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s....php?t=3029784
Brave – A melee/support class who gets strength and protection from calling upon ancestral/guardian spirits.
(Anyone have any other/better suggestions? I will be looking through the concept class listing by Ken Dei and may be taking concept classes from there. I’ll give credit where it is due.)



PvE Content
Missions and quests guide you through a complex storyline of twists and turns, deceit and betrayal, discovery and ultimately, enlightenment. Uncover the secrets of the new world as you make your way across the unexplored continent.

PvP Content
Participate in a variety of challenges and games fashioned by the natives (I will take any suggestions on this subject as I can’t think of anything good right now). Battle rival settlements for superiority.


Updates

05/11/06
- Settlements are no longer established by alliances but rather by individual guilds. There are no invitations to join settlements. Any guild can choose to join any settlement of there liking.
- Removed Druid Class and added Lupine.

05/13/06
- Settlements have been adjusted a little, and will continually be changed as I see fit.

12/17/06
- New idea for armor. The art of armor depends on which tribe you craft them from.

Credits

Concept Creator
Halc yon

Concept Classes
Rikimaru - Lupine

Other Contributors
Redly
actionjack
BahamutKaiser
Selerious


More Concept Chapters Coming Soon!

Wow. No criticisms? No compliments? No suggestions?

I guess concept chapters aren't as popular as concept classes on this forum.

^^ The basic idea amuses me. It might be fun.

Criticisms:
-) very large amounts of money? By gawd, that's even worse than the elite missions in Cantha. Now we HAVE to 55hp farm minotaurs in order to get enough gold to afford anything? Just..... no. Gold sinks in the form of guild hall NPCs are neat. Denying the Awesome Wicked Cool settlements to all but the richest groups? No thanks.

-) Will these alliances be the same as Factions alliances, or are there seperate Factions and Mandate alliances? I don't think same alliances would work--a shift in one world would break your ties on all continents; but if we allow a different alliance with every chapter, soon the guild roster will be -full- of alliance tabs. And we can't just have the alliance tab be used for whatever continent you're on. Factions characters in Tyria still need to be able to plan with people in Cantha.

-) Defense of the settlements is a good idea; let me edit it. One hour is far too short. Sometimes most of the high-levels in my guild are in Fissure together. One hour warning? Hardly. What if I had a date planned with my mate for that time? Instead, the message should come up one Day 1 of a hypothetical timeline, saying "an attack begins Day 8! We expect to be under siege until Day 10!" Then, when days 8-10 roll around, groups can form in the settlement on their own time, and choose to Enter Mission. Still imposes a time constraint, but allows us to work it into our schedules.

I have noted your criticisms and so I am re-working the settlement system into something that may be more to your liking. I will update it shortly.

Settlements is a fun and interseting idea.

all I have to say is, I wish i was playing something like that now. Sounds like a strategy game concept but RPG style. I hate strategy games but this concept would entertain me for a long time.

This sounds a bit like Age of Empires III, but instead of being RTS it's an RPG. I really like this idea, but the concept classes are really not that great. I would suggest going for something different. Not neccesarily something you can achieve with a ranger/whatever. If it were me, I'd go for something worshipping new animal gods, and therefore giving you a whole new deck to pick from, class wise.
Maybe if you were to have something that summoned animals from the praries...you now you could have stuff like:

Summon Stampede
15 energy 3 seconds cast time 60 seconds recharge.
You summon stampede of animals. They run through the map in a north south line, dealing 15...100 to anyone in their path. Anyone caught in stampede is knocked down for 1...4 seconds.

And you could name the class wanderer or something. Be like a ranger that actually cared about animals.

I know my concept classes suck. I can't really think or find any that will stick with this new world concept.

I'm also looking for PvP and PvE content. It would be nice to hear some ideas out there.

Also, if someone has any other cool ideas for the storyline I would be more than happy to listen.

For my concept class solution, I decided to remove the Druid and add the Lupine Concept Class by Rikimaru. I am not totally satisfied with the concept but it fits better than anything that I can think of.

Well done for a chapter feature suggestion. The settlement ideas are a great idea, Guilds are lacking a strong PvE/non-competative activity, this will add something a bit more interesting.

In the way of improving your settlement, I thought it would be interesting if they had a supply and demand type system that helps you build up your settlement. NPCs could be in charge of building your settlement and providing services, wile players would be in charge of supplying goods to A) Make money and B) cause the town to develope. In this way players can spend time doing quests, making supply run quest (like defending Wagon Trains), and Hunting Beasts to feed your settlement.

In combination with defending your settlement of choice, Supplying your Settlement can make it grow. Supplying can make the settlement grow, and defending it will keep it from being torn down. Also, different quests and Supplies can increase and decrease in value based on how much your settlement is gaining in that resource, that way if people are over farming a certain resource, the reward or payment for those goods will decrease, balancing the importance of each supply and service done for the Settlement.

I would also suggest that it include several variations of cultures and native tribes as well, from the desert and cliff dwelling natives to the forest and river, to the nomadic.

Sorry if I have suggested too much, I just tolk some interest. It is a good idea, traveling to an unknown continent would be a good scheme to GW, although trying to mirror reality to strongly might be a bit unoriginal. If possible, it would improve much if there was a twist that made this new land and settlement original from American history.

I have my own idea for a Sea Faring chapter, and if added, I would hope it is before this one, because it would be kind of weak to add a Sea Faring chapter after players have already sailed half way around the planet, kind of retroactive.

I think most is great!
But some change I would suggest is that...

- Make it where you can only set upt settlement in selected key places (and not anywhere)
- Settlement place should be treated more like a exploration area, and not as an outpost or town. This would mean you can attack in there, as well as the possiblity of monster or pvp fights inside the town. Or alternatively, more like a guild hall (where they can only be seen on the map if you are assocated and on a good term with that settle ment)
- I think it should be run by NPC. So you can participate in buidling up such settle ment, but no one would really have the ablity to make decisions. (atleast for the major one, the smaller one could be player run)
-You can contribute to the settlement, by donating gold and materials. As said, it would improve the settlement's "level", giving you more shops, helpful NPC, and more stuff.
-Quest, and even mission, that would assocaite with settlement building is a MUST. (go hunt X meat... retreat stole supples... fend off raiders... bring craftsman here... etc)

You guys have a lot of cool suggestions. It sounds like I really have to go in depth with the settlements idea. Thanks for the compliments and suggestions.

- I think I'm gonna add the supply quest feature (My only fear is how many people would want to spend all their time on Guild Wars doing everything for their settlement? The game offers so much more to do.)

- A seafaring chapter to come before this one is what I had in mind. I just couldn't think of this a good storyline.

- The storyline is not a mirror of early American history. The concept of settling in a new world is similar, and like I said, it is very loosely based on Native American culture and mythology, not every single bit of it.

- So you guys think its a better idea if we don't really get to choose how the settlements advance? Rather that we keep the settlers supplied and they would do all of it?

I like the settlements idea, its the sort of thing that really needs to be implemented into gw (hence the name guild wars).

edit: and action jacks post has some good ideas too

Hm... In order to institute actionjack's ideas I would have to scrap a number of things about the settlement system and, again, re-think almost everything.

Hey actionjack, if you are still reading, what do you think about this?

- I'll scrap the councilor's feature. Instead the role of players will solely be to provide the resources and protection to NPC settlers. My only arguement for this is that this might create for a very linear advancement series. Some players may want a more dynamic way to build up settlements.

- I might take on BahamutKaiser's idea on supply and demand, allowing you to go on quests concerning the needs of your settlement. Maybe some advancements will require more than gold but also wood planks and stuff. You can choose to either run supply quests or donate.

- Can you elaborate on making the settlements explorable areas as opposed to outposts. I kind of like the idea but I'm not sure if I quite understand what you mean. Do you mean to make them like the Ascalon settlements in Kryta?

I was only suggesting some minor changes which the OP to think on... But since I am being call on, I will try to add some more details to fill it.

A settlement side can be handle in many ways. One way is to treat it like differnt Factions, another is to have it directly player/guild/allience run. Or a Mix of the two.

I would want to see that on the map, there will be 3-6 major Settlements (function much like a Town/city), with possible 2 or 3 Factions controlling them. (for Easier reference, will call them Reds, Cowboys, and Pilligrams factions) Any player/guild/allene can choose to join with anyone of those factions.

Now, there will be several other smaller "settlement location points", where a guild or allience can build thier own smaller settlements. This will function much more like a Guild Hall. (so you can have more than one guilds build on the same locations) Player of same guild can instanly jump to that point, but others can not. "Settlement Upgard NPC" which would take gold and material donated to the guild (and you can choose what to upgard). And Battles would be handle much like as in a Guild battle.

Now... I think its becoming a bit too much just like an alternative Guild-halls.... I guess I need change something to make it more Communial, where everyone can get to gether and make a settlement..... But since brain not being too creative right now... I will see if I can add to it in later time...

Yes, just like ascolon settlement in Kryta, cities and towns supposedly get attacked, but if it is a normal town then you can't battle. They can make the primary building in that settlement a town you can teleport to, but the actual town is around the building, that way you can teleport yet still have an open settlement. If the settlement is totaly destroyed then you woln't be able to teleport to that town.

Considering that there are players in multiple instances, what happens to the town in one instance can't decide the the fate of the settlement, it would have to be progressive. But the more times the town is saved from attack, the slower it could degress, and as players do quest for the settlers, the town could grow or progress.

I realy don't agree with actually paying the settlement in gold to help it grow, technically, they are paying you to help build the town and defend it, wile they are making money from your buisiness in the form of sales and consumables. In a real settlement, materials are more important than gold, gold is what they pay to get the materials.

The other thing that would realy make an impact is a goal to reach by helping these settlements. Like trying to build up settlements so you can eventually settle further into the wilderness. With a large map that has no towns, players will want to help build settlements in order to access distant locations without having to fight through a dozen zones. If they made a continent which begins as wilderness, players would either have to play through zone after zone without a stoping point, or they could pitch in to help support settlements which would serve as points for them to return to.

For making the settlements more communial you could make it as a guild can set up in a particuler town and every guild that joins said town would be able to interact with the other guilds occupying the same town. It would work like a guild hall but a communal one, districts in it to contain the pressure if fifty 100 man guilds join the setelment.

In reguards to what BahamutKaiser said about the town being an instanced zone, make the town an outpost but have a secondary 'front' similer to the outposts infront of Ft Aspenwood and the Jade Quarries that could be fought in for the raids against the settlement.

Now outsiders could make there way into the town by walking there but wouldn't be able to zone there if their guild are not part of the membership, this would give the privacy that certain guilds would look for with others in the settlement without being swarmed with outsiders.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. It seems that we all have slightly different ideas on how a settlement will work. I'm trying my best to incorporate all of our ideas. However, I would also like to hear any suggestions on any of the other features of this chapter.

Some of you may wonder what the point of all this is but a concept chapter like this is very likely and probably will happen at some point. It would be awesome to see a chapter that can be called "The Guild Wars Community's Chapter."

If you can only teleport to a town unless your guild is providing for it, then it doesn't serve as a waypoint for further exploration, if it isn't used for that, then it doesn't have a unique service to provide to keep people supporting it.

They could come up with other unique benifits, but having a new world which you can explore and settle to explore further is the most interesting opportunity IMO.

As for a good title, your searching a new world which your culture has just discovered, I would call it "Guild Wars, Discoveries" or something along those lines. Something along the line of exploration and discovery.

this is a nice idea, i love it, only little setlements should be expensive to buy and have a maximum number, so you won't get 200 of them, which would be anoying, and also there should be a few sites which would be avalible to build them, not just be able to put them anywhere

ttt

I started this thread a while back and thought I'd bump it back up to see what people think about it now.

ttt

bump again

I don't like the "Mandate" title, sounds abit homosexual to me =.=;

haha... I know... if you're a guy. It may sound Homo... like dating a man or something.

but I like the meaning of the word mandate.

what do you think can be a better title for a storyline like that?