What would you implement to increase replayability of PoF?

A short motivation for each of the options:

Meta-events: I will quote @lder for this, for I could not have said it better:

event chains. They have narrative and story, they are dynamic and change the enviroment, they have good fights, they bring people togather, they climax in an epic meta boss battle. Look at Verdant Brink. 5 avanposts, 5 story event chains. To expieriense it all an avarage player has to play through at least 5 night-day cicles.And even after seing it all like dozens of times, sometimes I just hop on the maps and participate in events. Because npcs there have something like character, what you do feels like it matters and changes the enviroment, and it will all end in an epic boss fight. Hell, I still remember naked Lord Faren, warmaster Neary, Laranthir and others.

Treasure Hunter Collection: this collection is the reason that there are still several zones/events in Core Tyria that get a lot of people daily. The loot they are after is ultra rare but very sought after. The end-reward is also cool. I am talking about Ogre Wars, Rhendak, Temple in Orr, Dredge Commisar and such. Some are timed, some not, people often hang around a bit longer in the zone too. Great way to lure people into otherwise abandoned zones.

Big Bosses on a Timer: apart from the occasional excellent loot you can get from these bosses, they are also a social event because of the "gather and wait" that is the result of the bosses being on a predictable timer. Everyone can join (Tequatl you have to join early). For me, these "gather and wait" episodes are the only time that I ever take the time to look at other's peoples characters, armor and weapons. And their antics. ;) So you fashionmongers, do not underestimate the importance of this!

In 2 words - Meta events and bosses.

However, I also have an idea:We already have these bounties, which are not bad but very boring to repeat only them. So why don't we use the bounties to activate an actual event? For example, killing bounties on the map is filling a bar and when the bar is filled an event chain is activated. Note that the event on each map will be different or not all maps will have such chain events. THE EVENTS MAY NOT BE MULTIMAP CHAINED BUT FOR THE SAKE OF MY GREAT IDEA LETS GO DEEPER AND INCLUDE ALL MAPS.

When the event is activated we progress further and at the end of the chain, if completed successfully, we fight a world boss. Or just a boss. I would also like to see the mounts involved in some way in the fights. Each map boss will have different mechanics in order to bring him down, also different event chain. If the event is CRYSTAL DESERT WIDE and depends on ALL MAPS, if all 5 bosses are beaten, we will unlock a bonus event or some kind of jumping puzzle and at the end, we get a huge reward. I can even live without the jumping puzzle and just to unlock a place where we can collect our huge reward after beating all 5 bosses but a locked world boss behind multimap event seems very neat. We can do the event at the same time with squads on each map or to progress from 1 map to another and continue the event chain and once successfully finished on all maps to unlock the rewards. TIme limit 3-6 hours maybe? Happens 1-2 times a day or once a week, at least the all 5 boss event. Ofc doing it with multiple coordinated squads 5x50 ppl for each map will be faster but we have to include more time if we have 2-3 squads doing it only so 1-2 of them will take care of multiple maps/help each other. Also, the event chains on each map should be average to big time consumer, at least 1 hour + the boss fight. This way with 5 squads on each map the event can be completed even for 1-1.5 hours so even casual players that don't play much can benefit from it and have the full fun. Each time you can do the events on a different map and feel the participation in the whole event different and not boring.

This will be huge and will involve good coordination, tons of fun and will bring all people in PoF maps, if good rewards, for example, increase the chance of precursors in the end reward? For example, if the precursor has 0.01% drop chance from that specific reward, make it 1%+ and tune it up /down if necessary. Also, lock another armor + weapons collection behind this, some kind of crystallized set with many purple gems. Maybe a lot of mats for the new legendaries, as an option?

EDIT:

When a specific map bar is filled it will wait for the others maps to fill it too. When all 5 maps got these 100% the event starts (on any instance, just 1). Maybe something has to be done here to avoid accidental event activation, for example introducing a time window in which it can be activated. When the event starts, a worldwide (regular) timer starts. Each map has to complete it. You get rewards after each mini event and after each boss kill and will have 100-500% participation depending on how many maps u have helped. Ofc, you have to use the LFG system across maps to navigate to a squad/s that is doing the event on a different map. The game will detect when a specific map boss has been downed or not and will activate the bonus event/jumping puzzle/reward room(or some place)/boss fight in a specific place with timer again, when all 5 are dead. Doesn't matter how many instances this place has, if the event is activated you can complete it with your squad/group. But to be activated all 5 bosses have to be killed for the time of the event (3-6 hours). I only imagine that the boss will despawn/fly away/teleport if not killed on time. A similar thing will happen if we don't complete the event chain on time - the boss won't even spawn.

You are right - there may be problems to team up all 5 maps, but if done right it will be EPIC! I imagine the LFG system 1st look for commanders and maybe TS organized event which can lead this "epic quest"? Then they spread across the maps and build their squads. Then they coordinate with each other via chat or ts? Maybe add a new chat channel, "event", where you invite squads and have multimap chat with all these 250 people? Or earlier suggested "circles", taken from Wildstar? I imagine it being useful.

Also to avoid rewarding people which haven't participated - only people that have 100%+ participation can enter in that place, with the event/jumping puzzle and with the reward.

For example, if only 1 squad is doing the whole event, 1st it has to fill the bars for all 5 maps, then start the chains and boss kill 1 by 1 and at the end go to the final event. It will be doable but hard and very time-consuming. So more squads = faster events. I don't think that if we have such events we will ever face "1 squad job" but it has to be added for the sake of the dead hours.

P.S I think this can be called a world boss/jumping puzzle/event locked behind a WORLD EVENT.This is if I think about it for 30 min. If I think more of it I will bring flawless event structure :)This is my wet dream.

I like that idea a lot, especially how it starts with doing a certain amount of Legendaries per map. That would make use of the new existing mechanic and make doing them so much more rewarding.

Would the zone-boss event be on a timer? I.e., enough Legendaries have been killed, Boss has spawned but not enough people able or willing to do him. Will the Boss despawn and the Legendaries-bar reset to zero? Or will the Boss stay up? There could also be a problem with tyeing the 5 zones together in a single Super Boss-spawn event since we are talking different instances here. I do not think that is possible.

The biggest problem with PoF was that everything was too easy, too straightforward, and almost 100% soloable. I finished all my business there in five days, and have no reason to ever go back.

Compare this to HoT. I still need to earn dozens of mastery points which will not be easy to get... like they were in PoF (hurr durr! walk up, click f). And some of the skills I'll have to train are locked behind killing a raid boss. Maxing HoT masteries is a PROJECT that takes a lot of time to finish.

ANet made the terrible mistake (with PoF) of listening to the most casual and whiny players in the community -- who STILL aren't happy, and STILL think everything is too hard. And they released a cotton-candy expansion that any ordinary player can blow through in a matter of days.

It's too late now to do what really needed to be done. Maxing PoF masteries and unlocking all five mounts should have been a MUCH more challenging and time consuming process. There should be about one tenth as many people riding griffons around right now. And all of this COULD have been tied to working your way through new PvE content (new fractals, new raids, new meta-events, etc).

But it's too late. Now that everybody has all five mounts with maxed masteries, you can't revive this thing anymore. Its back to the old fractal grind.

@Tyncale.1629 said:I like that idea a lot, especially how it starts with doing a certain amount of Legendaries per map. That would make use of the new existing mechanic and make doing them so much more rewarding.

Would the zone-boss event be on a timer? I.e., enough Legendaries have been killed, Boss has spawned but not enough people able or willing to do him. Will the Boss despawn and the Legendaries-bar reset to zero? Or will the Boss stay up? There could also be a problem with tyeing the 5 zones together in a single Super Boss-spawn event since we are talking different instances here. I do not think that is possible.

EDIT

Answered in my post above :)

For me, competative elements make a game very replayable. Now some players don't like pvp and therefore stay in pve until they run out of things to do.

Remember one of those shatterer events when gw2 first launched?

I think that subtle map factions, with map objectives, that don't interfere with regular pve, can revitalize any map.

I understand what you are saying, Menzies. It seems that several MMO's who at first had optional/factional/consensual PvP on their PvE worlds/servers, have been shying away from that ever since those early days.

Early Everquest gave you a book at each charactercreation: when you handed that in to the Priest of Discord, your name would become red, and from that moment on you could attack, and be attacked by other "red" players. This was also irrevocable back then. I think you can still turn "red"on a regular server in Everquest, exept that you would be the only one nowadays. :) You could and still can also Duel in Everquest. Every city also has an arena where you will immediately become "red" as soon as you step foot in it. Those still exist too. Not wise to go AFK in such an arena, even in these new, mellow days where nobody PvP's anymore on the PvE servers. I always thought that EQ was pretty ahead of its time though by the above mentioned features. At least 3 ways to PvP, all different, and all consensual.

In Star Wars Galaxies (rip) you could either join the Rebels or Imperials, and be open for PvP, or stay Neutral and be an unattackable bystander. Not sure how this is done in the successor, SWtOR.

I never joined any PvP faction, it is just not for me, however I always enjoyed seeing some PvP action happen. It certainly livened up some of those overly large and often dead cities in SWG.

Definitely better meta eventAt the moment Pofs content is reduced to bounty farm, which is a longer version of a champ train

Rebalance bounties to make them worth the time and effort to actually complete more than once.

The bounty system is a great concept at it's heart, but it's implementation is very lacklustre. What we should have got was epic fights against near-worldboss level enemies. What we have is glorified kill events that give normal event crap, but require far more effort and coordination than a standard champion kill so just aren't worth the time it takes to kill them, especially when you have a myriad of people who refuse to listen to commanders or watch the status effect bar for instructions on what needs to be done.

I am starting to think I should have added a "Rework Bounties into something more rewarding and replayable" option. :)

@Tyncale.1629 said:I am starting to think I should have added a "Rework Bounties into something more rewarding and replayable" option. :)

It will be still boring. Rewards are a huge factor but so is the fun. And I don't see the fun of repeating over and over such kills.

@bOTEB.1573 said:

@Tyncale.1629 said:I am starting to think I should have added a "Rework Bounties into something more rewarding and replayable" option. :)

I wish for the event system to get some updates ..... hopefully in season 4 but at least in the next expansion.Currently I cant remember any event that really changed something in the world ..... or had an significant outcome if it failed.Also the presentation of the events went down by a lot .... remember the siege of divinities reach on lake doric? That was a siege. With roaming troops fighting each other, canons firing on on the city, enemy forces making pushes to secure important outposts..... the only thing missing was an actual attempt to get through the cities gates. Which would have been difficult because the divinities reach is on another map.

Now lets look at the "siege" of amnoon: We have exactly 4 events that indicate that amnoon is under "siege". Two meaningless patrol events, one events where balthasars forces attack some farmers in front of the city and a push to the gates .... by some berserking fruits? Oh what a sheme from the god of war ......

Ok but enough of the negativity lets do some suggestions:

- Connected events + collections:

For me personal a well presented event chain is motivation enough to do it, but I know this is a mmo so people want shinies ... (you skritt you ;) ). So basically the idea is to introduce some collections for more aesthetic stuff that lead you to do some events chains. Combine that with a nice story and you have a replayibillity.

As an example we might take the refugee events on the different map. Did you notice that those events actually create a path from the desolation all the way to amnoon? So how about we not only protect some nameless elonians at each events but also some actual characters which journey we can accompany all the way back from the desolation (or even vaabi for that matter). And if they die at one event they basically go back to their starting point. If you manage to keep them alive the whole journey to amnoon, then they will sell you something you can use to further advance in the collection.

(For that to work Anet must implemend some system that allow the player, when escorting the NPCs to a map border, to get into the same instance as the NPCs he has escorted there - but I think that should be possible.)

- Real Boss Hunts + Regional Occupation:

The second idea basically uses mats as motivator. I know that the prices of t5 wood etc went down because of the expansion but I see enough people at the wood mile in orr to still think it is an good motivator. So my idea is instead of evenly spread out the nodes through the whole map. which leads to the player mindlessly running around on the search of nodes, you create some areas with a high concentration of said materials - like mines, quarries, special woods etc. And now comes the clue - in order to get acess to the ressources the players have to conquer and fortify that position first. By doing assoziated events.

Example:

Lets say there is a mine somewhere on the map. If the players conquer it (by doing a escort&conquer - event) then in this mine some iron nodes will spawn. If they then further upgrade it (by completling events like "Escort XXX on his way to deliver tools to the mine" or "Protect the pumps which pump water out of the lower mine levels") platinum ore will spawn and so on and so one. And at the end you unlock a rich ori node. Of course to compansate for that, the density of said ressource nodes on the rest of the map have to been reduced.

Also there will be constantly some hostile forces trying to attack the mine. Failing in those events will delevel the mine and corresponding nodes will despawn. The longer the mine stands in player control, the harder these events get (so that it is not possible that the mine stays at max level for the rest of the time).

All of that can be nicely packed into a meta event which changes level according to the events you have won or lost. So everyone is aware of the state of the mine and what to do to further upgrade it.

To spice the whole thing up I would also change the bounty hunts that they interact with above discussed events. So instead of the bosses just standing at their location doing nothing, there is a chance that in any of the previously discussed an active boss of the bounty hunt might spawn to further increase the difficulty.

(And instead of having one/two locations for each boss I would let it spawn anywhere on the map. To find it the player have to use the special interaction spell to get an direction - like the treasure hunts work - but that is a whole other topic.....)

To me it was a fine and good expansion.I say it was cause after have completed the story and exploration i am more or Less done, till ls4.

Btw i also think that meta events and world bosses would be Nice ( maybe as new bounty ) for players.

I have faith that anet will add more content in the map in the future... If not, I'm fussed.

But I would like to see meta events with a unique rare item like chak egg sac, it gives me motivation to do the meta. World bosses would be nice too.

@Samnang.1879 said:I have faith that anet will add more content in the map in the future... If not, I'm fussed.

But I would like to see meta events with a unique rare item like chak egg sac, it gives me motivation to do the meta. World bosses would be nice too.

I feel you bro :)

There is the casino meta event in Amnoon every 2 hours (where I halfway expect the new Festive Confetti Infusion to be from). There's the treasure hunting meta event in the Desert Highlands. Augury Rock meta in Elon Riverlands. There are actual meta events in the new maps. It feels more as if people aren't tuned in to their existence and just keep repeating that they have none.

Those aren't Meta events, they are McMeta events.

You could call the Ogre Wars in Fields of Ruins a Meta Event then too. A couple of localized connecting events is not a real Meta event in my book. Or if you mean events with a zonewide announcement, then a Leyline Event, or the Bloodstone Crazed mobs could be called one too.

I guess we could argue about what qualifies for a Meta event so I am not saying you are wrong. :)

Please, I want to hear more suggestions/opinions.

I can vote for the combo, as it is good idea but it is too late for that. We may hope for something like that in the next season. Currently, they just need to seriously buff bounties' rewards. I would say...

fractal 40, with average team gives 25g/h (with good teams reaching 40g/h from what I heard)average bounty takes 8 minutes

This would requre 3,3 g / bounty to be worthwhile in my opinion. Of course they CAN'T do just that. But that shows how worthless are current rewards.

The reward is very important as an incentive to replay Events, that's for sure. It can't be just a social thing. It does not always have to be for gold though. For instance, I replay HoT events because I will always be needing the map currency to a more or lesser degree. I needed a lot for making Astralaria, I need it for opening the chests in my home instance and for feeding the Leyline converter and I am also slowly working my way through the Auric Weapons collection(recipes cost map currency).

I am glad though that the way to earn these currencies, is packaged in the form of a Meta event, with multiple groups and commanders working on the map. So much more fun then having to solo through an event in order to earn this currency.

I do not necessarily want to go back to HoT design, but we do need map meta's and events similar to VB camps at night and BF events.

Amalgamated gemstones! That's it!

Jokes aside, even though I do not like the current way to get amalgamated and definitely want more ways to get them, I feel like metas would keep the path of 'fire' hot! As it is a path of fire. More armor and not just any armor, decent, attractive, perhaps scandalous armor. I'm tired of all this hokey nonsense with skirts that could be worn as blankets or lain out like bear rugs.

To give PoF more replayability, I would do:

• Rework the Bounty System from scratch, to make it more interesting for all types of players, not only the spoiled Zerg Fanatics that are screaming Meta Events from HoT Style Maps, while also improving its rewards, so that all of the Bounty get the chance of dropping new Epic Weapons, Armors and Accessoires with unique Skins and Stat Change Ability (Return basically unique green items from GW1 to GW2) while making Bounty splitted up for various Player types into Solo Bounties, Group Bounties and Raid Bounties, with Solo Bounties introducign for Players a Bountyhunter Rank System with that the player can unlock as you progress more challenging bounties and better rewards (Monster Hunster System) with that you unlock also access to new Hunting Grounds Instances you can access then via the Realm of Torment which you will be able to access from the Domain of Vabbi where you can hunt then all kinds of Demons, Monsters Beasts, Spirits and what not all so much as you want for trophies, glory and EPIC LOOOOOOOT until your fingers fall off

• Implement finally Jeweler 500 with all kinds of rare Tier 7 jewels you will find only in the PoF Maps and very rarely from WvW/PvP rewards with stuff like White Diamonds/ Brilliants, Tourmalines, Onyx, Jadeite, Jasper, Snowflake Obsidian, Rose Quartz, Aquamarine, Zoisite/Tanzanite, Citrine, Rock Crystal, Chalcedony, Aventurine, Alexandrite, bring back finally Azurite into the game!! Jewels are so much more expandable :3 I mean, we are in VABBI, back in the land, that is full of jewels and djins that hord them, including Zomorros

• Add much more Masteries for the various Mounts, so that they learn more Skills, can become full combat mounts (we speak of a PvE only feature here!!!), but also more Masteries to the Maps introduced with LS4 that make exploration in the maps more fun, like a Djinn Lore Mastery to earn elemental powers from the Djinn that help you out against the Minions from Balthazar, Joko and Kralkatorrik and their annyoing combat effects/environmental effects from which you can buy then also animated new elemental Djinn Weapons and elemental Djinn Armors for all four Elements

• Use the Realm of Torment also too to add there to the Game a new Raid with 4 Wings which represent each one of the known Realms , but this time without any Story Links to the LS!! Make it a pure Standalone Raid Zone whose four Raid Wings encircle practically the permanent explorable map "Domain of Anguish" (where you find then also the "Gates" to the various demonic Hunting Grounds) which you reach from the Domain of Vabbi Map:

  City of Tor'QuaStygian VeilRavenheart GloomFoundry of Failed Creations

Use this to bring back Margonites into the Game and some other nice old GW1 monsters :3

• Implement new Gathering Jobs that you can do exclusively first in the PoF Maps - Fishing and Digging, especially fishign for Chef 500!! Elona is so full of potential new cooking material for ascended meals and buff food.. Fishiung in the Amnoon Oasis :3 as a Gathering Job, but also as an Adventure Minigame would be awsome

• Add 3 new Mount Types, one you can unlock in Domain of Vabbi , the Cheetah, which is a Speedster Mount that becomes exceptionally faster, so longer you run with it straight forward and is the most nimble Mount able to perform Dodge Dashes, while granting the player on dismount Fury/Quickness/Super SpeedThe Crawler, which is a kind of spider like Mount, with the special ability to climb walls and to run on ceilings with you upside down hanging to reach new areas you can reach only this way, unlocked in the Realm of Torment. Its Dismount Attack poisons and immobilizes foes.And lastly the Behemoth, which are large Carrier Mounts, with that you are able to carry around a whole group of 5 players. You can break through walls with them, as if they would be non existant to bruise your way through to your destination point, while the behemoth is also armored and allows its group members to support the Mount Rider and its Mount with Buffs and can attack foes with ranged skills as well. See them basically as "Battle Taxis" :3 Simply because its fun to just travel together, while someone else drives the car..uhm rides the mount xD Their practical only weakness is Siege Weapons, as they willreceive from their thick skin and their armroy no damage from enemies that are smaller than them and there are also immune to sulfurous air. ans as you ride them, you are also high enouch in the air, that sufur will be no problem for you.So you can use them in the desolation for exmaple to travel safely around as a ground, while battling Junundu Wurms ect.

• I would add some new ANCIENT RUINS (including at least 1 Pyramid, that is full of cool traps) to the PoF Maps that work basically as new Dungeons to add soem new 5 man content to the game, that isn#t unliek the first dungeons bonded to the personal story, does doesn#t need to have any "Story Modes", unless ANet wants to link this maybe to LS4, but just instead has multiple exploration paths and also an addtional Solo Dungeon Mode where players also can play these new Dungeons alone in Zelda-Style to earn that way also some unique rewards there in form of ascended equipment you find from the Dungeon Chests there, once you found its hidden keys to open them. These Chests would then reset every week or so or every two weeks, so that you can earn this way again new ascended rewards from doing the dungeons again

• I would add some more fun Adventures to the maps and rework the Mount Races of the Maps also into Multi Player Adventures. For example I would add also Rollerbeetle Racing into the game with various racing tracks (GW1 version got borign quicly, because it had only 1 single racing track - always the same thing gets boring fast) (and include also Rollerbeetles into the game as monsters.. seriously disappointing, that you wind none of them nowhere in PoF, instead we get such junk like Choyas? Seriously? Leave iconic enemies out of the game for stuff like that, for real ANet???

• I would add a Collection Card Minigame to the region of Elona, starting with your Beginner Deck you receive agaisnt a gold fee of say 10 Gold, which you will be able to buy at the Amnoon Casino. From that point on will have all enemies in the game, especialyl also the bounties, a chance to drop Cards from themself which you canuse in the Card Game agaisnt either NPC Players, or agaisnt othe real players. Make it a game, that is similar to Triple Triad (FF8), Gwint (Witcher 3) and Magic the Gathering, and call it somethign like The Gathering as a little homage to Guild Wars' origin from which the game got inspired basically, or somethign else, if The Gathering could be copyright problematic maybe. Add together with this own meta achievements and collection achievements for Card Sets, Rare Cards ect. and naturally for playing the game, making from that point on every now and then also Card Tournaments in Anmoon, where you will play against other players (and if neccessary NPcs if not enough players are there), where you will earn great rewards for winnign these tournaments :3

And now im out of ideas for once xD hehe, but I'm sure, these thigns here alone wpould give PoF already a huge replayability for a veeeeeery looong time.

^quite good ideas I must admit, although I would still add some fixed gold reward to bounties BASED on the difficulty of the bounty (so that one for example specific "horny" bunny was worth killing ;P). After all, what were bounty done for in the past? For gold of course :)