Idea: Rotating Open World Nightmare mode mist/storm

Somebody in the other thread on things they feel Anet did wrong, mentioned the old Nightmare mode in GW1. GW1 wasnt a MMO, so most people would not be cool with a instanced GW2 world like that.

But one of the major complaints is the lack of hardcore open world content on a constant basis.

I understand that Open world content has to be casual and accessible under most circumstances for the masses of players to be able to play and e joy their stay.

Well I have a solution for this. My idea here wont take away the casual accessibility of the open world gameplay permanently as it would if the whole game was just made harecore. No.

Here's the solution. A roaming Mist of some weird magic origin boost the creatures of the zone turning them into creatures of extreme legendary danger. Making the zone a place that is extremely dangerous to travel alone. (This the lore to explain it for immersion purposes)The Hostile NPCs all get a damage boost and health boost and special skills added that take more tactic than normal to fight. Events are much harder than normal. Certain areas of the map have large environmental hazards that effect fights. There are new NPC boss creatures of different kinds in the zone that aren't on the normal map, and these bosses have powerful player population scaling abilities that adapt to growing pool of players that join the fight.

This Nightmare mist is on a timer and goes from one zone to the next when it's time is up, returning the zone back into it's normal form and transforming the next zone.

With this model, the open world gets a constant stream of Hardcore open world group content, while also still keeping the game world overall still casual friendly to players not into that hardcore kind of gameplay. Everybody wins.

Sounds like fun. Count me in.

What's in it for the players? Do you expect the nightmare mobs to give more/better loot to attract the farmers? What about the new/low-level player that is exploring the zone following their story, will they get a warning and an "easy" way out when the zone suddenly turns into an endgame zone? Or will the "more powerful" npc still be scaled to the power of characters in the zone's level range and thus pretty easy for fully equipped level 80s?

Don'know exactly what you mean - i have played GW1 for quite a bit but never heard about a nightmare mode. If you mean vanquishing and stuff that was in hard- mode.Nonetheless i like your idea :) sounds really interesting.

@Knighthonor.4061 said:With this model, the open world gets a constant stream of Hardcore open world group content, while also still keeping the game world overall still casual friendly to players not into that hardcore kind of gameplay. Everybody wins.

Not everybody wins. Beginners will find areas of their personal story / levelling experience randomly instasquishing them as they move around. Not good.

Well the idea is sort of already in place. The Portal Incursions could be moved away from the starter zones as to not overwhelm the leveling areas, increase the spawn rates, maybe do some changes to the rewards for clearing the areas.

Reminds me of Kithicor Forest in Everquest that would turn into an absolute deathtrap when night set in. Large amounts of level 25-40 undead would suddenly start appearing at nightfall in a level 15 zone, it was so cool. You had to cross the zone too if you wanted to reach the Eastern parts of the continent so it was a real hurdle. Not anymore off course, but back then it was brutal and fun design. Also Halloween in Everquest would turn certain newbie zones into much higher level undead zone. Fun times.

@"Tyncale.1629" said:Reminds me of Kithicor Forest in Everquest that would turn into an absolute deathtrap when night set in. Large amounts of level 25-40 undead would suddenly start appearing at nightfall in a level 15 zone, it was so cool. You had to cross the zone too if you wanted to reach the Eastern parts of the continent so it was a real hurdle. Not anymore off course, but back then it was brutal and fun design. Also Halloween in Everquest would turn certain newbie zones into much higher level undead zone. Fun times.

This is certainly subjective. Not everyone would find content like this "fun", especially casuals.

Why do we need harder open world though? Instanced content provides that - open world is for the rest of us who don't want that sort of challenge.

Not that I'm saying I dislike the idea mind you, I kinda do. It's just I don't think it is needed

I love the idea, but I get the nagging feeling that people who enjoy map exploration isn't there for the challenge.

@"Randulf.7614" said:Why do we need harder open world though? Instanced content provides that - open world is for the rest of us who don't want that sort of challenge.

Not that I'm saying I dislike the idea mind you, I kinda do. It's just I don't think it is needed

Dungeons, fractals and raids require a mindset of "how can I do this better, faster, longer, stronger" - anything less and you're just wasting the teams time. Harder open world content relieves this pressure while still allowing you to interact with other players in random, possibly memorable situations.

Plus, sometimes it's fun to rush to a downed stranger's side and pick them up (or be picked up from a hopeless situation).

I don't mind the idea, but I hope it wouldn't involve some kind of visual 'mist' like the Drytop storms. The idea that adding difficulty by making players blind is just frustrating and annoying.

I love this idea!Challenging open world and instanced content definitely aren't redundant and I really crave the former. I mean, fractals and raids turn me off because of the pressure to perform optimally and the meta requirements that can often create toxic player interactions. As it is, open world can be an enjoyable experience for me _despite _being so easy because there is no such pressure, but it also gets boring fast as it is so mindless easy facerolly... Being challenged in the open world and having the freedom to tackle it in my own manner would be fantastic!!

The world is already so massive that it would be easy for those who don't want challenge in the open world to just go somewhere else while the event is active on a specific map; there are loads of options for them, really. There could be a heads up for players to leave the area so they don't get caught by surprise and this would act as further encouragement to level in other regions.

This would be a nice way of making empty maps more alive as it could make vet players actually show up all around the world if the rewards are decent.

Oh, man. That's the dream.

Please, Anet?

How long until toxic players complain about non-meta builds for that challenging open world content? We already have complaints about 111111 zergfests for world bosses.

One of the things I love about this game is how relevant core maps remain, even though we are supposed to be across the sea fighting desert zombies. Bloodstone crazed beasts, unstable anomaly, awakened incursions - all super fun things to do while in tyria.

OPs idea sounds great. They already have the assets in game if they reuse the branded tornado effect from Jahai/Thunderhead