Suggestion: Open World Fractal

[moony.5780]

Hello 🙂 i want to share an idea that could help to enjoy a few open world maps in different settings regarding the difficulty.

 

Gw2 got a nice Zelda Botw style openworld and it's maybe the thing why most player love gw2.

While some player find the world too difficult, other will say it's too easy. 

I think fractals fixed this problem for dungeons really nicely. Anyone can choose a difficulty that feels comfortable.

 

So my idea is to add another complete Fractal type, but this time not about dungeons, but about the open world. So killing monster and collecting items and just discover the maps in the parties pace (fast or slow just as they like).

 

What do u guys think is needed to make this idea great and to avoid problems?

 

[Cyninja.2954]

This would be similar to the original Guild Wars 1 normal and hard mode split for maps (intruduced later on).

 

While the first title had limited player countes on maps, party size between 4 and 8, and was far more instanced than open world, it worked well because of this design. Think Diablo or other limited party size games.

 

The same happens here in instanced content like fractals, dungeons, raids, story instances, etc.

 

The main issue here is the size and continuity of maps. Open world maps are design with and can hold up to 75 - 150 players (assumed, theoretically even more and WvW maps hold around 200 - 225 players distributed among 3 factions). It is far more difficult to design and split players along those sizes on a regular basis while assuring the maps work.

[Zzik.5873]

I just want replayable hard open world content. I never liked the idea of instance pve in a mmorpg. But the open world is waaaaaay to freaking easy in this game (at least for me). And the only real challenge are meta event but zerking in a blob of light aint really fun either...

[moony.5780]

Yes, u r right:) thats why i thought only a few maps...i think queensdale would be great forexample. All maps for sure will not work. maybe just 20%of a map, just like the dragonmissions do. But instead of doing story an boss fights, there will be more open world stuff to do. 

Maybe there could be tasks like to finish x events, collect y amount of iron, discover the whole map. Find some hidden items. And all of this with an increased amount of monster and more difficult monster. Or less and weaker monster for easymode 🙂

[Seera.5916]

7 minutes ago, moony.5780 said:

Yes, u r right:) thats why i thought only a few maps...i think queensdale would be great forexample. All maps for sure will not work. maybe just 20%of a map, just like the dragonmissions do. But instead of doing story an boss fights, there will be more open world stuff to do. 

Maybe there could be tasks like to finish x events, collect y amount of iron, discover the whole map. Find some hidden items. And all of this with an increased amount of monster and more difficult monster. Or less and weaker monster for easymode 🙂

I doubt ANet would split the player base.

 

Which means any map designed for this would have to be a level 80 map and each one would be its own difficulty.

 

And with it being open world, it has to properly scale so that everyone is able to participate who gets there early enough.

 

It would need to likely cycle fairly often to keep zergs from breaking the scaling, especially on the easier maps.

 

Not to mention open world maps can be joined by anyone so it would be hard to implement properly with the constant leaving and joining.

 

So I doubt we'll get any fractal level difficult map just to do to how it would be to maintain that difficulty throughout different player levels that would fluctuate.

[moony.5780]

9 minutes ago, Makuragee.3058 said:

I just want replayable hard open world content. I never liked the idea of instance pve in a mmorpg. But the open world is waaaaaay to freaking easy in this game (at least for me). And the only real challenge are meta event but zerking in a blob of light aint really fun either...

Honestly i think so too.....im a very casual player and play very slow.....but open world is crazily easy for me after all these years. Even HoT and PoF is easy, only a few r a little bit engaging. Core tyria is even so easy that my brain is going to sleep. Unluckily Open world PvE is my favourite....

But that's because I play this game for 9 years...so making maps more difficult is no option for others who have problems with current maps or new player. I believe everyone should be happy \(^_^)/

 

So not to split the whole maps in easy, normal and hardmode, this open world fractals could help.

 

[moony.5780]

8 minutes ago, Seera.5916 said:

I doubt ANet would split the player base.

 

Which means any map designed for this would have to be a level 80 map and each one would be its own difficulty.

 

And with it being open world, it has to properly scale so that everyone is able to participate who gets there early enough.

 

It would need to likely cycle fairly often to keep zergs from breaking the scaling, especially on the easier maps.

 

Not to mention open world maps can be joined by anyone so it would be hard to implement properly with the constant leaving and joining.

 

So I doubt we'll get any fractal level difficult map just to do to how it would be to maintain that difficulty throughout different player levels that would fluctuate.

 I think u didn't get what I mean:) sorry if I didn't explain it well.

 

It's not that open world maps become fractal lvl. But a new type of fractals. So instead of bossfights there is open world content to do with a group of 5 player, that entered the map in Lions Arche. And because this doesn't work with all maps, only a very few selected or even new very small maps will be discovered.

 

So it does not split the playerbase at all. It's just a new instance type.

Edited August 31, 2021 by moony.5780

[Zzik.5873]

Or I dunno why not make elite map. Maybee a expansion release 5 maps. 4 of them are regular with story etc, and 1 of them is a optional map with the difficulty cranked up. When you enter the map or near the portal, you get a message or see a billboard which said: "Elite map, if youre noob, get ready to get youre kitten kicked." Obviously Im just throwing idea, but something like this. If people are that noob, they could zerk it, but at least you could run it in small group without needing to follow the zerk.

[Bristingr.5034]

3 hours ago, moony.5780 said:

just like the dragonmissions

Please no.

[Tyncale.1629]

I dunno, maybe an Elite version of Queensdale could be fun. 🙂 The rewards would have to be better too though, else this idea is destined to fail from the start. But that would cause many cries of "Unfair!" so maybe just keep the Open World on even footing, easy as it is.  

[moony.5780]

2 hours ago, Bristingr.5034 said:

Please no.

I hate dragonmissions deep from my heart.... this sentence is completly ripped out of the context x)

[moony.5780]

14 hours ago, Tyncale.1629 said:

I dunno, maybe an Elite version of Queensdale could be fun. 🙂 The rewards would have to be better too though, else this idea is destined to fail from the start. But that would cause many cries of "Unfair!" so maybe just keep the Open World on even footing, easy as it is.  

Yes u r right, that there should be more rewards. Otherwise everyone could just run nacked, but thats no fun because there is no reward. I think the reward should not be exclusiv, so it should not be a problem....and people could always zerk around if they need. (just like the leather farm spot)

If every single map is easy i think its unfair for open world PvE lover that start beeing good in the game 😕 Everyone should be happy, so i think at least a liiiittle bit of really hard maps would be cool. Either as Instance or maybe 1 out of 5 like makuragee said sounds cool. Maybe this 1 map have 2 version..1 easy and 1 hard. If out of all maps 5% of the maps have 2 modes, it will not splitt the playerbase and still provide fun to experienced player.

 

Even casual player like a relaxed challange in open world.. 😄 much better than stressing boss fights

 

 

Edited September 1, 2021 by moony.5780

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I assume you mean 'zerg' and not 'zerk' (berserker)?