Mercenary System Curiosity

[Salvatore.3749]

Out of curiosity, who would want a-mercenary system similar to that of Guild Wars 1? 

Essentially, GW1 had heroes that you could command, but with the mercenary slots, you could use your own characters as heroes and place them in your party in the game.

Do you think it be cool to have your other characters joining your side and fighting through PvE?

[kharmin.7683]

Please check the forum search function on "heroes".   This has been discussed a bit already.

 

EDIT: See here -->  https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/search/?q=heroes&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=11&search_in=titles

Edited September 27, 2021 by kharmin.7683

[Salvatore.3749]

5 minutes ago, kharmin.7683 said:

Please check the forum search function on "heroes".   This has been discussed a bit already.

I was wondering why you were quick to respond. You definitely didn't like the hero system at all lol. 

Honestly, I did like the hero system since you had more control over them than you did henchmen. However, some content is gatekeeped via meta builds by other players and I recall GW1 much easier to complete certain missions once we had heroes for instanced content.

GW2 doesn't provide players an individual instance though, so I can see the argument from a technical/game development standpoint where everyone using a party of mercenaries at once could be tedious on the system. 

I like the idea of instanced content only, which would be more reliable since we would have our own maps. 

[Gibson.4036]

46 minutes ago, Salvatore.3749 said:

I was wondering why you were quick to respond. You definitely didn't like the hero system at all lol. 

To be fair, Kharmin does seem to have a passion for noting duplicate threads, not just on this topic.

[Tails.9372]

Short answer "it depends" but I for once would already be happy if they manage to make story mission NPC partners more useful than the reskinned "Revive-r-Trons" they are right now.

[Fuchslein.8639]

19 minutes ago, Gibson.4036 said:

To be fair, Kharmin does seem to have a passion for noting duplicate threads, not just on this topic.

 

At the same time, she also points post's out, who "necrod" threads. So ... so or so, you can't do it right :'').

[ugrakarma.9416]

for some reason i didnt know, AI NPCs inst popular on GW2. ppl complain about our "companions" on history, or about summons etc.,

[Fuchslein.8639]

How exactyl did these companions work? Are they the same as the GW2 npc's just with more dmg?

[TheLadyOfTheRings.9148]

Yessss I've been wanting this forever! To be able to play with 2 (or more) characters at once, or at least have 2 characters follow my main 😄 

[mungozen.2379]

Why y'all want to play this game alone?  I'd like to see Anet invest in more methods to connect players in better ways than an excuse to not play with anyone else.

 

[Ausar.9542]

2 hours ago, Salvatore.3749 said:

Out of curiosity, who would want a-mercenary system similar to that of Guild Wars 1? 

Essentially, GW1 had heroes that you could command, but with the mercenary slots, you could use your own characters as heroes and place them in your party in the game.

Do you think it be cool to have your other characters joining your side and fighting through PvE?

How would this work in open world? There are 50 players on the screen for a boss fight, and each of them have 4 NPC mercenaries. what would happen? 

[Ausar.9542]

1 hour ago, Salvatore.3749 said:

I was wondering why you were quick to respond. You definitely didn't like the hero system at all lol. 

Honestly, I did like the hero system since you had more control over them than you did henchmen. However, some content is gatekeeped via meta builds by other players and I recall GW1 much easier to complete certain missions once we had heroes for instanced content.

GW2 doesn't provide players an individual instance though, so I can see the argument from a technical/game development standpoint where everyone using a party of mercenaries at once could be tedious on the system. 

I like the idea of instanced content only, which would be more reliable since we would have our own maps. 

Like in Living Story instances? Yeah I could rock with that

[synk.6907]

It could work in GW, as that was a 3D cRPG. GW2 is an MMO, one that bills itself as focusing on more active combat mechanics where automated allies are unlikely to work.

 

GW1 combat benefited greatly by build setup, and the AI was really good at reacting and triggering the skills you gave them. Positioning was far less important, and there wasn't as much need to be aware of AoEs. AI "awareness" consisted of basically walking away if too much AoE damage happened but otherwise fighting through while the healer(s) manage damage. Heck, I don't remember having to worry too much about positioning as a player, either.

 

GW2 is more of an action-focused combat setup, and while build certainly has an effect you also are in motion a lot more, in part due to the evasion on dodge and similar skills being an integral part of the game and in part because enemies have more varied attacks and patterns. I don't expect automated companions will be able to appropriately dodge in and out of attacks, weapon swap, and use class skills like a player can to have appropriate effect in GW2 content. Look at ally NPCs in instances -- how often are they buffed to champion and legendary status or given the Determined buff to make up for walking into damage and basically spamming 1?

 

 

2 hours ago, Salvatore.3749 said:

Do you think it be cool to have your other characters joining your side and fighting through PvE?

Yeah, for sure. To me, my characters adventure together. But that's a "headcanon" thing -- it won't fit MMO game mechanics.

Edited September 27, 2021 by synk.6907

[Linken.6345]

2 hours ago, Tails.9372 said:

Short answer "it depends" but I for once would already be happy if they manage to make story mission NPC partners more useful than the reskinned "Revive-r-Trons" they are right now.

They used to be better Anet had to dumb them down so they dident complete content for you.

Edited September 27, 2021 by Linken.6345

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

1 hour ago, Linken.6345 said:

They used to be better Anet had to dumb them down so they dident complete content for you.

This is true.  The Devs scaled back the assistance NPCs used to offer a long time ago. 

[hatozeni.5721]

When I read the title of this thread I thought the proposal was similar to what happens "mercenary system" of World of Warcraft.
In the open world there are two enemy factions (alliance and horde). If (for example) an Alliance player kills 10 Horde players and does not die a single time during this slaughter... he gains the title of "Horde Slayer" and receives a satisfying reward. Immediately the location of this "horde slayer" player appears on the map so all Horde players can hunt him down. The player who manages to kill him gets a satisfying reward.
As we don't have 2 rival factions of players in GW2 this fun is impossible.
But it could be recreated in a new PVP mode. Why not?

Edited September 28, 2021 by hatozeni.5721

[Tails.9372]

7 hours ago, Linken.6345 said:

They used to be better Anet had to dumb them down so they dident complete content for you.

It's story, proper immersion is way more important than whether or not "they can theoretically complete the content for you". In other RPGs NPC partners are decently strong and you can actually feel the impact if they have to, for whatever reason, leave the party. In GW2 they just feel like immortal trash mobs with the ability to revive you if they feel like it which makes all that constant talk that "the commander needs their strength" and "they helped too" sound empty.

Same with the villain's btw. if I dominate the fight but still loose because the enemy happened to [insert plot convenience here] at the end of it then this just feels cheap. Which is ok if that's what they want to go for but that's not always the case and if they want to show that an enemy is stronger than the commander then at least make me fight a losing battle. A proper set-up here would be: the commander fights the enemy 1on1 and loses but comes back later with newfound allies and wins, not because the enemy got weaker / the commander got stronger but because your allies actually contributed to the fight in a noticeable way which would then give them the right to say "we did it".

[Dawdler.8521]

9 hours ago, Ausar.9542 said:

How would this work in open world? There are 50 players on the screen for a boss fight, and each of them have 4 NPC mercenaries. what would happen? 

You've never done a 50 man MM necro or supply drop engie WvW raid?

Its... funny.

[TheLadyOfTheRings.9148]

11 hours ago, Mungo Zen.9364 said:

Why y'all want to play this game alone?  I'd like to see Anet invest in more methods to connect players in better ways than an excuse to not play with anyone else.

 

Why are you assuming we would play alone? Me and my mercenaries + someone else and their mercenaries 😄 

[Naxos.2503]

As mentionned in the other thread, I'd only be in favor for the dialogue and added flair it could bring. Their help in combat isn't necessary, and can be in fact -very- detrimental. By definition anything that you cannot directly control can and generally will at some point do something you dont intend.

I'd like to be able to bring Reeva (as my sole surviving Warband) along with me and enjoy the quips. Most storylines did affect a mentor/companion type NPC to us, but they completely ceased to existed as soon as the Order storyline started, which is rather early. Supposedly these are characters that are important to us, you could probably get some exposition/opinion off of them.

[SoulGuardian.6203]

14 hours ago, TheLadyOfTheRings.9148 said:

Yessss I've been wanting this forever! To be able to play with 2 (or more) characters at once, or at least have 2 characters follow my main 😄 

This right here.  🔝🌟♠

 

I've been asking ANet for mercs, for a very long time; for my private instances and story dungeons.

Besides making life a little easier, it's the joy of commanding your own characters as your team.

 

This, I feel, would make people that want mercs, buy more character slots and the Replay value of doing story mode again, and dungeons, at your own pace.

This would also help players know their whereabouts in dungeons, and other solo-able content.

 

100% Yes for me.

✔

 

[Lottie.5370]

I hate this idea, I don't think it fits with GW2 at all.

 

If you want things following you, there's a bunch of items you can buy that summon an ally - stock up on those.

[Salvatore.3749]

17 hours ago, Fuchslein.8639 said:

How exactyl did these companions work? Are they the same as the GW2 npc's just with more dmg?

Essentially, they were your characters with equipment you provided to them. You had control over their skills, their targets, and whether they were aggressive, defensive, or pacifistic, their skill points, and changing where they would be positioned on battle fields. It was helpful for farming and completing hard mode missions since you had more control over your party. 

[Salvatore.3749]

17 hours ago, Mungo Zen.9364 said:

Why y'all want to play this game alone?  I'd like to see Anet invest in more methods to connect players in better ways than an excuse to not play with anyone else.

 

In instanced content, if you don't have the meta build, you are gatekeeped by other players, thus prevented from enjoying the content. Plus, some content requires you to wait for people to join, find people to stick around, find players who don't die often, can synergize builds with you., etc.

Unfortunately, as MMOs are designed there will always be a large group of hardcore players who want meta builds and do not want to work with other people who want to try things or play casually. Guild Wars was designed for casual PvE players and pvpers, whereas Guild Wars 2 attempted to cater to casual PvE players and pvpers, but it has struggled over the years since the meta builds are required by hard core players and meta equipment is so time consuming to make. 

Thus, it would be easier for people who want to play at their own pace who may not have 3 hours every single day to commit to making a legendary weapon. I myself only have 2 hours a week that I can spend playing GW2.. So for people like me, instanced content with mercenaries would be helpful. 

[Salvatore.3749]

16 hours ago, Ausar.9542 said:

Like in Living Story instances? Yeah I could rock with that

Exactly! For Living story and missions!