Which themes would you like to see in a new expansions?

[Aodlop.1907]

I'm kind of tired of world ending threats.

 

I'd like something more grounded like discovering a new Sylvari tree and its people.

To have vilains more like Scarlett, in the sense that they're mortal, "normal" character who are just good at coming up with destructive plans.

 

I'm not really interested in reality reshaping void entities and I hope we'll get over that sooner rather than later.

[Kalavier.1097]

26 minutes ago, Aodlop.1907 said:

I'm kind of tired of world ending threats.

 

I'd like something more grounded like discovering a new Sylvari tree and its people.

To have vilains more like Scarlett, in the sense that they're mortal, "normal" character who are just good at coming up with destructive plans.

 

I'm not really interested in reality reshaping void entities and I hope we'll get over that sooner rather than later.

Considering how the void has been dealt with, and with it the last major elder dragon, I'm pretty sure we are in unknown territory and could be exploring anything from world ending to minor. Living story seasons range from more localized issues to major.

[Randulf.7614]

Tentacled horror from the Ocean. Since Soo-wan was such a missed opportunity and we ended up with a fairly dull “mummy dragon”, I’d like a proper oceanic and coastal threat, with boats, weather events, largos cities and a genuine Kaiju sized creature. I don’t want to see anymore humanised monsters - that didnt work at all in my opinion

[ugrakarma.9416]

ppl was enjoying LS3 white mantle arc and LS4 joko arc, them bummmp Anet: "ok people the fun is over, lets back to elder dragons again",....

 

i hope they rushed to end elder dragons plot because they become aware of this.

[kharmin.7683]

I'd like an entirely new crisis (doesn't need to start out as world-ending) that would take us into places that haven't been opened.  I really didn't want Cantha, and what we got was even less entertaining for me than I feel it could have been.  Enough nostalgia.  Let's go somewhere new.

[Scalacious.4139]

Another sylvari tree or the opening of the domain of the winds come to mind.

Deepsea horrors and underwater kingdoms of the largos would be fun aswell.

A focus on underwater content would also solve the problem of seeing jade-mechs everywhere 🤫

[Ashantara.8731]

1 hour ago, Aodlop.1907 said:

I'm kind of tired of world ending threats.

 

I'd like something more grounded like discovering a new Sylvari tree and its people.

To have vilains more like Scarlett, in the sense that they're mortal, "normal" character who are just good at coming up with destructive plans.

 

I'm not really interested in reality reshaping void entities and I hope we'll get over that sooner rather than later.

I second this sentiment. Something grounded and mysterious would be nice for a change.

The devs could take a look at old (A)D&D campaigns from the 1980s and 90s for inspiration. 😉
 

Edited September 27, 2022 by Ashantara.8731

[Gibson.4036]

I’d like to go somewhere no one knows the commander, and the people there aren’t interested in our friends explaining we were central to killing a bunch of elder dragons.

It’d be refreshing to just be a hero who wants to help again.

[Kalavier.1097]

1 hour ago, Randulf.7614 said:

Tentacled horror from the Ocean. Since Soo-wan was such a missed opportunity and we ended up with a fairly dull “mummy dragon”, I’d like a proper oceanic and coastal threat, with boats, weather events, largos cities and a genuine Kaiju sized creature. I don’t want to see anymore humanised monsters - that didnt work at all in my opinion

Problem is people hate underwater content entirely, So that's a big wall for this.

Also, certain sizes makes such creatures harder to do, especially if we are regular sized people trying to smack it with swords.

6 minutes ago, Gibson.4036 said:

I’d like to go somewhere no one knows the commander, and the people there aren’t interested in our friends explaining we were central to killing a bunch of elder dragons.

It’d be refreshing to just be a hero who wants to help again.

To be fair, this is a complaint I saw about EoD lol.

"Why doesn't everybody just listen and respect me?"
"Cause nobody knows you here?"

[Farohna.6247]

The commander goes on vacation to get away from it all and things go awry....

Lol in all seriousness I would like to see something less elder dragon, in areas that we've never been.  

I do think the void and underwater themes are left wide open, so we shall see.  I feel like they might go with more of the things being held in check are now going to be out of balance theme.  Still could tie that into going on vacation and having things appearing that are disturbing the locals at their tea.  Can we just take care of it without Taimi chirping in our ear?

[Fueki.4753]

the retconned "truth" behind the horrors of the deep that cursed us with the presences of Quaggans

Malyck's tree

Dougal Keane getting some action

What I do not want to see:

Anything related to human gods. The utter disgrace that Balthazar received already is one of the worst parts of the game. There is literally no need for more of that.

Anything else that touches lore from the first game even tangentially. They should just make up new things, not risk to leave unfavourable footprints on the first game's lore.

Edited September 27, 2022 by Fueki.4753

[Omega.6801]

Most of all, something new. I think we're done with all the nostalgia now that Elona and Cantha are done, let's set sail to new lands.

What these new lands should be like? Well for me, I'd like to see a rework of under water skills and more underwater content like exploration, events world bosses etc.

[Scalacious.4139]

Maybe something with the flying wizard tower in Garenhoff in Kessex Hills

[Randulf.7614]

1 hour ago, Kalavier.1097 said:

Problem is people hate underwater content entirely, So that's a big wall for this.

Also, certain sizes makes such creatures harder to do, especially if we are regular sized people trying to smack it with swords.

To be fair, this is a complaint I saw about EoD lol.

"Why doesn't everybody just listen and respect me?"
"Cause nobody knows you here?"

They can move the setting to coasts and other lands though. The underwater city is less important, but more doable as it would be explorable.

Size shouldn’t make any difference. Kralkatorrik was huge and until they utterly ruined it by having it cry for it’s mother at the end and trivially beaten up by a baby dragon, Kralk was a superb villain. Mordy worked as well and Zhaitan could have been something special if the tech they have now existed to make the final fight engaging. There are plenty of ways round to mitigate size and they’ve used them in them in the past.

 It’s up to the new team to step up to the past glories and be their equal in creativity

[Ashen.2907]

Antagonists that are developed as characters rather than forces of nature or caricatures would be nice. After EoD I would prefer to leave Cantha behind. My love of the setting was completely subverted to the point of having zero desire to interact with it further (other than strike missions played for the group mechanics in spite of the aesthetics and story elements).

Edited September 27, 2022 by Ashen.2907

[Brodix.5214]

Underwater race with underwater combat reworek, underwater maps and special underwater mount( almost all mount are land base). if you asking "where underwater race should have started location ??" near lions arch like other for example.

[draxynnic.3719]

I'm going to buck the trend and say that I'd like to see more of Cantha - would be nice to spend some time actually exploring Cantha rather than rushing to deal with imminent dragon threat, yanno?

That's Living Season stuff, though, not expansion material.

I think it'd be interesting to see the Ash Legion homelands. I recall some implication early on that they had a large territory on the opposite side of the Blazeridge Mountains, but it wasn't very fertile territory so they were largely nomadic. Be interesting to see that. Could also be a possibility to show some of the knock-on effects of Joko's rise and fall, as refugees from Joko's reign that didn't go to Amnoon might have gone northeast instead.

[Ashen.2907]

30 minutes ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

so they were largely nomadic.

It could be very interesting to see large moving encampments rather than stationary cities.

 

[MedievalThings.5417]

Not really sure.  With the end of the first decade's story line, I feel like the next thing we will be doing is multi-classing.  I remember the weekend event we did a while ago where we got to choose limited skills from another class.  I feel like that is what the next elite will be and the focus of the story line explaining how we learn to do it.

[Nash.2681]

Story wise, I'm open to be surprised.

I just hope the visual setting will be far less steam-punky and more nature/classic fantasy like.

Gameplay wise I just hope there will be no more E-Specs, let alone multi-classing. They already learned nothing from GW1 and ran straight into balancing hell again, no reason to make it even worse.

[Gibson.4036]

4 hours ago, Kalavier.1097 said:

 

To be fair, this is a complaint I saw about EoD lol.

"Why doesn't everybody just listen and respect me?"
"Cause nobody knows you here?"

Really? I'm surprised. The whole "you may be a big deal where you came from but you'll have to prove yourself here" in EoD felt like it lasted all of about 2.6 minutes. 

But, that's true of a ton of things in EoD.

I wonder how many people were actually bothered by not being able to swagger into Cantha and instantly command armies. I'd personally find it refreshing.

Reminds me of comic books. I've been reading through all of Ms. Marvel's (her own titles and Champions) comics since I received a sub to Marvel Unlimited as a gift. There's this pattern of having to continually reset who knows her secret identity, how powerful she is, and how accepted she is (oh no, the authorities are after her again!) because these are all the things that create dramatic tension and conflict beyond just another badguy to smash.

Another alternative would be that people in a new land know exactly who the commander is, and just want them to go away, because it's scary being anywhere near them.

Edited September 27, 2022 by Gibson.4036

[Westenev.5289]

A vacation. Throw in as many good feels, throwbacks and laughs as possible.

 

Then you can do your edgy world ending plots.

[Garrison Storm.3046]

With all of the different stories and expansions, I feel that the various environments and landscapes have been well-represented.  As mentioned Aquatic/Underwater could be interesting, but given the current state of how that is being represented I feel that without a significant overhaul/rebuild of those mechanics, this had a higher chance of missing the mark and disappointment.

The Sylvani tree... sounds like Avatar?  I know HoT has a legion of devoted fans; myself I'm not sure I want another vertical jungle plant-themed environment.

5 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

I second this sentiment. Something grounded and mysterious would be nice for a change.

The devs could take a look at old (A)D&D campaigns from the 1980s and 90s for inspiration

Yes to the mysterious!  and I would love to see something darker, along the lines of a horror-type landscape... fog, twisted trees, etc... fantasy inspired Bavaria/Ravenloft, Lovecraft, Sleepy Hollow type vibes, that provide a chill when you're playing through the area.  Weave an interesting story around a simpler villain and it could be a nice change.  There are areas within maps that have some of this, as well of course some representation at Halloween, but devoting a fully fleshed-out map/story to that creepy theme would be great.

Would also be welcomed if it could be developed without introducing a bunch of new, map-inclusive mechanics, masteries and skills... let's work on integrating and refining all of the existing components... or at least make new elements carry a simple global QoL component as opposed to some gimmicky one-off mastery that won't be used elsewhere.  Probably not going to happen, as Anet has it's formula for churning new content out, but one can hope... 

[Randin.5701]

I'd like to see the Dominion of Winds with playable tengu. And I feel like there's been just enough references to DoW in Icebrood and EoD for it to feel like foreshadowing for at least the setting, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

 

More broadly, I just don't want a human-centric expansion--PoF and EoD are good enough for that. If an entirely new playable race isn't in the cards, then let's do something focused on one of the other races--the Far Shiverpeaks, the Depths of Tyria, the Blood or Ash Legion lands, Malyk's Tree. Any of those will work.

[kharmin.7683]

Please stop with the playable tengu.  It's just not going to happen.