Assistant companion [suggestion]

[Zahld.4956]

A companion creature that a player carries along with them throughout the open world that can perform free flight movement to assist in new gameplay mechanics.
When the creature is released, the player is immobilized (possible changed into another form) and then the camera is moved over to the perspective of the creature. The player can then control the creature in free flight. The creature is used to perform any number of gameplay mechanics that a player or mount is unable to. If this creature becomes downed, it resurrects to be rereleased after a certain length of time at the players position. The flight distance could be limited by map size, time or radius from player location if wanted. This creature could also have some sort of third person flight shooter mechanic to add some shooter type of mechanic to the game. This creature cold fly around like a drone for racing, retrieving, flight combat or any other number of gameplay types.When a player is finished with the creatures usage, the player would fly back to where it was released to be docked and switched back to player character usage.This is a free flight gameplay mechanic that would not allow players to play in free flight without bypassing other content currently available in the game.

[Astyrah.4015]

@Zahld.4956 said:to assist in new gameplay mechanics.

i think having an instructional video that pops-up when you click a hint/tutorial bubble on your UI is a much easier solution and significantly less work to implement when the goal is to teach a new mechanic or gameplay feature.⇓because this:⇓@Zahld.4956 said:The flight distance could be limited by map size, time or radius from player location if wanted. This creature could also have some sort of third person flight shooter mechanic to add some shooter type of mechanic to the game. This creature cold fly around like a drone for racing, retrieving, flight combat or any other number of gameplay types.When a player is finished with the creatures usage, the player would fly back to where it was released to be docked and switched back to player character usage.This is a free flight gameplay mechanic that would not allow players to play in free flight without bypassing other content currently available in the game.

i have a feeling it's going to be buggy as hell if they ever tried to do something like this, if it's even worth the dev time at all.

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or we can use the existing tips/hints that popup when they introduce something new

[Danikat.8537]

Have you been playing the Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword recently too? Because that sounds exactly like the beetle you get in that game. It's a little mechanical beetle which you launch into the air and then it can either just fly around or (with an upgrade) pick up items and drop them on command, and it has a limited ability to attack enemies by crashing into them. It's also one of my favourite items from any Zelda game and up there with Breath of the Wild's paraglider for ones I wish I had in other Zelda games (and I don't have to tell GW2 players how useful a glider can be in a game).

I don't think it would be as useful in GW2 however. In Zelda games you spend a lot of your time trying to work out where you're supposed to go and what to do when you get there so the ability to do a quick aerial survey of the room is a useful first step and of course having decided to make the beetle an item the developers made sure the game was full of puzzles which required it to complete. Areas like that are a lot rarer in GW2 and if you just want to get an aerial view of the map we already have gliding, the griffon and the skyscale. (Skyward Sword already had a perfect option in the form of a giant bird mount, then they didn't let you use it anywhere interesting...but I won't get into that here.)

I think if it did happen it would either be a novelty with little/no gameplay value like the travel toys or the pet whistles or they'd have to make it a feature of a living world map or the next expansion, and build the map so that you get lots of opportunities to use it, like they did with jumping mushrooms, ley line gliding, the oakheart skill in Draconis Mons and other masteries. Then the problem is you only really get to use it in that map. But maybe they could enable it everywhere and then it's up to the player to decide if they only want to use it when it's useful or just want to fly it around a bit?

So yeah, could work, but I think it would need quite a bit of planning to make it something lots of players are interested in and enjoy using.

[Trise.2865]

This was the worst part of Skyward Sword, and easily the most tedious feature in every FarCry game.

Nice for a mini-game or Adventure; bad for a core mechanic.

[Danikat.8537]

@Trise.2865 said:This was the worst part of Skyward Sword, and easily the most tedious feature in every FarCry game.

Nice for a mini-game or Adventure; bad for a core mechanic.

Really? Worse than trying to sword fight Emo Graham with unreliable motion controls?

I genuinely find it useful, any time I get into a big room in a dungeon my first step is to fly the beetle around to see what's there and it saves me a lot of time I'd otherwise waste trying to reach places I can't actually get to yet or wondering if there's something on top of the scenery. It also lets me deal with spiders from as far away as possible, especially if I can drop them into water. (I wish they'd go back to the 'skull with legs' design instead of making them as realistic as possible.)

[Omega.6801]

I'd rather have Anet spend their resources elsewhere.

[Zahld.4956]

@Danikat.8537 said:I don't think it would be as useful in GW2 however. In Zelda games you spend a lot of your time trying to work out where you're supposed to go and what to do when you get there so the ability to do a quick aerial survey of the room is a useful first step and of course having decided to make the beetle an item the developers made sure the game was full of puzzles which required it to complete. Areas like that are a lot rarer in GW2 and if you just want to get an aerial view of the map we already have gliding, the griffon and the skyscale. (Skyward Sword already had a perfect option in the form of a giant bird mount, then they didn't let you use it anywhere interesting...but I won't get into that here.)

I think if it did happen it would either be a novelty with little/no gameplay value like the travel toys or the pet whistles or they'd have to make it a feature of a living world map or the next expansion, and build the map so that you get lots of opportunities to use it, like they did with jumping mushrooms, ley line gliding, the oakheart skill in Draconis Mons and other masteries. Then the problem is you only really get to use it in that map. But maybe they could enable it everywhere and then it's up to the player to decide if they only want to use it when it's useful or just want to fly it around a bit?

So yeah, could work, but I think it would need quite a bit of planning to make it something lots of players are interested in and enjoy using.

This

@Danikat.8537 said:Have you been playing the Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword recently too? Because that sounds exactly like the beetle you get in that game. It's a little mechanical beetle which you launch into the air and then it can either just fly around or (with an upgrade) pick up items and drop them on command, and it has a limited ability to attack enemies by crashing into them. It's also one of my favourite items from any Zelda game and up there with Breath of the Wild's paraglider for ones I wish I had in other Zelda games (and I don't have to tell GW2 players how useful a glider can be in a game).

I thought of this when watching a game video of another game which had a pet that was not well utilized. Not sure about skyward sword but that sounds good that it has this type of gameplay in it because this would probably enhance the game experience in gw2 and that couldn't hurt.I have played most of the original games of the zelda series and have been a fan since the original Legend of Zelda on the NES. Btw, my handle is not Zelda based, that's just a coincidence. It was based on a name from a random name generator.

[Zahld.4956]

Just saw a video on the zelda beetle. Something like that would work. There would just need to be content made just for the assistant creature. Content added for existing maps could also be an option as mentioned.