IBS Ch5 Champions is Practice for LWS1 Return

[OtakuModeEngage.8679]

I believe the Icebrood Saga Ch5 Campions is ANet's attempt at figuring out how to return Living World Season 1, and I don't mean in the scrying pool as is currently available, but as a full fledged continuous season in our story journel Here's why:

1. At the announcement of the Icebrood Saga they said they were going to infuse it with content similar to Season 1. Perhaps this wasnt a random decision, but instead a test run to figure out how Season 1 could be rebuilt.
2. Earlier in the Icebrood Saga they brought back some playable battles from LWS1. However these are not yet structured in the story journal as a continuous story, exist outside the natural flow(out of order, you have to do season 2-IB before you can do season 1), and as such are still confusing to new players; they shouldn't be left in this state. But what if they were never intended to be, what if this was just the first draft?
3. Champions introduced a way to group up with other players for story without having to use LFG. This is important because the vast majority of LWS1 content was structured as group events, and the hardest part of converting them to permanent personal story would be scaling them down without losing the epicness and game mechanics of the encounters that required a large number of other players cooperating in map events.
4. It is also noteworthy that all of Chapter 5's battles were instances that took place in alternative versions of their maps, something absolutely nessisary if they are to bring back, say a nightmare tower that hasn't been destroyed yet.
5. The very last map alternative used for Champions will feature a world boss fight, which will allow a whole squad in, as opposed to just a party of 5. This is vital for say, the return of Scarlet's Siege of Lions Arch, that was a map wide event.

With this I think they've met all the requirements to bring back a complete working season 1.

[mindcircus.1506]

@OtakuModeEngage.8679 said:I believe the Icebrood Saga Ch5 Campions is ANet's attempt at figuring out how to return Living World Season 1, and I don't mean in the scrying pool as is currently available, but as a full fledged continuous season in our story journel Here's why:

1. At the announcement of the Icebrood Saga they said they were going to infuse it with content similar to Season 1. Perhaps this wasnt a random decision, but instead a test run to figure out how Season 1 could be rebuilt.No.This was them talking about how to integrate the feel of the world changing around the player like it did when they added that stuff in Iron Marches or the Toxic Alliance events in Brisban and Kessex.This is them wanting to make the player feel like familiar places were under new attack by enemies who previously weren't there or alterations to the existing landscape like say frozen over bodies of water.They were talking about DRMsEarlier in the Icebrood Saga they brought back some playable battles from LWS1. However these are not yet structured in the story journal as a continuous story, exist outside the natural flow(out of order, you have to do season 2-IB before you can do season 1), and as such are still confusing to new players; they shouldn't be left in this state. But what if they were never intended to be, what if this was just the first draft?What's more likely:1.That this was a rough draft
2. That this was content paddingThe rest of visions of the past (the story instance, Forgring Steel) is excellent. The S1 instances don't even contribute to the episode's reward structures. They are as close to throwaway content as this game has delivered in more than 5 years (April Fools gags asidfe)Champions introduced a way to group up with other players for story without having to use LFG. This is important because the vast majority of LWS1 content was structured as group events, and the hardest part of converting them to permanent personal story would be scaling them down without losing the epicness and game mechanics of the encounters that required a large number of other players cooperating in map events.Players have never had to use LFG to complete story content.It is also noteworthy that all of Chapter 5's battles were instances that took place in alternative versions of their maps, something absolutely nessisary if they are to bring back, say a nightmare tower that hasn't been destroyed yet.This is also needed if you are trying to create content that is replayable without erasing older content. You couldn't freeze over Lake Doric in Open World and present the content in the DRM without completely disturbing 2 old hearts and at least 5?...6? different dynamic events.This wasn't a dry run, this was just a company learning from it's mistakes.The very last map alternative used for Champions will feature a world boss fight, which will allow a whole squad in, as opposed to just a party of 5. This is vital for say, the return of Scarlet's Siege of Lions Arch, that was a map wide event.The ability to have group larger than 5in an instance has existed since Spirit Vale.With this I think they've met all the requirements to bring back a complete working seasonNow they just need some acceptable quality content that advances the narrative rather than rehashing some substandard encounters very few people are interested in and are already summarized in a short cutscene.

[ugrakarma.9416]

LS1 was a disaster in lore, in aesthetics, and in content, if DRMs resemble LS1(i never played it: the rewards that still its exists, skins, related fractals and videos are enough to me distaste it) thats explain why i hate DRMs very much.

i prefer think DRM's as "emergency mode" content, that was throwed to us, to diverse resources to Xpac because the company inst in a good state, and should never return again once things goes back to "normal".

[Zola.6197]

The developers have actually commented on how the format of champions is just an accelerated, light weight version of whatever Icebrood Saga was meant to be. DRMs only exist because the devs didn’t have time to do something more extensive as the focus shifted to the End of Dragons expansion during Icebrood Saga’s development.

We might have gotten more S1 Visions of the Past otherwise, but I don’t see DRMs or the Champions format as anything more than a stopgap to provide content while we wait for EoDs.

[Fueki.4753]

Unless it'll be heavily monetized, I doubt they are even close to try and bring back Season 1.It makes no sense to rebuild all that code and content for little to no gain in return.

[Fangoth.3164]

@Fueki.4753 said:Unless it'll be heavily monetized, I doubt they are even close to try and bring back Season 1.It makes no sense to rebuild all that code and content for little to no gain in return.

well s1 was pretty empty and the biggest part is available in fractal so coding how to place sign in snowdendrift should be ok, but a waste of time :'(

[Fueki.4753]

@Fangoth.3164 said:

@Fueki.4753 said:Unless it'll be heavily monetized, I doubt they are even close to try and bring back Season 1.It makes no sense to rebuild all that code and content for little to no gain in return.

well s1 was pretty empty and the biggest part is available in fractal so coding how to place sign in snowdendrift should be ok, but a waste of time :'(

And then you have things like:the Karka invasionthe Marionettethe Assault on Lion's Arch by Scarlet's army (including her hologram boss fight and the instanced finale.

These probably are much more difficult to reproduce, with their data no longer available.

[Fangoth.3164]

karka queen is still there, it misses the escorte part to the cave and throwing a tree to the boss because your skill are weaker than a tree or eggs for some reason :# so i'd say that's for the best...but granted marionette and AOLA ain't here anymore and i doubt recoding it is worth. They need to come up with good stuff to make it up for IBS final chapter and wasting their time on old content won't help

[FrigginPaco.4178]

Perhaps thankfully, I believe IBS was a mistake not to be repeated.

[Teratus.2859]

You're touching on quite a few things i've talked about in the past as well.

Though my previous posts were more about how new types of content like Strikes, Forging Steel and DRM's could be used to recreate LW1 content in a replayable state.
I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who has thought about this stuff and recognised the potential there.

I don't think we'll be seeing LW1 again any time soon though, if ever.. but if it does ever come back and I really really hope it does one day then I do hope to see that some of it's content is redone in these similar styles.

I know there are a lot of people who don't care about LW1 not have good memories of it but it's still part of this game and a lot of us who do want it back and replayable.
LW1 in it's original form was bad yes.. but if the upcoming Marionette boss return says anything it's that the developers are listening to us when we say we want to see LW1 improved as well as brought back.

[Blaeys.3102]

I think you are right - and, moreso, I really hope you are right. 

 

There are a lot of improvements and changes that could be made to the chapter we just received, but the single encounter boss approach for guild sized groups is one I hope they keep in the game - and one they use to bring chapter one back as much as possible. My guild went in last night and we had a blast doing it as a group. It scaled well, offered a tiny bit of challenge and simply felt epic. 

 

Give us more of this ANet. It is exactly what we need to reinvigorate guilds in pve.

 

PS - give us a portal to this content that we can build in our guild halls :).

[SexyMofo.8923]

No. Champions is a lazy, uninspiring, filler project. The only thing it setup was raging customers.