Living World Season 1 instances?

[Krumnoltzwitsky.8971]

Hi, I'm only relatively new to GW2 (I started in April this year), and as I was going through the story I noticed that there's no Season 1 of Living World available anymore in the story section of the Hero tab. I was only able to see a brief cutscene summarizing what happened during that time, and although it looked pretty awesome, I was bummed that I couldn't ever play through it. Is there a chance that the devs will bring it back in instanced versions so that people who weren't there when it originally happened could access it? Even if it was on the gemstore and we had to pay gems to unlock them I wouldn't mind, because I paid gems to unlock the other chapters of Living World that I didn't already have access to previously, and I'd be willing to do the same with Season 1 story if it was available. Thanks in advance guys. :)

[Danikat.8537]

Short answer: probably not. :(

 

It's something Anet have said they'd like to do, and a lot of players would like them to do it, but apparently it would be almost as much work as making brand new content. Which means they'd either have to stop making new content for approximately a year while working on it, or they'll have to bring in a huge number of new people and train them up and pay them so they can work on it. Which makes it highly unlikely it will ever happen.

 

I keep hoping that one day we'll hear they've found a way to do it anyway - maybe various interested people at Anet doing bits and pieces whenever they have time and eventually it will reach a point where they can justify devoting the time to get it all finished.

 

I'd definitely support them selling it in the gem store, because it makes that last bit more likely to happen. I did get to play pretty much all of it when it was released but I'd have no problem paying to get it back permanently.

[Battledoll.1803]

The original Living Story idea from Anet is "living", in "real time", and once it's done, became "history". It was a bold design but soon people complained they were not able to experience Season 1 once they were done. Then Season 2 was an improvement on that regard, available for replay. Some big fights and dungeons in Season 1 are pretty epic, I wish I could experience them again. Many people have already suggested to make some of Season 1 encounter as Fractal, we will see if Anet will really do that.

[starlinvf.1358]

The short answer is "no". LS1 was a combination short instanced story segments, with large open world events that bridge those stories together. The dungeon elements are being brought back as Fractals, since they were instanced content to begin with...... but the open world events have no format available to work without costing a large amount of server resources to keep open, not to mention those events were designed for 100+ players (aka map cap). A second problem is LS1 resulted in Land Scape changes, which raised a number of continuity issues through out the life of the game. Even today, doing personal story's 3rd arc (Destiny's Edge) takes you to old Lion's arch, but lacks the information it needs to create the City Hub in it.

 

They'd have to rescript everything from scratch... and a number of mechanics had relied on quirks of the engine that no longer happen since the rework for Heart of Thorns. While "possible" to do all this, its practically doing a whole expansion's worth jobs to make functional again. And I know what you're thinking..... and yes, most of us suspect they might try it in a future expansion, rather then forward porting the old content. Time travel isn't off the table with this game's lore; and GW1 actually wanted to do Time Travel as a campaign before GW2 was in pre-production.

[Tasida.4085]

Been there, done that!!!! No going back thank goodness.....Content yourself with an excellent movie of that amazing time instead. https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/1691/guild-wars-2-the-complete-season-1-movie

[Jeknar.6184]

Well, you can still play parts of the LS1 instances in the Molten Furnace, Molten Boss, Aetherblade, Captain Mai Trin and Nightmare Fractals.

[Shirlias.8104]

It won't happen.

As jeknar said you can still play something, and who knows maybe new fractals will be s1 related.

 

[mercury ranique.2170]

there are two issues with living world one.

The first is that the transition to instanced content is difficult and the look and feel can never be mimmiced. Many parts where open world meta events that where epic cause it required a lot of players. One of them was a lot like the Vinewrath final, but with 5 lanes. You could play all 5 lanes and all contributed to a different angle of the meta. If you take out the 'lot off people', it will never feel te same. The true LS1 experience is history.

The second is that many people have played it and where there. So making it playable when you want will nog interest the full player base.

So in short. It is a lot of work with limited results for a selective audiance.

 

Does that means it never happens? no. But I also dont think it will be a priority.

[Krumnoltzwitsky.8971]

Thanks for all the replies guys. From the sounds of it I thought it'd be difficult to bring it back into instanced content, but maybe they could make it a seasonal thing sort of like Halloween or Wintersday where they change the look of LA or DR and have special events etc. Just a thought.

 

Also part (admittedly only a small part) of the reason I asked was because I thought people would want to get skins etc from the S1 events again if they could rather than paying 1,000 gold or something like that on the TP.

 

I'm going to check out that video as well, thanks Tasida.

[Quantum Dragon.6078]

I personally had a lot going on at the time LS1 was released - new job, moved, had a baby - so I wasn't on much during that time. I think knowing some of what I missed out on makes it worse because I know I got some pieces of the story half played. Without the seasonal holidays there were what, 15-20 chapters in LS1, some parts of which are still playable minus some story instances? (Tequatl Rising, Twilight Assault, Fractured, Edge of the Mists). They don't even need to be that huge - just a few talking instances, a few small fighting instances to see what all is going on, and some boss instances. And perhaps the Festival of the Four Winds (Zephyr Sanctum and Crown Pavilion) come back as a yearly holiday, perhaps starting as a fundraiser for the Zephyrites to rebuild? I would gladly hand over $10 or so for each chapter they re-released or $150 - $200 for all of them. Honestly I wish they would put up a croudfunding page so those of us that want it can fund it.

 

Side note which is what made me search for LS1 in the first place - I wish they would finish Super Adventure Box as well. There are still two more world houses that aren't even active yet.

[Spectre.5287]

I stopped following the story once I realized I could no longer access the LS1 which has lots of parts that were necessary for explaining the story. I just enjoy the world and mostly do WvW with guild and that's basically it.

[Oldirtbeard.9834]

All they need is to make a few fractals,!Marionette, Battle for Lions Arch, Breach Maker, Queens Gauntlet?

[zerorogue.9410]

Living story season 1 was done using a sort of live update method, where the game world changed(through patches) as events progressed. Marionette's Landing in lonar's pass, North Nolan Hatchery in Diessa Plateau, and Rugnar's Steading in wayfarer foothills are all additions from the events during season 1.

 

Unfortunately we are unlikely to see season 1 get a re-release. Anet devs have stated that the tech they used for season 1 was vastly different than what was used for 2+, and would likely need a total rebuild on most chapters. I can see ways they can do a remake of season 1, but it's not likely.

[Blairuto.1603]

I know it would take alot, but they could try this. Reopen the live events of Season 1 but have it on a speacial server. What I mean is, in the story tab, if you chose to play Season 1 your game will reload itself into a speacial server so that the live events could happen, while not impacting the present time. And if you whant to come back to the present go to the story tab and click quit episode (or story), then the game will reload back to the present. That way players who were not around at the original launch of Scarlet's War would then have the chance to experience the events that took place. All this would include the original maps of the locations, eg. the original Lion's Arch. Then all players new and old would be able to live the entire story without missing a single step along the way.

I know that would take ALOT to do, to make it happen, but I think that would be the best way to reopen the events. Also the speacial server would not shut down either, so that if the story ends, the it starts again. But of course there will be notifications telling players when all the events and 'what-not' are going to start or if the story had endded and is going to restart. I am a player who was not there for the battle against Scarlet, and I think this idea would be very promising.

ARENANET if you are reading these posts, PLEASE put these ideas into consideration, and if there is at least a small chance of Season 1 comming back, please take that chance, because I think (don't know for sure) that the magority of the player base, especially new players, want Season 1 to come back. I beleive this idea would really work.

So PLEASE try and bring Scarlet's War back to the game, PLEASE!!!!