Bringing to life empty cities and places in Guild Wars 2

[Jupiter.8196]

I'm currently exploring in Vabbi and discovered a city "Garden of Seborhin". Beautiful place, full of detail, like all the rest of PoF areas. But having spent a full hour here I've only seen two other players. The place feels abandoned and a little creepy with only NPCs, as do many other areas in GW2. This feels like wasted potential to me. How can we address the issue?

 

One thing I would like to see in places like Garden of Seborhin is an area for crafting (it certainly has the space) and perhaps other activities that attract players. Why would you go there to craft instead of Lion's Arch? Well, there could be something like a daily or weekly rotation between crafting areas where you get some kind of bonus from crafting in that specific area, perhaps a chance for a random item when crafting or something.

 

There are these beautifully designed areas in the game that someone apparently spent a lot of time and effort creating and they're almost dead. It would be nice to somehow vitalize areas that feel abandoned, it would also provide variety for players.

[Lothloria.5436]

It would be nice to have places where players can interact with each other in between all the gaming. Think of all the possibilities now that we can sit! A gambling den or tavern or something like that. Bring on the food (even if it's just rpg food), sparring den? A stage for all the wonderful music players that we have, would be awesome (in the tavern). Turning it into a more RPG set would be amazing. It would also allow new players to seek guilds more easily. Then we won't have to stand around under the statue of Dwayna in Divinity's Reach xD

[Blocki.4931]

> @"Lothloria.5436" said:

> It would be nice to have places where players can interact with each other in between all the gaming. Think of all the possibilities now that we can sit! A gambling den or tavern or something like that. Bring on the food (even if it's just rpg food), sparring den? A stage for all the wonderful music players that we have, would be awesome (in the tavern). Turning it into a more RPG set would be amazing. It would also allow new players to seek guilds more easily. Then we won't have to stand around under the statue of Dwayna in Divinity's Reach xD

 

Would be nice if people went away from that spot and went back to LA, because I sure enjoyed my instaloading DR because nobody was ever there

[Kahlan.7249]

there are so many inherent problems w/ pof maps that make them undesirable/unpleasant to be around. ~__~

 

and would be hard to address the "wow this map is a w a s t e l a n d" problem w/o going through them all.

 

* the fact that events (usually bounties) force like 50 people to zerg in one spot & you can barely see all the shit that's happening, as opposed to dividing them in reasonable lanes like in HOT.

* also i don't think the mechanics of bounties are popular in general (knock on wood, i'm sure someone likes them :P) - so many of them move around way too much & force people out of melee range way _too often_ which gets annoying imo.

* lack of loot, generally.

* large aggro range of mobs + wow so many ranged attacks?? like, DON'T YOU DARE stop for that flax, or three sand sharks will jump at you, a forged group will ambush you, and somehow along the way a fire hydra will join the fun. :')

* also the fact that metas don't have map-wide timers (you have to be close to them to see that they're even going on), aren't on a schedule, and as aforementioned, usually don't give good loot.

 

there's just... **no reason** to be in POF maps most of the time. gotten the HPs you need? finished that daily bounty? done (or don't care about) map completion? yeah. it's just pop it, lock it, got it, and then RUN AWAYYY as fast as you can on your mount, with that ever-present, all-too familiar, edge-of-the-seat classic POF anxiety: _plsdontgetdismounted plsdontgetdismounted._

 

and good luck doing some of the metas there for achievements if you need them. even when the desolation event completer is the daily & people actually do maws of torment (and even then, you have to keep checking to see if it's happening bc no schedule), have fun watching the floating NPC for five minutes in the east lane. :')

[Klipso.8653]

> @"Blocki.4931" said:

> > @"Lothloria.5436" said:

> > It would be nice to have places where players can interact with each other in between all the gaming. Think of all the possibilities now that we can sit! A gambling den or tavern or something like that. Bring on the food (even if it's just rpg food), sparring den? A stage for all the wonderful music players that we have, would be awesome (in the tavern). Turning it into a more RPG set would be amazing. It would also allow new players to seek guilds more easily. Then we won't have to stand around under the statue of Dwayna in Divinity's Reach xD

>

> Would be nice if people went away from that spot and went back to LA, because I sure enjoyed my instaloading DR because nobody was ever there

 

I use black citadel as my main city. Load screens are way faster, and the home instance is the easiest layout

[Danikat.8537]

I love the idea of adding more non-combat and non-map completion related activities around the world to give players an incentive to spread out and revisit older maps, but I'd be against turning the Garden of Seborhin into a town because...it's not. It's a public garden or highly stylised park. It wouldn't be appropriate to add crafting stations there any more than it would be appropriate to move them into the green space in front of the palace in Divinity's Reach.

 

But there's lots of other things that could be added there. A space for players to perform music would be perfect since there's a lot of NPC entertainers there, or mini games of some sort. IMO it would be better if it's something which isn't already available in every city, because then there's more of a reason to visit that spot specifically.

 

(Also I'd love more mini games in general.)

[TheOrlyFactor.8341]

Just have Kralkatorrik "renovate" one of these cities like Scarlet did with Lion's Arch. :^)

[Jupiter.8196]

> @"Kahlan.7249" said:

 

> * large aggro range of mobs + wow so many ranged attacks?? like, DON'T YOU DARE stop for that flax, or three sand sharks will jump at you, a forged group will ambush you, and somehow along the way a fire hydra will join the fun. :')

 

As an exploration oriented player, this is a problem. I want to be able to stop and look at things, take my time. Aggro range, attacks that interrupt makes that needlessly annoying. I feel like there's a mismatch between the exquisite detail and design of the maps and the content of those maps such as events, NPCs etc. Map design is top notch, but content feels a bit unpolished and rushed.

[Blocki.4931]

> @"Klipso.8653" said:

> > @"Blocki.4931" said:

> > > @"Lothloria.5436" said:

> > > It would be nice to have places where players can interact with each other in between all the gaming. Think of all the possibilities now that we can sit! A gambling den or tavern or something like that. Bring on the food (even if it's just rpg food), sparring den? A stage for all the wonderful music players that we have, would be awesome (in the tavern). Turning it into a more RPG set would be amazing. It would also allow new players to seek guilds more easily. Then we won't have to stand around under the statue of Dwayna in Divinity's Reach xD

> >

> > Would be nice if people went away from that spot and went back to LA, because I sure enjoyed my instaloading DR because nobody was ever there

>

> I use black citadel as my main city. Load screens are way faster, and the home instance is the easiest layout

 

I like that the TP and Bank are close to the WP, I have literally no idea about the layout of the Black Citadel lol

 

And all that is moot when I remember I have the Mistlock Pass or could simply go into Obsidian Sanctum for free, with fast loading and access to even more npcs xD PLUS I can go there and go back to where I was right on the spot.