Season 1 coming back maybe?

[EcS.8530]

What if ArenaNet will use Visions of the Past to make Season 1 playable anytime? That would be awesome since some players started the game after Season 1 or others, like myself, want to replay it :smiley:

[Melech.4308]

I believe that Visions of the Past has only been limited to the Icebrood Saga; more specifically, the Steel Warband. From the official description of Visions of the Past:

 

"Scry into the past and witness what life is like as a member of Ryland's elite Steel Warband"

 

Second, it has been made clear to us by Anet that LS1 is never going to come back. Even if hell froze over twice, in no way are the devs bringing back LS1.

 

Source: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/29663/living-world-season-1-should-it-be-back

[mindcircus.1506]

I'd rather not see any resources devoted to bringing back this dated and largely substandard content.

[The Greyhawk.9107]

Its quite simply not currently possible to bring back LW Season 1, it was a completely different kind of content, most of it occurring outside of story instances and was played via large temporary special world events. Plus there is the mind-bending existential horror that is the game's coding that prevents replay of even the original Personal Story, imagine trying to bring back content that was temporary by design.

What Anet **should** have done was make a more comprehensive version of the current "Scarlet's War: A history lesson" to better give players that missed out a better idea of what happened as well as better introduce them to the characters.

[Abraxxus.8971]

> @"Melech.4308" said:

 

> Second, it has been made clear to us by Anet that LS1 is never going to come back. Even if hell froze over twice, in no way are the devs bringing back LS1.

>

> Source: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/29663/living-world-season-1-should-it-be-back

 

The devs also said at one time that there would never be any mounts in the game.

[Hannelore.8153]

> @"Melech.4308" said:

> I believe that Visions of the Past has only been limited to the Icebrood Saga; more specifically, the Steel Warband. From the official description of Visions of the Past:

>

> "Scry into the past and witness what life is like as a member of Ryland's elite Steel Warband"

>

> Second, it has been made clear to us by Anet that LS1 is never going to come back. Even if hell froze over twice, in no way are the devs bringing back LS1.

>

> Source: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/29663/living-world-season-1-should-it-be-back

 

This is contrary to what they said many, many times before that which was that LS1 was always in their hearts and they were always looking for a way to bring it back, but just didn't have the tech available at the time, since it needed alot of asset translation.

 

They were building some of these tools and used them for Old Lion's Arch, several Fractals like Aetherblades, etc.

 

Could you link directly to a post, please?

[kharmin.7683]

> @"Abraxxus.8971" said:

> > @"Melech.4308" said:

>

> > Second, it has been made clear to us by Anet that LS1 is never going to come back. Even if hell froze over twice, in no way are the devs bringing back LS1.

> >

> > Source: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/29663/living-world-season-1-should-it-be-back

>

> The devs also said at one time that there would never be any mounts in the game.

 

I don't believe that they said that there would never be mounts. I believe they said (at the time) something to the effect that mounts weren't something that they were working on.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

> @"kharmin.7683" said:

> > @"Abraxxus.8971" said:

> > > @"Melech.4308" said:

> >

> > > Second, it has been made clear to us by Anet that LS1 is never going to come back. Even if hell froze over twice, in no way are the devs bringing back LS1.

> > >

> > > Source: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/29663/living-world-season-1-should-it-be-back

> >

> > The devs also said at one time that there would never be any mounts in the game.

>

> I don't believe that they said that there would never be mounts. I believe they said (at the time) something to the effect that mounts weren't something that they were working on.

 

What the Devs actually said was, "There will be no mounts at release". They never said there will be no mounts in the game, ever.

 

**Will be there any other kind of traveling across long distances apart from asura gates (e.g. ship)?**

 

**Eric**: Any of the major (non-capturable) waypoints that a player has unlocked can be travelled to regardless of the distance involved. Prices do vary depending on distance though, and asura gates are free, so a player might find it advantageous to use asura gates in some circumstances. Other than waypoints and asura gates, there will be no other methods of long distance travel such as mounts, ships, etc in Guild Wars 2 _upon initial release_.

 

 

http://guildwars2.cz/otazky-odpovedi-pro-guildwars2-cz/2/

[Ashantara.8731]

> @"EcS.8530" said:

> What if ArenaNet will use Visions of the Past to make Season 1 playable anytime? That would be awesome since some players started the game after Season 1 or others, like myself, want to replay it :smiley:

 

The loss of Season 1 is one of the many things that will forever bite ANet in the behind. So many bad development decisions that add up to the pile of disappointment. Don't expect to ever see the whole of Season 1 as playable content again - not gonna happen.

[Abraxxus.8971]

I stand corrected. Thank you.

[Melech.4308]

> @"Hannelore.8153" said:

> > @"Melech.4308" said:

> > I believe that Visions of the Past has only been limited to the Icebrood Saga; more specifically, the Steel Warband. From the official description of Visions of the Past:

> >

> > "Scry into the past and witness what life is like as a member of Ryland's elite Steel Warband"

> >

> > Second, it has been made clear to us by Anet that LS1 is never going to come back. Even if hell froze over twice, in no way are the devs bringing back LS1.

> >

> > Source: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/29663/living-world-season-1-should-it-be-back

>

> This is contrary to what they said many, many times before that which was that LS1 was always in their hearts and they were always looking for a way to bring it back, but just didn't have the tech available at the time, since it needed alot of asset translation.

>

> They were building some of these tools and used them for Old Lion's Arch, several Fractals like Aetherblades, etc.

>

> Could you link directly to a post, please?

 

Here you go, see Mike’s response:

 

To directly quote him: “ But we researched it a while back and realized that restoring and updating Season 1 content, and putting it into episode format, isn't particularly easier than making new episodes. And we think the community is better served with new episodes.”

[Jojo.6140]

Tbh, a vision-instance for 50-ppl-squads for marionette or battle on the breachbringer would be nice.

 

I dont see season 1 as a whole coming back though.

[Randulf.7614]

The whole of S1 coming back couldn't work. Half of it is in game, a lot of it was festivals.

 

- Karka Invasion - could be done in some instanced form

- Clockwork invasion. Nothing that isn't already being done with the Awakened Invasion.

- Southson - by and large a normal episode. Most of it would likely only work in a phased form

- Flame and Frost dungeons all now fractals

- Twilight Arbor - still in game

- Thaumonova - in game

- Nightmare Tower - completely changed for fractal. Potential for an instanced rework

- SAB, Halloween, Festival Four Winds, Dragon Bash, Queens Jubilee all still in game. The mini stories couldn't really be put back in except the Halloween Blood and Madness one which should be part of it as standard anyway

- Marionette. Would make a cool fractal raid

- Tequatl - in game

- Triple Trouble - in game. Side story no longer applicable out of context since thumpers are destroyed

- Investigation instance and Scarlet hideout. Not really anything to them to be bring them back. They were just mini text/dialogue instances

- Battle for Lions Arch. Arguably the best single bit across two episodes. It could never be the same re-released as it would have to be shortened. And without the messy, bitty, rubbish that came before, the context for it doesn't exist. It's probably well beyond the scope of the Visions of the Past as well.

 

S1 was such a mish mash of set pieces and festivals, that so little can return via Visions of the Past, that what remains will lack context. Hence why Nightmare Tower fractal was so utterly changed from the original.

[Teratus.2859]

> @"mindcircus.1506" said:

> I'd rather not see any resources devoted to bringing back this dated and largely substandard content.

 

Opposite here, I'd rather stop getting new content for a year and have all resources dedicated to remastering and reintroducing season 1 to get rid of that giant gaping hole in the middle of the game that has p'd me off for years!! xD

[Carlin Sanders.3587]

i don't think it's possible. if anything, i'd rather they revamp the scarlet's war recap to have small snippets of LWS1 instances with the author speaking in the background. (such at the first time you meet each of DW, the important moments for each of them, critical moments of the story with your own characters response since we now have the VA's for the player character back) nothing huge, just tiny sub-fractals that are anywhere from about 30 seconds long to a minute at most, to really be able to see first hand each of these moments. tie them up into a singular instance and bam, revamp. maybe a few land you in the middle of combat to make it not entirely boring (such as suddenly being dropped into the scarlets hologram fight with DW fighting it along with a bunch of other LA npc's for 30 seconds or so. bamf back to storytelling mode for a bit, then be dropped into the moment you can slay scarlet, etc.)

 

I know this will mean 'taking resources away from more important tasks' but it's something i'd like to see in the eventual future so that new players can have a more first hand account of it, plus since it's just snippets it doesn't need nearly as much redesign as doing entire seasons would. they would just need to reconstruct the specific moments you can play in. maybe even tie in some achievements in, such as killing scarlet in the middle of her speech rewards "Every villains weakness" achievement [Kill scarlet in the middle of her monologue]

[Tyncale.1629]

No matter how understandable it is that they can not commit resources to it to basically develop it from scratch in the new format, I still think that considering the game's premisses(Ongoing Storytelling, horizontal progression) the missing Season IS a giant hole. Now that I am replaying all the stories and Seasons on my Alt accounts(because then I can also progress my Masteries again), I am actually getting more and more into the Lore and stories then ever before. And since I missed the entire Season 1 due to circumstances (as in, was playing another MMO....) the constant hinting and reminiscing about "Scarlet" and "the old Destinies Edge" is getting frustrating. :)

 

An example would be the episode you get to play in the PoF story, "The Departing" where you have to restore your memory. Really makes me want to be able to play Season one. Alas.

[Teratus.2859]

> @"Randulf.7614" said:

> - Karka Invasion - could be done in some instanced form

 

Agreed, This one is one of the biggest events from LW1 that we need back since a significant amount of players who were there for this event were completely unable to experience it.

When the Karka first landed in LA the lag was so overwhelmingly horrendous the game (for me at least) went to like 1 frame per minute.. no joke.

It was utterly unplayable and all I saw was everone freeze, screen full of pink crabs, everyone dead.. disconnect XD

I wasn't able to get back in the game until the event had passed and I had missed it.

Out of every living world event to date, this one remains the biggest disaster of them all by a longshot.

 

> - Clockwork invasion. Nothing that isn't already being done with the Awakened Invasion.

 

Agreed again, this would work very well if it was like Awakened invasions.

 

> - Southson - by and large a normal episode. Most of it would likely only work in a phased form

 

Yeah, they could easily recreate this like a normal living world episode, some open world stuff and a couple of instanced story chaptors.

 

> - Flame and Frost dungeons all now fractals

 

Yeah, they could put the Flame and Frost dungeon back together easy enough.

Could have a new sort of complete fractal dungeon type content added.

Basically big fractals that work more like dungeons instead of the shorter and harder fractal based minidungeons.

Talk to a NPC in Fractals and ask them to take you back to a certain point in time to re-live a certain historic dungon.

This could be done for the Flame and Frost dungeon, the Tower of Nightmares and the Aetherblade dungeon without having to change anything in any of the fractals that use parts of those dungeons and their bosses.

 

> - Twilight Arbor - still in game

 

This could be relocated to the fractal dungeon concept I noted above or left alone.

 

> - Thaumonova - in game

 

This could get a new dungeon variant explaining more that went on or left alone.

 

 

> - Nightmare Tower - completely changed for fractal. Potential for an instanced rework

 

Remastered as a 5 man dungeon focused on retelling the exact story of living world 1 Nightmare tower.

Would not effect the Nightmare fractal at all.

 

 

> - SAB, Halloween, Festival Four Winds, Dragon Bash, Queens Jubilee all still in game. The mini stories couldn't really be put back in except the Halloween Blood and Madness one which should be part of it as standard anyway

 

Agreed, Blood and Madness content should be a recurring thing every year.

As for any lore based around fesival events which is no longer obtainable, these should be added to upcoming festivals in the form of lore books you can either buy or earn by participating in the same festival.

This would also be the right time to finally introduce a book collection tab in the Hero pannel for all those books in the game that are wasting so much space in our banks or on our alts.

 

> - Marionette. Would make a cool fractal raid

 

A raid might be going too far for this, a lot of people interested in the story experience would be furious if they were forced to raid to get it.

I think a better solution would be to just add a temporal anomaly at the location the Marionette's wreakage.

Have some Priory or Fractal researchers appear there to study and experiment on it and have them trigger a localized temporal event where they accidentally return time back several years and revive the Marionette as a permanent world boss.

With all the space/time stuff around Kralkatorrik's story ark this would not be that hard to believably pull off in Gw2 today.

 

> - Tequatl - in game

> - Triple Trouble - in game. Side story no longer applicable out of context since thumpers are destroyed

 

This just needs localized NPC's that you can only see and talk to while replaying LW1.

Thumpers would be active and interactable for those doing the specific story chaptor and destroyed like normal for everyone else.

The very same thing was done in the Prologue for Icebrood saga and throughout the icebrood saga too with Dragon statues etc.

Anet definitely has the tech to pull this off and has been using it for a good while now.

 

> - Investigation instance and Scarlet hideout. Not really anything to them to be bring them back. They were just mini text/dialogue instances

 

Pretty much just as they are, only some fine tuning required so items like Scarlets Journal can be acquired again.

 

> - Battle for Lions Arch. Arguably the best single bit across two episodes. It could never be the same re-released as it would have to be shortened. And without the messy, bitty, rubbish that came before, the context for it doesn't exist. It's probably well beyond the scope of the Visions of the Past as well.

 

This could be done in one of two ways.

1. It could be recreated as a big 5 man fractal dungeon instance like Tower of Nightmares etc but redesigned to be very linear and story driven..

Or...

2. Much like the Marionette this event could be remade as a sort of recurring instanced event using the temporal anomaly excuse and accessed via a portal outside LA maps.

This would allow us to have almost the same experience as we did in LW1 however it would have to function similarly to world bosses in that you only get rewards once a day etc

Essentially it would be and function like a world boss but rather than a big monster battle it would be a raid on old LA.

This same concept could also be done for the Karka invasion of old LA as well, these two events could even rotate through the same portal access.

Karka invasion first, 2-3 hours later Battle for LA, 2-3 hours later Karka invasion etc.

 

> S1 was such a mish mash of set pieces and festivals, that so little can return via Visions of the Past, that what remains will lack context. Hence why Nightmare Tower fractal was so utterly changed from the original.

 

It really was, if they were going to recreate LW1 which I firmly belive they should, it would have to be done like a giant remaster.. things would change and it wouldn't be the same experience but they have all the skills and tools to pull it off now and do it pretty well.

Reintroducing the dungeons, invasions and world boss/bosslike events alone would be a big batch of content alone for core Tyria.

 

Some might say having certain events repeatable and permanent would be bad and break season 1 but honestly how is it any different to having repeatable world bosses.. killing Death branded shatterer then going back to the past and killing the normal one which is the exact same creature.

 

The only thing I think would be a pain and a problem with LW1 reintroduction would be the possible neccessity of waiting times for certain events to happen so you can continue.

This would not be something I would perosonally care about though.

Almost all the story stuff could be reintroduced by short instances or by having NPC's and objects only visible by people playing that specific content.

I wouldn't be surprised if Anet could even have the actual Tower of Nightmares visible in Kessex hills for those playing the specific episode where they would have seen it there.

 

[kharmin.7683]

> @"Teratus.2859" said:

> > @"Randulf.7614" said:

> > - Karka Invasion - could be done in some instanced form

>

> Agreed, This one is one of the biggest events from LW1 that we need back since a significant amount of players who were there for this event were completely unable to experience it.

> When the Karka first landed in LA the lag was so overwhelmingly horrendous the game (for me at least) went to like 1 frame per minute.. no joke.

> It was utterly unplayable and all I saw was everone freeze, screen full of pink crabs, everyone dead.. disconnect XD

> I wasn't able to get back in the game until the event had passed and I had missed it.

> Out of every living world event to date, this one remains the biggest disaster of them all by a longshot.

>

OMG I so remember this just like you described it. It was ridiculous.

 

 

[Teratus.2859]

> @"kharmin.7683" said:

> > @"Teratus.2859" said:

> > > @"Randulf.7614" said:

> > > - Karka Invasion - could be done in some instanced form

> >

> > Agreed, This one is one of the biggest events from LW1 that we need back since a significant amount of players who were there for this event were completely unable to experience it.

> > When the Karka first landed in LA the lag was so overwhelmingly horrendous the game (for me at least) went to like 1 frame per minute.. no joke.

> > It was utterly unplayable and all I saw was everone freeze, screen full of pink crabs, everyone dead.. disconnect XD

> > I wasn't able to get back in the game until the event had passed and I had missed it.

> > Out of every living world event to date, this one remains the biggest disaster of them all by a longshot.

> >

> OMG I so remember this just like you described it. It was ridiculous.

>

>

 

Do you remember the pre event moments?

 

Just tons of people chilling in LA waiting for it to start and being excited for it haha

Little did we know what disaster was actually coming xD

 

I don't blame Anet though, Living world was so new and experimental at the time and they couldn't have known it would have been that bad.

From my guild and friends at the time It was far more amusing than it was anger inducing XD

Sure we were upset we ultimately missed it but we couldn't help but laugh about it haha

[mindcircus.1506]

> @"Teratus.2859" said:

> > @"mindcircus.1506" said:

> > I'd rather not see any resources devoted to bringing back this dated and largely substandard content.

>

> Opposite here, I'd rather stop getting new content for a year and have all resources dedicated to remastering and reintroducing season 1 to get rid of that giant gaping hole in the middle of the game that has p'd me off for years!! xD

 

A year of no new content to retrofit a bunch of really awful content in the game to satisfy a vocal minority's pedantry would be the quickest way for Arenanet to send me and my gaming dollar elsewhere.

It wasn't good.

[Randulf.7614]

> @"Teratus.2859" said:

> > @"kharmin.7683" said:

> > > @"Teratus.2859" said:

> > > > @"Randulf.7614" said:

> > > > - Karka Invasion - could be done in some instanced form

> > >

> > > Agreed, This one is one of the biggest events from LW1 that we need back since a significant amount of players who were there for this event were completely unable to experience it.

> > > When the Karka first landed in LA the lag was so overwhelmingly horrendous the game (for me at least) went to like 1 frame per minute.. no joke.

> > > It was utterly unplayable and all I saw was everone freeze, screen full of pink crabs, everyone dead.. disconnect XD

> > > I wasn't able to get back in the game until the event had passed and I had missed it.

> > > Out of every living world event to date, this one remains the biggest disaster of them all by a longshot.

> > >

> > OMG I so remember this just like you described it. It was ridiculous.

> >

> >

>

> Do you remember the pre event moments?

>

> Just tons of people chilling in LA waiting for it to start and being excited for it haha

> Little did we know what disaster was actually coming xD

 

I remember. So many of us convinced this was the prelude to the DSD and what got.....was crabs.

> @"mindcircus.1506" said:

> > @"Teratus.2859" said:

> > > @"mindcircus.1506" said:

> > > I'd rather not see any resources devoted to bringing back this dated and largely substandard content.

> >

> > Opposite here, I'd rather stop getting new content for a year and have all resources dedicated to remastering and reintroducing season 1 to get rid of that giant gaping hole in the middle of the game that has p'd me off for years!! xD

>

> A year of no new content to retrofit a bunch of really awful content in the game to satisfy a vocal minority's pedantry would be the quickest way for Arenanet to send me and my gaming dollar elsewhere.

> It wasn't good.

 

There was a time I fully supported putting LS1 in, but that time has long since gone. The game's population today couldn't support the wait on progressing forward. It could only ever happen as a side project and that is pretty much a dead in the water idea given the bite sized content being put out. I'm all for recreating snippets in fractals or improving that intro video to something even slightly useful compared the poor recap we got, but it's otherwise better imo to bolster the game's future and leave that hole in its past where it is.

[Teratus.2859]

> @"mindcircus.1506" said:

> > @"Teratus.2859" said:

> > > @"mindcircus.1506" said:

> > > I'd rather not see any resources devoted to bringing back this dated and largely substandard content.

> >

> > Opposite here, I'd rather stop getting new content for a year and have all resources dedicated to remastering and reintroducing season 1 to get rid of that giant gaping hole in the middle of the game that has p'd me off for years!! xD

>

> A year of no new content to retrofit a bunch of really awful content in the game to satisfy a vocal minority's pedantry would be the quickest way for Arenanet to send me and my gaming dollar elsewhere.

> It wasn't good.

 

Haha I expect as much.

Missing pieces bug me alot more than lack of new stuff does.

So many other games I could play to satisfy the need for something new while I waited but those missing pages in the book are always going to be a noticable annoyance lol

Doesn't really matter that season 1 wasn't all that good, it's more about having a sense of pride in the game that they are re-introduced at some point.

Without season 1 Gw2 will always feel like an incomplete.. unfinished game.

[Hannelore.8153]

People aren't asking for all of LS1 back. They're just asking for it to not be "I'm Destiny's Edge now" to "Who the heck are these people??".

 

Even a single story chapter could cover most of it, because alot of Scarlet's exposition and backstory is in LS2, thus all we really need in a recreation of LS1 is her and her baddies showing up out of nowhere and causing general havoc and mahem.

 

The only super important part is to have scripted meetings with each member of Dragon's Watch.

 

Here's some examples:

- Fractal instances of the removed dungeons are already there and could be re-used.

- The Aetherblade JP is still there and could be re-used.

- Toxic towers are still in the open world and could be re-used.

- An instance for Old Lion's Arch is already there and could be re-used.

- Queen's Jubilee and Festival of the Four Winds are still there and could be re-used.

- Tequatl is still there and could be re-used.

 

Only a few things are completely missing, like Dragon Bash in Lion's Arch, and Twisted Marionette.

 

Most of this content has barely changed and would only need some minor edits for a suitable story instance. And if they stick with the popup text box system of LS2, you don't need to redo much voiceover dialog for other languages.

 

You could even add a few extra story chapters to the start of LS2 and rename it to Living World: Scarlet's War. Set the majority of it in Southsun Cove and unlock the map in those chapters like Dry Top and Silverwastes. Turn all of LS1 into Anachronism Stew.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AnachronismStew

"Scarlet targets Kryta using a dangerous toxin found only in Southsun Cove. Both the Karka and her forces invade Lion's Arch. Lead a combined assault against the Ancient Karka, the Twisted Marionette, and Scarlet's Alliance to give citizens time to evacuate.".

 

There's nothing wrong with considering what we experienced an alternate Tyria, and giving new players a more modern version. If nothing else, if all else has failed, then add some more of the remaining pieces in Fractals and create a cohesive story from it, bringing back the old Fractal Story Mode that was removed. People want new Fractals badly, so you could hit two birds with one stone.

 

We already know it's possible, we already know it can be done.

[Obtena.7952]

> @"Abraxxus.8971" said:

> > @"Melech.4308" said:

>

> > Second, it has been made clear to us by Anet that LS1 is never going to come back. Even if hell froze over twice, in no way are the devs bringing back LS1.

> >

> > Source: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/29663/living-world-season-1-should-it-be-back

>

> The devs also said at one time that there would never be any mounts in the game.

 

IIRC ... the actually LS1 content was deleted or something. No, I don't mean removed from the game. I mean deleted. So you are right, it could come back, sort of like the way that there is a statistically small chance that hell freezes over too.

[trixantea.1230]

It would be nice to be able to rplay the LS1 story with my character. Any kind of improvements to this season are most welcome :)