Dynamic events system

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Events are persistent area cooperative 'quests' which occur as a consequence of players interacting and exploring the world system. If players do not kill monsters in an area, for instance, the mobs may get strong enough to take a fort, which could then be taken back by players. A player might find a caravan on their travels which needs defending. Events are not all on a succeed/fail basis and can be multi-directional based on player participation.[1]

Events are designed to replace traditional MMORPG quests, to the extent that "you won't see a single exclamation mark floating above a character's head in Guild Wars 2." Each event will be communicated to players in the zone so they can participate. Events are intended to prevent spawn camping and kill stealing of major objectives prevalent in other MMORPG by allowing any interested players to cooperate towards an objective without needing to form a party and each who "contributed significantly to the combat" will be rewarded for their participation and receive 100% of any experience gained. Events scale dynamically in difficulty based on the number of participants and not all events require combat to complete.
The event system is built around regular events and unusual easter egg events. The intent is that at any one time, you cannot know exactly what state the world is in and what you might see wandering around.

Contents

[edit] Event mechanics

The Event System is cyclical in nature. Events will occur again in the game world; they go in cycles where chains of events cascade out based on decisions and actions taken by the players. These events change the world when they occur, but it isn’t a change that lasts forever in the persistent world, it’s a change that lasts as long as the event chains in the area continue along that path until they cycle around into other events, all driven by player actions.

Certain events will only occur when specific conditions are met, like a snow storm rolls into the map, or night falls over the graveyard. If an event reaches one end of the chain, it could sit at that point for days, weeks, or months until a player comes along and decides to participate in the event chain.[2]

Events scale up due to participation by: [3]

  • Increasing the number of monsters.
  • Increasing the level of the monsters.
  • Unlocking new abilities for the monsters to use.

[edit] Rewards

An event is completed with gold reward.

Everyone who actively participates in the event will receive a reward for the event. There are three levels of participation which scale the rewards given: bronze, silver and gold.

Rewards include:

These rewards will be given even if the player(s) did not complete the win objective of an event. The players will just receive a prize less rewarding than it would be for the successful completion of an event.[4]
For example, if the players fail to stop centaurs from pillaging an outpost, they still will get the reward, so they do not feel they just wasted their time.

[edit] Notes on event manipulation

In order to stop griefing, ArenaNet has developed an array of methods to stop potential un-sporty people ruining the fun of the player(s) who actively participate in the event.
The methods will consist of:

  • players not being able to manipulate an event,
  • events never encourage player conflict, and never have fail conditions that can be triggered by players,
  • the conditions that may seem to fail the event actually just trigger another series of events,
  • higher leveled players will be debuffed in areas that are intended for lower leveled players; an example has been given of a level 20 player entering a level 5 area, effectively getting his level down to just 8, allowing him or her to replay or complete missed content in that particular area, without feeling over-powered, and without threatening lower leveled players in the means of having fun.[5][6]

[edit] Event examples

These are six of many examples given on how this Event System may work.

  • The first example shows the arrival of a dragon near a particular town or village. The players nearby that town or village can choose to fight the dragon. If they are successful, the dragon may flee or die, and the players involved are rewarded by the village elder; if the players fail, the dragon destroys a bridge vital to the village. At that time, the village people attempt to build a new bridge, and the players may help them by fending off a group of bandits that see the opportunity to attack.
  • In the second example, if a player happens to be inside a garrison when a scouting party returns, they may overhear the scouts warning of an approaching column of centaurs, intent on destroying the garrison. The players can then participate in defending the garrison from the attacking centaurs. If the players are successful, the garrison may ask them to participate in a counterattack. If they are not successful, or if they weren't at the garrison in time to save the garrison, they may join other soldiers from a nearby town attempting to recapture the garrison.
  • The third example involves a player walking along a familiar road, but this time they happen upon a caravan traveling along the road. They can choose to travel with the caravan, and defend it from roving bandits, or not.
  • A fourth example is of the easter egg variety. An asura is standing at the entrance to a cave and tells the player he wants some of the rare mushrooms inside, but is too big to enter himself. If you volunteer he will turn you into a pig and trigger an event. So you go into the hole and dig up mushrooms while dodging animals with your pig skills.
  • The fifth example shows a possibility of the player to gain access to the home city of the skritt, but they first need to progress an event chain in order to win over their trust. The event chain begins with skritt outside the closed city being kidnapped by members of the Nightmare Court - evil sylvari. Players can join in the event chain and attempt to stop the skritt from being kidnapped. If the players fail, the Nightmare Court will brainwash the skritt, triggering another series of events. If the players succeed, the skritt will open the doors to their city, and introduce the players to the skritt king.
  • Another example is of event clashing, or multiple event chains in one location. The example has been given of a player escorting a beer merchant from Divinity's Reach to Beetletun; when the destination is reached, the player notices centaurs attacking the city, whilst players trying to defend it. The escort player can then join in the fight, protecting the merchant. Completion of the success goal unlocks the beer merchant in Divinity's Reach to all players, and the merchant may be shown differently - in a stand, in a shop or a building, and repels the attacking centaurs.

There will be hidden events all over the world, and some of them may include: finding an entrance to an underwater cave, reading spells written on an ancient book which leads to opening a portal to another world, finding an asura key to an ancient lab that could trigger a series of events; events of these types may impact the storyline, and will be of great importance not just to one single character, but to all characters in the area, and it's likely there will not be a similar discovery in a certain period of time.

[edit] Notes

  • Events are not schedule pushed, but instead come as a result of what the players are doing in the game world itself.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Guild Wars 2: Changing How You Quest For Good - IGN
  2. ^ Dynamic Events in Guild Wars 2: Living in a Living World - TenTonHammer
  3. ^ http://guildwars2.si/2010/06/03/guild-wars-2-intervju/
  4. ^ Colin Johanson Answers Your Dynamic Event Questions - ArenaNet Blog
  5. ^ Eric Flannum Answers More of Your Dynamic Event Questions - ArenaNet Blog
  6. ^ Eric Flannum Answers More of Your Dynamic Event Questions - Martin Kerstein, Guild Wars 2 Guru forum post
  7. ^ OnlineWelten interview, 9 Oct 2009
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