Prophecies getting lonely

max001

Its getting harder to find a decent party for missions even worse some quests. I'm sure most of the GW players went to factions thats why Prophecies is kinda empty sometimes. I dont have Factions yet so i cant really know whats happening in the new maps or maybe its bcoz of my timezone (GMT +8) .

Tigercha

I am bringing another PvE character threw the old Guildwars just reached finished ring of fire and it seemed to have quite a few people in it, had no problem finding a group for perdition rock, which I did 3 X last night for skillz and then ring of fire twice due to people dropping the group as we enter the mission or error 7'ing, but I am playing in euro servers betwen 6 and 10 in the evening, Factions is quite full, looks like most people took the plundge.

exanimo

with the summer coming , i have notice a good amount of people playing in both sides.

also depending on territory/hour of day there are ups and downs.

in pvp towns normaly in international there is always more people

and be sure to check you are on dist 1 , lol

Elnator

Population has declined a little in prophecies because a LOT of people are playing factions.   But not all that much.  During off hours it's probably a lot more noticeable.

loopy

played gw for over a year. got factions and have completed it in a few weeks and have now gone back to the original. as time goes on i think more people will follow with what i have done as factions dosent have half the content for a PVE player than the original does.

paranoidpvp

I'm planning on running through the prophecies campaign again this summer with a new character. I bought Factions but I just had a hard time getting into the storyline, I'm not sure if I'm the only one who feels this way but I might not be the only one refreshing myself on the original guildwars storyline this summer. Also the factions storyline is very limited as it was designed for faster leveling and story play so people can get into high level pvp faster, this might be another reason for people coming back to gwp soon.

exanimo

i have 3 professies chars that i want to complete cantha missions , and i have 2 factions chars that i want to complete tirya missions as well.
merging the acounts give us this major bonus imo , the world is dobble size for all your chars.

ive been having a dam good time doing missions in professies with my lvl 14 assassin . 1.5 k armor and a sup rune of shadow mastering , and done the 2 quests that give 15 atributes. he still needs to be lvl 20 , but for a lvl 14 is really good in armor and attribute power. becose i dont have a good assassin weapon yet , im using a old green hammer from sorrow , those that cost 2 k in black market. lol , he is A/W the hammer requires 9 of hammer mastery , and can still leave 13 in shadow mastering for shadow step and self healing.

Bent

I called this way back... Just wait until we get another xpac or two out.  The player base will be spread out even thinner with of course the majority hanging out in the lastest area.

hadz

Funny, I think Prophecies still has FAR more players than Factions.

I know that I've been in Luxon locations with only 1 district and 3 or 4 players in them, and then I switch to Prophecies and there are 10 packed districts in Lion's Arch and Ascalon...I even went to one of the early missions (Fort Ranik I think) and it had 4 districts.

max001

Well, have you been to Ruins of Surmia. Its totally empty there. It have been a few days and i still cant find a party except for the henchies.

Serling

I was in Surmia earlier tonight and the place was packed. Here's the thing: I have 2 accounts in both Prophecies and Factions (both accounts are merged). When I get tired of playing Factions (which I have of late - don't like the feeling of not knowing where I'm going in it), I play Prophecies.

I have found that Factions has actually renewed my interest in Prophecies! It's fun bringing my Canthans into Tyria (and vice versa). In my case, I suspect the reason for this is because that while you can level faster in Factions, the quests and missions - overall - are a lot more difficult and I get tired of facing a life and death struggle every time I enter a zone. While you level slower in Prophecies, the whole feel of the world there is a lot more relaxed (and relaxing) with just enough challenge in it to change the pace occasionally. This is especially true since I hench 99% of the stuff I do (when I'm not solo farming a zone).

Factions: quick-levelling, fast-paced, danger at every turn.
Prophecies: slower levelling, more relaxed paced, enough challenge to keep it interesting without being too frustrating.

After almost a year on my original account, I still long for the days of pre-searing. It was nice just to go there to explore and socialize. May have to dump my idea for another Canthan and fill my 10th character slot with one more Ascalonan, just for old-time's sake.

Elnator

Agree... I think my favorite part of the game is pre-searing   LOL!!!! 
Lately I've been exploring DDO (free trials) a bit but I'll be getting back into GW soon I suspect... Just giving DDO a few spins (hey I have 14 email accounts after all )

GaileGray

I think that when any new game comes out, people naturally gravitate to the "new stuff." Just as we're seeing a pretty large number of Assassins and Ritualists in character creation, we may have a larger number of players in Cantha than in Tyria in these early days. Now, I'm noticing that the towns and outposts of Tyria that I visit are as bustling as ever. But that may be based on where I'm currently playing, or on my time of day or other factors. I guess what I want to say is that if you feel there's a somewhat smaller number in Tyria these days, it is likely just a pendulum swing caused by the call of the new game. I imagine that within a few months, and given the expanding player base, players will be more equally spread between the two continents.

Serling

Wow. Didn't realize the A-Net people "lurked" here.

Got a question for you, Gaile (and I'm not sure how this could be done) but as a long-time Ascalonan, it disheartens me to see Ascalon in ruins, even after I spent a year and hundreds of hours kicking Charr and Titan butt. I want to see Ascalon rebuilt! I want to see my native homeland made lush and green again!

(In other words, is there a way to make the world reflect the outcome of the completed Prophecies end-game? Maybe a new zone called "New Ascalon" that resembles pre-searing Ascalon that you get after completing Last Day Dawns?) That - IMHO - would be the best reward for having worked so hard to complete the Prophecies campaign. Make it an explorable zone with towns like Rin and Surmia: places we never got to see pre-searing. And even a rebuilt Duke Barradin's Estate and Fort Ranik would be nice. Would love to see Serenity Temple and Nolani Academy in their former glory, too.

Quests inside the new zone wouldn't have to offer outrageous XP or be life and death struggles, any more than they were in Pre-Searing. Make the quests anything from simple to outrageously difficult, and let the specific quest determine team size: make some soloable, others fit for 2-player teams, all the way up to 12 player teams! (That would rock!) The contact and quest would determine team size, not the zone (since quests are instanced anyway, why couldn't this be done?)

The other idea would be to make the whole new zone non-instanced, and let players form up to eight-player teams across the whole zone (including cities and towns) to take on quests they get in the new zone.

IOW, this would be a high-level zone better suited to exploration and socializing than just bashing mobs and killing each other. Make the mob AI respond to attacks rather than initiating them, as is the case in Pre-Searing. Make the enemies bandits that threaten merchants that any player - even solo - could jump in and rescue (IOW, give us the chance to make our heroes feel heroic 24/7, not just when completing quests). Make more escort and protection quests. And spawn huge monsters that the whole zone could jump on to bash! A level 50 monster called "Grenth's Paladin" roaming the zone would be cool!

Please pass this along to the devs. I hate feeling that all those hours of thrashing Charr and Titans meant so little to my homeland. Let's rebuild Ascalon!

Thanks for your time.

P.S. And of course, for those people still looking to kill each other, a high-level random arena - like the one in Ascalon City (post-searing) would be nice.

P.P.S. If you need a new story line for this new zone, how 'bout this: King Adelbern is getting too old to rule Ascalon. A successor must be found, but his only son - Prince Rurik (as we know) is dead. A power struggle begins to take shape in the newly reformed royal court among advisors (representing the various guilds) vying to take power over New Ascalon and rule in the dying king's stead. Which guild will rule? Or will they share power? Factions earned in PvP or in PvE quests could help determine who the ruling guild would be. Or, make the winner of the world tournament rulers over New Ascalon: the ultimate King of the Hill.

Take it from there.

yoda93

The reason why it is lonely has pretty much been covered in previous posts, the only thing I could add would be that, considering Factions has been rated as being second place to Prophecies by a major portion of players, I don't think it should be too long before there is an influx of people back into the original. I think a lot of these people might still be in Cantha, but only to unlock everything and explore every nook and cranny for content, before they return to their preferred continent.

Toward the idea for a "New Ascalon", I think the general premise of the idea would be a very good one, since I know quite a lot of Guild Wars players who would find great enjoyment in seeing a rebuild version of the city. However, I think a couple of your points aren't really what I would like to see.

I think the idea to have quests for 12 player teams would be a very interesting one. However, I don't think a new feature like this should be limited to just the new city. If it were to be implemented into Guild Wars, I think it would best take place in a later expansion, which could feature extended PvE and storyline for the player beyond the current difficulty, whereby the enemies are so strong that it would take a party of 12 to survive.

While a lot of people target instancing as a major complaint for Guild Wars, I don't think this new zone should just become a non-instanced one. IMO, it wouldn't really fit in with the rest of Guild Wars, which is generally how I feel with all Guild Wars ideas toward non-instancing. ArenaNet made a major decision to have the game instanced, and I believe they have to stick with it.

The Huge Monster idea also sounded a bit interesting, and could work well as a kind of event in the game where players needed to form large parties (or maybe their Guilds/Alliances) to fight it, but I dont think it would work well to just occasionally spawn a lvl50 monster to trample all over everyone, particularly since this "New Ascalon" area would be intended as a kind of peaceful place.

Serling

I dont think it would work well to just occasionally spawn a lvl50 monster to trample all over everyone, particularly since this "New Ascalon" area would be intended as a kind of peaceful place.

Refering back to the idea that "mob AI would respond to attacks rather than initiating them" this monster wouldn't attack anyone unless and until he was attacked, then the response would be limited to those who attacked him.

Or how 'bout this: put huge monsters outside the rebuilt Northern Wall (the breach has been closed) and make the zone outside the wall home for all kinds of baddies (remember going outside the wall in Pre-Searing?) Instead of being limited to a 2-man team, though, make hunting and quests beyond the wall 2 to 12-player PvE raids, and let the difficulty of the instance reflect the number of people on the raiding team.

Just thinking out oud here, folks. Just tossing a few ideas against the wall to see what sticks.

The problem I have with leaving Ascalon in ruins is that it completely ignores all the efforts made by the heroic people of Ascalon to save their homeland, first from the Charr and then from the Undead Lich's Titans. If we win Last Day Dawns, the reward should be in seeing our homeland rebuilt. Leaving it in ruins (when neither the Shiverpeaks nor Kryta suffered this fate) is - well - disheartening.

And besides, there are still plenty of really dark, dreary places to visit on the Tyrian continent: Ring of Fire and Fissure of Woe and the Underworld - for people who like hanging out there. I don't think a victorious Ascalon should still look like either of those places.

Serling

No one else thinks a New Ascalon update would be cool? C'mon guys, let me know what you think!