Feedback:User/Konig Des Todes/Bonus Mission Pack: Villains of Tyria

There's both love and hatred for the Bonus Mission Pack. I find that it's a good way to explore unexplored lore of the past. An issue comes in that, like most of the game, it's pretty much limited to combat situations. Furthermore, it's limited to solo play (solution to that will be in a future suggestion for a 3rd BMP-esque release). But nonetheless, I would really love to see more BMP-esque missions. Whether this is in a paid-for product or a free release akin to Beyond is up to the devs (I suggest paid-for product so it can get more resources, and hopefully so too could Beyond).

I'm going to follow the format of the first BMP - four missions, one focused to a historical event of a particular game. However, as the name implies, I'll be focusing on the villains of GW. They are possibly the least fleshed out characters (or, for those that are fleshed out, are either ignored or the fleshing out is easily/almost completely ignored (a fleshed out character who's fleshing out is unknown is Shiro, simply because said fleshing out is not in game). This suggestion is mainly focused with fleshing out some of the most popular, interesting, and/or important villainous figures, in hopes of answering questions.

Mission 1: Villainous Misconceptions (Prophecies)
Who's the most mysterious villain of Prophecies? Who is deemed evil and we know not what his actions are? Why, none other than the man who got the first Hard Mode quest.

An example scenario I made up for Galrath's story: He joined the White Mantle when Saul returned - having been a famous Lionguard prior - and seeks to better Kryta. He joined the White Mantle not out of faith or for higher position (as the White Mantle had pretty much made others in Kryta poor according to the manual) but to return the wealth of the WM to the common people of Kryta. Because of his position of not making the WM better, he was originally kept low, but due to his great prowess in battle he gained ranks and eventually was rewarded with having a similar styled armor to Hablion - becoming the second only to have such armor.

In 1072 AE (time of Prophecies), Galrath began researching an old mage's journals (the mage being the Wizard's Tower's owner) and had learned of powerful spells that are hidden away in the Wizard's Tower, and a way to access the tower. Desiring to use the power to make Krytans equal - both WM and not - he hired bandits and paid off the Ventara cultists in order to gain access to it. Someone spots Galrath paying the bandits and informs Sergio.

(Enter mission - prior was build up akin to what's found in the books for the first BMP)

The mission is of Galrath and his selected Bandits (perhaps one group's worth from the HM quest since those have better builds than the warriors - maybe an alteration to those builds though) heading towards Wizard's Tower. He had paid off the Verata cultists to allow him temporary access to the cliff and gain access to the tower.

There's unexplored path to the west of Kessex Peak, leading to where the Hill Giants are within the explorable area. Creating a new version of Kessex Peak, allow access to the cliff area via a new path from the west. This allows more artistic liberties, but requires more assets to be used for the BMP (an alternative would be to take the current Kessex Peak and modifying it to have wrecked wagons blocking some ways to make a semi-maze, akin to the area before the Facet of Chaos in the Dragon's Lair).

As entering the area of the cliff leading to the tower, Galrath finds, as expected, that the cult is not there. However, once at the base of the cliff, the cult begins swaming from behind and the path to the beach. These would be endless waves forcing the player (/Galrath) to run to the top of the cliff. Once at the top of the tower, a cinematic plays. It first shows Galrath holding a book (the journal) and trying to chant a spell to grant access to the tower as he looks up to it, then as narration begins talking about adventurers having come to stop him, Galrath turns aroundas the screen goes black (and the adventurers are never shown).

Mission 2: Ascending Insanity (Factions)
This mission would be of our fabled assassin, Shiro Tagachi. SPOILER ALERT FOR FACTIONS Everybody knows how the Fortune Teller ended up corrupting Shiro, making him partially insane (at least), and turning him on his emperor that he swore to protect. But what's the story not shown in game? In the above link (yes, I did just link it again), it talks about how Shiro was the core foundation of forming a temporary truce between the Luxons and Kurzicks because he spoke a language they both knew. He was a descendant of Kaineng Tah, and so forth. It goes into a lot of detail on the day he killed the emperor. We see what really happened that day both in a cinematic (which shares an echoing voice Shiro hears), the Factions trailer, and the lore in the said link (the last being from Vizu's perception).

But what about seeing things from Shiro's point of view? We know he's going insane, so do we really think that all that was happening to him was a voice? How is that corruptive? A mere little devil on one's shoulder isn't enough to drive a loyal - albeit brutal - man over the edge enough to kill what could be compared to an idol to the person. Narcissism does have limits.

So how would we make a mission of Shiro - a mission of him during the Harvest Ceremony no less - interesting? Simple. We show how he viewed things.

The path of the mission is the circling stares. The map is already made as well so that's less work to be done (well, touch-ups may be needed).

Notice in the cinematic Shiro constantly clutches his head?

My idea is this: We start where the cinematic starts - at the docks on the island, and we follow the Emperor to the gate. As Shiro/the player is climbing up the stairs, he stops to clutch his head (unable to be stopped). When this happens, Ms. Fortune Teller's voice sounds in the background. And then pop ups appear. Groups of assassins pop up and attack Shiro, of course we must kill them. Once dead, the emperor has a text-box triggered telling Shiro to hurry up since he's falling behind. We go further on, once more Shiro clutches his head and the fortune teller's voice begins anew. More pop ups - deadlier ones this time, and including Canthan guards. This time we get a level 1 drunkness effect added to the screen. We continue again, and the same thing happens - another level of drunkness effect, the voices resound again, more pop ups - this time we also get a text pop up of the emperor ordering the guards and assassins to make sure he (Shiro) is killed (I'm thinking something like "I'm bringing him with me, he's too much of a threat, the execution will go as planned."). Each time this repeats, the drunkness effect raises, more of the fortune teller (and eventually the guard/emperor's voice that goes through the cinematic) lines resound, and more frequently, and eventually the guards are no longer guards but demons. As Shiro reaches the top, he clutches his head once more - this time entering a cinematic - the area changes into a Realm of Torment-esque land. A twisted version of the Harvest Temple. The Emperor's ritualist auntorache transforms into demonic creatures, and the emperor taunts him (for lulz mainly), and Shiro charges (player controlled of course).

Upon the death of the Emperor, a cinematic would begin showing Viktor, Vizu, Archemorus and several Canthan Guards, Kurzicks, and Luxons rushing up the stairs to the now fallen Emperor and Shiro.

I'm unsure if it should stop there, or allow the players to have an all-out battle against them all, ending with a slaying of Shiro cinematic.

For skills, we start out with these four: And we build off of them. Perhaps altering numbers if needed.

For Emperor Angsiyan skills, we can start with giving him, since it's a skill envoking the royal bloodline. This skill could even be given to Shiro technically, but would be needing icon tweaking.

The lines from the cinematic that plays in the background:


 * Fortune Teller: "Beware the Harvest Ceremony."
 * Fortune Teller: "Beware the Harvest Ceremony."
 * Fortune Teller: "The emperor...he is going to kill you..."
 * Emperor Angsiyan: "There has been a change of plans."
 * Temple Guard: "No one except you is allowed inside the temple."
 * Emperor Angsiyan: "There has been a change of plans."
 * Temple Guard: "No one except you is allowed inside the temple."
 * Emperor Angsiyan: "There has been a change of plans."
 * Fortune Teller: "The emperor...he is going to kill you..."
 * Fortune Teller: "Beware the Harvest Ceremony."
 * Fortune Teller: "You must make the choice...him or you."

The purpose of this isn't to just allow us to play as Shiro as he goes mad, but to have us experience his growing insanity. It gives a nice non-serious lore view of how Shiro seen things (since, as said, we know what "really" happened).

Mission 3: Birth of Death (Nightfall)
There's not much I can really suggest on this, since the villain of suggestion has next to nothing on his past besides something already explored.

The idea would be to tell more of his origins. As said, since too little is shown, it's hard to suggest what to do. But I would highly suggest including a portion (or the whole thing based on?) the little spite between Joko and Thorn.

Mission 4: Insidious Survival (Eye of the North)
This mission would be us playing as good ol' Lazarus the Dire and how he began to return after the titan invasion. We know he split himself into aspects and infused members of the White Mantle with these aspects, but how did he first begin to reform? This is his tale.

(yeah, I got nothing on actual mission ideas, but we should definably include Justiciar Naveed fleeing in terror at some point).

Mission 5: Rising the Ranks (Beyond)
How did Isaiah and Toriimo come to power? Why was Bauer, Lovisa, and Lashona chosen as inquisitors? What happened to the older inquisitor? Was it through fair play or dirty tricks?

This mission would show how they gained their ranks, as they played with minds, tricked their comrades and killed their enemies to gain the ranks. (again, no explicit mission idea comes to mind, just a scenario - I'll update later if I get something more specific).