World Wynncraft Needs A Stronger Emotional Core

I love Wynncraft; the magic system is fun to use, the world is fun to explore and the story is interesting. However in many different quests I found myself bored. Not because the combat was stale or the puzzles where boring but instead because I struggled to find an emotional connection. I remember a quest where I was supposed to attack this orc fortress to help in the orc- human conflict occurring in Gavel. However while I was completing this it felt more tedious then actual fun. I was told to do something and then I did it but I wasn't emotionally connected to what I was doing. I wasn't invested in the story that was being told.

As a story teller myself I have encountered these same challenges, how do you get someone invested in the story your trying to tell. Throughout my experience in film making and being a Dungeon Master I learned it's character. What makes protagonists such as spider-man so interesting is because we relate to them, we connect with there likable personalities so when they struggle and succeed it matters to the viewer because we have a connection with this character.

As a Dungeon Master I learned one important lesson throughout the campaigns I've run, no matter how interesting your world building and story is the players will care about there character more. While this rule applies to DnD more so then it does to Video games it's something that should still be considered while building up this world. I think a good example of this is the quest " The tower of Amnesia "

This particular quest was an example of wynncraft at its worst when it was first introduced. You run around the world for a few hours getting TP Scrolls from a variety of different towns and visit the tower to get the ability to reset your skill points. There was no story just a dumb fetch quest to unlock a game mechanic. However this would soon change. With the 1.19 update "Recover the Past " replaced this boring quest. This quest focused on the player backstory and there history, tying it into the mysterious province of Fruma. What was once arguably the worst quest become one of the best because the Wynn Team tied it into the player character, this was a quest that I had a blast playing because I actually cared about what was happening.

However not every quest can tie into the characters backstory, theirs only so much you can reveal about the Player and there 100's of quest in the game. So how do you make the character care about whats happening when it isn't tied into there back story. I think it's important to look at video games that also has a protagonist that the player is supposed to put themselves into. The original Halo Trilogy.

When looking at these games we see that they aren't about the Master Chiefs backstory but instead about the larger events encircling the galaxy, so why is there story so investing. I think it comes down to the NPC's in this game, Captain Keyes, Miranda Keyes, Sargent Johnson and most important of all Cortana. These charchter are all so likable that we care about what happens to them and what they are fighting for. Wynncraft can learn from this, Wynncraft needs better npc's.

Right now the npc's in wynncraft feel less like characters and more like signs that give you exposition and tell you where to go. To really make people care about these characters they need to actually be characters and there are two things that will help with this npc issue.

1. Characters should be recurring and shouldn't just appear and disappear in one quest ( there are so many high ranking guards that give you quests why can't they just be a couple of recurring characters)

2. Each character should have a unique personality that makes them stand out from the other npc's

Here's an example of what this can do, this follows ancient Nemract and the quests leading up to underworld crypt.

After defeating the potion maker in the quest " potion making" you see a ghostly figure walk towards a crack in the basement of Essren's hut. When the player approaches this crack they can hear the sounds of a young girl crying off in the distance, the crack then closes. The next appearance of this aberration is in the quest "Grave Digger" when after defeating saleryo's brother she appears chained to the wall of the crypt, crying. After the player free's her she vanishes ( if possible she would smile here but I don't know if it would fit within wynncraft's boundary's) A new quest which would be about a strange new spirit wandering the outskirts of nemract would be added and would end with your first conversation with this spirit you had freed, as you watch the sunset over ancient nemract.

???: Come, sit with me.
???: It used to be more beautiful, There used to be so much more life
???: Thanks for freeing me from that crypt, I never even asked your name
Sylvia: Well <Player name > I'm Sylvia.

Sylvia would appear in the quests "pit of the dead" ,"dwelling walls" and " Lost tower" ( I would've liked to include the mercenary and misadventure at sea but due to underworld crypt being a level 27 dungeon and these being level 28 quests it wouldn't make sense chronologically for Sylvia's story line) In these quests she would help you accomplish some tasks and provide dialogue throughout. for example when you hop in the water to calm the vengeful spirits in pit of the dead you'll see her standing close as she says

Sylvia: So you finally took a bath and now they don't want to kill you
Sylvia: You must've smelled pretty bad

The last quest Sylvia will appear in is the quest " The dark Descent " ( This is now a level 26 quest with a prerequisite of beating all previous quests that have Sylvia as a character)

Sylvia will be outside of an old house in nemract, crying.

Sylvia: This is where it happened this is where He took them.

The quest would play out the same way as originally except when Charon kills the lost soul its not just a random nemract citizen, its Sylvia. When you appear in front of the entrance of underworld crypt the scene is also different.

Sylvia: <players name > will you help me avenge my family?

( the skull opens)

General Enduyn who has recently been promoted then rides up with a small handfull of soldiers ( who replaces general Graken as mentioned above there should be less generic army people and instead a small few that build up a relationship with the player over time)

General Enduyn: You didn't plan on taking Charon on alone did you?

The general and his troops walk inside.

The quest ends here, When you start the dungeon it would play out the same in the first section except with some aditional dialougue

Sylvia: Run!

Then in the next room with the mini bosses it wouldn't be just genrals in charon's army but instead sylvias family, her brother, her mom, her dad. There would obviously be some small dialogue in each of these sections too. The rest would play out the same until right before the final boss . in which there will actually be a fourth mini boss, Sylvia's rotting body.

Sylvia: it can't be...

Sylvia: it's me.

After killing Sylvia's controlled body she's able to enter into it and for the final fight she can be summoned in place of General Graken.

Once Charon is defeated a final cut scene plays

Sylvia stabs Charon in the back

Sylvia: This is for everything you took from me

Sylvia removes her sword, her spirit then leaves her body as she falls limp on the ground her spirit then appears in front of you one last time

Sylvia: Thank you

The player appears in front of the dungeon.

Sylvia: For Everything


This is how you add an emotional core to your story, this is how to make Wynncraft a truly great game.

 

Kind of agree

Agree

Doesn't look that bad

Really? Misadventure on Sea? The Mercenary? Wouldn't be she reocurring too much and in too much unrelated quests? It would propably ruin them.

That is just too much. Really? Charon uses her family (who propably weren't warriors) instead of his generals?

I agree that some characters should be reocurring (Aledar, the Cook, Yahya, Orikal (mentioned) or Drale are good examples), but your example is just too much. I don't want to see one character appearing in 5 or more quests (as you showed), especially when they are completely unrelated (Misadventure on the Sea? Seriously?). I would like to see for example Maxie in new Corkus quests, Korzim in quest in which you help him to rebuild their city or Aledar/Tasim in Enter the Dojo.

I want to see they aged, moved further, that they are more skilled than we met last time.
Not some random character I meet in every second quest.


You also forgot on Beyond the Grave, which would be awesome meet with her after Grave Digger (and LAST ONE)

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Add a poll

 

While it’s clear some do not agree, I would personally LOVE to see characters like this. Sylvia ingame when please?

Also regarding what @TrapinchO said regarding Charon using Sylvia’s family instead of his generals... I think this is actually more something that would be up his alley. Charon seems to enjoy fighting with psychological warfare and generally just fucking with peoples heads. This would be a perfect way to do that, both to the player and to torment Sylvia even in the afterlife.

I really would love to see more characters written like this, rather than the mass of personality lacking, direction giving lumps of “flesh” we see in most (not all) of Wynns NPCs. While better characters won’t fix the objective flaws within Wynncraft’s quests and overall narrative, it would make players feel much more invested in individual quests, dungeons, and the world as a whole.

 

Wynncraft has been trying to get better at this such as having Maxie as a reoccuring character in the 2 main Corkus quests and the whole Dwarve and Doguns storyline.

The main problem also stems from Wynncraft's episodic nature and the lack of overall planning with the lore. While Grain did mention he had the storyline written out, he sure didn't implement it into the game yet. There are just so many lose plot threads and stories that go nowhere such as most Gavel quests. Is it bad to have episodic stories? No; Misadventure on the Sea is one of my favorite quests and it's episodic. Is it bad when that story is supposed to part of the main one or important *cough* Realm of Light *cough*. Yes.

And Gavel just makes the game worse story-wise imo (except the Dwarves & Doguns storyline because that's too separate). In Wynn, you have a clear objective to be there and a role: you're a solider that's tasked to fight the corruption. Then that starts to fall to the wayside when you arrive in Gavel. And you arrive in Gavel because... ? You wanted to help find a pirate treasure that never gets brought up again? Then you just mess around in Gavel doing random things until you learn about the Realm of Light and the Decay. And you don't even change anything in the end anyway and the Realm of Light or the Decay never gets brought up again. Which was supposed to be the main conflict of the game! Don't even get me started on the Nether; you know, the source of the corruption? Or I guess not because it's Dern that matters?

Overall, there's just a lack of direction in the main storyline of the game.

 

Yeah, wynncraft should connect with the player

 

100% agree with your point. The few reoccurring characters, I'm finding it hard to name a single unique personality trait for them all. The addition of Sylvia and other characters like her would be great for making the player care. WynnCraft would be so, so much better if the player actually was emotionally invested in the Corruption conflict and the easiest way to do that is to get them attached to reoccurring characters with motivations of their own, agency (I have no idea how different scripting a game is from other forms of writing, so I'm not sure how, even if, a supporting cast that's not the player could be given agency in a game), and character growth. +1, please add a poll.

(Spoiler warning for A Journey Beyond because I don't think there are spoiler tags on the forums)
In AJB, the player meets Aledar again, the very same Aledar who first accompanied the player to the world of Wynn. I think it'd be cool if Aledar had popped into the occasional quest throughout all of the quests and had his own character arc. As an example, maybe after King's Recruit, we see him again at Maltic's Well, and Aledar's skill level and moves unlocked could be shown to grow alongside the player's which would be a lot more immersive.

 

I agree.

Honestly, right now I feel like most quests are just glorified xp pools.

 

The gavel quests make you seem more like a mercenary than a soldier in an army, going up to random people and helping them if they pay well. While this makes sense and works, it doesn't really make the player connect to any of the npcs. The early gavel quests were the worst about this. Especially the orc related ones.

I like the idea of sylvia, although I feel your idea would be too much. She should appear in certain quests as an actual character (albeit a minor one, probably only saying a few lines or guiding you in a section). On the other ones, she could appear as an easter egg type thing, more of a small detail, like finding her grave in one of the quests.

 

Welcome to the most outdated area of the game: Pre-Cinfras Gavel

 

I agree.
Most of the time, quests are basically fetch this, this, and this or talk to NPC X, and NPCs are just glorified signs that you click on to grind a bit and get some emeralds and XP as a reward. The Sylvia thing is a bit overdone, but we need something similar, like adding Aledar or Tasim to a few quests.

 

I totally agree!

It would be so amazing like you say, thought it would probably be quite hard to archive it because most story writers are just volunteers. They might need to hire someone to do the story writing if this is the goal.

 

There isn't supposed to be a connected story to The Dark Descent, but this kind of thing could easily be included in a questline. I mean, later in the game there are some questlines with characters that you can get emotionally attatched to. They don't last long though and their narratives are mediocre. We could probably get this thing after Fruma releases and we finally get a main storyline.

Spoiler: Spoilers: Important characters who die in later quests

Axelus
Aledar
Lucio
Elphaba
Graken (in corrupted underworld crypt)
The entire crew of the void submarine

Also it's supposed to be General Graken who finally kills charon.

Spoiler: spoilers again

But in Corrupted underworld crypt we learn that Charon immediately ressurected himself when you left and killed them all. This is is the corrupted dimension though, so it's probably not as true as it is made out to be.

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yes

Spoiler: yes there is

its in the little menu with the smiley face. it's next to the video button.

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Sylvia: Oh hi! the content team just wanted to put me in a few more quests so just ignore me. I have no actual reason for being here.

 

That explains it. Thanks

 

I think you've really hit the nail on the head with the idea that there are just way too many directions. There's 3 forms of corruption (Dern, the nether, the decay) all of which come from somewhere? and all of which do the same thing. I think the main issue is that all the quests are written independently and everyone wants their quest to have their own brand of evil which leads to too much of the same thing.

At this point I think the only solution is a complete lore rewrite, especially since all the gameplay is there, it's just the writing which needs a fix. I've said this before, but stuff like the nether and it's connection to the roots of corruption and the decay are pointless now, especially since Dern is clearly the dominant form of corruption and nether PVP isn't a thing anymore (Rip). All that stuff can so easily be connected to Dern and would honestly be better since it exposes the player to the final threat of the game early and gives them a chance to get stronger and face the dernic stuff in a higher quantity before it all boils over for the final fight in the realm of Dern. As of now you face corruption until like level 30, then you face the decay for all of 30 min, then you just piss around Gavel for a bit before coming back to Wynn for the SE, EO and eventually Dern which just shows up out of nowhere. It's clear that the main story if it ever happens is going to be about getting strong enough to free the world from the forces of Dern so why bother with all the other corruption garbage in the first place when it's all third rate stupidity anyways?

Also I just realized SE guy is also the tutorial guy when I redid the tutorial for the first time since 1.17 and it made me happy :) More stuff like that please

 

As much as the main lore needs to be rewritten, I don’t think it would be the best thing for Wynncraft to do at this moment. It’s just a huge task that even I’m not sure how the best way would be to go about it. Part of it is that some parts like the early game in Wynn are pretty polished, while the upper levels aren’t except for the Silent Expanse and Molten Heights. So if you rewrite the lore, you have to be careful with conflicting with the recent polished sections because I’m sure the CT will be less than thrilled to not only to add/revamp huge sections of lore but also to redo stuff they just did. Especially since the Silent Expanse references the Light, so you can’t just get rid of the concept or completely change it without changing the SE.

The Nether has the opposite problem; it’s central in the early game but completely ignored by level 50. I would have liked to just replace the Nether with Dern, but that might be too much of a change.

I would much rather see Novalescent’s suggestions be implemented first. Not just because he actually made working proof-of-concepts, but most importantly, all of them significantly enhance the replay ability of the game and player interaction. While a story can be good, it’s one and done for most people. Which gives the staff a lot less time to fix other parts of the game.

Though eventually, Wynncraft will need to revamp its main lore because that’s pretty much the only way it can have a consistent main storyline at this point.

 

I completly agree, but I think we're both missing the third option, which is the most likely;

They're not going to bother doing anything about it and will just add more shallow stuff like new and wildly inefficient ways to get mythics (looking at you 1.20 :/ )

 

Well hey, while they said they're not going to focus one update on Gavel, they did say they are going to revamp bits at a time. The LAD is in Gavel and a town is getting reworked in Gavel so they definitely have something planned for Gavel this update.

 

I have a great respect for your optimism.