Developable scenarios for a new expansion?

Grim Dawn Ideas and Feedback
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The following is a brief hyperthetical scenario that could be utilised in a new expansion.

My idea is called “The Industial Isle”.

It would be available after completing Malmouth and accessed by repairing the bridge leading to the west out of Devils Crossing. The map would be an insert like Forgottrn Gods and located at bottom left.
It would start at “Benwick Rail Terminus” in the southern part of Industrial Isle and follow the old railroad tracks leading north to the large industial town of “Isocandra”. (we know the devs like developing in a northery path, so this appoach fits).

Path summary - south to north following old train tracks …

Benwick Rail Terminus.
Scattered desolated mineral mines.
Scattered livestock ranches with now rabid animals.
The Oil Fields of Wretchedness.
Halfway House Station.
… need ideas …
Isocandra industial town.
… need ideas for super boss …

The Industrial Isle is a mineral rich island located far to the west of Devils Crossing situated in the middle of the Great Western Cairn Lake. It was accessed via a bridge across the waters to the railroad terminus in Benwick. It was the main supplier of produced and manufactured goods.
At the onset of the Aetherial invasion they quicky destroyed the bridge closing the only viable access to the isle. Whilst this effectively isolated themselves from the invading factions, it produced other serious consequences and problems.

Now that the Invasion has been subdued and the bridge repaired, the residents are keen to reestablish the rail links and recive much needed imports from eastern Cairn. There are some challenges to this as explained in some of the brief location notes.

“Benwick Rail Terminus”. Faction - “The Authority”
This is a sprawling area of storage containers for goods from Isocandra. From here they are transported over the bridge and along the trails into eastern Cairn. There is a camp here of residents who have managed to build a makeshift fortified position utilizing the storage containers. You are told here that rail tracks need to be repaired in the Oil Fields of Wretchedness. The problem is that this area is controlled by a ruthless bunch of “Distilled Oil” crazed outlaws lead by “Colt Ryder”.

“The Oil Fields of Wretchedness”
This is a vast bleak area of broken down oil derricks and pumps. The ground is soaked in patches of black goo from uncontrolled and untapped oils flows. Colt Ryder and his gang have taken residence in this area making it seemingly impossible to traverse north or south through it. They used to reside in the canyons and get their resources by raiding the trains or transport vehicles that travelled the trade routes. The faction “The Authority” have always had a bounty on the head of any member of the outlaws. After the bridge was destroyed, the supplies ceased. In desparation some madcap goon discovered a way to distill the black oil and extract some nutrients from it. Whilst this kept them alive, it had unseen side effects of disturbing genetic mutations and permanent madness as well as becoming a highly addictive substance.

“Halfway House Station”
This is a station stop for weary travelers on the long trip north or south. It boasted a luxury hotel as well as various gambling houses. A group of residents are housed here in a portion of the hotel and are keen to travel south to Benwick and beyond.

“Isocandra”, Faction - “The Industrialists”.
This is the industial hub located at the far north of the isle. It is littered with large production factories with assembly lines and was responsible for all the heavy transport and military equipment. It was also the seat of technology and for anyone seeking the latest greatest guns or armor, this was to place to visit.

Yes, I know it is sketchy at the best, but hopefully a discussion start point to help flesh out a viable expansion to complete the left side of the map.
Would be nice to hear ideas of what monsters could lurk here. Rabid Steers and Buffalos maybe? Could we possibly see members of the outlaws mounted on horses? There is obviously a lot of areas and quests on the trail that would need to be defined. Overgrown cotton fields as they would be unattended and no good for food? What is the major monster threat, besides the insane outlaws, as we have supposedly quelled the Chthonics and Aetherials?

I for one would definitely fork out money if Crate came out with another expansion to complete the game. Lets give them some food for thought on possible scenarios.

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Not sure what you mean by bridge heading west. We already repair that one. If you mean the one south, that’ll never happen Crate’s made that clear.

Setting is Victorian so oil fields are unlikely to fit the theme.

Game doesn’t really need an expansion to me. It’s already long if you want to play through 3 times. Better to have a sequel covering more of the main story than yet another side story/faction.

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I was referring to the bridge just west of Barnabas. Is that known as the south bridge? I mentioned oil as there are already various broken tanks and lorries scattered around the world. I would have imagined that such machinery would have required oil to make the mechanics work. A sequel covering more of the main story could also be a winner.

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Yes, that’s the south bridge. People keep asking about it since this area was supposed to be down there.

Camera angle is one of the reasons for not going that direction.

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Well then, if that’s the case you are being very confusing…

Why would it be accessed by repairing a bridge that you would have already repaired LONG ago. Well before you ever complete AoM content, that’s for sure.

Just to clarify, this is the “West” bridge:

This is the “South”:

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Yep, that south bridge is the one I meant. I thought that other bridge was north. Looks like I need to get a new mental compass. Using a portal instead of fixing a bridge is maybe a better idea, like Forgotten Gods.

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I don’t think that “Ideas” are the issue here. I’m sure Crate / Zantai but mostly medierra have enough lore and ideas in their head for possible additional Content and obviously also for an “Sequel”. The three reasons why we most likely won’t get another expansion is due they might be burnt out of working on GD and ARPGs in general for such a long time, shifting their attention to the town builder game and also it’s an matter of how successfull FG is.

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Figured ya had it mixed up :wink:

But ya, as noted already: at this point don’t put much hope down for a 3rd expac. All signs given so far indicate that there probably isn’t going to be a 3rd. Zantai was actually giving those signs well before FG release.

It’s always possible, I suppose, that they could be cooking another as a surprise behind the scenes (they did it to us after AoM, actually, by announcing work on FG 3-4 months or so after AoM release) but as it stands right now I’m going to say, unlikely.

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Of course it’s always possible the April Fool’s 2017 thread might become reality. :upside_down_face:

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I think that two expansions is enough, and Malmouth Steelcap District and Four Hills Mines already cover the concept of industrial zone and mine respectively. It sounds like a nice idea for a mod, though.

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Im all in for another expansion and support this 110% they will have my money guarenteed with loyalist packs alone so another expansion is my money in their pocket no question, though Id rather see it taking advantage of all that open water area in the middle of the map- perhaps a bunch of islands and raft-towns, with an “undersea” roguelike dungeon. And a Monk class, but yeah I GET IT, its unlikely- cant stop me from hoping and wishing and dreaming though.

Id prefer this to a sequel since my machine is old and i dont have the funds to get a new one and wont for some time, which is something a sequel would likely require unless it used the same engine with minimal upgrades to minimum recommended specs. Ill be playing Grim Dawn long after crate moves on to other things. It is a classic in my mind, on par with other classics in the genre like D2. Ive gotten equal pleasure and joy, if not more, from GD than I did from D2, which was a game that really set the standard for ARPGs for years, for me. GD is now the standard I measure other ARPGs against.

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To add to this, another expansion would just make the game feel bloated and it’s already teetering on the edge of that. Any major content addition and even just one playthrough would be way too long.

Things coming to an end in a game, or any other piece of media really, is a good thing.

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I dont agree with this. When a game is good you can always work with more material, so long as the foundation holds which its done. I eat through all the material in GD so voraciously it wouldnt feel bloated to me even if they made TWO more expansions.

That said, im definitely not thinking about Crate’s side of things- theyve definitely poured so much time and work into GD, and it shows (which is why its so awesome). Im an artist and i know after too much time spent on one project, i need to move to something else for a while. I get it, i do, but im just saying for ME, I disagree- the game doesnt feel bloated to me at all. It feels full, but not bloated. And it would still feel full and not bloated with another expansion or two… To me.

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Aetherials and Chthonians are being saved for a sequel, so no expansion that actually continues stuff established in the base game (AoM continues Aetherials, FG follows up on the Kymon’s Chosen questline). The only thing they can do is stuff that hasn’t been setup in the base game, stuff that has nothing you have been doing. And that’s honestly boring.

A common complaint people are starting to have is that even just one playthrough is starting to become too long, any more expansions and this would be just exarcebated. Plus there’s the fact the more expansions you do, the less they less because people start to lose interest in the game the more expansions are made. So from a financial standpoint there’s not much payoff.

And it has been brought up above, if people want more content just mod it.

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I am in two minds as to whether another expansion would make this game actually feel bloated?.

There is a huge mixed player base in this game out there. You have your classic RPG players who focus on the story,lore and character progression and thus enjoy long playthroughs with each new character. You have the power seekers who want to get early god-like status and will play in the endless dungeons like Crucible and Shattered Realm to max out a character. You will get some theory crafters who use calculators like GrimTools and GrimStash to envisage their build and instantly equip it to start testing and playing. Each play style is your own personal choice and is not constricted or limited by this game by any means. Grim Dawn currently has had two very successful expansions of AOM and FG. If you look at the game’s history, GD came from the Titan Quest engine. TQ has now had three expansions. ie. “Immortal Throne, Ragnarok and Atlantis” and a single playthrough of full TQ, trust me makes the current Grim Dawn world look like a walk in the park to complete. Yes, there has been positive and negative comments on the expansions in TQ, as we have also had with the GD expansions, but both are still here with us today, and both are extremely good RPG games. The fact that TQ still has a huge RPG fanbase after all these years and the size of the world is a plus and not a minus must count as something when we consider if expanding the GD world is a bad thing?

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TQ currently feels extremely bloated with all expansions and takes way longer to achieve the same Grim Dawn achieves with much less time. And you can’t even skip expansions to go to the next difficulty or skip to Legendary, you have to do everything in every difficulty.

I’m one that does everything in every playthrough in Grim Dawn and even i think what was done in TQ was far too much. The game is far too long. In a game that actively encourages multiple alts, having your game take too long to beat with just one character is a bad thing. It will exhaust the player.

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Financial and commercial point noted, but please let’s not let this gem degenerate into what Diablo 3 became as a 10 minute arcade game. There are still real RPG players out there that relish in the journeys.

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Never got exhausted in Diablo 2 or Balders Gate, but hey if that is the way the world is going - so be it - the times are a changing :open_mouth:

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A good point about modding though. I have never used one for fear of breaking my game, but very viable if they can persist thought patches etc.

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What exactly do you imagine you are going to break? It’s an extremely simple matter to back up any characters you roll (plus mod characters are separate from main campaign characters unless you force it).

Worried about breaking the actual game? That’s not even something to sweat. Nothing can be broken that a cache verification won’t fix - at the utmost extreme a reinstall will fix it as well. Neither of which are going to affect your actual saves (especially if you are manually backing them up).

It’s an unfounded fear that anyone who understands how it all works wouldn’t even waste time considering it as a thing that could actually happen. In fact, there is more fear and more chance of Crate doing something to actually break your game for you than there is that modders are going to do anything to irreversibly break it.

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