Prophecy as a Core Game Mechanic

Prophecy started in early June 2016 and introduced the new NPC Navali, as well as the Silver Coins she would accept in exchange for quests. These quests introduced new goals and rewards in the world of Wraeclast. Prophecy was released without an accompanying expansion and was the main feature of the 2.3.0 release. Prophecy contained a lot of content, as well as having a fully-voiced NPC with nearly six thousand words of voice acting.

Prophecy worked well as a league, with high player engagement. Players enjoyed having new things to do during the levelling process, as well as some of the new rewards, such as the very popular fated uniques.

When players reached maps, we found the Prophecy content wasn't pitched as well as we would have liked. Players did not like backtracking, and felt compelled to do prophecies in areas they did not want to revisit. We made adjustments as the league went on which improved it for endgame play.

Players were very quick to ask about keeping Prophecy in the main game. The fated uniques were particularly desired items. We were asked if these could be gained in alternative ways in the event that Prophecy as a whole did not carry over.

Several factors - the access to specific uniques and the fated uniques, the levelling benefits, the varied gameplay early, late and for second (and third, etc) character, and the amount of content and effort devoted to making the expansion - all led to the decision to roll Prophecy into the core game.

There are many things we will change when adding Navali and her prophecies into the core game:
You won't see Navali immediately when you get to the first town. Since Navali adds an extra layer of tasks for players to complete, we did not want her competing with (and potentially disrupting) the integral early portions of the questing experience. As well, we need to maintain space for other future leagues to make their marks early. Many of Navali's prophecies are early however, so you will meet Navali in Act 1 of Normal difficulty. There will be a quest to have her go to town.
Silver coins will be rarer. While we are excited to keep the content, it does not need to be as prominent. So it doesn't overshadow the main game, but is still a part of it, the silver coin drop rate will be substantially lower than during the league.
Navali will be able to join your hideout. This was not a problem we were able to solve for the league, but as a core part of the game, players will want access to Navali in a way that suits their normal style of play.
We need to assess the power of the rewards. For example, for Reach of the Council we knew went out with risky balance values. We pushed it a little as we wanted it to be used, but knew if it went out too high it would only be temporary. As part of the core game, this unique heavily distorts bow use. We know we will be changing this item, and we'll need to assess all the Prophecy content for going into the live game.

We are also excited for Prophecy being in the core game for another reason. We want to make more content for it. When you add a new game element, it isn't always clear how much stuff you will get to make for it. We call this design space. Some games elements feel like they should offer a lot, but are limited in what you can make for it, others are deep wells of content. Prophecy had far more designed for it than we could have made in the time we had to make it. It is a deep well of interesting stories, fights and rewards.