Path of Fire is becoming a ghost town.

Nothing real meaningful or desirable that players want to work towards. No real long-term goals in the expansion. Not good enough rewards (though some were buffed today so maybe it's better in that regard for a few event chains). I wonder what could have been put in the expansion for players to work towards that would keep them around on Path of Fire maps awhile... maybe something to do with a huge addition to the game in Mounts. New mounts? No that would be too time consuming and we already have enough that's more than fair for the expansion. I know! How about some mount skins? Yeah that would be a decent reward for content, something we could work towards...

What's that? Oh you're just going to dump 30 of them into an RNG lootcrate? Oh okay... guess that works too. Can't even put a few of them in the game? No? Alright... nevermind.

I still see a lot people around there.

Excelsior.

I don't unless I join a bounty train or do the casino event but out in the world I'm usually soloing events or if I'm lucky I see a random passerby join in. Our experiences differ it seems.

Well, per the megaserver system, most instances of the maps should always be at about the same level of fullness. It just feels less full because everyone isn't concentrated around key spots anymore. We've all got our hero points and other big ticket stuff out of the way, so people are more spread out, all doing their own thing. That's just how maps are after a little while, when there isn't a meta to occasionally smoosh us all together into one spot.

No lack of people. I was actually worried about this as I'm probably one of the last people to have gotten the griffon mount quest unlocked and play at odd hours and I was still able to find people to help with the big kills necessary for that to get the bird-buddy. There seem to be way more people willing to just pass by others that might be downed though, but that's an individual player behavior thing and not a population thing. Are the maps teeming with people like at launch? Nah. But there is still fun to be had. For me it will be re-exploration and trying to fins conversations and areas of the map I kind of rushed through for the story while I unlock all the griff masteries.

@Vyrulisse.1246 said:Nothing real meaningful or desirable that players want to work towards. No real long-term goals in the expansion. Not good enough rewards (though some were buffed today so maybe it's better in that regard for a few event chains). I wonder what could have been put in the expansion for players to work towards that would keep them around on Path of Fire maps awhile... maybe something to do with a huge addition to the game in Mounts. New mounts? No that would be too time consuming and we already have enough that's more than fair for the expansion. I know! How about some mount skins? Yeah that would be a decent reward for content, something we could work towards...

What's that? Oh you're just going to dump 30 of them into an RNG lootcrate? Oh okay... guess that works too. Can't even put a few of them in the game? No? Alright... nevermind.

Mount skins would have been nice.. oh yeah... they tossed those on the gemstore... longevity does not seem to be the goal.. .. quick buck does.....

Keep in mind these maps are bigger than previous maps, everything is more spread out, therefore the player base will be more spread out...**I've only had one instance of getting the notice that a map is closing because of diminishing population**....that should tell you everything you need to know.

I always use lfg in the new zones and never have a problem.

Although I am at rather low population time, Elona always have plenty of people. Yesterday, I was in Domain of Vabbi and there were several groups around, with several tags. I would not call that a "Ghost Town".

I agree with some of the posters above me. I see people in each map all the time, either doing bounties, dailies or just goofing about. There were also quite a few people today testing out the new meta rewards for Serpent's Ire.

whenever I do a HP on an alt, or run into an event. if I stay long enough people will show up who willactually start participating, I see a lot of people just run past that don't participate, that might increase the feelling of an empty world, since you don't notice how many people just skip an event whilst you are fighting

It's 4 in the morning and I'm seeing quite a bit of people in Vabbi, Desolation, Highlands.I haven't been in Riverlands or Oasis, but I would assume quite a bit at least in Oasis as it IS the beginning area.

Heck, I've been playing through Season 2/HoT/Season 3 on an alt and there were surprisingly a lot of people in Bloodstone Fen, Ember Bay, and Bitterfrost Frontier. I also play at odd hours, even though I'm in the US (NA megaserver). It's likely because, as already explained, the maps are more flat and stretched out.

Heart of Thorns has meta evens and people get together spontaneously. But each event of Path of Fire is separated. Unless you're in major group, isolated people could feel 'ghost town'We need some meta, world boss and repeatable content in Crystal Desert to modify this.

Here we go again about needing more meta events lol. PoF was specifically developed to move AWAY from the full-map timed meta events, and I for one am glad that that changed.

Those are awakened not ghosts.

@hchadw.1097 said:

@Vyrulisse.1246 said:Nothing real meaningful or desirable that players want to work towards. No real long-term goals in the expansion. Not good enough rewards (though some were buffed today so maybe it's better in that regard for a few event chains). I wonder what could have been put in the expansion for players to work towards that would keep them around on Path of Fire maps awhile... maybe something to do with a huge addition to the game in Mounts. New mounts? No that would be too time consuming and we already have enough that's more than fair for the expansion. I know! How about some mount skins? Yeah that would be a decent reward for content, something we could work towards...

What's that? Oh you're just going to dump 30 of them into an RNG lootcrate? Oh okay... guess that works too. Can't even put a few of them in the game? No? Alright... nevermind.

Do you not realize how expensive it is to run a company? According to the gw2 wiki, anet has around 400 employees. Let's say the average salary is 60k (that's low balling really hard by the way). That means they would have to make 24 million USD just to pay yearly salaries. According to their outlook for q4 of this year, they are projected to make around 28 million USD. They NEED gem sales to survive.

And why would they be looking to make "a quick buck"? This is their livelihood, not some get rich quick scheme. You're complaining about cosmetic items for God's sake. Could there be a little more cosmetic items in game rather than the gem store? Sure, there could, but ultimately its just not that big of a deal so think before you spew nonsense out your mouth.

Not enough replay value, mastery exp grind isn't a grind cause you level up and sometimes cap it before getting mastery points to unlock themNo idea who was complaining about it, but it did not feel very grindy in Hot to me at-least and kept you playing

Many of the class specialization,collections, legendary weapons and other collection depended on large scale meta events to be completed back in Hot.Adventures were far more unique and interesting than Pofs races .....ZZZZZZZ

Most ppl already had enough hero points to unlock their class spec thanx to wvw and hotYou don't see many ppl in chat asking for help to do a particular hero point due to that

• Exploration : Mount related with a little time gate/sink ( you will return to the previous area once you have unlocked a specific mount or mastery ). A perfect balance to me.

• Story : Sufficient. Achievements unfortunately a total faceroll.

• Bounties : Fun though the rewards are not that good. I like that there's only 1 key and 1 currency ( though there are also Elegy Mosaics and some minor as order of shadows and casino coins, and something else ). But i don't do content for rewards atm, cause TP is way better.

• Mastery progression : Easy as it should be. I Would make it even faster.

• Specialization : Unlocked with HoT hero points, so you can play PoF with your new elite spec since the beginning. Perfect.

The maps could be empty cause there are better places to farm, but slow down for a little while and think about it.

We do have over 50 maps in the whole game.Is that strange that there are maps which give the best reward?

That's it.

I do understand that players would like a new meta maps in order to "change" because of 2 years of HoT, but i am sure that something will come with LS4.

The reward update for Ire made it worth doing. Junundu rising not quite (although I suspect it might be worth doing if you are in the area anyway now). Which bring back the point that players will aggregate to areas where they can get rewards. Ire will likely keep Vabbi alive. The rest of the maps will just have bounty and HP trains with occasional alt and collection hunter moving through.

I happen to have multiple accounts of Pof. One is on Gunnars Hold (EU), always has a filled pool of players. One is on Aurora Glade (EU), and tends to have an emptier pool. Dont know how the system works exactly, but it doesnt look like every server is tied to every other server in a pool.

I suspect a big part of the problem is that Halloween drew a lot of people away. I know I've barely been back to Elona since Halloween started and several other people I spoke to when it ended were joking that it'd be nice to see something other than the Labyrinth so I doubt I'm the only one to prioritise temporary content over permanent stuff.

@PookieDaWombat.6209 said:No lack of people. I was actually worried about this as I'm probably one of the last people to have gotten the griffon mount quest unlocked and play at odd hours and I was still able to find people to help with the big kills necessary for that to get the bird-buddy. There seem to be way more people willing to just pass by others that might be downed though, but that's an individual player behavior thing and not a population thing. Are the maps teeming with people like at launch? Nah. But there is still fun to be had. For me it will be re-exploration and trying to fins conversations and areas of the map I kind of rushed through for the story while I unlock all the griff masteries.

Don't worry, you're not remotely one of the last to unlock the griffon. I haven't even finished the story yet because I've been focusing on Halloween since it came out and played slowly with several weekends away/too busy before that. I know quite a few other people in my guilds who haven't gotten it yet and judging by the people complaining that they unlocked a new skin and can't use it because they don't have the original unlocked we're not that unusual.

Looks like I better finish the story and the achievements before the maps become empty

I don't actually mind this. That means theres maps for people to go if they want some peaceful gameplay, and the world bosses and raid wings will have enough support when they're up.

If I wanna hang out with people I can easily go to lions arch lmao

It's because the maps don't offer any real rewards. They are also boring desserts full of too many aggro mobs and no interactive or immersive components. You aren't building up fortified Settlements in your image full of NPCs working for you with scrap you have to salvage by going on salvaging adventures. All you are doing is running around killing respawns for no reason. Yawn.