[Suggestion] Change instance boundaries from kick to kill

Hiya,

I would love for one simple (hehe, nothing is ever simple) change to all story instances to be made: once you cross the boundary into danger zone, never ever kick the player but instead just instakill kill them like some of the world map boundaries do. That way, if you accidentally jump out, get kicked outside or for whatever reason find yourself beyond the playable area you can just restart from checkpoint. Rest can be left as it is, don't need to tinker with the playable area, but please don't just kick the player.

It would still be possible to forcefully leave the instance by logging out.

That's a good idea. I have had several occasions where, for instance, I would dodge-roll out of damage or jump off my mount or teleported to a spot in down state, only to be instantly thrown out of the story mission. Doesn't happen very often, but the risk is undeniable.

While this may be a good idea, and I commend you for that, in the case of this new living world episode the only way my friends could get into the new map (because the instance would not end) was for me to leave and them to go into the red boundaries. I tele'd to them after that. So in some scenarios your idea works better, but in others the current setup works just fine. Anet added checkpoints in this new living world episode, which was a healthy change albeit to some of the older instances (I still shake my fist at the Eater of Souls) where you must do the whole story step again.

Plus we would have to consider the time it would take to implement those changes, and the bugs they would inevitably cause. When they could be working steadily on new content and implementing new ideas into future content, it's a real race against time here, and backtracking is good in theory but I don't think it's what players really want. Adding gliding and mounts to living world season 2 sounds good in theory, but honestly how likely are you to go back and do that content unless you're going for achievements, and what would adding gliding and mounts break in those instances.

You can just log out and back in to forcefully leave the instance.Edit here: if you are killed you can already chose to leave the instance.

Also changing the trigger to kill player from kick player seems a minor change to me. Yeah I know, it's a gigantic code base, I write code myself. ;) Still, this seems like the smallest possible change for a huge improvement to me.

Not a good idea , not a good idea at all. Just boot them back into the playable area with wind or better yet fear. I hate kill zones on map boundaries. They are annoying when you accidentally stumble into them. Yes there are places where you can accidentally hit them. I've always thought that the fear mechanic would be good for map and instance zone boundaries. It would just make your character turn tail and run back to the map with the fear symbol over their head. Like saying "Beware! Here be dragons!".

Well, fear is always a bit wonky. And a larger change to get right than just instagib the player. I can already imagine fearing the player into some crack in the wall where they get stuck. :p And why this is a bad idea is beyond me. It's certainly a huge improvement to the current system where you'll have to start over. Nothing else changes.

To be honest, I'd rather have invisible walls instead.

Of course that would be a better solution, but it would (most likely) require changing every single instance. Whereas changing the mechanic of the danger zone, hopefully, could be done with far less work and would "fix" all instances.

Anyway, that's my input on it. Was looking for the smallest possible change with the greatest effect. Anything but kicking the player.

or they could use the same thing maps already use which is to push you back inside

@Khisanth.2948 said:or they could use the same thing maps already use which is to push you back inside

Yeah, sounds good to me.

That or give a 10 second countdown before the kick. So the player has time to turn around and go back into the map.

@Pifil.5193 said:

@Khisanth.2948 said:or they could use the same thing maps already use which is to push you back inside

IDK about you, obviously, but I usually get a bunch of time between the warning I am about to be kicked and the actual kick, enough to reverse direction. (I guess maybe unless you are on a mount? Have not had that trouble myself, but I can see it changing the equation...)

@"SlippyCheeze.5483" said:

IDK about you, obviously, but I usually get a bunch of time between the warning I am about to be kicked and the actual kick, enough to reverse direction. (I guess maybe unless you are on a mount? Have not had that trouble myself, but I can see it changing the equation...)

If you fall off some cliff or dash out too far (I had that at the "race" story instance in Vabbi when I took a wrong turn) there is no chance of making it back in time.

@SlippyCheeze.5483 said:

@Pifil.5193 said:

@Khisanth.2948 said:or they could use the same thing maps already use which is to push you back inside

Being on a mount can make a huge difference, of course, as it depends on the distance you travel out of bounds.

If you Shadowstep out of bounds, for example, it can be an instant kick. Yesterday, I decided to use the teleporter in Blish's Arm to get on top of the tower and it was also an instant kick.

@Kiza.5630 said:Hiya,

I would love for one simple (hehe, nothing is ever simple) change to all story instances to be made: once you cross the boundary into danger zone, never ever kick the player but instead just instakill kill them like some of the world map boundaries do. That way, if you accidentally jump out, get kicked outside or for whatever reason find yourself beyond the playable area you can just restart from checkpoint. Rest can be left as it is, don't need to tinker with the playable area, but please don't just kick the player.

It would still be possible to forcefully leave the instance by logging out.

I would have argued against this, except that I teleported out of the map during the second to last story instance because the map was height capped below the tallest building. Thankfully I didn't lose much progress because they're tracking missions differently than they have in the past, but it was still annoying. Dying for it would have been less annoying

They just need to make it impassable and blocked off. Its not even necessary to kill player. Think about other games, do they use it? no its backwards thinking. What if every invisible boundary-terrain killed/forced a player to respawn, that would be horrible.

All they need to do is when you go threw the boundary points, it should have a 15 second timer on the screen until it kills you, BUT, it also at the same time have a pop up that asks if you'd like to leave the map or retun to the checkpoint (before you even die from prolonged boundry exposure).

Actually, no.Just make it like when you go in the ocean and it says "you're too far out, you will be pushed back if you continue".And also above the map, have a icon like in dungeon instances, were you can press it and leave the instance, although this one when pressed will have a small pop up appear and ask you to confirm this

@Pifil.5193 said:

@SlippyCheeze.5483 said:

@Pifil.5193 said:

@Khisanth.2948 said:or they could use the same thing maps already use which is to push you back inside

This is also made worse by the fact that the boundaries in PoF instances chance. You can be zipping along in what looks like a relatively large area only for it to shrink in the middle of a raptor jump and suddenly you are far outside the boundary.

I just ran into this problem in the new story. I was doing the stealth step and accidentally teleported myself outside the instance area. I must have gone pretty far because there was barely enough time for the 'warning' to pop up before I was killed.

Annoyingly for me it actually skipped me ahead so I missed the rest of the instance and ended up at the already established camp which a few seconds before I'd been clearing a space for. I'm sure some people would consider that good but I actually like playing through the story (part of the reason I'd left it so long was so have an evening without distractions when I could have the sound on and follow it properly). I tried quitting the story and going back in but it just put me back on the same step.

I know it sounds silly but it killed any desire I had to play tonight. I submitted a bug report about ending up on the wrong story step and quit...and of course came to the forum to complain, because that's part of the process too right?