Maybe tone down the PoF maps a bit?

After spending a good amount of time in all the new LWS4 maps...they're pretty darn fun. And then when I go back to many areas in the PoF maps...not so much. And it is further magnified by the fact that they are pretty empty—perhaps because others agree. Maybe tone down some of the mobs?

Mobs do very lilt with maps being deserted. HoT mobs are still tougher.(after being nerfed) Thing is the loot is bad in PoF, simple. Plenty of things to do but not worth it

Only POF map that I hate is the Desolation, forge are annoying and once you fall off a ledge into sulfur your pretty much dead.

I'm not sure toning down the mobs would make PoF any more appealing. If anything, I'm pretty sure it'd just allow people to leave sooner.

Ehhm what? mobs are already easy to kill.

There's tons of stuff to do on the maps, but none of it is worth the time it takes. It's all so spread out and not rewarding.

Even on the new map you have to take spaghetti paths that wind through terrain just to get to next event.

@Klipso.8653 said:There's tons of stuff to do on the maps, but none of it is worth the time it takes. It's all so spread out and not rewarding.

Even on the new map you have to take spaghetti paths that wind through terrain just to get to next event.

Takes like 30 seconds to go from one end to the other..

I love the maps, would not want mobs weakened or tuned down, and find the rewards a bit light.

@"Westenev.5289" said:I'm not sure toning down the mobs would make PoF any more appealing. If anything, I'm pretty sure it'd just allow people to leave sooner.

Absurd enemy density, aggro range, leash range and respawn rate in PoF maps making all of it very unfun is the only reason I do not spend time in those maps. I do not care very much about "rewards" and really just enjoy adventuring in maps and being able to stop for a few seconds to admire a view - this isn't possible and it is either a frustrating slog or a race to get around before getting stuck in a mob respawn loop.

So for this player (and many, many others as evidenced by the comments in the official PoF feedback thread), reducing the density of enemies packed into every inch of the maps and shortening the aggro range/leash range of those that remain would get me to go back to PoF maps and love spending time in them.

I am fairly confident in saying that the most noted dislike about the entire PoF expansion (even more than those comments regarding bounties) is how the maps are not fun due to the enemy density, aggro range, leash range and respawn rate.

@StinVec.3621 said:

@"Westenev.5289" said:I'm not sure toning down the mobs would make PoF any more appealing. If anything, I'm pretty sure it'd just allow people to leave sooner.

I must admit that I prefer fewer, but more memorable, combat encounters than seeming constant assault by meaningless exercises in pressing 1.

@Ashen.2907 said:

@StinVec.3621 said:

@"Westenev.5289" said:I'm not sure toning down the mobs would make PoF any more appealing. If anything, I'm pretty sure it'd just allow people to leave sooner.

I couldn't agree more. These mobs are more annoying than anything. I can kill em, I just don't want to because it's boring, pointless and keeps me from where I'm going.

No.

I do think that we're getting to a point where there's so many maps that it's starting to affect proper population in each area. However, that's to be expected when a whole new region opens up. Give it a month and things will settle back down a bit. Even so, I do think the pop is starting to be spread thin and the devs had better start thinking about how to deal with this before releasing even more areas. Without a growing player base it will eventually have the effect of killing the game.

You can ignore 80% of the mobs anyway, especially on your mounts. The few that are required to kill, like for the Bleached Bone collections etc. you can easily ones hot during your mount engage cc. I don't see any problems honestly and I believe it would just make the maps feel worse and even emptier

@Biff.5312 said:I do think that we're getting to a point where there's so many maps that it's starting to affect proper population in each area.

Well that's something I feel as well. There are a lot of zones and I never understood why they started with so many to begin with, because clearly it's going to expand over time.

I know I'd love to see Cantha as the next expansion but at the same time I can't escape the feeling that this might be particularly bad for the game, especially because it's not on the current map and having to travel to a separate map seems counterproductive. Perhaps we'll go to the Isles of Janthir next since that's at least closer by and could be a very interesting area to discover.

The Crystal Desert is far away already and I think that's part of the issue. And as much as I do not like the mobs on a number of the maps as they are, I do not think that's what's causing people to stay away from PoF maps altogether. It just seems too far away from the rest somehow and the lack of good meta's is another big one I think.

I don't expect the devs to tone anything down in PoF at this point; however, I like to believe that they heard the complaints about mob density, aggro, leash, etc because things seem to me in Jahai Bluffs to be more like what many of us expected for those factors.

@StinVec.3621 said:

@"Westenev.5289" said:I'm not sure toning down the mobs would make PoF any more appealing. If anything, I'm pretty sure it'd just allow people to leave sooner.

 I disagree with your assessment of the PoF maps, the aggro range is no different than other maps, the leash range is no different nor is the mob density.  I'd prefer the mob density to be increased actually since the reason for me being there is to kill enemies.  This whole nerfing of mobs on maps started with the core Orr maps in Tyria after people whined about all the stuns and knockdowns, how they couldn't move two steps without encountering an enemy, forgetting entirely that you were on the doorstep of the main antagonist in Core.  If you want to just run through the maps from end to end without encountering resistance(which is what it sounds like you want) then you might just want to avoid all expansion maps.I find it fairly easy to run across the maps without engaging or being engaged by enemies, you of course need to pay attention to your radar on the mini map and not just run around without having awareness of your surroundings(and I mean doing this without a mount).  Also, there are a significant number of locations you can just stand around at and admire the view, I've done it numerous times while getting something to eat or any of number of other activities that only take me away for 5 - 15 minutes.

This has to be a troll post. Pof is face roll into the keyboard easy. Give me some HoT anyday

@Biff.5312 said:No.

I do think that we're getting to a point where there's so many maps that it's starting to affect proper population in each area. However, that's to be expected when a whole new region opens up. Give it a month and things will settle back down a bit. Even so, I do think the pop is starting to be spread thin and the devs had better start thinking about how to deal with this before releasing even more areas. Without a growing player base it will eventually have the effect of killing the game.

95% of wow zones are dead. 95% of ffxiv zones are dead. Still successful.

I say they need more Meta Events in PoF zones.

@Knighthonor.4061 said:I say they need more Meta Events in PoF zones.

I think this is a tricky subject. One of the biggest things I have heard about PoF maps is the fact that they don't have too much replayability, ''add some meta events'' is usually the suggestion that people come up with.

There is a fundamental problem with maps that are meta-event centric however: if they aren't profitable or if long enough time pass and people get bored, they are going to become empty. Now since they are maps reliant on large groups of people to experience the content there, they become complete dead-weight after becoming inactive because they are neither profitable nor accessible to newer players because you can't explore them solo or in a small group.

Since Anet keeps releasing new maps all the time, making them meta-event centric is going to be a burden in the long run. The solution is to probably mix it up with a chunk of maps being simliar to core-GW2 so that people can experience whenever they want and then a map or two each expansion (or living world season) being meta-centric therefore boosting replayability in a specific region for a certain amount of time until we move to aother region and a new map or two become active for farming.

I think a lot of people see meta events as this magical potion that can solve replayability issues which it does in the short term. The problem is when more meta-even centric maps get introduced and old ones die making them neither viable to farm nor to explore due to their nature.

@raykor.6723 said:After spending a good amount of time in all the new LWS4 maps...they're pretty darn fun. And then when I go back to many areas in the PoF maps...not so much. And it is further magnified by the fact that they are pretty empty—perhaps because others agree. Maybe tone down some of the mobs?

PoF and HoT are NOT entry-level maps. Just like Orr, you need experience and practice to be efficient and effective. Once you have that, things are much smoother.

Except for the known hot-spot in Istan, PoF maps are a bit light on drops. Especially the maps where the meta gives rewards, but the 1,000 mobs killed to finish it give no exp and no drops. For example, I killed about 6 giants one night to begin chipping away at 'Giant Slayer', almost zero drops for a non-trivial kill.

BTW, Did we really need another source of Dragonite? Or, for that matter, a Volatile Magic gobbler?

@Knighthonor.4061 said:I say they need more Meta Events in PoF zones.

I had hoped that was gonna happen in the first map as well. Uplands and River zones seem to have a good amount. Perhaps North Crystal Desert was a get acquainted with the new mobs area ?

@"StinVec.3621" said:Absurd enemy density, aggro range, leash range and respawn rate in PoF maps making all of it very unfun is the only reason I do not spend time in those maps. I do not care very much about "rewards" and really just enjoy adventuring in maps and being able to stop for a few seconds to admire a view - this isn't possible and it is either a frustrating slog or a race to get around before getting stuck in a mob respawn loop.

The aggro range and leash range has increased game-wide. It's much more evident(frustrating) now that we crave to use our mounts. I think the increases happened sometime around the time the beetle came out.

@Knighthonor.4061 said:I say they need more Meta Events in PoF zones.

Saddly no, the meta events that already exist need to be on set timers that dont interfere with other larger meta events, and the rewards need to be improved.

@nGumball.1283 said:

@Knighthonor.4061 said:I say they need more Meta Events in PoF zones.

making maps like you suggest is pretty much the equivalent to the Beetle Mount maps that were added to the Living Story. Once the player base gets what they want them move on. thats why Metas help keep zones populated. Its a waste of resources to build maps that people will only play on for a few months and never come back. Thats the original purpose of player scaling was to solve. Why take backwards steps?

Metas can and should be juggled so that sometimes this meta may start at 8, where as tomorrow at 8 may be this other event over here. That keeps things fresh, but also provides more Meta events for people that like that kind of gameplay.

Trash mobs not dropping loot is the main reason I don't play the LS4 maps that often.

They just aren't that good for farming except for the istan main events, and even they don't happen often enough to justify staying on the map

Bitterfrost is really the best map for farming since events pop up often and everything drops loot

I think some of the problem with PoF metas is that the LFG function is so diluted that nobody is going to go through them looking for a thing to do.

A good first step would be to lump all the PoF maps under one LFG line.