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1) This - Boss AOE spam in story instances needs to be cut back severely.. It was horrible spam of stuns , fallbacks ,Story Modes are not raids . As an enginner before holosmith I wasnever able to finish last chapters. At least with Holosmith it was manageable.Please stop makig boss fights as raid fights for every chatper. I play only with engineer and he does not tank nor has huge HP pool

2) Did not feel we need Sunspears or Devrish at all. Its their land. they should have been in more prominence in the story line. Why not make a chapter wherin I can fight as a sunspear or lead an army through war cries chants etc.

3) when are we going to ride the Wurms . If not in open world atleast in the story mode.

4) Rewards where disappointing. atleast some skins.

But overall it was the best chapter in a long time . Overall enjoyed it.

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Story intances: I did enjoy the story, playing necro I didn't find any difficulty on solo mode, some achievements require a team but I think they are meant to.

Map aspects: Why for the love of life would you give almost every enemy in the open world interrupt, knockback, pull, griple etc. I mean who in the design team hates exploration of the maps? If there weren't mounts which are immune to crowd control I probably would avoid this area much as I do plague and Orr which technically has permanent cripple in the area. If you want players not to ignore random monsters I think HoT monster mordrem sniper is an excellent candidate of good desing. It gives clear signal of attack and it does a lot of damage if you don't evade but it doesn't stop the game and force you to engage in fruitless combat for several minutes just because you wanted to see the sunset on the horizon or whatever you where looking for in the map. Put those annoying monsters in events and instances - not in the countryside. I dare arenanet to make an open world map where random monsters don't have any cc and see how the community responds.

About break bars: There is only 1 break bar that has any meaning, I think the enemy skill name is sandstorm, where it rotates everyone and finally explodes. Familiar to everyone who has done Palawadan meta event. This is a good game mechanic it gives something to the game. All the other breakbars could be removed and nobody would notice. I get the idea of break bar in the case the other Istan bosses but they only give like 3-5 second burn time which in open world is insignificant. Here is the Player Logic in these situations:Fractals: Everyone knows what they are doing. Few players, so mechanics matter.Raid: Commander makes a power point presentation about your tactics. You follow it, get profit.Open world: Event didn't succeed. We need more players. "It only dies when its break bar is depleted" We need moar Players! "But if we all stand on this platform we get 50g per minute." WE MOAR PLAYS! Commonly in popular open world events, commanders encrourage players only to auto attack, and rightfully so, enabling everyone to get the participation tag at least.

On a personal note, I hope in future Living World 4 episodes Braham gets branded and becomes the main antagonist on the next expansion so that we can get the same happy endidng we did with Trahearne.

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Story: Was great! I'm 100% ready to murder Joko over and over again. The Koss fight did feel way easier than any of the other bosses which was weird since he was described as so deadly. I'm also really happy to see Braham and Rox back! Taimi's voice actress did a great job in the final instance and there was a great tone of urgency but I almost wonder if it was a bit too much since I did get my anxiety triggered pretty badly by hearing her be so desperate in my ear (and I know the internet seems convinced that when people will mental illnesses talk about triggers they just mean they were offended or kind of uncomfortable, but that's not what it means; this actually did cause a flare up in my anxiety symptoms and while it wasn't super bad for me I know it was worse for some others. Trust me, I've been in therapy for half a decade now, I know what I'm talking about here ;) )Open World: I liked it a lot! I think the library in particular is a really great heart and I had a lot of fun reading all of the books. I love that kind of extra flavor stuff. The meta events are also quite fun and I've found them to be challenging! I like the branded meteorite encounter as well, though it did take me a while to figure out how it actually worked.I also think that @"Seth Moonshadow.2710" 's suggestion above about a library would be really helpful! I would love a place to keep all of my lore books. If I were in charge of implementing something like that I'd add a bookshelf to home instances that you can interact with, and if you have a completed book or other readable item in your inventory, there is an option to "place [the book] on the bookshelf." This would permanently remove the book from your inventory, but you could also choose to "browse your collection" by interacting with the shelf, which would open up a window where you could see all of the books that you've deposited and read them. Another way that might be cool would be for the hypothetical shelf to work like a container, except you can only put books in it. Maybe you could start with some room and more would be purchasable through the gem store for those who really enjoy collecting? I dunno, but I think it would be a cool thing.

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Good effort but mostly negatives for me.Map: Far too much condition spam and a few mobs that need turning down a notchStory: Oh, Tyria is being invaded again...Instances: Same old for the most part and OKWorst part of it all: Boss fights, not hard as such as I didn't die to a boss, but plain annoying and not fun. The final one for instance, having to run around and jump over platforms to disable the boss is a boring time gate, to only then have so many circles appearing that you have to be hit, and likely downed only to have a certain party member bring you back up, I still hate him. Can you please start having bosses purely beaten by combat skills and dodges, not run here, grab this, put it there?! I have more fun finding champs to solo than these bosses.

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I am so tired of our characters being Mary/Marty Sue's. Like no matter what they will triumph and they're lame "Haha! good guys will win the day! But I have no personality!" But I understand why they're written so basic. For us to decide how our characters are outside of story. - well my sylvari I imagine is Nightmare court and would have nothing to do with any of the NPC's so I never bring her through story instead I bring my human thief or human/norn mesmers depending.Like half of the stuff they say is so predictable and mundane and very basic for a hero and it's a one way path - no choices it's set in stone. I liked the overall story because of the nostalgia from gw1. Also I want a romance between my character and Braham Eirsson!!!! PLEASE??? I just want my norn mes to marry him and make him grow his gorgeous hair back along with fixing his attitude. Like maybe some side dialogue between them that hints at romance? c:>>!!! More personal class instances where due to whatever class we play, we can do something new. Like ranger can tame local wildlife to come to their aid- Thieves can lie or unlock things and find back ways. Warrior can knock ppl out or pick up heavy objects, Necros can raise the dead from graves and command them, mesmers can manipulate the enemy and escape or keep them busy. etc

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@"Drarnor Kunoram.5180" said:One thing I want to ask people because I can't test it myself, is in reference to a small little tidbit I found in the restricted section of the library. In it, there is a book called "Astralarium" or something along those lines, and when I read it, it said that my character didn't understand the workings of it.

If someone has the Legendary Axe "Astralaria," do they get different information?

 

The way each profession has a unique way of breaking out of prison in the second to last instance is awesome. Please do more of this!

 

No - it says something about it being familiar but that's it.

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I am tired of everything being a constant struggle. Some challenge is good, but if your expansions are dramatically different in play-style from your base game, you have a problem, because you are disenfranchising your original player base. Can I complete the content? Yes, I already have. Is it fun and worth repeating? Absolutely not.

I am not suggesting that the expansion over land content should be as easy as the core game, because it is meant for max level characters. I also agree that there should be twitchy-challenging content for folks who enjoy that play style. But overall, the over land content is tedious and defeating.

Mob HP, aggro range, and condition effects need to be down-tuned. More stuff needs to be solo-able than is. This is the 21st century, with people playing in multiple time zones. Like it or not, most folks solo most of their time.

Of course I'm sure there will be the 'leet' players with the giant e-peen who will chime in with "get gud. Go back to WoW. I soloed it with my blah, blah, blah..." But the game isn't just about them. Its also about casual players who were your core audience to begin with too.

Right now, your message is "Hey casual player, don't bother with buying the expansions. They're not your play style. You won't enjoy them"

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What a wonderful episode! I really loved everything about it except for 3 things. First, the meta is the very definition of zergfest, makes my rig go into Super Saiyan mode while maintaining awesome 12 FPS. Perhaps time will dissipate most players and hopefully the meta will still be doable in smaller numbers. Second, while fighting on our side, Scruffy is the god of pushovers, but as soon as we face him, he makes the fight vs Balth seem like a tutorial. Perma-cc-ragdoll-AoE-fest is not exactly fun. At least it was much better than that Caudecus fight, mind you ;) Third: Braham. "Instincts kicked in." Annoying brat. Funny how the Commander leaves it to Rytlock to yell at him.

Apart from that, I loved everything. The Story, the Map per se, the locations, the many things related to GW1. Amazon job, thx ANet! =)

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Let me knock out Braham. Hate standing there and not being able to defend myself which is a complete 180 from the level 70 story arc (the one where you have to defend yourself from the pact because they think you fucked up) and it's getting annoying quite fast.

More Phlunt. Seriously. When you go to the 'talk to Taimi' places at the end of PoF, PHLUNT HAS HER COMMUNICATOR. He even responds with 'Phlunt here, who is this?' I find it kind of hard that that guy would just leave a device like that alone, specially if he knows it's attached in some way to Taimi. Having him hear everything that happened, the sounds of people screaming, etc and the fact that he is supposed to be keeping eye on the progeny, I have a hard time thinking he's gonna turn a blind eye to her golem almost suffocating her. Have him pick her up to recoup and have Zoija or a new asura take her place while she recovers. Would also be great that when we go to contact Taimi, we instead get Phlunt and hear his take on what we are trying to do.

Caithe. CAITHE. Her kitten was in the egg chamber this whole time. I highly doubt she'd be still sitting there after telling us 'I'll guard Aurene with my life'. So WHERE IS SHE?

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Soloing PoF story so far has been a chore, certainly not fun so I doubt I'll ever get this far.Whatever the one with the base full of buggers before the temple was is when I gave up.Chumpion of Baltazaar killing people in the temple.Rytlock and Cassock were as much use as a chocolate fireguard.By the sound of it, I'd give up before this.Oh, wait..I have.Goodbye Griffon mount...I paid for you but will never see you...Although not the first time I have hit story content I couldn't do.HoT auric basin one, that gives you five seconds to learn new movement skills before you get battered by vines.Would look up the quest name but can't be bothered.Just more content I paid for but can't get past.My fault, play wise, I expect.Though if I knew I had to solo group/raid strength content in the story I could of saved myself some time and moneyand not bothered with GW2 at all.Never mind, live and learn. Have fun y'all. :)

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@Captain Jordan.6938 said:the personal story makes me feel bad about myself and not want to replay the content on other characters or try to get the achievements@Stevieboy.4192 said:Soloing PoF story so far has been a chore, certainly not fun so I doubt I'll ever get this far.@"Yamakarasu.8627" said:I am tired of everything being a constant struggle.....Can I complete the content? Yes, I already have. Is it fun and worth repeating? Absolutely not.I am afraid I have to agree with these sentiments and others like them. I returned to GW2 because I wanted to see mounts, but it was the the Living World Season 2 Story missions that became the final straw making me previously uninstall the game. I have tried some of the PoF expansion story missions, and I worry I will want to uninstall again if I keep doing them.@"Alone.1784" said:Probably the worst living story release since the Season 2 party instance. Story was boring and the the first and last boss are just horrible cc/time sinks. The last boss I literally had to look up a youtube video after dying 5 times trying to get those lightning aoe attacks to land on the sparks, if you want to use some stupid item which i'd advise against anyways atleast make it clear.

From this description, it sounds like I could uninstall if I get to that point. This is really unfortunate because I do want to see the new storyline. And I can't help noting how Alone.1784 also brought up Season 2 as well. I guess I am not alone on my opinions about it.

Issues and suggestions.

  • No guidance or indication about the length of any given Story chapter missionUnless we spoil the plot by checking the wiki before every mission, players have no way of knowing if they will just be talking to NPCs for a few minutes or if they are getting sent into a long, drawn out fight through hordes of trash mobs and a boss. Once the missions start you cannot pause them, so players should be given some idea how much of their time they will need to block out for any specific mission. Even just estimates in the description like (Approx 15-30 mins) would be helpful.
  • No way to save progress in the middle of a missionA disconnect or any other significant interruption from real life results in progress being lost and the effort becomes a complete waste of time. There is an ongoing thread about this issue.https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/6656/please-save-progress-inside-story-instances-in-case-of-lost-connection/p1
  • No difficulty adjustmentThis is a personal gripe but it does bring up a standard mechanic offered by modern RPGs. I personally like to concentrate on the story the first time I play an RPG. The industry has provided difficulty settings in RPGs for decades, and I have gotten used to doing my first run on easy mode then increasing the difficulty for replays when the story is no longer the focus. GW2 has shown they can do instanced dungeons with varying difficulty settings (Story and Explorer modes), I don't see why they can't allow players to choose the difficulty level with the instanced Story missions, adjusting the completion rewards based on the difficulty of course.
  • NPC AI

    @PersoEA.1409 said:For the love of god. Fix the AI of your crew, they just stand there and do absolutely nothing while I am getting slaughtered by milions of minions and the last boss fight lasts soooooooo daaaaaaaamn loooooooooong.......................The frustrating NPC AI in the Story missions was another tick on the list of reasons why I uninstalled the game years ago. It was an issue back in GW1. It is disappointing that it continues to be a problem.In one PoF story mission, my character died while Canach just stood directly beside them doing nothing, not even attacking other mobs. When I retried the mission on another character, an NPC did revive my character. (I shouldn't have gotten downed on that second run - cat on the keyboard error). A consistent and functional NPC AI would be a great help in these missions.

I have always enjoyed the lore and story of GW2. It is a rich and interesting setting and I generally find myself engaged by the plotlines. Unfortunately, the way the story is offered to players too often puts emphasis on often tedious and annoying (aka 'challenging') gameplay rather than dramatic presentation of the plot which is a shame.

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Here's my feedback for LWS4, Episode 1 - Daybreak:Because I had already completed Eye of the Brandstorm and Under The Stars right after they launched, about the only thing I have to say about them is what everyone else seems to be saying: Way too many visual effects in "Eye of the Brandstorm”: the brandstorm around us, the ligntnings, the energy domes; Too much happening at the same time in “Eye of the Brandstorm”. We are told to quickly destroy the crystals and then our characters says, "wait, was that Aurene?". Where? Player attention would be the on crystals; players can’t afford to look around or at the sky. Too many control effects in the boss fight for "Eye of the Brandstorm" quote from Erasculio.2914

3.Champion's Dawn: I was rather surprised to find this particular instance a walk in the park so-to-speak. Normally, I have difficulties with a lot of the story instances and have struggled to attempt them solo; which, of course, is impractical for me. I currently use my Ranger as my main character, however, even with the elite specialization and my combat pets, I still experience difficulties. But, I was pleasantly surprised with this one. I have to admit I did some research on this before I attempted it and found no glaring raging commentary. The humor was nice and I was grinning about the fact that my hurling a rock at him (with the added head-butting of my Rock Gazelle) actually worked. Enjoyed this one and liked that it was straight forward and short (compared to a lot of others).

For the next three instances, I teamed up with a guild mate since he was getting ready to do them and knew I had not done these yet.

  1. Convincing the Corsair: This was rather straight forward as well. Typical scavenger hunt style, but with the annoying yo-yo back and forth for the map locations of items needed. As a team, we manged to accomplish these small item collections rather quickly and without much fan fare. Although, it was nice having a partner since we ran into a mob of those fanged ibogas, which are most annoying if you get ambushed by them. Otherwise this particular episode was not that bad.
  2. The Hero of Istan: Difficulty adjustment was not much of an issue with two of us, but I could foresee it being a problem had I soloed this one. The boss fight was a real PITA. I was involved in the meta event that fights those mobs and that boss was hard even with a large group. However, for just for the two of us, along with the useless AI companions, it was a chore. My biggest gripe is still the same: The AI for those companions, who are supposed to be your allies in combat, is a joke. They stood around twiddling their thumbs and only managed to rez either of us if we got downed. They are worse than useless and I wish Anet would fix their AI to work better and actually engage in combat as they say they are supposed to do.
  3. The First City: The entry to this instance leading up to the last fight was not as bad as I envisioned, however, there seems to be a bug with the first giant weight as it never stopped dropping even after I pulled the chain. Even my guild mate said it seemed bugged since he had done this story instance before on a different character. However, we managed to get through and collect all the chests along the way. The combat was annoying with the companions still not carrying their weight. The only thing they were good for was to stand on the stones we needed to stop the fire walls leading into the final boss fight.

    This final boss fight is WAY way too much. I got thrown off the central platform early in the fight and fell to my death. I had to wait until there was a change for the game to finally raise me up so I could continue with the next phases of this last encounter. Here I have to echo other players' remarks "Boss fights - too many back to back spam / non-uninterruptible moves / aoes, too high hp pool." In my opinion it should have been called the "Nightmare from Hades" boss fight.

Why can't we have a simple and less intense "story mode" so folks can enjoy the story and lore without all the intensity? Offer a choice of modes that players can select. Oh, and another thing, these 3 instances took over 2 hours to complete. I can imagine how long it would have taken had I attempted to solo them. Something needs to be adjusted on these. I understand some players really enjoy the difficulties in these but some of us just want to enjoy the story and lore. They are already repeatable for the achievements, make them repeatable for difficulty as well.

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I enjoy but I would love to see more maps without overkill mobs/fights and more group events that are other kinds of fun rather than kill/bitey/hurt/death. Something out there, different, requires help but isn't reliant on everyone being able to survive the worst of everything or getting ganked all the time. That way more new ppl can join in without as much experience/gear and some new types of events might be fun to explore the other game mechanics in group and let individuals explore somewhere beautiful and rest and take awesome screenies and be generally a bit more chill than the "oh shit everything wants me dead all the time everywhere" ever other level 80 map is, which is fine, but sometimes a change of pace is nice too. We need a silly, fun map full of dumb games and goofing off.

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Just getting finished with the episode. It was a really great story with really irritating boss battles. Please stop this trend of nightmare battles of endless AoE/CC. It's just not fun.

Otherwise I really enjoyed this episode. It had A LOT of content. Was great to return to this old location and see how it had changed since GW1.

Potential bug: I noticed several of the dragon's watch companions were not "working." Instead of fighting, Canach and Braham just stood there and....did nothing. It was really odd to see Braham just following me around grunting during the final fight of the episode. x)

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I recently returned and picked up the storyline that leads to Lake Doric, ending in a >! fight with Caudecus.

The next week I decided to try out the new LWS and began at the beginning.

Both experiences not only made me want to uninstall the game, but truly question what the motivations are behind creating this much frustration for players.

This is the story. This is one of the primary draws for your game and it is core to the GW2 - Tyria experience overall. There are no Raid quality drops, there are no sPvP ranking awards. This is a story and making the final fights so disheartening makes me not want to participate.

By not participating I am also, sadly, choosing not to participate in the current (and past) primary core of the game. Feeling disconnected from the overall game has in the past led to my eventually leaving the game, even if only for a few months to a year.

Is this an actual game design philosophy that you are putting into action, ie., very difficult final fights tied to the central story? I ask this in all seriousness, because perhaps there are reasons you have as developers for pushing in this direction. And in all sincerity, I would really like to hear what these design theories are and how you feel they contribute to the game and overall player experience.

Perhaps in explaining these ideas you might offer me some understanding that helps me carry on.

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Hey!I would like to say a big thanks for the Episode 1. I see that you done everything better and I appreciate that a lot! You could continut to write a story as you did but you didn't and changed! Tho you always do a great job and I couldn't imagine that you can do even more better. And we have one of the best or best episodes (i mean Episode 2 too).

! In the beginning I was upset a bit that there will be only 4 of our heroes (and I had a questine will we see others someday?) but I thought that it's an apportunity to know them better. I'm glad that you chose Rytlock (he became one of my favourite), Kas and Canach. Previously I didn't know what I feel about him or what relationship we have but it's good that he stayed with us because he wished. And of course this calling sessions with Taimi is amazing! And this opportunity to call her when I want and she answered me and talk to me. Story showed us once that we should call her but no one said that we can do it again when we want! And that was really a nice surprise.! And it might be hard to accept a new hero especialy when you miss others stayed in Tyria but Agent Kito is a good guy and I like that you added him too. And how he appears suddenly %)! All the story with Balthazar and Joko is very good. You improved fight mecanics more for LS parts and I felt that I fough with a God! You know especially that moment when I just... died! I didn't expect that and it was really crazy idea as you said on Guild Chat and it worked perfectly. I was shoked a bit, looked at this black screen and... what? Did it really happen? :o No one came back from the Mists! (Exept Balthazar but he was a God; and Rytlock but he didn't die). So it's one of my favourite moments and how you designed our being there. Those were right feelings.! About Joko and elonians. One of the moment that I like in GW2 is that you teach us someting all the time that relate to our reality. And lesson from this Episode for me as that there are nations that have another culture and history and people from USA or EU can't understand right just because we didn't live there. Yes, we can think that this sutiation with dictator on the throne isn't good but Agent said good words (when we entered one map). Joko is everything for them and they just don't ready to be free. In real life we can see the same situations. We should be respectful for another culture even if we know that there is something wrong. And it's very good that you guys put this seed in our minds.! About Vlast... It's a bity pity that we had no time even to talk to him, to make any relationship and he just appeared and died in the same moment. I thought I would be angry (as always when you killed someone) but I felt nothing. It was just Ok, let's go. But when I heard Taimi. Yeah, you did it! :'( I rushed through my enemies full of angry and tears and I tryed to kill them as fast as I could and all these Awakened waves you know it wasn't easy and the last fight when I had to destroy Scruffy when we haven't time to see him in action and... I'm glad that Taimi is safe. That moment touched me a lot. It wasn't easy as I said but thanks.! And thanks again for all tasks :3 for our brain when we have to think a bit, to solve puzzle, to chiose an answer. It really involved us more in the game. <3

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  • 5 months later...

The final boss fight in Daybreak is overly tedious and adds no real challenge to the encounter. None of the mechanics are tough, just simply annoying. There's also a lack of direction as to what you need to do to move forward at certain parts of the encounter. The design for that part of the encounter is not intuitive by any stretch ie. making a player carry an item while forcing them to be hit by a bunch of random projectiles that do no damage - tedious, annoying but fails to challenge a player's skill.

I love GW2, and have enjoyed most of the living stories, but this one in particular really made me ask myself "What were they thinking?". By the end, I couldn't care less about the NPC that was "about to die".

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  • 11 months later...

Our character repeatedly being told we're this legendary dragon killer/god killer then taking 5mins to kill a warden kind of kills the immersion.

If Scruffy 2.0 can CC us and we can't CC Scurffy 2.0 why are we the 'hero'? Scruffy is better...

This episode has made me not care about the story anymore, just smash until you're allowed to progress..

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