Boogiepop Void.6473

The first 2 Nayos metas were fine as being instance based because the were independent and fairly uncomplicated and open to being pugged. However, the third meta is a) locked to the completion of the first two so you can't just drop into a map to do it whenever and b) needs some level of organization. You can't do this well when there is no way to know if, when, or how far along the map is on progress towards the meta. We need a timer so organizers can organize. Imagine if the final soo-wan fight on dragonfall could happen whenever, based on the 3 regions each being done separately at any time, without anyway to set up and organize anything, and you have a taste of the current Nayos situation. I get the feeling this was an attempted response to complaints about the dragonfall meta being too long, but instead the final Nayos meta is barely doable reliably in the name of trying to make it shorter. It's bad enough we STILL do not have a way for a group to enter a map TOGETHER. Now you have to also map jump like bunnies trying to find one at the proper progression stage with enough room and hope no unorganized people on the map force things forward while you are tying to set up. You can either have completely independent non-blocking content designed for pugging or organized content, but you cannot mix them.

I literally only did the meta first because I happened to be going to the story entry point as a meta was actively doing the coliseum step, or I would have entered without seeing the story bits in the meta. I think I would have actively left the story instance assuming something had bugged if I hadn't just done the meta.

Please stop doing materies that grant players "bonus" or "extra" things from specific events or activities. These do not read to us as improvements but as content gates; "don't do X before you have this mastery done, you aren't getting the actual rewards". This can be seen in conversations in chat, with people essentially either asking if they should do X and being told to wait until they have the mastery unlocked, or advising people in chat to not bother "wasting their time" doing X without the mastery. Note that this is not exclusive; there are some people going the other way ("don't worry about it, just do the stuff and you will get the mastery later"), but this being an MMO, min-maxing playtime/reward is very much a well known player behavior. What does this mean specifically for SoTO? People avoiding doing rifts any more than required for the story until they have Rift Mastery, people avoiding Convergences until they have Convergence Mastery, and now people not wanting to do the new meta without Wayfinder Mastery.

In the new meta, if you full die during the final boss fight, it's a very long trek to get back to it. Why is there not a new WP that spawns near the boss fight, instead of one all the way back at the coliseum that is there for earlier phases? It shouldn't take traveling a quarter of the map on leyline to get back to the (excessively long) fight (assuming you have the leyline mastery to do it; otherwise you are just ejected from the fight).

During the bivouac defense (second instance), Peitha will not "get behind" general Nephus. She stands in place near the marker, but not on the marker, and won't move. This prevents the instance for continuing and locks the story from contiuing past this point by any means.

Several turrets were located OUTSIDE of the map bounds. Just saying. Overly tight boundary for the player that doesn't apply to the enemies.

I am trying to do the Eventide's March story step. I am constantly getting dismounted due to the excessively tight area edges (I have to dash through the targets to unshield them, so I can't exactly avoid the edges effectively since those are fixed distance) and I am constantly unable to remount either making it impossible to do anything. Why does approaching the edge force a dismount anyway? Never mid how finicky the shield break is. I have rut his step over and over and I just keep leaving in frustration. If you make aerial content then make sure you can BE IN THE AIR TO DO IT. If the only way to remount is to die ever 10 seconds and you get dismounted by force every 5 for no good reason, and you are locked out of doing anything in the mission because you cannot advance at all unless on the skyscale, then the mission design is bad.

The subtitles in cutscenes have suddenly become unreadably small (2pt font?). Is there some setting or something that got tweaked accidentally? EDIT: I turned on map loading text and it is also doing this.

The story will not proceed in this step. No matter how many rifts are closed, the meter never increments, locking the story.

You cannot make a profit from any of the key purchases on average. They exist specifically to get people who don't know any better to spend materials worth par more than the keys are in order to regulate prices for TP traders. They have effectively hidden "pay some gold to get some silver" behind the material icon. It's a trap for those who don't know any better.

The material sink key vendors are downright predatory.

This map has 3 main problems: Repetition: All the camp boss and capture events are identical, and then the boss is 3 identical generic bosses with 4 identical phases across 3 platforms with no significant mechanics. The camps all need to be different and the end boss needs to just be redone entirely or at the very least made so each platform is unique (why are there even multiple platforms if they are all exactly the same?). Haze is pointless: There is no function to this mechanic but to punish afking (which people may have legitimate need to do; don't punish the majority of the player base for a few bad actors) or spawning into the map somewhere other than the entrance (which happens at the end of story instances, so people literally die while doing the story because you cause the to). It adds nothing but tedium. Also, there is no reason to EVER take the either of the two non-free options (not worth research notes given how bad they are AND not worth the lower charge count for the worthless buffs), so having to click through the menu every time makes things feel even worse. Keys: the key mechanics here are horrible. There are far more chests than keys dropping, and the material sink vendors for more are such bad value they are a trap for players (you will lose money on average for the material>key>chest conversions outside the special chests at the end of the meta). Enough keys should be dropping to open at least all the chests that appear in one full meta + a reasonable number of side events (since they also just show up from those too), and the vendors should be removed or made actually economical without actively ripping off players. The major chests (that you can get only once a day) should not use keys at all; if you earn the chest you get the reward. NOTHING feels worse than seeing rewards sitting there you are not allowed to pick up (without losing money in the process) after earning.

The point of notes is inherently broken so just remove them.

Research notes are bad and have been bad since their introduction. They should be removed, not put in more things.

Not account based, not buying. I will buy bags for my account, not for indidvual characters I might not play or might delete. I have not and will not buy character based slots or feature unlocks of any kind with real money ever for any reason. Account bind or bust.