Poormany.4507

Hard agree with this. The system for choosing dailies has to be changed, or it will just be the same pattern over and over again. Even more so, now that only 3/4 have to be done, so most everyone will skip the "unpopular/disliked" minidungeon/jumping puzzle. e.g., See the thread about players telling each other to skip Spirit Vestibule from today (It's been like the 4th or 5th time we've gotten this one!). So these content will only continue to be the least frequented, and continue showing up as dailies under the current system unless some change is made to the daily choosing algorithm.

Anet said IBS is "expansion level" content too, and that clearly wasn't true. As mentioned, they won't publicly come out and say they're investing less into the game, if they actually are. SotO, and to a lesser extent EoD, had a ton more obvious reuse and cut corners than any of the previous expacs did, while already being a mini-expac with less maps/new features. So it seems reasonable that many players are concerned that Anet's either running on a much smaller staff team than before at the expense of content and/or they're siphoning off resources/staff to side projects (again).

Also really agree with this. It's kind of starting to feel like Anet's just picking the minidungeons/activites/jumping puzzles (*cough The Long Way Around *cough) players avoid (and most likely dislike) the most and prioritizing those for the dailies/weeklies...

How else would they get players go to Valdhertz Crypts or Spirit Vestibule?

I defeated Ceri in the Mother of Stars instance of SotO, but when I went back to get the letter for the achievement, Ceri respawned and spoke her same lines again, but the mission correctly progressed as if I'd defeated her.

I'm all for new weapons, not sure about wrapons though...

LW being free in the first place (all you had to do was log in for one second, assuming you had the expacs) spoiled us as players and I could easily have seen them charging extra for previous LW seasons, but we got them free instead. Anet/NCSoft seem to have realized this and started charging everyone for LW now. No problem with them charging money for LW, as the previous LW model seemed overgenerous and unsustainable. What I do have a problem is, as others have said, is them renaming a few LW episodes and selling them as mini-expacs (while even calling them full expacs most of the time in their official posts since the announcement of mini-expacs). They should just be transparent about LW not being free anymore. Instead they just massively lowered the standards for what an expac is.

How does adding a single additional objective significantly help? I honestly don't understand why they are so reluctant to add more and give players choices like they had before (at least make it complete half of the ones provided). It wouldn't hurt anyone and would bring more players into the game. Wouldn't that be a good thing?

I really dislike the new daily system. As someone who has very limited gaming time on weekdays due to work, I used to be able to easily do dailies in < 20-30 minutes on days I had limited time. Now I have to forego those rewards because I have to do 4/4 dailies, without any choice in which ones, one of which almost always includes tasks that require large groups (I only have time to play during off hours, so no dailies, especially the new WvW ones, for me I guess?) or long time commitments (Defend x objectives in WvW or long dungeons in PVE). This just makes me want to give up on dailies and skip GW2 on most days, when before I would play regularly. The point-based system is fine, but I agree with other posts that they should let you choose out of a much larger number of dailies like before to make it more accessible to players who don't want to and/or can't do the currently pre-chosen dailies.

So looks like most of the Kryptis are clearly reused assets. The redesigns look ok, but it would have been so much cooler if they'd designed them based on the original concept art, even if it took more resources to do so.

I'm also leaning towards Menzies being the main villain, having taken over a large part of the Mists now that the Gods left and demons expanded (such as in Kormir's Sanctum). Based on the similarity in design, I would not be surprised if he also took over control of the Titans after Abaddon's death, or was even partly responsible for their creation, since they were also from the Realm of Torment..

It looks like they use separate portals between each mini-zone (See bluish portal-like thing at 0:08).

Pretty much nobody notices these though unless you do a very detailed analysis of the models (I never noticed a single one of these examples in-game, even until now), which is what makes them so well done and unique. The recent ones though stick out like a sore thumb and nearly every player immediately notices "Hey, these Dragonvoids are just reskinned dragon minions!" the moment they're introduced.

The difference is that in HoT and PoF, the asset reuse was much more subtle and better integrated into the game. I barely noticed very little, if any, in either expac, or even up through LWS4/early IBS. Then it just suddenly became extremely blatant with different colored enemies and 2012 destroyers in IBS (I get it, it was mostly made during/right after Covid and right before the unexpected EoD expac). Then there was the reskinned Dragonvoid enemies and copy-pasted Echovald Wilds landscapes in EoD, which were some of the weakest parts of the expac imo. Gyala did not feel that unique either and had a ton of copy-pasted content within itself. Neither of these had Covid or desperately rushed expacs right afterwards to justify their significant reuse of assets. SotO just feels like 1/3 of the content is copy-pasted and reskinned old content from the previews we've seen so far, which should be far from the case, especially for what they're selling as an expac with supposedly more devs working on.

Plenty of reused assets can be seen in the recent Kryptis preview (The Kryptis has the same model and is using the exact same moves and attacks as a Forged Forerunner, Rifts are pretty much Branded Rifts from LWS4) and map art (directly copy-pasted assets from PoF): https://loadinginfo.staticwars.com/uploads/2023/07/01/1688256201-Map_4.jpg

Since EoD, it has felt like there is so much blatant asset reuse. Echovald felt like they just took a bunch of Maguuma and Ascalon Ruins assets and copy-pasted them together. The Dragonvoid enemies are obviously reskins of old dragon minions. Gyala had random Orr landscapes/plants pasted in when it made no sense in that environment. Now in SotO, it feels even worse, as many of the primary exapac features feel like reused old content. Skyscale is from LWS4, Rifts are pretty much copy-paste branded rift events but red instead of purple. At least some of the Kryptis are reskinned Forged. The map with alternate versions of old maps will probably just be old assets copy-pasted together. While I have no problem with creative asset reuse where the content feels distinct and organic, the way it's being done since EoD just feels very low budget and uninspired. Why is there so much blatant asset reuse lately, given that Anet's said they have more people working on GW2?

Not as many companies change their direction as many times as Anet has. I've lost track at this point how many: Living World, no now we're doing expacs every 3-4 years, no now we're doing sagas and no more expacs, nevermind, forget that Cantha expac it is, now back to living world, NOPE now we'll give you one episode of Living World, now mini expacs (Nope they're called full expacs now!). I'm guessing this will continue and mini-expacs will be replaced...

Can't reskin old Forged enemies with the concept art looks... Too much work

Agree - The reuse of the main antagonist enemies and mechanics is becoming so blatant and boring since EoD. EoD had literally reskinned previous dragon minions as the main enemies with no new unique abilities. SotO seems to be reskinned Forged/Risen with no new unique abilities from what we've seen so far. SotO Rifts are pretty much copy-paste mechanicswise to Branded Rifts. The enemies in HoT and PoF genuinely felt unique from each other, now if feels like every enemy is a hastily slapped on reskin. What on Tyria are they spending all their time/resources/people on...? The Kryptis were one of the coolest things from the Expac I was looking forward to and this preview was so underwhelming 😞

From the last article: Beyond that, Tyria has a lot of healing to do. The sylvari need to recover from the events of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns; the charr and norn are on the mend following The Icebrood Saga. Cantha has been revealed to the world. Heck, the Pact needs a new purpose. And we’re about to meet the Astral Ward. Tyria’s at a turning point. This makes it seem like Malyck's story is probably already planned soon, if not the next story after SotO, with possible plans for more Charr/Norn content afterwards. I'm guessing the Charr content will possibly take place in East Ascalon, as that would be the most logical place to see the aftereffects of the Charr Civil War (after all, it's where the other Citadels are at.) The Norn content may quite possibly be the further in the North Shiverpeaks, as there have been mentions in game about Norn parties trying to reclaim the land after Jormag's death. They could also tie in the mysterious Dredge tunnel from the Shiverpeaks to Cantha that's yet to be explored.

As a GW1 player, finally figuring out what the deal with the Wizard's Tower is since that one quest in Prophecies Skywatch Archipelago sounds really interesting and fun with the multiple alternate universes interacting with each other (I loved that aspect of Jahai) Zojja The Kryptis designs look awesome The Heart of the Obscure mastery sounds fun and I'm optimistic it will bring useful new mechanics.

That's comparing $25 for a single LW episode to $25 for a full expac (Not a good comparison). Considering many MMOs charge $10+ for monthly subscriptions, $25 for a mini-expac is a very reasonable price imo.

ftfy: Needs more jade. Some nice green colored jade...

Taim's story seems pretty much over for now, so I wouldn't be surprised if she took time off (similar to Rytlock and Braham after IBS) and Zojja replaced her, at least temporarily.

My reaction would be: "Isn't this pretty much just Scarlet 2.0...?"