Malus.2184

Cutting a minute here and a minute there adds up to a lot of accumulative time removed that can then be inserted as time spent on the other worlds Removing the things I've listed should do nothing to remove the feel of the zone it was removed from and removing a given section is just trimming the fat of a zone to allow for the time to be spent elsewhere. If you compare W2 to the test zone the test zone is incredibly lean. There is no filler content between the start and the boss and yet you can easily go off the beaten path to find something extra. W2Z1 is the same since you do have some detours that lead to hidden content and then you also have the raft and the bridge which adds nothing to the feel of the zone. W2Z2 also has detours to hidden content and then it also has tons of filler before you can even get to those detours. W2z3 has both time sinks as well as filler content that I can only see existing to make the shortcuts worth it. Since I got the flute and the song and can use those two detours I know there's a lot more of the zone that I never see because doing, and that's jus there to make the shortcuts feel like shortcuts rather than the intended way to do the zone in a reasonable amount of time. The reasonable amount of time will end up being unreasonable once more zones are added though. On that note, what purpose does the Yeti before the Storm Wizazrd serve? If it was a "dragon-type" miniboss then King Toad would also have something similar before you fought him.

There are also still players doing raids. It has nothing to do with people doing something, it has to do with percentages of people engaging with the content. The sentiment, "I did it this way so you have to do it that way as well.," is gatekeeping. There are many ways to gatekeep beyond the obvious one shown in pop culture. How is the bridge or the raft fun? Please, do explain to me what I'm missing. The bridge is the essence of the "walk-straight jumping puzzle," and the raft is the essence of just standing there while the game moves for you." There are many things in all walks of life that have "existed forever" that have been removed or altered because things were better without them. How come video games are an exception to that?

"Essentially being dead " and "being dead" are two different things. The former means that a minority engages with the content and the latter that only a vast, cast minority engages with the content. There was no dodging of questions, I just found them pointless to answer as I had already given the answers in other posts and I loathe repeating myself. If you want the answers to your questions then go back and actually read the other posts properly rather than the one which triggered you to make that overly emotional response.

Zelda and Castlevania are both games with different gameplays. Narratively they both tell an interconnected story. The actual gameplay is more Super Mario 64 with the upgrade system of Zelda with the exception that you're fully on-rails in that you're unable to deviate from the path unless the deviation is intentionally placed there. In Super Mario, the zones are either relatively short or constantly challenge you. There's no challenge in a bridge that's there for no reason, there's no challenge in a raft that's players like a s section from an on-rail, arcade shooter. The enemies are also straight-up cut-and-pasted from W2Z2, saying it's an introduction is also incorrect as an introduction is supposed to be easier than the thing it introduces as it's just a straight copy with the same attack pattern, same health, and same damage. I find it pretty galling that you have the tenacity to try and mansplain the classic games that inspired SAB to me without mentioning anything about the OG inspiration, Super Mario,, even the naming conventions are the same in that we play Wolds and Zones. Makes me think that you're just mindlessly parroting what someone else has told you.

When are the sections repeated then? If something is an introduction it'll be shown again. Like the easy light-button thing in W2Z3, that's the introduction that informs you what you need to do when it appears again. When in the game does it ever show another long bridge or raft section again?

You need to set aside a lot of time, probably the same amount or more than the average person has per day to do it. So, you're oaky with a lot of the dailies for two zones being essentially dead? Seem a bit gatekeepy.

You're correct about that and that changes nothing about the fact that with the length of W2 then SAB will be longer to complete than the average amount of playing games per day.

There are two choices, either you've never done the achievements or the answer is a "WhAt AcHiEvEmEnTs?" Bauble Collector requires you to track the entirety of the zone. Lockpicking Daily requires you to traverse the zone. The race requires you to traverse the zone. Between the last checkpoint before the pillars and the boss there's one achievement since the glitch is there. Even for a single achievement, save the glitch, you need to set off a good amount of time, and the realistic analysis is that for the vast majority of people this bites heavily into the allotted time for the game. A later poster makes fun of me by using the thought-terminating cliche that I just want to make the fun follow my idea of fun. You have to understand, that anyone who posts on the forums of any game is often the vast and incredibly vocal minority. Here's the deal, remove the sections of World 2 that are just filler. Then add a classic mode for those who want to do the classic way. Increase the rewards too as they spend more time there, if they use the shortcut in W2Z2 then default the rewards to normal. Everyone should be happy with that as those with little time have the option and those with a lot of time have the option as well.

You still get a Moment of Triumph in that you win, even if it's ultimately bittersweet.

I know you mean well and there's no skill issue in this. For this to be valid you'd have to have a similar belief about Serpernt's Ire as there are shortcuts to making it take less time, the willingness to set up proper groups for it. Should it be needed? It's open-world content that gives a similar level of reward to Forged in Fire so no. Similarly, the massive length of World 2 should never be something that was required even though there are shortcuts.

If you do the skip then you're unable to get to the achievements unless you backtrack as thejumping off the bird will drop you off at the checkpoint right before the jumping pillars section. Everything you need to do for a Daily is behind that checkpoint and requires you to backtrack heavily. It has nothing to do with skill, it has to do with the challenge being appropriate to the skills they've learned in the first zone. There's a term for just doing things and it's called "being in the zone." it happens when you're exposed to something that challenges you to evolve your skill without being so frustrating that you have to break your workflow to think about what you're doing. If things are too easy then you'll be unable to enter the zone as well since you never really have to invest in what you do. World 3 Zone is a perfect tool to put you "in the zone" while World 2 breaks the "in the zone" since it's so long. What's memorable about the bridge and the raft in Zone 2? For me, the only thing memorable about those two sections is how utterly pointless they feel. A great start that your argument begins with thought-terminating cliche /s. Shows your honesty in this. The average time people spend on games is about eight hours a week. Us in the forums and us who can devote more time to play are the vast minority, we're outliers in the average. I'm only here since I due to the effects of a disability am unable to work. If I could work I would be out there working and spending way less time playing. This also expresses, "I had to suffer so you have to suffer as well." There's nothing noble in suffering. This is a game, people play to relax and enjoy their time. World 2, and especially Zone 2, feels like a chore, which is what people play games to get away from. If this is a consistent belief then you have similar thoughts about Serpent's Ire, if you think differently about Serpent's Ire then you also have to think differently about this, or else your beliefs are inconsistently applied.

That's how people and FOMO work. If you set something with a duration people will engage in it for as long as the duration is as they feel they have to enjoy the content while it lasts. It has little to do with the rewards, those are just collateral so people get a feeling of reward for their time investment, which makes it even more likely they'll continue engaging with the time-limited content. Since there are SAB-themed items on the TP this makes it more likely that people will invest there as well. What is your point? Difficulty has to be linear for it to make sense. World 2 should have a higher difficulty than World 1 and World 3 should have a higher Difficulty than World 2. The reality is that World 3 is shaping up to be a lot easier than World 2 and if World 3 followed a linear difficulty then it would be an absolutely psychotic difficulty. Then what would remain for the difficulty to be higher in World 4? Making Tribulation mode mandatory? The best way to deal with this is to reduce the difficulty of World 2 and the easiest way to do that is to remove entire sections. This is how developmental psychology as explained in the Zone of Proximal Development works (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_of_proximal_development).

You would only need to redo trib mode if you removed bits here and there. I'm talking about removing entire sections between checkpoints. For example, in World 2 Zone 1, you could remove most of the sections between checkpoints 2 and 4 since the bridge and the raft is practically on rails on rails where it's impossible to diverge from the path anyway.

People do this for something to do. World 2 should never take longer than the entire World 1 and World 3 Zone 1 combined that's just madness and there are entire sections that can be removed without affecting the feel of the zone.

So, you look forward to spending 2+ hours doing SAB daily once World 3 and 4 arrive in the future if you want to get all the Baubles that you can? World 2 is padded for runtime since if it was the length of World 1 then the content would be too short to retain people's attention. This was okay when there only was two Worlds. Now with World 3 looking more and more plausible World 2 has to be cut down in size with each zone released. I can do World 3 Zone 1 in 15 minutes comfortably. World 2 Zone 2 alone takes 30+ minutes unless I use the shortcut. I'm ignoring the achievements as well as they would simply be too much of a hassle to get. You have to take severe detours to get to anything. Just getting to the Racoon Boss in World 2 Zone 2 is an adventure that takes about the same time it takes to complete World 1 Zone 1. This is untenable if you also want to respect people's time.

World 2 is ridiculously stretched out since for many years the experience just ended there. With the addition of other zones every zone in this world needs to be made smaller or else it'll take way too much time to complete. World 2 Zone 1: - Cut the long bridge, it adds no purpose other than padding the runtime. - Cut the raft section. It serves no purpose other than padding and can easily be removed. The concept of rushing rapids are better conveyed with the Frogger sections. World 2 Zone This zone is so huge and with such clear distinct areas that it could easily be cut into two zones and no one would notice. If I take the shortcut in World 1 Zone 2 I skip perhaps 25%, If I take the shortcut in World 2 Zone 2 feel I skip something like 75% of the map. - The feed to enlarge mechanic to get access to a door exists nowhere else, both could easily be removed as they are just padding. - The jumping section after what I think is supposed to be the ninja village can easily be cut, it serves no purpose other than padding. World 2 Zone 3 - Remove both pressure puzzles. The second one with the jumping sheep is padding and without that one, the first one serves no purpose either. - Remove the bridge before the Yeti sub-boss. The blowing mouths serve no purpose other than stalling for time. There's no skill in passing them. When the mouths are nearly done blowing wind just run and never stop. Many sections in World 2 can be cut for time that the players will need for World 3 and eventually World 4. Go through each section between each checkpoint and look at it with a critical eye while asking yourself, "Does this add anything?" If the answer is "no" then remove it. While many areas convey the concept of the zone many areas are there for no apparent reason and thus seem like they're only there to stall for time.

Was for me, no lies, being called 'Commander' by Laranthir. No Wayfinder or anything, just Commander. I unironically never expected it would make me this happy.

I agree with that. I think The Krytan Herald had a similar criticism that the open world has been used too little to convey the story as the metas in Nayos are seemingly unconnected to the narrative.

Preface: This is serious. The Invisible Cat Cape has brought an unthinkable amount of QoL to my fashion game as I can have the backpiece slot enabled by default. If I want the cape to be invisible I can just transmute it into the Invisible Cat Cape and then I'll still have a backpiece showing on other gear templates. I want the same for helm, shoulders, and gloves. Basically, add an "Invisible X" for every toggable gear slot so we can change back and forth without having to worry about the slot being visually enabled.

Because we never fight Ignaxious in the story. he's a meta-event and thus tuned for more players. If it was reversed and we had Heitor as the meta boss and Ignaxious as the story boss, which we probably should have IMO, then Heitor would have been game-mechanically stronger than Ignaxious.

Then name me one popular dramatic story that has no "Darkest Hour" in the narrative. Even the romcoms of the 2000s and 2010s had a "Darkest Hour" where the protagonists had seemingly lost whatever they wanted and were down in the dumps before they had "Moment of Glory." This sequence gives the audience a sense of catharsis. Every story that's remembered have a "Darkest Hour." Even "Romeo and Juliet" has a "Darkest Hour" in the ending and no "Moment of Triumph" since the protagonists die due to their stupidity.

Nayos is fully ruled by strength by design. "The strong shall rule" always expresses "The weak shall serve." While Labris had the status of queen she would also have been more powerful than Heitor either from the beginning or gaining it later. Kryptis can become stronger by consuming other Kryptis so she had the means to become physically stronger than Heitor. Even if Heitor was stronger at the start then Labris would have kept her from gaining physical power while her own grew.

Anything other than a defeat is a victory. There are plenty of examples of this being a part of the story structure, it even has a TVtropes page that explains it and shows many examples (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DarkestHour). All those examples create memorable stories. Some will join Eparch, some will join Peitha, and in this specific context, those who stay out of this implicitly help Peitha since they never provide force against her.

Do you know what a "difficulty curve" is? Larys was higher in the hierarchical ranks than Heitor, thus she should have been stronger than Heitor, and aside from the instant-down attack this never happened as Heitor on average was stronger than Larys.

It's still different than the boss being power-crept to death. This is new content. The exaggeration is just expressing that the content is disappointing. I honestly doubt anyone has had any serious issues with any of the bosses of the story so far. In my experience, Heitor was more difficult than Larys.