[SAB Size Feedback]

1 minute ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

It takes coordination to kill all the assassins there on the narrow bridge without being hit by them. It's fun! Plus, you are being rewarded +5 baubles.

It takes less than a minute to get across, so what's the whining all about?

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.

[SAB Size Feedback]

22 hours ago, Sobx.1758 said:

How are they "essencially dead"? They're not. The players do them and they are popping up in lfg as well. So as much as  "essencially dead" and "actually dead" aren't the same, that doesn't change anything about you being wrong on that as far as I'm aware. And considering I'm SABing fairly often, I'd say I am aware.

Yes, you did dodge them. And no, there were no answers to them earlier. Nothing here is "gatekeepy" in any way. And your claims about "it not being about rewards" are clearly false when your whole motivation is trying to spam every achievement posible in one run every single day, while claiming you "have to" do it. Your previous claims in the thread (which I questioned) are false and so is what you just wrote above.

 

Another completely baseless claim. Stop being so glaringly wrong while making up this nonsense.

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.

On 4/25/2024 at 3:21 PM, Ashantara.8731 said:

You obviously want everything removed that makes SAB so much fun. Congrats on not getting what SAB is about. 👎

Please stop playing SAB instead of asking to have it reduced to a mere shadow of itself, namely a boring walk-straight-through jumping puzzle.

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."

On 4/25/2024 at 12:04 PM, Noidea Incognito.9607 said:

@Malus.2184

I can respect your opinion, but i dont agree with it. You keep trying to find reasons to justify the removal of ingame segments wich excisted in sab for like.... forever?

Its good to know its not up to YOU to decide for everyone how SAB should be envisioned. Its in Anet's hands. Deal with it or move on. 

Since you wont be getting what you want and find my opinion annoying; i shall allow you to vent the frustration at me... for i am kind and benevolent o7

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?

[SAB Size Feedback]

14 hours ago, Sobx.1758 said:

No, you don't. Nothing makes any two zones "dead" based on what is being said in this thread. Nothing is also "gatekeepy" in any way, make sure you understand the terms you're trying to use.
Although I find it extremely telling that you quoted the post pointing out you keep avoiding the questions you quote and... you dodged what was being said/asked in this post as well. Does that mean at this point you know you're wrong and just need to keep making up new nonsense (like the current mention of anything here being "gatekeepy") while dropping the previous notions you and I made in this comment chain? Because that's how it looks like. If that's not what you're doing then go back to the previous questions and start answering. Otherwise... well, keep showing you understand you're wrong here 🤷‍♂️

"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.

[SAB Size Feedback]

12 hours ago, Noidea Incognito.9607 said:

@Malus.2184

I wasnt talking about repeating mechanics. SAB is telling an adventure story. The inspiration for it came from other adventure games like Zelda and Castlevania.

What i meant was; those sections introduce new foes send by the big boss to stop the Hero(es) with ambushes and it sets the tone for what the hero(es) will discover in the next zone.

Its pretty classic in alot of RPG's. In both sections the Hero(es) is/are cornered/limited and must overcome the Big Boss minions; again it speaks to the imagination of a grand adventure with danger and excitement.  Your looking at it only from a pragmatic/time efficient manner... wich is fine ofcourse, but all those sections have a reason to be there from an rpg/story perspective.  

Its just how it is. You have to make the choice for yourself if you wanna continue playing SAB or skip it.   

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.

[SAB Size Feedback]

1 hour ago, Noidea Incognito.9607 said:

Personally I wouldnt call those sections filler either as their quality is consistent and well embedded within the rest of the overal zones. i'd even as so far to say it would make sense to have the long bridge/raft scene for instance. Its basicly serves as an introduction/a taste of things to come into the next zone. Also defending against hordes of foes on a small platform speaks to the imagination of adventure/heroics. as is climbing icy mountains while carved out rockfaces that try to blow you off with menthos breath.

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?

[SAB Size Feedback]

On 4/22/2024 at 3:07 PM, Sobx.1758 said:

You need to? Why? You just wanted "something to do", so run your zone, 2, 4 or all of them if you have enough time and that's it. Why aren't you responding to the questions you're quoting, but instead just repeat/pretend you "need to do everything every single day despite not having time to play"?

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.

[SAB Size Feedback]

On 4/22/2024 at 5:42 PM, nosleepdemon.1368 said:

It’s almost like you are refusing to see the obvious point that you are not supposed to be able to complete everything ASAP. SAB isn’t your personal achievement point farm. If you want to cut some content to shreds just so that it’s easier on your time and simpler to farm, go do it to something else.

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.

[SAB Size Feedback]

On 4/20/2024 at 12:53 PM, Sobx.1758 said:

What achievements? Why do you need to do everything in one run and why do you need to do every daily (I assume that's what you mean by "achievements" here) all of the sudden? I thought it's about "something to do" and not about the rewards? There's no need to cut any content, just because you want to squeeze out every possible bubble out of it as fast as it would maybe be possible.

If this festival is such "suffering" for you then maybe just find something else "to do" in the game instead.

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.

[Feedback on the narrative structure in SotO.]

On 4/20/2024 at 5:30 PM, starlinvf.1358 said:

The 3 act structure is a myth.  It is not the be all end all of story design.  Ever hear of a tragedy?  For the greater the heights of the protagonist, the grander the fall in the finale.  This need not be malicious either. For emotional scars develop character, and add depth to a heroes motivation and way of thinking. 

Plus what if its a 4 act story like the old Diablo games used to do?

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

[SAB Size Feedback]

22 minutes ago, Luthan.5236 said:

There surely are annoying parts in these zones. But once you are finished with tribulation (skin sets and achievements finished) it is easily playable in normal mode with a lot of shortcuts. I usually do only a normal run for all zones - each day. (For the bubbles.) Enough to buy a lot of stuff from the weekly vendor + even have additional currency to buy other stuff. (Not too many new stuff that gets added and for the retroforged one I aleady got a free chest from the daily boxes.)

For the tribulation it really would be unfair to people that did the grind. On the other hand: I'm usually in favor of making it easier to catch up for newer players. I would have preferred if completing the tribulatoin achievements unlocked just the option to buy the skins. (Not having to do it 16 times.) But the full zone as it is at the moment - should be required at least once.

(For further zones I hope they do not add tribulation. Nice few ideas and changes with the checkpoints that you can enable freely in the test zone + mini JPs like at that one chest where the coin adventure got added. That feels much better. And the overall zone not too lengthy. They should add difficulty that way: By adding small and harder mini JPs like that. And players liking competition can use the adventure to improve and compare their speed.)

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.

[SAB Size Feedback]

13 hours ago, Sobx.1758 said:

So it's not "just for something to do", it's about you wanting more rewards faster. There's no need for that, the length of those levels is reasonable. If you can't do it all now, do it the next time it comes up. Stop trying to gut gaming experience because you're fixated on rewards no matter what, this is getting(?) ridiculous.
Mentioning "FOMO" and then instantly reverting into "this has little to do with rewards" is a good one.

What my point is? Exactly what you just quoted and didn't address: W2 has skips, if you want something to do but it's too long for you then learn those skips. It doesn't need to suddenly be cut into pieces just because you want to keep rushing it daily for rewards while claiming it's "just to have something to do". You don't need to do them daily, you don't even need to do a full set of either w1 or w2. If it's "just so you have something to do" then it sounds like you have something to do, actually apparently even more than you have time to do?

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.

10 hours ago, Shuzuru.3651 said:

Actually, it's a bit reductive to consider the lenght as the only factor for the reduced popularity, there were multiples, actually.

First : lenght, nothing to say here, a full w2 level was longer then a w1 level

Second : difficulty, there were a lot more instant death, like falling or ninja dart trap, add to that the rapid yeeting you at lightning speed (so fall, so death), the geyser that were timed platform. And the level in general required way more skills than w1 (see the infamous gong tower for reference)

Third : nerf, they actually nerfed buried chest to be once per day, before, you could farm bauble infinitly by doing like w1z1 on repeat and getting all the buried chest.

So yeah, people wanted braindead farming level, they got actual decent level requiring skill, so they were mad...

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.

7 hours ago, nosleepdemon.1368 said:

In your rather cold and clinical analysis you accidentally proposed to cut two of the most memorable sections from w2z1. The long bridge and raft might be on rails, but they are an interesting set piece. The raft in particular is very cleverly done.

You can’t just chop the zones up willy-nilly, and only w2z2 has an inappropriate length as it is both massively longer than the first zone, and somewhat longer than the second.

You shouldn’t focus on physical length (ha ha) either, but on time. There are relatively small portions of w2z2 (like the dart maze) that take a great deal of trial and error to complete. It’s these sections that need to be addressed.

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.

1 hour ago, Noidea Incognito.9607 said:

So what your asking is the removal of (time-consuming/annoying) content in favor of getting the infusion/loot faster.

I think that has little chance of happening. When the worlds released; it included all that content already and alot of thinking went into design/layout.

removing that removes its reason for designing the whole thing in the 1st place.

Alot of people just sucked it up/grinded teeth to get that stuff and accepted it for what it is. You only need to complete it once on 1 account.

There is still plenty of days to get them before the festival ends and even then you can always continue next year.

I suppose its an archaic way of getting those rewards but thats the point of SAB;

a throwback on  retro-gaming with all its quirks, and a nice surprise for gamers that have never experienced Retro-gaming before.

Thats how i look at it anyway o7

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.

[SAB Size Feedback]

20 minutes ago, Sobx.1758 said:

So you do it "for something to do" and then you complain that "you must do it daily and it takes too long"? I don't get the reasoning here.

Sounds like "a rule" you just made up on a spot. 101 (heh, get it?) is basically nothing more than "look what this mode is about" zone anyways. W2 has skips, if you want something to do but it's too long for you then learn those skips.

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).

[SAB Size Feedback]

1 hour ago, Randulf.7614 said:

World 2 is r too long I agree, but they already adjusted it once and zone 2 has a massive shortcut for those of us who don’t want the pain of the Pain Cliffs.

Id rather see time now spent on works 3. Cutting down sections means time spent on that and redoing trib mode to make it work. I don’t think it’s worth it even if only z2 needs it. Whilst I'd like to see W2 overhauled, we are well past that point now

The chances of a world 4 are astronomically low at this point so u don’t think we need to look to saving time for it

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.

[SAB Size Feedback]

1 hour ago, Sobx.1758 said:

Bad suggestion. The raft is a bit boring, but overally these zones don't need any cutting.

Are you being somehow held hostage by someone or something so that you need to keep running every zone every day, including the hypothetical zones that don't even exist? If you don't have time, don't run them. You don't need to keep running them daily if you don't want to.

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.

[SAB Size Feedback]

8 minutes ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

NO!  Do not cut anything -- don't reduce the size and thereby the fun for those who love SAB.

What a silly suggestion there,  @Malus.2184. 🤦‍♀️

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.

[SAB Size Feedback]

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.

 

[Best part of Return to Magumaa]

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.

[Feedback on the narrative structure in SotO.]

On 4/7/2024 at 3:42 AM, Kalavier.1097 said:

Which lies the problem. 

How can we accurately judge how strong Heitor or the queen is if we cannot even effectively judge how strong their underlings are? The Commander is never treated as if they are a one man army either. The Commander is not equal to 50 other heroes/adventurers, so...

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.

[[Suggestions]QoL (Quality of Life) Ideas [Merged]]

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.

[Feedback on the narrative structure in SotO.]

On 4/5/2024 at 5:37 PM, Kalavier.1097 said:

So... why is Ignaxious stronger then Heitor then?

edit: This is partly the problem of taking gameplay in something like an MMO super seriously in relation to story (It also applies to say, shooters or RPGs as well). Ignaxious takes 30-50 people beating on him to die. Heitor was killed by a single person. Neither situation had the Tyrians being particularly more powerful or skilled then the other. Likewise how we have individuals who get injured and retain the injury between story updates, yet we just heal back to full after combat ends.

 

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.

[Feedback on the narrative structure in SotO.]

On 4/4/2024 at 12:21 PM, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

That's the thing.

I would consider Labris' martyrdom and Eparch's public announcement of personal vengeance to be a defeat when the purpose of the spectacle was to use Labris' execution as a rallying call against Eparch.

Due to Labris' actions, the results were the complete opposite of the desired goal. If that isn't a defeat, then what is?

You say "some will join Eparch and some will join Peitha" but the feeling we're left with is that few will join Peitha instead of many, and many more will join Eparch than expected.

And I'm aware of what a Darkest Hour is - however, a story does not need a Darkest Hour to be a good story. In fact, many Darkest Hour moments feel contrived, like Aurene's death at the end of All or Nothing that gets reverted in less than 3 minutes to players who were not active at the time of the releases' launch. That's not a darkest hour - that's a darkest minute, which makes it feel like a fakeout (which it is) and a pointless addition that adds little to nothing to the value of the story.

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.

[Feedback on the narrative structure in SotO.]

On 4/4/2024 at 1:04 PM, Kalavier.1097 said:

Couple things.

Being queen (Haven't done the episode myself, personally) does not necessarily equal being stronger. Especially if simply her status is enough to deter all attacks because it'd bring the wrath of Eparch down on the persons head. 

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.

[Feedback on the narrative structure in SotO.]

13 hours ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

Did... you play the second update to completion?

That ending is by far not a victory. It's not exactly a darkest hour either, but it is no victory as our prisoner turned herself into a martyr inspiring the loyalists and even those who were on the fence that were hoped to be recruited, and the enemy revoked all opportunity of negotiation while showing power enough to incapacity all non-kryptis (including the PC ofc).

There is a bit much power fantasy going on, I agree, but it isn't just victory after victory.

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.

 

[Feedback on the narrative structure in SotO.]

17 hours ago, mandala.8507 said:

Having high numerical and mechanical difficulty in story is just a bad design philosophy for an MMO. The reality is, story needs to be easy because story has to be accessible to everyone. The problem with the gameplay in story currently really has nothing to do with its difficulty, because honestly the numerical and mechanical difficulty of some of the encounters in SotO is pretty high relative to the rest of story content in GW2. But these story encounters have no novel problem solving, and so any work you've done as a player to become better mechanically or numerically carries over completely

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.

[Feedback on the narrative structure in SotO.]

5 hours ago, Kalavier.1097 said:

And I have honestly seen people decry certain important enemies because in gameplay, they trashed them. Like Balthazar for example, the fight you are scripted to lose and die to.

So yes, while "One rotation" is an exaggeration, it's still a dismissing statement about the situation and trying to have the PC be an army-slaying by themselves superhero and the threat of the enemy is being completely erased.

"Oh man, I guess fractals aren't any threat at all because we just cleared the entire thing in a single run. That NPC talking about how unprepared groups came out torn to shreds is just a complete lie"

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.