Arborstone: A Complete Waste of Space

[number.8174]

It's absolutely a really gorgeous place with so many details on it's architecture, but it's completely empty in terms of gameplay, there's nothing to do, even on the livestream they spent like 25 min just running through the area and showing a lot of NPCs that also don't do nothing, it's a place to be AFK, just that, I think don't even RP can be done there since there's nothing, the NPCs are like lazy peons with no purpose of existence. They announced that there will be showed gameplay content on the masteries, although they didn't showed any gameplay. Developing this place as open world, they could had so much better ideas for gameplay like being a part of a meta event, a world boss in there, a strike mission or even a whole new raid wing, imagine the enemies, bosses and mechanics that could be implemented on that huge and gorgeous place. That was really disappointing. As more as I look to EoD features, I see what I was most afraid of, a big mistake of some (*Blizzard*) MMO companies that always led them to lose a lot of the playerbase, the complete disconnection between what the vast majority of the playerbase wants and what developers want, it sounds like they're building the game just for them with their strange ideas, not for the playerbase, and the public response for that is simple, they quit your game, just like it's happening with WoW right now.

Edited December 3, 2021 by number.8174

[Vidit.7108]

Near the very end they mentioned the map will have events (like Amnoon if i had to guess) but it's really disappointing to watch an hour of almost entirely vacant space they promise will be worth it when we get to play it.

[Cronospere.8143]

Have you played it? 

A lot of things are hidden so you won't be spoiled. 

Just wait with your opinion until you've actually played it. 

Edited December 3, 2021 by Cronospere.8143

[number.8174]

8 minutes ago, Cronospere.8143 said:

Have you played it? 

A lot of things are hidden so you won't be spoiled. 

Just wait with your opinion until you've actually played it. 

I hope I'm totally wrong, but the form they announce things with their marketing isn't really good, btw, so we don't know clearly nothing about EoD, just superficial things that are presented almost on a bad impressions form, so we don't know what they are doing or what are their intentions, building hype is different from building concerns, and hiding core features (apparently) behind the "we'll not show you this because it's spoiler" it's ridiculous.

Edited December 3, 2021 by number.8174

[Elric.4713]

Not to mention how ugly it looked to me with that green lighting. I cannot express how disappointed I am with Echovald and now Arborstone as they dropped the ball to deliver some darker zones for us who enjoy them.

[Cronospere.8143]

14 minutes ago, number.8174 said:

I hope I'm totally wrong, but the form they announce things with their marketing isn't really good, btw, so we don't know clearly nothing about EoD, just superficial things that are presented almost on a bad impressions form, so we don't know what they are doing or what are their intentions, building hype is different from building concerns, and hiding core features (apparently) behind the "we'll not show you this because it's spoiler" it's ridiculous.

Okay the marketing i agree.. lol it's not their strongest point. 

I'm the kind of person who likes to be surprised. So i'm glad I dont know everything already. Im optimistic about what they will deliver. So i will wait and see! 

Edited December 3, 2021 by Cronospere.8143

[Faridah.8431]

If you think that's bad, wait till you see the Jade Sea stream where they literally removed even the NPCs, all of them, so the whole thing was empty.

I hope we get some form of actual trailer in the vein of HoT and PoF that gives us some idea of what the hell we are doing in Cantha. They seem extremely afraid to show even a sliver.

Edited December 3, 2021 by Faridah.8431

[Hadesengel.2980]

1 hour ago, Elric.4713 said:

Not to mention how ugly it looked to me with that green lighting. I cannot express how disappointed I am with Echovald and now Arborstone as they dropped the ball to deliver some darker zones for us who enjoy them.

Yes, what's with that green? This is supposed to be Echovald Forest, not Jade Sea or Fallout 3.

[Dami.5046]

Another useless Hub. 

 

 

[Fizz.9384]

You can pet cats there.

[babak.3654]

5 minutes ago, Fizz.9384 said:

You can pet cats there.

Expansion-worthy feature right there.

 

I thought Arborstone looked nice, nothing wrong with having a local hub, even if we have done similar things with EotN and Sun's Refuge. But you have an hour stream, why not show some events? It's stretching credibility that there isn't any gameplay that could be shown that isn't a critical spoiler.

[Ashantara.8731]

14 hours ago, number.8174 said:

It's absolutely a really gorgeous place with so many details on it's architecture, but it's completely empty in terms of gameplay, there's nothing to do [...]

You obviously did not listen to a thing the devs explained about the place during the live stream. GG. 😂

[Dami.5046]

I felt heartbroken for the NPC they choose to show, all sad about what has happened. I got you buddy.

💔

Edited December 4, 2021 by Dami.5046

[Fueki.4753]

In the presentation, Arborstone was as empty as the hype train for the expansion is.

It's quite fitting.

[MrMouser.6583]

For me it only feels empty cause they did not tell us more about it, hopefully there is more or at least there is desire to build on top of it constantly during the expack cycle. 

For me I expected this to be player housing, I wanted to be able to bring all my home instance unlocks to it and on top of it be able to decorate it using something like the guildhall system, I kept on waiting for them to drop the bomb on us that this will be the case but they didn't however not going that way eventually feels to me like a serious missed opportunity so I pray the only reason its not there cause its not ready.

 

I am fairly optimistic, they showed in the past year they are willing to listen and also showing the extra legendary sets for me feels like that was a response to the community response and not necessarily planned so if thats the case then it means they are doing their best to address the issues we have.

 

[Gibson.4036]

I strongly dislike the EotN because it feels so stingy to orient an entire story around a new hub and then make us pay to unlock most normal hub services.

I was prepared to dislike Arborstone for the same reason, but adding amenities by the mastery system has potential to feel a lot better. After watching the stream I’m cautiously optimistic.

I only hope the last few mastery tiers won’t take dozens of scarce MP and huge exp bars to accomplish.

[Gibson.4036]

Also, after EOD launch, can the Cat Dev be allotted some time to go back and make our home instance cats interactable?

My apologies, I’m terrible at remembering names! Based on the stream, though, I expect she might not feel too bad about taking The Cat Dev as a title or nickname.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

The Cat Dev:  https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Annie_VanderMeer

[Ashantara.8731]

2 hours ago, MrMouser.6583 said:

For me it only feels empty cause they did not tell us more about it, [...]

Okay, I have to repeat myself: Did those saying stuff like this even had their volume up and heard a word the devs explained about Arborstone during the live stream?

Facts:

1. The place will fill up nicely the more you level your Arborstone Revitalization Mastery.
2. The stuff added with the Mastery Levels will be: Vendors, Craftsmen, Unique Collection (and possibly Quest) NPCs, as well as Furniture, Decoration, Fireplaces, Sitting accommodations, Ambient NPCs (some likely with further dialogue).
3. The place will also serve as a hub for the new Strike Missions.
4. We will likely get to level Jeweler to 500 (this has not been mentioned yet, but the fact that this craft pops up earlier in the Mastery than others, alongside Cook, which might also play a role in regard of Fishing, suggests the assumption).
5. We also have a Jumping Puzzles that, unlike previous ones, will have more than one route you can pick - the more complex the route the higher the reward.

Now, these are the things we already know (there might be more). So how is this "a waste of space"?

Edited December 4, 2021 by Ashantara.8731

[Svarty.8019]

20 hours ago, Vidit.7108 said:

Near the very end they mentioned the map will have events (like Amnoon if i had to guess) but it's really disappointing to watch an hour of almost entirely vacant space they promise will be worth it when we get to play it.

I'm a big fan of upgrading/personalising locations. That's cool and all, but we've already got home instance, we've got guild hall, we've got Eye of the North. 

Do we want another place that will be out-of-fashion when the next big shiny appears? Is this GW2's alternative gear grind? Location grind?

Edited December 4, 2021 by Svarty.8019

[Linken.6345]

41 minutes ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

The Cat Dev:  https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Annie_VanderMeer

Were is the Dog Dev we need as a counter balance?

[MrMouser.6583]

On 12/4/2021 at 8:39 PM, Ashantara.8731 said:

Okay, I have to repeat myself: Did those saying stuff like this even had their volume up and heard a word the devs explained about Arborstone during the live stream?

Facts:

1. The place will fill up nicely the more you level your Arborstone Revitalization Mastery.
2. The stuff added with the Mastery Levels will be: Vendors, Craftsmen, Unique Collection (and possibly Quest) NPCs, as well as Furniture, Decoration, Fireplaces, Sitting accommodations, Ambient NPCs (some likely with further dialogue).
3. The place will also serve as a hub for the new Strike Missions.
4. We will likely get to level Jeweler to 500 (this has not been mentioned yet, but the fact that this craft pops up earlier in the Mastery than others, alongside Cook, which might also play a role in regard of Fishing, suggests the assumption).
5. We also have a Jumping Puzzles that, unlike previous ones, will have more than one route you can pick - the more complex the route the higher the reward.

Now, these are the things we already know (there might be more). So how is this "a waste of space"?

I want to say I clearly heard all you said and still feel the way I did.

They did NOT say you will be able to decorate it, you are progressively unlocking a pre-decorated stage is not what decorating means to most of us specially since we have guild halls. So I will say it again if we don't get the same system here eventually it will be a missed opportunity ... again, for me.

The place will not serve as a hub for NEW Strike Missions, it will be just another Eye of the North, the only difference being we don't progress it as a community but as an individual.

I do think that there are many systems on top of this place compared to Eye of the North but I still think it doesn't add enough now to make it exiting, for me and other people at least, my issue is the information they provided was just to vague and for now it alludes to being way more but it could also not be enough. 

Personally if they give us decorations like they do with guild halls and let us invite people to our instance, let us import home instance unlocks, it will fix all the problems I have with it at this point. People have been asking for proper home instance for year, they have all the systems in the game they just need to put them together and hey maybe this is it or at least the first part of it but we just don't know at this point. 

 

[Lord Trejgon.2809]

2 hours ago, MrMouser.6583 said:

The place will not serve as a hub for NEW Strike Missions, it will be just another Eye of the North

They quite explicitelly said "the portal to all cantha strike missions"

Which is opposite to your claim here.

As a matter of fact based on their wording I am mildly afraid if it will have access to old strikes, or are they going to try and split strikers between two hubs 😉

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

They might have to split Strikes between two hubs, as some Strikes are from Path of Fire (Heart of Thorns) expansion, and some are from End of Dragons.

[Ashantara.8731]

5 hours ago, MrMouser.6583 said:

I want to say I clearly heard all you said and still feel the way I did.

They did NOT say you will be able to decorate it, you are progressively unlocking a pre-decorated stage is not what decorating means

But that's exactly what I said, too: leveling the Mastery will add decoration to the place. Nowhere did I write that you would be able to manually decorate the place. Proper reading ftw!  You even quoted what I wrote, yet claim I was saying otherwise.