Why isn't Twilight Arbor solo scaled now?

[TeeracK.3601]

You guys made a solo version of the Aetherblade Retreat and the Molten Facility dungeons. Why didn't you make the Twilight Arbor solo? Wasn't the entire point of releasing season 1 to fix the sloppy way the story was told and remove missing gaps? Now to get the full contents of the story you need to do a dungeon no one ever runs? That kind of defeats the point doesn't it?

[Luthan.5236]

Cause it is a permanent option of the dungeons. The other ones were the temporary content from back then. + we have the fractals required for the other achievements. I think they want to use this to slowly get people into fractals (previous chapters) and the explorable dungeon things (this chapter; and the core personal story was intended to get people to to the story modes of the dungeons).

Last chapter is supposed to bring a strike mission. Clever thing to do it that way. While I am usually against forced group content where you have to form a party with lfg (or looking in map chat) ... the fractal rush some years ago ... got me into fractals. And I am willing to try dungeons since they are considered easier with the power creep of the expansions (elite specs). As long as no raids and harder strikes are enforced ... I am okay with this. (Turtle strike mission requirement was a bit borderline ... barely managed to get myself to do this. I do the 3 easier IBS strikes though. But that one was a bit harder.)

Edited July 20, 2022 by Luthan.5236

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

1 hour ago, TeeracK.3601 said:

You guys made a solo version of the Aetherblade Retreat and the Molten Facility dungeons. Why didn't you make the Twilight Arbor solo? Wasn't the entire point of releasing season 1 to fix the sloppy way the story was told and remove missing gaps? Now to get the full contents of the story you need to do a dungeon no one ever runs? That kind of defeats the point doesn't it?

I imagine because they're treating it the same way they're treating the fractals related to return episodes 1 and 2. Group side story content to do after doing the story; Episode 4 will no doubt suggest Nightmare Fractal despite it having no direct relevance to S1, and Episode 5 will no doubt be using the new strike mission for this.

Twilight Assault, although its own release, was always a bit of a side story much like Thaumanova Reactor Fractal.

Would have been nice to get a single player version, but it wasn't part of Clockwork Chaos, so it makes sense they did it this way - less work for similar value.

[TeeracK.3601]

the difference is the fractals don't tell any new story they are used as replay of it. Most people who play through the story of GW2 already are confused at the end of the game because the entire story of Destiny's edge is told in the story mode of the dungeons and no one ever does when they get mail about it. This is now just another thing no one will ever do and miss out on. If that wasn't the case then they wouldn't have changed story mode of Arah to be solo mode way back in season 1 because originally it was a group thing the majority of the community didn't bother with.

Edited July 20, 2022 by TeeracK.3601

[Luthan.5236]

Yes fractals re-tell some of the story from the chapters of season 1. And story mode of the dungeons had story that was supposed to be known ... for the last story chapter (that was basically story mode of the last dungeon).

But the Aetherblade afaik really is only a side story. Later chapters are not created with the player having to know this path.

On a side note: I just tried it once. After having played fractals up to t2 and easy strikes regularly (fractal rush got me into fractals) ... and also the turtle strike once (where I first ready the mechanics) ... I was surprised:

First I did not listen to the NPC and killed just everything (the pet/mech was annoying there as well) - until someone mentioned about the mechanics. (Which is supposed to be easy - and some people can solo it a according to the info I googled.) But when you come from previous stuff ... expecting some fight mechanic that - if necessary - could be carried by other players ( or 1 dying other 4 finish or so) ... this is a big increase in difficulty. Even with reading and learning about the mechanic it might be annoying. The plants could get a yellow name to be easier to find. And the oozes be green (allied to the own team and possible to heal maybe) ... to make it easier.

Now all the experienced players will finish this ... ArenaNet hopign that the new Steam players will be enough so everyone can find a group to finish the achievement - when everyone does it once for achievement (season chapter 3) and for unlock of the armor vendor maybe.

Would be better if there were groups regularly available (meaning: rewards need to be increased so experiencded players will populate the lfg regularly) or of they made this one optional for the s1 chapter 3 achievemenz at least. Return to achievements had all strikes optional afaik. (Even the easy ones. While strikes are still populated regularly.)

This could scare away new players from Steam if not handled carefully. Personall I will ignore it for now - I guess the reward for completing all s1 chapter achievements will be just some ascended and not somethign important ... since it is only s1 you know.

Edited July 20, 2022 by Luthan.5236

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

6 hours ago, TeeracK.3601 said:

the difference is the fractals don't tell any new story they are used as replay of it. Most people who play through the story of GW2 already are confused at the end of the game because the entire story of Destiny's edge is told in the story mode of the dungeons and no one ever does when they get mail about it. This is now just another thing no one will ever do and miss out on. If that wasn't the case then they wouldn't have changed story mode of Arah to be solo mode way back in season 1 because originally it was a group thing the majority of the community didn't bother with.

The main difference between the dungeon story modes and Aetherpath, imo, is that the dungeon story modes were directly relevant to Destiny's Edge reuniting which played a pivotal role in the PS finale. Aetherpath only shows that Scarlet was building up her forces, which is evident enough with Clockwork Chaos and Twisted Marionette content - if not the entire season given every returned episode is Scarlet building up her forces.

There's also the matter of Thaumanova Fractal, which hasn't yet been brought into the main story, and quite frankly an achievement that is required for the story journal's meta achievement is a lot higher incentive than what the core dungeons have gotten.

 

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't oppose a solo version of Aetherpath. I just don't think it's critical. If they were to put in the manpower for that, I'd rather they convert The Lost Shores, Secret of Southsun arc, and Cutthroat Politics arc into the story journal first.

Edited July 20, 2022 by Konig Des Todes.2086

[TeeracK.3601]

17 hours ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

The main difference between the dungeon story modes and Aetherpath, imo, is that the dungeon story modes were directly relevant to Destiny's Edge reuniting which played a pivotal role in the PS finale. Aetherpath only shows that Scarlet was building up her forces, which is evident enough with Clockwork Chaos and Twisted Marionette content - if not the entire season given every returned episode is Scarlet building up her forces.

There's also the matter of Thaumanova Fractal, which hasn't yet been brought into the main story, and quite frankly an achievement that is required for the story journal's meta achievement is a lot higher incentive than what the core dungeons have gotten.

 

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't oppose a solo version of Aetherpath. I just don't think it's critical. If they were to put in the manpower for that, I'd rather they convert The Lost Shores, Secret of Southsun arc, and Cutthroat Politics arc into the story journal first.

I think its bizarre to make a case that this story doesn't matter compared to other stories. All of the dungeon story modes should have transitioned to solo mode when they changed arah and the only reason that twilight arbor was left in the game and the other dungeons didn't is because they had already started to greatly regret removing the first two dungeons by this point so they tried making it a path instead.

 

The dungeon directly continues(and the conversation between scarlet and Caithe here was referenced a lot in all the original trailers of season 1, 8 years ago) the story, and sure you can skip it the same way you can skip siren's landing in season 3 and then go right into POF and say "oh well that part of the story wasn't critical" its just not a good feeling when the ENTIRE reason we are getting season 1 right now instead of season 7 is because they know how sloppy and hard it was to follow the story and are trying to fix and stream line it into one fluent experience. Them not making this have a solo version will just result in no one doing this a few months from now the same way no one does the destiny's edge story in the personal story.

 

I had no issue getting a group and doing it this week, but before that it was always a massive pain and usually a lost cause trying to make this group in LFG(and i say that as someone who gets all the achievements and had to run it a few times for the meta last year) since no one wants to do it.  I just think them not including a solo version of this part of the story is nothing but a mistake personally.

[Ashantara.8731]

On 7/20/2022 at 9:57 AM, TeeracK.3601 said:

You guys made a solo version of the Aetherblade Retreat and the Molten Facility dungeons. Why didn't you make the Twilight Arbor solo?

You are mistaking the story mission instances with the respective dungeons. We had to run the dungeon version of the other two you mentioned as well for achievements, in addition to the story missions.

[Doghouse.1562]

More to the point, and from a purely pragmatic point of view - why include the hardest path of a dungeon that almost no-one runs as a prerequisite for the LS meta-achievement? Watching LFG for the last hour or two, it's clear that (a) very few casual groups are doing the run, and (b) a significant proportion of the few that are, aren't interested in having anyone along who doesn't already know the mechanics. Whatever sense it makes from a story/historical content perrspective - it's hard to see how that's remotely a good decision for the player base.

Edited July 21, 2022 by Doghouse.1562

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

This should've been turned into a story mission, given that its a direct precursor to the end of LWS2. A significant amount of the build up for the big reveal is from Twilight Arbor.

 

They could've still required players to do the actual dungeon for the achievs.

Edited July 21, 2022 by Mariyuuna.6508

[Lord Korag.8439]

On 7/21/2022 at 9:06 PM, Doghouse.1562 said:

More to the point, and from a purely pragmatic point of view - why include the hardest path of a dungeon that almost no-one runs as a prerequisite for the LS meta-achievement?

You just answered yourself. To force more ppl run this path. Tbh, jf you handle the oozes, the rest is not very difficult, after all not even the oozes are, they just need a good cooperation and coordination (two of the great 3C, the third is communication, which is needed too in the end).

Edited October 26, 2022 by Lord Korag.8439