Continuity in Central Tyria maps after Season 1 changes.

[Azureus.5428]

I'm here to scratch at one of the most obvious itches in the worldbuilding - maps devastated by the turmoils of the main story, lying in ruins looong before anything actually happens in the game. Kessex Hills, Timberline Falls, Mordremorth ravaged Iron Marches... 

So, all the old maps seem to be lying somewhere in the archival repository - why not use them for all the people who haven't reached a given story treshold? I mean, the amount of confusion after seeing mighty Seraph, Vigil and Pact forts being torn asunder without any hint or explanation just leads people to concluding that the storywriting is sloppy. And a large part of immersion goes to hell if you are fighting Mordrem weeks before Mordremorth attacks Tyria.

So, before you pop a given mission, you walk around those beautiful, forested Kessex Hills, without any toxic invasions, because they haven't happened yet.

[DeanBB.4268]

That would potentially split the playerbase for each map into 3 separate maps: pre-event, event-in-progress, post event. Do we really want that?

I agree that the maps frozen in time is problematic. Orr is supposedly purged, but never is. I don't have a good solution.

[Azureus.5428]

4 minutes ago, DeanBB.4268 said:

That would potentially split the playerbase for each map into 3 separate maps: pre-event, event-in-progress, post event. Do we really want that?

I agree that the maps frozen in time is problematic. Orr is supposedly purged, but never is. I don't have a good solution.

You know, these maps are basically easy mode, doable by repeatedly pressing 1, so there would be no problem with them being a bit emptier than usual. On the other hand, the Mordrem events in the IM are so difficult that it makes absolutely no sense to expose any new players to them...

Edited November 17, 2022 by Azureus.5428

[Farohna.6247]

17 minutes ago, DeanBB.4268 said:

That would potentially split the playerbase for each map into 3 separate maps: pre-event, event-in-progress, post event. Do we really want that?

I agree that the maps frozen in time is problematic. Orr is supposedly purged, but never is. I don't have a good solution.

The solution would be phasing.   So whatever part of the story you've completed, is what you see.  It was sometimes a nuisance in WoW...if someone had not completed a storyline, you could not see them in the same area.  So it would not work well in GW2, with so many map events, world bosses, etc.  That would have been the original way to avoid visual confusion, but not something to implement now.  

Guess we just need to forgive and use our imagination. 

[mythical.6315]

Yes because players enjoy seeing empty maps /s

Edited November 17, 2022 by mythical.6315

[Azureus.5428]

1 hour ago, mythical.6315 said:

Yes because players enjoy seeing empty maps /s

It's preferable to a zerg.

[Sobx.1758]

1 minute ago, Azureus.5428 said:

It's preferable to a zerg.

And you think those maps are zeged so hard or what's the point of that response?

[Azureus.5428]

11 minutes ago, Sobx.1758 said:

And you think those maps are zeged so hard or what's the point of that response?

No, but if people must stand overzerged loothells, then the 3 emptier and quieter maps would be a welcome refuge.

Someone mentioned 'using our imagination'. Whatever will the new player imagine, seeing the ruins of the Tower, will be smashed apart by the actual story. Also, the 'great reveal' part of this chapter is turned into a some kind of a hastily plastered together junk stack - we see the ruin, then we see the tower, there's literally nothing that would show us some kind of invisibility spell working.

This is bad design, simple as that.

Also - this is our first base of operations for the Pact! Look, it's destroyed! Nobody's having any problem with that! XD

 

Edited November 17, 2022 by Azureus.5428

[ugrakarma.9416]

nobody care about LS1, imagine about "map consistency", move on.

Icebroog Saga rehearsed maps for "champions" are still with problems like, showing icons on minimap that shouldn't be there, like core tyria insight's.

Edited November 17, 2022 by ugrakarma.9416

[Sobx.1758]

17 minutes ago, Azureus.5428 said:

No, but if people must stand overzerged loothells, then the 3 emptier and quieter maps would be a welcome refuge.

So if you understand it's not zerged then you should probably also understand that there's no need to further split the map into "new/old player" instances to make them even emptier.

Edited November 17, 2022 by Sobx.1758

[ugrakarma.9416]

19 minutes ago, Azureus.5428 said:

No, but if people must stand overzerged loothells, then the 3 emptier and quieter maps would be a welcome refuge.

Someone mentioned 'using our imagination'. Whatever will the new player imagine, seeing the ruins of the Tower, will be smashed apart by the actual story. Also, the 'great reveal' part of this chapter is turned into a some kind of a hastily plastered together junk stack - we see the ruin, then we see the tower, there's literally nothing that would show us some kind of invisibility spell working.

This is bad design, simple as that.

Also - this is our first base of operations for the Pact! Look, it's destroyed! Nobody's having any problem with that! XD

 

New players don't care, the only ones care about it is overzealous RP nerds.

When i was a newplayer, the first thing i did was map completion,,, i just assumed its a fantasy game, so i dont care about giant turtles that can talk our language.

I remembered first time on Queensdale, theres haloween event going on, and some candy corn creatures poped up close to the shadow behemot area. i can't understand what the hell was "shadow behemot" on event right panel, just moved on.

Edited November 17, 2022 by ugrakarma.9416

[DeanBB.4268]

4 hours ago, Azureus.5428 said:

I'm here to scratch at one of the most obvious itches in the worldbuilding - maps devastated by the turmoils of the main story, lying in ruins looong before anything actually happens in the game. Kessex Hills, Timberline Falls, Mordremorth ravaged Iron Marches... 

To go back to the original post, it certainly seems like the opportune moment to return those maps to their pre-attack state, considering LS1 is all instanced, rather than making multiple versions of the map. How all the toxic events fit into it might need some work, though.

But has Anet ever done such a thing?

[Raim.6123]

Phasing is one of the things that kill MMOs. Too many players is almost always preferable to not enough. 

[Farohna.6247]

57 minutes ago, Raim.6123 said:

Phasing is one of the things that kill MMOs. Too many players is almost always preferable to not enough. 

It's very messy.  When I started playing I honestly didn't give it a lot of thought as to why some areas looked a certain way, as it usually get explained at some point.  Never considered it a big issue.

[Padrion.7382]

The easiest solution would be to label Season 1 as a prequel-story.

[mythical.6315]

7 hours ago, Azureus.5428 said:

It's preferable to a zerg.

Unless those maps are experiencing zergs, there's really no point to what you just said.

Also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrelevant_conclusion

Edited November 18, 2022 by mythical.6315

[Azureus.5428]

On 11/18/2022 at 2:54 AM, mythical.6315 said:

Unless those maps are experiencing zergs, there's really no point to what you just said.

Also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrelevant_conclusion

Yes, there is. If some maps are just blobs of players doing the most unfun thing ever, then some may be quiet zones, with just a few souls who can try soloing low level champions without somebody cutting in and turning the thing into another mindless button smash.

[Sobx.1758]

1 hour ago, Azureus.5428 said:

Yes, there is. If some maps are just blobs of players doing the most unfun thing ever, then some may be quiet zones, with just a few souls who can try soloing low level champions without somebody cutting in and turning the thing into another mindless button smash.

But these maps already aren't zerged, you acknowledged as much yourself.

[kharmin.7683]

1 hour ago, Azureus.5428 said:

Yes, there is. If some maps are just blobs of players doing the most unfun thing ever, then some may be quiet zones, with just a few souls who can try soloing low level champions without somebody cutting in and turning the thing into another mindless button smash.

That's a highly subjective statement.  What you might deem "unfun" may well be quite entertaining for a lot of other players.

[Azureus.5428]

59 minutes ago, kharmin.7683 said:

That's a highly subjective statement.  What you might deem "unfun" may well be quite entertaining for a lot of other players.

What fun do you find in having no actual input in the result of the game?

[Azureus.5428]

1 hour ago, Sobx.1758 said:

But these maps already aren't zerged, you acknowledged as much yourself.

But 3 of them being emptier won't hurt the image of the game, which has plenty of places where you can't find a short while of solitude.

[kharmin.7683]

2 hours ago, Azureus.5428 said:

What fun do you find in having no actual input in the result of the game?

I wasn't speaking of myself, personally, but there are many other things that can be done in GW2 that don't impact "the result" of the game (whatever that means?).

[Azureus.5428]

1 hour ago, kharmin.7683 said:

I wasn't speaking of myself, personally, but there are many other things that can be done in GW2 that don't impact "the result" of the game (whatever that means?).

The results of the game are the events being completed or failed. 😛

[mythical.6315]

6 hours ago, Azureus.5428 said:

Yes, there is. If some maps are just blobs of players doing the most unfun thing ever, then some may be quiet zones, with just a few souls who can try soloing low level champions without somebody cutting in and turning the thing into another mindless button smash.

No there isn't.  Your statement that "players hate zergs" has nothing to do with the concerns that creating multiple instances based on story progression would divide players on those maps potentially creating empty ones. 

You have also failed to back up that these maps suffer from issues with zergs but that's an entirely separate issue.

Edited November 19, 2022 by mythical.6315

[mythical.6315]

4 hours ago, Azureus.5428 said:

But 3 of them being emptier won't hurt the image of the game, which has plenty of places where you can't find a short while of solitude.

Which three?  Prove that that zergs are a problem.