What does "new gameplay and combat features" mean for gw2?

[Chromatic Drake.3168]

Hello, 

With the recent note about anet and the future of the game, I guess with what we can see on the forum or reddit, many people actually have a very good question, what does anet teap actually want to say with "new gameplay and combat features". 

 

For many players like myself, elite specs (and new class/new build/new weapons) is pretty much the selling point of expansion. New gameplay is pretty much what makes pvp/raid/wvw actually survive for many of us. 

 

IBS was sold with the same model (expansion-level of content), and while being at best a decent living story, it completely failed to deliver any new gameplay. 

 

I have no idea if anet will communicate/do some Q&A with us (will they even see this post?), but I hope we'll have answer, after this note that made have more questions than answers.

[Danikat.8537]

My guess is they deliberately kept it vague because they're talking about every future update in that article, so they had to generalise. The full sentence is "The first release in an expansion cycle is the launch point for a new story arc, bringing with it two new open-world maps, two Strike Missions, new gameplay and combat features, new Masteries, and new rewards" and we don't have details on what any of that means yet. A lot of it will probably be different each time.

It might be that one release will include elite specs, but then the next one will include something different (new weapons? The ability to mix-and-match things from elite specs? another re-work of the specialisation and trait system? Something entirely new?) so they can't specifically say new elite specs because then if there's ever a release which doesn't include them they get accused of lying. Also I doubt they plan things in detail more than a year or two in advance, so they may not know more than one or two examples.

I assume we'll get the same type of promo and announcements we usually do ahead of each release and no one can decide if they want to buy it until it's being sold, so we don't need to decide until we have that info.

[Mungo Zen.9364]

Bear in mind they haven't actually announced anything about a future expansion beyond "we are starting working on the next expansion" when they released EoD.  All this does is tell us that they are working towards future releases, still, but that nothing worth talking about has happened yet.

Until they actually announce a release date for a future expansion, all this talk of changes to how they make the game mean absolutely nothing to the players.  It's been a year since EoD and we are finally getting the follow up to it, and it sounds like they have set the expectation that there will be more than one EoD follow up release before they announce the next expansion.

Do we actually believe that they will wrap up the EoD content in 2023 and release a new expansion in 2024?  I for one do not.

However, that is a future problem, one for 2024 or 2025 (If I still care about this game then).  I am not going to worry about what the next expansion does or doesn't have until they put it in front of us to judge.  They have to earn the next dollar I spend with them and a feature light expansion will be a sure way to lose my money, and it appears, many others.

[Danikat.8537]

The way I look at it is fairly simple. Most of the time all I think about is whether I want to play some part of the game in it's current state. If I do (and I have time and can get to my PC) I'll log in and play, if not I'll do something else. I don't actually need to know what's coming in future to make that decision because it doesn't change what's currently available to me to play.

Then when Anet is selling something I don't yet have I'll decide if I want it. That's always a stand-alone decision based entirely on what's included in that product. I didn't get any of the expansions just because I already had the base game and was still playing, I waited until Anet convinced me the new stuff I'd get was worth the price for me (and if it wasn't I'd wait until it was discounted to a price I did think was worthwhile). But I don't need to think about that until they're trying to sell me something because deciding I want to buy something which doesn't exist is absolutely useless. (And if I'm going to do that I'll dream way, way bigger. Like a dragon, an obedient cassowary, real-life fast travel etc.)

[smack.9651]

New gameplay can mean a lot. Mini-games, masteries, story content... We can only speculate.

 

For new combat features, it could mean elite specs. I also like the idea of new weapons, which will offer existing professions new s1-5 skills. Scythes, Polearms, Flails, some kind of magic weapon, etc. May not be as flashy as 9 new elite specs, but it would expand build options.

[zuulsol.9236]

What I would like to see is old boss fights rehashed into repeatable strike missions, and a new class with expansions. Rather than inflate the number of elite specs and creating balance nightmares, they could easily release a single core class, or a single core class for each armor type, and then add elites to it with expansions. 

New strikes, fractals, with new mechanics, and of varying difficulties (including pushing the boundary past HTCM) would also be highly welcome and refreshing. 

[Ashen.2907]

7 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

My guess is they deliberately kept it vague because they're talking about every future update in that article, so they had to generalise

This.

I expect that the terms in question will mean different things for different releases. Perhaps one expansion will include new elite specs while another will include new weapons (land spears now pls). Still another expac might introduce a new race. 

[Mistwraithe.3106]

8 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

My guess is they deliberately kept it vague because they're talking about every future update in that article, so they had to generalise.

I agree. Having seen people saying on many different threads that Arena Net once said this and that, frequently going back years or even a decade, and then expressing indignation that Arena Net haven't done exactly what was said in the past, I'm not at all surprised when Arena Net are vague about things.

Life is complex. Things change and smart people adapt when they change. This is even more the case for a business where new employees are hired, current employees leave, management changes, and virtually every business plan is at least a partial guess of what will *hopefully* work.

Of course things are going to change. Every future facing statement can by definition only be what they intend to do since the future hasn't arrived yet.

Edited February 15 by Mistwraithe.3106