Gyala Delves Feedback [Merged]

[Forgotten Legend.9281]

so far it's a great looking zone, and the [EDIT: potential of the] meta is so far exciting, like an invasion of enemy territory. (i know there's more to come in the future. EDIT: like the western half of the map) can't wait to see more!

 

there's really 2 very unfun mechanics though

1) constantly needing to go buy more filters (maxx 30, so you can't even stack them) because they run out before finishing the subzone. 

(is there going to be a mastery for this in the future?, will this mastery allow us into areas of Dragon's End without victory over the meta?)

2) many bosses and events don't drop keys, but there are a LOT of chests. i know i can buy more keys like in Drizzlewood Coast, but so few keys drop that i leave 60-70% of chests unopenned. i'm not going to farm this map for no rewards. especially if i have to buy 100 keys for a single map clear.

 

Story Step "Sleuthing a Solution"... is this story step part of this update? or will i need to wait for future installments? there is an achievement to complete, but the story step simply says "wait for... etc...) and so far, nothing has happened after doing the map meta twice. So do i need to accomplish something first?

Edited February 28 by Forgotten Legend.9281

[Randulf.7614]

The filters are an odd mechanic. I couldnt fathom why I'd need the boosters when I had the 30 stack already. When I took a booster, it just overwrote that with 10. Didnt actually add anything either as a mechanic - its just another thing added for the sake of adding something. I think it's better removed or made into a mastery, instead having side effects to the haze rather than it killing it you if you arent trained up. Or better yet, have a npc team with a filter being towed along that needs protecting and maintain by a group during the event or it fails. That will at least provide combat mechanics, tactics and no silly bloat the devs are obsessed with.

I'm disappointed to see yet another meta map, but on the other hand, I didn't hate it - in fact the chain worked as a cross between Dragon Stand and Drizzlewood and its nice to put the turtle to use. I enjoyed the event and I guess the full boss fights too despite their repetitive nature and being hidden under mess of particle effects (what happened to vine wrath and gerent bosses which were great). It did its job.

It is however just another content sparse map whch continues the theme of EoD. The meta and the map are becoming synoyn,ous rather than making metas a rare event. Not sure how often I'd come here - this has been overdone and better elsewhere in the game. Gone are the days of brilliance like Draconic Mons with variety, jps, small metas, well crafted unique map design.

As for the story step, this is working like they did with IBS. The map will likely be added to (see the position of the map name on the map) and the story continue in a future update.

 

Edited February 28 by Randulf.7614

[Gibson.4036]

Teapot's working really hard to seem upbeat.

[Einsof.1457]

This update gave us truly one of the most memorable and astounding map metas in the entire game. I love the part where you just attack a void blob and some small humanoid for 10 minutes and the thing dies. Truly great design. Friggin A+. Who needs interesting mechanics and creative enemies when you can just smash your face against the keyboard and get loot? 

Edited February 28 by Einsof.1457

[vares.8457]

9 minutes ago, Einsof.1457 said:

This update gave us truly one of the most memorable and astounding map metas in the entire game. I love the part where you just attack a void blob and some small humanoid for 10 minutes and the thing dies. Truly great design. Friggin A+. Who needs interesting mechanics and creative enemies when you can just smash your face against the keyboard and get loot? 

Yeah the meta is a bit boring. I had hoped that after the great DE meta we will get better meta events. But the crying from the casuals was too loud I guess. 
The map looks great though.  

Edited February 28 by vares.8457

[Randulf.7614]

10 minutes ago, Einsof.1457 said:

This update gave us truly one of the most memorable and astounding map metas in the entire game. I love the part where you just attack a void blob and some small humanoid for 10 minutes and the thing dies. Truly great design. Friggin A+. Who needs interesting mechanics and creative enemies when you can just smash your face against the keyboard and get loot? 

Feels like they took bloodstone fen jade bosses and anomaly for inspiration rather than vine wrath or gerent or other quality bosses

[IAmNotMatthew.1058]

6 minutes ago, vares.8457 said:

Yeah the meta is a bit boring. I had hoped that after the great DE meta we will get better meta events. But the crying from the casuals was too loud I guess. 
The map looks great though.  

"The Deep" got my mind going, was expecting some Kanaxai 2.0.

[Sobx.1758]

15 minutes ago, Gibson.4036 said:

Teapot's working really hard to seem upbeat.

I wonder how you came to that conclusion, please explain.

[Eulefant.9624]

Must say I went back to doing a Kessex map on an old toon after about an hour.

The Kaineng like emptiness,

the ton of events everybody passes by ,

the nicely spread out enemies standing around,

 

it didn't grab me.

 

But to be honest I am not a meta type of player and maybe the map was build for some elaborate meta.

I hardly ever go back to meta maps.

 

 

Thats my impression.

I think I wont complete this episode on any of the accounts and revert to vanilla activity.

 

[Gibson.4036]

9 minutes ago, IAmNotMatthew.1058 said:

"The Deep" got my mind going, was expecting some Kanaxai 2.0.

Well, there's still the second half in about three months. Maybe?

[Bast.7253]

25 minutes ago, Einsof.1457 said:

This update gave us truly one of the most memorable and astounding map metas in the entire game. I love the part where you just attack a void blob and some small humanoid for 10 minutes and the thing dies. Truly great design. Friggin A+. Who needs interesting mechanics and creative enemies when you can just smash your face against the keyboard and get loot? 

Wait, this map has loot? 

[Aelin.9317]

The final chest gave me karma, karma and then more karma. That was a little sad. But I do like the map itself. Still curious to see what else will come in future ^^

[thetwothousand.5049]

Frankly I am not having a good time in this map. The constant need to reset filters, consistent ambushes, and waypoints  be unavailable 90% of the time makes it a complete slog to move through. For enemies its like they went through and grabbed every annoying mechanics in the game and gave it to them. Working through it solo trying to complete the story mission has been a chore.

[Krexen.9057]

The mail chaos tied in with the story. Maybe those mails aren't really there. Maybe we're seeing things. oOoOooo

 

I've enjoyed it all so far. The meta was pretty cool.

[Izzy.2951]

This is what we can expect from now on:. Cheap content, no major updates to other modes, or putting gw2 into the next step like HoT did.

[Woof.8246]

Maybe we should rethink the option of focusing in different aspects of the game in the same time and focus in the sturdy old Living Story ?

If we do so , we will get more content

[Sobx.1758]

8 minutes ago, Woof.8246 said:

Maybe we should rethink the option of focusing in different aspects of the game in the same time and focus in the sturdy old Living Story ?

If we do so , we will get more content

Nah, I don't think so.

[soul.9651]

Rewards definetely could be better..  especially if it looks like a farmable map, kinda reminded me of silverwastes and drizzlewood mix.

[TheAgedGnome.7520]

1 hour ago, Randulf.7614 said:

The filters are an odd mechanic. I couldnt fathom why I'd need the boosters when I had the 30 stack already. When I took a booster, it just overwrote that with 10. Didnt actually add anything either as a mechanic - its just another thing added for the sake of adding something. I think it's better removed or made into a mastery, instead having side effects to the haze rather than it killing it you if you arent trained up.

This. Maybe it was supposed to be some kind of DPS check - kill mobs before your filters run out?? But all that would do is discourage smaller groups from running the meta.

The filters add nothing of value.

Remove the filters.

[Randulf.7614]

3 minutes ago, TheAgedGnome.7520 said:

This. Maybe it was supposed to be some kind of DPS check - kill mobs before your filters run out?? But all that would do is discourage smaller groups from running the meta.

The filters add nothing of value.

Remove the filters.

Could be. To be honest they seemed to really struggle with ideas for mechanics on the bosses, just constantly reusing the same ones, then resurrecting the bosses to do it over and over (and again in story) so prob thought an environmental one was a solution. And it might have been, but this was awkward and contrived. It did not work at all.

Better to have everyone working together on a mechanic somehow (maybe a Jade tech purifier one team from each lane needs to protect and sustain), than everyone trying to manage their messy mechanic which doesn’t make an awful lot of sense.

I guarantee you they won’t change the filter system and part two will have a portable filter table (like the Drizzlewood cc ones) to drop and use instead. 

[Linken.6345]

56 minutes ago, soul.9651 said:

Rewards definetely could be better..  especially if it looks like a farmable map, kinda reminded me of silverwastes and drizzlewood mix.

It is not farmable tho after 1 and a tiny sliver on the second meta you stop getting keys to open the chests.

[Raizel.8175]

Overall a pretty bad episode.

I do like going underground. I've been missing that since TD. But the map really feels empty and boring - there are no twisted passageways, nothing to explore - just a whole lot of empty space.

I guess I like the general meta event structure, but the last phase is utter trash. Just bashing your skull into your keyboard for like 10-15 minutes just to kill some really mechanically boring damage sponges. Constantly cycling through the same boss phases is just so mindcrushingly boring.

It's not just the boss though! All other monsters - including all story monsters - also needlessly feel like damage sponges. It's just so very mindboggling.

I'm also starting to hate seeing Arena Net recycling stupid mechanics. Can we please review some of these? The "melee hate" bounty mechanic is just stupid and needs to go. The piranha underwater mechanic (for the last champion after the meta event ends) is also outdated. Do we really need that?

A  lot of the design choices in this episode/map just feel like useless padding on one hand and on the other hand, they feel annoying just for the sake of being annoying. I really hope that this won't be the direction GW2 will take in the future. Game-Design-wise, this really is a rather big "L".

PS: The breather "mechanic" is one of these annoying things - the charges won't even carry over to other map instances. Honest question: Why do we need that? It's just another useless mechanic that bloats the game.

Edited February 28 by Raizel.8175

[the krytan assassin.9235]

The map doesn't feel finished. There are alot of random objects around the map that do not make much sense to me/ dont come across in the story. The map lacks any sort of new combat abilities/mastery rank. Some extra in depth combat abilities for the turtle would've made alot more sense to make the mount abit more interesting and provide new combat fighting styles. Gyala even was a turtle hatchery in gw1 so its the perfect location for new combat turtle development. 

For the map itself: the 3 final meta bosses dont get properly introduced (and we haven't even seen/heard anything from kanaxai). The upgrading of the outposts seem to be completely unnecessary. I dont understand why half of the mobs are on the map (wtf are aatxe's and abyssals doing in the deep? And what is that dragonvoid ball in the outposts?) The breathing filters are nothing but annoying, the keys completely stop to drop after a while, the currency to buy keys actually costs more then the avg chest reward and the meta event rewards dont seem to be that good in the first place. 

 

The drizzlewood coast map progression system is actually pretty nice, the short map duration is also definitely an improvement over Dragons end. The final meta event had alot of potential. I like the idea of splitting up the groups and the smaller size of the enemies. 

The (lack of) combat mechanics is unfortunately horrendous. Everything is tank & spank, most mechanics can be safely ignored. All bosses at the final meta feel roughly the same. It really lacks any sort of climax. There are so many ways the final fight could be improved. There's no real challenge, the bosses dont hit enough to wipe the group & there's no set time limit. Just put in some random boss mechanics (something like twin largos would be perfect for the platform) and put a more reasonable timer on it, let the 3 bosses have unique combat abilities, let them interact with eachother, force people to swap platforms from time to time. 

Whenever you decide to make a map that is completely focused on the progression of the meta you have to provide an epic final boss battle. 

The map had lots of potential, decent environment, hyped up story elements, but all together its just a big mess. I've learned more about the fcking dinner treats with gorrik & Rama then the 3 endbosses. 

Edited February 28 by the krytan assassin.9235

[Kimppari.9427]

Here are my current impressions from the current map after leading a squad on it:

Pros:

1. The map looks visually very interesting
2. The story is a fresh new start and certainly a change from the previous narrative, so I am excited to see where that leads us.
3. I like the idea of having map progress at tiers, like Drizzlewood and maybe introduce this camp capture trend further, but the implementation was just poor in this case (imo).
4. The mechanic of recharging the air filters seems interesting, and I would love to see that one being expanded even more, with masteries maybe unlocking different sections of the map (optional quests/events) to be completed. Similar to Dragon's Stand from HoT.
   1. I wish this had a bit more depth to it from the start, but hopefully we will see a change during the other part of the map.

 

Cons:

Breaching the camps and using turtles:

1. Killing the power cores and then breaching the gates feels terrible boring. This is simply Echowalds Research Facility Meta + Drizzlewood. Neither are interesting, and hence why the Echowald is rarely being done. Drizzlewood is at least very profitable.
2. You could have added a new mastery or something (like the Warclaw door chain pulling mechanic from WvW).  No protective turrets that need to be destroyed or any real pushback to be fair.

• Capturing the areas + Champions:

1. The champions are not challenging at all and de-spawn once the area has been captured. Which makes killing them not even necessary.
2. Capturing the areas is just AoEing a bunch of filler mobs for way too long = not enjoyable.

The individual Champions and "mini bosses":

1. These felt less challenging than bounties in PoF. I was really hoping for something challenging. The "mechanics" are also absolutely the same as the PoF bounties (the orbs, the lasers)
2. No coordination of big breakbars were needed, no extra support adds that need killing, no enrage timers or no special mechanics. No new mechanics, either.

The last "bosses"

1. Those were just golems. Those didn't deal any damage whatsoever, and just had a humongous amount of HP for "dps golem".
2. This was so underwhelming that I just feel bad for spending time on it.

The "loot":

1. The system with dozens of chests spread across the map for killing champions or finishing events is just plain out annoying. Getting the loot either combined at the end or in a few batches directly, without having to buy keys and open caches, is such a better concept. I really hope you revert away from this trend of making each META a chest opening fiesta. The keys for the caches are ridiculously expensive and all you get is green UI Gear and corals.
2. Every single person in the squad reacted the same way at the end of the META, when it came to loot. Not a single Antique Summoning Stone or Amber Chunks or Gold or anything worthwhile, the amount of time it takes.

I really wish this was actually something better. Hopefully this feedback will change the rest of the map, as I highly doubt that the existing META will get buffed.

 

Cheers.

[Randulf.7614]

44 minutes ago, the krytan assassin.9235 said:

The map doesn't feel finished. There are alot of random objects around the map that do not make much sense to me/ dont come across in the story. The map lacks any sort of new combat abilities/mastery rank. Some extra in depth combat abilities for the turtle would've made alot more sense to make the mount abit more interesting and provide new combat fighting styles. Gyala even was a turtle hatchery in gw1 so its the perfect location for new combat turtle development. 

For the map itself: the 3 final meta bosses dont get properly introduced (and we haven't even seen/heard anything from kanaxai). The upgrading of the outposts seem to be completely unnecessary. I dont understand why half of the mobs are on the map (wtf are aatxe's and abyssals doing in the deep? And what is that dragonvoid ball in the outposts?) The breathing filters are nothing but annoying, the keys completely stop to drop after a while, the currency to buy keys actually costs more then the avg chest reward and the meta event rewards dont seem to be that good in the first place. 

 

The drizzlewood coast map progression system is actually pretty nice, the short map duration is also definitely an improvement over Dragons end. The final meta event had alot of potential. I like the idea of splitting up the groups and the smaller size of the enemies. 

The (lack of) combat mechanics is unfortunately horrendous. Everything is tank & spank, most mechanics can be safely ignored. All bosses at the final meta feel roughly the same. It really lacks any sort of climax. There are so many ways the final fight could be improved. There's no real challenge, the bosses dont hit enough to wipe the group & there's no set time limit. Just put in some random boss mechanics (something like twin largos would be perfect for the platform) and put a more reasonable timer on it, let the 3 bosses have unique combat abilities, let them interact with eachother, force people to swap platforms from time to time. 

Whenever you decide to make a map that is completely focused on the progression of the meta you have to provide an epic final boss battle. 

The map had lots of potential, decent environment, hyped up story elements, but all together its just a big mess. I've learned more about the fcking dinner treats with gorrik & Rama then the 3 endbosses. 

This is also the issue with part released maps. Bjora had the same problem. It took the sum of two halves to make it great. Silverwastes and dry top felt half finished too, but they released in three stages. Silverwastes is now a masterpiece of a map.

I don’t think we are looking at a masterpiece in the making, but it feels unfinished because it isn’t all released yet. Hopefully they will look at making the bosses better, removing the filter system and adding more content when part two arrives.