Gyala Delves Feedback [Merged]

[DarcShriek.5829]

I have a wife, kids, grandchildren and host of other family relationships in my life.  Why the heck would I want to go through some poorly written romance scene in GW2? 

[Zok.4956]

26 minutes ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

It's that last bit that you agree with 100% (i.e. create a good story/characters) that I think is the sticking point for a lot of people.

I agree.

26 minutes ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

In essence, the complaint is that we write boring characters and contrive scenarios that seem to exist because they mirror the cultural crusade of the day in the developer's home country as our first priority when compelling characters and good storytelling should come first.

Well the sentence I disagreed with the most was "why do we have non binary charaters in tyria? Is there lore that explains it?" That was not a complaint about bad writing. Because there is no need to justify the existence of non-binary characters with lore or a story in a game world, they just exist like male/female characters. 

[loregnum.3619]

I think Gyala Delves is a mediocre map and I have no intention to spend much time there.  The first part and now second part of the meta isn't anything special with mediocre rewards and I finally got around to doing the first half of the story yesterday and had to mute the sound shortly into the second mission because the dialogue was terrible, just like it was for most of the EoD story. I don't even know if I will do this new part of it but if I do, it'll definitely be done on mute and I will just read up on what happens if I even bother to care about the story. I also think the air filter system is an abomination as you should be able to buy a perma air filter and be done with it. Having to constantly recharge it is simply a game design to troll players. 

I won't get into the obvious ideology and social views that the writers/employees of Anet really pushed in EoD other than to say it'd be nice if they would keep that out of a video game that probably 90-95% of people play for entertainment purposes, not to get a social or ideology lecture. I look at the core game and first expansions and then EoD and just shake my head at the change. 

I will also add that it is unlikely I will be buying any future expansions after EoD, both because of the horrible dialogue and boring missions EoD and the Gyala Delves first story chapter had, and because of the social views being pushed more and more which means it is very unlikely they'll stop in the future expansions. I don't need to be lectured when I am trying to have fun in something I paid for, especially when it is being lectured on stuff I do not agree with or support. You know what the best way to being "inclusive" is? By not pushing any political/social views/ideology at all since they will inevitably not include a large percentage of people. Too bad many can't grasp this.

[Zok.4956]

2 hours ago, soulknight.9620 said:

Im not against using different kind of characters including non binary etc, but there must be a purpose for them to exist in the context of the story.

I can agree to the opinion that for every character should be a purpose to exist in the context of the story or it would just be bad writing or random writing. But to require that certain sexual identities have to justify themselves when characters exist with them is biased in my opinion. It's like blonde and brown hair are fine, but red and black hair need justification.

 

2 hours ago, soulknight.9620 said:

If you play Shakespeares Romeo And Juliet in medievil scenery you wouldnt want to see a couple of blasters/imperial stormtroopers in there would you? 

Well, Shakespeare does not know Star Wars, so of course he could not include them. But if I would play George Lukas' version of Romeo and Juliet I would totally expect them (some even say George Lukas' version of Romeo and Juliet is called "Star Wars" 😎 ). So, again, the writers create the lore and make it fit (or make it not fitting) for a reason.

 

2 hours ago, soulknight.9620 said:

And if you take that "non binary" thing out of this character, will you have a single thing to remember this NPC? 

When I think about Yao, "oh, that was a non-binary NPC" is not my first thought. I played the german version. Was the non-binary identity a central point in the English version, or was it more secondary?

Edited May 24, 2023 by Zok.4956

[Kalavier.1097]

2 hours ago, Blur.3465 said:

I also understand the need for 'inclusivity', but at this point it's not contributing to the story and it's just making the characters feel shallow and blergh. 
How about we focus on what's important instead of what gender xyz are?
The modern touch to storytelling is what is making it feel shallow. I was hoping that this part of the story would give us a big cliffhanger for the next update -- something dark, tragic even?
Instead we defeat boss with 'positive' energy and it's...what? 
A lot of choices for Commander were odd as well; a lot of heavier things happened. Heck, we had to put an end to Trahearne ourselves too, we -DIED- to Balthazar, we -watched- as Aurene got pierced by Kralkatorrik, Palawa Joko was messing with us, there's...a lot that could've been picked from the story that bore more weight than the options given. 

The gender of any of the characters has never been a focal point of... any of this though? Yao has been described in the exact same way and importance since EoD launched. This episode introduced nothing new in that regard.

Also, the whole point of the memories/emotions part was unresolved stuff. I do not know what Aurene/Vlast parts are like as I didn't do them, but we aren't revisiting Trahearne or Eir because those events have been resolved/dealt with. Things like the Charr civil war, Mai Trin's final acts, Blish's death, those things are more recent and haven't been resolved by the commander.

 

[Randulf.7614]

Additional:

I enjoyed the races and adventures. The beetle one particularly

The new end of meta is an admirable way to make the turtle relevant, but it takes too long. Could use some adjustments, espeically as the collecting phases is so repetitive. I'd prob enjoy it more if it all moved along at a better pace

[AliamRationem.5172]

12 minutes ago, Randulf.7614 said:

Additional:

I enjoyed the races and adventures. The beetle one particularly

The new end of meta is an admirable way to make the turtle relevant, but it takes too long. Could use some adjustments, espeically as the collecting phases is so repetitive. I'd prob enjoy it more if it all moved along at a better pace

I don't mind them using the turtle (okay, I do because it sucks horribly and I don't want to use it!), but I wish they had found time to develop other events and pathways that didn't involve the turtle.  The turtle feels bad to navigate with and has only one boring move.  This should never be the primary component in events.

It was nice to see beetle racing added.  It's not really a big draw for me personally, but I think it's a legitimate value add to have activities like this in the game that showcase mounts that don't suck.

[Sobx.1758]

Beetle race is good. Jade bot adventure is... I'd say uneventful, but not sure if there's a reasonable way to improve it, so "it is what it is", probably won't replay. The jumping puzzle adventure was relatively fun and looks good, but I think it's too short.

Not a fan of the newly added meta event for now -boring- and the added part of the map was way too small, I didn't like that small bit to be made into a staggered content release.

Edited May 24, 2023 by Sobx.1758

[Randulf.7614]

17 minutes ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

I don't mind them using the turtle (okay, I do because it sucks horribly and I don't want to use it!), but I wish they had found time to develop other events and pathways that didn't involve the turtle.  The turtle feels bad to navigate with and has only one boring move.  This should never be the primary component in events.

It was nice to see beetle racing added.  It's not really a big draw for me personally, but I think it's a legitimate value add to have activities like this in the game that showcase mounts that don't suck.

I concede it could use an extra skill at least. Not sure what. I like it otherwise though and I'm glad they put more content in for it - which was something players fed back about. Hopefully we will see some more skins too as everyone looked the same

[Malus.2184]

33 minutes ago, Randulf.7614 said:

Additional:

I enjoyed the races and adventures. The beetle one particularly

The new end of meta is an admirable way to make the turtle relevant, but it takes too long. Could use some adjustments, espeically as the collecting phases is so repetitive. I'd prob enjoy it more if it all moved along at a better pace

The concept of a moving boss fight is good. This execution is horrible though and needs some iteration. I hope ANet reuses the concept in better content.

[mandala.8507]

2 minutes ago, Sobx.1758 said:

Not a fan of the newly added meta event for now -boring- and the added part of the map was way too small, I didn't like that small bit to be made into a staggered content release.

I think this is the most important and valuable piece of criticism I can get behind. The half-maps and half-patches aren't satisfying and are hard to implement successfully.

My big piece of advice is that taking the extra 3-4 months to stretch the one map follow-up after each mini-expansion into 2 is absolutely worth it to have 2 full content releases that don't get split in half for the sake of metering them out over a longer span of time.

In a perfect world, expansions wouldn't be so formulaic and we would get the amount of follow-up content proportional to the level of interest in the area of the world/scope of the story we are telling in that region.

So, if we only wanted 2 main maps and one follow-up for an Asura expansion, we'd get that.

But if we wanted a god realms story that was more involved, we could get an expansion with 3 main maps and 2 follow-ups, or 2 main maps and 3 follow-ups.

Because the thing we actually want is the size of the releases to be consistent with the rate at which they are released.

For example, if they make an expansion with 2 main maps and one follow-up, it gets released, then 4 months later we get the follow-up, then 4 months later we go onto something else.

And that something else could be a longer expac with 2 initial maps and 3 follow-ups, all releasing 4 months after each other, extending the development period but keeping the rate consistent.

But maybe that's easier said than done.

[DarcShriek.5829]

It takes way too long to do the whole meta.

[Luthan.5236]

Anyone knows how long the new added part of the meta takes? Have not tried it yet. I guess they'll do this similar like in the story: The meta taking place in the western part you you have to to the first (old part) of the meta to access the 3 new POI for map completion there?

That already should be a bit of work. With the adventurtes probably only available after the full meta finished ...
would mean a hard time training for gold. The beetle one surely is harder again. If the map does not stay open for long - for playing the adventures - after the meta completes ... could be annoying.

[Randulf.7614]

Just now, Luthan.5236 said:

Anyone knows how long the new added part of the meta takes? Have not tried it yet. I guess they'll do this similar like in the story: The meta taking place in the western part you you have to to the first (old part) of the meta to access the 3 new POI for map completion there?

That already should be a bit of work. With the adventurtes probably only available after the full meta finished ...
would mean a hard time training for gold. The beetle one surely is harder again. If the map does not stay open for long - for playing the adventures - after the meta completes ... could be annoying.

I think it took us over 45 mins which is prob not reflective of how long it really is due to how disorganised we were. I'd say you are looking at sub 30 mins once players get used to it. The collect/escort phase is a quite interminable though. The boss mechanics are fine if players are doing them, but they are also a bit drawn out. It could stand to have one less cycle or less time to take out the break bar with the charged weapon.

The beetle gold I came close to and I suck at beetle races (still love them tho). It's def doable, but with a couple of tight corners which will make or break the mdeal chance. It's not the hardest one out there, nor is it the easiest either-it is a huge amount of fun though. You get a whole hour after the meta, which is pretty reasonable

[zealex.9410]

I see absolutely no reason why you need the turtle to carry ley energy, to break the crystals for it? Yes, but to just carry it? Absolutely not, the extend of the need to use the turtle wasnt tastefull at all. Especially with how copy pasted is this event throughout the second half of the meta.

[AliamRationem.5172]

2 hours ago, DarcShriek.5829 said:

It takes way too long to do the whole meta.

I really wish they'd stop doing this.  Even when I love the meta (e.g. Drizzlewood, Dragon's End) I just get so bored with it when it takes so long to get to the conclusion. 

[Woof.8246]

It will be better if Arenanet came forth and openly admit that because their focus was on the next expansion , the 2nd part wasn't "on par" with the usual Living quality . And from now on , they will be aware to spare more resources at the end of the expansion cycles for the OW events

This is to gain people's  trust and ensure that there won't be any misconception that might later arise , such as : "focusing only one aspect of the game , created a backlash for 2 whole expansions (like IBS), thus lead to  low sales for the 4th expansion"

In the other hand , the concurrent Redditors increased by 200-250 , which is some cases is good

Edited May 24, 2023 by Woof.8246

[VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.]

we waited 10 weeks for this. 10 weeks. For a bit of dialogue and a boring 'do the mechanic' boss fight.

Btw, why was 'Cinder' a choice, but not 'Omphalos Chamber' ? As sylvari that was TRAUMATIC. Or Claw Island? Why not the moment we killed Trahearne? Or the place where Baltazar burned  us to death?

Not only was this drop disapointingly short, it was also shallow and half arsed. 

That you can't even test this small drop to find out that you break sylvari eyes and not even being able to fix the broken raptor animation speaks volumes.

How many people are left at anet working on GW2? 3? 4?

[Krzysztof.5973]

Anet outdid themselves. This is worse than end of IBS. 🤩🎉🎉✨

[DarcShriek.5829]

1 hour ago, VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig. said:

Btw, why was 'Cinder' a choice, but not 'Omphalos Chamber' ? As sylvari that was TRAUMATIC. Or Claw Island? Why not the moment we killed Trahearne? Or the place where Baltazar burned  us to death?

Trahearne would have been a poor choice as his death has been resolved.  Eir has also been resolved.

[Fire Wizard.9285]

This game has been getting worse since the release of EoD, I'm leaving the ship
I don't know who was the genius to push this model, press F everywhere, boring and annoying 
And the content as it was not, so there is no and will not be instead there will be more boring dialogues and press F
Yesterday FF14 got a random update and more content for free than the entire EoD in the last two years

[Healix.5819]

4 hours ago, Woof.8246 said:

It will be better if Arenanet came forth and openly admit that because their focus was on the next expansion , the 2nd part wasn't "on par" with the usual Living quality . And from now on , they will be aware to spare more resources at the end of the expansion cycles for the OW events

This is likely just how it's going to be from now on. They used to have 3 teams that took 10~12 months to develop episodes, allowing for a release every ~4 months. 2 teams would be working on the first 2 "episodes" of the next expansion, while Gyala in its entirety was likely done by the 3rd team, who would now be doing the 3rd "episode" of the next expansion. That's likely how it'll go from now on - 2 episodes delivered up front as an expansion with a 3rd released 6 months later, every year. With the plan to now do regular fractals and strikes, that would have cost them a portion of the team, but I'm assuming they'll reuse the story to save resources.

[Manasa Devi.7958]

I haven't been able to bring myself to get involved with the new meta yet after learning you have to do the first one before you can. Races and adventures never held any appeal to me and I usually only do them a few times if needed to complete a meta. They can wait till I'm bored enough to want to try. I only did the story so far and wasn't impressed.

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

Now we know where most of the content for Gyala Delve went. The second half just has a lot more to it than a meta that will be forgotten in less than a year.

Too bad adventures will be tied to meta completion. The jp being made into an adventure was actually nice and not overly complicated. Jps should have had this from the beginning where mounts, gliders, and teleporting disqualified you from getting better loot. The mount and glider restriction really was not worth the dev work because they can still be horribly broken.

Let people use their mounts in these areas and add adventures to get better loot.

[DarcShriek.5829]

I'm getting tired of all the romantic entanglements.  I want to smack down bad guys, not resolve friend's issues with romance.  I can't see myself buying the next xpac if things don't change.