The amount of filler content in story is out of hand

[Caladrius.6594]

As title says.

To me it feels with the SotO story Anet is relying WAY too much on filler content to stretch the amount of story there, instead of focussing on actually telling a story.
In my opinion, having the filler content in actually detracts from the story, and it would actually be better off shorter but without those needless bars to fill.

I log in to play the new content, go to the story. It has been a bit since our last update, so I get in the first instance, receive the small recap, and our next course of action, and BAM... go fill up a bar by doing events... AGAIN. Seeing this is incredibly demotivating and really just feels like the time it takes to complete the story chapters is being stretched out.
To make matters worse, chapter 14, the first one from this update, we get the "go fill a bar" objective TWICE, while the NPCs are out doing the useful stuff, like locating the general.

Instead of doing events and getting the voice message after each event being like "we're closer to finding the general, keep cleaning up around the area"... Let me do it, or atleast participate in it, finding some clues about the whereabouts, finding tracks,. broken weapons... ANYTHING that is not just "go fill up this bar with events".

After checking during SotO, the filler objective, with either events or rifts, has been used SEVEN times so far... and this is entirely too much.
I know Arenanet is capable of telling a great story, we've seen it before in the likes of LS4, and I beg of you to please start putting the same amount of care back into the story as you did back then.
I am aware that with the consistent schedule they are trying to upkeep there will be less story / content each update than in the timeperiod I refered back to, and that is fine.
A loss in quantity is what is expected with their new, quicker pace of releasing content, but the loss in quality that also came with it is what I do not find an acceptable consequence.

[Molesworth.1684]

I do find the story less immersive with these breaks to 'fill up the green bar'.  I'm just as likely to think: oh no  can't be bothered, I'll do it tomorrow' and log out, rather than being interested in what happens next.

Edited March 4 by Molesworth.1684
Typo

[Randulf.7614]

Instance

Do events

Talk to NPC

Explore map

Do events

Instance

Instance

Talk to npc

Visit 4 areas of map

Talk to NPC

Visit THE EXACT SAME AREAS of the map this time looking at vistas

Instance

 

That penultimate step was the worst filler. No excuses for that not to have been picked up on by the team. I don’t mind filler and doing events as downtime at all, but this felt like they were given no time to write or had resources to allocate. That’s disrespectful to us, but also to the writing team by whoever held them back in this way. We know they can do better, but it really felt like they had their hand tied. This isn't an A-B mmo like Lotro or such. This is meant to be more dynamic

Edited March 4 by Randulf.7614

[Zok.4956]

1 hour ago, Caladrius.6594 said:

To me it feels with the SotO story Anet is relying WAY too much on filler content to stretch the amount of story there, instead of focussing on actually telling a story.

I think Anet relies too much on the fact that most/many players are more busy farming for the new Legy armor and that's why Anet thinks they can save on other things.

 

1 hour ago, Caladrius.6594 said:

Instead of doing events and getting the voice message after each event being like "we're closer to finding the general, keep cleaning up around the area"... Let me do it, or atleast participate in it, finding some clues about the whereabouts, finding tracks,. broken weapons... ANYTHING that is not just "go fill up this bar with events".

Yes. For me, stupidly filling the bar with events didn't extend the already very short story, but rather took me out of the story.

 

[Shadowmoon.7986]

Walking simulator, fill up the bar, go to pois to collect stuff is anet bread and butter because the community keeps coming back and spending gems on this content. 

Ultimately im the end, i do not care about this story anymore. It feels like it has lost its plot. Also this is anets attempt to make a wholy original story, without needed gw1 lore to prop it up,  and it just feels like a weird harry potter lord of the rings hybrid story.

[Pifil.5193]

51 minutes ago, Shadowmoon.7986 said:

Ultimately im the end, i do not care about this story anymore. It feels like it has lost its plot. Also this is anets attempt to make a wholy original story, without needed gw1 lore to prop it up,  and it just feels like a weird harry potter lord of the rings hybrid story.

Yer a Wayfinder, Harry!

[RoseofGilead.8907]

Yeah, the double "fill the events bar" this time around, followed by "visit these four areas of the map for stuff, and now do it again for vistas" really felt gross. It's especially annoying for someone like me who will get caught up and do events I pass by on my way to the next green story star, only to get to the star and be told I need to go do the events I just did.

[Ashen.2907]

4 minutes ago, RoseofGilead.8907 said:

Yeah, the double "fill the events bar" this time around, followed by "visit these four areas of the map for stuff, and now do it again for vistas" really felt gross. It's especially annoying for someone like me who will get caught up and do events I pass by on my way to the next green story star, only to get to the star and be told I need to go do the events I just did.

Advertised as not having this sort of stuff was one of the big selling points for GW2 for me. I get it, things change, but this is pretty bad IMO. 

[Nekos.3649]

2 hours ago, Caladrius.6594 said:

As title says.

To me it feels with the SotO story Anet is relying WAY too much on filler content to stretch the amount of story there, instead of focussing on actually telling a story.
In my opinion, having the filler content in actually detracts from the story, and it would actually be better off shorter but without those needless bars to fill.

I log in to play the new content, go to the story. It has been a bit since our last update, so I get in the first instance, receive the small recap, and our next course of action, and BAM... go fill up a bar by doing events... AGAIN. Seeing this is incredibly demotivating and really just feels like the time it takes to complete the story chapters is being stretched out.
To make matters worse, chapter 14, the first one from this update, we get the "go fill a bar" objective TWICE, while the NPCs are out doing the useful stuff, like locating the general.

Instead of doing events and getting the voice message after each event being like "we're closer to finding the general, keep cleaning up around the area"... Let me do it, or atleast participate in it, finding some clues about the whereabouts, finding tracks,. broken weapons... ANYTHING that is not just "go fill up this bar with events".

After checking during SotO, the filler objective, with either events or rifts, has been used SEVEN times so far... and this is entirely too much.
I know Arenanet is capable of telling a great story, we've seen it before in the likes of LS4, and I beg of you to please start putting the same amount of care back into the story as you did back then.
I am aware that with the consistent schedule they are trying to upkeep there will be less story / content each update than in the timeperiod I refered back to, and that is fine.
A loss in quantity is what is expected with their new, quicker pace of releasing content, but the loss in quality that also came with it is what I do not find an acceptable consequence.

I honestly do not care anymore about the story, man its so... bad

[Danikat.8537]

Would it be better if it specifically told you to do the map meta? I'm pretty sure that's the point - the meta ties into the story so it's a prompt to make sure you do both together.

It's convenient that it just lets you do random events instead so you're not held up if the meta is on a timer, but if it's making the story worse maybe it would be better for them to specify which events are relevant.

[AliamRationem.5172]

I'm inclined to agree.  I usually like to break from the story to explore the associated map and work toward achievements.  I don't need the story to ask me to do the same thing and those who wish to knock the story out in one go will view this as a needless hurdle.

I also agree that the reason for it is pretty obvious.  We just aren't getting much story.  The last two episodes would have been a single story episode in years past.

[GBEW.5947]

52 minutes ago, Danikat.8537 said:

Would it be better if it specifically told you to do the map meta? I'm pretty sure that's the point - the meta ties into the story so it's a prompt to make sure you do both together.

It's convenient that it just lets you do random events instead so you're not held up if the meta is on a timer, but if it's making the story worse maybe it would be better for them to specify which events are relevant.

you're just making excuses for why its ok for it to be this way. Its not ok. 

[Healix.5819]

1 hour ago, Danikat.8537 said:

Would it be better if it specifically told you to do the map meta? I'm pretty sure that's the point - the meta ties into the story so it's a prompt to make sure you do both together.

It would be better if it told you up front. Playing through the map, then doing the story, then being told to play through the map is terrible. If they're going to keep doing this, I would rather see a multi-tier map-wide heart that fills up when you complete events. Instead of the story requiring you to do events, require the heart. Make it account-wide so the filler doesn't have to be done on every character.

Edited March 4 by Healix.5819

[Baddxian.3851]

I'm not one to complain, but I already got all the PoI's and Vistas in this new map.  Are you telling me that if/when I get both bars in my quest tracker filled up, I'll have to go back and re-explore the stupid thing again?  You're right - that's not story...

I was following the meta around, trying not to be blinded by all the winking-and-blinking player characters around me, when some chucklehead came over mapchat and announced that anyone not participating in the meta should go to another map.  I logged immediately and won't be back on except to move that toon out of the SotO maps.  I may come back when the "expansion" is "complete", but there's plenty of fun things to do elsewhere...

[Entara.3075]

ANET It's understandable with quicker releases that the story will be shorter for each individual update. Rather than put a bunch of useless filler in, try removing all the unlocks tied to the story and make it optional until the last release. That way people can wait until the entire story is out prior to playing it.

[maxwelgm.4315]

Normally I'm chill about this stuff since I complete the full achievement tabs everytime regardless, but when I saw "visit 4 vistas" I just lol'd and logged off for the day 😄 I agree they're overstepping just a bit with the "busywork" tangential things. On the other hand the map achievements were quite nice, short lore dumps without too much hassle and have you fully explore and take in the map and art direction. I feel Anet can go back to trust the players a bit more into exploring the maps by themselves rather than embedding the story so directly (doing it once per story chapter would still be fine...but now it's a given, constant).

[Gehenna.3625]

29 minutes ago, Baddxian.3851 said:

I'm not one to complain, but I already got all the PoI's and Vistas in this new map.  Are you telling me that if/when I get both bars in my quest tracker filled up, I'll have to go back and re-explore the stupid thing again? 

nah, you just have to click 3 vistas, that's it.

[Kiki.9450]

I realise The War Council was very heavy in the "fill the bar by doing events" approach. I realise the point of having this in the story here to show how we are helping the local kryptis and how we're convincing them to join up with Peitha's cause by getting aid out to them, feeding them, ensuring supplies reach them, ensuring the Astral Ward doesn't get choked to death on the way there, etc. Sure, I do think it may have been more interesting for us to help hunt down Nephis instead. This may have also been padded particularly heavily as a result of feedback from Through the Veil, namely "story content too short." I agreed with that feedback too.

I know "(re)visit the vistas" isn't the most compelling gameplay out there, but there was a reason for it. Right before that point in the story, we went around lighting the beacons. When viewing the vistas at this moment, it's done to show us all the ugly little kryptis babies coming out of the woodwork to see what's up with those beacons. Perhaps in the future a better approach may be to have us talk with a given NPC and then more or less get the vista flyover to show said ugly little kryptis babies answering our call. At least that way we can get a bit of voice over or something. 😛 Neither of those are the most fantasticest action-packed gameplay ever, but both achieve the same goal. Only one of these immediately feels like "replay this content you probably just did" though.

Hopefully this feedback isn't too late for expansion 5's development cycle.

[Rubi Bayer.8493]

I know I have said this in a couple of other places, but thank you for sharing your feedback on this topic. Constructive criticism is good stuff and always welcome--I appreciate you each taking some of your time to talk out what you felt could be better, why it didn't feel great, and what you'd like to see done differently. 

[HotDelirium.7984]

3 hours ago, Kiki.9450 said:

I realise The War Council was very heavy in the "fill the bar by doing events" approach. I realise the point of having this in the story here to show how we are helping the local kryptis and how we're convincing them to join up with Peitha's cause by getting aid out to them, feeding them, ensuring supplies reach them, ensuring the Astral Ward doesn't get choked to death on the way there, etc. Sure, I do think it may have been more interesting for us to help hunt down Nephis instead. This may have also been padded particularly heavily as a result of feedback from Through the Veil, namely "story content too short." I agreed with that feedback too.

I know "(re)visit the vistas" isn't the most compelling gameplay out there, but there was a reason for it. Right before that point in the story, we went around lighting the beacons. When viewing the vistas at this moment, it's done to show us all the ugly little kryptis babies coming out of the woodwork to see what's up with those beacons. Perhaps in the future a better approach may be to have us talk with a given NPC and then more or less get the vista flyover to show said ugly little kryptis babies answering our call. At least that way we can get a bit of voice over or something. 😛 Neither of those are the most fantasticest action-packed gameplay ever, but both achieve the same goal. Only one of these immediately feels like "replay this content you probably just did" though.

Hopefully this feedback isn't too late for expansion 5's development cycle.

We have had content in the past where it's "do the map content for progress" done sparingly and I think that's okay but when one release is half that then it feels less impactful. I really wish we had more astral ward moments here in Nayos. Personally, I don't even want to be here, I don't trust Peitha at all, her kind's drama is NONE of our business, no idea what even happened to the Queen, the revealed enemy was...kinda small and less epic than I was imagining. Is Kanaxai around and reforming? Too many questions not enough answers.

[HotDelirium.7984]

13 hours ago, Randulf.7614 said:

Instance

Do events

Talk to NPC

Explore map

Do events

Instance

Instance

Talk to npc

Visit 4 areas of map

Talk to NPC

Visit THE EXACT SAME AREAS of the map this time looking at vistas

Instance

 

That penultimate step was the worst filler. No excuses for that not to have been picked up on by the team. I don’t mind filler and doing events as downtime at all, but this felt like they were given no time to write or had resources to allocate. That’s disrespectful to us, but also to the writing team by whoever held them back in this way. We know they can do better, but it really felt like they had their hand tied. This isn't an A-B mmo like Lotro or such. This is meant to be more dynamic

Imagine that last instance, we do a combo of gameplay (for achievements maybe) where we have to convince some Krpytis...or not. We fight the big baddie...or not ( we lose regardless of course).  Maybe we even get possessed by a kryptis if we downstate...or not. Give us something dynamic!

[Entara.3075]

Whatever changes come of this feedback please make it interesting again.

I play GW2 to escape and relax. Yes some of the jokes in the past were cringe-worthy but everyone's sense of humor is different and it at least felt like there was banter between the npcs. I honestly enjoyed that far more than what we currently have. 

Also add surprises or new twists. For example as a person who actually likes Taimi. <No hate please!> I was really affected when at the end of one of the episodes she mentioned that her disease was getting worse. Now I didn't particularly enjoy the multi month cliff hanger but my concern demonstrated that I had connected with the story and was engaged. I have not yet felt that with any of the Soto story so far. The skrit and the Char are the closest due to their banter but I can't even remember their names. Mabon was getting slightly interesting but he is no longer an option. Overall, remember that characters should have character.

Another example was Joko who I believe was the best villain in GW2 because of his character. The ending scene for Joko was also a perfect example making you feel worry in that you had lost and a surprise that nobody saw coming. It was great.

Edited March 5 by Entara.3075

[Lithril Ashwalker.6230]

3 hours ago, HotDelirium.7984 said:

We have had content in the past where it's "do the map content for progress" done sparingly and I think that's okay but when one release is half that then it feels less impactful. I really wish we had more astral ward moments here in Nayos. Personally, I don't even want to be here, I don't trust Peitha at all, her kind's drama is NONE of our business, no idea what even happened to the Queen, the revealed enemy was...kinda small and less epic than I was imagining. Is Kanaxai around and reforming? Too many questions not enough answers.

Kanaxai is dead and has been over 200 years since gw1. Fractals introduction of him is a memory fragment of that.

[Andur.9275]

12 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

Would it be better if it specifically told you to do the map meta? I'm pretty sure that's the point - the meta ties into the story so it's a prompt to make sure you do both together.

It's convenient that it just lets you do random events instead so you're not held up if the meta is on a timer, but if it's making the story worse maybe it would be better for them to specify which events are relevant.

Yeah, it would really help to keep up the immersion if we had to do specific tasks/events fitting our current progress in the personal story. I always avoid the big meta events when I have to do a "filler bar" because of big spoilers or unrelated content that break my immersion. Like mentioned before: When the main task is to search for a general, I don't want to go out and feed hungry Kryptis or fight gainst a huge wyvern that never was properly introduced before.

But the downside would be that filler content becomes way less convenient, especially if events are bugged or when maps aren't crowded anymore and events become to difficult due to the lack of other participants, up to the point where people might get stuck in the story.

[Danikat.8537]

1 hour ago, Andur.9275 said:

Yeah, it would really help to keep up the immersion if we had to do specific tasks/events fitting our current progress in the personal story. I always avoid the big meta events when I have to do a "filler bar" because of big spoilers or unrelated content that break my immersion. Like mentioned before: When the main task is to search for a general, I don't want to go out and feed hungry Kryptis or fight gainst a huge wyvern that never was properly introduced before.

But the downside would be that filler content becomes way less convenient, especially if events are bugged or when maps aren't crowded anymore and events become to difficult due to the lack of other participants, up to the point where people might get stuck in the story.

I tend to work on the assumption that everything in a map is happening near enough simultaneously, so if a story leads me into a map anything in there is happening at the same time as that story and won't be a spoiler.

But I do think it'd work better if you had to do specific events. For example if Ramses had specifically said you can't help search for the general because you don't know him and he won't talk to you, so you should go with the other troops who are pushing further into Nyos, clearing the way for him and his scouts to find the general and drawing attention away from them. Then the story prompt could specify the last event in the chain you need to complete.

It could be annoying sometimes. I recently needed to fight Tequatl for an achievement and it took almost a week to find a time when the event was running and I could get online. But it might help ensure the open world parts tie into the story more clearly.