Stop Forcing Us To Do Story to Progress the Game [Merged]

[Lucy.3728]

19 hours ago, Spook.5847 said:

I want to only play the parts of the game I am interested in

You chose the wrong game then, sorry.

You probably wanted to play Guild Wars 1 not 2, but for 1 you are years too late.

Edited March 16 by Lucy.3728

[UNDEAD.6108]

19 hours ago, Spook.5847 said:

I am getting pretty tired of being forced to do story to unlock game updates/features.  Bad acting, unskippable cutscenes, lame voices, and boring content are not the way to encourage players to remain.  I want to only play the parts of the game I am interested in - I don't want to be forced to do anything at all.  And having PvP-oriented stuff as an "alternative" also sucks since that game mode is absolutely the worst.

How about this; we buy the game you sold, and you give us the game we bought, without any cutsey tricks sprung on us later to force us into doing what you want, and in the style you want?

Doing story content to unlock content and features is nothing new when many of MMORPG's requires to do story content to unlock content and features.

Having all content unlocked right at a start of the game is what makes a really bad game when there would be no point doing 99% of the content.

[ShadowKatt.6740]

1 hour ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Be aware:  It is summer everywhere that is located in the Southern Hemisphere.  🫠

The Southern Hemisphere is just a conspiracy theory pushed by the Big Globe industry.

[evilcat.6817]

There is rechargable teleport to the friend, but i am not sure if it is pernament item in gemshop, or it appears and disappears.

But it is great in general, and great to unlock new areas. It cost 800gems, so safe up and watch for it.

There are also ways using 1 time teleport to friend, but not sure about all the ways you can get it. Leveling?  Lion heads?

I can agree that maps could have teleport scrolls in offer even if it cost 1gold and local currency for good sink. Especially with doing hero points in path of fire it could be painfull to do entry mission each time for each character.

[Mell.4873]

I can see it being a bit a pain with Soto but I have had the opposite complaint. Some people don't want to unlock the weapons becouse they like the story and don't want ruin it by skipping the part where they can both unlock all weapons on any Elite or the new ones. 

I have even had some not go for Bunny mount for the same reason. 

[SuavePuppy.2809]

If there's one takeaway here, I would like to think that many people could get behind the idea of at least making cutscenes and such skippable. I know there are very likely some technical reasons why they can't, but I still think they should try to make it happen.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

The Devs have explained why it is not possible to enable 'skip cut-scene' in story episodes since the change from the original cut-scenes. 

[ShadowKatt.6740]

1 hour ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

The Devs have explained why it is not possible to enable 'skip cut-scene' in story episodes since the change from the original cut-scenes. 

They could if they had kept the more cinematic cutscenes from core. Those were better anyway since you actually got to SEE the characters.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Yes, if we still had 'talking heads', we could skip cut-scenes. But, we don't still have 'talking heads', so we can't.  🤦‍♂️

[Scolix.4879]

Holy crap how lazy can people be nowadays. Man i would like to see current day people to boot up old tech like C64 and wait for 30-45 minutes in a loading screen and then mess up and die in 5 seconds only to load up it again.

[ShadowKatt.6740]

4 hours ago, Scolix.4879 said:

Holy crap how lazy can people be nowadays. Man i would like to see current day people to boot up old tech like C64 and wait for 30-45 minutes in a loading screen and then mess up and die in 5 seconds only to load up it again.

I forget, is that before or after the six to eight hours to write the program to cassette in basic?

[Scolix.4879]

4 hours ago, ShadowKatt.6740 said:

I forget, is that before or after the six to eight hours to write the program to cassette in basic?

That too and then the player eats the cassette and you have to do that too all over again.

[HeliosMagi.9867]

You've clearly never played FFXIV, it's much worse in that game. There literally EVERYTHING is gated behind progressing the MSQ. You literally cannot access expansion zones until you reach the point in the story where you're 'supposed' to go there. And if you start in La Noscea, you literally cannot access the rest of the base game zones until you reach the point in the story (around Lv10) where you unlock airship travel.

[Epsilon Indi.2031]

On 3/15/2024 at 11:59 PM, ShadowKatt.6740 said:

So....nothing locked behind any story, no using any items to open the world up. Did you want the devs to play the game for you as well?

Well  this is a dumb argument.
No, I want it to be like fractals or dungeons, or even how raids were structured.  Divorced from the main story so I don't have to play through the main story.  One of the reasons I avoid FF14 is due to having to do story to do instanced content.  I like fighting bosses with smaller, more organized groups.  I like exploring dungeons and instances within. I even prefer the smaller, self--contained stories within Fractals, dungeons, and raids.  I don't like  dragging my feet through mundane, unskippable story just to get at the bites of instanced content I enjoy.
I don't want to have to spend 9 or more teleports to friends to get to the new, shiny instance for the new strikes.  Spreading them all out like this isn't a good idea and ANet agrees because they made fractals have one spot you can get into them at (Lion's Arch), Raids were all aggregated into the Aerodome, Dungeons can now be entered right outside the Aerodome, strikes are the outlier here.

On 3/16/2024 at 8:15 PM, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

The Devs have explained why it is not possible to enable 'skip cut-scene' in story episodes since the change from the original cut-scenes. 

I remember them stating that they couldn't move the stuff in the cutscene having to trigger other things later on in the instance. 
The change is probably more complex than it's worth, but I think 'skip cutscene' could just force the instance ahead to the next encounter, put everything in place, and start the next encounter.  Other games can do this just fine, so I have to wonder what's going on in the background with how ANet constructs their cutscenes.

Edited March 18 by Epsilon Indi.2031

[DanAlcedo.3281]

Back in the day: Kill this boss 5000 times for a mid level item which gives you the option to kill the next boss 7000 times for an upgrade. 

Today: Play this 10min story on baby difficulty to earn bis loot. 

 

 

[Epsilon Indi.2031]

1 hour ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

Back in the day: Kill this boss 5000 times for a mid level item which gives you the option to kill the next boss 7000 times for an upgrade. 

Today: Play this 10min story on baby difficulty to earn bis loot. 

 

 

It's more
"Go to this map and assemble a party to go through this dungeon after doing a story mode instance."
to
"Increase your fractal level for more challenge and better rewards."
to
"Here's a self contained side-story in raids that elaborates on what's going on elsewhere and also has some neat rewards."
to
"Here are several strike missions you don't need to do story for."
to
"Here are several strike missions you have to do story for."

Personally, I'd rather not have to play through the baby mode of the boss after several hours of mid-tier storytelling and just experience the new strike missions as I did before EoD and SotO.  I don't have as much free time as I used to and I'd rather spend it playing something I enjoy.

[DanAlcedo.3281]

33 minutes ago, Epsilon Indi.2031 said:

 I'd rather spend it playing something I enjoy.

Then do that? 

Forcing yourself to do something you don't enjoy is not good for someones mental health. 

Edited March 18 by DanAlcedo.3281

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Or one could play through the story once, long enough to acquire the portal/scroll, and use that for the other 8 characters.  🤷‍♂️

[Epsilon Indi.2031]

2 hours ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

Then do that? 

Forcing yourself to do something you don't enjoy is not good for someones mental health. 

I mean, I do, I've been playing other games that don't change how they deliver instanced content every other update to make it more annoying to get into.  but yeah, let's just latch on to that.  I'm sure when this game that you enjoy eventually does something you don't like and makes it more annoying to access the content you enjoy, you'll be here doing the same thing anyways.

Couldn't be that I'm annoyed and disappointed that the instanced content delivery method has changed several times and is inconsistent as hell.  Nope.

28 minutes ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Or one could play through the story once, long enough to acquire the portal/scroll, and use that for the other 8 characters.  🤷‍♂️

or it could work like every other piece of instanced content. 🤷‍♂️

You lot sound like you'd be okay if they made it so the entry to strike missions could be contested with an event like Citadel of Flame of Crucible of Eternity could be back in the day, lol.

Edited March 18 by Epsilon Indi.2031

[Westenev.5289]

This thread is funny. Lots of people deflecting, like "if you hate story, you hate the game! Just don't play!". Well, no, you can enjoy gw2's combat and hate the story.

 

I personally think expansions would be better if we visited the mission Hub (wizard tower) first with no story progression. It'd help get players into strikes and raids. As a PuG commander, I see A LOT of people struggle to either reach the hub (story progression locked without teleport to friend) or don't own the expansion (thinking they can enter the strike from EotN like a fractal).

Edited March 18 by Westenev.5289

[uberkingkong.8041]

Yeah I agree with OP.

GW2 original game, I didn't complete the story until like months later. It did not feel like I had to do it too.

A lot of the great games, you do a lot of the side quests and stuff early on then the story.

Edited March 18 by uberkingkong.8041

[Sobx.1758]

24 minutes ago, uberkingkong.8041 said:

Yeah I agree with OP.

GW2 original game, I didn't complete the story until like months later. It did not feel like I had to do it too.

A lot of the great games, you do a lot of the side quests and stuff early on then the story.

That's what you can do here too, story takes you to the newly released map almost right away where you can then do as much of "sidequesting" (as in: do whatever you want there or start completing achievements) to continue with the story later. As far as I'm aware, the unlocks are also available rather early into their storylines.

 

1 hour ago, Westenev.5289 said:

I personally think expansions would be better if we visited the mission Hub (wizard tower) first with no story progression. It'd help get players into strikes and raids. As a PuG commander, I see A LOT of people struggle to either reach the hub (story progression locked without teleport to friend) or don't own the expansion (thinking they can enter the strike from EotN like a fractal).

Except current (since eod) strike release follows the [story -> normal -> cm] encounter progression , so if someone "wants to get into strikes", it would probably be in their best interest to play through the story encounters first? Other than that, they can do what I initially did -join strike lfg, tp to a friend to wizard tower and clear the strike. Then proceed with the story whenever they feel like. I don't think players have trouble "getting into strikes and raids" because of the story.

And people not understanding how the game progression/map unlocks work or even how content is bound to its respective expansion is a completely different issue btw (if it actually is an issue to solve?). In that case, even if nothing here was related to the story, they'd still be as lost as they are now.

Edited March 18 by Sobx.1758

[Surelia.2651]

You know, given the tone of some here (and some of the other threads in general on the forum at the moment) I imagine that a monthly team meeting at dev central at Anet must be incredibly amusing if nothing else.  Picturing people in a meeting, were someone is regularly reporting out on forum trends each month...  

-What do ya got?

-Well, let's see.  The skyscale epidemic appears to be bordering on a pandemic at this point but you know, Hank didn't have time to hop in game to verify so we are pending confirmation.  The usual WV complaints about don't add this or that category.  Never fails that one.  Oh yeah, there is a segment of people apparently in agreement that they don't want us to force them to do story, in fact some don't want to see or do any story whatsoever, they just want to be thrown into content like Strikes and Fractals once their feet hit the game; you' know, 'cause the story is just too kitten boring.  Uhm, what else? oh yeah, skyscales need to have passenger seats and we should also implement a slalom mechanic for gliders since apparently racing on beetles and griffons is just not inspiring.

-That it?

-Basically. 
 

Some of you lot are just too much. 😂

[ShadowKatt.6740]

1 hour ago, Surelia.2651 said:

You know, given the tone of some here (and some of the other threads in general on the forum at the moment) I imagine that a monthly team meeting at dev central at Anet must be incredibly amusing if nothing else.  Picturing people in a meeting, were someone is regularly reporting out on forum trends each month...  

-What do ya got?

-Well, let's see.  The skyscale epidemic appears to be bordering on a pandemic at this point but you know, Hank didn't have time to hop in game to verify so we are pending confirmation.  The usual WV complaints about don't add this or that category.  Never fails that one.  Oh yeah, there is a segment of people apparently in agreement that they don't want us to force them to do story, in fact some don't want to see or do any story whatsoever, they just want to be thrown into content like Strikes and Fractals once their feet hit the game; you' know, 'cause the story is just too kitten boring.  Uhm, what else? oh yeah, skyscales need to have passenger seats and we should also implement a slalom mechanic for gliders since apparently racing on beetles and griffons is just not inspiring.

-That it?

-Basically. 
 

Some of you lot are just too much. 😂

Can you imagine what the game would become if they were actually given everything they asked for? Dead within a month.

[Epsilon Indi.2031]

5 hours ago, Sobx.1758 said:

Except current (since eod) strike release follows the [story -> normal -> cm] encounter progression , so if someone "wants to get into strikes", it would probably be in their best interest to play through the story encounters first? Other than that, they can do what I initially did -join strike lfg, tp to a friend to wizard tower and clear the strike. Then proceed with the story whenever they feel like. I don't think players have trouble "getting into strikes and raids" because of the story.

And people not understanding how the game progression/map unlocks work or even how content is bound to its respective expansion is a completely different issue btw (if it actually is an issue to solve?). In that case, even if nothing here was related to the story, they'd still be as lost as they are now.

Fractals, once again, demonstrates that ANet knows how to add scaling difficulty that works with no BS. You ahve T1 that's really easy, T2 that steps it up to about Dungeon difficulty, then T3/T4 that goes a bit beyond with CMs sprinkled in there for the extra challenge and rewards. Yet anyone who wants 10 man content has to suffer through story that's dull, lacking engagement, and can be passed by alt tabbing and auto attacking on most classes.  Just force me to do the story mode at the instance like how dungeons did it and allow me to open my own instances after I finish story but join other's instances without having to do the story.
Stop moving the hubs every expansion. Or, at the very least, have the most recent hub include the new content + portals to the old content (as in, SotO strike hub has all the SotO, EoD, and IBS strike entrances), so one would only have to do the most recent story to get into the content.