(Not that much Recycling, I was wrong)

[Ashantara.8731]

______________________________

[Original Post]

Oof... okay. So, I have only explored 1/2 of the first map so far, but every activity and mechanic I have encountered up until now was 100% recycled content, nothing new, and I fear this won't change moving ahead.

As a veteran player, this truly saddens me, because it leads to quick fatigue due to disinterest. I can hardly bring myself to press on with the map and story, even though the environment looks very pretty and I am enjoying the atmosphere of the map. But so far, there has been nothing fun to do.

@confused reaction, here are four examples of 1-on-1 recycled activities:

• Using  the bellows: Grothmar Valley (Bound by Blood, IBS)
• Burning the infected crops: Domain of Kourna (Long Live the Lich, LSW4)
• Tending the garden (watering plants etc): Shing Jea Isle (End of Dragons)
• Rift hunting: SotO

This list could go on endlessly, including fight mechanics. I am terribly bored at this point by all the copy & paste content. 😕 Hope there will be something new eventually.

Edited August 24 by Ashantara.8731

[Ashen.2907]

37 minutes ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

Oof... okay. So, I have only explored 1/2 of the first map so far, but every activity and mechanic I have encountered up until now was 100% recycled content, nothing new, and I fear this won't change moving ahead.

As a veteran player, this truly saddens me, because it leads to quick fatigue due to disinterest. I can hardly bring myself to press on with the map and story, even though the environment looks very pretty and I am enjoying the atmosphere of the map. But so far, there has been nothing fun to do.

@confused reaction, here are four examples of 1-on-1 recycled activities:

• Using  the bellows: Grothmar Valley (Bound by Blood, IBS)
• Burning the infected crops: Domain of Kourna (Long Live the Lich, LSW4)
• Tending the garden (watering plants etc): Shing Jea Isle (End of Dragons)
• Rift hunting: SotO

This list could go on endlessly, including fight mechanics. I am terribly bored at this point by all the copy & paste content. 😕 Hope there will be something new eventually.

"There is nothing new under the sun."

Every story and every adventure has been done and told. All that remains is window dressing to give the illusion of new.

[Jianyu.7065]

While I don't agree with the sentiment of saddened fatigue and disinterest - I do agree that content has been recycled but, at the same time this is nothing new. That said, I can appreciate your criticism aimed at the confused faces. The game is not without its flaws, for sure.

[Mystflower.7319]

The game is almost 12 years old.. Maybe the devs are limited in what they can built into the old code? At least there is still some variety in the things we can do even though some are recycled.

[Futa.4375]

4 minutes ago, Mystflower.7319 said:

The game is almost 12 years old.. Maybe the devs are limited in what they can built into the old code? At least there is still some variety in the things we can do even though some are recycled.

Ironic considering they don't seem limited at all when it's about adding overpriced skins made by third parties in the cash shop.

[yoni.7015]

It’s pretty normal to have a mix between known stuff and new stuff. 
Maybe play more than the first half of the first map before you complain. There is a lot of new stuff in the expansion as well. 

Edited August 21 by yoni.7015

[Ashantara.8731]

24 minutes ago, Mystflower.7319 said:

The game is almost 12 years old.. Maybe the devs are limited in what they can built into the old code?

My assumption is that they are limited by what they can put together into a mini-expac that needs to be done within 12 months of worktime. It is easier to copy&paste things rather than develop something uniquely new. In this case, they may have focused their resources on map design, story and homesteads, and for that they had to make compromises regarding map events/hearts/actitivies.

Edited August 21 by Ashantara.8731

[Logos.5603]

6 minutes ago, yoni.7015 said:

It’s pretty normal to have a mix between known stuff and new stuff. 
Maybe play more than the first half of the first map before you complain. There is a lot of new stuff in the expansion as well. 

You'd think they would start with the new stuff...

[Ashen.2907]

25 minutes ago, Futa.4375 said:

Ironic considering they don't seem limited at all when it's about adding overpriced skins made by third parties in the cash shop.

Skins that you can get by playing the game are overpriced now?

[Randulf.7614]

I don't entirely get this complaint. Every ongoing game recycles its assets. Every single one. If anything Janthir uses them better than SoTo did and tailors them thematically to the map more. Many of the events Ive really enjoyed their updated takes. They laid down foundations early on to build upon later

I don't see the copy/paste as an issue here. I am absolutely loving every minute and every event in the first half of map 1

(they can stop recycling the tooltip spam though!)

Edited August 21 by Randulf.7614

[Zok.4956]

2 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

This list could go on endlessly, including fight mechanics. I am terribly bored at this point by all the copy & paste content.

Of course, the list can go on and on. "jumping mushrooms" -> HoT, "mounts"->PoF, "Hearts", dodging -> base game etc. etc. Because the expansion builds on all systems and previous content. All of this can of course be described as "recycled copy & paste content".

2 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

Oof... okay. So, I have only explored 1/2 of the first map so far, but every activity and mechanic I have encountered up until now was 100% recycled content, nothing new, and I fear this won't change moving ahead.

It probably won't change for you if you see it like this after exploring half a map.

 

2 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

As a veteran player, this truly saddens me, because it leads to quick fatigue due to disinterest. I can hardly bring myself to press on with the map and story, even though the environment looks very pretty and I am enjoying the atmosphere of the map. But so far, there has been nothing fun to do.

Sorry to read that. As a veteran player, I find that the first map is fun to explore and feels alive again.

 

[Malus.2184]

2 hours ago, Futa.4375 said:

Ironic considering they don't seem limited at all when it's about adding overpriced skins made by third parties in the cash shop.

Yes, because a skin is a new mechanic /s

[Ashantara.8731]

1 hour ago, Zok.4956 said:

It probably won't change for you if you see it like this after exploring half a map.

Just finished the map, and it's okay-ish content-wise. I enjoy the scenary a lot, and the story missions have been also enjoyable so far. Just unlocked my homestead, and now I am on to the next map, which will hopefully be a little more exciting content-wise. 😉 Also curious to see where this is going with the story.

[Lyssia.4637]

4 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

• Using  the bellows: Grothmar Valley (Bound by Blood, IBS)
• Burning the infected crops: Domain of Kourna (Long Live the Lich, LSW4)
• Tending the garden (watering plants etc): Shing Jea Isle (End of Dragons)
• Rift hunting: SotO

 

Just a thought... it's only recycled if you have and have played all those various, separate expacs.

I kind of prefer seeing something spread across the entire world, instead of locked in just once place.  Feels more natural, and less like a gimmick.   None of those, imho, felt overwhelmingly overused, so it's like reusing the cooking event from PoF and Gothmar for SoT; just something I know how to do and as fun as a bar filler, a little different from the other grind.  Again, just me.

I did like what they did later with a warclaw in a story mission.  Also... "recycled," I suppose, but fun enough to do, interesting, and a different way to approach a mechanic for completing the fight.  I've played enough WvW to have used those warclaw skills before, and you might argue it's like a mount story mission in... PoF or the follwing LW, I forget.  But again, something totally new would have that random, connects-to-nothing feel.  This felt creative while making sense.

[Ashantara.8731]

Just now, Lyssia.4637 said:

Just a thought... it's only recycled if you have and have played all those various, separate expacs.

So each of these new mini-expacs are new-players-only then? 😂

[Buzzbugs.1236]

The Rift hunting alone is reason enough to not want to buy the expansion. The single worst thing in SoTo and they brought it back..

A new expansion is supposed to be a new experience. This is just not it.

 

 

Edited August 21 by Buzzbugs.1236

[Lyssia.4637]

31 minutes ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

So each of these new mini-expacs are new-players-only then? 😂

Heck, I have all of the above and have since they were released, and I've only done the bellows one before.  Edit: Aside from rift hunting, of course.  The rift hunting is the only one that seemed egregiously reused to me.  🤷‍♀️

Edited August 21 by Lyssia.4637

[TheNurgle.4825]

Recycling content is not issue when gameplay loop is fun and every iteration improve state of game. Who in their right mind approved putting rifts in Janthir please stop.

[Dean Calaway.9718]

This happens with every game, and GW2 is hardly the worse at it, when the tool set is combat, grab, drop, press, reaction-prompt there's only so much you can do.

With that said...

You're complaining about a forging mini game, in a map originally released in 2019.

You're complaining about burning infected crops, in a map originally released in 2018.

You're complaining about tending a garden, in a map originally released in 2022.

These take a few minutes to do, and you don't interact with them that often, they're not even that common in the game world so it's not like you're doing them every 20 minutes, if you were a glass half full kinda guy you could just be happy you have an understanding of how these rare events work so you can just get them done.

And rift hunting is just a fundamental part of the story, you can't complain about that.

[Ashantara.8731]

1 hour ago, Dean Calaway.9718 said:

You're complaining about a forging mini game, in a map originally released in 2019.

You're complaining about burning infected crops, in a map originally released in 2018.

You're complaining about tending a garden, in a map originally released in 2022.

???

I wasn't complaining about any of those things! They were FUN back then. 😄 I was complaining about the repetition of those very things covered up as "new" events/activities. 😉 I had played through all previous expacs and LWS at least a dozen times, so it is not fun to come back to the same-old, same-old these many years later.

[DeanBB.4268]

6 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

Oof... okay. So, I have only explored 1/2 of the first map so far, but every activity and mechanic I have encountered up until now was 100% recycled content, nothing new, and I fear this won't change moving ahead.

As a veteran player, this truly saddens me, because it leads to quick fatigue due to disinterest. I can hardly bring myself to press on with the map and story, even though the environment looks very pretty and I am enjoying the atmosphere of the map. But so far, there has been nothing fun to do.

@confused reaction, here are four examples of 1-on-1 recycled activities:

• Using  the bellows: Grothmar Valley (Bound by Blood, IBS)
• Burning the infected crops: Domain of Kourna (Long Live the Lich, LSW4)
• Tending the garden (watering plants etc): Shing Jea Isle (End of Dragons)
• Rift hunting: SotO

This list could go on endlessly, including fight mechanics. I am terribly bored at this point by all the copy & paste content. 😕 Hope there will be something new eventually.

Just remember, it can always be worse, it might make things more tolerable for you. They could have recycled this gem:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Join_the_Ash_Legion_of_Tawny_Ridge_in_stealth_operations

[Mystflower.7319]

5 hours ago, Futa.4375 said:

Ironic considering they don't seem limited at all when it's about adding overpriced skins made by third parties in the cash shop.

I think skins are a totally different thing then map content though.. but I'm not a developer so I could totally be wrong xD

[Randulf.7614]

40 minutes ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

???

I wasn't complaining about any of those things! They were FUN back then. 😄 I was complaining about the repetition of those very things covered up as "new" events/activities. 😉 I had played through all previous expacs and LWS at least a dozen times, so it is not fun to come back to the same-old, same-old these many years later.

But that's how all continuous games generally work. They lay down foundations and adapt them for new maps in new, creative ways. Also, I don't recall any maps requiring jumping across river logs to catch frogs. Or pulling down trees with warclaws. Or making a jumping puzzle out of a honey collecting event. What they are doing is maintaining consistency with existing systems which shouldn't be a new concept to anyone. 

If anything we've got more variety in what they reuse since there's a lot of different types of events and flavour on show rather than just a bunch of kill x mob or escort y npc. Bounties get adapted. Farming, dancing and crafting events redone to be more in line with the Kodan culture. The map storytelling is up there with their finest work and it's thanks to the events (I'd argue some are on too short a timer, but that's my only criticism)

It's fine to ask for brand new things, but let's be honest. The game is 12 years old, with reduced resources. Is it honestly likely given the game - like every other MMO in existence - is going to start reinventing the wheel at this stage? Not really. If you are hoping for a raft of utterly new content never seen before in the game every expansion given the limits of what the game can do, I think you are going to be disappointed every release going forward

We are spoilt in GW2 by not having the classic a-b-c hand in quests driving the main content and I think that gets forgotten. But the trade off is that some events will utilise similar foundations to their design. That is by necessity

[anninke.7469]

While I did notice the things to do are recycled, I don't really mind. I was actually sad I couldn't "massage" the corn crops like the good old days 😄

[Eekasqueak.7850]

I mean it makes sense to reuse things like- doing basic tasks that are bound to be commonly done elsewhere. Inventing something new every time we need to tend a field or smelt ore would be silly.