Next expac: big or small?

[lezbefriends.7516]

Do you want the next expansion to be long and full of depth like HoT, or a smaller and more affordable entry like PoF?

[Strider Pj.2193]

Ahhh morty. I thought you were giving up the game or something.

[BlackBullWings.2734]

deff like HoT.PoF maps felt dead on arrival.

[Poormany.4507]

Large PoF type maps with map wide repeatable and rewardable metas like HoT

I'm also expecting to see lots of vertical style maps in Kaineng, based on GW1, but hopefully not as horizontally complicated as Tangled Depths.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I think the price will have nothing to do with whether the content is considered 'big' or 'small'.
To me, Path of Fire was much 'bigger' than Heart of Thorns.
Five maps, six mounts, etc.

[Lumikki.1725]

I would like something totally new. Like hole underwater world with underwater cities or something like sky cities. In my opinion many higher level maps looks so bad and the enemies aren't really special. It doesn't matter me is it big or small as long it's something really new and not so ugly content.

[Rex.3602]

If I had to choose I would prefer quality over quantity. They should take the good stuff from HoT and PoF and implement them. Both of these expansions had good and bad features about them.

[Legion.4198]

It depends on how Kaineng megacity is handled. It is the biggest city in the setting, kinda like Ba Sing Se from Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra. Back in Gw1, Kaineng occupied a good bit of the Canthan continent. It was so big, multi-layered and densely populated, that I wouldn't find it odd, if Kaineng's population is bigger than the rest of the intelligent species on the planet combined. It was inspired after Kowloon Walled City after all, a former Hong Kong city district so packed together that sunlight didn't reach the street. Kaineng has always reminded me of a cyberpunk Neo-city one step away from having street samurais, hackers and motor gangs (and perhaps a crater filled with water caused by a Elder Dragon nuke because why not?) with poor districts separated from rich one by massive walls and legions of guards and robots, while a under-hive survives from the scraps form the upper city levels. If they made at least one section of Old Kaineng, it could easily be made a true urban jungle like Tangled Deeps or Verdant Green.

[Sarie.1630]

Actually, a mixture. I like a whole-map meta, but I don't want it on every map... I enjoyed the PoF maps, especially Desert Highlands and Crystal Oasis.

If we have a Kaineng City map I wouldn't want that to just be one big meta where there's a total lack of detail on anything that's not part of the "battle against the Jade Brotherhood" map meta event, for example. I'm not just talking about items you can interract with and points of interest you can recognise, I like small voice acted events which help to flesh out the rest of the world; they don't even need to have anything to do with the main story. PoF was better for that than HoT was and is partly why I enjoy PoF maps. HoT sucked at telling the story about any thing that wasn't the Meta, really.

Just as an edited sidenote, in case Devs do read people's opinions, I would hope that Kaineng City is large enough to not be condensed down to one map, like the Desolation or Vabbi.

[zealex.9410]

I will say, next expac better be endgame focushed. I dont think a 3 to 4 if not more years gap warrant another row of vanilla like zones and content. Also it should be a propper 40 smth euro expansion, not a cheaper but smaller priced one like pof.

[Tails.9372]

It depends, I take pretty much anything as long as I have my fun but I do prefer the content to also have replay value which is something severely lacking from the vast majority of OW maps. Heck I'd even prefer a casual friendly (as in actual casual friendly and not some kind of "stepping stone" to more difficult content) dungeon like system over 5 more "dead" OW maps.

[Solanum.6983]

I'd like it to be more like POF personally with the Introduction of something new that changes up the game like what happened with mounts.

[Teratus.2859]

Gw2 has never had a long/big expansion imo..

I'm hoping the next will be significantly bigger than both PoF and HoT but we'll see.

[kharmin.7683]

@Atomos.7593 said:If I had to choose I would prefer quality over quantity. They should take the good stuff from HoT and PoF and implement them. Both of these expansions had good and bad features about them.

Problem with this idea is that it is totally subjective. What you believe are the best parts of the previous expansions may not be what I believe. How would Anet appeal to both?

[Donutdude.9582]

I feel that ArenaNet have handled the expansions very well. Each expansion brought new and exciting things to the game. I would be happy with something similar.

That being said, there is always a hole left with every update that was caused by the original Guild Wars. Whilst I acknowledge that Factions and Nightfall were standalone games under the same umbrella, it always leaves a small part of me what something of similar scale for this game.

I can dream, OK? :'(

[Randulf.7614]

HoT was the shorter expac. One less map and a much shorter and rushed story. What stands it apart from PoF is the uniqueness of the map design and the replayability of the metas

I want something as large at least as PoF with the replayability of HoT.

[Excursion.9752]

I have zero expectations for this next installment. I just hope it is fun and it brings new content to every game mode.

I do not care how big or small it is as long as it is put together well and the next big thing is worth while. HoT we got Gliding, PoF we got Mounts, and in both of those we got new specializations. So whats the next big pull? Hopefully something that will bring back veterans to the game and I don't think some story about Cantha is going to keep players sticking around for that long.

[Discarnate.6537]

What I want out of the next expac, as far as open world PvE is concerned: meta events with replayability value on the one hand, and exploration that's fun on the other.

I want some maps that have a mapwide meta with mechanics that require a bit of coordination, like Auric Basin or Tangled Depths. That would be the part where I go for action, loot, and organised gameplay.

But I also want zones where I can stop and find cool stuff without being f-ed over by random mobs or environmental effects every time I look away for five seconds. Somewhere along the lines of Grothmar Valley, which I love because it took a step back from the ridiculous "let's just put damage over time effects on half of the map and a bunch of trash enemies ganging up on you on the other, so you can't get from A to B or explore that funny looking tower." All the NPC conversations and random tidbits that you can actually stop and listen to add greatly to immersion, in my opinion.

[Paradoxoglanis.1904]

Im hoping for something new and refreshing, but im honestly not expecting anything more than a living world season packed into an "expansion".

[kharmin.7683]

I keep seeing people wanting re-playability for new maps. If each new map has re-playability, then everyone will move to the new map and leave older ones unpopulated where other players will then complain about the lack of re-playability on those maps. How can Anet win?

[Poormany.4507]

@kharmin.7683 said:I keep seeing people wanting re-playability for new maps. If each new map has re-playability, then everyone will move to the new map and leave older ones unpopulated where other players will then complain about the lack of re-playability on those maps. How can Anet win?

Old maps are already suffering from lack of players, so adding additional replayable maps would just give players more replayable options to choose from without having much of an effect on old non-replayable maps. Older maps can be temporarily repopulated by methods like weekly/daily reward rotations like they started doing recently.

[Tommo Chocolate.5870]

I don't agree with the premise of the thread. I don't see how HoT is "long and full of depth", and if anything, PoF is the bigger of the two. PoF has more and bigger maps. Both stories feel rushed, but HoT much moreso; PoF has more story instances, and the ones it has are more substantial than those in HoT. Both have the same number of elite specs and the same number of mastery lines; and although HoT's mastery lines are longer, all but one of them is filler. I understand that HoT was more expensive on release, but that doesn't seem to have anything to do with how big it is.

As far as expansion content goes, I feel like ANet have designed themselves into a corner with both masteries and elite specs. If the new masteries aren't both impactful and usable everywhere, people will complain, but if they are they'll trivialise a lot of existing content. (This already happened with mounts, after all.) Likewise the new elite specs will have to be better at something than the existing ones, which will inevitably lead to more powercreep.

[kharmin.7683]

@Poormany.4507 said:

@"kharmin.7683" said:I keep seeing people wanting re-playability for new maps. If each new map has re-playability, then everyone will move to the new map and leave older ones unpopulated where other players will then complain about the lack of re-playability on those maps. How can Anet win?

Old maps are already suffering from lack of players, so adding additional replayable maps would just give players more replayable options to choose from without having much of an effect on old non-replayable maps. Older maps can be temporarily repopulated by methods like weekly/daily reward rotations like they started doing recently.

I don't disagree about the current state of old maps. My point was, adding one replayable map would work for that one map .... until the next replayable map where everyone would move and thus leave the earlier replayable map as an "old" map with lower population. Otherwise, if the first replayable map were, well, replayable, then the new map couldn't be. There can only be one map with replayablity pretty much by definition, in my opinion.

[TheGrimm.5624]

Would prefer HoT style in depth, meta, maps and complexities and challenging NPCs/content. Still will replay HoT, can't remember last time I entered a PoF map.

[knite.1542]

Small and complete. Quality over quantity