Feedback: Official Living World Season 4 Episode 2 Feedback [May contain spoilers]

[Cragga the Eighty Third.60]

I enjoyed the story, a break from humans and the desert were needed. ^^ My asura character got some cultural recognition by suspicious charr, and personal details are always fun in a story. Glad that Taimi has outgrown her bad tween makeup skills. The Full-Metal Alchemist thing on Blish and Gorrik would have meant more if we had known more about them than just 'there's these guys I used to know' from Taimi. But they seem like interesting characters for future development, so I hope we see more of them.

 

The fight against the big golem and all its little power golems in the Charr village was tedious, but I enjoyed the rest of the fights and challenges, even the power-suit disguise one where I tripped every single alarm. XD Loved the surprise changes of venue in the final battle.

 

I already mentioned in another thread how I like the more laid-back feel of the new map, how you're not continually under attack whenever you stop moving. Appreciate that you have some jackal portals, that was feeling like a singularly useless mount. The skimmer races are another great idea, though there are clearly some arcane skills to skimmer navigation, since it seems many of us can't get over the high jumps without cheating on griffons and springers.

 

Have not pursued map completion or events yet, but as I traveled between stories, I kept getting caught up in events, so it seems there is a lot going on. Looking forward t eploring more!

[Locce.8405]

I don't know if you were going for Joko getting hate or just the full troll factor, but if 7 out of 10 bounties end up as ambushes I think you are going too far in the "I think somebody is wasting my time" direction.

[Rufo.3716]

There were to many stupid puzzles in this. I for one just want to go through and kill stuff. And that boss fight in the charr village was a pain in the arse. Most of this episode felt like a chore rather than having fun.

[Douglas Mines.7362]

First, my tale of woe...

 

So I played some solo when it opened, as that's my preferential play-style for storyline instances. I had about 2 hours in which to play, (had planned for 3, but the patch didn't release as early as I had hoped) expecting to be able to do the pre-storyline in 1 hour (as I had with pretty much all other LW releases), and have another hour exploring the island. Overall I liked what I had, but the intro-instances were too long. There seemed to be 3 separate story instances that *had* to be done back-to-back, as well no obvious way of knowing if I quit, where would I come back? I kept playing as I didn't want to have to re-do from the start, but by the time I got to the big bad in the final storyline instance, I was more concerned about real-life time management, let the NPCs take it down, and came back to play to do the energy bits that they couldn't, rinse and repeat, so that I would have some time to do exploring. Essentially, I needed some feedback from the game to know where I would rejoin (and of course, seeing bug reports about CreateInstance didn't help :fearful: ), but regardless, it just felt too long. By the time I was leading the cubs back to safety, I was getting impatient for the explorable areas and my desire to keep them safe was starting to wane.

 

And the positives:

The storyline was well written. Whilst the golem/stealth section was finicky, I didn't have any notable problems with it. The lab section was also good, I particularly liked the elevators, wasn't expecting it somehow and it brought a smile to my face. A fairly standard "introduce the NPC, NPC introduces to others, others doesn't care until PC saves them" story-thread was bettered by the cubs and their nature. I do like the look of the new tribe so far too, it's something fresh for the Charr since whats-his-face became a Revenant. What I have seen of the island, looks beautiful as always. I'm a sucker for rainstorms (any chance for some thunder/lightning at some point?), so seeing one atop a waterfall was fantastic :) The events I happened upon (a lab puzzle box, a hunting target and something else) were all good. Really looking forward to exploring it as a whole. And really wanting to see how Taimi's friends meet into the story. Suppose I'd best go play...

[notebene.3190]

> @"dontlook.1823" said:

> Fantastic. I am blown away. Everything about it was just epic. This LW stuff is turning into an Oscar award-winning ensemble. I have zero gripes whatsoever. Only things that aren't being carried over anymore: dungeons :[. But yeah, kudos keep up the good work. I'm literally eating my words from part of my 1st ep. comment: "Awakened attacks needs more follow-up outside of Istan." :+1:

 

This was kinda my thoughts so far. Love the area, the story was great (though I might have some problems with some achievements, but that is okay). The collections, metas and bounties are great. Not 'super' excited about the fake bounties, but maybe those can just be dialed back?

[UncrushablePigeon.8760]

Bounty 1-4: Magneton Manipulator, 4x ambush.

Bounty 5: Oakenscorn, ambush

Bounty 6: Exterminator IG-04, ok

Bounty 7: Magneton Manipulator, ambush

 

This is the opposite of fun.

[Witch of Doom.5739]

> @"AnodicShadow.3647" said:

 

> You can return her [Taimi's] bow at the end of Episode 1. Just gotta talk to her at the end of the final instance.

 

If we didn't do it then it would be nice to be able to now.

 

At any rate, I think the new map is gorgeous. Wish there were more waypoints. The rewards for beating any champions seem underwhelming. Overall I'm enjoying it.

 

 

[BobVonBob.8096]

I may well be the only one really bothered by this, butthis 'coffee bean' rock  was used way too much in this map, there are places where 10+ are visible at once. Maybe this is common practice on other maps and I just haven't seen it, but this rock is so distinct that it's really jarring seeing it absolutely everywhere.

 

[Doctor.1384]

not enough events. Also disconnected from other maps, there should at least be a boat or something setup in amnoon that will ferry you from there to the new maps and old maps.

[Ithilwen.1529]

Well done on the story, ANET. Sadly, I haven't been able to finish "Bug in the System" yet because I keep disconnecting. The story team obviously has good awareness of GW1 and of real world ritual practices. Several interesting sub texts and story lines that have me thinking.

 

Again I ask; Why do boss encounters require massive aoe? Is there not some other way to make a challenge? The Asura gate challenge was interesting because I needed to deduce what was required, ( and got it on the first try.)

 

~edit~ Actually I had to infer/induct what was required. My inner Asura correcting me.

[Ben K.6238]

Well, it got a few long overdue character customisation options added, so I'm not complaining too much. I find the charr tribe to be bizarre in the context of charr society in too many ways, I find it a little implausible that the Inquest can spontaneously build the second-largest city in the world off the coast of Elona with no-one back home knowing about it, and it's annoying to see yet more bounties added when we know no-one's going to be doing them after the first week.

 

But whether it makes sense or not, it's a great map. Lots to explore, spectacular landscape, story episode was fun to play (does it seem like this is just a contest between dei ex machina yet though?) and there seems to be a good diversity of meta-events to follow here.

[Randulf.7614]

On the whole another excellent episode

 

PRO'S

- Didn't follow the formula of ep1. I like that. I know some didn't like having 3 instances before the map, but I felt LS3 was too formulaic of instance - open world - instance - boss. This mixed up the flow better

 

- LOVED the inquest base. Great fun exploring it. Felt like a cross between Half Life and Metroid Prime. Overall it was a cool map, with some fun events (like the dancing one)

 

- A great episodic story that advanced some characters and confirmed a direction for us. Dialogue andstory continues to improve

 

- Last boss was cool to fight, but also see cons below

 

- Great visuals despite the fps drops and overall performance problems in open world this is causing

 

- Thanks for not adding inventory clutter.

 

 

CONS

- Visual noise is a big issue. The Specimen lab bosses are barely visible and some of the Golem champs in the outside events use a electric field attack which drops fps to under 5fps making dodging impossible. Visual noise redutcion needs to be a priority. Not next year, but now and immediately. Whether that is a slider, effects reduction in general or rethinking encounters to split groups up. Palawdan also needs an urgent overhaul in this regard

 

- Golem boss mid story has 3x too much hp at least. The final boss is great and well tuned HP wise, but when it hit the final phases, too much visual stuff is going to keep on top of. Please remeber, we aren't all t4 fractal players or raiders. Some of us just play story and need manageable, balanced encounters. Every episode you seem to have a boss that gets nerfed. Learn from our feedback please

 

- Dry Top soundtrack is not appropriate for exploring an Inquest base. Immersion really broke at times because of it. There must be plenty of reusable assests which are better

 

- Could use some pick up collections scattered around the open world

 

- A lot of bugs like stuck events (escort to Djinn) and the early instance issue.

 

- Branded mounts feels like another lore sell out.

 

- Achievment points. Please, please, please, please, please stop with the 1 point achievements. Please

 

OTHER

- Mastery was a bit unimaginative. But, might prove useful in time

[Tekoneiric.6817]

> @"Oglaf.1074" said:

> I'm kinda disappointed to see that Braham was left, y'know... still drawing breath?

 

He was way less annoying in this episode than previous ones.

[Tekoneiric.6817]

My biggest annoyance with the episode is the boss. I really wish the devs would get away from puzzle bosses and take it to a straight forward fight. Sometimes they put an audio clue on what to do with bosses and sometimes they don't. I would rather have a direct fight with the boss.

 

I do like the new map although there are some annoyances with it. I really wish they wouldn't cut island maps in two. As I think with most players I hate invisible walls and having area you can see but can't go to majorly triggers my OCD to explore maps. I noticed that they put the 'current pushes you back' to close in some areas when I was navigating around the Inquest island.

 

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE stop using invisible walls or kill zones to block players. There are better ways to do it. When next to a zone without on the other side use fear to drive the player away. Play a intense growl or some other audio clue along with a blast of fear to make the character run away. On ice maps use a blast of cold air to blow the player back. It could be shown as a wintry streaming updraft from map edge that becomes visible as the player approaches it. On maps that border other maps just calculate where the player is in relation to the next map then throw them on the next map. Basically make the entire map edge a vapor portal to the next map. They could give the edge a vapor effect like the vapor portals as the player approaches it.

[killermanjaro.5670]

> @"AnodicShadow.3647" said:

> > @"killermanjaro.5670" said:

> > I really like the new map, it looks great and is a nice change from the aesthetic of the last few. I've done completion, but haven't spent enough time in it yet to get a feel for all the events, the events in the middle (specimen chamber?) seemed OK, but not sure if that'd keep me coming back to the map.

> >

> > The story was OK, though the intro instance before getting to the new map felt a bit long (maybe it's quicker if you ignore trying to stealth through). But any story instances which involve Taimi get a thumbs up from me (though I thought maybe we'd get to return her bow XD). There was a lot of combat instances which was good, although all the story felt insanely easy compared to previous story stuff! I'm not even a particularly good player, maybe average at best, so I was quite surprised to breeze through it.

> >

> > The section that briefly took place in Frostgorge was an absolute FPS killer! I dropped to about 10fps there! (50-60fps in most story instances normally).

> >

> > I haven't properly looked at it yet, but I hear there's a collection to complete for a 32 slot bag which sounds good. Haven't yet found out if there's a JP yet either (hope so).

> >

> > Overall pretty enjoyable, keep up the great work!

>

> You can return her bow at the end of Episode 1. Just gotta talk to her at the end of the final instance.

 

Now you mention it, I think I remember doing that. But I don't think Taimi had it in this chapter, so it felt it hadn't been found / returned. Maybe I'm wrong and it was there, perhaps I just didn't notice.

[Ashantara.8731]

> @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> Here's the traditional "highpoints" gathering place. Please share your general feedback about the episode here.

 

This episode is **the best**. And when I say "the best", I truly mean of all the content available in PvE.

 

- The **map** is flawlessly designed. Not only is it beautifully crafted, but everything fits perfectly. Never had as much fun exploring a map in GW2 (besides the cities) as I had with this one. Also, great to navigate!

- **Excitement!** Nothing you do here is boring or tedious, and nothing is cramped and overdone. You get the perfect balance between exploration/discovery, puzzles (puzzles!!!11), fighting and doing events. The team who did this chapter deserves a promotion.

- **Story:** It is no secret that I am no fan of the overly use of Asuran technology, but lo and behold, for some reason it did not bother me in this episode. Everything was perfectly woven into each other, nothing seemed forced or out of place (or exaggerated for that matter).

- **Culture:** Yay, some non-human content at last! And such a nice touch to it: ex-flame legion gone all tribal and attached to nature. Love it!

- Last, but not least, yay for ascended trinkets! (It would be great if ANet could add an item that resets the stats.) Like all the merchants' stuff in this chapter, worth farming the currency.

 

Thank you! <3 I am finally having fun with GW2 again. :)

 

[Randulf.7614]

> @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> > Here's the traditional "highpoints" gathering place. Please share your general feedback about the episode here.

>

> This episode is **the best**. And when I say "the best", I truly mean of all the content available in PvE.

>

> - The **map** is flawlessly designed. Not only is it beautifully crafted, but everything fits perfectly. Never had as much fun exploring a map in GW2 (besides the cities) as I had with this one.

> - **Excitement!** Nothing you do here is boring or tedious, and nothing is cramped and overdone. You get the perfect balance between exploration/discovery, fighting and doing events. The team who did this chapter deserves a promotion.

> - **Story:** It is no secret that I am no fan of the overly use of Asuran technology, but lo and behold, for some reason it did not bother me in this episode. Everything was perfectly woven into each other, nothing seemed forced or out of place (or exaggerated for that matter).

> - **Culture:** Yay, some non-human content at last! And such a nice touch to it: ex-flame legion gone all tribal and attached to nature. Loved it!

> - Last, but not least: yay for ascended trinkets! (It would be great if ANet could add an item that resets the stats.) Liked all the mechants' stuff in this chapter. Worth farming the currency.

>

> Thank you! <3 I am finally having fun with GW2 again. :)

>

 

I echo what you said about Asuran tech. I'm usually not a fan of Inquest stuff, but this was so much better than the fairly generic stuff presented in most Inquest areas prior to this. I genuinely felt like I was exploring a high level lab and base, with an ordered hierachy and organised roles for those involved. It gave the Inquest more depth rather than just "hey these are bad guys".

 

Also reminded me of the Orochi Tower from Secret World, but few will get that reference I suspect

[ainekitten.9517]

I love the direction the story is taking. It’s becoming very grim and the implications are something I’m very interested in. I’m glad to see the story taking itself seriously and leaving the jovial things and easter eggs in open world content mostly. I’m happy to be seeing a lot of charr and asura culture being expanded upon. The problem I have is with the delivery of fights. Living world has always been about a PERSONAL story, being solo content. I’m beginning to feel very put off by how heavily raiding has affected the game so severely that solo content is now tedious at best and unbeatable at worst, and we should not be forced to look for a group to conplete solo content. Stop operating under the delusion that everyone is raiding and can can handle that kind of stuff. The visual noise is also so severe that I can’t even tell what’s happening with tells. Things like this are constant reminders of why I left the game and only come back for new story. I am so so deeply invested in the story and lore, but playing the game is painful and punishing these days to casuals. WoW seems to have learned their lesson and the game now is accessible and enjoyable to people of all skill levels, which it had a long history of not being. And a game like GW2 which was built on the foundation of being a friendly and accessible game has gone completely back on those values in favor of the hardcore endgame. Not only does that show in the awful fights in the story, but in the community as well. Guarantee this post that’s simply critical of boss mechanics and hardcore favoritism will send the toxic hardcore players into attack mode.

[darkfiremew.5937]

As a first impression:

Pros:

>!-Finally something else other than just humans.

>!-Finally some updates to the Inquest. It gave me a bit more insight as to why they aren't more advanced technologically.

>!-Expansion on charr lore that makes me happy instead of induce a fit of rage.(I loved the Stormcaller shout outs ).

>!-More friendly asura that aren't Taimi.

>!-Awesome character development for our companions that join us to the new map. I would have liked a longer talk between the PC and Braham especially towards the end of the episode when it started to actually get good, but I understand that budget is a thing.

>!-Sayida the Sly's banter is awesome.

Cons:

>!-The 3 instances at the start that were back to back felt tedious to go through, due to being in such a quick succession from one another. The first 2 could have been 1 instance, while the third one, if you cut the starting part and put it at the end of that long instance would have been better and then after the chance of roaming the new map for a bit then going into the third one.

>!-I would have liked a longer talk with both Braham and Rox since the PC did spend multiple living story episodes apart from them and a whole expansion. What I got with both of them seems way too little, especially for people that were there since Season 1.

>!-Why on Tyria would I want to share my character's health with my mount if it means my character getting downstate or death instead of my mount? The whole point of mounts is to get me to places where I can't and take a small bit of damage instead of my PC when engaging combat. This mastery makes no sense. This makes as much sense as people with both Ley Line Gliding mastery and Volatile Magic Resonance not being able to just glide up in that lab without that attunement. Some things just baffle me.

>!-This is a nitpick: the map isn't situated between the North of Desert Highlands and the South of Ebonhawke's closed gates that lead to the Elonian territories.

>!-This is another nitpick: If the legendary weapon is the actual Claw of the Khan-Ur, that has serious lore implications for the Charr as a whole and it's importance is lightly glossed over as just another legendary that came in with the patch. Since in lore, if that claw was found that would mean there will be a new Khan-Ur selected and whomever they may be, has the power to dismantle the whole concept of the legions in it's entirety. But since this hasn't been in the episode proper and people run around with the Flameseeker Prophecies shield , this is a minor nitpick of mine.

[Galaa.8475]

Love the map and the events. Plenty of gathering to do. Events seem non stop, so that's a plus. Not much of a storyline person so can't comment there. However I do finish the storylines in due time. Just more interested in the map exploration and what it has to offer. So far all is well done. Thank you guys. Looking forward to the rest of the LW 4 episode maps.

[Rauderi.8706]

The bullet points:

 

:+1: Charr love. The Olmakhan and their little slice of the zone is . . nice? Spiffy? Quaint? Not quite novel, but few things are, but it's nice to see "beast race lives with nature" as a trope done well. Also, big nod to the music in the area.

 

:+1: Getting right to the story chain felt like a good move to transition to the zone. Not a must-have, but preferable to the way Lake Doric was handled. Less stilted, and the story divisions work out nicely.

 

:+1: I've seen screenshots of "jump to an achievement" things? If this is real, kitten, please do this retroactively through Season 2, HoT, Season 3, and PoF. Please! It would make them tremendously more re-playable.

 

:+1: North side of the zone is pleasant. The hunting grounds was a nice touch, having small hunt jobs to do. It also seems more mellow than Istan, which I can really appreciate. Istan makes it really hard to pull or fight intelligently, because the aggro ranges for some mobs are so [expletive] huge.

 

:+1: Glad to see trinkets come back. It makes the nodes worth the purchase.

 

:-1: Combat encounters. More CC-spam, more Giant AoE murder nonsense. Seriously, there are more things you can do to threaten players than huge damage bombs and constant, unavoidable loss of control. In the very least, work on a proper balance of these copy-paste enemies you put in, so not every single thing is spitting stuns and blinds.

 

:-1: Jackal portals. Nothing wrong with them in concept, but the execution leaves something to be desired.

:star: Nuhoch Wallows were marked. So should the Jackal portals.

:-1: Getting thrown about seemingly at random is disorienting.

:-1: Worse still when there are enemies directly in front of them the moment you appear. It's not acceptable, and I should have said this more strongly from the beginning of Path of Fire.

 

:skull: The karka are back. Yay. They used to seem so difficult, now they're just . . nopes. Time-wasting nopes. Griffon up and move on.

 

:bleep_bloop: I'm not sure how I feel about all this Asura stuff as a major driving point. It's been going on a long while now, and apparently, the Inquest are absolutely monolithic. I'm surprised there's anything of Rata Sum that isn't completely and blatantly their stronghold. It just . . seems improbable.

 

Still, looking forward to hitting those bases some more. I've had some pleasant surprises as I've been flying/leaping/gliding/etc around, like a random wyvern on top of an Asuran fortress. Had about 3-5 people show up, just enough to smack around a champion. :)

 

 

 

[Shadechidna.9153]

I was trapped between thinking "This is one giant Portal/Portal 2 reference with the whole "thinking with portals" aspect of things" and "Well, that escalated quickly" throughout the entire final half.

 

Also the Olmakhan are awesome. I always wondered if we'd find Charr that weren't war mongering. I can totally feel Rox's surprise to see that they value family and bonding over what the Black Citadel Charr use as their form of culture. Anyone else seeing Rox joining the Olmakhan Tribe? I DO.

 

I also think that Braham and the PC's moment in the void was a moment of "Yeah, we were both jerks back there..." only to kinda wanna slap my PC when he's like "Oh thank the Pale Mother" like he was just praying for that awkward moment to be interrupted. (To be fair, I RP as a AWOL Courtier so...This is very characteristic of him anyway in situations like that lol)

 

Overall, I was impressed with the story. I am genuinely itching for the next chapter versus past ones where I mostly just shrugged it off or got irritated. Well done, Anet. Someone on your storyboard team needs a raise! I've had a love/hate relationship with the story for some time after HoT launched but I think it finally went from too much crap at once to finally focused and driven on a single narrative with a bigger picture on the horizon. Path of Fire is what Heart of Thorns wished it could be. A good story with invested interest in the new maps!

 

See you in the next chapter, Tyrians!

[Dreamy Lu.3865]

Everybody seems to be happy, I am sorry, I am not. I found the story line (the part I did up to now) long and fastidious. In the dark most of the time, with mazes, and timed actions, that are 3 things I do not like generally in the game and don't manage well. Unfortunately, these 3 things did prevent me from enjoying the rest. And then I got stuck at the fight against the giant golem. I have not been able to manage it. At the top of it, it was impossible to leave it!? I had no other way than to log out... So, that's where I am stuck. And since the new area seems to be allowed first after finishing story line, I have still not seen it yet.

 

So, all in all, sorry, I cannot say much positive: Experience has been rather bad at what I did - at least for now - and at the top of it, I have no access to new area. That does not let much room for any positive feelings as of today. Now of course, that's my very personal opinion only. I am very jealous of those who achieved to pass the giant golem. :3

[Drarnor Kunoram.5180]

I'll go out on a controversial stance and say I absolutely loved the encounters! All of the varied tasks and mechanics that required me to think through my actions were amazing (and for those who had massive difficulty with the golem boss, there was a range that he never hit you in until he got low, roughly 500 range and less). Please, more fights like these! The final battle especially was excellent, and had the devs clearly cutting loose with a lot of the tech they developed for raids.

 

But don't make them "Crack in the Ice boss" level. That one just made no sense.

 

Story-wise, it was quite enjoyable.

 

However, what got me were some of the small details. From the Avatar: the Last Airbender reference with the achievement to the muffling of battle sounds while you were in Brham's bubble. These were amazing to find.

 

I do have one bit of negative criticism: this was yet another time when race-specific dialogue would have been perfect and you missed it, specifically with charr characters. Missing it in PoF is almost inexcusable (what charr wouldn't be thrilled with the mission of killing a human god?), but in here as well?

[Alledzebu.1037]

I'll be as brief and punctual as i can:

 

1) Renowned hearts ( the hammer one and the safari one ) were great, they felt different, diverse, and the other ones that were not as interesting were completed very fast, really enjoyed these, in contrast to the core expansion ones that were a bit of the opposite...

 

2) For the first time in a long time, felt fully engaged while exploring this map, was indeed an experience, keep up the good work...

 

3) Despite criticisms towards the history it kept me very entertained, the new characters didn't felt boring, in fact am very curious of their background...

 

Thanks