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

[Athrenn.9468]

After reading many of the above comments, I've had a hard time finding something new to add that couldn't be said more simply by Thumbs Upping the posts that have already been made. I liked the Olmakhan lore, the excellent use of the new lore books interface, the amount of detailed that was put into the northern part of the map to make the Olmakhan feel like a living, breathing culture. Even the wildlife NPCs have a lot of personality to them and you can see animals behaving like actual animals would in the wild rather than just standing around and waiting for a PC to kill them and loot their bodies. If I had to sum up all of the major successes of this episode, it would be the amount of **ambient personality ** that was given to the new area.

 

Furthermore, it really felt like every part of the new map embraced the narrative of Episode 2. This is something that I hugely appreciated since one of my major gripes with past episodes (E.g. LWS3, Episode 2: Rising Flames) was that many of the heart quests felt disjointed from what the actual story was about. The episode would begin with Taimi showing off her cool new holographic simulation technology, progress towards a vague goal of trying to figure out what the vinetouched destroyers were all about, and somehow leading us towards a stranded circus company and some pirate skritt in the process...? Neither of which had anything to do with the narrative? In my opinion, this is what you get for hiring a proper editor to work on Living World so thank you Jessica Price for doing such a fantastic job at keeping the narrative lean, succinct, and on point.

 

Even the map design felt cohesive as we learned more about the Charr-Ewoks and how they lived their lives in the northern part of the map, thus establishing what is at stake if we fail to stop the Inquest. As we progressed further south, we saw how the Inquest's hyper-industrialism contrasted with the island's natural ecology which created a sense of foreboding. Finally, the dead center of the map had tar and zombies which showed us the ugly truth of what could happen to the Olmakhan and all of Tyria if we fail to stop Joko's plan.

 

On the topic of Palawa Joko as a villain, I feel like he has a lot more presence in the story than the White Mantle, Caudecus, Primordus, Jormag, or even Lazarus/Balthazar in Season 3. I feel like there's more of a focus on telling the story of Tyria vs. Joko in Season 4 vs. the previous season where we had the White Mantle emerge as a threat, only to be utterly obliterated in the span of two episodes _while_ also dealing with two Elder Dragons and somehow defeating them as well. In my opinion, Season 3 had too many villains and not enough focus; Season 4 is taking off with a promising start by showing us just how menacing Joko is. What I really want to see is the Commander's antagonistic relationship with the villain progress throughout the season so that when/if we finally defeat him, it will feel like we really earned it.

 

And when I say 'feel like _we_ earned it', that's exactly what I mean. No Asura ex Machina, no Deus ex Machina, no convenient magical sword that was somehow the antagonist's only weakness and happened to be in our hands the whole time. If the Commander manages to defeat Joko, it should be after a monumental struggle and perhaps even after some monumental losses like an Empire Strikes Back moment halfway through the season.

 

Thank you for taking the time to listen to our feedback. I for one am looking forward to seeing where Episode 3 takes us.

[ProtoGunner.4953]

I generally have the feeling that with every new story part they release the storytellers deviate from the initial plan. It was about Kralkatorrik and now we are fighting the inquest? It's always so convoluted instead of a straight story with a ton of side stories and sub-plots which aren't always resolved. I really dislike that. Started right with season 1.

 

As always, the new map is amazing though. I really love what anet does in this department. Anyway, introducing new stuff/items and mats with every new new story part imho sucks. Pearls here, petrified wood there, one kind of magic, another kind of magic etc. Just harmonize it. I understand you want us to stay there for a reason, but you could achieve that in another way.

[Vlad Morbius.1759]

A lot of positives in this story and for the most part this map. I enjoyed the story, it was extremely interesting, especially the final fight and ending up in who knows where. The puzzles to get through the doors were just about right and I enjoyed the fact you could solve them over time with little interference. The map itself is great I really enjoyed the NPC interaction and the overall feel of the environment is great. I do think you went way over the top with the frequency of the ambush vs. bounty and hope that gets toned down. The other comment I had to add and I'm sure I'm not the only one, as much as I understand the whole wind aspect the swirling around in circles and riding the wave in the engineering quest made both my wife and I seriously nauseous and it seems this mechanic is becoming far too prevalent in the current designs. I enjoyed the bag quest I and really do wish more acquisition quests like this were added to the game rather than the standard farm for this and purchase alternative, in fact why can't there be both options for all ascended items?

[David.5974]

Story: Amazing! Great sense of humor, straight moving without porting to new location! Fights, puzzles are really fun. It is more far from epic battle then core gw2 and some emotion like " Oh no why he die!" But it was fun! My rating would be 8/10 for story. GJ

 

New map: Charr tribe.... Like a charr player... They are something new for me. I more like furious machinery of iron legion tbh, but you give us finally episode with charr theme finally!! Map is exciting for me and i love it! Inquest techs, enviroment of charr tribe, caverns - there was much work felt and another great 8/10. Bring some breath taking map change during events and it would be really epic.

 

Rewards: 32slot bag is really cool reward why make there events , bounties and explore map. It is really true reward - not only skin. I hope that you will bring more rewards like this in the future, because I am not hard fashion warrior, but QoL hunter (inventory space, stat switch on legend armor, personall tp etc) so 10/10

 

So one of the best episodes you made. Good job

 

 

[Avelione.6075]

Magnetics Lab! I dunno if it was changed already BUUT I cannot make that heart! the twisting around mechanics gives me a nasty headache and makes me feel sick! I have no idea how to fix this if we're supposed to swirl around and have a good aim! I cannot do this! I don't even wanna try if it was made gentler cause I'm too afraid to get a headache:/

This is why I have all the screen shaking off as well :(

I love how well the mechanics works and flying in the air is nice, except NOT in a circle goddammit! ;P

[Pifil.5193]

I loved every minute of episode 2's story (apart from the buggy final fight but bugs is bugs) and the map is fantastic!

 

I especially love all the incidental dialogue on the map, the bored sounding inquest, the fantastic PA system and the charr villagers are all great! I love the Olmakhan in general, nice to see some non - militaristic, more natural charr. I'd buy a house there if I could.

 

I've been really enjoying the achievements too, a good mix of group achievements and solo able ones with some good rewards including titles. (PoF has some terrible achievement rewards IMO).

 

I'm really glad to see a return of ascended accessories for map tokens with this episode, is like a set or two with PoF stats but the prices for them in the desert are far too high.

 

The metas are really fun but I wish you allowed us to discover the Specimen Chamber PoI from outside the room, I find being blocked while completing map exploration by an event (or lack thereof) annoying. In the end I just parked all my alts outside the door and logged them all in one after the other during one particular event.

 

I don't like the ambush system, especially as you need to complete bounties for some achievements. It's a source of frustration both in game and on the forums. I'd prefer to have to fight the awakened and the bounty, that'd be much more fun.

 

Great work everyone! Episode 1 was excellent, this one was excellent, you're really raising the bar for the poor old Episode 3 team! ;)

 

Edit: the last phase of the IG backpack collection, are you kidding me? Half those events are broken and as for the Vabbian meta? That's a horrendous mess! Why would you do that?

 

[Dreamy Lu.3865]

There are by now so many pages, that I cannot take the time to read everything and see if it was already said or not. Sorry if it is a repeat.

 

I would like to give feedback about a little trouble - that probably only a minority of players is confronting - though very annoying: There are instances and events with "swirling" visual effects, causing motion sickness for those sensitive to it.

As an example, there is one event I can simply not do: The one where the player is slowly attracted toward the boss and after that, is moved orbiting in circle around it... I can hardly cope more than some seconds before to start being sick. :s

 

So as it is only one or two events, I just don't do them and that's OK. However, I really hope that this visual effect will not become a standard.

 

On a side note: If anyone found a solution to prevent the motion sickness at those visual effects, please let me know. I could get rid of it at using mounts pretty rapidly when PoF came out, but up to now, I found no trick for that new case. Thank you. :)

[Outh.5941]

Nothing to share as the living story does not start. I only get a black screen. Ver annoying.

[Thorfinnr Sleggja.1209]

I really enjoyed the story for this episode, and have had a lot of fun playing in the new map. The map itself is awesome and I love the fact that I can use my Skimmer to really get around quickly and effectively here.

 

The GW2 community, at least the ones I have interacted with, have all been helping each other find things and conquer bounties and such for all the achieves by calling them out in Map Chat and popping Commander and Mentor tags.

 

I only have one small frustration(I apologize if its already been addressed, I did not read through the whole thread):

 

I started working on the collections for the new bags, and they have been fun, but 1 thing has been a tad bit frustrating. For the items dropped by Bounty-Bosses, I have had a heck of a time getting them to actually spawn and not be an "Ambush". I had to do "Old Stonehoof"'s bounty more than 8 times before Old Stonehoof actually spawned and it wasn't an "Ambush". I stayed in the same map helping others with stuff until the bounty would re-spawn, pop my mentor tag and then go hunt him down.

 

I am running into the same issue for Ironshell. Though I gave up after 4 tries in a row resulted in an "Ambush" because I ran out of time to play.

 

(Full disclosure: My personal luck is horrible. It could be raining soup, and I could walk outside and get hit in the mouth with a bale of hay. Seriously. So maybe I have not appeased the RNG gods well lately.)

 

But maybe someone could take a brief look at this...I know I would appreciate it. Maybe make it so no more than 3-4 Ambushes in a row? Pretty please? :)

 

(EDIT: Looks like this is being addressed in a bug patch soon per thread from Gaile. Its way down the thread list, so I hadn't gotten there yet. https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/32221/upcoming-bug-fixes#latest)

 

 

[Thorfinnr Sleggja.1209]

Oh, and 1 more thing:

 

Maybe its just me...but I dig the "Full Metal Alchemist" vibe I got from Gorrik and Blish. Very cool, yet subtle, reference.

 

Good job, ANet!

[lynspottery.6529]

It took me **_1 hour to complete the last fight...repeat, the last fight in A Kindness Repaid_**.

 

Anet, you really need to tone down all the aoe/entire floor covered where there is really no way to dodge after two dodges....I kept getting kicked around by the Golem's attacks ...it took me an hour...do you understand? **_A single hour just on that final boss fight_** in that story segment.

 

The mechanics are insane for a story instance >>**this is not a raid** >> but you have put a raid into this story instance and its insane. You say you want the players to enjoy the game...........this was not enjoyable. If I did not need the completion of the story, I would have not done it. I did not enjoy this story instance.

[Yukio blaster.9082]

> @"lynspottery.6529" said:

> It took me **_1 hour to complete the last fight...repeat, the last fight in A Kindness Repaid_**.

>

> Anet, you really need to tone down all the aoe/entire floor covered where their is really no way to dodge after two dodges....I kept getting kicked around by the Golem's attacks ...it took me an hour...do you understand? **_A single hour just on that final boss fight_** in that story segment.

>

> The mechanics are insane for a story instance >>**this is not a raid** >> but you have put a raid into this story instance and its insane. You say you want the players to enjoy the game...........this was not enjoyable. If I did not need the completion of the story, I would have not done it. I did not enjoy this story instance.

 

ACTUALLY that was ez pz and i never did raids and i'm lvl25 in frac and i'm pure PVPer still the boss was like butter to me, i used PP thief .

[lynspottery.6529]

> @"Yukio blaster.9082" said:

> > @"lynspottery.6529" said:

> > It took me **_1 hour to complete the last fight...repeat, the last fight in A Kindness Repaid_**.

> >

> > Anet, you really need to tone down all the aoe/entire floor covered where their is really no way to dodge after two dodges....I kept getting kicked around by the Golem's attacks ...it took me an hour...do you understand? **_A single hour just on that final boss fight_** in that story segment.

> >

> > The mechanics are insane for a story instance >>**this is not a raid** >> but you have put a raid into this story instance and its insane. You say you want the players to enjoy the game...........this was not enjoyable. If I did not need the completion of the story, I would have not done it. I did not enjoy this story instance.

>

> ACTUALLY that was ez pz and i never did raids and i'm lvl25 in frac and i'm pure PVPer still the boss was like butter to me, i used PP thief .

 

I understand that there are many amazing players out there like you, however, I am not one of them. Just because some folks find them easy, does not mean other folks do. I am one of those other folks.

[Sako.7609]

> @"Thorfinnr Sleggja.1209" said:

> Maybe its just me...but I dig the "Full Metal Alchemist" vibe I got from Gorrik and Blish. Very cool, yet subtle, reference.

 

I thought I was the only one thinking about that.. :smiley:

[hugo.4705]

Yup Gorrik and Blish remind me Fm Alchemist too

[lynspottery.6529]

> @"UncrushablePigeon.8760" said:

> 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.

 

Agreed. Too many of the bounties our guild tried to complete last weekend fell into the category of ambushes, to the point we did not accomplish many. However, one bounty in particular was a wash (Champion Awakened Scavenger) because every single attempt at it was a bounty. Finally gave up on it leaving a lot of us unhappy with this mess. You need to dial back on the ambushes.

[monpetit.9764]

* Cool setting, you guys found charm in the Inquest (in which I think I would've been sick of them or think of them as tropey, but I actually enjoyed the silly Inquest chatter and such) and Charr that aren't freakazoids about war, which is somewhat of a conundrum in itself if you wanna be a lore monster I guess, but there's no unreasonable means to say the Charr can't be more "down to earth" or peaceful as they are sentient beings just like the rest of the planet.

* However, I cannot deny the reused assets out the wazoo. This will be year of 2018 in where we are fighting enemies and models from 2012. This is not a good look guys considering last month had, well, comparably nothing (no offense to the content of Feburary). At the very least maybe a boss or one or two unique enemies, there needs to be something new for the player to see. Putting in new models/graphics really does leave a good impression, and although I personally love the map, it is very clear that it feels "stale" in terms of what is actually on screen. Now don't get me wrong I know how much this map pushes the engine and the other mechanics you guys have made in absence of this so to speak, and it is really impressive, but to the untrained eye and people that don't really look into detail into what the patch actually all has - they may feel this was kinda bland and not interesting just due to the lack of any new assets, or really obvious ones, on screen. And especially since this is completely new uncharted territory. Well, this personally may not be a gripe for me, it may, but I feel this is kind of a big "presentation" factor for players.

* Taimi has gone through IMO the most character development in these personal stories, or at least she has gone through the unfortunate "damsel in distress" stigma in a couple scenarios, so that ending was definitely a really good hit to home, and something I definitely want to see more happen and develop. By all means turn her into a golem if you want, make the characters do sort of irrational things in return to how powerless they are to events or to captitalize how how dangerous and devastating our enemy is. Let Joko actually SUCCEED and make him spread the plague and have it be a whole map based around a visual of how powerful it actually is, (well, maybe that might be too gruesome for the GW2 atmosphere... perhaps turn the black plague into a whole new enemy unit or something)... Nothing felt more unique and full of heart in an MMO, at least to me, than the beginning map in GW1's Ascalon, and how you get to play through all of that to see it brought to ruin and devastation moments later. It felt powerful and brought content in a game in the place where I would never actually look for it, which is the story and plot. GW2 does a good job of that already, and it could so easily bring that same shock and awe in terms of story and what the developers are willing to risk and do with their characters, you have all of the plot points set up for it, do not be afraid to have as much fun as possible with the writing!

* The magnet stuff is super awesome, fun, and brings a big smile to my face when gameplay mechanics are the things being worked on. Would definitely like to see any instance of new mechanics come into other game modes, PVP, WVW, etc, and don't mind to see them again or reused with new assets and such. For instance in the later levels of Mega Man when you are about to blast Dr. Wily, Sigma, or whoever in whichever game you're playing, they more than often have every gameplay gimmick, mechanic, or enemies, anything that is kind of unique to each level all bundle up in the last couple levels and they harmonize quite well, making the levels usually freakin hard naturally. I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't mind seeing previous mechanics and new mechanics pair up together in new maps or new content, and other mechanics from other game modes appear in others. Mount races seem like something that could very much have it's own indepedent game mode and several flushed out tracks and maybe do silly stuff like boosters or items and such - they could also be used in PVP and that would attract maybe a LOT of people who are used to big maps and mounts in other games. All I'm saying is I've played through lots of the content, and there is so much in my memory I feel that has kind of been maybe left to rot or just hasn't been used in anywhere else instead of this once instance maybe.

* Also just wanted to say I've understood or at least read that there were engine limitations that came with this map and how the big structure in the middle really wrestled with frame rate and such. A new game engine is quite the task, but I'm sure there would be a very many people excited about engine improvements or frame rate improvements, considering how bad they get when like 50+ players are on screen. Definitely don't underestimate how much PC users care about their FPS, we all spend mucho mucho dollars on it, it would to many of our heart's delights to hear such a thing was in the works.

[blambidy.3216]

The good. Thought the map is great. Thought it was great that you added the jackel Mount for map features. I hope that you will add that to the next maps. And that you make maps need the nessesity for mounts in the game since it’s pof content. Meta is great. Keep up the meta to every map. And hope that eventually you make a huge meta like auric basin, tequitl, or shatterer.

 

The could’ve been better. Ep 1 was a great episode by far the best living world season episode. The epicness of killing so many mobs. And Taimi. I wish that this episode had something just as meaningful. The giant robot was great but I wish the fight was just more to it. Maybe a crazy guy who operated the Golemn?

 

And jokos minion we killed I thought was just too easy u know. And maybe killing the ice dragon would’ve been good after killing jokos minion lady. But I was a little sad when I wasn’t able to fight the dragon. And that the dragon was just a diversion till I killed that lady (forgot her name.)

 

Everything else I thought was good. That was only couple minor things

[Frostfang.5109]

* Awsome episode!

* Love the Olmakhans!

* Love the New horns and more for charr!

* I do miss a male smooth looking charr face though.

* I would like the Olmakhan skull helm being avaliable to get in some way.

[Kraggy.4169]

I'm late to the party with this but I have to say the Golem fight at the end of A Kindness Repaid is probably the most loathsome thing I've ever HAD to do in an MMO .. this kind of mechanic-infested AOE-spam-fest belongs in OPTIONAL INSTANCES where those who claim to enjoy this kind of thing can choose to do it.

 

It does NOT belong in core story content which GATES access to open world areas, keep it for the phat-lewt lovers in their 'elite' dungeons/raids where it belongs.

 

No, the fact you can't 'lose' doesn't defend it, the time it takes is ridiculous, the boss' health needs to nerfed at least 50% AND your damage do it buffed by at least 100% .. making somethin last 20+ mins doesn't make it hard or a challenge, it makes it utterly frustrating and something never to be wished to be done again by any sane person.

 

Of course, most of the LS instances are designed to be far too long, endlessly repeating something to drag out the experience seems to be an ANet specialty these days.

 

[Edit]

 

What were the dropped items supposed to do, because I spent a lot of time killing the purple cubes and collecting them, the Golem never got a shield (that of couese was done by the sets of three large crystals that appeared from time to time) so clearly the boss use for these differed from the trash leading to it .. I 'used' them on the boss anyway and didn't notice any change, they didn't seem to do any damage to him so I was left spending more time running away from AoEs than actually doing damage!

[OkamiLuna.5182]

I enjoyed the story and lore of the new Charr tribe, and that they do things differently than the usual Charr we see. I especially liked the flavor text of Rx asking about the children and villager responding with "we raise our own children" I like the little touches like that, helps me get more into the story. I enjoyed it overall but the fight with Lonai was extremely frustrating with the bugs I encountered. I did post on the forums and you guys patched it it seems though so I hope others don't experience that.

 

All in all I enjoyed it, was a fun episode.

[Aenaos.8160]

Really enjoyed the phased parts of the story in the open world.

Nice to see this technology finally being used more extensively,it raises the quality of the game.

With this last release GW2 had a bit of modern WoW feel in it,and I mean this in the best possible way.

 

Boss fights.

Although you can turn LW fights in a CC and DPS race,like high end Fractals and Raids,I'd rather if you didn't

and instead went for a more casual approach that would allow for lesser and not optimised builds to perform adequately.

Right now this is not the case.If you enter these fights with the wrong set up you will end up at best with a

time to kill geometrically increased,or at worst unable to complete them.

I understand the argument that these fights have to also appeal to the top few % of players using optimal builds,but imo this

has as much validity as the argument that a Raid has to be tuned towards the majority of casual players.

 

 

[Jink Bonestealer.9274]

My gripe: Attempts to complete collections are blocked by constant ambushes instead of bounties. It was neat the first time, not so much when the player never gets the bounty they need.

[lynspottery.6529]

> @"Jink Bonestealer.9274" said:

> My gripe: Attempts to complete collections are blocked by constant ambushes instead of bounties. It was neat the first time, not so much when the player never gets the bounty they need.

 

Yea, exactly. Ambushes once in a while for bounties I can understand but not all the time. As I said in another posting about this issue, our guild did a bounty series for a event....on one of them, all we got was ambushes, not the bounty. I was fortunate a day or so later to happen upon the actual bounty in progress, so I jumped in so I could accomplish it since I needed it for one of my collection.

 

Anet, you really need to tone down those ambushes on bounties.

[lynspottery.6529]

> @"Aenaos.8160" said:

> Boss fights.

> Although you can turn LW fights in a CC and DPS race,like high end Fractals and Raids,I'd rather if you didn't

> and instead went for a more casual approach that would allow for lesser and not optimised builds to perform adequately.

> Right now this is not the case.If you enter these fights with the wrong set up you will end up at best with a

> time to kill geometrically increased,or at worst unable to complete them.

> I understand the argument that these fights have to also appeal to the top few % of players using optimal builds,but imo this

> has as much validity as the argument that a Raid has to be tuned towards the majority of casual players.

>

>

I agree with this assessment. Especially since I would like to do these with all my different alts which normally do not do well in these fights because their professions/builds are not the best and seemed to have been kicked to the curb in favor of those special "few" that can actually successfully accomplish them. Right now I have only 2 professions/builds that can compete...the rest...are collecting dust.