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

[DiscordOfSound.2190]

Loved the story so far. Would of course love more interaction with Aurene, but that aside....

You got me with the Balth game play. Well done! As a fan of Peter Jessop in FO4, can't be mad I "Died". The work up to the final battle was pretty good!

 

Would have loved a little more interaction with deceased characters that helped you progress this far, but that is a lot to ask for. Looking forward to the story though as it comes out. Even an Aurene inspired outfit if possible! The addition of mounts is great, along with gliding.

[Kingkiller.9645]

I haven't finished the story yet, so I'll only comment on one thing...

 

I want an immersive way to get back to the map.

 

With PoF, I can take an airship from Lion's Arch. Okay, fine. There's no cutscene, and it drops me in the middle of the city, but I'll take it. It would be better if there was a cutscene of the ship taking off and if I arrived somewhere that made sense, like the harbour or on a rooftop with the ship next to me.

With Istan, it gets a bit better - there's a cutscene, and I'm dropped off at the docks. This is great! Yes, I would prefer a longer cutscene and actually waiting for the ship to dock and stuff, and if it were a perfect world, a 2 minute boat trip instead of a loading screen (have it load in the background). And if someone doesn't want that 2 minute wait, then they can WP there.

 

With Sandswept Isles, there is NO way to get there aside from a waypoint. I am the kind of player who will want to walk across the entire map whenever I want to go somewhere for immersion. I like doing that. And yet, I don't have that option, and it sucks.

What's worse, even though PoF and Istan offer me ways to "walk" to the maps, there is no way to get back to central Tyria.

 

Again, I haven't completed the story yet, so maybe there's something that will reveal itself that I'm not seeing.

An easy solution to this is to have asura gates in Amnoon, Istan, and the Sandswept Isles. If it doesn't canonically fit in the first two, then add cutscenes and proper drop off locations to them, and put an asura gate in the Sandswept Isles.

 

I mean, come on. I love the game and what you guys do, but you're butchering immersion. It wouldn't even take that much - you literally already have a cutscene for going to Amnoon. It wouldn't take that much for two more cutscenes (going back from Istan and Amnoon) and an Asura gate.

You DO have players who crave immersion. Give it to us!

[Kingkiller.9645]

> @"Tekoneiric.6817" said:

> 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.

 

THIS. Especially in maps bordering other maps with water. If we get a map between the raid wing on Istan and the Domain of Istan, that would be an excellent water border map for the Sandswept Isles. There's a bunch of examples in Orr, too, or the Bloodtide Coast and Sparkfly Fen.

I REALLY want to be able to just go to another map at any point in the water. Oh MAN, that would be one of the best changes to date with this game.

[Tekoneiric.6817]

> @"Kingkiller.9645" said:

> > @"Tekoneiric.6817" said:

> > 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.

>

> THIS. Especially in maps bordering other maps with water. If we get a map between the raid wing on Istan and the Domain of Istan, that would be an excellent water border map for the Sandswept Isles. There's a bunch of examples in Orr, too, or the Bloodtide Coast and Sparkfly Fen.

> I REALLY want to be able to just go to another map at any point in the water. Oh MAN, that would be one of the best changes to date with this game.

 

I'm really don't like single use RAID maps because they take up open world space but don't have any PvE post-raid access. I they do a raid on the other half the island on Sandswept Isles I'd want them to make it so that in addition to raiding on it users get to access it as a post-raid PvE map. The two could co-exist in different time frames. Raiders get early access to wild maps then after a month or so PvEers get access to a post-raid tamed map while raids could still happen on the wild map time frame via the lobby.

[Erik McKenzie.4682]

JAWS is Real!

i got attacked by a Veteran Shark while riding on the Skimmer at Sandswept Isles. Is this new to the March 27th patch? Have not gotten attacked before. Sure did a good scare on me. Was afraid of going back to the waters for a while. On the nicer side of things, a pod of dolphins flanked my left and right for a while somewhere else. Nice work ArenaNet!!

[notebene.3190]

Patch 3/27

The sharks are too much. I get sharks during races trying to knock you off. But one of the great things about the zone was all the water to ride around on your Stingray. I was trying to go from the Hero board past IG around the corner to the heart, and it was shark...shark...shark...shark. Yet, I can not mount on my stringray and swim with no issues. That's funny. Not liking the flying sharks outside of races at all. Like the rain, that seems new (don't recall it raining quite like that before).

[Sir Scuttles.1205]

This has been my favorite Living Story Episode yet! Much of PoF and LS4 EP1 were throwbacks to players who played GW1 Nightfall. As someone who only played original GW1 and Eye of the North, the environment and side stories didn't have much impact on me. It felt like I was constantly missing references, and I didn't have enough stake in the new content. (Although it was a huge hit with anyone that did play Nightfall) I also dislike being attacked every second of exploration. LS4 EP1 was especially egregious of these things. Episode 2, however, was a fresh breath of air.

So many things were done right in Episode 2.

* New race lore for both Charr and Ausran(Inquest). These were both familiar and was very exciting to learn more about them.

* Real character development for both Rox and Braham

* Lots of little lore tidbits or conversations that really added to environment.

* Both serious and funny dialogs

* New instancing was perfection. Finally players can do parts of the story in the open world without conflicting with other players. Being able to remain in the open world and see players doing the story and playing really helps encourage an active player base and help give the feeling of security that people are still playing this even when less people are playing on this map.

* Very explorable. Often there are cool looking areas that are far off and have invisible walls preventing you from exploring or is very limited. Rata Primus not only felt big but it was nice to be able to enter many parts of it AND around it.

 

While I think some of LS3 had better main story reveals, this episode had great lore and atmospheric value.

[Dreamy Lu.3865]

A feedback I would like to confirm now that I have more experience with the area: Please, slow down on using swirling visual effects, like for example the one in the Sandswept Isle meta. For people suffering motion sickness, that's quite bad. Unfortunately, the solutions used for mounts, like zooming out, does not works as good. If to watch a fix point during we are taken in the orbital moving around the boss does help, it is a spoiler to the fighting. I do not ask that it is removed. But maybe just avoid to add more and more of such? Thank you for considering. :)

[Jimbru.6014]

1. I thought all the preamble before getting to the actual map was a bit long.

2. I despise how we run through the episode the first time, and only afterwards do we find out that "Oh, there were achievements back there, and now you have to re-run the whole episode again and again to get them." Either stop burying achievements in the episode, or make it a LOT more obvious that there are achievements to be worked on in the first run of the episode. The achievement to rescue Subject S being one example; nothing leads you to even have the idea of finding and rescuing him in the first run.

3. Just like every other map in the game, there are too many trash mobs on the map and they respawn too quickly. The game as a whole needs to have the trash population culled so players can focus on doing what they actually want and need to do in the open world, instead of being constantly annoyed by unending armies of trash.

4. I'm getting really tired of the paradigm of "Force everyone to melee and then blast them with unavoidable AOE" that has come to pervade the game. Stop it.

[melociraptors.9835]

I loved the execution, characters, and pacing of this story! With the overall seriousness of the Joko arc and the heavy focus on the humans in the story thus far, I think it was a breath of fresh air to step away to the Sandswept Isles for a bit to escape the constant onslaught of Joko's supporters from the last map and see how the other races are faring. I'm a fan of the way we actually traveled to this map, a subtle nod to the contested waypoint mechanic. And I'm always happy to see puzzles integrated into gameplay and the more it's done (and done well), the less gimmicky encountering them in the world feels for players. Also, the feeling of genuine surprise I had when first encountering Boticca and the Olmakhan is something that's never been replicated in any other story instance in GW2 yet. I truly had no idea ANet would take the story where it did. Lots of good lore to encounter both in overhearing dialogue, going to various places on the map, speaking with NPCs, really made this map come alive to me. I also just have a soft spot for charr! Overall, the map felt like a well-needed, more "lighthearted" diversion from the tension of the looming Scarab Plague before ep 3 really dives into it.

 

Ewyn's story alone is so in-depth. In fact, it feels very reminiscent of the style of the Guild Wars novels. I'm just saying...I'd read it.

 

As for the mechanics and gameplay, I am pleased that the ambushes' frequency seems to have been fixed. I do agree that the golem exterminator was initially very difficult to solo for an average player. That AOE occurs too often and in too tight a local for dodge rolling to be reasonably effective. I figured out the mechanics very quickly, but it still took me over an hour to kill the golem solo. Pain points of note: not entirely sure how many times I had to hit the golem with the volatile magic to make the core drop, not enough time to do significant damage to the core before it hops off to a different location (for a scourge, this requires you to drop your sand shades very quickly and learn to predict the hopping paths), and after you get big, there's no real indication you need to **stop** doing the volatile magic mechanic and just start whaling on the boss. One of the elders tells you to "hit it with everything you got" but it may be more effective to just have the boss stop spawning those little drones altogether to avoid confusion, and switch to solely its more melee and ranged attacks.

 

Anyway, LOVED this episode. More like this please.

[Raheet.9403]

Many people probably didn't care much for the changes to harvesting tools, but I was kinda excited reading it because it gave way for a very cool feature which I've been wishing for for a while. Imagine if the tools would work similar to the way mounts work; the actual tool is **account-bound**, whereas the _skins_ (and maybe glpyhs) are **character bound**. This makes the purchasing of harvesting skins more affordable and more in demand as you don't have to buy one for each character, _but you would want to_, similar to mount skins. By default, the tools in the (purchasable?) shared slots or shared inventory slots would use the skin associated with the original tool, but they may be dyed and glpyhed per character using the Hero Panel again, similar to mounts. Obviously, players would have to purchase at least one set of infinite use tools, as well as the harvesting slots to be able to make use of this feature. Players who have purchased multiple sets could perhaps have an option to be refunded or convert to just skin and some gems back. Also, maybe allow for people who have purchased **shared inventory slots** for this specific purpose to refund or convert their slots into harvesting slots. Or, perhaps make it so that the tools have to simply just **be** in your inventory (or shared inventory) to be used. Glyphs could also be account-bound **if you want it to be**, since the price if swapping glyphs is nothing, it's just an added benefit of having unlocked this feature.

 

Some reasons why I think this is a good idea on a business standpoint:

* Opens up the possibility for the account harvesting slots to be purchasable through the BLTP, similar to shared inventory slots. Or simply promoting the sale of shared inventory slots, depending on how it is implemented.

* Makes the purchase of harvesting skins cheaper, and thus, more appealing as you have this great feature. Accounts may be more keen on purchasing multiple skins without having to pay for an unlimited use tool each time.

* Makes the purchase of infinite use harvesting tools more appealing as they only have to purchase one (after purchasing the shared slots) to use on **all** their characters.

[Goatjugsoup.8637]

I've found the new map to be one of the best in the game. Like the idea of the prestige hunting targets and hope to see this again perhaps expanded upon even, very reminscent of a thing on one of the norn maps, map was fun to explore and i feel like we are properly incentivised through the bag and backpack collections to do all the maps content (which is important because the things are more fun if there are others doing them)

[jaflint.5419]

I would like to se the new map but probably never will. There does not seem to be a way to complete the maze in "tracking the scientist". I got to where the skill 2 invisibiity helps a but. but there are doors that just wont open. A spoiler hint wont be good to have or i will be stuck in WvW forever, which is much easier to succeed in than PVE at this point.

 

[jaflint.5419]

oop s i meant to say a spoiler WOULD be good to have

 

[hugo.4705]

Rata primus is the main area of the map, and I am really disapointed that we haven't a very gorgeous gigantic awesome metaevent up there. Seriously it's a joke why can't we only have access during living world personal instance? They are just to much that they could deal with: [warning security breach detected at rata primus, help required] and so a portal open and we teleport inside the cube to fix security issues. All inquest employees will be set as allies and many of them found while fighting joko's force. Because, it's obvious at the end of the story part that the cube haven't totally explode so add just flames in it.

[Loki.3740]

I can't really state something new here as it seems quite a few people hit the hammer on the nail precisely.

It didn't feel rushed like some previous LW chapters did, but it didn't really give me a big change to the character's base group like I was hoping for.

Braham is still Braham...perhaps that "End of the world" bit at the end changed him, but still certain I miss Canach :'( .

The map is nice compared to other sections played. Fun puzzles and secrets.

My one nagging problem is really the after story items like the backpack parts gathering.

It seems fun until you get to parts where it's even on an almost full map seemingly near impossible to succeed.

But still the story continuously changing as it does is why I keep playing this game. Can't wait for the next bit =)

 

[Cameryn.5310]

> @"jaflint.5419" said:

> I would like to se the new map but probably never will. There does not seem to be a way to complete the maze in "tracking the scientist". I got to where the skill 2 invisibiity helps a but. but there are doors that just wont open. A spoiler hint wont be good to have or i will be stuck in WvW forever, which is much easier to succeed in than PVE at this point.

>

 

There are walkthroughs for all of the various puzzles on the GW2 wiki pages for each Living World chapter. I've found it very helpful in a few places over time where I couldn't move forward.

[Lillis.9473]

This chapter has been out for a couple of months, so anticipation is starting for the next. I was cogitating on the Joko invasions and was thinking that a failed event could lead to the area being plagued, like at a failed Tequatl. Perhaps scarabs in the limited area, inflicting conditions. Just thinking aloud....

[perilisk.1874]

I liked the episode, though the weather effects were a little punishing on my framerate. Would be nice if they could be toned down or turned off. The blending of open world story progression and instanced story progression felt a little more seamless. Good to see Rox getting in touch with nature (druid Rox incoming?) and Braham being less of an ass. Sort of hoping we see Marjory soon, though, considering she's been present for about all of five seconds between PoF and LS4.

[LadyRhonwyn.2501]

Just finished that last fight of A Kindness Repaid, again. I still hate it and it's still boring as hell. In fact, in then end, I was just auto attacking and reading the forum... Death has no meaning, dodging is impossible, so, might as well let the game play for me...

[Lost Ninja.1809]

Quite sure I'm doing something wrong but my Thief (Deadeye with P/P & R) died so many times on the last boss (portal fight) that I ended up naked. The rest including the Golem boss seemed pretty fun but that fight wasn't fun in any shape or form.

[Stalkingwolf.6035]

i love the new map. nice overall style divided in north and south.

Story was great ( i love everything around asura and charr ).

 

i only have one concern. why do we have to play an old map meta for the current backpack? i tried to finish the backpack and no one is playing the Vaabi Meta ( or they are trying and failing )

i finished the event once but before i started the backpack mark y golem. it is a little bit annoying.

[Kilamanjaro.2705]

Please, for the love of God, give us a real meta on the next episode. And by real I mean "HoT level" meta. The meta-light meta's since PoF are boring

[hugo.4705]

Agree, I really want an awesome line of meta-events, solid, interesting, a minimum of 4 in a row. I heard that at the beginning, a volcano was planned in sandswept isles, I would love to have another volcanic map like mount maelstrom.

[Knighthonor.4061]

That story instance was a little too long. The final boss was terrible designed imo.