Never go back to HoT style zones, stick to PoF

[Vayne.8563]

Hot Zones are much better than core zones. PoF zones are a compromise between the two. There's still some interesting navigation puzzles, if nothing else, which is what I liked about the HoT zones.

 

The design of the HoT zones is beyond brilliant and I wish more people could appreciate the thought and skill that went into creating them.

[nehezbegar.1065]

> @Vayne.8563 said:

> Hot Zones are much better than core zones. PoF zones are a compromise between the two. There's still some interesting navigation puzzles, if nothing else, which is what I liked about the HoT zones.

>

> The design of the HoT zones is beyond brilliant and I wish more people could appreciate the thought and skill that went into creating them.

 

They are unique, they probably are birlliant in some aspect, but for me and i guess not only for me, they are not playable :). As i mentioned in the first post, the HoT zones are definetly beautiful this i appreciated (well i love the art style of the GW2 overall its very artistic), but gameplay is more important imo and the movment on the HoT maps just put me off. But i can understand that a lot of ppl liked them, but there are also a sagnificant group of ppl that had problems with the HoT maps. I tend to agree with ppl that ArenaNet should look for a mix of both in terms of diffculty and they should never go back to the navigational mess in my opinion :)

[Tekey.7946]

> @Bunnytown.7801 said:

> Well, it seems now we will have HoT for people who hate PoF. And PoF for people who hate HoT. Sounds very polarizing, and would have liked a mixture. Maybe future living story maps could give some metas?

 

The Living World team is separated into 3 smaller teams who push out episodes and maps every 3 months. I don't think they will be able to feature a full size Silverwastes/Auric Basin/Tangled Depths meta event with their limits.

 

The expansion was basically the only chance to get these meta events, a team of 70 people and 2 years of developement, but they chose to do otherwise.

[Conncept.7638]

> @warbignime.4610 said:

> I like them both, and gw2 shold have a balance of the two. Not focus solely on one or the otber.

 

I don't necessarily "like them both", HoT did extremely poorly for a reason, there were just a whole lot of horrible design decisions, largely around mob and encounter design. But that being said, the presence of meta events was not the problem and I welcome both meta event and non-meta event maps, and I see both of these expansions as a problem of extremes.

 

ANet needs to learn the value of variety, and stop going pell mell in to a single idea every design cycle, make a mix of content for single players, groups, and metas. None of the aforementions is bad, except when they are all that's available.

[Nemmar.8491]

Honestly i think the problem with the HoT maps are that the maps (the map of the area with M) don't make a good job of orienting you. If we add better 2D maps that actually corresponded to what you were seeing in each level, it wouldn't have been so bad.

[Vayne.8563]

> @nehezbegar.1065 said:

> > @Vayne.8563 said:

> > Hot Zones are much better than core zones. PoF zones are a compromise between the two. There's still some interesting navigation puzzles, if nothing else, which is what I liked about the HoT zones.

> >

> > The design of the HoT zones is beyond brilliant and I wish more people could appreciate the thought and skill that went into creating them.

>

> They are unique, they probably are birlliant in some aspect, but for me and i guess not only for me, they are not playable :). As i mentioned in the first post, the HoT zones are definetly beautiful this i appreciated (well i love the art style of the GW2 overall its very artistic), but gameplay is more important imo and the movment on the HoT maps just put me off. But i can understand that a lot of ppl liked them, but there are also a sagnificant group of ppl that had problems with the HoT maps. I tend to agree with ppl that ArenaNet should look for a mix of both in terms of diffculty and they should never go back to the navigational mess in my opinion :)

 

How significant is that group? HoT had issues besides the maps being confusing, including the maps being more difficult. Some people didn't mind confusing maps, but didn't like the difficulty. Some people didn't like the difficulty but may have liked the challenge .Some people may have been okay with both and didn't like the fact that stuff was on a timer. Some people left due to the dungeon nerf and a lot of WvW players didn't like the new zone. Fractals had issues as well, because the rewards were just bad.

 

No way to know how big a percentage were the people who didn't like the HoT zones in the way that you don't.

[Will Lucky.8703]

I've only really tried a bit of the maps.

 

My main concern is that whilst the HoT maps brought me back time and time again I'm not going to enjoy these maps once I've done them once or twice which is fine when I've gotten my two main characters done with things. But once it's all done and dusted I'm just going to return to Pre-PoF gameplay. The big issue with me for HoT were the maps were simply a headache to navigate which in turn impacted everything, I'd rather have the Meta-Map event maps with the vertical design.

[Cyprien.4208]

I like both however I dislike moving around hot maps to get to point A to B can be very confusing. I don't mind the multi layers maps I think the first hot maps do this okay and bloodstone gen is done great as well. The caves are also done well where they seem like actual caves.

 

The major thing I think causes hard to move around is how the map works things tend to bleed in the other layers making it harder to tell where things are unlike how Zelda games just show what is on that layer.

[Ahlen.7591]

Without metas these maps will be dead and abandoned in two weeks or less. They're too big for these small events, and there's no good or interesting chains.

 

They just feel dead.

 

HoT maps had depth and were interesting, in addition to the metas.

[MrRuin.9740]

I liked the HoT zones. They had depth, now we seem to be back to flat, one dimensional easy maps.

[Fractured.3928]

Disagreed with OP. HoT was fun and exciting with all kinds of new things to explore. As I've said before, this is the first time I have ever been bored on the first day of an expansion release.

[Lunarlife.5128]

> @Zoid.2568 said:

> HoT zones are genius and the best ive seen in any game.

Agreed.

Also, PoF maps are not cool, they are usually very hot.

[Shanna.4762]

100% agree with the OP. I HATED the HoT maps, I am absolutely loving the PoF maps.

[Dahkeus.8243]

Totally agreed. I'm actually enjoying map exploration and gathering mastery points. In HoT, all the map stuff felt like such a grind because of how labyrinthine the maps were.

[Djinn.9245]

> @Rain.7543 said:

> > @nehezbegar.1065 said:

> > Ofc everything is a matter of taste. Have friends that left soon after HoT because the maps were unbearable. Call them noobs etc., but still, it kitten when u loose friends ingame :). ANd i wont judge so soon if the maps gonna be empty, time will tell.

>

> They are already empty. I've been playing PoF the good part of the morning through now 14:00 pm in the afternoon and I barely saw people in the first two maps, wheres VB and Auric Basin was packed full during the first days of launch.

 

First two maps were probably fairly empty because: 1. There is some kind of bug where people are having trouble with the story; 2. There is some issue with the game crashing; 3. Many people decided to go get HPs from HoT maps to get their PoF Elite Spec. This is also the reason for "VB and Auric Basic was packed full". I know this because this is why I have been in HoT and I see many other people there doing what I'm doing.

[paragon.6543]

I agree with OP, I love the PoF maps way more compared to HoT!

There's no constant crazy happening.

You can truly enjoy the setting you're in.

Not to mention, there's a city in here where you're not constantly getting locked out either.

I LOVE PoF maps.

HoT were far too crazy.

 

Honestly, if the HoT maps had a little less world crazy events going on, maybe they might not have been sooo bad.

Plus some of the mobs were too nuts. The mobs that keep exploding / debilitating you.

[Vavume.8065]

> @Ahlen.7591 said:

> Without metas these maps will be dead and abandoned in two weeks or less. They're too big for these small events, and there's no good or interesting chains.

 

I agree, I really do not understand where Anet is going with this anymore, they were on track with Sw and then HoT, giving us great metas, where we could all come together and play for decent loot, but now what? do they really expect people to play these PoF maps more than once or twice? because personally I see no reason too. The only real hope I have left now if that at some point they add metas to these maps but until then I may have to play a different game.

 

 

[Tekey.7946]

> @Vavume.8065 said:

> do they really expect people to play these PoF maps more than once or twice? because personally I see no reason too. The only real hope I have left now if that at some point they add metas to these maps but until then I may have to play a different game.

 

They wom't release any *hidden* meta events. They expect you to do repeatable hearts, generic events and farm map currency until the next Living World Episode hits in 3 months. Then you'll continue doing exactly the same in a different zone. Say goodbye to meta events, it's doubtful if they'll come back in the next expansion.

 

Since Season 3 the maps didn't have any reason for me to go back after a few days of playing.

[Einlanzer.1627]

It's very clear that a mix of both is needed. Both hot and pof should have had 1-2 meta maps and 3-4 non meta maps.

[Valiant.5078]

The PoF maps are so boring. There's really no reason to squad up, or get people to gather up for events. LFG is dead on the new zones. There's not enough of an incentive either on sticking around in the new maps. For HoT we had map currencies and meta events which made going back to it and even spending an entire day in one of the HoT zones actually useful.

 

PoF zones? Not so much.

 

I feel like Arenanet went way overboard on the other side of the coin, like most people here, I also say they should have went with half casual/easy, with the other half full of events/mobs/reasons to squad up. They can try to cater towards both crowds, rather than just go extreme. Overall I'm finding the new PoF maps a disappointment.

[STIHL.2489]

To all the people that loved HoT maps, please return to them, I didn't buy the expansion and when I went into TD, I did not see a single person as I was trying to explore.

[ekarat.1085]

> @Rain.7543 said:

> I dont know why Anet decided once again to listen to all the complains here on the forums from casual players, who cried out to the skies how confusing the HoT maps are and how they cant enjoy them (most likely without putting even a sliver of effort), because they cant solo them. Well... now you have this. Flat maps with easy mobs across to solo and with no content to do, besides few repetitive hearts, few events here and there and some hero points and mastery points to gather. After that.... nothing. I hope you casual players now enjoy your empty maps in a few days and realise you are not playing a single player game, but a MMO. And for an MMO to be succesful it needs to have content that keeps people occupied for long.

 

Seriously? You blame casuals for that? I don't think the complainers were predominantly casuals.

 

[Vladish.3940]

I have mixed feelings about it. As much as I love the new maps, I actually miss map-wide meta events now and then, as long they are not overbearing (like Dragon Stand was, yuck). Having these meta events made maps more dynamic and interesting to me b(still love Auric Basin event). On the same note, I miss the map boss events that I could join in while passing by, I really hate the new bounty system.

[Vladish.3940]

> @Rain.7543 said:

 

> I dont know why Anet decided once again to listen to all the complains here on the forums from casual players, who cried out to the skies how confusing the HoT maps are and how they cant enjoy them (most likely without putting even a sliver of effort), because they cant solo them. Well... now you have this. Flat maps with easy mobs across to solo and with no content to do, besides few repetitive hearts, few events here and there and some hero points and mastery points to gather. After that.... nothing. I hope you casual players now enjoy your empty maps in a few days and realise you are not playing a single player game, but a MMO. And for an MMO to be succesful it needs to have content that keeps people occupied for long.

>

 

I am an old GW1 vet that have been playing CASUALLY on and off. And I mean casually (no ascended gear, one maxed profession that took 5 years to max and pretty much never had more than 2 gold on me at any point); please keep your dumb and condescending comments to yourself; trying to blame casuals because certain features aren't implemented shows your ignorance. And quite frankly, it's the Non-casual players that create all the fuss about everything, so blame the people that stayed in game hardcore and kept bitching about stuff the entire time. Casuals come and go and in most part, we just don't give enough of a damn to complain, we take it as it is.

[chemie banger.9624]

Yep I don't like the 3d experience of HoT but I'm having to get used to it.

Since the drop in mithril and elder wood prices I'm now rushing map completion here to make a legendary,