We don't need a new map for every episode.

[ZRoosty.7391]

I feel like the main criticisms at the moment come from the lack of replayability in the lastest LS Episode. The meta isn't fun or rewarding, and there is an overall lack of new long term rewards to work towards. And I feel like both of these are consequences from the design philosophy that every new episode has to come with a new map. I feel like a lot of time is wasted on the design of these maps when they are mostly abondend a few weeks later. A time that could instead be used by the design team to work on new raids, fractals or story instances. The latest episode could have perfectly taken place in the Desolation, with us storming on the bone palace. I wouldn't suggest that new maps should be permanently removed from LS releases, Istan was great to revisit, but taking the time to add more landmass to Tyria when we already have such a large world to explore feels redundant. Instead of half hearted meta events, give us rewards that never go out of relevance in the form of cosmetics. Or atleast examine how much trouble the new maps are really worth ANET.

[LucianDK.8615]

Ls2 is a fine example of -thoughrough and deep use of assetts in just two maps, going back and forth between them, as well the old world.

[Glider.5792]

> @"LucianDK.8615" said:

> Ls2 is a fine example of -thoughrough and deep use of assetts in just two maps, going back and forth between them, as well the old world.

 

Maybe, however those episodes only gave 30min to 1h of content.

Note: Im talking about new stuff here, story and such, not the map.

[Goettel.4389]

Agreed, I'd love for those pretty 'vanilla' PoF maps to gain meaningful LW story and metas. Having war in a new zone is cool and all, but having war in a familiar zone would feel more like...well, a living world.

[Cregath.7628]

Who are "we"?

[ZRoosty.7391]

> @"Glider.5792" said:

> > @"LucianDK.8615" said:

> > Ls2 is a fine example of -thoughrough and deep use of assetts in just two maps, going back and forth between them, as well the old world.

>

> Maybe, however those episodes only gave 30min to 1h of content.

> Note: Im talking about new stuff here, story and such, not the map.

 

But those episodes were released weekly.

[GrubySzymek.1362]

If you said this during LW3 I would argue. But after recent patch I agree.

[Glider.5792]

> @"ZRoosty.7391" said:

> > @"Glider.5792" said:

> > > @"LucianDK.8615" said:

> > > Ls2 is a fine example of -thoughrough and deep use of assetts in just two maps, going back and forth between them, as well the old world.

> >

> > Maybe, however those episodes only gave 30min to 1h of content.

> > Note: Im talking about new stuff here, story and such, not the map.

>

> But those episodes were released weekly.

 

They were released every 2 weeks, and even that is not fully true.

After the first 4 episodes, they had to take almost 3 months break (close to current episodes) to continue with the next episode.

1. Gates of Maguuma July 1, 2014 - July 14, 2014

2. Entanglement July 15, 2014 - July 28, 2014

3. The Dragon's Reach: Part 1 July 29, 2014 - August 11, 2014

4. The Dragon's Reach: Part 2 August 12, 2014 - November 3, 2014

5. Echoes of the Past November 4, 2014 - November 17, 2014

6. Tangled Paths November 18, 2014 - December 1, 2014

7. Seeds of Truth December 2, 2014 - January 12, 2015

8. Point of No Return January 13, 2015 - February 24, 2015

 

And lets not forget the content drought afterwards...

[Zelanard.5806]

You say that as though "meta events" is the only content in this game xD

Quite frankly, I think they should stop making meta events to every new map.

Every map does not Need replayability. a map is perfectly fine as "Story Content + Achievements" > Move on to next map.

BTW. They have a dedicated LS team, (unless they changed that while I was looking away?) I strongly doubt they have anything to do with fractals and dungeons and raids...

I must say though, I'd much rather see either 5man raids or dungeons than full raids... I will never get around to do those, because I find them tedious. (tedious, because of the party size).

[Overlord RainyDay.2084]

It's not too late. They could just expand Kourna some more next episode. Expand to the old Marga Coast and Sunward Marches region, open up the old Sunspear Sanctuary, and maybe properly fill in Gandara.

[Turin.6921]

The things is that the LS3 design does not really differs much from LS4. but LS3 seems more repayable cause ppl farm them for the trinkets (cause the HoT maps did not have a choice of HoT ascended trinkets as the LS3 maps did) and for aurora and cause a lot of replayability came from HoT metas so the more relaxed LS3 maps felt like a nice change .

 

Unfortunately PoF does not have that many desirable unique stats for ppl to choose to farm for (you can have them using the central PoF maps) there and a legendary trinket has not been added yet (it will probably improve things when it does). And you have the fact that PoF had no HoT type metas. Thus there is no change of pace between the LS4 maps and the PoF maps as there was with LS3 and the HoT maps. It is more that we have too much of the same thing and it gets boring than any issue with this LS map compared to others. Its the lack of variation that gets old. And i do not think that is a problem with adding a new map every time as much as being a problem of varying the design of said maps.

[Hesacon.8735]

I expected that the size of the PoF maps and the fact we didn't have story reasons to go to many places was a hook to allow some LW4 content to take place in PoF maps, without disrupting what PoF was doing with those maps.

[Tails.9372]

> @"ZRoosty.7391" said:

> both of these are consequences from the design philosophy that every new episode has to come with a new map.

Not true at all, we've got some good LW maps before, It's not a problem of "one map in every episode" but more of "A-Net not trying hard enough" which I suspect in this case is at least partially the fault of the beetle taking up some development resources.

 

 

> @"ZRoosty.7391" said:

> Instead of half hearted meta events, give us rewards that never go out of relevance

They actually did just that in form of the PPR last episode and the beetle this episode. Cosmetics on the other hand are extremely hit or miss, not just because of personal taste but also because some of them are extremely SFX dependent. Giving a futuristic themed energy based weapon like the arcane rifle normal projectile animations / sounds just kills the whole thing. You pretty much need the item to be a legendary at this point in order to guarantee some quallity standards but even they aren't safe anymore given how the new warhorn doesn't even have a unique sound to it.

[sorudo.9054]

well, i do think they could've added some small things like a jumping puzzle or a mini dungeon (not instanced but still rewarding).

nowadays the maps just serve the story and achievements but nothing else, adding meta's on them also doesn't serve a good purpose because eventually ppl will move to more popular areas.

 

i just want a map filled with puzzles, no enemies but traps and hidden pathways to get trough, actual puzzles to solve that isn't getting obvious after the first two play troughs.

[Zelanard.5806]

> @"sorudo.9054" said:

> well, i do think they could've added some small things like a jumping puzzle or a mini dungeon (not instanced but still rewarding).

> nowadays the maps just serve the story and achievements but nothing else, adding meta's on them also doesn't serve a good purpose because eventually ppl will move to more popular areas.

>

> i just want a map filled with puzzles, no enemies but traps and hidden pathways to get trough, actual puzzles to solve that isn't getting obvious after the first two play troughs.

 

That kind of puzzle doesn't exist. Any puzzle, once you've solved it once, I'll be obvious the second time.

[Ayrilana.1396]

First off, you’re not speaking for everyone. I actually see very few posts about players not wanting a new map so it looks like more players like that they get a new map and/or are indifferent about it.

 

The replay ability of the maps have nothing to do with them releasing a new one with each episode. The issue is with how they design the metas and how they reward players for doing them.

[Endless Soul.5178]

I'm definitely not part of the this "we" op is speaking of.

[Limodriver.4106]

agree its better to have ordinary content every 2 weeks than some higher quality content with low replayability every 4 months.

[sorudo.9054]

> @"Zelanard.5806" said:

> > @"sorudo.9054" said:

> > well, i do think they could've added some small things like a jumping puzzle or a mini dungeon (not instanced but still rewarding).

> > nowadays the maps just serve the story and achievements but nothing else, adding meta's on them also doesn't serve a good purpose because eventually ppl will move to more popular areas.

> >

> > i just want a map filled with puzzles, no enemies but traps and hidden pathways to get trough, actual puzzles to solve that isn't getting obvious after the first two play troughs.

>

> That kind of puzzle doesn't exist. Any puzzle, once you've solved it once, I'll be obvious the second time.

 

uhmm, there are games out there that scrambles the solution so you have about 5-10 possible solutions, that's what i am talking about.

[aspirine.5839]

Agreed, we can reuse one of the old maps even, why not have an old Ascalon map that is hardly visited for instance.

[zealex.9410]

Id rather see them doing most if not all of se5 on one/ two maps that simply arent complete from the getgo and each episode expands them with events and more areas.

 

Sick and tired of getting a map for the sake of getting it and then forgeting it event exists come the next episode.

 

Dont get me wrong i like all the maps we got but jesus christ its like they dont exist after the new wpisode is out.

[zealex.9410]

> @"Kheldorn.5123" said:

> If you said this during LW3 I would argue. But after recent patch I agree.

 

Se3 suffered from this as well. Pretty maps with not much to do.

[SlippyCheeze.5483]

> @"ZRoosty.7391" said:

> I feel like the main criticisms at the moment come from the lack of replayability in the lastest LS Episode. The meta isn't fun or rewarding, and there is an overall lack of new long term rewards to work towards. And I feel like both of these are consequences from the design philosophy that every new episode has to come with a new map.

 

I think this is legit, but: remember that every map is frozen in time. There cannot be changes made to it. So, if you want to set a story in an existing map, it will *always* be the same map that it launched as.

 

> Instead of half hearted meta events, give us rewards that never go out of relevance in the form of cosmetics.

 

Cosmetics only have a limited shelf life, too. Once you have acquired them, you have them. Unless they are, eg, the sunless weapon skins, or the invisible boots, you are extremely unlikely to convince players to invest too much time in them if they are slow to get, or not tied to some other fairly rewarding option. (eg: the sunless weapons are cute, but teq also gives piles of karma, decent loot boxes, and is a fairly simple event.)

[CETheLucid.3964]

> @"ZRoosty.7391" said:

> We don't need a new map for every episode.

Yes we do, and I'm going to ask for 21 of them.

[Khisanth.2948]

Maybe we won't ... the meta in the new maps resemble what happened when they added SW.

 

Probably not though given how LS episodes unlock which also gates access to a map.