Bounty Boards?

[Blaeys.3102]

One thing that is missing from the new map is a bounty board, making it the first new map since POF launched to not include one.

 

Were they cut because of time/deadlines - or did Arenanet decide to stop doing them - or did someone just feel they didnt fit with the new map?

 

I am enjoying the new content - and the new map - tremendously, but LOVE doing bounties with my guild and was looking forward to doing them on a new map this weekend. Just curious about the reasoning behind the omission.

[Ashantara.8731]

> @"Blaeys.3102" said:

> One thing that is missing from the new map is a bounty board

 

And thank the Five that it is! Those bounties were so annoying to me. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to click on a board and then have a boss appear somewhere on the map out of nowhere. Totally breaks the immersion. Also, feels like a grind.

 

I much more prefer dynamic boss events like we have on this map, especially the ones tied to the meta.

[Andrew Gray.5816]

Similar to why we avoided races and certain types of adventures, it felt thematically inappropriate to go off on one-off monster hunts when the focus of the episode/map are very "make these spears ASAP" oriented. Bounty Boards are also ran by the Order of Shadows in Elona, who don't have a presence in the Shiverpeaks.

 

That is not to say we will never add bounty bosses again, we just try to be mindful about what types of content are appropriate for the region/story of a map.

[Wanze.8410]

> @"Andrew Gray.5816" said:

> Similar to why we avoided races and certain types of adventures, it felt thematically inappropriate to go off on one-off monster hunts when the focus of the episode/map are very "make these spears ASAP" oriented. Bounty Boards are also ran by the Order of Shadows in Elona, who don't have a presence in the Shiverpeaks.

>

> That is not to say we will never add bounty bosses again, we just try to be mindful about what types of content are appropriate for the region/story of a map.

 

Sounds plausible to leave bounties out for lore reasons and I have to admit that my knowledge on lore background of the bounty boards/order of shadows isnt up to date but on the other hand, I also wouldnt consider it to be too hard to find appropriate ways of incorporating bounty hunts into the map story.

 

I farmed the new map for the dragonblood weapon set every day for a couple of hours, so i think I already have a good grasp of whats going on on the whole map and most of the stories that are told.

 

But I have absolutely no idea, why we have to lasso-catch the hydra and kill it after the final event of the south meta oil spill chain. Of course, branded hydras are bad, so we shall kill them, it gives an achi and some loot but other than that, I have no clue about the lore behind it. Probably an NPC is saying something about it after the last event but it seems I have always been too busy farming the dragon crystal nodes, collect my other loot and then hurry over to the hydra to get some hits in to pay attention to it.

 

There also seem to be 4 pre-requisites to be filled before the pepperseed event chain kicks off, so whats inappropriate with hunting legendary monsters that block the supply chain to the Forge?

 

 

[Blaeys.3102]

Thank you for the logical answer.

 

In case it wasn't evident (and matters for the future on maps where the parameters you describe do not exist) - my guild loves (LOVES LOVES LOVES) doing bounties together.

[Darlgon.9273]

> @"Andrew Gray.5816" said:

> Similar to why we avoided races and certain types of adventures, it felt thematically inappropriate to go off on one-off monster hunts when the focus of the episode/map are very "make these spears ASAP" oriented. Bounty Boards are also ran by the Order of Shadows in Elona, who don't have a presence in the Shiverpeaks.

>

> That is not to say we will never add bounty bosses again, we just try to be mindful about what types of content are appropriate for the region/story of a map.

 

Yeah. I was actually surprised to see the masteries tied to PoF, with this being more core Tyria. But, I guess its kinda like Lake Doric.

[Clayton Kisko.5207]

> @"Darlgon.9273" said:

> > @"Andrew Gray.5816" said:

> > Similar to why we avoided races and certain types of adventures, it felt thematically inappropriate to go off on one-off monster hunts when the focus of the episode/map are very "make these spears ASAP" oriented. Bounty Boards are also ran by the Order of Shadows in Elona, who don't have a presence in the Shiverpeaks.

> >

> > That is not to say we will never add bounty bosses again, we just try to be mindful about what types of content are appropriate for the region/story of a map.

>

> Yeah. I was actually surprised to see the masteries tied to PoF, with this being more core Tyria. But, I guess its kinda like Lake Doric.

 

This is spot on! Twas a fun day in the office looking into the code to make this happen. There are a handful of checkboxes and links that you have to do when an episode like this is released that designers don't normally have to do. :)

[Clayton Kisko.5207]

> @"Blaeys.3102" said:

> Thank you for the logical answer.

>

> In case it wasn't evident (and matters for the future on maps where the parameters you describe do not exist) - my guild loves (LOVES LOVES LOVES) doing bounties together.

 

Noted! :)

[Hesione.9412]

For the bounties, they are great for any of us playing outside a peak timezone. The reasons are: 1. they are quickly organised through map chat and 2. because they can be done with a much smaller group than the events, they succeed outside of those peak hours. Reason 1 is likely due to reason 2. Meta events, not so much. This is made more annoying when having relatively basic nice-to-haves locked behind successful metas (Vabbi, I am looking at you).

 

The problem is going to get worse when the next expansion comes out: lack of players to do the meta. I know LFG is there for a reason, and I use it to look for squads (all the HoT maps plus SW), and also to put up squads. But, even then, meta events in non-core hours can and do fail if there are simply not enough players wanting to do the map. The octovines don't downscale if you only have 5 people at each entry, but DS is the worst example. However, 20 people on a PoF map - easy, quick bounty, because it can be triggered when there are enough people in the squad, rather than hoping one has enough when a meta event starts.

 

Another example is the caffeinated skritt. I have that item for all the professions and I help others if they call out in map chat. So do many others. Why? It's not for the rewards, it's because we want to help the other player and we know it's quick.

[Blaeys.3102]

> @"Clayton Kisko.5207" said:

> > @"Blaeys.3102" said:

> > Thank you for the logical answer.

> >

> > In case it wasn't evident (and matters for the future on maps where the parameters you describe do not exist) - my guild loves (LOVES LOVES LOVES) doing bounties together.

>

> Noted! :)

 

Part of the beauty of bounties is that they give groups something to do between meta events on a map. We love the new map, but last Sunday when we tried to do events together on the map, we did spend WAY too much time sitting around waiting for an event to trigger. If you aren't going to use something like bounties, you definitely need it make it easier to know when and where events are active on a map. There should always be something for people to do together - and it should be easy to figure out what your options are. The new map (which, again, is very well done) does fall down when it comes to achieving that goal.

[perilisk.1874]

> @"Blaeys.3102" said:

> > @"Clayton Kisko.5207" said:

> > > @"Blaeys.3102" said:

> > > Thank you for the logical answer.

> > >

> > > In case it wasn't evident (and matters for the future on maps where the parameters you describe do not exist) - my guild loves (LOVES LOVES LOVES) doing bounties together.

> >

> > Noted! :)

>

> Part of the beauty of bounties is that they give groups something to do between meta events on a map. We love the new map, but last Sunday when we tried to do events together on the map, we did spend WAY too much time sitting around waiting for an event to trigger. If you aren't going to use something like bounties, you definitely need it make it easier to know when and where events are active on a map. There should always be something for people to do together - and it should be easy to figure out what your options are. The new map (which, again, is very well done) does fall down when it comes to achieving that goal.

 

Maybe something in between bounties, HPs, and adventures would work?

 

That is, an event you can trigger almost immediately after the previous one completes (like HPs), where success/fail is group-oriented but scalable (like bounties), and where personal participation is rewarded based on daily bronze/silver/gold tiers with some very discrete criteria, shown using the adventures UI.

 

Like, for THP, a really basic approach could have been a Nightfall style bounty, based around culling branded and gathering crystals to charge resonance crystals or whatever. Trigger the event, and each branded killed in the event area spawns a crystal "trophy" (which every event participant can separately grab). Event success would be based on killing a certain number of branded before the timer runs out, but player rewards would be based on how many trophies they grab during the event (provided that it succeeds).

 

 

[Blaeys.3102]

> @"perilisk.1874" said:

> > @"Blaeys.3102" said:

> > > @"Clayton Kisko.5207" said:

> > > > @"Blaeys.3102" said:

> > > > Thank you for the logical answer.

> > > >

> > > > In case it wasn't evident (and matters for the future on maps where the parameters you describe do not exist) - my guild loves (LOVES LOVES LOVES) doing bounties together.

> > >

> > > Noted! :)

> >

> > Part of the beauty of bounties is that they give groups something to do between meta events on a map. We love the new map, but last Sunday when we tried to do events together on the map, we did spend WAY too much time sitting around waiting for an event to trigger. If you aren't going to use something like bounties, you definitely need it make it easier to know when and where events are active on a map. There should always be something for people to do together - and it should be easy to figure out what your options are. The new map (which, again, is very well done) does fall down when it comes to achieving that goal.

>

> Maybe something in between bounties, HPs, and adventures would work?

>

> That is, an event you can trigger almost immediately after the previous one completes (like HPs), where success/fail is group-oriented but scalable (like bounties), and where personal participation is rewarded based on daily bronze/silver/gold tiers with some very discrete criteria, shown using the adventures UI.

>

> Like, for THP, a really basic approach could have been a Nightfall style bounty, based around culling branded and gathering crystals to charge resonance crystals or whatever. Trigger the event, and each branded killed in the event area spawns a crystal "trophy" (which every event participant can separately grab). Event success would be based on killing a certain number of branded before the timer runs out, but player rewards would be based on how many trophies they grab during the event (provided that it succeeds).

>

>

 

Ive always wished they would do more with the "guild event banner"s that we craft in the guild hall to include more types of events. Right now, they just trigger Karka Queen, Tequatl and Triple Trouble. Imagine if guilds could use them to trigger escort or other mid sized events on maps. It would go a long way toward making the maps fell more alive while, at the same time, ensuring at least a minimal level or coordination was involved (because a guild would be there triggering it - even if everyone else on the map could benefit). Im not sure if that is even possible, but it is something I would love to see.