Why is Sun's Refuge just a personal instance?

[Fantastic.5298]

I like the idea of home instances and I understand that Anet incorporated ideas of home instances in Sun's Refuge but is there any reason why it should restricted just to your party? Why not have it as an outpost similarly to the way it was in GW1 once its been unlocked?

In this outpost idea you would see and be able to communicate with other players while still being able to do everything that is already there. Some things won't be there if you haven't unlocked it yet but other than that I don't see why it would differ from player to player. I think that they could easily make it an outpost hub, separated from the mobs of the outside world, making it a safe haven for people to rest at, but still communicate with and see other players. Is there something that I'm missing about Sun's Refuge that makes it best to be served as a personal instance?

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

We have to remember that in GW1, **Sunspear Sanctuary** and **The Command Post** were two different areas. Sunspear Sanctuary was an outpost (even a Town on the map) and thus absolutely identical to everyone in it - no customization *at all*. The Command Post, on the other hand, was an explorable area with quests to unlock functions in it and as such set itself to the status of whoever was party leader.

 

From a technical standpoint, Sun's Refuge has *much* more in common with The Command Post.

[Ashantara.8731]

The more important question should be: Why does Sun's Refuge not evolve according to the latest story progress?? It seems frozen in time and is not at all what we were told it would be.

[Gulbasaur.1865]

My theory is that it was someone's passion project that worked well on paper but then had no obvious use in game. It's less than a home instance as there are no nodes and has an entrance that's down a massive corridor so it's not even convenient.

 

A home base would be cool, like the ships in SWTOR or the garrison in WoW, but if it's not convenient and feature rich, what's the point?

 

A base on Elona is a cool idea, but travel is trivial so there's no need to store things locally when you can can end up halfway across the world to craft then immediately come back.

[Dami.5046]

It reminds me of Embark Beach in the first game and equally a white elephant. As does the Zaishen Menagerie Grounds. However pets in GW were different and needed to be leveled, and it was kind of nice how it was done, but I generally didn't think it was required.