PoF location almost empty all going 2 HoT

[DebraKadabra.5278]

> @"Mina Ion.7852" said:

> Honestly, while I do agree the map metas in HoT is cool, I MUCH prefer the PoF maps. MUCH. HoT had way too much of the multilevel thing where paths and events were tough to spot on the map, and Tangled Depths was a massive mess and a pain on my sanity due to tunnels going a little everywhere and changing elevations on a whim. Unless you knew the map by heart, it was challenging to know how to get from point A to B ... all the while getting ganged up on by a small army of bugs.

>

> I do like Auric Basin, though. That one's still enjoyable for me. And Verdant Brink became a lot easier once I got the unlimited glide.

 

I think you just crawled into my head and decided to stay a while. I completely agree with all of this.

[maddoctor.2738]

For silly things like the choya pinata lots of players gather.

Meanwhile the Treasure Hunting, Serpent's Ire, Junundu Rising, Maws of Torment metas are never completed by anyone.

Champion bounties are never completed either, unless in a bounty run group.

Moving around the world you are bombarded with new events everywhere you go yet nobody ever bothers to finish them.

Good luck if you want a non-bounty champion for a collection, those are far worse than any champion hero challenge in HoT

Outside Crystal Oasis, I got first place on all other races because I was running alone, nobody else bothered with those races.

I got my bounty kills in bounty run squads. Now I find very little reason to ever re-do any bounty.

 

Maybe everyone is still at the Crystal Oasis and haven't moved yet

[Dreddo.9865]

The PoF as game content is superior to HoT, the landscapes, the atmosphere, the music all create an exciting place. Personally it reminds me of good old RPG designs but...

 

I am a relatively new player (second year into GW2) and there's still a TON of content I have yet to complete. I do almost all game modes (PvE, Competitive) because I like them and also help keeping me motivated. I don't know if it's only me in this category but I would like a slower pace of putting new content so that newer players are able to catch up - I meet many players having started only a month and being in ...Lake Doric (example) where they have a hard time, due to lack of equipment, Mastery points and game experience.

 

I really want to go to the Desert Lands but I want to do this in time and not in a hurry. :)

 

PS - Apologies if I repeat something already mentioned but I didn't read all the 76 posts before mine.

[Diesel Stelar.3709]

POF is fine to some extent. I find the maps pretty(except Domain of Vabbi, it's just tasteless), but the main thing that is missing is actually the metas HoT-type. I think they invested way too much time in designing some complex new specs(half of them broken in pvp or pve), instead in open world content. Overall pretty average, no more no less. I personally don't know how this team that designed in GW1 every year expansion with 2 new professions and kept a decent if not very good PvP balance, and now in GW2 HoT was good, but according to the developers standards stretching from GW1 to GW2 Hot, PoF is just... fine.

[Adenin.5973]

> @Ellisande.5218 said:

> > @Adenin.5973 said:

> > > @Zedek.8932 said:

> > > Weird though, even though I am playing slowly and "casually", I am enjoying this game. I wonder why people have to rush through everything in 24 hours and now complain? This is the case with EVERYTHING. My friend got Halo 2 in 2005 I think and he played it one day.. I mean, what the heck? Is this even fun for you guys? Or healthy?

> > >

> > > I just got my Skimmer after all those weeks and I can't save myself from all the stuff to do. If you "exploit" it by rushing through, looking up guides or zerg stuff down with maximum power (and taking days off of work for that etc)., please do not complain about PoF "being too short". I, for example, was taking 1.5 hours to figure out where I can get a mastery for my raptor to jump over bigger gaps. 1.5 hours just for that. And it was a blast to fight myself into areas I barely survive and make it (just to find the stuff out of reach, D'OH!). But for real, you guys start ASAP, look up Dulfy guides to spoil yourself and now cry. It's really an infant attitude. Of course your candy's gone if you eat it like bread.. -- It's great that you like the game and stuff, but stop acting like this patch was a 85 MByte addition of minigames. It's a fully-fledged expansion with new areas, lots of new dialogue, story being pushed, new features and such. If you smoke your cigar as fast as you can, don't blame the Cuban manufacturer about it being too short of a cigar...

> > >

> > > Excelsior.

> >

> > Rushing through the content, in other words, quickly doing all the stuff the game has to offer is now "exploiting" the game? Weeks to get the Skimmer? 1.5 hours to figure out how to get the raptor mastery? Areas You barely survive? Dulfy guides mere hours after launch?

> > Are you serious?

> >

> > Of course someone like you that can't seem to figure out stuff (you wrote it yourself) that others completed within minutes, seconds, is completely overwhelmed with the amount of content in the PoF zones. I mean 5 hearts per zone? How long does this last for you? 1 month for each heart? And you have 5 zones? Should last for the next 2 years right?

> > And all the "metas" in PoF! Several escort quests, outposts that need to be defended. Hours and hours of trying to figure out how to press F on a wounded refugee, weeks to understand the concept of Bounties, years to finish them!

> >

> > Also, at what point "casual playing" becomes simply being bad at the game?

> >

> > When people who finish PoF after a few days are the one extreme, you're definitely the other one

>

> Where are the roses in the PoF maps or HoT maps? Grinding is not a rose. It is just repeating the same kitten you did before because there is an arbitrary and capricious wall between you and the goal you want to reach.

>

> There is very little of substance in any of the maps, they are mostly all surface without purpose. Once you've finished the story, and story is really all they offer because there is no immersive content, there isn't any reason to be there. And there isn't anything really to do other than story because there is no immersive content. So players rush from one story point to another because there is nothing to do that seems worth doing because nothing seems like it will be fun. There is just sand and aggro mobs. But sand and aggro mobs do not fun make.

>

> I've played through Skyrim time and time again. I maybe touch the story once every 10 hours and then only for one quest's worth before going back to faffing around for another 10 hours. I spend 10 hours faffing around because that is just how much immersive content there is. Skyrim is a deep and rich experience, every spot on the map is chock full of environmental storytelling and contextual storytelling such as quests and new clubs to join and learn about and become part of. You can start a family, place Ulfric on the throne, marry him and become queen. You could become the queen of all vampires. A great mage. A cannibal. Build a house. Spend your life living as a miner or a blacksmith. Become a farmer. Delve ancient cursed dungeons in search of treasure and knowledge. Fight ancient dragons. Make your own story. Whatever you wish to do you can do (once you find the mod for it).

>

> What can you do in HoT or PoF? Get attacked by the excessive number of aggro mobs and that's about it. No really, that's it. Everything in those maps revolves around killing aggro mobs and there is nothing else to do because you are not allowed to interact with or affect the gameworld.

>

> A meta event is not content, it is just a carrot they put in front of your face so that you won't notice you are pulling a cart along the same road you've been forced to pull it along for years.

 

If you really expect quests, freedom of choice, immersion etc on a Skyrim lvl, I don't know why you bought this game to begin with. You might want to look into TESO if you're really desperate enough to want an MMO experience. Other than that you should stay with playing singleplayer RPGs, because you will never get such quality and immersion out of this game.

 

Then why do people still play MMOs? Because of Player Interaction! That's the one thing you don't get in Single player games. Everything else is better there!

That's the reason why it is an absolutely insane idea to try to make MMORPGs to singleplayer experiences. And PoF is a huge step towards more singleplayer content. Far less player interaction with this expansion. Why the hell would I choose this game now over something like the witcher or divinity original sin, which have a far superior singleplayer experience? Why should I walk around in maps doing nothing else than farming a bit gold for a skin if I can have far more of this single player content in much better quality in a single player RPG?

 

One thing that made GW2 special, compared to other MMORPGS, was its organized large group open world PvE content. There are tons of games that have dungeons and raids, PvP and large PvP battlefields, some of those games do this stuff better than GW2. But no game has structured open world PvE content in such dimensions. It's amazing to feel the connection with 150 players on a map, using combos, revive players, spaming all your boons for your allies, charging with dozens of players into an enemy army to burst everything down to your way to the next boss fight, watching the efforts of those who organize, all in a common effort to beat the meta event, always knowing that a loot fest is waiting at the end for all of you. As I said you don't get that anywhere else in any major MMO title and certainly not in a singleplayer game.

 

That's one big point for me why I still enjoy this game, especially big meta events in HoT or SW, that's also the reason why I simply have no clue of what to do in the Crystal Desert.

[Lightly.6843]

All I can add is my own personal experience. I just came back to the game after about a year away. I have found that I'm enjoying the HoT maps still so my trend is now working alts. I have several 80s which still have not unlocked the first elite spec so I wanted to do that first.

 

PoF is ok. Not great, not bad. The maps are meh and the aggro mobs are a bit much. I'm done with the story but not with exploring the maps. I noticed that the player density in PoF is lacking but it might be that the maps themselves are just wide open. Working on my griffon and once that is done I will more than likely go back to Central Tyria and work on map completions at a ridiculously fast pace.

 

Not much to say other than PoF is sorta, meh.

 

[IndigoSundown.5419]

I suspect that, much as with the HoT maps, people are going to sometimes find PoF zone copies that feel relatively empty. Just as with HoT, mega-server algorithms split people up to try to balance the population in different copies. Just as with HoT, people use LFG and Join In in PoF to get into a particular map copy (in PoF, to do an HP or bounty train, etc. The only difference is the lack of map metas eliminating one reason to Join In. The larger PoF map size then does much the same thing the three-tiered HoT maps do, which is to effectively "hide" the other players still in the map copy from view.

 

Core maps can also feel empty and still have a fair number of players. I was running around Iron Marches a couple of weeks ago and saw no one. When the Legendary Bloodstone-crazed Something appeared, I went to see it, and 25-30 players also showed up.