The biggest problem in facing Jormag in the Shiverpeak (and even far north)

[Karkara.9067]

All can summarized in one word.

 

Color

 

This is what i feared the most when the devs decided to go north (repeating the same scenarios of GW1 when east of tyria there is a vast landscape to explore aside). Overall, ice is boring, and Ice biomes are boring.

 

In Real world Ice landscapes have natural beauty from the massive scale and the way the whiteness from the snow contrasts with the vegetation and man-made structures (also aurora borealis). However, if you take that off all you get is shades of gray and shades of blue, and that is boring.

 

You can see the effect of this in the new map, where the devs had to put colored enemies (vivid green and reds) just so the map don’t tire on the eyes and become boring (not to great success in my eyes since they could put more color in the outposts).

 

Every icy map so far had to put some green like wayferer, lornas's pass, timberline falls, bitterfrost frontier, and in the cases that there is no green, they put other colors, like purple in thunderhead peaks. all the others that are completely covered in ice like frostgorge sound (that get a pass because the kodan sanctuaries have color), snowden drifts and dreadgehaunt cliffs are all very boring to look at overall, and at least these last two have some more structures that have some color to them.

 

Now the new map Bjora marches, is almost all grey, with some blue, not helping things is the constant snowstorm. Now i know the theme call for this scenario, but if every map from now is going to be another icy montain or terrain with snowstorms (and the closer we get to jormag the more logical map like these become) them we will have a problem (even if they try to mix some maps in there would be still a mono color overload on this saga).

 

In the desert we had color (could be all orange) the purple from kalk and red from balthazar helped in making a great landscape, in the maguma jungle we had green, but also yellow and plants and such that gave it color... in the ice... we get red and green (and blue, yes more blue) enemies that are clearly artificially there so the place is not all grey and blue.

 

I do hope that jormag come south so we can have more contrast and some beautiful scenarios again, they started so strong with Grothmar Valley...

 

[Hannelore.8153]

They already made this mistake in Crystal Desert, nearly all maps looked the same for a whole expo and most of an LW season, hopefuly they'll have learned from it and won't make that mistake again, as it was one of the main complaints about PoF/LS4.

 

I imagine we'll leave the Shiverpeaks soon anyway, back the Charr territory. Look how far east the map was expanded..

[Hashberry.4510]

De gustibus. I love the snow maps, hate the desert. No too fond of Ascalon color schemes either. Shrug.

[coso.9173]

Agree a lot with this. I enjoy the new maps but it can be very monotone and monochromatic if we only get blue and Grey ice related maps in the saga. I hope we'll get something different next time.

[Blocki.4931]

The last (two) maps were beautiful and very varied. Snow is the bigger theme, but there is enough variation in there to not be bland.

[Blur.3465]

Call me strange but I'm all for those dimmed colors that give very little contrast to one another.

I love desolated areas, I love ruined areas and I love snow.

My favorite zones from GW1 were Desolation, Ring of Fire, Old Ascalon and that creepy part in Far Shiverpeaks where the undead come and where the black snowflakes are falling. (I keep forgetting the name of the place!)

 

Favorite part for me in these new zones now is the Boneskinner's forest and the creepy part in Grothmar Valley xD

[Zaklex.6308]

It's not all grays and blues, it should and is grays, blues, purples and degrees of black, with the white snow thrown in for contrast, just as it should be in a very cold, and foreboding location, you can't have bright tones and give a sense of dread, it just doesn't work that way. There's plenty of spectrum in the colors you are given to work with to not make it boring, just look at Greenland, the Antartic, the Arctic, Alaska, Norway, the Northern Territories of Canada, or even Siberia...none of those places are boring and monotone.

[Gryphon.2875]

> @"Blur.3465" said:

>

> Favorite part for me in these new zones now is the Boneskinner's forest and the creepy part in Grothmar Valley xD

 

Likewise! And I loves snow and ice. Always my favorite!

[anninke.7469]

When I go very high in Bjora Marches, above all the fighting, it gives me the exact feeling of peace and tranquility I love about winter landscape. Add to that the northern lights and it's perfect. So I don't share the OP's problem with the map being too colorless and boring, I suspect :)

[Eramonster.2718]

Hope to see new models of flora, fauna and wildlife etc too. Something different, dislike recycled models/different colors mobs for games in general.

[Suraci.1642]

You should know that the devs are going for dark and foreboding atmosphere, Cthulhu style story telling, the sombre and gloomy color tones are important to strike dread into everyone's heart, imagine you play through the massacre of Vigils in Jora's Keep but with vibrant and colourful surroundings, it would be a joke, I would think I were at a circus and not somewhere people got their throats slit in the night and piled up into mound of corpses. Grothmar Valley is ugly btw, I like Bjora Marches and I hope the deeper we go in to confront Jormag the darker and more unforgiving the environment would be, walk on foot, no mounts, no mini map, everything is off the grid, cold wind keeps ticking your health down and you have to find refuge in abandoned Norn houses in the middle of the night, gosh it would be so good.

[coso.9173]

i do think they did a much better job with western Bjoras. looks much less bland.

[particlepinata.9865]

Funny that there where the same type of complainers in relation to all the sand yellow/orange desert of pof. And after that the people who complained about all the purple in pof/ls4 maps. And of course the classic that Orr is so grim/dead. Whatever it is, theres always a vocal minority complaining one way or the other. I find it the opposite of what you are saying. The ice snow maps are my favorites. You have the more bright maps, and you have the more grim winterforest maps like the new one. Love it. The shiverpeaks is my favorite area since gw 1 prophecies :-) If i wasnt busy with story there would be a high chance i would visit a shiverpeak map.

[Crono.4197]

I...don't really get this complaint.

 

We are getting close to Jormag's main controlled territories. Of course there's only ice and there are no green areas. I find it logic.

I expect to be even more ice as we approach Jormag's map. We're in a snowy area that was also corrupted by him.

Eye of the North maps in Guild Wars 1 were all snow too. North Pole is all ice too. High mountains in the world are also full of snow with nothing

else to them. Isn't it to be expected in such an area?

 

Again, I don't understand this complaint.

[Jimbru.6014]

Well, we're waiting on Bangar to make his next move, and he presumably is heading back toward Charr lands to recruit more followers and stir up more trouble, so I think the next map won't be snow. It will be back farther south or east; someplace warmer at any rate. Later on in the season, there will almost certainly be other snow maps as we have to deal with Jormag. But I've a feeling that the last map or two of the season may be something else entirely, as we find out what "horrors to come" Jormag was hinting at.