Secrets of the Obscure - Discussion Thread

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Disappointing. Aside from the red area @0:26, the zone looks to be meh. It's either boring green grass, boring greek architecture, or it's blatant rehashed old zones like Tyrian human villages or Elona desert villages or more New Kaineng.

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It's not bad to have a reason to return to some expansions in a while, like I hardly go anywhere in PoF.

That is a game design issue. Once you beat the HoT story, there were still masteries to grind out an fun adventures to do to gain mastery exp, and there were the sublime meta events that were enjoyable and rewarding.

In PoF you beat the story, get the griffon mount, and then you're done. You level up the masteries incredibly quickly, to the point you probably maxxed out all except the Griffon mastery before you even beat the story (and you will easily max out the Griffon mastery within just going through the first two episodes of season 4). Even if the masteries took longer, there is no fun content to do in PoF maps over and over. There are no adventure minigames and there are no fun and rewarding meta event chains to do over and over like HoT.

(IBS had the grindiest masteries but they were only relevant to IBS content, and even then they were not transformative like gliding or mounts, so there was little incentive to complete them). The Drizzlewood meta chain is fun and rewarding enough to keep the map alive.

EoD suffered like PoF, though you don't max out all of the masteries just going through the story so there is some incentive to spend a few hours in Catha finishing them off, but once again there were no adventure minigames. Meta event chains are back, but they were not well designed (also exacerbated by the 60 player cap problem that constantly results in map progress being reset). So you just do Dragon's End a few times.

If these new expansion zones are to have longevity after people beat the story, then they need 1. stuff to progress towards that is relevant to the playerbase (not legendary weapons that cost $100+ in mats to complete that don't make you noticeably stronger), 2. fun content to do that progression on such as adventure minigames or well designed meta events, and 3. need to have a map cap higher than 60 players to prevent map progress from being constantly reset and making for an aggravating and unrewarding experience.

[Geckoo]

In PoF you beat the story, get the griffon mount, and then you're done. You level up the masteries incredibly quickly, to the point you probably maxxed out all except the Griffon mastery before you even beat the story (and you will easily max out the Griffon mastery within just going through the first two episodes of season 4). Even if the masteries took longer, there is no fun content to do in PoF maps over and over. There are no adventure minigames and there are no fun and rewarding meta event chains to do over and over like HoT.

I haven't stepped in Vabbi in a very long time. I've done the dogs meta a lot of times, but the other meta? just once, it's hard to find people willing to do it. But the other zones are usually fine. Dessert highlands has the old dwarf ruins that while is just for a finite collection/puzzle, is a fun thing to do. Crystal oasis has the piñata and both elona and desolation have metas that are usually part of meta trains. As for adventures you have griffon adventures, i personally love them and also is not unusual to see bounty trains in PoF zones.

I mean, is nothing compared to the affluence chak gerent or octovine get at any time frame, but i don't dislike PoF zones, other than the branded half of vabbi, i find the zones themselves to be some of the most enjoyable out there... but i'm one of those freaks that actually likes and knows how to navigate tangled depths, so my judgment might be totally broken.

Finally uploaded the video to their YT, was annoyed it seemed social only.

Honestly, I'm cool with all this. Show some of the floating island disaster stuff, apparently we're going back to PoF zones (rad), Cantha is back on the menu (also rad), I maybe see one HoT zone (maybe rad), that Karka island from one of the living world stories a while back, mage tower which apparently = BIG HATS.

Seems like we've got some new bits of those existing territories to explore plus some reused stuff and I'm fine with that. As long as what we're doing is fun, whatever. It's not bad to have a reason to return to some expansions in a while, like I hardly go anywhere in PoF.

First of all, the city hub looks amazing. As for the rest of the zones i'm curious because as far as i know we get 2 new zones + 1 more at a later patch, but there are references in the video to existing zones as well as existing architecture. I understand that some zones could get some visual changes, which is something that i really like. But the few frames with similar architecture? that's what i'm curious about, are those some added parts to existing zones, part of the new zones? In any case i agree with you, reusing assets and zones is fine as long as whatever we are doing is fun.

[Edge-]

And like 2 weeks later they got around to uploading a better quality version of the boring rift machinima to YouTube.

I'm sure the expansion will be good, they usually are, but damn Anet/NCsoft still suck at promoting them. Either they massively overhype them or massively underhype them, there is no compromise.

[PACOX]

Another short teaser. Typical Anet dumping promo material in obscure places right before launch

https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video...1zA.mp4?tag=12


Does YouTube shorts not allow them to post these? Can't be worse than Twitter video.

[Edge-]

Another short teaser. Typical Anet dumping promo material in obscure places right before launch

https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video...1zA.mp4?tag=12


Does YouTube shorts not allow them to post these? Can't be worse than Twitter video.

Why is NCsoft releasing a new video asset on Sunday at 6AM Pacific Daylight Time, 9 days before the release of the expansion? Why isn't a higher quality version available on YouTube at the same time? Why is this asset just shat out into the ether, I don't even see it on the primary press portal what one tosses throwaway assets up on with a 300 word wrapper? The video doesn't even seem to play from the tweet itself rofl.

God damnit I hate everything about how NCsoft/Anet handle the marketing of this game and it makes it look like the entire operation is run by 3 people without any agency support or anything which is ridiculous for a game of GW2's revenue. Even if Europe is GW2's primary market (IIRC it was for a while) it makes no sense, that's too late in the day over there and it's still Sunday. God damnit Anet is carried so hard by the fact that they make a generally good game, because they fuckin suck dogshit at promoting it. Consistently.

The video itself is fine. I like the skyscale ley line riding, that'll be nice to help get around with fewer landings.

[Huehuecoyotl]

The fuck up they've made of the runes/relics system is really putting me off at the moment. The fact they didn't respond initially shows that they simply didn't understand what they're doing. The fact that they're responses since have been so vague suggests they STILL don't understand how to fix it.

I'm sitting here with 6/7 legendary runes, knowing that I'm going to be losing functionality on day 1 of the new expansion. And not knowing whether to make the 7th rune, or save the mats for the legendary relic (whenever that turns up) because they've not given us the information we need to make an informed decision about it.

I boosted a new toon to 80 the other day, and fully equipped it immediately for land combat. If I'd done it just over a week later, I would no longer be able to do that. The notion that they aren't taking anything away from legendary owners is a lie. And the precedent that it sets, frankly stinks.

[PACOX]

The fuck up they've made of the runes/relics system is really putting me off at the moment. The fact they didn't respond initially shows that they simply didn't understand what they're doing. The fact that they're responses since have been so vague suggests they STILL don't understand how to fix it.

I'm sitting here with 6/7 legendary runes, knowing that I'm going to be losing functionality on day 1 of the new expansion. And not knowing whether to make the 7th rune, or save the mats for the legendary relic (whenever that turns up) because they've not given us the information we need to make an informed decision about it.

I boosted a new toon to 80 the other day, and fully equipped it immediately for land combat. If I'd done it just over a week later, I would no longer be able to do that. The notion that they aren't taking anything away from legendary owners is a lie. And the precedent that it sets, frankly stinks.

Maybe they thought about legendary runes before hand, maybe not, but they never would have told us what compensation would be. That would be a market. Either it would favor those who made runes before the change, collapsing the market as people scramble to make them before the change, or it would piss people off as they feel they weren't being compensated.

The fact that they are bothering to compensate people is good enough. They set a losing precedent where people feel like every time a system is sunseted/altered/whatever, that there should be some sort of compensation. It puts unnecessary on devs when trying to come up with new systems and things to keep the game fresh because they have to worry, in this case a very small portion of the game, going "but what about me?!". It's like someone being mad they had to to use books instead of the internet when they were in school, so they should be compensated or everyone else made to suffer.


I mean Im also 6/7 but I made those runes knowing they were lost gold in the first place. I've had mine a couple of years at this point and no where near seeing a return because it's not like runes were expensive or that hard to change with the current system anyway. I'm poised to make money with whatever they give me for them.

[potis]

Totally didnt see this o.O When the fuck.

As someone that plays GW2 as his single player RPG for years now this is good news, i have to play the last 3 chapters it seems but i only have one worry.

The game is starting to look so dated T_T and because i dont actually play the game other than the main questline, am i fucked cause i dont have a flying mount?

[LilSaihah]

I don't really feel compelled to buy this at launch. Weaponmaster is neat, but honestly I'm really thinking of waiting until the weapon release before I grab it.

The game is starting to look so dated T_T and because i dont actually play the game other than the main questline, am i fucked cause i dont have a flying mount?

Nah the game's gonna give you a Skyscale same as it gave you the Raptor in POF.

[potis]

Nah the game's gonna give you a Skyscale same as it gave you the Raptor in POF.

Figured, they arent the type to implement forced things without campaign included quests, but you never know, just played half chapter 16, apparently i never logged on for 17 >_> but i have the rest, so i guess i have 8 days to finish those.

[PACOX]

Figured, they arent the type to implement forced things without campaign included quests, but you never know, just played half chapter 16, apparently i never logged on for 17 >_> but i have the rest, so i guess i have 8 days to finish those.

They briefly preview the changes here

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/s...-the-skyscale/

[Ghost of Cow]

My only concern about major shifts in things like legendary sigils and whatnot is that the game is heavily designed to get you to spend cash on gems to accomplish most things like this.

This isn't like, "Oh, I got X gear in WoW and then Y gear is better." legendary stuff in GW2 was presented as a massive time and gold sink for the tradeoff of it being permanent.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

am i fucked cause i dont have a flying mount?

You really, really want a Griffon because the game revolves around completing events and everyone else has one. If you don't have a griffon then you will be arriving late to events and might not get to tag any mobs before it completes. The new expansion is making it easy to acquire the slow flying mount, the skyscale, but that's nowhere near as fast as the Griffon (unless the expansion massively buffs Skyscale flying speeds, and even then the Skyscale can only fly for so far before having to land to regen height while the Griffon does not).

[Edge-]

You really, really want a Griffon because the game revolves around completing events and everyone else has one. If you don't have a griffon then you will be arriving late to events and might not get to tag any mobs before it completes. The new expansion is making it easy to acquire the slow flying mount, the skyscale, but that's nowhere near as fast as the Griffon (unless the expansion massively buffs Skyscale flying speeds, and even then the Skyscale can only fly for so far before having to land to regen height while the Griffon does not).

You really don't need a griffon for anything though. It's faster, but there are very few situations where you need that speed for anything, and most people don't even really take advantage of it vs. just flying around at normal speeds.

Skyscale is totally fine, and especially if they expand access to ley lines throughout the expansion then that'll make skyscale far more effective for traveling over long distances in the air. Plus updrafts which they'll get access to which will help keep them in the air.

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https://www.guildwars2.com/en-gb/new...f-the-obscure/

Wizard's Vault sounds like the best bit in the expansion and generally great.

Press previews are starting to land as well. Generally they seem cautiously optimistic from the few I've read.

[PACOX]

Pictures they used for press releases

[Geckoo]

My only concern about major shifts in things like legendary sigils and whatnot is that the game is heavily designed to get you to spend cash on gems to accomplish most things like this.

This isn't like, "Oh, I got X gear in WoW and then Y gear is better." legendary stuff in GW2 was presented as a massive time and gold sink for the tradeoff of it being permanent.

I get what you are saying, but the last major change we had in terms of legendaries was them adding the legendary armory, which was a massive step in terms of QoL. My point is that they don't have a negative history to be concerned about and personally i wouldn't want them to stop trying to move the game forward in certain areas just because doing so would make certain historical time & money investments less valuable.

You really don't need a griffon for anything though. It's faster, but there are very few situations where you need that speed for anything, and most people don't even really take advantage of it vs. just flying around at normal speeds.

But when you know how to use them? is one of the most fun ways to move around. I'm curious how the skyscale will compare with leylines and updrafts, but i can easily imagine using the skyscale to gain altitude and then swapping to griffon mid air to gain the speed. In the end the game does invite a lot to use multiple mounts and change them on the go.

[ryanmahaffe]

I don't care how low the budget is there is no way they can't afford better marketing, whoeever made that first trailer should never make a trailer again because that was awful, same with these little teasers. Wildstar updates had better presentation in their marketing and that is saying something.

As for the expansion, I still think it seems super solid, I like the look of both new maps a lot and the Wizards Vault sounds like it will be a bigger step forward than anything EoD added. Rift Hunting doesn't look super exciting but I think having this kind of constant farm at your own pace content will be great for the game. AND it can be solo content which is huge imo
Less content, more substance here I think.

[Scyth]

I really like how the maps look so far and the Wizard's vault sounds like a good addition to the game. Time will tell.
Very excited for next week!

[PACOX]

Anet commissioned a content creator known for her griffon videos to show off the updates to the flying mounts.

[ryanmahaffe]

Anet commissioned a content creator known for her griffon videos to show off the updates to the flying mounts.

This is a fantastic showcase of both the flying and the new zones, looks fantastic.