The PvE Environment; Maybe Too Casual/Easy?

The PvE Environment; Maybe Too Casual/Easy?

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Posted by: MarcusKilgannon.5048

MarcusKilgannon.5048

I’m posting my topic here because it directly relates to Dynamic events but also refers to just the mass world itself (Non-PvP/WvW). After quite a lengthy discussion with a close friend of mine we came to an idea that could solve our PvE blues. Being both avid lovers of games, MMO’s in particular, we get pretty into the lore, gameplay etc. Now to be very clear, I love the regions, the dynamic events are very entertaining, combat system is action packed and the exploration keeps me very into the game. But we noticed this entertainment starts to drain quickly, very quickly. The reason, we believe, is the difficultly. For me, the harder the game the better, I love challenges and if my team wipes when trying to do something tricky then that just means the developers did a great job. I can relate back all the way to Vanilla World of Warcraft and even BC when high end raids were something you only dreamed of accomplishing. Once Blizzard turned the game to a more casual audience we quit.

Now, Arenanet does a great job on capturing both the MMO lover and casual player into their game. I love seeing the different types of players and conquering a region feels like you are in one giant party with everyone else. And its seamless. I’ve never seen so many people cooperate and help each other in a MMO than I have in Guild Wars. But after continuing to the higher regions, we found the dynamics and the regular environment are still simple. I was hoping difficulty would spike, but it seems nothing has changed except the landscapes & events are more elaborate. Realistically, we are auto-attacking our way through the world, including the Dragon from the west side region (I’m sorry I forget the name). For a non-casual gamer, this poses a problem.

How can a problem like that be fixed? Without ruining content for casuals at the same time. After brainstorming, we thought why not make an addition similar to the overflow frame work. Give a player two options when exploring the world, a Standard server and say an “Advanced” (just a random name) server. The standard would be the game as you know it, the “Advanced” server would be the game but the enemies, dynamics AI etc are harder. In very simple terms, double the statistics of the enemies with exception to maybe health. The AI is clever, they just don’t have the stats. This would instantly create a game that is twice as hard and give that challenging edge to players wanting more than the casual experience. This concept is like what many MMO’s have for dungeons, World of Warcraft in particular with their Normal & Heroic dungeon modes. But why stop at a dungeon when the entire world could be challenging and skill testing for little development, especially with Guild War’s ever-changing and beautiful environment.

This would cause less players to be in a region at a given time but the challenge should drive the competitive players to keep exploring PvE, especially if the statistics of enemies multiply again depending on how down-scaled the player is. Even with this posed issue I think it would still benefit. With so many people participating in dynamics, many times the enemy will hardly notice you through the fight. With less players, the casual players still can enjoy the game but have a challenge and the players wanting a teeth-gritting fight can do so without beating the enemy with just sheer numbers.

Myself and friends thought of this concept when only two of us fought a “Group” event that lasted a good 15 minutes of survival, team work and focus. It was the most fun I’ve had in PvE but for a Group event, I was expecting a greater fight and we knew if more people were at that dynamic, we would of never experienced the fight to its fullest.

Would love to know what others think! We spent along time brainstorming, thinking and for me, writing this post. I know it’s very long but hopefully you will take the time to read it.

Thank you,

Especially you Arenanet!

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Posted by: Zaxares.5419

Zaxares.5419

So basically, you’d like HM for GW2? I can’t say I really agree with that idea. Some of the less populated servers are apparently already dying as people move to more populated servers (or servers that consistently win WvW). Splitting the player base further would not be a productive move, in my opinion.

As far as the difficulty goes, ANet also needs to consider the needs of the solo players, the ones who don’t run around with friends or guildmates. (Reasons for this could be varied, ranging from timezone issues, a desire to play in a particular style, or perhaps they just don’t feel comfortable with the social obligations of playing in a group.) It’s my opinion that one should be able to solo anything one encounters in PvE except for Champions, Group Events and Dungeons, which are all designed as challenges to be taken on by multiple players.

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Posted by: MarcusKilgannon.5048

MarcusKilgannon.5048

Even the Champions & Group events we have done thorough the world itself are still not challenging and most we finished with under five people. I’ve been reading quite a bit of complaints about players hitting 80 then having nothing to do. Which in theory, with the mechanics of the game shouldn’t happen. Since the world changes and the landscapes are filled with hidden zones and dynamics, I’d like to think its a never ending exploration. I think its the issue that the world is too simple for the above casual player (Which should be the majority of players at level 80 right now). We did think about the server issue, lowering the populations of players in a given region. But I think if it was that much harder the casual players would keep their attention held and the competitive players would be much more abundant in a Heroic Mode, Advanced mode etc server.

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Posted by: runeblade.7514

runeblade.7514

Buy full Magic gear with magic runes with magic sigil using magic food.

No more easy mode, just don’t do it in dungeons.

5x Warrior, 5x Ranger, 4x Elementalist, 4x Engineer,
4x Necromancer, 3x Mesmer, 4x Guardian, 4x Thief, 4 Revenant

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Posted by: takatsu.9416

takatsu.9416

I agree to an extent not on hard mode but things should scale. I think in high level zones particularly there should be a larger variety. Right now all dynamic events are pretty cookie cutter and worse off its repetitive and respawns over and over. Simply change the variety make new or certain events much harder an keep the level of some of the events around. U can have pretty much full mini dungeons without The instance portal entries, that u cant run without a strong group with a ton of skill but u also have ur easier events. The dragons themselves should also scale a lot more.

As well I am extremely bored at 80 bc I don’t feel I’m accomplishing much. Not only do events and fights need more variety (also in type/story/set up/form of events) but I believe we need to have things we do like events rly influence an change the world around us. Make permanent map changes over time as we push and invade into Orr or defeat zhaitan over and over maybe as we hit a certain number of dungeon runs collectively as the server the cleansing of Orr begins to happen and we can see changes over time. In the density and difficulty of mobs in the environment itself, and onwards. We need to make lasting impact in the storyline and history of the guild wars world. Everything feels too standard mmo stuff right now rather than being much more dynamic as we hope for

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Posted by: MarcusKilgannon.5048

MarcusKilgannon.5048

I would have to agree with that too Takatsu. The dynamics aren’t quite as long-lasting changes as I’d hoped but the regions are definitely more entertaining than the other MMO’s I’ve played. I have the same feeling at the moment, I am only level forty but I don’t feel like I’ve helped much since a portion of people can do most of the entire region. I’ve taken a long break from PvE just from the sheer lack of skill needed to play. And I should of posted this in the main thread because I knew dungeons were going to be mentioned. I’m going to be perfectly honest, I have not attempted one yet. My group of friends and I haven’t been able to set a time yet when we all can do this (but it will be soon).

Here is the problem with leaving dungeons as the main challenge. There are Eight Dungeons and 25 regions scaling in levels (I’m getting this information from Guild Wars Wiki so hopefully all is accurate). If we ignore sizes of dungeons compared to regions, Dungeons make up 32% of the world. A fair size that I am pretty pleased with. But, that leaves 68% of the world just explorable regions, great! But, if these regions are all simple to the point were group events realistically mean 2 or 3 then that’s 68% of the world that many of the competitive players won’t fully or have fun experiencing. To me, that is a sad percentage of the map I’m sure won’t challenge me nearly enough when I love exploring the regions. And I’m sure the size of the 25 regions greatly outsize the dungeons so I would guess that percent is even higher. But for now, that is just straight comparison and easy to relate too.

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Posted by: MarcusKilgannon.5048

MarcusKilgannon.5048

After completing the Mad King a few times now I even found that the event was far too simple. I know it was a Halloween event so I’m glad it was made to fit every player into the event but the Mad King just focused on AI pets the whole fight and not really anyone else. There really needs to be more difficulty in AI or make them attack other players & not just closest targets so nobody range has to worry.

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Posted by: Nels the Cornwhisperer.8025

Nels the Cornwhisperer.8025

The AI worked to attack the closest thing, or the first thing, for seven years. This shouldn’t change.

Instead, pets shouldn’t have been able to survive more than one or two hits.

How far that little candle throws its beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
- William Shakespear

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Posted by: quidnunc.4239

quidnunc.4239

lol me and my 2 friends did mk took up about 35 to 40 min to get him down.

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Posted by: Nels the Cornwhisperer.8025

Nels the Cornwhisperer.8025

Every dungeon takes about 40 minutes with three people. No Guild Wars game has ever been challenging. We’ve had years of being able to solo hard mode content with two buttons. I personally like it that way, the challenge is self invented.

For example, if you want a hard fight, pull more than 11 mobs at once. If you want an easy fight, pull three or four.

How far that little candle throws its beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
- William Shakespear

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Posted by: PinCushion.7390

PinCushion.7390

Buy full Magic gear with magic runes with magic sigil using magic food.

No more easy mode, just don’t do it in dungeons.

Wow! It’s like they made “Hard Mode” into a gear set that you can take on and off whenever you want! Harder fights, but greater rewards!

How about that. This whole thread is now moot.

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Posted by: Kuthos.9623

Kuthos.9623

Events dont need to be severely difficult, they do however need to scale much better than they currently do

As it is now, with 8-10 people, or 20+ for the big events you just zerg through it and just mash buttons

The big dragon fights are actually a lot more fun with a small group of people, it feels more epic

The more people you have though the worse things scale, and it just ends up being a faceroll

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Posted by: Dookies.2718

Dookies.2718

@ OP, i like the “Advanced” idea but I dont see Arena net implementing something like that.

I simply would like to see better scaling, difficulty, and more consequences for failing an event. I am eagerly looking forward to Lost Shores, hope it can deliver.

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Posted by: CelticWish.2314

CelticWish.2314

Every dungeon takes about 40 minutes with three people. No Guild Wars game has ever been challenging.

For me there has been plenty of challenging GW content over the years. It’s relative.

You guys want to see brain-dead easy PvE, go download C9, embarrassing. The game is known for awesome PvP, but they could have at least allowed the E to fight back and not dance.