I think its safe to say, A-net, give up on Southsun, no matter how much you try this place really isn’t going to be interesting, it might appeal to the hard cores to give them something to do but the main audience liked flame and frost, the Halloween event, the winter stuff.
The Karka event and now this… honestly, do not work.
This is not what attracted people, the adventure did, not the challenge. When I went to F+F final dungeon I felt like I was venturing into Mordor with the deep tunnels and crevices and the adventure felt great, fun, not repayable mind, but fun!
This…. is really annoying, and bad.
Having mines everywhere, repair bots? I understand that this is a boss evidently for people used to dub step dancing but as someone that isn’t, I can honestly say as creative feedback, please, give up on Southsun, its never, ever, going to be fun.
People want “more” content not “fast” content, sure, we can wait a few months for better stuff but id rather have an entire new area with heart quests, dynamic events, the living story continued (And) my personal story, than this minor little addition with, honestly, no substance.
I’m disappointed given how fantastic the way F+F was done that this was such a miss, but honestly it goes to show that sometimes the best way to deal with something that’s increasingly bad, is to give up on it all together.
In terms of story as well, I found this one extremely “lacking” for a “Living story” it didnt have much “living” or “story”.
Future ideas to keep in mind:
- People enjoy an adventure and GW2’s strong point is the ability to give such a thing, adventuring is really what makes GW2 enjoyable, big areas, heart quest’s dynamic events, the living story quests in F+F, people want that.
- People do not enjoy challenge’s that are only accomplish-able by a select few, a challenge should be hard, yes, but "do"able, granted, most have done the events by now which is a kind of null point, but do-able also means “enjoy”-able challenges. That does not mean add 50 tactics to remember to a single boss, that means make the boss “interesting” give them a hitch that people have to work out, but once they do, they get rewarded for understanding it. Bosses with “random” mechanics, are not, fun.
- For the story side, relativity suspense, people like to feel involved in the plot and so far I feel that none of this has anything to do with F+F aside from the tribute that the guys in F+F are now building things for the consortium, who made a minor cameo in F+F at best. In F+F you had a story that built up to closure, a story that gradually introduced you to a new antagonist, gave you a motive to stop them and set you on an adventure in their main facility to defeat them.
- People, like, that. In the oldest metaphor possible, don’t fix what ain’t broken, which right now means, stop experimenting with what doesn’t work and focus on what does.
- PVE Zerging? I honestly think you should make SS a permanent zone for this, upgrade anyone that enters to level 80 and never lower it, let it be an alternative way to level at best but leave it like that, don’t bother coming back to SS, its just not worth it beyond zerg-farming levels with events. Still, at least it has some use.
- Finally, context, content, purpose. I cannot stress as I already have before in another point, you need to give people a “reason” to do something, people will need a motive to kick them up the backside, motives such as… end game loot, such as… guaranteed drops instead of chance to drop. This game could be SO much more, it just needs tweaking and I honestly think you’ll nail it.
…Anyway, TL:DR?
SS sucks and will never be anything more than what it is, a zone for farming levels and Karka encounters that make Orr more appealing.
Disappointing? But true, its just not going to be anything else… make it a permanent level 1-80 leveling area and leave it at that.