Guild Wars 2

As we’ve seen, the Lost shores finale, while a great idea, somewhat lacked in execution. Having spent hours in the event (only to get the sound bug just before the end…), the local chat and my own findings quite alligned in issues identified:

-the culling algorithm was a significant problem. Located in the middle of the player group, you simply didn’t see the enemy monsters since they were culled. Several times, I moved in a direction that looked clear only to be jumped by enemies who popped up practically on top of me. Possibly, the algorithm could be tweaked so as to prioritize displaying enemies over players?

-sound was also overwhelmed. Possibly, a system playing a single “battle sounds collage” could replace sounds played, leaving your own and monster sounds, allowing audio cues to still work for us?

-monster health was too great. I realize that the event was balanced for enormous numbers of people, but really, the monster HP was simply too high. Since the whole purpose is to time the event right, possibly, an alternative could be found in the effect that WvWvW resource camp overseers get: a temporary damage immunity. This would allow the game to be timed right while not having the HP pool as the only way of slowing the “zerg” down, but I also see it as additional potential: it would help make the event playable even with fewer players. Also, having the enemy chase players around, and then suddenly be open for vengeance could make for a satisfying element.

-two hours was generally considered way too long, especially since no one knew what riches awaited at the end. Possibly they could be toned down at least a little?

-do these events really HAVE to be on general maps? Introducing smaller scale instances for these could help a lot, performance wise. Possibly, lore wise, send player groups of 20 on separate parallel attacks? While indicating that there’s a massive effort going on just outside the visual range?