Guild Wars 2

I have a question about the new fractal schedule. The end of the blog post states the following:

“…we view fractals as our infinitely expandable, endgame version of 5-man dungeon content, and while we will be continuing to discuss fractals in future……This is instead a way for us to continue to expand the content and rewards for fractals.”

However, it was stated in the post (and better on subsequent posts on reddit and in the forums), that the different “islands” (swap, cliffside, jade maw, etc) would be tied to specific levels and, thus, specific mistlocks. If, for instance, F1 (fractal level 1), is ALWAYS swamp and F2 is ALWAYS cliffside, and F3-F100 are ALWAYS the same island per level, how is that expandable for new islands? This seems like a massive development headache. either all levels will have to be rearranged, shifted, etc every time a new island is added, new islands will ONLY be available above 100, or new islands arent actually in the future for fractals and its therefore not going to have an expansion of content.

I am not trying to complain or to propose anything at the moment, I am just wondering what I am missing because this system doesnt actually seem too expandable.

Anet has a habit of making a change, then realizing they dont like it and spending 1-2 years and changing it for a new design which they also dont like and the cycle continues.

This is the reason they have problems making new content. They spend most their dev time re designing the systems for basic content.

If they have new islands in this expansion, they can put it in the 1-100 schedule. They can introduce levels past 100 with new islands and mistlock instabilities in the future. I don’t really see much of a problem with that. By the time they get up to that point, the fractals community will have been in at level 100 for some time just like how we’re 50 now.

Of course they will probably introduce some new way of getting new people from 1-100 super fast lol.

Arcadio.6875:

If they have new islands in this expansion, they can put it in the 1-100 schedule. They can introduce levels past 100 with new islands and mistlock instabilities in the future. I don’t really see much of a problem with that. By the time they get up to that point, the fractals community will have been in at level 100 for some time just like how we’re 50 now.

Of course they will probably introduce some new way of getting new people from 1-100 super fast lol.

They wont be satisfied putting new content with a 100 level requirement. When new content comes they will totally destroy this old system. Like they do for everything.

Arcadio.6875:

If they have new islands in this expansion, they can put it in the 1-100 schedule. They can introduce levels past 100 with new islands and mistlock instabilities in the future. I don’t really see much of a problem with that. By the time they get up to that point, the fractals community will have been in at level 100 for some time just like how we’re 50 now.

Of course they will probably introduce some new way of getting new people from 1-100 super fast lol.

I know they can add any new ones into the new 1-100 system. Thats not what my question was about. it was about future expandability. As it is currently described, yes thats what they would have to do. It just seems like, were they to introduce new islands later, they would want the fractal system to widen with their introduction, not simply add on on top.

phys.7689:

Anet has a habit of making a change, then realizing they dont like it and spending 1-2 years and changing it for a new design which they also dont like and the cycle continues.

This is the reason they have problems making new content. They spend most their dev time re designing the systems for basic content.

Very much this.

A recent example is the currency window: from original (was it a list, I can’t remember) to the awful tiles to the current list.

Or….

banish the thought, but maybe they have no real plans for adding more islands!

Couldn’t they just insert new levels in wherever shifting the current ones around? So they add a new map, they decide it’s going to be 15, 27, 40, 56, 80, and 99. Now we have 1-106 levels, and everything just shifts around, Old 100 is now 106, old 15 is now 16 etc. We get thrown for a loop as we relearn what number is what map, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing when people are complaining about spamming the same thing.

I don’t see it as too limiting honestly.

Jerus.4350:

Couldn’t they just insert new levels in wherever shifting the current ones around? So they add a new map, they decide it’s going to be 15, 27, 40, 56, 80, and 99. Now we have 1-106 levels, and everything just shifts around, Old 100 is now 106, old 15 is now 16 etc. We get thrown for a loop as we relearn what number is what map, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing when people are complaining about spamming the same thing.

I don’t see it as too limiting honestly.

They could, but it wouldnt be an elegant system. Leaderboard numbers would change, descriptions and guides would change. Its also possible theyd have to restructure the data depending on how its stored.

They wont want to build on a system like that. They should have gotten rid of the numbering system since the last iteration.

This is a very good question that will hopefully get an answer other than we are not going to add new fractals.

“New content” for fractals are going to be new mistlock instabilities. I highly doubt we’re going to get new fractal levels, especially with the changes they outlines in the blog post.

I have a bad feeling they aren’t going to add new fractals, only new levels and instabilities. This new system just seems so stupidly awkward to add new ‘islands’ in a smooth way.

Plus, with raids supposedly coming to the game, I don’t see them developing raids and fractals at the same time and living story nor see them doing the ‘flip flop’ and alternating content patches for each of them. I have said this countless times to people, Anet said themselves that the Aetherpath was a large drain on their team.

So now people think we can get fractals, content that has seen little additions in the way of new ‘islands’ and raids, and living story?

It’s probably not going to happen. Anet are like an ADHD child, they will probably ditch new content for fractals, like they did with dungeons, start a raiding scene then realise it’s too much effort for them for too little pay off (sorry raiders, but it’s pretty obvious, and this arguement has been beaten to death thousends of times already, but I guess this depends on how they do ‘raids’) or just simply get bored of it and move on to something else.