At the moment we are not able to see which level is tied to which island, and which instability we’ll get at which levels, resulting in something even more confusing than the randomness to which we were accustomed before.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/wTSupvW.jpg[/img]
The current interface
I think that we should be able to see those elements directly before entering into the instance, because nobody wants to check the wiki every time to know if the level 41 is Swamp or Mai Trin, it’s a quality of life feature that could be very interesting for fractals. Moreover it could also make fractals less confusing and terrifying for new players, because right now it’s kind of a dark and scary place.
The idea is to have a new interface for the level/island selection that allows players to instantaneously see where they’re going. This new interface should be place both outside of the instance, like the current one, and inside of the instance, where all the merchants are standing, allowing players to change the level/island between attempts and after completing one island, without going outside.
Interface:
- If you’re alone you should be able to intuitively create a group, so there is a button that send you back to the “looking for group” menu.
- You can see in a blink of an eye what your personal fractal level is, and which scale you’re planning to go.
- Then according to which scale you are you see the artwork of the island tied to the level, it’s a visual cue, the name of the island, and maybe a quick description of the island, objectives or lore reminders.
- If you’re in high-level fractals you should be able to see which instability you’re going to be against, so according to which scale you chose you can see the instability tied with it.
- Just thought about it, but knowing the number of agony resistance needed when you’re selecting scales could really help beginners.
Here’s a poor visual example :
[img]http://i.imgur.com/ZETsdvj.jpg[/img]
Cry of despair before my Photoshop skills
Digression
While I’m doing a post about fractals, I’m going to talk about something that could increase the fight readability, which is the AoE detection system.
The old system of AoE detection is still in place in most of the fractals, if you don’t know of what I’m talking about it’s the red rings that are used as visual support to know where the AoE will land, and we must face the reality that those red rings are really clunky and misleading if you want to spot AoE correctly, particularly when you compare them with the new system of AoE detection, which are the orange full circles.
[img]http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/gw2-canachs-lair-rampant-energy.jpg[/img]
Red rings
[img]https://whyigame.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/aoe.jpg?w=588[/img]
Orange circle
Ex: Bloomhunger uses the orange circle and Mai Trin uses the red rings.
The issue with the red rings is that when you have plenty of AoEs you can’t see them properly, which is problematic for some fights, like the canon phase against Mai Trin. It’s not a big deal but having the orange circle implemented to all fractals fight could help for readability in general.
Conclusion :
We need a better interface while selecting our scale in order to know where we’re going, and how to prepare ourselves. Also changing the way we detect AoEs in fractals could help for some fights.
(edited by Alchimist.4738)