Just trying to get a feel about what you think when you can’t actually get to a map until you have finished the requisite story episode.
In my opinion – and it is just that, an opinion – is that I find the concept frustrating. I know some will just say “do the story then” or TP to a friend but I am a very solo player and a Filthy Casual with zero skillz and am the complete opposite of l33t…
What’s your take on it? I suspect I’m very much in the minority here!
I personally don’t have an issue with doing the story once to get to the map. The merchants at each zone sell a portal scroll so you only have to do the story once and buy the scroll to port any other characters.
As far as why its a requirement, I’m guessing the devs want to try to get players to get a little more immersed in the story and the background of each map, rather than you just randomly show up to this new place for no particular reason. That is also probably part of the reason the story takes you on a tour throughout most of the map so you know what is going on where.
I think this works for a few reasons. One there are no normal zone cut-thrus for most of the new maps giving the player feeling that it is detached and its on the frontier. I think this is also to get the players used to new maps that will have waygates if any and will allow the introduction of further alternate ways to travel.
Since opening the map only requires the player to run thru mostly intro missions it also doesn’t take much to do that first step to get to the map. After that its up to the player on far they go to unlock the zone scrolls that also allow all alts to skip those first steps, but they are not required.
Since these are suppose to be steps that are “in the future” compared to where a starting player starts the game I can also see a reason to have a little more separation on how you get there.
I think the new expansion will act more like HoT as well where there will be some story arc to get us into the new area and zone inter-connectors from there.
As far as time invest, I think it would have taken longer to have run all the way thru the maps to get to each next one if that was possible then it did to do the story required to just open each of the LS3 stories episodes.
Just trying to get a feel about what you think when you can’t actually get to a map until you have finished the requisite story episode.
In my opinion – and it is just that, an opinion – is that I find the concept frustrating. I know some will just say “do the story then” or TP to a friend but I am a very solo player and a Filthy Casual with zero skillz and am the complete opposite of l33t…
What’s your take on it? I suspect I’m very much in the minority here!
I think that a lot of people are frustrated by this, but I suspect that it is primarily to encourage future or returning players to purchase the Living Story. And I can’t blame Anet for that.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
I actually think that story is the preferred method of introducing new maps. It’s the natural way to unfold a living world. But, and it is a pretty big but, if the story requires platforming, solving puzzles, or wading through densely packed annoying mobs, I would have no interest in doing the story which would effectively keep me locked out of the zone.
I have no problem with the requirement to start the story for access to a new LW map. I just wish that after I’ve done the story and opened the zone on one character it would be open for my others. But that’s what the portal scroll’s for, along with it being a currency sink. I get it.
I’m confused at the idea of the story being inaccessible to a casual player. The story is probably some of the most casual friendly content there is, since it’s all designed to be played solo and each instance usually only takes 20-30 minutes once you know what to do (maybe less if you’re not reading all the dialogue, exploring etc.) so you don’t need to commit to a long play session to be able to do it.
Yes Season 3 does require HoT masteries, but that’s because it’s designed to be done after the HoT story so I don’t think that’s an unreasonable expectation (no more than HoT story requiring you to be level 80 because you’re supposed to do the personal story first).
As for locking the maps behind the story I think it’s a good system personally. As other people have said they obviously wanted the maps to be included with the story and this communicates it very clearly. It also means they can make the maps totally unconnected to the main world so people who don’t have access will never stumble across them and get confused that they can’t go in, while people who do have access have a clear way of getting there.
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
I think the OP has a valid point. My preference would be for the first story step to start on the new map and have an NPC to get you there without doing any missions. You know, kinda like “Speak to X in Lion’s Arch about Y”. X gives you a bit of background then transports you to the new map. You then get to…. play your way.
Nah, it’s just form of “time-gate”. It forces you to go through story, gain masteries and so on,.. The only real reason is that that Anet wants to have players in game instead of waiting for new content and blaming for the lack of playtime. Also they needed a way to present their work. If you did not have to go through story you’d be able to realize very quickly that there was little (to nothing) left to do after breezing through those few maps that they added within HoT expansion.
I’d be happier with the practice if the game didn’t DC at the end of story instances far too many times. As it is, doing story is all too likely to generate frustration rather than fun, so I have to work up to it. Frankly, doing story has turned into a pain in the kitten. I never had such problems back in Personal Story, or even Season 2. It started with HoT and has continued in LS3. I had to do Prisoners of the Dragon 4 times before either myself or the instance owner didn’t DC, causing a complete loss of progress.
So, my desire to do story at all is fading, and for alts is a non-starter. Is the portal scroll a single purchase usable for all one’s characters, or a consumable? If the former, that would at least limit the number of story repeats to however many it might take to get one character to the zone. Before you mention Port to Friend, I have used some to get a character to BSF and BFF but prefer to keep the rest for other purposes.
Just trying to get a feel about what you think when you can’t actually get to a map until you have finished the requisite story episode.
In my opinion – and it is just that, an opinion – is that I find the concept frustrating. I know some will just say “do the story then” or TP to a friend but I am a very solo player and a Filthy Casual with zero skillz and am the complete opposite of l33t…
What’s your take on it? I suspect I’m very much in the minority here!
The story can be done solo with any class and high personal skill isn’t really isn’t a requirement.
When I play, I usually play more than 20 minutes at a time so doing one story instance after major concent patch isn’t a problem for me. I kinda like the system. Feels nicer than just immediately going to a new map without a clue what’s even supposed to happen there.
I’m no fan of gating of any kind, but I have to say placing maps behind a story gate is OK by me.
What bothers me is gating other content behind things unrelated to the story and not needed for any logical purpose. Specifically, I hate the Heart of Thorns gating of the story behind masteries.
I’m coming to the conclusion, though, that I’m far more interested in the stories than others, so I understand your concerns. Unfortunately, I don’t think they can avoid it, because the maps don’t exist prior to the release of the story episodes involved.
I object to gating on principle — it impedes the player from exploration and running into things by accident; it forces everyone to follow a near-identical path.
However, the current implementation by ANet is as close to a good compromise as I can imagine:
You need only complete the first instance (or in LS3.6, the first two) for a character to gain access to the new map.
That character can purchase a portal so that all toons can reach the zone, for free. The cost is nominal, in map currency.
You can combine all portal scrolls for LS3 maps for a somewhat less modest amount of local currency.
I’d prefer no gating, but if we have it, this isn’t too bad.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
I object to gating on principle — it impedes the player from exploration and running into things by accident; it forces everyone to follow a near-identical path.
However, the current implementation by ANet is as close to a good compromise as I can imagine:
You need only complete the first instance (or in LS3.6, the first two) for a character to gain access to the new map.
That character can purchase a portal so that all toons can reach the zone, for free. The cost is nominal, in map currency.
You can combine all portal scrolls for LS3 maps for a somewhat less modest amount of local currency.
I’d prefer no gating, but if we have it, this isn’t too bad.
Small edit: You don’t even need to finish the first story segment if you have Teleport-to-Friend’s in your inventory.
I realize not everyone has those, but for the casual players who have been around a while, all you need is to find someone willing to party up and go there.
Where are my gem sales? I want gem sales! Nerf EVERYTHING!
It makes sense for the stuff that are off on their own like Ember Bay but it doesn’t make much sense for stuff like Lake Doric which is just outside Divinity’s Reach.
Firstly, thank you for your replies – all good stuff and, just as I’d hoped, all constructive.
Secondly, I’m on my phone so please forgive the laziness of not quoting you in the proper fashion – my text skills are as bad as my gaming ones!
@ DoctorDing: I love your idea – total thumbs up from me on that!
@ IndigoSundown: Oh lord yes. I got punted half way through the second chapter which led to frustration and probably contributed to prompting this thread in the first place!
@ Danikat and Ayrilana: I hear what you are saying about it not being difficult but I think I’ll agree to disagree with you there. I s’pose I’ll just have to “get better” as they used to say if asked for tips in multiplayer Doom… I think I get annoyed if I can’t do something first time.
I agree plenty with this.
I’d like to git gud but I can’t improve my ping or overcome it.
I dislike dropping into a living story episode with no idea how long it will take or what i’m ment to be doing.
I’m a filthy casual who works and stuff. I don’t want to have to study videos etc on each step forward in this game
Just trying to get a feel about what you think when you can’t actually get to a map until you have finished the requisite story episode.
The maps of the LS3 stand for a fixed point in time and are “frozen” at that point in time. The point in time of a map is the particiular episode of the LS3, so it makes sense for me, that you have to first play that episode (at least the first part) before you can enter the map.
The first part of an episode, that you need to enter the map, is usually easier to finish than the following parts.
I could read every single opinion in here and why those maps should or shouldn’t be locked behind story step, but still it wouldn’t change my mind. doing story once is fun, second is reminding, third is boring and if you want to do it for every single of your 12 toons, then it is the most annoying thing ever. Why should I have to buy a porting item to send rest of my toons to that map!
And also frozen time has nothing to do with rest of my 11 toons!
Just trying to get a feel about what you think when you can’t actually get to a map until you have finished the requisite story episode.
In my opinion – and it is just that, an opinion – is that I find the concept frustrating. I know some will just say “do the story then” or TP to a friend but I am a very solo player and a Filthy Casual with zero skillz and am the complete opposite of l33t…
What’s your take on it? I suspect I’m very much in the minority here!
The story can be done solo with any class and high personal skill isn’t really isn’t a requirement.
I would love to see you solo, personal story steps (specially HoT) While in exotic gear and exotic armor on a ranger or elementalist and put the recording in youtube for us noobs to observe and learn. having above 540ms ping will be a bonus!
Just trying to get a feel about what you think when you can’t actually get to a map until you have finished the requisite story episode.
In my opinion – and it is just that, an opinion – is that I find the concept frustrating. I know some will just say “do the story then” or TP to a friend but I am a very solo player and a Filthy Casual with zero skillz and am the complete opposite of l33t…
What’s your take on it? I suspect I’m very much in the minority here!
The story can be done solo with any class and high personal skill isn’t really isn’t a requirement.
I would love to see you solo, personal story steps (specially HoT) While in exotic gear and exotic armor on a ranger or elementalist and put the recording in youtube for us noobs to observe and learn. I don’t mind if you have 540ms ping too!
There are already plenty of videos and testimonies of players doing just that. Just because you cannot do something doesn’t mean that it is impossible.
I could read every single opinion in here and why those maps should or shouldn’t be locked behind story step, but still it wouldn’t change my mind. doing story once is fun, second is reminding, third is boring and if you want to do it for every single of your 12 toons, then it is the most annoying thing ever. Why should I have to buy a porting item to send rest of my toons to that map!
That character can purchase a portal so that all toons can reach the zone, for free. The cost is nominal, in map currency.
You can combine all portal scrolls for LS3 maps for a somewhat less modest amount of local currency.
I’d prefer no gating, but if we have it, this isn’t too bad.
Would you please include the price of each of these portal scrolls and how many scrolls for how many maps we need to buy to send all our toons to that map?
Also as others previously mentioned, I rather spend that money on home instanse nodes and port to friends for different purpose too.
Just trying to get a feel about what you think when you can’t actually get to a map until you have finished the requisite story episode.
In my opinion – and it is just that, an opinion – is that I find the concept frustrating. I know some will just say “do the story then” or TP to a friend but I am a very solo player and a Filthy Casual with zero skillz and am the complete opposite of l33t…
What’s your take on it? I suspect I’m very much in the minority here!
The story can be done solo with any class and high personal skill isn’t really isn’t a requirement.
I would love to see you solo, personal story steps (specially HoT) While in exotic gear and exotic armor on a ranger or elementalist and put the recording in youtube for us noobs to observe and learn. having above 540ms ping will be a bonus!
Well, all my armour and second weapon set is exotic while all my jewellery, back and my new shiny long bow are all ascended. Perhaps I need to revisit the two elements I’ve not done – one for getting to Bitterfrost and the other for this latest story. I may even – <gasp!> The horror! </gasp> – have to LFG them.
I still find it frustrating though – even though I do understand all the comments and opinions stated in this thread.
That character can purchase a portal so that all toons can reach the zone, for free. The cost is nominal, in map currency.
You can combine all portal scrolls for LS3 maps for a somewhat less modest amount of local currency.
I’d prefer no gating, but if we have it, this isn’t too bad.
Would you please include the price of each of these portal scrolls and how many scrolls for how many maps we need to buy to send all our toons to that map?
Also as others previously mentioned, I rather spend that money on home instanse nodes and port to friends for different purpose too.
Having never had one of these scrolls… are they consumed on use or can you store them permanently in your shared inventory?
That character can purchase a portal so that all toons can reach the zone, for free. The cost is nominal, in map currency.
You can combine all portal scrolls for LS3 maps for a somewhat less modest amount of local currency.
I’d prefer no gating, but if we have it, this isn’t too bad.
Would you please include the price of each of these portal scrolls and how many scrolls for how many maps we need to buy to send all our toons to that map?
Also as others previously mentioned, I rather spend that money on home instanse nodes and port to friends for different purpose too.
You can use tele to friend and then buy the scroll (or not) to have alts access it and not waste tele to friend. This way you never ever have to set foot in a story instance.
Will be the same going forward.
Farm and eat berries or blooms and do dailies and all is paid for in a very, very short period of time.
Having never had one of these scrolls… are they consumed on use or can you store them permanently in your shared inventory?
I’m not sure, I haven’t bought one yet. I took my engineer to lake doric with teleport to friend and my ranger by doing stories. Haven’t done the last two episodes of S3 yet. May be others can help with this?
I think it would be nice if once you gain access to a map by completing the storyline on one character, that it would unlock 1 waypoint on said map so all your characters could waypoint in.
Having never had one of these scrolls… are they consumed on use or can you store them permanently in your shared inventory?
I’m not sure, I haven’t bought one yet. I took my engineer to lake doric with teleport to friend and my ranger by doing stories. Haven’t done the last two episodes of S3 yet. May be others can help with this?
they are permanent, there is a book that all scrolls can be placed in now so that only one common slot is taken up. The book is more expensive than the scrolls I think 10000 unbound and 1 gold
You can use tele to friend and then buy the scroll (or not) to have alts access it and not waste tele to friend. This way you never ever have to set foot in a story instance.
Will be the same going forward.
Farm and eat berries or blooms and do dailies and all is paid for in a very, very short period of time.
If I remember correctly, some dailies also require you to do story before being able to complete it. For example in bitterfrost if I’m not mistaken, “Daily Elixir addiction” cannot be completed if you didn’t do story. NPC won’t give you the recipe.
You can use tele to friend and then buy the scroll (or not) to have alts access it and not waste tele to friend. This way you never ever have to set foot in a story instance.
Will be the same going forward.
Farm and eat berries or blooms and do dailies and all is paid for in a very, very short period of time.
If I remember correctly, some dailies also require you to do story before being able to complete it. For example in bitterfrost if I’m not mistaken, “Daily Elixir addiction” cannot be completed if you didn’t do story. NPC won’t give you the recipe.
I never do that one anyway since it takes way more time than I am willing to put into it.
they are permanent, there is a book that all scrolls can be placed in now so that only one common slot is taken up. The book is more expensive than the scrolls I think 10000 unbound and 1 gold
I just checked lake doric. If all the portal scrolls are 1000 magic and 50silver means we need 6000 magic and 3gold to buy all. which opens access to all maps
Living world Portal Tome (book) is 1000 magic and 1gold which saves you 5 inventory space.
I assume you need to buy scrolls before you can have then in the book. Am I right?
if yes that is 7000 magic and 4g.
And still you won’t be able to complete some of dailies, right?
they are permanent, there is a book that all scrolls can be placed in now so that only one common slot is taken up. The book is more expensive than the scrolls I think 10000 unbound and 1 gold
I just checked lake doric. If all the portal scrolls are 1000 magic and 50silver means we need 6000 magic and 3gold to buy all. which opens access to all maps
Living world Portal Tome (book) is 1000 magic and 1gold which saves you 5 inventory space.
I assume you need to buy scrolls before you can have then in the book. Am I right?
if yes that is 7000 magic and 4g.
And still you won’t be able to complete some of dailies, right?
Yes, but as I said I am sure many don’t complete all of the dailies anyway. If you want to do all of them do the story otherwise do what you can and move on or don’t enter the maps at all if it will be an issue.
I only went and finished the story chapter I needed to get me to tge new map!
And, has been said, it actually isn’t THAT hard – ONCE you figure out you are given a debuff at regular intervals to take down the “boss” bloke. Died twice before noticing what was going on. Duh.
. I s’pose I’ll just have to “get better” as they used to say if asked for tips in multiplayer Doom… I think I get annoyed if I can’t do something first time.