I am a map hopper. Let me make that clear first. I use the LFG to jump between Silverwastes maps for the same reasons that others do — it’s the most efficient use of my time for the rewards. Breach and Vinewrath are very rewarding content, and I give kudos to ANet for scaling the rewards properly for the execution.
That being said, I do wish that we didn’t have to rely on LFG and that folks would complete maps start to finish. The “Hero of the Wastes” buff is a start, but 50% MF and some extra bandit crests won’t cut it.
My solution would be for the map to trigger bonus chests (side of screen) at 25%, 50%, and 75% pact preparation. Also set it so that these chests escalate in rewards as long as you were present for the previous event. Tequatl has a similar mechanism with the defense phases, so I know it’s doable. Make it rewarding for folks to finish a map start to finish. As long as breach hopping is more efficient, that will remain the meta.
Definitely agree with this. I see all too few doing the work and then the rest swoop in for the Breach and the Vinewrath and leave. I also really enjoy the Breach and Vinewrath, those are very well done but I think those that put in the work to get those events to happen should be rewarded for the time and effort they put in for that. A similar mechanism that JLHiggs mentioned would be a nice reward for folk that stick it out on a map and do the groundwork.
I’d say scale the drop rate of the most-desired drops according to how long you’ve been on that instance of the map. This can be worked into a tweak of the existing buffs on the map. Helping from the beginning should maximize odds to get what you want at the end, and should definitely have better odds than instance-hopping for the same period of time.
I like the idea. I’d agree that there needs to be incentive to play the foothold event and stay on the map throughout the buildup to breach/vinewrath. If it takes the form of percentage rewards as you mentioned, or scaled up loot for the final bosses depending on foothold participation, either way might help encourage folks to stick around. I’m not a big fan of how the current structure encourages map hopping.
Even though Silverwastes is a more recent map than Dry Top, I feel like Dry Top’s decline is also due largely in part to a similar but more serious flaw in its design: people who contribute the most (in the first 40 minutes) are given complete trash rewards to the ones who simply show up at :40 when the sandstorm arrives.
What you get for the first 40 minutes is such a slap in the face that T4 maps are somewhat uncommon and T5/T6 virtually non-existent.
Let’s also not forget that both maps reward and incentivize tagging events and moving on rather than actually staying and contributing to a single individual event.
Content in this game will always seem
to be faceroll at the high levels, because it
needs to be accessible to the casuals and bads.
Or, they could incentivize map event completion by requiring a level 5 Perseverance to open the Vinewrath chest? This is a similar flaw to the LA invasion or Boss Blitz. Those selfishly tagging and running are putting in a minimal effort and lessening the game play of others. Good luck getting a T3 in the lab or even finding an open Skritt tunnel. When there’s LFG’s just for the Skritt Tunnels, you know there’s way too much map creation/deletion cycles taking place.
As one of the people that commie up and start off at Indigo on an almost empty map, progress to around 25% and then start taxiing in :
I find this a great idea!
That 25% sometimes can take up to an hour of running around.
CAN SOMEONE FIX THIS kitten FORUM BEFORE I BREAK SOMETHING!
Retriever Iiat – Asura Engineer
Private retriever of runaway NPCs
Mistband[MIST] – PVP Training guild EU
This map hopping has to end, not forcefully (people should continue being able to play where they want), but with stronger incentives to stay.
The major issue right now is that this map appears to be dead to most players unaware of, or unwilling to deal with map hopping. As a result it makes people think the game is in bad shape (new content + no players playing it only leads to few possible conclusions).
Recommended changes:
- All persistent buffs should continue worked when disconnected from the game, and should only be removed if a different map is loaded willingly by the player. It’s annoying to lose the buffs because of a random disconnect and it makes them meaningless.
- Encourage participation in the pre-vinewrath events by making the existing stacking event buff go to 15 stacks and at every 3 stacks you earn a bonus item for defeating the vinewrath.
- The vinewrath kill buff should much more noticeably raise the bandit crest rewards and the buff should stack up to 3 times in addition to that.
- Reduce the bandit crest cost for bags of rare gear slightly.
- Reduce the ’time out’ period by 10 minutes, but allow people to stay in the labyrinth until 10 minutes after the initial fort defence phase begins again.
- Raise the map population slightly to compensate for a recurring problem; Leechers. The silverwastes and dry top have lower map populations than other PvE maps.
I think that these changes would solve the majority of the shortcomings of this zone and make it more enjoyable for everyone.
Swift Mending – Guardian
Thorny Scrub – Thief
Desolation
The new buff (double bandit crests after defeat of vine wraith) is nice.
Bandit crests can easily be exchanged for Bag of Stolen Goods and sold for a nice profit en mass.
The problem is that…, the beginning phases of the SW events offer low loot (maybe 2 crests and a box of greens per event) and last for a long time before you get to te end events which come in rapid succession after another and can reward 50+ crests + rares + other goodies.
Breach hopping is here to stay because of the achievements such as legendary bosses and collections, but it shouldn’t actually be rewarded with such better loot.
Tl;DR. Buff early SW event loot. nerf later SW loot.
Or, they could incentivize map event completion by requiring a level 5 Perseverance to open the Vinewrath chest?
This would be one of the worst ideas ever. If enough people leave the map for some reason and there aren’t enough players on the map, that map fails because no one wants to taxi into an event for no rewards.
My idea was more along the lines of the game giving you a indicator buff every 20-25% and at the end reward the appropriate number of upwards scaling bonus chests. Much like tequatl. It is entirely to profitable not to be jumping maps. I have anet makes this adjustment going forward.
I read the first 2 posts, and I can’t be bothered to read the others, but I think that would be good. Let the chests have guaranteed rares, and a chance at exotics, no chance of precursor’s though, but exotics yes (including unique exotics)
Or, they could incentivize map event completion by requiring a level 5 Perseverance to open the Vinewrath chest?
This would be one of the worst ideas ever. If enough people leave the map for some reason and there aren’t enough players on the map, that map fails because no one wants to taxi into an event for no rewards.
How about an MF buff that specifically affects the last chest.
You hop maps, no effect on you. You stay on a map the entire time, you have a higher chance to get something good from the final chest than those that hop maps. It also helps alleviate the RNG issue people have with the coat box.
Interesting idea. I would probably stay if such rewards were offered every 25%. Right now, there’s not much incentive to stay after breach, vinewrath, and grabbing the maze chest.
ANet’s plan to introduce the 50% MF buff and extra bandit crests are not rewarding enough to compensate for the effortless way people can change to a better instance that is nearly complete. I think the idea behind the 50% MF buff is on the right track. It motivates players to stay on the same map after event completion. Unfortunately it barely adds up when you already have 400%+ MF with 5 stacks of perseverance.
Personally, I’d like to receive 2 or 3 shovels as an end reward, then people will more likely stay on the map to hunt down chests together.
I wonder if it would be enough incentive for folks to participate in the foothold events more if your perseverance stacks helped lower the gold costs of items available from the bandit crest merchant. For example if something was crests+much gold, if someone had high perseverance, the cost would be crests+little gold. If the cost normally was crests+little gold, if someone had high perseverance, the cost would just be crests.
Personally I’d also change perseverance so that it didn’t disappear upon leaving the map, but rather would expire when a new foothold cycle started. That would allow for needing to WP out temporarily or getting disconnected.
This would provide incentive to play more foothold events for folks that wanted to save money at the crest vendor. For folks who just like jumping in at the last minute for Breach/Vinewrath, they don’t lose out on any loot – the only thing they don’t get is the lower prices at the crest vendor.
