A Lesson from a Lizard
This is a good idea and used in many games that don’t have an alterable difficulty level. Two recent games that use it to good effect are Fallout 4 and The Witcher 3.
The big issue with the HoT maps is that they are not large enough to allow this to work.
ANet offered two models of “pacing” in advance of HoT:
- The drytop model, which is on a fixed schedule. You always know when it’s defend and when it’s sandstorm.
- The silverwastes model, which follows the map’s pace. If it’s organized, it’s fairly quick. If it’s not organized, it still progresses towards completion (although, such maps have trouble “closing the deal”).
It was my impression that the vast majority of people preferred the second model.
People loved dry top when it first arrived — it was fresh and dynamic. Then after a short time, people grew weary. Unless you arrived just on time, you would miss the content that interested you and have to wait for the clock. It felt regimented, like a job in retail (including dealing with random people).
In contrast, people embraced silverwastes for ages and ages. You could join any time (just about) and always feel you were contributing. There were issues about participation and DCs, but on the whole, it was fun whenever you arrived and for as long as you remained.
tl;dr why did ANet choose to follow the Dry Top model for HoT, rather than use the Silverwastes model for at least some of the Magus Falls maps?
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
ANet offered two models of “pacing” in advance of HoT:
- The drytop model, which is on a fixed schedule. You always know when it’s defend and when it’s sandstorm.
- The silverwastes model, which follows the map’s pace. If it’s organized, it’s fairly quick. If it’s not organized, it still progresses towards completion (although, such maps have trouble “closing the deal”).
It was my impression that the vast majority of people preferred the second model.
People loved dry top when it first arrived — it was fresh and dynamic. Then after a short time, people grew weary. Unless you arrived just on time, you would miss the content that interested you and have to wait for the clock. It felt regimented, like a job in retail (including dealing with random people).
In contrast, people embraced silverwastes for ages and ages. You could join any time (just about) and always feel you were contributing. There were issues about participation and DCs, but on the whole, it was fun whenever you arrived and for as long as you remained.
tl;dr why did ANet choose to follow the Dry Top model for HoT, rather than use the Silverwastes model for at least some of the Magus Falls maps?
Okay I often agree with you but you’re drawing some possibly unwarranted conclusions here. You’re making the assumption the scheduling was the main difference between the two zones but I don’t think that’s it at all.
First of all Dry Top was harder for a lot of people to navigate and therefore it was less accessible to those people.
More importantly the money I made from Silverwastes was greater than the money I made from Drytop.
From my point of view, and the reason I prefer Silverwastes more, is because it felt less contrived. Not because of the timing, but because of the Sandstorm itself. I mean I just built rep with these guys, suddenly they don’t trust me anymore? That didn’t sit well with the immersion side of my play.
Dry Top felt more like a series of unrelated events, where as Silverwastes told more of a cohesive story I could immerse myself in. The better loot was a bonus.
I mean Silverwaste chest farm lets me get a hundred chests in a row. I usually get five chests in a Drytop Sand storm.
One of the best ways to design a living space for a pet lizard is to use a long tank and a heat lamp on one end of it. This allows the lizard to adjust it’s body temperature by moving under the light or away from it.
This is probably the one thing HoT is really missing. People can’t pick what they want to do, because there are no choices like this.
In most games, you have roads that are safer and more danagerous areas off the beaten path. Sure some things can wander the roads, but probably not a champion terragriff.
People who are not as comfortable with harder content can still feel powerful and people who want more of a challenge can go off road. It allows users to choose their experience, rather than the game dictating it.
Because that’s the basis of a lot of hot complaints. You can’t play what you want when you want. The game is choosing the experience for you.
Hopefully in upcoming expansions, Anet will stop trying to set the pace for everyone and allow different segements of the population to play at their own pace.
If by “set the pace” you mean content generally being harder – then I would like to remind you that core tyria was exactly the same – only it had not “harder” alternatives to the generally easy path of doing everything.
If by “set the pace” you mean every map being on a timer – forcing you to schedule your life in order to participate in the content you want to participate in – then yes – I do agree it has to stop.
Maps like SW were great – there was a meta, you could push it – but it didn’t have a timer.
The new HoT maps are annoying – because if you want to get anything done in them you have to sync up your RL with your game.
If here they fall they shall live on when ever you cry “For Ascalon!”
ANet offered two models of “pacing” in advance of HoT:
- The drytop model, which is on a fixed schedule. You always know when it’s defend and when it’s sandstorm.
- The silverwastes model, which follows the map’s pace. If it’s organized, it’s fairly quick. If it’s not organized, it still progresses towards completion (although, such maps have trouble “closing the deal”).
It was my impression that the vast majority of people preferred the second model.
People loved dry top when it first arrived — it was fresh and dynamic. Then after a short time, people grew weary. Unless you arrived just on time, you would miss the content that interested you and have to wait for the clock. It felt regimented, like a job in retail (including dealing with random people).
In contrast, people embraced silverwastes for ages and ages. You could join any time (just about) and always feel you were contributing. There were issues about participation and DCs, but on the whole, it was fun whenever you arrived and for as long as you remained.
tl;dr why did ANet choose to follow the Dry Top model for HoT, rather than use the Silverwastes model for at least some of the Magus Falls maps?
Okay I often agree with you but you’re drawing some possibly unwarranted conclusions here. You’re making the assumption the scheduling was the main difference between the two zones but I don’t think that’s it at all.
First of all Dry Top was harder for a lot of people to navigate and therefore it was less accessible to those people.
More importantly the money I made from Silverwastes was greater than the money I made from Drytop.
From my point of view, and the reason I prefer Silverwastes more, is because it felt less contrived. Not because of the timing, but because of the Sandstorm itself. I mean I just built rep with these guys, suddenly they don’t trust me anymore? That didn’t sit well with the immersion side of my play.
Dry Top felt more like a series of unrelated events, where as Silverwastes told more of a cohesive story I could immerse myself in. The better loot was a bonus.
I mean Silverwaste chest farm lets me get a hundred chests in a row. I usually get five chests in a Drytop Sand storm.
Yes, you’re correct that the loot in Silverwastes is better. But I’m wasn’t using loot or lack thereof for determining people’s preference. I was going by forum & reddit posts about what people said they enjoyed about DT and SW. In the case of DT, the initial ‘reviews’ were largely positive and over time, people grew bored with the scheduled aspects (again, according to what people posted); in SW, the honeymoon lasted longer.
Regardless, whether one was definitively better or not is besides the point: clearly, at the worst, both models were well-received initially. So why would ANet only use one of the models in Magus Falls?
The schedule system for world bosses makes a lot of sense. The thrill that most people have had with GW2 has been more associated with the spontaneous and ‘living’ aspect of dynamic events. In effect, though, Magus Falls’ events are less dynamic than those in Original Recipe Tyria.
Or to change my critique into a suggestion:
- Use fixed-schedule events sparingly, perhaps limiting to festivals & living story (when there’s a limited amount of time to participate, so knowing when can be critical).
- Default to dynamic scheduling, using other means to reduce potential wealth faucets or otherwise gate acquisition of currencies (local or global).
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
One of the best ways to design a living space for a pet lizard is to use a long tank and a heat lamp on one end of it. This allows the lizard to adjust it’s body temperature by moving under the light or away from it.
This is probably the one thing HoT is really missing. People can’t pick what they want to do, because there are no choices like this.
In most games, you have roads that are safer and more danagerous areas off the beaten path. Sure some things can wander the roads, but probably not a champion terragriff.
People who are not as comfortable with harder content can still feel powerful and people who want more of a challenge can go off road. It allows users to choose their experience, rather than the game dictating it.
Because that’s the basis of a lot of hot complaints. You can’t play what you want when you want. The game is choosing the experience for you.
Hopefully in upcoming expansions, Anet will stop trying to set the pace for everyone and allow different segements of the population to play at their own pace.
A very interesting analogy. One that I never thought of before you actually wrote it out, but I can see how I personally would enjoy playing the game if all the maps followed this particular method.
There are some days I really only want to explore. I’ve learned how to get around things I am not in the mood to fight, while other times, I say “hey, what the heck” and throw my tanky pet out to start the encounter for a fight.
I really like the new HoT maps. I don’t mind some of the mobs, but I am not fond of the ridiculous “pin-to-the ground, yank around until you die” type of mobs you just cannot get past. I also like the fact that, if I want to, I can tag along with another group running around and enjoy helping out to accomplish the given goal of that point.
The gliding helps and as I level up my advance gliding, getting around in these new maps is getting easier. I also am making good use of the Nuhoch Wallows as well…just that I have to be careful which one I choose to use because I might end up in the middle of a Champion I did not expect to meet.