Guild Wars 2

I have been a huge fan of the art direction of Guild Wars 1 and the original content of Guild Wars 2 when it was released. This is one the key reasons why I am coming back to the game. The Art is just so GOOD!

I found Dry Top be a very dull looking, ugly place with annoying particle effects, like the sand storm. Now Heart of the Storms seems to go further with this direction. I found it way too gloomy, way too much verticality, pretty much everything just looked ugly to me and I got zero aesthetic pleasure from it. I know some players will disagree.

Almost all the new maps after the launch of GW2 have been far worse than the original content. Example of bad map design + Art: Edge of the Mists, Ruins area in Borderlands, Dry Top and Court Yard (pvp map).

I hope the future updates will bring something more in the direction of the original maps, which feel much more natural, like places which could exist with snow topped mountains, hills, forest, rivers and so on.

“I hope the future updates will bring something more in the direction of the original maps, which feel much more natural, like places which could exist with snow topped mountains, hills, forest, rivers and so on.”

Because deserts, canyons and jungles are obviously something unknown to nature. How dare they invent something so unrealistic and ugly.

Havok.6073:

“I hope the future updates will bring something more in the direction of the original maps, which feel much more natural, like places which could exist with snow topped mountains, hills, forest, rivers and so on.”

Because deserts, canyons and jungles are obviously something unknown to nature. How dare they invent something so unrealistic and ugly.

Well, you kinda missed the point. Anyways I really enjoyed the original maps much more and they feel more “natural” than the new map designs.

Here is a GDC 2015 “open world kite” demo using Unreal Engine 4:
https://youtu.be/clakekAHQx0?t=54s

I know this is a state of the art demo, but I wish Arenanet would be able to create something like this. That ~100 square mile world without any loading screens and fully made out of geometry is simply stunning. Lighting models and foliage are such pleasure to the eye. I would happily spend time exploring it, even if it didn’t include any story or game.

You do realize to use a new engine they would have to re-write the entire game? So many people think things happen with a push of a button. Wish I lived in that world. Designing a map to have more vertical features allows the developers to get more “stuff” on a map without worry about making it a giant square with one layer. The dry/top silverwaste design has been greatly received by many players. It really is too bad that you do not enjoy it, but this seems to be the direction we are heading. This really is for the better, enough with trying to get GW2 to by like ‘X’ game, let it be its own thing.

I feel like pointing out that these new maps are a throw back to maps of GW1. Gaining ascension in the Crystal Desert and saving chosen both took place in maps much like these new ones. I know it might not feel like a diverse mountainous region like some but I feel like they are following the same vein they did back in the GW1 days.

It’s not really a fault of the art direction so much as the terrain. Deserts are pretty one-note, boring, and ugly. They are the wastelands of the real world.

Now, Anet’s attempt to add variety to these zones is essentially to throw ruins and forts among throughout them so that the ruined architecture can be part of the zone’s aesthetic and history. It’s a good approach, even though it could be essentially summed up as “using ugliness to add variety to ugliness.”

As with most anything, however, this is pretty subjective. Deserts and jungles don’t appear to appeal to you, but they no doubt do to someone else. Later on, they’ll expand Kryta, Ascalon, and/or the Shiverpeaks and we’ll get some areas that will appeal aesthetically to you. Or they can bring us to the Ring of Fire – and who knows what that will look like with the Guild Wars 2 engine?

Deniara Devious.3948:

I have been a huge fan of the art direction of Guild Wars 1 and the original content of Guild Wars 2 when it was released. This is one the key reasons why I am coming back to the game. The Art is just so GOOD!

I found Dry Top be a very dull looking, ugly place with annoying particle effects, like the sand storm. Now Heart of the Storms seems to go further with this direction. I found it way too gloomy, way too much verticality, pretty much everything just looked ugly to me and I got zero aesthetic pleasure from it. I know some players will disagree.

Almost all the new maps after the launch of GW2 have been far worse than the original content. Example of bad map design + Art: Edge of the Mists, Ruins area in Borderlands, Dry Top and Court Yard (pvp map).

I hope the future updates will bring something more in the direction of the original maps, which feel much more natural, like places which could exist with snow topped mountains, hills, forest, rivers and so on.

I find the Edge of the mists, the ruins area in the borderlands and the courtyard to be some of the best designed maps in the game. They have so much more detail than anywhere else, I hope any new map they create is more like those

I’m excited of the maguuma. It was my favorite place in Guild Wars 1. The Lagoon is now dry and its position is in the north of the silverwaste. So i was also disappointed about the dessert-landscape and i hope we will see nice jungle landscapes in HoT. (For example in the region of the Magus Falls)

Zypher.7609:

You do realize to use a new engine they would have to re-write the entire game? So many people think things happen with a push of a button. Wish I lived in that world. Designing a map to have more vertical features allows the developers to get more “stuff” on a map without worry about making it a giant square with one layer. The dry/top silverwaste design has been greatly received by many players. It really is too bad that you do not enjoy it, but this seems to be the direction we are heading. This really is for the better, enough with trying to get GW2 to by like ‘X’ game, let it be its own thing.

I am well aware it is not feasible to change the game engine of Guild Wars 2. It would require a complete rewrite of the game. I just used that as an example of extremely beautiful and huge open world real-time 3D map.

I consider Dry Top and Silverwastes quite different maps by design, despite they are both desert themed. I like most of the things Silverwastes, but I find Dry Top almost an utterly unplayable map: just too much verticality and gimmicks for me. You claim it has been greatly received by the players. I think time is the best judge. Will people will remember after 20 years: “Oh, do you remember that great amazing level in Guild Wars 2? It was called Dry Top. I wish modern games would have something like this”. Somehow I seriously doubt that would happen. The map area doesn’t seem to have a lot of human players, despite it has a lot of events tied to it.

Any map, even if it is full of bad map design, can be easily made popular in a MMORPG. Just tie a lot of easy rewards to it. I would argue that EotM is popular, not because of it’s map design, but because of the rewards. It is one of the easiest and fastest places to level up your character and get tons of champion loot bags. Even if that map would have rivers, hills, forests and things which I more enjoy people would play it for the simple reason: rewards.

So far we have seen just one small sample of HoT in this demo. I wish the other parts will be more “normal”, meaning less verticality, less gimmicks and I hope to see also more green vegetation. Variety is good and that is what the original Guild Wars map provided. I also enjoyed the map design and art design of the original Guild Wars 1 series, only at Elona Reach they started to get a bit too repetitive.

Level design for MMORPGs and multiplayer levels of first person shooters is one of the hardest areas of game design. It shouldn’t just have one time “wow” appeal and a great theme, but longevity. You will have fun on it, time after time: from 1st time to 1000th+ time.

Deniara Devious.3948:

So far we have seen just one small sample of HoT in this demo. I wish the other parts will be more “normal”, meaning less verticality, less gimmicks and I hope to see also more green vegetation. Variety is good and that is what the original Guild Wars map provided. I also enjoyed the map design and art design of the original Guild Wars 1 series, only at Elona Reach they started to get a bit too repetitive.

How are Silverwastes and Dry Top not an example of variety? They are the first desert themed maps we have in GW2. Instead you want to see more “green vegetation” which can be found in every existing map, how is that variation?

Unfortunately vertical maps are one of their big points (Root System, Jungle Floor, Canopy) so I think you will be disappointed by that. I also don’t understand how vertical is “unnatural”

Am I the only one who really loves the beauty of the desert?

I think the desert has it’s own type of beauty in it’s desolation and lack of life, yet if you look closely you’ll find things living there. I think all those new desert maps have it’s own kind of beauty. I also think EOTM is a pretty map.

I think this is more a matter of personal taste rather than anything to do with map design because they did a good job at conveying those type of natural areas.

I personally think some of the original maps are uglier like Fields of Ruins and Harathi Hinterlands.

I’ve stopped just to look at the scenery in several places in the new zones. Parts of Dry Top are beautiful when you get up high and see spires of rock fading into the distance. Just last night I stopped to take on the canyons of the far Silverwastes by moonlight.

Is it possible the OP just doesn’t have settings high enough to appreciate the textures in the rock walls and atmosphere of the zones?

I’am amazed that someone can see EotM that way. It’s probably the most gorgeous place in GW2, partly why it’s so sad that it being wasted on such a boring activity, i wish they would remake EotM in some way and incorporate it into WvW (i.e. maybe replace EB etc.). Speaking of Dry Top, the art direction in general is a matter of taste no doubt, but the QUALITY if said art, of work being done in Dry Top is top notch, and while i personally never was a fan of all kinds of deserty-cannoynish landscapes, and maguuma was one of my least favorite areas in original GW, just how beautifully art team executed DP and SW left me completely satisfied aesthetically with them and with the fact that game moves into maguuma.

Except sand storm in DP. It is indeed ugly when you look at it from outside. That being said, i saw similar sand storm in new WvW map yesterday in Ready-UP, and it looked very good, i wish they would update it in DP as well.