Guild Wars 2

I’ve played the closed beta and was one of the people critisizing the day/night cycle.
The issue I had back then that was night was lacking content. It was like at night it was totally a stand still.

First off all, I think you have outdone yourself. You’ve said you wanted to feel like two different maps. Thats not true. But the foes, the position of the foes and the places where the action is makes it a very different experience indeed and the night is much more vibrant.

I still think there is something missing, and I think it is how it leads up to something. Maybe it is planned for the second part of the map, but the last 15 minutes of the night should have some extra oempf to mark the beginning of a new cycle. Maybe a boss called “dawnbreaker” (a name popular in another game, but very appropiate for the purpose)

I believe the difference between day and night is clear right now, but it could be way better. The face of events change drastically between day and night right now and that’s quite amazing. During day we help Itzel feed and during night we just try to survive against the hordes of mordrem. The fact that mordrem mostly attack during night, changes everything making it almost a new map in my opinion with new enemies and events.

I think the problem lies with the scale of the beta. Since it’s just a slice of the entire map, we only manage to get to Security Level One during daytime and that makes things a bit easy for us during night. The second problem is the scaling of events. When I’m trying to save a rally point with 3 people, it proves quite difficult. But when we are over 10 people, it’s so easy that I hardly get to touch any mobs before they melt down into nothingness. Considering that will be the case most of the time, I think Arenanet should focus on scaling them better against bigger zerkes.

And the mobs, they are amazing. They all have unique abilities to them that makes them stand out. Usually in PVE, I hardly notice the differences between mob types. But here they all have amazing differences. The problem here is they melt down too quickly against big groups. If I’m battling an Arrowhead alone, it’s a challenge. But when I’m with friends it’s nothing. Mechanics are there, numbers need help. This could also better the situation with nighttime in my opinion.

The Day time events that we have now are awesome, especially the Itzal events, that is…if they work.

They Night time events, I assume, are still at an early state. Colin stated on Fridays PoI (~48:20m, into the stream) that the night events are still an early iteration. I agree that it is potentially because we do not have a full map and there are events else where that build up to a larger night time meta event.

I love all the new mobs. I wish they were a little more challenging in smaller groups like 5-10 players. 20+ players doing an event does not necessarily make the events harder, but there is a decent increase in mob spawn rate and up-scale that you have to pay more attention to getting caught in the line of fire of say 5 Mordrem Snipers…

Now lets talk about Smokescales. There is of course a thread about them already, but I would love to express my gratitude towards this enemy. It’s dangerous if you don’t know how to deal with it but decent when you know its mechanics. I enjoyed running around and seeing people die to them not knowing what in the world just happened. I’d like to see more enemies like this. Even the Mordrem Snipers seem to be in the same challenge category if you do not come prepared with block or reflects.

I think they could add more different events during the Night. At the moment it’s only “Defend this Rally Point”, “Escort this Pact Soldier” and to bring Supplies to fortify the Rally Points.

I think there should be more different Events like “Giant Boss/ Tendril appeared on the map, destroy it or you will lose half of your Rally points”. Losing Rally points should make the attacks on the remaining Rally points feel even fiercer and there should be much more enemies. Defending points should feel to be necessary to not getting overwhelmed by the sheer forces of Mordemoth.

Losing all rally Points should result in a “LOSE-Mechanic” with everyone on the map dying, like when failing the Twisted Marionette fight. Surviving the night could reward you with Special Skins / useful Items / other things.

Furthermore, I would like to see Night-Activities. Getting good scores could result in weakening the Enemy-forces. For example: One activity sends you on a Mission to sabotage an enemy formation, you would get tools to decieve them and take them out one by one or to plant a bomb.

Darkprecure has some amazing insights and ideas Well, my 2 cents about the day/night cycle:

I haven’t noticed the day/night cycle at all, apart from what the events say. I’m missing more darkness in the night, it’s still incredibly bright at nighttime. What would help further was maybe some swarms of fireflies at random positions during the night to signal that it’s night. Furthermore, you could use the random conversation bits to signal ppl that it’s night like: “Wow, it never gets this dark at night in Ascalon”. Hope this helps I’ll use monday to provide some more feedback on the professions!

Yeah, I haven’t played as much to notice the day/night cycle in terms of events (I’ve mostly been mucking around with Revenant and new specs, and the glimpse of the new storyline, which so far is awesomesauce), but I have noticed that I can’t tell if it’s day or night by visuals. I can only tell if I’m near an NPC that announces a day/night event or if I happen to notice it mentioned on the events sidebar.

I get not wanting to make it too dark. I’ve played other games where it’s really difficult to see in nighttime, and it’s not fun to have to squint at my screen or bump up the gamma temporarily -shudder-. But maybe making it a touch darker? Perhaps moonlight, though I understand that might be graphically difficult. I like Fay’s idea of fireflies or more random conversations. Maybe adding some other critters themed to the area that only show up at night?

I also like the other event suggestions that have been mentioned. If there are night-specific critters, those could also be used for events. There’s always the mad scientist asura who’s been waiting for the perfect time to test this new potion that she just so happened to be carrying… oops! That’s one big, angry firefly ready to attack an outpost and eat your face. Or maybe there’s a corrupted Pact member who’s smart enough to be sneaky and infiltrate an outpost in an attempt to take it for Mordremath from the inside. Give it a twist and make it not a sylvari; they’re especially vulnerable, but we’ve seen the other Elder Dragons corrupt lots of races. And, at least from what I’ve seen so far, the remaining Pact members seem to be hyperfocused on the sylvari and not looking so hard at the other races, so a charr or norn, etc, would have a greater chance of passing unnoticed to sabotage something. Lots of possibilities!

Defhan.2389:

The second problem is the scaling of events. When I’m trying to save a rally point with 3 people, it proves quite difficult. But when we are over 10 people, it’s so easy that I hardly get to touch any mobs before they melt down into nothingness. Considering that will be the case most of the time, I think Arenanet should focus on scaling them better against bigger zerkes.

And the mobs, they are amazing. They all have unique abilities to them that makes them stand out. Usually in PVE, I hardly notice the differences between mob types. But here they all have amazing differences. The problem here is they melt down too quickly against big groups. If I’m battling an Arrowhead alone, it’s a challenge. But when I’m with friends it’s nothing. Mechanics are there, numbers need help. This could also better the situation with nighttime in my opinion.

I agree. The mobs have very good and fun unique abilities and to observe and know them matters a lot when you are alone or in a small group. It is a lot of fun for me. I especially hate and like the litty nasty mushrooms.

But yesterday I was in a group with around 15 (+-5) other players and the mobes melted very fast. No way to understand their abilities and it was surely not needed.

If the last group would be my first impression/experience, it would be like “same old mob mechanics” and it would be not fun.

Scaling for groups 10+ should be better.

Well the night time felt underwhelming, thought the places would be swarming by mordrem, but alot zones were empty. And I hope they will add much more to difficulty to other maps. Smokescales are kitten annoying but really awesome doggies.

I’ve stated this before after the CBE, the difference between Day and Night needs to be greater in terms of light/dark. Current Day cycle is just the right level of brightness, bur when Night hits, it should be even darker, imo. Personally I’d like to see it dark enough so that you can’t see the mobs from so far away…perhaps use the ambient light from fires around the Pact/native camps to light up the night time, with minimal lighting from the Moon(if not hidden behind clouds). I know people will complain they can’t see the mobs before they’re upon them…but that can be solved with sound, sort of like real night time in the jungle. Anyways, if you don’t want to go this route that’s fine, but I think it would make the maps even better, and assist in making the content harder during the Night cycle, as it should be compared to Day…besides being different events.

Posting here since this is more consolidated than the other thread

Rubi said she wanted feedback on whether it felt like night/day were different enough and that had they hit their target of creating the feel of 2 separate maps.

The answer from me is no. In fact I’m struggling to see where those distinctions are beyond different events and mobs. To make them feel like separate maps, I would expect the following;

- Completely different lighting. A slightly gloomier map doesn’t equate night vs day. It needs to be full on night. Ever been in a jungle at night? Visibility is non existent. Gameplay would dictate it would have to have some visibility, but not the same as daytime.

- ambient sounds. I’d cut the music and concentrate on the “sounds of the jungle”. screams, shrieks, natural calls and roars, the wind, the fires, the creaking ships etc

- access to areas only at night or day. Perhaps vines move and open new paths or updrafts only available at night

- constant attacks from Mordrem – this is already in place, so we can tick that one off

These may be in updated iterations, but we can only feedback on current beta, and these would fulfill the criteria for me for what they are trying to achieve. Its a primal environment, let it play on primal fears

I enjoyed running around and seeing people die to them not knowing what in the world just happened.

It’s sad that we have players like this in our community. I can only hope that the developers do not take this attitude when it comes to designing and balancing.

I enjoy the day/night cycle events. My only complaint is the lighting. I would love to see a difference in the two. Maybe something to let you know which cycle you are in instead of the clock. Like torches on the walls of the camps. When they are lit it is night. Just a idea. Otherwise looking forward to seeing the area on release.

I would hope for darker also. If they need to add light, as Countess Aire suggested, let there be torches that light certain areas and spooky nighttime be outside their reach.

Randulf.7614:

- needs to be full on night. Visibility is non existent. Gameplay would dictate it would have to have some visibility, but not the same as daytime.

- ambient sounds. I’d cut the music and concentrate on the “sounds of the jungle”. screams, shrieks, natural calls and roars, the wind, the fires, the creaking ships etc

- access to areas only at night or day. updrafts only available at night

Its a primal environment, let it play on primal fears

I love all of this. Especially the sounds and updrafts ideas.

Randulf.7614:

- Completely different lighting. A slightly gloomier map doesn’t equate night vs day. It needs to be full on night. Ever been in a jungle at night? Visibility is non existent. Gameplay would dictate it would have to have some visibility, but not the same as daytime.

This is one of the most obvious faults to me. I honestly don’t like that we get an announcement/timer saying, “HEY! IT’S ABOUT TO BE NIGHT TIME!!!” either.
I’d prefer it to be a more subtle transition from day->dusk->night->dawn (with dusk and dawn being either ‘quieter’ or in some ways hybrids) where you know whar point of the day you’re in by the environment around you and… well… by what time it is…

And I’d say make anything off the beaten trail (aside from luminescent mushroom patches and the like) super-dark at night. WP actually had a good suggestion for a mastery allowing for ‘night-vision’, and something like that could actually be a good solution; it wouldn’t completely offset the lack of light (and may apply a visual filter when used), but it could let you ‘adapt’ to the jungle.

That said, I’m also not really fond of the event structure in the zone, especially at night.
The day event chains are actually pretty good (when they work), but they feel too linear and repetitive, so they don’t really feel very natural and it gets old pretty quick (IMO). Half hoping that some events in the part of the zone we’re in are just disabled, but I’m also not fond of heavy event-density since it makes the zone feel like an artificial playground, so I’d also not be huge on that. I guess just have the events we already have, but have natural branches such that each has a number of different paths they can take (some dependent on player interaction, some randomly decided by NPCs).

The night events are just really, really repetitive though. I get the concept of them and I like the sort of ‘Night of the Living Dead’ survival idea; it just doesn’t work too well in practice. I guess part of it is just how quickly and frequently they occur. A sustained attack on a base (like, potentially all night) with a lot of defense mechanics may work well, but repeated “Defend!” events that basically consist of standard fights while camping a circle are nothing new. Hell, even have variants where one point gets assaulted as a feint while a larger force marches on another, a hyper-version where a full army consisting of hundreds upon hundreds of Mordrem assaults a base at once, etc. Or even have some nights where they don’t attack at all (or instead ambush travelers more frequently). If they’re going to be an intelligent enemy (Not going onto my rant on intelligent dragons again right now, but suffices to say, that choice has already been made), then don’t make the attacks completely predictable.
One other issue though is that getting around to the various rally-points is kind of a pain as well, so even if we’re stuck with these brief, repeated attacks, moving from one place to the next is kind of annoying as it stands.

All-in-all, I guess the big thing for me is I’d like the zone to feel more like a natural place, and instead it feels artificial and overly-scripted to me.

I’m just happy that the day/night cycle is more than just cosmetic now. >_>

A mastery system that lets you see at night sounds really cool. They could extend this to the rest of Tyria. Really dark nights and when you hit level 80 you get access to the night vision mastery track.

love how different is day from night in VB

Just a flesh wound.3589:

A mastery system that lets you see at night sounds really cool. They could extend this to the rest of Tyria. Really dark nights and when you hit level 80 you get access to the night vision mastery track.

Could be interesting. If they made night in VB actually something unique and different daytime, then rolling it out to other maps with their own DEs during that time could be special indeed. A pipe dream though considering the work involved id imagine

I admit to being disappointed in the day/night cycle. Having the light vary so little that the game has to actually tell you that it’s night or day, really takes away the feelings that night should bring. In fact, why bother having a night/day cycle if no one can easily tell the difference between them. It makes the night time assault emotionally flat. It’s just another series of events to do and as far as I can tell, it’s happening in the daytime.

Im also on the fence about the announcements for day and night across the screen. I can understand it works from a gameplay pov, but it loses some of the immersion. Perhaps a sundial or something like an asuran timepiece in the UI would be better, which flashes when it the cycle is changing.

I’m not impressed with the day night cycle, althouth its hard to actually give meaningful feedback as the shear number of bugged events means its hard to be objective about it.

But, I think its in principle poor design. Its an exercise in frustration, large groups required to work together to progress events on a timer, you can do large amounts of it and just miss out, whihc is just building up excitment, then destroying it…not through some epic defeat at the hands of a boss, but because a timer has ticked down…..thats just lame.

Also, apart from arbitrary timer, the day night cycle means nothing, you can just play and never worry about day/night, unless you are fighting the timer. It has a very underwhelming impact .

Shiren.9532:

The wyvern eggs event is probably my favorite event in GW2. I absolutely loved bouncing up the cliffs to grab eggs and then gliding down to the bottom to deliver them. Escaping griffons by leaping off a cliff is such a cool feeling.

Yes. I absolutely agree. I did that event before and after a had masteries in gliding and mushroom jumping. With masteries it was so much more fun and also faster. I loved jumping off the cliff and doing a precision landing with the egg before the NPC.

I hope there will me much more of this kind in the expansion.

The event chains of the day cycle are very well developed and felt like ready for launch. I assume the full map will offer at least two additional chains.

The night cycle showed the early iteration very clearly. We have no idea what happens if we enter level two or even three. Will it open the access to a world boss? At least we got an idea of the basic concept for level one. The events felt clearly different compared to the ones of the day cycle.

I really hope the we get one BWE where the night cycle is fully functional. This would give us a clear impression what to expect for the other maps with distinct cycles

Although I hoping to see some improvements to the night cycle, it’ll be interesting to see if they’ve gone for the same school of thought to the later maps as well. There’s plenty of scope for creativity in the idea of distinct cycles for a map for sure.