Guild Wars 2

Hello all,

I am a new player who started playing less than a month ago and I completed Druid Specialization by help of a friend I met in game.

I just want to mention that these HoT maps are like nothing I have seen before in gaming world.

Such complexity and beautiful design force me to think they are not man made.

I really liked it and can not stop the feeling to explore whole HoT maps up and down.

Thank you for creating such gorgeous jungles and extreme design.

I am happy a new player comes and thinks positive about those maps. I also think they are something I never saw in an MMO. There are some single player games like the Metroid Prime series which have huge complex and convoluted worlds. I suggest these series to everyone, you can buy them on Wii as a collection – great series.

Personally I think Tangled Depths is just gratuitously convoluted and tedious, not helped by the woefully inadequate maps.

In a zone where the meta event is the only playable content, making it tedious for players to be able to get from one event to another isn’t IMO fun, it’s simply aggravating.

The other three zones are fine mainly, AB has one or two annoying “take the long road ‘cos the short one’s blocked out” treks but nothing as bad as TD.

I support the OP general opinion.
HoT maps are interesting, complex, multidimentional, challenging and mostly BEAUTIFUL.

To some degree I agree with you Kerin about Tangled Depths, but I really think the problem is not the map, but the distribution and amount of events available. I really enjoy simply walking/running/gliding though TD. I just enjoy it less when I need to go somewhere fast.

ProtoGunner.4953:

I am happy a new player comes and thinks positive about those maps. I also think they are something I never saw in an MMO. There are some single player games like the Metroid Prime series which have huge complex and convoluted worlds. I suggest these series to everyone, you can buy them on Wii as a collection – great series.

I like you.

I completely agree with OP, the maps are great. Many people I think just focus on the events and can’t be bothered to explore and actually enjoy everything. Metroid is a great comparison, and I highly recommend you try out the Prime series if you like the HoT maps and mastery progression.

As i new player cansidering i started 3 nov after HoT release i completly agree with OP.

Td is so cool to explore and VB the best map if you feel like just wasting time flying around just love it.

And the graphics are amazing just love new areas.

learning a map is a mastery in and of itself

Tangled Depths just needs better clarification on roads and which level they are on. A lot times you think theres a road that your going to get to by looking on the map and boom its above or below you.

It would also help if mushrooms indicated which way they’re going to throw you. The wallows indicate which way they go, but with mushrooms it’s down to trial and memory. Sometimes I think it would be useful if mushrooms threw you in whichever direction you were facing, like the aetherblade gears do in NSS, but admittedly, that would also be somewhat confusing and potentially dangerous.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

It would also help if mushrooms indicated which way they’re going to throw you. The wallows indicate which way they go, but with mushrooms it’s down to trial and memory. Sometimes I think it would be useful if mushrooms threw you in whichever direction you were facing, like the aetherblade gears do in NSS, but admittedly, that would also be somewhat confusing and potentially dangerous.

They go up.

:P

If you’re lucky anyway, just remembered the ones in VB going mostly sideways.

Ardid.7203:

To some degree I agree with you Kerin about Tangled Depths, but I really think the problem is not the map, but the distribution and amount of events available. I really enjoy simply walking/running/gliding though TD. I just enjoy it less when I need to go somewhere fast.

True, my main issue with TD is that getting to where the events are is seriously a pain due to the map .. I also agree running about getting PoIs, WPs, etc. is less painful due to the lack of any urgency to get to something that’ll be gone before you get there.

As an exercise is world building TD is a tour-de-force, comparable to some of the Moria zones in LoTRO, the complexity of the layering is very well done, I just think it’s too complex for the use to which it’s put: if it were like the ‘vanilla’ zones where questing didn’t require you to be able to rapidly get from one part of the map to another then I wouldn’t really have any problem with it.

Having now capped 10 characters’ Elite and done at least one map completion on each I now know my way round VB, AB and DS with my eyes closed .. TD OTOH is always a pain when visiting it on a new character, I can never remember how I reached Ley-Line Confluence last time!

I’ve finished the hot story, I’ve explored all hot maps to near completion, I’ve died like 5 times in total in the expansion since its release and only due to being too lazy to pay attention at a given moment….. and I still dont like HoT. I dont like the map design, I dont like the high mob density, I dont like the demise of the solo player and last but not least I hate the DS meta.

So, the content does not merit a replay with more characters as far as i’m concerned

TD is much easier to get around in than people think. There are a lot of shortcuts and connections between sub-areas that people don’t seem aware of. I can complete it in an hour or so if I skip the hero challenge fights.

Navigating TD is made much easier with wallows. The nuhoch wallows to the west of the starting point gets you close to teku nuhoch, which takes you to a lot of places with their wallows, including the ley line confluence.

And yeah, i agree with the OP. The complexity is something refreshing after core Tyria’s generally flat maps. VB and TD are awesome. AB is relatively flat by comparison, but the scenery is great. The griffonfall and burnisher quarry looks amazing.

fatihso.7258:

Hello all,

I am a new player who started playing less than a month ago and I completed Druid Specialization by help of a friend I met in game.

I just want to mention that these HoT maps are like nothing I have seen before in gaming world.

Such complexity and beautiful design force me to think they are not man made.

I really liked it and can not stop the feeling to explore whole HoT maps up and down.

Thank you for creating such gorgeous jungles and extreme design.

I knew I wasn’t the only player that got into GW2 recently, decided to pull the trigger on HoT, and was immediately floored by the quality of these maps! I think my girlfriend is tired of me saying “Come here. You gotta see this!” The layouts and the artwork are simply incredible. As you say, it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

I’d gladly pay the $50 again for more content of this quality. But I get the feeling resources are stretched a bit thin. I wonder how long it will be before we see more?

Kerin.9125:

Personally I think Tangled Depths is just gratuitously convoluted and tedious, not helped by the woefully inadequate maps.

In a zone where the meta event is the only playable content, making it tedious for players to be able to get from one event to another isn’t IMO fun, it’s simply aggravating.

The other three zones are fine mainly, AB has one or two annoying “take the long road ‘cos the short one’s blocked out” treks but nothing as bad as TD.

I agree TD can be annoying. If someone wants to do thus and such hero point it is nearly impossible to pinpoint it so folk know how to get there to help out. WP tend to be far away and pretty much useless if you do not know the path to the particular hero point. Also folk tend to say the name of the hero point and not give any clue how to get there.

I am not sure of any good solution considering the depth and complexity of this particular map. My only solution has been to find groups working on the hero points. Also checking the event timer and following the NPC can at least get you through some of the stuff you need for Tangled Depths. I had way less trouble with the other maps getting achieves etc.

I am not saying Tangled Depths is bad. Just saying it is complex and is not easy to get through. That saying I have gotten two avies with completion so it is not impossible, just challenging.

what does it say about these boards that i expected it to be a whiner topic…

anyways yeah tangled depths and auric basin are really awesome maps to explore

fatihso.7258:

Hello all,

I am a new player who started playing less than a month ago and I completed Druid Specialization by help of a friend I met in game.

I just want to mention that these HoT maps are like nothing I have seen before in gaming world.

Such complexity and beautiful design force me to think they are not man made.

I really liked it and can not stop the feeling to explore whole HoT maps up and down.

Thank you for creating such gorgeous jungles and extreme design.

there is a reason, why nobody has tried this design before in open world:
most other mmos appreciate their players, and want them to stay in game

battledrone.8315:

fatihso.7258:

Hello all,

I am a new player who started playing less than a month ago and I completed Druid Specialization by help of a friend I met in game.

I just want to mention that these HoT maps are like nothing I have seen before in gaming world.

Such complexity and beautiful design force me to think they are not man made.

I really liked it and can not stop the feeling to explore whole HoT maps up and down.

Thank you for creating such gorgeous jungles and extreme design.

there is a reason, why nobody has tried this design before in open world:
most other mmos appreciate their players, and want them to stay in game

I disagree. I never want to go back to “flat” map design. It’s true that they make it more difficult to get around initially (and this causes issues when combined with the group-style events and challenges), but I really can’t remember a game providing a sense of accomplishment simply for exploration. HoT manages that.

It also does a great job of pacing early progression in terms of navigation. When you first enter VB, you’re very limited in your ability to get around. But then you unlock gliding, and updrafts, and bouncing mushrooms and things really start to open up.

I hope they can find a way to make the events run more smoothly without abandoning these wonderful map designs.

Welcome Fatihso.

I also like most of the HOT map design. Still exploring (focusing on TD right now). I am also a ranger. If you have not done so, begin working on your druid weapon collection. Since you like the maps, you can play them and make progress on getting your ascended weapon.

fatihso.7258:

Hello all,

I am a new player who started playing less than a month ago and I completed Druid Specialization by help of a friend I met in game.

I just want to mention that these HoT maps are like nothing I have seen before in gaming world.

Such complexity and beautiful design force me to think they are not man made.

I really liked it and can not stop the feeling to explore whole HoT maps up and down.

Thank you for creating such gorgeous jungles and extreme design.

I totally agree with you, and it’s nice to finally see some positivity about the new maps – those who dislike them can be VERY vocal lol

I’ve loved them and been amazed by them from the first moment (which for me was beta testing). They’re the first truly 3 dimensional maps I have ever seen anywhere, and gliding is the perfect addition to navigate them – well, that, and a lot of very strong coffee, lol..

I still feel as if I’m only just scratching the suface of the geography and events in the new maps, even after a LOT of hours; for myself, I love that, but maybe some players who are used to acing new content in a weekend don’t like it being so tricky to get their heads round.

LotRO has a very complex multi-level map area in Mines of Moria. The map was terrible, you could go south and end up below the area you were in before. Most people I met in there hated it and wouldn’t go back.

There is a limit to how complex you want maps to be, they need to be challenging yet not confusingly so. Three of the maps are fine, Tangled Depths overdoes it a little.

@OP Note that you may be finding this area easier than many others because of your choice of profession. Generally rangers/druids have an easier time than most others in the HoT areas.

I am glad that you enjoy the HoT maps OP. Their vertical nature combined with the Nintendo-like elements are why I opted to not buy the expansion.

The new maps are beautiful but I don’t care for open world mazes. I prefer flat maps that have beautiful or interesting topography and architecture.

I hate the HOT maps. The world map is of no use whatsoever.

The main frustration in the jungle maps, at least for me, comes from the invisible walls and inconsistent slippery slopes. You can never tell by looking (only by trial and error) if the slope of a branch will let you stand on it or send you falling, but at least that’s something plausible in a jungle environment and can be learned with time.

But the invisible walls. Kittens! It’s immersion breaking and it’s some of the laziest collision design I’ve ever seen. Time and again I’m jumping along some branches that look designed for jumping on, or running between the roots of trees where the holes are large enough to allow buses, and I run into invisible walls. I can’t stress this enough – the visuals should match their collision shapes. If you don’t want players walking through that massive hole, put something there to make it visible obstructed. If you don’t want players climbing that ledge, raise the ledge so it’s clearly not climbable. This was a problem with the classic game and it’s still a problem in HOT. It’s too late for these, but I just hope a little more consideration is given to this in future expansions/episodes.

So I am a casual player, and have played GW and GW2 for years. I enjoyed the new map complexity, but became frustrated with the locked wps. If I have explored the maps, and unlocked the various locations, what is the enrichment in gameplay by locking everything up? If the events are interesting and engaging, people will play them irrespective of wp status. I still play GW but pretty much avoid HOT areas when solo. Such a tragic waste of creative content.

ProtoGunner.4953:

I am happy a new player comes and thinks positive about those maps. I also think they are something I never saw in an MMO. There are some single player games like the Metroid Prime series which have huge complex and convoluted worlds. I suggest these series to everyone, you can buy them on Wii as a collection – great series.

It is ironic that the reasons why a lot of people dislike Tangled Depths are exactly why it’s the best map in the game in the first place. Why do people complain about Tangled Depths?

1.It is complex.
2.It has lots of dead ends with stuff that can kill you. In other words punishes reckless play.
3.It is convoluted and tough to navigate.

Now why are these positives objectively? It forces the player to improve as players if they want to master the map. Good game design means that less skilled players have their spots but eventually can handle more skilled content as areas get progressively more challenging. However, if it’s too incremental later areas won’t feel as hard, and this is why I suspect sequence breaking is a popular pastime among gamers: challenge feels too linear. What this means is a sharp spike in difficulty is quite welcome in places (much harder than the last area but still nevertheless fair and possible), as the challenge outpaced your capabilities temporarily. Then you overcome the difficulty spike and continue a more skilled player. Tangled Depths is such a level in GW2.

Then you overcome the difficulty spike and continue a more skilled player…

If I’ve cleared the maps, but just want to return to a location that’s wp locked, it’s not really about being a better player. I hear you though – challenging content is a good thing, but are locked wps really a form of more challenging content? Probably not.