Guild Wars 2

Have any of you felt frustrated by how often the world confronts you? I’ve already stated in other posts that I feel the world is too populated. Animals, creatures, NPC’s, events, and players seem to take up almost every square inch of the world.

In general, this makes the world seem small and contrived, in reality it’s like trying to get back to your vehicle at Disneyland. You can’t walk for more than a few steps without some creature chasing you down.

It’s almost as though the developers have never actually experienced nature. Imagine what would happen if you went on a day hike and every time you turned a corner there were 20 bears, 15 wolves, 30 eagles, and 70 alligators all trying to kill you?

Animals don’t act like that. They try to avoid people as much as they can.

Tonight when I was playing, it was the first time I truly realized how annoyed I was at the environment. I was trying to get waypoints and points of interest, yet I was constantly attacked by something.

It’s like they added content for the sake of making the game feel action packed, when in practice it just serves to muddy up the environment. I realize this is more of a rant than a players helping players, but perhaps you guys could give me some advice on how to avoid feeling like I’m just running an artificial gauntlet?

Yeah, I’ve noticed that, too.

In all honesty, the easiest place I’ve found to actually just run around, explore, and not really worry about something trying to kill me every few seconds, is inside WvW. I’ve spent a good amount of time just running around there chilling, ‘cause the wildlife is pretty sparse and as long as you’re not nearby one of the main keeps that everyone’s trying to capture, you hardly even see other players.

Everywhere else, I kind of have your same experience. Outside of the major cities, I tend to not even notice the scenery that I’m running through ‘cause I’ve got my camera trained behind me as I’m bobbing and weaving through mobs with swiftness on.

Well, you are the minority, as the majority WOULD complain about empty, lifeless environments if it was the opposite. Look at MMOs ranging from DAoC to WAR, to Aion/Rift for examples of QQ about not enough happening.

If this is what the playerbase is complaining about then I’m happy, that means there are no game breaking bugs going on, no crazy lag issues, fairly balanced professions (minus the obvious 2) I’m ok with that.

In my opinion only the higher level areas are really crowded and those areas are in the heart of enemy territory. Obviously it’s going to be swarming with mobs there. How stupid would it be if Orr was completely forsaken even though it’s the lair of Zhaitan who has nearly endless minions at his disposal?

Stick to the paths.
I have noticed what your talking about when I’m running across terrain, and I would expect this. I’m entering the wilderness, it’s going to get wild. However, if I follow the paths on the ground, then I only run into the occasional merchant needing protection from bandits or something, but very few wandering creatures that try to attack me.

If you are complaining about running into lots of creatures when trying to uncover points of interest, then that’s just something you have to deal with because you are going into their territory and they have a desire to defend it from intruders.

MikeRocks,

That’s how I feel as well. I actually can’t remember most of the environment aside from some of the more memorable vistas because every direction I turn, the environment contains a plethora of creatures. It’s like walking though a zoo with no cages. Each animal and creature type is placed perfectly, in endless numbers, in thier neat little environments.

I’m not saying the environment should be barren persay, but just plastering the world with things attacking you for the sake of it, well it just feels contrived and annoying.

For me, the problem is that the constant bombardment takes away from what makes he game great, the events, quests, and story. When every square inch of the world has something happening, I think it overwhelms the player and they lose focus of what is important.

It’s like in design, you don’t just add things sor the sake of filling space, because your aducence fights to focus on what the information you’re trying to present.

Having animals act more like animals, and cutting the physical amount on the map would really open up the world. It would give the players the freedom to explore and get involved in the stories.

ozymandias.5317:

Stick to the paths.
I have noticed what your talking about when I’m running across terrain, and I would expect this. I’m entering the wilderness, it’s going to get wild. However, if I follow the paths on the ground, then I only run into the occasional merchant needing protection from bandits or something, but very few wandering creatures that try to attack me.

If you are complaining about running into lots of creatures when trying to uncover points of interest, then that’s just something you have to deal with because you are going into their territory and they have a desire to defend it from intruders.

Perhaps I’ll need to stick to the paths a bit more. It’s a bit of a shame because I’m sure I’ll miss a lot of the beautiful artwork and design.

I can buy the idea that it’s “wild territory” and so the creatures are more hostile. If they just toned down the amount, perhaps it wouldn’t feel so insane. It may also serve to create a bit more suspense if running into a bear was actually more rare and scary. I would rather see the odd pack of strong wolves on the hunt, than perfectly spaced carbon copies populating an area.

I dunno, maybe I just don’t “get” MMO’s

Agreed. I’ve had several friends leave the game because they cannot enjoy the “world” itself – it’s always go go go Go GO GOGOO! combat.

And I tend to agree with them.

No not really… Only b/c you can just run right through everything. 20 bats on your butt? 15 more Asura steps and they will be off to guard that assigned spot on the map. Speaking of this… The next GEN MMO better break the stupidness of mobs allways guarding spots on a map.

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

It’s almost as though the developers have never actually experienced nature. Imagine what would happen if you went on a day hike and every time you turned a corner there were 20 bears, 15 wolves, 30 eagles, and 70 alligators all trying to kill you?

Animals don’t act like that. They try to avoid people as much as they can.

You could also say that people who have experienced nature have never experienced an in game environment before? so it works both ways. For the sake of game balance you want to have a bunch of mobs running around. Any heart objective that requires you to clear the area of <insert mob type here> means you, and anyone else in the area has to compete for the same mob. You cant have 15-20 people standing around in an area of the forest waiting for that one mob to come out or respawn because ‘in real life nature’ only 1 mob would occupy that amount of space. It doesnt work like that, you need to have a target rich environment. Playing the mob respawn waiting game is very boring, and rather then do that most people will just log off or play another game.

Sorry, it’s not a nature or social simulator

Yeah, I agree that the ‘tether’ on mobs, while life saving, is a bit ridiculous.
You’re telling me that if I beat this wolf and companion to half health, then turn and run as the rest of their pack shows up, they’re going to stop chasing my bleeding trail after twenty yards? Not likely.

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