To each his own. I thought the PVE in GW2 royally sucked, especially the group dungeons.
The Elder Scrolls Online
- Thread starter Anomander Rake
- Start date
Just for the record and posterity...
... GW2 events or TESO's anchor events? Which one?
I've been playing Secret World for the past couple if weeks and the large majority of the quests in that game are no different than the standard quest design WoW created and countless clones have copied. You get a high quality cinematic after which you either go kill X number of mobs or click on Y number of yellow highlighted items to progress to the next tier of the mission which usually ends with you killing some named boss. TESO has the same exact thing except you replace the cinematic with a voice over.
One thing Secret World does have that I haven't seen in any MMOs are the Sabotage and Investigative missions. Those can be challenging but there aren't near as many of them as the basic missions.
TESO also has "good lore driven content" since pretty much every quest in a zone tells some kind of story. The difference between the lore in TESO and Secret World is that fantasy based lore is a dime a dozen in MMOs nowadays while the Lovecraft/ secret society aspect of Secret World lore is unique in a MMO.
Cinge
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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That should be pretty obvious. Anchors are really bland, there more like Rifts, PQs etc. The events in GW2 were great , the first time. After that , all you did was watch the map for when they popped again, so you could run over and get the exp/currency.
I am talking about weekend beta. I had problems in the last one on the PvE side of things but the server held up well as far as displaying players, lag and such on the PvP side. Again, I have no idea if the quest bugs were caused by the server or something else. They say it isn't but I am not sure I believe that.
I still think the last two betas were basically open betas. Everyone that wanted to get in, got in and that is what an open beta does. It can be argued that the beta should have gone on longer and I would agree with that. But it was still open in everything but name.
In WoW the "kneeling loot lag" was horrible. For weeks I can remember sliding around on one knee after looting and object, all due to server lag.
Oooh no. GW2's event systems were complex and often had interesting fail states and chained various events together. Anchors are just Rifts and they don't seem to be working all that well either. I feel like you just compared the Maserati of dynamic leveling design to a donkey wagon full of crap.
If you are asking me which of the two is better, then GW2 events are better than TESO dark anchors. It's an apple vs oranges comparison though.
GW2 events were cleverly disguised quests that were fundamentally not much different than the standard WoW quest. By that I mean even in GW2 events you still killed X number of mobs, collected Y number of bear asses, and eventually killed a boss mob. There were also standard escort a NPC from point A to point B and defeat X number of waves of mobs along the way. GW2 also had raid bosses on a spawn timer that would take a lot of players to defeat.
Pretty much everything GW2 did in PVE had already been done before in a MMO. Their innovation was in how they packaged it and presented it to you to disguise the fact it was standard WoW clone quest design.
I know you can make that argument as far as anchors are concerned. But the anchors aren't the main part of ESO as the dynamic events were for GW2. The anchors are a side game.
To be fair, I really wanted to like GW2. I could have put up with the dynamic events because theywerewell done. I could even have put up with the lack of trinity once I found out I didn't like the lack thereof. What ruined GW2 for me was the poor implementation of WvW. I really, really wanted to like that but the small areas really ruined for me. It was a valiant try. It really was but it came up short. ESO might end up coming up short, I don't know. But what I have played so far is as close to DAoC as I have found yet.
Didn't DOAC have problems with their giant RealmvRealm zones once populations got eaten by WoW?
Utnayan
F16 patrolling Rajaah until he plays DS3
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There is a bigger difference then this. I highly suggest the Franklin mansion quest line and then report back.
I've done the quests that Eleanor Franklin gives out. What exactly do you think is unique about them that sets them apart from the other quests in the game?
Or the Cairo train one or the Little girl kidnapped one or monster hunters or the amusement park or the one with lady with the awesome boston accent in the first zone....
edit oh or the one about controlling hell...but that one you need to level a long way up.
edit2 or the university ones... good ones in there too
edit3 Black house is cool too
just play the first three zones and the addon packs.
TSW was a real treat IMO. The game wasn't really worth playing like a normal mmo, but as a single player/sometimes multiplayer game it was excellent. They knocked it out of the fucking park with those zones/atmosphere. Combat sucked until later in the game, but the world distracted from that.
Utnayan
F16 patrolling Rajaah until he plays DS3
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This was my favorite.
The Secret World - - Blue Mountain - YouTube
Going through and finding out the history of the house. But you should know that this was only the drop in quest. There are many (many) investigative quests that lead here with various outcomes and cool ways to find them. For example, use the Oujia Board upstairs.
This particular one was fun as it went through various time zones and the entire atmosphere changed within the house.
If you are talking point/click game mechanics, hunt down items, etc - sure they are all the same right? Similar to how putting POI's on a compass doesn't mean it's not a disguised side quest system.
But the attention to detail just within this quest line took a lot of talent, with people that allowed their developers to rome free and make something fucking awesome and creative, while having access to assets which required that access. Look outside the window in the different time periods. Notice how they didn't even use the same model of car, or weather, or the inside of the house changed with age...
That is what makes a game atmospheric and fun from a story perspective.
Caliane
Avatar of War Slayer
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Hearts were definitely a flaw. They were effectively just ! quest hubs.
The core is that GW2's "dynamic events" occur with or without you. Much of the other things you are describing or others are crying about is just execution. No one is claiming that was perfect.
but there is a fundamental difference in quest design here, in that statement. It completely changes how you and others interact with the game world. And it does so in a way that games that use phasing can't.
As Tuco mentioned coming across the burning village. it just really puts a cap on how shit the Teso base mechanics for pve are.
The game did of course also has a ton of shit to find. Much, much more then just jumping puzzles. however the more casuals only noted the stuff with clear achievements attached like the jumping puzzles.
Cinge
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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True about events, but events were also pretty minimal in regards to total content, the hearts, from what I remember were the vast majority of the content.
I actually prefer phasing to GW2 style events. GW2 style events reset and are just done again. Phased quest change a area permanently for you, it won't ever reset for that character to some default state. I save a village from some demon invaders and when I am done the NPC guards actually control the village with villagers cleaning up, this will never change for that character and I will see other players that have also reached that step(while those that didn't still see the village under attack). The only thing I would like to see more is chain quests. When I save the village, a npc shows up cleaning up their house but has a quest because some important family heirloom is missing or maybe family member is missing after the fight etc.
Bad phasing implementation though can cause some oddities and disconnect.
I actually prefer phasing to GW2 style events. GW2 style events reset and are just done again. Phased quest change a area permanently for you, it won't ever reset for that character to some default state. I save a village from some demon invaders and when I am done the NPC guards actually control the village with villagers cleaning up, this will never change for that character and I will see other players that have also reached that step(while those that didn't still see the village under attack). The only thing I would like to see more is chain quests. When I save the village, a npc shows up cleaning up their house but has a quest because some important family heirloom is missing or maybe family member is missing after the fight etc.
Bad phasing implementation though can cause some oddities and disconnect.
Replace TSW with TESO and "real treat" with "sucks ass" and keep the rest of your post and you would have the same criticism of TESO that many people have made here yet you praise TSW for it.
If it makes you feel better TESO will end up the same as TSW. F2P and bleeding players.
I like how after I saved the Queen, various NPC's would praise me for it. I was scorned by them before saving her.
I also like how every NPC can be clicked to get a response. It's a small thing, but helps immersion. Some of them acknowledge you as you run by or even just look at them. Very cool.
Sometimes the mobs will hiss at you but not attack if you get to close. There are slick little touches here and there.
However, a bug that really pissed me off occurred in Cyrodill. Keep walls were not displaying correctly, resulting in players running into invisible walls. I hope they get that fixed.
I also like how every NPC can be clicked to get a response. It's a small thing, but helps immersion. Some of them acknowledge you as you run by or even just look at them. Very cool.
Sometimes the mobs will hiss at you but not attack if you get to close. There are slick little touches here and there.
However, a bug that really pissed me off occurred in Cyrodill. Keep walls were not displaying correctly, resulting in players running into invisible walls. I hope they get that fixed.
I'm going to assume you didn't even get very far in GW2 after this statement or didn't actually play it. Those dynamic events are not part of the main game in GW2; they were the very definition of 'side quest' as you ran to do something else altogether. They aren't required for the storyline at all. They are just a public quest, which is exactly what the anchors are except a lot less sophisticated.
It doesn't seem like it's worth comparing these two games in any way other than the PvP with you that you keep bringing up, to which point I will now only ask you about. You obviously have no idea what you're talking about when it comes to PvE, which is why I can only assume you think TESO's is really good.
So given that, what exactly is better about TESO's form of WvWvW vs GW2's that makes that worth $15/month? I admit I'm completely out of my element comparing those two things as it's all just one big barn burning in both games imo.
Yeah, I just wanted to see how reasonable Rescordia could be.
He surprised me with his choice so kudos for him for admitting it, although he sure fudged it with disclaimers and shit. But good enough.