(GW) Tequatl's Return
So, I've had some more experience with the encounter and feel like... well... ranting. What can I say? Tashiro seems to keep trying to make the argument to me that design flaws are forgivable as long as people aren't forced to do certain content. I just don't/can't buy that. Just because you don't have to do something doesn't make it good. There's very little forced content in MMORPGs anyway. Honestly, I'm surprised that the community seems to be as positive about the Tequatl encounter as it is. That said, it isn't all bad.
The Good
By and large, I like the changes made by the patch, including to the other world boss encounters. The Svanir Shaman at the end of Frozen Maw might be a little tough for a low-level zone, but I like that he isn't dying in seconds anymore. In Tequatl's case, I love the increased complexity. It's gone from a simple tank-and-spank without tanking to a multi-phase encounter with lots of movement, turret emplacements that actually play an important role, and a megalaser that isn't totally ignorable. It requires a degree of coordination, and I approve of it in general.
The encounter itself is actually pretty darn good. So what isn't?
The Bad
The biggest problem is that this new encounter with some of the best potential rewards in the game (including a prized mini, higher-rarity breather masks, and ascended weapons) runs straight into, and exacerbates, limitations of the system. If I recall, it's tuned toward around 80 participants. The problem there is you only see the numbers and coordination necessary to win for around two of the events each day (occurring roughly an hour and a half apart), and at those peak hours the zone map hits it's hard population cap close to an hour before the first doable event. Everyone else trying to join is pushed to an overflow server where - guess what - there aren't enough coordinated people to win. So really, to even have a shot in participating in a win, you need to either show up way early or have party members who can invite you in - and either way, you still need to be lucky enough to time things correctly and keep connected.
I've probably only seen any wins because I had this week off, otherwise I'd not be home in time to get into the main instance. Even so, last night I staked out a spot some two hours before "prime time" and, due to a client update being pushed out, my game crashed (for the first time in months) about ten minutes prior to the event, leaving me in overflow when I logged back in, listening to the main instance on Teamspeak, but watching failure unfold before me. Not fun.
Edit: Okay, two nights in a row now...
So mostly, the problems are technical. I might argue, however, that the tuning is still off specifically because it requires a highly-coordinated group to pull off. We're talking Teamspeak communication, consumable buffs and dropped weapons being widely used, and squads organizing at the various locations (enough people, but not too many as that spawns harder adds). To me, that feels like too much for an open world encounter that anyone could walk in on (assuming they could get into the main instance, of course), especially the use of outside programs like Teamspeak. One or two people on turrets not paying attention or not understanding what to do can just about cripple an attempt right off. I'm not opposed to hard content, per se, but I don't feel that's the place for it - especially since the game has led us to expect otherwise for the last year.
Unfortunately, I don't really see any good way to fix it without trivializing it. Scaling details can be tweaked, but without improvements to server capability, the primary problem remains - miraculously get into the main instance with a good group at prime time or fail. And when new things come out to take the most dedicated players elsewhere, that just means there won't be enough coordinated people even in the main instance to succeed. No a pretty picture, that.
Edit: And the October 1st update, rather than making the encounter any more accessible (which is mostly a difficult technical issue, I admit), increases rewards. That incentivizes doing it, but... I've already seen prime time failures over the weekend, which indicates to me a waning interest in the most highly coordinated players. And last night, I know people who waited over three hours without the event popping up (previously on approximately a 1.5 hour timer). So rewards for success may not matter for much longer anyway as it falls into less and less "doable."
The Good
By and large, I like the changes made by the patch, including to the other world boss encounters. The Svanir Shaman at the end of Frozen Maw might be a little tough for a low-level zone, but I like that he isn't dying in seconds anymore. In Tequatl's case, I love the increased complexity. It's gone from a simple tank-and-spank without tanking to a multi-phase encounter with lots of movement, turret emplacements that actually play an important role, and a megalaser that isn't totally ignorable. It requires a degree of coordination, and I approve of it in general.
The encounter itself is actually pretty darn good. So what isn't?
The Bad
The biggest problem is that this new encounter with some of the best potential rewards in the game (including a prized mini, higher-rarity breather masks, and ascended weapons) runs straight into, and exacerbates, limitations of the system. If I recall, it's tuned toward around 80 participants. The problem there is you only see the numbers and coordination necessary to win for around two of the events each day (occurring roughly an hour and a half apart), and at those peak hours the zone map hits it's hard population cap close to an hour before the first doable event. Everyone else trying to join is pushed to an overflow server where - guess what - there aren't enough coordinated people to win. So really, to even have a shot in participating in a win, you need to either show up way early or have party members who can invite you in - and either way, you still need to be lucky enough to time things correctly and keep connected.
I've probably only seen any wins because I had this week off, otherwise I'd not be home in time to get into the main instance. Even so, last night I staked out a spot some two hours before "prime time" and, due to a client update being pushed out, my game crashed (for the first time in months) about ten minutes prior to the event, leaving me in overflow when I logged back in, listening to the main instance on Teamspeak, but watching failure unfold before me. Not fun.
Edit: Okay, two nights in a row now...
So mostly, the problems are technical. I might argue, however, that the tuning is still off specifically because it requires a highly-coordinated group to pull off. We're talking Teamspeak communication, consumable buffs and dropped weapons being widely used, and squads organizing at the various locations (enough people, but not too many as that spawns harder adds). To me, that feels like too much for an open world encounter that anyone could walk in on (assuming they could get into the main instance, of course), especially the use of outside programs like Teamspeak. One or two people on turrets not paying attention or not understanding what to do can just about cripple an attempt right off. I'm not opposed to hard content, per se, but I don't feel that's the place for it - especially since the game has led us to expect otherwise for the last year.
Unfortunately, I don't really see any good way to fix it without trivializing it. Scaling details can be tweaked, but without improvements to server capability, the primary problem remains - miraculously get into the main instance with a good group at prime time or fail. And when new things come out to take the most dedicated players elsewhere, that just means there won't be enough coordinated people even in the main instance to succeed. No a pretty picture, that.
Edit: And the October 1st update, rather than making the encounter any more accessible (which is mostly a difficult technical issue, I admit), increases rewards. That incentivizes doing it, but... I've already seen prime time failures over the weekend, which indicates to me a waning interest in the most highly coordinated players. And last night, I know people who waited over three hours without the event popping up (previously on approximately a 1.5 hour timer). So rewards for success may not matter for much longer anyway as it falls into less and less "doable."
Hey look. Raiding!
ReplyDeleteRaiding. 80-ish-plus man raiding. Without the raid instance. And technical issues that make it hard to guarantee 'your' team is even all there if they want to be.
ReplyDelete