Feedback:User/The Gates Assassin/Critic of GW Missions

An Example
So far, I see a lot of the same missions over and over again. Also, I see missions that are nearly to a point I would consider to be good (or is in the right direction) but then doesn't flush out the mechanic enough. Take this last update for example.


 * You play as the Lieutenant who works with an assassin named Miku to help her kill some guy. I would say who this guy is...but that is all he is to the player. Some guy. There's nothing special about him. He doesn't have any determinable personality. I don't even think we know what he has done wrong. He's just some guy, and he needs to die.

Right there, I think this quest needs some kind of fixing. A minor introduction as to what this man has specifically done will make the quest more intriguing. I site this example a lot: In a game called Heavenly Sword, there's this villain called Flying Fox. He's just a 2D bad guy throughout the game until he almost kills your sister. Then he becomes a murderer that you want to kick the **** out of. My point is that the quest's antagonist isn't really anything special and it makes the quest a little bit like...all the other ones.


 * Continuing on, you are given five skills and expected to use them. 

Hold up. That's a bit fast, don' you think? Instead of just jumping right into the fray of things, why not introduce these skills really quickly in an interesting manner that also brings the characters to life? One skill worked in combination with Miku (Instant kill skill). Brilliant! A connection between the two characters in gameplay. That said, there is no introduction. The player is just expected to use it which works fine in the end. But is that what you want? Fine? If I was to do this, I would have it so that there is some mini scene where they plan out that if I mark some guy for death, you take him out with me. "We'll be a team =D". Same goes for the other skills but not including ones that are simple. It would be perfectly fine to just give the player damage skills (You deal 80 damage etc etc).


 * Back to the quest. Now you have this super powered skill which works great with your teammate. So you continue on killing nearly identical mobs over and over again until a scene happens. 

Stop.

That mechanic was awesome! She marks it, you snipe it! It's like an airstrike! But all the designers did was let you use it in the same battle over and over again! Instead of just giving the player a hammer, design situations where the hammer can be used in different ways. It might require changing how the skills works a little bit. For instance, and this deviates from design, when Miku calls mark of death, you cannot hit and target. You have to click on the person to tab your way to them. That...kinda sucks. If you can just hit T, the kills would be easier and frankly more enjoyable. Now think for a second, how many ways can I make this skill be used?


 * She marks a person in a mob, I get a kill.
 * Not bad, sort of fun. A little rewarding. Interesting the first couple of times you get it.
 * Special enemies that make it harder for you to get the shot in or for her to mark them for death.
 * She poofs down around a corner and is fighting someone, you go around and shoot them. You get cover! Nice.
 * She goes down below and you go above. You can still shoot down to help her! Nice.
 * Bosses that can take multiple hits with these or better, can only be hurt by this (Blocks all attacks). Presents a challenge.
 * Many more ideas possible.

Now that sounds like a fun quest! See, in my opinion, the way to keep players playing is not just to release new content. If the content is so good that players choose to play it over and over again because it's fun, then you don't need to.

This also brings up another point which is why is the entire mission the same thing over and over again? Talking doesn't count. In the first mission you literally do the same thing over and over again. Mob patrols I consider the same thing. All that turns out to be is waiting for them to move and hoping you are fast enough. Key word there is waiting. Fun stuff.

I really like this game and it hurts to see things like this which have high potential but aren't being used to the maximum potential! Mobs aren't necessarily fun. What is fun is a story. An adventure! Ten mobs of mantle isn't much of an adventure. My character going through mantle territory, fighting off mantle as they come, finding out about the mantle culture and hierarchy, fighting strange enemies (Not by looks, but by fighting style), being separated, working as a team etc etc is an adventure. What I think this quest should have been was a teamwork quest. It's like what valve did with Alyx Vance. They wanted you to like Alyx Vance. You two were a team together. If she sucked at fighting, you'd hate her. With a passion. Unfortunately, Miku doesn't let me hit T and target her target which made teamwork hard. It also wasn't much of a team effort after that. So, I had a bland relationship with this character.

Fantasy
The problems noted above I see in other major ways. I say, when you are going to design a specific mission type, go all out. If you are going to make a mission where you are defending Lion's Arch from an attack, make it happen. First off, in that mission, I know we as the defenders didn't say "Well, they're going to get in anyway, let's not shoot over the wall and instead invite them in for a cup of tea." There is no way in hell the white mantle said "Well, we've got our army, boss! How do you want to attack?" "Let's attack in small manageable waves in order to allow them to take us out over time." Nah. That's not going to happen. I understand, there are bandwidth or FPS limits on us and you can't have 15 billion characters on the screen, but I've seen what the Deep looks like. You can afford quiet a lot. The thing about this quest was that it didn't feel like an attack and there wasn't much to do other than the same thing over and over again with slightly different enemies. Granted, you did better in this one than the previously mentioned quest. There were ele waves, warrior etc etc. The waves varied is my point, but is that enough?

What would YOU do if you were on either side? Let's say you are the commanding general of the White Mantle and you are attacking Lion's Arch. How would you go about it? Personally, I would flood the front gates and attack with some ships from the bay nearby. I would recruit the toughest people possible, ones that finish battles on their own! I would bring in the catapults! I'd be taking down walls! Now, what about defending? I would put my best in charge and let him command where the troops go at a moments notice! I would bring in the catapults! I'd put archers on the walls! I'd make my stand outside of the city FIRST.

See, this follows what happened in the last quest! You are given resources. You fight mob after mob until you win. That's the story in a nutshell. What about if you start outside of the base, they rush you with almost everything they've got and after a little bit, you pull back into the base and turtle. Then as the waves get worse, you pull back further. Maybe a ship is spotted at the docks and you need to send a small party to go handle it. Then you pull back further so they are in catapult range. etc etc. My point is, the story develops! Events occur which change up the battles. This battle was suppose to be the final stand against the white mantle. There should be nearly NO downtime in this fight! Why would there be? Instead of spiking the pacing, make it a manageable consistent pace which has small fluxes every so often to keep it interesting.

My point in a nutshell (again) is to actually put yourself there. What would happen? How can I make this manageable? How can I make this fun? How can I make this not mob after mob.

(Try to watch for that. Cut a mission down to it's basics. Is it just mob after mob killing or is there something special in there?)

Teamwork
For a game that functions on teamwork, I rare see missions that truly do this. The game has a natural teamwork function where the attackers attack, the disablers disable and the healers heal, but that is a very narrow minded type of teamwork. That is as much of teamwork as working in an office is. You have your job and I have mine, but we never have to talk to each other. Hell, I don't even need to know how they do their job, they just do it.

Granted, teamwork is hard. A lot of the elite missions require teamwork and planning and that is what makes them so difficult but there are plenty of mission where you have added a function of teamwork and it made them the best missions throughout the series. The Eternal Grove and Dzagonur Bastion are great examples of this. In the eternal grove, you have to split up your part to handle the wave, but you also have to either send a single person our your whole team out to kill the turtles. You actually have to work as a team to be able to do it. Same with DB. Granted, these are very hard missions, but minor things could be done to preserve this in an easier manner.

One things I don't get is why you have implemented this system where you take over a different character and their skills but the mission has to be solo. Why not design a mission where every player takes over a certain role? You set the skills and everyone has their job and works together. Instead of you kill and I'll make it so they don't, what about embracing some of the games players have designed without you? Running is a means of making money in the game but people love it. If you designed a mission where one player has to run off to alert reenforcements to come and design a simple build to allow them to run, people would love that! Shadow stepping to areas, etc etc. Since this is a normal mission, you'd have to make it easier so people don't fail because of one person's failure. Or even better, if he fails, it's just harder, not impossible. Maybe a role where you man a specific device and take out enemies. Maybe a team that has to protect one of it's members from dying so he can get into an enemy catapult to disable it! Think about roles beyond just the normal roles. There are plenty of them.

Again, in short, even if a player loves a profession, the same build over and over is boring. If you force a player into a new role without forcing professions, it mixes up the gameplay greatly.