Curse

Ehecatzin FlyingCrab · Sep 28, 2006, 11:51 PM // 23:51

I think it was to be expected that factions wasnt going to be as good as prophecies or NF simply beacause the Factions team was "new" while the prophecies one had a whole year to learn from their mistakes in prophecies, added the sorrow furnace pack (that drew ideas from NF) and obvuisly NF is better than Factions because of experiende. factions team has learned from their mistakes just as their counterpart did in prophecies, Im confident they will pull out a good product in chapter 4. Its all about experience and getting the hang of it.

Hyper Cutter · Sep 29, 2006, 01:15 AM // 01:15

Quote:

the fact that every single city had a different selection of henchmen which made warping around with a henchie team a real pain

On the other hand, it was nice having a variety of henchmen for a change...

Paperfly · Sep 29, 2006, 02:18 AM // 02:18

Quote:

hahahaha it's trooooooooo

Well, since I posted immediately afterwards that I love Factions, I hope everyone took that in the spirit of gentle satire in which I intended it.

Honestly, I think people lose track of how many of the things they complain about in Factions are carried over from Prophecies.

Too much time in Kaineng? You spent just as much time in (a) post-searing Ascalon and (b) the Shiverpeaks, both of which are just as ugly and repetitive. Heck, I /ragequit the game in disgust for three days when my first character got past Glint, only to be dumped back in the freakin' mountains!

Bad voice acting? I take my headphones off whenever Danika talks, and I make fun of Shiro's surly muttering, but ultimately it's Evennia who makes me want to stab her to death with a spork.

Lously plot? I find it incriedible that anyone can argue that the Prophecies plot isn't worse. They're both banal and uninteresting, but at least the Factions one is properly structured and has a sense of pacing! I think it comes down to the fact that you can more easily ignore Prophecies' plot - reduce it maybe to "OK, so we're fighting these guys now" - so you can shove it out of your conscious mind and so not resent it as much.

PvP Focus? You can argue the semantics of whether the "core" PvP counts as being part of Prophecies or not, but the fact remains that more modes of PvP were introduced in the original campaign. What Factions added was a tendency towards PvP-PvE integration, which I personally enjoyed immensely (since I like dabbling in both but am not ready to take the plunge into hardcore stuff).

Badly designed monster mechanics? I've already hinted that I consider the putrid soul explosions to be a huge design mistake, particularly in that they wrecked the Assassin's reputation prematurely. However, there's similar design problems in Prophecies - it's just that the effects are a bit more subtle. Examples include Giant Stomps, mobs consisting exclusively of Mesmers (that one's quite a big deal if you played a caster as your first toon), bosses being virtually immune to hex or condition-dependent characters, and large areas of the game with massive resistances to a particular element (Shiverpeaks, RoF Islands).

...Oh, and the abundance of Afflicted is directly comparable to all those Devourers.

In conclusion? Nostalgia. It's been long enough since most of us played Prophecies for the first time that we've forgotten a lot of the petty annoyances.

(note that I think that all of the above are legitimate complaints about Factions. Virtually all the others are what I'm thinking of as "swings and roundabouts" issues, where one segment of the playbase misses out but it benefits another - e.g. locked gates, lack of skill rewards. I just happen to be in the segment that benefits from most of them!)

inscribed · Sep 29, 2006, 04:29 AM // 04:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hyper Cutter

On the other hand, it was nice having a variety of henchmen for a change...

You can have variety without having to have a different selection of eight henchmen in every single city. If its variety they were after, why not just have a solid selection of the same 12 or so henchmen in every city? Instead its warp to this town, select a few henchmen, do a quest or something, warp to a different town, have to come up with a completely different team, etc. Then there were the selections themselves. Hell, a couple of the cities only had one monk henchie to pick (sure, there would be a ritualist available, but they made such lousy monk substitutes).

Anyways, nothing to really argue about, its all in the past now (thank god). I am eagerly awaiting the introduction of heroes, although I can't believe it took them until chapter 3 to introduce something similar to this.

[KotL]Mjolnir · Sep 29, 2006, 08:18 AM // 08:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paperfly

In conclusion? Nostalgia. It's been long enough since most of us played Prophecies for the first time that we've forgotten a lot of the petty annoyances.

I agree that Prophecies isn't without its faults but I still enjoy playing that more than I do Factions (currently have 2 characters in Ascalon), I for one Hope that in a future chapter we go back to Cantha and burn it all to the ground lol.

Prophecies = fun

, Factions = work

tc17 · Sep 29, 2006, 02:30 PM // 14:30

Currently I only own Factions and think its great. So maybe I don't know what I'm missing, but do have Nightfall pre-ordered. I don't plan on getting the original.

Its just my opinion, but one thing I think they should do, is combine the older "expansions" into one package, and keep the latest one seperate.

Eventually I think they would have to do that as I doubt stores will devote all the shelf space needed for each seperate "expansion". It also will help to reduce having lower populations on older expansions.

Mordakai · Sep 29, 2006, 02:34 PM // 14:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by tc17

Currently I only own Factions and think its great. So maybe I don't know what I'm missing, but do have Nightfall pre-ordered. I don't plan on getting the original.

Its just my opinion, but one thing I think they should do, is combine the older "expansions" into one package, and keep the latest one seperate.

Eventually I think they would have to do that as I doubt stores will devote all the shelf space needed for each seperate "expansion". It also will help to reduce having lower populations on older expansions.

I can foresee this happening by Chapter 4 release.

Gamestop already has a deal if you by Prophecy, you can get Factions for $30 (I think?). Granted, that's still a lot, but it's cheaper than $50!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paperfly

Too much time in Kaineng? You spent just as much time in (a) post-searing Ascalon and (b) the Shiverpeaks, both of which are just as ugly and repetitive. Heck, I /ragequit the game in disgust for three days when my first character got past Glint, only to be dumped back in the freakin' mountains!

I agree with much of what you say, but I personally loved the Shiverpeaks, esp. after the desert.

Post-searing Ascalon is ugly, but luckily, it doesn't take long to get out of there (or the Shiverpeaks, for that matter). You have to remember, even though the areas in Prophecy are bigger, you can just do the missions and move throughout the map relatively quickly.

However, my biggest complaint in Factions is the circular nature of the Missions and plot-line. You go to the same cities three times in some cases - as part of the main plot-line!

Say what you will about Southern and Northern Shiverpeaks looking similar, at least you don't go to the exact same city twice!

You spend at least 2/3 of the game in the city part of Factions... that would be like spending 2/3 of Prophecy in post-searing Ascalon! Ugh. Oh, and you can also run through Prophecy, you can't run in Factions, making the city that much more unbearable.

HawkofStorms · Sep 29, 2006, 03:10 PM // 15:10

You can't say something is a pattern after only seeing 2 games by one of the teams and 1 game from another of the teams.
Patterns just can't be found that way from a mathematic perspective without a larger sampling.

meowmeow89 · Sep 29, 2006, 06:12 PM // 18:12

Factions was easier, Chapter 4 in outer space.