Curse

Shmanka · Jan 29, 2007, 07:25 PM // 19:25

My main disconcern with factions is mainly two things that I have not seen mentioned yet.

We all know Factions is PvP based, heck the box even advertises it in a suttle way. Although it seems that "taking control" over cities brought so many guilds to do different things, such as merge, break up, etc etc. Now we all know that this happens normally although when it happens at such an abnormal pace and when alliances were introduced things got really out of hand. I hated the social impact factions had, "your guild sucks since it doesnt have X faction donated" This single handedly for me turned into alot of negative attitude around guild wars.

Secondly, they praised how great the alliance system was going to be, and as much as I love it, I have some problems with it. How come we cannot see the roster in other guilds? Why can we not have a lead guild, then a second in command guild etc. Now I'm going to hate how there is only 3 levels of positions in a guild as well, and how officers can promote more officers.. blah its a horrible system and should be redone imo. Not only do they need to enhance the alliance system and hopefully continue it and make guild co-operation go beyond pvp they need to make it worthwhile.

ElinoraNeSangre · Jan 29, 2007, 07:48 PM // 19:48

I'm not a PvP player at all, and I loved Factions. I still love Factions, this green weekend gave me a great excuse to put finishing Nightfall again on hold and instead romp around in Factions for a bit.

I love my Rit, and while I didn't end up taking to assassin, I've seen lots of people who did, and who knows, maybe I'll try it again one of these days (hah or I can try PvP and use the mule assassin Demonic Nachos).

I love Cantha, and I think I always will.

Mars Dragonblade · Jan 29, 2007, 09:42 PM // 21:42

IMO: Prophecies/Nightfall > Factions; I was pretty disappointed in it. Although in saying that, I do love my Ritualist, I've spent a tonne on him and he was the second character I took through NF. Apart from him I just couldn't help but feel frustrated and bored with it after a while, to the point where I quit as soon as I'd finished it until NF was released.

Blackest Rose · Jan 29, 2007, 10:25 PM // 22:25

I'm a sole PVE player - Nightfall and Prophecies kicks Factions a$$

That doesn't mean that Factions was bad though it just means that the other 2 chapters were better.
I'm afraid honestly I can get a character through factions in a weekend without any problem - so it's a bit short for me on the PVE side.

Jade Sea is very very cool and Echovald is done very well also.
I'm not moaning about it but the fact that they made PVP part of the PVE experience didn't suit me.
Overall factions was ok (hated city/sewers - too closed in) but assassins were a good class except everyone hated them in PVE!

I haven't been disappointed in any GW chapter - I do have the preference of Nightfall > or = Prophecies > Factions though.

sh4d0whunta · Jan 30, 2007, 12:04 AM // 00:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackest Rose

Jade Sea is very very cool and Echovald is done very well also.
I'm not moaning about it but the fact that they made PVP part of the PVE experience didn't suit me.
Overall factions was ok (hated city/sewers - too closed in) but assassins were a good class except everyone hated them in PVE!

.

I like the kaineng enviroment especially in the mission nahpui quarter. Kaineng is also cool because the am fah jump down and theres like a war going on in the city while a war is going on outside the city. and then theres the plague in the city which make things even more complicated especially getting round because all the afflicted jump out of holes but that is a good thing because it makes the game more challenging

lennymon · Jan 30, 2007, 01:58 AM // 01:58

Factions was a great chapter, but I think it got misunderstood. Not misunderstood in the pedantic oft overused sense of the word, but really misunderstood. I think for some reason (I still don't understand why) the PVE community viewed Factions as too PVP oriented, and the PVP community saw no real new PVP. There were Alliance battles: 3 teams of 4 means somewhere between RA and TA without the simple format, too much going on to be serious PVP. There's Jade arena: yes its actually not even PVP since the point is to get jade not kill people. Theres Aspenwood: RAx2 with leechers. PVE problems: the 2 team mission system was plagued with issues stemming from bad pathing and bad AI resulting in failure if there weren't 2 half full+ human teams. All these issues have been improved upon about as much as possible at this point, and it's better. But I think Factions was ahead of it's time, because the issue wasn't any of those I already listed. The fact is Factions was really a game for the crossover or hybrid player. We loved it despite all of these obvious flaws because it was at least an attempt at combining pvp and pve WITHIN the context of the story. Taken out of the PVE context yes the PVP was nothing new, and the PVE itself had some issues with the missions. The large mobs in pve packed like sardines put the more casual player off a little I think... kinda like the elite DOA does now.

Laughing Lynx · Jan 30, 2007, 07:40 AM // 07:40

I think Factions to be better than NF and Prophecies. It was pretty straight to the point and i hate running around, i like playing mission after mission simply more. Additionally i loved Vizunah Square and Unwaking Waters, that was some kind of a challenge (no joking).

Well, why do i write this post? To counter the argument that Factions sucked because you had to farm 10000 factions. I have played my second char through NF now and i HATE the part where you have to farm sunspear points. That's so stupid, i really preferred to play some Alliance Battle in Factions instead.

But that's just my humble opinion.

Cebe · Jan 30, 2007, 10:15 AM // 10:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by sixdartbart

Ummm thanks I think.

If I'm reading this correctly you are saying that you don't own all 3 chapters, but continue on to criticize games that you haven't played.

My bad. I'm ALWAYS doing that (typing "not" instead of "now") - I never know why - I guess I must just type too fast and not pay enough attention. Replace "not" with "now". It should have read "I now have all 3...". Just to clear up that confusion. So in response I can criticise all the games, should I choose to, as I have multiple endgame characters in all three.

*edited previous post*

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laughing Lynx

Additionally i loved Vizunah Square

One of my all time favourite missions.

I like to do this just for fun.

TheUndying · Jan 30, 2007, 04:37 PM // 16:37

I love Factions because that was the first capaign I got. I don't really care what other people say about it, hate it or not. Everybody has his or her own opinion about the game, some people just agree with others.

Lonesamurai · Jan 30, 2007, 04:39 PM // 16:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheUndying

I love Factions because that was the first capaign I got. I don't really care what other people say about it, hate it or not. Everybody has his or her own opinion about the game, some people just agree with others.

I love factions too, but thats because including the betas, I'd been playing Prophecies for 18 months, so i was bored senseless of it

Dawgboy · Jan 30, 2007, 04:52 PM // 16:52

I liked a FEW things about Factions.
-Newb Island was entertaining.
-The super-fast leveling system means I can bring my Prophs character over when it gets to Lion's Arch and get it from lvl13 to lvl20 in an hour or two.
-Umm...did I mention Newb Island?

The things I don't like:
-The HUGE maze run through the city. If I wanted to run for my life through a ghetto I'd just go up to Detroit.
-The big mobs start exploding when you kill them, and if you kill too many too closely together poison explosions wipe your party.
-Having to buy every skill means casual gamers are always poor. Unless you are into the trading scene (which I can't stand to do) or Ebay gold (ditto) then you had BETTER do your homework before buying that skill.
-The 2 added characters seem to be difficult for people to play. I'm not saying they're not good, but the majority of players think an assasin is just a skinny warrior. As a healer primary I wince every time a sin is added to our party, hoping against hope it's not a tankasin with a death wish. Of course they stand there and die and it's all the healer's fault. Rits are pretty much a non-factor - I hardly ever see any rits around outside Factions.
-I don't PvP, and you can't force me to. If that means I can't finish the game, then I'll never finish the game. I haven't played Factions all the way through, and I have better things to do in the other 2 games to be bothered with it. I've finished Prophs and still have fun with my other chars there.

At the OP- you misspelled "retarded". If you're going to use disparaging remarks at least spell them right, please.

Lord-UWR · Jan 30, 2007, 05:12 PM // 17:12

You guyz are outta your minds. Faction brought sooo many new gameplays that you could not even image it possible for GW.

1. Alliance Battles
2. Challenge Missions
3. Competitive Missions
4. Elite Missions
5. New reward system for missions
6. New skills, (Some metagame builds Do NOT work without Faction Skills)
7. MANY new items (Especially Green)
8. Some of the best looking Environments in GW
9. Some of the Best looking Armors in GW
10. Two New Classes that kick your ass in PvP.
11. Guild Alliances
12. End-Game ACTUAL ENDING
13. Last of All: SO MANY IN-GAME EVENTS

Although for me, still Ascalon is Home, but I have taken all 4 of my PvE Characters through all 3 games and Enjoyed Factions fast-pace the most.

blood4blood · Jan 30, 2007, 05:33 PM // 17:33

City-control/elite missions/faction-farming splintered the GW player base even more than it was in Prophecies. On a personal level, I saw obsession over faction-farming splinter two guilds and ruin friendships.

Vizunah Square. There's nothing like spending over an hour continuously re-loading because no team on the other side can keep Togo alive for just a few minutes to make me hate a mission.

The City/quests. It's an ugly maze without any redeeming features. The side-quests through the City where you have to constantly traverse the same areas and kill the same mobs over and over just make it worse.

10,000 faction grind. Not particularly difficult, but unnecessarily boring and repetitive. I'd feel the same about the Sunspear title requirement, except I've never felt a need to grind for Sunspear points (they come too easily just playing through the game).

Timed mission bonuses. If I want to explore, I have to do every mission at least twice with every character. Add in that the mission zone maps do not necessarily match the contours of the same zone as an explorable area, and you actually have to go through the same areas three times or more to get the entire area mapped and mission completed. Again, it's unnecessarily repetitive.

Locked gates. Again, limits exploration and forces you to repeat. I'm OK with some PvE repetition (I've got 10 or 11 PvE 20's lol), but once I've gone through, let me decide what I want to repeat and in what order.

Overall: I think GW strength is its flexibility - you can PvP, you can PvE, you can do both, you can PUG, you can solo with heroes & hench, you can join a guild or not, you can explore, etc. I think Factions is the most repetitive and the most forced of the three chapters, giving you the least options as a PvE player. From that perspective, it is hands-down the worst chapter of GW.

Having said all that, I still think Factions is OK personally - it's fun once you're out of the city IMHO. But I know people who own Factions but 100% refuse to play it for the reasons I stated above.

Roshi_ikkyu · Jan 31, 2007, 03:19 AM // 03:19

I hated factions it sucked, and I reserve my right to have the opinion that its sucked!

Same as the original posters posting style.

Factions was seriously not worth it.

SPIRIT OF THE SEA · Jan 31, 2007, 04:01 AM // 04:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roshi_ikkyu

I hated factions it sucked, and I reserve my right to have the opinion that its sucked!

Same as the original posters posting style.

Factions was seriously not worth it.

EXplain why? I mean two posts up that person made so many AMAZING POINTS and you say sucked dont matter

Edited by Arkantos - calling people names doesn't solve anything.

Roshi_ikkyu · Jan 31, 2007, 04:39 AM // 04:39

Ohh I missed name calling. *meh*

On both a personal, and gaming interest level, I hated Factions for both the whole style of the game and most of the new features.

Only saving grace of faction was AB, and Anet still neglected it, and managed to mess it up.

Now if its so hard to understand a personal opinion (dictionary.com will help on the definition of the word opinion) and if you insist on debating my opinion...your gonna be doing it solo. I refuse to argue over personal beliefs.

nightwatchman · Jan 31, 2007, 05:37 AM // 05:37

Only thing I hated about factions was that there were so many "keep suicidal leeroy NPC alive" restrictions.

If Danika/Togo/Mhenlo are so important they should stay at home.

I'm there to kill things, its a risky business, get used to it.

Aside from that, I liked it a lot. Sure its frustrating when you've got to push a char so far through the game to cap a skill for the next farming-fad, but I can live with it. The game shouldn't be designed around farmers.

peffy · Jan 31, 2007, 05:50 AM // 05:50

My main complaints about Factions are .. lack of enemy diversity (afflicted EVERYWHERE), the ugly city slums (way too much time is required to be spent there), the ugly echovald forest (OK I know a lot of people like it, but it's just way too dark and dull for my taste), and most bonuses being timed (encourages rushing, feels like the designers were too lazy to think of actual secondary missions)

Other than that, I thought Factions was alright. I love my PvE assassin, sure she's not the greatest class ever but I find her fun to play (especially with her attack animations!). I haven't tried ritualist yet. The missions and quests, at least the first time through, were ok. I don't think it deserves all the hate it seems to get. Shing Jea Island and Kaineng Center are two of the most beautiful areas in the whole game, in my book. I just wish the whole chapter was actually Oriental-themed (Kurzick/Luxon territory was NOT oriental)

sh4d0whunta · Jan 31, 2007, 06:07 AM // 06:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by peffy

My main complaints about Factions are .. lack of enemy diversity (afflicted EVERYWHERE), the ugly city slums (way too much time is required to be spent there), the ugly echovald forest (OK I know a lot of people like it, but it's just way too dark and dull for my taste), and most bonuses being timed (encourages rushing, feels like the designers were too lazy to think of actual secondary missions)

Other than that, I thought Factions was alright. I love my PvE assassin, sure she's not the greatest class ever but I find her fun to play (especially with her attack animations!). I haven't tried ritualist yet. The missions and quests, at least the first time through, were ok. I don't think it deserves all the hate it seems to get. Shing Jea Island and Kaineng Center are two of the most beautiful areas in the whole game, in my book. I just wish the whole chapter was actually Oriental-themed (Kurzick/Luxon territory was NOT oriental)

jade is an oriental material aint it and they made the game it was an oriental style but it dosnt neccesarilly mean they cand add other things in

Evilsod · Jan 31, 2007, 07:10 AM // 07:10

Reasons Factions sucks compared to the other 2 chapters.

Your not the hero... you spend the entire frigging game following around Mhenlo and Togo. Which goes to the next point.

The 2 party missions obviously were tested by people who actually knew how to play but didn't actually play. Anyone with half a brain who plays GW casually could've guessed that making you rely on a team that you had no choice over to complete a mission was a stupid idea.

The NPCs CONSTANTLY get stuck on objects or even nothing in the missions.

The maze of the City is just plain annoying.

Afflicted, while well designed are annoyingly powerful... specially when by killing the bosses they explode and kill you!

The 10,000 faction grind to continue a storyline.

Most of these don't annoy me that much anymore... there are ways around it. However the fact that Luxon/Kurzick merchants refuse to talk to you because you have 2 more faction for the opposing side really does piss me off.