Curse

Muk Utep · Jan 03, 2007, 07:42 PM // 19:42

I played through Factions once and I'll never do it again. You might love it, good for you, personal preference is what counts. Looks like you're a minority, though - 90% of the outposts are empty or have 2-3 people standing around. I think the numbers speak clearly about the quality of this campaign.

Edit:
Oh, and one more thing. Is it just me, or does Faction put a much bigger toll on your computer? It's probably not noticeable for those of you who can run the game perfectly at the highest graphic settings, but I normally have an average FPS of 20-25 pretty much everywhere, except for Factions where I always have 10-15.

Former Ruling · Jan 03, 2007, 08:08 PM // 20:08

Quote:

You could say exactly the same thing about Prophercies when Factions was released. Players will always sway towards playing the most recent version or add on for a game.

Actually, liked said on page one, Chapter 1 has kept a surprisingly high population even after 2 new chapter releases now.

Anyway, Factions has an advantage that keeps it alive for me:

Its great to start PvE characters in (then of course move them to other chapters

)

The newbie island is quick, straight forward, and simple. You can leave it in an afternoon and be lvl17-18, then pick up the final levels on any of the simple "talk to this guy" quests in Kaineng that give like 5million exp per quest. Ascending for the propose of FoW and UW is quite early in the story and painless to get (2 mainland missions and some quests). After reaching Senji's Corner, its easy to move to another continent and play your PvE through them.

After that point...Factions kind of breaks down. PvE was not a strong point for Factions. Alot of who is going through it now are just gritting their teeth and pushing through the story for the sake of capping a Factions only skill or getting some armor they like.

Age · Jan 03, 2007, 10:30 PM // 22:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bai

You can tell that Factions is not dying yet from the players still on Shing Jea Island. Some of them may be mules, but I bet you that the other 50% are players that want to complete Factions.

On the other hand, these characters might be just making asian-looking characters for their looks, and just rushing off to Kaineng Center to head off into another chapter.

I don't think Factions will die anytime soon, because (IMO) I think alot of the armor there is much more better than the ones in Elona and people are still striving to get the armor.

Yeah nothing beat good Kurzick armour well except certian Tyrian armour and you can only get that at the HZH and the Vasbourg Armoury.I been trying to get a few motre char through and end up getting to far I really hated looking after the NPC in those missions as a Monk but playing something different I don't know?Maybe some special weekends agian over there or just make them last the week.The same could be done for Tyria.

reetkever · Jan 03, 2007, 11:14 PM // 23:14

Factions is DEAD?

Was it ever alive for starters? I have yet to see full districts in most missions and outposts (there are some exceptions, but the most busy places in factions are Kaineng (cause the prevorious market was there, now the 'market' is Lion's Arch/Kamadan), and Senji's Corner was rather busy (vermin farming and profession change).

For the rest... most outposts in and after the luxon/kurzick had a population of 3 or 4 people, and because of this, missions are hard to do, and alot of people don't even bother. (90% of the people in my guild or friends list hasn't done factions more than 1 time)

Even now, both the places in Tyria and Elona have more population than the ones in factions.

I really liked Shing Jea island, but that was just because my newly made characters could nearly go to Tyria/Elona. For the rest, Cantha was a pain to play in.

Oh, and I didn't even talk about:
-exploring got killed cause of closed gates
-quests are boooooooring ('You go to the other side of the continent to talk to a person, and another person who lives another 5000 miles further will give you 8000 EXP points

')
-Some areas are a pain, cause they are a friggin maze
-sucky henchmen
-few farming spots
-sucky and over-powered enemies
-crap environment (I hated the city :S)
-timed bonus
-no cool events (except dragon event)
-PvP-ness in the PvE
-grind for faction
-elite missions where nobody can get
-outposts that are shut down cause your 'side' lost in PvP
-free 'power levelling' in about the only area in the game where people do NOT want it
-little/no reward for quests
-half of the game cannot be done unless you change to the other army...

I can't understand what is appealing people to play factions... Except the Jade Sea which I actually enjoyed, but was too boring to get to, and of course farm places (vermins and Shiro'Ken), which got nerfed...

Rebirther · Jan 03, 2007, 11:54 PM // 23:54

look its a common trait "out with the old, in with the new".
The original title always survives simply because future games are built around it's base code, so it's always appealing to the newcomers and existing players that prophercies will always remain a playable title, simply because of the orginality.
I am not simply a fan of factions simply because its boring and it "forces" your characters to play through the game properly in order to access key areas- don't get me wrong I like to play through the game but not every time for all the characters I got, for most of them I would like to just have to access to the outposts so in the event a guild member needs help or if i feel the urge to farm/ elite hunt I dont have to go through a tideous task of doing the story again- factions has many flaws among its glamour, and it is simply a love or hate thing.
It is great in the sense of environment, and scale but storywise and re-play ability it doesn't score too high! (*i have sent all 6 of my pve through factions btw! and i found it a chore the 3rd time around)- but as for nightfall which addresses these problems, i.e access to outposts but not core missions until certain achievement is obtained.. now thats what were talking about. Im currently on my 4th char through NF and still enjoying it.
Safe to say I will not be taking any of my NF created chars back through factions simply because its boring and tideous.

valid points from everyone here in regards to the favour for factions, but look at it in the long run, nf and original title have a lot more to offer than what factions have, and although many still play it.. short term wise.... but look at the bigger picture... even though each title is created by the same company- and that each game isnt really considered to be expansions, you got to think beyond the box- and that is... that each title will IS competing with each other for players.

Ask yourself this, if you lost your account details and was unrecoverable and had to rebuy all the chapters - which would you buy first?
I bet the vast majority would reply would either be the original, or nightfall.. now what is that telling you?

False Truth · Jan 04, 2007, 01:02 AM // 01:02

The thing is, most people in this thread who say "I still play factions, etc etc", are the ones who usually never get into a PuG, and bring mainly heroes/henchmen. So while I definitely agree that there still are a lot of people playing factions, it doesn't really matter if they rarely/don't group with other players.

MerLock · Jan 04, 2007, 06:29 AM // 06:29

I love factions. The reason I'm not playing there much is because the PvE was fast. I've done it all with all the professions. I think most people are in that situation.

Rok · Jan 04, 2007, 06:47 AM // 06:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by False Truth

The thing is, most people in this thread who say "I still play factions, etc etc", are the ones who usually never get into a PuG, and bring mainly heroes/henchmen. So while I definitely agree that there still are a lot of people playing factions, it doesn't really matter if they rarely/don't group with other players.

And why doesn't it matter ... The questions was if people still play, not who plays in groups.

There could be million players farming in Factions and you wouldn't know because they are done with the game and don't do the missions. The only ones who know how many people are playing is Anet.

Factions will remain as long as people continue to play, until GW shuts down all the games.

Toutatis · Jan 04, 2007, 06:49 AM // 06:49

I still play Factions. And it's still my favourite chapter - Prophecies moves way too slowly, and from what I've seen of Nightfall so far the speed is still on the slow side. I found that Factions pushed me to react in combat and expand the skill repertoire and build efficiency much faster, and that's why it's so great to me. And for the exact same reasons, Factions makes the best PvP primer IMO

realoddsman · Jan 04, 2007, 07:11 AM // 07:11

Bitch bitch bitch.

6 months from now people will be crying of how prophs, factions and NF are dead cause everyone has weened into chapter 4.

Now whether Anet continues to support factions is highly unlikely after a certain point (prophs hasnt seen an update in ages).

They will make schedualed changes to the 2 elite missions and the appropriate gates in factions after nightfall spam has settles down further, but otherwise if people choose to hop into Cantha for a quicky then good for them.

Anet doesn't care cause Cantha is done and production continues for future revenue from future chapters which will die in the future.

Moa Bird Cultist · Jan 04, 2007, 11:01 AM // 11:01

Hmmm, what to make of this...?

I guess it depends entirely on how you would define a game as 'dead' or 'dying,' wouldn't it? Broadly speaking, people say it is dead because there are few people playing it at any one time.

So are there no people in any given Factions outpost? Put simply, the answer is yes and no. Yes, because there are some areas where there are few people available, most notably during the split, and No, because everything up to the split and even the missions after the split are heavily populated. Theyre not as bustling as they were when GWF first came out, but it's not like theres nobody there either.

As for the effect this has on grouping, I personally like it the way it is now - heroes are a godsend and the players that are still there tend to be of a much higher calibre. Hence, missions that were once seemingly impossible, are now a walk in the park.

Laenavesse · Jan 04, 2007, 11:35 AM // 11:35

Well, and i haven't read all of these posts so if any of this stuff has been said..um...heehee?

;; And note, I started Guild Wars this past summer so this is before Nightfall.

Anyway, Factions is sort of the middle child now. Prophecies was first so there's a chance that people might get that first to sorta see how it's like and stuff. Nightfall is newest so that's the next thing they would try. New players will either go for the very first campaign or the very latest. THEN they'll go for whatever is inbetween.

I know I went to Prophecies first because I wanted to see how it generally played. Plus it was cheaper xD Well that and the guy misinformed us that we had to have Prophecies before we had to play the other games.

Not my fault << My boyfriend was getting it and he had thought differently but..who can question the guy who sits with video games most of the day?

Prophecies was a pretty good introduction to the whole Guild Wars community..and having the skills as part of the rewards in quests was nice <_< That was definitely missed in Factions (and Nightfall) but not having to buy skills immediately as your first experience kinna helped. You can always adjust after that.

Factions is my absolute FAVORITE. I don't know what it is, maybe because of the whole orientalness or the colors or the characters (I do love my assassin and my ritualist >.>) but I just found it a lot more enjoyable. I made like 4 characters in it for crying out loud. I also like the armor a whole lot more (Luxon armor zomg <3). It wasn't as tedious at the other either. Prophecies seemed a lot slower paced to me, and the island in Nightfall..oh my god someone shoot me >_>

Before Nightfall there were definitely a lot of people in Factions. I don't know how Prophecies was when Factions came out, but I'm sure it had a hit similar to Factions.

The next chapter will undoubtly decrease the population more, unless they made it more interactive, like a continuation of the story would be to go to factions (so if the next chapter was pre-Shiro or had something to do with Kurzick and Luxon territory or something I don't know it's 5:30 in the morning >_>! i know it's not going to happen but you get my point >_o some sort of connectedness!) people would be more inclined to go back. Same thing with any other mission.

Nightfall has been out for like 2 months now so i think it's still early to say that Factions is dead. You see a lot of people in the outposts, it's just the missions that can be kinna hard to find people.

I had to hench Unwaking Waters with heroes on my Monk and I managed to do it on the first try (the corrupted dragon scales were quite..evil though >_>).

Eternal Grove has also had a hit, same with Gyala Hatchery. Arborstone and Boreas weren't so bad though, but yeah, the split does kinna NOT help the whole population xD I remember when Cavalon at least had 3 districts <_<;

I know I'll take all of my characters through Factions. I just love it. I also kinna liked the whole Masters timed thing. Sure it could be sooooo aggravating ("OMFG I WAS OFF BY 5 SECONDS RAAAAH") but hey, another round through, more loot and money for me. Plus it sorta gave a challenge and if you manage to get a PUG that was decent and they want to go through with it again, more power to you because surely this second time you should have at least gotten some bearing on how each other works.

I think I'd call Factions in a sorta of listless state rather than actually dead. I think it needs more time for the Nightfall kick to come out. People would have originally made another character in Factions probably made it in Nightfall instead since it's new.

(Oh, I also seem to find more greens that are better for me in Factions...but that could just be me)

Rusty Deth · Jan 04, 2007, 01:48 PM // 13:48

I liked Factions cause it was harder than Prophecies. After playing Factions for a couple months, Prophecies became way too easy.

I only hang around in 2 places in Prophecies, Tombs and Sorrows Furnace.

i love Factions cause the mobs have a good mix of classes in them.

And I love Nightfall cause it takes the best of Factions and Prophecies and combines them.

But Prophecies is an overall snoozefest compare to chapters 2 and 3.

Jetdoc · Jan 04, 2007, 03:13 PM // 15:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rok

And why doesn't it matter ... The questions was if people still play, not who plays in groups.

Why would anyone care how many people play in Factions if it is not to group with them?

pug_ster · Jan 04, 2007, 05:34 PM // 17:34

We can argue on how Factions is great and all that stuff but the fact is that ever since Nightfall came out, most of the towns past cavalon/hzh are virtual ghosttowns. I did a few bonuses back in prophecies and I still see a lot of people looking for group, even in the Ring of fire islands.

The dev team who made Factions are probably making chapter 4 now and you probably won't see alot of updates to Factions anytime soon. My guess is that they are going to Bundle Prophecies and Factions together and make it some kind of platinum edition for $50 to entice people to buy Factions.

I personally don't like the time constraint factor in most of the Factions and a good amount of Nightfall missions to get masters. Why can't they make missions like Prophecies where the bonus objective is usually much different than the main objective?

ainkami · Jan 04, 2007, 05:52 PM // 17:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by pug_ster

I personally don't like the time constraint factor in most of the Factions and a good amount of Nightfall missions to get masters. Why can't they make missions like Prophecies where the bonus objective is usually much different than the main objective?

Because making the bonus different takes time. When game developers have a deadline to meet, it is easier to make bonus time dependent and reuse exploration maps, then to create new content for the bonus.

Sir Skullcrasher · Jan 04, 2007, 06:19 PM // 18:19

I don't know, Factions is slowly losing players so does Tyria. Most peoples are in Nightfall right now. I do agree that to keep peoples interested in Factions, A-Net should update the maps for AB and maybe do some kind of special events for those players.

Ninna · Jan 04, 2007, 06:27 PM // 18:27

Factions (Fort Aspenwood) is what I'm playing until Chapter 4 is released

Neo Nugget · Jan 04, 2007, 06:47 PM // 18:47

im taking my warr through it to get the kurzick armor and to have some fun

Age · Jan 04, 2007, 11:43 PM // 23:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moa Bird Cultist

Hmmm, what to make of this...?

I guess it depends entirely on how you would define a game as 'dead' or 'dying,' wouldn't it? Broadly speaking, people say it is dead because there are few people playing it at any one time.

So are there no people in any given Factions outpost? Put simply, the answer is yes and no. Yes, because there are some areas where there are few people available, most notably during the split, and No, because everything up to the split and even the missions after the split are heavily populated. Theyre not as bustling as they were when GWF first came out, but it's not like theres nobody there either.

As for the effect this has on grouping, I personally like it the way it is now - heroes are a godsend and the players that are still there tend to be of a much higher calibre. Hence, missions that were once seemingly impossible, are now a walk in the park.

Those heros might be Godsend but you can only get them if you have NightFall.Those that don't those missions do tend to become to be hard as to keeping NPCS alive especially if you don't play Monk or Ritualist.it would be nice though if there were alternate routes instead of haveing to do the missions as it is in Prophecies.