From a Tyrian character's perspective, it takes roughly three hours of actual gameplaying (discounting lfg) for me to get from Kaineng to Maatu, and I am by no means king of PvE.
I enjoy the look and feel of the city but do feel as though the quest are very dry and I have very little interest in continuing since my PC is already lvled... thusly I have not yet made it out of the city. Still at Vizunah Square quest. (please God let this quest pass from me and continue with the game!).
The problems I have is no real engaging story line. I start as a student learning to be a hero... oh... what's this? Lo, there are rumors of a plague that besets the land. Ah! rumors are true... we must off to the mainland and the big city... the big city where I will make it big and be a big star... and run past the damn illusionist about 50 million times.
It actually sound kinda fun when it's dramatized like that but omg, will the henchies shut up... if I see that stupid joke about how many Am Fah it takes to fix a wagon again *sigh*. Henchie chat is where I get the "big star" part of my dramatization... they are worse grievers then the snobby elitists! "Master Toga should have fired that old headmaster and made me headmaster years ago... I am 10 times better then he is" ...At least Prince Ruick in Prophs was funny and amusing... always gave me a good laugh… makes it sad to see him die in the Shiverpeaks.
Other prob with the henchies is that when you die... feel free to take a potty break or get a snack, maybe something to drink.... you might be rezzed by the time you get back. I think that is why I am more then over the henchie chat... they have a full fledged conversation until one asks why they are all standing there... A-net should have the healer hench say "oh... my bad... I forgot to rez the only non-AI entity here... won't be a mo."
I am a solo’er and enjoy the relaxed pace of doing the game & quests on my own… and it’s nice every now and then when I want some company I can join a PUG. So for me the henchies are enough for me not to enjoy the game I switched over to Prophs as soon as I could. I am honestly glad that I did not buy the game but it was gifted to me. I enjoy being a ritualist and I enjoy the city scenery but tell me that it gets better (dear God let it get better) and I will give it another try.
~Andi – at least I am now closer to God… I find that we talk more when I play Factions…
*disclaimer: as I am just home after a 4 to midnite shift this post might be a sleepy rant that makes little sense to those other then the sleepy.
It actually sound kinda fun when it's dramatized like that but omg, will the henchies shut up... if I see that stupid joke about how many Am Fah it takes to fix a wagon again *sigh*.
It might seem repetative, but there's nothing more funny than him telling that joke whilst you do the quest to be their friends.. the guy has no idea about diplomacy and not insulting them.
I've hated City to Maatu mainly due to Assasin and npc groups.. due to difficulty with pugs and the ability to get in to them
Once I got out (2-3 weeks of casual 1-2 hour play 3-4 days a week) I'm actually having fun again.
One thing I'm glad is faction is account based vs character base so I can sit on 10k faction of the group I want when I take my 2nd character through (ele from C1)
I don't anticipate my monk has as much trouble at least
As soon as I get done with the city, I'm never going back. Admittedly, there are the occasional rare spots of color, but ususally you're too busy dealing with a mob to take it in.
Arborstone and Boreas Seabed are before Maatu Keep, and those are fun, and not in the city.
I didn't think playing from Kaineng Center to Maatu Keep was bad for a Tyrian character, because you can just do the primary quests and missions. Doesn't take that long.
It gets much more tedious for a Canthan-born character, because you really need to grind through all of the silly repetative quests in Wejuun Bazzar and Bukdek Byway to get from 15th level to 20th.
Seems that everyone feels the same way as i do about the first 50% of factions, boooooring, i cant stand that crap, on my 5th time around and i have to do it in small parts as i get sick of it very fast.
Didn't anet do beta testing? surely they would be better of deleting half the game, its got no replay value at all.
you guys that hate the city missions need to read why you are doing them, I find them all cute.
Like getting "Salving Problems", you talk to everybody only to find that the last bottle was taken by a rich to "enhance his performace" for his wife that left him any way. Or "To High a Price" where you rescue a girl being held as collateral from a lone shark, you have 2 options: pay back the loan or kill the loan shark.
The quest are not mindlesss running arround, they actually tell a part of the city life story.
The quests are easier with a little planning, just do the whole zone at once. You can get a second healer from Napui Quarter which makes things a lot easier.
Last edited by Markaedw; Jun 01, 2006 at 03:07 PM // 15:07..
i personally love factions more than prophecies, in prophecies it was really how long it'd take to get to where u want to go not what mobs am i going to face, in factions its more of a challange and i love the path crossing that the mobs do now, means u gotta constantly watch out for mobs coming towards ur fight in prophecies it was just one mob to the next without any real trouble.
i think the problem is people got too used to the way it is in prophecies and now when ur presented with something that takes some brain power, u moan.
you guys that hate the city missions need to read why you are doing them, I find them all cute. Like getting "Salving Problems", you talk to everybody only to find that the last bottle was taken by a rich to "enhance his performace" for his wife that left him any way. Or "To High a Price" where you rescue a girl being held as collateral from a lone shark, you have 2 options: pay back the loan or kill the loan shark.
The quest are not mindlesss running arround, they actually tell a part of the city life story.
But they have appsolutly nothing at all to do with the "story line", they are just there to make you think Factions is bigger than it really is. A couple of quest's like that is ok, if they would give you skill's as a reward for doing, fine. To much UPS/FedEx in city. After Matu you can atleast take diffrent way's each time you have to back track while in the city you have to take the exact same route or end up on a diffrent leavel.
when ur presented with something that takes some brain power, u moan.
Brain Power? where? when? are we talking about the same game?
The only thing that was hard was grinding for factions to continue with the story line(thank god you only need to do it on 1 toon) the rest was just a long run back and forth.
And the End Mission.
That one should be the hardest one to finish, as it is now you can get master on it with 7 henchis, lot's off Brain Power used in less than 2 min. lol
Last edited by Stockholm; Jun 01, 2006 at 03:16 PM // 15:16..
Brain Power? where? when? are we talking about the same game?
The only thing that was hard was grinding for factions to continue with the story line(thank god you only need to do it on 1 toon) the rest was just a long run back and forth.
And the End Mission.
That one should be the hardest one to finish, as it is now you can get master on it with 7 henchis, lot's off Brain Power used in less than 2 min. lol
compared to prophecies u need to think alot more, my chars went through prophecies like a hot knife through butter. Obv. im not saying factions is hard, but its harder than prophecies.
I liked the jungle too, the desert annoyed me.
The city is, well, I dont like it much. I got my monk, ele and necro thru bits of it (my mesmer refuses to leave kaneng and has returned to tyria to get a bunch of titles instead).
My monk has gotten the farthest even though my lag is soooo bad sometimes I wonder if I am doing much (heal party a lot).
I was happy to see the green areas south of maatu keep and the arborstone mission was fun (and the spear one too)...but I was dreading returning to the city to do the next quests and missions (my lag seems worse there)........and have not progressed beyond that for now.
I have worked on the way of doing the bazaar quests with the am fah being nice, so all I need to do is run from point a to point b with no mobs of fighting in between....makes it much less mind numbing since its quicker. But I still dread trying to get a group for my non-monk characters (my guild is tiny).
So for now my mesmer and ritualist are hanging around tyria while my monk takes in the sites of cantha, my ele and necro are still wondering if they like cantha or not.........but they both want new armor so they are working thru it.
I am disappointed with factions, my monk is on mission 8 (I believe) and there are only 13 or so....which means he is more than half way and I am hoping that the next part is more fun. BUT it seems way tooo rushed for me (prophecies took me 4 months to get 1/2 way.....)......so I am feeling a bit let down. (and no I dont pvp....try it with 2-7second lag and see just how long you last, not to mention the multitudes of err 7 recently)