36 replies to this topic

[davadude]

Leah Rivera on the New Fractals of the Mist Dungeon

Arenanet's Leah Rivera has just written on the official blog outlining the new features and design process behind the new Fractals of the Mist dungeon.  She outlines the scaling difficulty, the fractals (or parts of the dungeons), and much more.  Her team was on a mission, to create a "new, unique experience."

Quote

My team has a mission.

A mission to bring all of you an awesome, high-end dungeon experience that will be challenging, rewarding, and a ton of fun! After a lot of long hours and hard work, I think we’ve accomplished that goal. I’m proud to introduce to you our new dungeon: Fractals of the Mists!

Screenshots

[Dove]

Sounds cool. I love the concept of the deep-down dungeon that scales with your completion. Very flexible.

I am still upset regarding the necessity of Ascended stuff, but will leave that to other threads.

[davadude]

Dove, on 14 November 2012 - 06:16 PM, said:

Sounds cool. I love the concept of the deep-down dungeon that scales with your completion. Very flexible.

I am still upset regarding the necessity of Ascended stuff, but will leave that to other threads.

Thanks for keeping that out, Dove.

And I whoneheartidly agree, the dungeons now are turning out great, it's just... a nice change.

[Elan]

Indeed, from a dungeon standpoint, this sounds incredible. This looks incredible.  It also looks like a type of dungeon that can be expanded on infinitely.  Could drop in a new module whenever they want to add variety.  And that fact that it remembers your progress is really nice, since it means you don't need to lock yourself in your room for a 10 hour marathon just to get to the good loot, and can approach it an hour here, and hour there.

As a Charr, however, I see the awkwardness that will be fighting on that Battle of Ascalon map.If that is indeed the battle of Ascalon city.

Edited by Elan, 14 November 2012 - 06:28 PM.

[Omedon]

Sometimes I don't think ArenaNet understand gamers:

"Unlike the other dungeons, your party can be any level. We’ve employed World vs. World-style sidekicking to make this dungeon accessible to all players. But keep in mind, our aim was to challenge level 80 players. Going in at low levels is not for the faint of heart!"

Translation (to every gamer ever): "OFFICIAL STATEMENT! This is level 80 content, you must be level 80 to enter in my group, anything less will hurt my progress."

I personally would field a group of five guildies regardless of level to take a crack at these... but we're kinda weird like that.  I can't see PUGs (not that GW2 dungeons were intended for true PUGs) accepting people pre-80 with this statement out there.

All that being said, this sounds really cool!  Caverns of time for GW2!

Edited by Omedon, 14 November 2012 - 06:30 PM.

[matsif]

I'm actually really excited to play this.  Having a more interactive experience with the content will keep it seemingly fresh and make it feel like less of a grind to get items from the zones instead of repeating the same content over and over again.

Here's hoping the rest of the content in the patch goes over smoothly and these are as exciting as I think they will be.

[Kratimas]

I totally approve of the Ascended stuff and from the looks of that video absolutely positively approve of the new dungeon !!

Can't wait to get into that baby

[Kenjamin]

I'm very excited for this, and it really should lay to rest all of the concerns people have been having.  Especially if you combine the information with what we've gleamed from the post from Mr. Whiteside.

It won't, but it should.

[SunRoamer]

What the hell was that freaking giant? Maybe we are going to learn more about the Six? (they are the only "race" I can think of which looks exactly like humans but are taller than most buildings )

[Vahkris]

This reminds me of the Caverns of Time from WoW.  It's a really neat idea and considering they're designed to be randomized short shards of reality from the Mists it's wide open to add new fractals as the game continues.  I really like this dungeon so far...and the level scaling means you can go at any time (although you may need a guild group if you're lower than 80 after a while).

Omedon, on 14 November 2012 - 06:29 PM, said:

Sometimes I don't think ArenaNet understand gamers:

"Unlike the other dungeons, your party can be any level. We’ve employed World vs. World-style sidekicking to make this dungeon accessible to all players. But keep in mind, our aim was to challenge level 80 players. Going in at low levels is not for the faint of heart!"

Translation (to every gamer ever): "OFFICIAL STATEMENT! This is level 80 content, you must be level 80 to enter in my group, anything less will hurt my progress."

I personally would field a group of five guildies regardless of level to take a crack at these... but we're kinda weird like that.  I can't see PUGs (not that GW2 dungeons were intended for true PUGs) accepting people pre-80 with this statement out there.

All that being said, this sounds really cool!  Caverns of time for GW2!

Well, I think this is mitigated by the fact that from the get-go they told us this dungeon was more designed for things to do at level 80.  Even on the wiki page we state that it's designed for level 80s.  The scaling will likely be used more by guild groups and the initial experiences who just want something interesting to do.

Elan, on 14 November 2012 - 06:28 PM, said:

Indeed, from a dungeon standpoint, this sounds incredible. This looks incredible.  It also looks like a type of dungeon that can be expanded on infinitely.  Could drop in a new module whenever they want to add variety.  And that fact that it remembers your progress is really nice, since it means you don't need to lock yourself in your room for a 10 hour marathon just to get to the good loot, and can approach it an hour here, and hour there.

As a Charr, however, I see the awkwardness that will be fighting on that Battle of Ascalon map.If that is indeed the battle of Ascalon city.

It depends on what the purpose of us being there is, to be honest.

[Omedon]

Vahkris, on 14 November 2012 - 06:36 PM, said:

Well, I think this is mitigated by the fact that from the get-go they told us this dungeon was more designed for things to do at level 80.  Even on the wiki page we state that it's designed for level 80s.  The scaling will likely be used more by guild groups and the initial experiences who just want something interesting to do.

Ya, I can agree with that.

[Elan]

Vahkris, on 14 November 2012 - 06:36 PM, said:

This reminds me of the Caverns of Time from WoW.  It's a really neat idea and considering they're designed to be randomized short shards of reality from the Mists it's wide open to add new fractals as the game continues.  I really like this dungeon so far...and the level scaling means you can go at any time (although you may need a guild group if you're lower than 80 after a while).



Well, I think this is mitigated by the fact that from the get-go they told us this dungeon was more designed for things to do at level 80.  Even on the wiki page we state that it's designed for level 80s.  The scaling will likely be used more by guild groups and the initial experiences who just want something interesting to do.



It depends on what the purpose of us being there is, to be honest.

True.  If it's just for, say, Priory purposes of getting an accurate recollection of events from a purely observational standpoint it wouldn't be awkward.  However, it sure would be boring.  Given it's a given you'd be fighting there, either you'll be fighting Ascalonians, Charr, or both.  Perhaps you appear as the opposite faction to either side, in a similar way that the ghosts in Ashford view anybody as Charr aggressors regardless of race.  Even so, as a human player you'd be forced to aid your historical enemy at points while as a Charr you'd  be forced to do the same.

[Lordkrall]

Indeed, that giant (which looks bigger than giants..)  is quite interesting.

[Ritualist]

So, they take away the progression by upscalling you and then add gear progression instead?
YOU GO GIRL!

[Lordkrall]

Protoss, on 14 November 2012 - 06:45 PM, said:

So, they take away the progression by upscalling you and then add gear progression instead?
YOU GO GIRL!

Can't you just leave the freaking game?
Apparently you have every single thing ever added to the game, and yet you are still here whining about it in every single thread.

Be happy we get stuff for free at all.

[drkn]

One question - do we know if your progress resets after leaving the hub?
It might be the lack of sleep or i simply have omitted something, but do we know if it requires us to spend one long session in order to get to the toughest encounters, or can we actually take a break and party up next day to pick up where we left last time? If so, how the game will determine which difficulty to throw at the party?

[Disdanes]

Can I just say that I'm super stoked for this dungeon ? I like that Arenanet is using their level mod system for this, it might be another way  to level up an alt and possibly get some decent gear in the progress! Guild Wars 2 has some of the best PVE mechanics i've ever seen in a game, bring on the challenge!

[Lordkrall]

drkn, on 14 November 2012 - 06:49 PM, said:

One question - do we know if your progress resets after leaving the hub?
It might be the lack of sleep or i simply have omitted something, but do we know if it requires us to spend one long session in order to get to the toughest encounters, or can we actually take a break and party up next day to pick up where we left last time? If so, how the game will determine which difficulty to throw at the party?

What I understood from the blog-post the dungeon would start from the highest level common to all party members.

Quote

The dungeon will remember your progress, and will poll the party’s levels when you enter, scaling the dungeon to the highest common attained level.

Edited by Lordkrall, 14 November 2012 - 06:52 PM.

[Elan]

drkn, on 14 November 2012 - 06:49 PM, said:

One question - do we know if your progress resets after leaving the hub?
It might be the lack of sleep or i simply have omitted something, but do we know if it requires us to spend one long session in order to get to the toughest encounters, or can we actually take a break and party up next day to pick up where we left last time? If so, how the game will determine which difficulty to throw at the party?

From how I understand the wording, it remembers each player's highest level of completion, then when you group up it uses the highest level the lowest progressed player got to.  IE: You have completed 6, your friend completed 8, and the random completed 3.  You start at 4.

[drkn]

Awesome! My only worry was the requirement to spend one long session to experience it all.

[matsif]

Elan, on 14 November 2012 - 06:51 PM, said:

From how I understand the wording, it remembers each player's highest level of completion, then when you group up it uses the highest level the lowest progressed player got to.  IE: You have completed 6, your friend completed 8, and the random completed 3.  You start at 4.

I'm understanding it a bit differently.  Read it as it takes the level that the most players have in common and uses that ("the highest common attained level" from the blog post).  So, if you went in with 5 people with different progress rates, you would all play the highest level in the party.

[Firstborn12]

I first thought that this new dungeon would be this the new comming area, and in turn, I believed that there would be some Agony casting Creatures(Not even gonna touch on the Ascended gear) in the new area. This seems not to be the case, only mention thus far is that they are at a certain high point in the Dungeon ( which was state a few times in a few post, but were mostly peoples guesses). Now it just seems that you will Only encounter them in this new dungeon.

Now I normally dont run dungeons often, but this one looks so freaking cool I have to try it.

[KrakenAZ]

I stumbled on that gate in Lion's Arch the other day and I was thinking "Was that there before?  Don't remember seeing it."  Now I know why.

[Flaming_Foxx]

She said some of the places would look familiar to GW1 players.
Is it just me or did that scene with the gigantic wall and the beams of light being cast down at creatures below look a whole lot like a GW2 version of Ascalonians firing down on Charrs running at the wall (As observed in GW1 pre-searing)??

I also REALLY want to know what that gigantic sparkly giant person was!

[G L J]

My only concern will be that a segregation of community will exist between levels. i.e. "7/9 levels cleared"

Fortunately, however, I'm lead to believe that there is only a set amount of difficulty at the time. I believe another developer said that there were only ten levels of difficulty at launch, so hopefully you should be able to get a guild to help you clear them quickly.

[Elan]

[quote name='matsif' timestamp='1352919443' post='2079487']
I'm understanding it a bit differently.  Read it as it takes the level that the most players have in common and uses that ("the highest common attained level" from the blog post).  So, if you went in with 5 people with different progress rates, you would all play the highest level in the party.
[/quote]

It's the highest [i][b]common [/b][/i]part that makes me think this is incorrect. If everyone doesn't have a given level, it isn't common.  If two people have level 8, one person has level 5, and one person has 3 and another 2, only level 2 is commonly shared among everyone.  

Edit:

However, I can see how it can be interpreted the other way.  It comes down to how they define common, basically.  I'm thinking along the lines of, say, highest common factor.

Edited by Elan, 14 November 2012 - 08:17 PM.

[Sans]

Fractals of the mist seem like alternate realities of real world Tyria.

[Firstborn12]

It does sound like this new Dungeon gives you a rank or something. and from my understanding of it, this is how it works. You are sent to 3 randomly choosen Fractals out of 9, then sent back to the Hub ( with a boss in between every other cycle). Once you go back to the Hub, the dungeon scales up, and you do the next 3 Fractals.

So the progess the dungeon remembers would prolly be how many set of fractals you've done, level 1 if you only did the first cycle of 3, level 15 if you did 15 cycles and so forth.

Well thats my understanding of how it works anyways.

[Alex Dimitri]

Well gonna have to see the dungeon, and try it before i give some comment about it`s quality !

I learned to be skeptic, when developers start talkin` how something they created is FUN & rewarding....
If we look back, all dungeons we have are chaotic to say at least:

Trash mobs deadlier then bosses, blue and white drops and few silver coins..... for me that was not exactly definition of fun

But on the end people do learn from their mistakes, doing something right first time you do it just makes you prideful and lazy !

[Dax01]

[quote name='Firstborn12' timestamp='1352925601' post='2079647']
It does sound like this new Dungeon gives you a rank or something. and from my understanding of it, this is how it works. You are sent to 3 randomly choosen Fractals out of 9, then sent back to the Hub ( with a boss in between every other cycle). Once you go back to the Hub, the dungeon scales up, and you do the next 3 Fractals.

So the progess the dungeon remembers would prolly be how many set of fractals you've done, level 1 if you only did the first cycle of 3, level 15 if you did 15 cycles and so forth.

Well thats my understanding of how it works anyways.
[/quote]

Totally agree with this. Can't think of a better way of doing it.

I'm really excited to see how this go. But I have this weird feeling of dissapointment...could not explain it...