Chapter 4 a Factions repeat?

Forgive me if this has been posted before (nothing turned up on search) but after playing the Nightfall WPE it became apparent that there is a huge difference in quality between Factions and Nightfall. Its all well documented that there are 2 teams working on a expansion each getting a years worth of development but Factions without going into all the details is in my opinion poorly designed and sloppily executed, are we due a repeat with Chapter 4?

At the time of its release there where comments that people would buy only the odd numbered chapters and at the time I just laughed but Nightfall is such a drastic improvement in quality I'm starting to see sense in the idea. Now you might argue the Nightfall team had an extra 6 months but the overall design for Factions was clearly in place from the beginning and no amount of polish can change the fact that Factions is nothing more than pointless fedex quests and endless grind.

I suppose the time to jugde would be after we've played Chapter 4 and I hope the Factions team gets it right but if they don't will ArenaNet hold its hands up and do something about it? What I'm interested in is what peoples opinions are on the matter? I personally think a reshuffle of the teams is needed I'd even go as far as finding replacement personal for the Factions team. That may seem drastic but if ArenaNet want my money then a repeat of Factions is not the way to do it.

The teams working on it wouldn't have complete creative freedom over how the game would play. They would have a set goal for the campaign. It's not like the team that made Factions is going to make another campaign with a simple story and emphasised PvP, that was just the direction Arenanet and NCSoft wanted Factions to go.

I think they learned from their mistakes, and they'll have 3 entire chapters they can look back to, so there will be little to no real bad features.

I liked Factions - altho it will probably be the weakest of the 3 chapters
(for both PVP and PVE alike)

GuildWars is an evolving game

its too early to start predicting what Chapter 4 will be like
- Development Teams are not remote satellites, they are given goals to strive for

I think most chapters will be unique to their own

Chapter 3 (Nightfall) certainly has elements of both last chapters
- no skill quests, Faction (altho its pve), slower progress to 20, etc

I heard rumors that chapter 4 will be about Orr. >_>
And theirs no need to make another factions expansion pack.

I have a feeling A.Net is going to stick with 3 main plot paths and start extending the story from the first 3 chapters next.

Chapters 1, 4, 7 follow lines from Orr
Chapters 2, 5, 8 follow lines from Factions
Chapters 3, 6, 9 follow lines from Nightfall.

Thats my guess.

What I mean by a repeat of Factions is the overall quality of it not the story line. Also those who say its not the development teams fault heres something to think about, if you give a builder the designs to make a great mansion and he ends up making a block of flats whos in the wrong?

All the same, I don't play to buy "Chapter 4" without the ability to see other players' reviews first, so not until well after its release.

The real question is will you buy chap 6? I heard its gonna be a pile of junk, unlike chap 7 which is supposed to be dah bomb!!! Don't even get me started on chap 8!!!

I think a lot of people seem to forget that, barring Anet hiring people specifically for the Factions team, both teams initially worked on Prophecies. So it is not a Prophecies/Factions split but a Factions/Nightfall split. Furthermore, Anet will keep adding new things - see that skill interface wasn't it lovely? Things like this also make the game better, and improve our opinion of it.

I liked Factions, but I know a lot of people who didn't. You should stop thinking I'll buy the odd chapters, and start thinking, what does this next chapter add that I really want. Factions to be honest, added little in terms of new features. Not nothing, but not much either.

We'll have to see when it comes out; but for speculations sake, in the Feb CGW interview it was stated that Anet had then learned that many players prefered to stick with and continue playing in the PvE side of things.
PvE has story, lore and is the game's actual content. Factions has little or almost none of the above as it was a massive lean towards PvP. We can look at all PvP games in other genres and see there that PvP games generally do not contain much content other than "spanking" another player... and that's what Factions prtty much is based on, or at least what it's major works and mini-games consist of. ABs, Competitive Missions and competing for score ala a poor attampt at an arcade like sports games (Challenge Missions) - which have no point at all other than score.
Knowing that Anet had learned this too late into Factions dev cycle would explain why it wasn't changed before release, and would also explain why Nightfall is appearing to be so well done.
This can bring some hope for all future chapters as long as Anet remembers that PvP players bring the content with the "competitive play" and PvE needs the content to keep the game alive. Thusly, all future chapters would need to be PvE based while keeping PvP interesting by adding in new play styles and areas for PvP. -- After all, GW is both a PvP game and a PvE game. So each needs to be kept up.

Heh, I wondered how long it'd take before this thread showed up.

For several months we've been hearing nothing but people gushing about the non-Factions team saving Guild Wars by infusing Nightfall with Prophecies awesomeness. I guess now we'll have eight months of people panicking because Chapter Four might have too many fed-ex quests in a crowded urban slum in which you're assaulted by exploding pusbags.

...As a huge Factions fan, I'm hoping the dev team doesn't get too intimidated by the message boards and is willing to take some chances when it comes to the development, as opposed to just throwing in a shopping list of player requests and calling it a campaign*. Chin up, guys!


*not a slur on Nightfall, I'm looking forward to that as much as anyone!

I really liked the change with Factions - if A-Net would have gone Prophecies ---> Nightfall, I bet many people would have gotten a bit burnt out by the game because of the slow progress.

Factions was a nice (fast) change of pace, and left people who loved Prophecies hungry for a return to the slow progress pace of the original game (which they'll get in Nightfall).

A good strategy by A-Net, IMO.

what if those designs were to make Guild Wars more PVP friendly ?

http://www.computerandvideogames.com....php?id=133721
Factions development team was told, among other things, to entice PVE players into PVP

Ive met many people that dont like to PVP and prefer PVE
- but they do like maps like Fort Aspenwood (I'm one of them)

I enjoyed Prophecies AND Factions, but was clearly able to see the differences between the two... For example, I have recently had many friends tell me that they are interested in getting into Guild Wars (courtesy my glowing reviews), but I have steared them clear of Factions and told them to wait for Nightfall. Why? Is it because I didn't like Factions? I love Factions, but it does have it's problems... Due to it's quick leveling it allowed me to get all eight classes up to Level 20 quick (where from prophecies I had only been through twice). But it TOTALLY robs you of the roll playing experience. Factions is a sour experience for someone just entering the world of Guild Wars, but it's great for those of us already in it and just looking to round out our abilities. The speed with which you could get through Factions was amazing too. My last character I made (a MM) beat the game completely in 6.5 hours. Unbelievable, but once you know the high experience quests and some of the leveling secrets out there it's entirely possible. But all it lead to was my ability to get all eight characters through the game quick so that I could try them all out in different PvP experiences. But this was NOT good for someone new to the game. On the flipside, I think that Nightfall will be awesome for someone just starting out, then after a while maybe they can add Factions on. But was I dissapointed in Factions? No. It was quick and leveled WAY too quick, but like I stated gave me the ability to create a rounded PvE group of characters.

LOL! That is the best description of Factions I have ever read! (especially the exploding pusbags part :P)

I won't speculate on the quality of chapter 4. I'll just check out the preview weekend(s) and base my decision whether to buy it or not. It's silly to assume that the devs who put together factions won't learn from the negative feedback they got about factions and put out another flop.

Think about it, one of the gripes that people had about leveling in Prophecies was that it was too slow, too much grind. In factions, the sentiment of many was that it was too fast. With Nightfall, the pace is set somewhere between the two, especially when players take advantage of those double XP dudes.

I don't see that there will be excessive "Fed-Ex" quests in any future chapters, but I don't see them going away completely, either.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again We have no indication that the teams are leap-frogging while doing chapters. Everyone is assuming this but I have found no documentation, other then us being told that there are 2 development teams. I still am inclined to believe that there is a "development" team for future chapters and then a "maintenance" team if you will. Which means one team is continually in development and then they pass off the chapter to the other team.

But, like I mentioned, we have no indication of either and assuming that the teams are switching off isn't exactly reliable either.

Why are we worried about chapter 4 when so little details have been revealed. I mean, Nightfall is not even released!! I don't think by playing the game for 3 days would lead you to the conclusion that Nightfall is great. I've never played Factions so I don't know whether it's really as bad as some people say.

Agree, I love Aspenwood. Havent played it for real since May, because of the leech scumbags though.

More Aspenwood-like maps,just dont include any reason to leech in them. Ruins the game totally.