Size, Complexity and Content of Nightfall...

Do y'all think, that with so much to do in this latest chapter, that ANet can postpone the release of Chapter IV by six months?

I know that with Factions I felt pressure to complete everything that I could with as many characters as I could just to make sure that I completed everything in the six months I had before Nightfall's release. I always seemed to feel hurried. And now with Nightfall, I know that there is no way that I can finish it with every Character I have in the ~six months remaining until the release of Chapter V.

And yes, I know that I don't have to play every class through every chapter, but I always like having my choice of classes when a Guildie requests help on a certain Quest or Mission. I would like to be able to choose any character I want to assist in any Mission or Quest, and I can in Tyria and partially in Cantha, but I see my options becoming less and less with each successive chapter. I've gone from playing every core class and a Rit to concentrating, almost exclusively, on my Warrior, Ele and Necro.

Please don't get me wrong…I love the content and diversity, but it seems to be coming at us too fast and we're missing out on a great deal of the fun because of it.

And yes, I know that chapter releases is how ANet makes money, and the influx every six months keeps them in business.

What I don't want is for ANet to make shorter chapters with less content as that would lessen the game, but the release of a chapter every six months is somewhat daunting for players, like me, who can only play 10-12 hours a week.

Please, no flaming. I only want to see what others think.

somebody told me that one of the developers said this was the last chapter and there would be no more

Yeah right Imagine the board meeting,

"we made our money, what shell we do now?"
"lets get our selves in debt"

Partly correct.
It's the last chapter of the current Storyline but it is not the last chapter of GuildWars.

quality - my fears are allayed ! lol

I fully agree with you fgarvin, it won't bother me having to wait another 12 months before chapter 4 is released, I haven't even completed Factions with most of my characters yet, and now I'm already questing in Elona. However, I can understand that some people think 6 months is already to much waiting, and Anet needs to keep bringing out new stuff to keep people playing/attract new players. I'm just one of those players that sets its owns goals, like collecting all skills on every character, collecting FoW-armor, fully discover Tyria/Cantha/Elona and so on. I don't bother too much with completing the game (like in killing the 'bad guy'), that's just one of my many goals. So all this will keep me busy for many more months to come.

Each game has 1 year of development, this includes Factions as well as Nightfall.
Chapter 4 will be the same it started development when Factions went live.

So 6 months till chapter 4 but 1 full year of development for the game on a game engine (they don't have to recreate the wheel the wagon is on) that's already done.

i wish someone would really confirm this last chapter in a trilogy thing i keep reading because ive never read this interview/ seen it or heard anything from anet that it finished a story.... to me that would be counter productive to their goal of every 6 mo. chapters... for some people will just say oh well im done now... please link me to this information...

greatly appreciated...(also its not on the dvd i know one subtle hint kinda like that but it didnt mean that specifically to me so thats not it... i need more the nthat)

I think our mentality in the game needs to change somewhat. I think we are all (well, not all, but many of us; myself included) wanting the newest stuff faster and sooner than the rest. How many of us bought Factions and zipped through it so we could see the sights before the rest? How many of us did that in hopes of getting a new "toy" before the rest? I know I did that to a good extent.
This time however, I have sat back and taken my time in NF. I've seen people already finish the game over the release weekend and wondered why...

When I did that in Factions I "burned" it out to fast for myself and was left with a really weak and low content chapter with nothing to do. Luckily Nightfall is a great deal larger and longer and in taking my time I hope to have it last the full 6 months before Chapter IV.

I also feel your "pain" (if we want to call it that) in the character selection issue. I've finally picked a "main" and that will be the one I always work on getting through each Chapter first. The rest will follow at their own pace.

The reason I mention all the above is for this reason. Not everyone gets NF or the newest Chapters on release. I've got several friends in game that just started playing GW, and they are working through Chapter 1 and 2 at the same time. Once they finish those, they are planning on getting Chapter 3 but they will always be a Chapter or so behind the masses. This division is great cause to slow down and spread play over several areas at once. - A shift in my play thinking and I've been rather pleased with it.

Edit: It is the last of the Trilogy, or current story line. The PC Gamer mag, with the mini-pet code had the interview in which it's confirmed some sort of apocolypse occurs and ends the triolgy. My guess and assumtion is that we will end up traveling to some "new world" (as in the finding of the Americas) and will continue our adventure there. - just my guess anyway, as I have no real idea.

This tread isn't about what time the dev's have to finish a new chapter, but the time we have to finish playing it. The OP states he/she just hasn't enough time to complete each chapter to his/her satisfaction, so pleads to postpone the release of the next chapter.

I suppose this is what you mean, fgarvin?

one good thing is... if you just play each chapter tile you feel youve done enough before ever buying the newest one... you should always have content to follow up what you just finished..... even if people get 2 chapters ahead of you... i mean if u can stand waiting when something new is being released then its probably better for you to do so... this will keep constant content coming at you at your pace... for maybe a verrry long time...

I have to agree, i think the 6 months between expansions is too short, i started with 1 char and then ended up with 6 by the time Factions came out however not all of the chars had time to do everything, but that was mainly due to me remaking chars back then. Then Factions made it worse, another 2 great char types and a whole new campaign to explore and quest, but in the 6 months we had on it before NF I had to skip virtually every quest, bar the primary quests and a few others near the start, granted factons was a faster game but there still wasn’t enough time to catch up on the previously missed stuff or do hardly anything but the missions (non masters). So I had to settle for just the missions and capturing all the elites for each char. I had next to no time to PVP cause I was too busy Pveing. Now NF is out, and its slower and larger than Factions with more chars. So I sure hope Anet slows things down a bit cause other wise ill never complete all my chars *wonders why Anet gives us so many char slots when they don’t give us the time to use them all*

You shouldn't feel 'stressed to do everything before the new chapter comes out'.

The best thing of Guild Wars is (or was) freedom - you can do alot of things whenever and where-ever you want (well until it gets nerfed :P). Buying Nightfall doesn't make it impossible to still do the Cantha storyline. Besides, spreading things out is more fun in my opinion, I wouldn't want to do Prophecies with 10 characters, but do somethign else as well. When I feel like it, I can always do a mission in Cantha, or prophecies.


Just imagine how boring Guild Wars would be when you have nothing to do - you've done all quests and missions and still have to wait 2 months for the new chapter to come out. And with farming gone and monsters gone crazy, there's not much left to farm or explore anymore.

So be happy that you have lots of things to do - you won't get bored in a while

Simply, yes. In Tyria, keeping a Guild together was easy. In Factions, things got more spread out and now in Elona, we're all over the place.

More content is good. It gives us more to discover, new goals to achieve and more opportunities to interact with players, but ANet, give us time to do these things.

If I weren't in a Guild your statement would hold true. But it would be difficult to maintain any sort of cohesion in a Guild if everyone is in a differnt stage of the game. When I first began playing, I took my Ele through every Mission and most of the Quests with Henchies, taking my time. Now, there's pressure to "keep up" with everyone so that we can progress through the game as a Guild, and not as a bunch of people who happen to share a common cape. Vent keeps us connected (thanks Sky), but talking with your Guildies without being able to adventure with them takes a great deal of the fun out of the game.

six months is NOT too long, if they change it to a year for each one after the next i'm quitting GW.

The whole premise of GW is free online play and AWESOME expansions every six months. Infact if I could change it I would make the expansions every 3 months because i love them that much!

Personally, I love having the 6-month in-between time. It seems to be the perfect amount of time for me. I beat Factions with 5 characters, and got the Protector title on two of them. I did this in about 3 months. After that, I took to farming, Alliance Battles, The Deep/Urgoz runs, and HA. I know that many people hate PvP, and don't even really consider it "content," but it really opens a whole new aspect of the game. Also, if you feel like you'll run out of content too fast, then take a break from the missions and quests and try out some PvP. I know that with the 6v6 HA it's not where near as fun, but still...

For people that say 6 months is no where near enough time, then buy the new games later. If you can't stand waiting, then um...tough? I don't know, not much advice to give you. ANet needs to make money since they don't have subscription fees, and they make it by releasing new games twice a year.

I can see a new SF or Tombs every three months, but an entire new chapter every ~six months is a little too much in too little time...for me. Again, if I was not active within my Guild, I could care less about ANets release schedule, or if I had several hours EVERY day to play, then perceived time limits wouldn't concern me. But I believe that many of us are missing out because of the current release schedule.

I'm not looking for anyone to agree or disagree with me. I simply wanted to initiate a discussion between players. These are simply my points of view, I'm not lobbying anyone to see things my way.

There's three of us in the household who play. We'd play Prophecies for hours on most evenings and the weekends were game time especially, either together as a group or separately in Pugs/henches. Our old chalkboard (kids were homeschooled years ago) was converted to the daily roster of dye prices, and GW was very much an enjoyable family event (The tv was very dusty )

We bought Factions right as it came out since we'd enjoyed Tyria sooooo much. We all started Factions and quickly lost interest - although I'm the furthest along - because of the incessant gogogogogogo breakneck speed. No time in mission to stop and regen energy or enjoy or discuss further strategy, Kaineng is filthy and nasty (no eye candy at all), the Echovald dark and gloomy and the Jade Sea rather ...empty. An adventurer can't take more than a dozen steps, it seems, unless you get jumped by a crowd of crazed foe bent on world domination. (I.e. not much exploring ) None of us have finished Factions. I'm at the point where I have to declare for one side or the other to go forward in the game and very much resent that the decision is account wide rather than character specific.

There are great things Factions brought to the game, don't get me wrong. But overall, I wish we'd saved our $150.

With that lesson, so far I'm the only one with NF. I am *loving* it! Wide open spaces, lovely scenery, long storyline, huge map, much more relaxed but with good battles, too. It seems, so far, to be a return to the gameplay of Prophecies without sacrificing much of anything. Husband and son are already beginning to clamor for their copies (son buys his own).

Can I wait longer than six months for another chapter? Sure, if it's quality. But please don't give us another slap-dash PvP-masquerading-as-PvE like Factions.

No one forces you to buy every chapter on it's release. I only took two characters through factions. Not because I didn't have time, but because there is almost zero -replayability once you've done it twice... it just turns into grind. In fact, I really only concentrate on my warrior. My other classes and mainly for farming, but my warriror I consider my main character. Although, I'm finding dervishes to be real pains trying to farm with all the conditions they slap on me... kinda wish I took my mesmer or something over instead, but once I get used to the new classes and new skills I think I'll be back to soloing on my warrior again.

With both Prophecies and Nightfall, after about four months I was jonesing for new content. So a new chapter every six months is fine for me.

I think you meant "Prophecies and Factions", but like a stated at the beginning, with the size and complexity of Nightfall, I think ANet can wait longer than six month before releasing Chapter IV. I too was ready to move on after a relatively short period of time in Factions. Tryia still holds my attention and Elona intrigues me.

I dont deny u can move on and not do everything with all char but when alot of poeple start missig things it makes some of the less popular things even quieter since no ones got time for them; Need i say Jade Quarry or the Titan missions etc.

Some have mentioned that the O. P. shouldn't be concerned if GW comes out with new chapters before he's ready to move on, since he could simply buy the next chapter when he's ready. But to the vast majority of players, there's too much of a risk of missing out on new events and new chapter only items and options to not buy a new chapter.

Remember how upset some Tyrian players were when the Dragon Festival was available ONLY to Factions players? I'm sure that many GW players purchased Factions simply because they didn't want to miss out on the event items and games. Also some bought Factions simply for the storage upgrade.

I have played Nightfall with a NF character for maybe 30 minutes total, the majority of my time in Elonia has been with my Tyrian Warrior farming for Halloween collector items. When the Halloween event ended, I went back to Tyria and Factions missions and quests. I'm sure I'll eventually play my Paragon, but right now I'm still enjoying my time in Tyria and Cantha.

And those people would be correct if I was a solo player, content to go through the game with Henchies or PUGs...but, I prefer Guildies.

As for events, not too concerned with those. Yeah, they're fun, and the Dragon mask is awesome, but these would never prompt me to buy a chapter.

I'm split on this...

While I think that 6 months between chapters is enough time, I'd like to see more content like SF. Not because I want to slow the chapter development, but because it's more free content which is always good.

I say keep it at 6 months between Chapters. If you feel like you can't catch up with 6 months in between Chapters, there's nothing keeping you from NOT buying the next chapter until you finish the current one. Why restrict people who have already finished from getting access to the next Chapter?

If you're so concerned about missing events then go buy the freaking Chapter and go to the event and then put that Chapter aside until you're ready to play. You can't have your cake and eat it too, you know. Having open options is better than to restrict them in a way that less people benefit from them.

EDIT: Edited to avoid confusion about who I'm talking to.

I am loving this. This reminds me very much of Prophecies when it first came out, except I understand the gaming system and am totally into it. I am taking my necro from Prophecies and Factions through the game as everyone seems to need a MM. I made a Dervish that I am keeping on the beginner island to see if I have the patience to get a survivor title on her without leaving the island. The quests are better. The missions are full of surprises. Although Factions was a disappointment, this game rocks for me.

I'd love to know when I said that I was concerned about missing events. Reading comprehension FTW.

Both good points.

It wasnt addressed to you, someone else expressed concerns about missing events.

The whole premise? There was more than 6 months between prophecies and factions, and there might be between nightfall and 4...

They didn't know GW was going to be popular so it wasn't the premise at all.

No, they have always stated that they'd release a new chapter every six months even as far back as Beta. I'm not sure why it took a year between Prophecies and Factions though.

I don't know what you mean. I made it clear in my post that I have all 3 chapters. I don't think you read all of my post, since you advised me to do exactly what I said I had done.

*sigh* You said that there were concerns that people would miss events because they're still in a previous Chapter. It's clear that you agree with those concerns in your post.

So yes, I just told you to do exactly what you did do....but I was addressing mostly to everyone in general who feels like they'll miss events if they're not caught up yet.

I still think the release intervals are too short, you don't get to familiarise yourself fully with each campaign that is released. I guess this is the only way they make money though.

I bought Prophesies almost exactly a year ago, and I'm dropping some fairly substantial hints to my partner that I'd like factions for Christmas... I have a partner, a small child and a full time job, so although I enjoy the game I don't have masses of time to spend on it. I'm also the sort to make sure I've seen everything before I move on: My main character is just on the cusp of Grandmaster Cartographer, along with the Protector, Advanced Treasure Hunter and Seeker titles she already carries.

Long story short, different people play the game at different speeds, and start from different points: Six months sounds like a good mid-point to release for those who want to play quickly, while no inconvienience to those who don't - myself included!

In my opinion release intervals are just fine. I loved Prophecies, playing it through took time, unlike in Factions after one weekend it was "finished" with 1 of my char.

I'm into pve, and there was about 3 month pause in playing Factions after finishing it with 3 chars. Nightfall is truly a delight and now I'm loving Guild Wars again. Long live Nightfall! Now its time again to explore some Elonian soil...

I think the interval of 6 months is nice. I liked prophesies, and I did like factions ( I lost interest trying to move characters through Tyria so slowly. Short attention span). Nightfall came out at just the right time for me. Just before midterms. heh. Factions was starting to become just as much of a grind as Proph.

However, I do see a problem with the chapters coming out this quickly. Say you wanted to do one of the cooperative missions or one that requires multiple actual people, from the earlier chapters, it can sometimes be difficult to find others in the now deserted towns. I still have an elementalist who has received a birthday present still sitting in pre-searing. I cringe when I consider trying to take her though the desert. She may just sit in pre-searing forever.

But again, the 6 month interval is nice for those of us with short attention spans. and Nightfall seems to be especially detailed.

Heh, we were just talking about this in guild chat a few days ago. Personally I think Nightfall is a lot more....Epic I guess. It feels alot more like prophecies and I'm really enjoying playing through it and I'm just taking my time to enjoy it all. However, there are some stuff which just seem...incomplete...sorta like the CE dance effects which were released after the official game release.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that ANet didn't do NF properly, I love NF and I think it was really well done but I think ANet should put a bit more time into the campaigns and fix up all the little things before release =/ This would also allow the players to play more of that campaign I guess =P

I'm not bashing ANet at all btw =/

I really see no need for them to postpone. Once they start doing that, I can guarantee you they will start losing customers.

When they release chapters quickly, you have the option to hold off on buying a new chapter until you get everything completed that you wanted to complete in others. Just because you're moving slowly through the game, which there's nothing wrong with, doesn't mean everybody is. Once everybody's gotten all of their characters through NF that they want to, what is there left for them to do? A lot of people sit around and grind farm for a few months until the new chapter is released. If they make it even longer, a lot of people are going to get bored with it and move on.

There's no need to complain about it. Just don't buy the next until you're ready.

@fgarvin - Posters seem to be missing your point about your problem being keeping up with guildmates progress so that you can do things as a group (which is one of the purposes of a guild).

I have a similar problem. I have a very small guild and a 3-month later purchase of Prophecies. Factions came out when I had only been playing for 2 months. I have never caught up. I haven't ever finished Prophecies with any character (got war & mes as far as Iron Mines). I've completed Factions with my warrior (mes and Canthan ranger almost there). Now I have brought my warrior over to NF so I can keep her moving through it with the quicker player while I also try to keep my Dervish up to speed (I was sick for two days and dropped 3 levels behind).

Maybe I can hire a neighborhood kid to bring my other characters along. I can read while he plays. Of course, then he/she will want to get their own copy and I'll have to search for a new helper. That sounds like more work.

fgarvin, we can't win. To depress you even more, I usually play 20-25 hours a week. So the forecast for you does not look good.