Newe Olde Ascalone Feedbacke

Ya when i started the bwe i had no clue what to do. the only reason i got a secondary profession was that my friend told me i was suppose to get one,but my friend completely forgot about even getting one so he nver got one.

Ascalon was... Well... Ascalon was good and bad at the same time...


The graphics were unbelievable. I mean.... Whoooa.

But the actual thing I had a couple problems with. First of all, it's too damn complicated for a newb tutorial mission thing... Don't ya think? I mean... If I had never played Guild Wars before I would be smashing my head against my keyboard right from the start! It's actually a lot more complicated than some of the latest missions in the game.
The second thing is that it's a bit tedious getting your starting skill set together and going here and there to get your secondary profession. There should be an option to skip everything that comes before the Academy by automatically getting the skills you would normally get by that point and also being able to choose a secondary profession. This would be sacraficing easy exp out in the first explorable area and all those little missions for a quicker jump into the actual game.

As I stated in the intro thread FBWE was my first. I arrived in Ascelon ready to
do what needed to be done. I was in awe of the detail/beauty of the place. I started questing right off. My toon got dead alot...Yea alot, untill I figured out the controls.
I met up with some nice folks that helped me quest. I loved doing all the profession quests.
At lvl 7 I was asked to enter the academy with a nice group. At that time I had not chosen a second profession, but was enjoying a W/R mix. It was working really well for me.
Our group was heroic in academy. Then the world was seared, and horrid!
I lost my familiar, and all of my Ranger skills. That saddened me to no end. I could not return to make things right, or prevent the Charr from doing what they had done. Destroy the beautiful world, that I had actually thought was the game!
So, I bartered for some better gear and set out in the burnt land to eradicate the retched Charr with yet another group of fine folks. We got dead. Then we resurected, thanx to our faithfull Monk.We got penalized for getting dead.
Then all were killed except my toon, who ran away from the Charr with a breath of life left. My toon stood on the seared hillside looking at the corpses of my group, who pleaded for me to res them. Alas, I could not,because I did not know of the resurection charm. ARG!
It really does make me feel a bit better to know that I was not alone in making
simple yet critical mistakes in my build. I didn't know that I was going into a completly different game. I thought I was going to a different part of the map.
Perhaps,indoors or something. For training in the academy.
Speaking of, why couldn't you go into the houses, abby, palace? I hope next month we can.
In the pre-sear why can't you stop the Charr?
Where did all the monsters come from? Why was Pre-sear invaded by them?
Why don't the collectors give each class a item? (lame I thought)
Why are there not more secret passages to different parts of the map?
I loved exploring and found cracks in walls that led to hidden areas, yet they were dead ends. (bummer) Lovely spots though.
I got more thoughts, but this post is long enough...Sorry for the run on...

What can I say it looked beautiful. And for those who are not used to playing this type of game, it does what is supposed to do, introduced the basics for playing. I guess I'm one of the few that liked the large areas, but also appreciated the fact I could "warp" back to the other posts and not have to run back.
I did see a few problems though (some already stated: a good warning screen for joining the acadamy, needing a secondary skill, the ever following girl (no offence Gwen ))

[COLOR=Blue]Loadstones[/COLOR] - I found a collector for them but couldn’t find any till after the Searing.

[COLOR=Blue]Training Area For Skills[/COLOR] - why not have a practice area for each of the skills you're given. An explanation of how to use them etc. not a regular map area just a kind of training hall you can go into or bypass, one for each class.

[COLOR=Blue]Identification[/COLOR] - It's kind of ridiculous to spend 40 Gold to identify items in a training area where you only get 1 or 2 Gold at a time. My suggestion would be to get rid of unidentified items in Early Ascalon.

[COLOR=Blue]Academy Grounds [/COLOR] - the area after joining the academy was almost too short. I think I cleared it under 2 min!

aside from rabid PVP`ers who insist that PVP is the true aim of the game with the PVE as a minor afterthought the pre searing area will give people a beautiful place to mess up and fumble around and figure out which way is up at their own pace

the single profession problem will be taken care of in the final release as they have stated they will not allow a crippled build to be made

there will be some provision for gaining the 2nd profession

as for the catacombs being lost there is always the posibility that an enterance to them may be found in a desert perhaps? or someplace

maybe we have only seen a portion of the total catacombs

the area is big and meant to be savored for maybe weeks of average play and not simply rushed through because you *know* that the game is really not even started yet as far as you are concerned

Thanks for the info about the bag seller outside of town. I did miss that.

The cost of the identification kit is pretty prohibitive. 40g for 5 IDs is 8 apiece. In order to make this worthwhile, the ID'd piece would have to have significant value. Usually, the ID'd piece is worth exactly 1 gold. Moreover, ID'ing it doesn't increase the salvagability until you are pretty far along in the game and might find a rare or precious item you could salvage a rune or weapon enhancement from. So, you are paying 8 gold to find out something is worth 1 gold. (This is an old scam, called wealth re-distribution, similar to what Bush is trying to do with Social Security.) Anyway, after the first day, I stopped ID'ing stuff and either salvaged it or sold it for 1g. Not surprisingly, my gold soared.

I spent considerable time in the catacombs and thought some parts of them were breathtaking. I found three entrances and two different layers.

I left one character in pre-invasion Ascalon because I am really, really hoping that with the next BWE there will be more to do. (And, of course, get that bag!)

ya i was a complete newby throughout this and i had no clue what i was suppose to do...Also as one of the people said it did lack social interaction sorta confusing i was just mainly confuse din the entire new old ascalon the only reason i made it to the old old ascalon was because my friend was helping me

to everybody who made mistakes

remember the dreaded WIPE before the game starts retail

you have to start from scratch anyway so you have literally nothing to lose up til then and by then you will know not to make THOSE mistakes at least (watch me make some new ones)

Yes, Loviator, we will not make those mistakes- but what about the people who buy at retail? Is the area possibly too confusing? Once the game reaches retail, they don't want a possibly overly frustrating intro zone. A-net needs to know what is working and what isn't.

i would be very surprized if they are not taking comments from forums and testers very seriously

one thing they may do is simply make a second profession available in seared askalon for those who only have one

or possibly a 2 profession requirement before passing over

we will find out

we still have 2 BWE to enjoy everybody

then the real thing

Hello everyone,

Sorry for reviving an almost dead topic..

But I do have several suggestions to make concerning pre-searing Ascalon..

1. Please make the Academy more obvious? I did post in the gwonline suggestions thread on this, so it might be repetitive to repeat it. However.. there, I suggested that there should be more of a implied importance given to the academy. Nothing that'll bash you over the head repeatedly.. but small things like npcs saying, "when I grow up, I'll go to the academy so I can go on grand adventures like my big brother!" and "My son defeated four (insert creature) by himself after he graduated from the academy! I am so proud!"

So.. sort of a subliminal message that is subtle, but frequent. The reason I'm suggesting this is because pre-searing Ascalon, like other people said, is very large. Instead of one direct route, you have a wide selection of quests and a surprisingly large land to explore. After running to Wizard's Folly, then Foible's Lair, and then to the Barradin estate.. you tend to forget the academy. I strongly believe that all of us remembered only because we already knew beforehand that it was the way back to seared Ascalon.

However, what about true beginners who don't even know that seared Ascalon exists? Plenty of new players will just pick this game off the shelf, and won't spend hours researching the game. I do know of a few very intelligent individuals who had almost no background knowledge of the game, and so thought the academy was another one of those boring classroom scenes teaching you rudimentary skills.. and so avoided it altogether until the very last night.

2. Please consider an option to select some sort of "advanced character creation" for experienced GW players. Although I absolutely love pre-searing Ascalon.. I agree with many people here. If I had to run through pre-Ascalon quests for all four (and more, if I delete or start using my second account) characters for primary and secondary professions.. that would just add that much more grind. Instead of enjoying pre-Ascalon, I would inevitably begin to see that beautiful place as the cause of a teeth-grinding repetitive errand..

So.. can we have maybe a little button (even if it's a bit off to the side), and through that button, can we return to the original minimalistic creation method? Even if we just appear in Ascalon city with the old normal starter skills, standard newbie armor, and even level 1?

Thank you for reading

it is a place to pick up skills and a few quick easy levels with a minimum of time spent

my 2 cents