locked gates are nothing but frustration

I know there've been other threads about this already, but come on Arena Net, you really have to get rid of the locked gates! My friend and I just spent a bunch of time over in Haiju Lagoon and when we got to Master Togo and Brother whomever, they wouldn't let us through into the next mission. We did the quest up to it defending the town and whatnot. There goes a good length of time travelling, wasted. Alt-F4.

anti-running
gg imo
stops people farming the endgame items quite so quickly

Yeah, there is NO problem with locked gates on the first run through the game, if you actually follow the storyline it helps you through. But the 2nd+ runs...........

Even the first time, nothing makes you quit the game and leave it alone for hours than fighting your way to the portal and it being locked.

So you're saying that you can't figure out how to get pass that gate, while many other ppl can, so the game sucks?

ok.

Jusy follow primary quests at all time and you can open every locked gate, trust me. I did.

This is why the locked gates in the game should be account-unlockable. ANet designed this complex city with explorable areas containing multiple exit points, but I'm always led by the hand to only use one at a time (until the quests are just about done in these areas and walking through them becomes utterly useless anyways).

I can see why ANet would want to limit running and to make people play through the PvE quest the way they intended. There were far too many Prophecies players who got skipped through Tyria their first time through and learned nothing of how to play the game. Well, fine. I'm willing to play through the linear quest, where I'm only allowed to walk through basically one route through what's supposed to be an EXPLORABLE area. ONCE. My 2nd+ times through the game I'd like the explorability put back in (think of it as a NEW GAME+ or something), or I'm just going to refuse to play through the game at anything other than a here-and-there snail's pace with those subsequent characters. I'd like to be able to find shortcuts to new areas, find new paths to get to places, etc... - anything to help enhance the replayability factor of Cantha past my first character.

I also don't like the locked gates on the first island either. With my follow-up characters, I'd like the opportunity to NOT have to follow the mind-numbing tutorial quests for hours just to get going with the story.

Just my thoughts. Locked gates are good for stopping runners, but they're also great for pissing off people who like options as well. Making these gates account-unlockable would be an acceptable compromise to either situation IMO.

Sometimes you find yourself aimlessly wandering around having picked up yet another quest and in real life you've got to go do something you just want to bookmark (run to the nearest zone) location so you dont have to go thru it all again.

I think some of the younger players of the <13yr olds are quickly going to be leaving the game alone. which is no big deal ANET have gotten their money.

No simple solution apart from the primary quest but when you have vast space to explore sometimes you just want to 'stop off for a breather'.

another reason could be that 15k armour is in later mission reached towns and not places you have to fight to or discover

it removes the exploring aspect of the game. I didn't do the quests when I played this for the first time. I just went outside and went exploring. closed gates everywhere. Now it's linear as hell.

I just find it boring, i feel like i am playing Lemming all over again.

and no grid they say so whats up in the starting island?

Yeup yeup yep

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s....php?t=3021467


Still not sure what the problem was with running... seemed to cause more player interaction then grouping up for the next mission and following the little green arrow through the storyline along the primary quest guide is about as creative as watching paint dry...thank God for the cut scenes which are fun the first time you see them. That precious storyline ... at least there are several happy people to know that everyone is certainly going to follow the story EVEN THOUGH THEY TEND TO SKIP THE CUTSCENES except for the one hold out who doesn't want to go back and rewatch on their own time :P Ah, whatever.... just seems I have noticed I was more addicted to Tyria style play much more then I have been factions already judging by the time spent not yearning to play.

Also i would like to explore the whole map, but with this shitty system they make me accumulate 10k luxon faction (against my own will i might add) just so i can get to an area.

And whats wrong with runners??
who cares if ppl run or get run, its their choice, and guild wars was a great game coz you had just that "Choice", but this commie approach is staring to annoy me.

They should make it that if you finish the game with 1 character, all the gates open for all the lvl20 characters on that account... u can do those quests/missions so many times before ppl will get bored, ie: i would like to explore the kurznik and luxon areas with my warrior and ele but just thinking about the ammount time i have to spend to get those 2 chars there puts me right off, which in the end ill either stop playing gw or just stick to pvp....but thats a shame as i enjoy pveing from time to time

Why should Anet care if you bring your 45th character through the storyline, map, whatever? If you can't invest the amount of time required to do so, do something else. I have no problem just following the primary quest. Why play at all when it seems to be such a burden. Occupational Therapy?

Well there is one good reason why they should be removed - what if you want to explore the area? I'm not sure but I think it counts towards exploration titles? If it does, this makes it more difficult to attain because you have to do the mission to get into the area.... and in missions where (for example) you have to chase after/protect some NPC, it makes it even more difficult to go off and explore the map.

If you can get into the area without triggering the mission, then you don't need to be hindered by some NPC or somesuch, and are free to explore the area (without the extra spawned stuff which comes from missions too)

If mission areas don't count towards titles, then this point is mute and ignore it

What's there to farm? It's all shit, lol. But Anet says they dont mind running so long as no scams, but this whole game is anti-runner. The hundreds of cripping traps/skills, locked gates and the winding mazes etc.

Would it kill a Doylak to let us go places? I mean when we play factions for the 6th time! We will all be very pissed off having to go through the same BS.

Meh, leave them locked, it stops players being run and getting to the harder missions when they have no clue how to use skills even.

It doesn't take long to get to crossroad between kurzicks & luxons. Just couple entertaining story missions on the way.

like all the assassins who are in the later mission still not knowing how to play their class, your arguement doesnt really work

Oh God, this game forces me to PLAY itself in order to play the later parts. This is so frustrating...

Stops people from playing quite quickly too...

Keep the gates locked thats my view.

For once Anet did somthing right and some how should be implemented into the original too.As for the arguments there is ways to get to waypoints easyer without doing ALL quests just enough to move on to the next level. If you didnt want to play the game the way it was ment go play i suggest you move on and spit the dummy this was somthing i and many others were real pleased with lock gates 4tw.

If you get a kick out of doing something over and over, ur wrist must be really sore....

Mmmm really was an argument winner.You still missed the main point but i didnt expect you to either your post basically tells me like most child like people you want things now rather than earned. The only thing thats account unlocked is mods/runes/skills nothing more.If you want to use another char on another part of the game earn your right WITH THAT CHAR and play the game the way its supposed to.

AGAIN KEEP THE GATES LOCKED UNTILL YOU EARN THE RIGHT TO PASS

The problem as I saw it with people getting run through the game was that they didn't learn how to play their profession. If someone is on their second or third warrior/necro/monk etc then I don't really care if they get run or not. With that in mind, why don't they allow gate unlocks by profession rather than account or character?

I agree keep the gates locked, mission’s are not all that hard to get the gates unlocked.

And as far as exploring the area you start off at point A you should end up back at point A, other wise you run all over the area then back track to get to the zone, so what’s the problem with locked gates?

I am a normal PvE player:

4+2 slot linked = 6 PvE characters needing to get all primary quest.

I love Anet i will buy double copies of all Chapters and play the PvE:

4+2 slots linked x 2 = 12 PvE characters needing to get all primary quest.

The Idea why people got multiple copies of GWP was because they wanted to play all the PvE classes w/o deleting any toons and the missions they played before the first time around can be skipped or done later so they can get to the fun bits first. Now this.....nice job, i just done the Viszuad (sp) Square 4 times now with different toons and am getting a headache from it after 4 hours or so i cant imgaine if i will ever get to finish Factions game before the next chapter comes live...i pity those who have double accounts.

I cannot stand the locked gates. Nothing more irritating when you're out exploring which can often than not be relaxing. I hated finding something and then seeing a locked gate, only to have to double back for long distances.

Removal of this gate crap: /signed

OPEN exploration, not close it down more.

I agree with keeping the gates locked. The engame of prophesies had way too many people who obviously didn't know how to play effectively, and hopefully this will cut it down a bit. The running really doesn't bother me, I've even had several of my chars run through Ch1. Besides, the locked gate is a good storyline element. This area is sealed from the plague. This zone is open to certain people only. Just like real life.

well, what you have to realize the content, and the physical size of the factions map (which is probably between 1/3rd and 1/2 the size of prophecies) are limited compared to ch1; so in order to artificially increase the game content, and make the game seem longer, they made primary quests that lead you around in cricles for three hours, just to get to a city that would have taken you 15 secconds to fight too.

Get used to not being ran armound everywhere. I dont mind the gates....for my first char. But having to do ALL primary quests and ALL missions with 3 chars is pretty annoying...meh.

One thing that I have not really seen in the game is 'LFR'. Whether it's a matter of time or because of the locked gates, I am glad to see a majority of LFG's again.

Let's be honest here... Even with the gates unlocked for subsequent characters, I would still probably play through the natural course of the game. That's the way I ended up going through Tyria. I just want to feel like I'm making the choice to go through a particular exit point, and not feel like I'm being led through one. Every area on the mainland has level 20+ mobs in it. There's no point in stopping runners anymore, since there are quality drops all over the place now, not just in some endgame zone that you need to rush to. Hell, ANet never even bothered to put in a new endgame explorable area like FoW/UW anyways, so the whole point of stopping runners is moot.

This feels like a multi-stage action game right now, the way it is. There's no point in exploring these areas lest you come across a locked gate and then realize you wasted your time getting there. I agree that it really doesn't take long to get through the city by following the linear path doing primary quests though. That's not what I want to play Guild Wars for, however. I want the freedom to walk around the world like it actually is a world and not a straight-line path. Even in Tyria if you didn't want to run, there was at least a connected alternate route around the world by just travelling through explorable areas (usually harder than the main primary quest path too). Not here, however. It's one of the main reasons why I think the design of Cantha sucks. If I'm going to be led by the hand everywhere I go, I'd just rather spend my money on a game like Final Fantasy or something, which at least has some RPG depth to it.

I really hope they decide to make the gates account-unlockable but I think they'd rather alienate people like me instead. People who don't want to run or take a shortcut somewhere can still follow the primary quests if they wish, gates or not.


The locked gates, coupled with the myriad of fetch quests that take you into and out of several explorable zones before completion, are what is turning me off of this game entirely. Yes, the XP is higher for rewards doing these fetch quests, but they have you leaving zones and coming back to them, causing RESPAWNED MOBS, and artificially increasing the length of time I'm spending getting news to whomever. The average subquest is like that Maguuma Bloodstone Fen quest, and if ANet actually read the fan forums like they say they do, they'd realize that's exactly the type of quest GW fans hated.

It is my belief that whoever does beta testing for this game does a horrible job of giving ANet feedback.

I dislike not being able to skip annoying missions/explorable areas. However, the extra skill points for getting a higher score on the missions and generally following the quest line somewhat makes up for it.

I have no qualms with the quest or primary mission problem with my first character through the game, hell its downright fun to have something new to play. But, playing through the game with my E/Me, Mo/Me, W/Me, and Ne/Me which all have quite a large amount of unspent skill points, xp, and gear, it seems a bit redundant. Mind you with my two new character, R/Mo and Me/E, I am finding the learning curve a bit slow.

All in all, with carry over characters from Tyria, and replaying the Ranger and Mesmer classes, I find that the game is rather tedious. Primary quest again, unlock gate, ad infinitum.

I think that Tyrian characters should be able to move between gates after the first time it is unlocked. For Canthan characters (rit and sin) well, I think the gates should stay down until they are unlocked.

the locked gates are stupid. it may of stopped runners but it led to something far worse: ppl paying for help in missions. i've had to hire human 'henchies' in several missions. i'm not lazy to play through the game but these damn missions are very frustrating with unexperieced ppl or henchies.
when i bought prophecies, i've played the entire game, did all the missions and had fun doing them. they were doable with henchies as well as with random pug. but factions missions have got to be the most FRUSTRATING pve expecience and on top of it full of bugs that lead to waising 2+hours! and with the locked gates i'm really pissed off. i'm not even gonna bother bringing my tyra chars to catha, the ritualist i made has frustrated me too much with this new game design.

and what the hell is up with the missions leading to armor places? the skill traders with all the skills in the first town u get? everything is just non-sense in factions. i liked the fact that in prophecies MISSIONS were 1 thing and EXPLORABLE areas and towns with armor crafter were something else. it was fun, it was interesting to discover something. it felt nice to get to grotto and to temple of ages. it was fun to discover a path leading somewere USEFUL.

now, i have to follow some stupid quest to get to an armor place, there is nothing to explore. if i just go out a town, locked. it's much to linear and frustrating. what annoys me more than the locked gates is the USELESS towns! i decided to not follow the stupid green arrow and to my big surprise, i found a warp door which was not locked. so i get in Bai Paasu Reach and... NOTHING. there is absolutelly nothing there, no skills, no armor. it just sais it's owned by somebody. WTF, why is that shit town even on the map? just there to piss me off and poke fun in my face... /end rant

Lets keep our brains locked because of ignorance.

All i can do is express my game experiance, note i have beat the game.


First thing i did upon entering keineng center was to grab loads of quests and head out, i explored the area and came across one around the area of the mission with the star dragons (cant remember name), it was a slight pain i couldnt use whatever was behind it as a zoneing point (didnt know what was there at the time).
Later on i was helping a guildee do a quest i had not yet actually done (though i assumed at the time it was a side quest). I helped him through the mission, it was a team effort. Suddenly after the quest he dissapered, i was like wtf has he errored, then he messaged me with a similar message, i put 2&2 together spoke to the guy near us, and relaised i could not enter because i hadnt done X quest, oh what fun being a noob is.

I breezed through the city slum area, prob because i wanted to get the hell out of there, it was easy but it felt like forever. TBH the thought of doing that area again is making me wonder if i can be arsed to take my warrior through there (I took my monk), yea some people like that area, i hate it.

Thats my experiance of the early game, draw your own conclusions.

Ppl keep saying "keep gates locked, earn your passage, too many noobs otherwise" 0.o oh dont worry plenty of ppl suck regardless of having done mission, quest etc. Plenty of warriors went all "LEEE ROOOOOY!!!!" through acid taps and stood there just to die in some later missions. But hey they didnt get run so they must be smarter right?

The locked gates are only a nuisance, they don't really bring anything to the game. If I find a particular quest or mission boring I should be able to skip it. How many of you did every mission and every quest with every character in prophecies? Did you start skipping stuff to get to the areas you enjoyed more on your 3rd and 4th characters?

i did everything with my first two characters, then skipped virtually all the content between northern shiverpeaks and crystal desert on about 5 characters, then went back and made my necro, who i played through the entire game with again to relive the "newb" experience.
it was one of the most fun times i have ever had.
my point?
you should be able to choose whether or not you want to skip the content; please anet, make the gates account-unlockable. i do not relish doing the same 15,000 booring assed linear primary quests that lead me halfway across the map to open a door that i could have gotten too in under 3 minutes by taking a party of henchmen.
i could understand it if the game content was absolutly massive, and skipping around would totally disorient people; or if the plotline was something out of a masterfully written mystery novel. but neither is the case.
the actual game content is rather small and dull, and they made the bataan-death-march primary quests to substitute for the lack of actual game playability, and the plotline is about as endearing as a visit to the dentist.
its all fine and dandy the first time through; heck, maybee even the seccond, but for those of us who heavily endorse this game and own 2, 3, or even 4 or more accounts, with multiple characters (i have 11 that are currently lvl 20) the prospect of going through the same cut-and-dry primary quests that lack all forms of substance just for the sake of killing runners is ridiculous. and frankly, it makes this hardcore GW fan wonder if he will purchase chapter 3, if the company decides to resume such half-assed techniques to circumvent an inadequete game development.
dont get me wrong, guildwars is great...but what made it great was that you DIDNT have to do te same exact quests every single time you mad ea new character...unless of course you wanted too.