I hope the next DLC is allows for a bit more exploration

[anameforobsidian]

I thought Beast of Winter was pretty good, but it was also pretty linear.  I'd really like one of the DLCs to allow for player exploration.  The really nice thing about the White March is you had a new village with tons of sidequests / events, and some very large areas with quite a lot of content.  In one White March area there's a god's curse, a pack of vampires, an archmage killing his apprentice, and a den of Ogres.  The new island has great atmosphere, but there are only two sidequests.  I'd like some more wide open spaces.

Edited August 4, 2018 by anameforobsidian

[Clawdius_Talonious]

The initial info blurb about it says "‘Seeker, Slayer, Survivor’ available in September 2018, is a combat-focused expansion taking place on a previously undiscovered island that will challenge the martial prowess of your party, and your tactical skills as a commander, as you embark on a mission to rediscover ancient relics, and pit your party against Eora’s most skilled and savage." which doesn't indicate to me that we'll be gifted with a ton of stuff to explore. It sounds more like we'll uncover some kind of competition, and as I understand it there's some reason to imagine a lot of this DLC will be a sort of arena style battle with progression through different enemies.

 

That said, I'd love to be wrong, we've got an entire island to explore and that could mean a variety of locations that aren't essential and the potential for exploration. A network of caverns or something like that could potentially let us navigate warrens beneath the island, sneak poison into other competitors supplies and gain an unsportsmanlike advantage in these fights. I'm always down for some exploration in these sorts of games, and I'd really love to see a variety of locations that were a sort of "pick one of 3, blocking off access to the other 2" sort of exploration even if that meant that for people looking for one specific magic item that they would be kind of forced into picking their correct path to get it. I can understand why that sort of content is tough to balance and feels frustrating when people find out they could have gotten X that they wanted when they chose another path and got Y they didn't care about...

 

I'm not entirely sure what we can expect, but I don't think we'll be seeing a ton of exploration in any of these DLC packs, which if that is the case will be a real shame. If anything, The Forgotten Sanctum sounds like it has more potential exploration in it than SSS, going mostly off of the name alone. TFS sounds like it could be a giant dungeon, which is something I've always got a fondness for. SSS seems more like it's just going to be a Galawain themed competition, but I may be reading too much into suppositions I've seen on this forum and such. Hopefully there's at least a bit of content in SSS that scratches the optional exploration itch.

[Purudaya]

I thought Beast of Winter was pretty good, but it was also pretty linear.  I'd really like one of the DLCs to allow for player exploration.  The really nice thing about the White March is you had a new village with tons of sidequests / events, and some very large areas with quite a lot of content.  In one White March area there's a god's curse, a pack of vampires, an archmage killing his apprentice, and a den of Ogres.  The new island has great atmosphere, but there are only two sidequests.  I'd like some more wide open spaces.

 

 

Isn't that kind of how the rest of the base game is, though? I actually thought the use of a longer-form, focused, and more linear narrative was a nice change of pace, especially given the lack of large dungeon adventures in the OC. 

Edited August 4, 2018 by Purudaya

[anameforobsidian]

 

I thought Beast of Winter was pretty good, but it was also pretty linear.  I'd really like one of the DLCs to allow for player exploration.  The really nice thing about the White March is you had a new village with tons of sidequests / events, and some very large areas with quite a lot of content.  In one White March area there's a god's curse, a pack of vampires, an archmage killing his apprentice, and a den of Ogres.  The new island has great atmosphere, but there are only two sidequests.  I'd like some more wide open spaces.

 

 

Isn't that kind of how the rest of the base game is, though? I actually thought the use of a longer-form, focused, and more linear narrative was a nice change of pace, especially given the lack of large dungeon adventures in the OC. 

 

 

The rest of the game has a lot of exploration on a meta-level; specifically on the world map.  But most of that leads you to a linear vignette.  Outside of Neketaka and Port Maje, you don't see the same sort of large map with exploration.  Some maps like Dyrford Crossing, Northweald, Russetwood, or Whitestone Hollow would be nice, because in those maps there's a lot to discover in the map your in.  Fallout had random encounters, and random little dungeons you would find, but it also had the occasional sprawling map with everything from a special person trying to protect their cows to a robot giving Lost in Space references.  

Edited August 4, 2018 by anameforobsidian

[Purudaya]

 

 

I thought Beast of Winter was pretty good, but it was also pretty linear.  I'd really like one of the DLCs to allow for player exploration.  The really nice thing about the White March is you had a new village with tons of sidequests / events, and some very large areas with quite a lot of content.  In one White March area there's a god's curse, a pack of vampires, an archmage killing his apprentice, and a den of Ogres.  The new island has great atmosphere, but there are only two sidequests.  I'd like some more wide open spaces.

 

 

Isn't that kind of how the rest of the base game is, though? I actually thought the use of a longer-form, focused, and more linear narrative was a nice change of pace, especially given the lack of large dungeon adventures in the OC. 

 

 

The rest of the game has a lot of exploration on a meta-level; specifically on the world map.  But most of that leads you to a linear vignette.  Outside of Neketaka and Port Maje, you don't see the same sort of large map with exploration.  Some maps like Dyrford Crossing, Northweald, Russetwood, or Whitestone Hollow would be nice, because in those maps there's a lot to discover in the map your in.  Fallout had random encounters, and random little dungeons you would find, but it also had the occasional sprawling map with everything from a special person trying to protect their cows to a robot giving Lost in Space references.  

 

 

Don't forget Dunnage, there's a good handful of sidequests there iirc as well as a scripted encounter, it's just that it's broken up into areas instead of one large map. Another more open hub-like area with sidequests would be nice (maybe in the arena DLC?), but I think larger freewheeling exploration maps like in PoE1 have been replaced by the land/wilderness map to some extent and might feel out of place.

 

I get where you're coming from though, I guess it just comes down to how much you enjoy the vignettes as an alternative. I found Neketaka, Splintered Reef, and Dunnage to be more memorable than any map in PoE1 (with the exception of the White March), some of the smaller vignettes less so.

Edited August 4, 2018 by Purudaya

[misterjimmy]

BoW has add some new content in base game, But I don't think it's can improve main quest, main story still tedious.

[uuuhhii]

side quest are too few

but the map are filled up pretty good