Advice: talk to everyone, especially named npcs in hard to reach places, you will be rewarded.
^^This
If you are wandering around and see someone called "Citizen" or "Soldier" or something else generic, you can still interact with them and will get a response, but you are unlikely to get much more than a hello out of them....
NAMED NPCs normally have something interesting to tell your or trigger off dynamic events. This involves paying attention to the world and not just running aroun clicking on people with giant !s on the head....and I love it!
Cluck Cluck, Gibber Gibber, My Old Mans A Mushroom
Over the 3 day period, i got to lvl 32 and the login screen showed 19% explored. This was at a rate of maybe 9 hours each day.
To those who say it will take months to get to all of it... mmm probably not. You will probably see 100% of the PoI's, vista's, etc. in 45 days of casual gaming (3 hours a day).
What some may not realize, once you get into the 25-35 zones, the racial area's start to converge. You get a better sense of the size of the world as compared to when you were in your racial homes from level 1-25.
The world is big though - and it will be cool to find all the dynamic events that pop up here and there.
I plan to explore a ton in this game, this is honestly what I did most of the time in the beta anyways. I am sure I will get to 80 faster than most, but I also want to try to 100% each zone (or at least close to it) as I get through them. I am sure my main will be maxed out exploration at some point if the game keeps me interested that long.
I just had a ton of fun exploring and can't wait to do more of it!
I'm also going to go for 100% map completion on my first character. It's just too enjoyable not to do it. This game is not about the lvl grind. I'd say that taking the time to fully explore the game is a much more rewarding way of experiencing this game, than rushing to 80 and then figuring out whats left.
I don't know if I'll try and do this on multiple characters (will probably craft the others up), but I'll definitely be doing it on at least one.
Wow! That's the kind of thing I'd have to find on complete accident to ever find myself. I mean I was right there getting the vista point. After I got it I just jumped off the spar and considered myself content. To think of all the things I missed by not looking closer.
I just know that for many the race is on. We will have to endure the threads from people that race to 80 and then try to claim how shallow the game is despite the fact that they missed nearly the whole thing during the race.
Not one developer has found the definitive way to drive that single player console mentality from those players. Racing to max level does not mean you beat the game.
I applaud ANET for trying. They might even be the closest developer to achieving that lofty goal but as yet they have not won the war on the locusts.
In a way they actually have. By making the leveling a flat rate, rather than a logarthmic one, they have given the best of both worlds to those that feel level top is the pinnacle of achievement.
First, they can rush the game, get the chance to boast on YouTube how they beat GW2 in x hours and then, when they are finished stroking their E-peens after playing 2 or 3 other games to actual completion, they can be surprised when they come back to the game and actually find things that they never seen, and then get to brag about replayability.
You get quite good loot from finishing all explore/hearrts in an area. Usually a few greens and often special stuff like transmutation stones.
You can rush to 80 but exploring is great and xp and gives rather good items too. Also its quite fun. Some people rave about the Secret World investiagtion and sabotage missions, but really those missions are not nearly as involved, puzzling or challenging as some the GW2 exploring things.
I can name 5 different hidden area/jump puzzle type things that are challenging both mentally and physically that were just more intense and more freeform than anything I saw in TSW. Although TSW does make better use of lighting. I like that they have a numbre of places where you need a headlamp or flares. GW2 has one place (Eternal BG jump puzzle) but TSW does it alot more.
The wierd thing is TSW fans act like invesitgation mission mean there is more investiaging going on. But they tell you waht to do. GW2 has tons of things to investigate and the major ones are left completely open for you to find and figure out. It just strikes me as really peculia. Anyone who ran the entire Cuatl jump puzzle solo in the Asura Starter land should realize that GW2 stuff like that is just more challenging and has more of a requirement for free thinking/problem solving.
How many of you are going to go to each zone (including the starter areas) and fully explore EVERYTHING instead of racing to 80? I played most of the weekend (about 20 hours total) and explored about 85% of the Asura starter area.
I was just running around trying out various weapon sets and strategies, but I kept getting into areas and saying "oh crap I didn't know this was here!" The maps are deceptively LARGE. If you stick to the Renown hearts on the road you'll miss out on about 50% of the zone and therefor 50% of the DE's.
The addition of the Vistas make it fun to explore EVERYTHING. Usually I play an MMO, get to max level and then make an alt or two. This game has me seriously thinking that one character is all I'll want to play. So much content to discover.
Anyone else feel this way or am I just crazy? The discovery reminds me of SWG, I could spend hours just driving around and seeing everything a planet had to offer.
I agree, and I think it's good a MMO finally seems to have gotten exploration into their focus.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Cool thing is if you stay in a lower level area for an extended time (or a series of low level areas) due to wanting to explore every point...you still are successfully advancing your character exp wise. Even earning karma too.
NO SUCH THING as too much to explore A friend and I spent our final hour and a half simply running through as much of the world as far as we could, trying to avoid death... and watching the world unfold before us was awesome. The best was finding little caves and hidden little out of the world places.
Now what I'd love is if ArenaNet added 'stumble upon' quests like The Secret World uses a lot where just by walking around, you might find... a broken sword for example. The sword has an inscription that leads ties to a name on a graveyard in a nearby town - and so on you unravel a story.
Great opportunity to add some awesome adventures
There are Dynamic Events that have a trigger that you stumble upon. In BWE2, I found a toy sword in a cave. I thought it was just an environmental weapon, but it triggered a Dynamic Event. There are also some DEs that only trigger if you talk to a particular NPC. They added an orb above the heads of at least some of these, so you don't have to talk to every NPC you find, but some may have more obscure trigger. (The toy sword had nothing distinguishing).
Over the 3 day period, i got to lvl 32 and the login screen showed 19% explored. This was at a rate of maybe 9 hours each day.
To those who say it will take months to get to all of it... mmm probably not. You will probably see 100% of the PoI's, vista's, etc. in 45 days of casual gaming (3 hours a day).
What some may not realize, once you get into the 25-35 zones, the racial area's start to converge. You get a better sense of the size of the world as compared to when you were in your racial homes from level 1-25.
The world is big though - and it will be cool to find all the dynamic events that pop up here and there.
That % was just for the zones that were in the BWE, as the number of PoIs, Waypoints and Hearts for the achievment have increased with each new addition of added zones to the BWEs. We've only seen 10 of the 25 full size PvE zones. The explored stat also only reflects the waypoints, PoIs and Hearts. If you are an explorer and not just looking to hit all those points for the zone comoletion rewards and achievments, it will probably take at least three times as long to fully explore a zone.
I've logged a total of 125 hours during all the events and stress tests and there are large portions of the zones we had access to in events prior to BWE3 that I haven't seen yet. The world is massive. Getting the 100% in the quickest way possible is still likely to take over 120 hours. For those not just in it to rush the achievments, but actually explore the entire world, doing DEs and other stuff along the way, will probably be able to get several hundred hours from the game world. In an interview a couple months ago, a dev said that if you could manage to find and do every single bit of content in the game, they've estimated it would take someone 350 to 1,000 hours to experience everything, depending on the pace they set. (Remember that with level scaling and the nature of Dynamic Events, along with Arenanet's pledge to provide many more DEs across all game zones as part of the free live content updates, there will always be new things to be found when you return to areas you have already thouroughly explored in the past).
There are always the power achievers who rush through a game in the most efficient way possible, but it will take most players a very long time to experience eveything there is to experience. The size of the world and the massive amounts of PvE content are just staggering.
I'll be exploring everything. For fully exploring Caledon Forest I got 10silver, 3 transmutation stones, 2 green weapons, a green piece of chest armor, an exp boost + a bunch of exp. There's honestly no reason to NOT fully explore every zone, unless you're rushing and can't be bothered. GW2 is the first game where I felt rewarded for exploration, so I'll be diving head-first into it.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
After a few years I think it's safe to say I saw just about every corner of SWG's game world(s). I doubt it will take that long in GW2 not to say anything bad about the game, it's just saying as long as I am playing I'll be exporing it's world.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
I never realy enjoyed exploring in MMO, But after playing the game 3 time now, iam going to get in every place i can and explore everything even if its kill me :P
its something i never thought of doing. i guess GW2 showed me something that is enjoyable.
But that only with gw2 anyway. some much life in this game,.
~The only opinion that matters is your own.Everything else is just advice,~
After a few years I think it's safe to say I saw just about every corner of SWG's game world(s). I doubt it will take that long in GW2 not to say anything bad about the game, it's just saying as long as I am playing I'll be exporing it's world.
same here, although in swg you had vast planets that had really nothing on them. So many of them were just tons and tons of empty space with some content sprinkled around... but I suppose how many occupied worlds are in the star wars universe many of them are fairly desolate so it works out:P
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
Do you get EXP for completing a map or finding even a Vista?
Yeah.
Nearly everything you do will reward some XP. In the 1-15 zones watching a Vista would typically yield around 75 XP. Complete exploration of the 1-15 map gave ~800 XP (don't recall exactly). For reference, gold participation during dynamic events resulted in ~450 XP in these areas.
The map completion bonus was certainly exciting and a huge boon for my character- providing green shoulders (when that equipment slot was empty) amongst other loots and the XP.
OP you're not crazy, there's a lot to explore in this game and it's very rewarding to do so as well.
I remember in BWE1 I spent 3+ hours just exploring Hoelbrak.
It's the type of game I've been waiting for where it's fun to just go with the flow, explore at own pace, participate in whatever game element I feel like atm and get exp for basically everything, even mining an ore node. I even think that if you're trying to rush by just sticking to "the main road" and letting you guide by heart quests you're actually gaining less exp than I do while enjoying everything I come across exploring and mixing the experience up with crafting and WvW.
Comments
pokemonism ;D
Lolz, I totally made a Vista joke the first time i saw one.
I thought they were pretty cool though, and they offer decent xp and a pretty view. Plus some are mini jumping puzzles.
Oh and that godawful one in the Asura city that I don't think you can get back from alive.
me, love exploring ;p i gained like 5 levels this beta just exploring 3 zones ;p
^^This
If you are wandering around and see someone called "Citizen" or "Soldier" or something else generic, you can still interact with them and will get a response, but you are unlikely to get much more than a hello out of them....
NAMED NPCs normally have something interesting to tell your or trigger off dynamic events. This involves paying attention to the world and not just running aroun clicking on people with giant !s on the head....and I love it!
Cluck Cluck, Gibber Gibber, My Old Mans A Mushroom
I plan on exploring and taking my time leveling.
I'm an exploration guy ingame. This weekend I didn't do any PvP but only exploring and I must admi I got fed up!
Music is the science of manipulating people trough sound.
Over the 3 day period, i got to lvl 32 and the login screen showed 19% explored. This was at a rate of maybe 9 hours each day.
To those who say it will take months to get to all of it... mmm probably not. You will probably see 100% of the PoI's, vista's, etc. in 45 days of casual gaming (3 hours a day).
What some may not realize, once you get into the 25-35 zones, the racial area's start to converge. You get a better sense of the size of the world as compared to when you were in your racial homes from level 1-25.
The world is big though - and it will be cool to find all the dynamic events that pop up here and there.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
I plan to explore a ton in this game, this is honestly what I did most of the time in the beta anyways. I am sure I will get to 80 faster than most, but I also want to try to 100% each zone (or at least close to it) as I get through them. I am sure my main will be maxed out exploration at some point if the game keeps me interested that long.
I just had a ton of fun exploring and can't wait to do more of it!
OP, you're definitely not nuts.
I'm also going to go for 100% map completion on my first character. It's just too enjoyable not to do it. This game is not about the lvl grind. I'd say that taking the time to fully explore the game is a much more rewarding way of experiencing this game, than rushing to 80 and then figuring out whats left.
I don't know if I'll try and do this on multiple characters (will probably craft the others up), but I'll definitely be doing it on at least one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx4UdIpaCWU Click IT!! Reason why I love GW2 so damn much. Exploration and discovery for the win!
BOOYAKA!
Wow! That's the kind of thing I'd have to find on complete accident to ever find myself. I mean I was right there getting the vista point. After I got it I just jumped off the spar and considered myself content. To think of all the things I missed by not looking closer.
In a way they actually have. By making the leveling a flat rate, rather than a logarthmic one, they have given the best of both worlds to those that feel level top is the pinnacle of achievement.
First, they can rush the game, get the chance to boast on YouTube how they beat GW2 in x hours and then, when they are finished stroking their E-peens after playing 2 or 3 other games to actual completion, they can be surprised when they come back to the game and actually find things that they never seen, and then get to brag about replayability.
You get quite good loot from finishing all explore/hearrts in an area. Usually a few greens and often special stuff like transmutation stones.
You can rush to 80 but exploring is great and xp and gives rather good items too. Also its quite fun. Some people rave about the Secret World investiagtion and sabotage missions, but really those missions are not nearly as involved, puzzling or challenging as some the GW2 exploring things.
I can name 5 different hidden area/jump puzzle type things that are challenging both mentally and physically that were just more intense and more freeform than anything I saw in TSW. Although TSW does make better use of lighting. I like that they have a numbre of places where you need a headlamp or flares. GW2 has one place (Eternal BG jump puzzle) but TSW does it alot more.
The wierd thing is TSW fans act like invesitgation mission mean there is more investiaging going on. But they tell you waht to do. GW2 has tons of things to investigate and the major ones are left completely open for you to find and figure out. It just strikes me as really peculia. Anyone who ran the entire Cuatl jump puzzle solo in the Asura Starter land should realize that GW2 stuff like that is just more challenging and has more of a requirement for free thinking/problem solving.
I agree, and I think it's good a MMO finally seems to have gotten exploration into their focus.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Exploration is key for me.
Do you get EXP for completing a map or finding even a Vista?
Proud MMORPG.com member since March 2004! Make PvE GREAT Again!
Cool thing is if you stay in a lower level area for an extended time (or a series of low level areas) due to wanting to explore every point...you still are successfully advancing your character exp wise. Even earning karma too.
There are Dynamic Events that have a trigger that you stumble upon. In BWE2, I found a toy sword in a cave. I thought it was just an environmental weapon, but it triggered a Dynamic Event. There are also some DEs that only trigger if you talk to a particular NPC. They added an orb above the heads of at least some of these, so you don't have to talk to every NPC you find, but some may have more obscure trigger. (The toy sword had nothing distinguishing).
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
That % was just for the zones that were in the BWE, as the number of PoIs, Waypoints and Hearts for the achievment have increased with each new addition of added zones to the BWEs. We've only seen 10 of the 25 full size PvE zones. The explored stat also only reflects the waypoints, PoIs and Hearts. If you are an explorer and not just looking to hit all those points for the zone comoletion rewards and achievments, it will probably take at least three times as long to fully explore a zone.
I've logged a total of 125 hours during all the events and stress tests and there are large portions of the zones we had access to in events prior to BWE3 that I haven't seen yet. The world is massive. Getting the 100% in the quickest way possible is still likely to take over 120 hours. For those not just in it to rush the achievments, but actually explore the entire world, doing DEs and other stuff along the way, will probably be able to get several hundred hours from the game world. In an interview a couple months ago, a dev said that if you could manage to find and do every single bit of content in the game, they've estimated it would take someone 350 to 1,000 hours to experience everything, depending on the pace they set. (Remember that with level scaling and the nature of Dynamic Events, along with Arenanet's pledge to provide many more DEs across all game zones as part of the free live content updates, there will always be new things to be found when you return to areas you have already thouroughly explored in the past).
There are always the power achievers who rush through a game in the most efficient way possible, but it will take most players a very long time to experience eveything there is to experience. The size of the world and the massive amounts of PvE content are just staggering.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
I'll be exploring everything. For fully exploring Caledon Forest I got 10silver, 3 transmutation stones, 2 green weapons, a green piece of chest armor, an exp boost + a bunch of exp. There's honestly no reason to NOT fully explore every zone, unless you're rushing and can't be bothered. GW2 is the first game where I felt rewarded for exploration, so I'll be diving head-first into it.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
After a few years I think it's safe to say I saw just about every corner of SWG's game world(s). I doubt it will take that long in GW2 not to say anything bad about the game, it's just saying as long as I am playing I'll be exporing it's world.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Doesn't really matter if A: you simply like exporing B: you scale down to the content (which happens).
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
I never realy enjoyed exploring in MMO, But after playing the game 3 time now, iam going to get in every place i can and explore everything even if its kill me :P
its something i never thought of doing. i guess GW2 showed me something that is enjoyable.
But that only with gw2 anyway. some much life in this game,.
~The only opinion that matters is your own.Everything else is just advice,~
same here, although in swg you had vast planets that had really nothing on them. So many of them were just tons and tons of empty space with some content sprinkled around... but I suppose how many occupied worlds are in the star wars universe many of them are fairly desolate so it works out:P
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
Yeah.
Nearly everything you do will reward some XP. In the 1-15 zones watching a Vista would typically yield around 75 XP. Complete exploration of the 1-15 map gave ~800 XP (don't recall exactly). For reference, gold participation during dynamic events resulted in ~450 XP in these areas.
The map completion bonus was certainly exciting and a huge boon for my character- providing green shoulders (when that equipment slot was empty) amongst other loots and the XP.
OP you're not crazy, there's a lot to explore in this game and it's very rewarding to do so as well.
I remember in BWE1 I spent 3+ hours just exploring Hoelbrak.
It's the type of game I've been waiting for where it's fun to just go with the flow, explore at own pace, participate in whatever game element I feel like atm and get exp for basically everything, even mining an ore node. I even think that if you're trying to rush by just sticking to "the main road" and letting you guide by heart quests you're actually gaining less exp than I do while enjoying everything I come across exploring and mixing the experience up with crafting and WvW.