World (& Feedback) The Way World Events are Introduced is kinda janky (& a rework of that)

Word soup of a title aside,

100%ing the Content Book is more tedious than it was before.
And no, I'm not talking about the new caves added to the CB, or the revamped Mercenary, or even Professions for that matter (though they still account for the biggest slog). I'm talking about World Events. In my honest opinion for how they work, they're pretty cool! Even if it's just fighting waves of mobs, all the new models and ways of combat can still make it engaging rather than just shutting off your brain. However, why these things are now worse for completing the Content Book is a simple reason: they are time-gated.

Point 1: The issue of time-gating
I don't know when the World Events I'm looking to complete will activate until its minutes from happening, and I can't really do anything aside from doing other content.

Point 2: They feel too sudden when they shouldn't and don't feel sudden enough when they should
Alongside this, according to tealy (the main guy behind most of these), they are meant to be random encounters that you suddenly stumble across in the world. If that's how they're meant to be introduced, then it doesn't exactly succeed based on my experiences. I actively sought them out not by exploring the world, but simply by going to the World Events section and seeing which ones were blue. The only time it has worked as intended was when I was going to the Light Portal and accidentally stumbled upon Light Emissaries, which I had done before on the beta. And another thing to add on to this- they just sort of pop up out of nowhere, except for Annihilation. There isn't exactly any reason given for why these things just appear, nor does it feel smooth and within reason. You're just exploring the Kander Forest when you see a circle and a whole bunch of mobs ambush you. While they do vary depending on what world event you're doing, they all more or less start the same way.

Point 3: It's difficult to learn each one's mechanics
And lastly (while writing this i didnt exactly focus on ordering these in issue importance, so don't expect anything shocking here), it is hard to learn how to deal with these because each attempt is time-gated, going back to point 1. Even though most of them at their simplest level appear as "beat up mob waves, beat a (or many) boss(es)", in reality most of these actually have more intricate mechanics, either from the mob or the environment. For some mobs, take All Eyes on Me, a World Event that's quite difficult even with the scaling changes made to it because of the Longleg Grippers which can paralyze you for a few seconds, which allows for some mobs to walk up to you and shred you. Another example- Pestilential Downpour, it has toxic rain that can slowly chip away at your HP (and make this a nightmare for shadesteppers, but they're a minority of players so who cares). And as another thing to note- most players complain that Annihilation needs to have some sort of training mode so players can learn how to fight it.

So rounding up all of these points and my feedback on some of the issues with World Events:

The Rework of Introducing World Events
Ok this is actually a more minor rework because the core gameplay of fighting mobs is fine as is, even if it is really simple and could get repetitive, but eh.

The way World Events would now be introduced would now be with a prompt. While a simple chat one could work, the main flaw with this is the fact that these mobs still appear out of nowhere without any rhyme or reason. Instead for a prompt, I'm going to do a minor rework of Approaching Raid, a level 5 World Event found on the Emerald Trail.

As you walk to the spot where the World Event takes place, you see a Soldier platoon. They're lead by Captain Honynn (bonus points if you get the reason why he's named that), and they've heard word of a siege of Ragni approaching from some Corrupted mobs. When he gets to his last line of dialogue, a chat option will appear, along with the note of "starts world event" or "save the world event for later" for each dialogue option. By saying you'll help, some mobs then appear as the World Event Start jingle plays. If the player dies, Captain Honynn will still be there at the site of the World Event, with the same dialogue as before. And as a bonus that makes this World Event feel more integrated into the world, some of the soldiers will help the level 5 recruit get through some of the waves. After completing this, Captain Honynn thanks the player for their service and heads back to Ragni. Meanwhile, the Approaching Raid can reappear as it currently is in-game after completing this.

Not only would this make completing World Events for the Content Book far more convenient as it's just right there and can be tried and failed as many times until it is successfully completed, it also has the added bonus of being more relevant for that level. While some newbies might encounter this world event at the intended level, with the current system, most could simply just go over this thing's presence without seeing how these things work. No longer will a player have to wait for a few days in order to randomly stumble across it in their Content Book, but they can instead just start it whenever they feel like it, with it always being there for them to come back to if they fail it. By allowing a lot of repeat attempts at a World Event, players are able to learn how each mob works in that and for major world events like the Prelude to Annihilation, players would be able to learn its mechanics throughout its fight. And as an extra note- by allowing players to only retry on the first attempt, this solves the issue of possible market inflation with Annihilation if there are so many repeat attempts.

Questions, Rebuttals, and Responses
How would a World Event with multiple locations work for a first encounter?
It could be started at either one of them. I wouldn't say it matters all too much, but if there are, then perhaps an extra line of dialogue could be given at the end for a first successful attempt saying "btw theres a few more locations this might happen again" or smthn like that.

Aren't some World Events, like the Prelude to Annihilation, meant to be done with other people? Would it be possible to have multiple people start a first World Event attempt?
This is a notable flaw given that the Prelude to Annihilation's a bit of a weird fight. I think the best thing to just do, however much of a bandaid situation this is, is to just have several Detlas and Ragni Soldier mobs appear alongside you at the Roots of Corruption. I don't think first attempts should be allowed to be done with a party solely because it'd be a pain to find people who haven't done it before and also endgame players could just constantly join other people's first attempts to see if they get a mythic. Idk, something for the CT to figure out if they choose to implement this.

Some World Events have more of an ambush theming. First encounters would ruin this as they're meant to have a spontaneous introduction.
While some such as Arachnid Ambush are, I still think there could be something to serve as a prompt to start it that still fits with an ambush theming, such as seeing a stray Chest with sparkles on it or smthn to serve as bait before you realize "wait a minute, this could be a trap! eh, i'll do it anyway to save other soldiers" or whatever.

Closing Remarks
Despite the flaws with how each World Event is introduced to a player, they are still a really cool thing that was added this update. If I have a passive-aggressive tone at some points in this post, just know that it's solely with the way World Events are introduced is in no way directed at the CT. They're still a really cool thing that's only in its infancy, and perhaps 2.1.1, 2.1.2, and onwards will make the necessary changes for it.

But my most important final words
WHY ON EARTH DOES RISEN RETURN NOT HAVE GRAVE DIGGER AS A QUEST REQUIREMENT?!?!? ITS BOSS IS LITERALLY SAYERLOS' BROTHER'S RETURN. HOW COULD IT RETURN IF YOU HAVE NEVER FOUGHT HIM BEFORE?!?!?
(also the new grave digger's awesome sauce removing the 12 rotten flesh stage and redoing the crypt makes it a solid a to b tier quest imo)
(also also give annihilation a title sequence like:

Annihilation
Hatred Given Flesh​

or smthn like that (im sorry my fellow dark mode users you have to highlight that dark red text ok thank you all bye bye <3))

 

basead

 

yes on this but that anni is serious threat as shown in cb and why only a few soldiers are coming only to carried by endgame player?
why not make hero of other province comes to root of corruption and fight against anni with solo players?

 

Mainly cuz there aren't any provincial heroes that are still alive (and able to help for that matter). I think a few soldiers might help show that Annihilation is best done with a team. It's also important to know that Annihilation can be done as low as level 30, so some new players might need the help from some soldiers in order to successfully do a first attempt.

 

ragnar anni quest?

 

all the times i randomly stumbled into a world event any sense of spontaneity was ruined by having to wait around for several minutes for it to start

 

very cool post

alternative, less dev-time idea, make them actual ambushes:
remove them from the content book
make it so that instead a world event has a duration of say, 5 minutes, where if you enter, it begins the event. (instead of just triggering once on all servers, anyone who enters starts the event on that server)

 

bump10chars

 

bump10chars

 

this is sick. i need this in my life

 

bumping again and @Tealy ing so he sees this