My Problems With Gavel And What I Believe Can Be Done To Fix Them.

I've wanted to make a thread similar to this in the past, but never got around to it. But now that the whole RTD controversy has started, i feel like this is a good time.

It's no secret; Gavel is littered with problems. Unfinished areas/quests, missing dungeons, obvious filler content, etc. When Gavel was first teased, the trailer (found below) contained an abundant amount of content that didn't make it into release. Some of these content holes were filled, but then everything moved to things like Corkus instead of filling in the rest of them, leaving Gavel to decay (pun completely intended).

Gavel trailer:


We know some of the reasons why some content didn't make it in, like the Ragnar cutscene, which was intended for the main storyline that was delayed so it could include Fruma/Dern. But things like the 3D modeled worm (of which I can only assume was meant to be the boss of the Grootslang Dungeon) didn't make it in, with no explanation why.

These content holes are a massive part of gavel, yet I have not seen any recognition of some of these since. I believe that these gaps should be prioritised, making Gavel more complete and a better experience, before other content is.

These include:

• The Grootslang Dungeon
• Dullahan Castle
• Orphion's Tomb
• The statue in Kandon-Beda (what's that about?)
• The realm of light
• Molten Heights storyline
• A more fleshed storyline regarding the Decay
• Revamping filler quests, like Star Thief.

And probably many many more that I can't think of right now.
Don't get me wrong, I am NOT blaming this on the CT. They've done a wonderful job of making fun and enjoyable content for us to play, and I look forward to whatever comes next. BUT, Gavel was rushed and it stands out, and needs to be fixed before more content is created.

 

Your problem was already concerned

 

:O i didn't know bak'al was planned to be in gavel as well!
maybe a win the battle but not the war (not yet anyways) as the eye of the storm rework

 

this is exactly what I've been saying for years. We NEED a Gavel revamp.

 

This isn't on a technical account a revamp.
gavel is fine, in terms of builds and most quest, it was wasn't finished.
A revamp is unneeded and kinda dumb, I'm not sure what they would change about most any of it.

 

Gavel really was and still kinda is lackluster. When it came it was REALLY unfinished, now it's just mostly unfinished.

 

What do you mean it's uneeded? Right now Gavel is arguably the most boring part of a playthrough. All you do is quests, and if not that then CSST. There isn't any secret discoveries to find (not including boss altars), there isn't any incentive to explore, and a lot of the quests (the main thing to DO in Gavel) are fetch quests.

That's not to say Gavel is a complete bore and painful to get through, but compared to other quests and areas in the game it needs a revamp.

 

Gavel’s quests have much better gameplay and less fetchy than most of the original Wynn quests, however they have almost no siginifcance to the lore.

Corkus and D&D is when they started making good gameplay quests with good lore significance.

Also I personally enjoyed randomly exploring Gavel, although there was much less stuff to find than in Wynn

 

Personally, I wouldn't say that Corkus's quest added a lot of significant lore.

However, I do agree that the gameplay in Corkus is a lot more fun than the other provinces.

 

and shit rewards, but all the good rewards were already used so

 

Star thief, eye of the storm, and all the bad orc quests? So much fun gameplay

 

Those are the minority though, think of quests like the Ahmsord quests, Fantastic Voyage, Memory Paranoia, Cowfusion, Hunger of Gerts pt.1, ???, etc.

 

Less fetchy doesn't mean not fetchy at all. A fetch quest is a fetch quest and Gavel has a lot of them, which is a problem that needs fixing.

 

Kinda missed the point, finishing isn't a revamp...
It doesn't need a revamp, it needs to be finished.
What I was referring to is you guys continue to call it a revamp, which it isn't.
Finishing what was already planned isn't a revamp.

Also, gavel has far less fetch quest then Wynn.
Most of them are at least polished, and few are bad. (cough star thief and eye of the storm)

 

I think all of these are just symptoms of the biggest problem; inconsistency. From the varying level of quality between quests to the overabundance of quests between level 70 and 80 while there being only a few between level 90 and 100. Unlike Corkus or Wynn, Gavel doesn't have a consistent theme and is more of a mish-mash of every fantasy creature and element. Heck, you don't really have a reason to be there lore wise in the first place. The player comes to Corkus because they need an envoy from Wynn. The player goes to Wynn because Wynn needs soldiers to fight the corruption. But the only reason the player first comes to Gavel is for a mediocre pirate quest that doesn't have any significance later on...

And this further accumulates when you're doing your quests. Most quests don't have any significance and are self contained. None of them build off each other, or add that much, both gameplay wise and story wise. Even the more polished ones like Memory Paranoia don't end up abounding to anything in the end. You don't need to know anything about the Caritat's or what actually happened in the quest to know what's going on later in the game. And then when you do get to the "main" storyline, it's boring and fetchy, and doesn't change anything in the end.... Especially since the "main" conflict of Gavel is the most generic one ever done in story telling history, and it's basically a copy of Wynn's corruption.

So in the end, it's not that Gavel doesn't have any good moments, it's that none of them build off each other, and they get buried under other meaningless stuff.

 

That is exactly the problem with Gavel.
The province has so much lore potential, but it all remains unused. I can imagine large wars between nations, stuff less focused on generic light vs darkness but more on interaction between civilizations, political intrigue, monarchies holding on to power and the population being unhappy, etc. For example, the rich villagers in Llevigar or Ahmsord are clearly the upper class, but how do they get their money? We rarely see the lower class, the people who produce the food, etc. Like you would expect in a medieval setting.

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But instead, there’s just a million random people who need help with random unrelated stuff

 

Don't know why you tagged me in that, let me reword this.
I'm saying what you guys are suggesting isn't a revamp, it simply finishing gavel.
I'm trying to correct you guys on what you referred it as, not going against the idea of it.
I'm in favor of changing some quest and finishing what wasn't finished.

 

I gotcha. Besides the obvious stuff like the Molten Heights storyline and the dungeons and Eye of the Storm, I'm not quite sure how much would be required to change in order for Gavel to feel consistent.

 

Different wording, same idea: Make Gavel better.

 

I know, but everytime someone says revamp, I can't help but think of a build overhale and a basic change to most everything.
Like when got in the mob update "It kinda needs one still, most of its quest are unpolished and its builds are eh, expect ragni and troms, they lookin tasty"
This would simply be finishing and doing stuff that should have been done in the first place, which was also already planned.
That and fixing some of the shitter quests in the piles of decent ones, and hopefully making all of them less fethy.