Vetex tried to make the game more realistic, that was the problem, I recommend finding it yourself on how and why because a friend told me and I did see some things.
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I think that the dialogue in AA felt much more real, in a sense.
In AO, almost every interactable NPC is either just a quest giver, or rambles on about some lore for no reason.
In AA, people are concerned over their own issues and beliefs. A guy in Cumulus Island believes Sea Curses are a conspiracy. The one shot pirates turn their most treasured steal, the borealis, into a tavern to get drunk at.
Also, the amount of reoccurring characters in AA just make it much more memorable. You’ll find Trigno and Averill at certain islands every now and then. You get to listen to Trigno to see how his pursuit of Rupin is going. Nicholas the banker is there to greet you at every town you visit.
In AO, the only reoccurring character outside the main cast is Ruby Roger and his crew, which is nice, but we need more than just one character to follow. Evander seems like he’s a return to form with his ship battles. However, the thing that separates him from Trigno and Averill is that he has absolutely 0 exposition. We don’t see him outside of being a huntable NPC, which makes his character feel super dull. Why can’t we find him parked at Sailors Lodge or something, where he explains his past in the Thorne Empire or something?
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What I instantly noticed after playing AO for a long time and what I miss a lot, I played AR and man most of it is how I thought AA might’ve looked like, I agree with you a lot here
World of Magic felt like an actual world
Basically what everyone said but I personally like small details like if you die you would respawn in the area’s vicinity, minor details like that made WoM felt way more immersive than AO despite the latter having features like tanning, dirt, temperature, hunger,etc…
for some reason, the dirt accumulation kinda ruins AO’s immersion
Why the hell do I get dirt on my face when i’m fighting calvus in his THRONE ROOM?? HELLO??? DID HE USE THE MUD CURSE TO PUT DIRT EVERYWHERE OR WHAT???
He never vacuums his carpet
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Aether applies charred remember
yes, but even when i’m simply walking around the castello, i still get dirt for whatever reason
Dust from the eternal mines
“What the— why is the all the food at the royal banquet covered in dirt?”
“I smell the scent of… blood— and… copper??”
“Don’t worry, you all. Our slaves- err, I mean, our esteemed servants have a habit of hoarding bronze and tracking dirt everywhere…”
this is why im really looking forward to recurring NPCs in the future, particularly ones not connected to the main story like leviathan
for better or for worse i want to see where people’s journeys and ambitions take them like maya’s drive to make her own empire or closer characters like enizor’s project
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Wish we got that tavern in this update
Off topic to what I quoted but I heard full release is going to potentially have new music and npc behaviors? I hope that’s still happening because that would really go a long way
music for more wilderness islands would solve like 50% of the game’s issues
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Even the animal noises at blackreach (from wom) go a long way
shhhh HOOF
HOO, HOOOO, WHOOOOOF WAAHHF
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I really loved exploring the map, it had a nice feel to it
Well said
the game just felt chill and low stress, not like the constant grind of AO. funnily enough that perfectly fits lorewise since all the major threats of the world have been more or less taken care of. honestly I would’ve loved it if WoM ended up being an exploration focused game where you learn about the Arcane universe and its history as a whole while exploring Magius and meeting people. also keep the storyline relatively low stakes, no more world ending threats anymore
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what if
WoM recreated visual novel style
this is exactly how ive felt since release, in aa you could see every character outside the story and in ao that just never happens, the closest you get is finding iris on silverhold early on if you go off track
i have no connection to morden or warren, iris at least has the little heart to heart on windrow and the funny points about her in neviros journal, but everyone else is pretty lackluster, and their only hints of existence outside of the story is the journals which feel like lore dumps that exist only because they wouldnt fit naturally into the story
aa’s main cast was just you and theos, who was going to die in 3rd sea anyway, everyone else had their own separate plans and since most important characters were pirates were at other islands, ao has the actual systems in place to change parts of islands and move npcs depending on story progress and its only used for ruby roger whos a comic relief character
ao focuses too much on a main cast which not only makes the player feel like a generic rpg silent protagonist instead of their own character, but means that theres no characters to turn to once youre done the current story
since we know the cast will be expanding during nimbus, i hope that if we have another split up, the cast will all appear somewhere else
i also kind of dislike the shift that pirates had between aa and ao, trigno and averill were more like one piece pirates where they only really fought other pirates and the player, whereas ao pirates kind of just terrorize small towns as far as weve seen with the jaw pirates and the note on one of the new islands (i forgot if it was blackreach or something else i cant remember all their names 
)
theres a reason why ruby roger is one of the most beloved characters in the game, he actually has a goal set for him, even if it is ultimately just becoming the king of the marauding sea, he wants to fight all the corsairs and is actually on his own journey
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