Yeah, I think that the secret world has taught us all a deep distrust of parking garages!
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I’d say so far, you’re certainly right. It’s mostly some missions that would make more sense if AEGIS were still around, but where a new player probably wouldn’t realize.
There’s one notable exception in early Kaidan (where you take a trip to the sewers), and then there’s the Orochi Tower, where you’ll run into quite a bit of AEGIS-but-not-AEGIS content.
I think we’ll all be interested in hearing what you think of those missions.
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To be honest, I always found more jarring the disappearance of Manufactory A and especially B, over AEGIS per se. A good chunk of storyline literally makes no sense without Manu B (from why we were in Tokyo in the first place, to Daimon and Emma’s true relevance, to a certain chat with a certain guy we have over the phone in SA).
I don’t agree. The additional story elements are pretty minor - yes, we get a bit more info on Emma, but it’s hardly key to the story progression.
We know why we’re in Kaidan, that was covered pretty extensively - like from the beginning of the game. MF and MFB gave a bit more about the cleanup once we’ve cleared the tower, and created some interesting potential for future plot lines. It was never an integral part to the story though, all it did was close off a few side stories. The amount of story content is pretty low though - two cutscenes, a couple of short video calls and a bit of information about the occupants of the facility from the lore. There’s nothing major.
Guess you haven’t been paying much attention to Daimon’ speech after MB then.
Fairly sure that you mean after MF, the cutscene for the start of MFB. And yeah, that’s about the cleanup job. It gives a bit more detail about what was going on but again, it doesn’t have any massive impact on any of the rest of the story.
All it does is confirm that there’s a Gaia Engine under the tower and that Emma’s using it to clean up Kaidan. Which is a great reveal, lots of potential, but it doesn’t change much. The bomb is not tied to this detail.
No impact? at the end of Lilith’s storyline we’ve actively helped John reach his objective… and suddenly, at the end of the SA storyline he’s mad at us for no apparent reason. It literally makes no sense unless MFA and MFB are factored in since that’s where we turn against him in order to save Anima.
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John’s objectives are pretty unclear. He’s pretty happy to shred your mind, until he realises you have a common foe in Lilith. Like he said, we have unfinished business with him from before the tower, but for that time our goals were aligned. Ofc the question is that he’s helped us against the Morning Light for some reason, but we’ve no clue what his goals are now. The Grigori are probably going to want John boxed though.
AEGIS as a concept is interesting, the implementation by Funcom has always been beyond clunky. The delay and losing a significant chunk of dps on mob AEGIS shield swap, tanks not being able to impair, healers not being able to heal. In other words, whoever decided on this particular implementation had no idea about what’s going on in dungeons/raids.
The idea was good - forcing everyone to constantly adapt to the situation and giving them the tools to do so - but the implementation was met with mixed reactions.
AEGIS where there’s just three keybinds for choosing a damage type and no self-silencing when you switch would have been much better received, I think. The issue was not, as some disingenuous types claim that the system was “too hard”, it was just an awful chore lumped on top of a combat system that most people merely tolerated rather then enjoyed. But I feel like we’re retreading ancient ground here. 
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I personally LOVE Tokyo and immediately did upon entering the zone.
The vibe feels just right and even when not doing any missions, just running around in it and exploring makes me happy.
More zones like Tokyo, less zones like SA please.
I love the feel and look of Tokyo, though the load time is the price we pay in return =P. I miss the AEGIS to make it feel less like a city just full of filth, and more like a city of filth with variations evolved from what kinda other creatures they were nearby.
As for SA I personally loved the work put into it. Sure it looks bland, the missions are tedious, but thats all in the name of it being the kind of place it is. I love how lively they made the place, and the dialogue changes that happens as you progress with the story. They got really creative with some of the lores, which i for one really appreciate xD. Laughed about the connection between day and night missions lol. I would have loved a few more missions, but that is what it is.
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Sorry to burst your bubble, but we’re never going to see anything like Tokyo in SWL again. It took a team much larger than the current one years to build. They pretty much ruled out any future large urban areas. If we ever get anything similar it’ll be on a much, much smaller scale.
I’m fairly sure I remember someone at Funcom also talking about how time consuming lush jungle environments were to create, like Paikang in AoC. So we could probably expect to never get anything like that either.
The best part I think of tokyo design wise is the Lair. That said there are corners in tokyo that have issues (been a few days since I dropped through the floor) or is plain unfinished (A problem in the far south), also it is too big which shows in the loadtimes.
Storywise tokyo is incredible strong and I think it’S strength has made us dismiss some of the other zones. Even SA is not that bad but doesn’T hold a candle to the tokyo goldstandard. Same can be said about other zones too.
Will we get more? Definitly no more big cities I believe and probably for the best. Even story and characters like in tokyo is hard to nail but that is possible but I wouldn’T expect it especially given the resources.
Nobody argues that it was a well oiled machine and a perfectly implemented system. It had flaws, but none were so deep that it needed scrapped entirely.
AEGIS was most likely scrapped because of its reputation rather than its actual flaws. The players who hated the system were so vocal about it that including it in the relaunched game in any meaningful way would’ve been a liability.
I think a lot of systems like the wheel were scrapped because they drove the casual player away…the old weaontutorial was to long, the wheel to comlex for some…maybe aegis had the same effect on top of it’s other issues.
Its reputation probably had no small part in AEGIS not returning but it’s also worth noting that it served a very specific purpose in the original game and isn’t needed in SWL. There was no need to try and level the playing field and/or slow player progress upon entering Tokyo this time around and we already have a huge gear and skill grind to deal with - adding an entirely new set of skills and gear would completely negate the point of a “simpler” relaunch