Guild Wars 2

Perhaps this is just me, but I’m getting very frustrated that the two most recent puzzle jumps added into the game have been nothing short of headache and migraine inducing.

- First there was the Halloween one which was just a nightmare/impossible to do.
- Now we have this one which is part of the BOTW.

I appreciate the Puzzle Jumps are completely optional, but as someone who plays MMOs/RPGs to explore (which would include these puzzle jumps) this is seriously ruining an otherwise amazing game for me.

I expect someone will reply saying that I’m just “bad” at doing puzzle jumps, but when the game isn’t well designed for platforming to start with (twitchy jumping mechanics, sliding when you hit the ground and bad camera angels), you would think they would take this into account and make them easier.

Puzzle jumps should be a challenge and please do add more, but take into account…

1) larger character are a nightmare to jump
2) the game simply cannot handle jumping!

I love having more puzzles, but stop with the trend of new content being harder and harder and harder to point of frustration.

There was the Halloween clocktower: extremely difficult, with a timed element which was new at the time, and some problems.
There was the Wintersday puzzle: similar in that it way timed and required quick jumping, but fixed some of the crowding issues.
There was the Aetherblade one: long, not so much difficult in its individual jumps, but difficult to finish. A challenge for those who like jumping puzzles, which will be there for us to re-try later.
Now there’s the Bazaar: a whole zone of jumping puzzles, ranging from simple to complicated (either in skill requirement or just in puzzle thinking; sometimes once you figure out how to get there, it’s not so hard to actually do).

All of these were simply different to the puzzles that are already in the game, and as you say they’re optional. The Aetherblade dungeon sounded too hard for me, someone who doesn’t play many dungeons, so I didn’t do it – but those who love dungeons seem to have enjoyed having something harder. This update is for those who enjoy jumping puzzles and gives them a challenge. I wouldn’t say that the puzzles have been getting harder and harder, they’ve just mixed things up a bit, tried new things.

TL;DR: sorry you’re finding the Bazaar frustrating, but all content is enjoyable for some people and not for others, and with updates every two weeks I think we should all accept that not every update will suit us and that’s fine – there’ll be something new soon enough!

I like doing the harder jumping puzzles, it’s one of the most enjoyable activities in the game, and I hope to see more in the future!

That being said, I hope they don’t force achievement hunters to rush into the WVW JP like this ever again. Now I can’t do a puzzle I normally do every day because organized parties are camping the kite in order to prevent PvE players from reaching it.

I’m all for challenging puzzles, ever since post SAB ive been honing my jump skills, (still a lotta work needed! ) but i have to say the… added mechanics to jumping is… problematic, mainly due to latency issues. I feel im better off with regular jump mechanics because of that.

Harder and Harder is fine where completion relies on my willingness to persevere and learn and I don’t have to rely on pure luck or finding a group of other players.

Difficult solo jump puzzles – Good
Difficult group dungeons where the majority of the population is scared off and finding a group is virtually impossible – Very Bad

I honestly thought the Aether JP was quite easy. Even the Goggles wasn’t to bad, though I’ll admit it was a stupid dive point. And honestly, I’m all for harder Jumping Puzzles. There isn’t a lot of super kittenes in the game, a few, but not a lot and I really enjoy them, especially when they’re giving me a challenge.

Though I do think they need to rework the camera angles for characters. At least let us zoom in all the way in the First Person mode. You could do that in Guild Wars 1, I never understood why you couldn’t do it in this game, and it would make some jumping puzzles a lot easier in spots, especially for those bigger races like Norn and Charr.

Give me the ability to use the aspects for the all the jumping puzzles, even if it costs me 100 gold for them and I will actually be able to do them. Hell, put it in the gem store even and you can bet your bottom I’ll be the first in line for it.

I don’t think these jumps are all that difficult….even people in my guild that term at JP have managed to easily get the 40 crystals. You don’t need to get then all anyway; if one is too difficult skip it, maybe come back to it. As for the Halloween puzzle, that was extremely entertaining. Sure people got frustrated at all the fails but we always had a blast failing. It clearly wasn’t impossible, as many people eventually finished it. The winter JP was a joke compared to it. Now the gripe I had with the aether blade JP was there should have been checkpoint areas like in EBjp, where you wouldn’t need to completely start over in the event you fell after a given point.

I completed the Aetherblade JP and made it to the diving goggles, but cratered when I missed the water (by 1/1000th of an inch). A mistake in this puzzle is death and since no one is ever there now, you must waypoint out and start all over. For me, this is now a hassle and not fun so I will not be getting dive master. It is the only one I lack.

I thought the Halloween Clocktower was way harder than the jumping in Bazaar. And I really only see the bugginess in platforming in the Dashing minigame, everywhere else seems fine to me.

What part of the Bazaar are you having a hard time with?

I wanted to add my voice to those who are asking that the dev team please stop leading this game toward more and more of these jumping “puzzles”. These types of events are disturbingly similar to the old NES days of punishing mechanics that just simply aren’t fun.

Why do the developers feel the need to implement such an absurdly archaic method of design that really only appeals to the fringe minority of players who gladly tell others to “don’t play”?

It’s slowly turning off not only me, but close friends who have played (and had fun with) this game since in the beginning. Please stop steering the new content toward punishing content meant only for masochists.

Thank you.

The Aetherblade jumping puzzle needs a FREE waypoint in it. That can only used if the player is within the jumping puzzle area. This is needed because it’s too easy to fall to your death in the JP. And it’s not fun to keep paying for waypoints to finish the JP.

So, the day before this came out I had just given up on the Aetherblade JP and told myself that I would practice on some simpler ones and come back.

I was really bummed when I heard that the new update was going to be a “jumping puzzle” too because I sucked at it.

But I gave it a shot and I had a lot of fun with it ! I think it will just vary person to person – you say it’s getting harder and harder, but I found this WAY easier than the Aetherblade one.

You don’t need the Dive here or in Aetherblades to get Dive Master, do you ? I know a lot of people already have it and had it before the Aetherblade one, too (making it optional). I really do wish there was a checkpoint or two in there.

jumping puzzles have proven to be one of the game’s most popular features, so of course they’ll keep adding more. it’s what the majority wants.

that said, this living story update is probably the best update since launch. i’m not talking the achievements and new PvP map (although those are awesome as well), i’m talking strictly living story stuff.

Normally I absolutely hate jumping puzzles and usually just have a friend or random Mesmer who happens to be around port me to the end, but I actually really like the bazaar. I died ALOT, but it was still fun exploring the whole town. And all those powerups like the lightning pull made it really interesting. My only gripe was that the WP wasn’t free and it ended up costing me a lot. It’s a town, why the hell wouldn’t the waypoints in it be free?

This JP is hard, but you are not timed to do so. Take your time, don’t rush. You will get it eventually.

I don’t think they make them hard_on purpose. Mostly they become hard when the design of the jumping puzzle meets the design of the rest of the game.

edit: underscores for the kitten-filter.

I’m not much of a fan of JPs. However, the crystal hunt at the Cliffs was addictive. I like the new elemental skills and the thought required to get to certain crystals. Something about each crystal being its own challenge was much more appealing than a long chain of jumps that we get from typical JPs.

Edit: for addictive grammar

I’ll never understand why people use “addicting” over addictive. Sorry, it’s just a personal bug. Sort of a twitch really. xD

On topic:

Am I reading this correctly? Are people actually arguing for less challenging content? Really!? The game doesn’t have enough of it as it is and you’d prefer it to be even easier. The Mad King’s Clock Tower was far from being impossibly difficult. Otherwise there would only be a handful of people with completions. I would argue that the puzzles aren’t difficult enough. There should be puzzles that require a massive effort and only a handful of dedicated few to be credited with completions. Please, enough of this homogenization.

Sorry, I have to flatly out disagree. These jumping puzzles are fun because they are challenging. It is one of the strongest points of the game. Bazaar of the Four Winds has been one of the best updates to the game yet.

Harder and harder?
I don’t think this one was too hard, even members of our guild who are not good at jumping puzzles got it done with a little help (like showing them how to get to some crystals). And if there is no way you can get somewhere just ask one of the friendly mesmers next door ;-)
To be honest I personally loved it, it was a lot of fun and at the end of visiting all the crystals I could not help but feel sad hoping for more of this content

IMO – It might help if norn and charr could get a temporary size decrease.

Darn asura demonstrating their superiority once again.

deviller.9135:

This JP is hard, but you are not timed to do so. Take your time, don’t rush. You will get it eventually.

Actually that new JP there are moments when you can’t just stop and take your breath, due to the added enemies who can shoot at you or the environmental damage.

That is one reason I was so frustrated, because given time to sit and breath I could probably do it. But when you also have an enemy taking pot shots at you beneath (some of which can push you off objects from a distance) its taken it too far.

I don’t new jumping puzzles, I find them challenging/fun/frustrating all in one. However, what I’m really waiting for is some real story lines. Not just one cutscene per patch…

The only issue I had with the Sky Crystal Scavenger Hunt was the lightning skill bugging out by just stopping in mid air between two of the non-manual points. Sure, I raged and threatened bodily harm at times, like when sliding off a ledge that looked “flat enough.” However, the content was challenging but doable — and I am far from “good” at jumping. The best part imo was having to figure out a way to get to some of the crystals.

I’d certainly prefer manual dexterity challenges in the form of puzzles like these, or the racing mini-game, than in boss fights like Frizz that I walk away from needing ibuprofen for my arthritis.

DoctorOverlord.8620:

IMO – It might help if norn and charr could get a temporary size decrease.

Darn asura demonstrating their superiority once again.

Honestly it’s probably because I have played a norn for……….what…8 months now, but I find it much harder to do JPs on anything smaller then a max height female norn now.

Heaven forbid you are ever challenged in life.

I hear there are some people who don’t like biscuits. A concept that took me many moons to accept. No but joking aside, you could have the best game mechanic since sliced bread and if you introduce hundreds of thousands of people to it some will just not like it.

That’s ok, in fact that’s good. Would be boring world if we all liked the same things.

Here’s my personal take on jumping puzzles in this game, they are bloomin amazing! Jumping from platform to platform has been a bread and butter activity since games existed. It’s familiar, it’s challenging and it even knocks on the door of a humans most basic need to climb.

In Guild Wars 2 the developers have not only made them look different, feel different and display some truly genesis mechanics.. they are also integrated into the various zones with such thought and context. Like the Pig Iron Quarry puzzle or Goemm’s Lab, they just fit so well into where they are placed.

Like all games, I want to have the bar raised from time to time. You have to assume that players will have done a few jumping puzzles on their way through the game as they are everywhere and are now linked to dailies/acheivment points. So after doing 30 puzzles at level 1 why for the love of god would the devs not do a few JPs that are a little harder?

I think that’s the problem with many players who play GW2, when a challenge comes along they don’t like it. ‘Why shouldn’t I have access to everything will little effort or commitment’ is what Im hearing here. Sorry if that sounds harsh but it’s the way I see it.

Please ArenaNet keep doing what you are doing as the jumping puzzles in your game are one of its greatest and unique features, he’ll even WoW has started copying them so Ypu must be doing something right