Guild Wars 2

To be clear, this bag is like a lottery ticket.

It’s random, like every other bag in the game.

The thing about randomness is… You’re not really guaranteed anything.
Well, except that in this game you’re guaranteed something from a bag.

To me, I’d much rather have 200 lottery tickets for a chance at $500 than a single lottery ticket with a chance at $1,000,000.

And this is the primary reason that people zerg for this event.

Event rewards are guaranteed. 1.86 silver + 400 karma + XP per event.
Champ bags drop from champs, should the event scale up.
Champ bags have a guaranteed coin drop, as well as bloodstone dust (for level 80s), and some other items.
Moreover, Scarlet’s minions drop supply bags which contain cloth (which is worth more than leather) and other items.

TL;DR: I got my Endless Quaggan Tonic from a normal supply bag and I’m 10x more happy with that than I would have been with a jetpack skin.

Gentlemen…meet Lugg

You’re not alone Minos. Studies show that slot players in North America prefer lower volatility games.

I’ve succeeded in about 10 LA events and got 2 endless mystery quaggan tonics, 1 blue endless quaggan tonic and… a whole bunch of bleep.

It’s more profitable to farm for ToKs.

GuzziHero.2467:

I’ve succeeded in about 10 LA events and got 2 endless mystery quaggan tonics, 1 blue endless quaggan tonic and… a whole bunch of bleep.

It’s more profitable to farm for ToKs.

Same here….sold both on the TP for instant gold!

Hoard your treasures, they’re inflation-proof. Sell the trash though.

In general I think this event highlights the hole’s in Anet’s reward design. It’s much eaiser and more profitable to go after several smaller rewards in rapid succession (Dungeon speed running, World boss train, Zerging LA and getting lots of bags) then it is to get a harder and more time consuming reward (High level fractals, Teq/wurm, the big 1200 civ chest) which completely ruins the experience for a lot of players.

Sure people complained about Marionette being hard but at least the reward system for that was good. You earned tokens for a large amount of greens/golds during the event but got a massive stack of them if you beat the event and got a shot at a couple good rewards at the end.

“Overrated bag”, as I call it.
Couple of people got their monocles and jetpacks from it, now every single server and overflow has top quality drama about what everybody should do. This, and pedo jokes. Best event so far, popcorn well spent.

guardian.6489:

In general I think this event highlights the hole’s in Anet’s reward design. It’s much eaiser and more profitable to go after several smaller rewards in rapid succession (Dungeon speed running, World boss train, Zerging LA and getting lots of bags) then it is to get a harder and more time consuming reward (High level fractals, Teq/wurm, the big 1200 civ chest) which completely ruins the experience for a lot of players.

Sure people complained about Marionette being hard but at least the reward system for that was good. You earned tokens for a large amount of greens/golds during the event but got a massive stack of them if you beat the event and got a shot at a couple good rewards at the end.

On the other hand making a particular stat only obtainable through temporary content and RNG was a terrible idea.

The word “ultimate” defines the last item in a list or series. It is one of the most commonly misused words in English, but ArenaNet used it correctly here.

I call it “the Ultimate Chump Bag” for obvious reasons. The first week I was all for 1200 too. Then after a dozen or so of these “chump” bags worth about 50-65s, I said forget this kitten!

Every time someone complains about not reaching 1200 and states that the bag could contain 500+g in it, I think… and farming mobs could drop a precursor.

After saving thousands of civilians, opening around 20 of these bags and getting nothing, I don’t care.

Seras.5702:

Gentlemen…meet Lugg

“Not a woman? NOT A WOMAN!?”

i guess i’ve been lucky, i’ve gotten – 2 decorative molten jetpack, 1 Cobalt, 1 endless quaggan tonic, 7 mini captain magnus, and a couple of single use ticket passes to the ship.

Klonex.4562:

i guess i’ve been lucky, i’ve gotten – 2 decorative molten jetpack, 1 Cobalt, 1 endless quaggan tonic, 7 mini captain magnus, and a couple of single use ticket passes to the ship.

Sir, could I borrow your RNG luck for a while…..

guardian.6489:

Klonex.4562:

i guess i’ve been lucky, i’ve gotten – 2 decorative molten jetpack, 1 Cobalt, 1 endless quaggan tonic, 7 mini captain magnus, and a couple of single use ticket passes to the ship.

Sir, could I borrow your RNG luck for a while…..

it’s madam, and yes… yes you can.

considering i did 200+ runs on teq with no mini, no back piece, and no ascended weap. – my luck went to this event.

Meh. I farm bags and rescue citizens for the luck, ascended materials, and cloth.

The worst thing about this event is that mindless farming is more profitable than actually playing the event. While I want to have a chance at loot from previous content, I only get the ultimate bag 1 out of 10 times I play it.

What this means for me is that I either get the ultimate bag or nothing.
The farmers get their farm plsu the ultimate bag for other people’s effort, which is ridiculous. I’m was really hyped about this event, but it has become a huge disappointment due to the unequal profits that come with the different ways of playing the event.

Hey, and if your server actually reaches 1200 while you’re farming mobs, you get the bag too! Double the win!

Zanshin.5379:

Hey, and if your server actually reaches 1200 while you’re farming mobs, you get the bag too! Double the win!

1/10

Just stating the truth.
Whenever you reach 1200, you know there are dozens of people getting the bag without talking to at least one citizen.

Klonex.4562:

i guess i’ve been lucky, i’ve gotten – 2 decorative molten jetpack, 1 Cobalt, 1 endless quaggan tonic, 7 mini captain magnus, and a couple of single use ticket passes to the ship.

You got TWO Jetpacks? :O You lucky, lucky quaggan…

Got nothing but forgettable junk from my 10 or so Ultimate Bags so far. I did get one Sentinel’s Exotic armor piece, but sadly it failed to give me the insignia when I salvaged it.

Zanshin.5379:

Just stating the truth.
Whenever you reach 1200, you know there are dozens of people getting the bag without talking to at least one citizen.

Exactly.

I mean, I tend to talk to at least 10 civs each time I’m there.
(How many players can exist on one map? Seems like at least 100.)

Also, I’ve seen plenty of ArenaNet devs (representing their ArenaNet guild) farming the events too. So there doesn’t seem to be an “official” way to complete the event.

In reality, this all seems like a psychology student’s thesis…

Do people work together to fulfill a common goal (i.e. getting the ultimate bag) or just focus on individual returns, while hoping to benefit off of someone else saving the citizens?

Well, events save citizens, as well. As do defeating Champions, stopping miasma deployment, etc.

So, everything, except rubble piles, helps with the citizen count. =)

Hmm… Maybe for future such events, ANet could do away with the Citizen Counter and just have a general “score”. For example, if we were to rework the current invasion:

- Finding Heirlooms: 1 point each
- Saving citizens: 3 points each
- Successfully completing the Ogre/Lighthouse/Dolyak/Children events: 10 points each
- Successfully completing a Defend event: 15 points each. Bonus 50 points for each location that is 100% successful for the entire evac cycle.
- Successfully completing a Miasma event: 25 points each. Bonus 50 points if all 3 events are successfully completed at the same time.
- Successfully complete the Lawson/Moas escort event: 30 points each
- Successfully complete the boss events: 30 points each. Bonus 50 points if all 3 bosses are slain before the evac cycle is over.

All points are tallied up and added to a total at the end of the cycle, with rewards scaling based on the final score.

They biggest ‘problem’ that folks seem to have with the Escape from LA event is that it caters to multiple play styles. It’s great for leveling alts, for going in solo/small group, for zerging events, or for pushing to 1200 and getting these silly Ultimate bags.

The ‘problem’ happens when the vocal minority that’s gunning for one of those things decides that everyone else in the instance should participate in the same fashion. The ‘solution’ to it, as I have learned, is to shut off map chat for the duration.

Zaxares.5419:

Hmm… Maybe for future such events, ANet could do away with the Citizen Counter and just have a general “score”. For example, if we were to rework the current invasion:

- Finding Heirlooms: 1 point each
- Saving citizens: 3 points each
- Successfully completing the Ogre/Lighthouse/Dolyak/Children events: 10 points each
- Successfully completing a Defend event: 15 points each. Bonus 50 points for each location that is 100% successful for the entire evac cycle.
- Successfully completing a Miasma event: 25 points each. Bonus 50 points if all 3 events are successfully completed at the same time.
- Successfully complete the Lawson/Moas escort event: 30 points each
- Successfully complete the boss events: 30 points each. Bonus 50 points if all 3 bosses are slain before the evac cycle is over.

All points are tallied up and added to a total at the end of the cycle, with rewards scaling based on the final score.

Except for Heirlooms, they do have a point tally (citizens saved) something like that, just with different numbers. It’s right in the patch notes.

Seems to me if everyone saved like 10-15 people and then went and farmed events after that we’d probably all be fine. Granted that doesn’t count afkers like might be needed but I account for them by the fact that I enjoy saving the people, so I imagine others like me would still be doing it just for the giggles.

Mzr.7589:

The worst thing about this event is that mindless farming is more profitable than actually playing the event. While I want to have a chance at loot from previous content, I only get the ultimate bag 1 out of 10 times I play it.

What this means for me is that I either get the ultimate bag or nothing.
The farmers get their farm plsu the ultimate bag for other people’s effort, which is ridiculous. I’m was really hyped about this event, but it has become a huge disappointment due to the unequal profits that come with the different ways of playing the event.

Save a few exceptions, this event is largely intended for “mindless zerg”. I’m not sure what makes you think you’re “playing the event” while “others” aren’t when your reward is either the ultimate bag or nothing.

Just something to think about.

Minos.5168:

TL;DR: I got my Endless Quaggan Tonic from a normal supply bag and I’m 10x more happy with that than I would have been with a jetpack skin.

I missed this part when I first read this thread, but I’d like to comment on this now.

You may be 10x happier that you got a Endless Quaggan Tonic, but I can afford to buy 50 of each Endless Quaggan Tonic with a single Jetpack drop.