Event Participation Problems In Large Groups

Event Participation Problems In Large Groups

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Posted by: Ryan Diederich

Ryan Diederich

Gameplay Programmer

Next

We are aware that when there are a huge number of players in an event, it can be difficult to reach Gold participation levels (or sometimes even Bronze). This is especially the case in boss events.

We are working on making participation easier to achieve in this situation.

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Posted by: nerva.7940

nerva.7940

great, but can you also look into real problems like poor DE scaling, DE’s being bugged out, and us not seeing the other half of DE content because none of them ever fail?

Ikiro – 80 Ranger
Umie – 80 Guardian
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgLbWtvtzdU0Ho0zto6VnTQ

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Posted by: JonPeters.5630

Previous

JonPeters.5630

Game Design Lead

great, but can you also look into real problems like poor DE scaling, DE’s being bugged out, and us not seeing the other half of DE content because none of them ever fail?

We are looking into all of these issues as well.

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Posted by: nerva.7940

nerva.7940

thank you sir! loving DE’s btw, they just need to be a lot more challenging for larger groups.

<3

Ikiro – 80 Ranger
Umie – 80 Guardian
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgLbWtvtzdU0Ho0zto6VnTQ

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Posted by: Plyturon.5301

Plyturon.5301

There’s also a problem with getting loot from monsters when there are a lot of players around. Currently, pretty much everyone in Cursed Shore is doing the same chain of events over and over again (Including bots). It’s the chain between Penitent’s Waypoint and Jofast’s Camp.

They always spawn in some order, so there’s always at least one event up and there are about 40 players around. Now, when the mob wave spawns, everyone is casting their AOE’s and mobs die instantly. This has become competitive really fast. If you want loot drops, you have to use instant cast AOE’s. Professions without these skills won’t get any loot from monsters. It’s no longer about cooperation but about competition over the monster loot.

This is stressful, rather than fun. It would be awesome if you could take a look at this.
Thanks for your hard work on an otherwise enjoyable game!

edit: Just saw the other thread which pretty much sums up this issue: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/events/The-tagging-system-ruins-Dynamic-Events/first#post88954

Menelya [Mya] @ Miller’s Sound

(edited by Plyturon.5301)

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Posted by: Cameirus.8407

Cameirus.8407

We are aware that when there are a huge number of players in an event, it can be difficult to reach Gold participation levels (or sometimes even Bronze). This is especially the case in boss events.

We are working on making participation easier to achieve in this situation.

Thanks for the update, its good to hear as this is probably the biggest issue affecting the game right now.

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Posted by: Strill.2591

Strill.2591

Will you be fixing the tagging and contribution systems so that players who revive others or throw down support skills get the same credit as those who throw down AoEs?

How about the condition cap crippling condition-based characters because all 25 bleed slots can be taken up by two characters?

(edited by Strill.2591)

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Posted by: Masterpyro.4310

Masterpyro.4310

Semi on/off topic, but these boss events.. Specifically the dragon events.. The dragons are THE bosses. They should be super hard. Not once have I ever taken damage from a dragon(minus when I am feared through a poison AoE, but that’s just luck). We shouldn’t be 1-shotted but we should either be hit hard or hit often, anything to make it a challenge. For shatter, you just stand by his left front leg and never get touched. Similar spot for Tequatl. Haven’t fought Jormag yet. Fire elemental is infinitely more difficult than all of the dragons combined.

I almost don’t even want to fight Zhaitan yet so I am not disappointed :/

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Posted by: Sylosi.6503

Sylosi.6503

We are aware that when there are a huge number of players in an event, it can be difficult to reach Gold participation levels (or sometimes even Bronze). This is especially the case in boss events.

We are working on making participation easier to achieve in this situation.

Great, but are you also aware that there is a huge disparity between professions when it comes to tagging weaker mobs in events (even events without huge numbers of players) because it dratically favors professions with good low cooldown/spammable AOE / high fast burst like warriors/thieves/rangers/elm and leaves classes like Mesmer/Necro hugely under rewarded in terms of loot drops.

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Posted by: Limnage.9581

Limnage.9581

We are aware that when there are a huge number of players in an event, it can be difficult to reach Gold participation levels (or sometimes even Bronze). This is especially the case in boss events.

We are working on making participation easier to achieve in this situation.

Please look into tagging as well. With the way tagging is currently set up (you have to do a certain percentage of the mob’s HP in damage), DEs have turn into a competition for loot, and lower DPS builds/profession/geared characters can’t compete with AoE spam.

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Posted by: facelessminion.3215

facelessminion.3215

When you look at dynamic events, you need to take a very, very serious look at support. I personally prefer to go straight damage, but I have several friends that work hard to keep everyone alive and fighting – and get nothing for their efforts.

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Posted by: Avead.5760

Avead.5760

great, but can you also look into real problems like poor DE scaling, DE’s being bugged out, and us not seeing the other half of DE content because none of them ever fail?

We are looking into all of these issues as well.

Thats the best thing ive heard today :P

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Posted by: Shaileya.7063

Shaileya.7063

When you look at dynamic events, you need to take a very, very serious look at support. I personally prefer to go straight damage, but I have several friends that work hard to keep everyone alive and fighting – and get nothing for their efforts.

This. I have to decide ‘Do I want gold, or do I want to get the dead/downed people up’ quite often, because even doing that is going to drop you down to silver or bronze a fair bit of the time.

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Posted by: Vim.7318

Vim.7318

A problem I find is that bringing downed players up is critical to the success of DEs, especially the ones where the mobs can flatten a dozen people at a time. Yet, as soon as you go to revive someone you are pretty much guaranteed to lose gold participation. In one event I revived something like 20 people and got bronze. If we just go for the damage these events wont complete successfully.

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Posted by: nerva.7940

nerva.7940

that can be alleviated by keeping the burst dps of the boss the same, but increasing the AOE’s frequency, or spawning more adds.

for the events that dont have big bosses, adds simply need to get tougher and hit harder as more players enter. most of the centaur DE’s are absolutely trivial. i havent died in a DE so far (lvl 30).

Ikiro – 80 Ranger
Umie – 80 Guardian
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgLbWtvtzdU0Ho0zto6VnTQ

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Posted by: Hologramx.6402

Hologramx.6402

I think if there are very few players participating in an event, it should give us better rewards like higher chance to obtain rare gear or more silvers.
There are some serious problems in the current system that:
(1) The less people participating, more time consuming and harder to complete.
(2) People tends to focus on easy and crowded events
(3) Almost no one in a specific zone but a lot in other area.

There is absolutely no point moving on in an area where there are few players, thus the vicious circle. Less player → harder → less player → impossible → now where is everyone?

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Posted by: Nekrothaft.6390

Nekrothaft.6390

Good. Maybe now necros wont have to cast 5 abilities on a mob in order to be able to loot it. If we could also get a red response in the Necromancer forums that would be amazing.

“Necros are in a good spot”…. let the kitten sacrifice commence.

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Posted by: Distaste.4801

Distaste.4801

I want to also ask that you look into the tagging system. Just lowering the threshold for gold/silver will not fix the problem. Currently the tagging system favors high burst AOE’s, which leaves several classes/builds out in the cold. On my necro I sometimes can’t even get credit for a single mob tag. My bleeding/poison marks sometimes only get 1 tick off, other times they don’t even get that. At it’s worse I’ve seen mobs spawn and instantly do the death animation because they died before the server could report the health bar dropping.

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Posted by: blur.7918

blur.7918

I appreciate the OP. I look forward to seeing this happen

Lion’s Arch Irregulars
www.lionsarch.org

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Posted by: Trock Bronze.9625

Trock Bronze.9625

just one quick note, ressing other players in an event should give credit.

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Posted by: Berelain.2308

Berelain.2308

just one quick note, ressing other players in an event should give credit.

2nd this

Guild Leader Gwens Red Iris Flowers [GRIS]
Commander Berelain sur Hoiya
Far Shiverpeaks

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Posted by: iniside.4736

iniside.4736

We are aware that when there are a huge number of players in an event, it can be difficult to reach Gold participation levels (or sometimes even Bronze). This is especially the case in boss events.

We are working on making participation easier to achieve in this situation.

Instead of making paritcipation easier, you should just increase mobs spawn and their strenght.
When there are 50 players, there should spawn at least 50 mobs (better 75-100), they should have 1.5x player health and 1.3x player damage.
Also there should be included special mobs, that will stomp aoe on players, cc them, fear them etc.

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Posted by: nerva.7940

nerva.7940

Apparently, the dragon bosses are on a fixed respawn timer. They’re getting farmed. Come on guys, that’s just silly. Come on!

Ikiro – 80 Ranger
Umie – 80 Guardian
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgLbWtvtzdU0Ho0zto6VnTQ

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Posted by: frOst.2198

frOst.2198

thank you sir! loving DE’s btw, they just need to be a lot more challenging for larger groups.

<3

Ok, please let me address this.

I am a GAMER. I consider myself to be the top echelon of gamer. I play every type of game, and i play them a lot. I also have my MBA, design games in my spare time, and program. I’ve been hardcore, and casual, often times in the same game.

This gives me a very different perspective on games when I look at them.

Players do not want ‘difficult’ encounters. They want ‘challenging’ and ‘engaging’ encounters.

Do not make the same mistake as Jay Wilson and D3. The fight mechanics in this game (and in most games) leaves only a bit of leeway into how challenging an encounter can become without becoming frustrating.

Watch that line carefully!

Combat difficulty is NOT the answer to making DEs more engaging. Similar to WoW raids, the difficulty should come in organization and strategic positioning. That is the entire point of a group based quest system is it not?

Thus, when seeking to increase the ‘challenge’ of DEs, you need to:

1) Split the zerg
- This can be done by having multiple objectives within the same DE.
Something like, “You can only attack the boss when these 2 points are controlled.” Where 2 nodes act as ‘shield removers,’ and are continually blasted by waves of minions that need to be killed. This splits the zerg into 3 groups, 2 at each of the nodes, and 1 killing the boss.

2) Brute force isn’t the end all be all
- Failure does not indicate the end
So maybe the DE arena is sealed off. Players run into an area and the doors close on them. You die, and youre out. Maybe there are no enemies at all and only spikes/megalasers that try and impale/toast you. Maybe the floor crumbles over a lava pit. Maybe only 1 person needs to survive for you to succeed. In circumstances like this failure is expected, but the quest goes on, just in a different way.

Give players a chance to fight back and reclaim their honor. Keep events moving. I made the suggestion for cyclical DEs…that NEEDs to be implemented. Its just good game design.

3) Hold the fort
- Increase wave difficulty until defeated
One thing that I haven’t seen is a ‘hold out’ DE. Lets say you get to the end of the quest chain and you finally take over the enemies Keep.

Well, aside from whatever bonuses we get (perhaps access to a unique karma vendor, or some unique banner buffs that you can activate), you are constantly being attacked by wave after wave of minions. Thing is, the waves get tougher and tougher, to the point that you will inevitably be kicked out, and the chain goes back to the start.

All these things increase the difficulty of DEs without making them frustrating. Increasing health pools, minion # and attack power is THE WORST idea. Unfortunately, its the EASIEST method.

Do not take the easy way out. This is your game…be proud of it, and do something thats memorable with the awesome system you created.

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Posted by: Typicalsloan.8603

Typicalsloan.8603

It honestly doesn’t feel like there is any scaling going on at all even though I can see the mobs increase in level till they hit level 84. This isn’t enough as with 50 people casting aoe things literally die in 3 seconds which results in me just standing there spamming an aoe in one spot to try and get credit.

Spawn points need to be random to avoid people spamming aoe in the one spot they know the mob is going to spawn.

Mobs need to increase in level far greater than what they do. Once they hit the level cap of what appears to be around 84 they should then get promoted to veteran status or maybe just continue to go up in level.

Bottom line giant zerg, no skill, spam fests that occur at just about all events aren’t fun and I avoid them as mindless button mashing to get karma is probably the most boring part of of the game. Sad part is that its also a large part of the game.

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Posted by: frOst.2198

frOst.2198

It honestly doesn’t feel like there is any scaling going on at all even though I can see the mobs increase in level till they hit level 84. This isn’t enough as with 50 people casting aoe things literally die in 3 seconds which results in me just standing there spamming an aoe in one spot to try and get credit.

Spawn points need to be random to avoid people spamming aoe in the one spot they know the mob is going to spawn.

Mobs need to increase in level far greater than what they do. Once they hit the level cap of what appears to be around 84 they should then get promoted to veteran status or maybe just continue to go up in level.

Bottom line giant zerg, no skill, spam fests that occur at just about all events aren’t fun and I avoid them as mindless button mashing to get karma is probably the most boring part of of the game. Sad part is that its also a large part of the game.

again, scaling power of enemies is not the answer.

What this leads to is 1 hit kills and undefeatable enemies, which is poor game design.

The answer is (in fact, I just read a thread about this, he called it ‘outscaling’) how to split up the zerg.

You need to incentive victory over failure. This can be done through the cyclical method of DEs, where failure results in a DE that takes more time and is less exciting (collecting supplies), but will eventually lead to the next, more exciting, stage.

Then you need to force multiple objectives/nodes on the zerg.

Splitting the zerg:

Defense –
As stated already, do multiple node protection where failure to hold one node drastically increases the difficulty of holding the others.

Escort -
Split up the escort.
A mob attacks, and one of the escort NPCs runs in terror and gets lost! Both need to make it back or your fail.

If you fail, you go on a rescue mission.

Destroy object -
Object can only be damaged for a brief time after another group disables another object.

~just some ideas on how to split the zerg using mechanics already in the game.

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Posted by: Typicalsloan.8603

Typicalsloan.8603

This is fine but sounds like they would need to redesign the majority of the events in the game and I don’t see that happening when it should have happened from the start. Basically the events are very 1 dimensional and we were told they would be multiple dimensions to them and consequences to failure but I don’t get that feeling on the majority of the events.

It honestly doesn’t feel like there is any scaling going on at all even though I can see the mobs increase in level till they hit level 84. This isn’t enough as with 50 people casting aoe things literally die in 3 seconds which results in me just standing there spamming an aoe in one spot to try and get credit.

Spawn points need to be random to avoid people spamming aoe in the one spot they know the mob is going to spawn.

Mobs need to increase in level far greater than what they do. Once they hit the level cap of what appears to be around 84 they should then get promoted to veteran status or maybe just continue to go up in level.

Bottom line giant zerg, no skill, spam fests that occur at just about all events aren’t fun and I avoid them as mindless button mashing to get karma is probably the most boring part of of the game. Sad part is that its also a large part of the game.

again, scaling power of enemies is not the answer.

What this leads to is 1 hit kills and undefeatable enemies, which is poor game design.

The answer is (in fact, I just read a thread about this, he called it ‘outscaling’) how to split up the zerg.

You need to incentive victory over failure. This can be done through the cyclical method of DEs, where failure results in a DE that takes more time and is less exciting (collecting supplies), but will eventually lead to the next, more exciting, stage.

Then you need to force multiple objectives/nodes on the zerg.

Splitting the zerg:

Defense –
As stated already, do multiple node protection where failure to hold one node drastically increases the difficulty of holding the others.

Escort -
Split up the escort.
A mob attacks, and one of the escort NPCs runs in terror and gets lost! Both need to make it back or your fail.

If you fail, you go on a rescue mission.

Destroy object -
Object can only be damaged for a brief time after another group disables another object.

~just some ideas on how to split the zerg using mechanics already in the game.

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Posted by: Replect.3407

Replect.3407

I’m wondering that the biggest issue with DE currently seems to be the rewarding mechanic in your (ArenaNets) opinion.
I think the main issue is the balancing and how every event transforms into a zerg fest with many players… At least from a fun perspective, not a reward perspective this seems to be the main issue!

I love the game you have greated, don’t miss that part(!), but there are a lot of things (some smaller, some bigger) that I don’t think are working well currently. One thing is the difficulty of the game with big player groups…

When I fought the Shatterer I didn’t get any reward at all, but that wasn’t the horrible thing for me, I wasn’t that much concerned about that, it was actually the fact that I stood at his foot for about 10-15 minutes, spamming my skills 1 and 2 of my warrior greatsword as far as the lag let me do it, not moving, not dodging, and still getting exactly 0 damage, like likely the other 20 melees near me… It was an absolutely no-brainer and I was actually bored. That wasn’t what I expacted this experience to be…
That was just one example, but I actually could talk about 95 percent of all events I’ve done till 80 right now when there are a lot of players around and would come to the same conclusion!

So, sure, improving the reward system is a good thing, hopefully counting supportive play more in those, but I think the scaling/difficulty balance should have a higher priority!

And frOst.2198 pretty much explained what I mean with difficulty… It’s not just having encounters that hit hard and has a lot of health, it’s about challenging and interesting fights that feel different, not always the same with just a different skin.
But as said, currently both isn’t quite present, at least not with many players around!

But that is just my opinion, so…

(edited by Replect.3407)

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Posted by: ThrustMasterP.1657

ThrustMasterP.1657

I completely agree with frOst’s ideas about making events more engaging and dynamic. To add another idea with a specific example, what about ‘events’ that happen and change the world in some way that do not have an announcement to players. Taking the centaur and bridge in Kessex Hills for example, why not set up an unannounced event changer…a scenario could be that the centaurs every so often kill the small force that is guarding the bridge. They then proceed to begin reconstructing the bridge, and unless a player(s) happens by to stop them, after a period of time (not too long) the bridge is repaired. Now a centaur force surges across the bridge, and a DE announcement is made to players that they need to stop the invasion (which may have multiple centaur raiding parties concurrent) and also destroy the bridge to prevent reinforcements (two objectives, ala frost)…maybe there is a champion who protects the bridge as centaur reinforcements stream across, a third objective. ‘Unannounced events’ or event changers could open up more diverging paths for DEs.

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Posted by: iniside.4736

iniside.4736

It honestly doesn’t feel like there is any scaling going on at all even though I can see the mobs increase in level till they hit level 84. This isn’t enough as with 50 people casting aoe things literally die in 3 seconds which results in me just standing there spamming an aoe in one spot to try and get credit.

Spawn points need to be random to avoid people spamming aoe in the one spot they know the mob is going to spawn.

Mobs need to increase in level far greater than what they do. Once they hit the level cap of what appears to be around 84 they should then get promoted to veteran status or maybe just continue to go up in level.

Bottom line giant zerg, no skill, spam fests that occur at just about all events aren’t fun and I avoid them as mindless button mashing to get karma is probably the most boring part of of the game. Sad part is that its also a large part of the game.

again, scaling power of enemies is not the answer.

What this leads to is 1 hit kills and undefeatable enemies, which is poor game design.

The answer is (in fact, I just read a thread about this, he called it ‘outscaling’) how to split up the zerg.

You need to incentive victory over failure. This can be done through the cyclical method of DEs, where failure results in a DE that takes more time and is less exciting (collecting supplies), but will eventually lead to the next, more exciting, stage.

Then you need to force multiple objectives/nodes on the zerg.

Splitting the zerg:

Defense –
As stated already, do multiple node protection where failure to hold one node drastically increases the difficulty of holding the others.

Escort -
Split up the escort.
A mob attacks, and one of the escort NPCs runs in terror and gets lost! Both need to make it back or your fail.

If you fail, you go on a rescue mission.

Destroy object -
Object can only be damaged for a brief time after another group disables another object.

~just some ideas on how to split the zerg using mechanics already in the game.

It won’t work because people with just start zerging the easier event.
As much as unfortunate it is, events must at some point outscale difficulty to force player to loose them.
And more important they should scale to zerg size. Because there will always be zerg. And if zerg just keep defeated because of it’s size, it will be better incentive to split up, than loosing over again.

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Posted by: Jalad Lantana.3027

Jalad Lantana.3027

There is absolutely no point moving on in an area where there are few players, thus the vicious circle. Less player -> harder -> less player -> impossible -> now where is everyone?

I have spent the last week in zones with hardly any players present, wondering where everyone is. Then I stumbled across the articles in the GW Wiki describing the meta events (the big DE’s) and moved to a zone with several, and now I know where everybody has been hanging out.

The way it is set up now, the game rewards the zerg up to a point, but once the number of participants gets too big, only the fast AOE people get gold, and support players get shortchanged.

That and DE’s in less populated areas, need to scale down better, but offer similar risk/reward ratios as the huge meta events.

By scaling down, I mean tweak the rewards to go higher the fewer people there are who participate and lower as more people join a zerg, with the highest at some happy medium point. It takes no skill to lob AOE’s in a huge zerg, yet beating a small DE with just a handful of people can require all your skills and be a challenge.

HOD
Guardian / Ranger / Mesmer / Necro / Warrior
Played since 1st online ‘demo’ months before the BWEs.

(edited by Jalad Lantana.3027)

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Posted by: Derpinator.2894

Derpinator.2894

Or find a way to increase the rewards gained by succeeding with fewer people somehow.

DE #1 version 1 – 50 people show up and it’s a “win”. Reward: 3c and chest that gives out nothing but shirts for town wear that say, “I zerged all day and all I got was this stupid t-shirt.”

DE #1 version 2 – 5 people show up and it’s a win. Reward: 20s and a couple of blue/green items.

Although, I would actually zerg all day just for that t-shirt, so maybe not exactly like that.

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Posted by: Derpinator.2894

Derpinator.2894

Ha, we posted at the same time Jalad. Great minds and all that.

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Posted by: Solitaire.3680

Solitaire.3680

I think if there are very few players participating in an event, it should give us better rewards like higher chance to obtain rare gear or more silvers.
There are some serious problems in the current system that:
(1) The less people participating, more time consuming and harder to complete.
(2) People tends to focus on easy and crowded events
(3) Almost no one in a specific zone but a lot in other area.

There is absolutely no point moving on in an area where there are few players, thus the vicious circle. Less player -> harder -> less player -> impossible -> now where is everyone?

Very much this! I am one of those people who like to stray off and do my own thing, I single handedly defended a quaggan village under water from a zillion swarms of 5 krait at once.. now I did feel proud of myself, and it took forever, but I could have gone to a busier zone and done 5 times as many events in less time. Been rewarded more for just casting one or 2 AOEs maybe? Zero chance of dying as someone is always there rezzing. I probably won’t be going back to defend that poor village (sorry Quaggans!) because you guys just didn’t pay me enough for all my hard work..
I would love if you’re on your own and the event takes you longer to complete you are awarded nicely for it. Other wise who is going to travel to the remote parts of the world other than for map completion?

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Posted by: ozymandias.5317

ozymandias.5317

thank you sir! loving DE’s btw, they just need to be a lot more challenging for larger groups.

<3

Ok, please let me address this.

I am a GAMER. I consider myself to be the top echelon of gamer. I play every type of game, and i play them a lot. I also have my MBA, design games in my spare time, and program. I’ve been hardcore, and casual, often times in the same game.

This gives me a very different perspective on games when I look at them.

Players do not want ‘difficult’ encounters. They want ‘challenging’ and ‘engaging’ encounters.

Do not make the same mistake as Jay Wilson and D3. The fight mechanics in this game (and in most games) leaves only a bit of leeway into how challenging an encounter can become without becoming frustrating.

Watch that line carefully!

Combat difficulty is NOT the answer to making DEs more engaging. Similar to WoW raids, the difficulty should come in organization and strategic positioning. That is the entire point of a group based quest system is it not?

Thus, when seeking to increase the ‘challenge’ of DEs, you need to:

1) Split the zerg
- This can be done by having multiple objectives within the same DE.
Something like, “You can only attack the boss when these 2 points are controlled.” Where 2 nodes act as ‘shield removers,’ and are continually blasted by waves of minions that need to be killed. This splits the zerg into 3 groups, 2 at each of the nodes, and 1 killing the boss.

2) Brute force isn’t the end all be all
- Failure does not indicate the end
So maybe the DE arena is sealed off. Players run into an area and the doors close on them. You die, and youre out. Maybe there are no enemies at all and only spikes/megalasers that try and impale/toast you. Maybe the floor crumbles over a lava pit. Maybe only 1 person needs to survive for you to succeed. In circumstances like this failure is expected, but the quest goes on, just in a different way.

Give players a chance to fight back and reclaim their honor. Keep events moving. I made the suggestion for cyclical DEs…that NEEDs to be implemented. Its just good game design.

3) Hold the fort
- Increase wave difficulty until defeated
One thing that I haven’t seen is a ‘hold out’ DE. Lets say you get to the end of the quest chain and you finally take over the enemies Keep.

Well, aside from whatever bonuses we get (perhaps access to a unique karma vendor, or some unique banner buffs that you can activate), you are constantly being attacked by wave after wave of minions. Thing is, the waves get tougher and tougher, to the point that you will inevitably be kicked out, and the chain goes back to the start.

All these things increase the difficulty of DEs without making them frustrating. Increasing health pools, minion # and attack power is THE WORST idea. Unfortunately, its the EASIEST method.

Do not take the easy way out. This is your game…be proud of it, and do something thats memorable with the awesome system you created.

This last idea is brilliant. I would love to see a survival mode dynamic event, similar to the Wychmire Swamp thing but on a much grander scale. Reward chest loot could increase in Quality/Rarity the longer the team is able to hold out. This could even be done inside of WvWvW with environmental creatures trying to take over an objective point. Would be a lot of fun I think.

http://trikktheasura.wordpress.com
or follow me on twitter @trikktheasura
Trikke <Sorrows Children> [SRRW] — Sea of Sorrows

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Posted by: nerva.7940

nerva.7940

One of the posters suggested ramping up the difficulty of an event for the subsequent cycle, if that event is won. Difficulty increases until the event fails. This is how we can see the other half of the de content, and this is what needs to be done. U guys are asking for complete redesigns of the encounters and that’s just not gonna happen. I like De’s just the way they are. We just need them to scale lot better. That’s it.

Ikiro – 80 Ranger
Umie – 80 Guardian
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgLbWtvtzdU0Ho0zto6VnTQ

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Posted by: Darmikau.9413

Darmikau.9413

Please also look at pop-in and damage participation values. I can get gold in some Cursed Shore events but barely get any kills/drops because things die so fast. I play an Elementalist and can’t even do enough to damage to mobs to get kill credit. In some of the more popular events, like the ones near the Penitent Path, a lot of mobs die before they even pop in on my screen. In the event that I can see them, they typically still die before I can even channel my spells. The only solution is start casting before mobs get there and hope they walk into my AoE and take enough damage that I can get kill credit/loot.

Pretty sure that’s not intended.

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Posted by: OmniPotentes.4817

OmniPotentes.4817

I think the main problem with support builds is that it makes DEs easier to bot. It’s much easier to write a Rez/ support script for bots than it is to DPS.

To protect against this I believe Anet should tweak DEs rewards so that they require a combination of DPS AND Rez/ Support in order to get gold.

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Posted by: Alexious.6307

Alexious.6307

great, but can you also look into real problems like poor DE scaling, DE’s being bugged out, and us not seeing the other half of DE content because none of them ever fail?

We are looking into all of these issues as well.

I hope so. I think it’s a great system, but much of its potential is currently hindered by such issues. Bugs clearly need to be resolved, but DE need to scale better with huge number of players and most importantly, their difficulty needs to be amped so that fail conditions actually happen.

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Posted by: Alice.8694

Alice.8694

There needs to be something in place to keep the pendulum swinging when the players are winning too much.

Every time a player wins a friendly side ultimate event in a meta pendulum. The next time that event spawns it should have double the mobs. (and so on until the number of enemies just overwhelms the player and they have to absolutely fall back) Carry on this powerful buff to the event until the pendulum meta reaches the ultimate event on the other side (the enemy winning event) then reset the buff and allow the players to reclaim their land.

As it stands now… Dynamic Pendulum Meta-events are nothing like a pendulum. And more like a dam of players, holding the event at one side because the events are too easy and just a few players can easily ensure a positive outcome. (Almost near permanently)

This really needs fixing…

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Posted by: amradio.2513

amradio.2513

It is a natural drawback to the ally system. Most games are easy to balance because parties have a limited size. But here parties are basically unlimited in scope. The dmg potential is so incredibly high that there isnt much of an effective way to match it. Even world bosses, for all their ridiculous amounts of hp, fall rather easily with enough ppl. Basically without mobs that can 3-4shot groups of players there is no way to make it hard.

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Posted by: Seraki.2753

Seraki.2753

I know some events I come across are having the boss go down in less than 20 seconds . That should never happen. Perhaps even if a delay like some kind of phasing would help at least to delay the kill long enough for local players to actually get there in time.

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Posted by: OmegaDestroyer.4782

OmegaDestroyer.4782

I’m glad it’s being looked at. It was a total waste of time fighting Jormund (or whatever he is called) for no reward. It was even worse considering I was there destroying the crystals, breaking the walls, and blasting him with rockets.

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Posted by: Anelyn.4593

Anelyn.4593

I would like you to take a look at some builds and consider some ways to make them enjoyable in DEs.

As it stands now, if you don’t have spammable good AoEs, your contribution is nill. For example if I chose to play as pistol / pistol with pistol / dagger I have no way to deal AoE damage (unless you count Dancing Dagger 4 target hit as AoE) which forces me to pick a short bow to be able to get loot in DEs.

That shouldn’t be forced onto players and each weapon set we choose because of the look & feel & play style should be fine for doing DEs, and still contribute as much as people who just spam AoEs. Doesn’t sound right when I say I’m a pistol thief but I use short bow 90% of time because otherwise am just filling space

With existing mechanic, I’d highly sugest replacing Body Shot with a 3 ini cost AoE to be on par with other weapon sets AoE possibilities

Thank you kindly!

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Posted by: Qelris.6901

Qelris.6901

Hoping to see some changes soon! I’m starting to have trouble with medals now. First time I actually got bronze today, from mogdir, or whatever in harathi hinterland(top right of the map).

I’m only responsible for what I say, not for what you understand.

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Posted by: zerospin.8604

zerospin.8604

I’d like to hear from a dev if reviving people does or does not contribute, because there are split opinions on this one. If it does not, it should, for example if you heal someone for 8k, it should count as 8k damage dealt to the enemy.

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Posted by: Treacle.2654

Treacle.2654

I really like that, zerospin.

So many times I’ve done(admittedly low level) events where I get gold easily if I DPS, but if I heal / res – I drop to bronze or occasionally silver.

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Posted by: Broadax.6915

Broadax.6915

Don’t forget to permaban the vast numbers of bots and teleport exploiters.

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Posted by: metaverse.6821

metaverse.6821

great, but can you also look into real problems like poor DE scaling, DE’s being bugged out, and us not seeing the other half of DE content because none of them ever fail?

We are looking into all of these issues as well.

I love you.

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Posted by: Replect.3407

Replect.3407

I think if there are very few players participating in an event, it should give us better rewards like higher chance to obtain rare gear or more silvers.
There are some serious problems in the current system that:
(1) The less people participating, more time consuming and harder to complete.
(2) People tends to focus on easy and crowded events
(3) Almost no one in a specific zone but a lot in other area.

There is absolutely no point moving on in an area where there are few players, thus the vicious circle. Less player -> harder -> less player -> impossible -> now where is everyone?

Very much this! I am one of those people who like to stray off and do my own thing, I single handedly defended a quaggan village under water from a zillion swarms of 5 krait at once.. now I did feel proud of myself, and it took forever, but I could have gone to a busier zone and done 5 times as many events in less time. Been rewarded more for just casting one or 2 AOEs maybe? Zero chance of dying as someone is always there rezzing. I probably won’t be going back to defend that poor village (sorry Quaggans!) because you guys just didn’t pay me enough for all my hard work..
I would love if you’re on your own and the event takes you longer to complete you are awarded nicely for it. Other wise who is going to travel to the remote parts of the world other than for map completion?

I can understand your points here, but actually no!

Players should feel good if other players appear and participate in an event… If you increase rewards for finishing an event with less players, I can already smell the flaming/hating that is going on in the chat like “Dude, go away, I want to do this on my own! That’s my event, **** off!”

Currently the main reason why I and probably a lot of players don’t feel that good if too many players appear are primary that they really give no challenge at all! The same event, (at least) giving (little) challenge when doing it alone, will get a no-brainer in an instant when more players start to participate…

So, changing the rewards won’t fix the problem, the problem is the scaling/balancing and how those events are working and this should be fixed! An event should take kind of the same effort and time with many players like it would with less players… The challenge should be kind of the same, it should just feel more epic with more players!

And this is where ArenaNet should really work on when talking about events!
(And the rendering feature that causes that you don’t see half of the characters on the screen to increase performance!)

(edited by Replect.3407)