Guild Wars 2

I mean, Arenanet spawns a few random mobs within red circles … and guess what? They wait for us to invade the map ourselves and farm them. Just like those dangerouuuuus~ dragons!

That’s what we get ahead of the 1 year anniversary? Oh, come on! You can do better … you should be able to, really!

“It’s a story that really affects the entire world and permanently creates content and change for the entire world game-wide, which is really something that’s important to us and we want to showcase that that’s where stuff is headed.”

Well, it might “affect” the world, but to what extent? There is no CONSEQUENCE in failing the event or even completely ignoring it I guess. Why is that? What’s the point, then? That’s not a living world. It’s static. So it’s kinda ironic that Arenanet thinks that a new event-type is “content” which “change […] the entire world” when it actually doesn’t do anything besides waiting for us to kill all the farm. Is it because you don’t have enough time to make all these mobs invade the maps and change things there? Or are you lazy? I don’t understand you anymore, Arenanet

Well, I see that Arenanet throws all materials (t1-6 -> t7) and much gold at us, so we can go buy some t6 mats. More people have a base for crafting 400 to 500, then.

Have you even stopped to think how that would be possible? How much work that would require? Dynamic Events are anything but dynamic, they are all heavily scripted and controlled. Every single location on a map that the invasion could capture would require individually scripting every single NPC involved to stop respawning at certain times and to come back at others, all linked to every invasion event in every location in every map. Each event would require unique capture/fail triggers and custom pathing for all invading enemies so that they actually “invade.”

Realistically they may have been able to pull that off for a single small zone in an extended patch schedule (it’s basically redoing the entire zone), but to do that on 13 maps is more work than what goes into an expansion pack.

Astasia.1459:

Have you even stopped to think how that would be possible? How much work that would require? Dynamic Events are anything but dynamic, they are all heavily scripted and controlled. Every single location on a map that the invasion could capture would require individually scripting every single NPC involved to stop respawning at certain times and to come back at others, all linked to every invasion event in every location in every map. Each event would require unique capture/fail triggers and custom pathing for all invading enemies so that they actually “invade.”

Realistically they may have been able to pull that off for a single small zone in an extended patch schedule (it’s basically redoing the entire zone), but to do that on 13 maps is more work than what goes into an expansion pack.

gw1 had a full expansion 1 year after launch, why doesn’t this game have that much new content?

So what?

Rift has something similar and Arenanet should be able to do this, especially for the 1 year anniversary. I’m not saying that it has to be the way you described it. I’m saying that spawning mobs which wait for us was bad at launch and still is in this release.

That’s because Rift was built for that, and they probably had a much longer time too actually make those possibly. The LS team has to make these events in a matter of months, and the type of events you are talking about, and the coding involved, takes a good bit of time and money.

Yeah, entire Rift is based for invasions and cleansing afterwards. Remember those plant rifts? Man, that music.

I find it odd that even if we fail our invasion, we are still being rewarded. For what, actually?

So GW2 is built for mindless zerg events only? Well, that is rather disappointing, then. I love GW2 and I play it since release nearly every day. I see myself of someone like the “critical fanboy” xD.

Since then I’m waiting for this little bit of “more” which this game seems to be lacking. I think that my patience is nearly over, unfortunately. Let’s see what “surprise” they have for WvW players today. Oh dear.

My question is did Anet always intend on having a ‘living world’? If so, why didn’t they design it that way from the start?

You have no impact on the world. Your actions don’t change anything. If you let the invasion happen, nothing happens. There is no difference in killing some idling monsters in other MMOs to this. “Living Story” is just a fancy word for Grind-Event.

Astasia.1459:

Have you even stopped to think how that would be possible? How much work that would require? […]

Realistically they may have been able to pull that off for a single small zone in an extended patch schedule (it’s basically redoing the entire zone), but to do that on 13 maps is more work than what goes into an expansion pack.

Good point. They should have focused on one zone when introducing invasions. I would have chose Frostgorge Sound or Blazeridge Steppes. Make the invasions spawn if the dragon events fail. It was originally described that Tequatl could fail and would unleash his minions on the zone. This doesn’t actually happen. Invasions are the perfect vehicle for a dragon taking over a zone… Provided they actually affect the zone and aren’t just loot pinatas waiting there to die.

If these two week releases are causing them to release substandard content, they need to seriously rethink this decision. They could have had one quality zone invasion, instead they chose for 13 manifesto breaking invasions that don’t affect the world prior, during, or even after the event. Other MMOs take more time before content releases, but they are releasing whole zones worth of content in this time.

I signed up for GW 2 because their manifesto appealed to me. No quests telling you where to go, no enemies just sitting there not actually doing the assault the quest giver says they are, and consequences for failure. This invasion is just a quest text of “Scarlet’s forces are attacking X”. When you go there they are doing no such thing and are just waiting to be killed. Succeed or fail, the outcome is the same.

Edit: Just so it’s clear. I’m using “invasion” as a general term for this type of event. I don’t mean Scarlet invades on dragon event failure, but the dragon’s minions rise/crystallize/fall from ice shards and attack/capture outposts throughout the zone.

raptor.1064:

gw1 had a full expansion 1 year after launch, why doesn’t this game have that much new content?

I’m confused as to why so many people immediately expect GW2 to do everything just like GW1 did? When did ANet ever state this game was going to mimic the development cycle and releases of an 8 year old game?

I’m not saying an expansion would not be welcomed or is the wrong thing to do, but EXPECTING GW2 to follow GW1’s release schedule is a problem with your EXPECTATIONS, not anything Anet is doing to intentionally screw you or any player over. So many of these posts are filled with bile and hate for a company that has given many of us nearly a decade of enjoyable gaming.

I certainly am well aware of ANets shortcomings and mistakes, but if you balance the good with the bad, they have definitely been on the “good” side more often than not. I get that a lot of long time fans seem to think that is changing for the worse (I agree on some fronts), but changes have to be made to continue to grow and evolved in this market.

GW1 had very few content patches. Nearly all of their content development went into those expansions. That may be preferable to some, but not everybody.

Back in May ArenaNet stated they had no plans for a GW2 expansion. However, keep in mind the Living World development teams are not the only dev teams working on the game. These are surface updates to keep us occupied and keep the money coming in, they likely have a big, deep, content patch in the works with things like new classes, races, zones, or big things like that which can’t be developed and released in these tiny updates.

i do wish the invasions felt more like invasions. i think it would be cool if the invasions worked like Factions did or WvW where we fight for control points on the PvE map. of course, with all the overflows being generated, it would hard to create something like that with a sense of permanence attached to it. but, if Scarlet’s forces actually started taking over parts of the map, i would feel more compelled to act. as it now, it’s kind of a like a G.I. Joe vs. Cobra battle…it’s only a matter of time before Cobra retreats.

And if you did nothing.. they just teleport back home.

Astasia.1459:

GW1 had very few content patches. Nearly all of their content development went into those expansions. That may be preferable to some, but not everybody.

You ignored a really big caveat in my reply. I said if they continue to develop lackuster , quantity over quality releases they should reconsider the two week release schedule. No one wants shoddy content, no matter how quick it is served. Scarlet’s invasion breaks with their manifesto’s promises on quest/dynamic events in every way possible:

- It gives you quest text directing you where to go
- The enemies are not actually performing the actions the quest text says they are
- The enemies are just sitting there waiting to be killed
- There is no story lead up to the attacks, they just appear
- The attacks don’t have consequences on the area, in fact the zone behaves as if an attack isn’t happening
- When failed there are no consequences
- When succeeded there are no consequences
- Shortly after completion the attacks happen again making one’s action feel worthless

By Arena Net’s own criticisms of other MMOs this is shoddy content. If they continue in this fashion they will lose those players, like me, who signed on for their vision of telling a story through dynamic events that affect the world.