Guild Wars 2

Here are 8 changes/additions I would love to have implemented:

Short Version:
1. Remove Invulnerable Mobs
2. Remove Teleporting Fees
3. Dynamic Level Scaling = Area’s current level + (Character Level / 10)
4. Add timers to force advancement/reset broken events
5. Increase Defend events’ difficulty for each successive success
6. Be able to readjust trait points at will
7. Mob respawn times scaling to the number of players nearby
8. Fade obstacles to improve camera angling

Long Version:
1. Invulnerable Mobs. This feature needs to be completely removed. Players are being punished by using terrain to achieve tactical advantages. Players are being punished by the mechanism just plain being buggy and creatures randomly going invulnerable for seemingly no reason. Mobs go invulnerable underwater at random. Mobs can go invulnerable after being pulled very short distances. Random mobs can even go invulnerable when you initial melee combat right next to them. And to resolve story and event issues and prevent players from attacking related creatures before they make their doom and gloom speeches, simply set those creatures to “green” (friendly) until the fight begins just like skill point challenges.

2. Teleporting Fees. This has been discussed to death but this needs to be removed entirely. Go create another cosmetic gold sink. These fees just take away from what the spirit of what Guild Wars is and should be. Let people play where they want when they want unpenalized.

3. Dynamic Level Scaling. While I understand and support the system to an extent, I feel it should be tweaked with the following formula: Scaled Character = Area’s current level + (Character Level / 10). For example, if I am a level 50 character and I’m running around in a level 24 zone, I will be adjusted to level 29 in that zone. At level 80, I would be adjusted to level 32 in that same zone. Every 10 levels allows me to be one level over the maximum level requirement for the zone. This will still keep characters from being ridiculously powerful but also allow them to enjoy that content with the greater security a higher level should be afforded in a low level area. Like most games, if you’re having a hard time, you can go level up until you’re not. It will also allow higher level characters to play in lower level zones without worrying as much over being wiped out and paying those higher level repair fees.

4. Broken Events. First of all, all events that are breakable need to be fixed. We can’t be relying on server resets just to be able to play certain content. As a stop-gap measure or if certain events can’t be fixed in a reasonable amount of time, add in some timers in that if an event doesn’t progress after a lengthy amount of time either force progression or cause an event failure and reset the entire event. Which outcome will depend on the event.

5. Increase Difficulty for Successive Victories. This is really only a major issue on certain Orr events but some events are so crowded that they are pretty much always guaranteed a success. There were event chains I never knew even existed until I happened to have logged on soon after a server reset. I propose a way to eventually force failure on these events. After every successive player victory, the mobs for that event will spawn 1 level higher than previously. So if I’m at Shelters and it’s being defended by 25 bots, eventually those bots will be overrun by level 100 Risen and Shelters will fall (along with other areas that are always farmed). Some or all of these crazy high level mobs will remain encamped in these locations until the players sweep them away in the recapturing event. When it comes time to defend it again the mobs will be normal level for the first go around. I think this would add some excitement to these over-run defend events.

6. Traits. I’m sure this has been discussed to death as well. While not at first (hello refund points!), in Guild Wars 1 you could reset your character to any build style you wanted free of charge (or time). I feel this should be the same way in Guild Wars 2. Once I buy that level 60 book I should be able to add or subtract all I want.

7. Mob Respawn Times. Mobs should respawn at a rate depending on how many people are nearby. If the area is packed, have them respawn every minute. But if the area is deserted and you have one poor player trying to grind through hordes of monsters, raise that respawn rate much higher, maybe even 5 minutes.

8. Camera Angles. Certain vistas are extremely challenging not because of being able to time your jump but because there are walls and trees all over the place that get in your way and there is no camera angle you can find to alleviate this. If terrain and trees kind of faded out a bit when near your character it would help immensely.

Boysenberry

Short Version:
1. Remove Invulnerable Mobs
2. Remove Teleporting Fees
3. Dynamic Level Scaling = Area’s current level + (Character Level / 10)
4. Add timers to force advancement/reset broken events
5. Increase Defend events’ difficulty for each successive success
6. Be able to readjust trait points at will
7. Mob respawn times scaling to the number of players nearby
8. Fade obstacles to improve camera angling

1. No. Too many high level mobs exist in areas where ranged classes would be able to cheaply kill them. Champion Spider in cave? Stand on the rocks behind it and spin-to-win! Not gonna fly, and it shouldn’t anyways.

2. Teleporting fees are not that bad. So far the only people I’ve heard complaining about them are poor due to bad practices. They exist for a reason, as a money sink, to keep the game economy from inflating.

3. Ridiculously OP occurs at +4 levels. If you’ve never fought a mob 4 levels higher, you’ll see that your damage amounts to half of what you’d do to something your own level. This doesn’t need to change, and could arguably be tweaked in the other direction to keep things more challenging (which they should be. Levels denote progress in the game, not attainment of omnipotent status).

4. These are being fixed daily for the most part. Eventually they will all be fixed and there will be nothing to worry about.

5. ANet can’t, and shouldn’t – design content in way specifically intended to harm bots, as it most always hurts the player more, and bots don’t give a kitten.

6. I like this idea, or at least a way of making it more convenient/cheaper than having to buy a 3g skill book everytime I wanted to re-roll my playstyle.

7. ANet has admitted this is a bug. They are going through all the areas reported to have insanely high respawns, and adjusting them as they weren’t intended to be that high in the first place.

8. Part of the challenge of the jumping puzzles IS the distorted views, view-blocking-foliage, and other obstructions designed to make the puzzle more challenging. It would be too 2D to remove those obstacles and make it a “just hit jump a bunch of times and you’ll get there eventually” kind of puzzle.

1. No, you will not ever be able to abuse pathing exploits. This is a pathetic and tactless way to play.
2. No, there have to be gold sinks for the game economy to mimic a real world economy. This would be one of them.
3. No, the whole point of the scaling is so that you are challenged no matter where you go, if you do this, you might as well remove the scaling entirely as it will no longer serve that purpose.
4. Many events already have this, though I do agree that time restraints should be added to more events. And I think we would all prefer they fix the borked events instead of pulling a band-aid solution like a timed reset button.
5. This is just a matter of scaling, make it so they scale up more, no reasons to overly-complicate the system by adding another variable.
6. What is the point of having trait points then? If you can adjust them at will we might as well just have them all active all the time, it would lead to the same result. Yes, it should be easier to adjust them, and it should especially be less expensive.
7. Yes, emphatically yes.
8. The camera is meant to adjust to be in front of any obstacles, but this could be done a lot better. A lot of things you mentioned like trees, ledges, and oddly shaped objects never seem to let your camera work around them like they should.

6. Yes…and no.

Yes, that people should be able to ‘switch’ roles on the fly without having to stop in town. Instead of a going to a trainer, you can buy ‘trait slots’ with gems (here I am, supporting the gem market, and I don’t buy gems ^_^). You can have 3, we’ll say, and you can have different build in each trait slot.

(i’m kinda borrowing this idea from Rift…credit to where it is due).

Then, when you switch you pay the normal monetary fee (3s 50c) (btw, if you are paying for the trait book everytime you switch,you are…overpaying for respec fees) and you don’t have to go to Lion’s Arch (home town) everytime you need to switch playstyles.

This satisfies the need for gold sinks, and fast switching without the need to have to WP hop around to do your buisness. You could just switch on the fly and enjoy yourself.

I’m gonna chime in on this, mainly due to the horrible camera. I actually found myself nodding to a lot of what the OP was saying, so I’ll give a run down of them too.

1. Remove Invulnerable Mobs
Yes. While ANet, I’m sure, wasn’t going for an overly realistic play style for the game, tactics are tactics. If someone is above a mob, there’s no reason said mob shouldn’t be able to be shot. Instead of vulnerability, make the mob move out of range. At least it’s a little more realistic. The whole vulnerability thing is a problem, not because I want to be able to kill mobs from above (although it would be cool) but because there doesn’t always seem to be a reason for the mob to go invulnerable. Sometimes its completely random.
2. Remove Teleporting Fees
Honestly, I think the fees are a bit high also. My main is a level 80 ranger. Even teleporting across a zone is expensive (at least 2 silver a piece). Believe me, repairs are enough of a money sink without over priced teleports. I could see it being kinda high if someone was trying to port several zones away, but just across the one I’m in?
3. Dynamic Level Scaling = Area’s current level + (Character Level / 10)
I don’t agree with this. I think the scaling is plenty high enough. I like the challenge. It’s high enough to where I can take on 3-4 mobs at a time (usually) in lower areas, but I could still die if I bite off more than I can chew.
4. Add timers to force advancement/reset broken events
I like the idea of timers, at least until they fix all the broken events. Most of the ones I’ve been running into lately seem to be working.
5. Increase Defend events’ difficulty for each successive success
Not really sure about this one. Once they get a handle on the bots I don’t think this is really going to be an issue.
6. Be able to readjust trait points at will
Agree with this. I own the book, kinda silly to have to keep paying just to switch.
7. Mob respawn times scaling to the number of players nearby
If ANet has said this is a bug, than that’s all that is needed to be said.
8. Fade obstacles to improve camera angling
YES. The camera up close (especially on large characters such as max height Norn/Charr characters is excruitiatingly painful to do anything on that involve having a low overhead. For instance: the jump puzzle in Lion’s Arch, in the cave. I tried going through on my max height Charr and the camera not only couldn’t figure out where to go, it literally made my eyes hurt just trying to get my character through. I think the fade out effect would better serve us, sort of like Dungeon Siege (an rpg that used the fade to good effect). Either that, or when the character gets a low ceiling, have the camera move lower, and fade out the body of the player. That would cure the horrible jitter and bounce the camera does because it can’t figure out where it needs to be.

Are all of you missing something big regarding number 6? Go to your book seller when you have trait points and you can talk to them instead of going to the shop menu. Read more and mindlessly click less. Talk to them and they give you the option to reset trait points…at lvl 80 it’s roughly 3-5 silver. If this is breaking the bank you are changing your traits far too often. Go to the mists lobby and play with the traits untill you find what you feel will work for you.

Number 4 makes sense however…there should be an internal timer (say one hour) that if an event doesn’t finish it should be forced to finish as if it was failed.

i agree with most of your points except I personally like the waypoint costs, it forces me to plan my movements and thus reminds me of the size of the world. i did not like in the original gw how 1 moment your in one area of the map and the next your on the opposite end of the map, this broke immersion for me – if you can travel at godspeed there needs to be a cost.

I agree with all the points. I can’t help but notice defenders of Gw2 game play seem to think they are tactical and master planners. Truth is it’s a veil you don’t have to plan out a move 2s is indeed chump change it’s just more annoying than anything else. You don’t need to say
‘’Man it’s 3s from orr to queensdale I should run to X place then port to Y place and only spend 1s on the waypoint’’

Tactical and master planner – your words, but ill take that title. Its not a veil has a real effect, as I sometimes wont waypoint travel because of the cost, I find it adds an element to the gameplay.

“6. I like this idea, or at least a way of making it more convenient/cheaper than having to buy a 3g skill book everytime I wanted to re-roll my playstyle.”

You are aware that you can get your points reset with the 2nd conversation option and that’ll be around 4 silver …?!?!

^

I believe the price goes up depending on your level.

Short Version:
1. Remove Invulnerable Mobs
2. Remove Teleporting Fees
3. Dynamic Level Scaling = Area’s current level + (Character Level / 10)
4. Add timers to force advancement/reset broken events
5. Increase Defend events’ difficulty for each successive success
6. Be able to readjust trait points at will
7. Mob respawn times scaling to the number of players nearby
8. Fade obstacles to improve camera angling

1. I don’t agree mainly because it will be exploited for sniping mobs. I actually want ANet to put mobs above trees or below ground to root the bots in one place. They don’t know the difference between an invulnerable mob (without the buff) from a normal mob. They just keep on hitting it. From what I observed, the bots only see the map as an even level field (no hills, no mounds, no above, and no below).
2. I don’t agree with it either. Even though the cost is related to your level. It’s a gold sink. It has purpose. Use it wisely as they say.
3. The scaling is already normal. If it were to scale to what you are proposing then you’ll most likely breeze all the mobs in the area. You won’t even fight for your toon’s life when fighting a Veteran or Champion.
4. All I can say here is they should solve this appropriately not applying a quick fix that could pottentially lead to another problem.
5. If they do that. That will be hard for new comers experiencing that event. Because for them its first time but in reality its 5x or nth time already. And THEY will get their toons mopped to the ground. New comers will shy away from those events.
6. Adjusting it at will without the cost destroys planning and strategy. There’s always the mist. If I’m not mistaken, they said you can practice or plan or experiment your traits in the mists.
7. No comment bout this since its a bug as what they have stated.
8. Fading draws more GPU power. Not all ppl playing GW2 have top notch graphic cards. And it defeats the Umbra Renderer which helps reduce the number of objects processed if it is not visible in the camera view which in turn slightly help the CPU/GPU. I for one don’t want the fade effect. Because if you’re in a fast paced fight, you might forget that the mob/toon is behind a wall or an object and you will keep on seeing “obstructed” and won’t dmg your target.

To sum it all up. I think the basic mechanics of the game is solid as it is. All they need to do is balance those that really needs balancing and fix the bugs.

It is tied to the number of points to reset, yes and I, as level 80, pay around 4 silver

LoreChief.8391:

6. I like this idea, or at least a way of making it more convenient/cheaper than having to buy a 3g skill book everytime I wanted to re-roll my playstyle.

6: You can click on the second box on the person who sells books and he’ll retrain you for 4 silver O.o It’s not 3g a retrain.

I agree with the OP.
1. Event mobs on the move should be green instead of invulnerable. Why do i get shot at when I am standing on a ledge, but I cannot shot ’em?? Please teach them to jump or find the way around obstacles. Only if there is really no possibility to reach each other in melee combat, mobs should be invulnerable.

2. Port fees are killing the fun for most of the people, everone is avoiding this “gold sink”. Please invent some nice skins, colors or other really optional features for this purpose.

3. Yes and no. There is a need for a solution that you can run through lower level zones without getting attacked, since there are no mob free ways. Let the higher level player decide if he wants to play – then the downscaling is ok imho. If not, everything should be just green – no attack on both sides possible. It is quite annoying when I get frozen by some ignored mob while I just wanted to run through and wasted a swiftness skill.

4. Though there are improvements, the still existing problems should not stay this way at the expense of the players who just want to complete the map. Implement a timeout/reset, that way you can easily track problems according to the account of timeouts too, so you can work on a real fix.

5. Imho this is more a concern of balancing. To me events seem often too hard if there are only one or few players, while they are often trivial with a lot of players. They should always be challenging, but doable.
There are exceptions, though (Metrica province: group event Destroy the fire elemental – usually i just see a hall full of dead players).

6. Traits, I don’t see why there are costs. And to all who say try them in the mists – well you cannot try them that way in PvE/Dungeons, so what.

7. Respawn rates – I have seen this problem sometimes in narrow environments with a high mob population. Again this seems to me more a question of balancing: packed areas need lower respawn rates.

8. Yes please. Best would be to implement first person view. Alternatively render all objects between camera and toon transparent while near a vista.

Ya that 3g comment made me cringe. I hope you haven’t done that too many times.

4s. All it takes. And make sure you go to Heart of the Mists to monkey around for free before figuring out your final build.

As for the rest, I don’t really agree or disagree.

Please add first person perspective. It would solve the camera issues in most cases.

Boysenberry;
*Here are 8 changes/additions I would love to have implemented:

Short Version:
1. Remove Invulnerable Mobs
2. Remove Teleporting Fees
3. Dynamic Level Scaling = Area’s current level + (Character Level / 10)
4. Add timers to force advancement/reset broken events
5. Increase Defend events’ difficulty for each successive success
6. Be able to readjust trait points at will
7. Mob respawn times scaling to the number of players nearby
8. Fade obstacles to improve camera angling*

1. Invulnerable gives the mob a chance to reset, so I don’t think they need to remove it entirely, however they REALLY REALLY need to FIX underwater resets and the fact a mob will chase me halfway across the map but when I FINALY get sick of it and turn to kill it, it resets, or waits until I have it almost dead THEN resets…Am I the only one who sees some developer sitting behind his desk with a troll face on?

2. I would be afraid of what they would decide to put as an equal gold sink…

3. If they were to do this it should have been done at the start along with making it much, much, MUCH slower to level. The point was to never make the content the developers spent so much time and work on trivial, and they have done an excelent job. I love that no matter what level I am I can go to any zone I want and still progress at the same pace, even at level 80, I am still collecting skill points, and I like that I don’t feel like I have to spend ALL my game time in Orr to feel challenged. BTW, you DO get to keep your gear which is basicly the same as what you are asking for once you are in exotics and above. If it were this way even without the gear then the content would be more than trivial.

4. Great idea!
5. Even Greater idea!
6. For as much as I tend to theorycraft and experiment I would appreciate this, although as it is, it isn’t REALLY that expensive.
7. As the game progresses we will really begin to see the need for this, however right now, to me, it doesn’t seem too extreme an issue.
8. YES, for the love of Thor! Either that or let me scroll willingly into first person, or both!

Great Post OP. I fully support!

The LZ.7891:

^

I believe the price goes up depending on your level.

It’s 5c per trait point. At level 80, 70 points = 350c.

I agree with all of the OPs points except #3. IMO, downscaling works perfectly as implemented.

1. No no no no no
2. Zone transfers should have a cost albeit should be a little lower. (over 4s per tele is crazy) In zone transfers shouldn’t in IMHO.
3. This is stupid. My lvl 80 ranger and lvl 22 mesmer can both 2 shot mobs from the 1-15 zones. My ranger can pretty much kill mobs with little to no effort until the 40-50 zone and even those aren’t hard. If you are lvl 40+ character and are having problems against the low level mobs just wait til you get to Orr.

4. Event timers would be an excellent back up to fixing events. Lets face it there are sooooo many variables in doing dynamic events that it will take a while to get right. Even when they are fixed you can still have an inadvertant spawn that traps a moving event or anything. A hard timer would be good as no event lasts longer than an hr at present that I have seen.

5. I actually like this as you can really get some good drops from lvl 84-85 mobs lol. Highest I have seen is lvl 82 mobs and those almost always give me green or rare drops. I don’t think I would like to see a lvl 90 risen champion giant though… (Defend Arah)

6. Really!? How about read the text of the NPC. As for the 3g comment two words “Natural Selection”.

7. Respawn rates aren’t that bad but do need some tweeking in certain areas. Got to love the Snow trolls in Frostgorge.

8. Not needed. Vistas and jump puzzles were ment to be difficult. Some players just plain can’t do some jump puzzles because of low FPS.

What the heck is with you all saying ‘no’ to 1? It’s absolutely ridiculous that you can’t use terrain to your advantage in this game, and are locked into a close-range kiting style of play by absurd and unrealistic ‘out of range’, ‘invulnerable’ and ‘obstructed’ messages. Wherever a mob is currently designated as ‘invunerable’, it should be switched so that the mob runs away or tries to find a way round instead.

Totally disagree on number 2 and 6. These two are gold sink, the most expensive WP I have ever paid is only 3s and resetting trait on level 80 only cost you 3.5s, these fee is really low because I can get 1 gold per hour usually with my level 80 character.

the one thing you missed that should be #1 is an LFG tool. (what they have now is crap)

Boysenberry.1869:

Here are 8 changes/additions I would love to have implemented:

Short Version:
1. Remove Invulnerable Mobs
2. Remove Teleporting Fees
3. Dynamic Level Scaling = Area’s current level + (Character Level / 10)
4. Add timers to force advancement/reset broken events
5. Increase Defend events’ difficulty for each successive success
6. Be able to readjust trait points at will
7. Mob respawn times scaling to the number of players nearby
8. Fade obstacles to improve camera angling

(Don’t worry, I did read the long version too.)

2. Why not remove every goldsink and watch the inflation go?
3. So… I’m level 80 in a level 79 zone, my level gets scaled to 87?
Well, ignoring that, I’d like to ask how on earth the zone level+2 is not enough? (I guess it is 0-2 actually, depending on zone.) And as you level up to 80, you still gain traits, which are a serious boost to your abilities. So you don’t really need to be scaled to level 16 on level 8 content to be totally OP.
6. Take a look at my point about 2.
7. 5 minute respawn? That would make the map look fairly empty. There aren’t really enough mobs currently, at least not in Orr. And they respawn slowly enough, even if I go beating them alone.
8. Just give us first person. =/

@Fred Fargone

I agree with every one of you points, except i dont really care about 8.

I don’t think many people think about your #2 point. Inflation would be crazy, and disastrous, Yet that consequence is never brought up. People complain a lot about money sinks, and don’t understand WHY it is happening.

Fred Because waypoints and trait resets totally keep the economy in check. The players need to manage their own market. I highly doubt farming 100 mithril ore waypointing to lions arch or where ever a BLTP guy is selling that ore for 30s and then still getting carved 2-3s for waypoint and the trading post tax.

A-net is doing to much the trading tax/cut is fine alone but trait cost/waypoint like i said before is more annoying than anything else.

Funny thing is I only waypoint and I refuse to get the last trait book as level 80 because not only are my traits useless as a necro almost but IMO the game economy would be fine with taxed sales and repair costs.

Because at the end of the day the players will still decide if it’s worth to farm 250 mithril and sell it at 10c per. how would removing waypoint cost cause inflation that makes 0 sense.

Waypoint fees need to be reduced, I don’t mind them but at level 80 they’re ridiculous when the game doesn’t offer much opportunity for making money really efficiently. I don’t really care what people say about playing the trade post, the tax on that is insane and needs to be reduced too. Everything else listed doesn’t really bother me.

Waypoint fees will more than likely never be touched because it’s need in the game. There are plenty of ways to make money in the game and be able to afford the ports, repairs, crafting, etc..

People need to learn to set aside a little gas money tsk tsk

I disagree with
2. Remove Teleporting Fees-this game needs this gold sink
3. Dynamic Level Scaling-I think low levels should be challenging
5. Increase Defend events’ difficulty for each successive success-play more than just Orr

Disagree
2.Game needs a gold sink. You could always run to places, but if you bring up the argument of it takes time so does leveling. Do you want anet to give out lv 80 characters so we dont have to waste time leveling as well?
3. Even 2 levels above and enemy make it faceroll easy
6. This is another gold sink. Also to everyone complaing about the cost its 5c per trait point making it a grand total of 2s50c at lv 80. If you cant afford this at lv 80 you are playing wrong.

Though I would like the ability to respec my talents out in the field instead of having to see the trainer every time.

Remove Invulnerable Mobs
The problem isn’t invulnerable mobs, it is the poor detection that leads to mobs going invulnerable when they shouldn’t. If you’re trying to exploit the terrain, there are two real options. Either the mob walks out of your range and gets a bunch of friends to build a cannon with which to shoot you (my preferred solution), or they stand there invulnerable because they can’t effectively path to you. This behavior is a band-aid for all sorts of hacks and exploits and, while being a band-aid is bad, I’d rather suffer the penalty and prevent the exploits.

Remove Teleporting Fees
While the fees are a little high for high-level players in many low-level zones, they aren’t that bad. Encouraging people to walk from A to B isn’t a wholly negative thing, either. It encourages interaction with others. Gone are the days of half-hour boatrides talking with random strangers—I met a lot of interesting people and made many friends that way. Teleport fees are a way of encouraging this sort of thing.

Dynamic Level Scaling = Area’s current level + (Character Level / 10)
As long as you wear level-appropriate gear, downscaling isn’t a problem. You can make a case for level X1 to X4 when in a level X0 area, but that is such a contrived situation with enough workarounds I don’t think it is really that much of an issue.

Add timers to force advancement/reset broken events
This is getting better. Yes, watchdog timers are nice, but they cover up a mroe fundamental problem that may lead to resource leaks and other really bad problems in a persistent world—I don’t know the potential ramifications because I don’t work at ANet, but there are a lot of really serious potential issues… still, yes, I would like to see that as a precaution going forward after they work out as many kinks ‘the hard way’ as they can.

Increase Defend events’ difficulty for each successive success
I’ve asked for this too. The issue, in my opinion, isn’t bots, and a new player approaching an area and being steamrolled isn’t really a typical case—we’re talking defend events where the centaur have not taken a bridge in over a week because it really is easy for any number of players to hold them off. Gradually ramp up the difficulty until, yes, the players fail—there is still a reward for an event failure, and this will open up new possibilities on the map (there are events I haven’t seen because the players never fail defend events). Gradual is the key here.

Be able to readjust trait points at will
The cost of 3.5s is minimal. The isoaltion to town situations is not a big deal, either. Maybe my acceptance is just because I played GW1 and were accustomed to the town restriction. I can change my traits, skills, and weapons whenever I want to outside of combat, I see little penalty in having my traits locked down—I need to choose a rough build and stick with it, but I still have so much variation available to me. I see this is simply a general framework in which I must operate to overcome challenges.

Mob respawn times scaling to the number of players nearby
I was under the impression this already happened. There are tiems that enemies respawn seconds after being killed and the same enemies take minutes to respawn—I’ve been able to tie this to population with enough evidence to support a rough correlation.

Fade obstacles to improve camera angling
It is worth noting that part of those challenges is the obscured camera. That said, I’ve heard first-person view is in the pipeline and would make a lot of people happier with more than just this. I’d definitily like to see a first-person view for some parts where the camera motion is so restricted by walls that it is not obscuring terrain, but your character that gets in the way.

1. To do this, enemies would have to be able to jump or teleport next to you, otherwise you’ll be able to kill them without them being able to fight back at all.
   Reward with no risk is not acceptable.
2. They need to be scaled, considering the level of both waypoints. And costing less within the same area than to another area. Teleporting to and between cities should be free too. This tweeking is needed so high level characters can play with low levels fluently, without having to run around after they run out of money or without having to go farmlevel 80 areas to go back and play in low level ones.
   But complete removal? No. They are a gold sink, ad gold sinks are fundamental.
3. This is not such a bad idea. But +level/10 is too much. +level/20 or +level/20would be more acceptable. Of course, this would replace the current area level + 1. 4 levels above the enemies should be more than enough. Also, it should have less effect in higher areas.
   For example, if you are level 80, In level 1 areas you’ll be level 5, in level 20 areas 23, in level 40 42, level 60 61 and level 70 and more level 80.
4. This is a must. They have a team finding bugs already. I suppose it’s a matter of time.
   Let’s just hope is sooner rather than later.
5. This is not a bad idea. Mainly because many dragon encounters are practically guaranteed, to the point that people time their arrival just for the dragon, ignoring previous events. This would make them come and help with previous events, to ensure that the dragon appears. Any measure against the countless annoying “where’s the dragon coming” lines would be a good idea.
6. Unlike waypoints, cost for reseting traits is reasonable. At level 80 it’s less than 3 silver. You get that in a couple of events or a few drops.
7. I disagree. Creatures should respawn depending on how many people still standing. Not a fixed value, not defeated, not downed. People in fighting condition. Otherwise 20 defeated people will only make things worse for someone coming along to try and revive them.
8. There’s lots of threads about camera issues, so I’m sure they are looking into that already.

5. This is not just for bots. This would be a great addition just to make the events more dynamic. If you lost a fight with 20 troops wouldn’t you come back next time with more? This would make doing the same event again interesting. This would let more players see greater number of event chains because it wont always be a success

Boysenberry.1869:

Here are 8 changes/additions I would love to have implemented:

Short Version:
1. Remove Invulnerable Mobs
2. Remove Teleporting Fees
3. Dynamic Level Scaling = Area’s current level + (Character Level / 10)
4. Add timers to force advancement/reset broken events
5. Increase Defend events’ difficulty for each successive success
6. Be able to readjust trait points at will
7. Mob respawn times scaling to the number of players nearby
8. Fade obstacles to improve camera angling

1. Yes and No. Pathing exploits are bad, but I’ dont think I’m the only one who read and didn’t think first of pathing exploits. Anet doesn’t have a refined product when it comes to this issue, if a Vet Cave Troll can suddenly decide to turn around and get regen, that’s a power I should get too!

2. Yes—The thing about necessary gold sinks. They can’t kitten people off. Keeping the economy reasonable is a good goal, but if we continually HATE the gold sinks they do try to implement, what’s the point. Both crappy gold sinks and inflated economies make the game NOT FUN. We have the right to ask that the game be fun and that the gold sinks add to the fun not subtract. Waypoint costs, especially one from a defeated position, need to go.

3. Disagree, I think the scaling is pretty good right now. Area level +2 or something? It’s what I’ve noticed and +2 is a FUN level advantage. Enough that you never need to wait around for other players but not so much that the game mechanics stop mattering.

4. Yes.

5. Yes. I think this is a great idea. I have no clue what would happen if those centaurs in Kessex Hills ever got the bridge repaired. We’re missing out.

6. YES. Seriously, GW marketed itself as a game that had learned the lesson of other MMO’s well. Really? I do a lot of stupid grinding. There’s a lot of crappy gold sinks that seem hamfisted and lame. And I can’t change my traits on the fly without going to a trainer? GW2 decide to look at WoW, and they said “I think Blizzard had it right on trainers?”

6.5. Get rid of the manuals. They are hella dumb! Even if you WANT me to have to pay 1G to unlock the next trait tier…there is NO reason I should have to journey back to the burbs to get a book for it. You can put that kitten right in the UI, and it’s seriously disappointing that some professional game developers didn’t think of that before I did.

7. I’m not sure what this one is about. I generally think mobs respawn to quickly and I get attacked from behind by mobs I already cleared all to often.

8. I don’t know what the fix is for the camera, but that kitten is BROKEN!

And I want to add…as always…

9. There needs to be a auto-heal for a killing blow against a mob that is not a result of condition damage or ground targeting. The game is broken because there are too many times where it’s advantageous to let a wounded mob down you so you can get the rally heal instead of winning a fight outright. Broken game!

10. Fixing turret targeting needs to be a high priority. I’m putting my engineer away until they get this fixed. Thanks to my handy net turret, those ogre supplies aren’t going anywhere!

I’m ambivalent about the first 7 but I want to place my vote for first person view! I really miss that.

1. I agree they get very annoying, very fast.
2. I whole-heartedly agree. If you’re not into crafting, funds are very short, transport fees eat what little funds you do have. Well, that and armor, and weapons, and armor repair, and…
3. IF it worked, Dynamic Leveling would be great, but more times than not, you’re lucky if it does work. I’ve had times when I am 2 levels above everything, and other times when I’m one level under, even though I’m actually several levels above the area. And along those lines, there was a time when dynamic events and skill challenges leveled to the number of players, it seems like they’re set at 2 or more levels above any player there, now.
4. eh… not so game breaking to me. annoying yes, but…
5. eh… I don’t think so. Perhaps if you have a gazillion players, or the place is a bot favorite.
6. I agree whole-heartedly. (see #2 above.)
7. Most emphatically agree! I’ve had to many times where I’d be soloing an area and as I’m inching my way through, the enemies I just killed are respawning before I can kill the next one. (See #3 above for another contributing cause.)
8. Not a biggie to me.
On My list:
9. Do away with armor repair. It’s far to annoying, and to easy to forget about. (Guess I’ve been playing Guild Wars 1 to long.)
10. Make Armorsmith and Weapons Smith Vendor gear at least useable. It’s the worst gear in the game, and past the first few levels it’s all but useless. And forget about doing most personal Story quests with them. (see #7 above.)
11. GET RID OF THE JUMPING PUZZLE/VISTA COMBOS! They’re so friggin’ annoying! Or… At the bare minimum, remove them from map completion.
12. Remove WvW areas from map completion! I don’t, and won’t, do WvW!
13. Have the Armorsmith Vendors sell a better looking armor set. The ones they sell have overstarched tops that stick out and clip with weapons, hands, and look really awful. If other sets were more readily available it wouldn’t be an issue. But after spending so much time tweaking your character’s appearance during character creation, that dorky armor just ruins the affect, and it’s so annoying to look at while you grind away trying to get karma, or gold, or dungeon credits, or to a certain level in order to get something you can stomach looking at level after level, area after area, quest after quest, hour after hour, day after day, week after week… (Where’s my Canthan Armor when I need it?)

1. I’m a little surprised at all the “no” action at the suggestion of eliminating invulnerable monsters.

Gaining a tactical advantage should be a good thing. It breeds smarter players that aren’t face-smashing every single enemy.

On top of this, the mechanic is outright broken. I’ve had mobs go invulnerable in melee range while taking damage. I’ve heal tanked mobs with pets because they where invulnerable to me but not the pet. I’ve died several times because I simply couldn’t get out of the water fast enough and couldn’t damage the mobs for some ungodly reason.

If anti-kite is needed(and surely it is), then make mobs smarter, or give them abilities to prevent it. Have them move out of range, or give them a cripple, or a charge, or a pull, or a big heal triggered after being kited for a period, etc, etc.

Of course, simply fixing the invulnerability mechanic would make sense too. If it worked correctly, it’d literally be invisible for most players but would still prevent exploits.

2. Teleport fees are too high at max level. I do think they should probably exist, but they are not proportional to what they should be. As an example, my level 26 ranger pays the equivalent of one blue item to make a port. My level 80 warrior pays the equivalent of three green items based upon their vendor price. Gold sinks are necessary, but should never be prohibitive.

3. Dynamic leveling is usually ok, in my opinion, but as the poster above me mentions, it’s wonky sometimes. In the 55-65 and 60-70 areas(Steamspur Mountains), for example, mobs have drastic level difference directly on other sides of the dynamic borders, but their aggro range actually extends into the lower areas, which can leave you grossly over or underpowered compared to opposition that you aren’t actively looking for. I don’t agree with giving us power advantages through this system, however, and appreciate being able to visit lower zones and still more or less play the content.

4. Fixing broken events in any form is a bug fix, not really a cause for game mechanic changes. Timers would be a crude, but effective, way to band aid this, though.

5. I don’t think increasing mob level is really the answer, but a better difficulty ramp up based upon participating players might be nice. If one person is on at 3am, why not make it soloable? If one hundred are there at 7pm, why not have them face armies?

6. Trait points, in my opinion, are one gold sink that is done right. It is not too expensive to do, but it’s not free or available everywhere either so a person must actually prepare themselves for the goal at hand.

7. As has been mentioned, a bug fix. Would love to see these fixes moving on a faster timetable.

8. Agree with fading the camera. No, “part of the challenge” is not overcoming clunky game mechanics or picking the right race to not have problems. A well polished game leaves puzzles to player skill and intelligence, not their ability to overcome a lack of polish.

For a bunch of “needed game improvements” these seem very unbalanced; I disagree with all of them.

Boysenberry.1869:

Here are 8 changes/additions I would love to have implemented:

Short Version:
1. Remove Invulnerable Mobs
2. Remove Teleporting Fees
3. Dynamic Level Scaling = Area’s current level + (Character Level / 10)
4. Add timers to force advancement/reset broken events
5. Increase Defend events’ difficulty for each successive success
6. Be able to readjust trait points at will

1. It does get annoying, but allowing players to use walls and the like to basically cheese difficult content isn’t worth the sacrifice.
2. No, just no. The teleport fees are a good coin sink and it forces you to plan your actions ahead.
3. Nope. The dynamic leveling is good exactly because it makes everyone “weak”. Making a high level “overpowered” would defeat the purpose of having the system in the first place.
4. I would put my money on ANet working on improving the events, something like this being included in that.
5. Nah, I don’t think this is a good idea. I have and still can spend hours doing those rotating quests. And really, some of them don’t have too many people doing it, which already makes it difficult. Having it artificially bumped up because it was already completed a bunch of times isn’t good, it’ll just mean that the events will be deserted in the evening, which is probably when most people will play the game.
6. 3.5 silver for a total reset at level 80 isn’t expensive. Granted, I thought that I had to pay 3 Gold until I read this topic and to me that did seem a bit steep. But then again there’s lot of games that don’t allow restatting at all.

Just a short note regarding waypoint fees:

Many players here defend the current system as a needed gold sink. However, IMHO it is a gold sink that takes money from the entirely wrong part of the player base. The inflation comes from ‘powergamers’ that farm certain events or dungeons. These people don’t actually use waypoints all that much. The fees are also actually too low to affect them significantly. A ‘casual’ player that wants to spontaneously help a fiend or other players on the map with a specific mob/quest gets hit the hardest.
The prospect of losing money takes away the incentive to help other people out, which should be the main focus of a multiplayer game.

On a semi related note:
Many paths of the Personal Story have a huge (and unfair) difference in accumulated waypoint costs. Compare the way (and resulting waypoint costs) ‘Lions Arch → Whispers Hideout’ to ‘Lions Arch → Priory’ to see what I mean.

Don’t think there’s a good idea or anything the game needs in any of the points 1-6.

2 – Teleports are optional if you don’t want to pay then run. It’s a moderate fee and HoM >LA free in town teleports free. As far as personal stories go if you do them as you go through the zones instead of in lumps it doesn’t cost much at all.

3 – is total lunacy scaling already scales based on the stats you have so an 80 scaled down already has an advantage over a player of the zone level… and you want10 levels above?

6 – You can reset at will – you just need a trainer and a fee – once you figure out you only need the manuals once and can use trainer resets – it gets cheaper lol.

Thrym.9436:

1. I’m a little surprised at all the “no” action at the suggestion of eliminating invulnerable monsters.

Gaining a tactical advantage should be a good thing. It breeds smarter players that aren’t face-smashing every single enemy.

On top of this, the mechanic is outright broken. I’ve had mobs go invulnerable in melee range while taking damage. I’ve heal tanked mobs with pets because they where invulnerable to me but not the pet. I’ve died several times because I simply couldn’t get out of the water fast enough and couldn’t damage the mobs for some ungodly reason.

If anti-kite is needed(and surely it is), then make mobs smarter, or give them abilities to prevent it. Have them move out of range, or give them a cripple, or a charge, or a pull, or a big heal triggered after being kited for a period, etc, etc.

Of course, simply fixing the invulnerability mechanic would make sense too. If it worked correctly, it’d literally be invisible for most players but would still prevent exploits.

2. Teleport fees are too high at max level. I do think they should probably exist, but they are not proportional to what they should be. As an example, my level 26 ranger pays the equivalent of one blue item to make a port. My level 80 warrior pays the equivalent of three green items based upon their vendor price. Gold sinks are necessary, but should never be prohibitive.

3. Dynamic leveling is usually ok, in my opinion, but as the poster above me mentions, it’s wonky sometimes. In the 55-65 and 60-70 areas(Steamspur Mountains), for example, mobs have drastic level difference directly on other sides of the dynamic borders, but their aggro range actually extends into the lower areas, which can leave you grossly over or underpowered compared to opposition that you aren’t actively looking for. I don’t agree with giving us power advantages through this system, however, and appreciate being able to visit lower zones and still more or less play the content.

4. Fixing broken events in any form is a bug fix, not really a cause for game mechanic changes. Timers would be a crude, but effective, way to band aid this, though.

5. I don’t think increasing mob level is really the answer, but a better difficulty ramp up based upon participating players might be nice. If one person is on at 3am, why not make it soloable? If one hundred are there at 7pm, why not have them face armies?

6. Trait points, in my opinion, are one gold sink that is done right. It is not too expensive to do, but it’s not free or available everywhere either so a person must actually prepare themselves for the goal at hand.

7. As has been mentioned, a bug fix. Would love to see these fixes moving on a faster timetable.

8. Agree with fading the camera. No, “part of the challenge” is not overcoming clunky game mechanics or picking the right race to not have problems. A well polished game leaves puzzles to player skill and intelligence, not their ability to overcome a lack of polish.

Very open minded poster here, actually, probably the most thus far… Quite literally, I too am shocked and a little frustrated towards all the no’s against #1… Sure, there is the risk of exploits, however that kitten mechanic has kitten me off to no end, I think there needs to be an entirely different system to replace this, one that will both reward players that are smart enough to gain the terrain advantage on enemies, and at the same time, block the ones who exploit. Someone who simply turns around and regens health as if nothing happened is a real slap in the face, especially if you were meleeing it the entire time.

What Anet has been pushing for it seems to be leaning towards the more realistic side of things… Such as these parkours and hill-scaling(assuming of course, neither were in the first one).

The rest of your responses to the OP’s points I fully agree with… Teleport fees in particular I don’t believe they need to be completely wiped out, but improved. Indeed, the costs of such get obnoxiously ridiculous at higher levels…

Fildydarie.1496

The problem isn’t invulnerable mobs, it is the poor detection that leads to mobs going invulnerable when they shouldn’t. If you’re trying to exploit the terrain, there are two real options. Either the mob walks out of your range and gets a bunch of friends to build a cannon with which to shoot you (my preferred solution), or they stand there invulnerable because they can’t effectively path to you. This behavior is a band-aid for all sorts of hacks and exploits and, while being a band-aid is bad, I’d rather suffer the penalty and prevent the exploits.

It’s a terrible system. What pisses me off is that the mobs sometimes turn invulnerable and then kill you on top of that. They should have fixed that before the game launched. Anet talked about not releasing the game until it was ready. Clearly they didn’t have it completely ready.

Only idea i agree with is 4* reset time for events.

All the others in my opinion are bad , and the game would be better not implementing them.

1: No, being able to sit in a safe place and solo champions through auto-attaching while going AFK to eat lunch shouldn’t be possible.

2: At 80 it costs a few silver to instantly transport across the world, that’s nothing.

3: No, horrible idea. That would ruin low level areas for people of the appropriate level.

4: Agree with this, they need fixing.

5: Some way of making events more challenging would be great. But that doesn’t really fit in with your idea in number 3, supporting making high level events more difficult while allowing higher level people to make events in levelling zones utterly trivial.

6: It’s a few silver to port to a trainer, reset and port to the location of your choice. Hardly a big deal.

7: A world of yes!

8: I kind of agree with this. People claiming it’s an intended feature have something of a point, but that doesn’t seem right given an Asura has a much easier time than a Norn.

Boysenberry.1869:

2. Teleporting Fees. This has been discussed to death but this needs to be removed entirely. Go create another cosmetic gold sink. These fees just take away from what the spirit of what Guild Wars is and should be. Let people play where they want when they want unpenalized.

Just wanted to add support for this!
When waypoints were initially introduced they were heralded as a cheap way to literally be anywhere on the map that you want to be right away (as long as you’ve been there before). And as long as you’re about lvl 10 or under they are. But after that point the price begins to rise at a rapid rate to unaffordable levels. It was said that mounts and other forms of transportation would be unnecessary because of this “cheap” way to be anywhere.
Instead, we have a vast world that you can’t afford to go see. You’re trapped to a city and can only afford to leave it when you’re going to a dungeon or Orr where you’ll make the money back.