Guild Wars 2

Disclaimers:

1. Really, really enjoy the game.
2. All opinions expressed herein are just that.
3. Pancakes are delicious.

1. FIX THE BUGS FOR HEAVENS SAKE

Most particularly the PLETHORA of post 50 broken events, stuck skill points, and glitchy story missions. I’m sympathetic to the fact that there’s a lot of content here, and some bugs are to be expected, but it really does get a little ridiculous in the later zones. It takes a lot of the luster off the beautiful world design when you’re bumping into broken event after broken event. “Oh, this one’s broken. Well, let’s try this other one, that sounds ne…oh, it’s broken too, I guess. Huh.” The worst part of all this is we keep getting patch notes that a bunch of broken events are fixed, and those same events are broken again within hours. There are really only so many mulligans you get on this.

2. DARKNESS FALLS

There’s been no secret made of the fact that DAoC was a major inspiration for your WvWvW, but you left out a key element. A PvE super-dungeon that unlocks for a dominating side is essential. It pipes out some of the population of the leader, allowing underdogs to rally and gain some headway. It also adds a further objective to WvWvW, making the entire exercise more compelling. This is obviously a big thing to ask for if it’s done right, but I think it’s absolutely necessary for the long term health of WvWvW. Speaking of dungeons…

3. SORT OUT YOUR DUNGEONS!

Dungeons…not your strong suit. I think there’s some raw materials there, but they’re all over the place. They’re too hard for the casual folks, and too scrambly (and not stocked with enough loots) for the hardcore folks. The repetition required for the cosmetic armor sets is punitive. It seems as though the nicest thing anyone really says about the dungeons is “I don’t like dungeons anyway so I just avoid them!”. I’m afraid the most constructive thing I can offer in this respect is that what you’ve got isn’t particularly working.

4. EVENT SCALING NEEDS WORK

One of the most common complaints about dynamic events is that they’re “too zergy”. “All I do is spam my AoE”, people complain, and there’s some truth to it. Once a certain critical mass of people is reached, that is all that is required, and frankly it’s optimal if you want to tag mobs and collect loot. This is because events, in their current form, are not scaling well past 5-6 players. They need to produce more veteran and champion mobs, they need to start splitting players into different areas to attend to different things so they can’t cluster their AoEs, and they need to offer a meaningful threat to the single player beyond “I should make sure not to be the first guy to get aggro here”. I’d like to see Champion and Veteran mobs become a little more mobile and offensive, as well, and a little less “I am a bag of hit points”. Fortunately, this is a matter of tweaking some numbers.

5. LEVEL SCALED CONTENT NEEDS TO OFFER MORE LEVEL APPROPRIATE REWARDS

I’m not suggesting a 5th level Moa should rain Orichalum, but if you want players to spread out and experience the breadth of the world you created, you need to NOT provide them with tangible material incentives to camp the hell out of a single zone. Adjust your loot dropping formula so lower level mobs have a chance of dropping crafting material and loot appropriate to the true level of of the player killing them. Do that, and I will GLADLY wander your world like Caine in Kung Fu getting into adventures just for the sake of shaking things up. As, I expect, will many others.

And while we’re on the subject, if I’m level 80, and I’m in a level 60 area, don’t level scale me to 60 and then attack me with a 66 mob. That is GALLING. =P

I pretty much agree with all of this. These kinds of things dont exactly come to mind when I am making my own list, but when I read them they make total sense.

Just the simple fact that you somehow think they’re not working on fixing bugs is mind-boggling to me.

zydal.2790:

Just the simple fact that you somehow think they’re not working on fixing bugs is mind-boggling to me.

I certainly do think they’re working on it, but they’re doing a pretty lousy job actually fixing them. They’re fixed! They’re broken again! They’re fixed! They’re broken again!

Disillusioned fans of the treadmill aside, this is probably the one thing that has the most potential to mar an otherwise excellent game. There is a COMICAL amount of broken content in later zones.

Yak, I hate the game in it’s current state, but your posts/comments are always a pleasure.

Event scaling is truly bad atm (let’s call them Binary DEs). 1 min you’re getting 1 hit KO’d, the next you might as well not be there, with what seems like little in between. Bosses are especially prone to this.

They’ve said they’re working on all of these except darkness falls.

Elysian Rose.5283:

Yak, I hate the game in it’s current state, but your posts/comments are always a pleasure.

Event scaling is truly bad atm (let’s call them Binary DEs). 1 min you’re getting 1 hit KO’d, the next you might as well not be there, with what seems like little in between. Bosses are especially prone to this.

I really enjoy events in the 2-5 man range. My GF and I duo a lot of events, and aside from the occasional tedium of wearing down a champion with a literally enormous HP bar, a good time is usually had. I was also a fan of public questing in WAR, so this is a kind of event design that really appeals to me. I’m ALRIGHT with how it is now, but I think it could be MUCH, MUCH better by moving some numbers around on the back end.

Untouch.2541:

They’ve said they’re working on all of these except darkness falls.

One of the game’s designers (I forget who) was one of the designers of Darkness Falls. He spoke about it briefly during an interview. They’re certainly aware of it, as a concept.

I don’t get why people zerg anyways.
The scaling makes it so more people = it takes longer.

zydal.2790:

Just the simple fact that you somehow think they’re not working on fixing bugs is mind-boggling to me.

There was a build today. AS far as they listed the only bug they fixed was dialogue issues.

Right now there’s an armor set, a dungeon armor set, that can be exploited easily. No im not going to name it. But me and my guild sent in the bug reports weeks ago about it and it still hasnt been fixed at all.

Im aware that you cant fix all bugs, but going from what I know this would literally be changing 7 values to what they should be and the exploit is gone. I cant imagine that taking longer than 10 minutes to confirm and then maybe 30 to fix, if that.

Yeah pretty much, Im glad someone else realizes that WvWvW is an inspired battlegrounds based on Dark Age of Camelot.

Kudos.

Shot in the dark: You’ve never developed and/or bugfixed have you? Whether in terms of hardware, software, etc?

It is so much more difficult than people who have never attempted it realize. I wish all the people saying “LOL BUGGED CONTENT GG AWFUL DEV TEAM ROFLROFLROFL” (not you, just a generalization about stupid people) would go create something with thousands of different pieces of content (in terms of this game, DE’s, hearts, skill points) release it to a couple of million people, and see how much of it wasn’t actually broken.

Things that get released to the public, even with a plethora of alpha and beta testing, content testing, etc. are going to be riddled with bugs. That’s how it goes. Some developers take months and months (sometimes more like years) to fix the bugs. ANet is actively fixing them quite quickly in comparison.

Great suggestions on #4.

This is especially true in Orr. I have been in some of the DE’s ( you know what I am talking about) where the AOE spam is so massive and so intense that as soon at the mobs move from being invulnerable they are instagibbed. IF your lucky you may tag a mob or 2. But its frustrating to get no credit or a bronze because of the AOE spam.

zydal.2790:

Shot in the dark: You’ve never developed and/or bugfixed have you? Whether in terms of hardware, software, etc?

Of course I haven’t.

zydal.2790:

It is so much more difficult than people who have never attempted it realize. I wish all the people saying “LOL BUGGED CONTENT GG AWFUL DEV TEAM ROFLROFLROFL” (not you, just a generalization about stupid people) would go create something with thousands of different pieces of content (in terms of this game, DE’s, hearts, skill points) release it to a couple of million people, and see how much of it wasn’t actually broken.

Things that get released to the public, even with a plethora of alpha and beta testing, content testing, etc. are going to be riddled with bugs. That’s how it goes. Some developers take months and months (sometimes more like years) to fix the bugs. ANet is actively fixing them quite quickly in comparison.

That’s FINE, but as a guy who just plays the games, I can see where there is going to be a low patience threshold for this. At the very least, I’d like them to not cheerfully announce that X has been fixed, only to log in and find X still broken.

It has a cumulatively demoralizing effect, when you bump from broken item to broken item. It makes the GAME feel broken. Now, obviously the game is not “broken” in any meaningful sense, much of it works and works well. It just FEELS that way when you hit 3-4 broken events in a row. Which is, lamentably, not difficult to do in the higher level zones.

I’m actually a pretty patient guy. I’m still playing and still having a good time, and I’m not rending my garments nor pulling out great handfuls of hair. But I am starting to roll my eyes when another round of broken events are announced as fixed and immediately available evidence demonstrates that they are not.

zydal.2790:

Shot in the dark: You’ve never developed and/or bugfixed have you? Whether in terms of hardware, software, etc?

It is so much more difficult than people who have never attempted it realize. I wish all the people saying “LOL BUGGED CONTENT GG AWFUL DEV TEAM ROFLROFLROFL” (not you, just a generalization about stupid people) would go create something with thousands of different pieces of content (in terms of this game, DE’s, hearts, skill points) release it to a couple of million people, and see how much of it wasn’t actually broken.

Things that get released to the public, even with a plethora of alpha and beta testing, content testing, etc. are going to be riddled with bugs. That’s how it goes. Some developers take months and months (sometimes more like years) to fix the bugs. ANet is actively fixing them quite quickly in comparison.

I have actually done bug testing before. I used to gm/dev on a small private server for an MMO. We had weekly patches, and I would routinely fix issues. Now, I assume the guild wars files are probably a little more complex than ours were. But for our files the exploitable issue im talking about would take me literally 2 minutes to confirm and 5 to fix. Obviously I wouldnt expect it to be that easy, as im sure their files are more complex. But it honestly should not be more than a half hour job to fix what is a pretty major issue with what is currently “the endgame” for lack of a better word.

My god…. The first person making suggestions that I don’t want to sylvari drop kick in the face…. Id be REALLY happy about the Darkness Falls thing and that’d pull me into WvWvW more then it has already!!

I personally don’t think that dungeons are to hard for casuals (myself being one of them) I do agree with the loot thing though, they should make some universal dungeon exotics that have exotic lv stats look kinda cool, but not nearly as awesome as the actual gear… Or you know… Just give em exotic studed armor and say “If you want cool armor then grind!”

Hoping all this is on the cards, yeah.

What we really need is just some form of communication about “upcoming plans”. I sure hope they didn’t expect this content to last for the next year.

agree i want to love this game but it’s so hard to play and enjoy it atm i guess ill play tl2 till gw2 is fixed

I agree with the points, but I simply think that are problems are there i in the first palce because A-net got foced to rush the game (I blame ncsoft for that(I should make this my signature i use it almost every post XD) ) You can see it at every corner of the game event chains that work well untill a certain points. High level grear that has the same look like low level gear for some reasone. For me it is clear and I hope A-net gets things done becaus it would be just sad to see such a great game be wasted by haste.

WOAH. A “what this game needs” thread that doesn’t change core aspects that the game was built on? I’m in shock. /clap

Good suggestions, but I disagree with the dungeon difficulty aspect. I think they really nailed it in terms of toughness, just not reward.

DusK.3849:

Good suggestions, but I disagree with the dungeon difficulty aspect. I think they really nailed it in terms of toughness, just not reward.

The current toughness tiering doesn’t make a lot of sense. Do I find story mode too hard? No. Do I think story mode is going to be too hard for a substantial cross section of people? Yes. The “toughness” needs to be concentrated in the optional explorable mode. You should NEVER lock any story behind really difficult mechanics, be they raids, or just nut busting dungeons.

And I’m not terribly thrilled, if I’m being honest, with the way the toughness is currently implemented, but that may just be a learning curve/issue with me, so I’m hesitant to go too deep on that issue until I’ve had more time in dungeons and a chance to let my impressions percolate.

What companies need to do more of is not seeing the playerbases as segregated:

- How can we appeal to casuals?
- How can we appeal to hardcores?
- How can we appeal to PvP’ers?
- How can we appeal to PvE’ers?
- How can we appeal to RP’ers?

Instead of that, they need to think:

- How can we appeal to gamers?

Arena.net have done this well so far, in that it encompasses the true spirit of what games used to be. Exploration and discovery is the reward, not the amount of numbers on your Apron of Mighty Mashing.

I want to see the game roll in the direction it’s going in.

With regards to the OP, +50 bugs will take longer to fix as less people are up there at the moment, therefore they would be less commonly reported, and thus less game breaking. Bugs in general can take a monumental time to fix, as the life cycle of a videogame bug is a lot more than people think.

I haven’t yet done a dungeon so can’t comment there.

PvE unlockable dungeon via PvP objectives – So I assume this is similar to Wintergrasp/Tol’Barad in WoW? Good idea, would be great to see it.

As the population floods through and the first week quitters are rubbing their brains into the next cess pit forum they find themselves in, these events will thin out, leaving smaller numbers, and requiring a little more thought when doing them. This is a time release issue more than a dynamic issue.

Level scaled content offers exp and gold. That’s enough for me. I don’t want them spending months of development time making downgrades and upgrades of the same item, I want to see the world roll out and expand.

SpectacularYak.6518:

One of the most common complaints about dynamic events is that they’re “too zergy”. “All I do is spam my AoE”, people complain, and there’s some truth to it. Once a certain critical mass of people is reached, that is all that is required, and frankly it’s optimal if you want to tag mobs and collect loot. This is because events, in their current form, are not scaling well past 5-6 players. They need to produce more veteran and champion mobs, they need to start splitting players into different areas to attend to different things so they can’t cluster their AoEs, and they need to offer a meaningful threat to the single player beyond “I should make sure not to be the first guy to get aggro here”. I’d like to see Champion and Veteran mobs become a little more mobile and offensive, as well, and a little less “I am a bag of hit points”. Fortunately, this is a matter of tweaking some numbers.

Actually the shark in a level 60+ zone that can clip through land and attack people standing on the coast =( I’d say that’s very mobile. It also steals life and can basically 1 or 2 shot some players. I think that events just need to have their regular mobs’ HP scaled up when more people join so more people can have a chance to tag more mobs and give the thieves enough time to equip their shortbows.

Agemnon.4608:

I think that events just need to have their regular mobs’ HP scaled up when more people join so more people can have a chance to tag more mobs and give the thieves enough time to equip their shortbows.

That would work perfectly. Increase by a few % for every player present in the event.

Bastion.2457:

- How can we appeal to gamers?

“Gamers” are not, and have never been, a unified demographic. GW2 is not a particularly hard or brutal game, but it is a change from the usual formula, and it does need a difficulty curve with a gentle slope. We HAVE that in the PvE. We do NOT have that in dungeons. I weep for the unprepared jostling into AC thinking it is going to be in any way reflective of the content they’ve seen up to that point in time. Suddenly running into a wall is just a poorly developed difficulty curve.

SpectacularYak.6518:

Bastion.2457:

- How can we appeal to gamers?

“Gamers” are not, and have never been, a unified demographic. GW2 is not a particularly hard or brutal game, but it is a change from the usual formula, and it does need a difficulty curve with a gentle slope. We HAVE that in the PvE. We do NOT have that in dungeons. I weep for the unprepared jostling into AC thinking it is going to be in any way reflective of the content they’ve seen up to that point in time. Suddenly running into a wall is just a poorly developed difficulty curve.

Gamers used to be one group. People who loved games, no matter what they were. Now there is so many variants on the term, I can’t even name half of them. Companies have pandered to this and made watered down movies on steroids that offer little other than a mildly enjoyable picturebook.

This as well as many other recent MMo’s are torn about by multiple sections of the gamer dichotomy because they simply don’t know what they want. They just want more of it, and yesterday.

The only true gamer is a gamer who respects the games.

Bastion.2457:

Gamers used to be one group. People who loved games, no matter what they were. Now there is so many variants on the term, I can’t even name half of them. Companies have pandered to this and made watered down movies on steroids that offer little other than a mildly enjoyable picturebook.

This as well as many other recent MMo’s are torn about by multiple sections of the gamer dichotomy because they simply don’t know what they want. They just want more of it, and yesterday.

The only true gamer is a gamer who respects the games.

Oh they did not. I’ve been gaming since 1982. We might have been a little less histrionic in our criticism, but A: I was 7 years old, and B: we didn’t have the internet, which is and has always been an echo chamber for idiots. People can love games, but love them for ENTIRELY different reasons. You can’t make a game that appeals to “gamers” because there is no “gamers” to appeal to. I identify as a gamer, but I don’t like some games or some genres. I don’t care for certain modes of play. That doesn’t mean I need to be an jerk about them online, but I think it is to the benefit of developers to try and be inclusive, especially in situations where being inclusive is EASY. Like making the “easy mode” of your dungeon actually easy. That’s a good place to start.

My main beef with the game so far, besides all the broken DE’s and hearts, is that the higher the level zone you go….the less there are DE’s.

It also seems like Anet has made DE’s less common than during beta. It annoys the hell out of me. It makes the pve content boring as you are just going from heart to heart and sometimes stumble upon a DE.

I was one of the players wanting Anet to release the game already…..oh boy was i wrong. From all the broken and obviously incomplete classes, to the broken zones with hardly any content….i wish Anet would have released this game in 2013. But please dont get me wrong. What this game needs is POLISH….im not saying its not fun….at least for now.

I really like this list, particularly #1 and #2.

Darkness Falls was the best part of DAoC, which was a VERY good MMO (until ToA). I’d be extremely happy to see some kind of dungeon that opened up to the leader in WvW.

As for bugs, and I say this as someone with 20 years of experience in software development, 8 of that in games, I’ve been very disappointed in the quality of the post-50 content in the game and the number of times we’ve gotten “events fixed” listed in the patch notes. “Games are hard” compared to, say, web development, but this isn’t rocket science either. Either the bugs need to be fixed, or they need to stop claiming to have fixed the bugs.

What I’d really like to see is a job listing on ANet’s site for some full-time testers, rather than just contractors. Contractors do good work (I’ve hired many excellent testers who I’ve had to let go at the end of a project), but to me, the willingness to have a big, full-time test team speaks a lot about the dedication to quality at a company.