Guild Wars 2

2. Less focus on RNG, more focus on accomplishment. Guild Wars 2 suffers from a severe case of the mantra, “Throw enough stones and eventually you’ll hit a bird”. As it stand right now, much of the long-term content of the game is focused on playing the numbers. I understand the design on this. They are trying to emulate the risk-reward system of gambling and loot pinata games such as the Diablo series, Torchlight and Borderlands. This is not a bad thing, but the way they are handling it is. There is nothing wrong with having a few random elements to a game. The problem is that many of the games that utilize this system do so after an accomplishment—and they aren’t stingy with the rewards. In Guild Wars 2 the rewards don’t follow a notable accomplishment; also, the rewards don’t fit the time involved with acquirement. Legendary weapons are a major example of this. The acquisition of a Legendary doesn’t mean you accomplished something notable. It just means that you threw enough rocks (farmed/bought enough materials, used gold) and eventually hit a bird (bought/combined a Legendary Weapon).

How do you solve this? The overall theme that should be followed is that RNG is okay for basic content (material farming is an example) but should not be used so heavily for content that is considered “end-game” like that of Legendary Weapons. Instead, there should be a focus on accomplishments that reward players. The Molten Weapon Facility was a step in the right direction but still focused a lot on RNG. The reward chests from the event achievements is a bigger step in the right direction. The Fused Armor ticket obtained from finishing the Frost and Flame Living Story event gave players a method to obtain an item that let them pick their reward after getting all the achievements.

Why can’t this system be in place for, say, precursor weapons. Make a set of required achievements to unlock a special item that can be redeemed for a single precursor. Have it so that a player needs to accomplish every single path in certain explorable dungeons. To add to that, create new achievements within those dungeons that must be accomplished as well. These achievements should be difficult to accomplish—yet manageable (clearing all of a certain enemy within a short time frame, defeating bosses with specific tactics, or even defeating a boss by purposely being under the effects of certain conditions). Furthermore, make the achievement sets repeatable similar to the Agent of Entropy achievement—in that when you finish a certain achievement it adds to the progress of the overall achievement. If the worries are about how fast these achievements can be obtained (or farming achievements) it is okay to lock progress through one sub-achievement per meta-achievement. That also makes players diversely pursue those achievements. This is also one of the rare cases where I would suggest time-gating content.

3. Proper boss design. Another big gripe I (and many others) have with the current design of bosses and encounters is that they do not follow the philosophy of the game. The design of the game allows for tactical thinking and movement while being simple and effective in execution. However the encounters thrown at players generally fall under two categories: throw enough enemies at the player or throw bosses with giant health pools at the player. Both of these designs have little to serve a game designed for the action-based, tactical combat that the game design promises.

The solution to this is fairly simple to provide—but harder to implement to various reasons. These reasons can range from player apathy to time commitment. However, if the design is thought out well enough, these factors diminish over time. The game already has some encounters that are well designed. The final fight of the Magg path in Citadel of Flame is a great example of a tactical encounter. The Destroyer boss in Crucible of Eternity is a great example of a tactical encounter. Then there are encounters in the game that are full of bad (or poorly implemented) design. ALL of the Subject Alpha encounters in Crucible of Eternity are bad and poorly implemented designs. This subject also leads to the next point.

4. Explorable dungeons should be simple in execution. The number one problem with most dungeons is that the progress of the dungeon is littered with encounters that serve little purpose other than to hinder the progress of the dungeon. Most of the enemies have too much health for the players to waste their time with them. There are also too many enemies between points for players to even consider clearing the enemies to be worthwhile. In fact, the enemies tend to be little more than obstacles that most players avoid. Stacked with the fact that often times there are enemies with abilities that are borderline overpowered, even worse than some bosses (these are supposed to be minions, right?), it is no wonder that players bypass the content all-together.

Again, the solution is fairly simple. Reduce enemy status from veteran to normal in a lot of cases. Remove or lower abilities on “trash” enemies and cut some of their health. Create different types of encounters in dungeons to increase the player involvement and interaction with the dungeon. Two encounters I was surprised not to see in the game were gauntlet-style (dodge between pillars to avoid getting perforated by arrows by ranged enemies on the far side of a ravine) and split tactic-style (split the party into two, two-man teams while the fifth member controls gate devices) encounters.

5. “Endgame” content needs to be implemented. Or rather, max level content needs to be implemented, as that is the main point of contention regarding the issue. One of the biggest compliments of design can be found in Guild Wars. The Underworld, Fissure of Woe and Domain of Anguish were great examples of max level content that serves as a point to base new, lasting content that players can strive for. I was surprised to not see something similar release for Guild Wars 2. As it stand right now, the closest we have is explorable Arah (which is still nothing like what is needed) or Fractals of the Mist. Due to numerous issues, however, both fall flat in those regards as well. Arah suffers from the curse of several of my previous points, while Fractals of the Mists suffer from a lack of any new or dynamic content.

A great example I would love to see for Guild Wars 2 is a instance that allows a group of players to go through and determine the length of time they wish to spend, and their commitment. The basis could be a hub area of the instance in which the group has to advance through each stage/path in order to unlock the next stage/path. Each of these stages would be fairly challenging, requiring different tasks and encounters, finally culminating in the end-point of that stage. Further, there should be a fail-state of the dungeon. This means that players have to complete large portions of the dungeon and cannot continue when they fail. While it does sound harsh, it means that players are given a sense of accomplishment and progression through doing.

The rewards of these stages should be limited to the dungeon and be in the form of weapon skins, armor skins and material and rare dye caches. When the group finishes the stage, they go back to the hub to unlock the next stage. As they progress through the stages, they should get increasingly harder in challenge to complete. Note that these challenges should follow the points I outlined above. As the players progress through this dungeon, the rewards should become better and better. More skins (increasing amount of armor or weapon skins dropping), bigger caches or special items (special stone to teleport you directly to Lion’s Arch, for example) as you progress, with the final culmination resulting in special armor or weapon skins being rewarded. Also, no spikes. Stop with the spikes. Seriously.

As a note for the armor and weapon skins, there should be four types obtainable: masterwork, rare, exotic and, yes, legendary. Each of these types should have their own distinct look from one another (but maintain the theme of the dungeon) with the legendary skins and dyes (imagine armor dyes that mimic effects like Twilight or Sunrise) being obtained from the last reward chest in the dungeon. This would give a sense of progression through the dungeon. As well, the masterwork and rare skins are the only ones that should be sell-able on the Trading Post. Some of the special items should be sell-able, as well (mini pets, certain vanity toys).

6. Alternate progression. This is one aspect that most games tend to fall flat on. While fine for single-player games (and to an extent limited multi-player games), players should not be shoehorned into one path of progression. Guild Wars 2 suffers from this mindset. One of the hardest things to do in MMO games is how to marry the “casual” and “hardcore” crowds without alienating one or the other. I do understand that. However, I find that most developers over think the solution and end up causing a bigger rift between them and the player-base, and between the two player-bases themselves.

There is nothing wrong with hardcore commitment and casual play being mutually exclusive to themselves. There is also nothing wrong with having both player-bases having access to similar, rewards. Note that I used the term similar, and not same. Let’s take the previous point to base this example on. The dungeon in question can be attempted by every (max level) player in the game. Upon completion of each path, the players earn tokens/relics just like they would any other dungeon. These tokens can be redeemed for lesser versions of some of the items available in later paths. These lesser versions should have enough variation that they are distinctly different than the ones obtained in the dungeon further on. This could be as simple as certain weapon skins not having a particle effect to armor skins looking dull, matted or unfinished (even fewer dying options). Again, I’m warning you, no spikes. Just don’t even think about spikes.

7. The game needs to be objective, not reactive. This is mostly in regards to WvWvW but can be applies to normal PvE and some PvP content as well. One of the major problems in WvWvW is that it is extremely reactive in what is accomplished. It is more focused on being about clearing a point and moving on, rather than building on an overall objective to progress the match. Zerging each point and moving on to zerg the next point and then falling back to a previous point is all reactive game design. To stop this there needs to be varied objectives in matches that can change the outcome and to counter-balance the entire reactive style of play. The breakout events are a great example of the start of objective content. But even this can be further refined.

For start, players have no tangible benefits to certain points. One keep does not do something another keep doesn’t do. If Keep A and Keep B offer nothing, or the same thing, there is no point in maintaining a strategic hold on those points. By offering each point a tactical advantage of some type, these points become actual objectives. This can be seen in the weather temples in the borderlands (while they are a great start, the are ultimately not needed). Imagine if Keep A provided constant waves of (temporary) NPC enemies that would go and attack certain points. Or if Keep B provided temporary held bundles that gave new weapon abilities (or bombs!). This changes the format of WvWvW to being about maintaining your objectives rather than merely reacting to zerg tactics.

This can be further streamlined by implementing sub-objectives in each of the main objectives as maintenance. A farm supply camp has an event where players need to gather food to fill a supply gauge to increase the rate of supply provided to Keep A. One mine supply camp needs materials gathered and brought to create supply crates that the players can carry to Keep B to spawn more weapons or bombs. These players would be vulnerable to enemies unless escorted by other players.
By creating objectives like these in WvWvW, you move from the current static environment into a more dynamic and competitive environment. All without a focus on zerging.

8. There needs to be more game types. This point is for PvP, but again, can be targeted towards the other two portions of the game. PvP suffers from a lack of varied competitive environments. Point-based capture objectives are fine, but when there is no alternative it quickly becomes not so fine. At least two more game types are needed in order to provide enough variety to PvP to capture the attention and game lifespan for many players. These two game types are team deathmatch (Guild vs Guild) and domination. Many people advocate dueling, but I feel as if that is something completely different than a PvP match-type, and should be in it’s own separate dueling arena instance.

Team deathmatch fills a giant void in the current game types that would help a lot of people feel more comfortable about their time PvPing. This type of game allows players to jump in and out of a match and not have to worry about outside objectives getting in the way of what they really just want to do: fight each other. The maps themselves do not have to be overly designed other than a few obstacles and team respawn points (or even random ones).

Domination follows along the lines of team deathmatch but adds the component of maintaining a certain objective. By holding onto a single point, this gives each team a reason to fight and work together. If team deathmatch is about roaming, domination is about staying stationary. This gives a varied feel over deathmatch than the usual kill mentality.

9. Fix the aesthetics. As we reach the year one mark of the game, I feel as if there are many smaller bugs and glitches that should be resolved to help alleviate many minor issues. Most of these are small things but lend itself to the feel of the game and further complete it. Some of these things touch upon streamlining the UI, while others are more graphical in nature.

Armor clipping needs to be fixed. I realize that not all things can be fixed in this category. But many armors out there clip horribly with each other or the player models. The Hall of Monument bracers clip through hands, chest armor, or both. The Pit Fighter heavy armor pants for females clip horribly through their legs. Many leather armor boots clip horribly through different pants models. Charr horns are cut off when they equip certain head gear. Every character goes bald when they wear hats and helmets. There are many more armor-related issues that need to be resolved to maintain attachment and desire to both characters and armor.

The UI needs to be streamlined for less clicking. The Trading Post should remember your search filters when switching tabs. The Guild interface needs various options for seeing when someone was online last. Various confirmation dialogue boxes are needed for many different activities (like crafting) while some aren’t even needed at all!

The game engine still needs core optimization. With all the new content and data being introduced to the game, it’s starting to show on player’s PCs more and more. Many players have bloated .dat files because the current client doesn’t delete or truncate old content. Graphical power still needs to be less CPU intensive and moved over to GPU. Various sound bugs still crop up through the game. These need to be fixed!

10. No more spikes. I am totally serious here. Stop with the spikes. Spikes do not make you legendary. They make you look like a cactus.

If you manage to make it this far, I thank you for reading through my points. I do realize that many (if not all!) of the things I wrote here have been said before again and again. But I am a staunch believer that if enough people talk about it, and raise their voices about it, that eventually someone will listen and start taking them seriously.

I do enjoy Guild Wars 2, and I hope that it can last in the long term with a healthy and vibrant community. And while I do wikitten could be better, I do like the content that they have in the game currently. Arena.net did create an enjoyable experience to many people, contrary to what other people say. I, personally, will continue to keep on playing for as long as I feel the content provided captures my attention. It is up to Arena.net to bring in the content and fix the issues they have with both their game and their upset player-base. So come on, Arena.net. The ball is in your court.

NOTE: I am not posting a tl;dr of this. I feel as if it is not needed. In order to raise our concerns and problems with various items of the game and it’s direction, we need concise and clear problems and suggestions. Being curt or short with what we want or want to see is not the way to show our support. Arena.net needs to see that we are willing to listen and convey our thoughts in a manner that respects them.

Oh..my word..

OK, I read the first 2 pages and whilst I don’t disagree with parts, monstrous walls of texts like these are not the place for this. Break down your suggestions and put them into the suggestions forum or better yet, add your voice to the threads where all this is covered. Having daily massive threads like these of people’s opinions, whilst valid, is hard going to read and cluttering up the forums at the moment

Really, I’d advise you to move this to Suggestions asap before you get flamed by the community for such a long thread (as happens every time someone adds a wall of text)

I don’t care about flames. As well, I am not breaking it down further. I wrote this to get my point across, and if people cannot read it in it’s entirety, then the entire point of it is lost.

It is also none of my interest whether or not the majority of the “community” has the attention span to be thoughtful or constructive enough.

If it gets flamed, a mod will just kill it and your points, many of which are valid will be lost anyway.

+1 feel like you read my mind, i read you full thread.

+1 for sure!

I really enjoy GW2, and I’ve been playing since launch. I support Anet, and I trust they will continue to try to provide us with content. But I still share all of your complaints.

I hope they see your post.

Again, the solution is fairly simple. Reduce enemy status from veteran to normal in a lot of cases. Remove or lower abilities on “trash” enemies and cut some of their health.

Um what? If you play overworld PVE on your fully levelled and geared character, do you never get the impression that the standard foes just drop like flies? Particularly with four others to which that applies?
So now we extend that feebleness into the only halfway (nominally) difficult PVE mode in the game? No thanks.
Yes, some mobs need to up their game because they are just gigantic damage sponges, but the way to go isn’t to curtail both their health and damage. Up one of them or lower one but increase their number, the latter of which isn’t a meaningful way to fix dungeons though, as countless dynamic events prove (they’ll just vaporize in a firestorm of AOE damage).
Also fix skipping simply by locking the paths till every foe in the vicinity is dead, atleast in some instances.

before I read through the 2nd and following posts I would like to respond to the missing focus of the game. I agree that the game is almost too big for some (people tell you they’ve done everything in the game but what they mean: they’ve done each heart-quest – but haven’t seen half of the events.)

Hearts are a way to guide players to events, but there’s one flaw: once they are filled nobody goes there a second time. Events aren’t always up, so people might miss them.

Here a different solution for guiding players through the game. Expeditions. Let’s say a zone has 5 bigger event-chains. Now you have a NPC in your home-town who starts an expedition to one of those chains which happens next (he spawns a portal to the border of the zone and arrives at the start of the chain as it begins).

Now people won’t miss too much bigger chains if they go with the expedition. Of course this is only for chain-events. A lot of other events in that zone need to be found manually.

The next step could be an achievement where you collect all the expeditions for each zone. This wouldn’t mean you’ve got all events from the zone, but that you’ve seen each big chain of events.

I like your suggestion about WvW-Keeps. Give them unique strategic advantages so that it makes sense to defend those.

Now if you add another point about less copy-paste medium armor designs… that would be awesome.

9.9/10 A Great critic !

I love gw2 , I feel the game has something unique to it , but I have to agree with you Pexx.

100% Agree with pex. He posted the reasons why 5 of my friends quit after 3 months of intensive gameplay.

I concur with Pexx, especially the dungeons aspect. Gauntlet style, split- tactic style; we could use more interaction.

Thank you for taking the time to write this Pexx, i read it and i agree with every point you made.

Thank you for taking the time to write out such a long post. You wrote what many of us were too lazy to write. XD Thanks, I agree completely and would LOVE to see these implemented. Also: Less Spikes. lol

+1, as someone who started the game at release, quit and came back to give it another try a short time later, I agree with pretty much everything you said. There really needs to be some type of progression content as well rewards to match, if you have a dedicated group clearing harder than normal content they deserve to be rewarded with loot that is better than average. If they are going to have legendary weapons in the game they need to actually be legendary, difficult to obtain with stats higher than any other weapons in the game and not something you can craft or purchase.

I just hope that they never entertain the though of a cross server LFG tool or flying mounts. I played WoW for about 5 yrs and those two additions really put a nail in the coffin for the community

+1 indeed. This post need to have a star near it so more people can see and read it, including the staff from Anet!

Great job

I took the time to read everything, and it was worth it. Great analysis and sugestions. Especially the WvWvW keep sugestions. 100% agree.

What I would add is: more armor models, and make them stand out more. Anet proved they can make awesome armor models with the aetherblade sets. Make more of those, make them stand out with something, not just the shape or spikes…add little trophies to them, like human cultural light armor has lab equipment attached to the belt. I don’t know why, but most armor models just seem bland to me.