Guild Wars 2

The understanding to our efforts here, for the very least of Tarnished Coast, is that the dev team was already aware of this easter egg. Yes, I call it that because someone designed this one likely on purpose-this is not someone glitching through walls or using skills to bypass barriers, but using the mechanics of jumping puzzles to get in. At the last multi-guild summit, which was supported and observed by one of the Dev, it was revealed there that Uninstanced Salma existed. Because of this, we had asked what would be done about it, and the calm response was there was no benefit nor was there risk to the Divinity’s Reach instance to have it crash. So, I’m here to reinforce those points, that this is not a ‘bug’ or a ‘exploit’, but a place at the very least the roleplayers can use as the amount of buildings at this current time that you can enter is small, and it shrunk after one post because someone I’m sure submitted a building or two going ‘players should not be in House A’. This is a post to keep things clear from a bug report submitted that it is not, and the person was looking from the context of the post to aggravate things.

Pros of keeping Uninstanced Salma open:
-The roleplay community on Piken Square and Tarnished Coast continue to use it simply as an extended backdrop of the Reach. Five people for guild events simply does not cut this when we want other guilds involved or working with our own personal plots.

-Less work for the dev team and helps sate anyone who wants guild or player housing; right now, the six or so buildings that are in the city generally are full or being used, and you cannot mimic the hospital anywhere else in the city well.

-For the most part, as the details have not been said here, it’s been a haven against trolling players who wish to spam or cause chaos in the midst of a serious scene.

-Finally it holds nor contains any statistical, PvE, PvP, or item-based advantage or exploit for leaving it open. It’s literally making use of the props and artwork, nothing else.

Cons of leaving Uninstanced Salma open:
-It’s more surface of the city to be explored and used, so possibly more player population load for the city itself.

-To Be Determined

Cons of closing Uninstanced Salma:
- RP guilds already making use of it will need to look elsewhere in a very limited environment, as each place to roleplay is usually covered in mobs.
-Besides paying the 100 gold for the squad chat channel on a limited chat system, it offers a place in the Reach that is quiet enough for scenes and for the current emote (/e) range. This will then be closed.
-It cuts off what was said earlier the amount of buildings you can use for roleplay. The sake of being to be able to use the manor or the special looking tavern in Salma over the Queensdale Hunting Lodge or the Busted Flagon is a noticable difference, and provides a backup building if events like the orge whistle happen again.

I understand that this is mostly a roleplayer’s defense, but that is also more the point. It provides as I stated no game-based advantages, so please for the sake of our roleplay community do not close this off. As to the Developer in question, I will not post his name unless requested privately by a GM.

He does have some very valid points about the pros of keeping Uninstanced Salma open. It’s not a bug nor exploit. If anything, it’s a jumping puzzle. Why else would the access points be so easily to jump on? It’s just a simple easter egg. No one is gaining, nor losing anything from it being there. No one is gaining some amazing super weapon for being able to jump into an area THAT SHOULD BE OPEN IN THE FIRST PLACE. But…I digress. It’s just a fun place for guild events in an open area. Salma is an amazing district, but making it instance-only would harm the RP community, which, may I add, some of the Devs actually play on.

Sakero has laid out a well-documented and well reasoned argument for keeping uninstanced Salma open, and I’m all for it. Please keep it available for the RP community to use! Uninstanced Salma is unique and adds so much to our game play experience.

To be honest, that is the only area with a hospital and another inn. Closing that off would be damaging to RP as those areas are quite useful.

As Sakero has said, this was brought up on Tarnished Coast at the Multi-Guild meeting which a Developer did attend. There is no pvp, pve, monetary or skill benefit, or item advantage or exploit in using the un-instanced area of Salma so why take the time and effort to prevent the area from being used when there are far more pressing concerns to deal with.

There are a number of jumping puzzles in the game, so I am at a loss to understand how such a simple one could have been overlooked. There is a second spot to access Salma in the same manner that has been blocked, so my contention is this specific method of accessing Salma is an easter egg that we were meant to find.

Not only do I agree with Sakero’s well thought out statement and proposal to our incredible Dev team, but I was also present at the TC Guild Summit. Our Devs play with us from time to time, they know the value we seek in our environments used as backdrops for our roleplay. Uninstanced Salma is -not- a bug or map exploit. No one gains anything of value from going in there besides an additional area to roleplay in. Divinity’s Reach is huge, but TC is heavily populated and plenty of roleplayers have laid claim or stake in areas frequented by many, so finding a suitable place for an appropriate scene or to use the hospital or to use the marketplace or to hold meetings with various GM’s in the tavern…to take it all away from us would leave -several- people left with limited choices. Please leave our server/map the way it is. Thank you.

I don’t see this as an issue. Allow it to stay open.

I am not sure why the devs would want to close it when they players are enjoying the area. It isn’t a hack or an exploit. Go after the bots and gold farmers, not Salma! I know many folks that enjoy using the zone and inn as another place to RP and it would be a shame to loose it just because someone thought it was their noble quest to close it off. Leave us our RP zone!

I agree with what the others have said. It doesn’t cause any harm to those playing the game, it’s simply a roleplaying gem for those of us that roleplay. Please let the uninstanced Salma stay.

Please leave it open! It’s got a hospital, especially, that is inaccessible any other way by a group of people other than five, as well as lovely areas in general.

I agree with the original post as well. Leave it open, it’s useful.

Roleplayers are most probably the people that pay the most money into the game via the gem store for shiny little trinkets to make their world better. To cut off a viable RP hub and to basically snub your biggest market is not a smooth business move IMHO.

The route into US (uninstanced Salma) is not an exploit, nor does it give anyone any advantage over anyone else. It is, as has been pointed out, a jumping puzzle.

If you were to take this away I would like to see guild housing, or similar things to what Rift is doing. The only person being harmed here is those wanting a good time.

I have never used this, and didn’t know about it until today. But you know what? I am not bothered in the least that it exists and that roleplayers have a wonderful spot to do their thing. Is this hurting anyone? Nope. Is it kind of a cool easter egg? Yep. Will it hurt people by closing it? …Yes, apparently it will hurt roleplayers, who already have it tough.

Is it really such a terrible thing to leave in the game? Is this bothering or annoying people, is it causing players trouble? If there’s some exploit, if someone is gaining something they shouldn’t that gives them an advantage… or it impinges on other players happiness and ability to play… sure, close it as a bug.

But I vote for leaving it alone and treating it like a jumping game easter egg and have anet spend their time fixing actual bugs in the game. Waste of time to close uninstanced salma, imo.

The downside of leaving it open, larger map strain, is a somewhat moot argument as, on most servers, Divinity’s Reach rarely has a large enough population to reach overflow. If the city were in constant overflow, it might be a different matter, but the population is far too sparse for that on the majority of servers.

The only way the main cities go into overflow is when there is an event. A couple more people into an area really makes no difference.

If Salma is going to be closed- it is effectively an unofficial declaration against the unofficial RP community that represents a pool of tens of thousands players- that Arenanet doesn’t want this community’s OFFICIAL money being spent on gw2.
Keeping salma=keeping income. I hope that is understood. If it is closed I will get Arenanet’s message.

I agree, Salma should be left open. I think that if it’s uncomfortable for devs to have us kinda just hop in (not bugging or glitching in mind you), they should just make it so you can waltz right in without entering the instance. Seems like this shouldn’t be a big deal to me

Just going to add my two cents: this uninstanced place should indeed remain open.
It’d be even nicer if they could actually open one of the side gates into it, and then leave the front gate closed to not confuse people with the “sudden” Instance pop up.

As for the strain it might cause: Divinity’s Reach is an area that seldom overflows. Even during the Tixx visit on our server it didn’t have a population issue, far as I have noticed or heard of. It’s but a simple, lovely area for roleplayers to visit, that “regular” players likely don’t mind stays – most are blissfully unaware of its existence.
Also, the only Pedestrian NPCs in the Reach, aren’t they? You cannot steal these poor AI people from their waddling routine!

Dane.3642

If Salma is going to be closed- it is effectively an unofficial declaration against the unofficial RP community that represents a pool of tens of thousands players- that Arenanet doesn’t want this community’s OFFICIAL money being spent on gw2.
Keeping salma=keeping income. I hope that is understood. If it is closed I will get Arenanet’s message.

Also this. While not as dramatic as that fellow, I’d hate to see such a nice area for roleplay just vanish. I am also still somewhat confused that for a company that built such a magnificent world, with so many buildings and gorgeous areas useless to “actual gameplay”… that there is(/are) no recognised roleplaying server(s) as of yet.
It almost feels as if someone accidentally forgot to turn on the “Roleplay” label in front of Tarnished Coast USA and Piken Square EU on the server list.

I completly agree on keeping it uninstanced.
Actualy I though Anet wanted to make a open world game, why bother making personal story, magnificent city, A new type of gameplay to be friendly for all and not that competetive to in the end closing off some area that could be used by all.
I know some player dont Rp, other think its a waste of time, but its our own way to make to game more alive, even if the rp community only count over ten thousand compare to all players, we make it that all the time to put in lore and events dont go to waste.

So please keep the uninstanced Salma district open for the rp community.

Pro: Community can role play away from prying eyes of pugs

Con: Only those who know how to enter this area by jumping from the upper palace area down onto a roof, are able to do so, further segregating themselves from the overall community and not allowing the general public to participate in role play.

Pro: Plenty of open buildings

Con: While there are plenty of open buildings, none of the NPC’s that exists in the instance are present in the world version of this area.

Pro: Has a bar where people can congregate

Con: Since no NPC’s are present in the world version of this area, the bar has no access to alcohol.

Pro: Can do stuff in the privacy of this area

Con: Promotes activities that might seem inappropriate in open world

Other arguments I’ve seen can relate to any other open world area.

While I do see why role players are wanting some privacy, to the point where they use squad chat so that out siders are not bothered by the role play, I don’t understand why they want to be segregated from a greater community that may want to role play themselves from time to time, but are unable to find role players because because of the lack of public exposure/access.

While the Samla issue has brought to light just one area where role players segregate themselves from the greater community, there are other areas this also occurs. I myself would love to just sit and observe role playing for a period just to see if I could get into it, and from what I have heard it can be comical at times, but the segregation via squad chat and exclusive areas makes this impossible.

If any opening up is to happen, then the role players must consider opening up to the greater community to allow the general player base the opportunity to observe and participate.