A suggestion regarding ascended gear
This is a good idea but may not be practical. Although server costs is not as much as in the 90s, there is still a cost.
However, it would be interesting if they did do this. One of the benefits is that you could statistically see what your customers prefer. If the concurrent use and registered users are low on one of the servers, then you know which model is preferred. Also, you might be able to track cash shop purchases by servers. Again, you could see who really spends money – the horizontal or vertical progression crowd.
In fact, they could have taken an approach like this and said they were experimenting. Trying to get real numbers on what people want in end game. But alas, it is probably too late now.
Can you feel it? HOT HOT HOT
You would have to split the trading posts, disallow mail trades between the servers, maybe have different guesting rules, and different WvWvW matchups, further causing mismatches in WvWvW because there would be less servers in each area, etc etc. This is not as easy as it looks, and especially because of WvW and the tp is virtually impossible.
They probably could merge some low pop servers to implement this. Actually with new server architecture, I doubt that one “world” corresponds to exactly one physical machine.
You would have to split the trading posts, disallow mail trades between the servers, maybe have different guesting rules, and different WvWvW matchups, further causing mismatches in WvWvW because there would be less servers in each area, etc etc. This is not as easy as it looks, and especially because of WvW and the tp is virtually impossible.
They could make all the current servers “ascended” servers, and create new servers as “normal servers”. The normal servers have a new set of tp, mail system and WvWvW. Then offer free transfers.
This would be easier than converting existing servers to different types.
Well yeah but I’m saying that’s a lot of work for one simple change, they can’t do this for every major issue the game comes under, it’s a bad precedent. They literally wouldn’t have the labor to afford it. You saw all the issues just to get one TP even working. And the WvW split has to do with the fact that less WvWvW servers competing in a section (you would have divided the number of possible matchups since isntead of, say 24 servers in the matchups it;d be 12 and 12) causes more imbalanced matchups.
So okay, maybe it’s not impossible, but this is not a simple matter of creating new servers with no more drops than exotic and just letting it be. You even have to make exceptions on who can transfer and what they can bring!
I agree that it takes a lot of labor. It all depends on how much they gain by doing so. I saw people quit and request refunds and post screenshots… If by creating two types of servers, they could keep more players from requesting refunds and attract new players who are not keen on vertical progression, they would get the money to hire more developers, or to raise the salary of existing employees to ask them to work more.
To OP, as much as it sounds like a good idea, I think it would be a crazy nightmare.
A better solution:
-Organize a sub-community that is against gear grind
-As a group, pick a low-pop server and migrate to it
-Form a guild (or guilds, there are probably enough of us)
-As a guild, simply agree that “x” tier of gear is the stat cap. We as a group will not equip items that are higher than this stat cap. X would probably be exotic, but we might even go with “Rare” as the tier cap.
-Items that are higher than tier cap could be used for: skins, to sell, non-combat effects (eg a larger back pack), mini-pets , etc
-The premise of the guild is to cut grind out of the loop. By agreeing to have a tier cap on equipment, we are then free to explore the content we enjoy playing. Endgame content will rely on more skillful play instead of just getting bigger gear stats.
-It will also be to promote anti-elitism. We are seeking challenge for the sake of challenge, not the next carrot. Since we aren’t seeking the next carrot, we are free to run the content that we truly enjoy and be welcoming to players who are merely “at level” or the dungeon.
-Similarly, we would encourage experimenting with different builds and playing alts.
There are a few negatives:
-This will almost certainly result in being gated out of content (such as lower levels of FotM), but we accept this as a compromise. It may even make purchasing expansions pointless.
-This will rely on the honor system. People could cheat by going for higher gear, and there is no mechanical way to stop it.
-This guild will probably not be for people interested in WvW, since self-imposing a tier cap will make us uncompetitive with those who do not self-impose this restriction
The point is to organize, in game. We are NOT going to get a solution from ArenaNet, they have already made their intent clear. This requires a solution within the community.
(edited by Merthax.5172)
Apparently Anet has plans to release more ascended gear, while many players, including myself, are not happy about this. I have a solution that might make everyone happy.
The idea is to create two types of servers: “ascended” servers and “normal” servers. On ascended servers, new content is released with ascended gear. On normal servers, new content is released with new exotic gear with the same stats as existing exotic gear and the same names/look as ascended gear. Offer free transfer between different types of servers for a few months.
This way Anet will keep both players who like horizontal progression and those who like vertical progression.
While a good idea it would cause more problems then it is worth. As stated in other posts, wvw, guestings, transfers, AH, mail, all of these things would have to be blocked or highly modified before they could even do it.
It would be interesting to see what would happen if a large enough block of anti-grinders collected onto 1 server.
I keep hearing from people that this grind and increased gear is optional. They are right! ANet isn’t forcing us to grind for gear to get the increased stats. That is a player decision. I would say most of the pressure is from the community on each server.
It would be interesting to see what would happen if a large enough block of anti-grinders collected onto 1 server.
I keep hearing from people that this grind and increased gear is optional. They are right! ANet isn’t forcing us to grind for gear to get the increased stats. That is a player decision. I would say most of the pressure is from the community on each server.
No its not. Its the fact that Ascended buffs are going to be required FOR FUTURE CONTENT.
If given the choice I wouldn’t have to give it a second thought. I’d transfer to a pre-patch server in a sec.
If given the choice I wouldn’t have to give it a second thought. I’d transfer to a pre-patch server in a sec.
Amen to that.
It would be interesting to see what would happen if a large enough block of anti-grinders collected onto 1 server.
I keep hearing from people that this grind and increased gear is optional. They are right! ANet isn’t forcing us to grind for gear to get the increased stats. That is a player decision. I would say most of the pressure is from the community on each server.
No its not. Its the fact that Ascended buffs are going to be required FOR FUTURE CONTENT.
Then the community on that server would not play that future content, or will only play it until the “agony” (or whatever else they come up with) stacks to the point that you can’t progress further. Currently, I hear that as being lvl 10 on FotM.
This will also mean that expansions are almost certainly off the table. I would rather play the game with the content now without the grind, then to be funneled into grind progression just so I can play “new content”. If the server community shares this mindset, this means old content will still have players in it instead of making them ghost towns. I think that would be palatable to many of us.