Guild Wars 2

Edge.4180:

I’m a little disappointed that questions regarding grinding, ascended gear, and ANet’s philosophy on those two points seem to be dominating most of the Q&A. It’s like.. how many ways can the same questions be asked and answered? Let’s move on to something else, already.

totally agree..

I had a couple weeks to form an opinion on this, trying to weigh both stances.

This is my stance so far:
I believe a progression is needed for PvE, otherwise I discovered I won’t go through new content for long.
I would go through it only to get rare skins I’d like, if there were any, but that is hardly the case because most new items Anet creates are far from my tastes.

Progression should instead be an enhancement on what we already gained, not a replacement.
For instance, I would like to enchant my skills like in L2, or cap/gain new elites or skills.
I would like to improve my current gear without replacing it (enchantments, refinements).
I would like to empower my traits or unlock more of them.

My final judgement is that new tiers is bad for GW2, but letting us improve and customize what we have is extremely important.
I want to see a system that allows you to customize skills, stats and traits to a larger degree and a lot more choice.

We don’t need +1 power, we need a more free stat system where all stats combos exist and/or “mods” can add the stats I want.
Weapons had 3 mods in GW1, now you can stick only 1 sigil on them: in the next patch make it so we can “infuse” a slot into our current weapon by doing the new content, then one more again in the next.

ADD customization, don’t be lazy and just add stats.

Ditton.3149:

Raine.1394:

Ualtar.5047:

UnderdogSMO.9428:

Ballistic.4531:

Ditton.3149:

Ballistic.4531:

UnderdogSMO.9428:

Ballistic.4531:

Astralporing.1957:

Yep, no new tiers… they’ll just deploy rares with exotic stats, exotics with ascendant ones, and ascendants with even bigger ones.

This is exactly what I’m worried about too. You don’t need to call it a new tier but it’s the same thing. Better stats are better stats – call it ascended 2 tier or ascended tier but with better stats than previously released ascended gear. Core of the idea is to calm the vocal anti-treadmill players by masking the treadmill under the same tier (tier-name).
That being said, the PR-answers Chris gave us actually did calm me down. A lot. He admited that they made several mistakes with this patch. And he actually admited it several times and appologized for it. Which is far more than I expected from this AMA.
I might get back into the game now, but will still hold on to gem purchases and will know what to expect in the future.

man… if i let every little thing that MIGHT happen worry me my life would suck and there would never be any enjoyment in it.

Chris actually said himself that this WILL happen.

No..he said they werent against it and he wasnt going to promise that it would not. Anything else is inference.

Actually nope. You are plain wrong. In his answer to E2 question he sais:
“That is why there is no plan for new Rarity Tiers of loot but there are plans to enhance or gain items within the existing rarity design whose properties continue on a shallow power curve.”

yeah that’s not new to this game though……

Of course they plan to add items within the tiers. Otherwise we would have the same gear for years. Do people really want to play a static game that never evolves in any way? That is a single player game, not an MMO.

Is the choice really around 1) keeping our gear at it’s current power level, and therefore having a static game that doesn’t evolve. Or 2) having increasing levels of power and therefore a dynamic game that evolves.

The way you presented it is known as a false dilemma or false dichotomy fallacy. No one is asking for a static game and everyone desires a game to evolve over time. So, we also have a straw man argument here.

The issue at hand is the manner in which a non-static game is to evolve. When an organism evolves, it does so in alignment with its DNA with small changes that give it, over time, a cumulative advantage in terms of its environment. If I were extending the metaphor I would liken the Manifesto to Anets DNA. Ideally, the game won’t radically depart from its DNA, and if we were talking about an organism we would probably be talking about a cancer if we were seeing a radical departure.

The key to understanding the Manifesto is to understand horizontal progression versus vertical progression. I believe everyone desires a dynamic game that evolves, so your question really can’t be answered. Many here would have liked to see the game evolve in alignment with its DNA.

With what they think its DNA is. DNA is composed mostly of host material IE parental. So what you are saying is you want it to evolve from GW1..alot of people believe it or not didnt play or like Gw1 and they want GW2 to be its own creature entirely. You are presenting the manifesto which was a blog or journal created two years ago during development as the building blocks for the entire game, I find them at best a guide line.

No, I wasn’t talking about GW1 specifically, I was referring to the Manifesto. Anet made the connection between GW1 and GW2 so of course GW1 is part of the DNA of GW2. And, by the way, I’m fine with calling it a guide line if that’s more comfortable for you. Have you watched masons build a wall using guide lines? It’s called a mason’s line. And, it functions in a similar manner to a design philosophy when extending the metaphor to software.

Edge.4180:

I’m a little disappointed that questions regarding grinding, ascended gear, and ANet’s philosophy on those two points seem to be dominating most of the Q&A. It’s like.. how many ways can the same questions be asked and answered? Let’s move on to something else, already.

Edge, I think they’re trying to ask the question in multiple structures to try to see if the answers are inconsistent. It’s like those psych evaluations you fill out as you apply for a job asking:

“33. Agree or disagree: It is okay to bend the rules once in a while.”
“72. Agree or disagree: Policy must be followed at all times.”

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Edge.4180:

I’m a little disappointed that questions regarding grinding, ascended gear, and ANet’s philosophy on those two points seem to be dominating most of the Q&A. It’s like.. how many ways can the same questions be asked and answered? Let’s move on to something else, already.

Edge, I think they’re trying to ask the question in multiple structures to try to see if the answers are inconsistent. It’s like those psych evaluations you fill out as you apply for a job asking:

“33. Agree or disagree: It is okay to bend the rules once in a while.”
“72. Agree or disagree: Policy must be followed at all times.”

You could be right, but they are wasting everyone’s time. Many people want other questions, completely unrelated to the patch answered. People should start reading the thread and already answered questions.

Still wishing there was some sort of official reply regarding world loot drops. I believe the question has been asked already, but nothing has been said at all. Is it a bug? As intended? Player perception only? Accidental nerf?

I feel the answers Chris has given regarding Ascended items and vertical progression have been more than answered. I hope the AMA can move on to some other issues.

tkalamba.2541:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Edge.4180:

I’m a little disappointed that questions regarding grinding, ascended gear, and ANet’s philosophy on those two points seem to be dominating most of the Q&A. It’s like.. how many ways can the same questions be asked and answered? Let’s move on to something else, already.

Edge, I think they’re trying to ask the question in multiple structures to try to see if the answers are inconsistent. It’s like those psych evaluations you fill out as you apply for a job asking:

“33. Agree or disagree: It is okay to bend the rules once in a while.”
“72. Agree or disagree: Policy must be followed at all times.”

You could be right, but they are wasting everyone’s time. Many people want other questions, completely unrelated to the patch answered. People should start reading the thread and already answered questions.

I know, I’m waiting to see if he hits mine on Ranger pets. My poor lynx needs something to keep Champions or dungeon bosses from practically one-shotting him

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Edge.4180:

I’m a little disappointed that questions regarding grinding, ascended gear, and ANet’s philosophy on those two points seem to be dominating most of the Q&A. It’s like.. how many ways can the same questions be asked and answered? Let’s move on to something else, already.

Edge, I think they’re trying to ask the question in multiple structures to try to see if the answers are inconsistent. It’s like those psych evaluations you fill out as you apply for a job asking:

“33. Agree or disagree: It is okay to bend the rules once in a while.”
“72. Agree or disagree: Policy must be followed at all times.”

That’s fine, but are we interested in having a Q&A session where we get as many questions as possible answered, or are we more interested in playing a game where we see if it’s possible to trip up the developer on his answers. I prefer the former.

Edge.4180:

I’m a little disappointed that questions regarding grinding, ascended gear, and ANet’s philosophy on those two points seem to be dominating most of the Q&A. It’s like.. how many ways can the same questions be asked and answered? Let’s move on to something else, already.

Agreed but at this point I don’t think anyone has the right to kitten about Ascended gear anymore: Anet knows its a total grind and mostly a catch 22 in terms of where the ascended items drop, they are fixing it. A Q+A session where this information is repeated over and over is worth it for a definitive answer on the Ascended gear topic.

tkalamba.2541:

You could be right, but they are wasting everyone’s time. Many people want other questions, completely unrelated to the patch answered. People should start reading the thread and already answered questions.

As I understand Chris is choosing what questions to answer so its hardly the fault of the questioner.

morrolan.9608:

tkalamba.2541:

You could be right, but they are wasting everyone’s time. Many people want other questions, completely unrelated to the patch answered. People should start reading the thread and already answered questions.

As I understand Chris is choosing what questions to answer so its hardly the fault of the questioner.

The question has been answered, several times. Asking the exact same question over and over again serves no purpose. Especially if it’s already been answered.

Edge.4180:

I’m a little disappointed that questions regarding grinding, ascended gear, and ANet’s philosophy on those two points seem to be dominating most of the Q&A. It’s like.. how many ways can the same questions be asked and answered? Let’s move on to something else, already.

I completely agree, I just noticed this.

I was looking forward to this AMA – an opportunity for ANet to properly communicate with us which they have thus far not been doing.

They aren’t doing such a hot job here, either. Perhaps they shouldn’t have left it all up to only one individual – who’s specialty seems to be Ascended Gear.

Red Falcon.8257:

We don’t need +1 power, we need a more free stat system where all stats combos exist and/or “mods” can add the stats I want.
Weapons had 3 mods in GW1, now you can stick only 1 sigil on them: in the next patch make it so we can “infuse” a slot into our current weapon by doing the new content, then one more again in the next.

ADD customization, don’t be lazy and just add stats.

I would like this a lot more than the current ascended gear. Same defense, +major, and +minor stat boosts as exotics…but let us pick which stats go in. I would like to try out something like Precision/Power/Crit Damage instead of Bersker’s Power/Precision/Crit Damage for my thief…but it doesn’t exist. If I want Power as a minor stat, it has to be paired with either Condition Damage, Toughness, or Magic Find, none of which I wish to invest those points into.

The existing combos are fine quite often, but I’ve had more than one character where I could not get the stat setup I wanted without a confusing mix of armor sets/stats and jewel types. It’s supposed to be my character and my build, and I would prefer that customization to the ‘canned’ combos we are offered. It’s not a big issue, just a preference…one that could give a better way to handle the new tier.

“I very much appreciate the chance to connect with everyone not just in regard to this issue but the game as a whole. I am hoping to do this once a month with more team members and keep up more meaningful communication channels.”

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13tuac/im_the_studio_design_director_on_guild_wars_2_ama/c77bwbb

yes, please ;)

“Hi Time,
We are still finalizing the design on both your question and your suggestion. If we were to discuss it it would likely change and therefore be misleading info. I think that moving forward we should be more communicative about our design once we have a good idea of our plans before it is executed upon. This is just an off the cuff idea but i can certainly see its value.
chris”

I see they atleast acknowledged the question I had brought up earlier, I’d be interested to see how this gets implemented. I’m fine with either option, but assume creating ascended gear for every rune and sigil would be such a waste of time.

thanks for posting Timebomb

ok, there is no way he missed all those questions … he’s not answering questions about the loot drop bug

tkalamba.2541:

Aoshi.4785:

Nothing about lag/latency. I’ve been keeping an eye on this for a while now, as it is severely impacting my ability/want to play. I am holding out for an official answer soon though.

Lag and Latency sounds more like a localized issue vs. a widespread issue. I’m not sure that many people are being effected by it, but I could be wrong.

Yeah, it’s a decently big deal, check the tech forums. More interesting though is that the complaints all cropped up right when lost shores was implemented. It’s definitely server-side.

tkalamba.2541:

“Hi Time,
We are still finalizing the design on both your question and your suggestion. If we were to discuss it it would likely change and therefore be misleading info. I think that moving forward we should be more communicative about our design once we have a good idea of our plans before it is executed upon. This is just an off the cuff idea but i can certainly see its value.
chris”

I see they atleast acknowledged the question I had brought up earlier, I’d be interested to see how this gets implemented. I’m fine with either option, but assume creating ascended gear for every rune and sigil would be such a waste of time.

thanks for posting Timebomb

No problem, I’m quite glad he gave an honest response. For anyone who didn’t see, here’s the original question I posted:

Hi Chris. Here’s another question that has recently come up on the forums:

How are runes/sigils going to be handled with ascended armor and weapons? While ascended accessories include the gem, it appears that that solution would not work very well for weapons or armor due to the massive variety of viable runes and sigils that are available for weapons and armor.

Can you tell us: Will we be allowed to put in our own runes/sigils into ascended armor/weapons? Or will it be included in some manner like ascended accessories?

If you don’t know or can’t release that info yet, a quick heads up would still be nice.

Thanks a lot Chris!

I’ve also recently asked:

Has the impact a level cap raise would have on level 80 legendary items been discussed at all? If so, could we have any insight as to how that may be handled? New legendary items, raise in level requirement for legendary items, the ability to somehow transmute a level 80 legendary to a level XX, or…?

wildcode.5403:

ok, there is no way he missed all those questions … he’s not answering questions about the loot drop bug

People are making it a bit difficult for him to tackle everything. Too many repeat questions are burying new unanswered questions.

He can’t even tackle the list from here, as he wants to balance between those, and questions from the reddit community and is getting overwhelmed by people asking about the philosophy or the direction of the game.

Aoshi.4785:

tkalamba.2541:

Aoshi.4785:

Nothing about lag/latency. I’ve been keeping an eye on this for a while now, as it is severely impacting my ability/want to play. I am holding out for an official answer soon though.

Lag and Latency sounds more like a localized issue vs. a widespread issue. I’m not sure that many people are being effected by it, but I could be wrong.

Yeah, it’s a decently big deal, check the tech forums. More interesting though is that the complaints all cropped up right when lost shores was implemented. It’s definitely server-side.

Ahh I see, I don’t spend alot of time in the technical forums clearly.

tkalamba.2541:

Aoshi.4785:

tkalamba.2541:

Aoshi.4785:

Nothing about lag/latency. I’ve been keeping an eye on this for a while now, as it is severely impacting my ability/want to play. I am holding out for an official answer soon though.

Lag and Latency sounds more like a localized issue vs. a widespread issue. I’m not sure that many people are being effected by it, but I could be wrong.

Yeah, it’s a decently big deal, check the tech forums. More interesting though is that the complaints all cropped up right when lost shores was implemented. It’s definitely server-side.

Ahh I see, I don’t spend alot of time in the technical forums clearly.

You, sir, are one of the lucky ones ^__^ I will be there soon, I swear.

I love the game, and want to keep being the same way. I just wish they’d be a bit quicker with the help, or at least have an official acknowledgement about it. But I guess that’s the way it goes in this business…

someone should really ask about temporary weapons such as engineer kits, and whether or not they intend to fix the problem of losing weapon stats and/or poor scaling (elementalist summons, engie kits, turrets, banners)

“Hi Sin,

So yep you are right this is the question i have been likely dodging the most? The reason being is that it requires investigation. Vet and Champs should give good loot and there are a number of reports on perceived decrease in the frequency of drops. I will be discussing this in depth with the Production and Design team tomorrow and we will hopefully have more info soon.

Chris"

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13tuac/im_the_studio_design_director_on_guild_wars_2_ama/c77co1g?context=3

Lifelike.5862:

someone should really ask about temporary weapons such as engineer kits, and whether or not they intend to fix the problem of losing weapon stats and/or poor scaling (elementalist summons, engie kits, turrets, banners)

It’s one of the questions in the list of community questions that Chris seems to have forgotten about :/.

judeobscure.2537:

“Hi Sin,

So yep you are right this is the question i have been likely dodging the most? The reason being is that it requires investigation. Vet and Champs should give good loot and there are a number of reports on perceived decrease in the frequency of drops. I will be discussing this in depth with the Production and Design team tomorrow and we will hopefully have more info soon.

Chris"

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13tuac/im_the_studio_design_director_on_guild_wars_2_ama/c77co1g?context=3

Thank you for posting this. It is reassuring to know that the concerns have been noticed and acknowledged by an official. No, there is no fix at present, but just knowing that Anet is aware is a step in the right direction.

“Do you stand behind the decision of having the levelling system in FOTM, essentially fracturing your player base into many, many, different portions, with players only looking for the specific level they need to advance through level difficulty?
It was never a conscious decision to fracture the player base through the Dungeon. Honestly we were aware the dungeon was good but we didn’t know just how popular it would be. Nearly straight away we saw the issue and have been working on a fix since, we have explored multiple system”

Good on Chris for owning up to this issue but quite frankly I find this unbelievable. As soon as it was announced there were people on the forums stating that it was going to happen.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

It may not be obvious to you (which is totally understandable) that this team is spinning many plates at a time and sometimes we miss things. So let me explain how we came to design there being no repair point in fractals:

- We wanted groups to win encounters through skill rather than blind force, therefore…
- We removed rez rushing. We removed way points and replaced them with checkpoints that could only be used when the whole group was down, this meant….
- That group members would spend more time keeping players alive resulting in less deaths. Should a group come across an encounter that is to hard…
- They would stop playing or spend the time to work out the encounter or both.
- We absolutely did not want players continually running into their deaths.
- The decision was therefore made that there was no need for repair points.

Add a repair anvil that spawns after the death of the final boss encounter → boom genius here. Players can’t repair zerg or have to exit, and players can fix before the next fractal. Still makes it worthy to have a canister, but not as harsh as having: 2/3 hard fractals in a row then Jade maw on top of it with no repair.

Raine.1394:

Power creeps creeps; that’s why they call it power creep.

Power creep = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLPZmPaHme0 ?

Chris Whiteside.6102:

morrolan.9608:

“Do you stand behind the decision of having the levelling system in FOTM, essentially fracturing your player base into many, many, different portions, with players only looking for the specific level they need to advance through level difficulty?
It was never a conscious decision to fracture the player base through the Dungeon. Honestly we were aware the dungeon was good but we didn’t know just how popular it would be. Nearly straight away we saw the issue and have been working on a fix since, we have explored multiple system”

Good on Chris for owning up to this issue but quite frankly I find this unbelievable. As soon as it was announced there were people on the forums stating that it was going to happen.

And the moral of this story is that i need to pay more attention to the feedback we are receiving. There is a great deal going on so a method of more open communication between the teams/design and the community would be great and I intend to work on how we can accomplish this.

Chris

Thank you.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

And the moral of this story is that i need to pay more attention to the feedback we are receiving. There is a great deal going on so a method of more open communication between the teams/design and the community would be great and I intend to work on how we can accomplish this.

Chris

Especially when bug reports get moved from where they should be and are overlooked.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

morrolan.9608:

“Do you stand behind the decision of having the levelling system in FOTM, essentially fracturing your player base into many, many, different portions, with players only looking for the specific level they need to advance through level difficulty?
It was never a conscious decision to fracture the player base through the Dungeon. Honestly we were aware the dungeon was good but we didn’t know just how popular it would be. Nearly straight away we saw the issue and have been working on a fix since, we have explored multiple system”

Good on Chris for owning up to this issue but quite frankly I find this unbelievable. As soon as it was announced there were people on the forums stating that it was going to happen.

And the moral of this story is that i need to pay more attention to the feedback we are receiving. There is a great deal going on so a method of more open communication between the teams/design and the community would be great and I intend to work on how we can accomplish this.

Chris

I know it tastes bad, but that crow will eventually go down. I, and many other players I’m sure just like to know we are dealing with a human being and not some faceless corporate entity. And for this decision of admitting your only human is worth a big +1 from this player.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

morrolan.9608:

“Do you stand behind the decision of having the levelling system in FOTM, essentially fracturing your player base into many, many, different portions, with players only looking for the specific level they need to advance through level difficulty?
It was never a conscious decision to fracture the player base through the Dungeon. Honestly we were aware the dungeon was good but we didn’t know just how popular it would be. Nearly straight away we saw the issue and have been working on a fix since, we have explored multiple system”

Good on Chris for owning up to this issue but quite frankly I find this unbelievable. As soon as it was announced there were people on the forums stating that it was going to happen.

And the moral of this story is that i need to pay more attention to the feedback we are receiving. There is a great deal going on so a method of more open communication between the teams/design and the community would be great and I intend to work on how we can accomplish this.

Chris

The best gear in the game (for 3 slots) comes in this dungeon only. How could you NOT foresee it being popular?

Of course RNG completely controls whether you get a ring or not, so it’s not like DOING the content means much (if the gear is your goal).

BTW, 6 level 10 daily chests opened – no ring. Do you really mean to have your content gated by RNG? (meaning that to progress much further than 20, more than 5 Agony is really needed). While some people get one every day.

Sigh. hopefully they will reconsider and focus their efforts on the things that really matter: world vs world and spvp. PVE is just fine the way it is, the game didnt need fractals or ascended gear.

Also, what about Magic find? It truly is an awful mechanic that goes against the spirit of the game.

Also – since I don’t have a reddit account (and don’t intend to make one – nor facebook or twitter, etc), what about some useful LFG tool to help with the /lfg spam in Lion’s Arch?

Imo the biggest screw up they did was limiting how you could get ascended gear, making running FoTM did not score much imo. If they would have made craftable version’s, and pvp version’s from the get go, I think alot of this firestorm could have been negated or atleast deminished.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

morrolan.9608:

“Do you stand behind the decision of having the levelling system in FOTM, essentially fracturing your player base into many, many, different portions, with players only looking for the specific level they need to advance through level difficulty?
It was never a conscious decision to fracture the player base through the Dungeon. Honestly we were aware the dungeon was good but we didn’t know just how popular it would be. Nearly straight away we saw the issue and have been working on a fix since, we have explored multiple system”

Good on Chris for owning up to this issue but quite frankly I find this unbelievable. As soon as it was announced there were people on the forums stating that it was going to happen.

And the moral of this story is that i need to pay more attention to the feedback we are receiving. There is a great deal going on so a method of more open communication between the teams/design and the community would be great and I intend to work on how we can accomplish this.

Chris

I have been on the razor’s edge of deleting the game and asking for a refund. I followed the AMA and, while I do not like some of what you have said (while liking others), I am willing to give it time.

I am one of those horizontal progression stick in the muds and am not at all happy with the changes but I am willing to give your new direction a chance. Basically, if your vertical progression does not interfere with my horizontal gameplay overly much, I am good.

My change in attitude is due to you actually speaking with us.

wildcode.5403:

Joseph Skyrim.2470:

That is such a great neutral answer. Certainly keeps us Oceanic people guessing till the next event huh? :P To be fair I don’t think he couldn’t have answered differently as the real answer will be how they handle their next few events. If I am not even given the chance to participate then I think this is the wrong game to be spending my time on.

I’ve seen it explained in other threads by ANet people that the timing is based on when they have the greatest number of people on. For us in the western pacific, GW2 is really quiet in our prime time, so to be involved in GW2 prime time event we need to wake up extra early.

If they continue to cater to their “greatest number of people” 100% of the time, then 100% of the time they aren’t catering to anyone else. I just wanted to know for certain, from the horse’s mouth, what their plans were for that.

Given that it sounds like 1 time events aren’t being ditched it will be interesting to see what they actually do. As previously mentioned, if I don’t have a reasonable chance to participate not sure I should stay. Also leads me to wonder why they have european based servers in the first place if they aren’t going to use other timezones. :P

Don’t get me wrong: I don’t mind missing events if I really can’t make them. But if almost everyone in my timezone misses an event due to timing that’s a different story.

Aand he’s done. Decent AMA overall; he got off a couple hours earlier than he said, but that just means he was smart enough to not respond to peoples while half asleep. Hopefully we start seeing these AMAs occur on a more constant basis. I wish he would have answered more of the community questions; he only got through one section :/. Eh, he did good nevertheless.

I think this was a fairly productive AMA, actually. Some good ideas and it shows the direction ArenaNet is moving in. I don’t like vertical progression (I’m an altaholic completionist from GW1) but addressing the content gating mechanisms and population split is the bigger issue and it’s now understood that it is being worked on. I feel a lot better about the future of PvE now. Good show on Chris for doing so much work this Monday (now Tuesday) without a break. If I might make a suggestion regarding Ascended gear, perhaps one way you could add it into the general/casual PvE experience would be by having (bi)-monthly Events that have a chance to drop Ascended gear for level 80 players upon successful completion and that consist of large “invasion/open warfare” type scenarios taking up an entire zone and requiring teamwork to complete. That wouldn’t really invalidate Fractal Runners’ work and would be fun for the entire PvE community (and could also be used to draw level 80 players into lower level zones).

TimeBomb.3427:

Aand he’s done. Decent AMA overall; he got off a couple hours earlier than he said, but that just means he was smart enough to not respond to peoples while half asleep. Hopefully we start seeing these AMAs occur on a more constant basis. I wish he would have answered more of the community questions; he only got through one section :/. Eh, he did good nevertheless.

Without todays AMA we might not have been able to draw attention to the drop rate bug for some time because posts kept getting moved from bugs meaning the people that needed to see them weren’t.

Thank you Chris, hope to hear more soon.

zippo burntfur.9307:

Imo the biggest screw up they did was limiting how you could get ascended gear, making running FoTM did not score much imo. If they would have made craftable version’s, and pvp version’s from the get go, I think alot of this firestorm could have been negated or atleast deminished.

But they did make them craftable, friend.
250X Tier 6 Mats
50X Ecto
1X Drop of liquid RNG
and 24 skillpoints

And to upgrade that:
Previous Item
250x ecto
Concentrated Liquid RNG
and some skillpoints

zippo burntfur.9307:

Imo the biggest screw up they did was limiting how you could get ascended gear, making running FoTM did not score much imo. If they would have made craftable version’s, and pvp version’s from the get go, I think alot of this firestorm could have been negated or atleast deminished.

ANet initially introduced Ascended gear via the FotM. They have written that this, perhaps, was the wrong way to go about. However, this new gear tier will roll out throughout the game; which will mean it will provide more accessible ways to get it.

Joseph Skyrim.2470:

wildcode.5403:

Joseph Skyrim.2470:

That is such a great neutral answer. Certainly keeps us Oceanic people guessing till the next event huh? :P To be fair I don’t think he couldn’t have answered differently as the real answer will be how they handle their next few events. If I am not even given the chance to participate then I think this is the wrong game to be spending my time on.

I’ve seen it explained in other threads by ANet people that the timing is based on when they have the greatest number of people on. For us in the western pacific, GW2 is really quiet in our prime time, so to be involved in GW2 prime time event we need to wake up extra early.

If they continue to cater to their “greatest number of people” 100% of the time, then 100% of the time they aren’t catering to anyone else. I just wanted to know for certain, from the horse’s mouth, what their plans were for that.

Given that it sounds like 1 time events aren’t being ditched it will be interesting to see what they actually do. As previously mentioned, if I don’t have a reasonable chance to participate not sure I should stay. Also leads me to wonder why they have european based servers in the first place if they aren’t going to use other timezones. :P

Don’t get me wrong: I don’t mind missing events if I really can’t make them. But if almost everyone in my timezone misses an event due to timing that’s a different story.

Same here. (From Australia.) I was lucky enough that the Lost Shores finale fell in a thin window of opportunity where I could still attend it and head to work afterwards, but I’m well aware that had it just been 1 more hour either way, I’d have missed out.

I’m not against one-time events in theory, but ANet does need to stretch it out so that players from all over the world have a fair chance to attend it. I’m glad that Chris has stated that they are looking at ways to address this issue, but my fears won’t be entirely resolved until I see their solution.

My proposed solution, which I posted on the feedback thread, is as follows:

For future events, have each Phase last for an entire week. This gives players plenty of time to complete scavenger hunts, take part in games and activities, and still be able to do normal GW2 activities without feeling like they’ll be missing out. Just as importantly, this setup means that ANet has time to correct any bugs/errors that may arise without having to extend the event and throwing schedules into chaos.

Secondly, have finale events work in a manner similar to “mission” instances. You form a party, the party leader talks to an NPC and your party (along with possibly up to 3 other parties for a total of 20 players to give a sense of greater numbers) are sent into an instance to battle the “Big Bad Enemy”. Afterwards, the party is sent back to the main area where they can collect their reward from an NPC (only once per character/account, as appropriate). In this way, a finale event can be available over an entire day, lag and culling won’t be such a huge issue, and you still get to retain that sense of a “one-time event that changes the face of Tyria”. Finale events could be limited to just 24 hours, but I think that with this setup, you could let it run for 3 days over the weekend to allow people the maximum opportunity to attend and take part.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

And the moral of this story is that i need to pay more attention to the feedback we are receiving. There is a great deal going on so a method of more open communication between the teams/design and the community would be great and I intend to work on how we can accomplish this.

Chris

Public Test Server

Amon.5042:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

And the moral of this story is that i need to pay more attention to the feedback we are receiving. There is a great deal going on so a method of more open communication between the teams/design and the community would be great and I intend to work on how we can accomplish this.

Chris

Public Test Server

Indeed. I was hoping there would be a question about creating a Public Test Server. It would help bug testing and communication so much.

But I don’t have a reddit account and reddit has a bad rep, so I don’t bother with it. I also hate their formatting as well. (Not too fond of the buggy quote features here either. =P)

So could someone ask a question for me? A clarification on what improving existing rarity tiers means? I assumed that this meant things like infusions, but some have already argued this will be higher item levels within the same tier. The worry is that there will be Ascended backs for 80s that are more powerful than the current ascended backs for 80s.

Amon.5042:

Public Test Server

The one problem with public test servers is that you end up with a disjointed community where some some will live on the test server while the rest of us are on the live servers. I’ve seen this occur with many games. The one way around it is that each restart/login means your account on the test server is reset to the status it is on the live server, this means people can’t really grow their accounts unless they play on the live servers.

etiolate.9185:

So could someone ask a question for me? A clarification on what improving existing rarity tiers means? I assumed that this meant things like infusions, but some have already argued this will be higher item levels within the same tier. The worry is that there will be Ascended backs for 80s that are more powerful than the current ascended backs for 80s.

Chris clarified by saying that they’d be adding more stat combinations, and that if they eventually increase the level cap down the road then there was a possibility that they might increase the power of a tier of gear to compensate, but that that they’d ideally look for another solution first.

I have to give them credit for the time invested in this and the transparency, particularly admission of mistakes. Those all go a long way. Specifically, I appreciate the admission that in hindsight they should have made these items available in WvWvW and pve from day one. That’s been my biggest gripe.

Death Reincarnated.3570:

zippo burntfur.9307:

Imo the biggest screw up they did was limiting how you could get ascended gear, making running FoTM did not score much imo. If they would have made craftable version’s, and pvp version’s from the get go, I think alot of this firestorm could have been negated or atleast deminished.

ANet initially introduced Ascended gear via the FotM. They have written that this, perhaps, was the wrong way to go about. However, this new gear tier will roll out throughout the game; which will mean it will provide more accessible ways to get it.

The major problem with that is if we apply the current grind for ascended items to other avenues all you’re looking at is more flavors of grinding available. Think about it, 2000 badges of honor for 1 item, 1 million karma per item, or 20 dungeon runs for 1 item. Not to mention that both karma and WvW have severely limit stat combinations. They could add 20 different ways to get ascended items but if the current grind is any indicator they still wouldn’t be more accessible.