Guild Wars 2

… for mediocore changes. The “big and great” feature patch so far is, removing the most minimal ever appearing costs in the game, repairs, that didn’t hurt even the every time dying newbies (not like traveling costs, that noone really cares about later). Free trait resets are mentioned TWICE in 2 separate blogposts, once it says you can do it for free anywhere, and the other says again you can do it for free. WvW exp and highend items being account wide is also represented as the most glorious thing ever done, but let’s face it, it’s just a “fix” that should have been done ages ago and takes minimal effort. I’m not a programmer, but I imagine it’s a swich on some devkit UI if an item is soulbound or account bound. The new traits are a nice addition, that’s for sure, but won’t make an impact on the game, not on their own. I expected many more changes (especially under title “removing restrictions”), like weapons that can be used in only main hand, can be used in offhand or something. That would have been the very minimal of my expectations. The wardrobe is also nice.

I must say, I’m happy to see the game changing and upgrading, but this is very very far from enough, to keep me playing. Most of the changes are aimed for newcomers.

Wardrobe? Great! I already have all the skins I wanted, I had 1.5 years to collect them. 0 new armor added.

Trait resets? Great! Now it saves me 30 seconds when I change between PvE and WvW. New traits added, this is done well – speaking in general, not about how good / bad those traits are.

WvW EXP and high end gear acc wide? Great! It’s a minor fix and changes nothing for those who already had this kind of stuffs. Those who have a legendary on a character are certainly very dedicated to that character, and it’s a welcome addition to allow item transfer between alts. But I can’t say it enough times this is a change so minimal, it is simply impossible to match the expactations that are based on the hype ANet built up, via speaking so highly about this patch, plus the lacking communication when people went to theorycrafting and wishes about new weapon skills etc. that should have been in a patch presented a way like this one.

More detailed LFG tool? Seriously? This is worth an entire day’s blogpost? I was propably hard to write more than 2 lines about it. A change that should have been mentioned as a sidenote somewhere, not as a “look at our hard hard work!”. I could appriciate it, if it would not be – again – presented as something fantastic. This is a minor fix.

Reworked runes, sigils. This is the big one, something I say easily lived up to the hype. I cannot say much until I tried the new system, but it definitly sounds like a great, fundamental change that REALLY required hard work and balancing, and has a big impact on everyday gameplay. Something I don’t really do, since the content didn’t really expanded since relase. But that’s another topic, about why changes to gameplay doesn’t matter to those who don’t play at all because they’ve seen everything already, many times.

The “big” changes are fixes to things most people see as bugs and problems. The feature patch does not introduce anything new or especially good, it just fixes what needed fixing.

I’m surprised that they think this will stop the flood of players leaving for ESO.

Or that we needed to wait five+ months for these changes.

This patch is really about the china release. NA population has dwindled, we aren’t that important.

Who loves spending tons of money on micro transistion wardrobes? China…

Who will be effected the most by champ train nerfs, repair costs, account bound things, etc… new players who are just starting out… i.e. China…

account bound dyes… announced a month ago for china…

In reality this is just about the chinese release, we are just an afterthought.

Did ANet really hype it up?
Sorry I don’t go out much so maybe I missed something, but all they did was release a teaser and then slowly release more and more info regarding the patch. I don’t remember ANet specifically going out of there way to hype anything. Of course like I said, don’t get out much so meh.

Wow. Why are people always so negative? It hasn’t even arrived yet (the actual changes) and people are already whining about it. Why do people play a game that they find such faults with? I sure wouldn’t. I’d go play a game that I enjoyed and forget about the one I didn’t (I’ve done that with several of them).

@OP: I’m about as optimistic as you are when it comes to GW2 updates. These are all QoL things. The cost-free update to traits and armors are most likely to scale with the gold nerf though, so in other words, it’s like we have 2+2=4, and then suddenly 3+1=4 is some novel, innovative idea. So… you are right. A lot of this is just hype-building over nothing. :P

So what do we have to expect from tomorrows blogpost?
Hype edition: Guild Halls, housing.
Realist edition: You are no longer able to fall through the floor of dungeons.

CureForLiving.5360:

Did ANet really hype it up?
Sorry I don’t go out much so maybe I missed something, but all they did was release a teaser and then slowly release more and more info regarding the patch. I don’t remember ANet specifically going out of there way to hype anything. Of course like I said, don’t get out much so meh.

They’ve constantly answered player complaints in numerous sub-forums since November by pointing to their feature patch that we’re still waiting for.

Based on how they handled their public relations, I was expecting some rather large changes: new skills, new weapon sets for each class, new armor and weapon skins, some new zones, guild halls, etc.

I’m not going to say that I don’t like most of the changes (except them stealing my town clothes), but I will say that the feature pack doesn’t seem to have anything bigger or more exciting (so far, anyway) than the features released over the course of the regular bi-weekly patches. Maybe they’re good changes, but still. I suspect the purpose, however, may have been to set up the framework of separating story updates from stuff updates like this one. Maybe that will allow future feature patches to have bigger, more interesting updates? I don’t know. But it does seem strange.

Flytrap.8075:

CureForLiving.5360:

Did ANet really hype it up?
Sorry I don’t go out much so maybe I missed something, but all they did was release a teaser and then slowly release more and more info regarding the patch. I don’t remember ANet specifically going out of there way to hype anything. Of course like I said, don’t get out much so meh.

They’ve constantly answered player complaints in numerous sub-forums since November by pointing to their feature patch that we’re still waiting for.

Based on how they handled their public relations, I was expecting some rather large changes: new skills, new weapon sets for each class, new armor and weapon skins, some new zones, guild halls, etc.

It’s your fault. Already knew for weeks that the changes that would come were related to QoL.

Too little too late, I fear.

QoL mainly, and adjustments, that will only target new players?

The stuff we have seen so far is as game changing as the introduction of pets not all being moved to the bank with the ressources. Sort of nice, sort of totally forgetable.

And removing the cost from repairs? A feature? Did anyone ever complain about that fee ever? It was so tiny, that I always thought the WP fee was the penalty for death.

Flytrap.8075:

CureForLiving.5360:

Did ANet really hype it up?
Sorry I don’t go out much so maybe I missed something, but all they did was release a teaser and then slowly release more and more info regarding the patch. I don’t remember ANet specifically going out of there way to hype anything. Of course like I said, don’t get out much so meh.

They’ve constantly answered player complaints in numerous sub-forums since November by pointing to their feature patch that we’re still waiting for.

Based on how they handled their public relations, I was expecting some rather large changes: new skills, new weapon sets for each class, new armor and weapon skins, some new zones, guild halls, etc.

I didn’t get that at all. Based simply on the name “Feature Pack” I never expected those things. That would be more of an Expansion to me. Your list of expectations sounds more like a wish list to me.

Lukhas.1962:

Flytrap.8075:

CureForLiving.5360:

Did ANet really hype it up?
Sorry I don’t go out much so maybe I missed something, but all they did was release a teaser and then slowly release more and more info regarding the patch. I don’t remember ANet specifically going out of there way to hype anything. Of course like I said, don’t get out much so meh.

They’ve constantly answered player complaints in numerous sub-forums since November by pointing to their feature patch that we’re still waiting for.

Based on how they handled their public relations, I was expecting some rather large changes: new skills, new weapon sets for each class, new armor and weapon skins, some new zones, guild halls, etc.

It’s your fault. Already knew for weeks that the changes that would come were related to QoL.

I’m not sure how you could know that when their stance thus far has been complete radio silence.

They didn’t hyped us up. Most likely

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Too little too late, I fear.

QoL mainly, and adjustments, that will only target new players?

The stuff we have seen so far is as game changing as the introduction of pets not all being moved to the bank with the ressources. Sort of nice, sort of totally forgetable.

And removing the cost from repairs? A feature? Did anyone ever complain about that fee ever? It was so tiny, that I always thought the WP fee was the penalty for death.

Probably just a way to nerf champions loot without much hate on the forums.

Flytrap.8075:

Based on how they handled their public relations, I was expecting some rather large changes: new skills, new weapon sets for each class, new armor and weapon skins, some new zones, guild halls, etc.

Do you understand what “quality of life” and “feature” mean?

Everything they are adding/changing is good, but extremely underwhelming.

ANet said the reason we are having this feature patch is so they can highlight (show off) all the really cool new features in game that would otherwise go unnoticed in other patches.
Once again ANet super mega hyped this patch to be the saving grace that this game desperately needed, they allowed the speculation to run rampart they deliberately got our hopes up only to disappoint.

The wardrobe and the reworked runes/sigils are the only features announced so far, everything else is quality of life fixes that should of been done at release. Account wide dyes for example, a dev confirmed dyes would be account bound back in Beta!

Also what is with the EXTREMELY misleading blog post titles, the most recent blog was titled “removing restrictions”, that suggested a huge amount of possible changes. I think ANet deliberately did this to mislead players, to deliberately get there expectations high only to crush them.

So what counts as a “feature”?
Guild Missons
Precursor crafting / scavenger hunt
Player Housing
Guild Halls
New proffesion
New class
New race

so on…

Free re-traits and free armour repairs are NOT features and could have easily been slipped in some living story patch notes.

People like the OP wants to much… If you aren’t happy with this, you will never be happy… What did you expect? 100 new armour sets, 10 new dungeons and 54 new zones?

Account bound legendaries is something people have been wanting SINCE FOREVER. Same with the wardrobe. I’m not going to lie. i would take this changes over a new dungeon ANYDAY.

This is something i have wanted forever and will change my experience for the rest of the games life span. I play alts, and i have 1 legendary. This is incredible for me. A dungeon and a zone is something i would be done with in the matter of days, and never go back to. This is different. This is amazing

While these changes apart from the wardrobe system may seem small or over hyped as you are saying there is something you are forgetting here. That being that ALL these things are things that many, many, many people have asked for many, many, many times since launch. So in that context to a lot of people these are HUGE updates and will kill off a great many number of topics on the forums from ever appearing again.

Should these things have been in since launch? Possibly, again either way tho in the end it’s us the players that are getting heard and finally getting things in game that we are asking for and I for one think that is a great thing and a good step in the path ahead for the game.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Too little too late, I fear.

QoL mainly, and adjustments, that will only target new players?

The stuff we have seen so far is as game changing as the introduction of pets not all being moved to the bank with the ressources. Sort of nice, sort of totally forgetable.

And removing the cost from repairs? A feature? Did anyone ever complain about that fee ever? It was so tiny, that I always thought the WP fee was the penalty for death.

True, I always considered the cost of repairs a nuisance fee. But I’m glad it’s going away…one less unnecessary thing to bother with. BTW, does damaged gear reduce its effectiveness? I was never sure on that.

Also, I’ve been playing since the Beta, have 18 chars (15 of them lvl 80) and am looking forward to the QoL changes!

Just wait. “Removing restrictions” means NA <→ EU server guesting.

The majority are really happy about the direction the company is taking. If you are seeking for paradise, maybe you sould check another game and uninstall this.

I love it…. people complain when the changes are bad. People complain when the changes are good because they aren’t as good as you had hoped. Really people. If you are just looking for a way to complain go do it somewhere else.

Anet makes a lot of mistakes, I won’t be one to deny that. But when they do something nice (even if it is more geared towards newer players who die more) how about you just say thanks and move on. By complaining about everything you devalue the importance that they place on forum goers advice. If we complain about everything, then they won’t listen when we are complaining about something that actually is a big deal.

i totally understand the OP, for a feature patch that is supposed to resemble other MMOs big patchs, this is practically nothing.

eleshazar.6902:

I love it…. people complain when the changes are bad. People complain when the changes are good because they aren’t as good as you had hoped. Really people. If you are just looking for a way to complain go do it somewhere else.

Forums are for feedback and feedback is not always positive.

Well, they can’t just say here are some changes, deal with it. They have to promote their game. Ofcourse, you oughtn’t get deluded by their diction. But in relation to the proir changes, this update will probably be pretty huge.

ESO is a kitten boring excuse for a game with sub fee…. But I wish you the best.

Being a developer in this day an age equates to. People complaining on the forums when you make a good change, people complaining when you make a bad change, and people complaining when you make no change.

This is why they use in game metrics over the ‘outspoken’ minority that is forum dwellers. Sad but true, at least out of every 20 opinionated posts there are those that truly provide constructive criticism.

Well a few hours ago I was thinking something quite similar. All those changes are how things should have been from the start.

But you know what ? It’s better late than never and I’m quite happy. When they are released we’ll finally have a lot of the things we had been asking from the start.

However, hype is something Anet is fond of. The chose some titles to confuse people and make them think of something completely unrelated.
Like “removing restrictions”. Some people did imagine over the top things, but removing armor repair fees and free trait points (which we already knew)…I hoped at least the removal of some time-gates or restoring dungeon tokens bonus reward to soul bound, but nope.

Maybe the way that the new feature were announce is the problem they start with good stuff (traits and wardrobe) and they “endeded” with repair costs and account bound ascended, they should have start with the “less important” stuff and them hit with the big things.

deSade.9437:

Flytrap.8075:

Based on how they handled their public relations, I was expecting some rather large changes: new skills, new weapon sets for each class, new armor and weapon skins, some new zones, guild halls, etc.

Do you understand what “quality of life” and “feature” mean?

Pulled from http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-01-14-you-thought-that-was-it-for-guild-wars-2

Concern: 350 people! And all they’ve come up with are story updates people outside the game can’t connect with? Where are the big new features? Is there really no expansion planned?

Actually, it sounds like there is an expansion planned. “We have a couple of really big Guild Wars projects cooking in the background,” Johanson told me.

Later, he added: "Some of our players believe that because we are doing this Living World seasons, and these features or these big feature-builds, that it means that the features you would traditionally get in an expansion, or the content you would traditionally get in an expansion, is not something that will get added to Guild Wars 2. And that is not true at all.

“Not only are we doing those things, new features and content you would traditionally get from a boxed expansion are also things that will be added to Guild Wars 2.

“The thing that we haven’t decided yet,” he went on, "is what form that type of content will take. Is it right for Guild Wars 2 for that kind of boxed expansion? Is it right for that to be something we add, live, through storylines in the game? Is that something we want to sell through our in-game store? There are a lot of different options available to us.

“… but we absolutely are going to do sweeping new features that you would traditionally only get in expansions – large regions, content and progression additions to your characters in the form of growth and professions and races. Those are all things that you will see in the lifespan of Guild Wars 2.”

Account bound legendaries is something people have been wanting SINCE FOREVER.

No, people have been wanting it forever because it was something that should have been that way since since that feature was first introduced, ascended items should have always been account bound.

It is cheap and lazy of ANet to try and claim this as a feature when it is really more of a “bug fix”.

HHR LostProphet.4801:

Well, they can’t just say here are some changes, deal with it. They have to promote their game. Ofcourse, you oughtn’t get deldued by their diction. But in relation to the proir changes, this update will probably be pretty huge.

I suspect that some people read more into what is said than Anet intended. They allow their wish list of stuff color their interpretations. Some of what’s been listed here as what this change should have included sounds more like an expansion to me. Why would a Feature Pack update be expected to include that?

bob.5680:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Too little too late, I fear.

QoL mainly, and adjustments, that will only target new players?

The stuff we have seen so far is as game changing as the introduction of pets not all being moved to the bank with the ressources. Sort of nice, sort of totally forgetable.

And removing the cost from repairs? A feature? Did anyone ever complain about that fee ever? It was so tiny, that I always thought the WP fee was the penalty for death.

True, I always considered the cost of repairs a nuisance fee. But I’m glad it’s going away…one less unnecessary thing to bother with. BTW, does damaged gear reduce its effectiveness? I was never sure on that.

Also, I’ve been playing since the Beta, have 18 chars (15 of them lvl 80) and am looking forward to the QoL changes!

Damaged gear has no effect on the stats they give. However as soon as 6 pieces of your gear become damaged one becomes broken and that piece then provides NO stats for your char. So it’s always best to get things repaired when you are at about 5-6 damaged items as any other piece will become broken as more and more pieces become damaged. It works something like that from my memory.

You’re utterly kidding yourself if you don’t think this is a substantial update.

Flytrap.8075:

I’m surprised that they think this will stop the flood of players leaving for ESO.

Or that we needed to wait five+ months for these changes.

Don’t worry.

ESO will stop the ‘flood of players’ leaving for ESO.

Tasty Pudding.3764:

Just wait. “Removing restrictions” means NA <-> EU server guesting.

did you even read the blogpost, removing restrictions —> no repair costs, no trait change cost, less silver in champion boxes

Arnath.2319:

Account bound legendaries is something people have been wanting SINCE FOREVER.

No, people have been wanting it forever because it was something that should have been that way since since that feature was first introduced, ascended items should have always been account bound.

It is cheap and lazy of ANet to try and claim this as a feature when it is really more of a “bug fix”.

Well, I wouldn’t call it that. As a software developer in the OS development/maintenance business, we are very careful to separate bug fixes (something doesn’t work as described) from features (new stuff added or changes to how it is expected to work). This stuff certainly looks like features to me.

They just again hurting players for exploring and not dyeing, as the WayPoint costs sink us more gold than the repair costs.

Reduction of the Waypoint costs for 100% maps would be one fair measure to do not keep loosing gold when trying to help friends/guild mates with waypoint costs.

I agree, OP. ANet build up to much hype on most things in the patch. I do have programming experience, and most things would indeed be a switch changing “when you equip weapon of ascended rarity, it becomes soulbound” to “…account bound” (if prgrammed well).

The wardrobe has to be thought out well, since the UI is very important for it. And the Rune and Sigil changes require careful balance.

However, most of all, I think Arenanet should have released all of these features one at a time over the past months as they were finished. This would have satisfied many players. It feels now as if they’re only doing these changes now to satisfy the new China players.

The worst thing however is that Arenanet presents these changes as if they thought of them. This is not true, since players have been asking for them for months. I have seen very elaborate, detailed posts about how the wardrobe should work. Now they say things like: “We think these changes will lead to a healthier game and more long-term fun.”. Many players thought that months ago…

ZudetGambeous.9573:

This patch is really about the china release. NA population has dwindled, we aren’t that important.

Who loves spending tons of money on micro transistion wardrobes? China…

Who will be effected the most by champ train nerfs, repair costs, account bound things, etc… new players who are just starting out… i.e. China…

account bound dyes… announced a month ago for china…

In reality this is just about the chinese release, we are just an afterthought.

Pretty sure that the playerbase has been increasing as of late. WvW on my server went from 0 queues a month ago to having Qs on 3/4 maps every night. I am not on one of the largest servers either.

If you guys think ESO is actually going to have a lasting impact, you have not played the beta for it at all.

Really people, do you think development is a push of a button? Because I want that button at my job. Taking something and reworking the entire way it was originally designed is not a ‘bug fix’.

yes the feature pack is mostly about fixes that should have been done long time ago like wxp ac bound it has also some good stuff in it like new trait system and wardrobe but the way they release info on it((day by day or every few days)) will make it hyped like they are releasing info on expansion and not a feature pack.

Perhaps, if anet doesn’t want people to speculate about upcoming blog posts, they shouldn’t give them promising titles, then wait 2 weeks to post all of them? What do you think was the point of all that? To get people speculating. Anet has only themselves to blame if their posts don’t live up to people’s hype.

make events more worth playing not less worth . You cant spread the people to do events if they don’t get rewarded for them.

Becka Williams.4978:

Perhaps, if anet doesn’t want people to speculate about upcoming blog posts, they shouldn’t give them promising titles, then wait 2 weeks to post all of them? What do you think was the point of all that? To get people speculating. Anet has only themselves to blame if their posts don’t live up to people’s hype.

This.

They could have told us five months ago what their plans were instead of dangling the carrot to keep players from jumping ship early.

Malediktus.9250:

Tasty Pudding.3764:

Just wait. “Removing restrictions” means NA <-> EU server guesting.

did you even read the blogpost, removing restrictions —> no repair costs, no trait change cost, less silver in champion boxes

They haven’t even released the “Removing Restrictions” blog yet. You’re thinking of the “Say Goodbye to Armor Repair Costs and Hello to Free Trait Resets” blog.

Although I’m not to impressed by this patch (expected some big spvp change), I must say, all of you guys talking about TESO makes me think that none of you has even tried the beta … let me just tell you, it’s bad. outright bad.

well i guess the biggest hype was on the new traits and in the end it seems to be a total piece of joke too.