Jumping Puzzles are getting out of hand
False!!
What’s hurting the game is them constantly catering to players who want to put in no effort to improve themselves and be rewarded for it, for the past 4 years.
They are moving in the right direction now, where they are challenging players to improve themselves and really “level up” in various ways.
The current JPs are in fact brimming with more imagination and planning than a lot of the older ones.
(edited by Asur.9178)
Op, you make a very valid point regarding the inconsistencies of terrain in this game. I too get frustrated with the guess work involved.
If you say it’s lack of imagination while it’s too hard then you obviously don’t know what youre talking about tbh.
It’s usually too much of imagination and enthusiasm that make these hard. It’s easy to make them much easier. But its much harder to actually make them harder.
Other than that. I do agree that achievements and objectives being tied to them is making them from fun to nearly mandatory to do multiple times.
Other than that fall damage, jump distance, cornerjumps and whatever else are very consistent. The problem is that people are not very good at it.
Ingame Name: Guardian Erik
I agree that they’re getting out of hand. I liked the jumping puzzles that came out with the game because they were fun and showed off some amazing environments. I don’t do jumping puzzles to prove anything or to even do something challenging.
It really bothers me that jumping puzzles have turned into another kind of challenge that just keeps getting more and more difficult until it surpasses any given skill level. They remind me of old school puzzle games. They don’t get more interesting or show more variety as the game goes on, they just get harder and harder until you just have to give up.
That’s never even why I did jumping puzzles to begin with.
When the game first came out, I did a few, but never really went after them. Recently I’ve been getting through most of them as they show up as dailies, and they’re really cool. It’s amazing how many interesting locations in the game are hidden right beneath your nose. The best part about them, though, is that that’s all they really are. An interesting location that you get a neat tour of.
If I have to tear my hair out to see the thing, it’s just not worth it. I’m not even saying those jumping puzzles shouldn’t exist, but I feel like that’s exactly what’s happening with the ones I like: arguments and development that they shouldn’t exist anymore.
Can we at least occasionally still get jumping puzzles that are about the environment and not challenging yourself?
I would never be able to solve that Silverwaste JP in a thousand years. It’s why I use youtube guides for every JP.
There’s nothing wrong with niche content in this game, except for the fact that ANet too often makes niche content matter towards things like meta-achievements or collections. Niche content rewards (because there have to be rewards or no one bothers after the first time or three) should not be part of reward structures for overall play. They should be intrinsic to the niche content.
As someone that’s always had trouble with the simplest of JPs, I admit I’ve just accepted them as part of the game.
There’s no difference between very very hard and very very very hard to me.
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
Hello all GW2 fans…
With all that GW2 and the programmers have to offer and do well, the jumping puzzles IMHO were at best “OK” leveling up to 80 with a few exceptions.
On the level 80 maps and lets just take “the silverwastes” as an example, the jumping puzzles went from fun and challenging (for the most part) too just plain annoying and frustrating with no logic applied where the challenge is nothing but guess work, fail, rinse and repeat.
To make matters worst you cannot ignore them as they are intertwined and not once but often webbed in several achievement side quests. To be in a puzzle where moving left 9.26cm makes the jump and 9.25cm fails is incomprehensible.
The amount of precise jumps required to succeed can be as high as 10 in a row before you get a break towards the next ridiculous set of obstacles. Players actually use another off level 80 character for many of these jumping puzzles to leave it in the area until they succeed.
Its gotta stop. These jumping puzzles are hurting the game. I know there are fans out there that enjoy the sadistic ritual of rinse and repeat for hours on end soooo all the power to ya but for the majority of us who prefer playing the hack and slash this perverted version of Mario Brothers has got to improve. Having a limb support you sometimes and other times not, being able to walk a steep incline and other times not, jumping an absurd height and other times not, jumping blindly in the hopes of hitting your target has no logic, no appeal and is no fun. Where is the intelligent problem solving?
Otherwise make the jumping puzzle stand alone with their achievements and those that wish to deal with the guess work and terrible camera angles and views can do so to their hearts content.
I just cant see what we all need to suffer the poor planning and lack of imagination that these new jumping puzzles now offers us.
best regards;
I completely agree. A puzzle should be something you can intellectually figure out. Trial and error is not a puzzle – it is “throw yourself at it until you get past this part”. That isn’t skill, it is RNG like too many things in GW2.
I completely agree. A puzzle should be something you can intellectually figure out. Trial and error is not a puzzle – it is “throw yourself at it until you get past this part”. That isn’t skill, it is RNG like too many things in GW2.
This.
False!!
What’s hurting the game is them constantly catering to players who want to put in no effort to improve themselves and be rewarded for it, for the past 4 years.
Now that is a general statement as answer to a specific complaint/request.
ArenaNet is catering to players who have a wide range of characters, and expects everybody to use them as fit. That’s ok, but you can be unhappy about it and it doesn’t mean you are lazy or don’t want to improve. If you only play one character, you opt out of some of the content.
Let’s say you only a play a huge Norn Revenant. Jumping Puzzles? Sure, you need some tonic that shrinks you to even see that platform. High level fractals? Good luck finding a pug, even worse with raids.
I need some Mastery points and despise mini games, but I checked out that Chak Rifle Field Test one. It looks like my power thief will have a hard time getting two mastery points there because I have no condition boosts.
Jumping Puzzles are best suited for mesmers. You are supposed to fall, they are designed that way. They are mostly not even puzzles in the sense most people have of “puzzles”. They are jump’n run mini games, remind me of Mega Man. I’m levelling a mesmer with that in mind (fun for other things too though). Characters are tools for ArenaNet, and you need to have them ready to your disposal. Yesterday at Fractals, some guy wondered if everybody plays thief these days because the first two people to join his group where thieves. He noted that he plays thief as main character too, but chose the Guardian for farming the Molten Bosses.
To be honest, that’s the way I like to play MMO games. When a new boss comes out that requires strong debuffs, I create the class with the best debuffs. When a tank is best for the encounter, I will have the best tank with the best tank stuff available.
I’m the “puppet master” of my characters, and help them along their journey. I’m just too new to GW2 to have the set of characters I want.
But I fully understand that there are people who play one characters and want to be happy with it. And these people will have a hard time in some content because they lack the tools to succeed. Not because they are lazy or don’t want to improve, but simply because the game is designed for people with a set of characters.
(edited by Faaris.8013)
There’s nothing wrong with niche content in this game, except for the fact that ANet too often makes niche content matter towards things like meta-achievements or collections. Niche content rewards (because there have to be rewards or no one bothers after the first time or three) should not be part of reward structures for overall play. They should be intrinsic to the niche content.
This is true also. I used to simply ignore JP until the first one I had to complete for content that had nothing to do with it. If I am trying to do a collection or other achievement, niche content should not be put in the way of that.
The problem is that Anet decided (for whatever reason) to create niche content INSTEAD of normal MMO content and of course they don’t want that content to be wasted by no one playing it. If GW2 only contained normal MMO content, Anet could include any of that content in various achievements or collections and that would simply be part of the game. But forcing players to essentially play OTHER GAMES than the one they logged in to play is the problem that is definitely getting out of hand.
“Normal MMO content”? What exactly is that?
The jumping puzzles are fine.
Sure they’ve slightly gone up in length/complexity but that’s not a bad thing. It’s just not your thing.
Nicely put, Faaris.
Also, the latest JPs seem to have been designed to cause frustration. What Asur calls “skill-based challenge” in reality is “I need to learn where exactly to land on that platform to not slip off, because the texture that I see does not equal the actual walkable structure of the object”. The game engine is bad for jumping puzzles, and demanding for people to be doing these latest crazy ones until they have exactly memorized each step and all the buggy details is pretty impertinent.
I am a fan of jumping. I have all JPs done. I am pretty good at that and I also love to help others through JPs, giving me a reason to keep jumping even if I don’t need to do the JPs anymore! Crazy me… LOL
However, although I am a JP lover, I agree with most of what has been said above: The last ones are in danger of killing the fun at jumping. The Ember Bay JP is a good example: To my eyes, this one has gone over the acceptable limit. It is by far too long and does combine too many difficulties in the same place, especially the first part with difficult jumping, difficult gliding, lava, geyser kicking off gliding and grubs shooting fire too! Seriously Anet….
I believe that only a minority of players really get full fun at doing it.
To my eyes, it is no problem to have very difficult JP, and I am glad about them, BUT, there should be a way that people who don’t like jumping, or who are not comfortable at it, are not forced to it. Because as is now, many “needed” stuff is at the end of JPs, turning them into something mandatory. That’s where it is no more so good.
We were talking about it with friends last week: Maybe that a solution could be that a JP always has two parts. One of low – to medium – difficulty level, at the end of which is the main needed item (like one mastery point or an item for a collection), and then, a second part of high difficulty level, giving a very good reward coming additional for jumpers doing it, but that would not be of the type “absolutely required”. So that this second part, the “hassle” in some way, is only optional for those who love that.
And I agree with Faris that unfortunately, professions are not equal toward the different activities, what can mean to be forced to a profession for a specific purpose, even if we don’t like that prof. So a set of different chars is really the solution, even if not all of them bring fun depending on one’s taste.
“Normal MMO content”? What exactly is that?
That’s content that includes, and only includes, content that a particular player enjoys. Nothing they do not, personally, enjoy. =P
I think JP’s are just fine the way they are. I don’t think making them stand alone achievements is the right way to go about it. I like that the good rewards are locked behind hard tasks. I have never been annoyed with any jumping puzzles. Go play Dark Souls and see how long it takes you to beat. Guild Wars 2 is easy in comparison. If you are annoyed with something such as this, it means you need improvement. That’s okay, just keep playing and trying to improve and you will improve, if you don’t try then you won’t, and will always feel annoyed with certain content.
“Normal MMO content”? What exactly is that?
Well, to start with, that second “M” is for “multiplayer”. The adventures are all solo-only content.
They make acceptable diversions, but they shouldn’t be required content.
What annoys me about jumping puzzles in general isn’t so much their difficulty. They are there because there is a niche group that likes it. But that they are often a requirement for precursor collections and often several per. Working on Astralaria and dreading doing the SW one for it. Doing all of the puzzles for Chuka and Champawat was almost as painful to me as the material sink, if not more so.
Since most jps are too hard for me to do, even after playing the game all these years, it doesn’t bother me that these new jps have extreme difficulty as I wouldn’t be able to do them anyway. What I do dislike is putting account progression behind them. Let them have a chest with a good reward (and checkpoints if needed to keep people from porting to the chest). That should be sufficient.
ANet may give it to you.
“Normal MMO content”? What exactly is that?
Well, to start with, that second “M” is for “multiplayer”. The adventures are all solo-only content.
They make acceptable diversions, but they shouldn’t be required content.
They aren’t required. Neither are jumping puzzles.
They are optional content, you can choose to do them or not.
“Normal MMO content”? What exactly is that?
“MMO” is an abbreviation of “MMORPG” so RPG content is normal MMO content. Playing a role in a story or stories, exploration, etc. Card game content is not RPG content. Arcade content is not RPG content. Etc.
The jumping puzzles are fine.
Sure they’ve slightly gone up in length/complexity but that’s not a bad thing. It’s just not your thing.
You seem to have skipped part of the OP’s post:
To make matters worst you cannot ignore them as they are intertwined and not once but often webbed in several achievement side quests.
The jumping puzzles are fine.
Sure they’ve slightly gone up in length/complexity but that’s not a bad thing. It’s just not your thing.
You seem to have skipped part of the OP’s post:
To make matters worst you cannot ignore them as they are intertwined and not once but often webbed in several achievement side quests.
You mean he wants to do optional stuff and is complaining that the optional stuff isn’t for him ?
Still not required content.
Nothing in the game is required. You could level up just crafting all day w/o killing a single enemy. But you cannot expect someone to want an item for one game type but be forced to do something from another game type and expect them to be happy about it. This is a complain about precursor crafting requiring fractals and puzzles. Legendary weapons requiring WvW, or crafting now being a requirement for tier 3-4 Fractals (crafters tokens for ascended armor/weapons).
The M in MMO stands for multiplayer, but thats simply means that the game has more than 1 player in it.
MMOs dont specify in any way shape or form what the players in the game must do in order to be “playing the game.”
There is no requirement for interaction with other players in order to be “playing the game.”
In fact you could spend all your time at a trading post buying and selling stuff, and you still are “playing the game.”
“Normal MMO content”? What exactly is that?
At a guess? Stuff that every reasonable person would expect to be in a typical MMO. This likely includes open world PvE, instanced PvE and consensual PvP (instanced or not). It may also include exploration, achievements and collections (with the objectives for same found in the places quoted above. I believe you could achieve consensus on all of those being typical MMO offerings. Please note that the word reasonable is used, because I know some people would be contrary just to be contrary.
I very much doubt that you’d achieve consensus among a random group of reasonable MMO players as to jumping puzzles and mini-games being typical content (i.e., content found in a preponderance of MMO’s).
Does that then mean that a multiplayer game that has jumping puzzles and mini games in it , is not an MMO?
Surely the designers of new MMOs are trying to make their MMO as differant as possible from all the others, otherwise all thats happening is the churning out of more of the same.
ie go and kill this monster, then do it again, or go and kill another monster.
especially the first part with difficult jumping, difficult gliding, lava, geyser kicking off gliding and grubs shooting fire too! Seriously Anet….
Wait a second… Where is the gliding difficult? You can dodge every fountain by just flying a bit sideways. And if you are talking about the entrance… You are probably using the most complicated way to get in there. There is an easy reachable tunnel which leads into the jp entrance.
The jumping puzzles are fine.
Sure they’ve slightly gone up in length/complexity but that’s not a bad thing. It’s just not your thing.
It would be fine if the game followed its own rules in these “new” Jumping Puzzles. Blind Jumps/Glides and terrain that anywhere else in the game would lead you to falling somehow has a single pixel you have to hit so you can stand on isn’t challenge.
The only real issue is, as the op already noted, that you can’t ignore the puzzles on the new maps. For some odd reason the devs feel it’s necessary to tie multiple achievements into the puzzles. They should have stayed their own category and all the little collection and exploration achievements should remain completely decoupled from the puzzles as with the core maps.
For me, the vanilla JPs were a mixed bag. Some are really fun and, as has been mentioned, some do a really nice job of showing off the scenery — Morgan’s Spiral or Hidden Garden, for example, which also both had the added bonus of giving me sweaty hands and a bit of enjoyable vertigo-thrill due to the height. That’s the kind of JP I’d like to see more of.
The ones I hate are the close-quarter ones that slam the camera in your face all the time and give me honest-to-goodness motion sickness in two minutes flat, and don’t get me started on how much worse it is for people who (like me) prefer taller characters. That’s bad design, period. (And also applies to all those “hide collectibles in tiny random nooks” achievements, which are similarly stomach-churning.)
But the newer “die and lose 2+ hours of agonizingly slow progress if you can’t make this blind jump or land 3 pixels too far to the left” JPs are even worse. I did Not So Secret once, it took most of an evening and left me so utterly beyond kittened off (also motion sick, of course) that there was no room for even the smallest tingle of “accomplishment” afterwards. Same with the Ember Bay JP. Haven’t even tried the new one yet for fear that it is just more of the same.
Long story short: there’s a limit beyond which “challenging” loses all sense of being “rewarding” and just turns into a painful chore that I end up hating myself for sticking with. Especially if it involves actual physical discomfort.
IMO the last actually enjoyable JP they implemented was Skipping Stones, which was decently challenging but fair, didn’t punish taller characters or was motion-sickness-bait.
I agree on terrain issue with OP. I can’t even imagine how norn/charr players do those considering how one millimeter on some step can mean you gonna fall down and start JP all over again. Or those invisible edges that prevent your character from jumping because reasons. Or how you do fine jump and still hit the invisible wall with your face and fall down instead of landing on the stone where you supposed to go.
If JP is designed around mesmers being mandatory, then it is not a good JP, sry.
Worst part, they are mandatory now for map achieve…. why :/
[Teef] guild :>
I agree AND disagree
I do agree on the part that many recent jumping puzzles are more random/trial-and-error based than they are logic based.
The idea of a jumping puzzle is that it should be clearable if you use logic (next to your jumping skills) but the recent ones don’t challenge your thinking ability, just your patience.
1. Jumping Puzzles are full of invisible obstacles, which makes them annoying, not challenging.
2. Jumping Puzzles are side content for players who love platforming, not for players who love RPGs (note: one does not exclude the other). RPG players may find JPs fun, but they may not be interested in challenging JPs, which is perfectly fine.
3. JPs are being forced into meta content. RPG gameplay, like exploration, collections, achievements, etc, needs JPs to complete, and RPG fans who don’t enjoy hard JPs are not fine with that.
How an “optional” jumping puzzle killing the game?
How an “optional” jumping puzzle killing the game?
By not being optional.
How an “optional” jumping puzzle killing the game?
By not being optional.
I’ve yet to see a jumping puzzle implemented into a story step. and no, jumping over kitten isn’t a jumping puzzle
The jumping puzzles are fine.
Sure they’ve slightly gone up in length/complexity but that’s not a bad thing. It’s just not your thing.
You seem to have skipped part of the OP’s post:
To make matters worst you cannot ignore them as they are intertwined and not once but often webbed in several achievement side quests.
You mean he wants to do optional stuff and is complaining that the optional stuff isn’t for him ?
Still not required content.
As the OP says, they aren’t actually optional unless you want to skip achievements or content that are started in regular game content. For instance, while doing the Ember Bay map I come across Mursaat Tokens that start an achievement. After collecting several of them, I hear that 5 are contained within the Chalice of Tears JP. Now there is no way I can complete that Achievement (which is a map Achieve, not a JP Achieve), and no way I can receive the Sentient Aberration mat eater. There are also JP required to complete Legendary Weapons, etc.
How an “optional” jumping puzzle killing the game?
By not being optional.
I’ve yet to see a jumping puzzle implemented into a story step. and no, jumping over kitten isn’t a jumping puzzle
If you want to go the route of “that content isn’t required”, even the Story isn’t “required”. However there are certain types of content that are fundamental to most MMOs: not only Story, but exploration, and Achievements. In GW2, you can start many achievements only to find out that in order to complete them you need to complete, or at least make some progress in a JP(s). This is what I object to. JP should have their own Achievements that are not connected to other content so they are truly optional.
How an “optional” jumping puzzle killing the game?
By not being optional.
I’ve yet to see a jumping puzzle implemented into a story step. and no, jumping over kitten isn’t a jumping puzzle
If you want to go the route of “that content isn’t required”, even the Story isn’t “required”. However there are certain types of content that are fundamental to most MMOs: not only Story, but exploration, and Achievements. In GW2, you can start many achievements only to find out that in order to complete them you need to complete, or at least make some progress in a JP(s). This is what I object to. JP should have their own Achievements that are not connected to other content so they are truly optional.
Of which I only know 2: mursaat tokens and LWS3:5: firestone shards.
Then there might be some association in the legendary weapons collection, like Dierdre’s Steps, but then again, it’s a legendary collection, you’re supposed to show a proof of skill in all aspects of the game
How an “optional” jumping puzzle killing the game?
By not being optional.
I’ve yet to see a jumping puzzle implemented into a story step. and no, jumping over kitten isn’t a jumping puzzle
If you want to go the route of “that content isn’t required”, even the Story isn’t “required”. However there are certain types of content that are fundamental to most MMOs: not only Story, but exploration, and Achievements. In GW2, you can start many achievements only to find out that in order to complete them you need to complete, or at least make some progress in a JP(s). This is what I object to. JP should have their own Achievements that are not connected to other content so they are truly optional.
Of which I only know 2: mursaat tokens and LWS3:5: firestone shards.
Then there might be some association in the legendary weapons collection, like Dierdre’s Steps, but then again, it’s a legendary collection, you’re supposed to show a proof of skill in all aspects of the game
Diving Goggles achievement (and associated MP) requires the abomination that is Not So Secret
How an “optional” jumping puzzle killing the game?
By not being optional.
I’ve yet to see a jumping puzzle implemented into a story step. and no, jumping over kitten isn’t a jumping puzzle
If you want to go the route of “that content isn’t required”, even the Story isn’t “required”. However there are certain types of content that are fundamental to most MMOs: not only Story, but exploration, and Achievements. In GW2, you can start many achievements only to find out that in order to complete them you need to complete, or at least make some progress in a JP(s). This is what I object to. JP should have their own Achievements that are not connected to other content so they are truly optional.
Of which I only know 2: mursaat tokens and LWS3:5: firestone shards.
Then there might be some association in the legendary weapons collection, like Dierdre’s Steps, but then again, it’s a legendary collection, you’re supposed to show a proof of skill in all aspects of the gameDiving Goggles achievement (and associated MP) requires the abomination that is Not So Secret
want me to mesmer you up? Takes 5 seconds, NotSoSecret is a way overrated JP.
Hello all GW2 fans…
With all that GW2 and the programmers have to offer and do well, the jumping puzzles IMHO were at best “OK” leveling up to 80 with a few exceptions.
On the level 80 maps and lets just take “the silverwastes” as an example, the jumping puzzles went from fun and challenging (for the most part) too just plain annoying and frustrating with no logic applied where the challenge is nothing but guess work, fail, rinse and repeat.
To make matters worst you cannot ignore them as they are intertwined and not once but often webbed in several achievement side quests. To be in a puzzle where moving left 9.26cm makes the jump and 9.25cm fails is incomprehensible.
The amount of precise jumps required to succeed can be as high as 10 in a row before you get a break towards the next ridiculous set of obstacles. Players actually use another off level 80 character for many of these jumping puzzles to leave it in the area until they succeed.
Its gotta stop. These jumping puzzles are hurting the game. I know there are fans out there that enjoy the sadistic ritual of rinse and repeat for hours on end soooo all the power to ya but for the majority of us who prefer playing the hack and slash this perverted version of Mario Brothers has got to improve. Having a limb support you sometimes and other times not, being able to walk a steep incline and other times not, jumping an absurd height and other times not, jumping blindly in the hopes of hitting your target has no logic, no appeal and is no fun. Where is the intelligent problem solving?
Otherwise make the jumping puzzle stand alone with their achievements and those that wish to deal with the guess work and terrible camera angles and views can do so to their hearts content.
I just cant see what we all need to suffer the poor planning and lack of imagination that these new jumping puzzles now offers us.
best regards;
What is the problem with any kind of puzzle? You aren’t forced to do them nor are you denied an equipment tier if you ignore them.
Just choose to do something else.
Diving Goggles achievement (and associated MP) requires the abomination that is Not So Secret
want me to mesmer you up? Takes 5 seconds, NotSoSecret is a way overrated JP.
While I agree that Not So Secret isn’t that bad of a JP, marelooke was talking about the Diving Goggles; and the Not So Secret dive one of the most irritating ones to successfully complete. So, yeah, getting ported up to them would take no time at all, but they’d still have to successfully make the jump (and not get hit by the bug that sometimes blocks you from getting credit).
How an “optional” jumping puzzle killing the game?
By not being optional.
I’ve yet to see a jumping puzzle implemented into a story step. and no, jumping over kitten isn’t a jumping puzzle
delicate, brick-like subtlety.
How an “optional” jumping puzzle killing the game?
By not being optional.
I’ve yet to see a jumping puzzle implemented into a story step. and no, jumping over gap isn’t a jumping puzzle
as I said, jumping over a gap isn’t a jumping puzzle, especially if a trail of sparkles tell you where to go
How an “optional” jumping puzzle killing the game?
By not being optional.
I’ve yet to see a jumping puzzle implemented into a story step. and no, jumping over gap isn’t a jumping puzzle
as I said, jumping over a gap isn’t a jumping puzzle, especially if a trail of sparkles tell you where to go
You do complete the JP, though. Yeah, the sparkles tell you where to go, but you still do the whole JP with some minor difficulties added (the wind that knocks you off at the beginning of the JP and the traps towards the end). That being said, if you take too long, Sieran will basically give you a port to the end of the JP portion of the mission.
I would never be able to solve that Silverwaste JP in a thousand years. It’s why I use youtube guides for every JP.
That one was actually very well done if you run around and explore a bit. Also the route is very clearly marked thanks to the speed boost water tower things. If you go in any direction for too long without seeing one you know you went the wrong way.
It also has a flexible checkpoint system that isn’t affected by disconnects.
(edited by Khisanth.2948)