NPE Feedback [Merged] - Please read 1st post
Basically what I’m saying as a new player is that I don’t know the old system so this one now is just fine.
what level are you?
As a new player I can speak for other new players. We have no idea what you’re talking about.
he’s talking about the leveling ,skills, and trait unlock system we have now, it was different before same for feeding cows now to dance for them in Queensdale, Heart quest.
In some ways.. yes, but in others its much more than just the cows lol
yeah i know, just that one just irks me haha
I would hope the Devs and forums moderators would take into account, this isnt the first time i have atempted to speak up against what they are doing and after having spent 9860+ hours in this game, earning 13500+ AP (i dont go after AP i just earn it), and spending over $1000 on it that they would listen.
I hear ya and know how you feel, it does makes me wonder who exactly they listen too on many of these changes they make.
“If only ANet had some kind of forum they could use to communicate with us……”
“ANet. They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity to not mess up.”
Mod “Posts created to cause unrest with unfounded claims are not allowed” lmao
“ANet. They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity to not mess up.”
Mod “Posts created to cause unrest with unfounded claims are not allowed” lmao
As a new player I can speak for other new players. We have no idea what you’re talking about.
he’s talking about the leveling ,skills, and trait unlock system we have now, it was different before same for feeding cows now to dance for them in Queensdale, Heart quest.
In some ways.. yes, but in others its much more than just the cows lol
yeah i know, just that one just irks me haha
I would hope the Devs and forums moderators would take into account, this isnt the first time i have atempted to speak up against what they are doing and after having spent 9860+ hours in this game, earning 13500+ AP (i dont go after AP i just earn it), and spending over $1000 on it that they would listen.
I hear ya and know how you feel, it does makes me wonder who exactly they listen too on many of these changes they make.
Somehow i feel the infraction point already >.>
Lets hope this post doesnt get barried in the sea of posts.
They will change the current trait system (they told it some weeks ago). The other level mechanics are in my opinion much better than before. You really get something special each level. In the system before you get one useless traitpoint (need five for a real change), one skill point (for better skills you will need a lot more) and some attribute changes where you can’t see a difference to the level before.
I see that you’re complaining, but can’t see what about nor that you make a suggestion what to change.
Guild Wars balancing concept: Never change a ruined system!
They will change the current trait system (they told it some weeks ago). The other level mechanics are in my opinion much better than before. You really get something special each level. In the system before you get one useless traitpoint (need five for a real change), one skill point (for better skills you will need a lot more) and some attribute changes where you can’t see a difference to the level before.
I see that you’re complaining, but can’t see what about nor that you make a suggestion what to change.
no offense, but the stuff you get for leveling is insignifigant, you can buy those gears or find better while leveling, a trait point however actually gives you something that you can pick that alters your charachter.
ill admit its packaged to make you happy, but that doesnt mean its actually better. They substantially weakened your charachters growth, and back loaded it to be more 80+ heavy. This is why, along with these changes they had to weaken enemies all throughout the game.
Now, im not saying they should stop giving the grab bag when you level, but all of the stuff that is not free loot, that came with the change, sucked.
What hyperbole. They did not change 90% of the Renown Hearts in the game or in Starter Zones.
Trait revamp is not part of the NPE, and will be addressed in the future.
Players complained about the PS, about skill unlocks, etc. before the NPE, and now, after. There is always something someone finds irritating, and always someone thinks the grass was greener before.
I think leveling is much easier now, but…as you have stated….some do not. /shrug
trait revamp was really the only thing that severely damaged the new player experience compared to the game on release.
before, you started to have decent builds/ a feel for the class between lvl 45-60 depending on the class………..now, you kinda have to get to 80.
Chaos Organ (Ele), Pistol Opera (Thief), Modular Man (Eng)
MARA (EU) Gunnar’s Hold
MARA (EU) Gunnar’s Hold
Placing certain content behind level walls, like the wardrobe, daily achievements, and downed state, is terrible.
Placing certain content behind avoidable level walls, like PvP and WvW, and lumping personal story into “divisible by 10” level groups, is silly.
The trait unlock system will soon change and be a moot point.
The rest is fine: weapon skill insta-unlock and announce on equip, level popup explaining changes that level plus hints, level appropriate minor rewards or bonus items (tasty, tasty Unidentified Dye), account level based gold transfer restriction… I feel like I’m missing some of the changes.
Placing certain content behind level walls, like the wardrobe, daily achievements, and downed state, is terrible.
According to the wiki the wardrobe doesn’t need to be unlocked. You just get information about it with level 6 and 31.
Brandar – Kodash [DE]
[SPQR]
[SPQR]
Placing certain content behind level walls, like the wardrobe, daily achievements, and downed state, is terrible.
According to the wiki the wardrobe doesn’t need to be unlocked. You just get information about it with level 6 and 31.
Actually Wardrobe, finishers and many other stuff is locked for new accounts.
The first character at lvl 1 can use only equipement and dye tab.
Personally, I hate new level gating and NPE as a whole. Why? Because it is out of place. They wanted to build tutorial in leveling while they should use the first instance as a tutorial zone, with 2 ways – follow the tutorial or skip the tutorial – just like GW1 did. Now every player has to survive tutorial mode, no matter if he wants it or not and again, I don’t feel like tutorial should be matched with leveling. This is so out of place.
(edited by tramwajarz.2369)
Well as said before.
Trait system is no part of the NPE and will also get a makeover before release of HoT … Well atleast that was what they have said.
The NPE has it’s goods and bads and as I have been “training” alot of new players they handle the NPE pretty well and as long as I shut up and not talk about wardrobe and salvaging stuff to get luck and unluck skins before they hit specific levels they will not get confused. I try to asnwer their questions and the rest is up to them to learn and new players do level quick and learns quick and even some players get to much information to quick even with the ultra babysitting NPE so I have to help explain stuff even clearer to them.
Try to play the game as the Veteran you are and let the new players play the game as new players and let them complain about the NPE. So again the only bad part about all this as a veteran leveling a new character is that we have to buy or search for every darn trait and this is not NPE and will get a fix.
Edit: What events has been removed from Queensdale? 90% is alot…
Member of Alpha Swedish Gaming Community – http://www.alphas.se/
Guild Leader of Alpha Sgc [ASGC]
Guild Leader of Alpha Sgc [ASGC]
(edited by EdgarMTanaka.7291)
Cuz too much of the gaming community simply isn’t as intelligent or patient enough to understand GW2. They tried to give the game lots of freedom but too many people were easily lost in it because they either never played an MMO or were too spoiled by handholding in other ones. Many people are apparently too shy to join a guild and ask questions instead of figuring out things on their own as well and I guess Anet wants to tie a leash (of love) around them somehow.
So basically, the entire human race as a whole have failed you, not Anet. =/ Giving people nearly everything at the get-go and sending them into a free world is too much for an innocent sheep to handle.
| Fort Aspenwood (NA): Sylvari Daredevil Thief Main: All Classes 80. |
Please Remove/Fix Thief Trait: “Last Refuge.”
“Hard to Catch” is a Horrible and Useless Trait. Fixed 6/23/15. Praise Dwayna.
I should note that this is directly speaking against the games developers so this will get alot of criticism and be taken down by the forums moderators, but hey. figured it was worth a shot.
Yeah they do that do they.
The NPE has it’s goods and bads and as I have been “training” alot of new players they handle the NPE pretty well and as long as I shut up and not talk about wardrobe and salvaging stuff to get luck and unluck skins before they hit specific levels they will not get confused. I try to asnwer their questions and the rest is up to them to learn and new players do level quick and learns quick and even some players get to much information to quick even with the ultra babysitting NPE so I have to help explain stuff even clearer to them.
Try to play the game as the Veteran you are and let the new players play the game as new players and let them complain about the NPE. So again the only bad part about all this as a veteran leveling a new character is that we have to buy or search for every darn trait and this is not NPE and will get a fix.
Well, if it would affect only new players I could shut my mouth, but sadly it doesn’t. It also affects veterans alike and then everyone is affected, not only when it comes to get traits. As someone has said, using the whole leveling process as a huge boring tutorial is silly and wrong (actually, what tutorial? Like telling players about underwater combat with only pointing the mini map? Tutorial requires practice, not only floating popups). And this ties with my next point…
Basically what I’m saying as a new player is that I don’t know the old system so this one now is just fine.
Firstly, welcome to Guild Wars 2 kindofabuzz. Glad you are enjoying the game.
However, that’s what makes me curious. What would you think about it if you knew or heard about how it was before? If you could choose, what one would you prefer?
It’s hard to tell if the changes were a good decision or not if what is taken in account is only opinions from new players who didn’t deal with the previous way. From what I see a few new players would see it fine because despite all it’s still better than others games out there, but it doesn’t mean the changes were well done. That’s why I wonder if their opinion would be different if they knew how it was before (but learning about it through unbiased way though).
P.S.: @ Sages: I don’t think you should worry that much. I don’t see how your post is bad enough to deserve an infraction, I don’t think you made so direct attack, I see it as a good criticism actually. I have seen similar posts around here and they stayed fine (still published), but who I am to say anything, it’s up to mods anyway.
(edited by shadow.6174)
The NPE has it’s goods and bads and as I have been “training” alot of new players they handle the NPE pretty well and as long as I shut up and not talk about wardrobe and salvaging stuff to get luck and unluck skins before they hit specific levels they will not get confused. I try to asnwer their questions and the rest is up to them to learn and new players do level quick and learns quick and even some players get to much information to quick even with the ultra babysitting NPE so I have to help explain stuff even clearer to them.
Try to play the game as the Veteran you are and let the new players play the game as new players and let them complain about the NPE. So again the only bad part about all this as a veteran leveling a new character is that we have to buy or search for every darn trait and this is not NPE and will get a fix.
Well, if it would affect only new players I could shut my mouth, but sadly it doesn’t. It also affects veterans alike and then everyone is affected, not only when it comes to get traits. As someone has said, using the whole leveling process as a huge boring tutorial is silly and wrong (actually, what tutorial? Like telling players about underwater combat with only pointing the mini map? Tutorial requires practice, not only floating popups). And this ties with my next point…
Basically what I’m saying as a new player is that I don’t know the old system so this one now is just fine.
Firstly, welcome to Guild Wars 2 kindofabuzz. Glad you are enjoying the game.
However, that’s what makes me curious. What would you think about it if you knew or heard about how it was before? If you could choose, what one would you prefer?
It’s hard to tell if the changes were a good decision or not if what is taken in account is only opinions from new players who didn’t deal with the previous way. From what I see a few new players would see it fine because despite all it’s still better than others games out there, but it doesn’t mean the changes were well done. That’s why I wonder if their opinion would be different if they knew how it was before (but learning about it through unbiased way though).
P.S.: @ Sages: I don’t think you should worry that much. I don’t see how your post is bad enough to deserve an infraction, I don’t think you made so direct attack, I see it as a good criticism actually. I have seen similar posts around here and they stayed fine (still published), but who I am to say anything, it’s up to mods anyway.
XD well anet seems to hate me based on the amount of times i spoke out against them.
Trait system is no part of the NPE and will also get a makeover before release of HoT … Well atleast that was what they have said.
But they haven’t said that. They have said it will be changed, period. No time frame and no more info than that.
I know traits are separate from the NPE, but that statement is wrong and is a big reason why the trait thread keep growing, even after they opened a new one to talk about … whatever it is they expect us to talk about. Or more likely it was opened so they could get that behemoth of a thread off the first page.
Try to play the game as the Veteran you are and let the new players play the game as new players and let them complain about the NPE.
Except we can’t…that’s the whole problem. Anet’s philosophy seems to have changed from “play the game however and whenever you want” to “play like a brand new player or GTFO!”
P.S.: @ Sages: I don’t think you should worry that much. I don’t see how your post is bad enough to deserve an infraction, I don’t think you made so direct attack, I see it as a good criticism actually. I have seen similar posts around here and they stayed fine (still published), but who I am to say anything, it’s up to mods anyway.
Meh… I’ve gotten warned for being off topic and yet Vayne’s semantic derails and “Forum users are all numbskulls who are just trying to make trouble!” posts are a-ok… so I wouldn’t put much faith in them.
(edited by HandOfKane.5409)
Meh... I’ve gotten warned for being off topic and yet Vayne’s semantic derails and "Forum users are all numbskulls who are just trying to make trouble!" posts are a-ok... so I wouldn’t put much faith in them.
:S Yeah I understand, I also went through that a few times, but like I said it’s up to them. *shrugs*
They really really really need to change the trait system, and more specific the way you acquire them.
Why did they even change it from the original? Now the new players are basically forced to buy gold to get the new traits, because only a mad man would think that they would go on an “exciting journey” to hunt them all around the world.
So was this a gold sink, another way Anet to make few bucks out of the poor new players? Or did they try to make gw1-alike system? Either way they failed.
I recently decided to start leveling a warrior, and to unlock the speed buff trait at around level 30 I am forced to go to 50+ level area for this trait, really? Absolutely ridiculous.
They really really really need to change the trait system, and more specific the way you acquire them.
Why did they even change it from the original? Now the new players are basically forced to buy gold to get the new traits, because only a mad man would think that they would go on an “exciting journey” to hunt them all around the world.
So was this a gold sink, another way Anet to make few bucks out of the poor new players? Or did they try to make gw1-alike system? Either way they failed.
I recently decided to start leveling a warrior, and to unlock the speed buff trait at around level 30 I am forced to go to 50+ level area for this trait, really? Absolutely ridiculous.
Traits have had two threads of feedback (more than 100 pages, total) over the past year. They’re not part of the September New Player Experience; they’re from April 15, 2014.
We’ve been given platitudes and excuses over the course of the last 12 months. In August, we were informed that they were looking at short-term fixes that could be applied as a stopgap measure while they figured out how to give the system a complete overhaul. Then, in late January, we were informed that there would be a major overhaul to the trait system, and they were excited they could finally share the news with us. The original thread was locked, a new one was created (ostensibly to discuss this “new information”) and we’ve heard absolutely nothing about it since then.
Not only are the trait quests tied to level-inappropriate tasks, they’re also tied to buggy content, tedious and time-consuming content. Now, I don’t know much about how to computer, but it seems like a reasonable stopgap measure would’ve been to lower the prices to be more in line with what they were a year ago today. Or, you know, anything other than a wall of silence. Given how they choose to communicate, I’d say you can expect to hear more about traits anytime between late May and mid-July.
“Be angry about legendary weapons, sure, but what about the recent drought of content?”
-Mike O’Brien
Because we can’t be angry about both?
-Mike O’Brien
Because we can’t be angry about both?
New players cannot PvP until a higher level.
New players cannot fiddle with traits until a higher level (than the previous level 11, which was high anyways).
Weapon swapping is now not until level 15 (previously level 7, less than half of what it is now).
Underwater combat is now level 8.
Maps have been changed. Chess in Metrica Provence? Gone.
Inquest underwater lab with sharks and occasional giant crab DE? Also gone.
Change into Sylvari Dog at Dynamic Event? Gone too.
In fact, lots of content and DE’s in a lot of zones have been changed from what they originally were.
Not only can new players not experience this once enjoyed content, but past players cannot replay it on alts. Want to play Golem Chess while waiting at a group gathered dance part in the area? Cannot do so. Why? What harm was this content to players to experience?
Now I know this was part of the Sept 2014 F.P., making the changes well over 6 months old. Only through recent leveling up of new characters have the ramifications of these changes come to the forefront so well. Every new sell of the game -which is a lot lately, seeing as how every couple weeks it seems to be on sale- means that a new player is going to come into this game with major content pieces hacked about and split every which way, completely different than what Vets are used to.
Oh, and the zinger here? The NPE caused a gap between what kind of advice and help a vet is able to provide to a new player as their experience is Night-and-Day different. It is almost like each of these groups have played two different games. “You can do this to complete a heart…”,“….Oh, they removed it? Well, guess you can’t.”, “Just enter the Mists out of the tutorial zone….”, “….oh, not until level 22 huh? Dang, we could do it at level 2.” It is so confusing.
The trait system is the worst part of it the way that they’re now so expensive and a complete money pit compared to what they were in the beginning of the game. Originally it was ‘Unlock the book for each Tier at 30, 40, and 60 with some gold you save while leveling there’. Congrats!, you now have all your trails to deal with the game’s builds the way you want. Now it is “sink a lot of gold and 100’s of skill points into these and/or travel to random world places to do certain tasks to unlock them”. Who benefits from that kind of system change? Vets and new players lose equally…all players do. It is just a system of punishment to all players which just seems beyond comprehension (almost like a meeting was made where someone stated “How can we make this game a bit more grindy to force players to invest more of their time into this game just for character improvement?”, where some intern said “How about forcing tons of grindy skill points and gold for Trait unlocks, move their level requirement to level 80?”)
TLDR Bottom line?
NPE felt like a change of what Guild Wars 2 was into being more like other games in the genre, something that GW2 wasn’t. Skills are a pain to obtain, instead of being a more readily available thing. Content that was deemed “challenging” to new players was removed from the starting zones entirely so as to not be some sort of hurtle. A system of handholding is now in place that coddles the new players beyond just simply explaining things. NPE for GW2 = similar for NGE for SWG.
Not going to defend the NPE because I’ll be honest I hate it :/ I really feel like it added nothing good, and removed alot of the freedom and exploration of the game at early levels. The trait system… was great, it’s now terrible, Traits are unlocked WAY to late. Honestly the gold sink or do certain tasks I don’t mind as much, but the level gate on each trait tier is just silly.
The only thing I would question about what you said is the PVP thing, what do you mean a new player can’t pvp. Can you no longer enter the mist portal in LA to go to the mist early?
(edited by Miku.6297)
Not going to defend the NPE because I’ll be honest I hate it :/ I really feel like it added nothing good, and removed alot of the freedom and exploration of the game at early levels.
The only thing I would question about what you said is the PVP thing, what do you mean a new player can’t pvp. Can you no longer enter the mist portal in LA to go to the mist early?
Oh, you probably can. But they cannot just click the UI tab and select “Enter the Mists” or “Queue for bla,bla, bla”.
What new, unguilded, unfamiliar player is going to enter the portal in LA, let alone know WHAT the portal is or even where it is? GW2 was touted that, beyond the tutorial, you could essentially PvP your entire game without ever stepping into PvE. Now? NPE happened and you must reach level 22 to do that or research that portal thingy that no new player knows of.
Most new players that I have seen that want to pvp right off the bat just ask in map. It usually seems to work.
Like I said I’m in no way a fan of the NPE, but saying they literally Can’t pvp is untrue. Yes: it’s not clearly explained by the NPE or in game instructions how to (that could definitely be improved), but it can be done.
The trait system… was great, it’s now terrible, Traits are unlocked WAY to late. Honestly the gold sink or do certain tasks I don’t mind as much, but the level gate on each trait tier is just silly.
What, I thought it was normal to reach level 80 and only have 2 tier 1 traits -_-
I wasnt around when the NPE hit, but it didnt take long to realize it was utterly kittened. How Anet could get it from design, coding to implementation without anyone seeing the flaws is a mystery that boggles the mind. The extremely harsh trait, skill and gameplay limitations which makes the game completely unfun at all levels below 80 or the story missions which someone has arbitrarily flipped around to make no sense whatsoever, how was this even imagined?
The time and effort it must have taken is… well for lack of better words, horrifying.
And during all this no one at Anet has apparently been able to fix the visual glitch of the Claw Island story mission that consist of setting the Z axis of the leaving ship in the ending cinematics to +4 meters or so, something that’s glitched since the beta.
New players cannot PvP until a higher level.
Yeah this is really something that ANet should change. Some players seem to be only interested in PvP.
Content that was deemed “challenging” to new players was removed from the starting zones entirely so as to not be some sort of hurtle.
Not challenging, confusing.
A system of handholding is now in place that coddles the new players beyond just simply explaining things. NPE for GW2 = similar for NGE for SWG.
Never played SWG but from my understand the two changes aren’t comparable.
The only thing I would question about what you said is the PVP thing, what do you mean a new player can’t pvp. Can you no longer enter the mist portal in LA to go to the mist early?
OP says it doesn’t unlock until higher level, but PvP actually gets unlocked at lvl 3 which is roughly after doing your starter area and completing 1 heart in your starter zone. I think that’s not a big issue.
That the WvW screen is locked until level 18 (although you can enter the portals in garrison in LA) is just ludicrous. I posted a bug about it; because the message when you hover the WvW icon says ‘World vs. World. This feature is unlocked at level 18’ ; but how on earth is a newbie to know they can actually bypass this if they just head to the portals in garrison in LA.
There’s just so many headshakingly terrible decisions made with the NPE; and it used to be so good before with the freedom you had in what to do. And to be honest, the lack of freedom under the NPE doesn’t take away any confusion an inexperienced newbie might have anyway. I got a 2nd account and although I can’t “undo” my experience, it still felt like after the starter tutorial I was just dumped in the starting zone and didn’t know where to go.
The game didn’t need restrictions on what you can do, what you can achieve or unlock like the current NPE forces down your throat. It needed more visual clues at early levels to direct you to hearts, vistas, skill challenges, PvP, WvW, etc.
Lord Sazed / Hasla the Huntress / Seaguard Hala
Seamarshal Belit / Initiate Xun Tsu / Mistwarden Roshone
Seafarer’s Rest | Northerner @ Dragon Season
Seamarshal Belit / Initiate Xun Tsu / Mistwarden Roshone
Seafarer’s Rest | Northerner @ Dragon Season
Yeah, most of the NPE changes are just really bad. Sure, it might make the game slightly more accessibly to players who have 0 MMORPG experience. Nice.
But wouldn’t better explanations and training do that much better without massively cheapening the otherwise impressive feel of the world for players hailing from other games?
The strength of heart to face oneself has been made manifest. The persona Carighan has appeared.
This again? Are people ever gonna learn!?
It is something Anet knows, that players think NPE is bad, mostly veteran ones.
New Players cannot PvP until higher level : yes it is stupid but there is a way to play PvP at earlier level. But I would advice new players to learn the basics of the game before going in an ruin a match for others. Of all new players in my guild only 1 of 12 have started with playing a Practice match, the rest did Unranked with their game premade characters.
New players cannot fiddle with traits until a higher level (than the previous level 11, which was high anyways) : Was this a part of the NPE? I myself have a hard time to decide… First of all NO you where not able to fiddle with your traits at level 11, you got you first traitpoint at level 11 wich did more or less confuse a great number of players as when they reched higher levels they wanted to have even placement on their traitpoints and lost alot of traits that way. So there was a fix to this and now you can’t put nine points in a tree and miss out a trait. Anyway I do like that it takes time before we can trait our new characters. What I do not like is (Not a part of the NPE) that we do not have any traits to slot in our unlocked trait slots even if we have explored alot, but I am realy glad that there will be a fix for this before the expansion.
Maps have been changed. Chess in Metrica Provence? Gone.
Inquest underwater lab with sharks and occasional giant crab DE? Also gone.
Change into Sylvari Dog at Dynamic Event? Gone too.
In fact, lots of content and DE’s in a lot of zones have been changed from what they originally were. : It is not alot, it is some changes and actually some added stuff and in my opinion some Tasks has been made less boring to do.
The trait system is the worst part of it the way that they’re now so expensive and a complete money pit compared to what they were in the beginning of the game. Originally it was ‘Unlock the book for each Tier at 30, 40, and 60 with some gold you save while leveling there’. Congrats!, you now have all your trails to deal with the game’s builds the way you want. Now it is “sink a lot of gold and 100’s of skill points into these and/or travel to random world places to do… bla bla… : Don’t forget that you actually can find all traits with no cost of Gold or skillpoint. Not even part of the NPE and there is a change comming to this! How many times do people have to say this!? There is a FIX comming to the trait system before the Expansion! There is a FIX comming to the trait system before the Expansion! There is a FIX comming to the trait system before the Expansion! To defend Anet’s choise in this was to make GW2 more like GW1 where you explored the world and found/unlocked your skills through Exploring. I think the idea is cool and the last set of Traits we got is realy neat to have like this but not all of them becouse it gives new characters too little choices. I have played through the game a few times more after the NPE now and well when I reach level 80 I have around 5 Traits unlocked from exploring the world while leveling. That’s way to few and well I could have run around look for them but some skills are locked behind timed events that rarely happens.
So now people before you go make another ‘The NPE sucks’ post, please look through the old posts and there is a Merged post about how bad the NPE is and this post one will be a part of it aswell soon.
Member of Alpha Swedish Gaming Community – http://www.alphas.se/
Guild Leader of Alpha Sgc [ASGC]
Guild Leader of Alpha Sgc [ASGC]
The only thing I would question about what you said is the PVP thing, what do you mean a new player can’t pvp. Can you no longer enter the mist portal in LA to go to the mist early?
OP says it doesn’t unlock until higher level, but PvP actually gets unlocked at lvl 3 which is roughly after doing your starter area and completing 1 heart in your starter zone. I think that’s not a big issue.
That the WvW screen is locked until level 18 (although you can enter the portals in garrison in LA) is just ludicrous. I posted a bug about it; because the message when you hover the WvW icon says ‘World vs. World. This feature is unlocked at level 18’ ; but how on earth is a newbie to know they can actually bypass this if they just head to the portals in garrison in LA.There’s just so many headshakingly terrible decisions made with the NPE; and it used to be so good before with the freedom you had in what to do. And to be honest, the lack of freedom under the NPE doesn’t take away any confusion an inexperienced newbie might have anyway. I got a 2nd account and although I can’t “undo” my experience, it still felt like after the starter tutorial I was just dumped in the starting zone and didn’t know where to go.
The game didn’t need restrictions on what you can do, what you can achieve or unlock like the current NPE forces down your throat. It needed more visual clues at early levels to direct you to hearts, vistas, skill challenges, PvP, WvW, etc.
Where you said, “PvP actually gets unlocked at lvl 3 which is roughly after doing your starter area and completing 1 heart in your starter zone” This isn’t true. While you can run a new char on a new account to the portal in LA and access PvP that way at any level, the first time the UI unlocks without doing that is level 22.
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a-fresh-start-the-new-player-experience-in-guild-wars-2/
“For experienced players, most systems are still available as they are today; we will simply introduce these systems more gradually to new players and allow them to learn our game at a reasonable pace. For example, WvW and PvP will be messaged to players via the level-up notification system at levels 18 and 22, and the buttons in the top left will be hidden until then, but experienced users can use the portals in Lion’s Arch or use hot keys to access those game modes immediately. Once the buttons are unlocked for one character on your account, they’ll be visible to all future characters as well.”
They didn’t say this exactly, but the hot keys are also disabled (from my personal experience) for non experienced accounts before the unlock (either by going thru the portals or by reaching the appropriate levels).
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
ANet may give it to you.
OP says it doesn’t unlock until higher level, but PvP actually gets unlocked at lvl 3 which is roughly after doing your starter area and completing 1 heart in your starter zone. I think that’s not a big issue.
Where you said, “PvP actually gets unlocked at lvl 3 which is roughly after doing your starter area and completing 1 heart in your starter zone” This isn’t true. While you can run a new char on a new account to the portal in LA and access PvP that way at any level, the first time the UI unlocks without doing that is level 22.
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a-fresh-start-the-new-player-experience-in-guild-wars-2/
That must have changed (probably due to player complaints), because I just got a 2nd account (on NA since my main account is on EU) and I have only 1 character on there. Thus there’s no veteran experience to go with, to GW2 I’m as fresh a player as can be…
Already at level 3 (or was it 4) I could bring up the PvP menu and Enter the Mists and queue up for games.
I remember because I did it on Monday this week! I remember because I wasn’t even level 10, which meant I could not equip a helmet, and that meant I didn’t want to go into Ranked arena because I’m not going in at a disadvantage to my team and myself.
Lord Sazed / Hasla the Huntress / Seaguard Hala
Seamarshal Belit / Initiate Xun Tsu / Mistwarden Roshone
Seafarer’s Rest | Northerner @ Dragon Season
Seamarshal Belit / Initiate Xun Tsu / Mistwarden Roshone
Seafarer’s Rest | Northerner @ Dragon Season
OP says it doesn’t unlock until higher level, but PvP actually gets unlocked at lvl 3 which is roughly after doing your starter area and completing 1 heart in your starter zone. I think that’s not a big issue.
Where you said, “PvP actually gets unlocked at lvl 3 which is roughly after doing your starter area and completing 1 heart in your starter zone” This isn’t true. While you can run a new char on a new account to the portal in LA and access PvP that way at any level, the first time the UI unlocks without doing that is level 22.
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a-fresh-start-the-new-player-experience-in-guild-wars-2/
That must have changed (probably due to player complaints), because I just got a 2nd account (on NA since my main account is on EU) and I have only 1 character on there. Thus there’s no veteran experience to go with, to GW2 I’m as fresh a player as can be…
Already at level 3 (or was it 4) I could bring up the PvP menu and Enter the Mists and queue up for games.
I remember because I did it on Monday this week! I remember because I wasn’t even level 10, which meant I could not equip a helmet, and that meant I didn’t want to go into Ranked arena because I’m not going in at a disadvantage to my team and myself.
You don’t need a helmet in PvP. It’ll pretend you do and add in the stats anyway. You only need to be wearing chest, legs and shoes (of any level, of course).
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/PvP-for-low-levels/first#post3901582
I’m not picking on just you here, but half of the complaints about the NPE are caused entirely by misinformation. Actually, I’m not picking on you at all, because the merge of PvP/PvE gear wasn’t part of the NPE. But whatever.
OP says it doesn’t unlock until higher level, but PvP actually gets unlocked at lvl 3 which is roughly after doing your starter area and completing 1 heart in your starter zone. I think that’s not a big issue.
Where you said, “PvP actually gets unlocked at lvl 3 which is roughly after doing your starter area and completing 1 heart in your starter zone” This isn’t true. While you can run a new char on a new account to the portal in LA and access PvP that way at any level, the first time the UI unlocks without doing that is level 22.
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a-fresh-start-the-new-player-experience-in-guild-wars-2/
That must have changed (probably due to player complaints), because I just got a 2nd account (on NA since my main account is on EU) and I have only 1 character on there. Thus there’s no veteran experience to go with, to GW2 I’m as fresh a player as can be…
Already at level 3 (or was it 4) I could bring up the PvP menu and Enter the Mists and queue up for games.
I remember because I did it on Monday this week! I remember because I wasn’t even level 10, which meant I could not equip a helmet, and that meant I didn’t want to go into Ranked arena because I’m not going in at a disadvantage to my team and myself.
Maybe it’s a new change. When I bought my alt account a month ago, the UI buttons were visible at low level but when I moused over them, they said locked until (then the level for each for unlock). I tried assigning hot buttons, but those were locked also. I ended up running a char to the portal and unlocking it for that account,
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
ANet may give it to you.
The removed or simplified content was not even the worst of the changes. The across-the-board nerf of everything below the 80th level turned this game into a sad parody of itself. Sure, let’s turn lvl 15 vets into trash mobs and trash mobs into… kitten , I don’t think we even have word for what those poor kittens are now.
Language is a virus from outer space.
William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs
Pretty sure it was very widely criticised at the time the NPE happened, you’re about 6 months overdue, OP.
I myself wrote several long and well-supported topics on the subject of the NPE, but it’s pretty safe to say at this point they have no intention of changing things or adding back the content they removed
Resident smug Englishman on the NA servers, just because.
Personally I have no problem with the NPE. Mostly because I have 10 level 80s and I am mostly unaffected. I level alts up in EoTM or PvP for the most part.
Where I see the most complaints about NPE: Veteran players rolling alts. Or Veteran players who get their friends to play.
In reality, new players have no idea what it was like before, so they have nothing to compare it to, unless while they play they have a “friend” constantly saying “OMG you can’t use PvP button?!!?! Laaame! OMG you can’t enter WvW with B?!! You used to! Wow Anet ruined this game I’m so sorry!!”
Our guild recruits new players pretty regularly. I’ve never heard one of them complain about the NPE. To them, that’s the game, and they enjoy playing GW2.
Sure if they knew what it was like before they might have an opinion on whether it is better or worse, but without that knowledge, new players find GW2 to be enjoyable despite the NPE. Which to me means it’s just fine the way it is.
And for players that want to PvP from level 1, they almost always ask in /map or in guild chat and in 30secs they are told where to go to do it. Brand new players that join an MMO simply to play PvP are a pretty small minority I’m guessing.
I won’t stop because I can’t stop.
It’s a medical condition, they say its terminal….
It’s a medical condition, they say its terminal….
Seriously, another thread? you couldn’t just pick one of these?
My biggest problems with the NPE are changing the story to full ten level blocks.
Getting a new story every 2-3 levels really used to break up the hearts and events monotony when you were doing the same level content on your tenth character.
It also REALLY hurts groups leveling characters together. When we’re done with a full block of stories, nobody wants to do hearts for the like 7-8 remaining levels.
It’s usually “Let’s just do an Ascalon Catacombs and quit.” See you next week.
Also the early stories really used to get people invested in the story. Hey, I’ll just create an Asura to show you the wacky ideas they come up at a science fair. Actually, now I don’t. People get thrown into the world and have to run around for hours aimlessly before the story even starts.
This is not what I understand as ‘newbie friendly’.
Also, I cannot understand why some of the colorful starter hearts were destroyed. Feeding cows, dousing fires, golem chess, those always served as an example when I got new people into the game: You don’t have to kill X centaurs to finish a quest. Except you now have to more than at release. This makes me really, really sad.
And finally, of course, traits. Exploring traits in classes and experimenting with builds always used to be a highlight when leveling. Level 60 gave you Grandmaster traits which really opened up the pinnacle of classes. Not anymore.
With traits moved to 30, 60, 80, I got bored of my engineer before I ever got to test out what that profession might be capable of. Nowadays he sadly sits on a Jumping Puzzle chest, forgotten and shelved.
Not even part of the NPE and there is a change comming to this! How many times do people have to say this!? There is a FIX comming to the trait system before the Expansion! There is a FIX comming to the trait system before the Expansion! There is a FIX comming to the trait system before the Expansion!
First of all, the trait system change WAS a part of the NPE. The first part. It was all changes made to the game for the China launch first, then translated back to the rest of the game.
Also, where have they said it will be before the Expansion? I’ve only seen them say a change is coming, not when in relation to the expansion.
Finally, is it really going to be a fix? Remember, these are the same people that thought the current trait system was a great idea and an improvement over the old one. You can’t say for sure it’s going to be a fix, or better in any way, without having details. Can you share those details, or are you giving ANet the benefit of the doubt here?
Sarcasm, delivered with a
delicate, brick-like subtlety.
delicate, brick-like subtlety.
The trait system is the worst part of it the way that they’re now so expensive and a complete money pit compared to what they were in the beginning of the game. Originally it was ‘Unlock the book for each Tier at 30, 40, and 60 with some gold you save while leveling there’. Congrats!, you now have all your trails to deal with the game’s builds the way you want. Now it is “sink a lot of gold and 100’s of skill points into these and/or travel to random world places to do… bla bla… : Don’t forget that you actually can find all traits with no cost of Gold or skillpoint. Not even part of the NPE and there is a change comming to this! How many times do people have to say this!? There is a FIX comming to the trait system before the Expansion! There is a FIX comming to the trait system before the Expansion! There is a FIX comming to the trait system before the Expansion! To defend Anet’s choise in this was to make GW2 more like GW1 where you explored the world and found/unlocked your skills through Exploring. I think the idea is cool and the last set of Traits we got is realy neat to have like this but not all of them becouse it gives new characters too little choices. I have played through the game a few times more after the NPE now and well when I reach level 80 I have around 5 Traits unlocked from exploring the world while leveling. That’s way to few and well I could have run around look for them but some skills are locked behind timed events that rarely happens.
1. You can’t get all the traits without gold. Some of them are linked to events that have been bugged since launch.
2. ANET has not confirmed a date for the “fix” to the trait system. All they’ve said is that they’re going to do it, and they’ll release more information about it between now and the release of HoT. They haven’t said what the “fix” is going to be. They certainly haven’t said it’s going to happen before HoT.
3. Arguing that new players don’t have a problem with the NPE because they don’t know what they’re missing is a terrible argument.
Edit: Aww, Palador, you beat me to it. Well, I’m leaving mine for added emphasis.
“Be angry about legendary weapons, sure, but what about the recent drought of content?”
-Mike O’Brien
Because we can’t be angry about both?
-Mike O’Brien
Because we can’t be angry about both?
It’s curious and so nice to see that mods keep merged threads while not a single dev comes up to give any news about this all. But not losing hope, they have listened about the changes to Personal Story, who knows stuff about all other NPE craps can be listened too… One can hope…
One more thing: for those saying that traits isn’t part of NPE, you are partially right. Traits were changed before NPE but NPE made them worse. After April 2014 Feature Patch, it was a nice and interesting idea to have traits being unlocked by doing some content (not taking in account that some of those content keeps being bugged). But after September 2014 Feature Patch and NPE it got worse by being given trait points and access to them later than before.
One more thing: for those saying that traits isn’t part of NPE, you are partially right. Traits were changed before NPE but NPE made them worse. After April 2014 Feature Patch, it was a nice and interesting idea to have traits being unlocked by doing some content (not taking in account that some of those content keeps being bugged). But after September 2014 Feature Patch and NPE it got worse by being given trait points and access to them later than before.
September didn’t push traits back, but it did make leveling even more restrictive and boring by gating utility skills and downed skills, which made a lack of traits even more noticeable. Traits were pushed back with the April 15, 2014 patch.
“Be angry about legendary weapons, sure, but what about the recent drought of content?”
-Mike O’Brien
Because we can’t be angry about both?
-Mike O’Brien
Because we can’t be angry about both?
Shouldn’t this be stickied?
Looks to be a pretty important thread.
“Man this jungle in the expansion better look so good it gives me flashbacks to Nam.”
Server: Dragonbrand
Guild: Knights of Ares [ARES]
Server: Dragonbrand
Guild: Knights of Ares [ARES]
One more thing: for those saying that traits isn’t part of NPE, you are partially right. Traits were changed before NPE but NPE made them worse. After April 2014 Feature Patch, it was a nice and interesting idea to have traits being unlocked by doing some content (not taking in account that some of those content keeps being bugged). But after September 2014 Feature Patch and NPE it got worse by being given trait points and access to them later than before.
September didn’t push traits back, but it did make leveling even more restrictive and boring by gating utility skills and downed skills, which made a lack of traits even more noticeable. Traits were pushed back with the April 15, 2014 patch.
That’s basically what I said: traits changes were done before NPE, but NPE affected it and made it worse.
Shouldn’t this be stickied?
Looks to be a pretty important thread.
Of course not! How could Anet continue pretending that this thread doesn’t exist if it was stickied?
Shouldn’t this be stickied?
Looks to be a pretty important thread.
Of course not! How could Anet continue pretending that this thread doesn’t exist if it was stickied?
Sarcasm aside, and blatant necros, what’s the likelihood they’ll revisit a thread with no community input in the last 2 months?
It’s not happenin’ if we say nothing. People are inherently lazy and pursue any and all forms of convenience; stickies mitigate this.
“Man this jungle in the expansion better look so good it gives me flashbacks to Nam.”
Server: Dragonbrand
Guild: Knights of Ares [ARES]
Server: Dragonbrand
Guild: Knights of Ares [ARES]
After getting a new account and trying to play on newer chars on my main one, I can say that, for me, the NPE is the second worst thing that has happened to gw2 (after the Fractured update).
How can anyone possibly see the reworked level-up “rewards” as rewards is beyond me, it’s just stuff that was previously available at level one but is now hidden behind levels. ANet literally removed access to game features, then made them alowly available again through level up, called it rewards and expect people to accept that. It’s ridiculous. Granted, there are some rewards that are actual rewards (dyes and mats and stuff like that, but too few to really matter).
The trait costs are insanely high. Of course you have the option to do some content and get them for free, but some of the chores are downright ridiculous (completion of an entire map for one trait?!) and they take a long time. So you either waste time or you waste cash to get something that was originally in the game for free. I am not really playing many of my alts outside of PvP because I refuse to pay for something that was free until not long ago and was changed for no good reason except to add a new gold sink.
Making a new account is one of the most demeaning experiences I have had so far in this game. The game downright treats you like a kitten. There is no tutorial where the mechanics can be explained, you just get very small bits every level up while playing. Granted, leveling up is very fast at the early levels, but when you are doing it having access to only one weapon skill and no utilities makes such a chore it’s incredible. Now, I have experience with the game and my frustration amounted to higher levels because of this, but even for fresh new players this must be infuriating, having your hand held like a helpless child.
Please change this ridiculous update and especially remove the trait costs.
