Guild Wars 2

That being the unidentified lodestone and now bandit event. These are found under the “Current Events” tab in achievements. After unlocking them from the correct collection item.

• What is everyone’s opinion on these?
• Good/bad?
• More info in patch notes?
• Improvements?

Even though I’ve not done these events yet, my friends have and said it is something small but fun, and are happy to see another one pop up.

Thank you all for the time to respond, see you in-game or forums what have you.

They are ok, fun teaser bits while waiting for other things. Same as season one way back when. Personally way too long in development but decisions where made and are still being made, hopefully the more that comes in a couple of months is fun.

They’re a fun diversion that pulls me away from my routines. Such things are always an awesome thing to have in a game.

I don’t think there needs to be more info in the patch notes… there’s enough there to figure it out for yourself (which will add to the fun for some people), and plenty of guides or other info that pops up shortly after release for those who don’t find figuring such stuff out fun.

Atm, no improvements that I can think of. I do like the addition in this new bandit event of the repeatable AP, and I’d like to see it done in all of them from here on.

~EW

i didn’t notice if they did or didn’t put it in the top right w/ the story journal quests, pvp events, etc, but they should put something about these events there.

if i wasn’t on the forums/dulfy/reddit/etc, i wouldn’t have any idea about these events, and that doesn’t really feel right.

at a min they should put that line from the patch notes in a mail from “E” or in the top right w/ other events for the average player to see

I still think they need a bit more info, even if it’s a mail in game. I find plenty in game who haven’t noticed or come across these events. I know they aren’t big or significant content, but it does seem a tad weird not to advertise them beyond an easily missed, cryptic line in the patch notes.

As for the events, they exist to enhance speculation ahead of LS3. I think they do that well for their content limitations. It’s also reassuring to see them continue to develop new events for the core maps.

I do think a mail in game would be interesting. And if its from our lovely ~E who knows what the connections could be!

I like ’em.

The only improvement I would suggest would be to drop players a hint in the in-game mail because many many players will never read the patch notes. Last night there were constant questions in chat by slightly bewildered players, and more than one passer-by who was puzzled by a large group of players who were just standing around for no apparent reason.

Well, E has dropped off to irrelevancy now, so it would at least bring them to the forefront again. I asked some guildies about who they thought E was the other day and no one could recall E even being mentioned in the story.

I like the events themselves, but I also think they could have done more to make people aware of them.

I saw the line in the patch notes but was completely wrong when I tried to guess at which leyline locations might have extra activity so I couldn’t find any myself and when I asked other players I was originally told the only difference was that there are slightly higher numbers of dragon minions in some areas of some maps, so I decided it wasn’t worth tracking down and carried on with other things.

I only realised there was more to it yesterday, and that was by a very round-about route. I noticed there was a new category in my achievements, but it was completely blank. So I looked it up on the Wiki and then I found out there were actually events and achievements associated with this.

When I asked my guilds and players in LA about it they all said they hadn’t seen the achievement category, or assumed it didn’t do anything yet (because all the achievements are hidden until you gain progress on them) and wouldn’t until Season 3 was released.

Some sites had a lot of players but there were others where I arrived just as the event was starting and there was no one around. So I switched on my mentor tag (I don’t have a commander tag) and told people in map chat there was a leyline event at my location. 2 out of 3 times I did this I was accused of lying and trying to troll people by tricking them into going to the wrong location. I later learned that this is because Dulfy’s site only lists 3 of the 6 locations that are on the Wiki and apparently some people believe that if Dulfy hasn’t said something exists then it doesn’t exist, even if they can see it happening right in front of them.

I’m not sure if that’s directly related to the lack of clarify from Anet, but it’s certainly the first time I’ve been accused of lying about the existence of an event.

I would have liked a bit of other notice, but I find the mini-events to be fairly amusing. There’s a little moment of discovery in getting that “what the huh?” item, but I worry for other players who might not stumble on them before they’re gone.

Danikat.8537:

Some sites had a lot of players but there were others where I arrived just as the event was starting and there was no one around. So I switched on my mentor tag (I don’t have a commander tag) and told people in map chat there was a leyline event at my location. 2 out of 3 times I did this I was accused of lying and trying to troll people by tricking them into going to the wrong location. I later learned that this is because Dulfy’s site only lists 3 of the 6 locations that are on the Wiki and apparently some people believe that if Dulfy hasn’t said something exists then it doesn’t exist, even if they can see it happening right in front of them.

There’s more than three? Huh!
The reason why people think you might be fibbing is because the NPC that points you to them (after getting the item) only shows those three zones.

Rauderi.8706:

I would have liked a bit of other notice, but I find the mini-events to be fairly amusing. There’s a little moment of discovery in getting that “what the huh?” item, but I worry for other players who might not stumble on them before they’re gone.

Haha, those Rick Dad jokes always get me. That’s a good one. I also agree about a mail or something.

Not even seen one. So I guess I’m disappointed. Being all vague trying to build hype is just poor. Not wandering around maps.looking for something to happen.

Rauderi.8706:

Danikat.8537:

Some sites had a lot of players but there were others where I arrived just as the event was starting and there was no one around. So I switched on my mentor tag (I don’t have a commander tag) and told people in map chat there was a leyline event at my location. 2 out of 3 times I did this I was accused of lying and trying to troll people by tricking them into going to the wrong location. I later learned that this is because Dulfy’s site only lists 3 of the 6 locations that are on the Wiki and apparently some people believe that if Dulfy hasn’t said something exists then it doesn’t exist, even if they can see it happening right in front of them.

There’s more than three? Huh!
The reason why people think you might be fibbing is because the NPC that points you to them (after getting the item) only shows those three zones.

What happened was that each of the three zones got a second ley site. So it’s still the same three zones, just more locations.

I have yet to see any sort of interesting mechanics from these so … MEH.

The new bounty stuff seems like an attempt at a similar thing in GW1. The last time they tried something like that was the trait unlocks. They both suffer from a similar problem. You have to stand around waiting for an event. That was never a problem in GW1 since it was all instanced.

Something is better than nothing.

I like them. Something to look forward to every other Tuesday, just like the olden days!

I suppose an in-game mail would be ok, but I like the sense of discovery and surprise that the item drop (that points us to LA) affords us.

Still, each to their own.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I like them. Something to look forward to every other Tuesday, just like the olden days!

I suppose an in-game mail would be ok, but I like the sense of discovery and surprise that the item drop (that points us to LA) affords us.

Still, each to their own.

but it wasn’t a sense of discovery and surprise, there was a hint dropped in the release notes, but not everyone reads those. if they want to drop a hint, it should be in game too

so instead its more like a way to create a set of players that are ‘in the know’ and a set that are not.

Jaxom.7310:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I like them. Something to look forward to every other Tuesday, just like the olden days!

I suppose an in-game mail would be ok, but I like the sense of discovery and surprise that the item drop (that points us to LA) affords us.

Still, each to their own.

but it wasn’t a sense of discovery and surprise, there was a hint dropped in the release notes, but not everyone reads those. if they want to drop a hint, it should be in game too

so instead its more like a way to create a set of players that are ‘in the know’ and a set that are not.

I’m not sure what your point is…

I said in-game mail would be ok. I said what I prefer.

I’m sure there are always a ‘set of players’ not ‘in the know’ about many different things in-game. Some prefer it that way, others seek out information. /shrug

Ok, I’ve managed to find and do the leyline events, and the first bandit bounty.

Now I can’t figure out how to start the daily ones. Do I have to wait for the dailies to reset after unlocking the achievement, or is there another way to start it?

Now that you have done the first bandit bounty, you will start the daily from tomorrow.

Danikat.8537:

Ok, I’ve managed to find and do the leyline events, and the first bandit bounty.

Now I can’t figure out how to start the daily ones. Do I have to wait for the dailies to reset after unlocking the achievement, or is there another way to start it?

The Dulfy guide says you can only get 1 Encoded Orders per day, including the one that started you on these bandit-slaying hijinks.

http://dulfy.net/2016/05/17/gw2-bandit-bounties-event-guide/

So, you probably need to wait until tomorrow before you can start the “daily”…

~EW

Randulf.7614:

Now that you have done the first bandit bounty, you will start the daily from tomorrow.

Thanks.

I like them, but I agree that there should be some ingame hints. Ingame mail may hav e the problem that is persists long after events are over, which could be confusing for lapsed players in a way that the season event mails aren’t.

Honestly those leasue notifications and ESL stream text blurbs on loading screens should old appear when you’re loading in to pvp lobbies and matches. They could use the same systems in PvE to spread the wordabout these “current events” style things.

They could use the same purple star for these hints, and use the loading screen text in related zones for slightly more gamey direct hints.

Purple Star (Lore-Friendly): Reports of banditry have increased across Kryta!

Loading screen text (Slightly more gamey, more direct starter hint): Reports of banditry have increased across Kryta! You can start your investigation by defeating bandits in any krytan zone!

The odd part about the Bandit events, at least to me, is that Brisban is not part of Kryta. I avoided Brisban, at first, because it’s part of Maguuma.

Oh, well, just a minor thing….

Agreed though as some pointed out it is kinda like a line into Brisban from Queensdale to make people think. Aka that portal in Brisban top left that bandits have been building forever.

I’m enjoying these little diversions but it’s a little disappointing that the big prize is a load of xp which isn’t transferrable to another toon. It’s of no use to my favourite level 80 toon since my masteries are complete. I guess I should use another toon that isn’t up to 80. But what about those that don’t have any toons that need xp? Seems a shame to create another toon just to suck up that xp. Would be nice if the reward included something additional to the xp for those that don’t need xp.

I guess this is sort of you asking us for feedback on this?

Personally speaking, I didn’t like the huge waiting mobs at each of the locations. The events became too short and unimpactful. This does also have to do with needing to wait for the event to spawn. Perhaps some more active way of spawning?

If these events are more hinted at they would be swamped with players. And it’s just something small and enjoyable. And really adds to the game feeling more alive.

The risk of messaging these more openly is that they become something that is expected to be bigger and much more an attraction that needs to be completed rather than the natural development of the game world.
It’s a fun small content and it really doesn’t hype if it’s screaming in your face telling you to do it. It would be majorly anticlimactic.

If it fits the event addition I would maaaybe send out a mail to those characters that would be affected by it. (Priory events messaged to priory affiliated characters for exemple)

The tyrian XP reward for the achievement is nice, but void to those who are maxed out. Being able to pick a small karma reward instead of the XP or additionally to the XP would be nice.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

I’m enjoying these little diversions but it’s a little disappointing that the big prize is a load of xp which isn’t transferrable to another toon. It’s of no use to my favourite level 80 toon since my masteries are complete. I guess I should use another toon that isn’t up to 80. But what about those that don’t have any toons that need xp? Seems a shame to create another toon just to suck up that xp. Would be nice if the reward included something additional to the xp for those that don’t need xp.

Didn’t even notice the exp at all. I did notice that some achievement give mastery exp which is also useless.

I didn’t even think about what the rewards might be. I was just doing it because it’s new content to play (and doing it now because I get the impression it might not be around forever).

If I get anything from it that’s a bonus.

Although one of those bonuses was an Amalgamated Gemstone, which is very nice considering I’m working on a legendary.

Yeah, I wasn’t going for rewards either. But a situation where some people do get a useful reward and others don’t just feels bad if you do notice it.

I love them. They’re a nice little appetizer for the story enthusiasts to get worked up on in speculation before the main course that will be season 3. And their being rolled out so unceremoniously I think adds to their charm…even if it’s not setting the world on fire it still comes as a surprise…a little patch note to decipher and you’re off figuring things out.

…and maybe it will get people to READ THE PATCH NOTES MORE OFTEN! Grumble

Good:
- nice little appeticers
- something to do besides ones daily routine
- good story potential great idea to give a link to the White Mantle for players that don't do or read about raids

Bad:
- patch note notification is totally meh. “reports of banditry in kryta” would have never ever encouraged me to go out and play in the starting areas and check those bandits. Only learned about those secret events through dulfy

tl;dr: as long as I can look up what’s going on and where to go on sites like dulfy I like those little events giving something to do besides ones daily routine; if I had to find out about them all by myself, they wouldn’t be worth it

Shadows Creed.3902:

Aka that portal in Brisban top left that bandits have been building forever.

Speaking about that portal/bridge, I’m fairly certain the amount of bandits around there have increased, I could be mistaken though.

EDIT: I really like these small current event patches, it breaks up my daily routine quite nicely and it is imo good teaser content for the upcoming ls3. I do agree however that an ingame hint would be nice as well, I always read the patch notes, but there are a lot of people who don’t.

Actually a town crier or inn gossip would be really nice. Or some other form of daily/weekly/biweekly news outlet that people could check. A single line in an event pop-up, or mail would just clutter either someones mail, or event windows that would be missed if someone doesn’t play for 2 weeks or longer if they are removed after that.

I think it’s wrong to assume that players never ever will pay attention to it, but in time players will know there’s some little events every two weeks. Players need to be taught to pay attention first before we can say that this is too obscure right now.

Either way, if there’s something else that only encourages to interact with the game world rather than blindly follow some schedule message or running in a scheduled farming champion train, I’m all for that. But other than that I don’t think it’s that obscure that people will never find it. You just have to kill bandits/dragon minions to get started, which at some point will happen anyway.

FrizzFreston.5290:

Actually a town crier or inn gossip would be really nice. Or some other form of daily/weekly/biweekly news outlet that people could check. A single line in an event pop-up, or mail would just clutter either someones mail, or event windows that would be missed if someone doesn’t play for 2 weeks or longer if they are removed after that.

I think it’s wrong to assume that players never ever will pay attention to it, but in time players will know there’s some little events every two weeks. Players need to be taught to pay attention first before we can say that this is too obscure right now.

Either way, if there’s something else that only encourages to interact with the game world rather than blindly follow some schedule message or running in a scheduled farming champion train, I’m all for that. But other than that I don’t think it’s that obscure that people will never find it. You just have to kill bandits/dragon minions to get started, which at some point will happen anyway.

Your post reminded me of the Heralds that used to be in each city. I can’t remember when they disappeared, not to be seen since.

I like how news of the events is spreading via word of mouth, like actual news would spread in Tyria. That said, I guess a lot of people might miss out on these events as there’s not more information.
The events themselves remind me of War in Kryta/Shining Blade Wanted bounties and the War Supplies are a nice little nod to that. A bit salty I didn’t get Amalgamated Gemstones from mine but eh, I can live without them for now. The mastery experience rewards are nice for those who aren’t maxed out but useless for myself, an option to choose that or karma would have been nice. Again, I’ll live as I’m someone who likes playing new content (particularly lore based) because it’s there, not necessarily for the rewards.

I like them. I wish there was more stuff like this in the game.

Killing X type mob, drops quest starting item. Go to a few spots, solve quest, get reward move on. Only takes up 1 slot in your inventory as well. Also nice, so much clutter to get stuff done in this game that this is a nice change.

Main concern I have, they don’t seem solo friendly. Not sure if they scale up from people doing them. But over time as popularity dies off, it’ll be hard for the random person to get it done. Also one of the complaints over HoT HPs being group heavy.

It’s season 1 all over again.

Hated season 1 for a reason, still hate this.
Give us a proper story and instanced content, not this fluff.

If you have a desire to change the world again, one can easily do that through living world without this piecemeal garbage.

There are 9 sites for ley-line events, assuming that hasn’t changed since Tuesday.

TexZero.7910:

It’s season 1 all over again.

Hated season 1 for a reason, still hate this.
Give us a proper story and instanced content, not this fluff.

If you have a desire to change the world again, one can easily do that through living world without this piecemeal garbage.

They’ve already said both Season 3 of the Living Story and a new expansion are being worked on.

I’m pretty sure this isn’t actually part of Season 3 since it’s not got a story chapter and the achievements are under the ‘general’ heading, but I’m also sure it’s leading up to it. My guess is that Season 3 is going to be mainly about the aftermath of the disastrous initial attack on Mordremoth nearly wiping out the Pact and all the racial forces that came to help us, and these events fit with that because they seem to be implying that other problems have gotten worse while we’ve been gone.

But the way they’ve been presented, I think, makes it clear they’re not supposed to be the main storyline, or a replacement for the main storyline. They’re more like the mordrem attack events that were added to the open-world maps during Season 2.

Which does mean they are part of the Living World. Although players often use it to refer to the story the two are different. The living story is the core of it, but the living world also means the wider impact of that – the fact that the story won’t only take place in new maps and old maps won’t remain static, they’ll be changed by the storyline. Like Kessex Hills being damaged by the Tower of Nightmares or Fort Salma and Fort Concordia being destroyed by Mordremoth. These events are part of that process of the storyline impacting what goes on in the maps.

TexZero.7910:

It’s season 1 all over again.

Hated season 1 for a reason, still hate this.
Give us a proper story and instanced content, not this fluff.

If you have a desire to change the world again, one can easily do that through living world without this piecemeal garbage.

I did not care for LS Season Two very much at all. The instances were do-once-never return. Season One was much more enjoyable, especially the release cadence. Having something to look forward to every other week was great!

Do keep up the great work, ArenaNet! =)

I guess these are good. It’s optional with extra achievement points. More information in-game would be better than in patch notes. As for improvements, it’s all preferences.

Personally, I would have liked if it led to a personal instance you can go alone or with a small party and fight the bounty. At the moment, I have had either end of the extremes when engaging these champs.

The first was with a large group of people waiting for a bandit to spawn, which then looked like a world boss event. Lots of particle effects with the boss melting due to the zerg.

For the other encounter, there were 4-5 of us and I got to see all of the attack patterns of the boss and had a fun and challenging time. Again, that’s just my preference and 2 cents. Haven’t done the Ley-Line events, only the Bandit ones, so keep that in mind when reading my feedback.

Hmm, I do like the town crier idea. But would people really notice, if they were put in an inn of DR?

Unlikely at first. Though if every city has one in, and the inns get their own icon, that might be more visible, also as to where to go for more information about the current state of the world. I just picked the inn because for me that’s just the typical place for an adventurer to get their quests. And since these events are obviously not the main course and just there to keep us entertained and the game world less static, I would say that a huge announcement would just be silly. I remember how Flame and Frost was like that and then players were like… “Is this it? :s I expected way more.”

Obviously even then not everyone will even notice that. and for how long would Inn Gossipers talk about the current events (how long do current events stay current)
I wouldn’t want to see a towncrier/inngossip have this huge list of events to talk about.
Then again, you could have more than one NPC in these Inns, like a Shining blade agent, aor a Priory scholar and some Asura Leyline Scientist. (This is almost sounding like a joke lol)

I dunno, I would find that pretty cool.

I really think that people just need to get used to this idea of events taking place every two weeks, and would follow more close attention to the patch notes once this develops. Obviously an ingame version of this would be pretty nice too.

Edit: That idea could potentially actually make Inns filled with a few more players.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

TexZero.7910:

It’s season 1 all over again.

Hated season 1 for a reason, still hate this.
Give us a proper story and instanced content, not this fluff.

If you have a desire to change the world again, one can easily do that through living world without this piecemeal garbage.

I did not care for LS Season Two very much at all. The instances were do-once-never return. Season One was much more enjoyable, especially the release cadence. Having something to look forward to every other week was great!

Do keep up the great work, ArenaNet! =)

Season two also had a two week release cadence….and it’s odd that you say the repeatable instance content was do once and never again, when you actually get rewarded for doing it again on other characters. Something that was virtually impossible to do in season one unless you had inordinate amounts of free time or just found stuffing your pockets with junk items fun.

TexZero.7910:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

TexZero.7910:

It’s season 1 all over again.

Hated season 1 for a reason, still hate this.
Give us a proper story and instanced content, not this fluff.

If you have a desire to change the world again, one can easily do that through living world without this piecemeal garbage.

I did not care for LS Season Two very much at all. The instances were do-once-never return. Season One was much more enjoyable, especially the release cadence. Having something to look forward to every other week was great!

Do keep up the great work, ArenaNet! =)

Season two also had a two week release cadence….and it’s odd that you say the repeatable instance content was do once and never again, when you actually get rewarded for doing it again on other characters. Something that was virtually impossible to do in season one unless you had inordinate amounts of free time or just found stuffing your pockets with junk items fun.

Well, of course, that’s my personal experience. Some like instances, others prefer the Open World approach. As for being ‘virtually impossible’ to replay and Season One events, I, personally, did Tower of Nightmare, Scarlet Invasions, Battle for LA, etc. many, many times. If others were only able to do it once in the time allotted (2 – 4 weeks), I send my condolences.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

TexZero.7910:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

TexZero.7910:

It’s season 1 all over again.

Hated season 1 for a reason, still hate this.
Give us a proper story and instanced content, not this fluff.

If you have a desire to change the world again, one can easily do that through living world without this piecemeal garbage.

I did not care for LS Season Two very much at all. The instances were do-once-never return. Season One was much more enjoyable, especially the release cadence. Having something to look forward to every other week was great!

Do keep up the great work, ArenaNet! =)

Season two also had a two week release cadence….and it’s odd that you say the repeatable instance content was do once and never again, when you actually get rewarded for doing it again on other characters. Something that was virtually impossible to do in season one unless you had inordinate amounts of free time or just found stuffing your pockets with junk items fun.

Well, of course, that’s my personal experience. Some like instances, others prefer the Open World approach. As for being ‘virtually impossible’ to replay and Season One events, I, personally, did Tower of Nightmare, Scarlet Invasions, Battle for LA, etc. many, many times. If others were only able to do it once in the time allotted (2 – 4 weeks), I send my condolences.

See you’re cherry picking the giant open world events and saying they were awesome. Sure they were good, what im referring to is largely the boring ramp up events, akin to what we have now. The go fetch lost goods shenanigans, escort the now homeless norn/char etc. This kind of ramp up to me is just flat out boring and loses its appeal after the first time done.

For those who weren’t around during LS1, these are similar to events leading up to parts of the LS. For instance trees around the lake in Kessex started to get clear cut before we even got the inkling about the Tower of Nightmares going up. We had refuges heading to LA through the Wayfarer Foothills before what is now the Molten Boss Fractal was a LS event there. It’s a means to generate … interest in a future LS.

Riku.4821:

Hmm, I do like the town crier idea. But would people really notice, if they were put in an inn of DR?

That sort of thing also gets annoying very quickly. Like that sylvari next to the merchant in silverwastes or that consortium guy from season 1.