(For the record, you can’t go totally AFK and let the turrets do the work. They’re not that tough, and even if they’re not destroyed they don’t last all that long. But you don’t need to pay as much attention as you do during “normal” play, either. So the AFK accusations were half true, at best.)
About half the people I play MMOs (all MMOs, not just GW2) with do something else while playing. Either watching movies, videos, etc. They do this while actively participating in dungeons (quests in other MMOs). So if people have a character standing in one spot killing something over and over while eating lunch or watching videos, who cares except people who are jealous?
This. Exactly this and the bit about not playing the game the way Anet expected you to. Of course it’s their game and they can demand whatever they want from those who choose to play it, punishing those who don’t play it the way they want…and ultimately we have the choice to continue playing or quit.
I’d like to know how Anet thinks anyone playing outside of US prime time is every going to get the Shard or the Watchtower PoI now. I tried to help people get up there, tagged up and all…and we were five. And that’s after putting our group up in LFG and advertising in map chat. Needless to say, we didn’t even make it halfway up the hill.
There are actually two places you can get the shard from near that tower. One is further up and fairly close the back route.
I’d like to know how Anet thinks anyone playing outside of US prime time is every going to get the Shard or the Watchtower PoI now. I tried to help people get up there, tagged up and all…and we were five. And that’s after putting our group up in LFG and advertising in map chat. Needless to say, we didn’t even make it halfway up the hill.
There are actually two places you can get the shard from near that tower. One is further up and fairly close the back route.
I’l keep that in mind, thanks for the hint.
Still, I’ll take today’s disaster as an indication that the area is pretty much dead. I’ve been running various alts through Doric for shard farming, and over the last couple of days I haven’t seen a single comm or mentor tag in that area. :/
I’d like to know how Anet thinks anyone playing outside of US prime time is every going to get the Shard or the Watchtower PoI now. I tried to help people get up there, tagged up and all…and we were five. And that’s after putting our group up in LFG and advertising in map chat. Needless to say, we didn’t even make it halfway up the hill.
There are actually two places you can get the shard from near that tower. One is further up and fairly close the back route.
I’l keep that in mind, thanks for the hint.
Still, I’ll take today’s disaster as an indication that the area is pretty much dead. I’ve been running various alts through Doric for shard farming, and over the last couple of days I haven’t seen a single comm or mentor tag in that area. :/
As far as I can tell it’s been like that since the engi farm anyway so this isn’t much of a change.
Has anyone had an Anet employee in any group actually going up the hill? I think that they need to take a look at how their solution impacted the intended leather farm. And especially the high Sage Event at the top. They’ve added a significant amount of difficulty to legitimate play in the area.
<edit: clarification>
Arenanet employees playing their own game. Nice joke.
ANet employees play the game all the time. You must be new not to have seen them everywhere. You must also have no idea how a MMO is created and maintained.
Has anyone had an Anet employee in any group actually going up the hill? I think that they need to take a look at how their solution impacted the intended leather farm. And especially the high Sage Event at the top. They’ve added a significant amount of difficulty to legitimate play in the area.
<edit: clarification>
Arenanet employees playing their own game. Nice joke.
They play. I see individuals off and on, frequently in the PvP lobby, and I saw one yesterday in Queensdale. If they’re repping their guild they’re easy to spot as the guild tag has a red ANet logo.
They play. I see individuals off and on, frequently in the PvP lobby, and I saw one yesterday in Queensdale. If they’re repping their guild they’re easy to spot as the guild tag has a red ANet logo.
They play. I see individuals off and on, frequently in the PvP lobby, and I saw one yesterday in Queensdale. If they’re repping their guild they’re easy to spot as the guild tag has a red ANet logo.
i know they play their own game, that much should be obvious
they’re just oblivious to the woes of the average player
i’ve never seen an anet employee try to climb watchtower hills or solo HPs in a dead map, etc
they don’t acknowledge their kittenty design choices because they don’t actually have to experience them
They don’t wear their guild tag all the time you know. They are even members of other, non ANet guilds (there was one in the guild I’m in now). If they’re wearing the tag it’s when they are being official and they get stopped and asked questions and commented about, so if they’re going to actually play I expect most don’t tag up. So just because you haven’t seen an official tag at those spots doesn’t mean that they aren’t doing the content.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
The point is, I noticed four of them, tagged up, checking out the effects of their solution on the turret farm. But I did not notice any, tagged up, checking to see what effect their solution had on the intended leather farm. Why would they be tagged up for one and not the other?
And(to be fair) I asked if anyone else had seen Anet employees accompanying the leather farm to check how that was affected by the change. And no one has reported (in this thread, or any other that I’ve noticed) seeing any Anet employees with the leather farm. So it makes it look like all that was important to them was stopping turret farm, not preserving leather farm.
And I’ve seen several Anet employees in game. Though when they’re tagged up it’s generally for company business, rather than playing for fun. I would suggest that they probably have alternate accounts that they play for fun. I know that I would want separate work and fun accounts if I worked for a game company.
The point is, I noticed four of them, tagged up, checking out the effects of their solution on the turret farm. But I did not notice any, tagged up, checking to see what effect their solution had on the intended leather farm. Why would they be tagged up for one and not the other?
And(to be fair) I asked if anyone else had seen Anet employees accompanying the leather farm to check how that was affected by the change. And no one has reported (in this thread, or any other that I’ve noticed) seeing any Anet employees with the leather farm. So it makes it look like all that was important to them was stopping turret farm, not preserving leather farm.
And I’ve seen several Anet employees in game. Though when they’re tagged up it’s generally for company business, rather than playing for fun. I would suggest that they probably have alternate accounts that they play for fun. I know that I would want separate work and fun accounts if I worked for a game company.
So your argument is that you saw 4 tagged up once but no one has reported seeing ANet later on this or other thread. (Do people know that you were expecting a report on this thread or other thread?). That’s hardly conclusive and not a reasonable thing to expect. You’re basing your look on the handful of people you asked and not taking into account any ANet employees who might have there but not tagged up, or the fact that unless you or the few people you asked were there 24/7, you wouldn’t know even if they did come by tagged up.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
This was already dead enough outside of Engi farming before, now it’s just not worth even trying.
In fact I’d go as far as saying that ideally we get the farm removed and the area re-used for something actually fun, like a meta-chain resulting in a “Chest of Leather” which you can then select the tier of or something. The idea of a group-only mass-farm clearly didn’t work.
This.
That entire area could be put to better use, rather than being a spawning place of CC-immune perma-KD herds and an exploitable barrage of spawns. The lower area could be the start of a meta-chain that spirals upward, giving players an actual reason to show up and gather instead of languishing in LFG or mumbling vagueries in map chat.
Obligatory ANet-ignorable list of things to fix that fragment of the zone:
Lower the spawn rate in the lower section. This should discourage random turreting and AFK play since it wouldn’t be profitable.
Add one or two timed events to the lower section for players to claim that territory. A 5-minute holdout should be enough to keep players busy while enough can gather for the later events. Bring in champs and elites with hefty AoE (big cleaves, summoned storms) to keep them at least somewhat engaged. Lesser versions of Immelhoof, basically.
Following the lower holdout, trigger the advance up the hill, possibly with an escort. The escort’s purpose is to pace the event and to give players a bundle which can damage/daze the snipers with suppressing fire. Bring in centaurs with pincer attacks and the occasional AoE threat. Blood-crazed critters have the chance of dropping leather along with the event making the racks accessible, so no additional reward should be needed. Outside of that event, players can still band up, but the event gives players a more natural mechanism to do so.
Following the hill advance, players take on the battle at the top. No huge change needed, aside from connecting it to trigger the lower event after a few minutes of quiet. Toss in a completion reward of blood-stained hides (then tweak their drop rates so it’s not 50-60% T5 leather…) and the ‘farm’ might finally be interesting and rewarding enough.
Many alts; handle it!
“I’m finding companies should sell access to forums,
it seems many like them better than the games they comment on.” -Horrorscope.7632
You’re basing your look on the handful of people you asked and not taking into account any ANet employees who might have there but not tagged up, or the fact that unless you or the few people you asked were there 24/7, you wouldn’t know even if they did come by tagged up.
Those 4 people were just the scouting team, there were a dozen untagged ArenaNet staff members actually farming. True story
re: So your argument is that you saw 4 tagged up once but no one has reported to seeing ANet later. – No, I assert that there were Anet employees at the turret farm, checking out the viability of the turret farm “solution”. But during this same period of time, I noticed no Anet employee presence in the actual leather farm runs up and down the hill. (Nor did anyone else volunteer that they saw Anet employees with leather farm runs.) This makes it look like they cared only about the nerf, and not about preserving the actual farm. I observed them one place, but not the other.(And yes, I was at both places.) Anet should have had visibility on both sides of the issue. They should have at least made it look like they cared about the impact on the leather farm.
I was there – making an effort to observe the effect on turret farm, and the effect on leather farm. I asked for other player’s observations – many reported Anet presence at turret farm. No one reported Anet presence at leather farm.
I find this both conclusive and reasonable.
But how about you? When you were there, right after the change.(like I was) What did you observe that you would consider reasonable and conclusive?
re: So your argument is that you saw 4 tagged up once but no one has reported to seeing ANet later. – No, I assert that there were Anet employees at the turret farm, checking out the viability of the turret farm “solution”. But during this same period of time, I noticed no Anet employee presence in the actual leather farm runs up and down the hill. (Nor did anyone else volunteer that they saw Anet employees with leather farm runs.) This makes it look like they cared only about the nerf, and not about preserving the actual farm. I observed them one place, but not the other.(And yes, I was at both places.) Anet should have had visibility on both sides of the issue. They should have at least made it look like they cared about the impact on the leather farm.
I was there – making an effort to observe the effect on turret farm, and the effect on leather farm. I asked for other player’s observations – many reported Anet presence at turret farm. No one reported Anet presence at leather farm.
I find this both conclusive and reasonable.
But how about you? When you were there, right after the change.(like I was) What did you observe that you would consider reasonable and conclusive?
What I consider reasonable…
1) that ANet doesn’t need to go by “what looks good” to some individual on the forum (and his handful of other players). That is, they don’t need to make a special effort to show up when you’re there, tagged, to “look good.”
2) they have metrics you know. They don’t actually have to tag up and physically go to that map.
4) there can be more than one map going. You and your other players could be on one, and ANet on another
5) they don’t have to be officially tagged up. They can go there with another guild tag if they want.
6) they could have decided to check at a later time due to work pressures, a desire to let the changes settle for a while, they had already checked it previously and wanted to wait to recheck, etc..
The idea that because you (and the handful of other players you spoke to) personally didn’t see ANet tagged up on the same map shard at the time that you were logged on means ANet didn’t observe…
What is the saying? Oh yeah. It’s Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
You not seeing when you were there is not the same as them never having been there.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
Couldn’t they just simply reduce the riddiculous spawn rate of Centaurs? That would reduce the AFK Farming profit and would also let people who play solo climb up the hill… I don’t know why even adding like 200 champions every 2 steps.
Really, Anet, please… When they commented about this area they said “We cackled as we playested this”. Is Anet’s ability to develop stuff that can be played even after maps get emptied non existant?
Adding nodes would add too much supply without any effort. Well, actually, maybe it could work if they did some gauntlet that relied on personal skill to access the nodes along the path which players couldn’t bypass with mesmer portals. It would of course need to be timegated.
and then it would be yet another failure. Reminds me of the blooming passiflora node in ember bay guarded by at least one veteran bristleback along with a bunch of non-vets
Well adding nodes, which are easy to access, would introduce too much supply and tank the prices.
There would have needed to be a ton of those nodes to really tank the prices. Even mithril and elder wood (the materials with most number of nodes in the more active areas) aren’t priced at vendor level. So, yes, the prices would go down, but that’s the general idea behind a working farm. It still wouldn’t make leather worthless.
Is Anet’s ability to develop stuff that can be played even after maps get emptied non existant?
Pretty much yes. They always had a short attention span, and are able to concentrate only on relatively new stuff. That’s why any changes/upgrades/fixes to old content take so long.
Actions, not words.
Remember, remember, 15th of November
Adding nodes would add too much supply without any effort. Well, actually, maybe it could work if they did some gauntlet that relied on personal skill to access the nodes along the path which players couldn’t bypass with mesmer portals. It would of course need to be timegated.
and then it would be yet another failure. Reminds me of the blooming passiflora node in ember bay guarded by at least one veteran bristleback along with a bunch of non-vets
Well adding nodes, which are easy to access, would introduce too much supply and tank the prices.
There would have needed to be a ton of those nodes to really tank the prices. Even mithril and elder wood (the materials with most number of nodes in the more active areas) aren’t priced at vendor level. So, yes, the prices would go down, but that’s the general idea behind a working farm. It still wouldn’t make leather worthless.
Is Anet’s ability to develop stuff that can be played even after maps get emptied non existant?
Pretty much yes. They always had a short attention span, and are able to concentrate only on relatively new stuff. That’s why any changes/upgrades/fixes to old content take so long.
Unlike elder wood and mythril, hardened leather doesn’t have nearly as many uses. It wouldn’t take much to impact prices if nodes were available and especially in the long run.
The nodes wouldn’t need to be all that common. The consumption of those resources is still massive, so adding few nodes here and there would not make them worthless.
As for impacting the prices – yes, that’s the idea behind a farm. As i said already, the farm that does not impact prices is a failed design.
Actions, not words.
Remember, remember, 15th of November
The nodes wouldn’t need to be all that common. The consumption of those resources is still massive, so adding few nodes here and there would not make them worthless.
As for impacting the prices – yes, that’s the idea behind a farm. As i said already, the farm that does not impact prices is a failed design.
and presumably they aren’t going to replicate Pagga’s cluster of elder wood nodes either …
The nodes wouldn’t need to be all that common. The consumption of those resources is still massive, so adding few nodes here and there would not make them worthless.
As for impacting the prices – yes, that’s the idea behind a farm. As i said already, the farm that does not impact prices is a failed design.
It depends on how many nodes. If it’s as many as there are for flax seeds then yes.
